There’s no evidence that anyone from Henry Hudson’s expedition was any closer to the Berkshires than the Hudson River. But it is very likely, tales of the wondrous craft, “a great floating bird,” seen going up the Hudson as far as Albany would have spread like wildfire among the various tribes living anywhere near the river in the early 17th century. There also might have been enough contact tp touch off the small pox epidemic that had decimated tribes on both sides of the river by 1he 18th century.