USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 24
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282 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
at Iceland. This was not, however, a time to resent or punish. He listened with smothered feelings to words then spoken, but not forgotten. He aimed to pacify, not to inflame ; to soothe, not to rebuke unjustifiable resentment ; to allay their fears, inspire their hopes, rouse their courage and activity, until at last the crew ceased their clamour, and all went earnestly to work to clear the ship and save themselves.
After toiling a long time, they gained room enough to turn the vessel. 'They worked her by little and little through the ice, and descried the clear sca at a distance. After strug- gling a league or two, they entered it, and joyfully pursued their course north and north-west. In the end they disco- vered (July 8,) a champaign land, but covered with snow, which Hudson named " Desire Provoked."
Having entered the strait that bears his name, the residue of the month (July) was consumed in sailing through it. Hud- son gave various names to capes and islands, having on the first sight of the mainland, named it Magna Britannia. (143.) He had afterwards taken shelter from an impending storm in a harbour among some rocky islands, the appearances of which were indicative of the effects of an earthquake, and hav- ing escaped the rocks, some of which were barely covered by the water, he named them Isles of God's Mercies. After thus entering the strait, he had once been driven back by a violent tempest ; but at length, after naming and leaving Salisbury's Foreland, bis ship suddenly fell into a great and whirling sea, from which she also escaped, and finally proceeded (August 4 and 5) through a narrow strait into the great Mediterranean, which now perpetuates the name of Hudson. To the two capes or headlands between which he passed, he gave the uames of two of the company who had patronised the enter- prise, (viz. Diggs and Wostenholm) ; as he went through the narrow strait, he fondly cherished the delusion, that he had achieved the long-sought passage. As he approached Digg's' Island, he sent some of his men to ascend its rocky cliffs, to discover the great ocean, which he fancied laid beyond them. The exploring party was retarded by a thunder storm, and af-
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283
Henry Hudson.
5 54.]
ter wandering a short time, returned to the ship. They had found plenty of fowl and deer, and advised Hudson to stay a few days, and replenish his vessel ; but too confidently proud of his discovery to hearken to this salutary counsel, and little · thinking that he had entered a bay whence he never should re- turn, he pursued his hurried course southward. Keeping the main land on the left, he came to shoal water, touched the rocks among the Sleepers, encountered a storm, passed along south east between the main and Baker's dozen, discovered after- wards an open sea to the south, and passing between two Jands, the southern points of which were not two leagues apart, he reached to the 53º north lat. took in water and ballast, and thence proceeded to the southern limit of the bay. He now turned to retrace his course northward, and to com- pensate, by further discoveries, the chagrin and disappoint- ment he suffered.
On his directing a retrograde movement, murmurings arose among the crew. The mate and boatswain fanned the em- bers of discontent, and Hudson, at length, found it necessary to displace them, and substitute others. As this discipline, however deserved, would tend to inflame the passions of the officers discarded, and might render Hudson unpopular with his crew, it was not hastily adopted. On the contrary, he forbore, until his personal safety required that they no longer should continue in authority. A. court of inquiry was insti- stituted ; testimony, under oath, was taken. The language and conduct of the mate at Iceland, at the time they were en- closed in the ice, and since their entrance into the bay, proved incontestibly that he had endeavoured to dishearten the men, by enumerating the dangers which they incurred; to weaken their respect by ridiculing the master, and to discourage the enter- prise by magnifying its folly. The boatswain was also found guilty. On the 10th of Sept. they were both cashiered, and Robert Bylot (or Billet) and William Wilson, were appoint- ed, the former to the office of mate, the latter to that of boat- swain. This measure formed, it is true, another link in the chain of causes that produced the subsequentdisasters of Hud.
284 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PART f.
son, but it was exercised as an act of necessity, and in that conciliatory spirit, which is ever blended with truc magnani- mity. Hudson admonished his discarded officers, and promi- sed that if they would conduct themselves honestly, not only to forget injuries, but to become the means of doing them good.
