inai niHlSUn, r.MI IIC nvcn iwil^t:!, nuuiu liUT<. iiii;ii »iiui viiniivv altfn. / He began his career as a nortliern explorer in the service of Mhe Company of Merchant Afl' 'jnturers, which had been founded by Sebastian fabot, in 1553, expressly for the purpose of trading with India and China by a north-eastern route. The numerous attempts made by the Company in order to realize the founder's idea proved of course fruitless. They led, however, to the estab- lishment of a lucrative trade with Russia, and through Russia with Persia and Tartary. The dangers and difficulties of the voyage to H tm 90 iiRNin- iiunsoN, value. The maps and charts of Hudson's Strait are still in the highest degree unsatisfactory ; and conclusions based upon their comparison with Hudson's journals would rarely make us obtain unquestionable facts. We have nevertheless the means of appre- ciating the greatness of Hudson's achievement and of marking its place in the history of northern discovery. Hudson has left a map of the strait which is far superior even to Davis and Molyneux's delineation of Davis's Strait ; and no other northern map or chart existing at the time can at all be com- pared to it. From this map, and from the journal and accounts that have been preserved, we can conclude with certainty that Hudson examined both the northern and the southern shore of the strait — an undertaking of such vast difficulty that, without the posi- tive proofs we possess of its having been accomplished, we should hesitate to admit even its possibility. '' The strait has a lencth of more than 600 miles, and an average m II I . '11 -MIM I W.IIIH-,. ! ll l t W» il.lilMlli:»M>«ttMii i a -. %||UV Vliniiw e service of i^cn founded e of trading \e numerous he founder's [) the estab- Kussia with he voyage to shore. He tried to force his way throu};h tne Spit/liergen group eastwards, but found solid land where he desired to discover the open sea. Not less in vain were his efforts lo pass eastwards or northw rd.s by the north of the Spit/bfrjjcii group. Kvery./here the way was blocked up by bKr*|ihii;ul ilvtoiU ax only a thoruUKh WHiuitlnUnce with urotlr awtgnphj would ^.■■bl• him to und«nli.->d ; •n'l wt shall tharvfnr* dcToU but a faw Ubm to Uudioii'i ant vorac*. ria are still in the ised upon their nake us obtain neans of appre- of marking its ir superior even Strait ; and no n at all be com- tl and accounts I certainty that em shore of the without the posi- ihed, we should and an average THE NAVIOATOB. 21 the seals and bears escaping by diving or jumping on other islands of ice before the boats could approach them. At last the western mouth of the strait was reached, the 2d of August. The 3d of August, i6io, Hudson entered Hudson's Bay. The island to which Hudson gave the name of his patron, Sir Dudley Diggs, and the opposite cape, which he named after John Wolstenholme, Esq., form a kind of gateway between Hudson's Strait and Hudson's Bay. The islands swarm with fowl of every kind, which the natives of the region catch by an ingenious trick — placing a snare in such manner that the birds caught in it strangle themselves. A large herd of deer was also met with. Yet, to the indignation of his crew, Hudson could not be induced to tarry, but moved on southwards, now evidently confident that the way to China was plain before him. For, on leaving the strait, the coast of Hud- son's Bay trends almost directly from the north to the south. The mistake was. however, too evident to remain Innor hiHHon son's vessel was not fitted for the already well-known clanKcrnof the Sea of Kora ; Hudson therefore returned towards home on the 6th of July. Regretting the l(»ss of the finest part of the season, he was tempted yet to sail to the northwest, and to explore the mouth of the strait that now bears his name. This idea, liowever, he gave up for the present, and reached h( Hiid.v»n'» own journal only a few scraps havv. iK-en preserved in the Dutch ♦ Vlriinia m op|kmmhI to .\«w Kniiliiiiil. 'Il(« •lMivt> |niiw«hf U iiotn V»n Mel«r«u'i chriinicia, aixl turn almtMit wftli cc rtaimy Iw tncnl lMi<:k (.. liiitlaoii himiwlf. Vail MfUrrtu dind in IB12, only Iho yi^ri. afior HiuIkhi'ii r..iurn from lh« third T..ya«i». Florida I* n »««ry tragiiii lenii. Kv..ii In tint ITili ..•lUury th« iMtlTM of til* Sute of New V<»rk were nometimM calleh(rlU which Ihcy had ({ot out of the water. Tht-y AUp|>• 1.*^. Th» origtMil ia Umt, try Rup|K)»cd iirnr'l iiftir a t>r rtilliv.-ilion ;l» in trees of original i« kiat. him, and tlriMike him on the brent, ami killcti him Whcrdi|Min all the rest rfed iiway, some in their ran<»c)i, ami no leapt out of them into the water. Wc manned our boat, and got our thinKs again. • T»i« lni«nii<>tMi of lb« linllaiHi »xr« avtilMilly of • Mrmlly tMUnr* war iMirly wuulit Ihit* Imwd ••■t-n'» fate. Ity preventing hi> return to HoliamI, it mainly coih , of I he cll»- r |>l4ti of lh« • behaviour, tiriuviice on ■ mainly con- T iHHii ; ^unn rri>iBivnnniint, rilq ; jOnn r^rif hu n4nM. The i^ihuf April, 1610, H.MiiMmitiok hUl4jitlc«v«frt»nil^>tMit, ihr lurk Dufinvrf, »4itr • t itnt|>4ni<>nt iboding evtnt ■»ini» rMr»i wr n«i imn iiw wNk imff tm ffw tftli Hay alter hi* •lr»Mriurr lum UrUml, ih« 1418 iiT juiM 4i mitlntxhl, Hiin rnlrrrd hit Mrail rnini ihr mwiK, in Uliltwla 4<»» ij/ N, ^ Kw^fJphk 4I 4«iiMiMi i»r Ihr vfiy«^ ihrmiKh the Mr«h wihiIiI not only Uiigut lh« rtad«r , it would cvtn be of very UuubtAil MnBaHM $ IIKNUY HUDSON, Siberian vessels that have at all penetrated to the north coast of Siberia. While the prospects in the East are thus entirely destroyed by tU'i science of our days, those in the West are not by any means " more encouraging, although they have called forth a much larger amount of exertion. The first attempt to find a route by the north of the American continent almo.st coincides with the discovery of that continent itself, and the last of a long series of efforts to dis- cover a north-west passage have been made but yesterday. Yet no vessel has really penetrated from the Atlantic to th*^ Pacific through the north-western passage. Of all these impossibilities none appeared as impossibilities to Hudson's contemporaries ; and, though beset with difficulties, a number of chances of a short northern route to China seemed to exist. Hudson himself tried not less than six of these delusive hopes. He attempted • — I. To sail across the North Pole (1607). 3. I'o sail eastward by the north of Spitzbergen (1607). 3. To enter the Arctic Ocean between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla (1608). 