SIR MARTIN FROBISHER, THE EXPLORER OF
THE NORTHERN SEAS
It has been conjectured that Martin Frobisher was the son of Francis
Frobisher, who in the year 1535 was Mayor of Doncaster, and lived at
Finningley, some seven miles south-east of Doncaster. One historian
claims Frobisher as a Devon man, but Fuller in his "Worthies" writes:
"Why should Devonshire, which hath a flock of worthies of her own,
take a lamb from another county?" Another tells us that Frobisher
was born at Normanton in Yorkshire, and was about as old as Humphrey
Gilbert.
Lock, an adventurer and merchant of London, says in his Memoir that
Martin "was born of honest parentage, a gentleman of a good house and
antiquity, who in his youth, for lack of schools thereabout, sent him
to London, where he was put to Sir John York, knight, being his
kinsman; he, perceiving Martin to be of great spirit and bold courage
and natural hardness of body, sent him in a ship to the Gold Country
of Guinea, in company of other ships sent out by divers merchants of
London." This was in the autumn of 1554: it was one of the first
expeditions sent out from England to explore the western coast of
Africa, and was commanded by John Lock. They landed on the Gold
Coast and began a prosperous trade in gold and elephants' teeth,
returning to London in 1555. For eleven years after this little is
known of Frobisher's doings, except that he made more voyages to West
Africa and to the Levant in the Mediterranean.
In 1566 he had risen to the rank of captain, and was apparently noted
for his daring voyages, as in May of that year he was examined by
order of the Queen's Council on suspicion of having fitted out a ship
for piracy.
In 1572, when he was lodging at Lambeth after one of his voyages, one
Ralph Whalley called upon him at his lodging and introduced himself
as a follower of the Earl of Desmond, an Anglo-Irish nobleman, at
that time imprisoned in the Tower for treason. He was the head of
the great house of the southern Fitzgeralds, who were all-powerful in
Munster, but Sir Henry Sidney, by Queen Elizabeth's orders, had sent
him on arrest to England. He surrendered his property into the
Queen's hands, but was committed for security to the Tower.
Whalley explained all this to Frobisher, and suggested how profitable
it would be to help this deserving gentleman to escape out of
England. Why should he be kept in the Tower? he had done no ill to
any one. Frobisher was appealed to as a daring sailor, well known by
repute in all the ale-houses where the sign of the bush was hung out,
and as generous as he was brave.
Well, the idea was that the Earl, having got free out of the Tower,
should be carried in an oyster-boat as far as Gravesend, and there
should embark on board a ship to be provided by Frobisher.
The reward which Whalley held out, to counterbalance the risk
incurred in helping a prisoner to escape, was a share in the vessel
of the value of £500, and a free gift from Earl Desmond of his island
of Valentia, on the coast of Derry. We do not know whether Frobisher
entertained the idea of helping Desmond; probably he thought it too
risky, for the attempt was not made. Possibly on thinking it over
Frobisher believed it to be his duty to inform the Government, for he
signed a declaration four months later in which he describes the
Lambeth incident. Desmond did get away later on and broke out in
rebellion in Ireland, only to be killed at last in an Irish cabin.
Frobisher had latterly been employed by the Government in sailing
along the Irish coast to intimidate rebels and prevent the landing of
foreign sympathisers. This he continued to do for three or four
years after the Lambeth incident, and so he came under the notice of
Burghley and the Queen, and won the friendship of Sir Henry Sidney
and Sidney's favourite, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Now Sir Humphrey was
the chief promoter of attempts to find a north-west passage to the
Indies; he and Frobisher must have had many a long talk together over
the Arctic map; and at last the Queen heard of the idea and granted a
licence in 1575 to Master Martin Frobisher, and divers gentlemen
associated with him, for finding a north-west passage to Cathay.
The chief argument in Frobisher's mind which proved the existence of
such a passage was that Nature did all things in harmony. Now, as
she had made a fair communication between the Southern Atlantic and
the Pacific, so she would be found to have established the same
water-way between the Northern Atlantic and the Pacific. It was of
the same order of reasoning as the old theory that "Nature abhors a
vacuum."
However, it seemed so very reasonable that many moneyed men in the
city of London were willing and anxious to spend money on the search.
Lock subscribed £100, Sir Thomas Gresham £100, Lord Burghley £50, the
Earls of Sussex, Leicester, Warwick £50 each, and others smaller
sums, until a fund of £875 was secured; in modern currency this was
equivalent to some £6000, but was not sufficient for carrying out the
project.
Frobisher went about London, Lock tells us, a sad man and thoughtful;
Lock lent him books and maps, and got him friends and subscriptions,
but still the fund remained insufficient. "I made my house his home,
my purse his purse, and my credit his credit, when he was utterly
destitute both of money and credit and of friends."
