o let him go off again. This he did in the following
year. Only three of his former crew volunteered for service, and one
of these was his son. But this expedition was devoid of result. The
icy seas about Nova Zembla gave no hope of a passage in this direction,
and, "being void of hope, the wind stormy and against us, much ice
driving, we weighed and set sail westward."

[Illustration: HUDSON'S MAP OF HIS VOYAGES IN THE ARCTIC. From his
book published in 1612.]

Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company had already come under the
notice of the Dutch, who were vying with the English for the discovery
of this short route to the East. Hudson was now invited to undertake
an expedition for the Dutch East India Company, and he sailed from
Amsterdam in the early spring of 1609 in a Dutch ship called the
_Half-Moon_, with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, including once
more his own son. Summer found the enthusiastic explorer off the coast
of Newfoundland, where some cod-fishing refreshed the crews before
they sailed on south, partly seeking an opening to the west, partly
looking for the colony of Virginia, under Hudson's friend, Captain
John Smith. In hot, misty weather they cruised along the coast. They
passed what is now Massachusetts, "an Indian country of great hills--a
very sweet land." On 7th August, Hudson was near the modern town of
New York, so long known as New Amsterdam, but mist hid the low-lying
hills and the _Half-Moon_ drifted on to James River; then, driven back
by a heat hurricane, he made for the inlet on the old charts, which
might lead yet east.

It was 2nd September when he came to the great mouth of the river that
now bears his name. He had been beating about all day in gales and
fogs, when "the sun arose and we saw the land all like broken islands.
From the land which we had first sight of, we came to a large lake
of water, like drowned land, which made it to rise like islands. The
mouth hath many shores and the sea breaketh on them. This is a very
good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see. At three of
the clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers. We found
a very good harbour and went in with our ship. Then we took our nets
to fish and caught ten great mullets of a foot and a half long each,
and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. The people
of the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming,
and brought green tobacco--they go in deer skins, well