anchored in a harbor which was pronounced to be very good for all winds. Of the surrounding lands, the luxuriant grass, the flowers, the trees, the grateful fragrance, were admired. Ten days were employed in exploring the river; the first of Europeans, Hudson went sounding his way above the Highlands, till at last the Crescent had sailed some miles beyond the city of Hudson, and a boat had advanced a little beyond Albany. Frequent intercourse was held with the astonished natives of the Algonquin race; and the strangers were welcomed by a deputation from the Mohawks. Having completed his discovery, Hudson descended the stream to which time has given his name; and, on the fourth day of October, about the season of the return of John Smith to England, he set sail for Europe, leaving once more to its solitude the land that his imagination, anticipating the future, described as "the most beautiful" in the world.

A happy return voyage brought the Crescent into Dartmouth. Hudson forwarded to his Dutch employers a brilliant account of his discoveries; but he never revisited the lands which he eulogized; and the Dutch East India company refused to search farther for the north-western passage.

Meantime ambition revived among the English merchants; a company was formed, and, in April, 1610, Hudson again entered the northern seas in search of a path to the Pacific. Passing Iceland and Greenland, and Frobisher's Straits, he sailed into the straits which bear his own name, and where he had been preceded by none but Sebastian Cabot. As he emerged from the passage, and came upon the wide gulf, he believed that his object had been gained. How great was his disappointment when he found himself embayed! As he sailed to and fro along the coast, it seemed a labyrinth without end; still confident of ultimate success, the inflexible mariner resolved on wintering in the bay, that he might perfect his discovery in the spring. Why should I dwell on the sufferings of a winter for which

1610.]

HUDSON'S DEATH AND BURIAL.

5

no preparation had been made? At length the late and anxiously-expected spring burst forth; but it opened in vain for Hudson. Provisions were exhausted; he divided the last bread among his men, and prepared for them a bill of return; and "he wept as he gave it them." Believing himself almost on the point of succeeding, where Spaniards, and English, and Danes, and Dutch, had failed, he left his anchoring-place to steer for Europe. For two days, the ship was encompassed by fields of ice, and the discontent of the crew broke forth into mutiny. Hudson was seized, and, with his only son and seven others, four of whom were sick, was thrown into the shallop. Where has not humanity its servants? Seeing his commander thus exposed, Philip Staffe, the carpenter, demanded and gained leave to share his fate; and, just as the ship made its way out of the ice, on a mid-summer's day, in a latitude where the sun hardly goes down, and evening twilight ceases only with the dawn, the shallop was cut loose. What became of Hudson? Did he die miserably of starvation? Did he reach land to perish from the fury of the natives? Was he crushed between ribs of ice? The returning ship encountered storms, by which, it is probable, Hudson was overwhelmed. Alone of the great mariners of that day, he lies buried in America; the waste of waters which bears his name, is his tomb and monument.

As the country on the Hudson had been discovered by an agent of the Dutch East India company, the right of possession was claimed for the United Provinces; and, in 1610, the year in which Hudson perished, merchants of Amsterdam fitted out a ship with various merchandise to traffic with the natives. The voyage was prosperous, and was renewed. When Argall, in 1613, entered the waters of New York, he found three or four rude hovels already erected on the Island of Manhattan, as a summer shelter for the few Dutch mariners and fur traders, whom private enterprise had sta tioned there.

Had these early navigators in the bays round New York anticipated the future, they might have left careful memorials of their voyages. In March, 1614, the States General had assured to the adventurers a four years' monopoly of trade with newly-discovered lands; and merchants, forming a partnership, but not a corporation, availed themselves of the privilege. Several ships, in consequence, sailed for America; and from the imperfect and conflicting statements, we may infer, that perhaps in 1614 the first rude fort was erected, probably on the southern point of Manhattan Island; and Adrian Blok sailed through the East River, discovered Long Island to be an island, and examined the coast as far as Cape Cod. The discovery of Connecticut River is undoubtedly due to the Dutch; the name of its first European navigator is uncertain. That in 1615 the settlement at Albany began, on an island just below the present city, is placed beyond a doubt by existing records. It was the remote port of the Indian trader, and was never again abandoned. Yet at this early period there was no colony; not a single family had emigrated; the only Europeans on the Hudson were commercial agents and their subordinates.

The cause of the tardy progress of colonization is to be sought in the parties which divided the States. Af ter the Calvinists, popular enthusiasm, and the stadtholder, had triumphed over the provincial states and municipal authorities; while the Netherlands were displaying unparalleled energy in their foreign relations, schemes of American commerce were revived.

The Dutch West India company, which became the sovereign of the central portion of the United States, was, in June, 1621, incorporated for twenty-four years, with a pledge of a renewal of its charter, and was invested, on the part of the Netherlands, with the exclusive privilege to traffic and plant colonies on the coast of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope; on the coast of America, from the Straits