Aboriginal Occupation of the Hudson

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THE HUDSON, ITS ABORGINAL OCCUPATION, DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTAuthor(s): William WaitSource: Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. 11 (1912), pp. 152-165

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THE HUDSON, ITS ABORGINAL OCCUPATION,

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT

William Wait, Peekskill, N. Y.

Two years ago we celebrated the three hundredth anniversary

of Henry Hudson's discovery of the river which now bears his

name.

It matters not whether he was the first European navigator to

visit that historic stream; it may have been Roberval in 1542; or

French fur-traders in 1540; or Vernazano in 1542; or the Cabots

about 1497 ; or Zeno in 1380; or Madoc in 1170; or Thorvard and

Helgi in 1011 ; or Thorfinn and Thorvard in 1007 ; or Thorwald in

1003 ; or Lief, the son of Eric, in the year 1000 ; or perhaps, some

bold navigator, or storm-stressed voyager in even earlier years,

unknown to tradition, and unhonored by history, for there is much

dim tradition, and historians disagree; but, be that as it may, the

event which drew in its wake the train of occurrences that settled

and created the colonies which have become the United States of

America, was Hudson's third voyage, in 1609.

Should we turn our eyes along the path of Hudson's "Half-

moon" and view the present, while we review the past and its his-

tory, it is a grand panorama that unfolds and the tale one to fill

volumes. Much of the story of the early days has never been writ-

ten, except as it is found in documentary fragments which are

seemingly spread broadcast over the earth.

At the beginning we would see the Mahicannittuck, or great

river of the Mahican's, stretching its silvery length from the moun-

tain springs far up on the sides of Tahawus, dowin through the

valley which was an Indian elysium, past the hunting-grounds and

fishing places of the numerous tribes of the Algonquins or Len-


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THE HUDSON, ITS ABORGINAL OCCUPATION. 153

apes, past their maize-fields and council-fires, threading its sinu-

ous way between the rocky piles of the highlands, broadening into

seas that washed the shores of the country of the Haverstroos and

Tappans, narrowing again to lave the base of the lofty palisades,

and then losing itself in the sea.

Then, through the autumn haze we would see a little vessel

carefully exploring its way, in from the deep; creeping day by

day further up the majestic stream now robed in the gorgeous fol-

iage of Autumn, vessel and crew objects of wonder and admiration

to the natives. Now they are entertained by the savages, and again

they dispense hospitality to them, but debauch them with liquor,

the taste of which lingers with them as a thirst, the quenching of

which becomes their lasting curse.. The Europeans frequently

barter with the natives, exchanging trifles for food; and in one

place speak of them as "very loving people, by whom they were

well used,"- but the closing scenes are of bloodshed and murder.

The prow of the "Half-moon" has left a broadening wake,

whose ripples have written an indelible history, not only along the

Hudson's shores, but have left their imprint on Kingdoms over the

sea. In that track came the trader, and then the settler with his

ax, carving a home out of the wilderness, and making a new Neth-

erland.

The fame of the New Netherland spread abroad, and the little

band of English Puritans which had fled to Holland for refuge,

fearing the loss of its national identity in that country, in 1620

followed in the wake of the ť ' Half-moon, ' ' intending to settle in

the valley of Hudson's river; but at the end, driven by circum-

stances beyond their control, they were obliged to abandon their

purpose and land near Cape Cod. Thus New Netherland was the

means of establishing New England, from which two colonies, arose

the impetus for colonizing the New World.

A night of impenetrable darkness seems to be gathering over

the history of that race which peopled the valley of the Hudson

at the coming of white men. As we peer into the gathering gloom,

tradition and fragmentary records afford us fleeting glimpses of

shadowy forms which vanish like ghosts as we attempt to approach

them, and these indistinct figures are all that remain to us of the

history of a race of warriors whose blood-curdling war-whoop once




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154 NEW YORK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

echoed among our hills, who planted the maize in our valleys and

roved the forests in quest of game; whose council fires revealed

statesmen and orators, and whose young men and maidjens sang

their love-songs beside the streams which now water the fields of

their white brothers. Some of their poetic traditions still remain,

and here and there a hill or stream retains the name they gave it,

but these are their only monuments.

