MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
So far the expeditions of Willoughby, Chancellor, and Jenkinson had
all failed to reach the Far East. The Spanish had a way thither by
Magellan's Strait, the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope. England
in the middle of the sixteenth century had no way. What about a
North-West Passage leading round Labrador from the Atlantic to the
Pacific? England was waking up to possibilities of future exploration.
She was also ready and anxious to annoy Spain for having monopolised
the riches and wealth of the New World. And so it was that Queen
Elizabeth turned with interest to the suggestions of one of her
subjects--Martin Frobisher--"a mariner of great experience and
ability," when he enthusiastically consulted her on the navigation
of the North-West Passage. For the last fifteen years he had been trying
to collect ships and men for the enterprise. "It is the only thing
in the world left undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous
and fortunate," he affirmed.
But it was not till the year 1576 that he got a chance of fitting out
two small ships--two very small ships--the _Gabriel_ of twenty tons,
the _Michael_ of twenty-five tons, to explore the icy regions of the
north. A wave of the Queen's hand gladdened his heart as he sailed
past the palace of Greenwich, where the Court resided, and he was soon
sailing northward harassed and battered by many storms. His little
ten-ton pinnace was lost, and the same storm that overtook the little
fleet to the north of Scotland so terrified the captain of the _Michael_
that he deserted and turned home with the news that Frobisher had
perished with all hands.
Meanwhile Frobisher, resolute in his undertaking, was nearing the
coast of Greenland--alone in the little _Gabriel_ with a mere handful
of men all inexperienced in the art of navigating the Polar seas.
"And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold"
as Frobisher sailed his storm-beaten ship across the wintry seas. But
"I will sacrifice my life to God rather than return home without
discovering a north-west passage to Cathay," he told his eighteen men
with sublime courage. Passing Cape Farewell, he sailed north-west with
the Greenland current, which brought him to the icebound shores near
Hudson's Bay. He did not see the straits afterwards discovered by
Hudson, but, finding an inlet farther north, he sailed some hundred
miles, in the firm belief that this was the passage for which he was
searching, that America lay on his left and Asia on his right. Magellan
had discovered straits in the extreme south; Frobisher made sure that
he had found corresponding straits to the extreme north, and
Frobisher's Straits they were accordingly named, and as such they
appeared on the maps of the day till they had to be renamed Lumley's
Inlet. The snow and ice made further navigation impossible for this
year, and full of their great news they returned home accompanied by
an Eskimo. These natives had been taken for porpoises by our English
explorers, but later they were reported to be "strange infidels whose
like was never seen, read, or heard of before."
[Illustration: GREENLANDERS AS SEEN BY MARTIN FROBISHER. From Captain
Beste's account of Frobisher's voyages, 1578.]
Martin Frobisher was received with enthusiasm and "highly commended
of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous
for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay." Besides the
Eskimo the explorers carried home a black stone, which, when thrown
on the fire by one of the sailor's wives, glittered like gold. The
gold refiners of London were hastily called in, and they reported that
it contained a quantity of gold.
A new incentive was now given to Polar exploration. The Queen herself
contributed a tall ship of some two hundred tons to the new expedition
that was eagerly fitted out, and the High Admiral of all seas and waters,
countries, lands, and isles, as Frobisher was now called, sailed away
again for the icy north, more to search for gold than to discover the
North-West Passage. He added nothing more to the knowledge of the world,
and though he sailed through the strait afterwards known as Hudson's
Strait, he never realised his discovery. His work was hampered by the
quest for gold, for which England was eagerly clamouring, and he
disappears from our history of discovery.
The triumphant return of Francis Drake in 1580 laden with treasure
from the Spice Islands put into the shade all schemes for a north-west
passage for the moment.
Nevertheless, this voyage of Martin Frobisher is important in the
history of exploration. It was the first attempt of an Englishman to
make search amid the ice of the Arctic regions--a search in which so
many were yet to lay down their lives.