57. The Dutch.--At this time the Dutch were the greatest traders and shipowners in the world. They were especially interested in the commerce of the East Indies. Indeed, the Dutch India Company was the most successful trading company in existence. The way to the East Indies lay through seas carefully guarded by the Portuguese, so the Dutch India Company hired Henry Hudson, an English sailor, to search for a new route to India. [Sidenote: Henry Hudson.] [Sidenote: He discovers Hudson's River, 1609. _Higginson_, 88-90; _Explorers_, 281-296.] [Sidenote: His death. _Explorers_ 296-302.] 58. Hudson's Voyage, 1609.--He set forth in 1609 in the _Half-Moon_, a stanch little ship. At first he sailed northward, but ice soon blocked his way. He then sailed southwestward to find a strait, which was said to lead through America, north of Chesapeake Bay. On August 3, 1609, he reached the entrance of what is now New York harbor. Soon the _Half-Moon_ entered the mouth of the river that still bears her captain's name. Up, up the river she sailed, until finally she came to anchor near the present site of Albany. The ship's boats sailed even farther north. Everywhere the country was delightful. The Iroquois came off to the ship in their canoes. Hudson received them most kindly--quite unlike the way Champlain treated other Iroquois Indians at about the same time, on the shore of Lake Champlain (p. 20). Then Hudson sailed down the river again and back to Europe. He made one later voyage to America, this time under the English flag. He was turned adrift by his men in Hudson's Bay, and perished in the cold and ice. [Sidenote: The Dutch fur-traders.] [Sidenote: Settle on Manhattan Island.] [Sidenote: New Netherland.] 59. The Dutch Fur-Traders.--Hudson's failure to find a new way to India made the Dutch India Company lose interest in American exploration. But many Dutch merchants were greatly interested in Hudson's account of the "Great River of the Mountain." They thought that they could make money from trading for furs with the Indians. They sent many expeditions to Hudson's River, and made a great deal of money. Some of their captains explored the coast northward and southward as far as Boston harbor and Delaware Bay. Their principal trading-posts were on Manhattan Island, and near the site of Albany. In 1614 some of the leading traders obtained from the Dutch government the sole right to trade between New France and Virginia. They called this region New Netherland. [Sidenote: The Dutch West India Company, 1621. _Higginson_, 90-96; _Explorers_, 303-307; _Source-book_, 42-44.] [Sidenote: The patroons, 1628.]