Chripstapel" was unquestionably the Lower New York Bay, and his "Rio St. Antonio" (so named in honor of the saint on whose day he beheld it) the Hudson River. The latter conclusion is clearly established by his description ofthe river as "north and south with said bay," which, taken in its connections, can not possibly apply to any other stream. To have established the north and south direction of the river he must have explored it for some distance. It hence becomes an entirely reasonable inference that in 1525, eighty-four years before Hudson's appearance, the Portuguese Gomez, sailing under a commission from Spain, entered Westchester County waters. It has even been suggested that Anthony's Nose, the peak which guards the entrance to the Highlands, owes its name to this first voyager of the river.1 Aside from the records of these early discoveries of Verrazano and Gomez, there is much historic* al evidence indicating that at _:„-,~i -Jbjr least the general coast conformation in the latitude of New York was well understood by European cartographers and navigators long before Hudson made his memorable

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voyage in the " Half-Moon." This is strikingly illustrated by Hudson's own the "half^moon." that in seeking a waystatement, to India in this region lie was partly influenced by a hint received from his friend, Captain John Smith, of Virginia, to the effect that somewhere about 40 north there was a strait conducting to the Pacific, similar to Magellan's Strait. Indeed, it was in studied violation of the instructions laid down for him by his employers at his setting out that he turned his vessel hitherward. His instructions were to sail past Nova Zembla and the north coast of Siberia, through the Bering Strait into the Pacific, and so southward to the Dutch Indies. The famous 1 Benson, in his "Memoirs.'" says that " the promontory in the Highlands is called Antonie's Nose, after An tonie De Hooge, secretary of the colony of Rensselaerwyck." He gives no authority for the opinion.