4. To penetrate through the Nova Zembla group into the sea of Kora (1608). 5. To find a north-western passage, in those parts where New York is at present situated (1609). 6. To reach the Pacific through the strait and bay which now bear Hudson's own name (161J-1611). It is curious that Hudson missed the only route which may perhaps, under favourable circumstances, allow some isolated craft to force its way from one ocean to the other — namely, the route on which Sir John Franklin perished. But it can hardly be questioned that Hudson, had he lived longer, would have tried that chance al*o. . ' / He began his career as a northern explorer in the service of Mhe Company of Merchant Ad'enturers, which had been founded by Sebastian Cabot, in 1553, expressly for the purpose of trading with India and China by a north-eastern route. Tlie numerous attempts made by the Company in order to realize the founder's idea proved of course fruidess. They led, however, to the estab- lishment of a lucrative trade with Russia, and through Russia with Persia and Tartary. The dangers and difficulties of the voyage to Htt t coast of troyed by ly means " ch larger the north icovery of ts to dis- may. Yet le Pacific ibilitie!^ to iculties, a a seemed e delusive 07). and Nova :o the sea here New vhich now vhich may iated craft e route on questioned lat chance service of n founded of trading numerous ! founder's the estab- lussia with ; voyage to THK VAVIGATOU - """■ -f Archangel became thus familiar to a noble school of English sea- men who laid the foundation for England's oceanic navigation and commerce. Two immense services especially were rendered by Sebastian Cabot and by his company to all future navigators : the invention and develcpTr-ont of the logbook, and the systematic observation of the variations of the needle. The journals kept by the seamen in the Company's service differ, indeed, but little from those of the present day, while all the accounts of voyages under- taken prior to 1553 are more like the random narratives of tourists than like maritime records. And, of all the early journals of the Mercjj^it Adventurers, none are equal to those of Henry Hud- son. He is especially distinguished by adding to the logbook a new/reature — the observation of the dip of the magnetic needle. We have already seen that Hudson's first attempt was to reach Japan and China by passing the North Pole. This plan had been suggested in 1527 by Robert Thome, a Seville merchant, who seems to have been under Sebastian Cabot's influence. Up to 1607 the plan had not been tested ; and Hudson, too, soon discov- ered how impracticable it was.* Hudson left C.ravesend the ist of May, 1607, reached Shetland the 26th of the same month, and the (Jreenland coast the 13th of June. He tells us that he hoped to find an open .sea, instead of the northern parts of (Jreenland which his chart indicated. But, although that chart was not correct in all its details, Hudson's first hope-proved delusive. He did not any more succeed in finding a passage through the ice between (ireenland and Spitzbergen ; and the search after such a passage led him rapidly along that undulat- ing north-easterly line which the arcJc ice Lank between Spitzbergen and (Jreenland describes in summer time. He thus reached Spitz- bergen the 27th of June. Here he made again, and with no more success, an attempt similar to that he had made u.T Llie vlreenland shore. He tried to force his way through the Spitzbergen group eastwards, but found solid land where he desired to discover the open sea. Not less in vain >vere his efforts to pass eastwards or northwards by the north of the Spitzbergen group. Every. /here the way was blocked up by boundless icefields. The whole of the month of July having been spent in these fruitless endeavours, ■'i * We shall n6t trouble the render with lucb gooKraphical details hh only a thoroutrh acquaintance with arctic geography would e.>.able him to undentu«d ; ani we shall therefore devote but a few lines to Hudson's flrst voyage. f 8 HKNRY IIITDSON. Hudson shaped his course homewards the ist of August. On his home voyage he accidentally discovered an island under 71' N. lat., which he called Hudson's Touches, and which has since been called Jan Ptlayen Island by the Dutch. Hudson's n;xme has not yet been restored to this island by English geographers, although claimed for it with unquestionable evidence more than five years ago. This first voyage of Henry Hudson had one highly impoitant result. It led to the establishment of the arctic fisheries both of the Knglish and Dutch, which, besides their great economical value, have mightily contributed in' forming an army of skilful and daunt- less seamen. Hudson's second voyage, in 1608, which was again undertaken for the Merchant .Vdventurers, offers still fewer points of interest. It merely served to destroy some of the delusive hopes of a north- easterly route to Chiiiii hitherto entertained by geographers. Having ascertained by his first voyage that there was no hope of penetrating between (Ireenland and Spitzbergen, Hudson's new plan was to enter the Arctic Ocean between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. He left London the 22d of April, 1608. The nth of June he was in lat. js** 24' N., between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, engaged in his struggles against the floes and fields of ice. After only a week's vain exertions, the i8th of June this strug- gle had to be given up, and Hudson had to sail .southwards. He now tried a course similar to tho.se of the preceding year. Misled by his charts, he sought to ;;o eastwards through the Nova Zembla group ; but, where he had hoped to meet with an open passage, the unbroken coast line continued with pitiless perseverance. On the 6th of July the fruitlessness of this effort had become evident, and only one apparent chance remained in those quarters — to enter the Sea of Kora by the open passage between Russia and Nova Zembla. But it was already too late for such an attempt, and Hud- son's vessel was not fitted for the already well-known dangers of the Sea of Kora ; Hudson therefore returned towards home on the 6th of July. Regretting the loss of the finest part of the season, he was tempted yet to sail to the northwest, and to explore the mouth of the strait that now bears his name. This idea, however, he gave up for the present, and reached home the 26th of August. Hudson's accouni of the second voyage contains tlie following justly celebrated passage : — THK XAVKJATOU. 