In the margin is the following disposition of that subject: “The contents hereof are rejected as it is deemed not serviceable to the Co, and therefore if this navigation should be undertaken by any private person it ought by all means to be prevented.” The company was realizing by the southern route enormous profits, dividing among its stockholders 37 per cent. for its first two years. The States General, by a decree on the 1st of July, 1606, expressly prohibited from navigating by the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, and in the following September, by another decree, the subjects of the Netherlands were prohibited from carrying on the trade. The entire period is so short, concerning which we know anything about Henry Hudson, do we really know enough of him to form a true and fair estimate of his character? We do know that Hudson had made two (and we don’t know how many more) voyages north of Siberia, in the employ of the Muscovy Company, intending to go east and then south, down to Cathay, but did not succeed. He had, however, been exposed, inured to the arctic colds, privations and dangers, and had won the rank of captain. What did he know about the recently explored seas and lands or what more did he need to know about them, if he was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company through its Amsterdam Chambers, two directors to pursue the same course he had on the two voyages he had for the Muscovy Company? Before Henry Hudson had signed the famous contract on the 8th of January, 1609, he had been a careful geographical student, as far as he had opportunity. About the beginning of the seventeenth century, after the Belgians, on account of their religious views, had been expelled from Belgium, and many of them gone to Holland—mostly to Amsterdam, then that city and London, England, became the great rendezvous for navigators, discoverers, would-be discoverers, or explorers, to discuss matters, compare notes, and get all information possible on such subjects.