The remainder of this month, (September) and the follow- ing, passed away in a fruitless and bewildering examination of the bay. It is remarked by a contemporaneous anthor," that " Hudson, on finding instead of the India passage, that he was embayed, became distracted, and committed many er- rors, especially in resolving to winter in that desolate region." This would not seem improbable, when we discover that he passed away the summer in alternately sailing to the north and the south, the east and west, when he should have return- ed home upon learning his error, knowing that he had brought but six months provisions, and finding not more than thrice, any traces or sigus of people. But we follow him to and fro, now on the rocks, in danger of shipwreck, now buffeting the storms, then losing his anchor, until it became too late to leave this " labarynth without end." (144) On the first of November he moored his ship in a small cove on the west side of the bay. In ten days afterwards the vessel was frozen in. It will be found that Hudson here remained until the middle of June.
His first care was to regulate the distribution of provisions, and propound rewards to those who should add to the common stock. In this way, he hoped to preserve the lives of his men until in the spring, when they should reach Diggs' Island. Within two weeks after they commenced wintering, the gunner died. Hudson is charged (145) with uncharitable treatment towards this man ; of what description, or under what incite- ment, we are not informed.
Having neglected to order a shelter to be made before the frost and snow had set in, Hudson now directed the carpenter
* Purchas.
1
285
Henry Hudson.
$ 51.3
10 erect one. He refused, because it was out of season, and did not fall within his duty as the ship's carpenter. Hudson ferreted him out of the cabin to strike him, and reprchended him in severe and threatening language. A miserable shelter was afterwards put up, and the carpenter became one of Hudson's firmest friends: but two incidents which succeeded this quarrel, and the death of the gunner, will appear to have given life and energy to a conspiracy, slow in its progess, but fatal in its consequences.
During the first three months they subsisted on ptarmigans, and other sorts of grouse, of which they killed more than one hundred dozen. In the spring these birds left them, but others succeeded, as swans, wild geese, ducks, and teal ; but they were not easily taken, and after their spring-flights from south to north were over, then commenced the season of famine. Those of the company who were not confied by sickness, now searched the woods, hills, and valleys, for every thing that had the show of substance, however vile. Frogs the most loathsome, were not spared. Moss of the ground was eaten. But what afforded them most relief, were the buds and branches of a certain tree, which one of the company (146) had discovered and brought them. They were full of a sub- stance like turpentine. When boiled, a diet drink was made, and the buds applied bot as a poultice to such as had pains in their limbs, from which they found relief. This is supposed to have been the Tacamahaca tree, (populus balsamifera,) the buds of which containing a glutinous resin, become when decocted, a powerful antiscorbutic, and when boiled and ap- plied, give relief to pains and swellings. (147)
While in this sad extremity, and after the ice had, in the spring, began to break out of the bays, they received a visit for the first time, from an Indian. The appearance at this crisis of one whom they supposed would become the means of procuring them a supply of provisions, was welcomed with great joy. The master treated him with the utmost kindness and attention ; collected knives, hatchets, a looking-glass, and buttons, and gave them to him. He received them thankfully, and made
-
286 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
signs that after he had slept, he would come again ; according- ly he returned with his 'sled, with two deer skins, and two beaver skins, but with no provisions. He had faithfully brought all the articles he had received, laid them on the skins, and the master gave him back several of them. After many signs of people to the north and to the south, and that after so many sleeps he would come again, he went his way, but never reappeared. It was now the beginning of June. The ice having cleared from the sound, seven of the men were detached to take the boat with the net. The first day they caught five hundred small fish as good as herring and trout. This unexpected success roused their hopes. The party went out several days successively, but they were less fortunato. Hudson perceiving the woods set on fire at the south and south-west, caused the shallop to be fitted up and victualed for eight or nine days, leaving directions to have water, wood, and ballast taken on board, and the ship pre- pared for their departure by the time he should return; he directed his shallop towards that part of the bay where he expected to find the people of the country, and obtain an abundant supply of provisions ; but he unfortunately camc back worse than he went, for although the natives set fire to the woods in sight of him, he never could get near them .*
Disappointed and disconsolate, he now prepared all things in order to leave this dreary spot. He had wasted seven months here, and in examining this extensive and inhospitable bay.