9 t. On his I N. lat, leen called IS not yet I, although five years impoitant ies both of iiical value, and daunt- andertaken of interest, of a north- lers. ■' ■as no hope idson's new 1 and Nova he nth of and Nova ields of ice. this strug- vards. He ir. Misled 3va Zembla en passage, Tance. On me evident, rs — to enter I ancl Nova jt, and Hud- ngersof the e on the 6th ■ season, he e the mouth !ver, he gave JSt. he following "I'his morning (June 15th, 1608, lat. 75" 7' N.) one of our companie looking overboard .saw a mermaid, and, calling up some of the companie to see her, one more came up, and by that time shee was come close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the men ; a little after a sea came and overturned her. From the na/ill up ward, her backe and breasts were like a woman's, as they say that saw her, her body as big as one of us, her skin very white, and long haire hanging down behind, of colour blacke ; in her going down they saw her tayle, which was like the tayle of a porpasse, and speckled like a macrell. Their names that saw her were Thomas Hills and Robert Rayner." The two failures of 1607 and 1608 seem to have discouraged the Company of Merchant Adventurers from further pursuing the scheme of the north-eastern search. Hudson, however, firmly adhered to his idea, and a very short time after his return to Eng- land he followed a call to another quarter, where better prospects were held out to him. At the close of the year i6o8 we meet him in Holland, already perfectly familiar with the leading personages in nautical enterprise and geographical science, such as Peter Plancius, Isaac Lemaire, Henry Hondius. He even became mixed up in a very singular manner with the Dutch political conflicts that were then at their height. Without deviating in the least from his one and only purpose of finding a northern route to China, and most probably without understanding the motives of those he was dealing with, Hudson entered into negotiations with both of the great political parties of Holland who were bidding against each other for his services. In this bidding a still more important personage, the envoy of Henry IV,, of France, the celebrated Jeannin, tock an active part on behalf of his master. The struggles of the two parties between whom Hudson was thus bandied about had so great an influence on the consequences of his third voyage that we cannot help entering at some length into the different subjects of this Dutch party strife — a subject of great intrinsic interest, and of some importance for the history of England's home and foreign affairs. The war between 6pain and the Netherlands had the effect oi ttansferrlng all those brilliant features by which Belgium had been distinguished up to Philippe I.'s time— her commerce, industry, learning and art— to the northern provinces which shook off the Spanish yoke, and especially to Holland. All the principal towns 2 'I I J . ■ ;j. ' ;_j-kaai! ~ «9«J|« 10 IfENUY FIUDSON, of Holland still bear the architectural stamp of their perfect renewal at the end of the sixteenth century. The seemingly miraculous growth of the Dutch republic was indeed nothing but a transplantation of the most vigorous elements from the south to the north, and the destruction of Belgium's prosperity was its necessary consequence. This state of things was definitively settled by the truce of 1609, by which Spain recognised the independence of the northern Netherlands, while these gave up, for twelve years, the war with Spain. The treaty contained one of the most infamous stipulations ever invented by diplomatists, the closing of the river Scheldt. It fortified the iron rule of papistic persecutions in Belgium, cut off all hope of the return of the Protestant emigrants, and thus doomed Belgium to that perpetual despondency from which she suffered during more than two centuries, and only recovered within our own recollections. Such a treaty was for the native Hollanders like a double victory over Spain and over Belgium. Very different, however, were the feelings with which it was regarded by the emigrants from Belgium — a body of nearly a million, which contained the very quintessence of everything that had formerly made Belgium, and had now made Holland, a powerful state. These emigrants contended — perhaps with truth, perhaps with the ordinary delusion of emigrants — that by an honest continuation of the war with Spain the Spaniards must be driven from Belgium also. The Orange family, whose interests lay in the same direction, shared the same views. Another scarcely less powerful ally was the grudge of the lower trading classes, especially in the towns, against the powerful families who ruled the cities of Holland and the country itself, as deputies from the cities in the estates of Holland. The party into which these three elements were combined centred in the Calvinistic clergy, who consisted almost exclusively of Belgians. Having sprung from a war in defence of the Protestant religion, the party was naturally ruled and kept together by its preachers. Of so much importance, indeed, was this religious standard, that the adversaries also felt obliged to raise a theo- logical banner, on which they inscribed the name of Arminius. The well known maxims of Church government, set forth by that celebrated Dutch divine, had originally no other purpose than to suit the interests of the oligarchs, whom they delivered from the tmmtm THK NAVKJATOK. 11 iir perfect seemingly id nothing 1 the south jperity was le truce of le northern ; war with itipulations ir Scheldt, ium, cut oflF and thus which she ered within able victory r, were the )m Belgium uintessence i had now antended — f emigrants Spain the nge family, ame views, f the lower e powerful ry itself, as i combined :clusively of Protestant :ther by its lis religious lise a theo- f Arminius. set forth by urpose than ed from the power of the Calvinist ministers. Arminians and oligarchs were convertible terms. These two parties, the Calvinistic and the Arminian, lasted down to the French Revolution of 1789. They are not even now quite extinct. Formed gradually during the war with Spain, the two parties had assumed their definite shape in 1607 and 1608. It was in the midst of the turmoil of their struggle that Hudson arrived in Holland. Hut what had the party strife to do with the north-eastern search .' The glorious beginning of Holland's maritime success had been mainly the work of the Belgian emigrants. Belgian merchants, settled in various