Nathaniel's nutmeg (28 page)

The London merchants expressed interest in Hudson's findings but were too preoccupied with bringing their ships home around the Cape of Good Hope to entertain the idea of equipping a new expedition to the north. Not so their Dutch counterparts; learning of Hudson's voyage and fearing that the North-East Passage might be discovered by their English rivals, they instructed their wise old consul in London, Emanuel van Meteren, to make contact with Hudson and bring him back to Holland.

Hudson arrived in Amsterdam in the winter of 1608 and was immediately granted an audience with the directors of the Dutch East India Company, to whom he presented his discoveries as the eighth wonder of the world. He told them of his conviction that there was an open sea at the North Pole, as Plancius had suggested, explaining that the further north he had sailed the warmer the climate became; and that instead of being confronted with ice and snow he had found land covered with grasses and wild flowers as well as many different species of animals living solely from the produce of the land.

The merchants were intrigued and asked Hudson why their own mariners had failed to find this temperate land. To this the English explorer had a ready explanation. In order to reach the mild climate of the North Pole, he said, it was necessary to push beyond 74 degrees latitude — the point at which the Dutch ships had always found their path blocked by ice - into the open sea where the great depth of the water and the swell of the waves prevented any ice from forming. Furthermore, he confidently asserted that if 83 degrees latitude was reached — somewhere to the north of Franz Josef Land — it would be possible to turn eastwards and break through to the warm seas of the East Indies.

Hudson's theory sounded plausible but the merchants had suffered so many failures in their Arctic exploits that they demanded further evidence. Summoning Petrus
Plancius to their meeting, they asked for his opinion of Hudson's findings. Not only did Plancius concur with every word, he actually reinforced the Englishman's claims with his own evidence. He argued that although the heat of the sun is extremely weak at the North Pole, the fact that it shines uninterrupted for almost five months of the year enables a permanent warmth to build up at the top of the world. To prove his point he reminded the directors that a small fire kept alight for a long time in the same place gives out considerably more heat than a large fire that is constantly extinguished.

The Amsterdam directors were impressed with this explanation but hesitated in equipping a fleet immediately, largely because Company rules dictated that an expedition to the Spice Islands could only set sail with the unanimous consent of the Council of Seventeen. Since that only met two or three times a year they would not be able to agree to any project until its next meeting which was scheduled for late spring 1609. Unfortunately this would be too late in the season to send an expedition across the Arctic, so Hudson would have to wait a further year before he could set sail.

This uncharacteristic hesitation nearly cost the directors dear. The charter of the Dutch East India Company gave them a monopoly on any trade passing by way of the Cape of Good Hope or the Magellan Straits, but there was no mention of any northern route to the Spice Islands, leaving the inescapable conclusion that if any dissident merchant were to go in search of the North-East Passage it would be beyond the power of the Seventeen to stop him. By the time Hudson visited Amsterdam just such a situation had arisen. Isaac Lemaire, one of the city's wealthiest merchants, had grown increasingly dissatisfied with what he considered to be Holland's overly cautious approach to trade and, in 1605, promptly withdrew his support. He was now their enemy, and a dangerous one at that, for he vowed to do everything in his power to undermine his former partners. When he heard that they had effectively turned down Hudson's proposal for an immediate voyage to the North he made contact with the English navigator and suggested the two men form a partnership. Lemaire had powerful backing: King Henry IV of France had watched with growing jealousy the Dutch ships sail up the Channel and was anxious to have his share of the riches of the East Indies. When he learned of Lemaire s rift with his erstwhile partners the King made contact with the Dutchman through his ambassador, Pierre Jeannin.

The ensuing negotiations had to be conducted in the utmost secrecy lest the Seventeen, who were 'fearful above all things of being forestalled in this design', should learn of the plan. A meeting was sought with Hudson, and the English explorer, irritated that the Seventeen were dragging their feet, placed his Arctic research at the disposal of the two men.

As soon as Jeannin had read these findings he wrote to the French King urging him to finance a Hudson-led expedition to the Arctic. He predicted that the return journey to the Spice Islands would take just six months, with the added advantage that not a single foreign carrack would be met en route. 'It is true,' wrote Jeannin, 'that the success of this undertaking cannot be promised with certainty, but Lemaire has long been making inquiries as to what results could be expected from this enterprise and he is regarded as a prudent and industrious man.' He added that it is the opinion of Plancius and other geographers that there are other lands which have not yet been discovered and which God may be reserving for the glory and advantage of other princes ... Even if nothing should come of it, it will always be a laudable thing, and the regret will not be great since so little will be risked.'

The King acted promptly on receipt of this letter. Although sceptical about the project he was sufficiently enthused to send a draft for four thousand crowns. Unfortunately the money arrived too late. Learning of Lemaire's secret meetings with Hudson, the Seventeen urgently recalled the Englishman and this time acted swiftly. A contract was drawn up in which Hudson was named as captain of an expedition to discover the northern route to the Spice Islands and which included details of the route he was to take, the payment he would receive, and the obligations placed upon him. 'The above named Hudson shall about the first of April, sail, in order to search for a passage by the North, around by the North side of Nova Zembla, and shall continue thus along that parallel until he shall be able to sail Southward to the latitude of sixty degrees .'Throughout the voyage he was to 'obtain as much knowledge of the lands as can be done without any considerable loss of time and, if it is possible, return immediately in order to make a faithful report and relation of his voyage to the Directors, and to deliver over his journals, log-books and charts, together with an account of everything whatsoever which shall happen to him during the voyage without keeping anything back'. In return for his services, 'the Directors shall pay to the said Hudson ... the sum of eight hundred guilders; and in case (which God prevent) he do not come back or arrive hereabouts within a year, the Directors shall further pay to his wife two hundred guilders in cash; and thereupon they shall not be further liable to him or his heirs.'