Their traditions tell us, and indeed what has been preserved

of their language bears it out, that there were but two great ab-

original races, occupying the territory now embraced in the United

States, at the commencement of white settlement. It is true there

were very many different tribes, each speaking its own dialect but

the root of each was either Lenape or Mingo.

They were without a written language, excepting a few rude

symbols and hieroglyphics, most of which cannot now be interpret-

ed ; but they had another way of transmitting history and tradition,

from generation to generation, and some of it has been preserved

in the documentary records of the early settlers, and the relations

of the missionaries who labored among them. It was their custom

to gather around the council-fire once or twice each year, when the

chiefs, for the purpose of refreshing their own memories and of

instructing one or more of their capable and promising young men,

would recount that which they wished to be preserved. Each fact

was represented by a token, usually a string of wampum, some-

times by a feather or a stick- matters of great import, even, by a

wampum belt. The speaker was always chosen from among those

who were endowed with superior talents, and who had already been

trained up to the business. With great oratorical effect, each sen-

tence was carefully pronounced, as token after token was display-

ed, until the discourse was finished. The form and color of each

token had its significance, which was augmented by the mode of

handling it. At the conclusion of the discourse, others of the as-

sembly would rise, and draw attention to any error, or omission,

of the speaker. When the business was concluded, the tokens were

carefully replaced in the speech-bag, or pouch, and preserved by

the chief for future reference.

One of the traditions thjus preserved by the Lenape people,

was, that very many years ago their ancestors lived far to the




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West, where the setting sun shone on waters that ebbed and flow-

ed. They believed that the rising sun came from a region which

was an Indian elysium. Determined to find it, many of their peo-

ple had started on a very long migratory journey, in search of it.

Year by year, their outposts kept advancing toward the Bast, un-

til they came upon a great river, which they called the Namaesi

Sipu, which in their language meant Great Fish River., There they

fell in with the Mengwe, or Mingo people, who had likewise emi-

grated from a distant country, and had struck upon the river

somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the

Lenapes - they were proceeding on to the eastward, until they

should find a country that pleased them.

The spies, which had been sent forward by the Lenapes to

reconnoitre, discovered that the country east of the Mississippi

was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large vil-

lages built along the rivers, which villages were fortified by earth-

works erected around them. These people called themselves Alii-

gewi and were said to be remarkably tali and strong - indeed there

was a tradition that there were giants among them.

When the Lenapes arrived on the banks of the Mississippi,

they sent a message to the Alligewi, requesting permission to set-

tle themselves in their neighborhood. This was refused them, but

they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settle-

ment further to the eastward.

When the migratory bands of Lenape and Mingo people be-

gan to cross the Mississippi, and the Alligewi saw how numerous

they were, they attacked them, and tried to drive them back. This

led to a very long and bloody war, lasting for very many years,

in which the Mingo people joined on condition that they should

share the land if they were successful. In the end the Alligewi

were conquered and driven away to the south.

The Allegheny mountains, and the Allegheny river, still retain

traces of their name, and are strong testimony tending to show that

the tradition regarding them is not all myth. They were probab-

ly the " Mound-builders' ' and they may have been the ancestors

of the more highly civilized people of Central and South Ameri-

ca, the Aztecs and Toltecs, who erected the magnificent temples,

and carved the fantastic monuments of that region. Beginning




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156 NEW YOfcK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

at the great lakes and extending southward, east of the Mississippi,

are still to be seen many remains of the occupancy of such a peo-

ple.

After the Alligewi were driven out, the Mingos expressed

themselves as satisfied if they might have the territory around the

great lakes and their tributary streams. This was assented to by

the Lenapes, who took for themselves the lands to the south and

east.

The time alloted us for this paper will not permit us to fol-

low out the tribal growth of these two aboriginal nations. Brief-

ly, the Mingo people were the ancestors of the five tribes who occu-

pied central New York at the coming of white men. Later a sixth

tribe was taken in and they came to be called the "Six Nations.' '

They were not six nations, but six tribes, or clans, of one people,

and they were not organized into a confederacy until white men

engineered the job, to make of them a defense against the encroach-

ment of the French along the Canada frontier.

The Lenapes spread to the valleys of the Susquehannah, the

Potomac and the Delaware, and finally to the Hudson. At first

they were divided into three tribes, the Unamis or turtle tribe,

the Unalachtgo or turkey tribe and the Minsi or wolf tribe. The

totem-sign or emblem of each tribe was the animal after which it

was named. From these three tribes sprang many others, each

speaking the parent tongue, but each having a dialect of its own,

and each usually retaining the totem-sign of the particular branch

from which it sprang.

