S32 The Story of The Bronx 



"The two captive Indians who had escaped at West Point 

 had, it appears," says Irving, "made their way to the east 

 side of the river, rousing on their return the spirits of Sleepy 

 Hollow, or the more ferocious Manhatta, and here, in the in- 

 let of Haarlem River, they had concentrated a force that 

 impatiently awaited the arrival of the rich booty, which they 

 flattered themselves they should obtain. They had not 

 waited long before the Half- Moon appeared, and immedi- 

 ately hove to, near their place of ambush. One of the In- 

 dians who had escaped from Hudson's vessel now came out 

 with many others armed with bows and arrows, expecting to 

 betray them." 



As to the issue of the attack, we have the account of Juet, 

 the mate of the Half -Moon. He says: 



"We perceived their intent, and suffered none of them to 

 enter our ship, whereupon two canoes full of men with bows 

 and arrows shot at us after our stern, in recompense whereof 

 we discharged six muskets and killed two or three of them; 

 then above one hundred of them came to a point of land to 

 shoot at us, then I shot a falcon at them and killed two of 

 them; whereupon the rest fled into the woods. Yet they 

 manned off another canoe with nine or ten men, which came to 

 meet us; so I shot at it a falcon, and shot it through and killed 

 one of them, then our men with muskets killed three or four 

 more of them, so they went their way. " 



Yes, and so the Half -Moon went her way, too; but left 

 behind her a legacy of hate, suspicion, and revenge which 

 boded ill for those who came later. It is strange that these 

 civilized Europeans — whether English, Dutch, French, or 

 Spanish — who first came to our shores should have so univer- 

 sally aroused the baser passions of these simple children of 

 nature, when it would have been just as easy to have aroused 



