He explored the bay and strait to which his name has since been given, passed the winter in the southern part of the bay, and on the 21st of June, 1611, was, with his sou and seven companions, set adrift in an open boat by his mutinous crew, never to be heard of more. When Hudson adventured forth on his momentous voyage of 1609 he flew from the mast of his vessel the flag of the new-born Republic of the United Netherlands. Just at that time the Netherlands were successfully concluding the first period of their gigantic struggle with Spain for independence. It was, indeed, in the same month that the " Half-Moon " sailed from Amsterdam (April) that the twelve years' truce between the Spanish aud Dutch was signed. Everywhere in Europe this was a period of transition. In England the long reign of Elizabeth had but recently come to its end, and already, under James l.,the first of the ill-fated Stuart dynasty, the

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events were shaping which were to culminate in the Commonwealth. In France Henry IV. was still reigning -- that Henry of Navarre who signed the Edict of Nantes, gave peace to the warring factions of the kingdom, and laid the foundations for the diplomacy of Richelieu and the power of Louis XIV. In the German Empire the seeds of the terrible Thirty Years' War were ripening. In Sweden the young Gustavus Adolphus was about to come to the throne. In Russia the dawn of a new era was being ushered in by the accession of the first sovereign of the house of Romanoff. In the south of Europe, on the other hand, the glories of long ages of commercial, intellectual, and political supremacy were fading away : the Italian republics were beginning to decline, and the might of Spain was tottering to its fall.