Page:The history of yachting.djvu/115

 Rh Steering along the coast to the northward, he sighted high land with a low arm of sand jutting out, inside of which he anchored on the evening of September 3, 1609. The Half Moon, accordingly, was in all probability the first European vessel—certainly the first yacht—that ever passed the land now known as Sandy Hook.

After exploring the noble river that bears his name, Hudson sailed for the Texel on October 4th, and on November 7th he put into Dartmouth, where his vessel was seized by the English Government, and the crew detained. For eight months she remained in England; then, under another commander, she reached Amsterdam during the summer of 1610. Four years after, in the spring of 1614, she sailed from Holland for the East Indies, and was wrecked and lost on the Island of Mauritius, March 6, 1615.

Hudson sailed on one more voyage of exploration, leaving England April 10, 1610, in command of the Discoverie, a vessel of 70 tons, when he penetrated the long straits, and discovered the great bay that bears his name. A mutiny broke out among the crew during the following summer, and Hudson, his son, and seven men were cast adrift in a shallop. The ringleaders and half the crew perished, and the ship was finally brought home to London. Hudson, however, was never heard of again.

During the four years that followed Hudson's discovery, several vessels sailed from Holland to New Netherland, to trade with the Indians and to