American History Tellers - Dutch Manhattan - Henry Hudson’s Big Mistake | 1

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

In 1609, a headstrong English sea captain named Henry Hudson set out on behalf of the Dutch East India Company to find a trade route to Asia — and promptly found himself and his crew stranded in icy waters off the coast of Norway. As supplies dwindled, Hudson announced to his frostbitten crew that the ship would change course. They set off across the Atlantic Ocean in search of an alternative route through the North American continent.Hudson never found the Northwest Passage, but he did come across something else on that journey — a small island the native people called Manna-hatta. That settlement would eventually give rise to a new Dutch colony called New Netherland, with Manhattan Island, or New Amsterdam, as it would come to be known, as its capital. New Amsterdam would come to be defined by two key Dutch values: tolerance and capitalism. This series by Russell Shorto, based on his book The Island at the Center of the World, traces how Manhattan’s brief chapter as a Dutch colony shaped the city for centuries to come.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's May 1609. You're a sailor aboard a small wooden vessel somewhere off the coast of Norway, within a few hundred miles of the Arctic Ocean. Throughout your career of doing local voyages, you've longed to be part of a big ocean-going adventure. And now you are, but it's more than you've bargained for.

The winds are howling and you're surrounded by mountains of ice. Your ship is practically stuck in it. You've been commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to find a northeast passage to Asia. But your tiny ship was not built for fighting through some of the harshest weather on the planet. And it doesn't help that your captain, Henry Hudson, failed in a similar effort last spring. Because now he's even more determined to succeed. You're loyal to Hudson. He gave you the job.

But you're starting to have doubts. As you secure a line with frozen fingers, a fellow crew member mutters under his breath, When will he give up? It's been two months. He's going to see us all killed. Captain Hudson has sailed more oceans than you've had hot meals. He's friends with the greatest mapmakers of the age.

He'll get us to Asia. You still believe that? Pepper and nutmeg? There's not enough pepper and nutmeg in the world for this hell. Just then, the captain appears on deck and surveys the conditions. After a few moments, he calls out to the first mate with words you've been longing to hear. That's it, Mr. Jewett. We're done here. A cheer goes up among your fellow sailors, and you feel a wave of relief. You're finally going home, back to Amsterdam and warmer waters. Maybe, if you're up to it, you can all try again next spring. But then the captain holds up his hand to quiet the crew.

Gentlemen, our goal is not yet achieved. We will go another way. We shall reverse course and make our way across the Atlantic Ocean. At this, the crew erupts. Half the men are Dutch and half are English. Fights have been breaking out between the two groups, but now they all seem to come together in opposition to this change of plans. One sailor, a burly man with hard eyes, steps forward. You're as mad as they say. A voyage like that would take months. He holds up his hand. And what about these frostbitten fingers? And the ship has been battered. We need repairs. But Hudson is adamant, and he is your captain. Out here, his word is law. We shall discover the passage to the northwest. The crew surges forward on deck, clamoring to speak.

The ugly threat of mutiny hangs in the air. But you get an idea. You step up to the captain's side and whisper. Captain, you told us before the chart you had from Captain John Smith. Perhaps if you show it to the men. Hudson thinks for a moment, then nods. The first mate disappears below deck, returning a few moments later with a rolled up chart. The captain gathers the men and spreads the chart out for them. As he explains his thinking, heads begin to nod,

and your fellow sailors slowly come around, all except for one. What about the frostbite? You turn to him. There will be time crossing the Atlantic for you to heal. And that does it. Orders are shouted. The captain commands the helm to reverse course, make for the west, and beat a course across the Atlantic. The crew sets to work. There's hope in Henry Hudson's voice as he points westward. The passage to Asia lies west.

We sail for America. With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. And Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as a part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog.

