Hudson, firm in the belief that he could find a much shorter all-water route than then was known, sought employment from the Dutch East India Company, which had heard of him as an able, brave and skilled navigator who had been in the employ of their rival—the English—an incentive to secure his services. Hudson was invited to Amsterdam to confer with the directors of the Dutch East India Company. He went and there met the Amsterdam directors of the Dutch East India Company. The Amsterdam directors thought favorably of securing Hudson’s services for the Dutch East India Company—at all events to prevent him from entering any other service and it is said they asked him to come to them a year later for employment as a matter of that importance could be acted on only by the Council of Seventeen. This was to postpone the matter, much to Hudson’s disappointment and detriment—ending, possibly, in mere talk. The Dutch East India Company was then the most prosperous of the East India companies and was really more anxious to prevent any other company from discovering a new all-water route (_the company had resolved to do that at any cost_) than to find one themselves. However, the Amsterdam directors did not hoodwink Hudson by their excuse for delay, which would bind him for a year and leave them free. A former director of the Dutch East India Company, who thought he had been ill treated by the company, resigned, became a bitter opponent of the company and resided in Paris. He told Hudson of the duplicity and purpose of the Amsterdam directors in holding him in suspense. The then French King, Henry IV, felt chagrined that France, through oversight or neglect, had not in any due proportion, considering her dignity and importance, shared in the India trade and that her expeditions to Canada had not proved a success, determined to seek and obtain an experienced navigator to take command of a well-equipped expedition in quest of the best all-water route to India. The French King was advised to communicate with James Lemaire, a Dutch navigator of great wealth and residing in Paris. He did so and Lemaire knew Hudson and named him as the best man for the position. Governments employ a secret service to keep a close watch upon other governments and to report promptly what they are doing and contemplating. King Henry learned about Henry Hudson’s conference with the Amsterdam directors of the Dutch East India Company who wanted to bind him to wait a year before engaging again in a voyage of discovery for India and then come to them for employment.