many years. People used to take their children to
see it, and they would tell them about the _Golden Hind_, the good
ship in which sailed the brave general, Sir Francis Drake, when he
taught the Spaniards a lesson.

When the timber of the ship began to decay, a chair was made of some
of it and given to Oxford University, where it may be seen to this
day.

HENRY HUDSON.

Henry Hudson was one of the best sea captains in all England. He loved
the ocean, and he did not know the word "fear."

[Illustration: Henry Hudson.]

In 1607 a company of London merchants sent him to look for a northwest
passage to China. These merchants knew that if such a passage could
be found, the journey to China would be much shorter than by the
overland route then used. It would take less time to sail around the
earth near the pole than to sail around the earth near the equator.
Besides, every one who had attempted to reach China by sailing west
had reached, instead, that long coast of the New World, through which
but one opening had ever been found. The route through this opening,
the Strait of Magellan, had been proved by its discoverer, Ferdinand
Magellan, to be too long for use in commerce, so traders were trying
hard to find a northwest passage.

Captain Hudson proceeded northwest from England, and tried to pass
between Greenland and Spitzbergen and sail across the north pole into
the Pacific. Failing in this attempt, he made a second voyage, during
which he tried to pass between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. This voyage
also was unsuccessful, and Hudson returned to England. He had found
no northwest passage, but he had sailed past mountains of snow and
ice and had been nearer the north pole than any man had ever been
before.

Captain Hudson was not discouraged by his two failures. He still
believed a northwest passage could be found; and when the Dutch people
asked him to make a voyage for them in search of a passage to the Pacific
Ocean, he was quite willing to accept the offer.

In 1609 Hudson sailed from Amsterdam in a small craft of eighty tons,
called the _Half Moon_. After sailing many days through fog and ice,
the sailors refused to go farther in that direction, and then Hudson
headed his ship across the Atlantic toward America. You may think it
strange that Hudson should change his plans so quickly, but he knew
what he was about. He had received a letter from his friend Captain
John Smith, who was then in Virginia