prey” the captain and his companions finally embarked on their boats.
But it had become too late to reach the ships, and a storm had arisen.
Accordingly they crossed to a small island to tarry the night. They had
neither eaten nor drunk through the day, and now could refresh
themselves only with a scant supply of victuals which had been put in
the boats for their dinner. Then they lay down upon “hard cliffes of
snow and yce,” wet, cold, and comfortless; and so, “keeping verie good
watch and warde,” the night was spent.
Meanwhile the ships in the bay were having a perilous time of it. Settle
relates that they were “forced to abide in a cruell tempest, chancing in
the night amongst and in the thickest of the yce which was so monstrous”
that they would have been shivered to pieces had not the lightness of
the night enabled them to shift about and avoid the rushing ice floes.
And Best tells of an earlier peril escaped. The “Ayde” had been set
afire through the “negligence of the Cooke in over-heating, and the
workman in making the chimney,” and she was saved from destruction only
by a ship-boy’s chance discovery of the flames. The next morning,
however, opened fair and tranquil. Then “the Generall espying the ships,
with his new Captive and whole company, came happily abord, and reported
what had passed a shoare.” And then “altogither upon our knees we gave
God humble and heartie thankes, for that it had pleased him, from so
speedy peril to send us such speedy deliverance.”
That day, the twentieth of July, the ships “stroke over” from the
northern shore toward the southern, and the next day a bay was
discovered running into the land, which seemed a likely harbour for
them. Thither Frobisher, again taking the goldfiners, rowed, to “make
proofe thereof,” and at the same time to search for ore on this side,
having as yet assayed nothing on the south shore. The sands and cliffs
of the islands here visited “did so glister” in the sun and had so
“bright a marquesite,” that “it seemed all to be gold.” But, unhappily,
upon trial it “prooved no better then [than] black-lead.” Thus, as the
philosophic Settle observed, and Best echoed, was verified the “old
proverb, All is not gold that glistereth.” On one island, indeed, a mine
of silver was struck, but the stuff was not to be “wonne [won] out of
the rockes without great labour.” On another, in lieu of precious metal,
was discovered, “embayed in yce” a carcass of a great “sea unicorn,” or
morse, with a “horne of two yardes long growing out of the snout,” "like
in fashion to a Taper made of waxe." And this unicorn’s horn was the
sole trophy of the prospecting on this side. It was long afterward to be
seen in England, being “reserved as a Jewel by the Queenes Majesties
commandement in her wardrobe of Robes.” The harbour, however, appeared
satisfactory, and on the next day the ships bore into the sound and came
to anchor. This sound they named “Jackman’s Sound,” after the mate of
the “Ayde.”
The ships now being in fair “securitie” another formal entry into the
country was made and a thanksgiving ceremony performed. Best’s relation
is Settle’s account enlarged: “Tuesday the three and twentieth of July
our Generall with his best company of gentlemen, souldiers and saylers,
to the number of seventie persons in all, marched with ensigne displyede
up the continent of the Southerland (the supposed continent of America),
where, commanding a Trumpet to sound a call for every man to repaire to
the ensigne, he declared to the whole companie how much the cause
imported for the service of her Majestie; our countrey, our credit, and
the safetie of our owne lives, and therefore required every man to be
conformable to order, and to be directed by those he should assigne. And
he appointed for leaders, Captaine Fenton, Captaine Yorke, and his
Lieutenant George Beste: which done, we cast our selves into a ring, and
altogither on our knees, gave God humble thanks for that he had pleased
him of his great goodnesse to preserve us from such imminent dangers,
beseeching likewise the assistance of his holy spirite, so to deliver us
in safetie unto our Countrey, whereby the light and truth of these
secrets being knowen, it might redound to the more honour of his holy
name, and consequently to the advancement of our common wealth. And so,
in as good sort as the place suffered, we marched towards the tops of
the mountains [as stated by Settle, now and then heaping up stones on
them in token of possession] which were no lesse painfull in climbing
then [than] dangerous in descending, by reason of their steepnesse &
yce. And having passed about five miles, by such unwieldie wayes, we
returned unto our ships without sight of any people, or likelihood of
habitation.”
