8 THE BOROUGH OF THE BRONX 



of the mainland to the defence of New Amsterdam, and found no 

 ferryman daring enough to venture across. "The wind was blowing 

 a perfect hurricane, which sent the waters swirling like a mael- 

 strom. For a short time Anthony vapored like an impatient ghost 

 upon the brink, and then bethinking himself of the urgency of his 

 errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most 

 valorously that he would swim across 'in spite of the devil' (en 

 spijt den Duyvel) , and daringly plunged into the stream. Luck- 

 less Anthony! Scarce had he been buffeted half way across the 

 stream, when he was observed to struggle violently as if battling 

 with the spirit of the waters — instinctively he put his trumpet to 

 his mouth, and giving a vehement blast, sank forever to the 

 bottom." 



Altho this is entirely a work of the imagination, and has 

 no basis in fact, it seems as good a solution of the mystery as any 

 other offered. 



Four years after the English navigator sailed up the Hudson, 

 one Adrien Block, while cruising up the Long Island Sound in 

 the first ship ever built by white men on Manhattan Island, landed 

 somewhere along the eastern shore of The Bronx; but nothing ever 

 developed from his visit. 



Shortly after Hudson returned to Holland with the Half 

 Moon, a company of merchants in Amsterdam sent out 

 five vessels loaded with goods to be traded with the 

 Indians in America for furs. Among the skippers of this fleet 

 was Adrien Block, commanding a ship called the Tiger. The other 

 ships having gone to various parts of the new continent, Block, 

 who had visited Manhattan Island in 1610 or 1611, decided that 

 the lower end of the island was a good place to land and trade. 



Some time during the latter part of 1613 the Tiger caught 

 fire, and was completely destroyed. In order to continue their 

 trading and exploration of the surrounding country, the Captain 

 and crew immediately started to build a new vessel. It may have 

 been that the necessary rigging and iron work for this new vessel 

 had been saved from the Tiger, for the work progressed so rapidly 

 that she was finished and launched early in the following spring. 

 The ship was called the Onrast ("Restless"), and was built 

 on the site of what is now Fraunce's Tavern. Not only was this 

 the first sailing vessel built on Manhattan Island, but it was the 

 third one constructed by white men on the American continent. 



