Hudson set sail from Amsterdam on his new trip, on the 4th April, 1609, in a modest little vessel named the _Half Moon_, with a crew of some sixteen or eighteen Dutch and English sailors, and, having crossed the Atlantic in safety, he steered due north for Nova Zembla. Before long, the ice, as he had expected, effectually barred his progress, and, after a consultation with his men, he determined to alter his course, and seek for a south-west passage somewhere to the north of the English colony of Virginia. A flying visit for fresh water was then paid to the Faroe Islands, and, after touching at Newfoundland, the _Half Moon_ sailed down the coast of North America, anchoring on the 18th July, in a large bay, probably that of Penobscot. Here a party of Indians, already used to peaceful trading with the French, came out in two canoes to make acquaintance with their visitors, and were met――to the shame of the Dutch be it spoken――by a boat-load of armed sailors, who took many of them prisoners, and afterward burned their village. This outrage completed, the _Half Moon_ proceeded on her voyage, passing Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, and even, it is supposed, entering Chesapeake Bay, though without holding any intercourse with the Europeans there established. At Chesapeake Bay, Hudson once more turned his vessel’s head northward, and, cruising along the coast, discovered what was afterward, in honor of the first governor of Virginia, called Delaware Bay. No south-west passage had yet been found, but on the 3d August the watchers on deck saw what they took to be the mouth of three rivers, and which turned out to be the beautiful harbor now forming the entrance to the capital of the New World. Foiled in his attempt to enter the broadest of the three “rivers” by the bar at its mouth, Hudson ordered the _Half Moon_ to be steered into the deeper bay, now known as Sandy Hook, and there passed the night in anxious expectation as to what the morning would bring to light. That morning dawned on a scene of exquisite, and still, in spite of its changed aspect, of world-famous beauty. The island of Manhattan, Long Island, the Narrows, and many another familiar physical feature of the Bay of New York, were there; but instead of the bristling fortifications and the well-built residences of wealthy citizens of New York of the present day, the shores of mainland and islands were dotted with native wigwams――instead of the fiery little gunboats and stately men-of-war now guarding the entrance to the great metropolis, the canoes of Indians were shooting hither and thither, in undisguised astonishment at the sudden apparition of the _Half Moon_.