were simply islands and that it was quite possible that a passage lay
through them which would make a much nearer and a much safer way to the
East Indies than around the dread Cape of Good Hope. So the East India
Company built the ship Half Moon and got an Englishman named Henry
Hudson to take charge of it, and started him off to find the short way.
Hudson was chosen because he had already made two voyages for an
English company, trying to find that same short passage, and was
supposed to know ever so much more about it than anyone else.

When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson was sure that he had
found the passage to the Indies, and he paid very little attention to
the red-skinned Indians on the island shore. But when the ship got as
far as where Albany is now, the water had become shallow, and the
river-banks were so near together that Hudson gave up in despair, and
said that, after all, he had not found the eagerly sought-for passage
to India, but only a river!

Then he turned the ship, sailed back past the island, and returned to
Holland to tell of his discovery. He told of the fur-bearing animals,
and of what a vast fortune could be made if their skins could only be
got to Holland, where furs were needed. He told of the Indians; and the
river which flowed past the island he spoke of as "The River of the
Mountains."

[Illustration: The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson.]

The directors of the Dutch East India Company were not particularly
pleased with Hudson's report. They were angry because the short cut to
India had not been found, and they thought very little of the vast
storehouse of furs which he had discovered. Neither did the Company care