eak, ice-bound Hudson Bay.

For this cruel deed the spirits of the crew of Hudson's vessel were
supposed to wander up and down the shores of the Hudson River, unable to
find rest even in death.

In Washington Irving's fanciful tale of "Rip Van Winkle," Rip encounters
a strange, ghostly company of seafaring men, and it is often supposed
that Hudson's crew was intended by the author.

When Hudson went back to Holland after his voyage up the Hudson River,
he told such wonderful tales of the friendliness of the Indians, the
number of fur-bearing animals he had seen, and the wonders he had met
with, that the Hollanders became much excited and determined to send out
and claim the newly discovered country.

In 1610 a vessel was sent out, and the Indians proving friendly and the
trade satisfactory, a colony was finally established in 1613 on the
southern point of Manhattan Island.

This was near where the Battery now is.

The first permanent settlement was made in 1622, the Dutch having taken
possession of the country around the Hudson River, calling it New
Netherlands.

In 1626 the West India Company sent out a settlement under Gov. Peter
Minuit.

He landed on the island of Manhattan, and soon entered into a trade with
the Indians, buying from them the entire island of Manhattan, fourteen
thousand acres in size, for twenty-four dollars' worth of scarlet cloth,
brass buttons, and other trinkets.

The Dutch gave the island the name of New Amsterdam, and established on
it a settlement consisting of a fort, a stone warehouse, and a cluster
of log-huts.

After the Dutch had established their colony of New Amsterdam, they
endeavored to colonize it on the Patroon system.

By this system, any man who undertook to bring fifty settlers to the
colony within five years was given the title of Patroon, and was allowed
to lay claim to and hold all the land he desired and could properly
cultivate.

It was in this way that the Van Rensselaers, the Schuylers, and the Van
Cortlandts became important families in New York.

In 1647 Peter Stuyvesant came out to New Amsterdam as governor. He was
the last governor of the province.

He was familiarly known as "Old Silverleg," because, having lost one
limb in battle, he had it replaced by a sturdy wooden leg securely bound
with silver.

Many of our traditions date back to the time of this hot-tempered,
headstrong, and fine old gentleman.

His estate was called the Great Bouery, an