History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 5

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844

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* Van Meteren, 527, 528, 553, 556, 601, 603 ; Grotius, 721 ; Bentivoglio, i., 37 ; Bancroft, ii., 262, 263 ; Muilkerk, A., 10-17 ; Davies, ii., 404, 405.

t Purchas, iii., 567 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 61-102 ; Yates and Moulton, i., 198-200.

# "Ship book" found, in 1841, in the Archives of the old East India Company at Am-

THE HALF MOON SAILS FROM HOLLAND.

age, and manned by a crew of twenty sailors, partly Dutch CHAP. I. and partly English. The command was intrusted to Hud- son ; a Dutch " under-schipper" or mate wa's appointed ; 1609. and instructions were given to explore a passage to China by the northeast or northwest .*

The Half Moon left Amsterdam on the fourth of April, 1609, and on the sixth took her departure from the Texel. 6 April. Doubling the Cape of Norway on the fifth of May, Hudson sails from Hudson found the sea so full of ice, that he was obliged to aban- the Texel. don his purpose of penetrating eastward of Nova Zembla. Some of his motley crew, who had been used only to the East India service, could ill endure the severity of the cold, and now began to murmur. Upon this, Hudson proposed

to them two alternatives. The first was to sail directly to America, in about latitude 40°, where, according to the letters and charts which Smith had sent him from Vir- ginia, he would find a sea affording a passage to the East round the English colony. The other proposition was to penetrate westward, through Davis's Straits ; and this be- ing generally approved, Hudson sailed toward the island of Faro, where he arrived on the last of May, and remain- 31 May. ed a day to water. Thence he stretched westward across the Atlantic ; but failing to see the islands which Frobish- er's ships had visited in 1578, he shaped his course for Newfoundland. After a stormy and perilous voyage, in which he lost his foremast overboard, Hudson arrived, ear- ly in July, on the Banks, where he was becalmed long enough to catch more cod than his "small store of salt" could cure. He then stood further to the west, and run-

sterdam. A "Vlie-boat" is so called from its being built expressly for the difficult navi- gation of the Vlie and the Texel. It is a very fast-sailing vessel, with two masts, and usually of about one hundred tons burden. The name, as well as the model of this Dutch craft, was soon adopted in other countries. The French called it " Flibot ;" the English, "Fly-boat ;" and the Spaniards, " Flibote." Some of our writers have, unfortunately, al- tered the historical name of the "Half Moon" to the fanciful name of the "Crescent." Hudson's vessel was really called by her owners "de Halve-Maan," and not "de Was- sende-Maan," of which latter phrase only is "Crescent" the proper English equivalent.

* Van Meteren, xxxi., 674 ; N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii. (second series), 368-370 ; Lambrecht- sen, 9, 10, and in N. Y. H. S. Coll., i. (second series), 84, 85 ; Muilkerk, 18, 19. Robert Juet, of Limehouse, England, who wrote the Journal printed by Purchas, acted as Hud- son's own clerk, but not as "under-schipper" of the Half Moon. Van Meteren expressly says that that officer was a Netherlander.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1609. 18 July. Hudson at Penobscot Bay.

CHAP. I. ning along the coast of Nova Scotia, arrived at Penobscot Bay, where he remained a week, cutting a new foremast and mending his tattered rigging. While there, he was visited by two French-built shallops full of Indians, some of whom even "spake some words of French," and pro- posed to traffic. But Hudson, suspicious of his visitors, kept a vigilant watch; while a part of his ship's compa- ny seized one of the shallops, with which they landed, and wantonly despoiled the cabins of the friendly natives. Fearing that the lawless conduct of his turbulent crew might provoke retaliation, Hudson set sail the next day to the southward, and kept at sea for a week, until he made

26 July

3 August.

the land again, and sent his shallop in to sound the shore. The next morning he anchored at the northern end of a headland, where his boat's crew landed, and found the na- tives rejoicing to see them. Supposing it to be an un- known island, Hudson named the region NEW HOLLAND, in honor of his patrons' fatherland. But after trying in vain to find an opening to the westward, he put about, and passing the southern headland, which he now perceived was the one which Gosnold had discovered in 1602 and named " Cape Cod," he stood off to sea again toward the southwest.

At Cape Cod.

18 August.

At the Capes of the Chesa- peake.

