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. Biblical names seemed to abound in the family of Thomas. We find Seth, Lemuel, and Benjamin in the second generation; the first named figuring as ma}'or. Marshal Jenkins was the grandfather of Major- General William Jenkins Worth, whose feats of arms in Mexico made him a po|3ular hero and whose dust reposes under the granite monument erected to him on Fifth Avenue, New York. In speculating upon the motives which induced the "thirty New Englanders, mostly Quakers," to choose

Nantucket Quakers and Dutch Fighters 507

this site for their city, it is tUfficult to behevc that mere prudence or a commercial s])irit impelled them. It is true that after the troublesome exi)erienees of the war, when their vessels had been captured and destroyed and their liberties menaced by the British enemv, they must have exi)erienced great satisfaction in hnding so safe a retreat ; 1 )ut it is also to Ijc believed that to eves accustomed to the unmitigated sand and unrelieved levels of Cape Cod, the green and fertile billows of the landscape that lies between the river and the " Katzbergs" must ha\-e been like a vision of Paradise. Hudson has attracted se\^eral artists of repute -- indeed, has been the birth] )lace of more than one of the school that it was the fashion a few years ago to refer to slightingl}^ as "Hudson River." Chin-ch and Gif-. ford lead the list of those who have been honoured among American painters.