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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA. il est film* A pertir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^\ 1 o HENRY HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR "THE NORTH SEAS' GREAT COLUMBUS " By Mary L. D. Ferris " To sound liis praises to j)osterity, It is heiti That valor is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver : iftiiishe, The man I speai< of cannot in tiie world Be singly counterpoised." Among the persons in intimate relations with the Muscovy company of Enghmd,' of which Sebastian Cabot was the first governor, and which had sent the expedition of Willoughby ^ in search of a northwest passage to India, was the experienced navigator, Henry Hudson. Of his personal history very little is known. Four years covers the period during which he was familiar to the world. His father, it is supposed, was Christopher Hudson, one of the factors of the Muscovy company, and their agent in Russia as early as 1560, a little later being made governor of the company, an office which he held until 1601. The grandfather of the famous navigator was doubtless the Henry Hudson who, in 15^4, figured among the founders, and was the first assistant, of the Muscovy company; and it was perhaps due to family influence that Hudson was held in such high esteem and trust by the members of the conpany, and employed in other important voyages before he went upon those by which he is best known. Research inclines to the belief that he was a native, as he was a citizen, of London. He had a family and a house in London, but the name of the woman who shared his glory and mourned his fate is unknown to the world. His son, 'The Muscovy company, formerly known as " The Society for the Discovery of Unknown Lands," received a formal charter from the crown in 1555, as well as a charter of privilcfjes from the Russian emperor, Ivan the Terrible, and at once commenced active operations. The same company is still in existence. ' Commanded by Sir Hugh Willoughl)y, who discovered Nova Zembla, and perished with all his men, of starvation, in a harbor of Lapland. " Such was the Briton's fate. As with first prow (what have not Britons done?) He for a passage sought, altemjited since So much in vain." mm ^ HENRY HUDSON, THE NAVKJATOK 215 a youth, accompanied him in the voyages of which we have record, and perished with him. Data gathered from the colonial calendar of the East India company show that Hudson had another son, and that his widow was left in straitened circumstances, for she asks that her son, a boy in years, be " recommended to some one who is to go on a voyage." In order to relieve her the lad is placed on the Samaritan, in charge of the master's mate, and " it is ordered that five pounds be laid out in clothes and other necessaries for him." Hudson had early entered the school of maritime experiment, and he sailed with the most distinguished seamen of his time. He was a " navi- gator of enlarged views and long experience, of a bold and penetrative capacity, unwearied in assiduity and invincible in intrepidity." A friend of Captain John Smith, and intimate with other adventurous navigators of his time, the aim of his life, as it was that of so many of his contem- poraries, was the discovery of a passage to the East, cither by a north- eastern or northwestern pas.':agc. In courageous adventure, patience under privation, presence of mind amid peril, unshaken constancy in per- severance, his character somewhat resembles that of the distinguished founder of Virginia. A pictorial history of the revolution, published in 1845, s^ys that ''though a native of Holland, Hudson was first employed by a company of English merchants," and places him foremost of the Dutch navigators. The first view we have of him is in the church of St. Ethclburgc, Bishopsgate, London, in the spring of 1607, whither he had gone with his crew to partake of the sacrament before sailing in search of a passage to "Asia across the North Pole." This voyage was made in the ship Hope- well, of si.xty tons, which had so successfully braved the dangers of Fro- bisher's ' last voyage ten years before. Hudson's crew consisted of ten men and a boy, his son John. The little company set sail from the Thames on April 19, and coasted the east side of Greenland, and thence, hugging the Arctic ice-barrier, proceeded to the " northeast of Newland." Hudson at this point turned back, according to his chart, to seek the passage around the north of Greenland into Davis* strait, to make trial of Lumley's inlet. but having braved the ice-barrier from sevent}--eight and a half degrees to eighty degrees, he became convinced, on July 27, that by this way there was U'j passage, and on August 15 the Hopewell was again in the waters of the Thames. ' Sir Marliii Frobislier, one of Enjjlamrs great naval heroes. He established the f.ict that there were two or more wide openings leading to the westward, between latitudes 60 and 63 , on the American coast. !