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A WEDGE-SHAPED promontory, or bluff, pushes forward to the river at
this spot; and on its summit, which widens into a noble plain, stands
the city of Hudson.
It is supposed that the “Halve-Mane,” the vessel in which the great
discoverer made his first passage up the Hudson, reached no farther than
two leagues above the city which bears his name, and that the remainder
of the exploring voyage was made in the shallop. His reception here was
in the highest degree hospitable. “He went on shore in one of their
canoes, with an old Indian, who was the chief of forty men and seventeen
women: these he saw in a house made of the bark of trees, exceedingly
smooth and well-finished within and without. He found a great quantity
of Indian corn and beans, enough of which were drying near the house to
have loaded three ships, besides what was growing in the fields. On
coming to the house two mats were spread to sit on, eatables were
brought in, in red bowls well made, and two men were sent off with bows
and arrows, who soon returned with two pigeons. They also killed a fat
dog, and skinned it with shells. They expected their visitors would
remain during the night, but the latter determined to return on board.
The natives were exceedingly kind and good-tempered; for when they
discovered Hudson’s determination to proceed on board, they, imagining
it proceeded from fear of their bows and arrows, broke them to pieces
and threw them into the fire.”
On his return down the river, Hudson stopped again for four days
opposite the site of the future city. The historical collections give a
very particular account of every day’s movements in this interesting
voyage. “On the report of those whom he had sent to explore the river,”
says the historian, “Hudson found that it would be useless to proceed
with his ship any farther, or to delay his return. He had passed several
days in a profitable traffic and a friendly intercourse with the
natives, among whom were probably those from each side of the
river,—the Mahicanni, as well as the Mohawks. At noon of the 23d of
September, he therefore went down six miles to a shoal; having but
little wind, the tide laid his ship on the bar until the flood came,
when she crossed it, and was anchored for the night.
“The next day, after proceeding seven or eight leagues, she grounded on
a bank of ooze in the middle of the river, where she was detained till
the ensuing morning, when the flood, at ten o’clock, enabled Hudson to
anchor her in deep water. Thus the ship once more was interrupted in her
passage opposite the spot where a city now commemorates the name of
Hudson.
“Here he remained, by reason of adverse winds, four days. On the day of
his arrival ‘they went on land and gathered good store of chestnuts,’
but whether on the east or west side of the river is not mentioned. But
the day following they went on land ‘to walk on the west side of the
river, and found good ground for corn and other garden herbs, with good
store of goodly oaks and walnut-trees, and chestnut-trees, yew-trees,
and trees of sweet wood in great abundance, and great store of _slate
for houses and other good stones_.’ Nothing is said of any inhabitants
while they were thus visiting the site, which is now that of the village
of Athens, opposite Hudson. But next morning (26th), after the
carpenter, mate, and four of the company had gone on shore to cut wood,
while the vessel lay at anchor, two canoes came up the river from the
place where they first found ‘loving people’ (Catskill landing); and in
one of them was the old chief whom Hudson had caused to be made
intoxicated at Albany. He had followed our strange visitors thirty
miles, to the base of the Catskill Mountains, with the double view of
again testifying to Hudson the sincerity of his friendship, and of
gratifying the love of the marvellous, by relating his own adventures to
the mountaineers, and drawing them from their retreat to witness the
floating phenomenon. The old chief now introduced with him ‘an old man,
who brought more stropes of beads and gave them to our master, and
showed him all the country thereabout, as though it were at his
command!’ They tarried, greatly pleased with the unaccountable
curiosities they discovered on board. Hudson ‘made the two old men dine
with him, and the old man’s wife; for they brought two old women and two
young maidens of the age of sixteen or seventeen years with them, who
behaved themselves very modestly.’
“After dinner, and upon exchange of presents, the guests retired,
inviting Hudson by signs to come down to them; for the ship was within
two leagues of the place where they dwelt.”
The concluding circumstances of this interesting return down the Hudson,
will accompany another view in the series.
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