* Purchas (in his Pilgrimage, b. 8,) in his narrative of this disastrous voyage, briefly says, that " at the opening of the yeere there came to the ship's side such abundance of fish of all sorts, that they might therewith have fraught themselves for their return, if Hudson had not too desperately pur- sued the voyage, neglecting this opportunity of storing themselves with fish, which he committed to the care of certaine carelesse dissolute villaynes, which, in his absence conspired against him : in few dayes the fish all for- sooke them." But we have seen from Pricket (who was one of the survi- vors, and most authentic,) that after the fishing was over, Hudson went out with most benevolent views. The conspiracy alluded to, will be developed presently.
287
Henry Hudson.
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Ile first delivered all the bread out of the bread room, amounting to a pound only for each, and also a bill of return for them to show, "if it pleased God that they came home : . and he wept when hee gave it unto them."# But to mitigate their wretchedness, the men were once more sent off with the boat and seine, who, after toiling two days and a half, returned to the ship with only four score small fish ; a poor relief for so many hungry persons. The ship, now about the middle of June, sailed from its wintering haven and anchored at its mouth .¡ Thence Hudson proceeded into the great bay. The bread which he had distributed was already consumed. He now divided equally all the cheese which remained, amounting only to three pounds and a half for each person. He was ad- vised to reserve a part of it, because some from hunger would devour their share at once, as they had their bread.# But as some of the cheese was bad, he determined that no cause of complaint should arise, and therefore distributed the whole impartially.
They now steered north-west, but soon came among the ice. In this situation they were detained. by contrary winds nearly a week. Here Hudson, it was said, had injudiciously told one of his men that there would be a breaking up of chests for bread, ordering him at the same time to bring his forth. He did so, and thirty cakes in a bag were delivered. This, if true, must have produced a spirit of discontent, which, according to the relation of one of the survivors, § Hudson neglected to heal. He could not have anticipated, how- ever, that it was the forerunner of an open mutiny, which
* Says Pricket, who was an eye-witness.
{ Q. Had they wintered in Hazard's Gulf, or some one of the coves south and eastward from Belcher Islands?
# Green (who will be again named) had given his bread to one to keep, and prayed him not to let him have any for a week. His share was to serve for two weeks; but before the middle of the first week, he consumed the whole. Wilson, the boatswain, ate his in one day, and " was sick for his labour."
§ Pricket.
288 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PART I.
proved, eventually, more destructive to all concerned, than any perhaps to be found in maritime annals.
We pass by Hudson's dismissal of the man (148) who had been appointed by the London company, at the commence- ment of the voyage, to accompany him, as an event which might have been injudicious and censurable, but certainly not one which can be considered, as it has been by some, as the foundation of this mutiny. Fourteen months had elapsed, and in the interim different causes had transpired which led to the catastrophe. Hudson had received a young man by the name of Henry Green, into his house in London as his pro- tege. Born in Kent, and of respectable parentage and con- nexions ; Gecen had, by his extravagant and debauched life, forfeited their esteem and respect, and reduced himself to penury.
Hudson, either from a generous sympathy, (his character- istic) or a hope of contributing by his care, to the redemption of Green from utter worthlessness, sought to divert him from his dissolnte habits, and resolved to take him this voyage, more as a companion and assistant, for he was an excellent writer, than as one of the crew. He was not therefore placed on the shipping articles. To rouse his ambition, Hudson promised him wages ; and what was most flattering to his pride, that on their return, he should be made one of the prince's guards. Hudson had clothed and fed him, and thus strove to win his affection and gratitude. Through his intercession, a friend of Green's mother had solicited her for money to purchase clothes for the voyage. But so worthless had he made him- self in the eyes of one whose high estimation he should have prized most, that she could hardly be persuaded to advance four pounds, and only on condition that the money should not be delivered to him, bat carefully applied to the object for which it was solicited.
Notwithstanding this disinterested goodness on the part of Hudson, (such is the force of dissolute habits, and when fixed, such their paramount ascendency over every noble aspiration.)
§ 54.]
Hudson's Return. 289
Green took the first opportunity which presented at Harwick, to endeavour to run away with one of the sailors.
When Hudson arrived at Iceland, it was before mentioned that he had the misfortune to witness dissentions among his crew. Green was the source of them. He had violently assaulted the surgeon, which set the whole crew in a rage, and with great difficulty the surgeon was persuaded to re- enter the ship .* This outrage, Hudson's partiality for Green disposed him to extenuate and overlook; and when, after leaving Iceland, he heard that his mate had insinuated that he had brought the young man along as a spy over the rest, such was Hudson's partiality, or such his high sense of bonour, that spurned so mean a system of imputed espoinuage, that he was much disposed to return back forty leagues, in order to send his mate home in one of the fishing vessels.
After the death of the gunner, and the variance between the master and the carpenter, certain occurrences brought . together the scattered elements of this deadly conspiracy, because they gave to it a master-spirit in the person of Henry Green. Among the apparel which the gunner had left, was a gray cloth gown. It was usual in such cases at sea, whenever the deceased left any article that the company desired, to bring it to the main-mast, and sell it to the highest bidder This gown Green took a fancy to have, and prayed Hudson to befriend him so much as to let him have it for the price
" Here (says Pricket) the Surgeon and hee fell out in Dutch, and he beat him ashore in English, which sct all the company in a rage; so that wee had much adoc to get the Surgeon aboord. I told the master of it, but bee bade mee let alone, ' for (said hee) the surgeon had a tongue that would wrong the best friend he had.' But Robert Ivet would needs burne his fir- ger in the embers, and told the carpenter a long tale, (when hee was drunke) ' that our master had brought in Greene to cracke his credit that should displease him :' which wordes came to the master's ears, and he would have gone back to Island, when he was fortie leagues from thence, to have sent home Robert Ivet ina Fisher-man. But being otherwise persuaded, all was well. So Henry Greene stood upright, and very inward with the master and was a servicable man every way for manhood : but for religion he would say, 'he was cleane paper, whereon he might write what he would.'"
Von. I.
37
290 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. PART I. any other would give. Hudson complied with his request. and refused others who sought it.
The day after the controversy with the carpenter, while Hudson was still inflamed by his refusal to erect a shelter for the company, Green accompanied the carpenter on a hunting excursion. This so incensed Hudson, that he, caused the gown to be delivered to his new mate. Green now challenged his promise ; but Hudson railed at him, and upbraided him in a very irritating harshness of manner.
This trifling article, this gown, (like the handkerchief in Othello, so potent in the hands of an Iago,) became an instru- ment to a most tragical issue. (149) For from this time to the denouement of the catastrophe, Green cultivated a most implacable hatred towards Hudson, and secretly did him every possible injury. Six months however elapsed ; a winter of extreme suffering had been witnessed ; rancour of feeling would have naturally become absorbed in the all-powerful sympathy, which a community of sickness, of famine, of dis- tress, of despair, would cugraft upon callous insensibility. But if Green's feelings were too indurated to become affected by such scenes, there was a still, small voice, which, with a monitory emphasis, called upon him not to abandon, betray, and murder his friend, his patron, and benefactor. It was the voice of gratitude. But even this did not arrest, though it may have protracted the mad scheme which he had secretly plotted. There was a time when the bent of his inclination would have been fortunate for Hudson, had it not been counteracted. A part of the crew, viz. Green, Wilson, Perce, Thomas, Moter, Bennet, and Arnold Ladlo,* composed a fishing party before Hudson had set sail to seck relief from the natives. At that time, while engaged in fishing, Green and Wilson, with some of the others, plotted to take the net and shallop which the carpenter had fitted up, and shift for themselves. But Hudson concluding to go in it himself, frus-
* Who appears to have been with Hudson in his second voyage, and hc remained faithful iu this.
991
Hudson's Return.
