[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF TITLE-PAGE OF A SEA HANDBOOK OF
HUDSON'S TIME]

As the result of all this exploration, Hudson had at his command a
mass of information--positive as well as negative--that at once
narrowed his search and directed it; and there is very good reason
for believing that he actually carried with him charts of a crude
sort on which, more or less clearly, were indicated the Strait and
the Bay and the River which popularly are regarded as of his
discovery and to which have been given his name. But I hold that
his just fame is not lessened by the fact that his discoveries,
nominally, were rediscoveries. Within the proper meaning of the
word they truly were his dis-coveries: in that he did un-cover them
so effectually that they became known clearly, and thereafter
remained known clearly, to the world.




II


Because of his full accomplishment of what others essayed and only
partially accomplished, Hudson's name is the best known--excepting
only that of Columbus--of all the names of explorers by land and
sea. From Purchas's time downward it has headed the list of Arctic
discoverers; in every history of America it has a leading place; on
every map of North America it thrice is written large; here in New
York, which owes its founding to his exploring voyage, it is