September 5 thru 11, 1609 -- Henry Hudson vs Verrazzano

Most of the context of Henry Hudson's famous voyage is distorted and misunderstood.

It is often asserted that 'Hudson claimed the river and Manhattan for the Dutch' but Hudson made no such declaration. Hudson was not Dutch (contrary to what Washington Irving and Adrian van der Donck said) but rather had stolen a yacht from a group of extremely wealthy Dutch investors. Everything after he sails west of Amsterdam is a joy ride. Some historians have called what Hudson did "fact checking."

One of my favorite quotes about explorers is "Colombus was not the first but the last to discover the Americas" meaning that the Polynesians, Koreans, Japanese, Vikings, French fishermen, Mali and others had all navigated to the Americas in the centuries prior to Colombus. What Colombus did was put the Americas on european maps for all to see. Hudson is similar. He discovers nothing, not even in the way the Papal Bull defines 'discovery'. One of Hudson'is heroes was Giovanni di Verrazzano who navigated the New York harbor in 1524. Hudson's retracing of that path is no accident and the contrasts are obvious.

Verrazzano was sailing legit for the French. His letters and descriptions of the voyage make for very interesting reading. He documents that thousands of people live in the area that is now known as New York City. He praises these people as healthy, beautiful, harmonious and well fed:

They are taller than we are; they are a bronze color, some tending more toward whiteness, others to a tawny color; the
face is clear-cut; the hair is long and black, and they take great pains to decorate it; the eyes are black and alert, and their manner is sweet and gentle, very like the manner of the ancients.
...
Their women are just as shapely and beautiful; very gracious, of attractive manner and pleasant appearance; their customs and behavior follow womanly custom as far as befits human nature; they go nude except for a stag skin embroidered like the
men’s, and some wear rich lynx skins on their arms; their bare heads are decorated with various ornaments made of braids of their
own hair which hang down over their breasts on either side. Some have other hair arrangements such as the women of Egypt
and Syria wear, and these women are older and have been joined in wedlock. Both men and women have various trinkets
hanging from their ears as the Orientals do.
...
We made great friends with them, and one day before we entered the harbor with the ship, when we were lying at anchor one league out to sea because of unfavorable weather, they came out to the ship with a great number of their boats; they had painted and decorated their faces with various colors, showing us that it was a sign of happiness. They brought us some of their food, and showed us by signs where we should anchor in the port for the ship’s safety, and then accompanied us all the way until we dropped anchor. We stayed there for 15 days, taking advantage of the place to refresh ourselves. Every day the people came to see us on the ship.

https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text4/verrazzano.pdf

Verrazzano in this letter shows himself to be well educated, well traveled and respectful of cultural and physical differences. Compare that to Hudson's 1609 log which is kept by an older English sailor named Juet:

Sept 5 - Our men went on Land there and saw great store of Men, Women and Children, who gave them Tabacco at their comming on Land. So they went up into the Woods, and saw great store of very goodly Oakes, and some Currants. For one of them came aboard and brought some dryed, and gave me some, which were sweet and good. This day many of the people came aboard, some in Mantles of Feathers, and some in Skinnes of divers sorts of good Furres. Some women also came to us with Hempe. They had red Copper Tabacco pipes, and other things of Copper they did weare about their neckes. At night they went on Land againe, so wee rode very quiet, but durst not trust them.

Juet's focus is mostly on things, not people. He records that the crew of the Half Moon does not mix with the locals or seek guidance but rather "went on land there" and "saw" things. Juet makes no comparisons to Asians or Syrians. Juet makes no distinctions between different groups of indigenous peoples and further, he assumes they are all in some giant conspiracy to steal and kill. This distrust and lack of communication leads to the killing of a crew member:

Sept 6 - The Lands they [ the surviving Dutch crew members ] told us were as pleasant with Grasse and Flowers and goodly Trees as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them. So they went in two leagues and saw an open Sea, and returned; and as they came back, they were set upon by two Canoes, the one having twelve, the other fourteene men. The night came on, and it began to rayne, so that their Match went out; and they had one man slaine in the fight, which was an Englishman, named John Colman, with an Arrow shot into his throat, and two more hurt. It grew so darke that they could not find the ship that night, but labored too and fro on their Oares.

Juet's understanding of this event is unclear. In his telling it seems to happen only because the locals are murderous. We have to turn to indigenous experts to squeeze context and meaning from Juet's sparse and self-censored log.

Indigenous expert Dr. Evan Pritchard offers that a shot through the throat is designed to silence the victim. That it was made between two moving boats or between land a moving boat shows the skill of the archer. Pritchard places the event in the East River, near Turtle bay and the oysters that were used to make wampum. His theory is that the scout boat had entered a protected area, somewhat like what Fort Knox would be. The europeans do not retreat or communicate effectively, possibly they fired a weapon and then the elite guards make one Ninja-like shot into Coleman's voice box and spine. They could have killed every man on that skiff -- the current in the East River is treacherous even for those who know it well -- but they did not and this fits with the idea that violence was used only after other attempts at communication failed. With Coleman shot the europeans retreat and the violence ends.

The next days of the 1609 voyage are profoundly significant in the history of the world. Despite forbidding Hudson to go to NY and then not wanting to occupy NY and then trading NY for Suriname in 1667, the 1609 voyage cross-pollinates all the major cultures that lead to NYC becoming the center of the world from 1914 to the present. Pritchard details prophecy, the significance of 9/11 in 1609 and 2001, the Red Sky scrolls, the significance of tobacco greetings along the river and the aftermath of English mistrust in his excellent book "Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York". I can share some of that in a future post.