" Before beginning our journey let us, therefore,
bridge the distance with a few intermediate facts, from 1609, relating
to the discovery of the river, its early settlement, its old reaches
and other points essential to the fullest enjoyment of our trip, which
in sailor-parlance might be styled "a gang-plank of history," reaching
as it does from the old-time yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning
three hundred years.
* * *
The prow of the "Half-Moon" has left a broadening wake whose
ripples have written an indelible history, not only along the
Hudson's shores, but have left their imprint on kingdoms over the
sea.
_William Wait._
* * *
=Its Discovery.=--In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the
discovery of America, the navigator Verrazano, a French officer,
anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short distance up
the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portuguese in the employ of
Spain, coasted along the continent and entered the Narrows. Several
sea-rovers also visited our noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved
for Hendrick Hudson, with a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men in
the "Half Moon," to explore the river from Sandy Hook to Albany, and
carry back to Europe a description of its beauty.
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