HUDSON'S STRAIT HUGH CAPET. 



817 



during- the other months. It is full of sand-banks, 

 reefs, and islands. The shores are rocky and steep, 

 the climate is extremely rigorous, and the whole 

 appearance of the surrounding country desolate and 

 frightful. The bay contains few fish, though the 

 beluga or white whale is taken. Shellfish are very 

 scarce. The Hudson's bay company have several 

 settlements and forts, especially on the west coast, 

 where their agents carry on a traffic with the Indians, 

 for beaver-skins and other valuable furs. 



HUDSON'S STRAIT lies north of Labrador, and 

 connects Hudson's bay with the Atlantic ocean. 



HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. See Fur Trade. 



HUDSON or NORTH RIVER ; a river of New 

 York, which rises in a mountainous country west of 

 lake Champlain, in the counties of Essex and Mont- 

 gomery, about lat. 44 N., and communicates with 

 the Atlantic, below New York city. It is navigable 

 for the largest ships to Hudson, and for sloops to 

 Troy. The tide flows up as far as Troy. It is 

 remarkably straight for 200 miles, and is one of the 

 finest rivers in America, and is a channel for an 

 extensive navigation, particularly between the cities 

 of New York and Albany, by means of steamboats 

 and sloops. There are upon its banks a number of 

 handsome and flourishing towns ; and in passing up 

 the river through the Highlands, there is exhibited 

 a fine and picturesque scenery. See Highlands of the 

 Hudson. 



Distances. 



MiU,. Whole Ditl. 



From its source to Sandy hill, about 100 100 



Waterford, 42 142 



Troy, 4 146 



Albany 6 152 



Hudson 30 182 



Poughkeepsie, 55 237 



Newburgh, 10 247 



New York, 65 312 



The Narrows 12 324 



It is connected with lake Champlain by the Cham- 

 plain canal, with lake Erie by the Erie canal, with 

 the Delaware river by the Hudson and Delaware 

 canal and the Morris canal. See Canals. 



HUDSON CITY, the capital of Columbia county, 

 and a port of entry, in New York, on the east bank 

 of Hudson river, twenty-eight miles south of Albany, 

 117 north of New York city, in Ion. 73 46' W., and 

 lat. 42 14' N. Population in 1830, 5392. It was 

 founded in 1784 ; for several years it was in a very 

 flourishing state, and afterwards its prosperity was 

 checked. It is pleasantly situated, and regularly 

 laid out ; the streets intersect each other at right 

 angles. The city is tolerably well built, and is con- 

 siderable both for trade and manufactures. Claverack 

 creek, which flows on the eastern side of the town, 

 and Abram's, or Factory creek, on the northern side, 

 afford good seats for various mills and manufactories. 

 The whale fishery has lately been undertaken from this 

 place. Three vessels (1019 tons) are engaged in it. 



HUER. See Iceland. 



HUET, PETER DANIEL, a celebrated critic and 

 classical scholar of the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries, was born in Caen in Normandy, in 1630, 

 and was educated in the Jesuit's college at Caen. 

 After gaining a general knowledge of literature, he 

 went to Paris, where he indulged his passion for 

 study by reading all the books he could procure, and 

 cultivating the acquaintance of the most eminent 

 scholars of his time. In 1652, he accompanied 

 Bochart on a visit to the court of Christina, queen of 

 Sweden, of which journey he wrote an amusing 

 narrative in Latin verse. In 1661, he published a 

 treatise on translation, in the form of a Latin dialogue, 

 entitled De Interpretation ; and in 1664, a collection 

 of Greek and Latin poems. An edition of Origen's 

 Commentaries on the Scriptures followed in 1667 ; a 



tract, by him, on the Origin of Romances, was pre- 

 fixed to the Zayde of madame Lafayette. He was 

 subsequently appointed preceptor to the dauphin, 

 in conjunction with Bossuet. While he filled this 

 office, he wrote his Defence of Christianity, published 

 in 1679, under the title of Demonstratio Evangelica, 

 which displays his vast erudition. At this time also 

 he undertook, at the earnest recommendation of the 

 duke de Montausier, governor to the dauphin, the 

 plan of publishing all the Latin classics, with the 

 ample illustrations which have made what are called 

 the Delphin editions so well known and generally 

 esteemed throughout Europe. The plan was execut- 

 ed under the direction of Huet, in less than twenty 

 years, to the extent of sixty-two volumes, Lucan being 

 the only ancient Roman author of importance who was 

 omitted, the freedom of his political principles ren- 

 dering his works objectionable to the French despot 

 Louis XIV. Various Jesuits and other learned 

 persons were engaged by Huet as editors of the 

 different classics; one alone, namely, the Astronomicon 

 of Manlius, was edited by himself. After the com- 

 pletion of his tutorship, having taken holy orders, he 

 was made abbot of Aulnai, and subsequently nominated 

 bishop of Soissons, which see he exchanged for that 

 of Avranches. But after holding the episcopal office 

 some time, he became so tired of the troublesome 

 duties attached to it, that he abdicated the bishopric, 

 contenting himself with the abbacy of Fontenai. He 

 died January 26, 1721. Besides the works already 

 mentioned, he wrote Histoire du Commerce et de la 

 Navigation des Anciens; Origines de Caen; and 

 memoirs of his own life in Latin, besides other pieces 

 of less importance. A translation of the memoirs, 

 with copious notes, was published in 1810 (2 vols., 

 8vo), by doctor John Aikin. 



HUETHUETLAPALLAN. In the province of 

 Ciudad Real del Chiapa, in Guatemala, about four 

 leagues from the town of Palenque, lie the ruins of 

 this old Mexican city. Don Antonio del Rio, a 

 Spanish captain, examined it in 1787, at the command 

 of the viceroy of Guatemala. In 1794, it was explored 

 by doctor Cabrera ; but the reports respecting it 

 remained, till 1822, in the archives of New Guatemala, 

 when they came accidentally into the hands of an 

 Englishman, Mr Berthoud, who published the ac- 

 count contained in them, in London, with seventeen 

 lithographic plates, representing the antiquities found 

 there. These remarkable ruins, which the people of 

 the country call by the above name, extend about six- 

 teen or seventeen miles in length, and perhaps two to 

 four miles in breadth, along the summit and declivity ot 

 a chain of hills. The spot is covered by a high wood. 

 A group of fourteen large buildings forms the chier 

 remains of the ancient city. They are furnished with 

 pillars and architectural ornaments, and a subterrane- 

 ous aqueduct of stone is to be seen. These ruins have 

 a wonderful resemblance to the relics of Egyptian and 

 Nubian antiquity. A further argument for a connexion 

 between America and Egypt has been derived from a 

 Mexican manuscript on deer-skin, published by Seyf- 

 farth at Rome, in which the gods of Egypt, Isis, 

 Osiris, Horus, &c., are said to be distinctly indicated; 

 likewise from the existence of pyramids in Mexico, 

 and from the old traditions of the Mexicans. 



HUGH CAPET ; son of Hugh the Great, a power- 

 ful duke in France ; his capital was Paris. The 

 last Carlovingians had been stripped of almost all 

 their possessions, and at the same time of their power, 

 by their restless vassals. One only still remained 

 Charles, duke of Lower Lorraine. He was pass- 

 ed over in the election of king, and Hugh, renowned 

 for his boldness and sagacity, possessed himself (987) 

 of the throne, to which he had no claim, by fraud 

 and force. The duke of Lorraine endeavoured, in- 

 3 P 