In a fortnight Hudson arrived off the mouth of the Ches- apeake Bay, which he recognized as "the entrance into the King's River in Virginia, where our Englishmen are." But the temptation to meet his friend Smith, who, disgust- ed with the distractions in the colony at Jamestown, and maimed by accidental wounds, was preparing to return to England, did not divert Hudson from the great object of his voyage. Contenting himself with a few soundings, he stood again to sea, and passing northward along the coast of Maryland, he ran into a " great bay with rivers"-aft- erward called the "South River," and "New Port May" by the Dutch, and " Delaware" by the English-where the Half Moon anchored .*

28 August. Hudson discovers and enters Delaware Bay.

* Van der Donck, p. 7, adds, and "took the first possession." This bay and river the Dutch called the South River, to distinguish it from the North or Hudson River ; and also

HUDSON AT SANDY HOOK.

Finding the navigation so difficult, that "he that will CHAP. I. 1609. thoroughly discover this great bay must have a small pin- nace that must draw but four or five feet water, to sound before him," Hudson stood out to sea again, and, running northward several days along a low sandy coast, with " broken islands," arrived, on the evening of the second of 2 Sept. September, in sight of the "high hills" of Navesinck, then, as now, "a very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The next morning he sailed onward until 3 Sept he came to "three great rivers," the most northerly of which he attempted to enter, but was prevented by the " very shoal bar before it."* So, sending his boat before him to sound the way, he went in past Sandy Hook, and on the evening of the third of September, 1609, anchored Anchors in Sandy the Half Moon in the bay, where the waters were alive Hook Bay. with fish.t.

For a week Hudson lingered in the lower bay, admiring Hudson in the " goodly oaks" which garnished the neighboring shores, sey. New Jer- and holding frequent intercourse with the native savages of Monmouth, in New Jersey. The Half Moon was visit- ed in return by the wondering Indians, who flocked on board the strange vessel, clothed with mantles of feath- ers and robes of fur, and adorned with rude copper neck-

laces. Meanwhile, a boat's crew was sent to sound the 6 Sept river, which opened to the northward. Passing through the Narrows, they found a noble harbor, with " very good riding for ships." A little further on, they came to "the Kills," between Staten Island and Bergen Neck, " a narrow river to the westward, between two islands." The lands New Port May, after Cornelis Jacobsen May, of Hoorn. Many of our writers assert that Lord Delawarr touched at this bay, on his way to Virginia in 1610. But this is an error. On that occasion Lord Delawarr sailed by way of the West Indies, and approached Vir- ginia from the southward. Indeed, there is no evidence that Lord Delawarr ever saw the waters which now bear his name, as will be shown in a note (D) in the Appendix.

* Two of these were, no doubt, the Raritan and the Narrows ; and the third one, to the northward, with the shoal bar before it, probably Rockaway Inlet. -

t " So we weighed and went in, and rode in five fathoms ooze ground, and saw many salmons, and mullets, and rays very great. The height is forty degrees thirty minutes." This statement in Juet's Journal agrees, very nearly, with the actual latitude of Sandy Hook, which is forty degrees twenty-eight minutes. Doctor Mitchill, in N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 41, however doubts the correctness of the accounts in the Journal respecting the abund- ance of salmon in the North River when first visited by Hudson, though he admits that that fish has been taken there.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I. on both sides were " as pleasant with grass, and flowers, 1609. and goodly trees, as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them." Six miles up this river they saw " an open sea," now known as Newark Bay. In the evening, as the boat was returning to the ship, the explor- ing party was set upon by two canoes full of savages ; and one of the English sailors, John Colman, was killed by an arrow shot in his throat. The next day Hudson buried, upon the adjacent beach, the comrade who had shared the dangers of his polar adventures, to become the first Eu- ropean victim of an Indian weapon in the placid waters he had now reached. To commemorate the event, Sandy Hook was named "Colman's Point." The ship was soon visited by canoes full of native warriors ; but Hudson, sus- pecting their good faith, took two of the savages and "put red coats upon them," while the rest were not suffered to approach.

Death of John Col- man.

7 Sept.

9 Sept.

The Half Moon pass- es the Nar- rows. 11 Sept.

