extends for nearly twenty miles along the western shore of the river.

[Illustration: THE PALISADES.]

Then, some distance further up, Captain Hudson came to a place where
the river breaks through great forest-covered hills, called the
Highlands. At the end of the fifth day he came to a point on the
eastern bank above the Highlands, where the city of Hudson now stands.
Here an old Indian chief invited him to go ashore. Hudson had found
the Indians, as he says, "very loving," so he thought he would accept
the invitation. The savages made a great feast for the captain. They
gave him not only roast pigeons, but also a roast dog, which they
cooked specially for him: they wanted he should have the very best.

These Indians had never seen a white man before. They thought that
the English captain, in his bright scarlet coat trimmed with gold
lace, had come down from the sky to visit them. What puzzled them,
however, was that he had such a pale face instead of having a red
one like themselves.

At the end of the feast Hudson rose to go, but the Indians begged
him to stay all night. Then one of them got up, gathered all the arrows,
broke them to pieces, and threw them into the fire, in order to show
the captain that he need not be afraid to stop with them.

[Footnote 2: Palisades: this name is given to the wall of rock on
the Hudson, because, when seen near by, it somewhat resembles a
palisade, or high fence made of stakes or posts set close together,
upright in the ground.]