

A SLUMBERING- MUTINY. 147 



to ply to the westward, on account of the ice and contrary winds. During July and the 

 early part of August several islands and headlands were sighted and named, and at 

 length they discovered a great strait formed by the north-west point of Labrador and 

 a cluster of islands, which led them into an extensive sea. Here Hudson's own testimony 

 ends, and we are dependent on the narrative of one Abacuk Pricket, which is perfectly 

 useless as regards any discoveries made, but which is probably correct as regards the 

 mutiny about to be described, and the circumstances which preceded and followed it. The 

 reader will, we imagine, form his own conclusions very speedily in regard to Pricket's 

 own share in this brutal transaction, in spite of his constant protestations. The story in 

 its sequel furnishes a significant example of the condition to which mutiny and lawlessness 

 on board ship may bring the perpetrators. 



Abacuk Pricket says that Hudson, being closely beset in the ice, and doubtful whether 

 he should ever escape from it, brought out his chart, and showed the company that he 

 had entered the strait a hundred leagues further than any Englishman before him, and, 

 in spite of the dangers, very naturally wished to follow up his discoveries. He, however, 

 put it to them whether they should sail forward or turn the ship's head towards England. 

 No decision appears to have been obtained, some wishing themselves at home, and others, 

 sailor-like, saying they cared not where they were so long as they were out of the ice. 

 The narrator admits, however, that "there were some who then spake words which were 

 remembered a great while after." 



The slumbering embers of mutiny appear to have been first fanned into a flame 

 when Hudson displaced the mate and boatswain "for words spoken when in the ice," 

 and appointed others. Still sailing southward, they entered a bay on Michaelmas day, a-nd 

 here the discontent was increased by Hudson insisting on weighing the anchor, while the- 

 crew was desirous of remaining there. Having voyaged for three months " in a labyrinth 

 without end," they at length, on November 1st, found a suitable place to winter, and 

 were soon frozen in. Hudson had taken into his house in London, apparently from sheer 

 kindheartedness, a young man named Greene, of good and respectable parentage, but of 

 a very dissolute and abandoned life, and had brought him to act as a kind of captain's 

 clerk on this voyage. Greene was most undoubtedly an irreclaimable vagabond, as well 

 as a most ungrateful person. He quarrelled with the surgeon and others on board, and 

 was the leading conspirator in the mutinous proceedings against his benefactor, which 

 were now fast ripening to a conclusion. Pricket speaks well of his "manhood" which 

 it is to be hoped he meant only as regarded his physical qualifications "but for 

 religion, he would say he was cleane paper, whereon he might write what he would."' 

 Although the ship's provisions were nearly exhausted, they obtained, during the first three- 

 months, as many as a hundred dozen white partridges, and, with more difficulty, in the 

 early spring, a few swans, geese, and ducks. A little later these failed them, and they 

 were reduced to eating moss and frogs. Later again, when the ice broke up, seven meni 

 were sent out with the boat, and returned with five hundred fish as big as good herrings. 

 They were, however, unsuccessful afterwards, and when the ship left the bay in which they 

 had wintered, had nothing left but short rations of bread for a fortnight, and five cheeses 

 which gave three pounds and a half to each man. These were carefully and fairly 