12 Sept.

Cautiously sounding her way through the lower bay, the Half Moon at length "went into the river" past the Narrows, and anchored near the mouth of the Kills in "a very good harbor for all winds." The native savages came at once on board, "making show of love ;" but Hudson, remembering Colman's fate, "durst not trust them." The next morning twenty-eight canoes, " made of single hol- lowed trees," and crowded with men, women, and chil- dren, visited the yacht. But none were suffered to come on board, though their oysters and beans were gladly pur- chased. In the afternoon the Half Moon ran six miles further up; and the crew were enraptured by the loveli- ness of the surrounding country. "It is as beautiful a land as one can tread upon," said Hudson, " and abounds in all kinds of excellent ship timber."*

Hudson be- gins to as- cend the North Riv- er. '13 Sept.

The first of Europeans, Hudson now began to explore the great river which stretched before him to the north, opening, as he hoped, the way to the Eastern Seas. Slow- ly drifting upward with the flood-tide, he anchored over night just above Yonkers, in sight of "a high point of

* "Is soo schoonen landt als men met voeten betreden mach."-Hudson's Report, quoted by De Laet, cap. x. ¿

HUDSON EXPLORES THE NORTH RIVER.

land, which showed out" five leagues off to the north .* CHAP. I. The next day, a southeast wind carrying him rapidly up Tappan and Haverstraw Bays, and beyond the " strait" 1609. 14 Sept. between Stony and Verplanck's Points, Hudson sailed on- ward through the majestic pass guarded by the frowning Donderberg, and at nightfall anchored his yacht near West Point, in the midst of the sublimest scenery of the " Matteawan"t Mountains.

The next morning was misty until the sun arose, and 15 Sept. the grandeur of the overhanging highlands was again re- vealed. A fair south wind sprung up as the weather be- came clear ; and while the Half Moon was getting under way, the two savages who had been detained captives on board at Sandy Hook, watching their opportunity, leaped out of a port-hole and swam ashore, scornfully deriding the crew as the yacht sailed onward. A bright autumnal day succeeded the misty morning. Running sixty miles up along the varied shores which lined the deep channel, and delighted every moment with the ever-changing scen- ery, and the magnificent virgin forests which clothed the river banks with their gorgeous autumnal hues, Hudson arrived, toward evening, opposite the loftier " mountains The Half which lie from the river's side,"# and anchored the Half Catskill. Moon at Moon near Catskill landing, where he found a " very lov- ing people and very old men."

The friendly natives flocked on board the yacht, as she 16 Sept. remained lazily at anchor the next morning, and brought the crew " ears of Indian corn, and pumpkins, and tobac- co," which were readily bought " for trifles." In the aft-

* The North River schippers afterward named this well-known landmark, just north of Nyack, in Rockland county, " Verdrietig Hook," or Tedious Point. It is about seven hundred feet high, and obtained its name because it was generally so long in sight of the slow-sailing sloops of former days. . The name, formerly so expressive, is still retained ; though our flitting modern conveyances hardly allow it now to tire the eye.

t The Indian name for the Highlands, according to Spafford, and Moulton, i., p. 240.

# The " Kaatsbergs," or Catskill Mountains, the most elevated range along the river, are about eight miles inland from the west bank, and extend northward from back of the town of Saugerties, in Ulster county, to the town of Durham, in Greene county. Ac- cording to Captain Partridge's measurement, in 1818, " Round Top," the highest point in the chain, is 3804 feet above tide water ; "High Peak," the next in altitude, is 3718 feet. "Pine Orchard," the famous summer resort of tourists, is a level tract of about seven acres, on the edge of a precipice about 2214 feet above the river, of which it commands a magnificent view for sixty miles.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I. ernoon, Hudson went six miles further up the river, and 1609. anchored over night near the marshes which divide the channel, opposite the flourishing city which now bears his name. Early the next morning he set sail again, and slowly working his way through the shoaling channel and among the " small islands" which embarrassed navigation, anchored, toward evening, about eighteen miles further up, between Schodac and Castleton.

17 Sept.

18 Sept. Hudson lands at Schodac.

Here the Half Moon remained at anchor all the next day. In the afternoon, Hudson went ashore "with an old savage, a governor of the country, who carried him to his house and made him good cheer." The visit is graphic- ally described in the original Journal preserved by De Laet. "I sailed to the shore," says Hudson, "in one of their canoes, with an old man who was the chief of a tribe consisting of forty men and seventeen women. These I saw there, in a house well constructed of oak bark, and cir- cular in shape, so that it had the appearance of being built with an arched roof. It contained a great quantity of maize or Indian corn, and beans of the last year's growth ; and there lay near the house, for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields. On our coming into the house, two mats were spread out to sit upon, and some food was immediately served in well-made red wooden bowls. Two men were also dispatched at once, with bows and arrows, in quest of game, who soon brought in a pair of pigeons which they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, and skinned it in great haste, with shells which they had got out of the water. They supposed that I would remain with them for the night ; but I returned, after a short time, on board the ship. The land is the finest for cultivation that I ever in my life set foot upon, and it also abounds in trees of ev- ery description. These natives are a very good people ; for when they saw that I would not remain, they supposed that I was afraid of their bows ; and, taking their arrows, they broke them in pieces and threw them into the fire."*

* Juet, in his account of the voyage, says that the person who went ashore with the

THE HALF MOON AT ALBANY.

