SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, THE FOUNDER
OF NEWFOUNDLAND
Humphrey Gilbert was the second son of Sir Otho Gilbert of the
manor-house of Greenaway in South Devon; his mother was Catherine,
daughter of Sir Philip Champernown, of pure Norman descent, having
the blood of the Courtneys in her veins.
The three brothers, John, Humphrey, and Adrian, living at Greenaway
close to the Dart, about two miles above Dartmouth, no doubt often
played at being sailors in the beautiful reach of water that runs so
deep beneath the windows, that the largest vessels may ride safely
within a stone's throw. They were brave boys, full of promise even
in their boyhood, and all three destined to win the honour of
knighthood for daring deeds.
Humphrey, born about the year 1539, was no mere fighting seaman, but
a thoughtful, earnest discoverer of such scientific truths as were
within the intellectual grasp of the sixteenth century.
He was educated at Eton and Oxford, but his heart was ever in
seamanship. He talked so learnedly about his profession that news of
his prowess came to the ears of Walsingham, who rehearsed them to the
Queen. Hence it came that Humphrey Gilbert was examined before her
Majesty and the Privy Council: a record of this examination was drawn
up by Humphrey and still exists. He was "for amending the great
errors of naval sea-cards, whose common fault is to make the degree
of longitude in every latitude of one common bigness"; he had already
begun to invent instruments for taking observations and for studying
the shape of the earth. But his great idea was to form colonies in
the New World and find an outlet for trade and a population growing
too thick upon English soil. His manner and intelligence left a
great impression upon the Virgin Queen, for he reminded her more of
her favourite Greek philosophers than of a blunt English squire.
Sir Otho must have died when Humphrey was about twelve years old, and
his mother then married Mr. Raleigh of Hayes; he was a country
gentleman of slender means, living in a modest grange in a village
between Sidmouth and Exmouth. Whether her three boys accompanied her
we do not know; but when Walter Raleigh was a boy, he used to visit
his half-brothers at Compton Castle, amid the apple orchards of
Torbay, or at the Greenaway manor-house. We can imagine how that
imaginative child would sit by the river and listen to the stories of
his half-brothers, drinking in a love of adventure, a hatred of
religious persecution, and a belief in God's providence. For the
river was full of quaint vessels from every port, and the sailors
were full of moving stories of the prisons of the Inquisition, or the
sufferings of the Netherlanders; and the Gilberts had been brought up
by their mother to see the hand of God in all the great events of
life.
As one of Frobisher's men said, when describing the great tussle with
the ice-floes, "The ice was strong, but God was stronger."
We may be sure that one of the most critical moments in Walter
Raleigh's education was the time when he stayed with the Gilberts,
and listened to ideas of empire and duty which only a few in any age
have been inspired to feel and know and carry into practice.
Humphrey shows in his writings that he had read deeply; Homer and
Aristotle and Plato are quoted in his Discourse to prove a north-west
passage to Cathay. Philosophers of Florence, Grantor the Grecian,
and Strabo, Proclus, and Philo in his book _de Mundo_, and the German
Simon Gryneus, and a host of modern geographers are called to bear
witness to his theory that America was an island. Then he had read
all the accounts brought home by great seamen, and skilfully wrought
them together to prove his theory. But of course his facts were very
unreliable and mixed with strange errors, but that was not his fault.
If he believed that there was unbroken land to the South Pole, except
for the narrow opening of the Straits of Magellan, the error was not
his.
At the end of his memorial to the Queen, he writes: "Never therefore
mislike with me for the taking in hand of any laudable and honest
enterprise; for if through pleasure or idleness we purchase shame,
the pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth for ever. Give me
leave therefore, without offence, always to live and die in this
mind: that he is not worthy to live at all that, for fear or danger
of death, shunneth his country's service and his own honour, seeing
that death is inevitable and the fame of virtue immortal."
We can imagine the great Queen looking admiringly at this tall knight
of Devon, so fair and yet so strong, so practical and inventive, and
yet so compact of fancy and imagination; a man after her own heart,
brave and loyal, and one who feared God alone.
