human
Yonder is a mighty precipice, observed presently one of the youngest of the soldiers, nodding his head gravely in the direction of the heights.
gpt
How the folk at home would marvel, could they but see what we look upon daily in this land.
human
What say you, boy? What say you? cried Von Donck, aroused from his musings by this criticism.
gpt
What! call you yonder hill a precipice? How would you name the cliffs of Jersey, had you seen them as I, Pieter von Donck, saw them from the ship _Goede Vrouw_? Should you but cross the expanse of Tapaan Bay, as I have done, should you enter the defiles of the Highlands and see the wigwams of the Iroquois perched among the cliffs like nests of eagles, should you see the black thunder-clouds chasing the hobgoblins among the Kaatskills, as I, Pieter von Donck, have seen them, then methinks, boy, you might sit among old travellers and talk to them the night.
human
spoke a conciliatory voice from the circle.
gpt
Tell us now somewhat of your journey up Hudson's River, good Piet.
human
A weird river, they tell me,
gpt
True! true! snorted the voyageur.
human
A river of ghosts and devils. A river which changes the flow of its tide 'gainst all nature. A river which shoals or deepens in an hour, to hold the explorer back, or to lure him into the heart of a storm. 'Tis a river which few dare to tempt. But I, Pieter von Donck, went up it under a master who, despite his English blood, was the bravest man upon this earth. Ay, but I saw even his cheek whiten, when we reached the whirlpools at the end of the known world, and yet saw no sea ahead.
gpt
Who was that master?
human
Young man, have you no pride in the doings of the great? Hast never heard the name of Hendrick Hudson?
gpt
I knew not that you had been with him,
human
Before Marie von Toit, your mother, was weaned I crossed the seas, snorted the old man, smiling into the fire.
gpt
What Dutchman has not heard of the ship which brought me over, the _Goede Vrouw_, which lies as I speak a-rotting within the wooden harbour of New Amsterdam? San Nicolas was her figure-head, the good saint who guided us through all perils, and to whom upon landing we erected a chapel within sight of the sea. He is the patron of our first settlement in this new world, and shall remain so for ever. Now they call him Santa Claus, and the children of New Amsterdam hang up each one a stocking in the chimney-side on San Nicolas' Eve, for the good saint is a lover of children, and rides that night over the houses, his wide breeches filled with gifts, which he lets fall down the chimneys and so into the stockings hung to receive them. All the city is a-laughing with children on the morn of San Nicholas' Day.
human
Gives he then nothing to the elder folk?
gpt
said Von Donck.
human
But he has much ado to find such now.
gpt
Didst ever see the storm ship upon Hudson's River?
human
What story is this?
gpt
There is a ship which haunts that river and comes a-sailing by night or day, running 'gainst both wind and tide, her deck crowded with Dutchmen who neither move nor speak. She comes before a storm, and goes while men gaze, like a flash of light.