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Hello brand new journal, my name is Henry Hudson and I am a European Explorer. Today I left Gravesland, England for my first voyage and I am so excited! I was hired by the Muscovy Company to look for a route that leads to Asia and the Indies. We plan to go about this route
by sailing through the North Pole. The Muscovy Company gave me all new supplies and best of all a brand new ship called the “Hopewell.” I made sure to pick seven trustworthy crew members and I think I was successful in my choices. My main goals for this voyage are to find the route to Asia (obviously), and to show the Muscovy Company that I am a good explorer so I can be hired again for future voyages. They also promised me that I would live a wealthy life after completing this expedition. So when times get rough, I just need to keep the prize in mind.
How could I have been so stupid? I don’t know why I even wasted my time. It turns out that Greenland extends much farther eastward than I thought, and there is 
no way that there is a passage leading to Asia anywhere near here. In my plan I thought that if we headed north of Greenland we may be lucky, but I guess I miscalculated. On the bright side, we discovered a small island in the Barrents Sea north of Iceland. However, the island is really unimportant to our voyage and I am forced to turn around Hopewell. My crew will not be happy when they hear the news. They are already on the edge because of the temperature out here. Why is it so unbelievably COLD? Even in August! Anyway, we shall be arriving back at home in a few weeks.
I have been sent by the Dutch East India Company to find a Northeastern route to Asia. Since the first expedition did not really work out too well, we are all going into this one with open minds. 
However, by the looks of the weather out here, this voyage may not be successful either, and it has only been a few weeks since we left on the 22 of April. We have already traded with the natives for some really extraordinary items. In addition to a ton of jewels, we have spices, silks, carpets, beads, cloth and teeth of an elephant! But now I’m rambling. I’ll just get back on topic now. I am going about this expedition a little bit different than last time. This time I have a few new crew members, including my son John. My good friends Strutton and Juet are also coming along, but they came on our first voyage as well. The East India Company has sent me ludicrously far north for the purpose of sailing up around Russia into the Pacific. Ugh, it’s so COLD!!! I know I’ve done this before, but it hasn’t gotten any better. The water’s getting icier and icier the farther we go. The Hopewell’s a good ship, but she isn’t a snowplow. We might have to turn back soon.
Hello, it’s me again. I know you just love listening to me complain, but the COLD isn’t the only problem around here. Now we’ve hit the northernmost part of Norway and the tension’s so thick you could cut it with a bleeding spoon. The crew has been giving me the eye for several weeks now. I suppose they hate the cold even more than I 
do, since they’re out on deck all day, keeping this ship afloat, while I get to stay in this cabin all day. Some of the bigger upstarts have even threatened to mutiny! I’m starting to fear for my life, since most of them could squash me like a cockroach. However, their desire for money seems to outweigh their utter loathing of me. If I keep telling them about how rich they’re going to get from the spices we’ll find, they might not throw me in the ocean. Anyway, besides my crew members slowly starting to turn against me, today the most amazing thing happened. I saw a real live mermaid with my own very eyes! She was beautiful; I have never seen anything like it before. Tomorrow we are turning the ship around and heading back to England. My crew members were annoyed, but it is not news to them anymore. It is just another unsuccessful voyage.
Okay, I am really not a bad explorer, I’m not. I seem to be making a bad reputation for myself with all of these unsuccessful voyages! At least the D.E.C hired me for another voyage. This time my crew and I were asked to 
go north in search of a passage to the east, and we’re going in a whole new direction by starting in Holland. The company supplied me with all new tools and a new ship, so this time we will not be using the Hopewell! L However, my wife Katherine and the kids have agreed to live in Holland while I am exploring, just to make things easier. Katherine, Oliver and Richard are staying in Holland while Johnny is accompanying me on his second voyage at sea. I hope he gets a better experience then he did for our last voyage…
Today I received a letter from another European 
explorer, John Smith. The letter told me that he believed there might be a western sea route because of maps he looked at, and some natives he communicated with. Plus, with all the information of passages brought back from earlier explorers, a westward passage might be possible. I am eager to look for this western route but when I explained the idea to the Dutch East India Company, they were not very happy. Right now all they are only determined to find the northeastern route. So, going in a new direction is out of the question. It would’ve been nice to get a head start on Smith but right now, I just have to focus on what the D.E.C is paying me to do. The last thing I would ever want to happy is for the company to stop financing the voyage, and I will not get my reward.
It has been months since setting off on this expedition and it is hard to keep track of each passing day that goes by because every day seems the same as the one before it. I feel as if we are going no where, and were headed in circles, but I just remind myself to keep going, because we have already come thus far. Today I thought we might have finally reached the end of our journey but, boy was I wrong. We hit a new water body, and I was hopeful that it might lead us to our desired destination, but it turns out it was just another river bringing us back to the Atlantic. It really angered my crew mates when I told them the bad news, and I feel slightly responsible for bringing up their hopes of discovering the passageway, and then bringing them down again. My crew members seem to be getting a bit frustrated with this voyage, and I am just trying to keep them optimistic. My first mate, the one that is supposed to keep everything in line is Robert Juet. I am getting a little annoyed with Juet right now, because he has a bad attitude about this expedition, and I think it is starting to rub off on everyone else. John Strutton, and my son George Puckett, my Seamen are supposed to be working together, but they also seem to be getting on each other’s nerves. There is a quarrel between those two every time I turn around! Today, George, my carpenter was patching a hold in the front sail, and Paul, the Quartermaster would criticize every move that he made. The Boatswain James, and my other mates are doing their jobs, but the feuding between the other crew members is irritating them as well. I think that we have just spent so much time together, that we are getting bored of one another. However, even though we are all getting on each others nerves, we cannot let it hold us back from discovering the route, and we cannot forget what our main priorities are.