The ships were, however, being furnished in the docks, and after all
the many conferences in Fleet Street and Mark Lane, and even at
Greenwich Court, still the money came slowly in. At last, by May
1576, two strongly built barques, the _Gabriel_ and the _Michael_,
each of 25 tons burden, together with a small pinnace of 10 tons, lay
ready in the Thames, hard by old London Bridge. Frobisher received
his commission as admiral, Hall and Griffin were masters, and
Chancellor purser of the voyage. They numbered about forty officers
and men, and started on the 7th of June.
As they sailed off Deptford the pinnace was run down by a vessel
coming up stream; her bowsprit and foremast were broken, and
twenty-four hours were spent in doing repairs.
At midday on Friday the vessels sailed past Greenwich, firing guns as
a salute in honour of the Court. The Queen sat at a window watching
them, and waved her hand in token of farewell.
Anon she sent a messenger in a rowing-boat to tell her brave seamen
that she liked well their doings and thanked them for it, and also
willed that Master Frobisher should come the next day to the Court to
take his leave of her. This he did with a beating heart; for was not
his ambition of fifteen years being now satisfied!
They sailed round the western coast of England and Scotland, and
halted in the Shetlands to calk the _Gabriel_, for she was leaking,
and to take in water. Sailing west from the Faroe Islands they
caught sight of "some high and ragged land rising like pinnacles of
steeples"--perhaps the south of Greenland. They could not land for
"the great store of ice that lay along the coast, and the great mists
that troubled them not a little."
As they sailed north and west a great storm arose and swept away the
pinnace, so that they saw her no more. Next day they lost the
_Michael_, but her crew, after waiting about on the ice-bound coast
of Labrador, concluded that Frobisher and the rest in the _Gabriel_
were drowned, and so they returned home and came to Bristol on the
1st of September.
And now Frobisher in the _Gabriel_, with eighteen mariners and
gentlemen, pushed boldly on, undaunted by the strange perils that
surrounded them, and they reached the group of islands lying westward
of what is now called Davis's Straits. Neither could they land for
the ice, snow, and fog, but at last found a resting-place on an
island which Frobisher called "Hall's Island," for that Hall, master
of the _Gabriel_, there first landed. Thence he sailed into a bay
and called it "Frobisher's Straits," thinking it would lead them to
India.
Once, on landing, they saw some things floating in the sea afar off,
which they thought to be porpoises, but on coming nearer they found
they were men in small leathern boats. These brought salmon for
barter, laying it down on the rocks and signing to the English to do
the same with their goods. If not satisfied the natives took up
their fish and went away.
They were disposed to be friendly, and liked to climb the rigging of
our ships, and "tried many masteries upon the ropes after our
mariners' fashion."
Others reported less favourably of them, saying that their manner of
life and food was "very beastly." "They be like to Tartars, with
long black hair, broad faces and flat noses, tawny in colour, wearing
sealskins ... the women are marked in the face with blue streaks down
the cheeks and round about the eyes."
On the 20th of August one of the Eskimos was brought on board the
_Gabriel_, to whom Frobisher gave a bell and a knife, sending him
ashore in the ship's boat with five of the crew to manage it. They
were ordered not to go out of sight, but curiosity led them to land,
and they never returned.
Five days were spent in coasting along the shore, in blowing of
trumpets and firing guns to attract his men's attention, but all in
vain; they were believed to have been murdered. Now Frobisher had
only thirteen men left and no ship's boat; he felt he could do no
more that year.
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[Illustration: CAPTURE OF AN ESKIMO]
Frobisher had lost several men through the treachery of the natives,
and determined to make an example of one of them. He enticed one by
holding out a bell and other trinkets, and as soon as he came within
reach he dropped the bell, seized the man by the arm, and hauled him
bodily on board.
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But before he left the land "he wrought a pretty policy; for, knowing
how they greatly delighted in our toys, and especially in bells, he
rang a pretty, low bell, making signs that he would give him the same
that would fetch it." At first they feared to come, but at last one
of them came near the ship's side to receive the bell. But as he
stretched out his hand to take the bell, Frobisher let the bell fall
and caught the man fast, plucking him with main force, boat and all,
out of the sea on to the _Gabriel's_ deck.
This was not the only time that Martin Frobisher thus proved his
strength. But the Eskimo, when he found he was caught, bit his
tongue in twain within his mouth, for very anger and vexation.
On the voyage home, as they passed Iceland, one of the crew was blown
overboard by a violent gust of wind, but he chanced to lay hold of
the foresail sheet and hung on till Frobisher, leaning down, picked
him up and hauled him dripping aboard again.
On the 2nd of October the _Gabriel_ entered the river at Harwich,
having been rather less than four months absent from England, after
exploring much northern territory, but without finding the desired
passage to Cathay.
"Why! we thought you were all lost! The _Michael_ came home and they
said you were nowhere to be found!" was the first greeting they
received.