Inspired by this journey to further exploration, several of the company
urged Frobisher to permit them to march with a picked band thirty or
forty leagues inland to discover it, and “do some acceptable service”
for England. But he, “not contented with the matter he sought for [that
is, gold], and well considering the short time he had in hand, and the
greedie desire our countrey hath to a present savour and returne of
gaine,” declined their petition at that juncture, and “bent his whole
indevour only to find a Mine to fraight his ships.” After he had found
freight for the barks he would hope to “discover further for the
passage” through the supposed strait.
So on the twenty-sixth he set off again for the northland, taking the
two barks, and leaving the “Ayde” alone riding in Jackman’s Sound. That
night he came to anchor in a little haven to which he gave the name of
“Bear’s Sound,” for the master of the “Michael.” Here more trouble was
encountered. “The tydes did runne so swift, and the place was so subject
to indrafts of yce,” that the barks were in constant danger. Still, they
rode without serious injury through the next day, while the party having
found “a very nice Myne, as they supposed” on a neighbouring island
(named by them Leicester’s Island), managed to get together “almost
twentie tunne of ore.” But the next day the ice came driving into the
sound with such force that both barks were “greatly distressed,” and it
became imperative at once to get away from this dangerous place. Thus
they were obliged to leave the ore they had dug up in a pile on the
island. They got off on the next flood toward morning. About “five
leagues” beyond they came upon another sound, so “fenced on eche [each]
side with smal ilands lying off the maine, which breake the force of the
tides,” as to form an exceptionally good harbour. Accordingly they
decided to anchor here, under one of the isles. Then landing, they found
on this isle such an abundance of ore “indifferent good,” that they
concluded to load here rather than to seek further “for better and spend
time with jeoperdie.”
This decision being reached the miners were put diligently to work,
Frobisher setting a good example by his own energetic action, and every
man of the party “willingly layd to their helping hands.” The “Michael”
was despatched back to Jackman’s to bring up the “Ayde,” and on the last
day of July the ships were all in this haven, and all of the company
busy at mining. Within twenty days from the start of these operations
nearly two hundred tons of the supposed ore had been shipped, and
preparations had begun for the homeward voyage. Meanwhile a little fort
had been built on the island for accommodation and defence. This was
devised by Best, and his name was given it as “Best’s Bulwark.” Both
sound and island were named the “Countess Warwick’s Sound and Island,”
in honour of “that vertuous Ladie, Anne Countesse of Warwicke.” The
Countess of Warwick’s land is the Kod-lu-narn of to-day.
While the work of mining was going forward on this island more
scrimmages with the natives were had. Captain Yorke of the “Michael,”
when coming up from Jackman’s Sound, had a sharp fight with a body of
them on the shore of a little bay, afterward called for him “Yorke’s
Sound.” And here, in one of their seal-skin tents, were found relics—an
old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and shoes—of the five Englishmen whom
the natives had captured on the first voyage. Thereupon rescue parties
were sent out; a letter advising the lost men, if any were alive, of the
presence of their friends, was left in the custody of those of the
natives who seemed the most friendly, with pen, ink, and paper for
communicating their whereabouts; and threats of reprisal were made if
the men were not produced or their fate disclosed: but all to no
purpose. One rescue party under Master Philpot, the ensign, came into
conflict with a group off Yorke’s Sound, who began an assault with a
flight of arrows; and on their flying retreat Philpot’s men captured a
young woman and child to add to the living “prey” to be taken back to
England. Several of the natives, when wounded by the Englishmen’s return
fire, leapt into the sea and drowned themselves. The young woman was
taken with an old one, the two “not being so apt to escape as the men
were, the one for her age, and the other being incombred” with the
child. Some of the pursuing Englishmen suspected the old woman of being
“eyther a devill or a witch,” and to satisfy themselves on this fearful
point, they “had her buskins plucked off to see if she was cloven
footed.” She was finally let go because of her “ougly [ugly] hue and
deformity.”