Explore themes of friendship, loss, and hope with remarkably bright creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Find what piques your imagination. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. From the team behind American History Tellers comes a new book, The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, intimate moments, and shocking scandals that shaped our nation. From the War of 1812 to Watergate. Available now wherever you get your books. From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story. On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday citizens as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times

affected them, their families, and affects you now. The fateful decision in 1609 by the headstrong English Captain Henry Hudson diverted his battered crew from the frigid waters off northern Scandinavia and rerouted them toward North America. It would be one of the most consequential course changes in history, the first step in the European development of an island called Manhattan. In time, that island would become the most densely populated piece of real estate in the United States, the churning home to everything from global finance to global fashion. This series is written by Russell Shorto and based on his best-selling book, The Island at the Center of the World.

That island, Manhattan, was part of a Dutch colony called New Netherland that encompassed parts of five future states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Its capital, New Amsterdam, occupied the southern tip of Manhattan Island and became the center of a future American nation because the Dutch brought with them two key ingredients, tolerance and capitalism. But before the Dutch could plant a colony, they had to chart and claim territory. That's where the legendary explorer Henry Hudson and his huge, history-changing blunder enters the picture. This is Episode 1, Henry Hudson's Big Mistake.

Hudson was an English sea captain who was by all accounts bold, brilliant, and bullheaded, all traits that a mariner needed, especially in the days of braving the open ocean and small wooden vessels. He was also on the cutting edge of recent discoveries and innovations in mapmaking. Hudson had made several voyages in the early 1600s in search of a short route to Asia. None achieved that goal, but they showed that ships could navigate the treacherously icy waters of the North Sea, and they showed that Hudson himself was utterly fearless. He became a legend, a sailor everyone believed was about to change the world. Hudson made his mark at the end of the Great Age of Exploration,

when European nations sent ships farther and farther in search of lands to colonize and exploit. The men he admired and wanted to emulate were people like Christopher Columbus, who more than a century before had led the first expedition across the Atlantic, forced contact with people in the Caribbean and South America, and began the colonization of those regions. A few years later, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan had led an expedition to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Asia. The fact that Magellan had died on the voyage was a mere detail to Hudson. What mattered was that he had found the way. Columbus and Magellan had traveled for Spain, the great empire of the day. But by Hudson's time,

Spanish power was waning. It had stretched itself too far, spent too much, and its population had been ravaged by the plague. The 17th century had dawned, and it would be dominated not by the Spanish, but by two rival nations, the English and the Dutch. Both were eager to test their power and establish outposts in far-flung lands. Hudson had made at least two voyages on behalf of an English company called the Moscovy Company. As its name suggests, it had come into being to exploit trade with Russia, especially for furs. But like other companies, it was branching out. The economies of Europe were expanding, and there was an enormous market for goods that until recently had been seen as luxury items. Finding a short route to the riches of Asia was suddenly terribly important. Pepper,

cinnamon, nutmeg, cassia, turmeric. Such spices were not only prized for cooking. Some were considered aphrodisiacs. People used them as remedies against the common cold. Others, it was believed, could ward off the plague. They were so cherished that a rallying cry among explorers was for Christ and spices. Finding the best route to the riches of Asia had been an obsession for centuries. People went over land, through Persia, India, Turkey, and China, crossing the Gobi Desert and enduring bandits and starvation. Or they went by sea, hugging the coasts of Arabia and India, navigating dangerous straits and battling pirates. Every variation was fraught with peril, so finding a short route would bring

staggering wealth and, with it, supremacy over other European nations. But finding a short route to Asia involved only one of three options at the time. The first was to go northeast, above Scandinavia and Russia, which everyone knew was treacherous because of the cold and the ice. The second was to go west, or northwest, finding a passage through North America. The third, which was actually what Hudson tried on his first known voyage for the Muscovy Company was the craziest of all, sailing through the North Pole. But it didn't seem crazy. Observers had noted that during the summer, the sun didn't set at the North Pole. One writer even speculated that perpetual clearness of the

day without any darkness of the night warmed up the atmosphere of the pole. A prevailing theory at the time held that once you got close enough to the poles of the earth, the ice would begin to melt, allowing for smooth navigation. But when Hudson actually tried this approach in 1607, he found that sailing straight over the North Pole was exactly like sailing into a wall of ice, frigid and foolhardy. He returned to London in failure. The next year, he tried the first option, going via Russia, and that too was a disaster.