The Minsi or wolf tribe were spread out in a long line border-

ing on the Mingos and became a sort of bulwark against them to

keep back their encroachment. Thus they were developed into the

most warlike of the Lenape tribes.

The Mahicanni, or Mahicans, becoming a detached body, cross-

ed the Hudson, which they named Mahicannituck or river of the

Mahicans, and spread over all that country which is now embraced

in the Eastern States. Other Lenape tribes spread over the coun-

try to the south until the whole Atlantic coast, from the sea to and

beyond the valley of the Mississippi was occupied by them.

It must not be supposed that all the development took place

during one generation. It is the traditional history of a people,




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which extends back into the past for very many generations-

probably for hundreds of years. It tends to confirm the theory

that this continent was peopled by way of Behring Strait.

As to the aboriginal occupants of the valley of the Hudson at

the coming of white men it may be briefly stated that they were

of Lenape stock. There were many small clans, or tribes, but the

chief council-fire was kept burning by the Mahicans in the vicinity

of what is now Schodack, or in their language Skootak, meaning

the fire place.

Their tradition is rich in poetic folk-lore. Minnewawa was

the guardian spirit of the Hudson Valley, ever ministering to their

good, sending the rain to moisten the maize-fields and water the

hills that the herbage might grow and keep the game in abund-

ance for them. Monthly she hung up the new moon over the

mountains in the western sky and as often cut up the old and scat-

tered the little pieces throughout the heavens and made of them the

little stars whose lamps she lighted nightly. There were the Puk-

wud jinnies, the little vanishing men of the woods who are seen as

night approaches; and the little Wahwahtaysee or fire-flies who

flashed their little lights among the dark bushes to reveal lurking

monsters, to tell the children about for their amusement. The hills

that shut in the valley to the north where the hiding places of Mishe-

mokwa, the great naked bear who would come to devour bad lit-

tle Indian children. Here, too, Jeebi, the great ghost-spirit, had

his home and spoke in the dark through Wawonaissa, the whip-

poorwill ; and the Wendegoes, the great strong-men of the forest

fought with the storm-spirit and tore down great trees.

The grain-fields were inhabited by Mondamin, the maize-spirit,

and were pilfered by Paimosaid the grain-thief. In the shallow

bays along the river disported the Neebanawbaigs, or water-spirits.

In the mountain regions to the south were the walls raised by Mane-

tho to protect his domain from the unhallowed eyes of mortals ; and

here, jammed in rocky crevices and rifted pines, he kept his rebel-

lious spirits, where their groans and cries might be heard mingled

with the blasts of storms.

The often repeated statement that the Mahicans and other

Lenape tribes were subject, and tribute-payers to, the Six Nations,

at the time of the beginning of white settlement, is not borne out




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by the documentary records of the period. Indeed, on the con-

trary, it appears that the Mingo tribes held their tenure to the lands

of Central New York at the will of the Mahicans. The so-called

journal of Van Curler of 1634-5, which is the earliest record of

conditions in the Mohawk Valley, and which is twenty-five years

after Hudson's discovery of the river, contains an interesting entry

which bears on this question. Before reaching the location of

Schenectady, on their return from an expedition up the Mohawk

Valley, and speaking of their Mohawk Indian guides, the journal

says-- "and after marching by guess 2 miles the savages pointed to

a high mountain where their castle (village) had stood nine years

before. They had been driven out by the Mohicans, and after that

time they did not want to live there. " It is absurd to believe that

a race who were so numerous as to overrun the whole country from

the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic, with the exception of a small

portion surrounding the great lakes, should be dominated by the in-

habitants of that small portion. Likewise, all the early conveyances

of land from the Indians to the whites, are from the Lenape tribes.

Ownership of the soil is a strong argument against such a absurd

theory.

The year 1609 marked the close of the forty years struggle

of the brave little Dutch Republic for independence. Twenty-

eight years before, the States General, by the Act of Abjuration,

had declared their independence. This Act was a state paper

which set forth the doctrines which many years later were embodied

in our own Declaration of Independence. It was the forerunner

of our great declaration of personal rights. Holland, by her long

struggle to throw off her yoke of bondage to bigoted Spain, brought

about by a firm belief in, and a determination to establish religious

and civil liberty, now found herself master of the commerce of the

world, and sovereign of the seas.

