ity of the government was at last rëasserted, but with the loss of many lives, and great damage to the public credit and revenue. In 1842, a contract of marriage had been made between the young emperor and the Princess Theresa, sister of the king of the two Sicilies, and on the 3d of September of the following year, a Brazilian squadron brought her to Rio Janeiro. In the spring preceding this last event, the Prince de Joinville, arriving in command of a French squadron, had married and taken to Europe the Princess Francisca, sister of the emperor. The next year, the Princess Januaria, another sister, was married to the count of Aquila, brother of the empress; the imperial house of Brazil thus being strengthened, as it was considered, by three alliances, within a year, with the royal families of Europe. sea. "There is no part of the habitable globe," says Mr. McGregor,* "which possesses a greater variety of, or more splendidly munificent resources than the empire of Brazil-an empire in its area as large as seventy-seven kingdoms of the same area with Portugal, and nearly as extensive as all Europe. If we estimate its soil, climate and water-courses, Brazil appears capable of being rendered, probably three-fold, more productive than all the regions from the Atlantic to the Oural mountains, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic This empire, however, does not possess in its population (which is little, if any, more in number than the inhabitants of Belgium) the power of becoming great, wealthy, or powerful, for a long period to come; unless every facility and security be afforded to the immigration of industrious Europeans, or of the citizens of the United States of North America;-unless the utmost security is guaranteed to person and property;—unless the prejudices against the persons and the religion of foreigners be forgotten;-unless the bigoted attachment of the Brazilians for hereditary customs, and for a make-shift system of agriculture and handicraft-trades, be supplanted by intelligence, industry, and enterprise;—and unless the trade and navigation, of every part and port of Brazil is relieved from restrictive commercial laws, and from high duties on commodities. Then, and not till then, can they advance in that path of wealth, greatness, and power, of which they have so marvellous an example in Anglo-Saxon North America." * "Progress of America"- -an able and elaborate work of American statistics, to which the writer, in preparing this article, has been chiefly indebted. PART IV. The Dutch in America. THE NEW NETHERLANDS. CHAPTER I. CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON. HIS VOYAGES IN SEARCH OF A THE arduous endeavours of Holland to gain a footing in the wealthy regions of Brazil, her protracted struggle with Portugal and Spain, and the final expulsion of her colonists from the disputed territory, have been described in the preceding article. Her more peaceful and successful enterprise of planting a colony on the shores of North America, and her brief tenure of the most valuable region, for its extent, in the United States, may be detailed within moderate limits. Captain Henry Hudson, a Londoner, was one of the boldest and most skilful navigators of his day. His attempts to reach India by a northerly passage, considering the insignificance of his means, are among the very grandest and hardiest exploits in the way of dis covery that have ever been undertaken. On the 1st of May, 1607, being employed, as he says, "by certaine worshipfull merchants of London for to discover a passage by the North Pole to Japan and China," with only ten men and his little son, he sailed in a small vessel from Gravesend. On the 13th of June, he made the coast of Greenland, which he explored for a considerable distance, and thence proceeded to Spitzbergen, where, in seventy-eight degrees north latitude, entangled among huge masses of ice, for a long time, he vainly endeavoured to force his way northward. He attained a latitude of eighty-two degrees, surpassing any one who had preceded him, and rivalling the most successful expeditions of modern times. Finding it impossible to proceed in the desired direction, he made an equally futile attempt to pass to the north of Greenland, and in September returned to the Thames. In the following year, with a like slender company, on the 22d of April, he renewed the attempt, trying to pass to the north of Nova Zembla; but after displaying much fortitude and perseverance, was compelled to relinquish the design, and at the close of summer to return to England. The "worshipfull merchants," discouraged by these failures, refused to fit out any more expeditions, even of the insufficient kind they had already vouchsafed to him. Undismayed either by disappointment or neglect, "the bold Englishman," (as he was called,) betook himself to Holland, where his reputation had preceded him, and sought employment from the Dutch East India Company. That ambitious corporation, eager to extend its traffic and gain a footing in the east, furnished him with a little vessel, called the Half-Moon, and a crew of twenty men, with which, on the 25th of March, 1609, he again sailed on the expected track to India through the Arctic sea. Opposed by continual gales, fogs, and ice, he finally steered in a westerly direction, and on the 2d