href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@13842@[email protected]#image-25" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">The Reading of Fletcher's Commission

Arrest of Captain Kidd

New City Hall in Wall Street

Fort George in 1740

View in Broad Street about 1740

The Slave-Market

Fraunces's Tavern

Dinner at Rip Van Dam's

The Negroes Sentenced

Trinity Church, 1760

Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green, Head-Quarters of the Sons of Liberty

Ferry-House on East River, 1746

East River Shore, 1750

Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers

Howe's Head-Quarters, Beekman House

Map of Manhattan Island in 1776

View from the Bowling Green in the Revolution

Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the Prison-House of the Revolution

North Side of Wall Street East of William Street

Celebration of the Adoption of the Constitution

View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796

The John Street Theatre, 1781

Reservoir of Manhattan Water-Works in Chambers Street

The Collect Pond

The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander Hamilton

The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat

Castle Garden

Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden

View of Park Row, 1825

High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct

Crystal Palace

CHAPTER I.

THE ADVENTURES of HENRY HUDSON

HE long and narrow Island of Manhattan was a wild and beautiful spot in the year 1609. In this year a little ship sailed up the bay below the island, took the river to the west, and went on. In these days there were no tall houses with white walls glistening in the sunlight, no church-spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke to blot out the blue sky. None of these things. But in their place were beautiful trees with spreading branches, stretches of sand-hills, and green patches of grass. In the branches of the trees there were birds of varied colors, and wandering through the tangled undergrowth were many wild animals. The people of the island were men and women whose skins were quite red; strong and healthy people who clothed themselves in the furs of animals and made their houses of the trees and vines.

In this year of 1609, these people gathered on the shore of their island and looked with wonder at the boat, so different from any they had ever seen, as it was swept before the wind up the river.

The ship was called the Half Moon, and it had come all the way from Amsterdam, in the Dutch Netherlands. The Netherlands was quite a small country in the northern part of Europe, not nearly as large as the State of New York, and was usually called Holland, as Holland was the most important of its several states. But the Dutch owned other lands than these. They had islands in the Indian Ocean that were rich in spices of every sort, and the other European countries needed these spices. These islands, being quite close to India, were called the East Indies, and the company of Dutch merchants who did most of the business with them was called the East India Company. They