The Boy's Hakluyt: English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery, by Edwin Monroe Bacon

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The Boy’s Hakluyt. English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery, retold from Hakluyt by Edwin M. Bacon. Illustrated. 12mo

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This account of Richard Hakluyt and his narratives of English exploration and adventure, from the earliest records to the establishment of the English colonies in North America, has been prepared at the instance of Edwin D. Mead, the fine mainspring of the far-reaching system of historical study widely known as the “Old South Work,” for the instruction of young folk, by engaging methods, in genuine American history. The purpose of the book was to draw the youth of to-day to a source of American history of first importance, and a work of eternal interest and value.

To this end I have sought to utilize the huge foolscap volumes of the Principal Navigations and to summarize or compress the narratives into a coherent story from the earliest adventures chiefly for conquest to those for discovery and expansion of trade, and finally for colonization, down to the settlement of Virginia. The American note is dominant throughout this animated story of daring, pluck, courage, genuine heroism, and splendid nerve displayed by the English captains of adventure and discovery North, East, and West.

I have endeavored also to recall Hakluyt’s significant work in his publications which preceded the Principal Navigations, and in his equally important personal efforts to forward American colonization by England, in order to re-present him in his true position, recognized by the earlier historians—that of a vifounder hand in hand with Raleigh of the English colonies, out of which developed the national life of the United States.

The dictum of William Robertson in his eighteenth century History of America (1777), that to Hakluyt England was more indebted for her American possessions “than to any other man of that age,” was sustained by Sir Clements Robert Markham, the English traveller, geographer, and historian, upon the occasion, in 1896, of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Hakluyt Society, of which Sir Clements was then the president, when he said: “Virtually Raleigh and Hakluyt were the founders of those colonies which eventually formed the United States. As Americans revere the name of Walter Raleigh, they should give an equal place to Richard Hakluyt.”

Sir Clements further observed: “Excepting, of course, Shakspere and the Dii Majores, there is no man of the age of Elizabeth to whom posterity owes a deeper debt of gratitude than to Richard Hakluyt, the saviour of the records of our explorers and discoverers by land and sea.”

Americans may well claim the pride of inheritance in these brave annals of adventure on untried seas and to unknown lands. Hakluyt’s quaint language ought not to be a hard nut to crack for the American boy when such rich meat is within.

In the year 1582, a quarter of a century before the founding of Jamestown, in 1607, and thirty-eight years before the establishment of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1620, there appeared in London a pamphlet-volume entitled Divers Voyages touching the Discouerie of America and the Hands adaicent vnto the same, made first of all by our Englishmen and afterwards by the Frenchmen and Britons.

The direct and practical object of this little book was the promotion of English colonization on the American continent, where Spain at the South and France at the North then had firm foothold. Its mission was fully accomplished in giving the first effective impulse to the movements which led up to the ultimate establishment of the colonies that eventually formed the United States.

So it has a peculiar interest, especially for all Americans who would know their country, as a first source of the True History of the American Nation.

2The name of the compiler was modestly veiled in the earlier impressions under the initials “R. H.” appended to an “Epistle Dedicatorie,” addressed to “Master Phillip Sydney, Esquire,” which served for a preface. In subsequent editions, however, the author declared himself as “Richard Hakluyt, Preacher.”

He might with propriety have added to this simple clerical distinction other and broader titles. For, worthy as they may have been and doubtless were, the least of his accomplishments were those of a cleric. Yet under thirty when Divers Voyages appeared, he had already attained an assured place among scholars for his learning in cosmography, or the science of geography, and was particularly known to English men of affairs as an authority on Western discovery.

Divers Voyages was skilfully designed for its special purpose. The various accounts then extant in print or in manuscript, giving particulars of the discovery of the whole of the coast of North America, were brought together and so artfully arranged as at once to enlighten his laggard countrymen and to inflame their ambition and their desire for gain. By way of introduction was presented an informing list of writers of “geographie with the yeare wherein they wrote,” beginning with 1300 and ending with 1580; and another of travellers “both by sea and by lande,” between the years 1178 and 1582, who also, for the most part, had written of their own “travayles” and voyages: Venetians, Genoese, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Frenchmen, as well as Englishmen. Next followed a note 3intended to show the “great probabilitie” by way of America of the much-sought-for Northwest Passage to India. Then came the “Epistle Dedicatorie” to “the right worshipfull and most vertuous gentleman” Master Sidney (not then knighted as Sir Philip Sidney), in which was detailed the compiler’s argument for the immediate colonization of the parts of North America claimed by England by right of first discovery made under her banners by the Cabots, with this pungent opening sentence, cleverly calculated to sting the English pride:

“I maruaile [marvel] not a little that since the first discouerie of America (which is nowe full fourescore and tenne yeeres) after so great conquests and plantings of the Spaniardes and Portingales [Portuguese] there that wee of Englande could neuer have the grace to set footing in such fertill and temperate places as are left as yet vnpossessed of them.”

“Surely if there were in vs that desire to aduaunce the honour of our countrie which ought to bee in euery good man, wee woulde not all this while haue foreslowne [forborne] the possessing of those landes whiche of equitie and right appertaine vnto vs, as by the discourses that followe shall appeare more plainely.”

With these preliminaries the compiler first proceeded alluringly to exhibit “testimonies” of the Cabot discoveries of the mainland of North America for England a year before Columbus had sighted the continent.

This evidence comprised the letters-patent of King 4Henry the seventh issued to John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, authorizing the exploration of new and unknown regions, under date of the fifth of March, 1495/6, distinguished in American history as “the most ancient American state paper of England”; a “Note of Sebastian Gabotes voyage of Discouerie taken out of an old Chronicle written by Robert Fabian, sometime alderman of London”; a memorandum of “three sauage men which hee brought home and presented vnto the King”; and another reference to the Cabot voyages made by the Venetian historian, Giovanni Battista Ramusio, in the preface to one of his volumes of voyages and travels published in 1550–1563. Next followed, in the order named, a “Declaration” by Robert Thorne, a London merchant long resident in Seville, Spain, setting forth the discoveries made in the Indies for Portugal, and demonstrating to Henry the eighth of England that the northern parts of America remained for him to “take in hande,” which he failed to do; a “Booke” by Thorne, still in Seville, later prepared, in 1527, at the request of the British ambassador in Spain, being an “Information” on the same subject; the “Relation” of John Verazzano, the Florentine corsair, in the service of France, describing his voyage of discovery, made in 1524, along the eastern coast of America from about the present South Carolina to Newfoundland; an account of the discovery of Greenland and various phantom islands, with the coast of North America, by the brothers Zeno, Venetian navigators, in the late fourteenth century; 5and a report of the “true and last” discovery of Florida made by Captain John Ribault for France, in 1562.

The pamphlet closed with a chapter of practical instructions for intending colonists and an inviting list of commodities growing “in part of America not presently inhabited by any Christian from Florida northward.”

Its publication was a revelation to the English public. Before it appeared the people in general of that day had little knowledge of the accomplishments of either their own or foreign voyagers in discovery and for commercial advantage. Merchants engaged in foreign trade or ventures—and adventurous mariners, to be sure—kept themselves informed on what was going on and had gone on. But the information they collected was exclusively for the purposes of their own traffic. They were not interested in making it public. The real object, too, of many expeditions professing to aim at higher purposes, was, as John Winter Jones points out in his Introduction to the modern reprint of Divers Voyages, a gold-mine, or a treasure-laden galleon on the high seas. Hakluyt’s little book immediately gave a fresh turn to public interest. Its practical effect was the speedy forwarding of the expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in the summer of 1583, the first of the English nation to carry people directly to erect a colony in the north countries of America. This was an unsuccessful attempt at an establishment at Newfoundland, and was followed by the loss of Sir Humphrey with the foundering of his cockle-shell of a ship on the return voyage.

6Two years after the appearance of Divers Voyages a second work came from the same hand for the same general object.

This was a work of broader scope and of larger significance. It was prepared not for the press but for private and confidential circulation. It was, in effect, a state paper, marshalling arguments in behalf of a specific policy, and was intended expressly for the eye of queen Elizabeth, and her principal advisers. It exhibited the political, commercial, and religious advantages to be derived by England from American colonization at a critical juncture of affairs. The Catholic Philip the second of Spain was now aiming at the “suppression of heretics throughout the world,” and Elizabeth of England was his main object of insidious attack as “the principal of the princes of the reformed religion.” The particular purpose of the work was to enlist the throne in the large projects formed by Walter Raleigh in continuation of the scheme of Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Raleigh’s half-brother) after the lamentable fate of that chivalrous gentleman.

Only three or four copies of this paper are supposed to have been made. Its existence was unknown to the historians for more than two and a half centuries. The credit for bringing it to public light and for its reproduction in print was due to American bibliophiles and scholars.

The discovery of it came about in this wise. In the eighteen fifties a copy of a “Hakluyt Manuscript” appeared at an auction sale of a famous private library 7in London, and was bought by a shrewd and indefatigable collector of rare Americana, Henry Stevens of Vermont, at that time resident in London. On a blank leaf of the manuscript the purchaser found this pencilled memorandum, evidently made by the owner of the library, Lord Valentia:

“This unpublished Manuscript of Hakluyt is extremely rare. I procured it from the family of Sir Peter Thomson. The editors of the last edition [meaning the collection of Hakluyt’s works published in 1809–1812] would have given any money for it had it been known to have existed.”

Sir Peter Thomson was an eighteenth century collector of choice books, manuscripts, and literary curiosities. After his death in 1770, his collection went to the hammer. Here the trace ends, for how Sir Peter got the manuscript is not disclosed. Mr. Stevens endeavored to find a permanent place for the precious thing in the library of some American historical society or in the British Museum. At length, these endeavors failing, after two or three years, he disposed of it in England to Sir Thomas Phillips, another noteworthy collector, whose library at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, became a storehouse of historical treasure. Here it lay till 1868, when it was practically rediscovered by another American—the learned Reverend Doctor Leonard Woods, fourth president of Bowdoin College, in Maine. President Woods was at that time in England searching for certain papers of Sir Fernandino Gorges, the founder of Maine, and in this quest he 8visited Thirlestane House. He was one of those whose attention had been called to the manuscript by Mr. Stevens when it was in the latter’s possession. But then the Maine scholar did not fully comprehend its nature. As soon, however, as he had examined it at Thirlestane House he recognized its historical worth. Thereupon he caused an exact transcript to be made, and printed it for the first time in the Maine Historical Society’s Collections for 1877.

The thesis originally bore the caption Mr. Rawley’s Voyage; but subsequently a title more explicitly defining its character was affixed to the copy from which the print is made; and this title in turn has been reduced for popular service to A Discourse on Western Planting.

This “Discourse” boldly set forth the bearings of Raleigh’s enterprise upon the power of Spain (with which war was ultimately proclaimed). If pursued at once it would be “a great bridle of the Indies of the King of Spain,” and stay him from “flowing over all the face” of the firm land of America. Raleigh’s plan contemplated a flank movement upon Spain in the seas of the West Indies and the Spanish Main, while England was preparing for intervention in the Netherlands. From her American possessions, in the wealth which her treasure-ships brought thence, Spain was deriving the sinews of her strength. With this wealth she was enabled to support her armies in Europe, build and equip fleets, keep alive dissensions, bribe, in her interests, “great men and whole states.” Her power in 9her American possessions Raleigh would break. English colonies planted on the North American continent would be in position to attack her at a vulnerable point and arrest her treasure-ships. A surprising weakness of her defences in Spanish America, through the withdrawal of her soldiers to maintain her armies in the Netherlands, had been discovered by Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake in recent voyages. In this unprotected condition of the region was found a powerful inducement to English colonization as now proposed.

The necessity of “speedy planting in divers fit places” upon these “lucky western discoveries” was also urged to prevent their being occupied by other nations which now had “the like intentions.” The queen of England’s title to America, “at least to so much as is from Florida to the circle artic,” by virtue of the Cabot discoveries, was reasserted as “more lawful and right than the Spaniard’s or any other prince’s.” The various “testimonies” to this claim were again enumerated. Stress also was again laid upon the “probability of the easy and quick finding of the Northwest Passage.” The value to England, through her opening of the West, in the yield to her of “all the commodities of Europe, Africa, and Asia,” as far as her adventurers might travel, and in the supply of the wants of England’s decayed trades, was dwelt upon. It was shown that, with the possession of this region planted by Englishmen, England would obtain every material for creating great navies—goodly timber for 10building ships, trees for masts, pitch, tar, and hemp—all for “no price.” Thus it was apparent “how easy a matter it may be to this realm swarming at this day with valiant youths rusting and hurtful for lack of employment, and having good makers of cable and all sorts of cordage, and the best and most cunning shipwrights of the world, to be lords of all those seas, and to spoil Philip’s Indian navy, and to deprive him of yearly passage of his treasure into Europe.” As for the religious argument, the zealous Protestant advocate reasoned that by planting in America from England the “glory of the gospel” would be enlarged, “sincere religion” be advanced therein, and a safe and sure place be provided “to receive people from all parts of the world that are forced to flee for the truth of God’s word.”

The first copy of this illuminating Discourse was delivered to the queen by Hakluyt in person, in August, shortly before the return of Raleigh’s “twoo barkes.” Another copy was given to Elizabeth’s chief secretary, Walsingham; and a third, it is believed, to Sir Philip Sidney.

Like Divers Voyages it had a signal effect. The two barks had been sent out in April, within a month from the issue of a patent to Raleigh, as a preliminary expedition, under two experienced navigators, to reconnoitre the southern coast above Florida and report. They were back in September, bringing glowing accounts of the region visited—the islands of Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds—together with report of their having 11taken formal possession of the country for the queen of England, and, as tangible evidence, two tawny natives of the wilderness. With this happy outcome the Hakluyt Discourse clinched the matter, and Raleigh’s policy was adopted. Elizabeth immediately bestowed upon the region the name of Virginia, in token of her state of life as a virgin queen; Raleigh was knighted for his valour and enterprise; Parliament confirmed his patent of discovery; and in April following, 1585, his first colony of one hundred and eight persons sailed from Plymouth in a fleet of seven vessels and landed at Roanoke.

From that time for twenty years, till the forfeiture of Elizabeth’s grant by the attainder of James, in 1603, all that was done for American colonization by the English race was under Raleigh’s title, and with every step Hakluyt was repeatedly contributing informing literature to the cause to keep aflame the now aroused spirit of adventure.

In 1586, then in Paris, he had published, at his own expense, a manuscript account of Florida, written after the explorations of the French navigators Ribault and Laudonnière, in 1562–1564, and the attempted planting of Huguenot colonies there, ending tragically in a massacre by Spaniards. This manuscript he had come upon in archives, where it had lain hidden for above twenty years, “suppressed,” as he averred, “by the malice of some too much affectioned to the Spanish cause.” The narrative was brought out in French, edited by a friend and fellow scholar, Martin Basanière, 12a professor of mathematics, and dedicated by the editor to Raleigh with high praise for his efforts to open the Western country. The following year Hakluyt issued in London an English translation of this book under the enticing title, A Notable Historie containing four Voyages made by certayne French captaynes into Florida, wherein the Great Riches and Fruitfulness of the country with the Maners of the people, hitherto concealed, are brought to light; and to this edition he prefixed his own “Epistle Dedicatorie” to Raleigh, encouraging him, undismayed by previous failure, in the good work of Virginia colonization, which must ultimately prosper as these French captains’ exposition of the advantages and resources of the region demonstrated.

The same year, 1587, again in Paris, he published, also dedicated to Raleigh, and accompanied by a rare map, a revised edition in Latin of De Orbe Novo, the work of the Italian historian, Peter Martyr, giving the history of the first thirty years of American discovery.

Next, in 1589, appeared the first volume of the magnum opus of our author, under the general title of The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoueries of the English Nation made by Sea or over Land to the most remote and farthest distant Quarters of the Earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 years—an elaborate work of which the Divers Voyages was the germ, having the same direct object in view. Its scheme embraced a collection, in three volumes, of narratives and records, in the original, of voyages and 13discoveries made by Englishmen from earliest times to the compiler’s day, sprinkled with accounts of the more important explorations for foreign nations having relation to those for England. The initial volume opened with an extended “Epistle Dedicatorie” addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen’s chief secretary, and a more detailed “Preface to the Favourable Reader.” It included the main part of the Divers Voyages.

