As to the first discovery, the Directors of the privileged East India Company, in 1609, dispatched the yacht, ‘Half Moon,’ under the command of Henry Hudson, captain and super-cargo, to seek a passage to China by the north-east. But he changed his course and stood over towards New France, and having passed the banks of Newfoundland in latitude 43° 23', he made the land in latitude 44° 15', with a west-north-west and north-west course, and went on shore at a place where there were many of the natives with whom, as he understood, the French came every year to trade. Sailing hence, he bent his course to the south, until running south-south-west and south-west by south, he again made land in latitude 41° 43′, which he supposed to be an island, and gave it the name of New Holland, but afterwards discovered that it was Cape Cod, and that according to his observation, it lay two hundred and twenty-five miles to the west of its place on all the charts. Pursuing his course to the south, he again saw land in latitude 37° 15′; the coast was low, running north and south, and opposite to it lay a bank or shoal, within which there was a depth of eight, nine, ten, eleven, seven, and six and a half fathoms, with a sandy bottom. Hudson called this place Dry Cape.