But in London they were joyfully welcomed on October 9th, bringing
with them the strange infidel and his boat, whose like was never
seen, read, nor heard of before, and whose language was neither known
nor understood of any.
But the poor stranger, who could resist the inclemency of an Arctic
winter, could not withstand our damp autumn gales; he caught a cold
at sea, and lingered only a few weeks, after being the brief wonder
of the town. But a more extraordinary discovery, and one which
afterwards spoiled all Frobisher's attempts at scientific research,
was this.
Philip Sidney, writing in 1577, says to his tutor: "I wrote to you
about a certain Frobisher, who, in rivalry of Magellan, has explored
the sea which, as he thinks, washes the north part of America. It is
a marvellous history. He touched at a certain island in order to
rest his crew; there by chance a young man picked up a piece of earth
which he saw glittering on the ground and showed it to Frobisher; but
he, being busy with other matters, and not believing that precious
metals were produced so far north, considered it of no value. But
the young man kept the earth by him till his return to London. And
there, when one of his friends saw it shining in an extraordinary
manner, he tested it and found it was the purest gold."
Another account says that this "earth" was a black stone, much like
to sea-coal in colour; "and it fortuned a gentlewoman, one of the
adventurers' wives, to have a piece thereof, which by chance she
threw and burnt in the fire so long that at length, being taken forth
and quenched in a little vinegar, it glittered with a bright
glistening of gold." So the stuff was taken with some show of
excitement to certain gold-refiners in the City to make an
assay-thereof; and their verdict was that it held gold and that in
very rich measure.
Immediately this news got bruited about, there was no small stir
among the merchants and courtiers--all, seamen and men of learning
alike, clamoured for another expedition; for they argued that it was
of small importance to find a passage to Cathay, if treasures equally
valuable lay so near at hand.
Queen Elizabeth and Burghley were both ready to throw economy to the
winds, if good gold could be gotten by "Master Frobisher."
So a charter was granted to the "Company of Cathay," and Frobisher
was to have 1 per cent. of all he found, together with a fixed yearly
stipend. He was to take his own ships _Gabriel_ and _Michael_, each
of 25 tons burden, and a Queen's ship, the _Aid_, of 200 tons, and
furnished with sixty-five sailors and twenty-five soldiers.
Among the crews were ten convicts--highway robbers--taken out of
prison and lent to Frobisher as "likely men of their hands."
Frobisher had no relish for such gentry, as being men who might lead
mutinies and do lawless deeds; he therefore dropped them on the
English coast and carefully forgot to take them with him.
When Frobisher opened his "instructions" he found to his disgust that
the finding of a North-West Passage was a very subordinate part of
his duty. He was to go to Hall's Island, leave his large ship in
safe harbour, and search for gold with the two smaller vessels. He
was to plant a colony and capture eight or ten people of the country,
"whom we mind shall not return again thither, and therefore you shall
have great care how you do take them, for avoiding of offence towards
them and the country."
On taking leave, Frobisher had the honour of kissing her Majesty's
hand as he knelt before her, who dismissed him "with gracious
countenance and comfortable words." At Gravesend they went to church
and received the Sacrament--"prepared as good Christians towards God
and resolute men for all fortunes."
At Harwich they tarried three days to take in provisions and weed out
the convicts. The next place they stopped at was Orkney, where they
found the people so strange that they fled from their pebble-built
cottages with shrieks at their approach. "The goodman, wife,
children, and others of the family eat and sleep on the one side of
the house, and the cattle on the other--very beastly and rudely in
respect of civility."
As they sailed north great fir-trees came floating by, torn by the
roots out of the rocky soil by the great storms, also some icebergs
came in their way. When they reached Greenland they could find no
place to land; for three days Frobisher wandered up and down in a
rowing-boat, but saw only a ragged coast-line of high mountains and
snow-clad rocks, looking like lumps of ice in the misty sea. At
Hall's Island all the ships met after being separated by a storm.
Then for five weeks Frobisher searched the land for gold ore, and
found little. They met some natives near Frobisher's Straits and
very pleasantly spent a great part of one day in exchanging
merchandise, the Eskimos making all possible signs of friendship.
But Frobisher, in obedience to the Queen's orders, tried to coax two
of the natives into his boat, and at once the new-found friends were
turned into enemies; for they ran for their bows and wounded several
of our men. Soon after they were menaced by a host of icebergs, a
thousand or more, and the whole night long was spent in evading these
dangerous visitors. "Some scraped us, and some escaped us. In the
end we were saved, God being our best steersman."
In the morning Frobisher called his men to thank God heartily for His
protection of them in the time of danger. The storm cleared
Frobisher's Straits of pack-ice, and sailing up they found a big fish
embayed with ice, about twelve feet long, having a horn of two yards
long growing out of its snout. This horn, "wreathed and straight,
like in fashion to a taper made of wax," they took home and presented
to the Queen at Windsor.
