considerable experience in the East India trade. He offered to make
himself useful to your Majesty in matters of this kind.... A few
days ago he sent to me his brother, to inform me that an English
pilot who has twice sailed in search of a northern passage has been
called to Amsterdam by the East India Company to tell them what he
had found, and whether he hoped to discover that passage. They had
been well satisfied with his answer, and had thought they might
succeed in the scheme. They had, however, been unwilling to
undertake at once the said expedition; and they had only
remunerated the Englishman for his trouble, and had dismissed him
with the promise of employing him next year, 1610. The Englishman,
having thus obtained his leave, Le Maire, who knows him well, has
since conferred with him and has learnt his opinions on these
subjects; with regard to which the Englishman had also intercourse
with Plancius, a great geographer and clever mathematician.
Plancius maintains, according to the reasons of his science, and
from the information given him, ... that there must be in the
northern parts a passage corresponding to the one found near the
south pole by Magellan.... The Englishman also reports that, having
been to the north as far as 80 degrees, he has found that the more
northwards he went, the less cold it became."

[Illustration: "HOW THE EARTH IS ROUND"
FAC-SIMILE OF PAGE "THE ARTE OF NAVIGATION" LONDON. EDITION 1596]

Hudson's name is not mentioned by Jeannin, but as no other
navigator had been so far north as 80 deg., there can be no doubt as to
who "the Englishman" was. The letter goes on to urge that the
French king should undertake the "glorious enterprise" of searching
for a northerly passage to the Indies, and that he should undertake
it openly: as "the East India Company will not have even a right
to complain, because the charter granted to them by the States
General authorizes them to sail only around the Cape of Good Hope,
and not by the north." But Jeannin adds that Le Maire "does not
dare to speak about it to any one, because the East India Company
fears above everything to be forestalled in this design."

Precisely that fear on the part of the East India Company did
undercut the French envoy's plans. In a postscript to his letter he
adds: "This letter having been terminated, and I being ready to
send it to your Majesty, Le Maire has again written to me.... Some
members of the East India Company,