The Minister says: “The following memoir is the result of an investigation made for the purpose of ascertaining more precisely than has hitherto been explained, the circumstances which originated the voyage made on behalf of the Dutch East India Company by Henry Hudson; the motives, purposes and character of its projectors and the designs of the navigator himself at the time he sailed upon that expedition. We have examined the records of the East India Company, comprising the registers or book of resolutions of the general of the company, styled the Council of Seventeen, and the Chambers of Amsterdam, Zealand, etc., with some other documents among the archives of the Kingdom at The Hague, where all the books and papers of the company have been brought from the several chambers, have been arranged and kept. A copy of the contract between Hudson and two members of the Chamber of Amsterdam (as given on previous pages), was found appended to a history of the company never published, but prepared at its request by Mr. P. Van Dam, who held the position of counsel of the company for the extraordinary period of fifty-four years, that is, from 1652 until his death in 1706.” The Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company had, among its members, enterprising merchants who had a particular motive in seeking to secure Hudson’s services. They wished to forestall others, and especially their own country, in the discovery, and thus prevent any interference with their chartered monopoly of the East India trade. The evidence of this policy distinctly appears in the resolutions and proceedings of the general council of all the chambers of the company, called the “Council of Seventeen.” The company itself, shortly after its organization, took into consideration the expediency of making an attempt to explore the northern passage and of soliciting the necessary privileges from the government. It is quite apparent, therefore, that the fears and the hopes of opening that route still existed in the minds of some of the directors. The Council of Seventeen determined finally that it was inexpedient to make the trial. Their determination was, however, accompanied by a remarkable resolution. The final action of the Council of Seventeen took place on the 7th of August, 1603, and is thus entered in the minutes: “It is likewise for deliberation and resolution whether the voyage by the North shall also be undertaken and negotiations be had with the Noble Lord States in regards to terms and privileges for that purpose seeing that some private persons have already been in communication with said Lords; the more so as this matter at the meeting of the 17 on the 27th of Feby last past was postponed as appears by the 17th section of the proceedings of that meeting.”