In their explorations they thought they saw much gold ore, and
entered some houses built two fathoms under ground, round like ovens,
and strengthened above ground by bones of whales, for lack of timber.
The men were of the colour of a ripe olive, very active and nimble,
clad in sealskins and hides of bear, deer, and fox. They loved
music, could keep time to any tune that was sung to them, and could
soon sing aptly any tune they heard. They were excellent marksmen,
and when they shot at a fish they used to tie a bladder to the arrow,
which, by buoying the dart, at length wearied out and killed the
fish. All they had to burn was heath and moss, and they kindled a
fire by fretting one stick against another.
"The women carry their sucking children at their backs and do feed
them with raw flesh, which first they do a little chew in their own
mouths." They believed in magic and said prayers to stones in order
to cure a headache, and would lie on the ground face downwards, and
by groans do obeisance to the foul fiend.
Once the English had a desperate fight with natives, who would never
give in, but if mortally wounded, despairing of mercy, would leap
headlong off the rocks into the sea, lest they should be eaten. In
this fight in York Sound two women were caught; one being old was
taken by the sailors for a witch, so they plucked off her buskins to
see if she were cloven-footed! She was not; and the poor thing, for
her ugly hue and deformity, was let go. The other was young and
encumbered with a young child. As she was hiding behind some rocks,
she was taken for a man and shot through the hair of her head; her
child's arm too was pierced by an arrow. When brought to the surgeon
she cried out, and the surgeon with kind intent applied salves to the
baby's arm. But the mother plucked the salves away, and by constant
licking of her tongue healed the wound.
By the middle of August Frobisher had loaded his ships with some two
hundred tons of mineral, and as cold weather was coming he decided to
return. So lighting a bonfire in the Countess of Warwick's Island,
and all marching round it with blare of trumpets and echo of guns,
they said good-bye to the "Meta Incognita" for this year, 1577.
The _Aid_ arrived at Milford Haven on September 23rd and proceeded to
Bristol, when they learnt that the _Gabriel_ had already arrived, and
that the _Michael_ had sailed safely to Yarmouth.
Frobisher was invited to Windsor and there heartily thanked by the
Queen. "Two hundred tons of gold ore you have brought, Master
Frobisher? and pray, where shall this treasure be stored? That asks
some considering."
Poor Frobisher! not a question asked about his geographical
discoveries, or the North-West Passage; but two hundred tons of gold
ore were enough to make all England merry--let us not blame the
Queen. Most of it was deposited in Bristol Castle, the rest conveyed
to the Tower of London; and the Queen sent a special messenger to
remind the Warden that four locks were to be placed upon the door of
the treasury, and that one key should be handed over to Martin
Frobisher, one to Michael Lock, one to the Warden of the Tower, and
one to the Master of the Mint. Ah! if only all these tons had
contained gold, how happy would Master Frobisher have made his Queen
and her subjects! But as yet all were agog with the wonderful news
and with hopes of still more treasure to be gotten another year.
At once small parcels were doled out to the best gold-refiners in
London, and at Bristol, where Sir William Winter controlled the ore.
The refiners heated their furnaces--and themselves week after week.
It was passing strange! they could not induce the gold to show itself.
On the 30th of November Michael Lock, Frobisher's great friend and
financier, informed Secretary Walsingham that some unbelief in the
quality of the mineral was growing up; and Winter at Bristol
confessed that they had not been able to get a furnace hot enough "to
bring the work to the desired perfection." The general verdict was
that "the ore was poor in respect of that brought last year, and of
that which we know may be brought the next year."
So the merchant adventurers, the Cathay Company, the Queen's Court,
and all the little subscribers in county towns tried to comfort
themselves. And to prove that the gold was there--must be there--a
much larger expedition was preparing for 1578, Frobisher's third
voyage!
Fifteen ships were being fitted out to bring home two thousand tons
of good rock. One wonders where it all lies now!
Six months were occupied in the work; for they were to leave a colony
of a hundred men in "Meta Incognita"; and for these they were to take
out a strong fort of timber to defend the colonists against cold and
enemies. Besides these Frobisher was to select one hundred and
thirty able seamen, a hundred and sixty pioneers, sixty soldiers,
besides gunners, carpenters, surgeons, and two or three ministers to
conduct divine service according to the rites of the Church of
England. Captain E. Fenton was to be vice-admiral and captain of the
colony, and he, with Captains Yorke, Philpott, Best, and Carew, were
to be Frobisher's chief advisers.