towns of the northern provinces, had first started shi|js for oceanic commerce. The Belgian emigrants had also hit upon the singularly happy and fruitful idea of turning the science of geography into a weapon against the King of Spain. The fathers of modern map-making. Gemma, Ortelius, and Mercator, were Belgians, and, though themselves Roman Catholics, yet closely connected with the Protestants. Their followers, Hulsius, the De Brys, Bertuis, De Laet, Cluverius, Jodarus, and Henry Hondius, and especially Peter iPIancius, were all of them Belgians and Belgian emigrants. Plancius, a most ardent Calvinistic preacher, and one of the heads of the Calvinistic party, had opened at Amsterdam, a school of navigation, to the influence of which all the early voyages of the Dutch can be distinctly traced back. With regard to the search for a short northern route, and to all northern search in general, Plancius held very nearly the same positions as Sir John Barrow held, and Sir Roderick Murchison holds, in our days. Plancius's most cherished pupils, William Barents and Jacob Heemskerk, had won imperishable laurels Dy their north-eastern voyages ; and, when Barents' companions returned from their celebrated wintering at Nova Zenbla, where Barents himself had perished, Plancius's house was the first place they repaired to. But the vigilant chief of the Holland nativists, John Oldenbar- nevelt, did not allow the power which the early maritime successes created to remain in the hands of his political adversaries. He established, in 1602, the great East India Company, whose govern- ment was from the beginning, and always ;emained, with the Arminians. This company had, to the exclusion of all other XV 1 # 'M it L r w i d ^ jj r -ft ft-^ ig g *^:r ■■:'::: : ^tf * mrnm p f i i^jp 18 IIKNKY HFDSON, Dutch citizens, the privilege of trading to the Kast by the way of the Cape of (lood hope, and by the Straits of Magellan. The trade by the northern route that was yet to be discovered was however, not included in the privilege. When Hudson first arrived in Holland, he had been called there by the East India Company. After some negotiations with him they told him that, while the question of the truce with Spain was pending, they would not enter into any new enterprise. They gave him a retaining fee, and claimed his services for the year 1610. These transactions took place in December 1608, or in the beginning of January 1609. But in the meanwhile, the Belgians had not been idle. One of their principal merchants and shipowners, Isaac I^maire, tried to persuade Jeaanin, the envoy of Henry IV., to engage Hudson, and thus to forestall the East India Company. The voyage was to be taken on joint account, under Lemaire's name, Henry furnishing but the very moderate sum of three or four thousand crowns (ecus). Jeannin's letter which informs Henry IV, of this negotiation, is an extremely valuable document for the history of commerce. It is not les& curious from the insight it gives into Plancius's and Lemaire's illusions concerning the extreme north. These illusions have, unfortunately, not been quite dispelled even at the present day, and some of them still figure among the hoijes and plans of Professor Petermann. May they not again bear bitter fruits I Although the transaction between Jeannin and Hudson was to be a profound secret, it became, like most secrets, known to the per- sons whon' it concerned ; and the Amsterdam directors of the East India Company determined to send Hudson at once, in 1609, against the advice of their Zealand colleagues, who were by this time convinced that the north-eastern route to China was a mere dream. The vessel which Hudson obtained for his voyage, the JFfa^ Moon, was, in size, like those the English company had supplied to him. It was a small flat-bottomed craft of the kind then generally used in the Dutch coasting trade, and manned with a crew of sixteen, partly English, partly Dutch. The Englishmen were, as far as their names are known, from among Hudson's former companions. They must, therefore, have come to Holland for the express purpose of again joining in the northern expedition. The ■\ THK NAVIOATOK. 18 the way of jllan. The wered was been called ations with h Spain was They gave year 1610. e beginning idle. One maire, tried je Hudson, voyage was me, Henry ir thousand IV. of this ; history of ; gives into •erne north, pelled even l the hoijes 1 bear bitter dson was to n to the per- of the East :e, in 1609, 'ere by this was a mere ;e, the JFfa// supplied to :n generally 1 a crew of en were, as sn's former land for the lition. The Dutch sailors, on the contrary, accustomed to Kast India, were ill-adapted for a polar voyage. Hudson originally intended to undertake again a north-eastern search, most probably through the open strait south of Nova Zembla (Nassau Strait), and then go through the Kora Sea. Scarcely, howevar, had he arrived in the neighbourhood of Nova Zembla when a mutiny broke out among the crew, the Dutch sailors refusing to battle with the ice. Hudson then laid before them two proposals : " to undertake a search through Davis's Strait, or to go to the coast of America, to the latitude of 40'. This idea had been suggested to him by some letters and maps which his friend Captain Smith had sent to him from Virginia, and by which he informed him that there was a sea leading into the western ocean by the north of the southern English colony."* Captain John Smith, the founder of the English empire in North America, had married the daughter of an Indian chief./ It is, therefore, probable that he had received from the Indians some vague account of the great Western lakes, which induced him to mistake these ocean-like waters for the Pacific. It would even seem as if Hudson himself had communicated Smith's opinions to his friends in Holland. For the Dutch geographer, Hessel Cerritsz, the first writer who spread Hudson's reputation, and, like Hudson, a friend of Peter Plancius, asserted in 1612 that, according to the unanimous testimony of the Virginians and Floridans, their country is to the west washed by a wide sea, and Gerritsz identifies that sea with the Pacific. Hudson's crew accepted the search indicated by Captain Smith, which offered them no danger of cold and ice-fields The 14th of May the Half Moon left the neighbourhood of Nova Zembla. Having arrived in the American waters, near the coast of Nova Scotia, in the beginning of July, Hudson examined the whole sea- shore from Nova Scotia down to the mouth of the Delaware. But the records by which the memory of this part of the explorations is handed down offer little interest at the present day. Of Hudson's own journal only a few scraps have; been preserved in the Dutch .