126 : The Atlantic 



account of his voyage. The vessels crossed to Baffin Land and then 

 proceeded southward on the Labrador coast. The next year, w^ith an 

 expedition o£ a somewhat different composition, Davis was back and 

 renewed his acquaintanceship with the natives of Greenland. Davis' 

 account strengthens the general idea that the Norse colonists of 

 Greenland, or at least a considerably large portion of them, adopted 

 the ways of the Eskimo and intermarried with them. 



After Davis there was a period of sixteen years before Henry Hud- 

 son took up the search. In 1607, sailing on behalf of the Muscovy 

 Company, Hudson determined to reach China by sailing over the 

 North Pole or near it. He found his progress blocked by Greenland 

 and the ice barriers. Instead of turning south with the current as all 

 voyagers had done before this time, Hudson turned north and when 

 compelled to do so by the ice, turned east. He sailed as far as 80° 

 north and in the process of doing so came on Spitsbergen. Hudson, 

 in his report, recommended the development of hunting and fishing 

 in the north and probably encouraged the development of Spitsbergen 

 as a whaling center. A second attempt in 1608 to sail to the northwest 

 brought Hudson no better success. 



It was in 1609 that Hudson received his backing from the Dutch 

 East India Company instead of the British, who had heretofore 

 backed his voyages. His vessel, the Halfmoon, was extremely small 

 and his crew numbered no more than eighteen or twenty men. In 

 May he attempted a northwest passage. Amid fog and ice the crew 

 grew quarrelsome and resistant. Hudson proposed that they try a pas- 

 sage either through Davis Strait or else accept the suggestion of Cap- 

 tain John Smith of Virginia that a passage existed on the American 

 coast in about 40° north latitude. 



They decided on the latter alternative. They stopped at the Faeroe 

 Islands in May and were off Newfoundland in June. Here, in a gale, 

 one of the Halfmoon s masts snapped off and went overboard. A new 

 mast was fitted on the coast of Maine — probably in the Kennebec 

 River. The record noted good fishing for cod and a possible trade in 

 furs. He continued along the coast of Maine around Cape Cod and 

 by August was in Delaware Bay. When this proved disappointing he 

 turned northward and so came to New York harbor in September. 

 Verrazano had already been here but Hudson improved on the former 

 voyager's performance by sailing up the river as far as Troy and 

 Albany where he found his way blocked. In this year 1609 Champlain, 

 sailing for the French, had explored another American river — the St. 

 Lawrence. He had turned up the Richelieu River and entered Lake 



