The Beginner's American History Part 5

54. Captain Hudson reaches America and finds the "Great River."--Hudson got to Chesapeake Bay, but the weather was so stormy that he thought it would not be safe to enter it. He therefore sailed northward along the coast. In September, 1609, he entered a beautiful bay, formed by the spreading out of a n.o.ble river. At that point the stream is more than a mile wide, and he called it the "Great River."

On the eastern side of it, not far from its mouth, there is a long narrow island: the Indians of that day called it Manhattan Island.

55. The tides in the "Great River"; Captain Hudson begins to sail up the stream.--One of the remarkable things about the river which Hudson had discovered is that it has hardly any current, and the tide from the ocean moves up for more than a hundred and fifty miles. If no fresh water ran in from the hills, still the sea would fill the channel for a long distance, and so make a kind of salt-water river of it. Hudson noticed how salt it was, and that, perhaps, made him think that he had at last actually found a pa.s.sage which would lead him through from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was delighted with all he saw, and said, "This is as beautiful a land as one can tread upon." Soon he began to sail up the stream, wondering what he should see and whether he should come out on an ocean which would take him to Asia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map showing the Great River.]

56. Hudson's voyage on the "Great River"; his feast with the Indians.--At first he drifted along, carried by the tide, under the shadow of a great natural wall of rock. That wall, which we now call the Palisades,[2] is from four hundred to six hundred feet high; it extends for nearly twenty miles along the western sh.o.r.e of the river.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PALISADES.]

Then, some distance further up, Captain Hudson came to a place where the river breaks through great forest-covered hills, called the Highlands. At the end of the fifth day he came to a point on the eastern bank above the Highlands, where the city of Hudson now stands.

Here an old Indian chief invited him to go ash.o.r.e. Hudson had found the Indians, as he says, "very loving," so he thought he would accept the invitation. The savages made a great feast for the captain. They gave him not only roast pigeons, but also a roast dog, which they cooked specially for him: they wanted he should have the very best.

These Indians had never seen a white man before. They thought that the English captain, in his bright scarlet coat trimmed with gold lace, had come down from the sky to visit them. What puzzled them, however, was that he had such a pale face instead of having a red one like themselves.

At the end of the feast Hudson rose to go, but the Indians begged him to stay all night. Then one of them got up, gathered all the arrows, broke them to pieces, and threw them into the fire, in order to show the captain that he need not be afraid to stop with them.

[Footnote 2: Palisades: this name is given to the wall of rock on the Hudson, because, when seen near by, it somewhat resembles a palisade, or high fence made of stakes or posts set close together, upright in the ground.]

57. Captain Hudson reaches the end of his voyage and turns back; trouble with the Indians.--But Captain Hudson made up his mind that he must now go on with his voyage. He went back to his ship and kept on up the river until he had reached a point about a hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. Here the city of Albany now stands. He found that the water was growing shallow, and he feared that if the _Half Moon_ went further she would get aground. It was clear to him, too, that wherever the river might lead, he was not likely to find it a short road to China.

On the way down stream a thievish Indian, who had come out in a canoe, managed to steal something from the ship. One of the crew chanced to see the Indian as he was slyly slipping off, and picking up a gun he fired and killed him. After that Hudson's men had several fights with the Indians.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTAIN HUDSON ON THE GREAT RIVER.]

58. Hudson returns to Europe; the "Great River" is called by his name; his death.--Early in October the captain set sail for Europe. Ever since that time the beautiful river which he explored has been called the Hudson in his honor.

The next year Captain Hudson made another voyage, and entered that immense bay in the northern part of America which we now know as Hudson Bay. There he got into trouble with his men. Some of them seized him and set him adrift with a few others in an open boat.

Nothing more was ever heard of the brave English sailor. The bay which bears his name is probably his grave.

59. The Dutch take possession of the land on the Hudson and call it New Netherland; how New Netherland became New York.--As soon as the Dutch in Holland heard that Captain Hudson had found a country where the Indians had plenty of rich furs to sell, they sent out people to trade with them. Holland is sometimes called the Netherlands; that is, the Low Lands. When the Dutch took possession of the country on the Hudson (1614), they gave it the name of New Netherland,[3] for the same reason that the English called one part of their possessions in America New England. In the course of a few years the Dutch built (1615) a fort and some log cabins on the lower end of Manhattan Island.

After a time they named this little settlement New Amsterdam, in remembrance of the port of Amsterdam in Holland from which Hudson sailed.

After the Dutch had held the country of New Netherland about fifty years, the English (1664) seized it. They changed its name to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who was brother to the king. The English also changed the name of New Amsterdam to that of New York City.

[Footnote 3: New Netherland: this is often incorrectly printed New Netherlands.]