♦ Virginia as opposed to New Bnglaml. Tlie above passage is from Van Meteren'8 clironicle, an>f, translation. I'hose notes of his companions in which the voyage alnnii the coast of the United States is described are of a strictly nautical character. 'I'hey do not even allude to Hudson's one leading purpose, the search for a nortii-western strait ; and they do not allow us to watch the continual rising and vanishing of his illusive hopes. From the Delaware Hudson returned northwards along the coa.st, and on the 2d (12th, new style) of September, 1609, he made the discovery which has most illustrated his name. On that day he entered the mouth of Hudson's River. [n the river's mouth nearly a week was spent. 'I'hen tiudson sailed up the river till he arrived, on the i6th, near what is now the city of Albany. Here the river becomes too shallow for large vessels. This fact having been ascertained by a boat sent a few miles higher up to take soundings, Hudson began his home-voyage the aSth. Having dropped slowly down the river, he was, the sth of October, again on the open sea. The narratives of this earliest voyage up and down Hudson River abound with anecdotes of encounters, some friendly, some hostile, with the natives. We shall select a few of the most charac- teristic ; Hudson himself tells :* — " 1 sailed to the shore in one of their canoes, with an old man who was the chief of a tribe, consisting of forty men and seventeen women ; these I saw there in a house well constructed of oak bark, and circular in shape, so that it had the appearance of being well built, with an archetl roof. It contained a great quantity of maize, or Indian corn, and beans of the last year's growth, and there lay near the house, for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields. On our coming into the house, two mats were spread out to sit upon, and immediately some food was seized in w :ll-made red wooden bowls ; twb men were also despatched at once, with bows and arrows, in quest of game, who soon after brought in a pair of pigeons which they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, and skinned it in great haste with shells which they had got out of the water. They supposed that I would remain with them for the night, but I returned after a short time on board the ship. The land is the finest for cultivation that I ever in my life set foot upon, and it also abounds in trees of * Retraii8lat«d from the Dutch translation of De Laet. The original in lost. "\i TIIK NAVIUATOK. ir) he voyage r a strictly dson's one nd they do ling of his along the >9, he made that day he en Hudson t is now the ' for large sent a few ome-voyage ras, the 5th vn Hudson :ndly, some nost charac- an old man seventeen cted of oak ce of being quantity of , and there load three coming into mmediately twb men in quest of h they had great haste supposed rned after a r cultivation s in trees of triginat is lost. ■y every description. The natives are a very good people, for when they saw that I would not remain, they supposed that 1 was afraid of their bows, and taking the arrows, they broke them in pieces, and threw them into the fire." In a very different spirit are nearly all the observations on the Indians made by Juet, one of Hudson's most constant companions, an able man, but of a very bad character, to whose influence the exposure and death of Hudson in Hudson's Bay is mainly to be attributed. Juet tells : — "The people of the country came aboard of us, making show of love, and gave us tobacco and Indian wheat, and departed for that night, but we durst not trust them.. . . . " This morning there came eight-and-twentie canoes full of men, women, and children to betray u.s,* but we saw their intent, and suffered none of them to come aboard of us. At twelve of the clocke they departed. They brought with them oysters and beanes, whereof we bought some. They have great tobacco pipes of yellow copper, and pots of earth to dresse their meat in " In the morning two great canoes came aboord full of men, the one wiln their bowes and arrowes, and. the other in show of buying knives, to betray us, but we p'^rceived their intent. Wee took two of them to have kept them, and put red coates on them, and would not suffer the others to come near us. So they went on land, and two others came aboord in a canoe ; we tooke the one and let the other goe ; but hee which we had taken got up and leapt overboard. . . . " This morning oure two savages got out of a port, and swam away. After we were under sayle they called to us in scorne, . . . " The people of the mountaynes ccme aboord us, wondering at our ship and weapons. We bought some skinnes of them for tri- fles. This afternoone one canoe kept hanging under our steme with one man in it, which we could not keep from there, who got up in our rudder, to the cabin's window, and stole out my pillow, and two shirts, and two bandeliers. Our master's mate shot at him, and strooke him on the brest, and killed him. Whereupon all the rest fled away, some in their canoes, and so leapt out of them into the water. We manned our boat, and got our things again. * The intentfong of the indians were evidently of a friendly nature. No Indian war-party would have been accompanied by women and children. 1 H le IIKNIIV IU'DHOV. Then one of them thut swamme got hold of our bout, thinking; to overthrow it. But our cookc took a sword, and cut off one of his hands, and he was drowned." Only once Juet does full justice to the natives : — "There wee found very loving people and very old men : where we were well used. Hut even the following charming anecdote is spoilt by the hostile tone in which it is told : — " And our master and his mate determined to trie some of the chiefe men of the countrey, whether they had any tteacherie in them. So they took them down into the cabbin and gave them so much wine and ai/uii vitae that they wert all merrie : and one of them had his wife with him, which sate so modestly as any of our countreywomen would do in a strange place. In the ende one of them was drunke, which had been aboord of our ship all the time that we had beene there : and that was strange to them ; for they could not tell how to take it The canoes and folks went all on shore : but some of them came againe, and brought stropes of beades — some had six, seven, eight, nine, ten — and gave him. So he slept all night quietly. .. . -. ,, ^ . "The people of the countrey came not aboord till noone, but when they came and saw the savages well, they were glad. So at three of the clocke, in the afternoone, they came aboord and brought tobacco, and more beades, and gave them to our master, and made an oration, and showed him all the countrey round about. Then they sent one of their companie on land, who pre- sently returned, and brought a great platte full of venison dresspd by themselves ; and they caused him to eat with them ; then they made him reverence, and departed, all save the old man that lay aboord." This first acquaintance with the effects of the fire watel- — for them not an aqua vitae, but a water of death — remained still vivid in the Indians' meinoiy two hundred years after its occurrence, as German missionaries aifiong them testify. The great difference between Hudson's and Juet's appreciation of the natives is but one injtance, and a very mild one, of the dis- sensions between the master and his crew. The whole plan of the voyage had already been altered by their mutinous behaviour, which was about to exercise a still more decisive influence on Hudson's fate. By preventing his return to Holland, it mainly con- TIIK NAVtOATOH. 17 hinking to one of his e.n : the hostile )me of the iacherie in /e them so ind one of any of our nde one of .11 the time i ; for they ^ent all on !sofbeades im. So he noone, but lad. So at boord and }ur master, trey round who pre- lOn dresspd then they an that lay wateT-— for 1 still vivid urrencs, as ppreciation of the dis- plan of the behaviour, ifluence on mainly con- tributed to lead him to the vast and dreary inland sea which bears his name — at once the site and the immense monument of his mar- tyrdom. For, when the //a// Moon vas again out of the mouth of the river, the whole crew unanimously refused to return to Holland. This seemed to Hudson so sinister a symptom that he could not even he induced to accept his mate's proposal, else so alluring to him, of pa.ssing the winter on Newfoundland, and starting at the very beginning Df the next season for a search in Davis's Strait. Hudson tried, seemingly with perfect success, to persuade the crew tc winter in Ireland. But, when they neared the British Islands, a renewed mutiny compelled him to direct his course; to Dartmouth harbour, on the coast of Devonshire. Here he arrived the 7th of December, 1609. In Dartmouth a new and most fatal disappoint- ment awaited him. While the storms of autumn and winter retarded his intercourse with his employers in Holland, the Eng- lish Oovernment, in January 1610, laid an embargo on the persons of Hudson and of his English companions. Hudson's plan had been to undertake in the next season but a short searc*", from the middle of May to the middle of September, and then to return to Holland. Although this plan was frustrated, he was not to remain idle A new company was formed in Eng- land for the express purpose of Hudson's explorations. It is curious how mi^jhty were the efforts by which one vessel of very moderate dimensions, with a crew of only twenty-four persons, in- cluding all the officers, was fitted out. Hudson's new employers were, besides the Company of Merchant Adventurers and the East India Company : — Henry Charles, Earl of Northampton, Keeper of the Privy Seal; Charles, Earl of Nottingham, Admiral of England ; Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain ; Henry, Earl of Southampton ; Villiers, Earl of Salisbury ; Theophilus, Lord Walden ; Sir Thomas Smith Mansell ; Sir Walter Hope ; Sir Dudley Diggs ; Sir James Lancerratt ; Rebecca, Lady Romney ; Francis Jones, Alder- man ; John Wolstenholme, Esq ; John Edred, Robert Sandy, Wil- liam Greenwell, Nicholas Leats, Hovet Stopers, William Russell, John Mericks, Abraham Chamberlaine, Philipp Barlomathis, mer- chants of the city of London. The real merit of having started the expedition belongs, however, neither to the two mighty companies, nor to the noble patrons, but 3 ■IB It IIKNKY inTlm«»S, to three gentlemen whose names are in the above lonjj list not to be distinguished from the crowd of other names — to Sir Dudley DIkHs, Sir Thomas Smith, and John Woistenholme, Ksq. Purchas, the historian of the expedition, mentions no other name but theirs ; and Hudson gratefully inscribed those of Sir Dudley Diggs and John Woistenholme on the passage which forms the entrance gate from Hudson's Strait to Hudson's Hay. Sir Thomas Smith's name was afterwards given by Baffin to Smith's Sound. Hudson's mlcntion was from the beginning of this voyage the same which he carried out : to search for a loute to the Pacific through the strait now called Hudson's Strait. This .eaich was so far prepare*! by anterior north-western expedi^iu s that much of the groping movements which mostly mark voyages of discov- ery was saved to Hudson. Frobisher had already, in 1576, fountl a strait parallel and close to Hudson's Strait. Davis, one of the greatest of northern navigators, had spent the three seasons of 1585, 1586, and 1589, in examining the shores of the .strait which justly bears his name. He had even drawn these coasts for the then celebrated globe of Henry Molyneux. The existence of several western straits on the American side of Davis's Strait was there- fore, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, a fact generally known among geographers. Nay, Hudson's whole plan had, during his stay in Holland, been discussed between him and Peter Plancius, by whom it was rejected. For Plancius told Hud.son that Hudson's Strait is not a way to the Pacific, but a blind alley. Of this fact Plancius had been informed by a seaman who had been at the bottom of the strait and bay. Hudson's immediate predecessor in the north-western search, George Weymouth, had, in i6oa, sailed nearly one hundred leagues (three hundred miles) into Hudson's Strait. Hessel Gerritsz and Luke F'ox state that Hudson followed Weymouth's footsteps — a statement which some of Hudson's own observations confirm. It would, therefore, be a great mistake to attribute to Hudson the discm'ery of the strait, in the vulgar sense of the word discovery. His real merit consists in the exploration of the strait — a work of such magnitude that it would alone be sufficient to justify the im- mortality of his name. The 1 7th of April, 1 6 1 o, H adson took his last leave from London. His vessel, the bark Discovery, sailed with him and his companions from St. Katherine's Pool near