mutiny of Hudson’s crew. 
49 
he appointed him to be his clerk, made him the companion of 
his cabin, and treated him in every respect, as if he were his 
own son. The ship had been above three months threading a 
labyrinth of ice, and navigating in channels of great intricacy 
and danger, when finding it impossible to proceed, they hauled the 
ship on shore, and in about ten days afterwards the ice formed an 
impassable barrier around them. With the view of encouraging 
his crew, Hudson proved to them that they had sailed above a 
hundred leagues farther than any former navigator, and that 
with the breaking up of the ice, he had the most confident hope 
of succeeding in the object of his expedition; provisions however 
began to fall short, and Green insidiously fomented the discontent, 
to the destruction of his generous benefactor and friend. During 
the early part of the winter, the white partridges were killed in 
such abundance, as to annul any fear of suffering from actual 
want. These birds however, from the constant annoyance to 
which they were subject, migrated to a distant quarter, and the 
subsistence of the crew now depended upon the swans, geese, 
ducks, and other wild fowl, which visited their place of abode 
in great numbers, but which could not be killed with the same 
facility as the partridges. This resource even at last failed them, 
and the crew were obliged to live on moss and frogs.* 
On the return of the spring the ice broke up, and the crew now 
found a supply of food from the fish, which they caught in large 
numbers, but this resource soon failed them, and the murmurs 
of the crew became deep and loud. Hudson perhaps foreseeing 
that it would be impossible to quell the agitation of his crew, 
so long as they were in an inactive state, made the necessary 
preparations for his departure, and with tears in his eyes, he 
distributed to the crew the stock of provisions that remained 
which was barely sufficient for fourteen days. 
It was on the 21st June that the conspiracy broke out, ana 
poignant indeed were the feelings of Hudson, when he found 
that Green was at the head of it. It was the plan of Green and 
* We have given this statement on the authority of Purchas, but it carries with it its own 
refutation, as the frog is an hibernating animal, and could not be taken in the depth of winter 
but in its torpid state. 
3 
H 
