148 THE SEA. 



divided by Hudson, and, as we are told in the narrative, "he wept when he gave it 

 unto them/' 



The vessel stood to the north-west, and on June 21st, 1611, while entangled in the 

 drift ice, Pricket says that Wilson the boatswain and Greene came to him and told 

 him that they and the crew meant to turn the master and all the sick into the boat, 

 and leave them to shift for themselves ; that they had not eaten anything for three 

 days, that there were not fourteen days' provisions left for the whole crew, and that 

 they were determined "either to mend or end; and what they had begun they would 

 go through with it or die." Pricket says that he attempted to dissuade them, but 

 that they threatened him, and Greene bade him hold his tongue, for he himself 

 would rather be hanged at home than starved abroad. A little later, five or six 

 of the mutineers came to Pricket he lying, as he says, lame in his cabin and adminis- 

 tered the following oath to him : <( You shall swear truth to God, your prince, and 

 country ; you shall do nothing but to the gloiy of God, and the good of the action in 

 hand, and harm to no man/' The signification of all this soon appeared, for on Hudson 

 coming out of the cabin they seized him, and bound his arms behind him. He demanded 

 what they meant, when he was told that he would find out when he was in the boat. 

 The boat was hauled alongside, and Hudson, his son, and seven " sicke and lame men " 

 were hustled into it; a fowling-piece, some powder and shot, a few pikes, an iron pot, 

 a little meal, and some other articles, were thrown in at the same time. Only one man, 

 John King, the carpenter, had the corn-age to face these fiends in human shape, and 

 remonstrate with them. He wasted his words and efforts, and, determining not to abandon 

 his captain, jumped into the boat, and the mutineers cut it adrift among the ice. We 

 know the horrors that have overtaken strong and hearty men when obliged to trust to the 

 boats in mid-ocean ; in this case, of ten persons seven at least were helpless and crippled ; 

 and sad as is the fact, we can hardly wonder to find that nothing was ever gleaned con- 

 cerning their fate. One shudders to think of their hopeless and inevitable doom, and 

 that among them was lost one of the bravest and most intrepid of England's seamen. 



But to this Arctic tragedy there was a sequel. As soon as the boat was out of 

 sight Pricket says that Greene came to him and told him that he, Pricket, had been 

 elected captain, and that he should take the master's cabin, which he pretends that he did 

 with great reluctance. The mutineers soon began to quarrel about their course, and were 

 for a whole fortnight shut in the ice, at the end of which time their provisions were 

 all gone. They had to subsist on cockle-grass, which they found on some neighbouring 

 islands. They now began to fear that England would be no safe place for them, and 

 blustering " Henry Greene swore the shippe should not come into any place but keep the 

 sea still, till he had the king's majesties hand and seale to shew for his safety." Greene 

 shortly after dispossessed Pricket, and became captain, a position he did not enjoy long. 

 Going ashore on an island near Cape Digges to get some more grass and shoot some 

 gulls, a quarrel ensued with a number of the natives, wherein Greene was killed, and 

 three others died shortly afterwards from wounds received in the scuffle. Pricket, after 

 fighting bravely, according to his own statement, was also severely wounded. The 

 survivors were now in a fearful plight, and, except some sea-fowl which they managed to 



