this
        beauteous island, adorned by the city of New York, and placing it
        beside their usurped discovery of South America.  And, thirdly, I
        award my decision in favor of the pretensions of Hendrick Hudson,
        inasmuch as his expedition sailed from Holland, being truly and
        absolutely a Dutch enterprise; and though all the proofs in the
        world were introduced on the other side, I would set them at
        nought as undeserving my attention.  If these three reasons be not
        sufficient to satisfy every burgher of this ancient city, all I
        can say is they are degenerate descendants from their venerable
        Dutch ancestors, and totally unworthy the trouble of convincing. 
        Thus, therefore, the title of Hendrick Hudson to his renowned
        discovery is fully vindicated.

   [23] This river is likewise laid down in Ogilvy’s map as
        Manhattan—­Noordt, Montaigne, and Mauritius river.

   [24] Juet’s Journ.  Purch.  Pil.

CHAPTER II.

The delectable accounts given by the great Hudson and Master Juet of the country they had discovered excited not a little talk and speculation among the good people of Holland.  Letters patent were granted by Government to an association of merchants, called the West India Company, for the exclusive trade on Hudson River, on which they erected a trading-house called Fort Aurania, or Orange, from whence did spring the great city of Albany.  But I forbear to dwell on the various commercial and colonizing enterprises which took place; among which was that of Mynheer Adrian Block, who discovered and gave a name to Block Island, since famous for its cheese—­and shall barely confine myself to that which gave birth to this renowned city.

It was some three or four years after the return of the immortal Hendrick that a crew of honest Low Dutch colonists set sail from the city of Amsterdam for the shores of America.  It is an irreparable loss to history, and a great proof of the darkness of the age and the lamentable neglect of the noble art of book-making, since so industriously cultivated by knowing sea-captains and learned supercargoes, that an expedition so interesting and important in its results should be passed over in utter silence.  To my great-great-grandfather am I again indebted for the few facts I am enabled to give concerning it—­he having once more embarked for this country, with a full determination, as he said, of ending his days here—­and of begetting a race of Knickerbockers that should rise to be great men in the land.