History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard
Netherlands were successfully concluding the first period of their gigantic struggle with Spain for independence. It was, indeed, in the same month that the " Half-Moon " sailed from Amsterdam (April) that the twelve years' truce between the Spanish and Dutch was signed. Everywhere in Europe this was a period of transition. In England the long reign of Elizabeth had but recently come to its end, and already, under James l., the first of the ill-fated Stuart dynasty, the events were shaping which were to culminate in the Commonwealth. In France Henry IV. was still reigning — that Henry of Navarre who signed the Edict of Nantes, gave peace to the warring factions of the kingdom, and laid the foundations for the diplomacy of Richelieu and the power of Louis XIV. In the German Empire the seeds of the terrible Thirty Years' War were ripening. In Sweden the young Gustavus Adolphus was about to come to the throne. In Russia the dawn of a new era was being ushered in by the accession of the first sovereign of the house of Romanoff. In the south of Europe, on the other hand, the glories of long ages of commercial, intellectual, and political supremacy were fading away: the Italian republics were beginning to decline, and the might of Spain was tottering to its fall. To this period belong many of the world's greatest inventive and philosophical intellects: Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rubens, Van Dyck, Kepler, Galileo, Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, and Lord Bacon, who said of the early attempts to utilize the discoveries of Columbus: "Certainly it is with the kingdoms of the earth as it is in the kingdom of Heaven: sometimes a grain of mustard seed becomes a great tree. Who can tell? " And in this grand epoch of mental activity and political change a more rational spirit respecting the uses to be made of America was becoming conspicuously manifest. The sixteenth century had been wholly wasted so far as the legitimate development of the newly discovered lands beyond the sea was concerned; but with the first decade of the seventeenth soberly conceived plans of orderly colonization began to be set on foot. During that decade the French inaugurated their permanent settlements in Canada, and the English, under Captain John Smith, at last established an enduring colony in Virginia— enduring because founded on the secure basis of mutual self-interest, labor, and economy. Even Spain, with all her greed for new realms to pillage, had practically abandoned the futile hope of forcing a gateway to them at the west. It remained for the Dutch the most practical-minded people in Europe, to make their entry into America, in matter-of-fact times and circumstances such as these, upon a mere quixotic expedition to the far Cathay— almost the last one, happily, of its grotesque kind.
Hudson's employers in this enterprise were the Dutch East India Company, a powerful corporation, which had been chartered in 1602 to trade with the East Indies, the southern and eastern coasts of Asia, and the eastern coast of Africa. The new countries in America, and, indeed, the entire waters of the Atlantic, were excluded from the field of its operations. The company, during the less than seven years of its existence, had enjoyed extraordinary success, and its earnings now represented seventy-five per cent, of profit. In resolving upon a voyage for the long desired " northwest passage," the company adopted a decidedly conservative plan. There was to be no visionary exploration for a possibly existing route through the coastline of America, but a direct entrance into Arctic waters in the region of Nova Zembla. in the hope that an open sea, or continuous passage, would there be found. Hudson, an Englishman, was chosen for the undertaking because he was known to be familiar with the northern seas — no Dutch navigator of like experience being available. On the 4th of April, 1609, he sailed from Amsterdam in the " Half-Moon," a vessel of some eighty tons burden, with a crew of twenty Dutch and English sailors. Pursuant to his instructions from the company, he set a direct course for the northeast coast of America, which he reached in the latitude of Nova Scotia. Here, however, he abruptly departed from the plans laid out for him, turned southward, passed along the shores of Maine and Cape Cod, and proceeded as far as Chesapeake Bay. Returning northward from that region, he followed the windings of the coastline until, on the 2nd day of September, he sighted the Highlands of Navesink. Dropping anchor in the Lower Bay on the 3rd, he remained there ten days, meantime exploring with his ship's boat the surrounding waters. Although his intercourse with the Indians was friendly, the men whom he sent out in the boat provoked a conflict with them, in which one of the exploring party, John Coleman, was killed and two men were wounded. On