1 607* HENRY HUDSON. 179 



selected Henuy Hudson, an experienced and 

 intrepid seaman, well skilled in the theory as 

 well as practice of navigation, and in the use 

 of nautical instruments. It deserves to be re- 

 marked that he is the first of the northern navi- 

 gators, and probably the first Englishman, who 

 made observations on the inclination or dip of the 

 magnetic needle. This adventurous navigator, 

 w^ith ten men and a boy, in a small bark, whose 

 name and tonnage have not been left on record, 

 set sail from Gravesend on the 1st of May, 1607. 

 On the 13th of June Hudson fell in with land 

 a-head and some ice; the weather became foggy, 

 and the sails and shrowds were frozen. The land 

 was high and the upper part covered with snow, 

 but being several days without an observation, 

 Hudson was doubtful whether it was an island or 

 part of Greenland. He reckoned his latitude to 

 be then about 70°, and gave to a headland about 

 that parallel the name of Young's Cape, and to a 

 high mount, like a round castle near it, that of the 

 Mount of Gods Mercy, This land was evidently 

 that jutting part of the east coast of Greenland 

 which lies to the northward of Iceland. 



On the 22d he was, by observation, in lat. 

 7^° 38' N., and, on the weather clearing up, he 

 found himself about twelve leagues from the land. 

 *' It w^as a mayne high land, nothing at all covered 

 w^ith snow ; and the north part of that mayne high 

 land was very high mountaynes, but wx could see 



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