London Bridge. An illboding event TVV. NAVIOAI'OK. list not to Sir Dudley Furchas, but theirs ; Diggs and trance gate nith's name voyage the the Pacific -.sjarch was that much I of discov- 1576, found one of the nnsof 1585, vhich justly or the then ; of several t was there- •t generally had, during er Plancius, It Hudson's Df this fact jeen at the predecessor 1603, sailed Hudson's ion followed idson^s own to Hudson d discovery, —a work of tify the im- om London, companions oding event marked his \ ery first step. Before he had left the River 'I'hames, the 33d of April, he had to send buck u man named Coieburnc— by others Colbert or Colbrand — whom Hudson's employers had forci-tt upon him as an assistant and official adviser. It is not surprising that this else absolutely unknown individual has revenged himself on Hudson's memory by pretending that he was the real aut!i'>r of the search through Hudson's Strait — an assertion that is fortiinati-ly refuted by Hudson's anterior communications with Peter Plancius. Having passed the ( )rkneys and the Faroe Islands, Hudson was the 1 5th of May near the southern coast of Iceland. He then rounded the south-western point and sailed up along the western shore. But the unusually vehement eruptions of Mou it Hecla — which^ according to Hudson's opinion, indicated the approach of heavy weather — and especially the compart icefields that yet encircled the north-eastern coast of Iceland, induced our navigator to stay a fortnight in two of the western harbours, Dyre-Fiord and Breyde- Fiord. During this repose they kept Whitsuiuide, bathed in the hot springs, shot a vast store of wild fowl, ducks and partridges, plovers, geese, mallard, teal, and curlew. One gun could kill enough to feast the whole company of twenty-three persons. The sea also supplied them with an abundance of fish. During this stay in Iceland, Juet, Hudson's mate, began to excite the men against the master ; and shortly after leaving the shore he threatened to turn the ship's head homewards. This rebellion seemed so serious a matter to Hudson that he at first intended to sail back to Iceland in order to send Juet home by a whaler. He refrained unfortunately from executing this judicious plan, and even maintained Juet in his position. While they were waiting in Breyde-Fiord, whole islands of ice came off the western coast, and on the ist of June the sea was already sufiiciently cleared to allow their departure. Hudson intended to sail in as direct a line as possible to the mouth of his strait. But he was forced to adopt a somewhat circuitous course. For the south of Greenland was still encompassed by icefields which stretched far out into the sea. Only on the 35th day after his departure from Iceland, the 34th of June at midnight, Hudson entered his strait from the north, in latitude 60" 17/ N. A geographical account of the voyage through the strait would not only fatigue the reader ; it would even be of very doubtful I ■ . ■■ • i ti wa'yrr iiii aHtJ iw w t .< ijiwi M ^;wpW(in n' 'i l iWM irti tefiwfc ii 90 1IKNI5Y HUDSON, value. The maps and charts of Hudson's Strait are still in the highest degree unsatisfactory ; and conclusions based upon their comparison with Hudson's journals would rarely make us obtain unquestionable facts. We have nevertheless the means of appre- ciating the ;,reatness of Hudson's achievement and of marking its place in the history of northern discovery. Hudson has left a map of the strait which is far superior even to Davis and Molyneux's delineation of Davis's Strait ; and no other northern map or chart existing at the time can at all be com- pared to it. From this map, and from the journal and accounts that have been preserved, we can conclude with certainty that Hudson examined both the northern and the southern shore of the strait — an undertaking of such vast difficulty that, without the posi- tive proofs we possess of its having been accomplished, we should hesitate to admit even its possibility. The strait has a length of more than 600 miles, and an average width at least equal to that of the German Ocean. And so contin- ual are the fogs and mists in those regions that a coast must be approached very closely in order to be investigated. The season of 16 10 was, besides, far from favourable to the explorers. The deep bays and recesses of the southern coast were in midsummer still filled with ice which, though loose and drifting, was not the less dangerous to navigation, especially at night, and when foul weather had set in. Hudson first discovered a remedy against such dangers, which has, we believe, often been imitated since. He fastened his vessel to the biggest floe he could lay hold of, and then gaily sported along with it, the floe opening a channel through the ice. ,"*'". The seeds of mutiny which Juet had sown while they were staying in Iceland showed their first germs when, on the 5th of July, they were so blocked in by icefields that Hudson in ttis own heart gave up all hope, as he afterwards avowed. Although the crew obeyed his call on their exertions, they began to murmur very loudly, and Juet's voice was once more raised against the captain's. While Hudson even in this extremity believed that he could reach East India by Candlemas (in February 161 1) Juet spoke words of bitter mockery, which were but too true, and sounded therefore the more severely. Some sport was here and there afforded by seals and bears on drifting floes. But even this rare chase was mostly without success ; I still in the upon their 2 us obtain IS of appre- inarking its perior even lit ; and no all be com- id accounts rtainty that shore of the )ut the posi- , we should an average d so contin- ist must be The season orers. The midsummer ivas not the [ when foul »edy against tated since, hold of, and mel through e they were I the 5th of \ in His own ilthough the Tiurmur very he captain's, could reach )ke words of iherefore the Lnd bears on out success ; THE NAVIGATOR. 