This was the condition of affairs when the Dutch commercial

company employed Henry Hudson, the English explorer, to try to

discover a western passage to the commerce of the Orient.

On the evening of the twelfth of September, 1609, Hudson

brought his vessel to anchor in the broad bay that is now the har-

bor of New York. We can imagine that bold commander standing

upon the high stern of the "Half-moon" in the gathering gloom of




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THE HUDSON, ITS ABORGINAL, OCCUPATION. 159

that autumn day, with folded arms and pensive gaze fixed upon

the fading landscape, dreaming of the riches of the Orient toward

which he fondly hoped he had now discovered a shorter route. But

his fondest and most extravagant fancies could have but faintly

foreshadowed the wealth and glories which were to follow him.

Had fate vouchsafed him but one glance behind the veil that hides

the future, and shown him that harbor as it is today, he would

have seen, not a route for the costly perfumes and spices of India,

but a great harbor thronged with the commerce of the world, sur-

rounded by a vast population, in its midst the great bronze statue

of Liberty whose dimensions surpass those of the Colossus of

Rhodes, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Over its eastern approach he would have seen the vast bridges

which are greater wonders still, and upon the island which was the

home of the simple Manhattoes, a wilderness of buildings that are

the triumphs of modern architecture.

The journal written by Robert Juet gives a very detailed ac-

count of the voyage of the Half -moon and of the happenings along

the river. This is familiar to most of us. DeLaet gives some fur-

ther quotations from Hudson's own journal. By comparing these

two accounts and by a careful study of the topography of the river

it is possible to approximately locate most of the interesting inci-

dents of the voyage up and down the stream.

On Sept. 13th, the place where the savages bartered oysters

with the crew was off 129th St., for the latitude is given- 40 de-

grees 48 minutes.

The voyage through the highlands is easily followed.

On the evening of the fifteenth they came to other mountains

which "lie from the river's side." There they found "very loving

people and very old men, where they were well used." The Cats-

kill mountains are easily recognized, and the vicinity of Sauger-

ties was undoubtedly the home of the loving people.

On the seventeenth they arrived at latitude 42 degrees 18 min-

utes and Hudson himself made a landing there on the following

day. This was where the Kinderhook creek empties into the river.

Let us give Hudson's own description of the event, as given by

DeLaet. He says- "I sailed to the shore, in one of their canoes,

with an old man, who was the chief of a tribe consisting of forty




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men and seventeen women; these I saw there in a house well con-

structed of oak-bark, and circular in shape, so that it had the ap-

pearance of being built with an arched roof. It contained a great

quantity of maize or Indian corn and beans of the last year's

growth, and there lay near the house for the purpose of drying

enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields.

On our coming into the house two mats were spread out to sit upon,

and immediately some food was served in well made wooden bowls ;

two men were also despatched at once with bows and arrows in

quest of game, who soon after brought in a pair of pigeons which

they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, and skinned it in

great haste with shells which they had got out of the water. They

supposed I would remain with them for the night, but I returned

after a short time on board the ship. The land is the finest for

cultivation that I ever in my life set foot upon, and it also abounds

in trees of every description. The natives are a very good people,

for when they saw that I would not remain, they supposed that I

wa s afraid of their bows, and taking the arrows, they broke them in

pieces and threw them into the fire. ' '

Here is a pleasing picture of savage life. It shows the Indian

as the white man found him; kind, generous, courteous, and not

the bloodthirsty fiend with painted face and uplifted hatchet

springing upon his victim with murder in his heart.

Here was a well-built house, with every evidence of thrift

around it. The stored grain and the cultivated fields, the well-

made wooden bowls, the mats - were all evidences of savage com-

forts, while the hospitality shown would have done credit to many

a white settler who followed.

This was in September, the season when hunting was at its

best, and doubtless most of the villagers were away in pursuit of

game, which would account for the small number of men mentioned

by Hudson.