Humphrey was only twenty-five years old when he petitioned the Queen
in association with Anthony Jenkinson for licence to find out a
north-eastern passage to Cathay, a country which surpassed in wealth
all the parts of the Indies visited by the Spaniards. Gilbert
promised to fit out such an expedition at his own expense, all the
profits to go to those who embarked upon it, except the fifths, which
belonged to the Crown. However, Elizabeth did not yet listen
favourably to this project; she sent Jenkinson back to Russia as her
Ambassador, and found service for Gilbert under the Earl of Warwick
at Havre in 1563. Here he received a wound and had to come home for
a space of three years; then he was ordered to Ireland in July 1566,
to be employed under the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney. Humphrey was
appointed captain in the army which under Sidney was resisting the
forces of the Irish rebel chief, Shan O'Neill, and saw a good deal of
desperate fighting.
In November 1566, Sir Henry Sidney sent Gilbert with despatches to
England, and the daring youth presented another petition to the
Queen, asking for two of the Queen's ships, provided he supplied two
others, and requesting the life government for himself of any
countries he might conquer, and a tenth part of all their land. In
this petition he proposed to reach the Indies by the north-west, and
to this change of plan he remained constant. But the Company of
Merchant Adventurers protested against this as an infringement of
their own charter, and it was abandoned.
But the Queen never lost sight of her able young officer. In March
1567 Gilbert was back in Ireland, and in June the Queen wrote to
Sidney bidding him see how far the Irish rebels could be restrained
by establishing a colony of honest men in Ulster. She recommended
him to use the services of Humphrey Gilbert, as the colonists would
come chiefly from the west of England; these Gilbert was to select,
to conduct them to Lough Foyle and there to be their President. But
this plan was never carried out, and Gilbert went back to his
soldiering. For the next two years, as leader of a band of horse, he
helped Sidney to put down rebellion.
When in 1568 he was sent back to England and fell dangerously ill,
the Queen inquired carefully into his condition, and wrote to Sir
Henry Sidney to say that Gilbert was to have his full pay during his
absence, and some better place was to be found him on his return to
Ireland. So, with a Queen to back him up, Gilbert was made a
colonel, and defeated M'Carthy More in September. This victory won
for him the honourable duty of keeping the peace in the province of
Munster, where he showed more vigour and stern discipline than
sympathy.
In December we find him writing to the Lord Deputy, saying he was
determined to have neither parley nor peace with any rebel; for he
was convinced that no conquered nation could be ruled with gentleness.
Henry Sidney was not averse to the strong hand, and wrote to the
Queen, praising Gilbert's "discretion, judgment, and lusty courage,"
and on January 1, 1570, he knighted Gilbert at Drogheda.
In 1571 Sir Humphrey Gilbert married Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony
Ager of Kent, not unmindful perhaps of the old proverb:--
"A Knight of Gales, and a Gentleman of Wales, and a Laird
of the North Countree,
A Squire of Kent with his yearly rent will weigh them down
--all three."
He was then returned as M.P. for Plymouth.
But Elizabeth, who had been helping the Netherlands against Philip in
secret, underhand ways, began in 1572 to be impressed by the Catholic
League, and to fear that England, like all other Protestant
countries, must look to encounter the whole forces of the Pope. She
remembered the words of Walsingham, "Unless God had raised up the
Prince of Orange to entertain Spain, Madam, we should have had the
fire long since at our own door."
So Gilbert went to Flanders in 1572 with 1400 Englishmen to fight
against Philip's stern deputy, the Duke of Alva. He took part in the
siege of Sluys, and wrote to ask the Queen for more men to be sent.
He then helped in the assault on Tergoes. But his rash, hot-headed
style of fighting, acquired perhaps in Ireland, offended the slow and
cautious Dutchmen whom he was assisting, and Gilbert returned to
England, convinced that the Dutch lacked animal courage.
Then for two years Sir Humphrey lived quietly at Limehouse, busy with
chemical researches; but as his partners wished to try the so-called
science of alchemy and to transmute iron into copper, he begged leave
to withdraw, mistrusting their modicum of science.
Gilbert had time to meditate now on his relentless treatment of Irish
rebels. A brave and chivalrous gentleman, for those times, a
scientific explorer and a man of deep piety, he could now compare his
conduct in Ireland with Alva's in the Netherlands, and wonder if
Sidney's high praise had been deserved.
