explorations--the "Half Moon's" log being written throughout with
the same definiteness and accuracy--gave what neither Gomez nor
Verrazano gave: clear directions for finding with certainty the
haven that he, and those earlier navigators, had found by chance.
On that fact, and on the other fact that his directions promptly
were utilized, rests his claim to be the practical discoverer of
the harbor of New York.

For more than a week the "Half Moon" lay in the Lower Bay and in
the Narrows. Then, on the eleventh of September, she passed fairly
beyond Staten Island and came out into the Upper Bay: and Hudson
saw the great river--which on that day became his river--stretching
broadly to the north. I can imagine that when he found that
wide waterway, leading from the ocean into the heart of the
continent--and found it precisely where his friend Captain John
Smith had told him he would find it, "under 40 degrees"--his hopes
were very high. The first part of the story being confirmed, it was
a fair inference that the second part would be confirmed; that
presently, sailing through the "strait" that he had entered, he
would come out, as Magellan had come out from the other strait,
upon the Pacific--with clear water before him to the coasts of
Cathay.

That glad hope must have filled his heart during the ensuing
fortnight; and even then it must have died out slowly through
another week--while the "Half Moon" worked her way northward as far
as where Albany now stands. Twice in the course of his voyage
inland--on September 14th, when his run was from Yonkers to
Peekskill--he reasonably may have believed that he was on the very
edge of his great discovery. As the river widened hugely into the