Nine years later, in 1598, the first volume of a second edition, revised and enlarged, to include voyages made “within the compasse of these 1600 yeares,” instead of fifteen hundred, made its appearance. The second volume of this edition followed the next year, 1599, and the last in 1600. They were of large size, fools-cap folio, and contained altogether the impressive number of five hundred and seventeen separate narratives of adventures by Englishmen from the time of King Arthur to and through Elizabeth’s reign.

Extended “Epistles Dedicatorie” were also prefixed to each of these volumes. That to the first was addressed to Charles Howard, the vanquisher of the Spanish Armada, 1588. Both of those to the second and third were to Sir Robert Cecil, Walsingham’s successor in the chief secretaryship, and afterward the Earl of Salisbury.

With the completion of the third volume Hakluyt’s work of research by no means ended. It was continued untiringly till the close of his life, and sufficient material was left by him in manuscript to constitute a 14fourth volume. This material passed to the hands of Samuel Purchas, the author of Purchas his Pilgrimages, or Relations of the World, etc., 1613, who utilized it, together with matter from the Principall Navigations, in a work of four volumes, published in 1625, under the title of Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes: containing a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Land Travels by Englishmen and Others. Afterward the Purchas his Pilgrimages was added as a fifth volume to the set. The combined work became most popularly known as Purchas’s Pilgrims, and was treated by some of the early historians as the first source of American history.

Nor did Hakluyt’s publications of an important nature and with the same general object—the fostering of naval enterprise generally and of American colonization in particular—end with the issue of his magnum opus. In 1601 he brought out, under the title of The Discoveries of the World, an English translation of a treatise by a Portuguese, Antonio Galvano. After that came an English version of Peter Martyr under this taking title: The Historie of the West Indies: Containing the Actes and Aduentures of the Spaniards, which have conquered and peopled those Countries, inriched with varietie of pleasant relation of the Manners, Ceremonies, Lawes, Governments, and Warres of the Indians: Published in Latin by Mr. Hakluyt and translated into English by M. Lok, Gent. This appeared a short time before the permanent colonization was effected, and was evidently timed to stimulate that movement.

15Next, in 1609, he produced a translation from the Portuguese of an account of De Soto’s discoveries in 1539–1543, with a description of Florida and its riches, designed to encourage and foster the Virginia colony. To this Hakluyt gave the English title Virginia Richly Valued by the description of the mainland of Florida her next neighbour. The dedication was addressed to the “Right Worshipfull Counsellors and others the cheerefull aduenturors for the aduancement of that Christian and noble plantation of Virginia,” and the booklet was commended to them as a “worke ... though small in shew yet great in substance,” yielding much light to the enterprise in which they were with him concerned, whether it was desired “to know the present and future commodities of our countrie, or the qualities and conditions of the Inhabitants, or what course is best to be taken with them.”

Two years later, in 1611, he issued a second edition, for the combined purpose of buoying up the spirits of the young colony, now disheartened by much suffering, and of procuring additional aid for it at home. This appeared with a new and more alluring title, in which particular stress was laid upon the wealth of gold, silver, and other precious things supposed to exist in the region, then believed to be the richest in the world: The worthie and famous historie of the travails, discovery and conquest of that great continent of Terra Florida being lively paralleled with that of our own now inhabited Virginia. As also the commodities of said country with divers and excellent and rich mynes of 16golde, silver, and other metals etc. which cannot but give us a great and exceeding hope for our Virginia being so neere to one continent etc.

Beyond the bare data of his birth and antecedents the story of Richard Hakluyt’s life is gathered largely from his own writings, found for the most part in shreds of autobiography running through the several extended “Epistles Dedicatorie” introducing his published volumes. It is a winsome and an inspiriting story of a man of action behind the scenes of great performances rather than in the forefront: of a singularly modest man not forth-pressing among his contemporaries, yet ranking in great accomplishments with the best of “Queen Elizabeth’s men.”

Even the exact place and date of his birth are not stated by any of his biographers. All that appears to be definitely fixed is that he was born near London about the year 1553. That was the year that Edmund Spenser was born; one year after the birth of Sir Walter Raleigh, and one year before the birth of Sir Philip Sidney, both of whom were to become his confrères in schemes of American colonization. He was five years old when Elizabeth came to the throne. Eleven years after his birth Shakspere was born, and he died the same year that Shakspere died. Thus we have the chronology 18of his life, 1553–1616, his active career extending through the blossom and the bloom of the dazzling Elizabethan period.

Richard Hakluyt was of an ancient Hertfordshire family, dating back in that historic county to the thirteenth century. The family seat was at Yatton, or Eyton, not far from the old town of Leominster. They were of Welsh extraction, and our cosmographer may have indulged a personal pride in the legend of “the most ancient discovery of the West Indies,” made by a Welshman in the twelfth century, three hundred years before Columbus. Hakluyts appear to have been early preferred for public station in Hertfordshire. The name (then generally spelled Hackluit) is found in the lists of high sheriffs for the county from the reign of Edward the second to Henry the eighth. In the second year of Henry the fourth Leonard Hackluit, knight, was sheriff. Walter Hakelut was knighted in the thirty-fourth year of Edward the first. Others of the name are seen among early members of Parliament. Thomas Hakeluyt was chancellor of the diocese of Hertford in 1349, in the latter part of Edward the third’s reign. Richard Hakluyt of Yatton, afterward of London, an elder cousin of our Richard, was a cosmographer before him, and esteemed in his time “as well by some principal ministers of state as by several most noted persons among the mercantile part of the kingdom, as a great encourager of navigation and improvement of trade, art, and manufactures.”

Our Richard Hakluyt was the second of four brothers, 19all of whom were liberally educated. The eldest, Thomas, was trained at the Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a celebrated physician. Richard followed Thomas at the Westminster School when he was fourteen years old, being elected one of the queen’s scholars to that “fruitfull nurserie,” as he terms it. He remained at Westminster for six years and then passed up to Christ College, Oxford. While a schoolboy the love of geography and maritime discovery was implanted in him by his cousin Richard, and so agreeably that he determined to make the pursuit of these branches of science his life-avocation. How this came about let him relate in his own quaint language, translated, for more comfortable reading, into modern English.

“I do remember that being a youth and one of her Majesty’s scholars at Westminster, that fruitful nursery, it was my hap to visit the chamber of M. Richard Hakluyt, my cousin, a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, well known unto you, at a time when I found lying open upon his board certain books of Cosmography with an universal Map. He seeing me somewhat curious in the view thereof began to instruct my ignorance by shewing me the division of the earth into three parts after the old account, and then according to the latter & better distribution, into more: he pointed with his wand to all the known Seas, Gulfs, Bays, Straights, Capes, Rivers, Empires, Kingdoms, Dukedoms, and Territories of each part; with declaration also of their special commodities & particular 20wants, which by the benefit of traffic & intercourse of merchants, are plentifully supplied. From the Map he brought me to the Bible, and turning to the 107 Psalm, directed me to the 23 & 24 verses, where I read, that they which go down to the sea in ships, and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep, &c. Which words of the Prophet together with my cousin’s discourse (things of high and rare delight to my young nature) took in me so deep an impression, that I constantly resolved, if ever I were preferred to the University, where better time and more convenient place might be ministered for their studies, would by God’s assistance prosecute that knowledge and kind of literature, the doors of which whereof (after a sort) were so happily opened before me.”

Hakluyt entered Oxford in 1570, and took the degree of bachelor of arts in 1574 and master of arts in 1577. While diligently and faithfully pursuing the regular college course, true to his boyhood resolution he devoted all his spare time to his self imposed studies. He became so proficient in them that after taking his master’s degree he was chosen to read “public lectures” on the science of cosmography and navigation. The lectures were delivered presumably in London and with much satisfaction to his hearers, among whom we may be sure were found master mariners and common seamen, as his relation proceeds:

“When not long after I was removed to Christ-Church in Oxford, my exercise of duty first performed, 21I fell to my intended course, and by degrees read over whatsoever printed and written discoveries and voyages I found extant either in the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugal [Portuguese], French, or English languages, and in my public lectures was the first that produced and shewed both the old and imperfectly composed, and the new lately reformed Maps, Globes, Spheres, and other instruments of this Art for demonstration in the common schools, to the singular pleasure and general contentment of my auditory.”

Possibly at these lectures, certainly soon after, he was advocating with much earnestness the pressing need of popular technical education to produce informed and skilful mariners, and this he continued persistently to urge in all his after writings. He would have had established in London a lectureship, or a school of nautical crafts, from which English seamen might be graduated complete navigators. To this end he dwelt much upon the advantages of the navigators of rival nations, gained largely through their scientific training. At that time Spain was maintaining in Seville, at the “Contractation House,” or Exchange, a “Learned Reader” in the art of navigation and a board of examiners, of which the reader was a member, and no man in Spain could obtain the charge of a ship for the Indies till he had attended the reader’s course and had passed the examining board. A century earlier the “hero nation” of Portugal had established a school of navigation, instituted by that heroic figure in maritime discovery, Prince Henry, surnamed 22“The Navigator.” Despite, however, the force of Hakluyt’s sound arguments, and the endorsement of his proposition by such seasoned mariners as Sir Francis Drake and by various men of affairs, the lectureship never was founded, greatly to his regret.

When Hakluyt began his studies in cosmography systematically the only English work at his hand touching the subject was the Historie of Travayle by Richard Eden, dating from 1555. This was the first work of its kind produced in England, and a new edition was brought out while Hakluyt was a student at Oxford. Although it was a classic from a scholarly Englishman, it presented only a limited view of maritime discovery. Consequently the young student was obliged to pursue his investigations chiefly in various foreign works, and among manuscripts deposited in private libraries or collections. He had not progressed far before he had become impressed with the backwardness of England in Western occupation since the discovery of the North American continent under her auspices in 1497 and 1498. Great deeds had been performed by intrepid English explorers to the North and Northeast, and English commerce had been advanced in the rich regions of the East; but on the Western continent no further attempt of moment toward exploration or settlement had been made by Englishmen from the finish of Henry the seventh’s reign to Elizabeth’s time. Meanwhile other nations had established foothold in these “fair and fruitful parts,” to England’s disadvantage. Thus Hakluyt came clearly to see that maritime 23traffic united with American colonization must be the means that England should adopt, without further delay, if she were to improve the condition of her people and become a naval power in the world.

Imbued with these convictions he early set out, perhaps while still delivering the “Public Lectures,” definitely to promote this policy with voice and pen. Early he is found in close touch with men leading in state affairs and in bold enterprises. He is much in correspondence with Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen’s chief secretary. He gets points from Sir Francis Drake after that great navigator’s return, in 1580, from the first circumnavigation of the globe by an Englishman, loaded with treasure, the spoil of Spanish harbours on the Pacific, and crowned with honours for the discovery of California for the English and its occupation as “New Albion.” He has intimate intercourse with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to whom, in 1578, Elizabeth had given her letters patent to discover and to colonize “remote, heathen, and barbarous lands”—the first grant of the kind ever made by an English sovereign,—and, as we have seen, prepares his first book, Divers Voyages, in aid of Sir Humphrey’s project. Walter Raleigh, Gilbert’s half-brother and associate, who had known Hakluyt and was conversant with his studies in cosmography when he was at college, became his patron. Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicates the Divers Voyages, had been his fellow-student at Oxford.

Hakluyt planned to accompany Gilbert’s fatal expedition of 1583, but before its departure he was appointed 24chaplain to Sir Edward Stafford, the queen’s ambassador to Paris. This preferment evidently came to him directly through his interest in nautical affairs. Those who obtained it for him believed that his services to the cause of Western discoveries and colonization would then be most valuable from that post of observation and influence. Walsingham expected him to make diligent enquiry of “such things as may yield any light unto our Western discoveries,” and he justified this hope by undertaking shrewdly to collect information of the movements of the Spanish and as well the French, and to recommend measures for the furtherance of the cause which he had most at heart. No sooner was he established at Paris than he became absorbed in this special mission, and it continued almost his sole occupation while he remained with the embassy, which was for a period of five years.

Upon the failure of the Gilbert enterprise and the loss of Sir Humphrey he is ardently enlisted in Raleigh’s project, furnishing in its interest, at Raleigh’s request, “discourses both in print and written hand.” These “discourses” are supposed to have been embodied in Raleigh’s memorial to the queen which brought him his patent of March, 1584, as liberal as Gilbert’s. The important document on Mr. Rawley’s Voyage, or A Particular Discourse on Western planting, may have embodied some of the features of the memorial. Hakluyt wrote the “Discourse” in London when ostensibly on a summer vacation from his duties at Paris. At the same time he was busied in judicious 25“trumpeting” of the enterprise among statesmen and merchant adventurers.

He continued hand in hand with Raleigh through the latter’s repeated attempts to plant his Virginia colonies, encouragingly buoyant and hopeful in each new venture following dismal and sometimes tragic failure; and he became foremost in the company of gentlemen and merchants to whom Raleigh was compelled to assign his patent in 1588. Afterward, upon the accession of James the first, he was the chief promoter of a petition to the king for a new grant of patents for Virginia colonization that brought the royal charter of April, 1606, under which were formed the corporations subsequently known as the London and the Plymouth companies, between whom was to be equally divided the great tract of country lying between the thirty-fourth and the forty-fifth degrees of latitude and reaching to the backwoods without bound. He was made one of the patentees of the London, or South Virginia, Company, which effected the first permanent English settlement—at Jamestown, in 1606.

His great work of The Principal Navigations was in preparation while Raleigh’s projects were under way. Its scheme was drawn at the outset with remarkable breadth and on a lofty scale. While in Stafford’s service at Paris he tells us, “I both heard in speech and read in books, other nations miraculously extolled for their discoveries and notable enterprises by sea, but the English of all others, for their sluggish security, and continual neglect of the like attempts ... either 26ignominiously reported or exceedingly condemned [? condensed].... Thus both hearing and reading the obliquy of our nation, and finding few or none of our own men able to reply herein; and further, not seeing any man to have care to recommend to the world the industrious labours and painful travels of our countrymen; for stopping the mouths of reproachers, myself ... determined, notwithstanding all difficulties, to undertake the burden of that work wherein all others pretended either ignorance or lack of leisure, or want of sufficient argument, whereas (to speak truly) the huge toil and the small profit to ensue, were the chief causes of the refusal.”

In the laborious collection of his material, much “dispersed, scattered, and hidden in several hucksters’ hands,” as he says, he sought the assistance of the foremost scholars, bibliographers, and writers, and cultivated the acquaintance of all classes of men who could give him information. He tells of talking with Don Antonio, the Portuguese Pretender, when in Paris, and with several of Antonio’s “best captains and pilots, one of whom was born in the East Indies.” He became friendly with travelled French sailors. One of them gave him a piece of supposed silver ore, and showed him “beasts’ skins draped and painted by Indians.” Another exhibited “a piece of the tree called Sassafras brought from Florida, and expounded its high medical virtues,” which afterward was much sought by voyagers to America. He browsed in the king’s library at Paris. He established friendly relations 27with foreign cosmographers and exchanged letters with them and with other foreign scholars. In London he found and copied rare manuscripts in Lord Lumley’s “stately library”; had access to the queen’s privy gallery at Westminster; and to a rich cabinet of curiosities brought home by travellers. He sought English sea-captains upon their return to port and had informing interviews with them about their adventures. Some brought him tales from Spain about the natives of Florida. Once he travelled two hundred miles on horseback to interview one Thomas Butts, then the only survivor of a disastrous English voyage to Newfoundland in 1536.

The initial volume was completed after his final return to England at the end of his term with the French embassy. Its publication was a distinct event in English letters. The lofty motives that impelled him to the production of the enlarged edition in three volumes he details in his picturesquely phrased “Epistle Dedicatorie” to Lord Charles Howard, prefixed to volume one.

“Right Honourable and my very good Lord,” he here writes, “after I had long since published in Print many Navigations and Discoveries of Strangers in divers languages, as well here at London as in the city of Paris during my five years abode in France with the worthy knight, Sir Edward Stafford, your brother-in-law, his Majesty’s most prudent and careful ambassador ligier with the French king; and had waded on still further and further in the sweet study of the history 28of Cosmography, I began at length to conceive that with diligent observation, something might be gathered which might commend our nation for their high courage and singular activity in the search and discovery of the most unknown quarters of the world.... The ardent love of my country devoured all difficulties, and, as it were, with a sharp goad provoked me and thrust me forward into this troublesome and painful action. And after great charges and infinite cares, after many watchings, toils, and travels, and wearying out of my weak body, at length I have collected three several volumes of the English Navigations, Traffics, and Discoveries to strange, remote, and far distant countries. Which work of mine I have not included with the compass of things duly done in these later days, as though little or nothing worthy of memory had been performed in former ages, but mounting aloft by the space of many hundred years, have brought to light many very rare and worthy monuments which long have lain miserably scattered in musty corners and wretchedly hidden in misty darkness, and were very like for the greatest part to have been buried in perpetual oblivion.”

