HUDSON, HENRY, a distinguished and ill-fated navigator of the seventeenth century. His early history is quite unknown, and he did not emerge from obscurity till the year 1607, when he was sent out by a company of rich London merchants in quest of a shorter passage to China than that by the Cape of Good Hope. In that year he penetrated as far as the 82d degree, beyond which his passage was barred by the ice. In the following year, altering his course, he sailed eastwards, and, coasting along Spitzbergen, reached the straits of Waygatz. Unable to force his way any further in that direction, he again returned home without effecting his purpose. In 1609 a company of Dutch merchants supplied him with the means of again attempting the N.E. passage. Again the ice stopped his progress, and Hudson abandoning his original plan sailed away to America, where he discovered the great river which now bears his name, and at the mouth of which New York is situated. Scarcity of provisions drove him once more to England, which he reached on the 7th November. In the following year (1610) he sailed from London on the forlorn quest of the N.W. passage. In the end of May his sailors mutinied, and the revolt was only quelled with great difficulty. In June he entered the strait and bay now called by his name, and was in high hopes that he had at last solved the mystery that had baffled so many enquirers. Stricter investigation, however, showed him that he had been caught in a cul-de-sac, and as summer was now drawing to a close, he found himself compelled to winter on these inhospitable shores with a mutinous crew, and a very scanty stock of provisions. Commander and sailors were alike out of temper at the bad success of the whole expedition, and heart-burnings and dissensions embittered the winter bivouac. On the way home in the summer of 1611, the crew again mutinied, and taking possession of the ship, they turned adrift Hudson and such of the crew as remained
Hudson, John, faithful to him, in an open boat and with a very scanty supply of provisions. What was the fate of the boat and her crew is unknown; neither was ever heard of. The details of Hudson's voyages are given at length in Purchas' Pilgrims, and in Harris's Voyages.
Hudson, John, a distinguished classical scholar, was born at Widehope, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, in 1662. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, but after graduating as M.A. in 1684, he removed to University College, of which he became a fellow and tutor. In 1701 he was made principal keeper of the Bodleian Library, and in 1712 principal of St Mary's Hall, both of which offices he retained till his death in 1719.
Hudson obtained considerable repute both at home and abroad in consequence of his critical editions of some of the classics, of which may be mentioned his Velleius Paterculus, Oxford, 1693; Thucydides, 1696; Dionysius Halicarnassensis, 1701; Geographia veteris Scriptores Graeci minores, with Dodwell's notes and comments, 1698, 1703, 1712; Longinus, 1710; Maris Atticista, 1712; Fabularum Aesopicarum Collectio, 1718; Josephus, 1720. These editions are now for the most part superseded, with the exception of the last, upon the texts and notes of which he bestowed very great pains. He did not live to see it through the press, but his friend Hall charged himself with that duty, and prefixed to the edition, when complete, a biographical sketch of the deceased critic. (Biog. Brit.)