The ships assembled at Harwich on the 27th of May; on the 28th
Frobisher and his fourteen captains repaired to the Court at
Greenwich, and there they had a splendid "send-off." Her Highness
bestowed on the General a fair chain of gold, and the other captains
had the honour of kissing her hand. We may gather something to
elucidate Frobisher's character from the code of instructions which
he drew up to be observed by his fleet:--
"Art. 1. Imprimis. To banishe swearing, dice, cards' playing and
all filthie talk, and to serve God twice a day with the ordinary
service, usual in the Church of England.
"Art. 8. If any man in the fleete come upon other in the nyghte and
haile his fellow, knowing him not, he shall give him this
watch-worde, 'Before the world was God'; the other shall make answer,
'After God came Christ, His sonne'--Martyn Furbusher."
It was no uncommon thing in those days for an educated man to be
rather vague about the spelling of words, and even his own name might
have variations. Frobisher, with all his passionate temper, tried to
serve God according to his lights; he was resolute that his men
should do so too.
They sailed from Harwich on the 31st of May, and on the 6th of June
fell in with some Bristol traders who had been assailed by French
pirates, and were so wounded and hungry that they were like to perish
in the sea, their food for many days having been olives and stinking
water.
Frobisher sent his surgeons to dress their wounds, gave them store of
food, and steering north-west reached the south of Greenland.
He this time found a good harbour, native boats, and tents. The
people ran away, and Frobisher only took two white dogs, leaving some
knives for payment.
Soon after, the Solomon struck a great whale with her full stern so
violently that the ship stood still. "The whale thereat made a great
and ugly noise and cast up his body and tail, and so went under
water; within two days there was found a great whale dead, swimming
above water." The creature had probably been asleep on the surface.
On the 2nd of July they had reached Frobisher's Straits, which to
their discontent they found choked up with ice, and the ships were in
great danger for some days. The _Denis_, of 100 tons, was struck by
an iceberg and lost. She carried the movable fort; her crew only
were saved.
Then followed a great storm, and they had much ado to defend the
sides of their ships from "the outrageous sway and strokes" of the
fleeting ice. For planks of timber of more than three inches thick
were shivered and cut asunder by the surging of the sea and
ice-floes, and the noise of the tides and currents reminded them of
the waterfall under London Bridge. When the storm abated, under the
lee of a huge iceberg Frobisher mustered his ships and caused the
crews to offer up special thanksgivings for their great deliverance.
After the storm came fogs, and they lost their bearings. Frobisher
said the coast was in Frobisher Straits; Hall averred it was not, and
they quarrelled like schoolboys; for "Frobisher fell into a great
rage and sware that it was so, or else take his life."
However, Frobisher was afterwards proved to be in the wrong; he had
discovered the great inlet, called subsequently "Hudson's Strait."
This he followed up for three hundred miles, trying to persuade his
comrades that they were in the right course. He himself began to see
he had been misled, but a strong desire and hope came upon him--he
would now find the passage to Cathay! But his crew cared little for
such poor ambition; they talked against their leader behind his back,
and soon openly demanded to be taken home. So they turned once more
to the region of fog, and after imminent risks, the mariners being
scared in the darkness and crying continually, "Lord, now help or
never!" they cleared the corner of "Meta Incognita" on the 23rd of
July. Then the mutineers murmured again because Frobisher wished to
wait for the rest of the fleet; but Frobisher mastered them and
brought his ships to the Countess of Warwick's Sound. There he was
welcomed by the crews of the _Judith_ and the _Michael_, and two days
afterwards Hall appeared with the remaining vessels.
Special services of thanksgiving were offered and the mutinous men
were forgiven, though they continued to be sulky and obeyed under
protest. No colony could be left, because the timber for the fort
was lost. When they reached Bear's Sound the flame of discontent
blazed up so fiercely that it was even proposed to put their admiral
ashore and leave him to perish in the snow. However, this was voted
against by the majority, who perhaps were wondering what the Queen
might say. For it was well known that she had a high opinion of her
"trusty and well-beloved" Master Frobisher.
They embarked for home after they had filled their bunkers, and had
hardly entered the open sea with their cargoes of mineral than a
violent storm dispersed them; the _Aid_ was nearly wrecked, and lost
her pinnace. So with contrary winds and heavy storms they battled
their way south, and reached port somewhere in England by October.
As before, their coming was welcomed with hearty delight, and once
more the hopes of speculators stirred the enthusiasm of the nation.
One old chronicler writes: "Such great quantity of gold appeared that
some letted not to give out for certaintie that Solomon had his gold
from thence, wherewith he builded his temple."
The Queen had advanced £4000 herself, to show her belief in Frobisher
and in the gold ore, and all were now waiting for the refiners'
verdict. It came very rapidly--no gold to be got out of all these
tons of rock! Enthusiasm and shouting gave way to abuse and slander,
not only in the Court and City, but the mutinous part openly accused
Frobisher of having misled them: "his vainglorious mind would not
suffer any discovery to be made without his own presence."
