Mist and heat haze hid the harbor till ten next morning. The _Half Moon_ then glided a pace inland. Three great rivers seemed to open before her—the Hudson, East River and one of the channels round Staten Island. On the 4th, while the small boat went ahead to sound, some sailors rowed ashore to fish. Tradition says that the first white men to set foot on New York harbor landed on Coney Island, though there is no proof it was not Staten Island, for the ship lay anchored beside both. The wind blew so hard this night that the anchor dragged over bottom and the _Half Moon_ poked her prow into the sands of Staten Island, “_but took no hurt, thanks be to God_,” adds Juet. Signal fires—burning driftwood and flames shot up through hollow trees—had rallied the Indian tribes to the marvel of the house afloat on the sea. Objects like beings from heaven seemed to live on the house—so the poor Indians thought, and they began burning sacrificial fires and sent runners beating up the wise men of all the tribes. A religious dance was begun typifying welcome. Spies watching through the foliage came back with word that one of the Manitous was chief of all the rest, for he was dressed in a bright scarlet cloak with something on it bright as the sun—they did not know a name for gold lace worn by Hudson as commander. When the Manitou with the gold lace went ashore at Richmond, Staten Island, Indian legend says that the chiefs gathered round in a circle under the oaks and chanted an ode of welcome to the rhythmic measures of a dance. The natives accompanied Hudson back to the _Half Moon_ with gifts of maize and tobacco—“_a friendly people_,” Hudson’s manuscript describes them.