In his Preface to the same volume, addressed to the “Friendly Reader,” he further emphasizes this point with the quaintly fashioned statement that in bringing these “antiquities smothered and buried in dark silence” to light, he has incorporated “into one body the torn and scattered limbs of our ancient and late navigations by sea, our voyages by land, and traffic of 29merchandise by both,” and restored “each particular member being before displaced, to their true joints and ligaments.” In other words, by the help of geography and chronology, which he terms “the Sun and the Moon, the right eye and the left of all history,” he has “referred each particular relation to the due time and space.” He narrates again in this Preface the toils that have been involved in bringing his work into this “homely and rough-hewn shape.” “What restless nights,” he exclaims, “what painful days, what heat, what cold I have endured; how many long and chargeable journeys I travelled: how many famous libraries I have searched into; what variety of ancient and modern writers I have perused; what a number of old records, patents, privileges, letters, etc., I have redeemed from obscurity and perishing; into how manifold acquaintance I have entered; what expenses I have not spared; and yet what fair opportunities of private gain, preferment, and ease I have neglected!” Yet, “howbeit, the honour and benefit of this commonweal wherein I live and breathe, hath made all difficulties seem easy, all pains and industry pleasant, and all expenses of light value and moment unto me.”

In 1585, while he was yet in France, ecclesiastical preferment came to Hakluyt, the reversion of the next prebendal stall that should become vacant being that year secured to him by Queen Elizabeth’s mandate; and the following year, upon the death of its incumbent, he took possession of the first stall in the cathedral 30of Bristol, although he did not give up his chaplaincy at the British embassy and finally return to England till 1588. In the spring of 1590 he was instituted to the rectory of Wetteringsett cum Blochford, in the county of Suffolk. In 1602 he became prebendary of Westminster. In 1612 he obtained the rectory of Gedney in Lincolnshire. He married about the year 1594, when occupying the Wetteringsett rectory.

These various clerical duties were apparently not exacting. At all events they did not interrupt the steady prosecution of his work of historical research and publication, nor abate a jot of his ardour for the advancement of American colonization. In his latter years he gathered around him a group of young men whom he inspired further to pursue or continue the work to which he had practically devoted his life. At his suggestion and through his friendly encouragement translations by various hands of standard works on Africa, China, and other little known parts, were then brought out. His own final publications were dated from Westminster.

He died presumably in his apartment at Westminster, on the twenty-third day of November, 1616, seven months after Shakspere. His burial place was in St. Peter’s Church, Westminster Abbey, but no inscription marks his grave.

He left a fair estate, comprising “the manor house of Bridge Place” and several houses in Westminster. This estate passed to his only son, Edmund Hakluyt, a Trinity College man, who, we are told, had not the 31prudence to keep it, but dispersed it through usurers’ and sheriffs’ hands.

Like Raleigh, Hakluyt never came to America, although more than once planning to make the voyage. With the permanent colonization of Virginia at last achieved, he was offered the living of Jamestown; but in place of himself he supplied it with a curate.

Equally with Raleigh he shares, and is awarded, the title of virtual founder of the English colonies in North America.

In Hakluyt’s monumental work of The Principal Navigations we have the whole brave story of English adventure through the centuries from the dim old days of the Saxon kings—when the known world was a little thing, only a spot on the map of to-day—to the Tudors’ times, with the discoveries of the New World, advancement into remote quarters of the Old World, the expansion of commerce, and the planting of colonies in America. It is truly, as aptly termed by James Anthony Froude, the prose epic of the modern English nation.

The first issue of 1589, the single volume in three parts, comprehended the main features of this story; the three-volumed second edition, 1598–1600, amplified it with a wealth of added incident and richness of color. The three parts of the portly volume of 1589, covering eight hundred and twenty-five foolscap pages, comprised successively the narratives of English voyages that had been performed to the South and Southeastern regions of the Old World; the North and Northeastern 33travels; and the Western, or New World, navigations. The contents were elaborately detailed in the full title-page.

The prefatory address “to the Favourable Reader” discloses the thoroughness of the compiler’s work. He has been careful in every possible case to present exact copies of the original narratives. Wherever he has copied from an historian, or “authour of authoritie,” either “stranger or naturall”—foreigner or native—he has “recorded the same word for word with his particular name and page of booke” where the “testimonie” is extant. “If the same were not reduced into our common language,” he has given it in the original followed by a translation. And “to the ende that those men which were the paynefull and personall travellers might reape that good opinion and iust [just] commendation which they haue deserued, and further, that euery man might answere for himselfe, iustifie [justify] his reports, and stand accountable for his own doings,” he has “referred euery voyage to his Author which both in person hath performed, and in writing hath left the same.” He adds that while he “meddles” in this work with the navigations only of the English nation he quotes in a few places “some strangers as witnesses of the things done”; yet these foreigners are only such as “either faythfully remember, or sufficiently confirme” the Englishmen’s travels.

A map of the world inserted in this volume was taken by Hakluyt from the atlas of Abraham Ortelius, a celebrated Flemish geographer, published at Antwerp in 341570. It was substituted temporarily for one in preparation for the book, but not completed by the engraver in time. Hakluyt alludes to this, in the address “to the Favourable Reader,” as “a very large and most exact terrestriall Globe collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugall, and English, composed by M[aster] Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession, being therein for divers yeares, greatly supported by the purse and liberalitie of the worshipfull marchant M[aster] William Sanderson.” What is supposed to be the Mollineux map has been found in rare copies of this volume and of the second edition. A map bound in a treasured copy of the 1589 edition in the Boston Public Library contains this memorandum written on the back: "This map is a facsimile of the map of the world found in some of the first editions of this book. By Sabin and others it is attributed to Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, by Capt. Markham and others, to Edward Wright, the mathematician who perfected and rendered practicable what we know to-day as Mercator’s projection. Hallam describes this as ‘the best map of the 16th century and one of uncommon rarity.’ Only nine copies are known to exist."

Professor Walter Raleigh, in his essay on the English Voyages which accompanies the modern reprint of the Navigations (Glasgow, 1903), recalls the belief of Shaksperian authorities, among whom he is counted, that this is the map alluded to in Twelfth Night in the passage (Act III, Scene II), “He does smile his face 35into more lines than is in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies.”

The titles of the three-volumed second edition set forth the contents of each book with the same minute detail as that of the initial volume of 1589.

The English voyages begin with the adventures by the Britons northward in the sixth century for conquest. So Hakluyt places in the forefront of the Principal Navigations legendary accounts of the travels of British and Saxon kings. First are reproduced from ancient chronicles records of “the noble actes of Arthur and Malgo,” in the years 517 and 580, respectively, Arthur, after having “subdued all parts of Ireland,” sailing to “Island” (Iceland) and “the most northeast parts of Europe”; and Malgo into the North seas, recovering to his empire the “six islands of the Ocean sea, which before had been made tributaries by King Arthur, namely, Ireland, Island, Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmark.”

Next follow fragmentary narratives of seventh-century voyages. Two “testimonies” are given of the exploits of the Saxon king, Edwin, with his conquest of the Isles of Man and Anglesey and the other northwestern islands of the Britons lying between Britain and Ireland, in the year 624. The second of these “testimonies” related how Edwin also subdued to the crown of England the Hebrides, “commonly called the 37Western Islands.” Then is reproduced the story of the voyage of Bertus, “general of an army sent into Ireland by Ecfridus [Ecgfrith] king of Northumberland” in the year 684. This warrior, the chronicler relates, “miserably wasted that innocent nation being always most friendly unto the people of England,” sparing neither churches nor monasteries, while the Islanders “repelled arms with arms and craving God’s aid from heaven with continual imprecations and curses they pleaded for revenge.”

The first recorded English voyage having discovery with expansion of trade for its object was that of one Octher to the northward, at the close of the ninth century, about the year 890. Octher was a prosperous whale-hunter, of Heligoland in the North Sea. The special purpose of his venture was to “increase the knowledge” of the northern coasts and countries “for the more commodity of fishing of horse-whales which have in their teeth bones of great price and excellence.” He found what he sought, and brought home some specimens of big whalebones, which he presented to the English king. The skins of the horse-whales he reported were “very good to make cables for ships, and so used” by the hardy dwellers on these coasts. A few years earlier Sighelmus, Bishop of Sheburne, as messenger of King “Alphred” (Ælfrid), bearing alms and gifts to the king of Rome, had penetrated into India, and returned to England with costly spices and divers strange and precious stones, many of which stones long after remained in the monuments of the 38church. Following Octher one Wolstan made a navigation into the sound of Denmark, of which brief account is given.

With these narrations of voyages for conquest and trade are interwoven tales of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, “for devotion’s sake,” and imagined relief from the penalties of sin, forerunners of the Crusades of succeeding centuries. Earliest of all chronicled is the legend of the “Travaile of Helena,” in the fourth century, before 337. She was Helena Flavia Augusta, afterward the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine “the Great,” emperor and king of Britain. She became a Christian when Constantine was converted. By reason of her “singular beauty, faith, religion, goodness, and godly majesty,” she was “famous in all the world.” She was “skilful in divinity,” and wrote and composed “divers books and certain Greek verses.” She made the perilous journey to Jerusalem toward the close of a long life, being “warned by some visions,” and piously visited “all the places that Christ had frequented.” She is said to have discovered “the holy sepulchre and the true cross.” Then follows a note on Constantine’s travels to Greece, Egypt, and Persia, in about 339. He “overthrew the false gods of the heathen, and by many laws, often revived, he abrogated the worshipping of images in all the countries of Greece, Egypt, Persia, Asia, and the whole Roman empire, commanding Christ only to be worshipped.”

In the tenth century English ships began to be found in far distant seas. Fragments are recorded concerning 39the beginnings and growth of the “classical and warlike” shipping of England in that period. We have the spectacle of the grand navy of the Saxon Eadgar, “the Peaceful,” who succeeded to the whole realm in 959, comprising “four thousand sail at the least.” With this fleet it was his annual pastime to make “summer progresses” round almost the whole of his then large monarchy, thus demonstrating “to the world” that “as he wisely knew the ancient bounds and limits of the British empire” so he “could and would royally, justly, and triumphantly enjoy the same spite the devil and maugre the force of any foreign potentate.” By the twelfth century London, as described in extracts from a foreign writer, had become a “noble Citie,” frequented with the “traffique of Marchants resorting thither out of all nations,” and having “outlandish wares ... conveighed” into it from the “famous river of the Thames.” At the same time, and by the same writer, the “famous Towne of Bristow” (Bristol) is represented “with an Haven belonging thereunto which is a commodious and safe receptacle for all ships directing their course for the same from Ireland, Norway, and other outlandish and foren [foreign] countreys.”

To this century, in 1170, is credited the “most ancient” discovery of the West Indies by Madoc, the Welshman, and his subsequent attempt at colonization on one of the islands. Hakluyt takes the tale “out of the history of Wales lately published by M[aster] David Powel, Doctor of Divinity.” Madoc was a son of Owen 40Guyneth, prince of North Wales. Upon Guyneth’s death his sons “fell at debate who should inherit after him.” The eldest, Edward, or Jorweth Drwydion, was counted “unmeet to govern because of the maim on his face,” and Howell took up the rule. But Howell was born out of matrimony. So the second legitimate son, David, rose against him, and “fighting with him slew him.” Thereafter David enjoyed quietly the whole land of North Wales till Edward’s son came of age. Meanwhile Madoc had left the land in contention betwixt his brothers, and had sought adventures by sea. At this point the story of discovery begins. Having prepared “certain ships with men and munitions” he sailed westward; and leaving the coast of Ireland far north he at length came “unto a land unknown, where he saw many strange things.” This land, the Welsh historian declared, “must needs be some part of that country of which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first finders since Hanno’s time; whereupon it is manifest that that country was by Britaines [Britons] discovered long before Columbus led any Spaniards thither.” The historian admitted that “there be many fables” regarding Madoc’s discovery, but, notwithstanding, the fact remained; “sure it is there he was.” Next follows the entertaining legend of Madoc’s attempted settlement:

“And after he had returned home and declared the pleasant and fruitfull countreys that he had seene without inhabitants, and, upon the contrary part, for what barren & wild ground his brethren and nephewes did 41murther one another, he prepared a number of ships, and got him such men and women as were desirous to live in quietnesse: and taking leave of his friends, tooke his journey thitherward againe. Therefore it is to be supposed that he and his people inhabited part of those countreys: for it appeareth by Francis Lopez de Gomara, that in Acuzamil and other places the people honoured the crosse. Whereby it may be gathered that Christians had bene there before the comming of the Spanyards. But because this people were not many they followed the maners of the land which they came unto, & used the language they found there. This Madoc arriving in the Westerne country, unto the which he came in the yere 1170, left most of his people there, and returning backe for more of his owne nation, acquaintance & friends to inhabit that faire & large countrey, went thither againe with ten saile, as I find noted by Gutyn Owen.” Hakluyt rounds off this engaging chapter with this swelling verse “of Meredith sonne of Rhesus,” singing Madoc’s praises:

With the opening of the twelfth century the fiery Crusades from the Christian nations for the rescue of Jerusalem from the infidel were well under way. Preliminary to the pitiful and bloody record, this account 42of a peaceful voyage, in the year 1064, in which Englishmen had part, with an artless touch of autobiography by the narrator, Ingulphus, afterward abbot of Croiland, is reproduced:

"I, Ingulphus, an humble servant of reverend Guthlac and of his monastery of Croiland, borne in England, and of English parents, at the beautifull citie of London, was in my youth, for the attaining of good letters, placed first at Westminster, and afterward sent to the Universitie of Oxford. And having excelled divers of mine equals in learning of Aristotle, I inured my selfe somewhat unto the first & second Rhethorique of Tullie. And as I grew in age, disdayning my parents meane estate, and forsaking mine owne native soyle, I affected the Courts of kings and princes, and was desirous to be clad in silke, and to weare brave and costly attire. And loe, at the same time William our sovereigne king now, but then Erle of Normandie, with a great troup of followers and attendants, came unto London, to conferre with king Edward, the Confessour, his kinsman. Into whose company intruding my selfe, and proffering my service for the performance of any speedy or weightie affayres, in short time, after I had done many things with good successe, I was knowen and most entirely beloved by the victorious Erie himselfe, and with him I sayled into Normandie. And there being made his secretarie, I governed the Erles Court (albeit with the envie of some) as my selfe pleased, yea, whom I would I abased and preferred whom I thought good.

43"When as therefor, being carried with a youthfull heat and lustie humour, I began to be wearie even of this place, wherein I was advanced so high above my parentage, and with an inconstant minde, and an affection too too ambitious, most vehemently aspired at all occasions to climbe higher: there went a report throughout all Normandie, that divers Archbishops of the Empire, and secular princes were desirous for their soules health, and for devotion sake, to goe on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Wherefore out of the family of our lorde the Earle, sundry of us, both gentlemen and clerkes (principall of whom was my selfe) with the licence and good will of our sayd lord the earle, sped us on that voiage, and travailing thirtie horses of us into high Germanie, we joyned our selves unto the Archbishop of Mentz. And being with the companies of the Bishops seven thousand persons sufficiently provided for such an expedition, we passed prosperously through many provinces, and at length attained unto Constantinople. Where doing reverence unto the Emperour Alexius, we sawe the Church of Sancta Sophia, and kissed divers sacred reliques.

"Departing thence through Lycia, we fell into the hands of the Arabian theeves: and after we had bene robbed of infinite summes of money, and had lost many of our people, hardly escaping with extreame danger of our lives, at length wee joyfully entered into the most wished citie of Jerusalem. Where we were received by the most reverend, aged, and holy patriarke Sophronius, with great melodie of cymbals and with torch-light, and 44were accompanied unto the most divine Church of our Saviour his sepulchre with a solemne procession aswell of Syrians as of Latines. Here, how many prayers we uttered, what abundance of teares we shed, what deepe sighs we breathed foorth, our Lord Jesus Christ onely knoweth. Wherefore being conducted from the most glorious sepulchre of Christ to visite other sacred monuments of the citie, we saw with weeping eyes a great number of holy Churches and oratories, which Achim the Souldan [sultan] of Egypt had lately destroyed. And so having bewailed with sadde teares, and most sorowful and bleeding affections, all the mines of that most holy city both within and without, and having bestowed money for the reedifying of some, we desired with most ardent devotion to go forth into the countrey, to wash our selves in the most sacred river of Jordan, and to kisse all the steppes of Christ. Howbeit the theevish Arabians lurking upon every way, would not suffer us to travell farre from the city by reason of their huge and furious multitudes.