Even Lock, Frobisher's good friend in time of prosperity, now led the
opposition to him, and refused to pay the salary that was due to him.
There was an added bitterness in this which the world did not know
of; for Frobisher had been obliged to leave his wife and children
poorly provided for. A letter from Dame Isabel Frobisher, "the most
miserable poor woman in the world," to Sir Francis Walsingham,
describes to us a pitiful state of affairs. She complains that
whereas her former husband had left her with ample means for herself
and children, her present husband--whom God forgive!--had spent all
she had, and "put them to the wide world to shift." In fact, they
were starving in a poor room at Hampstead, and when Frobisher came
home he doubtless comforted her, saying his salary was overdue, and
all would soon be well. Then Frobisher goes into the City and is
told he cannot have his salary! He is furious, for his temper was
ever stormy, and calls Lock "a bankrupt knave." Lock writes to
Walsingham and complains that Frobisher has raged against him like a
mad beast. Others, who have met Frobisher and railed against him for
bringing home worthless mineral, meet with similar ill-treatment. No
wonder! for the man is well-nigh beside himself to find his pains and
sufferings for England's sake miscalled neglect, to know that a
pamphlet has been written against him as an arrogant, obstinate, and
prodigal knave, "full of lying talk, impudent of tongue, and
perchance the most unprofitable of all who have served the Company."
We need not wonder if Frobisher, having been spoilt by praise and
flattery after his two former voyages, now lost his temper and swore
that he would hip his masters "the Adventurers" for their ungenerous
treatment. It was the search for this non-existent gold which
cramped him and deprived his voyages of half their usefulness: the
blame rested elsewhere.
Lock was thrown into the Fleet Prison for buying a ship for £200 and
not being able to pay for it. No doubt other speculators were
equally near ruin.
It is pleasant to know that the Queen never lost her belief in her
trusty servant, though she, like others, must have chafed at the loss
of her subscription.
"No more expeditions, an it please you," said the City merchants; but
the wealthy courtiers, Leicester and Shrewsbury, Oxford, Pembroke,
and Warwick, proposed to try one more voyage, and Drake offered to
fit out a ship of 180 tons. Frobisher went home to his wife in high
glee: "It will all come right, pretty mistress; there is to be
another voyage, and I, Martin Frobisher, the Admiral." Yet when the
instructions came, the poor earnest discoverer was taken aback; for
in the paper he read, "We will that this voyage shall be only for
trade, and not for discovery of the passage to Cathay."
His heart sank within him--another search for gold! No! he would
have none of it. He had the scientific spirit of Agassiz, who, when
offered by New York any terms he liked, if he would come and lecture,
replied by telegram: "Gentlemen, I have no time for making money."
So Frobisher bluntly refused to lead such an expedition, and Edward
Fenton went in his place,--and it was to look for carracks in the
South Seas!
How Frobisher and his lamenting wife lived for the next few years we
do not know; but in 1580 he was appointed Clerk of her Majesty's
ships, and once he went as captain on a Queen's ship, the
_Foresight_, to prevent the Spaniards giving help to the Irish rebels
in Munster.
In 1585 a fleet was fitted out to annoy the King of Spain in the West
Indies, in return for his seizing all the English ships and seamen
found in his ports.
Sir Francis Drake was admiral in the _Elizabeth Bonadventure_,
Frobisher was vice-admiral in the _Primrose_; there were twenty-five
vessels and 2300 men, and they were authorised by the Crown to make
war upon King Philip of Spain. It was looked upon as a religious war
in defence of freedom of conscience. Walsingham wrote to Leicester:
"Upon Drake's voyage, in very truth, dependeth the life and death of
the (Protestant) cause, according to men's judgment."
The fleet left Plymouth on the 14th of September 1585, and after
receiving the submission of Vigo and doing some damage and liberating
some English prisoners, they went to Palma, in the Canaries. Here,
owing to "the naughtiness of the landing-place, well furnished with
great ordnance," Drake and Frobisher were driven off with some loss.
At Cape de Verde one of his men was murdered by a Spaniard, and the
penalty exacted was the burning of Santiago, the hospital excepted.
Here a severe sickness broke out, extreme hot burning and continual
agues, which led to "decay of their wits" and strength for a long
time after; thereby they lost more than two hundred men. Thence they
sailed to Dominica, St. Kitts, and Hispaniola. At San Domingo 1200
men were landed under Master Carlisle. It was New Year's Day, 1586,
when a hundred and fifty Spanish horse came out to crush the
invaders, but had to retire within the walls. There were two gates
facing the sea; by these Carlisle entered, dividing his force and
vowing that, if God would help them, they would meet in the
market-place. This they succeeded in doing, and next day Drake and
Frobisher brought their vessels into the harbour, and landed most of
the men to share in the spoil.
