Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- On Sunday, Sept. 6, 1609, Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, was securely anchored in New York’s Rockaway Inlet.

Defying orders from the Dutch East India Company, which had hired him to look for a route to Asia north of Russia, Hudson had instead sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

He put John Colman and four other crew members in a small boat for a reconnaissance mission. Two dugout canoes manned by 26 natives approached, arrows flew and Colman was pierced through the throat and killed.

Still hoping to find a passage to the St. Lawrence River, Hudson continued up the Hudson to what is now Albany, before heading back to Europe.

Colman’s name became associated with an island near his burial ground that evolved into Coninen, Conyne and Cunny.

His legacy: naming North America’s first permanent amusement park, Coney Island.

Hudson’s legacy: charting the great river and laying the groundwork for a new global capital.

I spoke with Douglas Hunter, author of “Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,” (Bloomsbury Press), on the following topics:

1. Powerful Merchants

2. Rogue Mariner

3. Early Globalization

4. Dartmouth Sanctuary

5. Dutch Guns and Booze

(Lewis Lapham is the founder of Lapham’s Quarterly and the former editor of Harper’s Magazine. He hosts “The World in Time” interview series for Bloomberg News.)

To contact the writer on the story: Lewis Lapham in New York at lhl@laphamsquarterly.org.

Last Updated: September 19, 2009 00:01 EDT