From the book Geography is the maker of history. The course of Dutch settlement in America was predetermined by a river which runs its length of a hundred and fifty miles from the mountains to the sea through the heart of a fertile country and which offers a natural highway for transportation of merchandise and for communication between colonies. No man, however could foresee the development of the Empire State when, on that memorable day in 1609, a small Dutch yacht named the Halve Maene or Half Moon, under the command of captain Henry Hudson, slipped in past the low hook of sand in front of the Navesink Heights, and sounded her way to an anchorage in what is now the outer harbor of New York. . . . So quietly is chronicled one of the epoch-making events of history, an event which opened a rich territory and gave to the United Netherlands their foothold in the New World, where Spain, France, and England had already established their claims. . . . Keywords: Dutch and English of the Hudson Vol. 7, Maud Wilder Goodwin, Geography, Dutch, Mountains, Highway, memorable day, 1609, Henry Hudson, Navesink Heights, Anchorage, Harbor of New York,

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