To the modern mind its reason for being seems as deliciousl\ a1:)surd as anything in the inconsecjuent adventures of Alice in Wonderland. A little company of sturdy New England men, from Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Providence, decided in 1784 that they would found a city. The humour of the proposition lay in the fact that, being mighty in the handling of the harpoon and seasoned with the salt of many seas, they proposed to establish, one hundred and fifteen miles inland from New York, a city devoted to whaling and kindred industries. There is no suggestion that these grave humourists ever dreamed of finding whales in the Hudson, though there is a tradition that one mighty cetacean went in search of his ancient antagonists, or for some other reason ascended the waters of the river till he stranded on the Hudson Flats, to the great consternation of the regular navigators from Coxsackie to vSaugerties. There is one strong argument to ad\^ance in favour

504 The Hudson River

of the sanity of the proprietors of Hudson. Their ])lan succeeded. From old Cla\'erack Landing, as the place was at first known, whalers were disi)atched and returned reeking with unsavour}' si)erm. Other vessels brought their merchandise from the ends of the earth to this harbour, so secure against any wind that ever troubled the ocean. A year after its settlement, Hudson was incorporated as a city. Its growth was i)henomenal, onl}' excelled, it is said, by that of Baltimore, and the ])roprietors Avaxed wealthy. For the large region of Columbia Count}' it became at once the distriliuting centre for all manner of merchandise, and after a while manufactures were established and prospered. The names of the ] )ro]3rictors were all familiar along the southern Massachusetts shore. Their leader was Thomas Jenkins of Nantucket; while Marshal Jenkins of Martha's Vineyard, with others of the same surname, ap])ear prominently in earl\- records.