60. The New York "Sons of Liberty" in the Revolution; what Henry Hudson would say of the city now.--More than a hundred years after this the young men of New York, the "Sons of Liberty," as they called themselves, made ready with the "Sons of Liberty" in other states to do their full part, under the lead of General Washington, in the great war of the Revolution,--that war by which we gained our freedom from the rule of the king of England, and became the United States of America.

The silent harbor where Henry Hudson saw a few Indian canoes is now one of the busiest seaports in the world. The great statue of Liberty stands at its entrance.[4] To it a fleet of ships and steamers is constantly coming from all parts of the globe; from it another fleet is constantly going. If Captain Hudson could see the river which bears his name, and Manhattan Island now covered with miles of buildings which make the largest and wealthiest city in America, he would say: There is no need of my looking any further for the riches of China and the Indies, for I have found them here.

[Footnote 4: In her right hand Liberty holds a torch to guide vessels at night.]

61. Summary.--In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sea-captain, then in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the river now called by his name.

The Dutch took possession of the country on the river, named it New Netherland, and built a small settlement on Manhattan Island. Many years later the English seized the country and named it New York.

The settlement on Manhattan Island then became New York City; it is now the largest and wealthiest city in the United States.

Who was Henry Hudson? What did he try to find? What did the Dutch hire him to do? Where did he go? What did he call the river he discovered? What is said about that river? Tell what you can of Hudson's voyage up the river. What is said about the Indians? Why did Hudson turn back? What did he do then? What is the river he discovered called now? What happened to Captain Hudson the next year?

What did the Dutch do? What did they name the country? Why? What did they build there on Manhattan Island? Who seized New Netherland? What name did they give it? What is said of the "Sons of Liberty"? What would Hudson say if he could see New York City now?

CAPTAIN MYLES[1] STANDISH (1584-1656).

62. The English Pilgrims in Holland; why they left England.--When the news of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River reached Holland, many Englishmen were living in the Dutch city of Leyden.[2]

These people were mostly farmers who had fled from Scrooby[3] and neighboring villages in the northeast of England. They called themselves Pilgrims, because they were wanderers from their old homes.

The Pilgrims left England because King James would not let them hold their religious meetings in peace. He thought, as all kings then did, that everybody in England should belong to the same church and worship G.o.d in the same way that he did.[4] He was afraid that if people were allowed to go to whatever church they thought best that it would lead to disputes and quarrels, which would end by breaking his kingdom to pieces. Quite a number of Englishmen, seeing that they could not have religious liberty at home, escaped with their wives and children to Holland; for there the Dutch were willing to let them have such a church as they wanted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of England and Holland]

[Footnote 1: Myles (Miles): Standish himself wrote it Myles.]

[Footnote 2: Leyden (Li'den): see map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 3: Scrooby (Skroo'bi): see map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 4: There were some people in England who thought much as the Pilgrims did in regard to religion, but who did not then leave the Church of England (as the Pilgrims did). They were called Puritans because they insisted on making certain changes in the English mode of worship, or, as they said, they wished to _purify_ it. Many Puritans came to New England with Governor Winthrop in 1630; after they settled in America they established independent churches like the Pilgrims.]

63. Why the Pilgrims wished to leave Holland and go to America.--But the Pilgrims were not contented in Holland. They saw that if they staid in that country their children would grow up to be more Dutch than English. They saw, too, that they could not hope to get land in Holland. They resolved therefore to go to America, where they could get farms for nothing, and where their children would never forget the English language or the good old English customs and laws.

In the wilderness they would not only enjoy entire religious freedom, but they could build up a settlement which would be certainly their own.

64. The Pilgrims, with Captain Myles Standish, sail for England and then for America; they reach Cape Cod, and choose a governor there.--In 1620 a company of Pilgrims sailed for England on their way to America. Captain Myles Standish, an English soldier, who had fought in Holland, joined them. He did not belong to the Pilgrim church, but he had become a great friend to those who did.

About a hundred of these people sailed from Plymouth,[5] England, for the New World, in the ship _Mayflower_. Many of those who went were children and young people. The Pilgrims had a long, rough pa.s.sage across the Atlantic. Toward the last of November (1620) they saw land. It was Cape Cod, that narrow strip of sand, more than sixty miles long, which looks like an arm bent at the elbow, with a hand like a half-shut fist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Cape Cod and part of New England.]

Finding that it would be difficult to go further, the Pilgrims decided to land and explore the cape; so the _Mayflower_ entered Cape Cod Harbor, inside the half-shut fist, and then came to anchor.

Before they landed, the Pilgrims held a meeting in the cabin, and drew up an agreement in writing for the government of the settlement.

They signed the agreement, and then chose John Carver for governor.

[Footnote 5: Plymouth (Plim'uth).]