ith a broad
intellectual forehead, short, close hair, and a countenance full of the
dignity and courtly bearing of an honorable gentleman. His dress bespoke
him a sailor, and such he was. Immediately upon receiving the sacrament,
he hastened from the church to the Thames, where a boat was in waiting to
convey him to a vessel lying in the stream. But little time was lost
after his arrival on board, and soon the ship was gliding down the river.
The man was an Englishman by birth and training, a seaman by education,
and one of those daring explorers of the time who yearned to win fame by
discovering the new route to India. His name was HENRY HUDSON, and he
had been employed by "certain worshipful merchants of London" to go in
search of a North-_east_ passage to India, around the Arctic shores of
Europe, between Lapland and Nova Zembla, and frozen Spitzbergen. These
worthy gentlemen were convinced that since the effort to find a
North-_west_ passage had failed, nothing remained but to search for a
North-_east_ passage, and they were sure that if human skill or energy
could find it, Hudson would succeed in his mission. They were not
mistaken in their man, for in two successive voyages he did all that
mortal could do to penetrate the ice fields beyond the North Cape, but
without success. An impassable barrier of ice held him back, and he was
forced to return to London to confess his failure. With unconquerable
hope, he suggested new means of overcoming the difficulties; but while
his employers praised his zeal and skill, they declined to go to further
expense in an undertaking which promised so little, and the "bold
Englishman, the expert pilot, and the famous navigator" found himself out
of employment. Every effort to secure aid in England failed him, and,
thoroughly disheartened, he passed over to Holland, whither his fame had
preceded him.

The Dutch, who were more enterprising, and more hopeful than his own
countrymen, lent a ready ear to his statement of his plans, and the Dutch
East India Company at once employed him, and placed him in command of a
yacht of ninety tons, called the _Half Moon_, manned by a picked crew.
On the 25th of March, 1609, Hudson set sail in this vessel from
Amsterdam, and steered directly for the coast of Nova Zembla. He
succeeded in reaching the meridian of Spitzbergen; but here the ice, the
fogs, and the fierce tempests of the North drove him back, and turning to
the westward, he sail