the ships and vessels of our port

IN OLDEN TIMES
First, in the Times of the Dutch

In our readings of the chronicles of the past, the names
of vessels navigating our waters, when they casually occur,
always excite in us a desire to know something more about
them. The tastes of our people are essentially maritime,
and there is besides a special interest attached to those
monarchs of the deep which brought hither our ancestral
predecessors, and in their yearly voyages between the old
and new worlds, afforded the only means of communica-
tion and supply to our citizens.

With what pleasure the arrival of a ship from Holland
was hailed in those times I We find it recorded that the
national flag was hoisted in the town and the population
hastened in boats to meet the vessel. By her they received
news from friends and relatives whom, probably, they
never expected to see again. They learned the progress
of political events, which at that time were of an intensely
interesting character in Europe. They received the ncces-
sary additions to domestic comfort, or perhaps luxury, in
which their increasing prosperity persuaded them to in-
dulge. In short, the periodical arrival of the trading ships,
was an event in which every one was interested, and which
afforded the most agreeable relief from the routine of a
life separated from the active affairs of the great world of
civilization,  from which our people had recently departed.

Nor, to the reader of the present day, are the craft
which navigate our rivers and bays without particular in-
terest. We are apt to picture a wilderness and romance in
their wanderings, so different from the scenes of the
present day, that our imaginations lend charms to the
subject; and the lonely sloop, working her way to the
remote settlements, through surrounding solitudes, is in-
vested with far different regard than ordinary scenes of a
kindred character, which are now within our observation.
The Hudson River, in the times of the Dutch, had but two
Christian settlements upon its banks. The meeting of
two vessels upon its waters was probably as unusual an
event, as the encounter of two sfiips upon the ocean at
the present day. Nor did the river traders confine them-
selves alone to the Christian settlements. Many guilders
were brought into their chest by the Indian trader. For
this purpose we find certain traders monopolizing partic-

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