USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 17
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200 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I, and on the 20th of May, were in 64º 52'. They advanced no higher than 75° 30'. After several vain attempts to pass between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, they found the sea- son so far spent, and the winds so contrary, that they were un- able to penetrate the Strait of Weygats, or Lumley's inlet, but returned to Gravesend on the 26th of August." The most remarkable incident of this voyage was the appearance, by the side of the ship, of a mermaid in a high northern lati- tude. (127)
$ 47.
On the failure of this expensive voyage of four months, the company suspended their patronage in favour of northern ad- venture. Hudson, whose clement was the seas, whose pride was to brave their dangers, whose ambition was the glory of achieving what so many had lost their lives in attempting, was too impatient to await the revival of that liberal spirit which had so eminently distinguished this association. He went to Holland ; he entered into the service of the celebrated Dutch East India Company.
At a time when it became the interest of the British nation to press their claim to a territory, which France, their heredi- tary, and Spain their covert, enemy, contended for, but which the citizens of Holland had not only settled, amidst perils too formidable for their friends and allies, the English, to encoun- ter, but had secured, by a pacific and prudent policy towards the natives, then it became necessary for English writers to give every possible colour of right, in vindication of a dor- mant claim, which the lapse of time, and the peaceable posses- sion of the Netherlanders, it may appear hereafter, ought to have silenced for ever. We speak not now of the conven-
* Sec a journal in Purchas, and 1 N. Y. Hist. Coll. 81, 102. Belkuap (\.). I. Amer. Biog. ) appears to have mistaken datos.
201
Henry Hudson.
§ 48.3
tional principles of international law, or the force and effect of an undefined first discovery, as displayed in the vague pretensions which those principles were brought to sauce tion. These will be referred to at that period of our colonial history, in which it will appear that after an oc- cupancy of half a century by the Dutch, this colony was wrested from them by the English. It is the time of the dis- covery, and the agency of Hudson in effecting it, to which our attention is to be confined. With regard to those particulars, it seems that some writers of the period to which we have just referred, have placed Hudson in English service, and his dis- covery one year before it took place. In order to effect this, they must have overlooked the journal of the voyage as pub- lished by Purchas,* sixteen years after the discovery, and which places it in 1609. This authority was decisive, and rendered others superfluous, but contemporaneous writers also support the fact, and that Hudson was then in the employment of the Dutch. (128) Consequently, the period of the disco- very, as given by William Smith, Esq. in his history of this province, was one year too early. (129.)
On his arrival in Holland, Hudson, whom the Dutch wri- terst denominated the bold Englishman, the expert pilot, the famous navigator, made proposals to the East India Company to renew his researches after a passage to India. Discour- aged by the fruitlessness of former attempts,f and persuaded by the representations of their colleague, Balthazar Mouche-
* See the detailed journal in Purchas his Pilgrimes, V. III, p. 581, 595 (So in Vol. I. N. Y. Hist. Coll. p. 102, 146.) See notice of " Purchas his Pilgrimes," and " Purchas his Pilgrimage," at the close of Vol. 1. Belk. Am. Biog. p. 409, and see 1403. Purchas received the manuscripts of his " painful friend" Hakluyt, whodied 1616. These are the most authentic collections extant.
+ Lambrechtsen in " Kort Beschryving, &c. Van Nieuw-Nederland." Collect. of Voy. by D. E. In. Co. from the Dutch. Lond. 1703. p. 63. In referring no doubt to the first three Dutch voyages. See ants Moucheron was one who patronized the first.
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202 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PARTY,
ron,* (who long before had traded at the north, f) that it would prove an useless expenditure of money, many of the directors, particularly of 'Zealand, would have rejected the proposition. The Amsterdam directors were nevertheless in- flexible in their resolution to accept the overture ; and accord. ingly, a small ship, called the Half-moon, was equipped, and the command intrusted to Henry Hudson. In this small ves- sel, with a crew of twenty Englishmen and Hollanders, that daring man undertook once more to encounter the storms, ice, and other inclemencies of the northern seas.} He departed from Amsterdam on the fourth, and left the Texel on the sixthi of April, 1609.5
& See N. C. Lambrechtsen of Rittham, member of the Equestrian Or- der of the Neth. Leon. Prest. of Zealand's Soc. of Sciences, who ap- pears to have'had access to the Dutch records in Holland, and published his short description of the discovery, &c. Middleburgh. 1818. Translated, and in MS. by Mr. Vander Kemp.
t And who (says Lembrechtsen in Vauder Kemp's translation in MS. note) was not only one of the first founders of the East Ind. Society, but one of the first trading merchants to Muscovy. His name is perpetuated in the Moucheron river, on which is Archangel.
