The wealth and power of Spain were considered almost boundless. The revolting )jrovinces were small in area and in population. The ' contest seemed most unequal, but the same energy, persistence and skill that had wrested their fertile land irom the sea defeated the armies of Spain and wore out the endurance of her sovereigns, until, on the 9th of April, 1609, the protracted struggle ended and the independence of the Netherlands was practically acknowledged. During all the contest the Dutch had shown their superiority upon the ocean. Their vessels carried on a profitable commerce in every sea and jiushed into that rich trade with the ! East which had been especially denied them by j Spain. To carry on this important trade the East i India Company had been incorporated in 1602. | Profitable as were their voyages around the Cape of Good Hope, they yet dreamed there might be a shorter route for their vessels, and one in which they would be less exposed to attack. The long-cherished possibility of a northwest passage to the Indian seas was still entertained. Opportunely, an English navigator, Henry Hudson, who had made two voyages to this ever disappointing field of discovery, offered his services. The ofiier was accepted, and a yacht of eighty tons burden, the Half-Moon, was equipped for a voyage, manned by a mixed crew of Dutch and English sailors, numbering twenty, and sailed from Amsterdam on the 4th of April, 1609, five days before the truce with Spain was signed. Striking the American coast at Nova Scotia, Hudson skirted the shores of Maine and Cape Cod and next reached the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, and, turning northward, passed the coast of Maryland and entered Delaware Bay. Again standing northward, on the 2d of September he sighted the highlands of Navesinck, " a very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see," and on the following day he rounded Sandy Hook and entered the lower bay.