XV. to tempt once more the dangers of the northern seas; CHAP. and, repairing to Holland, he offered, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, to explore the icy wastes in search of the coveted passage. The voyage of Smith to Virginia stimulated desire; the Zealanders, fearing the loss of treasure, objected; but by the influence of Balthazar Moucheron, the directors for Amsterdam resolved on equipping a small vessel of discovery; and on the fourth day of April, 1609, THE 1609. April CRESCENT, commanded by Hudson, and manned by a 4. mixed crew of Englishmen and Hollanders, his only son being of the number, set sail for the north-western passage. Masses of ice impeded the navigation towards Nova Zembla; Hudson, who had examined the maps of John Smith of Virginia, turned to the west; and passing beyond Greenland and Newfoundland, and running down the coast of Acadia, he anchored, probably, in the mouth of the Penobscot. Then, following the track of Gosnold, he came upon the promontory of Cape Cod, and, believing himself its first discoverer, gave it the name of New Holland. Long afterwards it was claimed as the north-eastern boundary of New Netherlands. From the sands of Cape Cod, he steered a southerly course till he was opposite the entrance into the bay of Virginia, where Hudson remembered that his countrymen were planted. Then turning again to the north, he discovered the Delaware Bay, examined its currents and its soundings, and, without going on shore, took note of the aspect of the country. Aug 18. On the third day of September, almost at the time when Champlain was invading New York from the north, less than five months after the truce with April 9. 11. 66 CHAP. Spain, which gave the Netherlands a diplomatic exXV. istence as a state, the Crescent anchored within Sandy 1609. Hook, and from the neighboring shores, that were crowned with goodly oakes," attracted frequent visits Sept. from the natives. After a week's delay, Hudson sailed through the Narrows, and at the mouth of the river anchored in a harbor which was pronounced to be very good for all winds. Of the surrounding lands, the luxuriant grass, the flowers, the trees, the grateful Sept. fragrance, were admired. Ten days were employed 22. in exploring the river; the first of Europeans,' Hudson 12 to went sounding his way above the Highlands, till at last the Crescent had sailed some miles beyond the city of Hudson, and a boat had advanced a little beyond Albany. Frequent intercourse was held with the astonished natives of the Algonquin race; and the strangers were welcomed by a deputation from the Mohawks. Having completed his discovery, Hudson descended the stream to which time has given his name; and on Oct. the fourth day of October, about the season of the return of John Smith to England, he set sail for Europe, leaving once more to its solitude the land, that his imagination, anticipating the future, described as "the most beautiful" in the world.2 4. Sombre forests shed a melancholy grandeur over the useless magnificence of nature, and hid in their deep shades the rich soil which the sun had never warmed. No axe had levelled the giant progeny of the crowded groves, in which the fantastic forms of withered limbs, that had been blasted and riven by lightning, contrasted strangely with the verdant freshness of a younger 1 Vander Donck, Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant, p. 3. 2 Nieuw-Nederland (om Hudson's eigen woorden te gebruiken) was het schoonste land, dat men met voeten betreden kon, &c. &c. In Lambrechtsten, Korte Beschrijving, &c. p. 17. XV. growth of branches. The wanton grape-vine, seeming CHAP. by its own power to have sprung from the earth, and to have fastened its leafy coils on the top of the tallest 1609. forest-tree, swung in the air with every breeze, like the loosened shrouds of a ship. Trees might every where be seen breaking from their root in the marshy soil, and threatening to fall with the first rude gust; while the ground was strown with the ruins of former forests, over which a profusion of wild flowers wasted their freshness in mockery of the gloom. Reptiles sported in the stagnant pools, or crawled unharmed over piles of mouldering trees. The spotted deer couched among the thickets; but not to hide, for there was no pursuer; and there were none but wild animals to crop the uncut herbage of the productive prairies. Silence reigned, broken, it may have been, by the flight of land oirds or the flapping of water-fowl, and rendered more dismal by the howl of beasts of prey. The streams, not yet limited to a channel, spread over sand-bars, tufted with copses of willow, or waded through wastes of reeds; or slowly but surely undermined the groups of sycamores that grew by their side. The smaller brooks spread out into sedgy swamps, that were overhung by clouds of mosquitoes; masses of decaying vegetation fed the exhalations with the seeds of pestilence, and made the balmy air of the summer's evening as deadly as it seemed grateful. Vegetable life and death were mingled hideously together. The horrors of corruption frowned on the fruitless fertility of uncultivated nature. And man, the occupant of the soil, was wild as the savage scene, in harmony with the rude nature by which he was surrounded; a vagrant over the continent, in constant warfare with his fellow-man; the bark of the birch his canoe; strings of shells his XV. CHAP. ornaments, his record, and his coin; the roots of the forest among his resources for food; his knowledge in 1609. architecture surpassed both in strength and durability by the skill of the beaver; bended saplings the beams of his house; the branches and rind of trees its roof; drifts of forest-leaves his couch; mats of bulrushes his protection against the winter's cold; his religion the adoration of nature; his morals the promptings of undisciplined instinct; disputing with the wolves and bears the lordship of the soil, and dividing with the squirrel the wild fruits with which the universal woodlands abounded. The history of a country is always modified by its climate, and, in many of its features, is determined by its geographical situation. The region which Hudson had discovered, possessed on the seaboard a harbor unrivalled in its advantages; having near its eastern boundary a river that admits the tide far into the interior; extending to the chain of the great lakes, which have their springs in the heart of the continent; containing within its limits the sources of large rivers that flow to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Bays of Chesapeake and of Delaware; inviting to extensive internal intercourse by natural channels, of which, long before Hudson anchored off Sandy Hook, even the warriors of the Five Nations availed themselves in their excursions to Quebec, to the Ohio, or the Susquehannah ; with just sufficient difficulties to irritate, and not enough to dishearten ;-New York united most fertile lands with the highest adaptation to foreign and domestic commerce. The manner in which civilized man can develop the resources of a wild country, is contained in its physical character; and the results which have been XV. effected, are necessarily analogous to their causes. CHAP. And how changed is the scene from that on which Hudson gazed! The earth glows with the colors of 1837. civilization; the banks of the streams are enamelled with richest grasses; woodlands and cultivated fields are harmoniously blended; the birds of spring find their delight in orchards and trim gardens, variegated with choicest plants from every temperate zone; while the brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the green-house and the saloon. The yeoman, living like a good neighbor near the fields he cultivates, glories in the fruitfulness of the valleys, and counts with honest exultation the flocks and herds that browse in safety on the hills. The thorn has given way to the rosebush; the cultivated vine clambers over rocks where the brood of serpents used to nestle; while industry smiles at the changes she has wrought, and inhales the bland air which now has health on its wings. And man is still in harmony with nature, which he has subdued, cultivated, and adorned. For him the rivers that flow to remotest climes, mingle their waters; for him the lakes gain new outlets to the ocean; for him the arch spans the flood, and science spreads iron pathways to the recent wilderness; for him the hills yield up the shining marble and the enduring granite; for him the forests of the interior come down in immense rafts; for him the marts of the city gather the produce of every clime, and libraries collect the works of genius of every language and every age. The passions of society are chastened into purity; manners are made benevolent by civilization; and the virtue of the country is the guardian of its peace. Science investigates the powers of every plant and mineral, to find medicines for disease; schools of surgery rival the estab |