THE JUDICIAL AND CIVIL HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY. CHAPTER I. First Discovery; Sebastian Cabot; John Verrazzano; Stephen Gomez; Henry Hudson; Just's Journal; Hudson's Explorations in Newark Bay and Hudson River; Claims to the Country by the English and Dutch Settlers in New Jersey; Bergen County Settled by Hollanders; Dutch Names of Families; Grant to Sir Edmund Ployden; Dutch Settlements in Southern New Jersey; Grants of Land in New Jersey to Hollanders; Swedish Occupation of Southern New Jersey. It is extremely difficult to determine who was the first European to put his foot upon the soil of New Jersey. Six years after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian sailor, but then in the service of Henry VII, the king of England, coasted along the eastern shore of the North American continent, in the latitude of New Jersey. Whether he explored any part of the land along which he sailed until he reached the vicinity of New York Bay, or whether he went on shore at all, does not appear. He had, prior to that time, visited Labrador, discovered New Foundland, and had sailed southward as far, it is believed, as Cape Florida, but he made no settlement; he made occasional landings, but exactly where cannot be determined, and he took possession of the country in the name of the English king. Five years later John Verrazzano, sailing in a French ship, in the service of Francis I, king of France, visited the same part of the continent. He made a landing, the exact location of which cannot now be ascertained, and reported of his voyage, somewhat in detail, to his royal master, the French king; among other matters, sending him an account of this visit to the shore. He did not, however, give any landmark to aid in the discovery of the precise spot where he landed, except that he spoke of steep hills; of a river; and told how the tide rose eight feet in this river. He also wrote of some inhabitants he saw there, described their clothing, and praised their friendly manner and hospitality. Verrazzano's description is so very vague and uncertain that no dependence can be placed upon it for the purpose of ascertain. ing whether the spot he thus visited was in New Jersey. It is, in fact, very doubtful whether it was. In 1524 Stephen Gomez, a Spaniard, sailing in a Spanish vessel, reached the same shores. He was engaged about a year in this enterprise, but it is nowhere recorded that he accomplished anything more than simply sailing along the eastern coast of America. No settlement was made by either of these navigators, nor was there any attempt to discover the resources of the country. Nearly a century elapsed before any further efforts were made, even to explore this new continent. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman and an experienced sailor, then in the service of the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Europe towards the west with the expectation that he could pass through America and thus reach the Indies. Late in the month of August he entered Delaware Bay, but did not proceed far in that direction, as he found that body of water difficult to navigate. He left the bay, therefore, and directed his course northward, along the eastern coast of New Jersey and, on the 3d of September, in the afternoon of a Thursday, dropped anchor near Sandy Hook. He spent a few days after his arrival in exploring the country and made his way a short distance into what is now a part of Monmouth county. There can be no doubt that this is the locality he reached. A journal of the voyage has been published in the printed proceedings of the New York Historical Society which fully establishes this fact. This journal was kept by Hudson's mate, a man named Just. He then seemed to have directed his attention to another part of New Jersey, where he encountered some opposition from the natives. A boat load of his men were intercepted, as they returned to the ship, by two canoes, one having twelve and the other fourteen men on board. In the encounter which ensued, a seaman named Coleman was shot in the neck by an arrow, and was killed, and another sailor was wounded. The treatment which his men received on this second exploring visit was so entirely different from that extended by the aborigines on his first, that curiosity is excited to learn the reason of the change. At the first visit they were received with all kindness, gifts were offered to them; what in Just's journal was called "green tobacco" and "dried currants," probably preserved whortleberries, were among these gifts. No reason is given in the account for the change and, at this late day, none can be learned. There is no doubt from the description given in the journal, that this second visit of Hudson's men was made somewhere in the neighborhood of the strait dividing Long Island from Staten Island, and now called the "Narrows." It is almost certain that they reached Newark Bay. Just says in his journal that they arrived at "à narrow river to the westward between two islands, so they went in two leagues and saw an open sea and returned." The "narrow river to the westward" may have been, in all probability was, the Kills, and the "open sea' Newark Bay. Hudson abandoned any further exploration of the country and proceeded up the river, to which his name was given. He sailed, undoubtedly, as far as the spot now occupied by the city of Hudson and anchoring his vessel there, sent a boat and some sailors to what is now Albany. He reached Hudson some time between the 12th of September, the day on which he entered the river, and the 4th of October, when he came out of the river into New York Bay and started on his return to Europe. So, to this intrepid man, as the records now stand, must be awarded the honor of being the first European who landed on New Jersey soil. On his return home some mutinous English seamen obliged him to anchor near Dartmouth, from whence the news was sent to James I of England of the discoveries made by Hudson. This monarch, whose dislike and jealousy of Holland often overpowered what little judgment he possessed, led him to the commission of many acts of injustice and folly and to overlook his own real interests, detained Hudson and his vessel in England,. They were, however, afterwards released and Hudson and his vessel, known as the Half Moon, returned to Holland. The fate of this enterprising man was horrible. The next year after his return he entered into the English service and sailed for the northern seas. He reached Greenland in June, made his way to the straits known by his name and through them into the great bay also called after him. Although not well provided with food, he determined to remain in that inhospitable region through the inclement |