DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE
HUDSON

CHAPTER I

UP THE GREAT RIVER

GEOGRAPHY is the maker of history. The course
of Dutch settlement in America was predeter-
mined by a river which runs its length of a hundred
and fifty miles from the mountains to the sea
through the heart of a fertile country and which
offers a natural highway for transportation of
merchandise and for communication between colo-
nies. No man, however, could foresee the devel-
opment of the Empire State when, on that
memorable September day in 1609, a small Dutch
yacht named the Halve Maene or Half Moon, under
the command of Captain Henry Hudson, slipped
in past the low hook of sand in front of the
Navesink Heights, and sounded her way to an