Four-hundred and one years ago, on September 3-4, 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island in the New World. The exact day is not known.
After several voyages on behalf of British merchants to explore a Northeast Passage to India, Hudson was chosen by the Dutch East India Company to find an easterly route to the Orient.
Hudson departed Amsterdam with a crew of 20 in April in command of the Dutch ship Half Moon. Due to ice, he turned the vessel around and pointed it west to try to find a passage in that direction.
After sailing near Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay along the Atlantic Coast, Hudson reached the estuary of the "north river" that now bears his name.
He was not the first to discover the estuary, as it had been known since Giovanni da Verrazzano’s voyage in 1524. But Hudson thought he found what he was looking for when he entered New York Bay and saw Manhattan Island.
Hudson sailed into the upper bay on September 11, and the next day began a 10-day journey up what is known as the Hudson River, sailing 150 miles to what is now Albany before realizing it would not lead to his destination.
The river was treacherous, especially in the area now known as the Hudson Highlands, 50 miles north of New York City and extending for 15 miles between Peekskill and Newburgh, N.Y.
The hills rise more than 1,000 feet along either shore, and strong winds and fierce currents make sailing dangerous. Areas of the river here were dubbed World's End and Devil's Horse Race by the Dutch sailors.
While exploring the river, Hudson traded with several native tribes and obtained furs. His voyage established Dutch claims to the region and to the fur trade that prospered when a trading post was established at Albany in 1614.
New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island became the capital of New Netherland in 1625. Since Hudson had been hired for the journey by the Dutch East India Company, his explorations laid the foundation for Dutch colonization. The 1600s saw the influx of many colonists, and the area eventually became part of New York, controlled by Great Britain and then the United States.
In 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed Dutch royalty for the 400th anniversary of Hudson's historic voyage. The festivities included Dutch barges, NATO vessels, and a new replica of the Half Moon, which sailed into New York Harbor.
“This land may be profitable,” Hudson said of the future New York region, “to those that will adventure it.”
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