Henry. Of this eminent navigator nothing is known prior to the year 1607, when he was employed by some London merchants in a small vessel, for exploring a north-east passage to China and Japan. He set sail on the 1st of May with only ten men and a boy, and reached as high as 80° of north latitude, where being stopped by the ice, he returned to England in the month of September following. In his next voyage he landed at Nova Zembla; but being unable to make any farther east, he returned in August the following year. The Dutch East India Company fitted him out in the year 1609, with a crew of twenty men, English and Dutch; and after attempting in vain to penetrate eastward, he steered for the American coast, and went as far as Chesapeake Bay. But his crew having mutinied, he durst not attempt a westerly passage through Davis's Strait, and therefore returned home. The knowledge acquired by him in these voyages increased his ardour for discovery, and he again made an offer of his services to the Dutch East India Company, which were not accepted; and for his last voyage, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, and some other of his friends, fitted him out. He set sail on the 17th of April, and came in sight of Greenland on the 4th of June. Sailing westward, he reached the mouth of the strait which bears his name, through which he advanced along the coast of Labrador, which he called Nova Britannia. Here he hoped to have discovered the long-wished-for passage; but he found he was only in a bay, in the southern part of which he determined to winter. After this he fitted out his shallop for further discoveries; but as he had no means of revictualling his ship, he distributed his last remaining bread, with tears in his eyes, amongst his people, and proposed to return home. But his mutinous crew entered his cabin by night, tied his hands behind his back, and set him ashore at the west end of the straits, with seven of the crew who were most attached to him. They were never more heard of, and it is probable that they were swallowed up by the waves.

Hudson, William, a celebrated English botanist, was born at Westmoreland about 1730. He was bound apprentice to an apothecary in London, whose business he continued, and proved a friend to the widow and daughters of his master. It appears from the testimony of Dr Pulteney, that he had a residence in the British Museum, but we are not informed in what capacity. He died of a paralytic distemper in May 1793. He possessed a comprehensive knowledge of English plants, which induced him to undertake an arrangement of English botany according to the Linnaean classification; a task which had been previously attempted by Dr Hill, but the execution Hudson's Bay Company. See Company.

Hudson's River, a large river of North America, which rises on the east of Lake Ontario, and running by Albany, and on the back of the south part of New England through part of New York, falls into the bay of the sea beyond the west end of Long Island, and below the town of New York.