1939-11-06 — Page 15

THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 6, 1939

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STO RY OF REAL PEOPLE

NO. 102-HENRY HUDSON · MAN OF MYSTERY

BY VINCENT TOWNE

"He emerged out of the unknown and disappeared into the unknown under the most tragic circumstances."

Thus writes a biographer of Henry Hudson, the discoverer of the Hud- son River and the present site of New York.

The birth of this famous explorer is quite as much a mystery as his death. Some assert that he was a Dutchman, Hendrick Hudson; others that he was an Englishman. In one of his contracts with the Dutch East India Company he is described as "Mr. Henry Hudson, Englishman," and he signed the document "Henry Hudson," although in other cases he used the Dutch equivalent, "Hen- drick."

His Little Boat-Cut Loose In the Open Sea.

crumb of bread with

them, revenge | powder and shot, also a supply of continued to rankle to their bosoms, meal, an iron pot in which to cook might even after he had turned his ship it, and other articles, which There has been much speculation homeward. While near the mouth of ward off the Black Angel until the marooned victims could reach game as to which was his actual name. the bay, they thrust him into a small and five Some say that he was born in England boat with his son, John,

or a human habitation. and christened "Henry," but that Eng-sailors, sick and blind with scurvy. land proved ungrateful and he be- The ship's carpenter, pitying his Dutchman. He was the good master's plight, but not daring friend of both the English explorer, to defy the mutineers, placed in the Captain John Smith, and the Dutch small boat a fowling piece, some geographer, Jacobus Hondius, maps made Amsterdam the hub of geographical science.

came

a

whose

Hudson set out to find a northwest passage to Japan and China by way of the North Pole. Instead, he made discoveries which gave to the world the Arctic whale fisheries, Hudson Bay, the valley of the Hudson River and Manhattan Island. When he embarked, he left behind him a wife and children, for whose support he insured his life.

During the

He made four voyages. first-guided by the "new map" re- ferred to by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night" he fought the ice-floes and Arctic streams for many weeks, made a new record for the "farthest north" and discovered Spitzbergen, Norway. During the second he was compelled by the ice to turn back "voide of hope," but during the third in his Half Moon he battled with the ice around the southern shores of Green- land, and being barred from the sup- posed entrance to the northwest passage by the frozen seas, turned southward, thus discovering our coastline from Maine to Virginia, also the Delaware and Raritan Bays and the present harbour * of New York.

a

Here one of his seamen killed an Indian and the Half Moon was at- tacked by a fleet of canoes, but with- out serious result, Finding that large river emptied into New York Bay, the navigator ventured up it, hoping to find the northwest passage by that route; and thus he discovered the Hudson River as far north Albany,

as

Stopping at England on his way back, he was detained by the King, who declared him an English subject 'tis said, in order to give England the advantage of the discoveries. But Hudson outwitted the English SO- vereign by having smuggled into Holland the document which gave that country credit for his explora- tions.

The English now made the in- trepid navigator a proposition, which he accepted. Fitting him up in the stanch ship Discouerle, of 70 tons, they sent him out to once more seek the northwest passage, thus hoping that he would win for their native land the glory of its discovery.

Penetrating the long strait that bears his name, he discovered that vast body of water known as Hudson Bay. Winter overtook him before-he could find his way out and he had to await the return of Summer while locked inside this vast island sea. Choosing a spot on the southernmost shore, he there established his Win-

ter camp. It was a terrible wait.

The freezing winds from the north not only chilled the ardor of his men, but transformed many of them into veritable devils. After enduring their indignities until Spring he found a goodly number of them conspiring to undo him.

*

Though he shared all of their hard- ships, diving "even with tears' . his

Some accounts state that the little boat bearing Hudson and his party was towed by the ship out of the ice- floes and then cut loose in the open According to others, it was left

sea.

adrift in Hudson Bay.

After their return in the Discouerie to England, the mutineers reported that their master had died from na- tural causes, but one of their num- ber later confessed.

In 1612, by order of the Prince of Wales, a relief expedition was sent out in search for Hudson, but failed in its mission.

Three years after his disappearance, his wife, complaining of having been "left very poor," petitioned the Eng- · lish East India Company to give em- ployment to a surviving son. The request was granted, the youth being given $25 "for apparel" and placed aboard one of the company's, ships, the Samaritan.

a

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What became of Hudson is one of the mysteries of history. A man of his daring and rugged constitution, left to his own devices after the close of Winter and supplied with gun, powder, shot and food, had fair chance of sustaining himself and of reaching the haunts of, the natives, who, as later discoveries showed, in- habited the Hudson Bay region. Cer- tain "White Indians" afterward found in these parts were supposed to have descended from him and his son. Van Winkle," Irving, in his "Rip

that echoes a tradition

the brave wandered down from navigator Canada into the Catskill Mountains, spirit later upon whose slopes his abided.

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