In the year 1609, Henry Hudson, a native of England, visited the American Continent with a view to the discovery of a northwest passage to the Indies. The discovery of a continent of almost measureless extent, and teeming with all the elements of wealth, had not lessened the desire of the people of Europe to reach and to share the riches of "the gorgeous East."· To find a more direct passage to that region, was an object which continued to claim the attention and to excite the efforts of governments and of corporate bodies, as well as of private adventurers. Hudson had already been repeatedly engaged in these attempts. On his present voyage, he proceeded closely beside the American coast, and examined the appearance and direction of some of the principal streams. On the 28th of August he entered "a great Bay," the same to which the name Delaware was afterwards given.' But he did not explore the stream to any extent, finding it to promise but little in reference to the special object he had in view, and after a brief survey, he proceeded onward in a northwardly direction. On the 12th of September he entered a bay farther north, the Bay of New York, and discovered the river which still bears his name. After exploring this stream and holding some intercourse with the natives upon its shores, the commander descended and immediately put to sea, and proceeded to Europe.

The next year after the voyage of Hudson, Lord Delaware touched at this bay on his passage to Virginia. It is probable that either he or some of his company gave his name to the bay at that time, for about two years afterwards, in May, 1612, it was mentioned by the name of Delaware Bay, in a letter written by Captain Argal, from Virginia. The letter is given in Purchas.

It is to be observed that Hudson proceeded at first, from north to south, he afterwards changed his course and ran in an opposite direction. In the first part of his voyage-he made the land first in the latitude of fourty-four degrees, fifteen

Very different statements are given by writers as to the particular circumstances connected with this voyage. It is asserted by some that Hudson had been sent out with an English commission, but that he afterwards sold the country he had explored, together with all his maps and charts, to a foreign people, the Dutch. Others declare that he had been employed by the Dutch, at first.

The question arising from these statements is not without importance. If Hudson had sailed with a commission from his own government, and was acting as an English subject, the benefit of his services must have accrued to his own sovereign. Under these circumstances, no sale to another people, had it been made, would have been of the slightest force; it would only have been a transfer of that to which the vender had no right, and having none himself, none could have been conveyed to others.

But in fact, though, Hudson had formerly been employed by a company of merchants in London, and had made two voyages of discovery on their behalf, he was not, at this time, in the English service. He had left his own country and entered into an engagement with a commercial company that had been formed in Holland, called the East India Company, and it was during his engagement with that body that the voyage now under notice was made.

But another difficulty has here been started. Hudson, as already stated, was a native of England, and it has been contended by some, that he could not transfer his allegiance as a subject so far as to give an important claim, to a foreign people. But this objection is not well founded; it is opposed to the uniform usages of nations. According to these usages, when a discovery has been made under authority from any people or prince, the whole benefit has been claimed by the principal, without the least regard to the nativity, or the previous obligations, of the agent employed. Columbus was not a native of Spain; Cabot was not

minutes, and there went on shore. The next land he discovered was Cape Cod, which he supposed to be an island, and called it New Holland. After that he reached "Dry Cape," or Cape Charles, not far from which the English had settled three years before. On his return he examined Delaware Bay, afterwards the Bay of New York, and Hudson River.

an Englishman, and Verrazano did not belong by birth to France. Yet the claims of these nations have never been disputed on that ground, and there is nothing in the present case to exclude it from the operation of the general rule.3

But, whilst it is allowed that the benefit accrueing from the voyage of Hudson belongs to the Dutch alone, an important question is still to be determined. The claim such as it is, must be conceded, yet this concession is of no weight in relation to the value of the claim itself.

It may be that Hudson was the first to enter the Bay of Delaware, and to ascend the North River, it may be that the people with him were the first Europeans that ever set foot upon the shores of New Jersey, or New York, but this is by no means sufficient to determine the question of right to the territory.4

อ The only peculiarity in the present case is this, Hudson was not acting under the authority of government, but under the direction of a commercial company. Yet this company had been established upon a grant from its own government, and except so far as exclusive priviledges had been given to this body, the claim that was acquired must be considered as a national one.

There is reason to believe that Hudson was not really the first to visit the country within the limits of New York. These (speaking of the French with Verrazano) were probably the first European feet that ever trod upon any part of the territory now included within the State of York.-Miller's Discourse.

