against wind and tide, which were both down the
river. Upon this Hans Van Pelt, who was likewise harbour-master,
ordered his boat, and set off to board her; but after rowing two or
three hours, he returned without success. Sometimes he would get
within one or two hundred yards of her, and then, in a twinkling, she
would be half a mile off. Some said it was because his oarsmen, who
were rather pursy and short-winded, stopped every now and then to take
breath, and spit on their hands; but this, it is probable, was a mere
scandal. He got near enough, however, to see the crew; who were all
dressed in the Dutch style, the officers in doublets and high hats and
feathers: not a word was spoken by any one on board; they stood as
motionless as so many statues, and the ship seemed as if left to her
own government. Thus she kept on away up the river, lessening and
lessening in the evening sunshine, until she faded from sight, like a
little white cloud melting away in the summer sky.

The appearance of this ship threw the governor into one of the deepest
doubts that ever beset him in the whole course of his administration.
Fears were entertained for the security of the infant settlements on
the river, lest this might be an enemy's ship in disguise, sent to
take possession. The governor called together his council repeatedly
to assist him with their conjectures. He sat in his chair of state,
built of timber from the sacred forest of the Hague, and smoking his
long jasmine pipe, and listened to all that his counsellors had to say
on a subject about which they knew nothing; but, in spite of all the
conjecturing of the sagest and oldest heads, the governor still
continued to doubt.

Messengers were despatched to different places on the river; but they
returned without any tidings--the ship had made no port. Day after
day, and week after week, elapsed; but she never returned down the
Hudson. As, however, the council seemed solicitous for intelligence,
they had it in abundance. The captains of the sloops seldom arrived
without bringing some report of having seen the strange ship at
different parts of the river; sometimes near the Palisadoes; sometimes
off Croton Point, and sometimes in the highlands; but she never was
reported as having been seen above the highlands. The crews of the
sloops, it is true, generally differed among themselves in their
accounts of these apparitions; but they may have arisen from the
uncertain situations in