! She is called the Halve Maen, (crescent) whereof captain and cargo (skipper en Koopman) was Henrich Hutson (New Neth. Verloogh, p. 11, 14. Printed 1650, cited in Kort Verhael, p. 17.) Adriaen Vander Donck (in " Beschryvinge Van Nieuw-Nederlant," &c. Print. Amst. 1655) also, as well as Lambrechtsen, calls her the Half-Moon; but in a note to MS. translation of Lamb, by Mr. Vander Kemp, it is said that this yacht is na- med in the Not. of the Departm. of XVII. the Good Hope more correctly. De Laet, Lambrechtsen, Forster, &c. calls her a Yacht. In Collec. of D. E. In. Co's. Voy's. she is called a Fly Boot, and manned with 20 men. So in Biog. Brit. art. Hudson, 1 Holme's Annals, 137 n. But Lambrechtsen says she was manned with 16 Englishmen and Hollanders. Abm. Yates, jr. (in MIS. det. in N. Y. Hist. Lib.) says 18, half and half. She must have been small, or she could not have explored our river as far as it will appear she did.
$ Or 95th and 27th March (old style) according to the journal of " the third voyage of Master Henry Hudson toward Nova Zembla, and at his returne, his passing from Farre Islands to Newfoundland, and along to for- tir-foure degrees and ten minutes, and thence to Cape Cod, and so to thir- tie-three degrees ; and along the coast to the northward, to fortic-two de- grees and an halfe, and up the river noore to fortie-three degrees. Written by Robert Ivet, of Lime-house."
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203
Henry Hudson.
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In a month he doubled the coast of Norway, and arrived May 5th, at the height of the north Cape of Finmark, in 71º 46', entered the White Sca, coasted Nova Zembla, where the ice and fogs preventing him from passing the strait of Wey- gats to the cast. He then tacked towards Greenland. Hav- ng, in consequence of the usual barrier, (ice) failed in reach- ing the object of his search, he formed a design of visiting America, in hopes of making some discoveries that might prove an indemnification for his failure in the north, and at the same time gratify his love for novel adventure. Some of his sailors having been in the East India service, could not endure the extreme cold, and being of different nations, quar- relled with each other. Hudson, therefore, proposed two things to them : First, to go towards the coasts of America in the latitude of 40 degrees, trusting to some maps sent him from Virginia by Captain Smith,* who had marked down a sea, affording a passage round about his plantations into the south sea -- a direction, which, had it proved as true as experi- ence showed it to be false, would have been very advantageous, and greatly shortened the way to the East Indies. The alter- native proposed by Hudson, was to find a passage through the strait of Davis, which was generally approved. So in May they sailed that way, and the last of the month arrived at one of the islands of Faro (" Farre,") where they staid twenty-four hours to take in fresh water. f
They theu steered in search of Buss Island, discovered by one of Frobisher's ships, (1578) but could not discover it in the latitude laid down, and (June 3) at length they shaped their course towards Newfoundland. After being in jeopardy from ice, and the incessant violence of the winds, they finally
* According to " A Collection of Voyages, undertaken by the Dutch East Ind. Com. translated from the Dutch. Lond. 1703," p. 68, 70. The three prior northern Dutch voyages, as herein related, accord with those in Pink. Coll. and it is probable the compiler may have had access to the re- cords of the E. In. Co. and a sight of the acet. JIndson sent them after his return.
i Ib, and Journal.
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204 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PARTI,
lost their foremast in a very great storm, and in a few days after having sailed under a jury-mast, their foresail also was split. They had run down as far as 44º 58', when meeting another gale from the southeast (22d) they steered for New- foundland. Three days afterwards, they descried a sail standing to the east, which they chased, but could not over- take ; and in the beginning of July, arrived off' the banks of Newfoundland. Here they found a great fleet of French- men fishing on the banks, but passed them in silence. Being soon after becalmed, they successfully fished near the bank among the cods and shoals of herring. Standing westward during the night, (9th) they spoke a Frenchmen, which lay fishing at Sable Island bank. Clearing the banks and conti- nuing westward, they discovered the Nova Scotia coast, and at last arrived off Penobscot Bay on the 17th July. The next day they received a visit from some of the savages, who expressed joy at their arrival .*
Having rode still in consequence of misty weather, they went the day after into a good harbour in this bay, (44º 1') and remained a week. f The harbour in which they rode, is described as lying north and south a mile. The river ran up a great way, but though they anchored near the shore in four fathoms, there were but two hard by them. Hudson's first objects were to cut and prepare a new foremast and mend the tattered sails. These they went about at once, and in four days had the mast erected and rigged. In the mean time the people of the country flocked on board, and showed " great friendship, but they could not be trusted." The crew fre- quently went out to fish, and caught great numbers of lob- sters and codfish. Two French shallops arrived, filled with
* " We gave them trifles, and they eate and dranke with us, and told us Chat there were gold, silver and copper mynes hard by us ; that the French- men doe trade with them, which is very likely, for one of them spake some words of French." -- Journal.
