[Footnote 1: From Mr. Brodhead's "History of the State of New
York" I reproduce the following note, that tells of the little
"Half Moon's" dismal ending: "The subsequent career of the
'Half Moon' may, perhaps, interest the curious. The small 'ship
book,' before referred to, which I found, in 1841, in the
Company's archives at Amsterdam, besides recording the return
of the yacht on the 15th of July, 1610, states that on the 2d
of May, 1611, she sailed, in company with other vessels, to the
East Indies, under the command of Laurens Reael; and that on
the 6th of March, 1615, she was 'wrecked and lost' on the
island of Mauritius."]

From the standpoint of the East India Company, Hudson's quest upon
our coast and into our river--the most fruitful of all his
adventurings, since the planting of our city was the outcome of
it--was a failure. Hessel Gerritz (1613) wrote: "All that he did
in the west in 1609 was to exchange his merchandise for furs in
New France." And Hudson himself, no doubt, rated his great
accomplishment--on which so large a part of his fame rests
enduringly--as a mere waste of energy and of time. I hope that he
knows about, and takes a comforting pride in--over there in the
Shades--the great city which owes its founding to that seemingly
bootless voyage!




IX