“Wherefor about the spring there arrived at the port of Joppa a fleet of ships from Genoa. In which fleet (when the Christian merchants had exchanged all their wares at the coast townes, and had likewise visited the holy places) wee all of us embarked, committing our selfes to the seas: and being tossed with many stormes and tempests, at length wee arrived at Brundusium: and so with a prosperous journey travelling thorow Apulia towards Rome, we there visited the habitations of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and did reverence 45unto divers monuments of holy martyrs in all places thorowout the citie. From thence the archbishops and other princes of the empire travelling towards the right hand for Alemain, and we declining towards the left hand for France, departed asunder, taking our leaves with unspeakable thankes and courtesies. And so at length, of thirty horsemen which went out of Normandie, fat, lustie, and frolique, we returned thither skarse twenty poore pilgrims of us, being all footmen, and consumed with leannesse to the bare bones.”

The story of the voyages of Englishmen in the twelfth-century Crusades, recorded in chronological order, opens with the chivalrous adventure of Edgar, grandson of Edmund, surnamed “Ironsides,” accompanied by “valiant Robert the son of Godwin,” in the year 1102, when, immediately upon their arrival out, signal aid was rendered by them to Baldwin, the second Latin king of Jerusalem, whom they found hard pressed by the Turks at Rama. The “valiant Robert” sprang to the forefront, and going before the king with his drawn sword, he cut a lane through the enemy’s camp, “slaying the Turks on his right hand and his left.” So Baldwin escaped. But the knight fared ill. “Upon this happy success, being more eager and fierce, as he went forward too hastily, his sword fell out of his hand. Which as he stooped to take up, being oppressed by the whole multitude, he was there taken and bound.” His fate was tragic. “From thence (as some say) being carried into Babylon, or Alcair, in Egypt, when he would not renounce Christ, he was tied unto a stake in the 46midst of the market-place, and being shot through with arrows, died a martyr.” Edgar having lost his beloved knight, retired from crusading, and returned to England honoured with “many rewards both by the Greekish and the German Emperor.”

Five years later, in 1107, a “very great warlike fleet of the Catholic nation of England to the number of about seven thousand,” together with “more men of war of the kingdom of Denmark, of Flanders, and of Antwerp,” set sail in ships then called “busses”—small vessels carrying two masts, and with two cabins, one at each end—for the Holy Land. This body of warring zealots reached Joppa after a prosperous voyage, and thence, under a strong guard provided them by King Baldwin, passed to Jerusalem safely from all assaults and ambushes of the Gentiles. When they had solemnly offered up their vows in the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre, they returned with great joy to Joppa, and were ready to fight for Baldwin in any venture he might propose against the enemy. Plans were formed to besiege a stronghold. But the move ended with an effective demonstration of the fleet in brave array, displaying “pendants and streams of purple and diverse other glorious colours, and flags of scarlet colour and silk.”

Near the end of this century, in 1190, came the “worthy voyage of Richard the first, king of England, into Asia for the recovery of Jerusalem out of the hands of the Saracens,” with which began the Third Crusade of the nine of history. This was that Richard, of restless zeal, surnamed “Ceur de Lion,” Henry the 47second’s son. After Henry’s death Richard, “remembering the rebellions that he had undutifully raised” against his father, “sought for absolution of his trespass.” And “in part of satisfaction for the same,” he agreed to make this crusade with Philip, the French king. Accordingly so soon as he was crowned he began his preparations. The first business was to raise a comfortable sum of money for the expedition. It was promptly accomplished by exacting “a tenth of the whole Realm, the Christians to make threescore and ten thousand pounds, and the Jews which then dwelt in the Realm threescore thousand.” At length his fleet was afloat, and he was off to join Philip of France. This Crusade occupied the first four years of Richard’s reign, and during it he made the conquest of Cyprus, won a great victory at Jaffa, marched on Jerusalem, concluded a truce with the sultan, Saladin, and slaughtered three thousand hostages when Saladin failed to come to time with an agreed-upon payment of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The butchery of the hostages was performed on the summit of a hill that the tragedy might be in full view of Saladin’s camp. On his homeward journey he was shipwrecked, and he was long imprisoned in Germany. Hakluyt’s version of this Crusade is a detailed account “drawn out of the Book of Actes and Monuments of the Church of England written by M. John Foxe,” more popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Richard’s code of laws and ordinances for the government of his crusading fleet, well illustrates at once the rigour of the discipline 48and the character of the British sailor of that day. It also discloses the antiquity of the method of punishment by tar-and-feathering:

"1. That who so killed any person on shipboord should be tied with him that was slaine and throwen into the sea.

"2. And if he killed him on the land, he should in like maner be tied with the partie slaine, and be buried with him in the earth.

"3. He that shalbe convicted by lawfull witnes to draw out his knife or weapon to the intent to strike any man, or that hath striken any to the drawing of blood shall loose his hand.

"4. Also he that striketh any person with his hand without effusion of blood, shall be plunged three times in the sea.

"5. Item, who so speaketh any opprobrious or contumelious wordes in reviling or cursing one another, for so oftentimes as he hath reviled shall pay so many ounces of silver.

“6. Item, a thiefe or felon that hath stollen being lawfully convicted, shal have his head shorne and boyling pitch powred upon his head, and feathers or downe strawed upon the same, whereby he may be knowen, and so at the first landing place they shall come to, there to be cast up.”

In the Crusades of the thirteenth century we have notes on the expeditions of the “Knights of Jerusalem” against the Saracens: in brief recitals of the voyages of Ranulph, earl of Chester, sent out by Henry the third 49in 1218, with “Saer de Quincy, earl of Winchester, William de Albanie, earl of Arundel, besides divers barons,” and “a goodly company of soldiers and men at arms”; and of Richard, earl of Cornwall, Henry the third’s brother (and afterward king of the Romans), accompanied by William Longespee, earl of “Sarisburie” (Salisbury) and other nobles “for their valiancy greatly renowned,” and “a great number of Christian soldiers,” in 1240, beginning the Seventh Crusade. In 1248 Longespee—or Longsword, as his fellow-knights called him for his prowess—made a second voyage and lost his life in a battle with the Saracens. Finally, in 1270, Henry the third’s son, Prince Edward, and other young nobles, having “taken upon them the cross,” at the hand of the Pope’s legate then in England, “to the relief of the Holy Land and the subversion of the enemies of Christ,” sailed out with a gallant war fleet. They landed at Acre, and thence the prince, with an army of six or seven thousand soldiers, marched upon Nazareth. This he took, and “those that he found there he slew.” Other victories followed with much slaughter of Saracens. At length the triumphant prince fell ill at Acre, and during his sickness a plot was concocted by the emir of Joppa to remove him by assassination. This failed, the prince thwarting the scheme by himself killing the emir’s messenger just as the treacherous dagger was to be thrust into his bosom. Shortly after he concluded a peace for ten years and returned to England, to be crowned king upon his father’s death.

50Edward’s was the last exploit of Englishmen in the Crusades, and it closed the last one. Attempts were made at subsequent periods to revive the flame, but these resulted only in flares of short duration. A shining one for a moment was kindled by King Henry the fourth in 1413. It flashed out with his sudden death at Westminster while the ships and galleys for the proposed voyage were building.

At this time the competition for trade advantages in the east and northeast were becoming of larger import to England. A half-century earlier, in 1360, in Edward the third’s reign, a Franciscan friar, mathematician, and astronomer, Nicholas de Linna, of Oxford, had made a voyage into the north parts, “all the regions situated under the North-pole,” had taken valuable observations, and had reported his discoveries to Edward with a description of the northern islands. In 1390 Henry, earl of Derby, afterward King Henry the fourth, made a voyage into Prussia; and the next year the duke of Gloucester, Edward the third’s youngest son, also penetrated Prussia. As early as 1344 the island of Madeira had been discovered by an Englishman, and sometime occupied. The latter, however, was not a commercial discovery, but a romantic one, and England at the time, and for long after, was not aware of it. Hakluyt takes the story from a Portuguese history. It was regarded by most later historians as apocryphal, but its genuineness has been finally demonstrated through the historical researches of the English geographer, R. H. Major. It runs in this 51wise. The discoverer was one Robert Macham, when fleeing from England to France with his stolen bride, Anna d’Arfet. His ship was tempest-tossed out of its course and cast toward this island. He anchored in a haven (which years afterward was named Macham in memory of him) and landed on the island with his lady and the ship’s company. Soon with a fair wind the ship and part of the company “made sail away.” After a while the young woman died “from thought,” perhaps homesickness; and Macham built a tomb for her upon which he inscribed their names, and “the occasion of their arrival there.” Then he ordered a boat made of a single great tree, and when it was done, he put to sea with his few companions that were left. At length they came upon the coast of Afrike (Africa) without sail or oar. “And the Moors which saw it took it to be a marvellous thing and presented him unto the king of that country for a wonder, and that king also sent him and his companions for a miracle unto the king of Spain.”

With the opening of the fifteenth century, Portugal was pressing forward for a share with the maritime states of Italy, Genoa, and Venice in the rich eastern traffic. In 1410 Prince Henry, “the Navigator,” had begun his systematic explorations. A younger son of the Portuguese king John the first, and a grandson of Edward the third of England, born at the close of the fourteenth century (in 1394), after gaining renown as a soldier, he turned to loftier aims and became one of the first astronomers, mathematicians, cartographers, and 52directors of maritime discoveries in his time. He was the first to conceive the idea of cutting a way out through the unexplored ocean. His superb genius gave the inspiration to marvellous results in the discovery of more than half the globe within the cycle of a century. At the age of twenty-four the hope was born in him of reaching India by the south point of Africa, and thereafter to this end his speculations and studies were ardently directed. The earliest expeditions sent out by him failed of results, and his theories were ridiculed by his fellow-nobles. At length, however, in 1419 and 1420, the Madeira Islands, Porto Santo and Madeira, were rediscovered by his navigators. A little more than a decade later, in 1433, they had rounded Cape Bojador. In 1435 the prince’s cup-bearer had passed beyond that cape. In 1443 another of his navigators had sailed beyond Cape Blanco. The next year Pope Martin the fifth, by a Papal Bull, declared Portugal in possession of all the lands her mariners had visited as far as the Indies. In 1445 the mouth of the Senegal and afterward Cape Verde were reached. Prince Henry died in 1460, but the work he had begun continued, after a temporary check, to be carried forward. In 1469 Portuguese trade was opened with the Gold Coast. In 1484 the mouth of the Congo was discovered. In 1486 Bartholomew Dias doubled the Cape of Good Hope.

Meanwhile these wondrous advances of Portugal were stimulating other maritime nations to the quest for new passages to India.

Portugal now had practically a monopoly of the traffic with the Orient, and the finding of new paths to India by her maritime rivals was essential in the struggle for commercial supremacy. A passage by way of “Cathay” had the most powerful attractions.

“Great Cathay,” the marvellous empire of the remote East, whence travellers had brought wonderful tales in the latter Middle Ages, had become the ultimate goal of adventurous voyages. The hazy region was the “extremity of the habitable world” of the ancients. Early Christian fancy had identified within it the Earthly Paradise, the seat of the old “Garden of Eden,” beyond the Ocean stream, “raised so high on a triple terrace of mountain that the deluge did not touch it.” Under the name of Cathay the strange empire had been opened to the speculation of mediæval Europe in the thirteenth century, with the vast conquest of the Mongol Genghis Khan, reckoned in history one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen.

Two Franciscan friars—John de Plano Carpini and 54William of Rubruk (Rubruquis) in French Flanders, who reached the court in Mongolia, the former in 1245 or 1246, the latter in 1247 or 1253—appear to have been the first Europeans to approach its borders. They saw the Cathayans in the bazaars of their Great Khan’s camps, and brought back to Europe the first accounts of the people and of the wonderful things seen, presented in their journals of their adventures. Both of these “rare jewels,” as he appreciatively terms them, Hakluyt found at London in manuscripts while delving in Lord Lumley’s library, and he printed them in full in the second edition of the Principal Navigations. After the friars two Venetians penetrated the empire, the first European travellers to visit Cathay itself. These were the brothers Nicolo and Maffei Polo, members of a noble trading family of Venice. They were there for a short time in or about the year 1269. Soon afterward they made a second visit, when Marco, the son of Nicolo, then a youth of seventeen, quick-witted, open-eyed, and observant, accompanied them. This visit extended through more than twenty years, the three Venetians basking in the sunshine of the Great Khan’s favour. The elders helped the Khan with suggestions for the profitable application of the knowledge of the West which they opened to him, while Marco’s cleverness was variously employed in his service; sometimes as a commissioner attached to the Imperial council, at others on distant missions, and at one period a governor of a great city. Marco’s recollections, given to the world long after the final 55return of the Polos to Venice, first made the name of Cathay familiar to Europe. These recollections were taken down from his lips by one Rusticiano of Pisa, a clever literary hack, who was shut up in prison with him for a year (the two having been among the captives taken by the Genoese in a sea-fight with the Venetians in 1298), and formed the basis of the book of marvellous adventures, subsequently published in various languages and varying texts, which came to be famous as the Voyages and Travels of Marco Polo. From this Hakluyt also gives copious extracts.

Commercial intercourse of adventuresome European traders began with the region in the early fourteenth century, and continued fairly to flourish for about fifty years. Then, with changes in dynasties and tribal wars, the ways of approach were closed and it fell again into darkness. It was long supposed to be a separate country, distinct from the Indies, lying to the north of what we now know as China, and stretching to the Arctic sea. It was not until 1603 (after the publication of the final volume of the Principal Navigations) that it was found to be identical with the then vaguely known empire of China, of which similar marvels had for some time been recited. Its identity was the discovery by a lay Jesuit, Benedict Goës, sent out through Central Asia by his superiors in India for the specific object of determining whether Cathay and China were or were not separate empires. Goës died upon the completion of his mission, at Suhchow, the frontier city of China.

56Cathay was the aim of Columbus. He was possessed by the conviction that the fabled riches of this wondrous region lay directly across the trackless Atlantic “over against” the coast of Spain. Believing the world to be a sphere, he conceived his design of reaching Asia by sailing west. This was the project that he carried for weary years from court to court, seeking the patronage of a favouring prince.

But for a mischance England, instead of Spain, would have had the glory and the advantage of his first discovery of 1492. Hakluyt recalls the circumstances in these two “testimonies”:

"The offer of the discovery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus to king Henry the seventh in the yeere 1488 the 13 of February: with the kings acceptation of the offer, & the cause whereupon he was deprived of the same: recorded in the thirteenth chapter of the history of Don Fernand Columbus of the life and deeds of his father Christopher Columbus.

"Christopher Columbus fearing least if the king of Castile in like maner (as the king of Portugall had done) should not condescend unto his enterprise, he should be enforced to offer the same againe to some other prince, & so much time should be spent therein, sent into England a certaine brother of his which he 57had with him, whose name was Bartholomew Columbus, who albeit he had not the Latine tongue, yet neverthelesse was a man of experience and skilfull in Sea causes, and could very wel make sea cards & globes and other instruments belonging to that profession, as he was instructed by his brother. Wherefore after that Bartholomew Columbus was departed for England his lucke was to fall into the hands of pirats, which spoiled him with the rest of them which were in the ship which he went in. Upon which occasion, and by reason of his poverty and sicknesse which cruelly assaulted him in a countrey so farre distant from his friends, he deferred his ambassage for a long while, untill such time as he had gotten somewhat handsome about him with making of Sea cards. At length he began to deale with king Henry the seventh the father of Henry the eight which reigneth at this present: unto whom he presented a mappe of the world, wherein these verses were written, which I found among his papers: and I will here set them downe rather for their antiquity than for their goodnesse:

“And because some peradventure may observe that he calleth himselfe Columbus de Terra Rubra, I say, that in like maner I have seene some subscriptions of my father Christopher Columbus, before he had the degree of Admirall, wherein he signed his name thus, Columbus de Terra Rubra. But to returne to the king of England, I say, that after he had seen the map, and that which my father Christopher Columbus offered unto him, he accepted the offer with joyfull countenance, and sent to call him into England. But because God had reserved the sayd offer for Castile, Columbus was gone in the meane space, and also returned with the performance of his enterprise, as hereafter in order shall be rehearsed. Now will I leave off from making any farther mention of that which Bartholomew Colon had negotiated in England, and I will return unto the Admirall, &c.”