i Dr. Miller thinks the place of their arrival was at or near Portland in the state of Maine. Discourse, &c. 1 N. Y. Ilist. Coll, 30.
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§ 48.]
Ilenry Hudson.
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the country people, who offered no harm, Hudson's men be- ing on their guard. They bad brought furs, with which they had proposed to traffic. From Hudson's first entrance into the harbour, it seems that strong suspicions of the integrity of the people were entertained. After the mast was erected, such were the fears of being betrayed, that Hudson and his crew kept vigilant night-watch, and observed closely where the shaliops were laid. The next morning, that is, the day be- fore they departed, they manned their scute with six men, took one of the shallops, and brought it on board. This was the first aggression. " Then we manned our boat* and sente with twelve men and muskets, and two stone pieces or mur- derers, and drave the salvages from their houses, and tooke the spoyle of them as they would have done of us." This was dastardly. Whatever might have been the suspicions that drew forth the conclusion to the account of this outrage, it detracts from the high character of our maritime hero, that he should have tolerated so mean an act. Even if a prior ag- gression had actually been committed, if petty thefts and tres- passes had provoked this suspicion, and led to this revenge, we could have wished that the noble adventurer had yet been too much superior to the former to have countenanced the latter.
After this act, they departed as far as the mouth of the har- bour, and next day (July 26) set sail.] The English, though not the most robust, were inclined to go further. According- ly, they continued along the main, § passed Newburyport, were off' and on two days between Cape Cod and Nantucket, grounded on St. George's bank, (Aug. 1) and three days af- ter, (4th) anchored at the north end of the headland of the
$ Says Ivet, in the journal.
t Sec 1 N. Y. Hist. Coll. p. S0, 118. But Hudson had a turbulent, mu- tinous set of sailors. It is said (Coll. of Voy's. of E. In. Co. ante) their conduct caused many quarrels with the savages, and perhaps, in the exas- peration of their feelings, Hudson could not control his men.
: Journal.
# Coll. of Voy's. by E. I. Cc. ib.
200 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART L
cape, where, " hearing the voice of men call, and thinking they were some Christians left on the land," they sent their boat, but found they were savages rejoicing to see them. They brought one on board, used him kindly, and replaced him on shore .*
After attempting to get to the westward of this headland, (the body of which lay 41º 45') they bore to the southeast of it, and descried the next day the south point of Cape Cod. This headland was found to be that which Gosnold discover- cd (1602) seven years before. On the 6th, they were among Nantucket and Bowbell shoals, and two days (7th and Sth) they continued in sight of Nantucket, and came in view of Martha's Vineyard.
Thus Hudson explored the coast of Cape Cod, and the country north of it. This industrious navigator (says Lam- brechtsen) although born in England, felt too sensibly his re- lation to the Holland East India Company, who had employ- ed him in discoveries, to have hesitated a moment to give the name of his adopted father-land to this newly discovered country. He called it New Holland .; But not wishing to fix his permanent residence on this spot, Hudson preferred the
* " Our master gave him three or foure glasse buttons, and sent him on land with our shallop againe ; and at our boat's comming from the shoare, he leapt and danced, and held up his hands, and pointed us to a river on the other side, for we had made sigues that we came to fish there." The na- tives are said to have had green tobacco and pipes, the bowls of which were of earth, and the pipes of red copper. " The land is very sweet." Journal.
i Lambr. Kort Beschryving. De Laet in Nieuw Wereldi, b. 3, ch. 7, says, that when Hudson made land in 41 deg. 43 min. he supposed it an isl- and, and named it Nieuwe-Hollandt, but he afterwards found it was Cape Cod. Judge Bensou, in his memoir, read before the N. Y. Hist. Soc. says, the Dutch afterwards distinguished it as Staaten Hoeck, State's Point; and also by its French nome, Cape Blanc, translated Witte Hoeck, White Point. But it will appear that this, as well as that part of the West Indies (as De Lact calls the whole country in 1625, including) from Cape Cod to Cape Cornelius, or Cape Henlopen, were embraced under the general name of Var-Netherlands.
