THE HALF-MOON. chief, a circular house with an arched roof and covered with bark. He was especially impressed with the profusion of vegetable products lying about the house, and as a result exclaims that this was "the finest land for cultivation that he ever in his life trod upon." A feast was prepared in his honor, consisting of freshly killed pigeons and a fat dog; but he forbears to mention, or at least De Laet omits to do so, whether he partook of the latter delicacy. On September the 19th, with fair and hot weather, a run of two leagues was made; and now beavers' and otters' skins, obtained for a trifle, began to indicate a source of profitable trade, which was not lost upon the Dutch commercial public when the account of this voyage reached the the mother-country. On the 20th the precaution was taken to send the boat up ahead of the vessel in order to sound the depth, and the HalfMoon rode at anchor all day and night. The next day (the 21st) was again a memorable one: no progress was made, but "our master and his mate determined to try some of the chief men of the country, whether they had any treachery in them." It must be admitted that Hudson resorted to a questionable experiment. The savage chiefs were taken into the cabin and treated to an abundance of "wine and aquavitæ," so that in the end "one of them was drunk, and that was strange to them; for they could not tell how to take it." On the 22d of September the boat had gone up nearly twenty-seven miles beyond the present anchorage of the Half-Moon, and now the disappointing conclusion was forced upon the ship's company that their dream of a Northwest passage must be abandoned. There were but seven feet of water at that distance, and the river ever growing narrower and more shallow. Hitherto there had been nothing to discourage the belief that the river they were on might be a strait like Magellan's at the southern extremity of the Hemisphere. For long stretches that strait drew its banks together to within even a smaller distance than that which separated the shores of this great River of the Mountains. But the report now brought by the master's mate was fatal to their hopes. This was a river, and not a strait; they had reached the head of navigation, "and found it to be at an end for shipping to go in." Accordingly on the 23d the anchor was weighed and the descent of the river was begun. In two days the Half-Moon had gone some thirty miles, and on the 24th "we went on land," says the mate, "and gathered good store of chestnuts." The monotony of the progress by water was diversified on the 25th by a brisk walk along the west shore, which resulted in a minute observation of the excellency of the soil, the abundance of slate rock in that vicinity and of other good stone, and with especial delight were noticed the "great store of goodly oaks, and walnut trees, and chestnut trees, yew trees, and trees of sweet wood." The next day, the wind being contrary though the weather was fine, EMANUEL VAN METEREN. the opportunity was seized to place on the ship a quantity of logs as specimens of the richness of this country in timber for ship-building purposes. A pleasant visit from old chiefs formerly met was made to the ship, and Hudson returned their courtesy by causing them to dine with him. On the 27th of September a strong wind from the north would have sent them far down the river if they had not struck upon a muddy bank; only about six leagues were thus made, and they may by this time have come within a few miles of Fishkill and Newburgh. Fifteen miles more brought them to the entrance of the Highlands from the north on the 28th. And here Hudson remained stationary for about two days: "Storm King” and "Breakneck" loomed up high and forbidding like two grim sentinels, and the cautious pilot would not venture among the treacherous mountains while the wind blew strong, "because the high land hath many points and a narrow channel, and hath many eddy winds." On the 29th and 30th, accordingly, they lay at anchor in Newburgh Bay with "the wind at southeast, a stiff gale between the mountains." Looking intently at either shore they came to the conclusion that this was "a very pleasant place to build a town on"; and surely their prescience has been justified by the event, as the sight of Newburgh and Fishkill abundantly testifies. The 1st of October was an eventful day. The wind changed, and in one uninterrupted run of twenty-one miles they cleared the troublesome channel of the Highlands and left the mountains behind them. But in other respects the adventurers were less fortunate. An Indian was caught stealing; "he got up by our rudder to the cabin window, and stole out my pillow," said Juet, "and two shirts and two bandoleers. Our master's mate shot at him and struck him on the breast and killed him." Then the ship's boat was manned and sent to recover the stolen goods; the Indians swam out to it, and one trying to upset it, "the cook took a sword and cut off one of his hands, and he was drowned." Thus two lives had been sacrificed that day, and trouble 66 with the revengeful natives was sure to follow. The very next day it came. Seven leagues further down the strong incoming tide and a light wind compelled them to anchor. There a savage whom they had kidnapped on their upward journey, but who had escaped, lay in wait to have his revenge. An attack was made on the ship's company with bows and arrows, which fell harmless on the deck. But a discharge of six muskets slew two or three of the natives. "Then above a hundred of them came to a point of land to shoot at us. There I shot a falcon at them, and killed two of them, whereupon the rest fled into the woods." The savages, still persisting in the attack, manned a canoe; at which Juet leveled another falcon, or small cannon, shooting through the canoe, which sank with the Indians, and as they struggled in the water a second discharge of muskets killed several more. Another six miles and they came to anchor off "a cliff that looked of the color of white green"; and thereby we know that they were nearly opposite the Elysian Fields of Hoboken, which Juet assures us is on that side of the river that is called Mannahata." October 3d was a stormy day, which gave them much trouble with their anchorage. Still the shelter of the Upper Bay was enjoyed by them and no harm came of it. On October 4th, the weather being fair and the wind favorable, the Half-Moon sailed out from between the headlands of the Narrows, the first