"For the Colonel," Sidney wrote to Cecil in 1570, "I cannot say
enough. The highways are now made free where no man might travel
unspoiled. The gates of cities and towns are now left open, where
before they were continually shut or guarded with armed men.... And
yet this is not the most, nor the best that he hath done; for the
estimation that he hath won to the name of Englishman there, before
almost not known, exceedeth all the rest; for he hath in battle
broken so many of them, wherein he showed how far our soldiers in
valour surpassed those rebels, and he in his own person any man he
had. The name of an Englishman is more terrible now to them than the
sight of a hundred was before. For all this, I had nothing to
present him with but the honour of knighthood, which I gave him; for
the rest, I recommend him to your friendly report."
That was the better side of the question--order kept and duty done.
But Sir Humphrey in his two years of quiet thinking and writing must
have often recalled with compunction scenes in Ireland which he could
not approve of, and perhaps was dimly conscious of at the time.
For the English troops, spread abroad over a lonesome countryside and
held in check only by some ruthless sergeant-major, would often, when
opposed to desperate men, meet outrage with outrage, and cruelty with
cruelty.
Sidney himself loathed his vile task, and often implored to be called
away from "such an accursed country."
We may be sure, then, that a man so gentle and humane as Sir Humphrey
Gilbert must have felt that the government of Ireland was no pleasant
task. It was also very expensive, for the cost of it to England
above the revenue levied in Ireland itself from the date of
Elizabeth's accession was now £90,000.
No one seems to have thought that lenity might win a greater success
than stern discipline. Rokeby writes to Cecil: "It is not the image
nor the name of a President and Council that will frame them to
obedience; it must be fire and sword, the rod of God's vengeance.
Valiant and courageous soldiers must make a way for law and justice;
or else, farewell to Ireland."
In the winter of 1574 Gilbert received a visit at Limehouse from
George Gascoigne, the poet. "Well, Sir Humphrey, how do you spend
your time in this loitering vacation from martial stratagems?" asked
the poet.
"Come into my writing-room, George, and you shall see sundry
profitable exercises which I have perfected with my pen--and that of
my half-brother, Walter Raleigh." Thereupon Gilbert put into his
friend's hands the celebrated Discourse on the North-west Passage.
As Gascoigne read the concluding words: "If your Majesty like to do
it all, then would I wish your Highness to consider that delay doth
oftentimes prevent the performance of good things, for the wings of
man's life are plumed with the feathers of death," he turned and said
with a laugh, "It is easy for a rhymester to see that Walter, the
poet, writ those words. But suffer me to take it home: such good
stuff asketh some study."
The manuscript of the Discourse was handed about in influential
quarters, and that very winter the Queen reminded the Governor and
Directors of the Muscovy Company that twenty years had passed since
they last sent out an expedition to search for Cathay. It was Martin
Frobisher who bore the Queen's letter to the Governor; and when the
Company declined to find a North-west Passage, the Queen granted a
licence to Frobisher and others to search for the same. But the
initial impulse had been given by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter
Raleigh.
Various schemes these restless adventurers proposed to the Queen, but
it was not until June 1578 that a charter was granted to Gilbert for
discovering and possessing any distant and barbarous lands which he
could find, provided they were not already claimed by any Christian
prince or people. He was authorised to plant a colony and to be
absolute governor both of the Englishmen and of the natives dwelling
in it; and he was to rule, "as near as conveniently might be," in
harmony with the laws and policy of England.
How swiftly Gilbert set about preparing his expedition! Fortunately
long arrears of pay had lately been issued to him for his services in
Ireland. All this he lavished on his ships and their provision,
leaving his little wife but a slender margin to live upon. But his
faith was so strong in his theories that he dared to risk almost all
he had.
Friends came round him, eager to help and--not least--to share the
profits of the expedition; among these were Walter and George
Raleigh, George and William Carew, Denny, his cousin, Nowell and
Morgan. But best of all, the Queen wished him all good success; for
she had sent two of her own kinsmen, Henry and Francis, sons of Sir
Francis Knollys, to join him on the expedition.
By the end of summer, 1578, Gilbert's fleet of eleven sail, manned by
five hundred young gentlemen and sailors, seemed ready for sea as it
lay at anchor between the wooded cliffs that girdle the Dart.
But a strange discord was already making Gilbert's life bitter to
him; there were too many masters in that little fleet, and petty
bickerings spoilt the voice of authority and command.
Naturally, the common seamen took their cue from their betters. They
were for the most part reckless men who had broken out of prison;
blasphemers and ruffians who had been tempted to volunteer from sheer
love of piracy.
Some of these men went brawling and rioting through Plymouth,
insulting the night-watch, and even adding murder to pillage.
