tice, that Sir Henry Hudson never revisited the
pleasant region which he had discovered, and which he had pronounced
to be 'as beautiful a land as the foot of man can tread upon.' In the
summer of 1610, Hudson entered the service of a London company and
sailed from the Thames in the "Discovery," in search of either a
Northwest or Northeast passage to the Indies. Passing Iceland,
appropriately so called, he gazed with astonishment upon Hecla in full
eruption, throwing its fiery flood and molten stones into the air.
Doubling the Cape of Greenland, he entered Davis's Straits. Through
these he passed into the gloomy waters beyond.
After spending a dismal winter, in the endurance of great privation,
exposed to severe Arctic storms, his mutinous crew abandoned him, in
the midst of fields of ice, to perish miserably. The following artless
account of this tragedy, which is taken from the lips of one of the
mutineers, will be read with interest. The ship was surrounded with
ice and the crew in a starving condition.
"They had been detained at anchor in the ice," says Pricket,
"about a week, when the first signs of the mutiny appeared.
Green, and Wilson the boatswain, came in the night to me, as
I was lying in my berth very lame and told me that they and
several of the crew had resolved to seize Hudson and set him
adrift in the boat, with all on board who were disabled by
sickness; that there were but a few days' provisions left;
that the master appeared entirely irresolute, which way to
go; that for themselves they had eaten nothing for three
days. Their only hope therefore was in taking command of the
ship, and escaping from these regions as quickly as
possible.
"I remonstrated with them in the most earnest manner,
entreating them to abandon such a wicked intention. But all
I could say had no effect. It was decided that the plot
should be put into execution at daylight. In the meantime
Green went into Hudson's cabin to keep him company, and to
prevent his suspicions from being excited. They had
determined to put the carpenter and John King into the boat
with Hudson and the sick, having some grudge against them
for their attachment to the master. King and the carpenter
had slept on deck this night, but about daybreak, King was
observed to go down into the hold with the cook, who was
going for water. Some of
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