With the early flood-tide on the following morning, the CHAP. I. Half Moon " ran higher up, two leagues above the shoals," 1609. 19 Sept. The Half and anchored in deep water, near the site of the present city of Albany. The people of the country came flocking loon at Al- on board, and brought grapes and pumpkins, and beaver bany. and otter skins, which were purchased for beads, knives, and hatchets. Here the yacht lingered several days. The carpenter went ashore, and made a new foreyard ; while 21 Sept. Hudson and his mate, "determined to try some of the chief men of the country, whether they had any treachery in them," took them down into the Half Moon's cabin, and " gave them so much wine and aqua vite that they were all merry." An old Indian, stupefied with drink, remain- ed on board to the amazement of his simple countrymen, who "could not tell how to take it." The traditions of Revel on the aborigines yet preserve the memory of this first revel,* board. which was followed, the next day, by another visit from the reassured savages, one of whose chiefs, addressing Hud- son, "made an oration, and showed him all the country round about."

Every thing now seemed to indicate that the Half Moon End of the had reached the head of ship navigation. The downward voyage. upward current was fresh and clear, the shoaling channel was nar- row and obstructed ; yet Hudson, unwilling, perhaps, to abandon his long-cherished hope, dispatched the mate, with 22 Sept. a boat's crew, to sound the river higher up. After going " eight or nine leagues" further-probably to some dis- tance above Waterford-and finding " but seven feet wa- 1

" old savage," was the " master's mate," or onder schipper, who, according to Van Mete- ren, was a Dutchman. On the other hand, De Laet expressly states that it was Hudson himself, and he quotes, from Hudson's own Journal, the passage which I have inserted in the text. The place where Hudson landed is stated by De Laet to have been in lati- tude 42º 18'. This would seem to fix the scene of the event at about five or six miles above the present city of Hudson, which is in 42º 14'. But latitudes were not as accurately determined in those days as they are now ; and a careful computation of the distances run by the Half Moon, as recorded in Juet's log-book, shows that on the 18th of September, when the landing occurred, she must have been " up six leagues higher" than Hudson, or in the neighborhood of Schodac and Castleton.

* "It is very remarkable that, among the Iroquois or Six Nations, there is a tradition, still very distinctly preserved, of a scene of intoxication which occurred with a company of the natives when the first ship arrived."-Rev. Dr. Miller's Discourse, in N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., p. 35 ; Heckewelder, in Moulton's N. Y., i., p. 551-254 ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 71-73. See Note A, Appendix.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I ter, and inconstant soundings," the exploring party return- 1609. ed late at night, and reported that they had " found it to be at an end for shipping to go in."*

Hudson re- turns down the river.

Hudson now reluctantly prepared to return. His aseent of the river had occupied eleven days; his deseent con-

24 Sept.

26 Sept.

23 Sept. sumed as many more. Bidding adieu to the friendly sav- ages among whom he had tarried so pleasantly, and slow- ly deseending the difficult ehannel for nine or ten leagues, he ran aground again, the next afternoon, on the " bank of ooze in the middle of the river," opposite the present eity of Hudson. Here he remained wind-bound for two days, which were occupied in wooding the vessel, and in visit- ing the neighboring shores. While the yaeht was lying at anehor, two canoes full of savages came up the river six miles from Catskill, where the erew had " first found lov- ing people" on their upward voyage. In one of these ea- noes was the old man who had reveled on board the Half Moon " at the other place," and who had followed by land the yaeht's progress down the river. He now brought "another old man with him," who gave "stropes of beads" to Hudson, and " showed him all the country thereabout, as though it were at his eommand." The visitors were kindly entertained ; and as they departed, made signs that the Europeans, who were now within two leagues of their dwelling-place, " should come down to them."