The townsfolk complained, and the Earl of Bedford, at that time
Lord-Lieutenant of Devon, demanded that the guilty should be
delivered up. Sir Humphrey would have seconded the Earl's efforts to
keep order, but Henry Knollys, to whose ship most of the rioters
belonged, set the law at defiance, laughed at the disorders, and thus
encouraged his crew to commit further excesses.
Knollys, relying on his kinship to the Queen, even ventured to be
rude and insolent towards his leader, and boasted to Sir Humphrey
that he was worth twenty knights. Once, when Gilbert had invited him
to dinner, Knollys declined the invitation, insolently remarking that
he had money to pay for his own dinner, and that the admiral might
keep his trenchers for such beggars as stood in need of his
hospitality.
Every day these bickerings and insults passed between the captains
and threatened to end in bloodshed. Henry Knollys, being left second
in command while Sir Humphrey was absent on business, took the
opportunity to pay off a grudge he had against Captain Miles Morgan.
Fortunately Gilbert returned just in time to stay the proceedings.
As he rowed to the ship he asked the meaning of the flag being at
half-mast. "They be agoing to string up Cap'en Morgan at the
yardarm, Admiral."
One may imagine how anger and shame and disappointment troubled the
mind of the thoughtful explorer, as he hastened to save his captain
from the savage vengeance of Henry Knollys.
Then, to secure himself against an appeal to the Queen's Council,
Gilbert submitted the matter to the Mayor of Plymouth, who, after
hearing evidence on both sides, gave judgment in favour of the
admiral.
But this did not put a stop to the quarrels of the captains, and
Henry Knollys, his brother Francis, Captain Denny, Gilbert's cousin,
and others of the company broke away from the admiral with four
ships, and set sail on their own account. It is pleasant to know
that the Queen stood by her faithful Gilbert, and would listen to no
complaints from the Knollys.
It was not until the 19th of November that Sir Humphrey, with Walter
Raleigh, was able to sail from Plymouth with seven ships and three
hundred and fifty men. But whither they went has been left in
obscurity.
It seems that Gilbert wished to plant a colony on the North American
coast, a little south of Newfoundland, but the majority of his
officers were for making an attack upon the Spanish possessions
further south. In attempting this they fell in with a strong Spanish
fleet in the spring of 1579, and were defeated with the loss of one
of their best ships and of the brave Captain Miles Morgan, and of
many others among the adventurers.
So Raleigh and Gilbert gave up the voyage and returned to Plymouth in
May. They came to London, poor in funds and somewhat dashed in
spirit; but the unlooked-for sympathy of admiring courtiers and
merchants cheered them not a little.
"Walter, we will not give it up yet! Let us work hard for a better
ending."
The Queen was much concerned for Gilbert's failure, and sent him with
Walter Raleigh in two ships to the Irish coast to prevent James
Fitz-Maurice from raising an insurrection along the south coast.
After some active service against Spanish vessels, Gilbert was sent
back to England, while Raleigh remained to serve under Lord Grey of
Wilton. Gilbert, returning to his wife in poverty and
disappointment, was not unlike Martin Frobisher; they both suffered
in promoting the expansion of the Queen's Empire, and both found
their wives in abject destitution.
In July 1581 Sir Humphrey writes to Walsingham from his house in
Sheppey a piteous letter, begging that he may be paid a small sum of
money owed him for his services in Ireland, whereby he had lost so
much that he was reduced to extreme want. "It is a miserable thing
that after twenty-seven years' service I should now be subjected to
daily arrests for debt, to executions and outlawries, and should have
to sell even my wife's clothes from off her back."
Still Sir Humphrey did not despond, but talked much of his new colony
which he was to found in Baccalaos, or Newfoundland.
The elder Cabot had discovered the island, and Spaniards and French
had made trading voyages to it in search of codfish. The Bristol
merchants still preferred commerce with Iceland, though Anthony
Parkhurst of Bristol reported in 1578 that the English fishing fleet
had increased from thirty to fifty sail, and he urged that more
should try that trade.
But the moneyed gentlemen of the Court and City thought little of
cod-fish, and yearned for the wealth of the Aztecs in Mexico, where
lumps of gold as large as a man's fist could be picked up, and pearls
were measured by the peck. With some retailers of such marvellous
stories Gilbert had conference, and, with help from many speculative
friends, he was able to make a second start in the summer of 1583.
