Now proceeds to give us his account of
“Hendrick Hudson’s Discovery of Our
River.” After refreshing his memory
with a hasty glance at the
early pages of Old Knickerbocker’s
History of
New York
In the ever-memorable year of our Lord, 1609, on a Saturday morning,
the five-and-twentieth day of March, old style, did that “worthy
and irrecoverable discoverer (as he has justly been called),
Master Hudson,” set sail from Holland in a stout vessel called the
“Half-Moon,” being employed by the Dutch East India Company, to seek a
northwest passage to China.
Henry (or, as the Dutch historians call him, Hendrick) Hudson was a
seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under Sir
Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been the first to introduce it into
Holland, which gained him much popularity in that country, and caused
him to find great favor in the eyes of their High Mightinesses, the
Lords States General, and also of the honorable West India Company.
He was a short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a
mastiff mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed in those
days to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of
his tobacco pipe.
He wore a true Andrea Ferrara, tucked in a leathern belt, and a
commodore’s cocked hat on one side of his head. He was remarkable for
always jerking up his breeches when he gave out his orders, and his
voice sounded not unlike the brattling of a tin trumpet,--owing to the
number of hard northwesters which he had swallowed in the course of his
seafaring.
Such was Hendrick Hudson, of whom we have heard so much, and know so
little; and I have been thus particular in his description for the
benefit of modern painters and statuaries, that they may represent
him as he was,--and not, according to their common custom with modern
heroes, make him look like Caesar, or Marcus Aurelius, or the Apollo of
Belvidere.
Robert Juet was an old comrade and early schoolmate of the great
Hudson, with whom he had often played truant and sailed chip boats in
a neighboring pond, when they were little boys: from whence it is said
that the commodore first derived his bias towards a seafaring life.
To this universal genius are we indebted for many particulars
concerning this voyage; of which he wrote a history, at the request
of the commodore, who had an unconquerable aversion to writing
himself, from having received so many floggings about it when at
school. To supply the deficiencies of master Juet’s journal, which is
written with true log-book brevity, I have availed myself of divers
family traditions, handed down from my great-great-grandfather, who
accompanied the expedition in the capacity of cabin-boy. From all that
I can learn, few incidents worthy of remark happened in the voyage.
Suffice it to say, the voyage was prosperous and tranquil; the crew,
being a patient people, much given to slumber and vacuity, and but
little troubled with the disease of thinking,--a malady of the mind,
which is the sure breeder of discontent, every man was allowed to
sleep quietly at his post unless the wind blew. True, it is, some
slight disaffection was shown on two or three occasions, at certain
unreasonable conduct of Commodore Hudson. Thus, for instance, he
forbore to shorten sail when the wind was light, and the weather
serene, which was considered among the most experienced Dutch seamen as
certain weather-breeders, or prognostics that the weather would change
for the worse. He likewise prohibited the seamen from wearing more than
five jackets and six pair of breeches, under pretense of rendering
them more alert; and no man was permitted to go aloft and hand in
sails with a pipe in his mouth, as is the invariable Dutch custom at
the present day. All these grievances, though they might ruffle for a
moment the constitutional tranquillity of the honest Dutch tars, made
but transient impression;--they ate hugely and slept immeasurably; and
being under the especial guidance of Providence, the ship was safely
conducted to the coast of America; where, after sundry unimportant
touchings and standings off and on, she at length, on the fourth day
of September, entered that majestic bay which at this day expands its
ample bosom before the city of New York, and which had never before
been visited by any European.