()4fwl Pacific N.W.^-l*^'t^;' -Dt. /A - ^ VICTORIA. B. - >A / I c !I& HENRV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR The navigator's blind guide had been the MoUineux ' chart, pubHslicd about 1600. The only result obtained by the voyage was the attaining a much higher degree of northern latitude than any previous navigator. Hudson had, liowever, investigated the trade prospects at Cherrie island, and recommended his patrons to seek higher game in Newlaiid ; hence he may be called the father of the English whale-fisheries at Spitzbergen. In the early part of the next season he made another attempt, this time to the northeast, but the ice again sto])ped him near Nova Zembla, and he made his way back, with another report of ill success. The Muscovy com- pany now abandoned for the time all further effort, and dircctea its ener- gies to the i)rofitable Spitzbergen trade. The news that such voyages were in progress traveled in due course of time to Holland, and rendered the Dutch East India company uneasy, lest the discovery of a short route to India b\- their industrious rivals should suddenly deprive them of a lucrative trade. The learned historian, Van Meteran '^ was the Dutch minister at the court of St. James, and through him mc.-.sages were transmitted, inviting Hudson to visit Holland. It was not lung ere the famous sea-captain, disheartened by the lack of interest shown by the Muscovy company, arrived at the Hague, and was received with much cercmon}'. The officers of the company met, and all that had been discovered of the northern seas was carefully discussed. Tlu' Dutch had not been behind their neighbors in daring cxphjits. Even while raising enormous sums to carry on the war with Spain they had l)ent every energy toward extending their commerce. Merchants, companies, and private adventurers had been encouraged and assisted by the gdvcninu'iit. A number of expeditions had endeavored to reach " China behind Norway." and trading monopolies had been placed at Guinea and at Archangel. In short, the sails of the nation whitened almost e\'ery clime. The noblemen who directed the affairs of the East India company were as cautious as they were enterprising. Some of them had been so influenced by the representations of the sorely disappointed Barentz, Cor- nelizoon Rijp. I leemskerck'' and others, tlK.t they declared that it would ' I'lii- cimrt, or j^lobe, was ilie work of Emery — sometimes given Emanuel — Mollineux, an English ^'L'opjr.iplur, aiiil a friend of Ilakluyt, and Joliii Davis, of Arclic fame. '^ He was tiie son of Jacob Van Meteran, who had manifested great zeal in producing at Antwerji a translation of the Bible into English, " for the advancement of the kingdom of Ciirist in England." ' Two vessels sailed from Amsterdam on May 13, 1596, under the command of Jacob Van Heemskerck and Cornelizoon von Rijp ; Barentz accompanied Heemskerck as ])iIot, and Gerrit de Veer, the historian of the voyage, was on board as mate. They wintered at Ice Haven, in a HENRV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR 217 be a waste of time and money to attempt again the navigation of the vast oceans of ice. But J^Iudson stood before them, full of enthusiasm, and expressed liis ardent conviction that Asia might be reached by the north- west. Petrus rUmcius, the great cosmographer,' a clergyman of the Re- formed Dutch church in Amsterdam, who had been engaged with Esseliivx^in trying to found the West India company, opened a corre- spondence with Hudson, and sent him some of his own published works. Plancius had a profound knowledge of maritime affairs, the result of un- wearied investigations, and he warmly seconded the effort to search for a northeastern passage. He said that the failure of Heemskerck, in 1596, was due to his trying to go through the straits of Weygate, instead of keeping to the ntjrth of the island of Nova Zembla. The directors resident at Amsterdam decided that before positively engaging Hudson they must wait for the meeting of the company's com- mittee of seventeen, in the fulhnving year. As soon as this delay was announceii, Hudson was approached by Le Maire, a French merchant of Amsterdam and