His brother, Walter Raleigh, and his old friends Sir George Peckham
and Carlile, helped to fit out the expedition. Raleigh, having made
money in Ireland and at Court, fitted out the _Raleigh_, a barque of
200 tons. There were also the _Delight_, of 120 tons, the _Golden
Hind_ and the _Swallow_, each of 40 tons, and the tiny _Squirrel_, of
10 tons. In these vessels were some two hundred and sixty persons.
"For solace of the people and amusement of the savages we were
provided with music in great variety, not omitting toys, as
morris-dancers, hobby-horses, and many like conceits, for to delight
the savage people, whom we intended to win by all fair means
possible."
The Queen, ever willing to lend approval to her sea-captains, not
without a sense of favours to come from the Indies, had sent Gilbert,
by Raleigh, a token, an anchor in gold guided by a lady; "And further
she willed me to send you word that she wished you as good hap as if
she herself were there in person, desiring you to have care of
yourself as of that which she tendereth ... further, she commandeth
that you leave your picture with me."
This time Gilbert had his own way and steered straight for
Newfoundland, leaving Plymouth harbour on the 11th of June 1583. The
wind was fair all day, but a great storm of thunder and wind fell in
the night.
On the third day signal was made from Raleigh's barque that Captain
Butler and many of his crew were fallen sick--a contagious sickness
had broken out which constrained them to forsake the fleet and return
to Plymouth.
"The reason I never could understand," says the chronicler, Edward
Hayes, captain and owner of the _Golden Hind_. "Sure I am, no cost
was spared by their owner, Master Raleigh, in setting them forth,
therefore I leave it unto God."
After this they passed through a series of fogs and storms, and were
separated; they saw many mountains of ice drifting southwards. About
fifty leagues this side of Newfoundland they passed the Bank, having
twenty-five fathoms water below them. There they saw many Portuguese
and French fishing over the Bank; they knew without sounding how far
the Bank extended, by the incredible multitude of sea-fowl hovering
over the same. When the _Golden Hind_ at last reached the Bay of
Conception they found the _Swallow_ again, and all her men much
altered in apparel. At their first meeting the crew of the _Swallow_
"for joy and congratulation spared not to cast up into the air and
overboard their caps and hats in good plenty." These men, it turned
out, being pirates for the most part, had stopped a home-bound
barque, just to borrow a little victual and raiment. "Deal
favourably with them, my lads," quoth the captain of the _Swallow_.
Off went the cock-boat with a merry crew and boarded the English
fishing-smack; from which they rifled and took store of tackle,
sails, cables, victuals, and raiment. While, if any tried to hide
his valuables, they wound a cord about his head full merrily, pulling
it taut till the blood gushed out. "But God's justice did follow the
same company," for as they took their cock-boat to go aboard the
_Swallow_, it was overwhelmed in the sea, and certain of the men were
drowned. The rest were saved even by those whom they had before
spoiled; but God's vengeance was, we are told, only delayed. They
then held on southwards until they came to St. John's harbour, where
they found the _Squirrel_ at anchor outside; for the captains of the
merchant ships had refused to let her enter the harbour.
So, while making ready to fight and force an entrance, Gilbert
despatched a boat to let them know that he came with no ill intent,
but had a commission from her Majesty for the present voyage.
Permission was at once granted, and the four ships were sailing in,
when the _Delight_ ran upon a rock fast by the shore. "But we found
such readiness in the English merchants to help us in that danger,
that without delay there were brought a number of boats which towed
off the ship and cleared her of danger."
When they had let fall their anchors, the captains and masters of the
merchantmen came on board; the admiral showed his commission, to take
possession on behalf of the Crown of England, and they all welcomed
him with salutes of guns and offer of provisions. Also invitations
were issued to continual feasts and merry entertainments. "We were
presented with wines, marmalades, most fine rusk, or biscuit, sweet
oils and sundry delicacies. Also we wanted not of fresh salmons,
trouts, lobsters, and other fresh fish brought daily unto us."
After their hard fare and tedious sea-passage such abundance came to
them as a delightful surprise.
The next day being Sunday, the 4th of August 1583, Sir Humphrey and
his officers went on shore and were shown "the garden." "But nothing
appeared more than Nature herself without art, who confusedly hath
brought forth roses abundantly, wild but odoriferous, and to sense
very comfortable. Also the like plenty of raspberries, which do grow
in every place."
