s of her
careering across Tappan Zee or the wide waste of Haverstraw Bay. At
one moment she would appear close upon them, as if likely to run them
down, and would throw them into great bustle and alarm, but the next
flash would show her far off, always sailing against the wind.
Sometimes, in quiet moonlight nights, she would be seen under some high
bluff of the Highlands; all in deep shadow, excepting her top-sails
glittering in the moonbeams; by the time, however, that the voyagers
reached the place no ship was to be seen; and when they had passed on
for some distance and looked back, behold! there she was again with her
top-sails in the moonshine! Her appearance was always just after or
just in the midst of unruly weather; and she was known among the
skippers and voyagers of the Hudson by the name of "The Storm Ship."

These reports perplexed the governor and his council more than ever;
and it would be useless to repeat the conjectures and opinions uttered
on the subject. Some quoted cases in point of ships seen off the coast
of New England navigated by witches and goblins. Old Hans Van Pelt,
who had been more than once to the Dutch Colony at the Cape of Good
Hope, insisted that this must be the _Flying Dutchman_ which had so
long haunted Table Bay, but being unable to make port had now sought
another harbor. Others suggested that if it really was a supernatural
apparition, as there was every natural reason to believe, it might be
Hendrik Hudson and his crew of the _Half-Moon_, who, it was well known,
had once run aground in the upper part of the river in seeking a
north-west passage to China. This opinion had very little weight with
the governor, but it passed current out of doors; for indeed it had
always been reported that Hendrik Hudson and his crew haunted the
Kaatskill Mountains; and it appeared very reasonable to suppose that
his ship might infest the river where the enterprise was baffled, or
that it might bear the shadowy crew to their periodical revels in the
mountain. . . .

People who live along the river insist that they sometimes see her in
summer moonlight, and that in a deep still midnight they have heard the
chant of her crew, as if heaving the lead; but sights and sounds are so
deceptive along the mountainous shores, and about the wide bays and
long reaches of this great river, that I confess I have very strong
doubts upon the subject. It is certain, nevertheless, that strange
things have be