Then, after his 1608 voyage, the Muscovy Company dropped him. Maybe it was his bullheadedness which made him drive crews beyond their endurance. But at the moment the company dropped him, a man named Emmanuel van Mejeren entered the picture. Van Mejeren was the Dutch ambassador in London. He was brilliant, rich, and well-connected, with a network of spies and confidants around London and across Europe. He understood as well as anyone that the race was on to find a shortcut to Asia, and like others, he believed that Henry Hudson had the guts and know-how to do it.

As soon as the Muscovy Company dropped Hudson, Van Meyteren showed up on his doorstep, full of gentility and exhibiting his appreciation of all that Hudson had done. If the English had lost faith in their greatest seaman, the Dutch were happy to give him an opportunity to achieve the breakthrough that he had been working toward. Van Meyderen invited Hudson to pay a visit to Amsterdam. Some powerful Dutch merchants very much wanted to meet him. Hudson didn't have to ponder for very long. Such a visit would in effect be flirting with the enemy, but Hudson was fueled by his obsession. He wasn't about to let international relations stand in his way. Imagine it's the fall of 1608. You're the director of the Dutch East India Company board, meeting at your headquarters

in Amsterdam. You look around the heavy table at your colleagues. Each of you wears leather boots, lace collars, and wide-brim hats. Within the past decade, your company has opened up trade with Asia and made your tiny nation into a great power, and has also made you very rich. But not all your gambles have paid off. Ships sink. Cargo and men are lost. It takes two years for a return voyage from the Spice Islands. You and your colleagues are convinced there's a shorter route and that the man you are about to meet can find it. When he enters the room, you rise, smile, and speak in halting English.

Greetings, Captain Hudson. Welcome. Your English isn't perfect, and Hudson's Dutch is horrible. But Hudson has brought a friend, a Dutch cartographer who is on hand to pave over any language problems. With his help, you are able to make your offer clear. You want Hudson to sail for the Dutch East India Company. You will supply the ship and the crew. Hudson only takes a moment to respond. Gentlemen, your timing is excellent. For after many years of trial and error, I am now certain I and the crew. Hudson only takes a moment to respond. Gentlemen, your timing is

excellent, for after many years of trial and error, I am now certain I know the route. There's a gasp at this news. You lean forward. Well, excellent. Then it's settled. No doubt you will want to confer with our chief cartographer. He too has identified the likeliest route through the northeast. The route we want you to follow goes by way of Nova Zembla. Suddenly, Hudson's face turns dark. No, that's impossible. I sailed that way last spring. There's nothing but ice. It isn't navigable. But I have the best and latest information. There is a channel through North America, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It's simply a matter of sailing up the coast and locating it. But your own Dutch mapmakers are universally acknowledged to be the best in the world, and they do not believe such a channel exists.

As director, you feel you must take control. Captain, if you sail for us, then it will be on our terms. As you say this, you meet Hudson's fierce expression. He doesn't look like a man who changes his mind once it's made up. On the other hand, the next sailing season isn't until the spring. You have some months. You tell yourself that Hudson will come around, that time will bring about an agreement between the world's greatest company and the world's most renowned explorer. Because it has to. This isn't just about riches. The future of your your young nation is at stake. Over the course of that winter of 1608 and 1609, spies from other nations got word of the negotiations between the English mariner and the Dutch company. It was a crucial time in European politics. War had engulfed much of Europe, a conflict so vast it would eventually be called the Eighty Years' War. At the heart of it lay a conflict

