NEW YORK AS IT WAS. 267 XV. growth of branches. The wanton grape-vine, seeming CHAP. by its own power to have sprung from the earth, and to have fastened its leafy coils on the top of the tallest 1609. forest-tree, swung in the air with every breeze, like the loosened shrouds of a ship. Trees might every where be seen breaking from their root in the marshy soil, and threatening to fall with the first rude gust; while the ground was strown with the ruins of former forests, over which a profusion of wild flowers wasted their freshness in mockery of the gloom. Reptiles sported in the stagnant pools, or crawled unharmed over piles of mouldering trees. The spotted deer couched among the thickets; but not to hide, for there was no pursuer; and there were none but wild animals to crop the uncut herbage of the productive prairies. Silence reigned, broken, it may have been, by the flight of land birds or the flapping of water-fowl, and rendered more dismal by the howl of beasts of prey. The streams, not yet limited to a channel, spread over sand-bars, tufted with copses of willow, or waded through wastes of reeds; or slowly but surely undermined the groups of sycamores that grew by their side. The smaller brooks spread out into sedgy swamps, that were overhung by clouds of mosquitoes; masses of decaying vegetation fed the exhalations with the seeds of pestilence, and made the balmy air of the summer's evening as deadly as it seemed grateful. Vegetable life and death were mingled hideously together. The horrors of corruption frowned on the fruitless fertility of uncultivated nature. And man, the occupant of the soil, was wild as the savage scene, in harmony with the rude nature by which he was surrounded; a vagrant over the continent, in constant warfare with his fellow-man; the bark of the birch his canoe; strings of shells his 268 THE INHABITANTS OF NEW YORK AS IT WAS. CHAP. ornaments, his record, and his coin; the roots of the XV. forest among his resources for food; his knowledge in 1609. architecture surpassed both in strength and durability by the skill of the beaver; bended saplings the beams of his house; the branches and rind of trees its roof; drifts of forest-leaves his couch; mats of bulrushes his protection against the winter's cold; his religion the adoration of nature; his morals the promptings of undisciplined instinct; disputing with the wolves and bears the lordship of the soil, and dividing with the squirrel the wild fruits with which the universal woodlands abounded. The history of a country is always modified by its climate, and, in many of its features, is determined by its geographical situation. The region which Hudson had discovered, possessed on the seaboard a harbor unrivalled in its advantages; having near its eastern boundary a river that admits the tide far into the interior; extending to the chain of the great lakes, which have their springs in the heart of the continent; containing within its limits the sources of large rivers that flow to the Gulf of Mexico and to the Bays of Chesapeake and of Delaware; inviting to extensive internal intercourse by natural channels, of which, long before Hudson anchored off Sandy Hook, even the warriors of the Five Nations availed themselves in their excursions to Quebec, to the Ohio, or the Susquehannah; with just sufficient difficulties to irritate, and not enough to dishearten ;-New York united most fertile lands with the highest adaptation to foreign and domestic commerce. The manner in which civilized man can develop the resources of a wild country, is contained in its physical character; and the results which have been NEW YORK IN 1837. 269 XV. effected, are necessarily analogous to their causes. CHAP. And how changed is the scene from that on which Hudson gazed! The earth glows with the colors of 1837. civilization; the banks of the streams are enamelled with richest grasses; woodlands and cultivated fields are harmoniously blended; the birds of spring find their delight in orchards and trim gardens, variegated with choicest plants from every temperate zone; while the brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the green-house and the saloon. The yeoman, living like a good neighbor near the fields he cultivates, glories in the fruitfulness of the valleys, and counts with honest exultation the flocks and herds that browse in safety on the hills. The thorn has given way to the rosebush; the cultivated vine clambers over rocks where the brood of serpents used to nestle; while industry smiles at the changes she has wrought, and inhales the bland air which now has health on its wings. And man is still in harmony with nature, which he has subdued, cultivated, and adorned. For him the rivers that flow to remotest climes, mingle their waters; for him the lakes gain new outlets to the ocean; for him the arch spans the flood, and science spreads iron pathways to the recent wilderness; for him the hills yield up the shining marble and the enduring granite; for him the forests of the interior come down in immense rafts; for him the marts of the city gather the produce of every clime, and libraries collect the works of genius of every language and every age. The passions of society are chastened into purity; manners are made benevolent by civilization; and the virtue of the country is the guardian of its peace. Science investigates the powers of every plant and mineral, to find medicines for disease; schools of surgery rival the estab 270 NEW YORK IN 1837. CHAP. lishments of the old world. An active daily press, vigiXV. lant from party interests, free even to dissoluteness, 1837. watches the progress of society, and communicates every fact that can interest humanity; the genius of letters begins to unfold his powers in the warm sunshine of public favor. And while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues by the ocean side, commerce pushes its wharves into the sea, blocks up the wide rivers with its fleets, and, sending its ships, the pride of naval architecture, to every clime, defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and invades every zone. A happy return voyage brought the Crescent into 1609. Dartmouth. Hudson forwarded to his Dutch employers a brilliant account of his discoveries; but he never revisited the lands which he eulogized; and the Dutch East India Company refused to search further for the north-western passage. 17. Aug. 2. Meantime ambition revived among the English mer1610. chants; a company was formed, and Hudson again April entered the northern seas in search of a path to the Pacific. Passing Iceland, and Greenland, and Frobisher's Straits, he sailed into the straits which bear his own name, and where he had been preceded by none but Sebastian Cabot. As he emerged from the passage and came upon the wide gulf, he believed that his object had been gained. How great was his disappointment when he found himself embayed! As he sailed to and fro along the coast, it seemed a labyrinth without end; still confident of ultimate success, the inflexible mariner resolved on wintering in the bay, that he might perfect his discovery in the spring. Why should I dwell on the sufferings of a winter for which no provision had been made? At length the late and anxiouslyexpected spring burst forth; but it opened in vain for HUDSON'S DEATH AND BURIAL. 271 XV. 18. 21. Hudson. Provisions were exhausted; he divided the CHAP. last bread among his men, and prepared for them a bill of return; and "he wept as he gave it them." Be- 1610. lieving himself almost on the point of succeeding, where Spaniards, and English, and Danes, and Dutch, had failed, he left his anchoring-place to steer for Europe For two days, the ship was encompassed by fields of June ice, and the discontent of the crew broke forth into mutiny. Hudson was seized, and, with his only son June and seven others, four of whom were sick, was thrown into the shallop. Where has not humanity its servants? Seeing his commander thus exposed, Philip Staffe, the carpenter, demanded and gained leave to share his fate; and just as the ship made its way out of the ice, on the longest summer's day, in a latitude where the sun hardly went down, and twilight ceased only with the dawn, the shallop was cut loose. What became of Hudson? Did he die miserably of starvation? Did he reach land to perish from the fury of the natives? Was he crushed between ribs of ice? The returning ship encountered storms, by which, it is probable, Hudson was overwhelmed. Alone, of the great mariners of that day, he lies buried in America; the gloomy waste of waters which bears his name, is his tomb and his monument.' As the country on the Hudson had been discovered by an agent of the Dutch East India Company, the right of possession was claimed for the United Provinces and in the very year in which Hudson perished, 1610. merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a ship with various 1610 merchandise to traffic with the natives. The voyage 1614. 1 Voyage, in Purchas, iii., and in N. Y. Hist. Coll. i. 146-150, and 150-188. 2 Albany Records, xxiv. 167. The often repeated story of a sale of the country by Hudson, is absurd. to |