a former ofificer of the corporation, who on leaving it had become a keen opponent. Le Maire, aided by Jeannin, French ambas- sador at the Hague, at once sought to secure the enthusiastic navigator for the service of France. It onl)' needed this suggestion to bring the East India directors to terms, and they signed a contract with Hudson on Jan- uar)' 8, 1609. On that day four men came together in one of the rooms of the East India company ; two of them were a committee empowered to enter into a contract with Hudson, the other two were the navigator and his friend, Jodocus Hondin, who was present as witness and inter- preter, though Hudson himself had a fair knowledge of the Dutch language ; indeed, it is supposed that his journal was all "ritten in that tongue. This contract, drawn by P. Van Dam, the company's legal adviser, can be seen in the royal r.icliives at the Hague. It specified that the directors should furnish a small vessel to Hudson, with the needed outfit, in which he was to sail as soon as the favorable season opened in April. He was to have eight hundred guilders for his expenses, and his family were to be taken care of during his absence ; and should he not return, his widow was to liouse built of driftwood and planks from the wiccked vessel. This was the first time an Arctic winter was successfully faced. In the spring they made their way in boats to tlie I.apland coast, hut liarentz died duiinfj the voyage. IJarentz's voyages stan —n— ■»"*«>«*■ i 2i8 HENRV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR receive two hundred guilders, as an indemnity for his loss. If he should be successful in his quest the directors promised to reward him according to their discretion. Tile old theory of the passage was strictly adhered to, both in the contract and Hudson's detailed instructions. He was to seek the passage " around the north side of Nova Zembla," and was to think of discovering no other routes or passages. Hudson made himself master of the whole plan he was to carry out, aided by memoranda of the sailing instructions used by Barentz on his first voyage, and a " Treatise of Ivcr Boty, a Groenlande translated out of the North Language into High Dutch in the year 1560." ' Plancius had given him Waymouth's journal,- and Hondius,' the geographer, supplied him with translations of certain Dutch papers. Plancius's fixed belief as to a northeasterly route was called in question by Hudson, who showed him letters and maps of his friend Captain John Smith, in which the latter explained that there was a sea leading into the western ocean, north of the English colony. On Saturday, April 4, 1609, the daring mariner took command of the Half-Moon, the vessel furnished by the Amsterdam chamber, and sailed from Amsterdam. The Half- Moon, or Crescent — as she is often erro- neously called, the Dutch word not admitting of such interpretation — has been v;Miously called a yacht, a Dutch galliot, and a Vlie boat, the latter deriving its name from the river Vlie, where such boats are used, the name passing into the English fly-boat. She was an awkward, clumsy brig, with square sails upon two masts; a fairly safe craft, but a slow sailer, of " forty lasts," by a Dutch measurement, or eighty tons burden. The Half-Moon had been carefully equipped, and was manned by sixteen men, eight Englishmen and eight Hollanders. Hudson left the Texel on April 5, and by May 5 was in the Barentz sea, and soon afterwards among the ice in Costin Sareh, in Nova Zembla, where he had been the year before. The crew, being of two nationalities, quarreled continuall)'. The sea- men of the East India company, not being used to such extreme cold, ' Boty. better known as Ivar Han'ien, was steward to the bishopric of Gard.ir. in the Easti Bygd, and a native of Greenland. His principal work was the Sailiiiis^ Dircctiotis, used by Hud- son, the oldest work on Arctic geography. This treatise has been puiilished, with an introduction and notes by Rev. Dr. Decosta, under the title of Sai/iiii^ Directions of Hvniy Hudson, "■ Captain George Waymouth co' .nianded an expedition sent out l)y the East India company in 1602 to seek for a passage by the opening seen by Davis, but it had no success. " Waymouth dis- covered George's island and Pentecost harbor, and carried with him to England five of the natives." ° In 1597, Jocodus Hondiiis put upon record his intention of bringing out globes, but none are known to exist anterior to the seventeenth century. I I f ..