True it is--and I am not ignorant of the fact--that in a certain
apocryphal book of voyages, compiled by one Hakluyt, is to be found
a letter written to Francis the First, by one Giovanna, or John
Verazzani, on which some writers are inclined to found a belief that
this delightful bay had been visited nearly a century previous to the
voyage of the enterprising Hudson. Now this (albeit it has met with the
countenance of certain very judicious and learned men) I hold in utter
disbelief, and that for various good and substantial reasons: First,
Because on strict examination it will be found that the description
given by this Verazzani applies about as well to the bay of New York as
it does to my night-cap. Secondly, because that this John Verazzani,
for whom I already begin to feel a most bitter enmity, is a native
of Florence; and everybody knows the crafty wiles of these losel
Florentines, by which they filched away the laurels from the brows
of the immortal Colon (vulgarly called Columbus), and bestowed them
on their officious townsman, Amerigo Vespucci; and I make no doubt
they are equally ready to rob the illustrious Hudson of the credit of
discovering this beautiful island, adorned by the city of New York,
and placing it beside their usurped discovery of South America. And
thirdly, I award my decision in favor of the pretensions of Hendrick
Hudson, inasmuch as his expedition sailed from Holland, being truly
and absolutely a Dutch enterprise;--and though all the proofs in the
world were introduced on the other side, I would set them at naught,
as undeserving my attention. If these three reasons be not sufficient
to satisfy every burgher of this ancient city, all I can say is, they
are degenerate descendants from their venerable Dutch ancestors, and
totally unworthy the trouble of convincing. Thus, therefore, the title
of Hendrick Hudson to his renowned discovery is fully vindicated.
It has been traditionary in our family, that when the great navigator
was first blessed with a view of this enchanting island, he was
observed, for the first and only time in his life, to exhibit strong
symptoms of astonishment and admiration. He is said to have turned
to Master Juet, and uttered these remarkable words, while he pointed
towards this paradise of the new world,--“See! there!”--and, thereupon,
as was always his way when he was uncommonly pleased, he did puff out
such clouds of dense tobacco smoke, that in one minute the vessel was
out of sight of land, and master Juet was fain to wait until the winds
dispersed this impenetrable fog.
It was indeed,--as my great-grandfather used to say,--though in
truth I never heard him, for he died, as might be expected before I
was born--“It was indeed a spot on which the eye might have revelled
forever, in ever new and never-ending beauties.” The island of
Mannahata spread wide before them, like some sweet vision of fancy, or
some fair creation of industrious magic. Its hills of smiling green
swelled gently one above another, crowned with lofty trees of luxuriant
growth; some pointing their tapering foliage towards the clouds, which
were gloriously transparent; and others loaded with verdant burden of
clambering vines, bowing their branches to the earth, that was covered
with flowers. On the gentle declivities of the hills were scattered
in gay profusion, the dogwood, the sumach, and the wild brier, whose
scarlet berries and white blossoms glowed brightly among the deep
green of the surrounding foliage; and here and there a curling column
of smoke, rising from the little glens that opened along the shore,
seemed to promise the weary voyagers a welcome at the hands of their
fellow-creatures. As they stood gazing with entranced attention on the
scene before them, a red man, crowned with feathers, issued from one
of these glens, and after contemplating in wonder the gallant ship, as
she sat like a stately swan swimming on a silver lake, sounded the
war-whoop, and bounded into the woods like a wild deer, to the utter
astonishment of the phlegmatic Dutchmen, who had never heard such a
noise, or witnessed such a caper in their whole lives.
Of the transactions of our adventurers with the savages, and how the
latter smoked copper pipes and ate dried currants; how they brought
great store of tobacco and oysters; how they shot one of the ship’s
crew, and how he was buried, I shall say nothing; being that I consider
them unimportant to my history. After tarrying a few days in the bay,
in order to refresh themselves after their seafaring, our voyagers
weighed anchor, to explore a mighty river which emptied into the bay.
This river, it is said, was known among the savages by the name of
the Shatemuch, though we are assured in an excellent little history
published in 1674, by John Josselyn, Gent, that it was called the
Mohegan, and master Richard Bloome, who wrote some time afterwards,
asserts the same,--so that I very much incline in favor of the opinion
of these two honest gentlemen. This river is likewise laid down in
Ogilby’s map as Manhattan--Noordt Montaigne and Mauritius river. Be
this as it may, up this river did the adventurous Hendrick proceed,
little doubting but it would turn out to be the much looked-for passage
to China!