San Domingo was held for a month and ransacked, but little gold or
silver was found, only wine, oil, olives, cloth, silk, and good store
of brave apparel, some of which they saved, doubtless for their wives
at home.
The Spanish Governor and the troops had fled to a fort three miles
from the town, and Drake sent a negro boy with a flag of truce to
treat with them for their ransom. The poor lad was met half-way, and
so beaten that he could scarcely crawl back to die at the admiral's
feet.
Drake was not the man to leave such an outrage unavenged; he ordered
the Provost-Marshal to carry two friars to the same spot and hang
them there. He also sent a messenger to inform the Governor that two
prisoners would be hanged every day until the murderer was given up.
The murderer was given up and hanged, and then the town was fired.
Similar proceedings were taken at Cartagena, though here the
Spaniards fought more stoutly, and Indian archers "with arrows most
villainously empoisoned" caused the death of many. Many English,
too, "were mischiefed to death by small sticks, sharply pointed, that
were fixed in the ground, with the points poisoned." As the attack
was made in the dark, many were wounded and died. Cartagena was held
for six weeks, and many courtesies passed between the Spaniards and
the English. A ransom of £28,000 was paid, and Drake restored the
town to its inhabitants.
They left Cartagena on the 31st of March, after blowing up the fort,
and sailed along the coast of Florida, sacking and burning the
Spanish settlements of San Juan de Pinos and St. Augustine; then they
came to the island of Roanoke, where they found Raleigh's colonists
on the verge of starvation, offered them help and a passage home.
These colonists had behaved cruelly to the Indians and had suffered
for it. They brought home a strange herb, which is thus described:
"There is a herb," says Hariot, one of the colonists, "which is
called by the natives uppowoc: the Spaniards call it tobacco. The
leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder, they are to take
the fume thereof, by sucking it through pipes made of clay, into
their stomach and head, whence it purgeth superfluous phlegm and
other gross humours, or openeth all the pores and passages of the
body."
A month's sailing brought them to Portsmouth, but it was not
considered a successful cruise, for they had lost seven hundred and
fifty men, chiefly from disease, brought home two hundred pieces of
brass cannon, and sixty thousand pounds, of which one-third was given
to the soldiers and sailors as prize-money. But the chief gain was
in the effect on Philip, who forbade the sailing of his Indian fleet
until Drake and Frobisher returned.
These found on landing that nearly every gentleman in England was
fitting out a ship for privateering against Spain; that Hawkins and
Winter were busy overhauling the Queen's navy, and that England was
expecting an invasion. No doubt Frobisher was soon kept busy too,
and we will hope that the wife and children at Hampstead had less
cause to complain of their poverty when they got their share of the
prize-money. And how glad they all were when Frobisher rode home one
evening and cried: "News! good wife. What think ye, lads and lasses?
The great Armada is on her way at last."
"Alack! and wail-away! is that news for your poor family, Master
Frobisher?"
"Ha! ha! it is the time when honest men come to the front, wife. In
a word, you shall have no stint of rations henceforth; for I, Martin
Frobisher, am to-day appointed Vice-Admiral, in command of a squadron
in the Queen's fleet, and go down to Plymouth to-morrow. The Lord
High Admiral, Lord Howard, hath writ right excellently of me to her
Majesty to this effect nearly: 'Sir Francis Drake, Mr. Hawkins, Mr.
Frobisher, and Mr. Thomas Fenner are those whom the world doth judge
to be men of the greatest experience that this realm hath.' So, God
help us all and defend the right!"
Thus Frobisher, the vice-admiral, rode a-horseback down to Plymouth,
and probably played many a game of bowls on the Hoe, while the
captains waited for the signal. History tells how, when the call
came, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher waited upon the Spanish rear
squadron on that famous Sunday of the 21st of July, cutting in and
out amongst the unwieldy galleons, and cheering one another on amid
fire, smoke, and bellowing cannon. For six hours the English hornets
pursued the Spanish monsters, and by three o'clock the Spanish fleet
was disordered and confused, and the English seamen sat down to
supper and prayers and letter-writing.
Anon they returned to the pursuit, and as luck would have it, the
flagship of the Andalusian squadron under Don Pedro de Valdez came
athwart the _Triumph_ and Martin Frobisher. She had lost her
foremast and was crippled for speed; so the Duke of Medina Sidonia
left her in the lurch. "Left me comfortless in the sight of the
whole fleet," wrote Pedro to King Philip. However, Frobisher
signalled to Hawkins, and together they came buzzing round the lofty
Spaniard with shot of guns. All through the night the flagship
defended herself bravely; in the morning who should come through the
mist but Drake in the _Revenge_.
Drake was a busy man just now and could not afford to waste powder,
so he sent a pinnace to command them to yield. Don Pedro replied
that he was four hundred and fifty strong; he spoke much of his
honour and proposed conditions. Drake in return said, "I really have
no leisure to parley. If thou wilt yield, do it presently and at
once; if not, then I shall well prove that Drake is no dastard." How
that terrible name struck a panic into the Spaniards! It was Drake!
