EXPEDITION OF HUDSON. 
47 
than to the actual impossibility of discovering where the pas¬ 
sage was to be found. All the navigators had hitherto directed 
their course in an eastern or western direction, and it was there¬ 
fore determined upon by the merchants of .London, to send out 
an expedition on an entirely different route, and to attempt to 
discover a passage by sailing directly across the north pole. 
The failure of the former expeditions, had been in some degree 
attributed to the command of them being intrusted to men who, 
although celebrated for their nautical skill, as far as the simple 
navigation of a vessel extended, were yet manifestly deficient 
in that enlarged science, which ought to characterize the com¬ 
mander of an expedition, the avowed aim of which was discovery. 
Acting under this impression, the projectors of the expedition, 
selected Henry Hudson as the commander, a man who to con¬ 
siderable science, combined the courage and intrepidity of his 
profession. On the 1st of May 1607, he sailed from Gravesend 
in the small barque called the Hopewell, having a crew of only 
ten men and a boy. The first land he made was Greenland* 
from which he directed his course to Spitzbergen, which he made 
in latitude 78°. Having navigated as high as 80°, and the season 
being far advanced, he directed his course homewards, and ar¬ 
rived in the Thames on the 15th September. 
Although the result of this expedition was by no means pro¬ 
mising, nor even satisfactory, yet Hudson sailed the following 
year on another expedition, the aim of which was the discovery 
of a north-eastern passage. In this attempt however he also 
failed and returned home on the 26th August. 
Amongst the virtues which distinguish the English character, 
that of perseverance in a good cause, may be considered as one 
of the most conspicuous, and perhaps in no case has it been 
more strikingly displayed, than in the many attempts which 
were made to discover the north west passage. Expedition after 
expedition had been sent out, and each returned with the same 
unfavourable results, accompanied with the severest disasters and 
death. Hudson, whose character as a skilful and scientific 
navigator, was in these times of the highest rank, had twice 
sailed on a voyage of discovery, without increasing in any con- 
