In England. Two years later, John Rolfe and his Indian wife went to England, taking with them their baby boy. The Lady Rebecca, as Pocahontas was called, had readily learned the ways of the English, and now she appeared as a gentle and well-bred lady. She was honored as a princess, and was kindly received even in the palace of the king. One day to her great surprise she met her old acquaintance, John Smith. "Ah, my good friend," she said, "they told me in Virginia that you were dead." And she insisted that he should permit her, after the Indian fashion, to call him her father.

Just as she was about to return to Virginia she was taken ill, and in a few days she died. Her little boy remained in England, where he was educated and grew up to be a fine gentleman. Her father, the chief Powhatan, did not live long after her death. The colony

of Virginia grew rapidly and became much larger and stronger. But the Indians ceased to be friendly, and there was much trouble and bloodshed before the English were altogether safe and happy in their new homes.

REVIEW

Describe how the Indians of Virginia lived. Why did they look upon the white men with suspicion? How many ships and how many men came first to the James River to form a settlement? Who was the leading man in this company? What did most of the men expect to find in Virginia? What services did Pocahontas perform for the colony? Why did the English wish to keep her as a prisoner? Why was a new governor sent out to Virginia? Why was not the colony more prosperous at first?

HENRY HUDSON

AND THE DUTCH SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK

I. SEEKING NEW ROUTES TO THE PACIFIC

Henry Hudson was born in London at about the time that Drake was making his famous voyage round the world. The first talk that he heard, after he was old enough to understand, was about ships and merchandise and the wealth of the Indies. For his father and grandfather and uncles and cousins were engaged in trade with foreign countries, and the earnest wish of every London merchant was that a way might be opened for English ships to reach the Far East.

It was the custom for the sons of these merchants to learn not only about the buying and selling of goods but also about the sailing and management of ships; and so Henry Hudson, when yet a mere lad, was sent to sea. I think that he must have proved to be a better sailor than merchant, for nearly all his life thereafter, so far as we know, was spent on the water.

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The trade with India. At that time Spain and Portugal controlled all the trade with India. Spain guarded the only approaches to the Pacific Ocean, and Portugal claimed that her ships alone had the right to sail

around the Cape of Good Hope. The other nations of Europe could not trade with the Far East, because all the known routes thither were closed against them. They were therefore very anxious to discover some new passageway into the Pacific.

The shortest way to India. - French ships sailed up the St. Lawrence River with the vain hope that through it they might reach the western ocean. English ships explored the coast far to the northward, to see if they might not get around the continent in that way. Then some one said, "The shortest line from England to China. is one drawn right over the North Pole." And by looking at a globe you will see that he was not far from right.

And so a company of merchants, among whom were kinsmen of Henry Hudson, resolved to send out a ship to see whether a northern route to India might not be discovered. They fitted up an old vessel, called the Hopewell, and chose Hudson to be its captain.

Trying to find a northern passage. The course of the Hopewell was set toward the north star. Day after day she sailed through wintry seas, until at last great fields of ice blocked her way and hemmed her in on every side. No other ship had ever gone so far north; but the North Pole was still hundreds and hundreds of miles beyond. When Hudson saw that there was no way to pass through or around the mighty barriers of ice, he sadly gave up the enterprise and sailed back to England.

"There is yet one other route to be tried," he said,

BARNES'S EL.-6

"and that is to the northeast through the great sea that lies north of Europe and Asia."

Trying to find a northeast passage.

The next year,

therefore, the merchants sent Hudson out to try this route. He sailed around the capes of Norway and to the frozen

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island of Spitzbergen, which no other Englishman had seen. But again vast fields of ice stretched everywhere before him, threatening to crush his little vessel, and he was forced to return. He was not ready, however, to believe that his scheme was impossible. "By sailing in a slightly different direction," he said, "I think I may yet succeed."

II. THE VOYAGE OF THE HALF MOON

a

In the service of the Dutch East India Company. -Just at that time some men in Holland were forming a trading association, known as the Dutch East India Company strong and rich company which exists to this very day. They were anxious and determined to carry on trade with India and China; and they, too, wished to discover some undisputed passageway by water to those countries. They had heard of Hudson's daring voyages to the north, and they had great confidence in him as a sea captain. So they sent for him and employed him to make one more effort to find a northeast route to the Pacific. They supplied him with a little ship called the Half Moon, and in this he set sail with a crew of sixteen men.

But this time the northern seas seemed even fuller of ice than before. The sailors were discontented and unruly; they refused to obey their captain and demanded that he should turn back.

A change of plan. -Hudson was unwilling to return to Holland and report that he had failed. He believed that in North America there was some unknown strait or sea stretching across the continent, and leading directly into the Pacific; and he felt that he would be serving his employers well if he could discover such a passageway. He therefore caused the Half Moon's course to be changed, and sailed westward across the Atlantic.

The voyage was a pleasant one, and by and by the low coast of Maryland was sighted. Hudson then sailed north