HISTORY OF BROOKLYN

CHAPTER 1
1609-1646

FROM THE DISCOVERY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND TO THE
INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE OF BROOKLYN.

THE discovery of Manhattan Island by Henry Hudson necessarily forms the initial point of this history. For, even if the “most beautiful lake” said to have been penetrated by Verazzano in 1524, and which he described in glowing colors to his Royal Master the King of France, was indeed the bay of New York, yet his visit, according to his own account, was little else than a traveller”s hurried glimpse and totally unproductive of results, either in respect to exploration or occupation. But when, on the evening of the 11th of September, 1609, the “Half Moon” of Amsterdam came to anchor at the mouth of the “Great River of the Mountains,” then, undoubtedly, the eyes of white men rested for the first time upon the Isle of “Mannahata,” the green shores of ”Scheyichbi,” or New Jersey, and the forest-crowned “Ihpetonga,” or “Heights” of the present city of Brooklyn. Then, all this region, now teeming with population and thrilling with the ceaseless pulse of civilized life, was wrapped in the lethargic slumber of primeval nature. The surrounding shores where a forest of shipping pours its constantly accumulating treasures at the feet of the Empire City of the Western World, were fringed with magnificent forests gorgeous with autumnal hues. To the wondering mariners the land seemed ñas pleasant with grass, and flowers, and goodly trees, as ever they had seen;”