which they saw her. Sometimes it was by the
flashes of the thunder-storm lighting up a pitchy night, and giving
glimpses of her careering across Tappaan 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 would reach the place, there would be no
ship 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 tha
moonshine! Her appearance was always just after, or just before, or
just in the midst of, unruly weather; and she was known by all 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 endless to repeat the conjectures and opinions that
were 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 harbour. Others suggested, that, if it really
was a supernatural apparition, as there was every natural reason to
believe, it might be Hendrick 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 already been reported, that Hendrick Hudson and his
crew haunted the Kaatskill Mountain; 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.

Other events occurred to occupy the thoughts and doubts of the sage
Wouter and his council, and the storm-ship ceased to be a subject of
deliberation at the board. It continued, however, to be a matter of
popular belief and marvellous anecdote through the whole tim