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 Waygatze. 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 enquiries. 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. 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 Widdesope, 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 Paternus, Oxford, 1696; Thucydides, 1696; Dionysius Halicarnassensis, 1704; Geographia veteris Scriptores Graeci minores, with Dodwell's notes and comments, 1698, 1703, 1712; Longinus, 1710; Morris Atticista, 1712; Fabularum Esopicorum 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.)

city of North America, Columbia county, state of New York, on the left bank of the Hudson River, at the head of its ship navigation, and on the Hudson River railroad, 116 miles N. of New York city. It stands on an elevation called Prospect Hill, which rises behind the city to the height of 200 feet. The river bank, 60 feet high, projects into the river in the form of a bold promontory, affording a delightful promenade, and having on either side a fine bay with depth of water sufficient for the largest ships. Along the margins of these bays, and at the foot of the promontory, are the wharves. The town is for the most part regularly built, with streets crossing each other at right angles. The court-house is a handsome edifice constructed of marble and limestone, and surmounted by a dome. Hudson was formerly extensively engaged in the West India trade, but of late this has mostly given place to the whale-fisheries. Its river trade is important, great quantities of produce being brought to its markets from the interior. It also carries on various manufactures, for which the streams in the vicinity afford good water-power. Pop. (1850) 6285.

Hudson's Bay, a large sea of North America, lying between 51 and 69 degrees of N. Lat., discovered in 1610 by Henry Hudson. (See Hudson, Henry; and Polar Regions.) A charter for a company, incorporated under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, was obtained in the year 1670. See Fur Trade.

Hudson's Bay Territory. The first internal explorers of the vast region surrounding Hudson's Bay were traders from Canada while it was yet in the possession of France. Canadian traders had, previous to the conquest, ascended the St Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers to their sources, and had formed establishments on the great Lakes. From the north-western end of Lake Superior, they threaded the intricate communication which leads by lakes, streams, and portages to Lake Winnipeg, and thence penetrated some distance up the Saskatchewan River, where their most distant establishment was situated, in N. Lat. 53°, W. Long. 103°. These enterprises were in a great measure suspended by the struggles which ended in the conquest of Canada by Great Britain. In 1767 a party headed by a British subject again penetrated to the Saskatchewan. The Mississipi, or Churchill River, was visited by Mr Joseph Frobisher in 1775, and Lake Isle-a-la-Crosse in 1776. In the year 1781 the fur trade had reached the limits of Lake Athabasca, nearly 1000 miles beyond the most distant point attained by the French. These explorations were greatly extended by the establishment in 1783 of the North-West Company of Montreal—an association formed of the leading individuals engaged in this traffic—who, in the energetic pursuit of the fur trade, extended their establishments to the Arctic Circle and the Pacific Ocean. The charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, conferring the exclusive right of trade with the Indians, having been granted without the sanction of parliament, has generally been held invalid; and it was probably the dread, owing to this defect, of attracting public observation to their proceedings that induced the Company for many years to confine their trading stations almost entirely to the coast. In 1769, a century after the date of their charter, their farthest advance was but 400 miles inland. In that year, however, being desirous of obtaining information regarding some mines of copper described by the natives as existing near a river flowing into the sea to the northward, called the Coppermine River, they directed Mr Hearne, a gentleman in their service, to proceed overland for that river, which he had orders to survey, if possible, down to its embouchure—an enterprise in which, after two unsuccessful attempts, he succeeded, reaching the sea at the mouth of the Coppermine River on the 13th July 1771, having been thus the first to establish the existence of a great Northern Ocean washing the shores of North America. Mr Hearne's journals and charts were, however, withheld from the public for nearly twenty years after the date of his journey. On the capture of Fort Churchill by the French these documents fell into the hands of La Perouse, who commanded the French squadron, and were restored to the Company only on condition of their being published. It was doubtless owing to this circumstance that Hearne's claims to this important discovery were for many years discredited; and although the existence of a Northern Ocean was confirmed by Sir Alexander MacKenzie, who in 1789 descended the river issuing from Great Slave Lake, which bears his name, it was not until the overland expeditions of Franklin and Richardson in 1820 and 1825 that Hearne's merits as a discoverer were fully recognised. To the expeditions last named we owe the first accurate geographical delineation of this extensive region, from the shores of Hudson's Bay as far as MacKenzie's River. Of the country west of this stream, and extending as far as Russian America, a careful survey has been more recently executed by Professor A. K. Isbister of London, and published in the journal of the Royal Geographical Society for 1846. To this gentleman we owe also an elaborate geological map of the entire region, published in 1856 by the Geological Society of London.

The circumstances which led to the union of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Companies have been stated in the article on the Fur Trade. The new association, which retained the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, obtained in 1821 a license of exclusive trade for twenty-one years, renewed in 1842 for a similar period, over the territories W. of the Rocky Mountains—the country on the E. side being considered sufficiently protected from rival traders by the establishments of the two companies already formed there, and such vague rights as might be claimed under the charter of 1670. Grave doubts existing as to the validity of this charter, and numerous complaints having arisen from the arbitrary exercise of the powers claimed under it by the Company, an address to the Crown has been recently moved by the House of Commons for an inquiry (which is now pending) into the legality of the very wide and anomalous powers at present exercised by the Company.

