Читать книгу History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 2 - Группа авторов - Страница 7

The 13th day of September, 1609, marked the point of division between the prehistoric and the historic periods of the district of country now known as Westchester county. On that day Henry Hudson, the intrepid English navigator, anchored his vessel, the Half Moon, in the newly discovered river (which bears his name), near the site of the present city of Yonkers. The dawn of the following day disclosed the residents of the village of Nappeckamak gathered upon the eastern shore, and viewing with wonder, but with a kindly interest, the strange revelation before them. We now know much, although far too little, of what has since transpired here; but we know almost nothing of the events of the untold centuries that preceded that day.

The European discoveries of North America found the continent peopled with millions of human beings, of types analogous to those of the Old World, and with characteristics almost equally varied. In stature they covered a wide range, from the dwarf-like denizens of the far north to the vigorous inhabitants of other sections, whose height averaged, in the men, fully six feet. In activity and courage they excited the admiration of their discoverers. Their color was unique, and was imagined to resemble that of copper; but further investigation showed that this color varied greatly. Some of the natives were found to be nearly as dark as negroes, while in other sections they were almost as light as Caucasians. They spoke many hundred different languages, which showed striking analogies in their grammatical construction with equally striking disparity in their vocabulary. The goal sought by these discoverers was India, and, imagining that they had found its outlying provinces, they called the inhabitants of the new land Indians.

It would be the merest conjecture to attempt to state how long man had occupied the American continent. Apart from the length of time required for producing new languages, or even dialects, and from all ethnological considerations, there are facts connected with his existence here that indicate a period of almost incalculable antiquity. Of the animals found in the New World, none were identical with those known in the Old World, and in the vegetable kingdom the same rule held almost as absolutely.

When the Half Moon lay at anchor off the village of Nappeckamak, the Indians soon overcame the terror that naturally accompanied so strange an apparition, and, putting off in their canoes, went on board in large numbers. Their curiosity knew no bounds, and was only- restrained by their dread of the supernatural powers the strangers might possess. By Hudson's own statement, he himself first violated faith with them. He detained two of their number on the vessel, and, although they soon jumped overboard and swam to the shore, his act was nevertheless an outrage upon the universal rules of hospitality. He recorded that when they reached the shore, they called to him "in scorn." Hudson ascended the river to Albany, holding communication with the Indians along the way; and so kind was their disposition toward him that he wrote of them as "the loving people." On his return he came through the Highlands on the 1st of October, and anchored below the village of Sackhoes, on whose site Peekskill has been built. Here "the people of the mountains" came on board and greatly wondered at the ship and weapons, the color of the men and their dress. Descending the river, Hudson found that the Indians at Yonkers were prepared to resent his treatment. The young men whom he had attempted to kidnap came out with their friends in canoes and discharged their arrows at the Half Moon, "in recompense whereof six muskets replied and killed two or three of them." The Indians renewed the attack from a point of land (perhaps preceding the vessel to Fort Washington), but "a falcon shot killed two of them and the rest fled into the woods; yet they manned off another canoe with nine or ten men," through which a falcon shot was sent, killing one of its occupants. Three or four more were killed by the sailors' muskets, and the Half Moon " hurried down into the bay clear of all danger." Hudson returned to Holland and reported his discoveries to his employees, the Dutch East India Company. During the following ten or twelve years many voyages were made to the shores of the Hudson and the Sound for the purposes of trade with the Indians, for their furs, and to explore the country. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was incorporated. Two years afterward it formed trading stations at New Amsterdam and at Fort Orange, and considerable settlements were made on the sites of the future cities of New York and Albany. In 1626 Manhattan island was sold by the Indians. In 1639 the first sale of land in Westchester county was made. It included the northern shore of Spuyten Duyvil creek. Other sales were made by the Indians to the Dutch until, on the 8th day of August, 1699, the sachems Sackima, Corachpa, Wechrequa, Monrechro and sundry other Indians gave a general deed confirming numerous smaller sales made to Stephanus Van Cortlandt and others, and conveying the lands that were afterward known as Cortlandt's Manor.

When Henry Hudson sailed away from the river he had discovered, its shores re-echoed with the war-cries of a people whose confidence he had abused and whose kindred he had slain. The hostility he had awakened was not mitigated by subsequent events, and when afterward the traders came, mutual suspicion and distrust were not long in bringing the clash of arms. So soon as the Dutch had made a settlement, their cattle were allowed to run at large 'for pasturage, and " frequently came into the corn of the Indians, which was unfenced on all sides, committing great damage there. This led to complaints on their part, and finally to revenge on the cattle, without sparing even the horses." In 1626 a Weckquaesgeek Indian, from the vicinity of Tarrytown, while on his way to Fort Amsterdam to exchange his furs, was robbed and killed by men in the employ of Peter Minuit, the first Dutch director.

The announcement of Hudson's great discovery did not produce rapid results. The extraordinary success of the East India Company at that time, and the enormous dividends it declared, drew the general attention to the eastern and not to the western world. A single vessel in 1610, the year after the return of the Half Moon, made a successful trading voyage to the "River of the Mountains," returning to Holland with a valuable cargo of peltries. ' Two Dutch navigators, Hendrick Christiaensen, or Colstiaensen, and Adrian Block, chartering a vessel commanded by Captain Ryser, next made a voyage to the new region. In the early part of 1613 Hendrick Corstiaensen, in the Fortune, and Block, in the Tiger, sailed again to the Manhattan, and explored the adjacent coasts and waters. Other vessels also visited the bay and river, and all returned with profitable cargoes of furs. No trouble was experienced with the natives, who were ready and willing to exchange their skins for the novel and attractive goods of Europe.