When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson was sure that he had found the passage to the Indies, and he paid very little attention to the red-skinned Indians on the island shore.  But when the ship got as far as where Albany is now, the water had become shallow, and the river-banks were so near together that Hudson gave up in despair, and said that, after all, he had not found the eagerly sought-for passage to India, but only a river!

Then he turned the ship, sailed back past the island, and returned to Holland to tell of his discovery.  He told of the fur-bearing animals, and of what a vast fortune could be made if their skins could only be got to Holland, where furs were needed.  He told of the Indians; and the river which flowed past the island he spoke of as “The River of the Mountains.”

[Illustration:  The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson.]

The directors of the Dutch East India Company were not particularly pleased with Hudson’s report.  They were angry because the short cut to India had not been found, and they thought very little of the vast storehouse of furs which he had discovered.  Neither did the Company care a great deal about Hudson, for they soon fell out with him, and he went back to the English company and made another voyage for them, still in search of the short passage to India.  But in this last voyage, he only succeeded in finding a great stretch of water far to the north, that can be seen on any map as Hudson’s Bay.  His crew after a time grew angry when he wanted to continue his search.  There was a mutiny on the ship, and Hudson and his son and seven of the sailors who were his friends were put into a small boat, set adrift in the bay to which he had given his name, and no trace of them was ever seen again.  Long, long years after that time, another explorer found the passage that Hudson had lost his life searching for.  It is The Northwest Passage, far up toward the North Pole, in the region of perpetual cold and night.  So Hudson never knew that the passage he had looked for was of no value, and we may be sure he had never imagined that there would ever be a great city on the island he had discovered.

The Dutch came to think a great deal of Hudson after he was dead.  The stream which he had called “The River of the Mountains” they named Hudson’s River.  They even made believe that Hudson was a Dutchman—­although you will remember he was an Englishman—­and were in the habit of speaking of him as “Hendrick” Hudson.

The Indians were scattered over America in great numbers.  The tribe on the island were called Manhattans, and from that tribe came the name of the Island of Manhattan.  All the Indians, no matter which tribe they belonged to, looked very much alike and acted very much the same.  Their eyes were dark, and their hair long, straight, and black.  When they were fighting, they daubed their skins with colored muds—­war paint the white men called it—­and started