hould go back no farther than the time of your
great-grandfather you would find no city of New York. All you would see
would be a sort of large village on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of
the Hudson River. And if you went back to the time of your grandfather's
great-grandfather, I fancy you would see nothing on that island but
trees, with Indian wigwams beneath them. Not a single white man or a
single house would you see.

In the year 1609, just two years after Captain Smith sailed into the
James River, a queer-looking Dutch vessel came across the ocean and
began to prowl up and down the coast. It was named the "Half Moon." It
came from Holland, the land of the Dutch, but its captain was an
Englishman named Henry Hudson, who had done so many daring things that
men called him "the bold Englishman."

What Captain Hudson would have liked to do was to sail across the United
States and come out into the Pacific Ocean, and so make his way to the
rich countries of Asia. Was not that a funny notion? To think that he
could sail across three thousand miles of land and across great ranges
of mountains!

But you must not think that Captain Hudson was crazy. Nobody then knew
how wide America was. For all they knew, it might not be fifty miles
wide. Captain John Smith tried to get across it by sailing up James
River. And Captain Hudson fancied he might find some stream that led
from one ocean to the other.

So on he went up and down the coast looking for an opening. And after a
while the "Half Moon" sailed into a broad and beautiful bay, where great
trees came down to the edge of the water and red men paddled about in
their canoes. Captain Hudson was delighted to see it. "It was," he said,
"as pleasant with grass and flowers as he had ever seen, and very sweet
smells."

This body of water was what we now call New York Bay. A broad and swift
river runs into it, which is now called Hudson River, after Henry
Hudson. The bold captain thought that this was the stream to go up if he
wished to reach the Pacific Ocean. So, after talking as well as he could
with the Indians in their canoes, and trading beads for corn, he set his
sails again and started up the splendid river. Some of the Indians came
on board the "Half Moon," and the Dutch gave them brandy, which they had
never seen or tasted before. Soon they were dancing and capering about
the deck, and one of them fell down so stupid with drink that his
friends thought he was dead. T