vessel to leave the port of New-York direct for Europe. She stood straight across the ocean, discarding the ordinary course by way of the West Indies and the Canaries. Indeed in the opinion of some of her officers her mission was by no means accomplished, and she ought even now to be steered for the northwest and through Davis' Strait to India. The underskipper, who was a Dutchman, Van Meteren tells us, was for spending the winter at Terra Nova, or Newfoundland, and continuing the business of Arctic exploration the next season.' But Hudson knew the temper of his motley crew, and feared a mutiny unless a move were made toward home. Hence, as Juet concludes, "We continued our course toward England without seeing any land by the way, all the rest of this month of October"; and on the 7th of November, 1609, the HalfMoon arrived safely at Dartmouth.2 The English authorities no sooner ascertained whence the HalfMoon, a Dutch ship with an English captain, had come, than they detained both ship and captain. Eventually Hudson was permitted to send his reports to the Directors of the East India Company, and the Half-Moon reached Amsterdam in July, 1610; but it is very uncertain whether Hudson was permitted to proceed thither. The following year, in June, 1611, he ended a life of heroic adventure amid 1 Van Meteren, Oorl. d. Nederl., 10: 205. 2 Purchas, "His Pilgrims and their Pilgrimages," 3: ch's 14, 15, 16. the very regions that had tempted him so often to bold endeavors. The manner of his death was cruel in the extreme, sent adrift by his mutinous crew amid icefields in an open boat; yet it was not an inappropriate close to a career such as his, and in this respect resembled that of the Dutch Arctic traveler, William Barents, whose exploits had no doubt helped to fire Hudson's ambition.' The Dutch East India Company had sent Henry Hudson to the northeast, or northwest, to seek in either direction a way to China and the East Indies by sailing through Arctic seas. When it was reported by him that, failing in this, he had discovered unknown regions, or at least explored regions but little known before, on the continent of North America-the Company was prohibited by the express terms of its charter from utilizing such discoveries. Its field of operation was clearly defined to lie in seas east of Cape of Good Hope around which Vasco da Gama had first sailed to India, and west of the Straits of Magellan. The coasts and countries bordering on the Atlantic were not to be visited for purposes of trade by its vessels. But Hudson's report was not lost upon other portions of the commercial world centered at Amsterdam; nor were the Directors of the Company in their private capacity debarred from engaging in mercantile enterprises beyond the limits indicated by the charter. The papers forwarded by Hudson from England to his employers at length reached Amsterdam in the spring of 1610, while the Half-Moon did not return until July. But at that time a number of merchants, having associated together,2 were already prepared to send a vessel back to the parts whence she had come. A portion of her crew were at once induced to enlist in this new enterprise, and Hudson's Dutch mate was made captain or master of this vessel.3 The chief consideration which led to these earliest voyages to the shores of the Hudson River was the establishment of a profitable trade in furs. This constituted by far the greatest proportion of the very extensive trade with the Muscovy States, or Archangel in Russia. But this valuable staple, for which the climate of Holland assured a ready sale, had to be purchased at Archangel in competition with other merchants as in any other civilized market. In the New World, it was ascertained, there was an inexhaustible supply of the same. article, equal in quality, and obtainable by the inexpensive expedient of barter with natives in whose eyes cheap and bright utensils were much more desirable than the gold of European currencies. When 1 In regard to the subsequent fate of the HalfMoon, we are told by Brodhead ("History of NewYork," 1: 24, 43, notes) that she was shipwrecked on the Island of Mauritius in 1615; which information he derives from the East India Company's "Ship-book." But Mr. Murphy (Henry Hudson in Holland, p. 57) gives the entry of this book, and while the remark "wrecked on the island of Mauritius" appears opposite a companion ship, that opposite the Half-Moon is, "not heard from." 2 Van Kampen, "Nederlanders buiten Europa," 1: 331; De Laet, Nieuwe Wereldt" (Leyden, 1625), Bk. 3: ch. 7: 84. 3 Brodhead's New-York, 1:44. the sailors who had first come out in the Half-Moon saw their Indian friends for the second time, their persons were adorned with ax-heads and shovel-blades, given in payment for furs. Such articles, whether prized by the Indians for use or ornament, would inevitably assure a profitable return upon the beaver and other skins obtained for them.' There is little doubt that the vessel despatched in 1610 returned with a cargo that realized a satisfactory profit for her owners, thus confirming the previous accounts of the country. At any rate, in February, 1611, two vessels are reported by the Admiralty Court, sitting at Amsterdam, to the States-General as being very nearly ready to sail. The destination avowed was China, via the North Pole, and the States-General were urged to prepare letters, and address them to the potentates and powers of whatever barbarous countries might be encountered, in the over-confident expectation that the passage to China would surely be accom plished. The two ships, named History makes no further mention of this venture, nor if, at any stage of it, they touched upon the coasts of New Netherland. Perhaps we may assume that they did, since the official record of the expedition is embraced among the Holland archives under the head of the West India affairs. Meanwhile interest in the regions brought to notice by Hudson's 1 Rev. John Hecklewelder, in "New-York Historical Society Collections," Second Series, 1: 73, 74. 2. Documents relating to Colonial History of New-York; Holland Documents," 1: 3, 4. 3 Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, the result of whose discoveries was second only to those of his contemporary Columbus, and which have been by Camoens "married to immortal verse," died in December, 1524, in Cochin, soon after his arrival there as the governor of Portuguese India. EDITOR. 4 Van Meteren, Oorl. d. Nederl., 10: 460, 461; Bk. 32. 3 |