Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-08-22
HISTORY'S
MYSTERIES
uaseived Riddles That Sun Puzzle
authorities More and Abroad M
What Became of Hendrix
Hudson2

OF NO one who has figured promi-
~ nently In the early history Of
America is so little known as Of Hen
dirk Hudson. whose name Is perpetual
ed in that Of the great river of New
York state, Hudson's bay and nu-
merous other sections of the north
east. Where was he born7 No one
knows. When or where or how did
he die? All these are mysteries on
which no existing records appear to
throw the slightest light, while the
final disposition of his body is also
one Of the riddles of the Golden Age
of. Discovery.
Historians first present the great ex-
plorer as standing on the quarter
deck of small ship which lie thought
he was guiding toward the North pole
and the final curtain is drawn over his
career at the moment that he took to
small boat in Hudson's bay with
eight of his sailors, all of whom were
completely lost to the world from that
time on.
Hudson flashed before the public
suddenly, remained a prominent figure
for only four years, and then disap-
peared as if the sea had swallowed him
up-which it quite possibly did. No
one knows his age at the time he
made his discoveries, save for the
rather vague statement that he was
hoF, can,ou-horo ~ E,n0lonJ ,I,,,;.,o, 81.
Sixteenth century, while his father
and grandfather are supposed to have
been London merchants interested in
the Muscovy company.
1t was on April 10. 1907, that Hud-
son, accompanied by his sixteen-year-
old son, John, and ten sailors, left Eng
land on the Muscovy companys little
Cotton ship the Hopewell. His object
was to discover the North pole and to
sail across 1t to China and India, be-
lieving that he could reach the Orient
through sea passage somewhere in
the frozen North. Frustrated by a
solid wall of ice, Hudson returned
from his first voyage a disappointed
man and later made a second attempt
with the same result.
On April 4, 1909. the explorer sailed
from Amsterdam on the Half-Moon
and entered Delaware bay. Finding
this was not the transcontinental pas
sage he was seeking, he sailed north
ward along the coast and, on Septem-
oh al Y
bay. landing at what is now Coney is
land From there he proceeded to
Manhattan island and sailed up the
river which bears his name, still hop
ing that this might he the long-sought-
for strait which would lead him to the
Far East. The Half-Moon went as far
as the river was navigable and then,
heartsick with disappointment, Hud-
son again returned to Holland.
But the discoverer was not yet sat
isfied and, in 1870 he set sail once
more for the new world, steering his
course further north until he came into
the wide waters of what is now known
as Hudson's bay. AT first he mistook
this bay for the Polar sea but, learn
ing his mistake, he continued to push
onward IN his search fer the North
west passage. Finally his crew
mutinied and, because the food supply
commenced to run low. they decided to
return home. So, on June %. 1911,
Hudson, his son and seven of the
weakest of the sailors were set adrift
in an open boat. This was the last
that was ever heard of the explorer OF
any of his party. An expedition was
sent out from England some time aft
erward TO search for them, but no
trace of the boat or its occupants
could be found, nor has anyone ever
been able to learn the fate of the nine
sailors. Possibly they persisted in the
waters Of the bay which bears Hud-
sons name, possibly they reached land
safely and were attacked by hostile
Indians or it may have been that they
starved to death-either in their boat
or on land.
For many years rumors about the
fate of the little band were plentiful
and the quaintest of these reports has
been told in legend form by Washing
ton Irving, while other unverified
stories tell of a settlement of white
men in the north country and of its
gradual merging with native tribes.
Not long ago it was reported that a
document had been discovered among
the archives Of the Hudson's Bay COM
pany which contained a confession of
one of the mutineers and the state
ment that Hudson had been murdered
and not cast adrift, but this was later
denied by the officials Of the company.
Though 1t is generally supposed that
Hudson and his followers either died
of starvation or were killed by the In
dians, there is absolutely no indication
of what befell the castaways after the
discovery" left them to their fate In
an open boat in Hudson's bay.
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