Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/126

 *ferences with his superior officers, and quarrels among his crew, added to the difficulties of Hudson; and when, in November, 1609, he put into Dartmouth Harbor after having made one of the greatest discoveries of the day, he found himself in disgrace both with the English Government and his Dutch employers, who were each jealous of the other.

To make our story complete, we may add that, after a vexatious delay at Dartmouth, Hudson resumed service under the Muscovy Company, and, with its sanction, sailed in the spring of 1610 on the fatal voyage which resulted in the discovery of the great bay bearing his name. Sailing north-westward, in an English vessel, with a crew of twenty-three men, Hudson reached Greenland in June, and made his way thence without delay to the wide strait giving access to the vast inland sea now known as Hudson's Bay.

Astonished at a discovery so little expected, and convinced that great results might ensue from the thorough exploration of the country around, our hero resolved to winter in these desolate latitudes, and pursue his work in the spring of 1611. The failure of his provisions compelled him, however, to relinquish this grand scheme, and the belief which obtained among his men, that he intended to return home, leaving some of them behind to perish miserably, caused a mutiny. Hudson, his young son, and one or two sailors who remained true to him, were overpowered, placed in a boat, and cast adrift on the waters of the bay he had discovered at so terrible a cost; and of his further sufferings, or of his final fate, no rumor has ever reached Europe, though an expedition was sent in quest of him from England.

Meanwhile the Dutch, eager to precede the English in taking possession of the fertile districts watered by the Hudson, lost not a moment in following up the discoveries inaugurated by their Government, and in the three years succeeding Hudson's first voyages, one private merchant after another sent out agents to trade with the natives and found colonies among them. As early as 1613, Manhattan Island owned its Dutch fort and surrounding buildings, and was chief among many stations for the collection of peltries, or furs, and their dispatch to European ports; while the bays of the mainland as far south as the mouth of the Delaware, were dotted with clusters of the huts of the Dutch fishermen.

Among the leaders of the various early Dutch enterprises in these regions, Hendrick Christansen, Adriaen Block, and Cornelis Jacobsen May stand out pre-eminent: the first as having founded the first large fort—that called Nassau-on the Hudson; the second for his exploration of Long Island