repetition of historic statements already more or less familiar to the reader. The voy- age of Henry Hudson, English navigator in the service of the Dutch East India Company, to find a passage through polar seas to the shores of farthest Ind; the happy accident which led him into the mouth of the river that was afterwards to bear his name and to per- petuate his memory; and the wonder of the Indians of Manhattan when the Half Moon anchored at last, are the details of a more than thrice-told tale. There is no doubt that in Hudson's mind the " Groot Riviere ' ' he had found was the long-sought passage to open seas beyond. With Columbus, Verrazani, Cabot, and a host of others who have followed an ignis fatuus through widening zones, the object of their expecta- tions "a furlong still before," the skipper of the Half Moon looked for a speedy realisation of his dreams. It was not until the "green, pleasant shores" of Man- hattan were far astern, and the lessening tides and fresher volume of the river confronted him with un- answerable argument, that his faith began to waver. Yes, even then, we read, his heart was sore at finding the head of navigation in the river, near the present site of Albany. He dispatched his mate with a boat's crew, to make sure of the disappointing fact, and not till this expedition returned, after a journey of eight or Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® PORTRAIT OF HUDSON Introductory 5 nine leagues, did he finally abandon the enterprise in that direction and prepare to descend the river. Hudson ascended the stream in eleven days. He recorded his impressions and adventures, especially with regard to the Indians, in a report which he fortu- nately succeeded in forward- ing to his employers in Holland,' while he himself, after re-crossing the Atlan- tic, was forcibly detained in England. We shall have occasion in the course of this work to refer again to this initial voyage up the river. In the year following Hudson's discovery, the Holland merchants, acting on the principle that one should not refuse a penny because it happens not to be a pound, conceived the idea that while waiting to open a new way to China and Japan it might be profitable to secure an exclusive grant to trade in the country that was thrust upon them. A chronicle of the time relates that in that year, 1610, they sent a ship thither and obtained after- wards, from the High and Mighty Lords States-General, a grant to resort and trade exclusively in these parts, to which end they likewise, in the year 161 5, built on the North River, about the Island Manhattans, a redoubt or little fort, wherein was left a small garrison, some people usually remaining there to carry on trade with the natives or Indians. This was continued and Digitized by Microsoft® 6 The Hudson River maintained until their High Mightinesses did, in the year 1622, include this country of New Netherland in the charter of the West India Company. It was much easier for Henry Hudson to sail past the lower end of Manhattan Island in 1609 than it is now for the historian to follow his example. The as- sociations of ten generations, the hardships and the triumphs of early settlers, the pageants, the frivolities, the disasters, and the achievement of an almost un- paralleled history, cluster here. Yet to write of these things fully would be to compile an encyclopedic his- tory of New York City, which is by no means our present purpose, and if the reader questions the omis- sion of this or that detail from the succeeding pages of this narrative, we can only plead the limitations of time and space. The river at the time of Hudson's voyage must have presented a scene of strange and solemn beauty. The sweeping verdure of a nearly tmbroken forest on the one bank, and precipitous, wild, pine-clad rocks on the other, bordered a land of mysterious possibilities and unguessed extent. Early writers have noticed par- ticularly the prevalent abundance of the wild grapes that in their season filled the air with spicy perfume. Yet the forests were not uninhabited, for from every covert, every little cove or bay along the shores, the canoes of the Indians put out to intercept or at least to approach the "yacht" of the voyager. The names of tribes and sub-tribes have in large part been pre- Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Introductory 9 served in local names, some of which are in familiar use until this day. The Indian name for the Palisades is said to have been Weh-awk-en; awk, the middle syllable, meaning