53i 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



3. MARTEN. 



Moon" was the flesh of a White-Tailed Deer. 

 It was when that venturesome vessel reached the 

 head of navigation of the Hudson River, prob- 

 ably near Troy, that the explorers found the 

 Indians "very pleasant people." The Savages 

 came on board, and brought "a great Platter of 

 Venison, dressed by themselves ; and they caused 

 him [Hudson] to eat with them; then they made 

 him reverence" ; and after all this had been ac- 

 complished, on September 23, the "Half-Moon" 

 started to return down the Hudson. At the 

 Highlands, other Indians came aboard, and 



"brought some small skinnes with them, which 

 we bought for Knives and Trifles." 



For two centuries the AVhite-Tailed Deer was 

 the best wild friend of the American pioneer. 

 !Many a brave family "on the frontier," fighting 

 the wilderness and the Indians for the thing 

 most dear to the native-American heart. — a free 

 Home, — would have gone hungry, and perhaps 

 found life actually insupportable, without the 

 succulent flesh of the ever-faithful White-Tail. 



It was indeed most fortunate for the American 

 colonists that it was of almost universal distri- 



