The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-08-31
Captain Adrian Block and the Found
ing of the City of,NeW York.
BY JAMDs PARTON.

|
| Tho first houses ever, erected by
white men upon Manhattan IsIand
were built in the year 1913, and the
spot upon which they stood is in the
lower part of Broadway, nearly on the
site of No. 80. ;..
AS have already related in these
columns something of the character
and career of the first inhabitant OF
Boston, it is but fair that I should
give an accounted that worthyDutch
mariner, Adrian Block, commander oi
the first party of white men that eyel
lived upon Manhattan Island, who
took the liberty of establishing himself,
in 1913, on the extremely valuable
lot in Broadway just named. I some
times wish that he had selected Staten
Island, or the shores of Long Island,
or some other place on the bay where
the future city would not have been
cramped between two broad and deep
rivers, so much to the inconvenience of
those who are obliged, every morning
and evening. to ride in our crowded
cars and ferry-boats. But far indeed
was honest Adrian Block from fore
seeing the Third Avenue railroad, the
Fulton ferry, or even the Knicker-
booker line of stages. b -''5 - q a..
The Dutch were an cnterpfising
people in that age. 1t was in Decem-
Der, 1909, that the news reached
Amsterdam of Henry Hudson's dis
covery of great river in North
America, the shores of which swarm
cd with inhabitants and abounded in
fur-bearing animals. So prompt were
they to improve the opportunity of q
profitable trade, that in the July fol-
lowing, vessel was dispatched thith-
er from Amsterdam, commanded by
Huuson's Dutch mate, and manned in
party by the Dutchmen of his crew.
Nothing is known of the results of this
voyage, though there is reason to be-
lieve that the vessel returned to. Hol-
land with profitable cargo. There
is tradition that the Indians were
very glad te see the white men among
them once more; from which l infer
that this vessel. must have gone high
up the river, where Captain Hudson
found the red men friendly, and too
willing to drink his brandy and wine.
From this time forward, / believe
there was no year in which at least
one Dutch vessel did not enter our
bay to trade with the Indians. Pro
badly no part of North America was
so prolific of fur-bearing animals as the
shores of the Hudson river, and tho
country beyond them-diversified as
it was with mountains and plains, and
densely covered with tho noble trees
of the primeYal wilderness. Even
within, my recollection, bears have
been shot in the Catskill mountains;
and as the late as the year 1870, the
sloop masters of the Hudson used to
bring in from its upper waters eonsid-
erable quantities of skins, more or less
valuable. For a century or more af
ter the city was founded, beaver skins
occasionally served as money, and were
constantly referred to rs standard of
value. From such facts, VIC may gath
er some notion of the valuable freights
which must have been collected by
the Dutch navigators,, when those
shores were a wilderness,
with Indians enough to hunt and trap
them, who had not YET, learned the
value of what they sold. .c,.,-.. ,e,7a.
n Adrian Block, who may in some
sense he called the founder of the city
of New York, was brave and enter,