North American voyages

Henry Hudson · 1609 CE – 1611 CE · Earth

Find a northern passage to China, for the Dutch East India Company in 1609 and for London merchants in 1610.

Historical context

Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in 1609 and for a group of London merchants in 1610, both times looking for a northern way to China. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls him, in a sense, a founding father of both New York City and the Hudson’s Bay Company. The voyages are known from Robert Juet’s journal of 1609, a few passages of Hudson’s own logs, the history of Van Meteren and Abacuk Pricket’s account of the last voyage; Juet’s dates of 1609 are new style by his own marking, the English dates of 1610–11 old style.

The voyage, step by step

1. For the Dutch

   1609 CE

   In the spring of 1609 Hudson sails from Amsterdam on the Halve Maen for the Dutch East India Company, to seek a northern passage to China.

2. Up the great river

   1609 CE

   In September 1609 Hudson enters the great bay at forty degrees and sails some fifty leagues up the river that will bear his name, trading with its peoples and fighting them.

3. Wintering in the bay

   November 1610

   Through the strait and into the great bay, the Discovery searches its southern end until, in November 1610, she is trapped for the winter.

4. Mutiny

   June 1611

   In June 1611 the mutineers cast Hudson, his son and seven other men adrift in the shallop; they are never seen again.

Outcome

Sailed up the river now named after him in 1609; in 1610 forced the strait into the great bay and wintered in James Bay; set adrift by mutineers in June 1611 with his son and seven others, never to be seen again.

Henry Hudson

English navigator who explored the North American coast and the Arctic in search of a passage to Asia.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Henry Hudson the Navigator: the original documents in which his career is recorded (Robert Juet’s journal of 1609, Hudson’s abstract and Abacuk Pricket’s larger discourse of 1610–11, with extracts from Van Meteren, De Laet and Heckewelder)Collected, partly translated and annotated by G. M. Asher · Hakluyt Society, London (First Series, no. 27) · 1860
• Hudson, Henry — Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1L. H. Neatby · University of Toronto / Université Laval · 1966
• Henry Hudson — Wikipedia

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