The journal goes on to make mention of divers interviews between the
crew and the natives in the voyage up the river; but as they would
be impertinent to my history, I shall pass them over in silence,
except the following dry joke, played off by the old commodore and
his school-fellow, Robert Juet, which does such vast credit to their
experimental philosophy, that I cannot refrain from inserting it. “Our
master and his mate determined to try some of the chiefe men of the
country, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they tooke them
downe into the cabin, and gave them so much wine and aqua vitae, that
they were all merrie; and one of them had his wife with him which sate
so modestly, as any of our countrey women would do in a strange place.
In the end, one of them was drunke, which had been aborde of our ship
all the time that he had been there, and that was strange to them, for
they could not tell how to take it.”
He then proceeded on his voyage with great self-complacency. After
sailing, however, above an hundred miles up the river, he found the
watery world around him began to grow more shallow and confined, the
current more rapid, and perfectly fresh,--phenomena not uncommon in the
ascent of rivers, but which puzzled the honest Dutchmen prodigiously.
A consultation was therefore called, and having deliberated full six
hours, they were brought to a determination by the ship’s running
aground,--whereupon they unanimously concluded, that there was but
little chance of getting to China in this direction. A boat, however,
was despatched to explore higher up the river, which, on its return,
confirmed the opinion; upon this the ship was warped off and put about,
with great difficulty, being, like most of her sex, exceedingly hard
to govern; and the adventurous Hudson, according to the account of my
great-great-grandfather, returned down the river--with a prodigious
flea in his ear?
Being satisfied that there was little likelihood of getting to China,
unless, like the blind man, he returned from whence he set out, and
took a fresh start, he forthwith recrossed the sea to Holland, where he
was received with great welcome by the honorable East India Company,
who were very much rejoiced to see him come back safe--with their
ship; and at a large and respectable meeting of the first merchants
and burgomasters of Amsterdam, it was unanimously determined that as
a munificent reward for the eminent services he had performed, and
the important discovery he had made, the great river Mohegan shall be
called after his name--and it continues to be called Hudson river unto
this very day.
Letters-patent were granted by government to an association of
merchants, called the West India Company, for the exclusive trade
on Hudson river, on which they erected a trading-house, called Fort
Aurania, or Orange, from whence did spring the great city of Albany.
It was some three or four years after the return of the immortal
Hendrick, that a crew of honest, Low-Dutch colonists set sail from the
city of Amsterdam for the shores of America. The “Goede Vrouw” made out
to accomplish her voyage in a very few months, and came to anchor at
the mouth of the Hudson a little to the east of Gibbet Island.
Here, lifting up their eyes, they beheld, on what is at present
called the Jersey shore, a small Indian village, pleasantly embowered
in a grove of spreading elms, and the natives all collected on the
beach, gazing in stupid admiration at the “Goede Vrouw.” A boat
was immediately dispatched to enter into a treaty with them, and
approaching the shore, hailed them through a trumpet, in the most
friendly terms; but so horribly confounded were these poor savages at
the tremendous and uncouth sound of the Low-Dutch language, that they
one and all took to their heels, and scampered over the Bergen hills;
nor did they stop until they had buried themselves, head and ears,
in the marshes on the other side, where they all miserably perished
to a man;--and their bones, being collected and decently covered by
the Tammany Society of that day, formed that singular mound called
Rattlesnake Hill, which rises out of the center of the salt marshes a
little to the east of the Newark Causeway.