The Indian villages usually contained a dozen or more houses,

arranged in rows, with streets between. The houses were construct-

ed by placing long rows of slender poles in the ground and draw-

ing their tops together in the form of an arch. These were bound

together by twisted fibres, and the whole then covered with large

pieces of bark. The houses were usually large; some mentioned




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being as much as three hundred feet in length, giving shelter to a

considerable number. In the journal of 1634-35, previously quoted,

is the following description of an Indian village " In it are 16

houses, 50, 60, 70 or 80 paces long, and one of 16 paces, and one

of 5 paces containing a bear to be fattened.' '

This is but a hasty glance at savage life before it was debauch-

ed by advancing civilization. Nearly every record of the first ap-

pearance of the white men among the natives shows a disposition

to friendliness, but after they were defrauded of their lands and

driven to evil deeds by the grinding process of advancing civiliza-

tion there is a different story to tell. The Indian revealed in his-

tory is shown with much bitterness to be a blood-thirsty, treacher-

ous savage, worse than a beast. Said Washington Irving:- " It

is painful to perceive how the footsteps of civilization may be

traced in the blood of the aborigines ; how easily the colonists were

moved to hostility by the lust of conquest; how merciless and ex-

terminating was their warfare. The imagination shrinks at the

idea- how many intellectual beings were hunted from the earth,

how many brave .and noble hearts, of nature's sterling coinage,

were broken down and trampled in the dust. ' '

This spot where Hudson visited the savages is frequently

spoken of in the early records as the "^reat fishing place of the

Indians.' ' On Block's map of 1614 we find the inscription on the

point of land immediately north, ' ť Kinderhook, " meaning chil-

dren's point. This is only five years after Hudson explored the

river, and of course there was no Dutch settlement there at that

time, but navigators have been wont to name objects on their charts

after some peculiarity they may possess. Trading vessels had fre-

quently ascended the river in the intervening five years and they

must all have passed close to this point. Children were then, and

are today, curious, and we may readily suppose that they would

flock to this point from the nearby village to gaze at such an ex-

traordinary sight as a ship. It is not hard to believe they should

name this point ' ' Kinderhook, " or the children's point., It is like-

wise easy to understand how the small settlement of white man,

which soon began to grow along the shore of the river just north,

or "at the children's point," should take the name "Kinderhook."




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The location of the Half -moon on the occasion of Hudson's

visit to the old chief cannot be mistaken. The latitude he gives

should be enough to settle the point; but as nearly every historian

makes the statement that he went as far as Albany and sent small

boats further up to explore, let us examine the record itself for fur-

ther proof of the exact location. Juet's journal says:- "In the

morning as soon as the Sun was up, we set sail, and ran up six

leagues higher, and found shoals in the middle of the channel, and

small islands, but seven fathoms of water on both sides. ' ' This can

describe no other place on the river than the shoal in front of Stock-

port. Here is the divided channel, with the shoal in the middle

and deep water on both sides. Here also, directly ahead, are the

small islands. It is true, there are other islands in the river, and

other shoals in the middle of the channel, but there is no other place

where they come at the same place. Take the given latitude and

the fact that the description of the location is perfect and fits no

other place and we must conclude that here was the village of the

old chief. This place was eight leagues above "the loving people

and old men," according to Juet, on the journey up; but he esti-

mates it as nine or ten leagues on the return. This of course lo-

cates the loving people considerably below Catskill, where histor-

ians usually place them.

The question naturally arises, how far up the river did the

Half-moon really go?

Juet 's journal states that they took the ship two leagues above

the shoals and anchored in eight fathoms of water. This would

indicate that the highest point reached by the Half-moon was the

vicinity of Stuyvesant, and that small boats were sent to explore

further up. Whoever has rowed a boat on the Hudson, contend-

ing with the ebbing and flowing tide, will estimate that no small

boat, sounding and exploring as they went, would be likely to go

and return in a day, much further than the vicinity of Castleton.

It was while the ship was at her anchorage near Stuyvesant

that the crew gave the Indians their first taste of rum, and here

was the place of drunkenness so frequently ascribed to Manhattan

Island. Some histories state that Manhattan means in the Indian

tongue, "the island of drunkenness, ' ' mentioning the above de-

bauch as having occurred there. The name is probably derived

from the Lenape word for Island, which is Menatey.




13/15


Immediately following the report of Hudson's exploration of

the river now bearing his name, trading-vessels were sent by the

Dutch, to barter for furs with the inhabitants along its shores. By

reason of its location at the head of navigation, and because it was

the natural outlet for the fur-trading savages of the northern re-

gion and of the Mohawk Valley, the spot where Albany now stands

became the first trading-post on the river and took the name of

Beaverwyck, or beaver-town. As the settlement here, remained

permanent, Albany has the honor of being the oldest permanent set-

tlement of Europeans in the territory embraced in the thirteen

original colonies. Jamestown, in Virginia, would have been a few

years older, but it has long since ceased to be more than a scatter-

ed heap of mouldering ruins.

History shows that the development of a country follows the

great natural highways. The navigable Hudson, with the great

harbor at its mouth, leading to the fur producing territory of its

watershed, made it of commercial importance from the very first.

The tide of emigration to its shores, small at first, gradually swelled

until the valley was overrun with white settlers. In all the suc-

ceeding years the vast tide of emigration for the continent has pass-

ed this way, this being the natural gateway to its commerce. Dur-

ing the Revolution both sides contended for its control, and the de-

ciding battle at Bemis Heights carried dismay and discouragement

to the British, and established our independence as a nation.

The first settlers were of course fur-traders, and as the trad-

ing-posts became established there came others - the farmers, and

the ' ' butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers, ' ' and the school-

teachers and preachers and lawyers. The doctors were called sur-

geons, and I find it recorded that on several occasions these surgeons

applied for the exclusive right to do shaving in the coloney.

The first mail-carriers were Indian runners, and the early

records contain frequent reference to them. Keesewey and Watta-

wit, both Mahican chiefs, performed that service. The paths used

by the Indian runners were the trails and cross-trails originally

connecting the Indian villages. The great path from the south

followed much the course now taken by the post road from New

York to Albany, and the path from the east, known later as the

"Great New England Path," joined it near Kinderhook. These




14/15


early Indian trails gradually merged into the highways of the set-

tlers and became our present roads. This accounts for the way they

wind among the hills and almost always across large streams near a

shallow place. In relation to these trails it may be said, they were

usually from one to two feet wide, and deeply worn in the ground ;

varying in this respect from three to six, and even twelve inches,

depending upon the firmness of the soil. These well-beaten foot-

paths, which no runner or band of warriors could mistake, had

doubtless been pursued by the red men for century upon century,

as they were the natural lines of travel, geographically considered,

along the Hudson, to the north and west, and to the tribes of New

England.

While the first settlers were traders and perhaps of the rougher

class, though not necessarily- the glowing accounts of the valley

which were spread abroad, soon attracted here some Dutch settlers

who brought with them money and implements, and even the brick

with which to erect their houses. The Dutch spirit was one of

toleration, religious and political; and its influence spread to the

New Netherland. Hither were attracted, also, many adventurous

people from other countries of the Fatherland. This was espec-

ially true of the English. It is not strange, therefore, that the

early records should contain some facts as to intolerence, which do

not comport with this ideal condition. There are some occurrences

over which we would gladly throw the veil of oblivion, and we re-

gret to say there are some today who can see nothing in the past

but the evil and the grotesque, and who take pleasure in rattling

the dry bones of the skeletons which should remain secluded in our

colonial closet. The seventeenth century was not a period when

angels inhabited the earth, and our colony was made up of the ordi-

nary kind of mortals. We have heard it remarked, ' ' they were a

strange set." So they were, in the light of our present advance-

ment. The histories of England, France and Spain, and even of

our New England neighbors whose puritan lives are the pride of

later generations, are full of records of occurrences at that period

which we would like to forget. For instance- there was much in-

tolerence in New England among the very people who came here

to enjoy tolerence; incidentally nineteen innocent persons were

executed in Salem in the belief that they were witches, But New




15/15

ŤHĚ HUDSON, ÌTS ABORGÌNAL OCCUPATÍOÑ. 165

England was not the only sufferer from that delusion; scarcely

a country in Europe was free from it.

Colonial descendents of Dutch ancestry, as well as those of

the English, French and German, and those who combine them,

need not blush for shame at their origin. Looking back at the peo-

ple of the same period, in whatever part of the globe we may, and

comparing them with our colonists, we have cause for pride. Out

of the bigotry and oppression of the times they established a real

land of liberty of conscience, and of freedom from oppression,

which has become the abode of most favored of the nations of the

earth.

NOTE:- In preparing this paper the writer has made free use of several articles written

by him and published elsewhere.

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Aboriginal Occupation of the Hudson

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