The first house erected and the first soil cultivated by any Europeans within the limits of New York, and indeed the first particular examination of any part of New England, were by Bartholomew Gosnold, one year before the death of Queen Elizabeth, one hundred and ninety-five years afterwards, in 1797, Dr. Belknap discovered the cellar of the house that had been built by Gosnold on one of the Elizabeth Islands, and some vestiges of it were found by a party of gentlemen who recently visited the spot.-Yates and Moulton.

In reference to the South River and the country upon it, it has also been said, "That there was of very early and ancient times, the beginning whereof is not known, a settlement and plantation on the Delaware, made, planted, and inhabited by the Swedish nation and afterwards held and inhabited in the year one thoasand six hundred and nine, and for many years afterwards by christians under the dominion of the States General of Holland."-Bill in Chancery by the Penns, against Lord Baltimore, 1735.

It is also said that this place was visited before the advent of Hudson, by Sir Walter Raleigh. The Baron De la War, Sir Thomas Dale, and Sir Samuel Argal. But most of these statements are erroneous, and others are merely conjectural. It is not known that the country upon the Delaware, had ever been visited by Europeans before the coming of Hudson; but it is thought probable that Verrazano had touched upon the northern part of the shore of New Jersey.

The territory in question formed but a part of the country originally discovered and claimed by Cabot on behalf of the British crown. No country can be twice discovered, unless history should fail; the annals of an age or a people may perish, and thus the particulars that mark the nature of a claim, and even the claim itself, may be utterly lost from the knowledge of men. Then, in succeeding times, an entirely new claim may again arise and be successfully maintained.

It is conjectured that the Northmen had visited the shores of America long prior to the advent of Columbus and Cabot, but the fact, if fact it be, is only sustained by a faint tradition which modern nations have ceased to regard.

But such was not the case with the British discovery; it continued to be known, and it was fully known to the Dutch at the time of the voyage of Hudson.

But the claims of Hudson as a discoverer have sometimes been urged upon a different ground. According to the regulations of European law, it is said, the discoverer of the mouth of the stream acquires a right to the territory connected with such stream and its branches, and hence, that the country upon the Delaware, and the Hudson, in accordance with the rule in question, would belong to the Dutch.

case.

The regulation is acknowledged, but it does not apply to the It will only apply where there has been a real, original discovery, where the coast, and the country connected with the stream have before been unknown. It cannot be supposed that the discovery of the outlet of a stream would give a right to the territory along its entire extent, although such territory had been known and claimed before. This would be unjust and indeed absurd. The regulations of European law give no support to such a pretence.

But another point is still to be noticed. It may be supposed that so long a period had passed from the time of the original discovery by Cabot, that the claim of the English had lapsed, and in consequence that though the claim of the Dutch as discoverers

should not be allowed, they yet might come in and acquire a right from occupation and use.

The duration of a claim from discovery has already been. sufficiently considered.

But, at this time, the rights of the English to this part of the American continent did not rest upon discovery alone, there had been actual appropriation and possession. Portions of territory had been granted at different times by the English sovereign, to certain individuals or bodies, and these grants had been made by formal conveyances, describing the situation and extent of the lands so as to fix their place and extent. In this manner the very portion of country that was visited by Hudson had been granted and conveyed. Most of it indeed had been repeatedly granted. Not to mention the ill defined conveyance to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, it had been given to Sir Walter Raleigh as a part of Virginia; afterwards to the North and South Virginia Company, and was divided between them as already described, and finally, only a few months before the visit of Hudson," a second grant had been made to the South Virginia Company, and in this, the precise spot was included which seems to have been regarded as the starting point of the Dutch possessions. Upon the territory which had thus been granted, English emigrants had actually settled, and were then in possession. The possession indeed was not such as that every part of the territory was taken up; nor was this necessary. "A country," says a learned authority, "is taken possession of either in the lump or by parts. But if in a country possessed in the lump, any thing remains unassigned to private persons, it ought not therefore to be accounted vacant, for it still belongs to him who first took possession of that country, whether king or people, such as rivers, lakes, ponds, forest, and uncultivated mountains."9 Portions of territory not really occu

See p. 18.

The second patent was given to the South Virginia Company on the 23d of May, 1609.

The Bay of the South River, (or Delaware,) was the first place of which the Men of the Half Moon took possession, before any christian had been there.Vander Donck.

Grotius.