Fuller information about the natives and their customs was given in the
narratives of this voyage than of the first one. Settle describes the
men as “of a large corporature and of good proportion.” They wore their
hair “something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very
disorderly.” The women also wore long hair, but theirs was “knit up with
two loupes, shewing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest
foltred upon a knot.” Their apparel was comprised of “skins of such
beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinews of them.” These
garments were made with “hoods and tailes which tailes they give when
they thinke to gratifie any friendship shewed unto them: a great sign of
friendship with them.” Their legs were encased in “hose of leather with
the fur side inward, two or three pairs on at once.” These stockings
were held up by a bone placed inside them, reaching from the foot to the
knee, instead of by garters. In them they carried their “knives,
needles, and other things needful to beare about.” The beasts, fishes,
and fowls that they killed provided all their wants. They were their
“meat, drinke, apparell, houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails
of their boates, with many other necessaries,” and “almost all their
riches.”
Their weapons comprised bows and arrows, darts, and slings. The bows
were of wood, “a yard long, sinewed at the back with strong sinews.” The
bow-strings were also sinews. The arrows were wooden, half a yard or a
little more in length, “nocked with bone and ended with bone,”
feathered, and of three styles of heads: one, of stone or iron,
“proportioned like to a heart”; another, of bone with a hooked tip; the
third, of bone sharp on both sides and sharp pointed. The darts were of
two kinds, one with “many forkes of bone in the fore end and likewise in
the midst,” the other with “a long bone made sharpe on both sides, not
much unlike a Rapier.” Their boats were of leather, “set out on the
inner side with quarters of wood artificially tyed together with thongs
of the same”; and they were of two sorts: one large, to carry sixteen or
twenty men, and provided with a sail made of the “guts of such beasts as
they kill very fine and thin, which they sew together”; the other, a
canoe, intended for one man only, with a single oar or paddle.
Their winter habitations Best thus described: “Upon the maine land over
against the Countesses Iland we discovered and behelde to our great
marvell the poore caves and houses of those countrey people, which serve
them (as it would seeme) for their winter dwellings.” They were “made
two fadome under grounde, in compasse round, like to an Oven, being
joyned fast one by another, having holes like to a fox or Connyberry, to
keepe and come togither. They undertrenched these places with gutters
so, that the waters falling from the hills above them, may slide away
without their annoyance: and are seated commonly in the foote of a hill,
to shield them better from the cold windes, having their doore and
entrance ever open towards the South. From the ground upward they builde
with whales bones for lacke of timber, which bending one over another,
are handsomely compacted in the top together, and are covered over with
Sealesskinne, which instead of tiles fence them from the raine. In which
house they have only one roome, having the one halfe of the floure
[floor] raised with broad stones a foot higher than ye other, whereon
strawing Mosse they make their nests to sleep in.”
The company finished the lading of the ships with their precious freight
on the twenty-first of August, and the next day took formal leave of the
place with a demonstration. Bonfires were lighted on the highest mount;
then all marched in procession, with ensign displayed, round about the
island; and finally a “vollie of shott” was given “for a farewell” in
honour of the Countess of Warwick.
They set sail on the twenty-third with a prosperous wind, but before
clearing the sound were becalmed and obliged to come to anchor again.
The next morning, making a fresh start, they proceeded to sea. Here they
took a more southerly course to “bring themselves the sooner into the
latitude of their own climate.” The wind was so strong that they lay “a
hull” the first night, and had snow half a foot deep on the hatches.
