How Did Henry Hudson Find A Water Passage Into North America

Over the course of history, there have been many great European explorers. Most of the lands discovered were in the west, and more towards the Southern portions of the west. However, an explorer by the name of Henry Hudson discovered something entirely different from many of the other explorers. He discovered the Hudson Bay (which is why it has the name), a body of water located in present day Canada. This body of water was not found for the purpose of simply discovering, however. Instead, it was found as part of an attempt to find a water passage through the continent of North America for the purpose of a trade route. Nevertheless, this discovery was an amazing and crucial one, not only for a water passage into the interior of North America,

He thought about this idea for a long while, and finally decided to voyage to the North American continent in order to find the long sought after “Northwest Passage”. If he were to find this supposed passage, he would be become rich and famous, because the discovery of the Passage meant a direct water trade route from Europe to Asia. Because of this, Hudson set out on the ship Discovery in the year 1610 in hopes of finding the Passage. He departed from England in the month of April, but didn’t reach the continent of North America until a few months after. When he reached North America, he and his crew (including his two sons) immediately began searching for the Passage. Hudson’s idea was to find a northern trade route by which to travel (hence the name “Northwest Passage”) due to the faster travel times from Northern European countries such as England, France, and Spain. Because of this, he chose to explore along the Northern portion of the continent, known today as present day Canada. After sailing along the coastline of this area, he found a channel, which was named the Hudson Channel. He followed this channel, setting up trading posts along the edge of it. These posts proved to be very important, and some are still in use today. After he followed the channel for hundreds of miles, he finally reached a stopping point.This point, which is located just north of the present day Great Lakes, was named the Hudson Bay. Shortly after this discovery, Hudson and his crew were forced to turn around and go back to England, once again due to the harsh weather of the