Captain Hudson was not discouraged by his two failures. He still believed a northwest passage could be found; and when the Dutch people asked him to make a voyage for them in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean, he was quite willing to accept the offer. In 1609 Hudson sailed from Amsterdam in a small craft of eighty tons, called the _Half Moon_. After sailing many days through fog and ice, the sailors refused to go farther in that direction, and then Hudson headed his ship across the Atlantic toward America. You may think it strange that Hudson should change his plans so quickly, but he knew what he was about. He had received a letter from his friend Captain John Smith, who was then in Virginia, telling him that a northwest passage was to be found along the coast of North America, north of Chesapeake Bay. This letter Hudson had in mind when he started on his voyage. He reached Chesapeake Bay, but did not enter it, as the weather was stormy. Instead, he proceeded up the coast, looking for an opening. At length, in September, he entered a beautiful bay. Into this bay a wide river flowed which Hudson thought might be a strait that would lead into the Pacific Ocean. The water in this opening was salt, and this strengthened Hudson in the belief that it was the strait for which he had been searching so long. At the mouth of the river there was a beautiful island, long and narrow, and wooded to the shore. At first the island seemed deserted, but soon the sailors saw here and there slender curling columns of smoke rising from among the trees. This smoke showed them that the island was inhabited, and presently an Indian appeared on the shore. [Illustration: The Half Moon on the Hudson River.] This Indian looked for a moment in astonishment at the ship, and then, shouting the war whoop, bounded back into the forest. In a few minutes he reappeared, bringing other Indians with him. All were amazed at the sight of the strange ship, and they gazed in wonder and fear at it and at the white-faced, bearded strangers. Little by little, however, they lost their fear and talked with Captain Hudson. These Indians told Hudson that the name of the beautiful island was Manhattan, and that the stream led far, far to the north. So Hudson entered the river and sailed slowly north, enjoying the charming scenery, and stopping now and then to trade and to talk with the Indians. For twenty miles he sailed along a great wall of rock about five hundred feet high, which we now know as the Palisades. This name was given to the rocky wall because it looks like a palisade, or high fence of stakes set close together and upright in the ground.