It is with great pleasure that I include in this volume
contemporary Hudson documents which have remained neglected for
three centuries, and here are published for the first time. As I
explain more fully elsewhere, their discovery is due to the
painstaking research of Mr. R.G. Marsden, M.A. My humble share in
the matter has been to recognize the importance of Mr. Marsden's
discovery; and to direct the particular search in the Record
Office, in London, that has resulted in their present reproduction.
I regret that they are inconclusive. We still are ignorant of what
punishment was inflicted upon the mutineers of the "Discovery"; or
even if they were punished at all.
The primary importance of these documents, however, is not that
they establish the fact--until now not established--that the
mutineers were brought to trial; it is that they embody the sworn
testimony, hitherto unproduced, of six members of Hudson's crew
concerning the mutiny. Asher, the most authoritative of Hudson's
modern historians, wrote: "Prickett is the only eye-witness that
has left us an account of these events, and we can therefore not
correct his statements whether they be true or false." We now have
the accounts of five additional eye-witnesses (Prickett himself is
one of the six whose testimony has been recovered), and all of
them, so far as they go, substantially are in accord with
Prickett's account. Such agreement is not proof of truth. The newly
adduced witnesses and the earlier single witness equally were
interested in making out a case in their own favor that would save
them from being hanged. But this new evidence does entitle
Prickett's "Larger Discourse" to a more respectful consideration
than that dubious document heretofore has received. Save in matters
affected by this fresh material, the following narrative is a
condensation of what has been recorded by Hudson's authoritative
biographers, of whom the more important are: Samuel Purchas, Hessel
Gerritz, Emanuel Van Meteren, G.M. Asher, Henry C. Murphy, John
Romeyn Brodhead, and John Meredith Read.
T.A.J.
New York, _July_ 16, 1909.