Don Pedro made haste to come on board the _Revenge_ with forty men,
and bowed with Spanish courtesy, paid Drake many compliments, and
yielded up his sword. That day Don Pedro dined at Drake's table; his
men were sent to Plymouth till their ransoms were paid. Drake's crew
took 15,000 ducats in gold out of the spoil and shared it merrily
among themselves.
But Frobisher and Hawkins had meant to take this galleon and share in
all this prize-money and ransom-money. They had no time now to
grumble or quarrel, as the fight was not yet over; but long after, on
the 10th of August, when the crews were again on shore, Frobisher
said angrily of Drake: "He thinketh to cozen us of our shares of the
15,000 ducats; but we will have our share, or I will make him spend
the best blood in his belly, for he hath done enough of those
cozening cheats already."
Don Pedro having defended his ship all night against Frobisher and
Hawkins had then surrendered to the mere terror of Drake's name. A
better-tempered man than Frobisher might have felt aggrieved at the
ill-luck.
By Wednesday most of the fighting was over, and Lord Howard divided
his fleet, now increased from sixty sail to a hundred in one week,
into five squadrons, of which Frobisher was to command the fourth
squadron and guard the narrow sea. On Thursday, 25th July, Frobisher
had a hard fight against the _Santa Anna_ and a Portuguese galleon.
At last Lord Howard came to his rescue, and was so full of admiration
for the prowess shown that the next day he knighted Frobisher and
Hawkins.
By Monday the 29th of July, we find Frobisher in the _Triumph_, with
Drake and Hawkins closely pursuing the Spaniards over the Flemish
shoals; there they dashed in upon the crescent formation and drove
some ashore to be wrecked, and others to the angry seas outside. The
galleons of Spain were so tall that the English could not
conveniently assault them; so "using their prerogative of nimble
steerage, they came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards, and
charged them so sore that now and then they were but a pike's length
asunder. And so, continually giving them one broadside after
another, they discharged all their shot, both great and small upon
them, spending a whole day in that violent kind of conflict."
Later, when the great Armada sped north under a rising gale,
Frobisher and his squadron remained in the Channel to guard the shore
against Parma.
In May 1590, he was sent as vice-admiral under Sir John Hawkins to
cruise along the Spanish coasts and intercept the carracks from
India. But Philip was keeping all his trading vessels in port; so
they returned to England in October with so few prizes that the Queen
expressed great displeasure. The next thing we hear of Frobisher is
his being sent in a swift pinnace by the Queen to recall Walter
Raleigh as he was starting for the Isthmus of Darien. Frobisher took
Raleigh's place and commanded one squadron; his orders being to
cruise about the coasts of Spain and "to amaze the Spanish fleet."
Fortunately a big Biscayan ship with a valuable cargo came in sight,
was captured and sent home, to the Queen's well liking; but after
that Frobisher had no more good fortune.
In 1594 Henry of Navarre wrote to Queen Elizabeth for help in
dislodging a force of 3000 Spaniards from the Brittany coast.
Raleigh pressed the subject at Court until Frobisher was sent with
ten ships to try and save Brest from falling into Philip's hands.
Frobisher landed his troops and joined Sir John Norris, who was about
to attack Fort Crozon, near Brest. The Spaniards made a stout
resistance and many English fell. The Queen, hearing this news,
wrote to Norris advising more caution: "The blood of man ought not to
be squandered away at all adventures." She wrote, too, in November
to Frobisher:--
"Trustie and well-beloved, wee greet you well ... we perceive your
love of our service and your owne good carriage, whereby you have won
yourself reputation.... We know you are sufficientlie instructed
howe to prevent any soddaine mischief, by fire or otherwise, upon our
fleet under your charge...."
So we see the Queen caring for her men and her ships, and frankly
commending her trusty admiral for his foresight--but letting him see
that she was ever watchful over his doings.
The Crozon fort was taken and razed to the ground, but the brave
Frobisher was wounded in the hip by a musket-ball. It would have
been a trifle in our days of scientific dressing, but the surgeon,
when he extracted the ball, left the wadding behind; the wound
festered, fever and death ensued. Here is Frobisher's last letter to
the Lord High Admiral as he lay wounded:--
"I was shott in with a bullett at the batterie, so as I was driven to
have an incision made to take out the bullett; so as I am neither
able to goe nor ride. And the mariners are verie unwilling to goe
except I goe with them myself. Yet, if I find it come to an
extremitie, we will do what we are able: if we had our vittels, it
were easily done."
That was just like Frobisher! though he lies on his death-bed, he is
ready to go with his men to front the foe, "if it come to an
extremitie."