IUDSON’S VOYAGES. 48] 
which posterity desirous of perpetuating his fame has called 
Tasmania, saw the northern extremity of New Zealand emerge 
from the ocean, and finally unveiled to the world the hidden 
beauties of Tonga. 
While the Dutch navigators were thus dissipating the darkness 
of Australia, Hudson and Baffin were immortalising their names 
in the Arctic Ocean. 
In the year 1627 Henry Hudson made the first attempt to 
steer right on to the pole, and to cross to India over the axis of 
the globe. He reached the northern extremity of Spitzbergen, 
but all his attempts to penetrate deeper into the polar ocean 
were baffled by the mighty ice-fields that opposed his progress. 
But though he failed in his undertaking to sail through the 
region of eternal winter to the spicy groves of India, yet the 
numerous morses and seals he had seen basking on the coast of 
Spitzbergen opened such cheering prospects of future profit, 
that the “Muscovy Company,” which had fitted out the ex- 
pedition, was by no means discontented with the issue of his 
voyage. 
Three years after we find the gallant Hudson once more 
attempting to discover the north-west passage in a vessel of 
fifty-five tons, provisioned for six months. The crew which he 
commanded was unfortunately utterly unworthy of such a leader, 
and quailed as soon as they had to encounter the fog and 
ice-fields of the Frozen Ocean. 
“ And now there came both mist and snow, 
And it grew wondrous cold; 
And ice mast-high came floating by, 
As green as emerald, 
And through the drifts the snowy clifts 
Did send a dismal sheen, 
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken, 
The ice was all between.” 
But, in spite of the murmurs and repinings of his faint-hearted 
followers, the dauntless commander pressed on through the strait 
which bears his name, until at last his little bark emerged into 
a boundless deep blue sea. Hudson’s Bay lay before him, but 
the delighted discoverer was happy in the belief that the grand 
object of his voyage was attained, and the shortest road to India 