21 the seals and bears escaping by diving or jumping on other islands of ice before the boats could approach them. At last the western mouth of the strait was reached, the 2d of August. The 3d of August, 1610, Hudson entered Hudsoi/s Bay. The island to which Hudson gave the name of his patron. Sir Dudley l)iggi>, and the opposite cape, which he named after John Wolstenholme, lisq., form a kind of gateway between Hudson's Strait and Hudson's Bay. I'he islands swarm with fowl of every kind, which the natives of the region catch by an ingenious trick — placing a snare in such manner that the birds caught in it strangle themselves. A large herd of deer was also met with. Yet, to the indignation of his crew, Hudson could not be induced to tarry, but moved on southwards, now evidently confident that the way to China was plain before him. For, on leaving the strait, the coast of Hud- son's Bay trends almost directly from the north to the south. The mistake was, however, too evident to remain long hidden, especially to a man like Juet ; and the more the danger of winter- ing in this dreary region became a certainty, the more Juet's wild mind was roused ; and, at last, Hudson was obliged to depose him, the 7th of September, 1610. After wandering about in the labyrinth of icefields, islands, creeks, and harbours to the south of Hudson's Bay, and finding every rising hope of a through passage to the Pacific almost imme- diately destroyed, the months of August, September, and October being thus spent, they were frozen in by the 3d of November. A similar misfortune has befallen many Arctic navigators, and fre- quently in far more trying circumstances. The latitude of Hudson's winter-quarters is only a few miles to the north of that of London. Barents had, in 1596, wintered in latitude 73° N., nearly 1,500 miles further north, and Dr. Kane's wintering took place in latitude So**, nearly 2,000 miles nearer to the Pole. The gloom of an end- less night, which added so much to the horrors both of Kane's and Barents's wintering, was here of course out of the question, as much as in London or Berlin. Hudson's provisions, though not abundant, were yet far more plentiful than those of most navigators who have wintered in the ice ; and a number of adventitious addi- tions were made to them by shooting and fishing. Scurvy visited few of the early northern expeditions less severely than Hudson's. Only one man died of this terrible disease, though a good many were more or less afflicted by it. '■i ) ■ li>JKllWii««rl»WiV-r->'^'' -jU 22 HENRY HUDSON, Yet this trying time, which has so often brought out the most beautiful qualities of the seaman — his steady trust in God, his cheerfulness, his obedience and attachment to his superiors — made a hell of Hudson's ship. The mutinous spirit showed itself without disguise, and Hudson had openly to take precautions for his personal safety. He seized all charts, notes, and writing materials, in order to render it impossible for his crew to return without him. He was exceedingly careful in hoarding a store of provisions, so much so that he increased instead of diminished the distrust of his men, which grew from day to day, and continually threatened to break out in open revolt. A momentary diversion was made in this state of things by the hope — vain, like all Hudson's hopes — of establishing a regular intercourse with the natives. One of them had been to the ship, and had entered into a bartering negotiation. When Hudson followed his traces, he already perceived that he was close to the encampments. But, when he neared the fires, of which he had seen the smoke, the inhabitants were always gone. Much faster than he, they fled before him. Not even here his illusions left him. From the knife which he had seen that one man wear, and which appeared to him like those of the Mexicans, he concluded that he was negf the Pacific Ocean. He was to empty the cup to the very dregs befpre the terrible end of the tragedy took place. The mutiny by which he lost his life broke out three days after the vessel had at last been enabled to get away. His departure from his winter-quarters took place the i8th of June. On the 21st of June, i6n, Hudson, with his son John, who had always been his companion, and seven sick men afflicted with scurvy, were exposed in a boat. Their former com- panions then fled from them at full sail, as if from an enemy. During the home voyage the principal ringleaders dietl-^Juet from want, in sight of the Irish coast ; the others long before, in a fight with the Esquimaux. The remainder reached home towards the middle of September. 7'hey were, at their arrival, imprisoned, but they must soon have been released — for Robert BjUs, who had acted as master in the home voyage, acquired a conspicuous place among noithern navigators. The consequences of Hudson's extraordinary career, the energy of which has seldom been approached and never exceeded, are very remarkable. When he suffered the most cruel kind of T iiiii . ii ' '^ i i i i iii ian iii the most God, his rs — made If without s for his materials, hout him. ,risions, so rust of his atened to things by ; a regular the ship, 1 Hudson 3se to the :h he had uch faster Lisions left wear, and concluded he terrible le lost his n enabled took place , with his n sick men rmer com- lemy. die(l-=^Juet before, in ne towards nprisoned, By'.as, who onspicuous areer, the exceeded, el kind of THE NAVTOATon. 23 martyrdom, a lingering starvation, in the presence of his son and of his faithful companions, who were suffering and dying with him, he must have considered all his dauntless efforts as absolutely fruitless. Yet how much have they produced ! The bay and strait have opened up the vast territories which, after having for centuries yielded an inexhaustible supply of furs, are now destined to hold a distinguished place among England's colonial possessions. The first voyage has yielded to England and Holland a fishing trade the proceeds of Which amount to millions of money, and which has vastly contributed to develop the energy of English and Dutch seamen. More important still are the consequences of the third voyage. Hudson's own employers, the East India Company of Holland, did not follow up his discoveries, because all West-Indian trade was specially advocated by the Calvinists, as an infringement of the right which the King of Spain pretended to have to the whole of America. Therefor^ .although some trading to Hudson's River had taken place by a number of adventurers from 1611 to 1620, a regular intercourse began only in 1621, when the West India Company had been established — a specially Calvinistic concern, whose principal aim was to injure the Ring of Spain. Under the auspices of that powerful company, the fort which had been built in 16 14 on the River Hudson gradually developed into a town of importance, the trade of which was already considerable, when, in 1664, it was conquered by an English fleet, and named New York. .,-:;. ^ /%, ,-((iSf *' ■'i j.;i*jH(!»W 5j|^s^«»«™" ^Sm&i&y^M'Sm ^ iBi mi^ S'liilalSi&i: L'"^S5fesii4.iWjiiifc4i&-JJW^ ■H