Animated by this unlooked-for victory, our valiant heroes sprang ashore
in triumph, took possession of the soil as conquerors, in the name
of their High Mightinesses the Lords States General; and, marching
fearlessly forward, carried the village of Communipaw by storm,
notwithstanding that it was vigorously defended by some half score of
old squaws and papooses. On looking about them they were so transported
with the excellencies of the place, that they had very little doubt the
blessed St. Nicholas had guided them thither, as the very spot whereon
to settle their colony. The softness of the soil was wonderfully
adapted to the driving of piles; the swamps and marshes around them
afforded ample opportunities for the constructing of dykes and dams;
the shallowness of the shore was peculiarly favorable to the building
of docks;--in a word, this spot abounded with all the requisites for
the foundation of a great Dutch city. On making a faithful report,
therefore, to the crew of the “Goede Vrouw,” they one and all
determined that this was the destined end of their voyage. Accordingly
they descended from the “Goede Vrouw,” men, women, and children, in
goodly groups, as did the animals of yore from the ark, and formed
themselves into a thriving settlement, which they called by the Indian
name Communipaw.
As all the world is doubtless acquainted with Communipaw, it may seem
somewhat superfluous to treat of it in the present work; but my readers
will please to recollect, notwithstanding it is my chief desire to
satisfy the present age, yet I write likewise for posterity, and have
to consult the understanding and curiosity of some half a score of
centuries yet to come, by which time, perhaps, were it not for this
invaluable history, the great Communipaw, like Babylon, Carthage,
Ninevah and other great cities, might be perfectly extinct,--sunk
and forgotten in its own mud,--its inhabitants turned into oysters,
and even its situation a fertile subject of learned controversy and
hard-headed investigation among indefatigable historians. Let me then
piously rescue from oblivion the humble relics of a place, which was
the egg from whence was hatched the mighty city of New York!
Communipaw is at present but a small village, pleasantly situated,
among rural scenery, on that beauteous part of the Jersey shore which
was known in ancient legends by the name of Pavonia, and commands a
grand prospect of the superb bay of New York. It is within but half an
hour’s sail of the latter place, provided you have a fair wind, and may
be distinctly seen from the city. Nay, it is a well-known fact, which
I can testify from my own experience, that on a clear, still summer
evening, you may hear, from the Battery of New York, the obstreperous
peals of broad mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw,
who, like most other negroes are famous for their risible powers.
Communipaw, in short, is one of the numerous little villages in
the vicinity of this most beautiful of cities, which are so many
strongholds and fastnesses, whither the primitive manners of our
Dutch forefathers have retreated, and where they are cherished with
devout and scrupulous strictness. The language likewise continues
unadulterated by barbarous innovations; and so critically correct
is the village schoolmaster in his dialect, that his reading of a
Low-Dutch psalm has much the same effect on the nerves as the filing of
a hand saw.
The crew of the “Goede Vrouw” being soon reinforced by fresh
importations from Holland, the settlement went jollily on, increasing
in magnitude and prosperity. The Indians were much given to long talks,
and the Dutch to long silence;--in this particular, therefore, they
accommodated each other completely. The chiefs would make long speeches
about the big bull, the Wabash, and the Great Spirit, to which the
others would listen very attentively, smoke their pipes, and grunt
yah, myhn-her,--whereat the poor savages were wondrously delighted.
They instructed the new settlers in the best art of curing and smoking
tobacco, while the latter, in return, made them drunk with true
Hollands--and then taught them the art of making bargains.
As to the honest burghers of Communipaw, likewise men and sound
philosophers, they never look beyond their pipes, nor trouble their
heads about any affairs out of their immediate neighborhood; so that
they live in a profound and enviable ignorance of all the troubles,
anxieties, and revolutions of this distracted planet. I am even told
that many among them do verily believe that Holland, of which they
have heard so much from tradition, is situated somewhere on Long
Island,--that Spiking-devil and the Narrows are the two ends of the
world,--that the country is still under the dominion of their High
Mightinesses,--and that the city of New York still goes by the name of
Nieuw Amsterdam. They meet every Saturday afternoon at the only tavern
in the place, which bears as a sign a square-headed likeness of the
Prince of Orange, where they smoke a silent pipe, by way of promoting
social conviviality, and invariably drink a mug of cider to the success
of Admiral Van Tromp, who they imagine is still sweeping the British
channel, with a broom at his mast-head.