If England could reach them by a
shorter route, it would be a very pleasant discovery for the Muscovy
Company.
Even in 1607 geographers believed in an open polar sea north of Asia.
Hudson tried the Greenland route. Sailing east of Greenland he found
himself between that country and the islands named "Nieuwland" by
William Barents the Dutch navigator in 1596. Their pointed icy mountains
seemed to push up through the sea. Icebergs crowded the waters like
miniature peaks of a submerged range. Hudson returned to report to the
company "no open sea."
In 1608 he was again sent out on the same errand. This time he steered
further east, between those islands and another group named by Barents
Nova Zembla. He sailed nearer to the pole than any man had been before
him, and found whales bigger, finer and more numerous than anywhere
else. Rounding the North Cape on his way home he made the first recorded
observation of a sun-spot. In August, when he returned and made his
report, there was a sensation in the seafaring world.
The Dutch promptly sent whaling ships into the arctic seas, and
suggested, through Van Meteren the Dutch consul in London, a friend of
Hudson, that the English navigator should come to Amsterdam and talk of
entering their service. While there, he received an offer from the
French Ambassador, suggesting that his services would be welcome to a
proposed French East India Company.
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