207
Henry Hudson.
§ 48.]
sca, taking a southwest course till he discovered a flat coast at 37° 35', which he then followed in an opposite direction. Iu fact, having pursued his course south and west for ten days (from 8 to 18th Aug.) making remarks on the soundings and currents, taking retrograde movements as he came into the gulf stream, he at last arrived at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay on the 18th,* in the heat of August. " This (observes the journal) is the entrance into the King's river in Virginie, where our Englishmen are." Here, two years before, iso commenced the first effectval English colony in North Ans rica. A feeble attempt at that time had also been made it the north, but after wintering, the survivors had reached (1608) to England, in despair of any colonization in that fri- gid region.t But hither the South Virginia Company had sent out (1607) two ships and a bark, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, with 100 persons, among whom came Bartholomew Gosnold, the heroic Jolm Smith, the real founder of the colony, and its two first presidents, Wingfield and Ratcliffe. Of this settlement, Hudson, it seems, was aware, from the description in the journal, as he crosses the " barre of Virginia," but for eight days he kept off, and with little intermission, experienced severe gales. The farthest he proceeded in these southern waters, was 35° 41', when (24th) he was far from the land. But on the 26th, he found himself again near the land whence he had started. He might have Janded and visited the Virginia colony, but it does not appear from the journal that he did so.į
* Journal, but sec 1 N. A. H. Coll. 31.
t See ante.
{ If he had gone on shore, he must have enjoyed an interval of blended pleasure and melancholy, in the novel gratification of mingling with his own countrymen in the new world, and listening to the strange vicissitude inci- dent to their first settlement. Ile would have found intermission from fa- ligue, and the intense heat of this month in the presence and shelter of his friend Smith, (who had contributed to induce him hither) at a village which. he had just founded in the forest. He would have heard in detail, the story of his captivity, escapes, and sufferings. He would have exulted with kin-
208 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
Pressing forward to the single object of his coasting visit, and aware that he was in foreign service, he chose to seek, in the satisfaction arising from a vigilant discharge of duty, and in the glory of discovering countries, an equivalent for the delights of social intercourse. He merely sent his boat and sounded the coast .* From the vicinity of the Chesapeake, he coasted Northampton and Accomac, approached occasion- ally into shallow water as he passed Maryland, and on the 28th of August, discovered the great bay, since called Dela- ware, (lat. 39º 5'.) In this bay he examined the soundings, currents, and the aspect of the land, but it does not appear that he went on shore. Finding shoal water and sand in the inlet, he was forced to stand towards the southeast, and in the evening he anchored in eight fathoms water.f
dred feeling in the intrepidity, address, and triumphs of his friend, amidst the distractions of a famished colony, the conspiracies of personal enemies, and the ferocious attacks and insidious policy of the emperor of the coun- try, Powhattan. He would have heard that the colony this very year had again escaped extirpation, through the boroic friendship of that empe- ror's daughter, the matchless Pocahontas. He would have met his mari- time friends mourning the separation of their fleet, and the anticipated loss of Sir Thomas Gates and Vice-Admiral Newport, with 150 men, women. and children, who had not been heard of since the time Hudson was passing the stormy coast of Nova Scotia, and replacing his mast in Penobscot Bay, (July.) He might, perhaps, have attended the first English wedding ever consummated in North America ! As to the dispersion of the English ficet, and the shipwreck of part of it, sce Vol. I. Ch. J. Marshall's Life of Wash- ington, 435, 419. Prince's Chronological Hist. of New-England, Vol. I. printed Boston, 1736.' Smith's History in Pinkerton's Coll. Beverly's Hist. Virg. 23, Coll. Beverly says, ib. p. 19, in 1609, the first English marriage in North America took place in Virginia.
* De Laet says, that in 37 deg. 15 min. he came to a black coast, along which was a bank, which, on account of its sandy appearance, Hudson na- med Dry Cape, " Drooghe Caep."
t Vander Donck, (description of New-Neth.) speaking of the south river (that is, the Delaware) says : This is the place where the ship Half- moon first took possession, where we erected our fortress, and traded severa! years without molestation or intervention of any, until some Swedes, through improper ways, interfered. See description of this bay and river in De Lact Nieuwe-Wereldt. b. 3, ch. 11. He calls the bay "Nieuw Port May."
209
Hudson within Sandy Hook.
$ 49.]
During the subsequent week, he pursued his northward course, passing along a low marshy coast, skirted with broken islands,* and at last (Sept. 2d) espied the Highlands of Ne- sersink.+
$ 49.
