I.—Discovery of the Hudson River.
[Hudson sailed from Amsterdam, on his third voyage, March 25, 1609. These extracts are from the diary of Robert Juet, one of his men, beginning on the day when they saw Sandy Hook, at the entrance of what is now New York harbor, Sept. 2, 1609.]
THEN the sun arose, and we steered away north again, and saw the land from the west by north, to the north-west by north,all like broken islands;[342]and our soundings were eleven and ten fathoms.[343]Then we luffed[344] in for the shore, and fair by the shore we had seven fathoms. The course along the land we found to be north-east by north from the land which we had first sight of, until we came to a great lake of water, as we could judge it to be,being drowned land,[345] which made it to rise like islands, which was in length ten leagues. The mouth of that land hath many shoals, and the sea breaketh on them as it is cast out of the mouth of it. And from that lake orbay, the land lieth north by east, and we had a great stream out of the bay; and from thence our sounding was ten fathoms two leagues from the land.… The 3d [September] the morning misty until ten of the clock; then it cleared, and the wind came to the south south-east: so we weighed, and stood to the northward. The land is very pleasant and high,and bold to fall withal.[346]
At three of the clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers. So we stood along to the northernmost, thinking to have gone into it; but we found it to have a very shoal bar before it, for we had but ten foot water. Then we cast about to the southward, and found two fathoms, three fathoms, and three and a quarter, till we came to the souther side of them; then we had five and six fathoms, and anchored. So we sent in our boat to sound; and they found no less water than four, five, six, and seven fathoms, and returned in an hour and a half. So we weighed and went in, and rode in five fathoms, ooze ground, and saw salmons and mullets, and rays very great.The height[347] is 40° 30′.
The 4th, in the morning, as soon as the day was light,we saw that it was good riding[348] farther up. So we sent our boat to sound, and found that it was a very good harbor, and four and five fathoms two cables’ length from the shore. Then we weighed, and went in with our ship.Then our boat went on[349] land with our net to fish, and caught ten great mullets of a foot and a half long apiece, and a ray as great as fourmen could haul into the ship. So we trimmed our boat, and rode still all day. At night, the wind blew hard at the north-west,and our anchor came home;[350] and we drove on shore, but took no hurt, thanked be God! for the ground is soft sand and ooze. This day the people of the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco, and gave us of it for knives and beads. They go in deerskins, loose, well dressed. They have yellow copper. They desire clothes, and are very civil. They have great stores of maize or Indian wheat, whereof they make good bread. The country is full of great and tall oaks.
The 5th in the morning, as soon as the day was light, the wind ceased,and the flood[351] came. So we heaved off our ship again into five fathoms water, and sent our boat to sound the bay; and we found that there was three fathoms [depth] hard by the souther shore. Our men went on land there, and saw great store of men, women, and children, who gave them tobacco at their coming on land. So they went up into the woods, and saw great store of very goodly oaks, and some currants. For one of them came aboard, and brought some dried, and gave me some, which were sweet and good. This day many of the people came aboard, some in mantles of feathers, and some in skins of divers sorts of good furs. Some women also came to us with hemp. They had red copper tobacco-pipes; and other things of copper they did wear about their necks. At night they went on land again: so we rode very quiet, but durst not trust them.
The 6th in the morning was fair weather; and our master sent John Colman with four other men in our boat, over to the north side to sound the other river, being four leagues from us. They found by the way shoal water, two fathoms, but at the north of the river eighteen and twenty fathoms, and very good riding for ships, and a narrow river to the westward between two islands. The lands, they told us, were as pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them. So they went in two leagues, and saw an open sea, and returned; and, as they came back, they were set upon by two canoes, the one having twelve, the other fourteen men. The night came on, and it began to rain,so that their match[352] went out; and they had one man slain in the fight,—which was an Englishman named John Colman,—with an arrow shot into his throat, and two more hurt. It grew so dark, that they could not find the ship that night, but labored to and fro on their oars. They had so great a stream,that their grapnel[353] would not hold them.
The 7th was fair, and by ten of the clock they returned aboard the ship, and brought our dead man with them, whom we carried on land, and buried, and named the point after his name, Colman’s Point. Then we hoisted in our boat, and raised her side with waste-boards for defence of our men. So we rode still all night, having good regard to our watch.
The 8th was very fair weather: we rode still very quietly. The people came aboard us, and broughttobacco and Indian wheat, to exchange for knives and beads, and offered us no violence. So we, fitting up our boat,did mark[354]them to see if they would make any show[355] of the death of our man; which they did not.
The 9th, fair weather. In the morning two great canoes came aboard, full of men,—the one with their bows and arrows, and the other in show of buying of knives, to betray us; but we perceived their intent. We took two of them to have kept them, and put red coats on them, and would not suffer the other to come near us. So they went on land; and two other came aboard in a canoe. We took the one, and let the other go; but he which we had taken got up, and leaped overboard. Then we weighed, and went off into the channel of the river, and anchored there all night.…