between Spain and the Dutch Republic. Before, the Dutch had been individual provinces—Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, and Overijssel—existing under the Holy Roman Empire. While the Spanish king, Charles V, was in control, the Dutch provinces were mostly content. They paid their taxes to the empire, and in return they received protection. But when Charles' son, Philip, took the throne as king of Spain, the situation deteriorated. As Spain's coffers became depleted, Philip increased taxes on the Dutch, and finally, the Dutch broke away. Spain retaliated, sending the dreaded Spanish Inquisition into the country to punish the Dutch

for converting from Catholicism to Calvinism, as well as for their political insurrection. At the very moment that Hudson was meeting with the Dutch merchants in Amsterdam, 30 miles away in The Hague, a truce was finally being negotiated. Spain was especially concerned by the recent events. Two years earlier, Dutch ships had decimated a Spanish fleet off Gibraltar. That attack made it clear to King Philip that the world was changing, his empire was in danger, and could be overshadowed by this tiny collection of Dutch provinces. And if Henry Hudson, with his experience and supposed secret knowledge, were to sail for the Dutch and find a new, faster route to Asia, it could mean the end

of Spanish glory. But the Spanish weren't the only ones who were concerned. The French, too, were anxious, and they tried to put together their own offer to lure Hudson away from the Dutch. But the power and money of the Dutch East Indian Company was too huge a draw for an ambitious explorer, and Hudson eventually returned to Amsterdam and continued his negotiations. The contract he signed, however, had a curious line in it. The sea captain had said, We'll think of discovering no other routes or passages than one through the northeast.

The Dutch merchants knew the tendencies of the willful Englishman and did their legalistic best to ensure that he would follow their wishes. For Hudson, though, words on paper were simply a means to get his plan funded. He would make a pretense of carrying out the Dutch East India Company's wishes, and so he did, leading his crew in the Dutch ship the Half Moon up along the coast of Norway into the frigid waters of the Barents Sea. Despite knowing in his heart that this route was surely icebound, Hudson carried out the terms of his contract with the Dutch merchants until his crew came close to mutiny. And that's when he made his onboard announcement. Instead of going back to Amsterdam, they would change direction and follow the only route he believed had a chance of success.

They would sail to America. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily

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You can listen to Criminal Attorney early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. In 1609, after defying his orders, Henry Hudson and his crew aboard the Half Moon sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean to try and find passage to Asia. They went as far south as the Chesapeake Bay, then started edging their way northward along the coast. They were looking for a particular kind of waterway, one that might prove to be a channel connecting two oceans.

The thinking behind this renegade voyage seems strange now, but it had its logic. At the time, it was believed that all oceans were connected to each other. Therefore, the North American continent had to have a channel that linked it to Asia. People in the early 1600s still relied on the calculations of the ancient Roman geographer Ptolemy to determine the size of the earth, and Ptolemy had been a brilliant scientist for his time, but he had under-calculated by about one-third. As a result, people in Hudson's Day believed the earth was smaller than it actually is, and they assumed that the parts of it unknown to them, the western region of North America and a portion of the Pacific Ocean, didn't even exist. This all informed Henry Hudson's thought process. If he could find the channel on the east coast of North America

and sail west through the continent, he could then reach the Sea of Japan. Then, all of Asia's riches would unfold before him. It was September of 1609 when Hudson found what he was looking for, or so he thought. Sailing into the future New York harbor was like entering a vast natural cathedral rimmed with trees. When the ship entered the river that would later bear his name, Hudson believed he had found the channel, because the river is a tidal estuary. It was salty, just as a channel between two oceans should be, and it was a mile wide and fantastically deep. Hudson's own impressions of the land and people, as recorded several years later by a Dutch merchant, were effusive.

It was, he said, as pleasant a land as one can tread upon, very abundant, and all kinds of timber suitable for shipbuilding. Before long, Hudson and his crew encountered Native Americans, members of the Wic of timber suitable for shipbuilding. Before long, Hudson and his crew encountered Native Americans, members of the Wicc-Ascic tribe. They were greeted warmly. Both sides offered gifts. When he first went ashore, Hudson later said, the natives all stood and sang in their fashion. One of the tribes they met, he reported, had no houses but slept under the blue heavens, some on mats of bulrushes interwoven and some on the leaves of trees. At another village further north, he found a house well constructed of oak bark

and circular in shape with the appearance of having a vaulted ceiling. The people here were also welcoming. In his honor, they killed a fat dog and cooked it. When he got up to return to his ship for the night, rather than sleeping among them, they made a show of breaking their bows and arrows and throwing them into the fire so that he would have no fear of them. But at other places, violence erupted. The first mate, Robert Jewett, reported in his journal that the small boat they sent off to explore the far side of the river was attacked by two canoes of natives. One man was shot through the neck with an arrow and died. Some later encounters

were friendly, with goods traded, but the crew of the Half Moon no longer trusted the people of the river. Judging from other encounters, it's probably fair to say that the feelings were mutual. The native peoples who encountered Hudson and his crew reacted to them with a mixture of curiosity, wonder, wary offers of friendship, and when things seemed threatening, violence. Hudson's voyage up that river would be momentous in many ways. As the ship sailed northward, expecting the water to turn to the west, Jewett made a historic notation. Looking to his right, he referred to the side of the river that is called Manahatta, the first written record of the name Manhattan. Hudson's crew had learned the word from the Wiccaskick.

In their language, it meant place for gathering wood to make bows. Hudson and his crew may not have even realized that the land they were passing on the eastern side of the river was actually an island. As far as Hudson was concerned, the river that would be given his name turned out to be a bitter disappointment. By the time he had gotten about 150 miles north, the water was losing

its salinity and growing narrower. It wasn't turning westward. This was no channel, it was just a river, and they were heading towards its source. Finally, Hudson ordered his men to return home. But he didn't head straight for Amsterdam, where the men who had commissioned him were waiting. Instead, he put into the English armor at Dartmouth, possibly to drop off some of his English sailors. There, the English authorities had gotten wind of Hudson's voyage. Much international intrigue was swirling around him now, and there was a feeling that Hudson had found something of value.

So once they had him on their shores, the English wouldn't let him go. A round-the-clock guard was placed on his London home, preventing him from returning to Amsterdam. The Dutch made a diplomatic fuss at this. They had legally hired Hudson and were entitled to the fruits of his mission. Eventually, the English authorities did release the Half Moon. But without Hudson, its Dutch crew members sailed back to Amsterdam, and they handed Robert Jewett's log of the voyage to Immanuel van Meyteren, the Dutch ambassador, the same man who had shown up on Hudson's doorstep a year earlier with the invitation to sail for the East India Company. Imagine you are a young secretary to the board of the Dutch East India Company.

The board is gathered for a meeting at its Amsterdam headquarters, the same place where its members first interviewed Hudson. The news has come back that Hudson failed in his mission, and that board members are despondent. So much money and time wasted, and we are no closer to finding a shorter route to the Spice Islands. Another board member has a dark thought. It can only mean the Englishman lied to us.

He probably never intended to follow our orders. Maybe he intentionally failed. Maybe the whole mission was a stunt meant to mean the Englishman lied to us. He probably never intended to follow our orders. Maybe he intentionally failed. Maybe the whole mission was a stunt meant to assist the English. They have a colony in America already, Jamestown. And rumor has it that Hudson traded information with John Smith of that colony. This was all probably meant to distract us while they had already found the Asian passage. There are grumblings of agreement among the other board members, but while they have been griping, you've been paging through the logbook of Robert Jewett,

as well as the account of Hudson's voyage written by your ambassador, Van Materen, and you're beginning to feel excited. My lords, might I be permitted to speak? The man who had just been grumbling looks at you in surprise, but then he nods, and you continue. Listen to this. Foxes, beavers, furs, salmon and mullet, oaks, plums. Do you see how rich this American land is? As fine a river as can be found, it says. Wide and deep with good anchorage on both sides.

A very good harbor for all winds. Some of the board members have stopped grumbling. They're paying attention. What I'm saying is, while we must continue to search for the passage to Asia, perhaps we should consider an American colony. It seems so rich. It's promising.

And the best part is, the Englishmen charted it for us. We have here an official written account of all the lands and waters he explored. With this, we can rightly lay claim to it all. For most of the directors of the Dutch East India Company, the information that resulted from Hudson's voyage was irrelevant. The very name of their company indicated where their interests lay. The East Indies was where the great wealth that was fueling the Dutch Golden Age came from.

So plums? Oak trees? America was to them nothing more or less than a distraction and an obstacle. But other minds took notice. Yes, there was money in the East Indies, but what if the West Indies, America in other words, was not just a source of this or that product? What if it was something of value in its own right? What if, mirroring the Great East India Company, they formed a West India Company? These Dutchmen began to look at Hudson's voyage not as a mistake, but as an unparalleled opportunity. How did Birkenstocks go from a German cobbler's passion project

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And we've covered over a thousand episodes of pop business news stories on our daily podcast. We've identified the most viral products of all time. And they're wild origin stories that you had no idea about. From the Levi's 501 jeans to Legos. Come for the products you're obsessed with. Stay for the business insights that are gonna blow up your group chat. Jack, Nintendo, Super Mario Brothers, best-selling

video game of all time. How'd they do it? Nintendo never fires anyone, ever. Follow the best idea yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the best idea yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. This is Match Point, baby. If the audience liked the product, it gets them in front of our panel of experts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Anderson, Tabitha Brown, Tony Hawk, Christian Siriano. These panelists are looking for entrepreneurs whose ideas best fit the criteria of the four Ps, pitch, product, popularity,

and problem-solving ability. I'm going to give you a yes. I want to see it. If our panelists liked the product, it goes into the Amazon Buy It Now store. You are the embodiment of what an American entrepreneur is. Oh my God. Are we excited for this moment? I cannot believe it. Woo! Buy It Now. Stream free on Freeview and Prime Video. During Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage, he charted much of the east coast of North America, but failed to find a passage to Asia.

When he returned back to Europe, he found himself in deep trouble at home in England, prevented from traveling, and admonished by the king himself for acting in the service of a rival nation. But there were those in England who still believed in him, and some of these people had money. Sir Thomas Smith and Sir Dudley Diggs were men of means who had backed voyages in the past. Of course, voyages like these are not a guarantee of profit. Smith's main enterprise, the Virginia Company, had cost him a fortune. But rather than back out of the exploration game, he and Diggs were all the more determined to succeed. They wanted to hire Hudson and have him try the Northwest yet again. But Hudson was now out of favor, thanks to his having worked for the Dutch. He needed a character rehabilitation. They called on their friend Henry, the Prince of Wales. The Prince met with Hudson. Then, in a carefully orchestrated

maneuver, he appeared in public with the Navigator at his side at the Royal Court at Whitehall. Hudson nodded politely to one and all, appearing easy and confident at the Prince's side, as if they were old friends. And that did the trick. As far as English high society was concerned, all was forgiven. Smith and Diggs convinced some of their other friends to become investors in a new venture. They called it the Company of Gentlemen and bought a ship, the Discovery. Hudson raised a crew of 23 men, which included Robert Jewett, his first mate from the previous voyage, as well as Hudson's 16-year-old son, John. And on April of 1611, they set sail. Once again, the objective was a short route to Asia,

