CHAPTER XV
EARLY VOYAGES TO HUDSON’S BAY
Knight—Hudson—Button and the North-West Company
Sir Thomas Smith was urgent in his efforts to induce the Directors of the East India Company to take up the question of a northern passage to Cathay, but they were lacking in enthusiasm. At last, in July 1601, the question appeared on the Minutes. It was not until January 1602, however, that the Directors were induced to pass a resolution that “this Company has an express interest in a voyage to discover a north-west passage” and that ships were to be got ready with all expedition.
Two vessels, the Discovery and Godspeed, were fitted out and provisioned for 16 months. The command was given to Captain Weymouth, who sailed from Ratcliffe on the 2nd May, 1602. But there was a mutiny headed by the Chaplain, a Mr Cartwright[81], and Weymouth was forced to return. At first the Directors resolved to make another attempt, with Weymouth in command of one ship, but most of the Directors were lukewarm, and on January 26th, 1603, it was resolved that the voyage should be given up.
Sir Thomas Smith, in spite of the obstruction of his colleagues, continued to press the Arctic question on their notice, and at last succeeded in obtaining grants in aid. In this way an expedition was fitted out under the command of John Knight, an able and experienced seaman who had commanded the little pinnace Katten in the first Danish expedition to Greenland in 1605, and after whom Captain Hall had named the Knight Islands[82]. He now had the Hopewell of 40 tons with Edward Gorrell as his mate, and sailed from Gravesend under the auspices of the Muscovy Company on the 18th April, 1606. Leaving the Orkneys on the 12th May, the first ice was sighted on the 3rd June and after a dangerous collision with an iceberg, the Hopewell reached the coast of Labrador near the position of Nain in 56° 48′ N. Here Knight’s journal ends abruptly on June 26th[83].
It is from another source that we learn the remainder of the story. The Hopewell seems to have got as far as the entrance to Hudson’s Strait, and was anchored in a bay. Captain Knight, his brother, the mate Gorrell, and three men landed on an island six miles from the ship. They were well armed and carried instruments to make a survey. It was in the forenoon. The boat was to wait for them, with two men, the trumpeter and one Oliver Brunel. The Captain’s party walked over a hill and were never seen or heard of again. Presently a crowd of natives came over the hill and tried to seize the boat, but the two men shoved her off. Search was useless, and the survivors were in great distress, for the Hopewell had damaged her rudder and had sprung a serious leak. The crew constructed a temporary rudder with the pintles made of iron bands off the Captain’s chest. For the leak they took the main bonnet, thrummed it with oakum and passed it over the place. Worn out with watching and hard work, they at length reached Dartmouth in September 1606. This sequel of the sad story was written in the Captain’s journal book by Oliver Brunel, one of the boat keepers[84].
Four years elapsed before Sir Thomas Smith could get his colleagues together to enter upon the risk of another expedition. But in 1610, together with his patriotic friends Sir Dudley Digges, Sir James Lancaster, Sir Francis Jones, and Sir John Wolstenholme, he arranged another voyage of discovery. Several noblemen and others also joined in the venture.
That renowned sailor Henry Hudson had returned from the discovery of the river which bears his name, and was at once selected to command the new expedition. His ship was the Discovery of 55 tons. Hudson, as the event proved, was unwise in his selection of men to serve in the expedition[85]. He took Juet, a treacherous rascal, as mate, whose character he ought to have known, as he had been in his second and third expeditions. Once more he took his young son Jack, who had just reached the age of 17. Out of a complement of 23 there were not more than half a dozen men who could be depended on, when the time for testing them came. The object of the expedition was to seek a passage by the wide opening pointed out by Davis, where a “furious overfall” is marked on the Molyneux globe.
Sailing from Greenhithe on the 22nd April, 1610, the Discovery made a prosperous voyage to Iceland, where there were the first signs of insubordination; Green, who appears to have been a man of thoroughly bad character, having assaulted and beaten the surgeon. Hudson made sail from Iceland and shaped a course direct for the opening indicated by Davis. He then navigated his ship down the strait which bears his name, with little or no obstruction from ice, until the entrance to the great bay was reached—the Mediterranean of America as it has been called—which was ever afterwards to be known as Hudson’s Bay. The island on the south side of the entrance was named Digges and it was observed that myriads of birds were breeding there. Hudson’s journal unfortunately comes to an end on the 3rd of August, the day the Discovery arrived off Cape Digges. The story is continued by Habakuk Prickett, whose narrative, that of an unscrupulous time-server, is open to suspicion, besides being confused and unsatisfactory. During the three months following the arrival off Cape Digges, it is not clear what Hudson was doing, or what course he took.
Hudson must certainly have discovered all the east coast of Hudson’s Bay, for in November he found himself obliged to winter in the south-eastern part, now called James Bay. There were fir trees on shore, yielding plenty of fuel, and some game to eke out the stock of provisions on board. The ship was frozen in. A spirit of mutiny and discontent appeared during the long and dreary nights, which was fostered by one or two designing villains. The mate Juet had been disrated for misconduct and the vindictive old man was ripe for mischief. Green was only too glad to join in any mutinous conspiracy, and William Wilson, who had superseded Clements as boatswain, was not behindhand in disloyalty. It is probable that at first the conspiracy was confined to these three. There were privations during the winter, and John Williams, the gunner, fell ill and died. The provisions had run very low, but Hudson hoped to obtain a sufficient supply for the return voyage by salting down birds at Cape Digges. On the 18th of June, 1611, the Discovery broke out of winter quarters, and a course was shaped for Hudson’s Strait.
Meanwhile the conspirators, who had been joined by three of the seamen, Thomas, Pierce, and Moter, matured their diabolical plan. They thought, or pretended to think, that there would not be enough food to take them to England, and they conceived the infamous scheme of turning the sick and weak adrift in a boat, to reduce the number of mouths. As they knew that Hudson and the few loyal men would not consent to this, they included them among their intended victims. The murderers had kept their secret well, and there was no suspicion of the plot. Prickett must be included among the criminals. He says that Green and Wilson came to his bunk three days after the ship left winter quarters, assuring him that the course they proposed to take was unavoidable. He asserts that he entreated them to desist, but he never gave information to his Captain, and was evidently a time-serving rascal. Being a servant of Sir Dudley Digges the conspirators spared him to tell lies for them on their return.