^ w» HENRY HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR 219 should cording I in the passage ovcring •ry out. on his 1 out of JS, s. the question lin John into the 1 of the id sailed en cr ro- tation — Doat, the used, the , clumsy )\v sailer, Ml. The jen men, on April nong the before. The sea- ;me cold, in the Easb ■d by Hud- introduction f. company in ymouth dis- hc natives." s, but none i became chilled, disheartened and unfit for duty. Once or twice the vessel escaped as by a miracle from unknown currents, then mountains of ice encompassed it, and the crew became so terrified that they arrayed them- selves in open rebellion. In direct violation of his contract with the company, and in sheer des- peration, Hudson offered the men one of two courses ; one was to sail westward and prove the theory advanced by Captain John Smith, that there was a passage somewhere north of the English colony ; the other was to keep nearer the latitude they were in, sail directly to the west, and try again at Davis' strait. The first plan was adopted, and on May 14 Hudson set his face towards the Chesapeake and China. He touched at Stromo, one of the Faroe islands, for water. On June 15, off Newfound- land, where he had avoided the fleet of French fishermen which lay off the bank, the Half-Moon " spent overboard her foremast." This accident made it necessary to put into Sagadahoc, where, on July 18, a mast was procured, and the crew put at work to repair the little vessel, much the worse for her encounters with the northern seas. Some commu- nication with the Indians was had, and an unnecessary battle fought, in whicli the ship's two '■ stone murderers " were employed. The incident shows the lawless and buccaneering spirit of the crew. As the Half-Moon lay in the bay, two shallops filled with Indians ap- proached her, looking for peaceful trade with the strangers, and such friendly interest as the French had everywhere encouraged. But Hudson's men met them in another temper. Manning a boat, they captured and carried off one shallop ; and then, in pure wantonness, they armed two skiffs of their own with pieces which deserved their name of " murderers," and attacked and plunderetl the Indian village on the shore. The out- rage fully warranted a quick revenge; and Hudson feared it, for the same afternoon the ship was dropped down to the entrance of the bay, and on the nrxt day (July 26) she was again under sail to the southwest. Within a week she went aground on what are now known as St. George's shoals, and it was ten days before her crew sighted land again ; this time at the headland of Cape Cod, which Hudson, before he knew it to be Gosnold's Cape, promptly named " New Holland," in honor of his adopted country. Some of the men landed here, for they fancied they heard people calling from the shore, and that the voices sounded like those of " Christians ; " but they came back after seeing none but savages, and the yacht again bore away to sea, passing Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and once more making a course to the southwest. When land was again made, Hudson was close by the entrance of f> i \\ 220 HENKV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR Chesapeake bay, where, if he had entered, he might have foand his coun- trymen on the banks of the James, and been present at the first wedding in the New World. Saihng on, he coasted north to Sandy Hook, and on the afternoon of September 3, 1609, entered New York bay. Even if "the most beautiful lake," said to have been penetrated by Verrazano, in 1524, was indeed the bay of New York, yet his visit, accordinfj to his own account, was only the Inirried glimpse of a traveler; and when the Half- Moon came to anchor on that September evening at the mouth of the '• Great River of the Mountains," it was undoubtedly the first time the eyes of the white man ever rested on the island of Manhadoes, the green shores of Scheyichbi — New Jersey — and the forest-covered Ihpetonga, or " heights " of the present city of Brooklyn. Certain it is, that Van dcr Donck, who resided several years in New Netherlands, asserts that he often heard the ancient inhabitants, who yet recollected the arrival of the ship, the Half-Moon, in the year 1609, saying, that before the arrival of the Netherlanders they were entirely ignorant of the existence of any other nation besides their own, and that they looked at the ship as a huge fish or sea monster.