2 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1610. 



passage to the WevStern Pacific Ocean, which he had formerly 

 learned from his friend Captain John Smith, had an existence, 

 "south of Virginia." Halting a second time at Cape Cod, he 

 observed in possession of the Indians who treated him kindly, 

 "green tobacco and pipes, the bowls of which were made of clay, 

 and the stems of red copper."^ 



The voyage of the Half-Moon was again continued south-west 

 along the coast, until, on the 18th of August she arrived at the 

 mouth of Chesapeake bay. If there was any truth in the rather 

 miprobable story, that Hudson pursued this south-west course, in 

 search of a passage to the Pacific, south of Virginia^ he certainly 

 abandoned his plan ; for, witliout much delay, he reversed his 

 course, making a more particular examination of the coast as he 

 passed along. On the 28th of August, 1609, in latitude thirty- 

 nine degrees and five minutes north, Hudson discovered " a great 

 bay," which, after having made a very careful examination of the 

 shoals and soundings at its mouth, he entered ; but soon came to 

 the over-cautious conclusion, that " he that will thoroughly dis- 

 cover this great bay, must have a small pinnace, that must draw 

 but four or five feet water, to sound before him."^ To this great 

 bay the name of Delaware has been given in honor of Lord De- 

 la-war, who is said to have entered it one year subsequently to 

 the visit of Hudson.^ 



The examination of the Delaware bay by Hudson, was more 

 after the manner of a careful navigator, than that of a bold ex- 

 plorer in search of new lands, and scarcely extended beyond its 

 mouth. It must have been very slight indeed, as we find that 

 in further retracing his steps, he had descried the high lands 

 of Navesink on the 2nd of September, four days after his 

 entrance into the Delaware bay ; and on the 4th of that month, 

 after having rounded a low " Sandy Hook," he discovered, " The 

 Great North River of New Netherland" — a discovery that will 

 transmit his name to the latest posterity. 



Though an Englishman, Hudson was in the employ of the 

 Dutch, and his visit to the Delaware, however transient it may 

 have been, is rendered important from the fact, that on it prin- 

 cipally, if not wholly, rested the claim of that government to the 

 bay and river, so far as it was based on the ground of prior dis- 

 covery. This claim is now fully conceded ; for although the bay 

 was known in Virginia by its present name as early as 1612, no 

 evidence exists of its discovery by Lord Delaware or any other 



» Hist. New Netherland, i. 34. 



2 Journal of the voya-je by Robert Juet, the mate of Hudson, — N. Y. Hist. Ool. vol. 

 i. 130, 131,— also, ib. N. S. i. 320. 



* So far as a negative can be proven, Mr. Broadhca.d in his History of N. Y. -has 

 made it appear that Lord Delaware never saw the bay that bears his name. See p. 51, 

 and Appendix, note D, of that work. 



