HENRY HUDSON | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 44.

HENRY HUDSON.

THE name of Hudson is connected with the largest river in New York; it belongs, also, to the bay and straits in the British possessions. The river and the bay are far apart, and yet the extent of coast between them gives but a limited idea of how much of the globe Hudson explored. The country along the Hudson River belonged to the Dutch; that about Hudson's Bay was, from the first, English.

Hudson was certainly of English birth, and little more than that can be said with confidence of his early life. There is not a shadow of a reason for writing his name Hendrick Hudson, as has been done by some person in this country. Our acquaintance with the man is limited to the last five years of his life, and these were spent upon voyages of discovery. All interest in the man attaches itself to these voyages. They were made with one object in view—to find a way by the north to China and the East. It was not expected that such a way, if found, would be shorter, or in any way preferable to those already known by way of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. But the right of trading with the East by either of the known ways was already a privilege in the hands of the East India Company. A way into the Pacific by the north of Asia, or by the north of this continent, would destroy the monopoly.

Hudson's first voyage, of which he left a journal, was undertaken, he tells us, at the charge of "certain worshipful merchants of London," in 1607. Its purpose was, he says, "for to discover a passage by the north pole to Japan and China." He was absent from England from the first of May to the fifteenth of September. Within that time he explored the east coast of Greenland and the west side of Spitzbergen. He crossed the eighty-first degree of latitude,—the highest point then reached, and rarely passed since. The second expedition was made from London, in 1608. Its main purpose was the same, but this time Hudson gave his attention particularly to the passage by the northeast. He advanced no further than to Nova Zembla, where the ice compelled him to turn back, with no other result than a fuller knowledge of the difficulties by that way.

Hudson was now known abroad as well as at home for skill and intrepidity. Upon his return to London in the fall of 1608 his presence in Holland was politely desired by the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch had sent expeditions in search of a northeast passage in 1594 and in 1595. Both of these were unsuccessful. In 1596 private individuals fitted out a third expedition, which was compelled to winter on Nova Zembla with disastrous results. From the observations he had made in high latitudes, Hudson formed the theory of an open polar sea, and he believed that this sea was to be reached by keeping away from the shores of Greenland and Spitzbergen, where the ice was strongest, and by pushing on beyond the eighty-third degree of latitude, when they would be in open water. The Dutch adopted a similar view, as so many navigators since their time have done.

Early in January, 1609, Hudson entered into an agreement with the Dutch East India Company, by which he agreed to search for a passage to the north of Nova Zembla. He was to give the company the benefit of all discoveries. The directors were to pay him, "as well for his outfit for the said voyage as for the support of his wife and children," a sum equal to $320. In case he did not come back within a year, the directors were to pay his wife the further sum of $80, and thereupon be released of all liability to him or his heirs. But if he should come back within the year, and have found the passage good and suitable for the company to use, then the directors would "reward the before-named Hudson for his dangers, trouble and knowledge in their discretion, with which the before-mentioned Hudson is content." So much of this contract is given because it shows better than any other paper relating to Hudson's voyages what sort of a man he was.

The smallness of the remuneration to be received for the hazardous service upon which he was to be employed proves the spirit of a true explorer. He was not likely to have means of his own, but he shows full confidence in his ability to command success.

On the 4th of April, 1609, Hudson set sail from Amsterdam. His vessel was the Half Moon, a yacht of about eighty tons' burden and manned by a motley crew of Dutch and English. He passed the North Cape on the 5th of May, and in the course of a few days came to the edge of the ice which encompassed Nova Zembla. Although the orders given to Hudson required that he should search for a passage only by way of the northeast, yet, on the 14th of May, with the consent of his officers and men, he shaped his course toward the coast of America. On the 12th of July he first saw the American shores, and on the 18th he anchored in a safe harbor, probably Penobscot Bay, on the coast of Maine. From this point he sailed southward until he was opposite the entrance to James River, where the English had settled two years before. Satisfied that there was no passage through the continent south of that point, he now turned towards the north, and examined the coast with care. On the 28th of August he discovered Delaware Bay, and a few days later, September 3, he anchored inside of Sandy Hook. The discovery of the North River followed, and the Half Moon sailed up this river to where Albany now stands. This gave Holland title to the province of New Netherlands by right of discovery.

Returning in the fall, Hudson and his men were detained at Dartmouth, England, and the Half Moon was not sent over to Amsterdam until the next summer. Hudson and the other Englishmen of the ship were commanded by the Government to serve their own country.

In April of 1610, Hudson sailed under English auspices in search of a northwest passage. On this voyage he discovered the straits and the bay which have since borne his name. The following winter he spent on the shores of Hudson's Bay. The suffering from the want of food was great, and his crew in the spring showed a natural impatience of longer delay. In a mutinous outbreak they put their commander, with his son, and several sick sailors, into a frail boat; and on a midsummer's day, 1611, they cut him adrift in the midst of Arctic waters. No farther trace of the great navigator was ever found.—Youth's Companion.