LITMIR.BIZ

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being picturesquely diversified by mountains and valleys. Vast forests, of the most valuable timber, covered immense portions. Wild fruits and nuts in great variety were found in profusion. The territory was watered by several truly magnificent rivers. The region was filled with game; and furs, of the richest kind and apparently in exhaustless quantities, could be purchased of the natives, at an almost nominal price.

      It may be worthy of notice, that Sir Henry Hudson never revisited the pleasant region which he had discovered, and which he had pronounced to be 'as beautiful a land as the foot of man can tread upon.' In the summer of 1610, Hudson entered the service of a London company and sailed from the Thames in the "Discovery," in search of either a Northwest or Northeast passage to the Indies. Passing Iceland, appropriately so called, he gazed with astonishment upon Hecla in full eruption, throwing its fiery flood and molten stones into the air. Doubling the Cape of Greenland, he entered Davis's Straits. Through these he passed into the gloomy waters beyond.

      After spending a dismal winter, in the endurance of great privation, exposed to severe Arctic storms, his mutinous crew abandoned him, in the midst of fields of ice, to perish miserably. The following artless account of this tragedy, which is taken from the lips of one of the mutineers, will be read with interest. The ship was surrounded with ice and the crew in a starving condition.

      "They had been detained at anchor in the ice," says Pricket,

      "about a week, when the first signs of the mutiny appeared.

       Green, and Wilson the boatswain, came in the night to me, as

       I was lying in my berth very lame and told me that they and

       several of the crew had resolved to seize Hudson and set him

       adrift in the boat, with all on board who were disabled by

       sickness; that there were but a few days' provisions left;

       that the master appeared entirely irresolute, which way to

       go; that for themselves they had eaten nothing for three

       days. Their only hope therefore was in taking command of the

       ship, and escaping from these regions as quickly as

       possible.

       "I remonstrated with them in the most earnest manner,

       entreating them to abandon such a wicked intention. But all

       I could say had no effect. It was decided that the plot

       should be put into execution at daylight. In the meantime

       Green went into Hudson's cabin to keep him company, and to

       prevent his suspicions from being excited. They had

       determined to put the carpenter and John King into the boat

       with Hudson and the sick, having some grudge against them

       for their attachment to the master. King and the carpenter

       had slept on deck this night, but about daybreak, King was

       observed to go down into the hold with the cook, who was

       going for water. Some of the mutineers ran and shut down the

       hatch over them, while Green and another engaged the

       attention of the carpenter, so that he did not observe what

       was going on.

       "Hudson now came from the cabin and was immediately seized

       by Thomas and Bennet, the cook, who had come up from the

       hold, while Wilson ran behind and bound his arms. He asked

       them what they meant, and they told him that he would know

       when he was in the shallop. Hudson called upon the carpenter

       to help him, telling him that he was bound. But he could

       render him no assistance being surrounded by mutineers. The

       boat was now hauled along side, and the sick and lame were

       called up from their berths. I crawled upon the deck as well

       as I could and Hudson, seeing me, called to me to come to

       the hatchway and speak to him.

       "I entreated the men, on my knees, for the love of God, to

       remember their duty. But they only told me to go back to my

       berth, and would not allow me to have any communication with

       Hudson. After the captain was put in the boat, the carpenter

       was set at liberty; but he refused to remain in the ship

       unless they forced him. So they told him he might go in the

       boat and allowed him to take his chest with him. Before he

       got into the boat, he told me that he believed they would

       soon be taken on board again, as there was no one left who

       knew enough to bring the ship home. He thought that the boat

       would be kept in tow. We then took leave of each other, with

       tears in our eyes, and the carpenter went into the boat,

       taking a musket and some powder and shot, an iron pot, a

       small quantity of meal, and other provisions.

       "Hudson's son and six of the men were also put into the

       boat. The sails were then hoisted and they stood eastward,

       with a fair wind, dragging the shallop from the stern. In a

       few hours, being clear of the ice, they cut the rope by

       which the boat was towed, and soon after lost sight of her

       forever."

      The imagination recoils from following the victims thus abandoned, through the long days and nights of lingering death, from hunger and from cold. To God alone has the fearful tragedy been revealed.

      The glowing accounts which Sir Henry Hudson had given of the river he had discovered, and particularly of the rich furs there to be obtained, induced the merchants of Amsterdam in the year 1616 to fit out a trading expedition to that region. A vessel was at once dispatched, freighted with a variety of goods to be exchanged for furs. The enterprise was eminently successful and gradually more minute information was obtained respecting the territory surrounding the spacious bay into which the Hudson river empties its flood.

      The island of Manhattan, upon which the city of New York is now built, consisted then of a series of forest-crowned hills, interspersed with crystal streamlets and many small but beautiful lakes. These solitary sheets of water abounded with fish, and water-fowl of varied plumage. They were fringed with forests, bluffs, and moss-covered rocks. The upper part of the island was rough, being much broken by storm-washed crags and wild ravines, with many lovely dells interspersed, fertile in the extreme, blooming with flowers, and in the season, red with delicious strawberries. There were also wild grapes and nuts of various kinds, in great abundance.

      The lower part of the island was much more level. There were considerable sections where the forest had entirely disappeared. The extended fields, inviting the plough, waved with luxuriant grass. It was truly a delightful region. The climate was salubrious; the atmosphere in cloudless transparency rivalled the famed skies of Italy.

      Where the gloomy prison of the Tombs now stands, there was a lake of crystal water, overhung by towering trees. Its silence and solitude were disturbed only by the cry of the water-fowl which disported upon its surface, while its depths sparkled with the spotted trout. The lake emptied into the Hudson river by a brook which rippled over its pebbly bed, along the present line of Canal street. This beautiful lake was fed by large springs and was sufficiently deep to float any ship in the navy. Indeed it was some time before its bottom could be reached by any sounding line.

      There was a gentle eminence or ridge, forming as it were the backbone of the island, along which there was

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