Two hundred and fifteen years ago, viz. on the 3d day of September, 1009, the first European discoverer of whom we have any knowledge, entered the southern waters of New- York. Henry Hudson, having now passed the Long Branch, sent his boat up to sound, and in the afternoon brought the Half-moon within Sandy Hook, and anchored her (10° 30') in five fathoms water. The next morning, perceiving that there were safe anchorage and a very good harbour, he pro- ceeded further, and moored his ship within Sandy Hook Bay (or Horse-Shoe Harbour) at the distance of two cables' length from the shore.
From this time, he passed one month in exploring the cx- tent of his great discovery. He occupied one weck at San- dy Hook, and in his progress towards New-York Bay and river.
Having, on the first day of his arrival, observed " sal- mon, mullet, and rays," after mooring in the bay, (1th) he
* At 40 deg. 18 min. between Barndegat and Godinspunt, a good an- chorage and opportunity of exploring the country and trading with the na- tives presented, but Hudson's curiosity was not thus to be satisfied. Lam- brechtsen,
i In approaching Sandy Hook, " Harbour Hill," on Long Island, and " Neversink," on the Jersey shore, may beseen at the distance of 24 or 25 miles. The first is 313, and the second 281 feet above tide-water. The altitude was taken by Capt. Partridge and Dr. Mitchill, in 1316. Ilar- bour Hill had been laid down as 404, and Neversink 600 feet. Ilence from a wrong calculation of distance from shore, shipwrecks had been the conse- quence. These hills are supposed to be of alluvial formation. Sec Dr. Mitchill's Geology of N. Amer. in Cuvier's Theory, p. 383. Dr. Akerly's Essay on the Geology of Hudson river, p. 15, 61.
Vor .. I.
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210 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PARTI.
sent his men ashore with their net.# According to tradi- tion, they first landed on Coney Island, f opposite Gravesend, (Long Island) and now a part of Kings county, in this State. Here they found the soil chiefly of white sand, and on it vast numbers of plum trees loaded with fruit, and many of them surrounded and covered with grape vines of different kinds. They saw great quantities of snipes and other birds. t
While the ship lay at anchor, the natives from the Jersey shore came on board, rejoiced at the sight of their new visi- tors, and brought green tobacco, which they gave for tri- fles. They wore loose deer skins well dressed. A severe gale arising in the night, the ship was driven on shore, but the next morning (5th) on return of the flood tide, the ground being soft sand and ooze, she was got off without being in- jured.
This day the boat proceeded to sound the bay, and its crew went on land. The shores were lined with men, women, and children.§ The visiters ventured some distance into the woods of Monmouth county, New-Jersey, but were treated kindly. Among the presents they received, were sweet dried currants, | some of which the natives also brought on board, for many of them this day visited the ship, dressed in furs, some with mantles of feathers, and around their necks were copper ornaments. Their pipeswere of the same mate- rial. They were suspected, though friendly.
Hudson, discovering that the bay was the entrance to what
* "They caught ten great mullet, a foot and a half long, and a ray, as great as four men could haul into the ship." Journal.
t Dr. Miller in Dis. 1 N. Y. II. Coll. 31. The Rev. Mr. Abeel's acct. (MS. extract, being a part of historical manuscripts, which Dr. Miller pre- sented to the N. Y. Hist. Soc.)
1 Ib.
¿ Journal.
[ These are supposed to have been whortleberrries, or other wild kind, which the Indians were accustomed to dry. (Dr. M. ib. p. 31, n. )
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Hudson within Sandy Hook.
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appeared twelve miles distant from where he lay, to be an ex- tensive river, sent his boat with five men, who passed and sounded through the Narrows, and discovered the kills be- tween Staten Island and Bergen Neck. The lands they ob- served were covered with grass, flowers, and trees, as fine as they ever saw, and the air was filled with fragrance. They proceeded six miles into the bay of New-York, and then turned back. In this expedition was John Colman, an Englishman, who had accompanied Hudson, and shared his perils in his first bold attempt to penetrate the polar circle. While the boat was returning, the men were attacked by two canoes contain- ing 26 Indians. Colman was shot with an arrow in the neck, and two others wounded. The Indians, perhaps, met them unexpectedly, were surprised and frightened, shot at them, and made off as fast as they could ; for it does not appear that they attempted to take the two unwounded men and their boat as they might no doubt have done then, or afterwards ; for the night came on, the rain fell, their match became extinguished, they lost their way, and the boat wandered to and fro until the next day. After their arrival at the ship, with their slain comrade, he was interred at Sandy Hook, and the point na- med Colman's Point.
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