Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait 339 



to a mutiny, placed in a shallop and sent adrift. It was on a fine 

 midsummer day. Their fate is unknown. They were never heard 

 of afterwards. 



The guilty crew suffered great hardships before reaching home, 

 some of their number having fallen victims to the Eskimos, made 

 furious by their indiscretions. The bodies of such of the Discoverie's 

 crew as fell into the hands of the natives were eaten by them, it is 

 said, on the Digges Island, near Cape Wolstenhome. We visited the 

 island this summer, but there were no Eskimos residing there, 

 but we found evidence of their previous occupation. There is a 

 good anchorage — the same, probably, occupied by the Discoverie in 

 1611, while her crew were on shore in search of game to prevent 

 starvation. There is a tradition among the Eskimos that on account 

 of this unfortunate transaction which occurred on the island, it is 

 bad luck to reside there, and for that reason it has been deserted for 

 centuries. Dr. Bell pronounced the evidences of habitation we met 

 with on the island as indicating an occupancy of more than two 

 centuries ago. 



Those of the Discoverie's crew who were fortunate enough to 

 escape the indignant Eskimos succeeded in reaching England, where 

 the ship had been fitted out by a company of English merchants. 

 The same company at once equipped another expedition with two 

 vessels called the Resolute and the Discoverie, and Captain (afterwards 

 Sir) Thomas Button was appointed to the command. Sir Thomas 

 passed through the Strait, across the Bay, and entered the Nelson 

 River, where he wintered during 1612-13. 



Sir Thomas Button has left his name in Hudson's Strait to com- 

 memorate the success of his expedition, the islands — Button Islands, 

 off Cape Chidley — being called after him. I should mention here 

 that these expeditions, and those that followed, were for the purpose 

 of discovering a north-west passage. Sir Thomas returned to England 

 in 1613, when another expedition was fitted out, which left for 

 Hudson Strait in 1614, commanded by Captain Gibbons. He did not 

 succeed. Missing the entrance to the Strait he returned the same 

 year. 



Now seems to follow a blank in the north-west passage business 



