3. For eight days the Half Moon sailed up the river. Such beautiful forests and valleys, the Dutch had never seen before. On the 19th of September the vessel was moored at Kinderhook; but an exploring party rowed up stream beyond the site of Albany. The vessel then dropped down the river, and on the 4th of October the sails were spread for Holland. But the Half Moon was detained in England.

4. In the summer of 1610 a ship, called the Discovery, was given to Hudson, who sailed in the track which Frobisher had taken, and on the 2d day of August entered the strait which bears the name of its discoverer. The great captain believed that the route to China was at last discovered; but he soon found himself environed in the frozen gulf of the North. With great courage he bore up until his provisions were almost exhausted. Then the crew broke out in mutiny. They seized Hudson and his only son, with seven other faithful sailors, and cast them off among the icebergs. The fate of the illustrious mariner has never been ascertained.

5. In 1610 the Half Moon was liberated and returned to Amsterdam. In the same year several ships owned by Dutch merchants sailed to the banks of the Hudson and engaged in the fur-trade. In 1614 an act was passed by the States-General of Holland, giving to merchants of Amsterdam the right to trade and establish settlements in the country explored by Hudson. A fleet of five trading-vessels arrived in the summer of the same year at Manhattan Island. Here some rude huts had already been built by former traders, and the settlement was named New Amsterdam.

6. In the fall of 1614 Adrian Block sailed into Long Island Sound, and made explorations as far as Cape Cod. Christianson, another Dutch commander, sailed up the river from Manhattan to Castle Island, and erected a block-house, which was named Fort Nassau. Cornelius May, the captain of a small vessel called the Fortune, sailed from New Amsterdam and explored the Jersey coast as far as the Bay of Delaware. Upon these two voyages Holland set up a claim to the country, which was now named New Netherlands, extending from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod. Such were the feeble beginnings of the Dutch colonies in New York and Jersey.

Review Questions.—Part II.

CHAPTER II.