Hudson, HENRY

Hudson, HENRY, a distinguished navigator, of whom we know nothing before April 1607, when we find him starting, in a small vessel with ten sailors, on his first unfortunate voyage for the discovery of a north-east passage. In his second voyage in 1608 he reached Nova Zembla. He undertook a third voyage in 1609 from Amsterdam, at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. Giving up all hope of finding a north-east passage, he sailed for Davis Strait, then steered southwards in search of a passage, discovered the mouth of the river which now bears his name, and sailed up its waters for 150 miles. He sailed upon his last voyage in April 1610, in the Discovery of 70 tons, and reached Greenland in June. Steering westward, he discovered the strait now known as Hudson Strait, and passed through it, and entered the great bay which has received the name of Hudson Bay. Although very insufficiently supplied with provisions, he resolved to winter in these desolate regions, in order to prosecute his discoveries further in the following spring. The food fell short, and the men, dissatisfied with Hudson's determination to continue the voyage, mutinied, and cast him adrift in a shallop, with eight others, on Midsummer Day 1611. The real ringleaders perished miserably in a scuffle with savages, and the survivors, after great suffering, reached England. See George Asher's Henry Hudson, the Navigator (Hakluyt Society, 1860).