* The evidences of this writer, nevertheless, as well as those of Hudson himself, render it not improbable that Verrazano landed in the bay of the present New York, but the event inust have taken place eighty-five years before, and might have been obliterated by the departure of a whole generation. Miss Booth says, "Though Verrazano first saw the' Island of Destiny,* to Hudson belongs its practical discovery, the result of disobedience to his instructions." Manhattan Island, as it was first seen by Hudson, has been thus acscribed : *' The lower part of it consisted of wood-crowned hills and beautiful grassy valleys, including a chain of swamps and marshes and a deep pond. Northward, it rose into a rocky, high ground. The sole inhabitants were a tribe of dusky Indians, an offshoot from the great nation of the Lenni Lenape, who inhabited the vast territory bounded by the Penobscot and the Potomac, the Atlantic and the Mississippi, dwelling in the clusters of rude wigwams that dotted here and there the surface of the country. The rivers that girt the country were as yet unstirred by the keels of ships, and the bark canoes of the native Manhattans held sole possession of the peaceful waters. Van der Donck's Description of New Netherlands, p. 3. Ji mmm m HENRY HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR 22 I t 4 " TIr- face of the coimtry more particularly described was pjently undu- latini^. presenting' ever)' variety of hill and dale, of brook and rivulet. The upi)er part of the island was rocky, and covered by a tlense forest; the lower part grassy, and rich in wild fruits and flowers. Grapes and flowers grew in abundance in the fields, and nuts of various kinds were plentiful in the forests, which were also filled with abundance of game. The brooks and ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil was of luxuriant fertility. In the vicinity of the present 'Tombs' was a deep, clear and beautiful pond of fresh water (with a picturesque little island in the midille) — so deep, indeed, that it would have floated the largest ship in our navy — which was f(5r a long time deemed bottomless by its possessors. This was fed by a large spring at the bf>ttom, which kepi its waters fresh ami flow- ing, and had its outlet in a little stream which flowed into the East river, near the foot of James street. Small ponds dotted the i>iand in various places, two of which, lying near each other, in the vicinity of the present corner of Bowery and Grand street, collected the waters of the high irround which surrounded them. To the northwest of the fresh water pond, or ' Kolck,' as it afterwards came to be called, beginning in the vicinity of the present St. John's park, and extending to the northward over an area of some seventy acres, lay an immense marsh, filled with reeds and brambles, and tenanted with frogs and water snakes. A little rivulet connected this marsh with the fresh water pond, which was also connected, by the stream which formed its outlet, with another strip of marshy land, covering the region now occupied by James, Cherry and the adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of water was thus stretched from James street at the southeast to Canal street at the northwest. An inlet occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh the vicinity of Kerry street, Rutgers street formed the centre of another marsh, and a long line of swampy ground stretched to the northward along the eastern shore. The highest line of lands lay along Broadway, from the Battery to the northern- most part of the island, forming its backbone, and sloping gradually to the east and west. On the corner of Grand street and Broadway was a high hill, commanding a view of the whole island, and falling of^ grad- ually to the fresh water pond. To the south and west, the country, in the intervals of the marshes, was of great beauty — rolling, grassy, and well watered. A high range of sand-hills traversed a part of the island, from Varick and Charlton to Eighth and Greene Streets. To the north of these lay a vallej', through which ran a brook, which formed the outlet of the springy marshes at V/ashington square, and emptied into the Hudson river at the foot of Hammersley street." 71 wimtta I 222 IIKNKY HUDSON, THF-: NAVICAIDR The mcafjrc log-book kept by Hutlson's mate, the; Netherlander Robert Ivet — often called Juet - is the best record of events: "Sept. 3. The mornin-r misty until ten o'clock, then it cleared, and the wind came to the south-southeast, so we weighed and stood to the north- ward. The land ir. very pleasant and high, and bold to fall withal. At three o'clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers.' .So we stood along the northernmost, thinking to have gone into it, but we found it to have a very shoal bar before it, for we had but ten foot of water. Then we cast about to the southward, and found two fathoms, three fathoms, and three ami a c[uarter, till we came to the kiouthern side of them ; then we had five and six fathoms, and anchored. So we went in our boats to sound, and they found no less water than four, five, six, and seven fathoms, and returned in an hour and a half. So wc weighed and went in, and rode in five fathoms, o/(/(V of general intoxication. 