New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
August, when they came near the coast, in 42 degrees of latitude.
Thence they sailed on, till on the 12th of August they again reached
the shore, under 37 degrees 45'. Thence they sailed along the shore
until they reached 40 degrees 45', where they found a good entrance,
between two headlands, and entered on the 12th of September into as
fine a river as can be found, wide and deep, with good anchoring ground
on both sides.
Their ship finally sailed up the river as far as 42 degrees 40'. But
their boat went higher up. In the lower part of the river they found
strong and warlike people; but in the upper part they found friendly
and polite people, who had an abundance of provisions, skins, and furs,
of martens and foxes, and many other commodities, as birds and fruit,
even white and red grapes, and they traded amicably with the people.
And of all the above-mentioned commodities they brought some home. When
they had thus been about fifty leagues up the river, they returned on
the 4th of October, and went again to sea. More could have been done if
there had been good-will among the crew and if the want of some
necessary provisions had not prevented it. While at sea, they held
counsel together, but were of different opinions. The mate, a Dutchman,
advised to winter in Newfoundland, and to search the northwestern
passage of Davis throughout. This was opposed by Skipper Hudson. He was
afraid of his mutinous crew, who had sometimes savagely threatened him;
and he feared that during the cold season they would entirely consume
their provisions, and would then be obliged to return, [with] many of
the crew ill and sickly. Nobody, however, spoke of returning home to
Holland, which circumstance made the captain still more suspicious. He
proposed therefore to sail to Ireland, and winter there, which they all
agreed to. At last they arrived at Dartmouth, in England, the 7th of
November, whence they informed their employers, the Directors in
Holland, of their voyage. They proposed to them to go out again for a
search in the northwest, and that, besides the pay, and what they
already had in the ship, fifteen hundred florins should be laid out for
an additional supply of provisions. He [Hudson] also wanted six or
seven of his crew exchanged for others, and their number raised to
twenty. He would then sail from Dartmouth about the 1st of March, so as
to be in the northwest towards the end of that month, and there to
spend the whole of April and the first half of May in killing whales
and other animals in the neighborhood of Panar Island, then to sail to
the northwest, and there to pass the time till the middle of September,
and then to return to Holland around the northeastern coast of
Scotland. Thus this voyage ended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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