The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea . by far the most interesting river inAmerica, considering the beauty and mag-nificence of its scenery, its natural, political,and social history, the agricultural andmineral treasures of its vicinage, the com-mercial -svealth hourly floating upon itsbosom, and the relations of its geographyand topography to some of the most ira-poitmt e^ents in the hi^toiy of the Western hemisphere. High upon the walls of the governors room in the New York CityHall is a dingy painting of a broad-headed, short-haired, sparsely-beardedman, with an enormous ruftlo about
The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea . by far the most interesting river inAmerica, considering the beauty and mag-nificence of its scenery, its natural, political,and social history, the agricultural andmineral treasures of its vicinage, the com-mercial -svealth hourly floating upon itsbosom, and the relations of its geographyand topography to some of the most ira-poitmt e^ents in the hi^toiy of the Western hemisphere. High upon the walls of the governors room in the New York CityHall is a dingy painting of a broad-headed, short-haired, sparsely-beardedman, with an enormous ruftlo about his neck, and bearing the impressof an intellectual, courtly gentleman of the days of King James the Pirstof England. By whom it was painted: nobody knows, but conjectureshrewdly guesses that it was delineated by the hand of Paul YanSomcren, the skilful Flemish artist who painted the portraits of manypersons of distinction in Amsterdam and London, in the reign of James,and died in the British capital four years before that monarch. We are. 2 THE HUDSON. well assured that it is the portrait of an eminent navigator, who, in thatremarkable year in the history of England and America, one thousand sixhundi-ed and seven, met certaine worshippeful merchants of London,in the parlour of a son of Sir Thomas Gresham, in Bishopsgate Street,and bargained concerning a proposed voyage in search of a north-eastpassage to India, between the icy and rock-bound coasts of Nova Zcmblaand Spitzbergen. That navigator was Hexey Hudsox, a friend of Captain John Smith, aman of science and liberal views, and a pupil, perhaps, of Drake, orFrobisher, or Grenville, in the seamans art. On May-day morning heknelt in the church of St. Ethelburga, and partook of the Sacrament; andsoon afterward he left the Thames for the circumpolar waters. Duringtwo voyages he battled the ice-pack manfully off the North Cape, but with-out success: boreal frosts were too intense for the brine, and cast impene-trable ice-barrie
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjecthudsonrivernyandnjde
