What happened to Hudson when he reached Dartmouth has been
recorded; and, broadly, why it happened. Hessel Gerritz wrote that
"he ... returned safely to England, where he was accused of having
undertaken a voyage to the detriment of his own country." Van
Meteren wrote: "A long time elapsed, through contrary winds, before
the Company could be informed of the arrival of the ship [the "Half
Moon"] in England. Then they ordered the ship and crew to return
[to Holland] as soon as possible. But when they were going to do
so, Henry Hudson and the other Englishmen of the ship were
commanded by government there not to leave England but to serve
their own country." Obviously, international trade jealousies were
at the root of the matter. Conceivably, as I have stated, the
Muscovy Company, a much interested party, was the prime mover in
the seizure of Hudson out of the Dutch service. But we only know
certainly that he was seized out of that service: with the result
that he and Fate came to grips again; and that Fate's hold on him
did not loosen until Death cast it off.
Hudson's fourth, and last, voyage was not made for the Muscovy
Company; but those chiefly concerned in promoting it were members
of that Company, and two of them were members of the first
importance in the direction of its affairs. The adventure was set
forth, mainly, by Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Thomas Smith, and Master
John Wolstenholme--who severally are commemorated in the Arctic by
Smith's Sound, Cape Digges, and Cape Wolstenholme--and the
expedition got away from London in "the barke 'Discovery'" on April
17, 1610.
Purchas wrote a nearly contemporary history of this voyage that
included three strictly contemporary documents: two of them
certainly written aboard the "Discovery"; and the third either
written aboard the ship on the voyage home, as is possible, or not
long after the ship had arrived in England.
The first of these documents is "An Abstract of the Journal of
Master Henry Hudson." This is Hudson's own log, but badly
mutilated. It begins on the day of sailing, April 17th, and ends on
the ensuing August 3d. There are many gaps in it, and the block of
more than ten months is gone. The missing portions, presumably,
were destroyed by the mutineers.
The second document is styled by Purchas: "A Note Found in the
Deske of Thomas Wydowse, Student in the Mathematickes, hee being
one of them who was put into the Shallop." Concerning this poor
"student in the mathematickes" Prickett testified before the court:
"Thomas Widowes was thrust out of the ship into the shallop, but
whether he willed them take his keys and share his goods, to save
his life, this examinate knoweth not." Practically, this is an
assurance that he did make such an offer; and his despairing
resistance to being outcast is implied also in the pathetic note
following his name in the Trinity House list of the abandoned ones:
"put away in great distress." There is nothing to show how he
happened to be aboard the "Discovery," nor who he was. Possibly he
may have been a son of the "Richard Widowes, goldsmith," who is
named in the second charter (1609) of the Virginia Company. His
"Note"--cited in full later on--exhibits clearly the evil
conditions that obtained aboard the "Discovery"; and especially
makes clear that Juet's mutinous disposition began to be manifested
at a very early stage of the voyage.
The third document is the most important, in that it gives--or
professes to give--a complete history of the whole voyage. Purchas
styles it: "A Larger Discourse of the Same Voyage, and the Successe
Thereof, written by Abacucks Prickett, a servant of Sir Dudley
Digges, whom the Mutineers had Saved in hope to procure his Master
to worke their Pardon." Purchas wrote that "this report of Prickett
may happely bee suspected by some as not so friendly to Hudson."
Being essentially a bit of special pleading, intended to save his
own neck and the necks of his companions, it has rested always
under the suspicion that Purchas cast upon it. Nor is it relieved
from suspicion by the fact that it is in accord with his sworn
testimony, and with the sworn testimony of his fellows, before the
High Court of Admiralty when he and they were on trial for their
lives as mutineers. The imperfect record of this trial merely shows
that Prickett and all of the other witnesses--with the partial
exception of Byleth--told substantially the same story; and--as
they all equally were in danger of hanging--that story most
naturally was in their own favor and in much the same words. From
the Trinity House record it appears that Prickett was "a land man
put in by the Adventurers"; and in the court records he is
described, most incongruously, as a "haberdasher"--facts which
place him, as his own very remarkable narrative places him, on a
level much above that of the ordinary seamen of Hudson's time.
Dr. Asher's comment upon Prickett's "Discourse," is a just
determination of its value: "Though the paper he has left us is in
form a narrative, the author's real intention was much more to
defend the mutineers than to describe the voyage. As an apologetic
essay, the 'Larger Discourse' is extremely clever. It manages to
cast some, not too much, shadow upon Hudson himself. The main fault
of the mutiny is thrown upon some men who had ceased to live when
the ship reached home. Those who were then still alive are
presented as guiltless, some as highly deserving. Prickett's
account of the mutiny and of its cause has often been suspected.
Even Purchas himself and Fox speak of it with distrust. But
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."
My fortunate finding of contemporary documents, unknown to Hudson's
most authoritative historian, has produced other "eye-witnesses"
who have "left us an account of these events"; but, obviously,
their accounts--so harmoniously in agreement--do not affect the
soundness of Dr. Asher's conclusions. The net result of it all
being, as I have written, that our whole knowledge of Hudson's
murder is only so much of the truth as his murderers were agreed
upon to tell.
X
In the ruling of that, his last, adventure all of Hudson's malign
stars seem to have been in the ascendant. His evil genius, Juet,
again sailed with him as mate; and out of sheer good-will,
apparently, he took along with him in the "Discovery" another
villainous personage, one Henry Greene--who showed his gratitude
for benefits conferred by joining eagerly with Juet in the mutiny
that resulted in the murder of their common benefactor.
Hudson, therefore, started on that dismal voyage with two
firebrands in his ship's company--and ship's companies of those
days, without help from firebrands, were like enough to explode
into mutiny of their own accord. I must repeat that the sailor-men
of Hudson's time--and until long after Hudson's time--were little
better than dangerous brutes; and the savage ferocity that was in
them was kept in check only by meeting it with a more savage
ferocity on the part of their superiors.
At the very outset of the voyage trouble began. Hudson wrote on
April 22, when he was in the mouth of the Thames, off the Isle of
Sheppey: "I caused Master Coleburne to bee put into a pinke bound
for London, with my letter to the Adventurars imparting the reason
why I put him out of the ship." He does not add what that reason
was;[1] nor is there any reference in what remains of his log to
farther difficulties with his crew. The newly discovered testimony
of the mutineers, cited later, refers only to the final mutiny.
Prickett, therefore--in part borne out by the "Note" of poor
Widowes--is our authority for the several mutinous outbreaks
which occurred during the voyage; and Prickett wrote with a
vagueness--using such phrases as "this day" and "this time,"
without adding a date--that helped him to muddle his narrative in
the parts which we want to have, but which he did not want to have,
most clear.
[Footnote 1: Captain Lake Fox has the following: "In the road
of Lee, in the river Thames, he [Hudson] caused Master
Coalbrand to be set in a pinke to be carried back againe to
London. This Coalbrand was in every way held to be a better man
than himselfe, being put in by the adventurers as his
assistant, who envying the same (he having the command in his
own hands) devised this course, to send himselfe the same way,
though in a farre worse place, as hereafter followeth."
Prickett tells only: "Thwart of Sheppey, our Master sent Master
Colbert back to the owners with his letter."]
Prickett's first record of trouble refers to some period in July,
at which time the "Discovery" was within the mouth of Hudson's
Strait and was beset with ice. It reads: "Some of our men this day
fell sicke, I will not say it was for feare, although I saw small
signe of other griefe." His next entry seems to date a fortnight or
so later, when the ship was farther within the strait and
temporarily ice-bound: "Here our Master was in despaire, and (as he
told me after) he thought he should never have got out of this ice,
but there have perished. Therefore he brought forth his card
[chart] and showed all the company that hee was entered above an
hundred leagues farther than ever any English was: and left it to
their choice whether they should proceed any farther--yea or nay.
Whereupon some were of one minde and some of another, some wishing
themselves at home, and some not caring where so they were out of
the ice. But there were some who then spake words which were
remembered a great while after." This record shows that Hudson had
with him a chart of the strait--presumably based on Weymouth's
earlier (1602) exploration of it--with the discovery of which he
popularly is credited; and, as Weymouth sailed into the strait a
hundred leagues, his assertion that he had "entered a hundred
leagues farther than ever any English was" obviously is an error.
But the more important matter made clear by Prickett (admitting
that Prickett told the truth) is that a dangerously ugly feeling
was abroad among the crew nearly a year before that feeling
culminated in the final tragedy.
Prickett concludes this episode by showing that Hudson's eager
desire to press on prevailed: "After many words to no purpose, to
worke we must on all hands, to get ourselves out and to cleere our
ship."
And so the "Discovery" went onward--sometimes working her way
through the ice, sometimes sailing freely in clear water--until
Hudson triumphantly brought her, as Purchas puts it, into "a
spacious sea, wherein he sayled above a hundred leagues South,
confidently proud that he had won the passage"! It was his resolve
to push on until he could be sure that he truly "had won the
passage" that won him to his death.
When they had entered that spacious sea--rounding the cape which
then received its name of Cape Wolstenholme--they came to where
sorrel and scurvy-grass grew plentifully, and where there was
"great store of fowle." Prickett records that the crew urged Hudson
"to stay a daye or two in this place, telling him what refreshment
might there bee had. But by no means would he stay, who was not
pleased with the motion." This refers to August 3d, the day on
which Hudson's log ends. Prickett adds, significantly: "So we left
the fowle, and lost our way downe to the South West."
By September, the "Discovery" was come into James Bay, at the
southern extremity of Hudson's Bay; and then it was that the
serious trouble began. By Prickett's showing, there seems to have
been a clash of opinions in regard to the ship's course; and of so
violent a sort that strong measures were required to maintain
discipline. The outcome was that "our Master took occasion to
revive old matters, and to displace Robert Juet from being his
mate, and the boatswaine from his place, for the words spoken in
the first great bay of ice."
For what happened at that time we have a better authority than
Prickett. The "Note" of Thomas Widowes covers this episode; and, in
covering it, throws light upon the mutinous conditions which
prevailed increasingly as the voyage went on. As the only
contemporary document giving Hudson's side of the matter it is of
first importance--we may be very sure that it would not have come
down to us had it been discovered by the mutineers--and I cite it
here in full as Purchas prints it:
"The tenth day of September, 1610, after dinner, our Master called
all the Companie together, to heare and beare witnesse of the abuse
of some of the Companie (it having beene the request of Robert
Juet), that the Master should redresse some abuses and slanders, as
hee called them, against this Juet: which thing after the Master
had examined and heard with equitie what hee could say for
himselfe, there were proued so many and great abuses, and mutinous
matters against the Master, and [the] action by Juet, that there
was danger to have suffered them longer: and it was fit time to
punish and cut off farther occasions of the like mutinies.
"It was proved to his face, first with Bennet Mathew, our Trumpet,
upon our first sight of Island [Iceland], and he confest, that he
supposed that in the action would be man slaughter, and proue
bloodie to some.
"Secondly, at our coming from Island, in hearing of the Companie,
hee did threaten to turne the head of the Ship home from the
action, which at that time was by our Master wisely pacified,
hoping of amendment.
"Thirdly, it was deposed by Philip Staffe, our Carpenter, and
Ladlie Arnold [Arnold Ludlow] to his face upon the holy Bible, that
hee perswaded them to keepe Muskets charged, and Swords readie in
their Cabbins, for they should be charged with shot ere the Voyage
was over.
"Fourthly, wee being pestered in the Ice, hee had used words
tending to mutinie, discouragement, and slander of the action,
which easily took effect in those that were timorous; and had not
the Master in time preuented, it might easily have overthrowne the
Voyage: and now lately being imbayed in a deepe Bay, which the
Master had desire to see, for some reasons to himselfe knowne, his
word tended altogether to put the Companie into a fray [fear] of
extremitie, by wintering in cold: Jesting at our Master's hope to
see Bantam by Candlemas.
"For these and diuers other base slanders against the Master, hee
was deposed, and Robert Bylot [Bileth, or Byleth], who had showed
himself honestly respecting the good of the action, was placed in
his stead the Masters Mate.
"Also Francis Clement the Boatson, at this time was put from his
Office, and William Wilson, a man thought more fit, preferred to
his place. This man had basely carried himselfe to our Master and
the action.
"Also Adrian Mooter was appointed Boatsons mate: and a promise by
the Master, that from this day Juats wages should remain to Bylot,
and the Boatsons overplus of wages should bee equally diuided
betweene Wilson and one John King, to the owners good liking, one
of the Quarter Masters, who had very well carryed themselves to the
furtherance of the businesse.
"Also the Master promised, if the Offenders yet behaued themselves
henceforth honestly, hee would be a means for their good, and that
hee would forget injuries, with other admonitions."
Hudson's fame is the brighter for this testament of the poor
"Student in the Mathematickes" whose loyalty to his commander cost
him his life. At times, Hudson seems to have temporized with his
mutinous crews. In this grave crisis he did not temporize. For
cause, he disrated his chief officers: and so asserted in that
desolate place, as fearlessly as he would have asserted it in an
English harbor, that aboard his ship his will was law.
But his strong action only scotched the mutiny. Prickett's
narrative of the doings of the ensuing seven weeks deals with what
he implies was purposeless sailing up and down James Bay. He casts
reflections upon Hudson's seamanship in such phrases as "our Master
would have the anchor up, against the mind of all who knew what
belongeth thereto"; and in all that he writes there is a
perceptible note of resentment of the Master's doings that reflects
the mutinous feeling on board. Especially does this feeling show in
his account of their settling into winter quarters: "Having spent
three moneths in a labyrinth without end, being now the last of
October, we went downe to the East, to the bottome of the Bay; but
returned without speeding of that we went for. The next day we went
to the South and South West, and found a place, whereunto we
brought our ship and haled her aground. And this was the first of
November. By the tenth thereof we were frozen in."
And then the Arctic night closed down upon them: and with it the
certainty that they were prisoners in that desolate freezing
darkness until the sun should come again and set them free.