knowledge of the river's real course or character, and it was left for
Hendrick Hudson to be its first voyager and thereby to have and to
hold against all comers the glory of discovery._

* * *

A century vast of Hudson-fame
Which Irving's fancy seals;
Whose ripples murmur Morse's name
And flash to Fulton's wheels.

_Wallace Bruce._

* * *

_So Robert Fulton had several predecessors in the idea of applying
steam to navigation--John Fitch in 1785, William Symington in 1788 and
many others who likewise_ coasted along the shore and indenture of a
great idea, _marked by continual failure and final abandonment. It was
reserved for Fulton to complete and stamp upon his labor the seal of
service and success, and to stand, therefore, its accepted inventor._

_In addition to the invention of Fulton who has contributed so much
to the business and brotherhood of mankind, the telegraph of Morse
occupies a prominent page of our Hudson history, and it is said that
Morse left unfinished a novel, the incidents of which were associated
with the Highlands, in order to work out his idea which gave the
Hudson a grander chapter._

_Fulton's and Morse's inventions are also happily associated in this,