232 IIENRV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR readily granted their request; whereupon the whites took a knife, and bcjrinning at one place on this hide, cut it up into a rope not thicker than the finger of a little child, so that by the time this hide was cut up there was a great heap. That this rope was drawn out to a great distance, and then brought round again, so that both ends might meet. That they care- fully avoided its breaking, and that, upon the whole, it encompassed a large piece of ground. That they (the Indians) were surprised at the superior wit of the whites, but did not wish to contend with them about a little land, as they had enough. That they and the whites lived for a long time contentedly together, although these asked from time to time more land of them ; and proceeding higher up the Mahicanittuk (Hudson river), they believed they would soon want all their country, and which at this time was already the case." A magazine article does not permit as full a description of the passing of the white man up " the great river " as would be interesting. It has always been a matter of dispute among historians just how far Hudson explored, Ivct's leagues not having been found reliable. De Laet says he reached 43°, which would be twenty-five miles above Albany. Ivet's jour, nal would lead us to suppose that the limit was Patroon's island, just below Albany, and Brodhead thinks the distance was beyond Waterford. In any case, we are sure that the navigator reached that point now the site of the city of Hudson, and that he landed there. There is also a question as to whether the Half-Moon, or only one of her boats, passed up the river above Poughkeepsic. The Half-Moon, says the historian Lossing, ended its trip up the Hudson just below Albany, but a boat's crew went on and gazed upon the foaming Cohoes at the mouth of the Mohawk. These questions are, however, of little importance except to the his- torian. Hudson, we know, went far enough to assure himself that his course did not lead to the South sea or to China, a conclusion similar to that reached by the explorer Champlain, who the same summer had been making his way south through Lake Champlain and Lake St. Sacrament » to the South sea; and, strangely enough, the two explorers approached within twenty leagues of each other. On Wednesday, September 23, at twelve o'clock, the Half-Moon " weighed," and began her passage down the river, and, on October 4, " came out also of the great mouth of the great river, and sailed for Trexel." The Dutch mate, Ivet, wanted to winter in Newfoundland, and the ' Lake George. ■^JMUSL. 9^KS HENkV HUDSON, THE NAVIGATOR 233 crew threatened mutiny if they were not taken back at once to Europe. Hudson feared trouble, and wished to carry the news of his discovery ;it once to the East India company. After leaving the Kills a compromise was effected, and it was decided to make first for the British islands, Ivet gives us this description of the passage: "We continued our course toward England without seeing any land by the way all the rest of this month of October; and on the seventh day of November, s/Z/o )ioiv, being Saturday, by the grace of God, we safely arrived in the range of Dartmouth in Devonshire, in the year 1609." At last, at anchor in Dart- mouth harbor, the crew were for a time contented, and Hudson busied himself in forwarding his report and papers to Amsterdam, intending to present liimself before the East Iiulia directurs as soon as possible. But when the news of his arrival was received in London, an ortler was issued forbidding him to leave the country, and reminding him that the English- men on the Half-Moon owed their services to their own nation. The obli- gations of nationality were arbitrarily enforced when any advantage was to be gained, and the English government realized too late how great had been its mistake in letting " the bold Englishman, the expert pilot, the famous navigator," slip through their fingers. When Hudson sent Ids report to Amsterdam — and it is strange that he who accomplished so much for posterity sliould have had so slight a com- prehension of the magnitude of his labors and discoveries — he also sent a proposal to the company that they