“Christopher Columbus the Admirall being returned from the discovery of Cuba and Jamayca, found in Hispaniola his brother Bartholomew Columbus, who before had beene sent to intreat of an agreement with the king of England for the discovery of the Indies, as we have sayd before. This Bartholomew therefore returning unto Castile, with the capitulations granted by the king of England to his brother, understood at Paris by Charles the king of France, that the Admirall his brother had already performed that discovery: whereupon the French king gave unto the sayd Bartholemew an hundred French crownes to beare his charges into Spaine. And albeit he made great haste upon this good newes to meet with the Admirall in Spaine, yet at his comming to Sevil his brother was already returned to the Indies with seventeene saile of shipps. Wherefore to fulfill that which he had left him in charge in the beginning of the yeere 1494 he repaired to the Catholike princes, taking with him Diego Colon my brother, and me also, which were to be preferred as Pages to the most excellent Prince Don John, who now is with God, according to the commandment of the Catholike Queene Lady Isabell, which was then in 60Validolid. As sooneAs soone therefore as we came to the Court, the princes called for Don Bartholomew, and sent him to Hispaniola with three ships, &c.”

The news of Columbus’ achievement filled all Europe with wonder and admiration. To “sail by the West into the East where spices grow by a way that was never known before” was affirmed “a thing more divine than human.” Offering the promise of a direct route to Cathay, the feat was of tremendous import. There was especially “great-talk of it” in the English court with keen regret that England, through untoward happenings, had failed of the honour and profit of the momentous discovery, and Henry and his counsellors were eager to emulate Spain. Although the full significance of the discovery was not then realized—that the new-found islands were the barriers of a new continent—no underestimate of the value of the region was made by either nation. Ferdinand and Isabella gave it the name of the Indies, considering it, with the discoverer, to be a part of India, and no time was lost in clinching their rights. Nor were “their Catholic highnesses” idle. In May, 1493, Pope Alexander the sixth granted his bull fixing a “line of demarcation” between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, which was nothing less than a division of the world between Spain and Portugal. This line was run from pole to pole and one hundred degrees west of the Azores, and all newly discovered and to be discovered lands on the east of the line were assigned to the absolute possession of the crown of Portugal, those on the west to the 61crown of Castile. In 1494 Columbus made his second voyage and discovered, among other islands, Porto Rico and Jamaica.

Meanwhile in the English maritime city of Bristol the Venetian merchant, John Cabot (or Zuan Caboto in the Venetian dialect), then resident there, had perfected his scheme of shortening the way to India by the Northwest Passage, and in 1496, before Columbus’s return from his second voyage, it had been proposed to King Henry, had met his hearty approbation, had been endorsed by his letters patent issued to Cabot and Cabot’s three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, and preparations for the venture had begun.

Henry’s patent, bearing date March 5, 1495/6, and distinguished as “the most ancient American state paper of England,” gave to the grantees sweeping powers and a pretty complete commercial monopoly. They were authorized to sail in all seas to the East, the West, and the North; to seek out in any part of the undiscovered world islands, countries, and provinces of the heathen hitherto unknown to Christians; affix the ensigns of England to all places newly found and take possession of them for the English crown. They were to have the exclusive right of frequenting the places of their discovery, and enjoy all the fruits and gains of their navigations except a fifth part, which was to go to the king. The sole restriction imposed was that on their return voyages they should always land at the port of Bristol. With these generous concessions, however, the canny king stipulated that the enterprise should be wholly at the Cabots’ “own proper costs and charges.”

Hakluyt reproduces the text of this precious document 63in the first volume of the Principal Navigations. It runs as follows:

"Henry by the grace of God, King of England and France, and lord of Ireland, to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting.

"Be it knowen that we have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant for us and our heires, to our welbeloved John Cabot citizen of Venice, to Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, sonnes of the sayd John, and to the heires of them, and every of them, and their deputies, full and free authority, leave and power to saile to all parts, countreys, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensignes, with five ships of what burthen or quantity soever they be, and as many mariners or men as they will have with them in the sayd ships, upon their owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discover, and finde whatsoever isles, countreys, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels whatsoever they be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have bene unknowen to all Christians: we have granted to them, and also to every of them, the heires of them, and every of them, and their deputies, and have given this license to set up our banners and ensignes in every village, towne, castle, isle, or mainland of them newly found. And that the aforesayd John and his sonnes, or their heires and assignes may subdue, occupy, and possesse all such townes, cities, castles and isles of them found, which they can subdue, occupy, and possesse, as our vassals, and 64lieutenants, getting unto us the rule, title, and jurisdiction of the same villages, townes, castles, & firme land so found.

"Yet so that the aforesayd John, and his sonnes and heires, and their deputies, be holden and bounden of all the fruits, profits, gaines, and commodities growing of such navigation, for every their voyages as often as they shall arrive at our port of Bristoll (at the which port they shall be bound and holden onely to arrive) all maner of necessary costs and charges by them made, being deducted, to pay unto us in wares or money the fift part of the capitall gaine so gotten. We giving and granting unto them and to their heires and deputies, that they shall be free from all paying of customes of all and singular such merchandize as they shall bring with them from those places so newly found. And moreover, we have given and granted to them, their heires and deputies, that all the firme lands, isles, villages, townes, castles and places whatsoever they be that they shall chance to finde, maymay not of any other of our subjects be frequented or visited without the license of the foresayd John and his sonnes, and their deputies, under paine of forfeiture aswell of their shippes as of all and singuler goods of all them that shall presume to saile to those places so found. Willing, and most straightly commanding all and singuler our subjects aswell on land as on sea, to give good assistance to the aforesayd John and his sonnes and deputies, and that as well in arming and furnishing their ships or vessels, as in provision of food, and in 65buying of victuals for their money, and all other things by them to be provided necessary for the sayd navigation, they do give them all their helpe and favour.

“In witnesse whereof we have caused to be made these our Letters patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminster the fift day of March, in the eleventh yeare of our reigne.”

Under this patent, the following year—1497—John Cabot sailed out of Bristol with one small vessel, and supplemented the discovery of Columbus in finding the mainland of America.

John Cabot, like Columbus, was a Genoese, but neither the exact place nor the date of his birth is known. He was in Venice as early as 1461, as appears from a record in the Venetian archives of his naturalization as a citizen of Venice under date of March 28, 1476, after the prescribed residence of fifteen years. There he was apparently a merchant. It is said that he also made voyages at times as a shipmaster. He became proficient in the study of cosmography and in the science of navigation. With Columbus he accepted the theory of the rotundity of the earth, and is said to have been early desirous of himself putting it to a practical test. At one time he visited Arabia, where at Mecca he saw the caravans coming in laden with spices from distant countries. Asking where the spices grew, he was told by the carriers that they did not know; that other caravans came to their homes with this rich merchandise from more distant parts, and that these others told them that it was brought 66from still more remote regions. So he came to reason in this wise: that “if the Orientals affirmed to the Southerners that those things come from a distance from them, and so from hand to hand, presupposing the rotundity of the earth, it must be that the last ones get them at the North toward the West.” On this argument he later based his Northwest Passage scheme. He moved to England probably not long before the development of this scheme (some early writers, however, place the date about the year 1477), and took up his residence in Bristol, to “follow the trade of merchandise.” His wife, a Venetian, and his three sons, all supposed to have been born in Venice, accompanied him. Sebastian, the second son, who became the most illustrious of the family, was then a youth, but sufficiently old to have already some “knowledge of the humanities and the sphere,” as he long afterward stated. The brothers, it is supposed, were all of age when the king’s patent was issued, and Sebastian about twenty-three.

John Cabot’s expedition sailed early in May and was absent three months. It was essentially a voyage of discovery. His vessel was a Bristol ship, and called the “Matthew.” The ship’s company comprised eighteen persons, “almost all Englishmen and from Bristol.” The foreigners were a Burgundian and a Genoese. Sebastian, it is believed, accompanied his father, but neither of the other sons. The chief men of the enterprise were “great sailors.”

The brave little ship plowed the mysterious sea for 67seven hundred leagues, as estimated, when on the twenty-fourth of June, in the morning, land was sighted. This was supposed by the early historians, and so set down in their histories, to have been the island of Newfoundland. But through nineteenth century findings of data it has been made clear that it was the north part, or the eastern point of the present island of Cape Breton, off the coast of Nova Scotia. This is demonstrated by the inscription “prima tierra vista” at the head of the delineation of that island, on a map attributed to Sebastian Cabot composed in 1544, nearly half a century after the voyage, and subsequently missing till the discovery of a copy three centuries later, in 1843, in Germany, at the house of a Bavarian curate, whence it passed to the National Library at Paris. On this map Cape Breton island forms a part of the mainland of Nova Scotia, the Gut of Canso not then having been discovered. On the same day that the landfall was made a “large island adjacent” to it was discovered, and named St. John because of its finding on the day of the festival of St. John the Baptist. It is marked the “I del Juan” on this map, and is the present Prince Edward Island.

A landing was made at the landfall and Cabot planted a large cross with “one flag of England, and one of St. Mark by reason of his being a Venetian,” and took possession for the English king. No human beings were seen, but “certain snares set to catch game, and a needle for making nets,” showing that the place was inhabited, were found and taken to be displayed 68to the king upon the return home. In one contemporary account, a letter of another Venetian merchant in England, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, written from London to his brothers in Venice, Cabot is said to have coasted, after striking land, for three hundred leagues, and to have seen “two islands at starboard.” Accepting this statement as authentic, with other data subsequently found, his course from his “Prima Vista” has been traced by later historical authorities in this wise: northwesterly, to obtain a good view of his Isle of St. John; northerly, through the present Northumberland Strait, sighting the coast of New Brunswick near Miramichi Bay; along the Gulf of St. Lawrence; northeasterly, passing to the north of Newfoundland through the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador; and thence homeward. It is well indicated on the accompanying sketch-map originally published in connection with a paper contributed to the Maine Historical Society by Frederick Kidder, a competent authority, in 1874.

Cabot believed that the lands he had discovered lay in “the territory of the Grand Cham,” as Columbus thought his were of eastern Asia.

The expedition arrived back at Bristol early in August and the story it brought created a sensation. With his report to the king Cabot exhibited a map of the region visited and a solid globe, and presented the game-snares and net-needle which he had found. He told the king that he believed it practicable by starting from the parts which he had discovered, and constantly 69hugging the shore toward the equinoctial, to reach an island called by him Cipango, where he thought all the spices of the world and also the precious stones originated; and this region found and colonized, there might be established in London a greater storehouse of spices than the chief one then existing, in Alexandria. All this much moved the king, and he promised to promote a second expedition for this purpose in the following spring.

Meanwhile John Cabot became the hero of the hour, 70and great honours were paid him. The king gave him money and granted him an annual pension of twenty pounds (equal to two hundred modern pounds in purchasing value), which was to be charged upon the revenues of the port of Bristol; he dressed in silk; and he was styled the “Great Admiral.” He also appears to have been knighted. He distributed largess with a free hand, if the tales of the letter-writers of the day are to be accepted. One wrote that he gave an island to the Burgundian of his crew and another to the Genoese, “a barber of his from Castiglione, of Genoa.” And this writer adds, “both of them regard themselves counts.” Reports of his exploits and of the king’s further intentions were duly made known to rival courts by their envoys in England, and excited their jealousy.

The second expedition was provided for by the king’s license dated the third of February, 1497/8. This was a patent granted to John Cabot alone, the sons not being named. Hakluyt gives only the following record from the rolls:

“The king upon the third day of February, in the 13 yeere of his reigne, gave license to John Cabot to take sixe English ships in any haven or havens of the realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, or under, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said ships all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king as willingly will go with him, &c.”

The patent itself did not find print till the nineteenth century. It was published for the first time in 1831, 71in the Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, by Richard Biddle, an American lawyer of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sometime resident in London, by whom, after painstaking search, it was found in the rolls. Quaint of style as well as of spelling, it runs as below:

“To all men to whom theis Presenteis shall come send Gretyng: know ye, that We of our Grace especiall, and for divers causes us movying We have geven and graunten, and by theis Presentis geve and graunte to our welbeloved John Kabotto, Venecian, sufficiente auctorite and power, that he, by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure VI Englisshe Shippes in any Porte or Portes or other place within this our Realme of England or obeisance, so that and if said Shippes be of the bourdeyn of C C tonnes or under with their apparail requisite and necessarie for the safe conduct of the said Shippes, and them convey and lede to the Londe [land] Isles of late founde by the seid John in oure name and by our commaundemente. Paying for theym and every of theym as if we should in or for our owen cause paye and noon [none] otherwise. An that the said John by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficiente, maye take and receyve into the said Shippes, and every of theym all such maisters, maryners, Pages, and other subjects of their owen free wille woll goo [would go] and passe with him in the same Shippes to the said Lande or Iles, without anye impedymente, lett or perturbance of any of our officers or ministres or subjects whatsoever they be by theym to the sayd John, his Deputie, or 72Deputies, and all other our seid subjects, or any of theym passinge with the sayd John in the said Shippes to the said Londe or Iles to be doon, or suffer to be doon or attempted. Geving in commaundemente to all and every our officers, ministres and subjects seying or herying theis our Lettres Patents, without any ferther commaudement by Us to theym or any of theym to be geven to perfourme and secour the said John, his Deputie and all our said Subjects so passyng with hym according to the tenor of theis our Lettres Patentis. Any Statute, Acte, or Ordennance to the contrarye made or to be made in any wise notwithstanding.”

Five ships were got together for this expedition. Three of them are supposed to have been furnished by Bristol merchants and two by the king; one chronicler, however, says that the Cabots contributed two. London merchants joined with Bristol men in the adventure. It was understood to be an enterprise for colonization combined with further discovery. The number of men enlisted for the voyage was placed at three hundred. Among them, as on the first voyage, were mariners experienced in venturesome undertakings. The fleet sailed off at the beginning of May, 1498. One of the ships, aboard of which was the priest, “Friar Buel,” put back to Ireland in distress. The other four continued the voyage.

With the departure from Bristol nothing more is heard of John Cabot. He drops out of sight instantly and mysteriously. Various conjectures as to his fate 73are entertained by the historians. Some contend that he died when about to set sail. But confronting this theory is a letter of the prothonotary, Don Pedro de Ayala, residing in London, to Ferdinand and Isabella, under date of July 25, 1498, reporting the sailing of the expedition. “His [the king’s] fleet consisted of five vessels which carried provisions for one year. It is said that one of them ... has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The Genoese [John Cabot, as appears in the text elsewhere] has continued the voyage.” If so important a man as John Cabot had now become had died before May and the departure of the expedition of which he was the acknowledged head, it is fairly reasoned that Ayala would have been aware of it. No shred of satisfactory information has rewarded the searcher for a solution of the problem. Nobody knows what became of him.

At this point Sebastian Cabot enters upon the scene in the leading part. That he started with the expedition there is no doubt. Doubtless he succeeded to its leadership as the “Deputie” of his father in accordance with the terms of the patent. The conduct of it and the discoveries that followed, big in import, were his from the outset.

Sebastian Cabot, though not over twenty-four, was an experienced mariner, and accomplished, like his father, in the science of navigation. He was full of ardour to achieve distinction as a discoverer. The news of Columbus’s exploits had kindled in his heart “a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing.” 74As the master spirit of this second Cabot expedition and with its results his heart’s desire was splendidly attained; although the expedition was counted a failure by its backers, and the value of its discoveries to England was lost to the now indifferent king.

No contemporary account of this remarkable voyage was published, and historians have founded their descriptions of it mainly on reports of a much later period, derived from conversations with Sebastian Cabot at first, second, or third hand. These reports are contradictory in essential parts, and their authors confuse this second with the first expedition or treat the two as one voyage. Its story, as most satisfactorily picked out, runs practically in this wise: Sebastian steered first northwest and directed his course by Iceland. At length he came upon a formidable headland running to the north. This coast he followed for a great distance, expecting to find the passage to Cathay around it. In the month of July his ships were encountering “monstrous heaps” of ice floating in the water, and daylight was almost continual. At length failing to find any passage the ships’ prows were turned about and in course of time Newfoundland was reached, where the expedition sought refreshment. How far north Sebastian had penetrated it is impossible to determine from the conflicting statements. He himself is quoted as saying, twenty years and more afterward, that he was at fifty-six degrees when compelled to turn back. But modern authorities find presumptive evidence that he discovered Hudson’s Strait and gained 75the sixty-seventh degree through Fox’s Channel before he turned. From Newfoundland he sailed south, and coasted down along the North American coast, still hopeful of finding the much-sought-for passage, till, the company’s provisions falling short, he was obliged to take the homeward course. The southernmost point reached is as indefinite as the northern, but authorities generally agree that it was near thirty-six degrees, off North Carolina, or about the latitude of Gibraltar.