$ 54.]
irated their plan. The seeds of conspiracy were however sown in a soil already fitted by a long and careful cultivation, and required only some extra excitement, and the skill of a bold hand to bring them into rapid vegetation. The infa- mous Green will appear most prominent in activity, as well as the basest in ingratitude ; and the famished condition of the company at the time of the catastrophe, will constitute the immediate excitement to the development of a plot so long in fermentation. Next was Wilson in the scale of graduated crime. He had been appointed boatswain in the stead of the discarded one, and he also stood stamped with the sin of in- gratitude. Ivet, the discarded mate, although less openly active, was more insidiously decided, and in the work of mutiny was more cautious, because more aged. Subordinate to these were Thomas the gunner, Bennet the Cook, Moter and Perce, sailors. These were all who took the strange and unprecedented oath of conspiracy, which will be recited presently. ,
The unguarded declaration said to have been made by Hudson to one of his crew, that a general search among the chests should be made for provisions, seems to have been the signal for the ringleaders to commence the tragedy.
Accordingly while at anchor in the ice, (June 2],) Green and Wilson went at dead of night to Pricket, who lay lame in his cabin, and disclosed the plot. The latter had been a servant to Sir Dudley Diggs, (one of the London company). The conspirators were determined to save him, in hopes that through his influence, his master might intercede to obtain a pardon for the crime they meditated. In vain did Pricket urge to them the blackness of such a deed, the considerations of wife and children made miserable, the tie that bound them to their native soil, severed for ever if they persisted. But their resolution was not to be shaken. Then they were urged to delay ; but no, their party was firm; and lest their courage should flag, and the mischief they intended for others, light upon themselves, they were determined to put their plan into immediate execution. Then Pricket prayed them to postpone it for twelve hours ; no, they would do the
292 European Discoveries und Claims to New- York. [PART I.
deed that night. Then he told them, it was blood and revenge they sought, or they would not at such a time of night under- take such a deed. Green now seized a bible before him, and swore he would do no man harm, and what he did was for the good of the voyage, and nothing else. The like oath, he said, all should take, and went out. Accordingly six others ap- peared alternately, and were those already named. The oath administered by Pricket was in these words : "You shall swear truth to God, your Prince and countrie: you shall doe nothing but to the glory of God, and the good of the action in hand, and harm to no man." The oath as thus adminis- tered contained nothing in it incompatible with their duty, although Pricket, on his arrival in Enland, was thought by some, to have been implicated in the conspiracy for having administered it. But it must have been singularly misinter- preted by those who took it, or they were guilty of most un- paralleled hypocrisy and profanity.
The mutineers finally concluded to defer the execution of their plan till daylight. In the meantime Green kept company with Hudson, and Jago-like, fawned about the devoted victim of his treachery : others were on the alert about the ship. They had determined to put the carpenter and Henry King, (cabin mate of Robert Billet) with Hudson, his son, and the sick, into the shallop .* They had proscribed the carpenter and King ou pretence of some injustice done about the victuals ; but with respect to the carpenter in reality, because Hudson loved him, and had, after leaving his wintering haven, made him his mate instead of Billet; but they finally concluded that they could not spare the carpenter. It happened this night that King was up late, and had lain on deck with the carpenter. He descended to his cabin about break of day. Soon after the cook went down for water for the kettle. King for some purpose went into the hold. The conspirators shut down the hatches. Hudson hearing the noise, or rising early as usual, came up. Green and another, meantime had held the car-
* There were twenty-two, besides Green, on board, after the loss of the gunner
4
$ 54.]
Henry Hudson.
3 298
penter in talk till the master came out of his cabin. As he went on deck, John Thomas, the gunner, (cabin mate of Ivet,) and Bennet (the cook,) came before Hudson, while Wilson, (his boastswain,) sprang up behind and bound his arms. He asked them " what they meant." They replied, " he should know when he was in the shallop."
Meantime Ivet went into the hold where King was, who kept him at bay with a sword, and would have killed him, but numbers coming, he was overpowered. Hudson called to the carpenter and told him he was bound ; but the latter could render him no assistance. Now Ladlo and Bute railed at the conspirators, telling them " their knavery would show itself." The shallop was hastily hauled up. The sick and lame were demanded. Hudson now called Pricket ; he came up to speak with him, but the mutineers interfered; then on his knees he besought them " for the love of God to remember themselves, and do as they would be done unto." They bade him begone into his cabin. After he went back, Hudson called to him " at the horne which gave light into his cabin, and told him that 'Ivet would overthrow them all.' " " Nay, replied Pricket, it is that villain Henry Green."
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