allow him to change six or seven of his crew and try the frozen seas again. His communication did not reach Holland for several months, and his employers were ignorant of his arrival in England. When they finally learned the fact they sent a most perernp, tory order for him to return with the Half-Moon. He would have obeyed- but he was forcibly d'etained and compelled to re-enter the employ of the Muscovy company, to whose efforts his success seems to have given new energy. There are few historical facts better authenticated than this; }-et there are English and American writers who say in an off-hand manner that Hudson made this voyage under an English commission, and sold his discoveries to the Dutch. Their only authority is an anonymous writer^ who made the statement forty years after Hudson's voyage. The Half-Moon was detained for months at Dartmouth, and only per- mitted to return to Amsterdam in July of the year of her captain's ' The supposed author was Sir Edward Ploeyden, an Englishman, who had been refused a patent for land in America by the king; having procured one from the viceroy of Ireland, which was void on its face, his claim was not recognized by the Dutch or the English. His statement is not recognized by respectable historians. 234 HENRY HUDSON, THE NAVinATOR departure. Her crew was cngajrcd by a few shrewd Dutch merchants to fjuidc a vessel of their own to the f^rcat bay and river, and three years later saw the lonely " River of the Mountains" traversed by the round* prowed trading vessels of the Dutch. The river at this time began to be called Mauritius, after the Stadtholder Maurice of Orange. The English gave it the name of Hudson's river by way of continual claim, Ifudson being of English birth. The Dutch insisted tliat, being in their employ, and expressly to explore, he was, as a discoverer, to be con- sidered as their ..ubject, and the case of Columbus was cited as a precedent ; " He a native of Genoa, and the king of Spain taking to himself the benefit of his discoveries, and none of the European powers gainsaying it. Nay, they seemed wholly to have overlooked their own case, their sovereign, James I., having, prior to the voyage of Hudson, granted all the land along the coast of North America, between the ♦'^'rty-fourth and forty- fifth degrees of latitude, and one hundred miles into the country, to his subjects, the patentees of the North and South Virginia patents, he claim- ing it by the discoveries of the Venetian Cabots." Hudson's failures only served to increase confidence in the existence of a northwest passage. His last, and fatal voyage, was undertaken in the spring of 1610, when he was fitted out by Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, and other friends. He sailed, April 17, in the bark Discovery— the same ship that took Waymouth, in 1602, in the same direction— with a crew of twenty- three men, and on June 4 came in ght of Greenland. Proceeding west- ward, he reached, in sixty degrees of latitude, the strait bearing his name. Through this he advanced along the coast of Labrador. Avhich he named Nova Britannia, until it issued into the va.st bay which is also named after him. He resolved to winter in the most southern part of it, and the ship was drawn up into a small creek, where he sustained extreme privations, owing to the severity of the climate. Hudson, however, fitted up his shallop for further discoveries, but unable to communicate with the natives or to obtain provisions, with tears in his eyes he distributed his little remaining bread to his men, and prepared to return. Having a dissatis- fied and mutinous crew, he imprudently threatened to set some of them ashore, when he was seized by a body of them at night and set adrift, in his own shallop, with his son John and seven of the most infirm of the crew, and never heard of afterwards. A small part of the crew, after enduring most incredible hardships, arrived at Plymouth, England, in September, 161 1. The mate, Ivet, who was the ringleader of the mutiny, suffered the HENRV HUDSON', THE NAVKIATOR 235 same de.ith as his master — a just retribution for his outrageous treatment of the man who had treated liim as a trusted friend. In 161 2 an expedition was fitted out, by order of James I. and Henry, Prince of Wales, to search for the gallant mariner and his com- panions. The command of the two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, the latter being Hudson's vessel in his last expedition, was given to Sir Tiiomas Button, a gentleman of Prince Henry's household, and himself an ex- plorer, and the discoverer of Button's