Cabot is declared by early writers to have named the “great land” along which he first coasted, assumed to be Newfoundland, “Baccaloas,” a German term then in use in the south of Europe for codfish, because of the multitudes of “big fish” found in the region. Later authorities, however, say that this name was applied by Portuguese navigators who came after Cabot. The name subsequently settled down upon a small island on the east coast of Newfoundland. It seems to be agreed that landings were made by Cabot’s company at several points. The natives, probably of Newfoundland, were seen dressed in beasts’ skins, and they were found making use of copper. Great sailors’ yarns were spun about the abundance of the fish of the region, so great that “the progress of the ships were sometimes impeded by them.” Bears, of which there were a plenty, were accustomed to feed on the fish, plunging into the sea and catching them with their claws.

Just when the expedition reached the home port of 76Bristol is not known. It was expected back in September; it had not arrived in October. There is no printed record of its arrival. Not having been successful in finding the passage and reaching Cathay, it was regarded as a failure by its princely and mercantile backers. The king, too, was found to have lost his interest in western discovery or colonization. He was most deeply engrossed in domestic affairs. “Great tumults” were happening, “occasioned by the rising of the common people and the war in Scotland.” Moreover, this Henry was now concerned in the pending Spanish alliance and he was loath to run counter to the Pope’s Bull of 1493. The geographical value of the Cabot discoveries was unappreciated, and no more talk was then heard of further western voyaging.

Sebastian Cabot himself was not at that time aware that his father and he had discovered a continent. His opinion was that all of the north part of America was divided into islands.

Hakluyt reproduces the several conflicting accounts of the two Cabot voyages extant in his day and marshals them as the “testimonies” confirming the English claim to North America. They are thus summarized in his catalogue of contents of the Principal Navigations.

“the second used by Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes legate, and reported by him;

“the third out of the preface of Baptista Ramusius [Giovanni Battista Ramusio] before his third volume of Navigations;

The first “testimonie” is from a map which Hakluyt saw in the queen’s privy gallery at Westminster, and of which copies were also to be seen in several country houses of “ancient merchants.” It was attributed to 78Sebastian Cabot, but whether it was actually his has been a much discussed question by historical writers. Clement Adams was not an engraver but a learned schoolmaster. His “cut” was apparently an inscription from data furnished by Cabot. It was in Latin and is supposed to have been made in the year 1549. This is the extract as Hakluyt gives it:

“In the yere of our Lord 1497 John Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discovered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June, about five of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, he called the Island of S. John upon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island use to weare beasts skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as we have our finest garments. In their warres they use bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren in some places, & yeeldeth litle fruit, but it is full of white beares and stagges farre greater then ours. It yeeldeth plenty of fish, and those very great, as seales, and those which commonly we call salmons: there are soles also above a yard in length: but especially there is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the Savages call baccalaos. In the same Island also there breed hauks, but they are so blacke that they are very 79like to ravens, as also their partridges, and egles [eagles] which are in like sort blacke.”

Here is seen the first mixture of the two expeditions and the observations of their masters.

The second “testimonie” is comprised in a report of a talk among a group of Italian savans at the villa of Hieronymo Fracastor, a maker of globes, at Caphi, near Verona. The principal speaker, “a most profound philosopher and mathematician,” but not named, discoursed about Sebastian Cabot and related an interview had with Cabot some years before at Seville, in which he described his adventures in detail. The identification of the speaker as “Galeacius Butrigarius, the Pope’s legate” in Spain, was copied by Hakluyt, it is said, from Richard Eden. But this has been shown to have been an error, the fact being ascertained that Butrigarius died some years before the gathering at Fracastor’s villa. Hakluyt reproduces the animated tale from Ramusio’s second book of voyages, the caption being his own:

"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining 80to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the navigations of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, and that by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Navigations, as well of the Portugals [Portuguese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further unto him to this effect.

"‘When my father departed from Venice many yeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the Sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes was brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. 81who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496 [sic] in the beginning of Sommer.

“‘I began therefore to saile toward the Northwest, not thinking to finde any other land then that of Cathay, & from thence to turne toward India, but after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. Neverthelesse, sayling along by the coast to see if I could finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still continent to the 56. degree under our Pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the Equinoctiall (ever with intent to finde the saide passage to India) and came to that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumult among the people and 82preparation for warre in Scotland: by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage.’”

Here again the two voyages are confused; and besides, the date, 1496, is wrong, and John Cabot is ignored. This would reflect upon the veracity and generosity of Sebastian Cabot, were it not more than likely that the reporter bungled, or that the accuracy of the statement suffered through repetition. It is also to be taken into account that the interview was had half a century after the events, and when Sebastian Cabot was an old man.

The remainder of the interview touches briefly upon Sebastian Cabot’s exploits of later years for Spain, and again, for England, and closes cheerily: “... And waxing olde, I give my selfe to rest from such travels, because there are nowe many yong and lustie Pilots and Mariners of good experience, by whose forwardnesse I doe rejoyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office, as you see.”

The third testimony, from Ramusio’s preface to his third volume, which was published in 1563, contrasts the Cabot voyages with those subsequently made for the king of France, which established “New France” in North America:

“In the latter part of this volume are put certaine relations of John de Vararzana [Verrazzano], Florentine, and of a great captaine a Frenchman, and the two voyages of Jaques Cartier a Briton [of Brittany], who sailed unto the land situate in 50 degrees of latitude to the North, which is called New France, which 83landes hitherto are not throughly knowen, whether they doo joyne with the firme land of Florida and Nova Hispania, or whether they bee separated and divided all by the Sea as Ilands: and whether that by that way we may goe by Sea unto the countrey of Cathaia. As many yeeres past it was written unto mee by Sebastian Cabota our Countrey man, a Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the art of Navigation, and the knowledge of Cosmographie, who sailed along and beyond this lande of New France, at the charges of King Henry the seventh king of England: and he advertised mee that having sailed a long time West by North, beyond those Ilands unto the Latitude of 67 degrees and an halfe under the North pole, and at the 11 day of June finding still the open Sea without any maner of impediment, he thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaia, which is in the East, and would have done it, if the mutinie of the shipmaster and Mariners had not hindered him and made him to returne homeward from that place. But it seemeth that God doeth yet still reserve this great enterprise for some great prince to discover this voyage of Cathaia by this way, which for the bringing of the Spiceries from India into Europe, were the most easie and shortest of all other wayes hitherto found out. And surely this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other that can be imagined to make his name great, and fame immortall, to all ages to come, farre more then can be done by any of all these great troubles and warres which dayly 84are used in Europe among the miserable Christian people.”

The fourth testimony is the most important of the six, being an account by Peter Martyr drawn directly from Sebastian Cabot’s statements to him. The Third Decade of Martyr’s history of the New World, from which Hakluyt takes it, was first printed in Seville, in 1516. At the time of Martyr’s writing Sebastian Cabot was in Spain, in the Spanish king’s service, and, as the text shows, an intimate friend of Martyr’s. This being the first printed account of the Cabot voyages, American historians based their relations of them upon it till its several inaccuracies were disclosed by other data. Hakluyt presents it in full as below.

"These North Seas have bene searched by one Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian borne, whom being yet but in maner an infant, his parents caried with them into England, having occasion to resort thither for trade of marchandise, as is the maner of the Venetians to leave no part of the world unsearched to obtaine riches. Hee therefore furnished two ships in England at his owne charges, and first with 300 men directed his course so far towards the North pole, that even in the moneth of July he found monstrous heapes of ice swimming on the sea, and in maner continuall day light, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had bene molten by the heat of the Sunne. Thus seeing such heapes of yce before him, hee was enforced to turne his sailes and follow the West, so coasting still to the shore, that he was thereby brought 85so farre into the South, by reason of the land bending so much Southward, that it was there almost equall in latitude, with the sea Fretum Herculeum [Straits of Hercules], having the Northpole elevate in maner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so farre towards the West, that hee had the Island of Cuba on his left hand, in maner in the same degree of longitude. As hee traveiled by the coastes of this great land (which he named Baccalaos) he saith that hee found the like course of the waters toward the West, but the same to runne more softly and gently then the swift waters which the Spaniards found in their Navigations Southward. Wherefore it is not onely more like to be true, but ought also of necessitie to be concluded that betweene both the lands hitherto unknowen, there should be certaine great open places whereby the waters should thus continually passe from the East unto the West: which waters I suppose to be driven about the globe of the earth by the uncessant moving and impulsion of the heavens, and not to bee swallowed up and cast up againe by the breathing of Demagorgœn, as some have imagined, because they see the seas by increase and decrease to ebbe and flowe.

"Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Baccalaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like unto Tunies (which the inhabitants call Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippe. He found also the people of those regions covered with beastes skinnes, yet not without the use of reason. He also saith there 86is great plentie of Beares in those regions which use to eate fish: for plunging themselves into ye water, where they perceive a multitude of these fishes to be, they fasten their clawes into their scales and so draw them to land and eate them, so (as he saith) the Beares being thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome to men. Hee declareth further, that in many places of these Regions he saw great plentie of Copper among the inhabitants.

“Cabot is my very friend, whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keepe mee company in mine owne house. For being called out of England by the commandement of the Catholique King of Castile, after the death of King Henry the seventh of that name King of England, he was made one of our councill and Assistants, as touching the affaires of the new Indies, looking for ships dayly to be furnished for him to discover this hid secret of Nature.”

The fifth testimony, out of Gomara’s “General History,” is the following extract from a history of the West Indies published in 1552–1553. Francisco Lopez de Gomara was a priest, sometime chaplain of Hernando Cortes, and was one of the most distinguished historical writers of Spain in his time.

"The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara, a Spaniard, in the fourth Chapter of the second Booke of his generall history of the West Indies concerning the first discoverie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 58 to 38 degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England.

“He which brought most certaine newes of the 87countrey & people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged up two ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7 of England, having great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingales did. He carried with him 300 men, and tooke the way towards Island [Iceland] from beyond the Cape of Labrador, untill he found himselfe in 58 degrees and better. He made relation that in the moneth of July it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further: that the dayes were very long, in a maner without any night, and for that short night that they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, turned towards the West, refreshing himselfe at Bacalaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast unto 38 degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England.”

The sixth is this brief passage from the Chronicle of Robert Fabian, “sometime alderman of London,” which Hakluyt received in manuscript from John Stow, the famous London antiquarian and annalist:

“In the 13 yeere of K. Henry the 7 (by meanes of one John Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and Ilands of the same, as by a Sea card and 88other demonstrations reasonable he shewed) the king caused to man and victuall a ship at Bristow [Bristol] to search for an Island which he said hee knew well was rich, and replenished with great commodities: Which shippe thus manned and victualed at the kings cost, divers Marchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chiefe patron the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship, sailed also out of Bristow three or foure small ships fraught with sleght and grosse marchandises, as course cloth, caps, laces, points & other trifles. And so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maiors [mayor’s] time returned no tidings.”

The following mention, by “the foresaid Robert Fabian,” “of three Savages which Cabot brought home and presented unto the King in the foureteenth yere of his raigne,” is given as a sort of supplementary testimony (the authenticity of which is questioned by Richard Biddle, Sebastian Cabot’s biographer, who charges this kidnapping of natives upon a later navigator):

“This yeere also were brought unto the King three men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake of, in William Purchas time being Maior: These were clothed in beasts skins, & did eate raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could understand them, and in their demeanour like to brute beastes, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which upon two yeeres after, I saw two apparelled after the manner of Englishmen in Westminster pallace, which that time I 89could not discerne from Englishmen, til I was learned what they were, but as for speach I heard none of them utter one word.”

And the whole is preceded by that legend of the first discovery of the West Indies by Madoc the Welshman, in the year 1170, which is cast in apparently for what it may be worth.

In the illustrious year of 1498, which witnessed Sebastian Cabot’s westward discoveries along North America, and Columbus’s sighting of South America, Vasco da Gama, pursuing his eastward navigations, crossed the Indian Ocean, dropped anchor off the city of Calicut, on the Malagar coast, and set up on shore a marble pillar as proof of his discovery of India by an ocean highway. Thus Portugal offset Spain’s claim to the West Indies by priority of discovery, with a claim through first discovery to the East Indies, and stood ready to assert it, while England allowed her right, by the same token, in the North American continent to lapse.

Spain and Portugal continued in sharp rivalry during the half decade immediately following. In 1499 the coast of South America was touched at about Surinam by the Spaniard Alonzo de Ojeda and the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Spain. The same year the coast of Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese navigator, Vincente Yarez Pinzon. He had been a companion of Columbus. The next year possession of Brazil was taken for the crown of Portugal by Pedro 91Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese commander, who was driven to its coast by adverse winds when making a voyage to India by Vasco da Gama’s course. Three years later a settlement was begun there by Amerigo Vespucci, now in the service of Portugal. In 1500 Gaspar de Cortereal, Portuguese, attempted to follow the Cabots’ track of discovery opened in the northwest. Coming upon the coast of Labrador he explored it for six hundred miles. He discovered Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence, and also Hudson’s Strait. Then he returned to Lisbon with his two caravals freighted with natives—men, women, and children—whom he had captured and brought home for slavery. The next year Cortereal departed on a second voyage for further discovery and presumably more slaves, and was never more heard from. His brother, Michael de Cortereal, sailed in search of him, and also was lost. Then two armed ships were sent out by the king of Portugal to search for both brothers; but no trace of either could be found. It was finally assumed that both fell victims to the vengeance of the natives for the thefts of their people. Upon the strength of Gaspar de Cortereal’s voyages Portugal attempted to establish a claim to the discovery of Newfoundland and the adjacent coast of North America. But in this she was not successful. Spain, however, held firmly to all of her American possessions, indefinitely defined.

England remained passive till 1501, when a new movement was started in the Cabots’ home city of Bristol. Three Bristol merchants—Richard Ward, 92Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas—and three Portuguese mariners—John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gundlur—came together for a venture in the track of the Cabots. A patent was obtained from King Henry, under date of March 19, 1501, which conferred upon them the same powers that had originally been given the Cabots, and was in terms similar to the Cabot patents. Whether they sent out an expedition that year is not known. The next year, however, the personnel of the company had changed, with the dropping of Ward and Thomas and the substitution of Hugh Eliot in their place; and under this organization, probably in 1503, a voyage was made which resulted in discovery at Newfoundland and along the Labrador coast. The only record of this voyage is given by Hakluyt in the following excerpt from the merchant Robert Thorne’s “Booke” of 1527, addressed to the English Ambassador at the court of Spain:

“I reason that as some sickenesses are hereditarie, so this inclination or desire of this discovery I inherited from my father, which with another marchant of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the Newfound-lands; of the which there is no doubt (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the Mariners would then have bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, 93but the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the golde commeth, had bene ours; for all is one coast as the Card appeareth, and is aforesaid.”

The “card” here referred to was a rude map of the world on which, along the line of the coast of Labrador, was written the inscription in Latin, “This land was first discovered by the English.” A short time after this voyage the fisheries about Newfoundland had become well known to Frenchmen, and were being frequented by the hardy fishermen of Brittany and Normandy. Hence the later name of the isle of Cape Breton.