Three or four days later the “Michael” lost company of the other two
ships, and shaping her course toward the Orkneys she arrived first in
England, making port at Yarmouth. Later the “Gabriel” was separated from
the “Ayde.” On the thirtieth of August, with the force of the wind and a
“surge of the sea,” the “Gabriel’s” master and the boatswain were both
cast overboard. The boatswain was saved but the master lost. In the same
storm, on the first of September, the “Ayde” was disabled, her rudder
being “torn in twain.” The next day, when a calm succeeded the tempest,
an heroic work was performed in mending the break. “They flung halfe a
dozen couple of our best men overboard, who taking great paines under
water, driving plankes and binding with ropes, did well strengthen and
mend the matter.” This done (it is Best’s relation) the men returned
“the most part more than halfe dead out of the water.” The "Ayde" first
dropped anchor in “Padstow road,” Cornwall. On the twenty-third of
September she was at Milford Haven, in Wales; and a month later came up
to Bristol. Here the “Gabriel” had earlier arrived. After the loss of
her master, and when she was floundering at sea, she had the good
fortune to meet with a Bristol ship, which piloted her thither. Here
also word was had of the first arrival of the “Michael.” Of the one
hundred and twenty men comprising the whole company all reached home in
safety except two—Master Smyth of the “Gabriel” and one of the
gentlemen, who died at sea.
Their return with the two hundred tons of glistering stone and earth was
a great event. The treasure was committed to keeping in the Castle at
Bristol, while Frobisher repaired with all haste to the court, now at
Windsor, to make report to the queen.
XIV
THE LUST FOR GOLD
Of Frobisher’s interview with the queen and what followed we have
account in the introductory paragraph of the third chapter of Best’s
_True Discourse_:
“He was courteously enterteyned, and hartily welcommed of many noble
men, but especially for his great adventure commended of her Majestie,
at whose hands he received great thankes, and most gracious countenance,
according to his deserts. Her Highnesse also greatly commended the rest
of the Gentlemen in this service, for their great forwardnes in this so
dangerous an attempt.... And finding that the matter of the gold Ore had
appearance & made shew of great riches & profit, & the hope of the
passage to Cataya, by this last voyage greatly increased, her Majestie
appointed speciall commissioners chosen for this purpose, gentlemen of
great judgmente, art, and skill, to looke thorowly into the cause, for
the true triall and due examination thereof, and for the full handling
of all matters thereunto appertaining. And because that place and
countrey hath never heretofore beene discovered, and therefore had no
speciall name by which it might be called and knowen, her Majestie named
it very properly Meta Incognita, as a marke and bound utterly hitherto
unknowen.”
A part of the ore was brought up from Bristol Castle and deposited in
the Tower of London under lock and key; and after “sufficient triall and
proofe” of it had been made, and they had also become satisfied of the
“likelyhood” of the Northwest Passage, the commissioners advised the
queen that “the cause was of importance, and the voyage worthy to be
advanced again.”
Accordingly a third expedition was planned on quite a grand scale, and
with this project was coupled a scheme of what might be termed limited
colonization in Meta Incognita. One hundred selected “souldiers and
discreet men” were to be assigned to inhabit the place at least through
a year, for the “better guard” of those parts already found; for further
discovery of the inland and of its “secrets,” meaning mineral wealth;
and, lastly, for further search for the passage. For their accommodation
the frame of a fort or house of timber, “cunningly devised by a notable
learned man” in London, was to be carried out in parts in the ships;
also a pinnace, in parts.
