led "a gang-plank of history," reaching
as it does from the old-time yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning
three hundred years.

* * *

The prow of the "Half-Moon" has left a broadening wake whose
ripples have written an indelible history, not only along the
Hudson's shores, but have left their imprint on kingdoms over the
sea.

_William Wait._

* * *

=Its Discovery.=--In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the
discovery of America, the navigator Verrazano, a French officer,
anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short distance up
the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portuguese in the employ of
Spain, coasted along the continent and entered the Narrows. Several
sea-rovers also visited our noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved
for Hendrick Hudson, with a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men in
the "Half Moon," to explore the river from Sandy Hook to Albany, and
carry back to Europe a description of its beauty. He had previously
made two fruitless voyages for the Muscovy Company--an English
corporation--in quest of a passage to China, _via_ the North Pole and
Nova Zembla.

In the autumn of 1608 he was called to Amsterdam, and sailed from
Texel, April 5, 1609, in the service of the Dutch East India Company.
Reaching Greenland he coasted southward, arriving at Cape Cod August
6th, Chesapeake Bay August 28th, and then sailed north to Sandy Hook.
He entered the Bay of New York September the 3d, passed through the
Narrows, and anchored in what is now called Newark Bay; on the 12th
resumed his voyage, and, drifting with the tide, remained over night
on the 13th about three miles above the northern end of Manhattan
Island; on the 14th sailed through what is now known as Tappan Zee and
Haverstraw Bay, entered the Highlands and anchored for the night near
the present dock of West Point. On the morning of the 15th beheld
Newburgh Bay, reached Catskill on the 16th, Athens on the 17th,
Castleton and Albany on the 18th, and sent out an exploring boat as
far as Waterford. He became thoroughly satisfied that this route did
not lead to China--a conclusion in harmony with that of Champlain,
who, the same summer, had been making his way south, through Lake
Champlain and Lake George, in quest of the South Sea.

* * *

O mighty river of the North! Thy lips meet ocean here, and in deep
joy he lifts his great white brow, and gives his stormy voice a
m