and this time Hudson didn't have to play any games with his backers. He had convinced Smith and Diggs that America was the back door to Asia. He believed his problem on the last voyage was that he had not gone far enough in finding the channel, and this time he sailed straight across the Atlantic. Things went smoothly at first, though there was grumbling among the crew when they stopped to pick up a surprise crewman named Henry Green. The others immediately found him suspect. He was an infamous gambler and ne'er-do-well, but it appeared that he was a good friend of Hudson's. The captain, it seemed, wanted to have someone he trusted at his side. In May, they put into port at Iceland to fish, shoot birds, and bathe in the

natural hot springs. But while there, Green, the newcomer, got into a bloody fight with the ship's surgeon. Hudson took Green's side. The others in the crew didn't like this. In June, after skirting south of Greenland, they reached a region appropriately called the Furious Overfall, a vast stretch of water nearly 500 miles long and lined with mountains of ice. It led into a mammoth inland sea at the northern reaches of Canada, which would later be called Hudson Bay. The overfall was thick with ice chunks, and its current swirled like a vast, treacherous whirlpool,

hemming the little craft in. Hudson and crew became trapped in the ice, and desperation swept the deck of the little ship. The fact that crew became trapped in the ice, and desperation swept the deck of the little ship. The fact that Hudson had steered them straight into a death trap set the men against him. They began whispering to each other, vowing mutiny if ever they got out. But when the discovery finally broke free of the ice, talk of rebellion died down. It was August before temperatures were warm enough for them to reach Hudson Bay, and when they did, Hudson was delighted. He believed that the

passage to Asia could be located on the western shore. They sailed across the frigid expanse of the bay and made their way to a neck of water at its southern end, called James Bay, and here, though it was only September, they once again became lodged in ice. Nerves quickly became frayed as the realization dawned on the men that they weren't going anywhere. They would have to find a way to survive the winter in the limitless Canadian wasteland. Robert Jewett, who had served Hudson the longest, turned on him openly. He jeered at the captain for having bragged that they would not only discover the Northwest Passage, but be in the Spice Islands of Asia by early February. Hudson became enraged at Jewett's taunting and demoted him on the spot.

He then called the crew together and began feverishly accusing them of plotting a mutiny. He shifted around jobs and pay grades based on who he believed was still faithful to him. That winter was an appalling slog of sickness, hunger, deceit, mistrust, and bone-deep, 50-degree-below-zero cold. In November, one man died, and they had difficulty scraping enough of the frozen ground to properly bury him. Men began losing teeth to scurvy. They boiled pine needles and drank the bitter tea to combat the disease. Hudson himself was at the limit of his endurance. As he divided up the last of the bread, he vowed that once the ice broke,

he would get them all safely back home. Finally, June arrived. They had survived a winter of unending misery and the ice began to melt. They realized they would soon be able to set sail and head home. They were all gaunt, nearly feral, more like wild animals than a trained crew,

yet they began preparing the ship with eagerness. Until Hudson announced that he had changed his mind about returning home. With the onset of summer, he declared, they were perfectly situated to push westward and find the elusive passage. It was a return to 1608, when after getting free of the ice in the North Sea, Hudson had declared that they would try again and sail for America. That time, he was able to convince his crew. Not this time. Imagine it's June, 1611. You are a young sailor in the service of Henry Hudson. You're in a narrow coffin-like cabin, nursing a badly wounded leg, and trying to forget your gnawing hunger. You haven't eaten in three days. The door opens,

and you're blinded by the sunlight. Two of your fellow crew members, Wilson and Green, stick their heads in. Green speaks to you in a harsh whisper. We're doing it. Are you with us? What? No. Look, there's not much time, so listen. We've got less than 14 days of food left. Ice is finally melting. Soon we'll be able to sail. But the master just announced that we're not heading home, but continuing the search. This is inhuman. We don't have to stand for it, so we're taking the ship. You can hardly process what they're saying. You tried to delay. Wait, you're both married men with wives and children. Returning home, you would be banished as mutineers. The worst that could happen is to be hanged, and I'd rather be hanged at home than starve in this bloody wilderness. You've been a