The contract throws light on the considerable risks that explorers like Hudson were prepared to take. The vessel he was to sail in was tiny — sixty tons is scarcely bigger than a modern yacht - and poorly equipped for seas littered with icebergs. The financial reward, too, was paltry, whilst payment for any success was left entirely in the hands of his employers who 'will reward the before named Hudson for his dangers, trouble and knowledge in their discretion'. Nor was he offered any assurance of future employment; the contract was for a single exploratory voyage only. Even more surprising is that Hudson should agree to such a pitiful sum being paid to his wife in the event of him dying while at sea. Possibly he could not persuade the Seventeen to part with any more money, but more probably he had supreme confidence in his own abilities.

A curious set of additional instructions were handed to Hudson shortly before he set sail. These stated in even greater detail the route that he was to take and explicitly ordered him 'to think of discovering no other routes or passages, except the route around by the North and North- East above Nova Zembla'.Why the Seventeen added this last clause remains a mystery but perhaps, even now, they had an inkling that Hudson would ignore all their instructions once he had set sail. Certainly there was some disquiet about this headstrong Englishman for one of the Company letters, referring to a dispute over the crew's wages, states:'If he begins to rebel here under our eyes what will he do if he is away from us?'

Subsequent events were to prove that they were right to be concerned about Hudson's behaviour and were fully justified in mistrusting his leadership. But what the Dutch merchants could never have imagined was that his 1609 voyage would have such a profound and lasting consequence on the spice race.

The
Half Moon
set sail in March of that year with a mixed crew of Dutch and English mariners. The vessel was built with a high forecastle and poop, and resembled in appearance the shallow-bottomed
vlie
boats used in the calm waters of the Zuider Zee. Few who watched its slow progress towards the North Sea, and fewer still among its crew, could have guessed that Hudson had no intention of sailing along the northern coastline of Russia; and that unbeknown to anyone he had set sail with his cabin piled high with charts and maps relating not to the North-East Passage, but to the North-West Passage, and it was this western waterway that he now wished to research.

Hudson's own account of the voyage has been lost but two contemporary journals have survived. One, written by Robert Juet, Hudson's mate, is a colourful and personal account of events on board; whilst the other, by Emanuel van Meteren, is drawn from conversations with Hudson's crew on their return. Juet provides little information about the early weeks of the voyage and records scant detail until the
Half Moon
had edged her way towards the Arctic pack- ice. He does mention a 'black fortnight' and refers to 'much trouble' although whether this is due to the crew or the 'close stormie weather, with much wind and snow', is not clear.

Emanuel van Meteren tells a more intriguing story. He relates that even in these early weeks there were bitter quarrels between the Dutch and English sailors and that some of the crew staged an abortive mutiny against their captain. The appalling weather only increased their discomfort for some of the Dutch crew were only recently returned from the Indies and were used to sailing in the languid heat of the tropics. Now they were heading into altogether colder climes where it was necessary to chip

blocks of ice off the ropes before they could be hauled through the pulleys.

At exactly noon on 21 May 1609, the crew of the
Half Moon
were called on deck to watch something peculiar happening to the sun. 'We observed the sunne having a slake', says Juet,'and found our height to be 70 degrees, 30 minutes.' The word 'slake' means 'an accumulation of mud or slime', suggesting that Juet was describing a sun spot. If so, this is the earliest recorded sighting, for the observation of astronomer Thomas Hariot — usually considered the first on record — was not until the winter of 1610.

Troubled by tempestuous winds and snow showers, as well as a rebellious crew, Hudson now decided to abandon his search for the North-East Passage and instead head westwards across the Atlantic. According to van Meteren, 'Master Hudson gave [the crew] their choice between two things': to head to the Spice Islands by way of the Davis Straits far to the north of Baffin Island, or to sail down the eastern seaboard of America until they reached the 40 degrees latitude at which point he hoped to force his passage through to the Pacific. This latter route, Hudson's preferred option, had been drawn to his attention by the English navigator George Weymouth who had explored America's eastern coastline in 1602 and 1605 and had, on at least one of these expeditions, reached the entrance to the Hudson River. Weymouth himself would have proceeded upstream had it not been for 'the imbecility of his crew' who forced him to return home.

How Weymouth's charts and maps came into Hudson's possession remains unclear. According to a Dutch account, 'the journals of George Weymouth, which fell into the hands of Domine P Plancius ... were of the greatest service to Hudson in his exploration of this famous strait, for in the
year 1609, when he was negotiating with the Directors of the [Dutch East] India Company ... he begged these journals from D P Plancius.' This suggests that even as Hudson was signing up for an expedition to discover the North-East Passage, his real interest was in sailing westwards across the Atlantic.

A week after Hudson's crew had chosen the second option - an attempt on the supposed southerly passage - the
Half Moon
came in sight of the jagged silhouette of the Faroe Islands. Hudson had visited these islands before and knew they were a good place to revictual. Anchoring far from the shore for fear of the treacherous rocks and dangerous whirlpools, he sent a small party ashore to fill the ship's casks with fresh water. On 30 May 1609, the weather brightened and the crew caught a glimpse of the sun, prompting Hudson to lead all the men ashore for some exercise. Unfortunately Juet, keeper of the journal, stayed aboard so there is no record of what the sailors made of these primitive, cormorant-eating islanders who traded seal skins and still spoke a peculiar dialect of ancient Norse.