53. The Dutch hire Captain Hudson; he sails for America.--The Dutch
people in Holland had heard of Hudson's voyage, and a company of
merchants of that country hired the brave sailor to see if he could
find a passage to Asia by sailing to the northeast.
He set out from the port of Amsterdam,[1] in 1609, in a vessel named
the _Half Moon_. After he had gone quite a long distance, the sailors
got so tired of seeing nothing but fog and ice that they refused to
go any further.
Then Captain Hudson turned his ship about and sailed for the coast
of North America. He did that because his friend, Captain Smith of
Virginia, had sent him a letter, with a map, which made him think
that he could find such a passage as he wanted north of Chesapeake
Bay.
[Footnote 1: See map in paragraph 62.]
54. Captain Hudson reaches America and finds the "Great
River."--Hudson got to Chesapeake Bay, but the weather was so stormy
that he thought it would not be safe to enter it. He therefore sailed
northward along the coast. In September, 1609, he entered a beautiful
bay, formed by the spreading out of a noble river. At that point the
stream is more than a mile wide, and he called it the "Great River."
On the eastern side of it, not far from its mouth, there is a long
narrow island: the Indians of that day called it Manhattan Island.
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