For this larger venture, besides most of the company on the previous
voyage, “many well minded and forward young Gentlemen,” sons of the
English gentry, volunteered. Fifteen well-furnished ships, including the
experienced three, the “Ayde,” the “Gabriel,” and the “Michael,” were
assembled, constituting an imposing fleet. The “Ayde” was again
designated the “admiral,” carrying the captain-general. There was a
“viceadmiral”—the “Thomas Allen”—in command of Captain Yorke of the
“Michael” in the previous voyage. Christopher Hall was named chief
pilot. The third ship in line was the “Judith,” under Captain Fenton,
before of the “Gabriel,” and Frobisher’s lieutenant-general. The fourth
was the “Anne Francis,” under Captain Best; the fifth, the “Hopewell,”
Captain Carew; the sixth, the “Beare,” Captain Philpot, the ensign on
the second voyage. The others were: the “Thomas of Ipswich,” Captain
Tanfield; the “Emmanuel of Exeter,” Captain Courtney; the “Francis of
Foy,” Captain Mayles; the “Moone,” Captain Upcot; the “Emmanuel (or
Buss) of Bridgewater,” Captain Newton; the “Solomon of Weymouth,”
Captain Randal; and the barks “Dennis,” "Gabriel," and “Michael,”
Captains Kendal, Harvey, and Kinnesley, respectively. The government of
the expedition was commended to Frobisher, with Fenton, Best, and
Philpot as his principal aides. The one hundred appointed to constitute
the temporary colony were to comprise forty mariners for the use of
their ships, thirty miners to gather ore for shipment the next year, and
thirty soldiers, the latter number including the gentlemen, goldfiners,
bakers, and carpenters. Three ships of the fleet were to remain with the
colony through the year: the others were to load with the ore and return
at the end of the summer.
The gallant fifteen, all “in good readinesse,” foregathered at Harwich
on the twenty-seventh of May, 1578. Thereupon “the Generall with all the
Captaines came to the Court,” now at Greenwich, “to take their leave of
her Majestie.” All received at her hands “great encouragement and
gracious countenance”; while upon Frobisher she bestowed, “besides other
good gifts and greater promises,” a “fair chain of gold,” herself
throwing it around his neck. Then all the captains kissed the royal
hand, and departed “every man toward his charge.”
At Harwich the general and his captains made formal view of the fleet
and mustered their companies. Then the general handed to each captain
his articles of direction for the conduct of the expedition. On the
thirty-first anchors were weighed and the fleet were off.
The story of this voyage covers many pages in the telling by its
chroniclers, but it can profitably be compressed into smaller compass.
It is a tale of hardship with scant result, full of exciting incident
and exhibitions of heroism and nerve. As before, Hakluyt gives us two
narratives—the one written by Thomas Ellis, of the “Ayde’s” company; the
other by Best, being the third chapter of his _True Discourse_.
The start was auspicious. Off the Irish coast a bark was sighted which
by her actions was supposed to be a “rover of the seas,” and a merry
chase was given her. When, however, overhauled, she was found to be not
a pirate, but a reputable Bristol boat and the victim of a pirate.
Several of her crew had been killed; others lay wounded, hungry, and
desolate. The fleet was held up while our captain succoured them and
started her homeward in comparative comfort. This good deed done the
voyage was renewed, and without further incident of moment continued
till the Arctic regions were reached. On the twentieth of June new land
was discerned in “West Frisland”—the south of Greenland. Frobisher and
others went ashore here, the “first known Christians,” Best wrote, “that
we have true notice of that ever set foot on that ground.” Accordingly
the captain-general “took possession thereof to the use of our
Sovereigne Lady the Queen Majestie.” He named it “West England”; and a
high cliff on the sea front he called “Charing Crosse,” for “a certaine
similitude” to the London landmark. The inhabitants were found to be
very like those of Meta Incognita. From this coast, where much drifting
ice was met, they bore southerly toward the sea, hoping comfortably to
make their destination. On the last day of June they came upon “many
great whales.” One of the ships struck a big fellow head on, and such a
powerful blow that the vessel was brought to a full stop. “The whale
thereat made a great and ugly noyse and cast up his body and taile, and
so went under water.” Two days after a dead whale “swimming” above water
was met, and this was supposed to be the fellow which the ship struck.
On the second of July Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland was sighted encompassed
by ice.
[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH.]