Today by far was the most disappointing day I have ever had on a voyage. For days now we have been heading down that new river we found last month, until today when we hit a harbor. We proceeded up the harbor into a new river. We continued down the river until it got narrower and narrower, which meant we were headed towards land. My crew was ecstatic when we reached the land, but I told my crew not to get too excited, because I was not completely positive where we were at that point. Turns out that we had hit a city, but it was not a southwest passage we had found. We had actually come from an entirely different direction than the one we intended. So, with that in mind, we were forced to turn the ship around, and start over, once again. I could practically feel the hatred shooting out of my crew members’ eyes when they looked at me. I feel horrible, but there is nothing I can do. Why do we seem to be having such terrible luck lately? I am starting to think, perhaps there is no southwest passage, and the relayed information from John Smith was probably wrong. But John was just as determined to find this route as I was, and I don’t believe that he would make up something like that. I trust that there really is a southwest passage somewhere out there, and it is just waiting for someone to discover it.
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. After that last voyage we turned around once again and ended up in this land called Amsterdam. The fog there was unbearable and it was almost impossible to steer the ship. My 
crew was sick of the constant change
of voyage and were not treating me with the respect I would like, being their captain and all. After less than a week I decided it was impossible to sail through the fog and that we would head in a new direction and start looking for the route John Smith had told me about in his letter, so we left Amsterdam and now we are heading west in search of the new route. Smith shared some of his accounts of his past exploration with me to help with this voyage. Smith is a nice guy. By undertaking this search for a western route to Asia I hope that this is my chance to show everyone that I can have some success on an expedition. It is embarrassing that this now my third voyage and I still have not had one ounce of success.
A few days ago we arrived at the banks of “Newfoundland,” and noticed that some native 
canoes were approaching our ship. They were friendly, and traded with us for some nice trinkets. They told me of mines where we could find gold, silver and copper. We stocked up on water, and fish and even cut down a tree to fix the Half Moon (our boat)’s mast.
Today on the other hand was a day I would call a disaster. I am slowly losing control of my crew. I feel like my son is even starting to betray me. Behind my back, my crew grew suspicions of these kind natives that gave us food and trinkets, and raided the Native’s from their homes with guns! I never gave any permission for them do this, and I am extremely upset. After all the help the natives gave us, it is absolutely evil and barbaric that my crew backstabbed them, and even worse, me.
We have experienced a lot in the past few weeks. We have passed the cape and continued north until we passed Vir
ginia. We met some new natives (although we did not stay long with them, considering the last incident with natives), and we even discovered a new river. Unfortunately, we have lost three crew members, one due to an attack by natives (ironic, I know). We captured these natives and forced them to wear read cloaks, but they escaped a few days later. We are close to a set of mountains; I can almost see them from here. I guess you could say this voyage was a success. We did not find the passageway, but we did discover a river. We sailed down the river and saw lots of abundant trees and plants along the river. I have them all recorded in my notebook. The picture on the right is a sketch of what the pretty trees looked like. I am proud of myself for enduring all the hardships I have had in the past two years and getting this far. At least this makes up for the other disastrous voyages I am known for. The only thing that discourages me about this voyage is that I feel my crew is plotting against me. I’ve been trying to keep a good eye on them lately, especially Juet. They all seem like they’re out to get me, and I really don’t know why. I think I have been a good captain! I will keep you posted.
http://www.mariner.org/exploration/index.php?type=explorer&id=15
http://library.thinkquest.org/4034/hudson.html
http://www.mariner.org/educationalad/ageofex/hudson.php
http://www.hudsonriver.com/halfmoonpress/stories/hudson.htm
http://www.ianchadwick.com/hudson/hudson_01.htm
http://www.usmm.net/deck.html
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/E/newnetherlands/nl1.htm
http://www.ulster.net/~hrmm/halfmoon/halfmoon.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/h/hudson.shtml
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/exhudson.htm
http://virtualology.com/hallofexplorers/HENRYHUDSON.ORG/
Baker, Doug. "Hudson, Henry." In Smith, Billy G., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Colonization and Settlement, 1608 to 1760, vol. 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHII185&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 21, 2007).
Lindaman, Matthew. "Northeast Passage." In Mancall, Peter C., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Three Worlds Meet, Beginnings to 1607, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHI276&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 21, 2007
Juet, Robert . "Journal of Henry Hudson's Voyage (excerpt)." New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E13616&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 21, 2007), "Journal of Henry Hudson's Voyage (excerpt)." American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E13616&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 21, 2007).
Waldman, Carl, and Jon Cunningham. "exploration of Hudson Bay." Encyclopedia of Exploration, vol 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=EEXII114&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 21, 2007).
by sailing through the North Pole. The Muscovy Company gave me all new supplies and best of all a brand new ship called the “Hopewell.” I made sure to pick seven trustworthy crew members and I think I was successful in my choices. My main goals for this voyage are to find the route to Asia (obviously), and to show the Muscovy Company that I am a good explorer so I can be hired again for future voyages. They also promised me that I would live a wealthy life after completing this expedition. So when times get rough, I just need to keep the prize in mind. 
