They saw before all others, her lofty hills, rich valleys, and deep magnificent forests, glowing in the transparent air and warm sun of Autumn beneath the bright blue sky of America.^

They sailed up the river as far as the site of Albany and then slowly returned. On the second of October, they anchored at the historic inlet of Spyt-den-Duyvel, their progress being checked by a strong flood tide. Here, they first met the tawny, well formed, brown eyed, people, clad in skins and adorned with feathers, who then ruled over Westchester ; and most unhappily as enemies. The cause was this. While still in the lower bay the Half-Moon, on the 9th ot September, was threatened by some canoes full of savages. Hudson therefore detained two Indians as hostages, "putting red coats on them." Six days later, when she had got into the Highlands, the two Indians escaped through a port and swam ashore. When she stopped at Spyt-den-Duyvel on her return, one of the escaped Indians, aud others, in a canoe, with some more canoes of Indians, tried to board her. Being repelled, they made an attack with bows and arrows, supported by about a hundred more Indians on shore. The fire-arms of the crew drove them oflf with a loss of nine or ten killed.'

Such was the unfortunate beginning of the intercourse of white men with the Indians of Westchester. These Indians, as well all the others with whom Hudson came in contact, belonged to a great aboriginal nation, or stock, termed the Lenni-Lenape. This was the name of that great confedera cy of Indian tribes, which, as Heckewelder states, extended from the mouth of the Potomac northeastwardly to the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, and westwardly to the Alleghanies and the Cattskills,* and were afterwards known as the Delawares.