bergen without finding an entrance, he sought once more to penetrate into Davis strait by the north of Greenland by Lumley's inlet and the “furious overfall.” Again frustrated by ice, he returned to the Thames, 15 Sept. He had attained a higher degree of latitude than any previous navigator, was the first to note the amelioration of the temperature in his northward progress, and, to suggest the existence of an open polar sea, and, moreover, by his recommendations he laid the foundations of the English whale-fisheries in the neighborhood of Spitzbergen. In this voyage he was influenced by the map of Molineux or Wright, published by Hakluyt in 1600, which the learned Mr. Coote identifies with the “new map” referred to by Shakespeare in “Twelfth Night.” Hudson's second voyage for the Muscovy company, for the “finding a passage to the East Indies by the North-East,” began on 22 April, 1608, and he had with him his son John and Robert Juet, who accompanied him in his two later voyages, and finally basely conspired against him. On 3 June he reached the northern point of Norway, and on 11 June was in lat. 75° 24' N., between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. Striving in vain to pass to the northeast of the latter, and “voide of hope of a North-East passage (except by the Vaygats, for which I was not fitted to trie or prove),” he resolved, 6 July, to use all means to sail to the northwest, once more hoping to pass what Capt. Davis named Lumley's inlet and the furious overfall. But, having made little headway, on 7 Aug. he returned to England, arriving on 26 Aug.
The fame of Hudson's voyages soon reached the ears of the recently established Dutch East India company, and, although its charter only conferred the privilege of trading with India by the Cape of Good Hope, stimulated by its fears of English rivalry, it determined also to despatch an expedition in search of a northeast passage, and invited Hudson to command it. The Muscovy company having temporarily abandoned the quest, and turned its attention to the whale-fisheries, which Hudson had suggested, he was at liberty, and, having conferred in person with the Amsterdam chamber, accepted the mission. Just as he had closed the affair, an invitation arrived from the king of France, desiring him to undertake a similar voyage, and offering 4,000 crowns for the purpose. Henry C. Murphy, while U. S. minister at the Hague, discovered a copy of Hudson's contract, which shows that the original was executed, 6 Jan., 1609, at Amsterdam, that he signed his name Henry Hudson, and that in the body of the instrument he was also named Henry (and not Hendrik) Hudson; and that an interpreter was required, as Hudson did not understand Dutch. It appears from the contract and abstract of instructions that the directors agreed to furnish a vessel of about sixty tons to “search for a passage to the north, around by the north side of Nova Zembla.” For his outfit, and for the support of his wife and children, $320 were to be paid; and in case he lost his life, the directors were to give his widow $80. If he found "the passage good and suitable for the company to use, the directors declared that they would reward him in their discretion. Hudson received important advice from his friends Jodocus Hondius, engraver and map-maker, and the celebrated geographer the Rev. Peter Plancius, and from the latter also translations of Barentson's voyage memoranda in 1595, and the treatise of Ivar Bardson Boty, which had belonged to Barentson, and also the log-books of George Waymouth. He also had with him certain letters “which his friend, Capt. John Smith, had sent him from Virginia, and by which he informed him that there was a sea leading into the western ocean, by the north of the English colony.” Hudson sailed from Amsterdam on 4 April, 1609, his vessel being the “Half Moon” (see illustration), of about eighty tons, manned by a motley crew of sixteen English and Dutch sailors.
Robert Juet, who had been his mate in the previous voyage, now acted as his clerk, and fortunately kept the curious journal of the voyage preserved in Purchas's third volume. Hudson's own journal, which De Laet had before him when he wrote the “Nieuwe Werelt,” has entirely disappeared, together with such documents as Hudson may have forwarded to the Dutch East India company. Van Meteren tells us that Hudson doubled the Cape of Norway on 5 May, and directed his course along the northern coasts toward Nova Zembla; but he there found the sea as full of ice as in the preceding year, so that he lost hope of effecting anything. This and the cold, which some of his men, accustomed to the East India heat, could not bear, caused dissensions among the crew, upon which Hudson proposed to go to the coast of America to the latitude of 40° (an idea suggested by Capt. John Smith's maps and letters), or to direct the search to Davis strait. The latter idea Hudson had abandoned, when in a somewhat similar position, on his last voyage, and he again renounced it, and, “contrary to his instructions,” says Mr. Van Dam (which were to retrace his steps and return to Amsterdam in case of failure to find a passage to the northeast), he shaped his course toward the setting sun, hoping to find a passage to India north of the infant colony of Virginia. A fortnight later he replenished his water-casks in one of the Faroe group, on 2 July was sounding off the grand bank of Newfoundland, on the 12th was in Penobscot bay, on 4 Aug. at Cape Cod, and two weeks later found himself off King James's river, in Virginia. Resisting the temptation to visit his friend Smith, he again steered northward, and on Friday, 28 Aug., entered the great bay now called Delaware, whence he emerged, after twenty-four hours of fruitless search for a passage to India, and, following the New Jersey coast, cast anchor on 3 Sept. within Sandy Hook. A month was passed in the great river in ascertaining that for about one hundred and fifty miles (to a point just above the site of the present city of Albany) its waters were navigable for light-draught vessels, and that the surrounding country was attractive and fertile, abounding in valuable game, and frequented by peaceful Indians. He was unaware that Samuel Champlain was at the same time exploring the country not many miles north of him. (See Champlain.) Hudson arrived at Dartmouth, on his return voyage, 7 Nov., and immediately wrote to the Dutch East India company, proposing to leave Dartmouth on 1 March for a search in the northwest for the pas-
