The letter told him he should sail to the westward if he wished to find the best way of reaching India. Just north of Virginia there was a narrow strait. If a ship passed through that strait, it would enter the ocean that washes the shores of India. We all know now that Captain John Smith was wrong about this. But Henry Hudson thought it must be true. He turned his ship, the Half Moon, towards the west. He sailed in that direction till he reached the shores of Newfoundland. Then he went southward as far as Virginia, keeping near the coast. He now turned his ship about and slowly sailed to the north. He entered many of the bays and coves that reached into the land. He was always on the lookout for the strait of which Smith had written. At last he sailed into a fine harbor which no white men had ever seen before. We call it to-day the harbor of New York and know it is one of the best in the world. Indians came down to the shore in crowds. They were curious to see the strange-looking boat and the people with the white faces and hands. The Red Men wore feather cloaks and necklaces of copper. They wished to make friends with their visitors and offered them beans, oysters, and tobacco. "What a beautiful country this is!" the white men thought. There were sweet smells in the air and the open places along the shore were covered with grass and flowers. The ship did not remain long in the harbor. Hudson found he was at the mouth of a river. He thought: "Who knows but that if I follow this river I may reach the Pacific Ocean?" So the ship sailed farther and farther up the river. It stopped at several places where friendly Indians came out to meet the white men. Hudson landed at one of these places and visited an Indian chief. In the village he saw great piles of corn and beans. He noticed the bark houses. The Red Men asked him to stay all night with them and placed a mat on the ground for him to sit on. They brought him food in a red wooden bowl. They wished to show that they were truly his friends, so they took some arrows and threw them into the fire. This told him more than the Indian words he could not understand. When he sailed again, Hudson noticed that the river was getting narrower. At last it was so shallow that his ship could go no farther. He sent some men in a small boat to see what they could find. "This is no way to the Pacific," they said when they came back. "The river comes to an end just beyond us." The ship was turned about, and Hudson sailed down the river and out into the harbor again. He gave his own name to the river he had discovered, and it is still called the Hudson River. He never saw it again. Now came the long voyage across the ocean. The Dutch people were sorry that Hudson had not found what he was looking for. They were pleased, however, to learn of the lovely country and the wild animals covered with fur that were to be found in its forests.