The States General, by a decree on the 1st of July, 1606, expressly prohibited from navigating by the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, and in the following September, by another decree, the subjects of the Netherlands were prohibited from carrying on the trade.
The entire period is so short, concerning which we know anything about Henry Hudson, do we really know enough of him to form a true and fair estimate of his character?
We do know that Hudson had made two (and we don’t know how many more) voyages north of Siberia, in the employ of the Muscovy Company, intending to go east and then south, down to Cathay, but did not succeed. He had, however, been exposed, inured to the arctic colds, privations and dangers, and had won the rank of captain. What did he know about the recently explored seas and lands or what more did he need to know about them, if he was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company through its Amsterdam Chambers, two directors to pursue the same course he had on the two voyages he had for the Muscovy Company?
Before Henry Hudson had signed the famous contract on the 8th of January, 1609, he had been a careful geographical student, as far as he had opportunity.
About the beginning of the seventeenth century, after the Belgians, on account of their religious views, had been expelled from Belgium, and many of them gone to Holland—mostly to Amsterdam, then that city and London, England, became the great rendezvous for navigators, discoverers, would-be discoverers, or explorers, to discuss matters, compare notes, and get all information possible on such subjects.
The Muscovy Company had headquarters in London, where Hudson would go, and there he met, it is known, Captain John Smith, and it is probable that there he met and formed a favorable opinion of Jodocus Hondius, who was his interpreter, adviser, and witness to the contract of January 8th. He was an educated gentleman, a minister of the Reformed Church, a Belgian, driven out of his country, went to London, a geographer, map-maker and portrait painter. He painted Queen Elizabeth’s portrait. The center around which the Belgians then gathered as their brightest man in discovery was Peter Plancius, another Belgian, a Calvinistic minister driven from Belgium, and who had settled in Amsterdam, and was a devoted friend and adviser of Hudson. Hudson before he had engaged with the Amsterdam directors had seen and examined the most important maps of the French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, and especially of the Arctic regions, New York and Canada, and had borrowed some of them from Plancius and Smith, and those that he wanted most were about the northwest and above 35° north latitude.
Hudson’s friends were warm, zealous to help him, that they might lessen the power and vindictiveness of the Spaniards.
Captain John Smith sent Captain Henry Hudson important maps and instructions from Virginia, before Hudson set sail in the “Half Moon.” Smith’s advice to Hudson seems to have been to seek a passage to the Pacific ocean at about 40° north latitude or about 50° north latitude, or still farther north, and seek a passage through Lumly inlet or some other entrance into the Hudson bay. Hudson made extraordinary preparations if he did not expect to pursue that course for the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company.
That Henry Hudson first discovered, at least first reported, the “Open Sea” north of 66° north is conceded, and that has been confirmed by several Arctic explorers since—prominent among them Dr. Kane. That Sebastian Cabot discovered Hudson straits in about 1517 is admitted.
Jodocus Hondius, a warm friend of Hudson, tried to dissuade him from entering Hudson bay in hopes to find a passage to the Pacific, for he told him that a relative of his had explored the bay, and that there was no communication with the Pacific ocean.