With those words Purchas prefaced his account of what is known—­because we have no record of earlier voyages—­as Hudson’s first voyage; and with those words our certain knowledge of Hudson’s life begins.

St. Ethelburga’s, a restful pause in the bustle of Bishopsgate Street, still stands—­the worse, to be sure, for the clutter of little shops that has been built in front of it, and for incongruous interior renovation—­and I am very grateful to Purchas for having preserved the scrap of information that links Hudson’s living body with that church which still is alive:  into which may pass by the very doorway that he passed through those who venerate his memory; and there may stand within the very walls and beneath the very roof that sheltered him when he and his ship’s company partook of the Sacrament together three hundred years ago.  Purchas, no doubt, could have told all that we so gladly would know of Hudson’s early history.  But he did not tell it—­and we must rest content, I think well content, with that poetic beginning at the chancel rail of St. Ethelburga’s of the strong life that less than four years later came to its epic ending.

The voyage made in the year 1607, for which Hudson and his crew prepared by making their peace with God in St. Ethelburga’s, had nothing to do with America; nor did his voyage of the year following have anything to do with this continent.  Both of those adventures were set forth by the Muscovy Company in search of a northeast passage to the Indies; and, while they failed in their main purpose, they added important facts concerning the coasts of Spitzbergen and of Nova Zembla to the existing stock of geographical knowledge, and yielded practical results in that they extended England’s Russian trade.

The most notable scientific accomplishment of the first voyage was the high northing made.  By observation (July 23, 1607) Hudson was in 80 deg. 23’.  By reckoning, two days later, he was in 81 deg..  His reckoning, because of his ignorance of the currents, always has been considered doubtful.  His observed position recently has been questioned by Sir Martin Conway, who has arrived at the conclusion:  “It is demonstrably probable that for 80 deg. 23’ we should read 79 deg. 23’."[1] But even with this reduction accepted, the fact remains that until the year 1773, when Captain Phipps reached 80 deg. 48’, Hudson held the record for “farthest north.”

  [Footnote 1:  “Hudson’s Voyage to Spitzbergen in 1607,” by Sir
  Martin Conway. The Geographical Journal, February, 1900.]

To the second voyage belongs the often-quoted incident of the mermaid.  The log of that voyage that has come down to us was kept by Hudson himself; and this is what he wrote in it (June 15, 1608) with his own hand:  “All day and night cleere sunshine.  The wind at east.  The latitude at noone 75 degrees 7 minutes.  We held westward by our account 13 leagues.  In the afternoon, the sea was asswaged,