The territory embraced within the present operations of the Hudson's Bay Company may be roughly estimated at nearly 4,000,000 of square miles, or somewhat greater than the entire extent of Europe. This vast area, which is covered by a net-work of about a hundred trading-posts scattered at distances of about three or four hundred miles apart, is divided into four large departments—1st, The Montreal department, which includes all the establishments situated between the River St Lawrence and the great lakes of Canada, and along the N. shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence and the coast of Labrador; 2d, The Southern department, which includes the country along the N. shores of Lake Superior and the southern shores of Hudson's Bay; 3d, The Northern department, which comprehends all the establishments N. of this as far as the shores of the Polar Sea; and, 4th, The Columbia department, including the territory watered by the Columbia and other rivers W. of the Rocky Mountains. The departments are divided into a number of districts, each under the direction of a superior officer; and these again are subdivided into numerous factories, forts, posts, and outposts.

In a geographical view the Hudson's Bay territories may be divided into four great natural regions—1. The Columbia or Oregon territory, a country of varied features, extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific; 2. The wooded region, occupying the country from Canada northwards along the shores of Hudson's Bay, and extending along the valley of the M'Kenzie and Peace Rivers nearly to the Arctic Ocean; 3. The prairie region, situated between the for-mentioned divisions, and occupying the valley of the Saskatchewan and Red Rivers and the upper waters of the Missouri and Mississippi; 4. The strip of sterile country along the northern shores of Hudson's Bay and the coast of the Polar Sea, familiarly known as the Barren Grounds. Of these divisions the wooded region is the most extensive and the most valuable for the purposes of the fur trade; all the finer skins which find their way to the London market being obtained from it. It has, in consequence, been long occupied and thoroughly worked by the trading-posts and agencies of the company. The Indians inhabiting it are in general a mild, inoffensive race. Long familiarity with the whites, and the habits of trade, have produced a friendly feeling among them towards Europeans; and their desire to supply them with the commodities of trade renders them by far the most valuable and industrious class of the population of the Hudson's Bay territories. The relation of the Company towards them is an extremely simple one: the Indians hunt and trap for the furs which the Company receive, giving in exchange such articles as are suited to the simple wants and tastes of the natives. Trade is carried on by means of a standard valuation, based on the market price of a beaver-skin, and hence denominated a made beaver. This is to obviate the necessity of circulating money, which is quite unknown in any part of the Indian country. A beaver-skin is considered, in the Indian trade, equivalent to two, three, or more skins of inferior value. The rates at which the skins can be obtained under the complete monopoly enjoyed by the Company render the fur trade probably one of the most lucrative species of traffic in the world.

It is difficult to form an estimate approaching to accuracy of the population of the Hudson's Bay territories. From forty to fifty different tribes, speaking distinct dialects, have been enumerated; but the discordant estimates even of the oldest and most experienced residents in the Indian country forbid all idea of arriving at any accurate estimate of their numbers. They probably do not exceed 150,000. Their numbers are, by the most trustworthy accounts, rapidly diminishing. Through the benevolent exertions of the Church Missionary and other societies, missions and schools have been established in various parts of the country E. of the Rocky Mountains. These missions, supported entirely from the funds of benevolent bodies in England and Canada, afford the only means of education hitherto available to the inhabitants of those remote regions.

The climate and soil of the Hudson's Bay territories, except in the extreme northern districts, differ little from those of Canada, and are equally adapted for colonization. On the banks of the Red River, flowing into Lake Winnipeg, a small settlement has been formed, consisting chiefly of retired servants of the Company, with their families. The colony now numbers a population of about 10,000 souls; but from its isolated position, the bulky nature of such exports as could be furnished, and the long and dangerous navigation to Hudson's Bay, there is but little probability of its rising to commercial importance.

Hudson River, the principal river in the State of New York, North America. It rises in the Adirondack Mountains, in two streams, which unite in Warren county about 40 miles from their sources. Its course is irregular to Sandy Hill, being first S. by E. then E., after which it flows almost in a straight line nearly due S., and falls into New York Bay, in N. Lat. 40° 42', W. Long. 71° 1'. Its entire length is rather more than 300 miles; its breadth below Albany varies from 300 to 900 yards. Between Haverstraw and Piermont, for 10 or 12 miles, it expands into a broad basin 4 or 5 miles wide. It has few tributaries: the Mohawk flowing into it near Troy, and the Walkill at Kingston are the principal. The scenery is in the highest degree picturesque, its elevated banks not unfrequently rising in lofty and precipitous eminences. The largest ships ascend to Hudson about 117 miles, and schooners sail as far as Troy, 166 miles.