ARCTIC VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



343 



completing the adventure, and wintering, if possible, on the sunny shores of 

 India. For three months he continued tracking the south coasts of that vast 

 northern Mediterranean, but all his hopes of finding a new channel opening to 

 the south proved vain, until at length the ship was frozen in on November 10 

 in the south-east corner of James's Bay. A dreary winter awaited the ice-bound 

 seamen, with almost exhausted provisions, and unfortunately without that 

 heroic patience and concord which had sustained the courage of Barentz and 

 his companions under trials far more severe. But spring came at last, and 

 revived the spirits of their leader. His ship was once more afloat, once more 

 his fancy indulged in visions of the sunny East, v^hen, as he stepped on deck on 

 the morning of June 21, his arms were suddenly pinioned, and he found him- 

 self in the power of three of his men. 



Inquiry, remonstrance, entreaty, command, all failed to draw a word f ro n 

 the stubborn mutineers, and Hudson resigned himself bravely to his fate, and, 

 with the quiet dignity of a noble nature, looked on calmly at the ominous prep- 

 arations going forward. A small ojDen boat was in waiting, and into this 

 Hudson — his hands being previously tied behind his back — was lowered ; some 

 powder and shot and the car ^enter's box came next, followed by the carpenter 

 himself, John King, whose na .le ought to be held in honorable remembrance, 

 as he alone among the crew remained true to his master. Six invalids were 

 also forced into the boat, which was then cut idrift, and the vessel sailed on- 

 ward on its homeward course. Nothing m ^re was ever heard of Hudson ; 

 but the ringleaders of that dark conspiracy soo-i paid a terrible penalty. Some 

 fell in a fight with the Esquimaux, and others died on the homeward voyage, 

 during which they suffered from the extremest famine. 



The account of the great expanse of sea which had been reached gave new 

 vigor to the spirit of discovery, and new expeditions sallied forth (Sir Thomas 

 Button, 1612, Gibbons, 1614, Bylot, 1615), to seek along the western shores of 

 Hudson's Bay the passage which was to open the way to India. All efforts in 

 this direction were of course doomed to disappointment, but Bafiin, who sailed 

 in 1616, with directions to try his fortune beyond Davis's Straits, enriched 

 geography with a new and important conquest by sailing round the enormous 

 bay which still bears his name. During this voyage he discovered the en- 

 trances of Smith's, Jones's, and Lancaster Sounds, without attempting to inves- 

 tigate these broad highways to fields of later exploration. He believed them 

 to be mere inclosed gulfs, and this behef became so firmly grounded in the 

 public mind that two full centuries elapsed before any new attemj^t was made 

 to seek for a western passage in this direction, while Jens Munk, a Dane, sent 

 out in 1619 with two good vessels, under the patronage of his king, Christian 

 IV.; Fox and James (1631-.1632), Knight and Barlow (1719), Middleton (1741), 

 Moor and Smith (1746), confined their efforts to Hudson's Bay, and, by their 

 repeated disappointments, made all expeditions in quest of a north-western 

 passage appear well-nigh as chimerical as those of the knight-errants of 

 romance. 



