Here come the Dutch! In the busy summer of 1609, English captain Henry Hudson, sailing the Half Moon for the Dutch East India Company, explores the Hudson River from New York Bay to the north of Albany, having numerous encounters, fraught and otherwise, with the local indigenous people along the way. Before he’s done Hudson learns the name of that long skinny island that has forever been the economic capital of the United States. The episode concludes with Hudson’s gruesome demise, for which he mostly had himself to blame.

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Selected references for this episode

Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Daniel K. Richter, “From ‘The Third Voyage of Master Henry Hudson’ by Robert Juet”

Emanuel Van Meteren, on Hudson’s Voyage, 1610

Dutch East India Company (Wikipedia)

Palisades Amusement Park commercial

“Happy Days”