of July, reached the bank of Newfoundland. Keeping on along the coast, he soon after entered Penobscot bay. Here he cut down a tree and replaced his foremast, which had been carried away in a storm, and traded with the Indians for furs. Despite the friendly demeanour of the latter, the whites, conceiving a vague suspicion of treachery, at their departure, committed an act of brutal spoliation on their unfortunate hosts. "In the morning," says Juet, who kept the log, "wee manned our scute with four Muskets and six men, and took one of their Shallops," (canoes), "and brought it aboord. Then we manned our boat and scute with twelve men and Muskets, and two Stone Peeces or Murderers," (very appropriately), "and drave the Salvages from their houses, and took the spoyle of them, as they would have done of vs." Hudson had been informed by his friend, the famous Captain John Smith, that a little south of Virginia he would probably find a passage to the Indies! and accordingly he kept southward along the coast. On Cape Cod he found "goodly grapes and rose trees," and a friendly, confiding people. About the middle of August he arrived off Chesapeake Bay, where Smith, at this time, was engaged in the memorable foundation of the first English settlement in America; but, on account of contrary winds, passed without entering. Having proceeded as far south as thirty-six degrees north latitude, and seeing no indication of a passage to the Pacific, he turned northward, and discovered Delaware bay. Keeping on this course, on the 2d of September, he came to the Highlands of Neversink, since the chief landmark of commerce in the Western Continent-"a good land to fall with, and a pleasant land to see," says the journal-"a sentiment echoed in succeeding centuries, by many an anxious and sea-worn mariner." He rounded Sandy Hook, and came to anchor in what is now known as the Lower Bay of New York. The Indians, friendly in their demeanour, thronged around the vessel in their canoes, bringing tobacco, which they exchanged for knives and beads. A party sent up the bay to explore, declared that "the Lands were as pleasant with Grasse and Flowers and goodly Trees, as ever they had seene, and very sweet smells came from them." As they returned in the evening, they were attacked by two canoes filled with Indians, twenty-six in all; two of their number were wounded, and one slain outright by an arrow in the throat. The next day the natives came alongside as usual, and Hudson, detaining two of them as hostages, weighed anchor, and on the 11th of September, passed the Narrows, and entered New York harbour. "On his right was the lovely island of Mannahata, now the site of the fairest city in the New World; and before him lay invitingly the beautiful and majestic river which still bears his name. For many leagues it is rather an estuary than a stream, and it is said that he was cheered with the belief that it would prove to be the long-sought passage to India." On the 12th he stood up the river, trading with the Indians, and by the evening of the second day had ascended to the Highlands. Here his two hostages, whom he had arrayed in red coats, made their escape and swam to shore. Anchoring, on the evening of the 15th, somewhere near the base * * of the Cattskills, he found "very loving people, and very old men," and was kindly entreated. The Indians brought corn, furs, tobacco, grapes, and pumpkins for exchange, and traffic was briskly carried on along the river. Some way further up, "our Master's Mate," says the journal, "went on land with an olde Sauage, a Gouernour of the Countrey; who carried him to his house, and made him good cheere. * Our Master" (Hudson) "and his Mate," proceeds the narrative, "determined to trie some of the chiefe men of the Countrey, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they tooke them down into the Cabbin, and gaue them so much Wine and Aqua Vitae that they were all merrie; and one of them had his wife with him, which sate so modestly as any of our Countrey women would doe in a strange place. In the end one of them was drunke," &c., &c., but nothing transpired to confirm the suspicion with which Hudson seems continually to have regarded the natives. Affrighted at the apparent death of their companion, the chiefs went on shore, but the next day, seeing him alive, "came abord," says the journal, "and brought tobacco and more Beades, and gave them to our Master, and made an Oration, and showed him all the Countrey round about. Then they sent one of their Company on land, who presently returned, and brought a great platter full of venison, dressed by themselves, and they caused him to eate with them. Then they made him reverence and departed." CHAPTER II. HUDSON TURNS HOMEWARD.-MURDEROUS HOSTILITIES WITH THE INDIANS.- -HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND.-HIS LAST VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. -SUFFERINGS DURING THE WIN-MUTINY OF THE CREW.-HUD TER. HENRY GREEN. SON AND OTHERS SET ADRIFT TO PERISH. AFTER ascending the river in the Half-Moon for about an hundred and fifty miles, and exploring the contracted channel with his boats some distance farther, Hudson began to perceive that the track to India was yet undiscovered; and accordingly he turned his prow southward, and beat slowly down the stream. Two old men came |