HUDSON. 263 



Pole, or round the north coast of Spitsbergen, a.d. 

 Henry Hudson, an experienced seamen and an 

 enlightened navigator, was chosen by the Mus- 

 covy Company to conduct this expedition. He 

 was not fitted out, it must be admitted, on a 

 very liberal scale, having only ten men and a 

 boy, and a vessel of eighty tons' burthen. But 

 he appears to have been quite satisfied with 

 the arrangement, and quitting Gravesend on 

 the 1st of May, he steered to the northward, 

 and stretched over to the coast of Greenland, 

 which he made about the latitude 69° N., and 

 gave the name of Young to a cape in that vici- 

 nity, and to a remarkable mountain, like a round 

 castle, Mount of God's Mercy ; but having had no 

 observation for five days, it is not presumed that 

 the situations of these places are at all accurate. 

 There appears to have been no difficulty in 

 getting along this coast, which has almost ever 

 since been so encumbered with ice that it is 

 only by great chance any person has been able 

 to revisit it. Close in-shore there was, certainly, 

 some ice seen, but Hudson found no difficulty 

 in working his way in the offing as far as 73°, 

 where he gave the name of Hold with Hope to 

 the land then in sight, " which was mayne high 

 land, with very high mountains," but without 

 any snow upon them. 



