The origin of most of the subsequent expeditions can be traced back to the contest between monopoly and free trade. Hudson, the celebrated English navigator, had just returned from his voyage in 1608, when the East India Company seized the opportunity, and invited him over to the Netherlands, desiring to retain him in their service. After long negotiations, an agreement was entered into, in which Hudson engaged to seek the north-east passage. Accordingly, on the 6th of April, 1609, Hudson started from the Texel in a small vessel called De Halve Maan (the Half Moon). But among the interlopers was one Isaac le Maire, a clever merchant and an inveterate adversary of the Company, who, seeing the preparations made for the departure of Hudson, had not remained inactive. Thirty days later, by his zealous exertions, another ship was fitted out, in order, if possible, to out-do Hudson, and, consequently, the hated East India Company. This expedition was under the command of Melchior van Kerckhoven, who left the Dutch ports on the 5th of May, 1609. Hudson had gone out with instructions to follow the example of Barendsz, in seeking for a passage north of Novaya Zemlya. On this occasion he was again unfortunate; for, as on his preceding voyage in 1608, he could not succeed in rounding Novaya Zemlya. On the 5th of May he arrived at the North Cape of Norway; but before he had sighted Novaya Zemlya he was obliged by his mutinous crew to return. On the 19th he again passed the North Cape, and from thence sailed towards the N.W. to make new discoveries in that direction. In this he was much more successful. On the other hand, the expedition of Isaac le Maire came to no better result. Melchior van Kerckhoven penetrated some distance into Pet Strait, but finding it perfectly blocked by ice of extraordinary thickness, he was obliged to return without having effected his object. Both these expeditions tended to confirm the opinion already entertained of the great difficulty of finding, in that direction, the passage to the Indies. The number of those who maintained the possibility of finding a way straight across the Pole daily increased. So early as 1527 an Englishman, Robert Thorne, who lived at Sevilla, had strongly recommended this direction for reaching the Indies. A warm defender of his doctrines was found in the Dutch cosmographer Plancius. Maintainer of the existence of an open Polar Sea, Plancius argued that the cold gradually augmented as far as 66° latitude, but that from thence to the Pole it again decreased. Accordingly, when in 1610 a certain Helisarius Roslin, medical doctor at Buchsweiler and court physician to the Count of Hanau, presented to the States a small book, in which he attributed the ill-luck of the former expeditions only to taking the wrong direction, this coincided with the views of the supporters of the doctrines proclaimed by Plancius.