The Iroquois were greatly astonished, seeing two men killed so instantaneously, notwithstanding they were provided with arrow-proof armor, woven of cotton thread and wood: this frightened them very much. Whilst I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot, which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs slain, that they lost courage, took to flight, and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forest, whither pursuing them, I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them, and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of ours were wounded by arrows: they were promptly cured.
After having gained the victory, they amused themselves plundering Indian corn and meal from the enemy, also their arms which they had thrown away in order to run better. And having feasted, danced, and sung, we returned three hours afterwards with the prisoners.
The place where this battle was fought is in forty-three degrees some minutes latitude; and I named it Lake Champlain.
BOOK XIII.
HENRY HUDSON AND THE NEW NETHERLANDS.
(A.D. 1609–1626.)
The extracts relating to Henry Hudson are reprinted from a very valuable book, containing many original documents in regard to him, and entitled “Henry Hudson the Navigator. The original documents in which his career is recorded … with an Introduction by G. M. Asher, LL.D.” London, Hakluyt Society, 1859, pp. 77–93, 174–179, 117–123. The same narratives may be found in Purchas’s Pilgrims, vol. iii.
There is a Life of Henry Hudson by Henry R. Cleveland in Sparks’s “American Biography,” vol. x. Brodhead’s “History of New York” and O’Callaghan’s “History of New Netherlands” also contain much information concerning him.
To show the result of Hudson’s discoveries, I give also a series of extracts from early Dutch chronicles, describing in quaint language the first founding of the New Netherlands. It is translated from Wassenaer’s “Historie van Europa” (Amsterdam, 1621–1632), and is taken from O’Callaghan’s “Documentary History of the State of New York,” vol. iii. pp. 27–28, 42–44.
HENRY HUDSON AND THE NEW NETHERLANDS.