IN THE YEAR 1613. 
31 
of tlie great abundance of whales in the harbors of 
Spitzbergen was derived from this voyage. 
Hudson went again to the north in 1608; and then, 
for some unexplained reason, entered into the service of 
the Dutch. 5 6 He was sent to the same regions by them 
in 1609. Hence it was as Heinrich or Hendrick Hud¬ 
son — a Hollander quoad hoc — that he made his cele¬ 
brated exploration of the harbor of New York, and the 
great river that gives to his memory so prominent a 
place in our annals. Sailing first to the North Cape, 
on the usual course to Nova Zembla and Russia, he 
suddenly changed his mind, and, with that eccentric 
boldness which belonged to his nature, directed his little 
vessel — sometimes described as a fly-boat, or yacht — 
across the Atlantic. The settlement of New Nether¬ 
lands by the Dutch, and the prevalence of their names 
and blood in that section of our country, are the conse¬ 
quences of this voyage; forming another manifest link 
between the scenes and incidents properly connected 
with the present narrative and the planting of colonies 
on our shores. As a further coincidence, it may be 
mentioned, that it was in 1613 that the first buildings 
were erected on the Island of Manhattan, where now 
stands the commercial metropolis of this continent. 6 
5 The Hollanders were constantly enticing English pilots and sailors into their ser¬ 
vice. Hudson’s visit to Spitzbergen had probably attracted their attention. 
6 N. Y. Hist. Coll., vol. i., &c; O’Callaghan’s New Netherlands; Brodhead’s Hist, 
of New York; &c., &c. Smith’s History of New York, besides being wrong in the 
date of Hudson’s voyage, has the strange error of representing him as sailing under 
a commission from the King of England, and afterwards selling the country to the 
Dutch! 
“ In most of the new branches of trade discovered by the English in the latter 
part of the sixteenth and the former part of the seventeenth century, we may observe 
that the Dutch followed close at their heels. This has been seen in the Russia trade, 