Gilbert was so pleased with what he saw that he resolved to make St.
John's the chief place in the new colony.
On Monday there was a mass meeting called before the admiral's tent,
and the charter was explained to all; then in the Queen's name
Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland, England's first and oldest
colony, and had delivered unto him a rod and a turf of the soil, as
the custom of England was.
Three laws to begin with Sir Humphrey proposed, and all agreed
thereto:--
"1. All the religion in public exercise shall be according to the
Church of England.
"2. If any one attempt anything prejudicial to the Queen's
authority, he shall be tried and executed as in case of high treason.
"3. If any shall utter words sounding to the dishonour of her
Majesty, he shall lose his ears, and have his goods and ship
confiscate."
Then amid general shouts of joy the Arms of England, engraven in lead
and fixed upon a pillar of wood, were set up not far from the
admiral's tent.
For a short time Sir Humphrey spent a very happy life in
Newfoundland, for he had won for himself and his descendants almost
regal power; and he was no selfish adventurer, but one who from a
good heart and fear of God wished to advance the welfare of his Queen
and country, while he benefited the merchants and natives.
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[Illustration: ENGLAND'S FIRST COLONY]
Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed at St. John's, and there took formal
possession of Newfoundland for the Crown, by receiving a rod and a
turf of the soil, as the custom of England was.
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He appointed men to repair and trim the ships, others to gather
supplies and provisions, others to search the country round for
account of what was most noteworthy. By his orders two maps were
drawn of the coast, which were however lost at sea. The explorers
came back full of enthusiasm for the new colony, having found no
natives in the south part, but in the north many harmless savages.
Fish, trout, salmon, and cod were reported to be in incredible
quantities; whales and turbot, lobsters and herrings and oysters
abounded. They saw fir-trees, pine, and cypress, all yielding gum
and turpentine; they were told that the grass would fatten sheep in
three weeks, and were shown peas gathered in early August.
They found also large partridges, grey and white, and rough-footed
like doves, red-deer, bears, and ounces, wolves and foxes and otters,
rich in fur beyond price.
The General had brought to him a sable alive, which he sent to his
brother, Sir John Gilbert, knight of Devonshire; but it was never
delivered.
The narrator in Hakluyt bursts into a pæan of delight at the lavish
gifts of a munificent God: "Though man hath not used a fifth part of
the same, choosing to live very miserably within this realm pestered
with inhabitants, rather than to adventure as becometh men."
Especially in the matter of minerals had Gilbert ordered his refiner,
Daniel, to make diligent inquiry, who one day brought the admiral
some ore and said, "If silver be the thing which may satisfy thee,
seek no further."
Gilbert commanded him not to let others know of his discovery; he
sent it on board for further assay when they should be on the high
sea.
Some people have found fault with Sir Humphrey for not having
exercised more forethought for housing his colonists in the winter;
but the fault and the failure of the first settlement lay in the men
he had been given to take out with him. For indeed many of them were
lawless robbers, men who hated honest work--gaol-birds let out to
avoid the expense of keeping them at home.
The bad men amongst them corrupted the weaker, and in a fortnight
Gilbert had such a ruffianly crew that his heart must have sunk
within him.
Some were for stealing away vessels by night and taking to piracy.
One band of marauders carried away out of the harbour a ship laden
with fish, after they had set the poor crew ashore. Others--and many
of them--stole away into the woods, hiding themselves, and living as
wild men; others lay about in drunken exhaustion. Some were sick of
fluxes, and many died; and not a few craved licence to depart home.
So less than three weeks after the glad blowing of horns and booming
of guns, the little colony had grown so weak and dispirited that
Gilbert resolved to leave the _Swallow_ behind, to carry home the
sick as soon as they could travel, while he himself in the
_Squirrel_, with the _Delight_ and the _Golden Hind_, set out to
explore the coast to the south. He preferred the little _Squirrel_,
because she was so light and could search into every harbour and
creek; for he intended to return next year and plant yet another
colony, if it pleased God, of a better sort of men.
Under Cape Race, at the south-west of the island, they were becalmed
several days, and laid out hook and line to fish: in less than two
hours they took cod so large and so abundant that for many days after
they fed on no other food. On reaching Cape Breton Isle, Gilbert
intended to land; but the crew of the _Delight_ turned mutinous, and
sailed out to the open sea.
The _Golden Hind_ and the _Squirrel_ gave chase, but the _Delight_
sped on faster, and her crew kept up their spirits with noisy music
of drums and cornets.
