There were sweet smells in the air and the open places along the shore were covered with grass and flowers. The ship did not remain long in the harbor. Hudson found he was at the mouth of a river. He thought:
"Who knows but that if I follow this river I may reach the Pacific Ocean?"
So the ship sailed farther and farther up the river. It stopped at several places where friendly Indians came out to meet the white men. Hudson landed at one of these places and visited an Indian chief.
In the village he saw great piles of corn and beans. He noticed the bark houses. The Red Men asked him to stay all night with them and placed a mat on the ground for him to sit on. They brought him food in a red wooden bowl.
They wished to show that they were truly his friends, so they took some arrows and threw them into the fire. This told him more than the Indian words he could not understand.
When he sailed again, Hudson noticed that the river was getting narrower. At last it was so shallow that his ship could go no farther. He sent some men in a small boat to see what they could find.
"This is no way to the Pacific," they said when they came back. "The river comes to an end just beyond us."
The ship was turned about, and Hudson sailed down the river and out into the harbor again. He gave his own name to the river he had discovered, and it is still called the Hudson River. He never saw it again.
Now came the long voyage across the ocean. The Dutch people were sorry that Hudson had not found what he was looking for. They were pleased, however, to learn of the lovely country and the wild animals covered with fur that were to be found in its forests.
"The Indians are pleasant and willing to be friends. They kill great numbers of the wild animals with their bows and arrows and they tan the skins." So the sailors said.