No further patents for English navigations were issued for more than half a century. Still English interest in maritime discovery and commercial advancement was not altogether stagnant during this period. Early in Henry the eighth’s reign quite a promising enterprise was set on foot by Sebastian Cabot, then back in England, and in high standing for his knowledge in cosmography. He had been in Spain for seven years (having entered Spain’s service three years after the death of Henry the seventh, which occurred in 1509), acting part of that time as one of the council of the Indies, and latterly completing plans for a new expedition for the search of the Northwest passage under the Spanish flag, which he had been compelled to abandon by Ferdinand’s death, in 1516. Returned to England he had found Henry the eighth hospitable to his scheme and had induced him to fit out a small squadron for its pursuit. The supreme command, 94however, was given to another,—Sir Thomas Pert, at that time vice-admiral of England,—and this proved disastrous to the enterprise; for, it is recorded, Sir Thomas’s “faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect.” All that the expedition accomplished was a visit to the coast of Brazil, to San Domingo, and to Porto Rico, whence it returned to England. Hakluyt gives a narration which he supposes to relate to this voyage, written by the Spanish historian Gonzalo de Oviedo, and reprinted by Ramusio, from whom he translates it:

“In the yeere 1517 an English Rover under the colour of travelling to discover, came with a great shippe unto the parts of Brasill on the coast of the firme land, and from thence he crossed over unto this Iland of Hispaneola, and arrived neere unto the mouth of the haven of this citie of S. Domingo, and sent his shipboate full of men on shoare and demaunded leave to enter into this haven, saying that hee came with marchandise to traffique. But at that very instant the governour of the castle, Francis de Tapia, caused a tire of ordinance to be shot from the castle at the ship, for she bare in directly with the haven. When the Englishmen sawe this, they withdrew themselves out, and those that were in the shipboate got themselves with all speede on shipboord. And in trueth the warden of the castle committed an oversight: for if the shippe had entred into the haven the men thereof could not have come on lande without leave both of the citie and of the castle. Therefore the people of the 95ship seeing how they were received sayled toward the Iland of S. John, and entring into the port of S. Germaine, the English men parled [parleyed] with those of the towne, requiring victuals and things needefull to furnish their ship, and complained of the inhabitants of the city of S. Domingo saying that they came not to doe any harme but to trade and traffique for their money and merchandise. In this place they had certaine victuals and for recompense they gave and paid them with certaine vessell of wrought tinne and other things. And afterward they departed toward Europe....”

Hakluyt resents Oviedo’s use of the term “Rover” in this account and his assumption that the object of the expedition was other than discovery and traffic, remarking tartly that Spanish and Portuguese writers “account all other nations for Pirates, rovers, and thieves who visit any heathen coast that they have once sailed by or looked on.”

With the failure of this enterprise Cabot again left England and reëntered the service of Spain, taking the post of “pilot major.”

Later in Henry the eighth’s reign, in 1527, a larger expedition, composed of “divers cunning men,” set out for Northern discovery, but with no more satisfactory results. Their enterprise was impelled by the weighty reasoning of Robert Thorne, the observant Bristol merchant, then in Seville (whom Hakluyt terms a “notable member and ornament of his country”), in his “large discourse” of that year to Dr. Ley, the English ambassador in Spain, urging the immediate need of English discovery in the north parts, “even to the North pole,” to overcome the advantages gained by Spain and Portugal in their discoveries of “all the Indies and seas Occidental and Oriental,” so “by this part of the Orient and Occident” compassing the world. Who were the “divers cunning men” composing this expedition Hakluyt endeavoured to ascertain through much enquiry among “such as by their years and delight in Navigation” might inform him. He learned, however, of one only, and his name he could not get—a certain canon of St. Paul’s in London, 97a “great mathematician, and indued with wealth,” apparently the leader. Two “fair ships” formed the squadron, one of them called “The Dominus VobiscumVobiscum.” They set forth out of the Thames on a mid-May day. When sailing “far northwestward” one of the ships was cast away as it entered into “a dangerous gulph about the great opening between the North parts of Newfoundland and the country lately called by her Majestie Meta Incognita.” Thereupon the other ship, “shaping her course toward Cape Briton and the coaste of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those regions, returned home about the beginning of October.” So this story lamely ends.

Six years later an enterprise for discovery in the same parts was projected by certain London men, with the king’s “favour and good countenance,” under the leadership of one “Master Hore,” a “man of goodly stature and of great courage, and given to the studie of Cosmographie.” Master Hore’s “persuasions” were so effective that he soon drew into the scheme “many gentlemen of the Inns of court and of the Chancerie, and divers others of good worship, desirous to see the strange things of the world.” Two “tall ships” were obtained for the venture, the “Trinitie,” of one hundred and forty tons, which was designated the “admiral” (flag-ship) of the fleet, and the “Minion.” The company numbered about sixscore persons, of whom thirty were gentlemen. Among the latter were enrolled one Armigil Wade, “a very learned and vertuous gentleman,” 98afterward clerk of the councils of Henry the eighth and his successor, Edward the sixth; one Joy, subsequently gentleman of the king’s chapel; and Oliver Dawbeny, a merchant of London. All were “mustered in warlike manner” at Gravesend. After receiving the Sacrament they embarked and sailed away at the end of April, 1536. The adventures of these gentlemen-explorers were rare and tragic.

From the time that they left Gravesend they were more than two months at sea without touching land. At length they arrived in the region of Cape Breton. Shaping their course northwestward they came to the “island of Penguin,” where they landed. This was found to be a place “full of rocks and stones” and inhabited by flocks of “great foules white and gray, as big as geese.” These strange fowls were the sea-birds known as Penguins from their first discovery on this island, and afterward, when appearing in other parts, called Great Auks or Gare-Fowls. The sailors drove large numbers of them into the boats, and they made good eating. Quantities of their eggs were also seen on the island. No natives were encountered by the voyagers till they had lain anchored off Newfoundland for several days. Then one morning while Oliver Dawbeny was walking on the hatches he spied a boat full of savages rowing down the bay toward the ships. A ship’s boat was quickly manned and sent out to meet and take them. But at its approach the savages fled to a neighbouring island up the bay. The English pursued them, but they got away. On the island a 99fire was found, and by it the side of a bear on a wooden spit ready for roasting. A boot of leather was picked up, “garnished on the outward side of the calf with certain brave trails as it were of raw silke”; also a “great warm mitten.” The voyagers tarried in the Newfoundland seas till famine came upon them.

Now the tale becomes gruesome. Temporary relief was had from the stock of a nest of an osprey “that brought hourly to her young great plentie of divers sort of fish.” For a while they lived on raw herbs and roots gathered on the main. Then, the relief from herbs becoming of “little purpose,” some of the hardest pressed, when ashore in companies of two, seeking food, fell to feeding upon their mates. “The fellow killed his mate while he stooped to take up a root for his relief, and cutting out pieces of his body whom he had murthered broyled the same on the coles [fire] and greedily devoured them.” By this means, the chronicler grimly adds, “the company decreased.” The officers on shipboard wondered at this falling off till the fate of the missing was disclosed through the admission of one well-fed sailor, under the goading taunts of a starving mate who had come upon him in a field, drawn thither by the pungent odour of broiled flesh, that the meat upon which he had feasted was a piece of a man’s side.

When this report was brought to the captain he called the company together and addressed them earnestly upon the awfulness of such conduct. “If,” he piously argued, “it had not pleased God to have 100helpen [helped] them in that distresse that it had been better to have perished in body and to have lived everlastingly, than to have relieved for a poore time their mortal bodyes and to bee condemned everlastingly both body and soule to the unquenchable fire of hell.” He besought them all to pray “that it might please God to look upon their miserable present state and for his own mercy to relieve the same.” Still the famine continued unrelieved. At last, in sheer desperation, “they agreed amongst themselves rather than all should perish to cast lots who should be killed.” But the very night of this agreement, “such was the mercie of God” that a French ship well furnished with victuals hove into the harbour where they lay. Their action was prompt. “Such was the policy of the English,” as our chronicler ingenuously puts it, “that they became masters” of the Frenchmen’s craft, “and changing ships and victualling them they set sail to come into England.” In blunter words, they despoiled the Frenchmen of their property and made off with it, leaving them behind; not altogether desolate, however, for they were left with a ship partly provisioned from their own store.

The expedition arrived back in England about the end of October, when the gentlemen of the party enjoyed a succession of entertainments, first at a “certain castle belonging to Sir John Luttrell,” afterward at Bath, Bristol, and London. The voyagers told in their reports how they had journeyed so far northward that they had seen “mighty islands of ice in the summer 101season on which were hawkes and other fowles to rest themselves being weary of flying over far from the main.” And how they had also seen “certain great white fowles with red bills and red legs somewhat bigger than herons which they supposed to be storkes.” Some months later the despoiled Frenchmen had got back to their home port, and they appeared in England with complaint to the king and demand for redress. After an examination of the matter, however, the king was “so moved to pity” by the tale of the distress of the Englishmen, which was shown to be the occasion of their high-handed act, that “he punished not his subjects, but of his own purse made full and royal recompense unto the French.” Which was certainly generous as should become a king.

The account of this voyage was the one that Hakluyt travelled two hundred miles on horseback to get from the sole survivor of the company living at the time of his writing, or, in his own words, “to learn the whole truth of this voyage from his own mouth as being the only man now alive that was in this discovery.” He was Thomas Buts, a son of Sir William Buts of Norfolk. Hakluyt relates that upon his return from the voyage Buts was so changed in appearance through the hunger and misery he had undergone that his parents did not recognize him as their son till they found a secret mark on his person, “which was a wart upon one of his knees.”

With the accession of Edward the sixth, the boy 102king, in 1547, new projects began to develop for further discovery northward. Sebastian Cabot was again in England and settled at Bristol. He was now an old man, yet still stalwart in mind and red-blooded for action. His fame was widespread and he had come to be called “The Great Seaman.” While pilot major of Spain, he had, with other achievements, made important discoveries in South America. Heading an expedition originally planned to pursue discovery in the Pacific, through the Strait of Magellan (discovered and passed by that brilliant Portuguese, Fernao de Magalhães, in 1520, who the next year discovered the Philippines), he had explored the River Plate, naming it Rio de la Plata, the Silver River, because of the splendour of the silver ornaments worn by the Indians of the region, and had anchored off the site of the present city of Buenos Ayres; had built a fort at one of the mouths of the Parana and begun a settlement there; had further ascended the Parana; penetrated the Paraguay; and thence entered the Vermejo, where he and his party had a fierce fight with the savages. In Edward’s second year, 1549, he was appointed Grand Pilot of England, with an annual pension of £166 13s. and 6d. in consideration of the “good and acceptable service done and to be done” by him for the English crown.

Not long after he is found turning from the Northwest Passage and advising a new voyage for the discovery of a Northeast route to India.

From this a project of various London merchant 103adventurers developed which resulted in an expedition in 1553 starting under Sir Hugh Willoughby and continued by Richard Chancellor, which, although failing to find Cathay, made notable discoveries with the opening to Europe of the great empire of Russia.

The Willoughby-Chancellor voyage was planned with much thoroughness, specifically for the expansion of trade. It was the outcome of the deliberations of “certaine grave Citizens of London and men of great wisdome and carefull for the good of their Countrey” seeking means to revive commercial affairs which had fallen into a dismal state. English commodities had come to be in small request by neighbouring peoples. “Merchandises” (as the term was) which foreigners in former times eagerly sought were now neglected and their prices lowered, although the goods were carried by the English traders to the foreign ports; while all foreign products were “in great account and their prices wonderfully raised.” Meanwhile English merchants had seen the wealth of Spaniards and Portuguese marvellously increase through the repeated discoveries of new countries and new trades for their nations. So these grave and wise citizens came at last to realize the imperative need of a similar course for England if she were to keep pace with her rivals: practically to adopt the policy which 105Robert Thorne had so sagely pressed a quarter of a century before.

Having resolved upon a “new and strange navigation” they first of all brought Sebastian Cabot into their councils, and forming a company chose him their head. “After much speech and conference together” it was decided that three ships should be prepared for discovery in the northern parts of the world to open the way for Englishmen to unknown kingdoms northeastward. The three ships were duly obtained, for the most part newly built craft of “very strong and well-seasoned planks.” One at least of them was made especially staunch by “an excellent and ingenious invention,” described as “the covering of a piece of keel with thin sheets of lead.” This is supposed to have been the first instance in England of the practice of sheathing. It had, however, been adopted in Spain nearly forty years before. The ships were well furnished with armours and artillery, and were victualled with supplies for eighteen months. They were severally: the “Bona Esperanza,” of one hundred and twenty tons, designated admiral (flag-ship) of the fleet, the “Edward Bonaventure,” one hundred and sixty tons, and the “Bona Confidentia,” ninety tons. Each was provided with a pinnace and a boat.

After securing the ships the next care was the selection of captains for the expedition. Many men of standing offered themselves for the headship. Among these most urgent for the appointment was Sir Hugh Willoughby, “a most valiant gentleman and well born.” 106Sir Hugh was chosen on account of his “goodly personage”—he appears to have been an exceptionally tall man—and for his “singular skill in the service of warre.” He had served under the Earl of Hertford, afterward the Duke of Somerset, in the expedition of 1544 against Scotland, and had received the honour of knighthood at Leith; and during the invasions of 1547–1549 he held a commission on the border, and was sometime captain of Lowther Castle. Afterward his “thoughts turned to the sea” through his association with naval men and his friendship with Sebastian Cabot. The title given him was captain-general of the Fleet. For second in command, also drawn from several candidates, Richard Chancellor was elected and named pilot-general. He was given the charge of the “Edward Bonaventure” as captain. Chancellor had been bred up in the household of Henry Sidney, the father of Sir Philip Sidney. He was strongly endorsed as a man of “great estimation for many good partes of wit in him.” In the prime of life, he had the advantage of an excellent reputation for knowledge of the sea with a genius for adventure. As masters of the several ships, William Gefferson was appointed for the “Bona Esperanza,” Stephen Borough (afterward chief pilot of England) for the “Edward Bonaventure,” and Cornelius Durfoorth for the “Bona Confidentia.” The captain-general, the pilot-general, the three ships’ masters, the minister—Master Richard Stafford—two of the merchants and one of the “gentlemen” joining the expedition, and the three masters’ mates, 107were designated a board of twelve counsellors for the voyage.

An elaborate book of orders and instructions for the conduct of the fleet was compiled by Cabot; while the king provided a letter, written in Latin, Greek, and other languages, designed for presentation to any potentate whom the voyagers might come across in journeying “toward the mighty empire of Cathay,” but most liberally addressed “to all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governours of the earth, and all others having any excellent dignity on the same in all places under the universall heaven.”

Hakluyt gives the text of both of these documents. Cabot’s book comprised thirty-three items, as a whole well illustrating his ripe judgment and good seamanship. Particularly wise were his instructions as to the attitude of the voyagers toward new peoples whom they might discover. “Every nation and region is to be considered advisedly.” The natives were not to be provoked by “any disdaine, laughing, contempt, or such like,” but were to be used with “prudent circumspection, with all gentlenes and courtesie.” “For as much,” he shrewdly observed, “as our people and shippes may appear unto them strange and wondrous, and their’s also to ours: it is to be considered how they may be used, learning much of their natures and dispositions by some one such person [native] as you may first either allure or take to be brought aboord of your ships, and there to learn as you may, without violence or force.” The native so taken to be “well entertained, 108used and apparelled; to be set on the land to the intent that he or she may allure other to draw nigh to shew the commodities.” But the succeeding instruction was vicious, though in accord with the brutality of the age: “and if the person taken may be made drunke with your beere or wine you shall know the secrets of his heart.”

The king’s letter-missive defined the voyage to be purely a commercial affair. It was an expedition by sea “into farre Countreis to the intent that betweene our people and them a way may be opened to bring in and cary out merchandises.” It was to seek in the countries that might be found heretofore unknown “as well such things as we lacke, as also to cary unto them from our regions such things as they lacke.” So “not onely commoditie may ensue both to them and to us, but also an indissoluble and perpetuall league of friendship be established betweene us both.” Free passage was asked for the voyagers through their dominions, with the assurance that nothing of theirs should be touched by the visitors unwillingly to them; and the same hospitality that they would expect their subjects to receive should they at any time pass by the regions of the English king.

The fleet started from Ratcliffe at the time appointed for the departure, the tenth of May (according to Willoughby’s journal, other accounts say the twentieth) and dropped down the Thames by easy stages. On the “Esperanza” with Sir Hugh were the larger number of merchants. The minister was on the 109“Edward Bonaventure”; and among the seamen of the latter was William Borough, the younger brother of the ship’s master, a lusty youth of sixteen, who afterward became comptroller of the queen’s navy. The spectacle of the passage by Greenwich, where the court was then seated at the ancient royal palace, is vividly portrayed by the historian of Chancellor’s exploits on this voyage, Clement Adams, the schoolmaster:

“The greater shippes are towed downe with boates, and oares, and the mariners being all apparelled in Watchet, or skie coloured cloth, rowed amaine and made way with diligence. And being come neere Greenewich (where the court then lay) presently upon the newes thereof the Courtiers came running out, and the common people flockt together standing very thicke upon the shoare: the privie Counsel, they lookt out at the windowes of the Court, and the rest ranne up to the toppes of the towers: the shippes hereupon discharge their Ordinance, and shoot off their pieces after the maner of warre, and of the sea, insomuch that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the valleys and the waters gave an Echo, and the Mariners, they shouted in such sort that the skie rang again with the noyse thereof. One stoode in the poope of the ship, and by his jesture bids farewell to his friends in the best maner he could. Another walks upon the hatches, another climbes the shrowdes, another stands upon the maine yarde, and another in the top of the shippe.”