good friend. We want to give you the chance to be with us when we take the ship. What do you say? You shake your head. I thank you, but I didn't come to the ship to forsake her or to hurt myself or anyone else with such a deed. But nevertheless, you haul yourself up and follow the others onto the deck of the ship. You watch as Captain Hudson emerges from the hold. Two of the men grab his arms and swiftly bind them. It doesn't take long for Hudson to understand the situation. Then he sees you, locks eyes, and calls out your name. You've always been loyal to me. You're shaking, shaking with fear. The eyes of the mutineers are on you. I am not part of this mutiny, Captain. One by one, then, the mutineers take those who remain loyal to Hudson and load them

into a small boat attached to the ship. There are eight of them besides the captain, including Hudson's 16-year-old son. One of the mutineers grabs you, too, but Hudson roars at him. He did not join your mutiny, and neither does he side with me. The man is uncertain, but eventually takes his hands off you. You remain on deck, staring down at Hudson in the small vessel. In the noise and confusion that follows, Hudson calls up to you, just barely loud enough for you to hear. Beware of Jewett. He's the ringleader. He will be a foul master. You take a risk that you will not be heard by the others, and whisper back, No, Captain. It's Henry Green.

You see the shock of this register with Hudson. Green, the man he brought aboard as his personal confidant, is the head of the rebellion. After Hudson and his group of loyalists were loaded into the small boat, the mutineers cut the line that held it to the Discovery. The ship set its sails, they filled with air, and the Discovery began rapidly moving away from the smaller vessel. After a while, though, the mutineers on the Discovery looked back and saw the men in the shallop expertly working the little boat's sails and catching up with the ship. There must have been a moment of queasy panic as the mutineers, who thought they had left their betrayed captain behind, found him gaining on them. They couldn't bear to look into the faces of the men that they had consigned to icy deaths, so they worked quickly and unfurled their big mainsail, and the discovery

shot forward again. Soon the little boat was out of their sight for good, swallowed up by the white expanse of ice and sea. Henry Hudson's tenacity and single-mindedness led ultimately to his death, an icy entombment in the vast Canadian bay that bears his name. To the end, he remained fixated on one goal, a short route to Asia. Hudson's obsession meant that he was almost certainly blind to the significance of his earlier and far more historic voyage. The Hudson River would become one of colonial America's most crucial waterways, a conduit for settling a new nation.

And with the advent of the Erie Canal in the 1820s, it would link the wider world, places as far-flung as Liverpool and Hong Kong, to the American heartland. Most important of all, though, was the island that Hudson had sailed serenely past one September day in 1609, an island that, thanks to him, would be claimed by the Dutch. It would be a place where the Dutch pioneered concepts of tolerance and capitalism would breed a new civilization,

one that would express its furious growth in skyscrapers and teeming neighborhoods packed with striving immigrants. And it would begin on the island of Manhattan. Next on American History Tellers, 12 years after Hudson charted the river that would bear his name, the Dutch use his voyage as the basis for a new colony. Settlers are spread up and down the East Coast until a violent encounter with Native Americans

forces them to come together and form a capital on Manhattan Island. From Wondery, this is American History Tellers. If you like American History Tellers, you can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Sound design by Derek Behrens. This episode is written by Russell Shorto, edited by Dorian Marina, edited and produced by Jenny Lauer Beckman. Our executive

producer is Marshall Louis, created by Hernán López for Wondery. Richard Bandler revolutionized the world of self-help all thanks to an approach he developed called neuro-linguistic programming. Even though NLP worked for some, its methods have been criticized for being dangerous in the wrong hands. Throw in Richard's dark past as a cocaine addict and murder victims, and what's left once the facade falls away. We recently dove into the story of the godfather of modern mental manipulation, Richard Bandler, whose methods inspired some of the most toxic and criminal self-help movements of the last two decades. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid and Kill List early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

Check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening.