The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention by Wallace Bruce
page 21 of 329 (06%)
page 21 of 329 (06%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
wooden bowls."
"Two men were also dispatched at once, with bows and arrows in quest of game, who soon brought in a pair of pigeons, which they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, (probably a black bear), and skinned it in great haste, with shells which they had got out of the water." * * * 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 |
|