that had
befallen voyagers on this great river, particularly in the earlier
periods of colonial history; most of which the Heer deliberately
attributed to supernatural causes. Dolph stared at this suggestion;
but the old gentleman assured him that it was very currently believed
by the settlers along the river, that these highlands were under the
dominion of supernatural and mischievous beings, which seemed to have
taken some pique against the Dutch colonists in the early time of the
settlement. In consequence of this, they have ever since taken
particular delight in venting their spleen, and indulging their
humours, upon the Dutch skippers; bothering them with flaws, head
winds, counter currents, and all kinds of impediments; insomuch, that
a Dutch navigator was always obliged to be exceedingly wary and
deliberate in his proceedings; to come to anchor at dusk; to drop his
peak, or take in sail, whenever he saw a swag-bellied cloud rolling
over the mountains; in short, to take so many precautions, that he was
often apt to be an incredible time in toiling up the river.

Some, he said, believed these mischievous powers of the air to be evil
spirits conjured up by the Indian wizards, in the early times of the
province, to revenge themselves on the strangers who had dispossessed
them of their country. They even attributed to their incantations the
misadventure which befell the renowned Hendrick Hudson, when he sailed
so gallantly up this river in quest of a north-west passage, and, as
he thought, run his ship aground; which they affirm was nothing more
nor less than a spell of these same wizards, to prevent his getting to
China in this direction.

The greater part, however, Heer Antony observed, accounted for all the
extraordinary circumstances attending this river, and the perplexities
of the skippers which navigated it, by the old legend of the
Storm-ship, which haunted Point-no-point. On finding Dolph to be
utterly ignorant of this tradition, the Heer stared at him for a
moment with surprise, and wondered where he had passed his life, to be
uninformed on so important a point of history. To pass away the
remainder of the evening, therefore, he undertook the tale, as far as
his memory would serve, in the very words in which it had been written
out by Mynheer Selyne, an early poet of the New-Nederlandts. Giving,
then, a stir to the fire, that sent up its sparks among the trees like
a little volcano, he adjusted himself com