CHAPTER IV

HENEY  HUDSON'S  VOYAGE  AND  ITS  KESULTS  IN  TKADE
AND   COLONIZATION
 

0 the resident of New-York City perhaps the most inter¬
esting event in the history of American discovery, next
to that of America itself, is the discovery of New-York
Bay and the exploration of the Hudson Eiver. Indeed,
apart from this local interest, the account of Henry Hudson's voyage
in the Half-Moon, from beginning to end, is so full of romantic
and striking incident that the reader never wearies of its repetition,,
 

HENRY   HUDSON   IN    THE   HIGHLANDS.
 

but  turns  to   it  with  ever   renewed
pleasure.    Yet a natural curiosity, as

well as historical exactness, compels us to ask the question, which
has already been suggested by the opening chapter: Were Hudson and
his companions the first of European navigators to look upon the
charming prospect of our bay and river ? All can enter with hearty
sympathy into Irving's feelings when, expressing his indignation
against those writers who industriously seek to deprive Columbus
of the glory of his discovery, he says : '' There is a certain meddlesome
spirit which in the garb of learned research goes prying about the