2. In July Hudson reached the coast of Maine; and in August, the
Chesapeake. On the 28th of the month he anchored in Delaware Bay, and
on the 3d of September the _Half Moon_ came to Sandy Hook. Two days
later a landing was effected. The natives came with gifts of corn, wild
fruit, and oysters. On the 10th the vessel passed the Narrows, and
entered the noble river which bears the name of HUDSON.
[Sidenote: Discovery of Hudson River.]
3. For eight days the _Half Moon_ sailed up the river. Such beautiful
forests and valleys, the Dutch had never seen before. On the 19th of
September the vessel was moored at Kinderhook; but an exploring party
rowed up stream beyond the site of Albany. The vessel then dropped down
the river, and on the 4th of October the sails were spread for Holland.
But the _Half Moon_ was detained in England.
4. In the summer of 1610 a ship, called the _Discovery_, was given
to Hudson, who sailed in the track which Frobisher had taken, and on
the 2d day of August entered the strait which bears the name of its
discoverer. The great captain believed that the route to China was at
last discovered; but he soon found himself environed in the frozen gulf
of the North. With great courage he bore up until his provisions were
almost exhausted. Then the crew broke out in mutiny. They seized Hudson
and his only son, with seven other faithful sailors, and cast them off
among the icebergs. The fate of the illustrious mariner has never been
ascertained.
5. In 1610 the _Half Moon_ was liberated and returned to Amsterdam.
In the same year several ships owned by Dutch merchants sailed to
the banks of the Hudson and engaged in the fur-trade. In 1614 an act
was passed by the States-General of Holland, giving to merchants of
Amsterdam the right to trade and establish settlements in the country
explored by Hudson. A fleet of five trading-vessels arrived in the
summer of the same year at Manhattan Island. Here some rude huts had
already been built by former traders, and the settlement was named New
Amsterdam.
6. In the fall of 1614 Adrian Block sailed into Long Island Sound,
and made explorations as far as Cape Cod. Christianson, another Dutch
commander, sailed up the river from Manhattan to Castle Island, and
erected a block-house, which was named Fort Nassau. Cornelius May,
the captain of a small vessel called the _Fortune_, sailed from New
Amsterdam and explored the Jersey coast as far as the Bay of Delaware.
Upon these two voyages Holland set up a claim to the country, which was
now named NEW NETHERLANDS, extending from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod.
Such were the feeble beginnings of the Dutch colonies in New York and
Jersey.
REVIEW QUESTIONS.--PART II.
CHAPTER II.
1. Tell about the Icelanders and Norwegians in America.
CHAPTER III.
2. Give an account of Columbus, and of his discoveries and explorations
in the New World.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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