27 Sept.

But the persuasions of the friendly old ehief were of no avail. Weighing anehor the next day with a fair north wind, Hudson ran down the river eighteen miles, past the wigwams of the "loving people" at Catskill, who were " very sorrowful" for his departure, and toward evening anchored in deep water near Red Hook, where part of the erew went on shore to fish. The next two days were con- sumed in slowly working down to the "lower end of the long reach" below Pokeepsie, where the yacht was again visited by friendly Indians ; and then proceeding onward,

29 Sept.

* De Laet, in cap. vii., states that Hudson explored the river "to nearly 43º of north latitude, where it became so narrow and of so little depth, that he found it necessary to return." As Albany is in 42º 39', the boat must, therefore, have gone above that place " eight or nine leagues" further-the distance given in Juet's Journal.

RETURN OF THE HALF MOON. "

Hudson anchored in the evening under the northern edge CHAP. I. of the Highlands. Here he lay wind-bound for a day, in 1609.

a very good roadstead, admiring the magnificent mount- 30 Sept. ains, which looked to him " as if some metal or mineral were in them."

Early the next morning a fair wind sprung up, and the 1 October. Half Moon, sailing rapidly through the winding Highlands, anchored, at noon, near Stony Point. Here some of the "people of the mountains" came on board, wondering at the "ship and weapons." The same afternoon, a thievish native, detected in pilfering some articles through the cab- in windows, was shot without mercy by the mate; and Indians the stolen things were promptly recovered from the canoes Stony of the frightened savages, who lost another life in their Point. flight. This was the first Indian blood shed by Europeans on the North River. After this sanguinary atonement had been exacted, the yacht dropped down two leagues further, through Haverstraw Bay to Teller's Point, near the mouth of the Croton.

The next day, a brisk northwest wind carried the Half 2 October. Moon seven leagues further down, through Tappan Sea to the head of Manhattan Island, where one of the captive Indians, who had escaped from the yacht in the Highlands, on the upward voyage, came off from the shore with many other savages. But Hudson, "perceiving their intent," would suffer none of them to enter the vessel. Two ca- The Half noes full of warriors then came under the stern, and shot tacked near Moon at- a flight of arrows into the yacht. A few muskets were ington. Fort Washı- discharged in retaliation, and two or three of the assail- ants were killed. Some hundred Indians then assembled at the point near Fort Washington, to attack the Half Moon as she drifted slowly by ; but a falcon-shot killed. two of them, " whereupon the rest fled into the woods." Again the assailants manned another canoe, and again the attack was repulsed by a falcon shot, which destroyed their frail bark ; and so the savages "went their way," mourn- ing the loss of nine of their warriors. The yacht then " got Hudson an- down two leagues beyond that place," and anchored over Hoboken. chors at

killed near

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I. night "on the other side of the river," in the bay near Ho- 1609. boken. Hard by his anchorage, and upon "that side of the river that is called Manna-hata," Hudson noticed that " there was a cliff that looked of the color of a white green."* Here he lay wind-bound the next day, and "saw 4 October. no people to trouble" him. . The following morning, just one month after his arrival at Sandy Hook, Hudson weigh- ed his anchor for the last time, and coming out of the " great mouth of the great river" into which he "had run Sails from Sandy Hook. so far," he set all sail, and steered off again into the main sea.t

The Half Moon's company now held a council, and were of various minds. They were in want of stores, and were not on good terms with each other, "which, if they had been, they would have accomplished more." The Dutch mate wished to winter at Newfoundland, and then explore the northwest passage through Davis's Straits. But Hud- son, fearing his mutinous crew, who had lately begun to " threaten him savagely," opposed this proposition, and suggested their immediate return to Holland. At last they all agreed to winter in Ireland. So they sailed eastward for a month, without seeing any land by the way, and on the seventh of November, 1609, arrived safely at Dart- mouth, in Devonshire.

The Half Moon ar- rives at Dartmouth. 7 Nov.

Hudson sends a re- Dutch E. I. Thence Hudson immediately sent over an account of port to the his voyage to the Dutch East India Company, at Amster- Company. dam, proposing to renew the search for the northwest pas- sage in the following spring, after refitting the Half Moon in England, and superseding several of the most turbulent of her crew. But contrary winds prevented his report from reaching Amsterdam for some time. When at length the East India directors heard of Hudson's arrival at Dart- mouth, they instructed him to return with his vessel to Holland as soon as possible. As he was about complying

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 5

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n Publication date: 1871 Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers Number of Pages: 844

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844