Maurits River, because it was discovered and taken possession
of in the time of Prince Maurice; Montagne River because one De la
Montagne was one of the first and principal settlers, and lastly,
Manhattans River, from the Manhattans Island, or the Manhattan
Indians, who lived hereabouts and on the island of Manhattans, now the
city of New York.[362] To be more exact, its beginning, it seems to
us, ought to be regarded as at the city of New York, where the East
River as well as Kill achter Kol separate from the North River. The
waters below the city are not commonly called the river, but the bay;
for although the river discharges itself into the sea at Sandy Hook,
or Rentselaer's Hook, this discharge is not peculiarly its own, but
also that of the East River, Achter Kol, Slangenbergh Bay, Hackingsack
Creek, Northwest Creek, Elizabeth Creek, Woodbridge Creek, Milstone
River, Raritan River, and Nevesinck Creek, all of which deserve the
name of rivers, and have nothing in common with the North River, but
with Long Island on one side and Staten Island on the other. The water
below the Narrows to Sandy Hook is usually called the Great Bay; and
that of the Narrows and above them as far as the city, and up to and
beyond Sapocanikke,[363] the Little Bay. Although the Great Bay is so
called, it is not by any means as large as that of the South River.
Above Sapocanikke the river is about two miles wide, and is very
uniformly of the same width as far up as the Hysopus and higher,
except in the Highlands, where there are here and there a narrow
strait and greater depth. Above the Hysopus, which is 90 to 96 miles
from the city, it still maintains a fair width, but with numerous
islands, shoals, and shallows, up to Fort Albany, where it is
narrower. It is easily navigable to the Hysopus with large vessels,
and thence to Fort Albany with smaller ones, although ketches and such
craft can go up there and load. It carries the ordinary flood tide
into the Highlands, but with much of a down flow of water, only up to
them; though with an extraordinary flow down and a dead neap-tide, the
water becomes brackish near the city. With a slight flow of water down
and a spring tide, accompanied by a southeast storm, the flood tide is
carried quite through the Highlands, and they said they had had a
change in the water even as far up as the Hysopus. The land on both
sides of the river is high and rocky, but higher in some places than
others, as at the