Boston and Cambridge, in Portsmouth, N.H., and in some parts of Rhode Island, there grew up much elegance of living and magnificent hospitality; and there still remain in these places old houses which show the splendor that prevailed in colonial days. Slavery existed in all the early colonies, but in a very mild form; slavelabor being rarely employed in the fields, but mainly in private houses. At its first introduction it had been earnestly opposed; and when, in 1646, a cargo of Africans came from the Guinea coast to Boston, the legislature ordered them to be sent back to their native country, with a letter of indignation; and they were so scrupulous as to send and bring back one who had been. already taken to Maine. In the Connecticut Colony, in 1650, and in New Haven soon after, man-stealing was made a capital offence. In Rhode Island, also, the first act of the General Assembly in regard to slavery, in 1652, ordered that no "blacke mankind or white" should be held in slavery for more than ten years, or after the age of twenty-four. But these scruples were gradually disregarded, and slavery was established. Many influential men still protested against it, especially Chief Justice Samuel Sewall, who published, in 1700, a tract on the subject, called "The Selling of Joseph." An answer to this tract was soon published; and Judge Sewall says in his letters that he met with "frowns and hard words" for it, but that he was sustained by the influence of some of the leading clergymen, such as Rev. John Higginson of Salem. It was not till after the Revolution, however, that slavery disappeared from the New England Colonies.

CHAPTER XI.

OLD DUTCH TIMES IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY.

THH

HERE was once an English sailor, named Henry Hudson, who made some very daring voyages. The European nations were trying hard to discover a shorter passage to India, either by sailing to the north of Europe, or by finding some opening through the new continent of America. Henry Hudson had made two voyages for this purpose, in the employ of English companies. Twice he had sailed among the icebergs, and through the terrible cold, as far as Spitzbergen; and twice he had turned back, because he could get no farther. But he was still as resolute and adventurous as ever, always ready for something new,-ready to brave the arctic cold or the tropic heat, if he could only find that passage to India which so many had sought in vain. At last, on the 4th of April, 1609, the Dutch East India Company sent him out once more to make discoveries. The Dutch at that time were the great commercial nation of the world; and Amsterdam was the centre of the commerce of Europe. There was not a forest of ship-timber in Holland; but it owned more ships than all Europe beside.

"Half

Henry Hudson's vessel was named the Moon." He had a crew of twenty Englishmen and

First

Dutchmen; and his own son was among them. he sailed north, as he had done before, trying to reach Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; but he found icebergs everywhere, and his men almost mutinied because of the cold. Then he resolved to sail farther westward. He passed near Greenland, then southward to Newfoundland, then to Cape Cod, then as far south as Virginia; then he turned northward again, observing the shore more closely, and found himself at the mouth of what seemed to him a broad strait or river. On the 3d of September, 1609, he anchored near what is now Sandy Hook. There the Indians came out to trade with him; and after a few days he set sail again, following the stream farther and farther, thinking that he had found the passage to India at last.

It must have been an exciting thing to sail with Henry Hudson up that noble river, where no white man had ever sailed before. He said in his narrative that the lands on both sides were "pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees." "It is as beautiful a land as one can tread upon," he declared, "and abounds in all kinds of excellent ship-timber." The Indians came out to meet him in canoes "made of single hollowed trees; " but he would not let them come on board at first, because one of them had killed one of his sailors with an arrow. After a while the Dutchmen put more confidence in the Indians, and let them bring grapes and pumpkins and furs to the vessel. These were paid for with beads, knives, and hatchets. At last the Indians invited the bold sea-captain to visit them on shore, and made him very welcome; and one of their chiefs "made an oration, and showed him all

the country round about." Henry Hudson sailed up as far as where the town of Hudson now stands; and there, finding it too shallow for his vessel, sent a boat farther still, as far as what is now Albany. Then he turned back, disappointed, and sailed out of the "great river," or "Groot Rivier" as he called it, and went back to Holland.

He never saw that beautiful river again. The Dutch East India Company did not care to explore it, since it did not lead to India; and Hudson, on his next voyage, went to the northern seas, hoping to find the passage to India that way. He entered the bay that now bears his name; and there his men mutinied, tied him hand and foot, put him on board a boat, with his son and a few companions, among the floating ice, and set him adrift. Nothing more was ever heard of him. But to this day some of the descendants of old Dutch families on the Hudson River tell legends of the daring navigator who first explored it, and call him by the Dutch form of his name; and, when the thunder rolls away over the Highlands, they say, "There are Hendrick Hudson and his crew playing ninepins among the hills."

In a few years trading-posts began to be established on the Hudson River. King James I. of England had lately chartered two companies (as has already been told) for the purpose of colonizing North America. One was to take the northern part of the Atlantic coast, and the other the southern half; but he required that their nearest settlements should be a hundred miles apart, so that there should be no quarrelling between them. It did not occur to him, that, if he left this wide

space open, some other nation might slip in between, and found colonies; so that there might be quarrelling after all. Yet this was just what happened. After Henry Hudson's discoveries, Holland laid claim to all the land along the "great river," and called the whole territory "New Netherlands." Then, the next year, there came a bold sailor, named Adrian Block, the first European who ever sailed through Hurlgate, as has been already described in a previous chapter. He. loaded his ship, the "Tiger," with bear-skins, at the mouth of the Hudson, and was just ready to sail, when the ship caught fire, and he had to land on Manhattan Island, where New York City now stands. There his men spent the winter of 1614. They put up some log-huts, and a fort of logs; and before spring they built a new vessel of sixteen tons, called the "Onrust," or "Unrest," a very good name for the restless navigators of those days. This was the second vessel built on this continent by Europeans. This settlement, which was called "New Amsterdam," was the foundation of what is now the great city of New York; and, that, the whole of Manhattan Island was bought from the Indians for twenty-four pounds sterling. Staten Island received its name from Henry Hudson, in honor of the Dutch government, "Staaten" being Dutch for "states."

ten years

after

Settlers at first came slowly to New Amsterdam; but the Dutch established several trading-posts, at different points, where they might buy the skins of beavers, bears, and otters, which the Indians had trapped or shot. At first only poor immigrants came; but, after a while, certain richer and more influential men were