Book account

"
* * *
Down whose waterways the wings of poetry and romance like magic
sails bear the awakened souls of men.
_Richard Burton._
* * *
The well-known 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.


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