aged to search in that
direction by the information given him by Captain John Smith
concerning a passage north of Virginia across the American
continent--a notion that Smith probably derived in the first
instance from Michael Lok's planisphere, which shows the continent
reduced to a mere strip in about the latitude of the river that
Hudson found; and that he very well might have conceived to be
confirmed by stories about a great sea not far westward (the great
lakes) which he heard from the Indians.

But the starting point of this geographical error is immaterial.
The important fact is that Hudson entertained it: and so was led to
offer for first choice to his mutinous crew that they should "go
to the coast of America in the latitude of forty degrees." His
readiness with that proposition, when the chance to make it came,
confirms my belief that his own desire was to sail westward, and
that he made the most of his opportunity. And the essential point,
after all, is not whether the mutiny forced him to change, or
merely gave him an excuse for changing, his ordered course: it is
that he was equal to the emergency when the mutiny came, and so
controlled it that--instead of going back, defeated of his purpose,
to Holland--he deliberately took the risk of personal loss that
attended breaking his contract and traversing his orders, and
continued on new lines his exploring voyage. It is indicative of
Hudson's character that he met that cast of fate against him most
resolutely; and most resolutely played up to it with a strong hand.

VII

As the direct result of breaking his orders, Hudson was the
discoverer of our river--to which, therefore, his name properly has
been given--and also was the first navigator by whom our harbor
effectively was found. I use advisedly these precisely
differentiating terms. On the distinctions which they make rests
Hudson's claim to take practical precedence of Verrazano and of
Gomez, who sailed in past Sandy Hook nearly a hundred years ahead
of him; and of those shadowy nameless shipmen who in the
intervening time, until his coming, may have made our harbor one of
their stations--for refitting and watering--on their voyages from
and to Portugal and Spain.

The exploring work of John and of Sebastian Cabot, who sailed along
our coast, but who missed our harbor, does not come within my
range: save to note that Sebastian Cabot pretty certainly was one
of the several navigators, includin