44

An Arctic Tragedy.

by removing him from temptation.

This man, utterly forgetful of Hudson's kindness, became one of the leading mutineers. The ship's provisions were fast failing, but for the first three months large numbers of white partridges were killed. The geese, ducks, and swans which came in spring were procured with difficulty, and the chronicler tells us that they were reduced to eating moss and frogs. Later, a gleam of hope appeared when in one day seven men succeeded in catching five hundred fish as large as herrings; but this supply also soon failed them, and Hudson determined to set sail, previous to which he divided the bread on board, about a fortnight's rations, and some small quantity of cheese. "He wept as he gave it unto them." They then stood to the northward and the vessel became entangled in the ice. On June 21st Wilson, the boatswain, and Greene came to Pricket, and told him that they and their comrades meant to turn out the master and the sick into the boat and leave them to shift for themselves, as there were not fourteen days' provisions on board. Pricket pretends that he tried to dissuade them from their diabolical scheme, and that he was threatened and an oath administered to him, by which he was forced to hold his peace. Hudson, as he came from his cabin, was forcibly seized, his arms tied behind him, and hustled into the boat, with his son

and seven "sicke and lame men." A fowling-piece, a few pikes, an iron pot, a little powder, shot, and meal were thrown into the boat, which was then cut adrift and left to the mercy of the ice and sea, Only one man of the whole crew, John King the carpenter, made any resistance to this act of barbarous cruelty. He was overpowered, and, determining not to leave his commander to perish alone, jumped into the boat. Nothing was ever learned of the fate of poor Hudson, one of the most intrepid and daring in the long list of England's brave seamen.

Retribution speedily followed. Pricket says that Greene came to him, immediately that the ill-fated boat was lost to view, and said that the crew had selected him for captain. Disputes arose as to which way they should steer, and they became completely surrounded and entangled in the ice. When at length they got clear the provisions were all consumed, and they had to subsist on cockle grass gathered on some rocky islands. They now began to fear that "England was no safe place for them," and Greene, who was evidently the bully of the crew, 'swore the shippe should not come into any place, but keep the sea still, till he had the King's Majestie's hand and seale to shew for his safety." He shortly after displaced Pricket as captain. On reaching some island near Cape

66

46

A Starved Crew.

Digges, a quarrel ensued with the natives and Greene was killed, three of the others dying of wounds received in the scuffle, "these four being the only lustie men in all the ship." Pricket was severely wounded. They contrived to secure about three hundred sea-fowl and stood to the westward, hoping to cross the Atlantic and reach the coast of Ireland. At length all their meat was gone, and they had to eat candles, and fry the skins and bones of the fowl in candle grease. One of the chief mutineers died from sheer starvation just before they reached the bay of Galloway. From several suspicious circumstances and inferences, among them the non-production of a large part of Hudson's journal, Pricket is believed to have been little better than the rest. A subsequent navigator, Luke Foxe, who quaintly termed himself the "North-West Foxe," says of him: "Well, Pricket, I am in great doubt of thy fidelity to Master Hudson." Nevertheless we hear of this same man and Bylot, another of the conspirators, as engaged in the very next expedition under Sir Thomas Button. No full account of this voyage was published, but it is conjectured that it was partly undertaken with the view of rescuing Hudson. Button, among other explorations and discoveries, was the first to enter Nelson River, at the mouth of which Fort York, one of the leading