where he saw the celebrated cosmographer the Rev. Peter Plancius and the cartographer Hondius, and after some delay, due to the rivalry which was exhibited in the attempt to secure his services, he undertook for the Dutch East India Company his important third voyage to find a passage to China either by the north-east or north-west route. With a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men he left the Texel in the “Half-Moon” on the 6th of April, and by the 5th of May was in the Barents Sea, and soon afterwards among the ice near Novaya Zemlya, where he had been the year before. Some of his men becoming disheartened and mutinous (it is now supposed that he had arrived two or three months too early), he lost hope of effecting anything by that route, and submitted to his men, as alternative proposals, either to go to Lumley’s Inlet and follow up Waymouth’s light, or to make for North Virginia and seek the passage in about 40° lat., according to the letter and map sent him by his friend Captain John Smith. The latter plan was adopted, and on the 14th of May Hudson set his face towards the Chesapeake and China. He touched at Stromo in the Faroe Islands for water, and on the 15th of June off Newfoundland the “Half-Moon” “spent overboard her foremast.” This accident compelled him to put into the Kennebec river, where a mast was procured, and some communication and an unnecessary encounter with the Indians took place. Sailing again on the 26th of July, he began on the 28th of August the survey where Smith left off, at 37° 36′ according to his map, and coasted northwards. On the 3rd of September, in 40° 30′, he entered the fine bay of New York, and after having gone 150 m. up the river which now bears his name to near the position of the present Albany, treating with the Indians, surveying the country, and trying the stream above tide-water, he became satisfied that this course did not lead to the South Sea or China, a conclusion in harmony with that of Champlain, who the same summer had been making his way south through Lake Champlain and Lake St Sacrement (now Lake George). The two explorers by opposite routes approached within 20 leagues of each other. On the 4th of October the “Half-Moon” weighed for the Texel, and on the 7th of November arrived at Dartmouth, where she was seized and detained by the English government, Hudson and the other Englishmen of the ship being commanded not to leave England, but rather to serve their own country. The voyage had fallen short of Hudson’s expectations, but it served many purposes perhaps as important to the world. Among other results it exploded Hakluyt’s myth, which from the publication of Lok’s map in 1582 to the 2nd charter of Virginia in May 1609 he had lost no opportunity of promulgating, that near 40° lat. there was a narrow isthmus, formed by the sea of Verrazano, like that of Tehuantepec or Panama.
Hudson’s confidence in the existence of a North-West Passage had not been diminished by his three failures, and a new company was formed to support him in a fourth attempt, the principal promoters being Sir Thomas Smith (or Smythe), Sir Dudley Digges and John (afterwards Sir John) Wolstenholme. He determined this time to carry out his old plan of searching for a passage up Davis’s “overfall”—so-called in allusion to the overfall of the tide which Davis had observed rushing through the strait. Hudson sailed from London in the little ship “Discovery” of 55 tons, on the 17th of April 1610, and entered the strait which now bears his name about the middle of June. Sailing steadily westward he entered Hudson Bay on the 3rd of August, and passing southward spent the next three months examining the eastern shore of the bay. On the 1st of November the “Discovery” went into winter quarters in the S.W. corner of James Bay, being frozen in a few days later, and during the long winter months which were passed there only a scanty supply of game was secured to eke out the ship’s provisions. Discontent became rife, and on the ship breaking out of the ice in the spring Hudson had a violent quarrel with a dissolute young fellow named Henry Greene, whom he had befriended by taking him on board, and who now retaliated by inciting the discontented part of the crew to put Hudson and eight others (including the sick men) out of the ship. This happened on the 22nd of June 1611. Robert Bylot was elected master and brought the ship back to England. During the voyage home Greene and several others were killed in a fight with the Eskimo, while others again died of starvation, and the feeble remnant which reached England in September were thrown into prison. No more tidings were ever received of the deserted men.
Although it is certain that the four great geographical landmarks which to-day serve to keep Hudson’s memory alive, namely the Hudson Bay, Strait, Territory and River, had repeatedly been visited and even drawn on maps and charts before he set out on his voyages, yet he deserves to take a very high rank among northern navigators for the mere extent of his discoveries and the success with which he pushed them beyond the limits of his predecessors. The rich fisheries of Spitzbergen and the fur industry of the Hudson Bay Territory were the immediate fruit of his labours.
See Henry Hudson, the Navigator (Hakluyt Society, 1860); and T. A. Janvier, Henry Hudson (1909). In 1909 a great celebration of the tercentenary was held in the United States.
HUDSON, JOHN (1662–1719), English classical scholar, was
born at Wythop in Cumberland. He was educated at Oxford,
where the remainder of his life was spent. In 1701 he was
appointed Bodley’s librarian, and in 1711 principal of St Mary’s
Hall. His political views stood in the way of his preferment in
the church and university. He died on the 26th of November
1719. As an editor and commentator he enjoyed a high reputation
both at home and abroad. His works, chiefly editions of
classical authors, include the following: Velleius Paterculus
(1693); Thucydides (1696); Geographiae Veteris Scriptores
Graeci minores (1698–1712) containing the works and fragments
of 21 authors and the learned, though diffuse, dissertations of
H. Dodwell—a rare and valuable work, which in spite of its
faulty text was not superseded until the appearance of C. W.
Müller’s edition in the Didot series: the editio princeps of
Moeris, De Vocibus Atticis et Hellenicis (1712); Josephus (1720,
published posthumously by his friend Anthony Hall, the antiquary),
a correct and beautifully printed edition, with variorum
notes and translation.
See Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, iv.; introduction to the edition of Josephus; W. Hutchinson, History of Cumberland (1794).
HUDSON, a city and the county-seat of Columbia county,
New York, U.S.A., on the E. side of the Hudson river, about
114 m. N. of New York City and about 28 m. S. of Albany.
Pop. (1890) 9970; (1900) 9528, of whom 1155 were foreign-born;
(1910 census) 11,417. It is served by the Boston & Albany,
the New York Central & Hudson River and the (electric)
Albany & Hudson railways, by river steamboats, and by a steam
ferry to Athens and Catskill across the river. The city is picturesquely
situated on the slope of Prospect Hill; and Promenade
Park, on a bluff above the steamboat landing, commands a
fine view of the river and of the Catskill Mountains. Among
the public buildings and institutions are a fine city hall, the
Columbia County Court House, a public library, a Federal
building, a State Training School for Girls, a State Firemen’s
Home, an Orphan Asylum, a Home for the Aged and a hospital.
The city’s manufactures include hosiery and knit goods, Portland
cement (one of the largest manufactories of that product in the
United States being here), foundry and machine shop products,
car wheels, ice tools and machinery, ale, beer, bricks and tiles
and furniture. The value of the factory products in 1905 was
$4,115,525, an increase of 58.1% over that in 1900. The
municipality owns and operates the water-works. Hudson,
which was originally known as Claverack Landing, was for many
years merely a landing with two rude wharfs and two small
storehouses, to which farmers in the neighbourhood brought
their produce for shipment on the river. Late in 1783 the place
was settled by an association of merchants and fishermen from
Rhode Island, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The present
name was adopted in 1784, and the city was chartered in 1785.
For many years Hudson had a considerable foreign commerce
and whaling interests, but these were practically destroyed
by the war of 1812.
