HISTORIC TOWNS OF

THE MIDDLE STATES

Α'

ALBANY

"This antient and respectable city."

(Washington, 1782.)

BY WALTON W. BATTERSHALL

LBANY, unlike the proverbial happy woman, has not only age but a history. Its age is indicated in its claim to be the second oldest existing settlement in the original thirteen colonies. The claim is fairly sustained, but we must remember that the alleged discoveries and settlements of those nomadic times are a trifle equivocal. On the other hand, the historical significance of Albany is based on two unquestioned facts: for a century it guarded the imperilled north and west fron

tiers of Anglo-Saxon civilization on the continent; for another century it has been the legislative seat of the most powerful State in the Republic.

On the 19th of September, 1609, old style, the yacht De Halve Maen, six months from Amsterdam, in command of Henry Hudson, dropped anchor a few miles below the present site of Albany. Four days spent in the exchange of civilities with the Indians and the taking of soundings from the ship's boat farther up the stream, convinced the speculative explorer that the beautiful river among the hills gave no promise of a water path to China, and the Half-Moon, freighted with wild fruits, peltries and pleasant impressions, turned her prow homeward.

From the Dutch and also the English point of view, the English skipper of the Dutch ship had discovered the river. It appears however that in 1524 Verrazzano put a French keel, La Dauphine, far up the same stream, to which he gave the name La Grande, and, some time after, French fur traders built a rude château, or, as we would say, fortified trading-post, on Castle Island, just off the hills of Albany. the France of Francis I. had no colonizing

But

grip, and La Nouvelle France was simply a name which stretched along the Atlantic seaboard on the French charts of the sixteenth century.

On the return of Henry Hudson, his discovery was claimed by his patrons, the Dutch East India Company. They named the river the Mauritius' (Prince Maurice's River), and the outlying country, known as Nieu Nederlandt, had good report in Holland for its furs and friendly savages.

The Amsterdam merchants were alert, and other Dutch vessels, following in the wake of the Half-Moon, pushed up the river to the head of navigation. There they found on the west bank the Maquaas, or Mohawks, and on the east bank the Mahicans, or Mohegans, with whom they had profitable transactions.

To consolidate and protect their ventures, a group of merchants petitioned the StatesGeneral of Holland for the exclusive privilege of traffic with the aborigines on the river. The elaborate map of Nieu Nederlandt which they presented with their petition was dis

Subsequently the river bore the name of North River, to distinguish it from the Delaware, the South River of Nieu Nederlandt. In fact the fair stream has been renamed as often as a Parisian street. Albany has shared the fate of the river.

covered in 1841 in the royal archives at the Hague, and a facsimile is now in the State Library at Albany. A license for three years was granted. Thereupon, in 1615, the ruined. château on Castle Island was rebuilt, equipped with two cannon and garrisoned with a dozen Dutch soldiers. In compliment to the Stadtholder, it received the name of Fort Nassau.

This occupancy in force of Castle Island (now called Van Rensselaer Island) was brief, for the spring freshets proved too much for even the amphibious Dutch musketeers and traders, and it hardly can be called a settle

ment.

It is an interesting fact, that the valley of the Hudson narrowly missed the honor of being settled by the passengers of the Mayflower. Under the November skies of 1620, that historic vessel, with its valuable cargo of religious and political seed-corn, for several days had been beating about the point of Cape Cod. Old Governor Bradford, with quaint spelling and phrasing, tells the story of the mishap:

"After some deliberation had amongst them selves and with ye m' of ye ship, they tacked aboute and resolved The Chart illustrating this article is one of a later date.