The Story of Manhattan | Page 2

New York New York in 1700 Sloughter
Signing Leisler's Death-warrant Bradford's Tombstone The Reading of
Fletcher's Commission Arrest of Captain Kidd New City Hall in Wall
Street Fort George in 1740 View in Broad Street about 1740 The
Slave-Market Fraunces's Tavern Dinner at Rip Van Dam's The Negroes
Sentenced Trinity Church, 1760 Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green,
Head-Quarters of the Sons of Liberty Ferry-House on East River, 1746
East River Shore, 1750 Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers
Howe's Head-Quarters, Beekman House Map of Manhattan Island in
1776 View from the Bowling Green in the Revolution Old
Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the Prison-House of the Revolution
North Side of Wall Street East of William Street Celebration of the
Adoption of the Constitution View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad
Street, 1796 The John Street Theatre, 1781 Reservoir of Manhattan
Water-Works in Chambers Street The Collect Pond The Grange,
Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander Hamilton The Clermont,
Fulton's First Steam-Boat Castle Garden Landing of Lafayette at Castle

Garden View of Park Row, 1825 High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct
Crystal Palace
CHAPTER I.
THE ADVENTURES of HENRY HUDSON
The long and narrow Island of Manhattan was a wild and beautiful spot
in the year 1609. In this year a little ship sailed up the bay below the
island, took the river to the west, and went on. In these days there were
no tall houses with white walls glistening in the sunlight, no
church-spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke to blot out the
blue sky. None of these things. But in their place were beautiful trees
with spreading branches, stretches of sand-hills, and green patches of
grass. In the branches of the trees there were birds of varied colors, and
wandering through the tangled undergrowth were many wild animals.
The people of the island were men and women whose skins were quite
red; strong and healthy people who clothed themselves in the furs of
animals and made their houses of the trees and vines.
In this year of 1609, these people gathered on the shore of their island
and looked with wonder at the boat, so different from any they had ever
seen, as it was swept before the wind up the river.
The ship was called the Half Moon, and it had come all the way from
Amsterdam, in the Dutch Netherlands. The Netherlands was quite a
small country in the northern part of Europe, not nearly as large as the
State of New York, and was usually called Holland, as Holland was the
most important of its several states. But the Dutch owned other lands
than these. They had islands in the Indian Ocean that were rich in
spices of every sort, and the other European countries needed these
spices. These islands, being quite close to India, were called the East
Indies, and the company of Dutch merchants who did most of the
business with them was called the East India Company. They had many
ships, and the Half Moon was one of them.
It was a long way to the East India Islands from Holland, for in these
days there was no Suez Canal to separate Asia and Africa, and the ships

had to go around Africa by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Besides
being a long distance, it was a dangerous passage; for although from its
name one might take the Cape of Good Hope to be a very pleasant
place, the winds blew there with great force, and the waves rolled so
high that they often dashed the fragile ships to pieces.
So the merchants of Holland, and of other countries for that matter,
were always thinking of a shorter course to the East Indies. They knew
very little of North or South America, and believed that these countries
were simply islands and that it was quite possible that a passage lay
through them which would make a much nearer and a much safer way
to the East Indies than around the dread Cape of Good Hope. So the
East India Company built the ship Half Moon and got an Englishman
named Henry Hudson to take charge of it, and started him off to find
the short way. Hudson was chosen because he had already made two
voyages for an English company, trying to find that same short passage,
and was supposed to know ever so much more about it than anyone
else.
When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson was sure that he had
found the passage to the Indies, and he paid very little attention to the
red-skinned Indians on the island shore. But when the ship got as far as
where Albany is now, the water had become shallow, and the
river-banks were so near together that Hudson gave