CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 HENRY HUDSON HONORED IN NEW YORK FETE. 



It was a coincidence almost rivalling that of the dual discovery of the pole, 

 that while Dr. Cook and Commander Peary were being- feted and were arguing 

 their claims the memory of a pioneer American explorer and Artie adventurer 

 was receiving honor. New York, only three weeks after the great pole sen- 

 sation, was the scene of a mammoth celebration, with pageants galore and with 

 warships from foreign waters present in force. 



The fete served to teach people many little-known facts about Hudson's 

 career, which was one of the most romantic in history. 



Alfred Payson Terhune, in a recent biographical sketch of Hudson, has 

 outlined the facts of the explorer's life in a graphic way. 



"He was born — no one knows where or when. He died — no one knows 

 when or how. He comes into our knowledge on the quarterdeck of a ship 

 bound for the North Pole. He goes out of our knowledge in a crazy boat man- 

 ned by eight sick sailors." 



So writes one historian of Hendrik Hudson, man of mystery. The hero 

 who blazed his name upon America's history by discovering the mighty river 

 and the bay that bear his name seems to have arisen from Nowhere to perform 

 wondrous deeds and to have vanished into Nowhere when his grand work was 

 done 



Hendrik Hudson flashed into fame at a bound, was before the public for 

 four brief years, and then disappeared. Even his portrait and autograph are 

 not generally believed to be genuine. None knows his age at the time he made 

 his discoveries. That he was of mature years is shown by his having an 18- 

 year-old son. But whether he was a hale mariner of 40 or a grizzled veteran 

 of 70 it is impossible to guess. 



He was born somewhere in England, some time in the sixteenth century. 

 His name was Henry Hodgson, and his Dutch employers later twisted the 

 English phraseology into "Hendrik Hudson." His father and grandfather 

 are vaguely supposed to have been London merchants and interested in the 



Muscovy company. 



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