Henry Hudson |
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Henry Hudson was born near London but sailed for the Dutch. Not much is known about Mr. Hudson prior to 1607 when he commanded his own voyages. Speculation that he may have tuned his seagoing skills as far back as a sailor in the Spanish Armada in 1588. He had capable friends during the Age of Discovery — persons with great abilities to point him towards a suspected Northeast Passage. There was Jodocus Hondius, who was the leading map publisher and cartographer for the Dutch. Captain John Smith, who founded the colony of Virginia for the British, was also friendly with Hudson. Captain Smith told Hudson there was a river north of Virginia and below 40 degrees that was a passage to the Pacific, and sent charts to Hudson. During the 1609 voyage, it is believed Hudson wanted to visit Smith in Virginia, but may have turned north fearing the British would fire on a ship flying the Dutch flag, without knowing it was commanded by a British subject as well as John Smith’s friend. So Hudson sailed north, looking for a river that held the key to the Pacific. Henry Hudson was commissioned twice by the Muscovy Company in 1607 and 1608 to find a Northeast Passage. Twice he sailed from England. In the waters of northern Russia in 1608 he was blocked by ice and was failing a second time in his quest for the passage. In that ice he turned the ship around, giving word to the crew he was bound for home, while secretly planning to find a northwest passage. This nearly led to a mutiny and Hudson gave up the quest and sailed for England. This was the heyday of the Age of Exploration and while his two failures made England and Russia shy away, the French were interested, and the Dutch were interested in blocking the French. In 1609, with instructions to find a Northeast Passage, the Dutch West India Company gave him a ship called the "Half Moon." Sailing 150 miles north as per his written contract he faced another possible crew mutiny. He turned the "Half Moon" around from the cold northern waters, and sailed for warmer climates and the New World. His fears that Captain John Smith would fire on him had real substance, as he would be arrested at the end of this journey for flying a foreign flag when docking in England. Avoiding his friend in Virginia, he headed north.
In 1609 Henry Hudson sailed up a river the natives called "Manna-hatta." In a world of dugout canoes, it was hard to keep an oceangoing ship with masts and supplies a secret. Many natives came aboard trading Grapes, Beaver and Otter Skins, as well as locally grown tobacco for knives and hatchets. And so, as the Dutch and Natives bought and sold on the wooden deck of the Half Moon, commerce commenced in a natural rural wonderland that was destined to become a great city and commercial center for the world. Hudson’s excitement around New York Bay, that he’d found a Northwest Passage, turned to disappointment around Albany in September of 1609, when he realized the thinning river was not the hoped-for Pacific passage. His sorrow was tempered by the luscious green valleys and abundance of wildlife he’d seen. No doubt bellies full of fresh seafood made for a happier crew. Hudson wrote, "The land is the finest for cultivation that I ever in my life set foot upon, and it also abounds in trees of every description." Commissioned by the West India Company primarily to find a Northeast Passage, a goal he was obviously failing for a third time, Hudson tried to salvage things with reports home about the rich and pervasive fur trade. In an area still mainly unsettled by Europeans, the fur trade offered a great return for little investment. In 1610 the West India Company was able to declare a 329 percent dividend on its stock. Much of the profit had to do with Hudson’s claiming New Amsterdam and its rich resources for Holland. next: Chapter 4: |
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New York Around 1600 and Brooklyn Names |
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