THE spirit of the age was present when the foundations of New York were laid. Every great European event affected the fortunes of America. Did a state prosper, it sought an increase of wealth by plantations in the West. Was a sect persecuted, it escaped to the New World. The reformation, followed by collisions between English dissenters and the Anglican hierarchy, colonized New England; the reformation, emancipating the United Provinces, led to European settlements on the Hudson. The Netherlands divide with England the glory of having planted the first colonies in the United States; they also divide the glory of having set the examples of public freedom. If England gave our fathers the idea of a popular representation, Holland originated for them the principle of federal union.

In 1581, within two years of the union of Utrecht, Bath, an Englishman who had five times crossed the Atlantic, proposed to the States to conduct four shipsof-war to America. The adventure was declined by the government; but no obstacles were offered to private enterprise. Ten years afterwards, William

Wsselinx, who had lived some years in Castile, Portugal, and the Azores, proposed a West India company; but the dangers of the undertaking were still too appalling. It was not till 1597 that Bikker of Amsterdam, and Leyen of Enkhuisen, each succeeded in undertaking voyages to the New World; and, in 1600, after years of discussion, a plan for a West India company was reduced to writing, and communicated to the States General.

But, while the negotiations with Spain postponed the formation of a West India company, the Dutch found their way to the United States through another channel. The first efforts of the merchants of Holland to share in the commerce of Asia, were accompanied with a desire to search for a north-west passage; in quest of which the voyages of their mariners were esteemed without a parallel for their daring.

In 1607, after the repeated failure of the Dutch and the Danes, a company of London merchants, excited by the immense profits of voyages to the East, contributed the means for a new attempt; and HENRY HUDSON was the chosen leader of the expedition. Sailing to the north, with his only son for his companion, he coasted the shores of Greenland, and hesitated whether to attempt the circumnavigation of that country, or the passage across the pole. What though he came within eight degrees of the pole, thus surpassing every earlier navigator? After renewing the discovery of Spitzbergen, vast masses of ice compelled his return.

But the zeal of Hudson could not be quenched; and the next year beheld him once more on a voyage, cherishing the deceitful hope that through the seas which divide Spitzbergen from Nova Zembla he might find a path to Southern Asia.

The failure of two expeditions daunted the enterprise of Hudson's employers; they could not daunt the courage of the great navigator, who was destined to become the rival of Smith and of Champlain. He longed to tempt once more the dangers of the northern seas;

1609.]

VOYAGES OF HENRY HUDSON.

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and, repairing to Holland, he offered, in the service of the Dutch East India company, to explore the icy wastes in search of the coveted passage. The voyage of Smith to Virginia stimulated desire; the Zealanders, fearing the loss of treasure, objected; but, by the influence of Balthazar Moucheron, the directors for Amsterdam resolved on equipping a small vessel of discovery; and, on the fourth day of April, 1609, THE CRESCENT, commanded by Hudson, and manned by a mixed crew of Englishmen and Hollanders, his son being of the number, set sail for the north-western passage.

Masses of ice impeded the navigation towards Nova Zembla. Hudson, who had examined the maps of John Smith of Virginia, turned to the west; and, passing beyond Greenland and Newfoundland, and running down the coast of Acadia, he anchored, probably, in the mouth of the Penobscot. Then, following the track of Gosnold, he came upon the promontory of Cape Cod, and, believing himself its first discoverer, gave it the name of New Holland. Long afterwards it was claimed as the north-eastern boundary of New Netherlands. From the sands of Cape Cod, he steered a southerly course, till he was opposite the entrance into the Bay of Virginia, where Hudson remembered that his countrymen were planted. Then, turning again to the north, he discovered the Delaware Bay, examined its currents and its soundings, and, without going on shore, took note of the aspect of the country.

On the third day of September, almost at the time when Champlain was invading New York from the north, less than five months after the truce with Spain, which gave the Netherlands a diplomatic existence as a state, the Crescent anchored within Sandy Hook, and, from the neighboring shores, that were crowned with "goodly oakes," attracted frequent visits from the natives. After a week's delay, Hudson sailed through the Narrows, and, at the mouth of the river,