<P> In 1609 , English sea captain and explorer Henry Hudson was hired by the Flemish émigrés running the Dutch East India Company ( VOC ) located in Amsterdam to find a northeast passage to Asia , sailing around Scandinavia and Russia . He was turned back by the ice of the Arctic in his second attempt , so he sailed west to seek a northwest passage rather than return home . He ended up exploring the waters off the east coast of North America aboard the vlieboot Halve Maen . His first landfall was at Newfoundland and the second at Cape Cod . </P>
what explorer was responsible for the dutch control of new netherland
English sea captain and explorer Henry Hudson