240 THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 



by his name, reached the extreme point of Labrador, which he called 

 Cape Wolstenholm, and discovered an island-group to the north- 

 west, the southern headland of which he named Cape Dudley 

 Digges. Here a vast sea broadened before his astonished gaze ; and 

 the restless waters for the first time rolled and seethed under an 

 English keel. 



Into this great bay or sea, Hudson Bay, as it is now known, he 

 sailed for several hundred miles; and winter coming on, he en- 

 camped his crew upon Southampton Island, and hauled his shif 

 aground. The hardships he and his men endured were terrible, for 

 they were ill-fitted to contend with an Arctic winter, and had neither 

 sufficient provisions nor stores. Hudson bore the trial uncomplain- 

 ingly, sustained by a noble enthusiasm; but his followers grew 

 discontented, and then mutinous, and on Hudson's attempting to 

 resume the enterprise at the return of spring, they seized upon him, 

 his son, and several sick sailors, and threw them into an open boat, 

 in which they had previously stowed a fowling-piece, some gun- 

 powder and shot, a small quantity of meal, and an iron pot (June 

 21, 1611). The castaways w r ere voluntarily joined by John King, 

 the carpenter, who refused to take part in and bear the shame of 

 mutiny, remaining faithful to his captain to the last. 



To the last it proved, for Hudson and his companions were 

 never more heard of. They perished miserably in that inland sea 

 or on its barren shores. The ringleader in the mutiny and five of his 

 companions were slain in an encounter with the natives on an 

 island near Cape Digges. Of the remainder, some died of starva- 

 tion, the survivors managing to carry the ship back to the British 

 Isles. Thus ended in disaster one of the most promising of the 

 early expeditions. 



The tidings of the great stretch of open water discovered by 

 Hudson deeply impressed the imagination of the adventurers of 

 his time. It seemed to them that here was the route to Asia which 

 had been so diligently sought. It was not long before others fol- 