Towards the evening of August the 27th, the crew of the _Golden Hind_
caught "a very mighty porpoise with a harping iron"; they had seen
many--a sure sign of a coming storm. Some declared that they heard
that night strange voices which scared them from the helm. Men who
would meet a known danger face to face were apt to run away from what
seemed weird and ghostly. Next day the _Delight_, keeping ill watch,
struck against a rock, and in an hour or two had her stern beaten in
pieces. The others dared not venture so near shore to help them, but
they could see the crew taking to their boats and to rafts in the
raging sea.
Thus Gilbert lost his largest ship, freighted with great care, and
with all his papers, and with her he lost nearly a hundred men;
amongst whom were the learned Budæus of Hungary, who was to have
celebrated their exploits in the Latin tongue, Daniel, the Saxon
refiner, and Captain Maurice Brown, "a vertuous, honest, and discrete
gentleman," who refused to leave his ship. One pinnace, overfull of
passengers, had a narrow escape. There was on board a brave soldier,
named Edward Headly, who said, "My friends, 'twere better that some
of us perish rather than all. I make this motion, that we cast lots
who shall be thrown overboard, thereby to lighten the boat. I offer
myself with the first, content to take this adventure gladly, so some
be saved."
But the master, Richard Clark, answered him thus:
"No, no! I refuse the sacrifice, and I advise you all to abide God's
pleasure, who is able to save all, as well as a few."
The little boat was carried for six days before the wind, and then
they arrived famished and weak on the Newfoundland coast, saving that
Headly, who had been ill, could not hold out, but died of hunger by
the way. Those that were saved were taken to France by certain
fishermen.
The weather continued thick and blustering, and the cold grew more
intense; they began to lose hope, and doubted they were engulfed in
the Bay of St. Lawrence, where the coast was unknown and full of
dangers. Above all, provisions waxed scant and their clothes were
thin and old. The men of the _Golden Hind_ and of the _Squirrel_
exchanged signs, pointing to their mouths and ragged clothing, till
Gilbert was moved to compassion for the poor men, and called the
captain and master of the _Hind_ on board the _Squirrel_ and said:
"Be content, we have seen enough, and take no care of expense past.
I will set you forth royally next spring, if God send us safe home.
Therefore, I pray you, let us no longer strive here, where we fight
against the elements." So with much sorrow they consented to give up
the voyage, being comforted by the General's promise to return
speedily next spring.
It was Saturday, the 31st of August, when they changed their course,
and at the very instant when they were turning there passed along
towards the land which they were forsaking "a marvellous creature,
like a lion in shape, hair, and colour, not swimming after the manner
of a beast, but rather sliding upon the surface, with all his body
exposed except the legs. Thus he passed along, turning his head to
and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demonstration of long
teeth and glaring eyes: and, to bid us farewell, he sent forth a
horrible voice, roaring as doth a lion; which spectacle we all beheld
so far as we were able to discern the same, as men prone to wonder at
every strange thing, as this doubtless was, to see a lion in the
ocean sea, or fish in shape of a lion. The General took it for a
Bonum Omen, rejoicing that he was to warre against such an enemie, if
it were the devil."
On Monday Sir Humphrey went aboard the _Golden Hind_ to have the
surgeon dress his foot, which he had hurt by treading on a nail.
He was merry enough, and they comforted one another with hope of hard
toil being all past, and of the good hap that was coming.
They agreed all to carry lights always by night that they might the
better keep together. But when they begged Sir Humphrey to stay
aboard the larger vessel, he laughed and shook his head and rowed
back to the _Squirrel_. Immediately after followed a sharp storm
which they weathered with some difficulty; then, the weather being
fair again, the General (as they called him) came aboard the _Hind_
again, and made merry with the captain, master, and company,
continuing there from morning until night.
This was their last meeting, and sundry discourses were made touching
affairs past and to come: but Sir Humphrey lamented sore the loss of
his great ship, and of the men, and most of all of his books and
notes; for which he seemed out of measure grieved: so that the
chronicler deemed he must be sorrowing over the loss of his silver
ore.
But Sir Humphrey's great soul was above such trash. He had seen
enough in Newfoundland to know that its possession by England would
be a jewel in the Queen's crown beyond all price. This was his
second failure, not from any fault of his, but he doubtless feared
that God was wroth with him for some fault of temper. For faults of
temper he had, and confessed the same, saying: "Do ye mind when I
sent my boy aboard the _Delight_ to fetch some charts and papers
before she had gone on the rocks?"