bay. Tlie expedition rL-turned to England in the autumn of 1613, having failed to discover any trace of Hudson or his men. The fate of the historic little craft " de Halve INIoon " can be soon told. On May 2, 161 1, she sailed with other vessels for the West Indies under the command of Laurens Reael, and on March 6, 1615, was wrecked and lost on the island of Mauritius. From the time that he entered Holland, Hudson always called it " the land of his adoption," hence, possibly, the reason that we so often find him spoken of as Hendrick Hudson. In the Dutch contract for his third voyage he is called Henry, but it has always been the practice in Amer- ica to give his name the Dutch etymology, " a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance." The best authorities assert that "there is no portrait of Henry Hudson in existence, not even a contemporaneous print of doubtful authenticity.'" This is the more remarkable as he was an intimate friend of Hendrick Hondius, the engraver, and he lived in an age when it was quite the fashion to preserve the pictures of celebrities. We must fall back on the fanciful pen-picture of the man who thanked God that he was born on the banks of the Hudson river, our old friend Diedrich Knickerbocker : " Hendrick Hudson was a seafaring man of renown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to be the first to introduce it into Holland, which gained him great popularity in that country, and caused him to find great favor in the eyes of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General, and also of the Honorable West India company. He was a short, square, bra'vny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was sup- posed in those days to have acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his tobacco pipe. He wore a true Andrea Ferrara, tucked in a leathern belt, and a commodore's cocked hat on one side of his head. He was remarkable for always jerking up his breeches when giving his 236 HENRV iirnsoN, iiik navkiator orders; and liis voice snniidid not unlike tin,' hrattlinj^ of a tin trumpet, owin^ to the number of hard north-westers which he had swallowed in the course of lii^ seafarini^ life." Hudson's ilcimiit was the sea, his pride to brave Its dangers, his am- bition the };Iory of achirvin;,; what so man\' had lost their lives in attempt- ing. " Me suddetdy appeared before the world in the vi;4or and maturity of unpretending merit, deriving no claims from birth, self-t.iught, self- edueated, self-sustaining. Having no distijiction from aristocracy of fain- ily, Hudson was the sole architect of his celebrity, and we sie how daz- zling was hi^ career." Like a meteor he flished upon the worhl. eager for exploration, his origin and his death being left to surmise. He was deservedly a favorite- with a large portion of the British public. The English long regretted the loss f)f tlnir countryman, whose achieve- ments as a navigator hail reflected honor on a nation alri'ad}' distinguished for its illustrious seamen. Hudson's persr)nal rpialities, displayed during his fourtli voyage, at times which were calculated to tr\- character, w ill e\-er lie coiitemplated with admiratif)!! and pleasure ; but to the citizens of the state of New York the character of this heroic navigator should be peculiarly the theme of eulogium. He was not faulfUss, I)ut no record iinputes to his conduct any crime, or wi llful vice but he- had at times that irritabilitv which is so peculiar!)- the trait of those whose lives are passed on the ocean. Rut few, who have so conflicted with its dangers, and at the same time combated with mutinous crews, could have i)reserved presence of mind, exercised moderation, and dispku'ed magnanimity in a more exalterl manner than Hudson. There seem to be only two occasions when his conduct could be severely criticised, the one when he allowed his crew to attack the Indians at .Sag;idahoc, and the other when he supplied the natives of the valley of the Hudson with aqua vitcc; but his fault'^, whatever they were, are eclipsed by the splendor of liis virtues. Possibly the time may come when the nob • river which he discovered shall show uj)on its banks some monument t( ommemorate his memory, and hand down his name to posterity; in any ase his merits can well be reiterated with increased praise at this particul; time, and with the name of Columbus let New York associate that of He rj- Hudson. " Fearless and firm, he never qiu.iled, Nor turned aside for threats, nor failed To do tlie tliin'4 he iHKiertool<. How wise, liow brave, iiow well, He bore himself, let history tell." >