On the 29th July, 1611, the Discovery hove to off Cape Digges and the five ringleaders went on shore unarmed. They were met by a party of Eskimos. Two were bartering for venison, two were picking sorrel, one was boat-keeper. Suddenly the savages attacked them. All were mortally wounded as they were tumbling into the boat. Green was killed outright; the others lingered for a few days, but all died. Never was retribution so quick, sudden, and complete.
Bylot took charge and there were seven other survivors, Clements, Prickett, Mathews, Bond, E. Wilson, Moter and the boy Sims. They shot about 300 birds off Cape Digges, and put themselves on an allowance of half a bird a day and a little meal; Mathews the cook keeping the birds’ bones and frying them in candle-grease. Bylot after clearing Hudson Strait shaped a course for Ireland. The last bird was in the steep tub when they sighted Dursey Island and anchored in Bere Haven. Bylot and Prickett hurried up to London to report. They must have told some uncommonly clever lies, for no proceedings were taken and both were employed again.
Henry Hudson was a great seaman and an enthusiastic discoverer. His two well-conducted voyages in the Spitsbergen quadrant led to most important results and his discovery of the Hudson River was equally memorable in its consequences. In his last fatal voyage he discovered Hudson’s Bay. He was a great and a good man, though not quite on the same plane with Davis and Baffin. A younger son of Hudson received employment from the East India Company on the ground that “his father had perished in the service of his country.”
Sir Thomas Smith and his colleagues had continued their efforts for the supply of funds for Arctic discovery during the absence of Hudson, and they bore fruit. The promoters sued to be incorporated as a Company to be called “The Governor and Company of the Merchants of London, Discoverers of the North-west Passage.” The Common Seal had on one side the royal arms with the Company’s title round it, on the other three ostrich feathers, having Jurat ire per altum across and Tibi serviat ultima thule round them. Sir Thomas Smith was appointed the first Governor. With him were Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Francis Jones, Sir James Lancaster, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir E. Mansell, Sir W. Cockayne, and Richard Wyche as Directors; Sir A. Dawes, Richard Hakluyt, the Earls of Salisbury, Southampton, Nottingham, and other nobles and a long list of others, were venturers. The date of the Charter was July 26th, 1612. Young Prince Henry of Wales took a deep interest in the undertaking as is shown by the ostrich feathers on the obverse of the seal; and, in consultation with his friend Sir Walter Raleigh, he drafted and signed the instructions for the first voyage. He was our Prince Henry the Navigator[86].
The object of the first voyage of the Company was to follow up the work left incomplete by Hudson. Two vessels were selected, fitted out, and supplied with provisions for 18 months. An officer of tried valour and experience named Thomas Button was entrusted with the command, and the undertaking was under the special patronage of Prince Henry. Thomas Button was the son of Miles Button of Duffryn in Glamorganshire, whose family had been seated there for seven generations. Thomas was born at Duffryn and went to sea in 1592. He was in the West Indies with Captain Newport in 1603, and commanded a king’s ship in 1609. Button’s ship for the expedition to Hudson’s Bay was the Resolution, the second ship being the Discovery under Captain Ingram. A relation named Gibbons, and a friend named Hawkridge accompanied him, while Bylot and Prickett, whose lies had prevented their cowardly acquiescence in the mutiny against Hudson from being found out, were both on board the Resolution.
The expedition reached Cape Digges without encountering any difficulties from ice in Hudson Strait, and remained there three weeks in order to put a pinnace together that had been taken out in pieces. Button then entered Hudson’s Bay and proceeded westward, discovering the southern coast of Southampton Island and the off-lying islets, to one of which he gave the name of Mansell Island after his relation Admiral Sir Edward Mansell, to another “Cary’s Swan’s Nest,” to a third “Hopes Checked,” because there his expectation of making progress received a check. Bad weather came on, and late in August Button sought refuge in a small creek on the western side of Hudson’s Bay, which was named Port Nelson after the master of the Resolution, who died and was buried there. Button was thus the discoverer of the western side of Hudson’s Bay as Hudson was of the eastern side. Button determined to winter at Port Nelson, and at once set his people to work to procure as much game as possible. They got in a large supply of ptarmigan, but the winter was very severe and, although they had fresh food, the health of the men suffered from the intense cold. It is interesting to find how important the amusement of the crews and the occupation of their minds during the Arctic winters was considered from the very first. We have seen how Barentsz arranged a Twelfth-night entertainment. Button kept the men’s minds employed by requiring them to answer questions respecting the expedition and its objects, and by thus interesting them in the work on which they were engaged.
Sir Thomas Button
In June, 1613, the ice broke up, and the ship left winter quarters and reached Cape Digges. In returning by Hudson Strait it was discovered that the land on which Cape Chidley is situated is an island, and the ships passed through the strait which is thus formed. The expedition returned to England in the autumn of 1613. Button’s relation, Captain Gibbons, started on another expedition in 1614, with Bylot as his mate in the Discovery. Before he could enter Hudson Strait he was driven by the ice into a bay on the coast of Labrador where he remained for 20 weeks and then returned home. The crew called the bay “Gibbons his Hole.”
Button’s journal was never published, and we are indebted to Luke Foxe, a later explorer, for all the information that has reached us respecting his voyage. In 1618 he was in command on the coast of Ireland. He was Rear Admiral in the fleet of Sir Edward Mansell, which was sent against the Algerine pirates in 1620, and in 1623 he was again employed in suppressing piracy. He became Admiral Sir Thomas Button, married Mary, daughter of Sir Walter Rice of Dynevor and, dying in April 1634, left a son who succeeded him at Duffryn.