The Hudson | Page 6

hospitality of the Hudson River valley has, therefore,
"high antiquity" in this record of the garrulous writer. At Albany the
Indians flocked to the vessel, and Hudson determined to try the chiefs
to see "whether they had any treachery in them." "So they took them
down into the cabin, and gave them so much wine and aqua vitae that
they were all merry. In the end one of them was drunk, and they could
not tell how to take it." The old chief, who took the aqua vitae, was so
grateful when he awoke the next day, that he showed them all the
country, and gave them venison.
Passing down through the Highlands the "Half Moon" was becalmed
near Stony Point and the "people of the Mountains" came on board and
marvelled at the ship and its equipment. One canoe kept hanging under
the stern and an Indian pilfered a pillow and two shirts from the cabin
windows. The mate shot him in the breast and killed him. A boat was
lowered to recover the articles "when one of them in the water seized
hold of it to overthrow it, but the cook seized a sword and cut off one
of his hands and he was drowned." At the head of Manhattan Island the
vessel was again attacked. Arrows were shot and two more Indians
were killed, then the attack was renewed and two more were slain.
It might also be stated that soon after the arrival of Hendrick Hudson at
the mouth of the river one of the English soldiers, John Coleman, was
killed by an arrow shot in the throat. "He was buried," according to
Ruttenber, "upon the adjacent beach, the first European victim of an
Indian weapon on the Mahicanituk. Coleman's point is the monument
to this occurrence."
The "Half Moon" never returned and it will be remembered that

Hudson never again saw the river that he discovered. He was to leave
his name however as a monument to further adventure and hardihood in
Hudson's Bay, where he was cruelly set adrift by a mutinous crew in a
little boat to perish in the midsummer of 1611.
* * *
The sea just peering the headlands through Where the sky is lost in
deeper blue.
Charles Fenno Hoffman.
* * *
=Names of the Hudson.=--The Iroquois called the river the
"Cohatatea." The Mahicans and Lenapes the "Mahicanituk," or "the
ever-flowing waters." Verrazano in 1524 styled it Rio de Montaigne.
Gomez in 1525 Rio San Antonio. Hudson styled it the "Manhattes"
from the tribe at its mouth. The Dutch named it the "Mauritius," in
1611, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and afterwards "the Great
River." It has also been referred to as the "Shatemuck" in verse. It was
called "Hudson's River" not by the Dutch, as generally stated, but by
the English, as Hudson was an Englishman, although he sailed from a
Dutch port, with a Dutch crew, and a Dutch vessel. It was also called
the "North River," to distinguish it from the Delaware, the South River.
It is still frequently so styled, and the East River almost "boxes the
compass" as applied to Long Island Sound.
=Height of Hills and Mountains.=--It is interesting to hear the opinions
of different people journeying up and down the Hudson as to the height
of mountains along the river. The Palisades are almost always
under-estimated, probably on account of their distance from the
steamer. It is only when we consider the size of a house at their base, or
the mast of a sloop anchored near the shore, that we can fairly judge of
their magnitude. Various guides, put together in a day or a month, by
writers who have made a single journey, or by persons who have never
consulted an authority, have gone on multiplying blunder upon blunder,
but the United States Geological Survey furnishes reliable information.

According to their maps the Palisades are from 300 to 500 feet in
height, the Highlands from 785 to 1625, and the Catskills from 3000 to
3885 feet.
* * *
Beneath the cliffs the river steals In darksome eddies to the shore, But
midway every sail reveals Reflected on its crystal floor.
Henry T. Tuckerman.
* * *
THE PALISADES.
At Fort Lee 300 feet. Opposite Mt. St. Vincent 400 " Opposite Hastings
500 "
THE HIGHLANDS.
Sugar Loaf 785 feet. Dunderberg 865 " Anthony's Nose 900 " Storm
King 1368 " Old Cro' Nest 1405 " Bull Hill 1425 " South Beacon 1625
"
THE CATSKILLS.
North Mountain 3000 feet. Plaaterkill 3135 " Outlook 3150 " Stoppel
Point 3426 " Round Top 3470 " High Peak 3660 " Sugar Loaf 3782 "
Plateau 3855 "
=Sources of the Hudson.=--The Hudson rises in the Adirondacks, and
is formed by two