The redoubtable navigator for the Dutch East India Company, Hendrick
Hudson, after exploring Delaware Bay, sailed along the New Jersey
coast and entered Sandy Hook, discovering, on September 11, 1609, the
Hudson River. There is a vague tradition that the first European who
saw the magnificent harbor of New York was the Florentine, Verrazani,
who came as early as 1524. Hudson was searching for the "Northwest
Passage," and when he steered his little ship, the "Half Moon," into
the great river, with its swelling tide of salt water, was sure he had
found the long-sought route to the Indies. He explored it as far up as
the present site of Albany, creating a sensation among the Indians,
who flocked to the shores to see the "great white bird," as they
called the "Half Moon," because of its wide-spreading sails. He traded
with them for tobacco and furs, finding the Lenni Lenapes on the
western bank and the Mohicans on the eastern side, and to impress them
with his prowess, put them in a great fright by shooting off his
cannon. Upon returning from Albany, the Indians gave him a feast on an
island, breaking their arrows in token that they meant no treachery.
Hudson had a goodly store of seductive "schnapps," and offered them
some in return for their hospitality. They examined it closely, smelt
it, but passed it along without tasting. Finally one, somewhat bolder,
partook, and drinking a good deal, fell in a drunken stupor for
several hours. When finally aroused he said the Dutchmen had the
strongest water he had ever tasted, and the other Indians then became
eager to try the fire-water too, and soon they were all under its
influence, and thus became firm friends of the Dutch.
The scene of this great carousal is said to have been the island where
is now the city of New York. The Indian word Man-a-tey means "the
island," and from this they named the place Man-a-hat-ta-nink, the
"island of general intoxication." Ticknor, in his guide-book, gravely
tells us that "from the scene of wassail and merriment which followed
the meeting of the sailors and the Indians, the latter called the
island Manhattan, "the place where they all got drunk." Thus, at the
beginning, this noted locality acquired a reputation which many attest
as existing with undiminished lustre in maturer years. By way of
variety in this connection, it may be related that Washington Irving,
in Knickerbocker's veritable history of New York, has this to say:
"The name most current at the present day, and which is likewise
countenanced by the great historian Vander-Donck, is Manhattan, which
is said to have originated in a custom among the squaws, in the early
settlement, of wearing men's hats, as is still done among many tribes.
'Hence,' as we are told by an old Governor, who was somewhat of a wag,
and flourished almost a century since, and had paid a visit to the
wits of Philadelphia, 'hence arose the appellation of man-hat-on,
first given to the Indians, and afterwards to the island'--a stupid
joke, but well enough for a Governor." Irving continues: "There is
another, founded on still more ancient and indisputable authority,
which I particularly delight in, seeing it is at once poetical,
melodious and significant, and this is recorded in the before-mentioned
voyage of the great Hudson, written by Master Juet, who clearly and
correctly calls it Manna-hatta, that is to say, the island of Manna,
or, in other words, 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'"