the 12th of September he steered the " Half Moon " through the Narrows, anchoring that evening somewhere in the Upper Bay, probably not far from the lower extremity of Manhattan Island. The next day he began his voyage up the river, and after making a distance of eleven and one-half miles again came to anchor. It was at this stage of his journey that he attempted to detain two of the natives, who, however, jumped overboard, swam to the shore, and cried back to him " in scorn." Brodhead, in his " History of New York," locates the scene of this incident opposite the Indian village of Nappeckamack, now the City of Yonkers. But from the details given in the Journal of Hudson's mate, Robert Juet, it appears probable that the point of anchorage on the 13th was not above the confines of Manhattan Island. It is significant that the formidable attack on Hudson's vessel when he was returning down the river, an attack in retaliation for his treacherous act upon this occasion, occurred at Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and was clearly made by Manhattan Island Indians, the Indian fortress in that locality being on the southern shore of the creek. The question, of course, is not important enough to require any serious discussion, but upon its determination depends the fixing of the date of Hudson's entrance into Westchester waters — that is, the date of discovery of our county and of the mainland of New York State. To our mind, after a careful study of the records of the voyage, it scarcely admits of doubt that the " Half-Moon's " arrival above Spuyten Duyvil is to be assigned not to the first but to the second day of its progress up the stream.
Leaving his anchorage below Spuyten Duyvil on the morning of the 14th of September, 1605), Hudson traversed on that day the entire Westchester shore, entering the Highlands before nightfall. The record of the day's sailing is thus given in Juet's Journal: " In the morning we sailed up " the river twelve leagues . . . and came to a strait between two points, . . . and it (the river) trended north by one league. . . . The river is a mile broad; there is very high land on both sides. Then we went up northwest a league and a half, deep water; then northeast five miles; then northwest by north two leagues and a half. The land grew very high and mountainous." The "strait between two points," where they found the stream " a mile broad," was manifestly that portion of the river between Verplanck's and Stony Points. Continuing his voyage, Hudson sailed until he reached the site of Albany, where, finding the river no longer navigable, he was constrained to turn back, emerging from the highlands into the Westchester section about the end of September. Here for the first time since leaving the Lower Bay blood was shed. The ship was becalmed off Stony Point, in the " strait " described by Juet, and the natives, animated solely by curiosity, came out in their canoes, some of them being received on board. The occupant of one of the canoes, which kept " hanging under the stern," was detected in pilfering from the cabin windows, having secreted " a pillow and two shirts and two bandaliers." Whereupon the " mate shot at him, and struck him on the breast, and killed him." The visitors now fled precipitately, those on board the " Half-Moon " jumping into the water. A boat was lowered from the ship to recover the stolen property, and one of the Indians in the water had the temerity to take hold of it, at which " the cook seized a sword and cut off one of his hands, and he was drowned." It is difficult to characterize the shooting of the Indian thief otherwise than as wanton murder, and this whole episode stands to the serious discredit of Hudson and his companions. At Spuyten Duyvil the next day was fought the historic encounter with the Indians of that locality, who, harboring bitter resentment because of Hudson's attempted forcible detention of two of their people on his journey up-stream, now met him with a fleet of canoes and most valorously gave him battle. The details of this fight have been given in our chapter on the Indians, and need not be repeated here. It is noticeable that the only Sanguinary incidents of Hudson's exploration of the river occurred along the Westchester coast.
Sailing away from the scene of this bloody conflict, the " Half Moon " passed out of the Narrows on the 4th of October, just one month and a day after its arrival in the Lower Bay, and proceeded direct to Europe, reaching the port of Dartmouth, England, on the 7th of November. The English authorities, reluctant to concede to Holland the right to Hudson's important discoveries, detained the vessel for several months on the strength of its commander's British nativity, and though it was ultimately released to its Dutch owners Hudson himself was not permitted to return to the Netherlands. As we have seen, he embarked under English patronage the next year upon another chimerical