PREPARING TO RETURN. 



347 



release from the ice. A reward was offered to those who added 

 to the general stock by catching either birds or fish, or animals 

 serviceable for food. A house was built ; but the season was so 

 far advanced that it could not be rendered fit to dwell in. The 

 winter was severe, and the men lived at first upon partridges, 

 then upon swans and teal, and finally upon moss and frogs. 

 They assuaged the pain of their frozen limbs by applying to 

 them a hot decoction made from buds containing a balsam-like 

 substance resembling turpentine. Towards spring, they ob- 

 tained furs from the natives, in exchange for hatchets, glass, 

 and buttons. 



When the ice broke up, they prepared to return, — the last 

 ration of bread being exhausted on the day of their departure. 

 A report was circulated among the crew that Hudson had 

 concealed a quantity of bread for his own use, and a mutiny, 

 fomented by a man named Green, broke out on the 21st of June. 

 Hudson was seized and his hands bound. Together with the 

 sick, and those whom the frost had deprived of the use of their 

 limbs, he was put into the shallop and set adrift. Neither he, 

 nor the boat, nor any of its crew, were ever heard of again. 



The wretched mutineers made the best of their way home in 

 me ship they had thus foully obtained. Not one of the ring- 

 leaders lived to reach the land. The rest, after suffering the 

 most awful extremities of famine, finally gained the shore. 



