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BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Picture the scene.
It's 400 years ago this week.
Anchored in the middle of the wide river and riding high on the water is a three-masted, 80-ton ship, a speedy but shallow-bottom vessel. It is considered small for the voyage of exploration it taken since leaving Holland on April 6, 1609.
The ship is the Half Moon and its captain, Englishman Henry Hudson, is sailing for the Dutch government in an attempt to find the elusive Northwest Passage to the Orient.
To the east is an island the Native Americans call Manhattan. The land to the west has no name but Hudson and his mates describe it as "very pleasant and high and bold.''
As the Half Moon swings at anchor on Sept. 4, natives, Lenni Lanape, come aboard to trade with the crew of 16 to 20 English and Dutch sailors and give Hudson his first taste of corn. He calls it "Turkish wheat.''Lenni Lanape is a word in the Unami Native American dialect whose closest translation would be, "really regular guys.''
Two days earlier, the Half Moon had sailed into what is now Lower New York Bay and anchored off Sandy Hook. The ship had sailed north along the coast after turning away from the entrance to Delaware Bay for fear of running aground on shoals.
As the Half Moon approached the lower bay, a lookout reported a "great fire'' ashore. The forest land that is now Atlantic Highlands, the highest point on the East Coast, was ablaze.
On Sept. 3, Hudson lifted anchor and sailed north through the narrows, passing what is now Staten Island and Brooklyn. By late afternoon, the Half Moon was sailing up the river. Hudson claimed the river and surrounding land for Holland.
Hudson was the first European to explore the river that would some day bear his name, but he did not discover it. The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verranzano was the first recorded European to discover the mouth of the river in 1524. "We found a very pleasant situation amongst some steep hills,'' he wrote. Da Verranzano called the waterway The River of the Steep Hills, and the Grand River but he did not explore it. A few months later, Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese exploring for the French, arrived at the river's mouth and called it the Rio de San Antonio. The natives called it Muhheakunnuk or Great Mohegan.
Hudson named the waterway the Mauritius River, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau.
As Hudson had his first taste of corn, a few of the crew were sent in a small boat to fish in the river. They caught ten mullets and a ray described as so big, it took four sailors to haul it in.
On Sept. 5, Hudson and most of the crew went ashore. It is not clear on which side of the river. The natives gave tobacco in return for knives and beads. Hudson found them "very civil,'' but one of his top mates wrote, "durst not trust them.‘'
On Sept. 6, Hudson sent a mate, John Colman and four crewmen to explore another waterway. The boat was assaulted by two canoes carrying 26 natives. Colman was killed by an arrow through the throat and two others were seriously wounded.
On Sept. 8 and 9, natives boarded the Half Moon to trade, but Hudson and his crew were leery. "Had they indicated by a cunning light in their eyes that they had knowledge of the foul murder, I was prepared to order my company to exterminate all without delay,'' Hudson told his mates.
On Sept. 10, The Half Moon sailed north on the river.
On Sept. 12, 28 canoes carrying men, women and children approached the ship but a mate noted, "We saw the intent of their treachery and would not allow any of them to come aboard.''
On Sept. 14, the Half Moon sailed into what is now the wide Tappan Zee and Hudson thought he might have found the Northwest Passage but when the river became shallow north of what is now Albany, the explorer realized he was wrong.
On the Sept. 18, Hudson went ashore at the invitation of a chief and the natives "killed a fat dog and skinned it in great haste'' for the dinner. When the natives sensed Hudson was wary of them, they broke arrows and threw them into the fire to show they welcomed him in peace.
On Sept. 22, after sailing 150 miles, Hudson decided to turn around.
On Oct. 1, near what is now Peekskill, natives boarded the Half Moon to trade. When one was discovered attempting to steal a pillow and some clothes from a cabin, he was killed. Another native was killed by a cook. The following day, as the ship neared Manhattan, nearly 100 natives chased the ship in canoes. Hudson's crew and the natives traded shots and a few of the natives were killed.
On Oct. 4, the Half Moon reached the mouth of the river and Hudson sailed for Holland.
On the way, the Half Moon stopped in England and Hudson was arrested for sailing under another country's flag, an action considered treason. The rest of the crew continued to Holland.
The following year, finance by wealthy Englishmen, Hudson sailed on the ship Discovery to explore the waters north of Canada, again in search of the Northwest Passage. In a bay that would later bear his name, the Discovery became trapped in the ice. In the spring of 1611, the crew mutinied and Hudson, his young son, and a few crew members were set adrift. They were never seen again.
In 1618, the Dutch took advantage of Hudson's explorations and establish a trading post at Bergen, now the Bergen Square section of Jersey City, a block from Journal Square. Five years later, Dutch Capt. Cornelius J. Mey built Fort Nassau near Gloucester City on the Delaware River and became director of a new colony named New Netherland.
In 1629 and 1630, the Dutch begin to settle the west bank of the river on what is now the Jersey City Gold Coast. The settlers called the river the North River.
It was not until the English took control of Manhattan and began to settle in what would become New Jersey and New York that the waterway became known as the Hudson River.