"Aye, aye, General; 'twas when we were becalmed off Newfoundland,
near unto Cape Race."
"I be wondrous sorry now that I beat the lad so grievously in my
great rage; but he had forgotten to bring the chief thing I wanted."
They kept silence, as he sighed and looked away through the rigging.
Anon they would talk of next year's voyage, please God! and Sir
Humphrey reserved unto himself the north for discovery, affirming
that this voyage had won his heart from the south, and that he was
now become a northern man altogether.
"But what means have you, General, to compass the charges of so great
a preparation for next spring--with two fleets, a southern and a
northern?"
"Oh! leave that to me, friends; I will ask a penny of no man. I will
bring good tidings unto her Majesty, who will be so gracious to lend
me a thousand pounds. Nay, lads, be of good cheer; for I thank God
with all my heart for that I have seen in Newfoundland: enough there
for us all, and no need to seek any further."
Such comfortable words Sir Humphrey kept oftentimes repeating, with
demonstration of great confidence and fervency, and belief in the
inestimable good which this voyage should procure for England. But
his hearers looked on and listened, with considerable doubt and
mistrust.
"I will hasten to the end of this tragedy," writes Mr. Hayes; "as it
was God's ordinance upon him, even so the vehement persuasion and
entreaty of his friends could nothing avail to divert him from a
wilful resolution to go through in his ten-ton frigate, which was
overcharged upon her decks, with nettings and small artillery, too
cumbersome for so small a boat that was to pass through the ocean at
that season of the year."
All the answer which his well-wishers got was a cheery refusal to
stay: "I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom
I have passed so many storms and perils." It is worth noting, too,
that a squirrel was in the crest of the Gilberts. So, seeing he
would not bend to any reason, they carried some better provision for
him aboard the _Squirrel_ and committed him to God's protection.
By this time they had brought the Azores south of them, and were
still keeping to the north until they had got to the latitude of
South England. Here they met with very foul weather and terrible
seas, "breaking short and high, pyramid-wise"; so that men said they
never saw more outrageous seas. Also upon the mainyard sat a little
fire by night which seamen call Castor and Pollux, a sure sign of
more tempest to follow.
Monday, the 9th of September, a great wave passed over the little
_Squirrel_, yet she shook herself like a bird and recovered; and then
they saw Sir Humphrey Gilbert sitting abaft with a book in his hand.
And as oft as the _Golden Hind_ approached within hearing, the crew
heard him cry out to them from his frigate, "Courage, my friends; we
are as near to heaven by sea as by land."
This speech he repeated more than once, "well beseeming a soldier,
resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was."
The same Monday night, about midnight or not long after, when the
little _Squirrel_ was ahead of the _Golden Hind_, suddenly her lights
were seen to go out; the watch cried, "The General is cast away"; and
this proved too true.
The _Golden Hind_ battled on, signalling to every small vessel they
saw in the distance, in case she should be their consort, but all in
vain. They arrived at Falmouth the 22nd day of September, then on to
Dartmouth to certify Sir John Gilbert of his brother's death, who
courteously offered hospitality to the captain and his company.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert has been described as one of the worthiest of
the Elizabethan heroes. He had all Raleigh's high sense of honour,
and a more genial manner. He gave England her first colony, and
ruined himself in doing it. Mr. Hayes, who sailed with him, says,
"The crosses, turmoils, and afflictions, both in the preparation and
execution of this voyage, did correct the intemperate humours in this
gentleman, which made less delightful his other manifold virtues."
No doubt, the fact that his aunt, Kate Ashley, had been Elizabeth's
old and valued governess first commended him to the Queen, but her
continued favour was due to Humphrey Gilbert's sterling worth and
loyal service. Prince, in his "Worthies of Devon," describes him as
"an excellent hydrographer and no less skilful mathematician, of an
high and daring spirit, though not equally favoured of fortune. His
person recommended him to esteem and veneration at first sight; his
stature was beyond the ordinary size, his complexion sanguine, and
his constitution very robust."
The motto on his arms, _Mutare vel timere sperno_, if not good Latin,
yet breathed the spirit of chivalry. Sir Humphrey did "scorn to
waver or to fear," and he has earned an Empire's gratitude.