Henry Hudson and Robert Juet (Creative Engagement)

This week’s reading included a few excerpts describing some early European discoveries of Virginia. And while Virginia is all well and good I also wanted to look up some early European descriptions of what was to become New York. Since this is a British Literature class I willfully ignored Giovanni Verrazzano and several other explorers and instead researched the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson. Although he sailed under the Dutch flag, Hudson was an Englishman as was his first mate Robert Juet. Juet kept a detailed account of all his travels with Hudson and I’ve attached a link below to some of it. What is most interesting about Juet’s writing is his scientific specificity and detail. As the Norton mentions, many explorers sought be as precise as possible to avoid being accused of exaggeration. Juet went beyond the others we read in his references to weather, location, navigation, and landmasses. He also described the inconsistent relations the crew had with the natives, who he refers to as savages, sometimes one of mutual assistance and sometimes one of cruelty and murder. For me the most interesting part of the journal was the period after September 2^nd when the ship entered New York harbor and sailed up what today is the Hudson River, trading and interacting with natives. Juet repeatedly praised both the harbor and river and suggested a successful city could be built there.

http://documents.nytimes.com/robert-juet-s-journal-of-hudson-s-1609-voyage

September 2009 was the 400^th anniversary of Hudson’s entrance into New York Harbor and it was celebrated in New York and the Netherlands. Here is a brief video of some of the festivities. As you can see, the oysters, that Juet mentioned the natives giving the crew, were part of the fun.