The boy king heard the parting salute but he did 110not see the show, for he lay in his chamber gravely ill of consumption. And a fortnight after the ships had taken the sea, he died.

The fleet tarried some time off Harwich and did not finally get away till the twenty-third of June. By the middle of July Heligoland, in the North Sea, was reached and visited. Next, Röst Island, where another short stay was made. Next, on the twenty-seventh of July, anchors were dropped at one of the Lofoden Islands, and there the voyagers remained for three days, finding the isle “plentifully inhabited” by “very gentle people.” Next they coasted along these islands north-northwest till the second of August, when they attempted to make another harbour, having arranged with a native, who came out to them in a skiff for a pilot to conduct them to “Wardhouse” (Vardohuus), an island haven off Finmark, with a “castle,” then a rendezvous of northern mariners. But violent whirlwinds prevented their entrance and they were constrained to take to the sea again. Thereupon the captain-general ran up the admiral’s flag signalling a conference of the chief officers of the fleet on board his ship. It was then agreed that in the event of a separation of the ships by a tempest or other mishap each should at once make for “Wardhouse,” and the first arriving in safety should there await the coming of the rest.

That very day the dreaded separation occurred. Late in the afternoon a tempest suddenly arose which so lashed the sea that the ships were tossed hither and 111thither from their intended course. Above the storm on the “Edward Bonaventure” was heard the loud voice of Sir Hugh calling to Captain Chancellor to keep by the admiral. But the “Esperanza,” bearing all sails, sped onward with such swiftness that despite all of Chancellor’s efforts to follow, she was soon out of his sight. That was the last seen of her or of Sir Hugh and his companions. Nor was the “Confidentia” again seen by the men of the “Bonaventure.” Both ships and their companies had passed forever from their sight; and the miserable fate of their mates was not known when they had completed their voyage and returned to England.

The story was finally told in Willoughby’s journal, which was found a year or more afterward with the ships and the frozen bodies of the luckless Sir Hugh and his companions, seventy in all, at Lapland. Hakluyt gives it under this caption:

“The Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughbie knight, wherein he unfortunately perished at Arzina Reca in Lapland, Anno 1553.” It is entitled: “The true copie of a Note found written in one of the two ships, to wit, the Speranza, which wintred in Lappia where Sir Willoughbie and all his companie died, being frozen to death Anno 1553.”

This journal comprised a record of the expedition from the start to Willoughby’s occupation of the Lapland haven. It opened with a statement of the object of the voyage and its institution by Cabot and the London Merchant Adventurers; a list of the ships and 112their burden, together with the names of their companies; and the text of the oath administered to the ships’ masters. Then followed the log of the voyage, beginning with the departure from Ratcliffe. From this it appears that the morning after the storm which had parted the ships, the “Esperanza,” with the lifting of a fog, espied the “Confidentia,” and thereafter these two ships managed to keep together. Seeing nothing of the “Bonaventure” they started in company to reach the rendezvous at “Wardhouse.” But it was not long before they lost their way. Through August and into September they sailed and drifted in various directions, northeast, south-southeast, northwest by west, west-southwest, north by east. On the fourteenth of August they discovered land in seventy-two degrees (which Hakluyt terms “Willoughbyie’s Land”), but could not reach it because of shoal water and much ice. At length, in the middle of September, they came upon land, rocky, high, and forbidding, apparently uninhabited; and so to the desolate Lapland haven which ultimately became their grave. Herein were found “very many seale fishes and other great fishes,” and upon the main were seen “beares, great deere, foxes, with divers strange beasts as guloines [or ellons, Hakluyt notes], and such other which were to us unknowen and also wonderful.” Then the sad record closes:

“Thus remaining in this haven the space of a weeke, seeing the yeere farre spent, & also very evill wether, as frost, snow, and haile, as though it had been the 113deepe of winter, we thought best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out three men South-southwest, to search if they would find people, who went three dayes journey, but could finde none; after that, we sent other three Westward foure daies journey, which also returned without finding any people. Then sent we three men Southeast three dayes journey, who in like sorte returned without finding of people, or any similitude of habitation.”

The will of Sir Hugh was also found with his journal, from which it appeared that he and most of his company were alive so late as January. Their haven lay near to Kegor in Norwegian Lapland and was afterward known as Arzina. They were first discovered, entombed in their ships, by Russian fishermen cruising in their haven, the following summer. Willoughby’s frozen body lay in his cabin. The next season, the summer of 1555, the two ships were recovered, with much of their goods, and restored for more service.

Their subsequent fate is to be related farther on. Our present concern is with Richard Chancellor and the “Edward Bonaventure” after the dispersion of the fleet.

“Pensive, heavie, and sorrowfull” at the disappearance of his fellows, Chancellor shaped his course for “Wardhouse,” according to the agreement, and in due time safely arrived there. When a week had passed with no sign of the other ships, he determined to proceed alone in the purposed voyage, in which decision all of his company acquiesced. Now follows the story 114of “The Voyage of Richard Chanceller Pilote major, the first discoverer by sea of the Kingdom of Muscovia, Anno 1553,” told in two documents reproduced by Hakluyt—Chancellor’s “rehearsal” of his adventures with an account of the wealth and barbaric splendour in the dominions of the “mighty Emperour of Russia and the Duke of Moscovia,” and Clement Adams’s narrative of the voyage as he received it “from the mouth of the said Richard Chanceler.”

Sailing from Vardohuus, “Master Chanceler held on his course towards that unknowen part of the world,” and came “at last to the place where hee found no night at all, but a continuall light and brightnesse of the Sunne shining clearley upon the huge and mightie Sea. And having the benefite of this perpetuall light for certaine dayes, at the length it pleased God to bring them into a certaine great Bay, which was of one hundredth miles or thereabout over.” Thus they had entered the White Sea and had reached the Bay of Saint Nicholas, in the neighbourhood of the modern Archangel. Here, “somewhat farre within,” they cast anchor and gazed about them. Presently in the distance a fisher boat was espied. Thereupon Chancellor with a few of his men took the pinnace and went out to meet it, hoping to learn of its crew what country they had come to, and what manner of people. But the fishermen were so amazed at the “strange greatnesse” of the “Bonaventure,” the like of which had never before been seen in those waters, that they incontinently 115fled as the strangers approached. Soon, however, they were overtaken. Then followed this scene in which Chancellor’s cleverness was exhibited, and also, perhaps, his remembrance of that item in Cabot’s book of ordinances as to the handling of new peoples discovered.

“Being come to them they (being in great feare as men half dead) prostrated themselves before him, offering to kisse his feete; but he (according to his great and singular courtesie) looked pleasantly upon them, comforting them by signes and gestures, refusing those dueties and reverences of theirs, and taking them up in all loving sort from the ground.”

Their confidence thus won they spread the report on shore of the arrival of a “strange nation of a singular gentlenesse and courtesie”; and soon the common people came forward with hospitable offerings. They would also traffic with their “new-come ghests” (guests) had they not been bound by a “certaine religious use and custome not to buy any forreine [foreign] commodities without the knowledge and consent of their king.” By this time the Englishmen had learned that the country was called Russia, or Muscovy, and that “Ivan Vasiliwich (which was at that time their King’s name) ruled and governed farre and wide in those places.” This was Ivan the fourth, “the Terrible.”

To the queries of the “barbarous Russes” about themselves Chancellor managed to make it understood that they were Englishmen sent by the king of England, 116and bearing a letter from him to their king, seeking only his “amitie and friendship and traffique with his people whereby the subjects of both kingdoms would profit.” But his court was many miles distant, so there must be delay. Chancellor asked them to sell him provisions and other necessities. Hostages were also demanded for the “more assurance” of the safety of himself and company. The governor and chief men promised that they would do what they lawfully could to “pleasure him” till they had learned their king’s will. While this palavering was going on a sledsman had been secretly despatched as a messenger to the emperor at Moscow, informing him of the new arrivals and asking his pleasure concerning them. After a considerable wait Chancellor became impatient, and thinking it was their intention to delude him, he threatened to depart and continue his voyage unless their promises were immediately fulfilled. Such was far from their desire, for they coveted the wares that the Englishmen had displayed before them. Accordingly, although their messenger had not returned, they agreed without further delay to furnish what the company wanted and to conduct them by land to the presence of their king.

Then began a long overland journey by Chancellor and his principal men to Moscow on sleds. When the greater part had been passed the “Russes’” messenger was met. He had wandered off his way seeking the English ship in a wrong direction. He delivered to Chancellor a letter from the emperor, “written in all 117courtesie and in the most loving manner,” inviting the Englishmen to his court and offering them post horses for the journey free of cost. Instantly their conductors overwhelmed them with kindnesses. So anxious now were the “Russes” to show their favours that they “began to quarrell, yea, and to fight also in striving and contending which of them should put their post horses to the sledde.” So after “much adoe and great paines taken in this long and wearie journey (for they had travailed very neere fifteene hundred miles), Master Chanceler came at last to Mosco the chiefe citie of the kingdome, and the seate of the king.”

The opening scene which dazzled the eyes of the Englishmen, when summoned to present King Edward’s letter, is pictured by Clement Adams: “Being entred within the gates of the Court there sate a very honourable companie of Courtiers to the number of one hundred, all apparelled in cloth of golde downe to their ankles: and therehence being conducted into the chamber of the presence our men beganne to wonder at the Majestie of the Emperour: his seate was aloft, in a very royall throne, having on his head a Diademe, or Crowne of golde, apparelled with a robe all of Goldsmiths worke, and in his hande hee held a Scepter garnished and beset with precious stones ...: on the one side of him stood his chiefe Secretarie, on the other side the great Commander of Silence, both of them arayed also in cloth of golde: and then there sate the 118Counsel of one hundred and fiftie in number, all in like sort arayed and of great state.”

Chancellor also sketches this scene, varying somewhat in detail: “And when the Duke was in his place appointed the interpretorr came for me into the utter [outer] chamber where sate one hundred or mor gentlemen, all in cloth of golde very sumptuous, and from thence I came into the Counsaile chamber where sate the Duke himselfe with his nobles, which were a faire company: they sate round about the chamber on high, yet so that he himselfe sate much higher than any of his nobles in a chaire gilt, and in a long garment of beaten golde, with an emperial crown upon his head and a staffe of cristall and golde in his right hand, and his other hand halfe leaning on his chaire. The Chancellour stoode up with the Secretary before the Duke.”

After he had delivered the king’s letter and a formal interchange of courtesies, the emperor invited him to dine with the court. Of this feast, at the “golden palace,” and the pomp of it, we have Chancellor’s quaintly minute description:

"And so I came into the hall, which was small and not great as is the Kings Majesties of England, and the table was covered with a tablecloth; and the Marshall sate at the ende of the table with a little white rod in his hand, which boorde was full of vessell of golde: and on the other side of the hall did stand a faire cupboarde of plate. From thence I came into the dining chamber where the Duke himselfe sate at his table without cloth 119of estate, in a gowne of silver, with a crowne emperiale upon his head, he sate in a chaire somewhat hie [high]. There sate none neare him by a great way. There were long tables set round about the chamber which were full set with such as the Duke had at dinner: they were all in white. Also the places where the tables stoode were higher by two steppes than the rest of the house. In the middest of the chamber stoode a table or cupbord to set plate on; which stoode full of cuppes of golde: and amongst all the rest there stoode foure marveilous great pottes or crudences as they call them, of golde and silver: I thinke they were a good yarde and a halfe high. By the cupborde stoode two gentlemen with napkins on their shoulders, and in their handes each of them had a cuppe of gold set with pearles and precious stones, which were the Dukes owne drinking cups: when he was disposed, he drunke them off at a draught. And for his service at meate it came in without order, yet it was very rich service: for all were served in gold, not onely he himselfe, but also all the rest of us, and it was very massie [massive]: the cups also were of golde and very massie.

"The number that dined there that day was two hundred persons, and all were served in golden vessell. The gentlemen that waited were all in cloth of gold, and they served him with caps on their heads. Before the service came in the Duke sent to every man a great shiver of bread, and the bearer called the party so sent to by his name aloude, and sayd, John Basilivich Emperour of Russia and great Duke of Moscovia doth 120reward thee with bread: then must all men stand up, and doe at all times when those wordes are spoken. And then last of all he giveth the Marshall bread, whereof he eateth before the Dukes Grace, and so doth reverence and departeth. Then commeth the Dukes service of the Swannes all in pieces, and every one in a severall dish: the which the Duke sendeth as he did the bread, and the bearer saeth the same wordes as he sayd before. And as I sayd before, the service of his meate is in no order, but commeth in dish by dish: and then after that the Duke sendeth drinke, with the like saying as before is tolde. Also before dinner hee changed his crowne, and in dinner time two crownes; so that I saw three severall crownes upon his head in one day.

“And thus when his service was all come in hee gave to every one of his gentlemen waiters meate with his owne hand, & so likewise drinke. His intent thereby is, as I have heard, that every man shall know perfectly his servants. Thus when dinner is done hee calleth his nobles before him name by name, that it is a wonder to heare howe he could name them, having so many as he hath.”

Chancellor furnishes also vivid descriptions of the power of the emperor in his vast dominions and of his prowess in war. Lord over many countries, his power was “marvellously great.” He was able to bring into the field two or three hundred thousand men. He never entered the field himself with a force under two hundred thousand men, at the same time supplying 121all his borders with men of arms. Neither husbandman nor merchant was taken to his wars. All of his warriors were horsemen, and were archers, having such bows as the Turks had. Their armour comprised a coat of plate and a skull cap, some of the coats being covered with velvet or cloth of gold. All their trappings were gorgeous, for their desire was to be sumptuous in the field, especially the nobles and gentlemen. The emperor outshone all in the richness of his attire and furnishings. His pavilion was covered either with cloth of gold or silver, and so set with stones that it was “wonderful to see.” On all their diplomatic travels the same gorgeousness was displayed. While Chancellor was in Moscow two ambassadors were sent to Poland, with an escort of five hundred horse. “Their sumptuousnes was above measure, not onely in themselves, but also in their horses, as velvet, cloth of golde, and cloth of silver set with pearles and not scant.” In ordinary life, however, the raiment of all classes was of the simplest.

Their manner of fighting and the rough life of the common soldier were thus portrayed: “They are men without al order in the field. For they runne hurling on heapes, and for the most part they never give battel to their enemies: but that which they doe they doe it all by stelth. But I beleeve they be such men for hard living as are not under the sun: for no cold will hurt them. Yea and though they lie in the field two moneths, at such time as it shall freese more then a yard thicke, the common souldier hath neither tent nor 122anything else over his head: the most defence they have against the wether is a felte which is set against the winde and wether, and when Snow commeth hee doth cast it off and maketh him a fire and laieth him down thereby. Thus doe the most of all his men except they bee gentlemen which have other provision of their owne. Their lying in the fielde is not so strange as is their hardnes: for every man must carie and make provision for himselfe & his horse for a moneth or two, which is very wonderful. For he himselfe shal live upon water & otemeale mingled together cold, and drinke water thereto: his horse shal eat green wood & such like baggage & shal stand open in the cold field without covert, & yet wil he labour & serve him right well.” At which Chancellor exclaims with admiration, “I pray you amongst all our boasting warriors how many should we find to endure the field with them but one moneth? I know no such region about us that beareth that name for man & beast. Now what might be made of these men if they were trained & broken to order and knowledge of civill wars?” Other very practical information related to the manners, customs, and religion of the Russians and to the rich commodities of their country, offering prosperous trade for English merchants.

This illuminating “rehearsal” of Chancellor’s, “writ with his own hande,” the earliest account of a people but vaguely known to Western Europe, and “still on the confines of barbarism,” was an unofficial paper addressed by the sailor-writer to his “singular good 123uncle Master Christopher Frothingham,” with the modest admonition:

Chancellor and his chief men remained in Moscow through the winter, and when they departed to rejoin their ship at St. Nicholas for the homeward voyage, the captain carried a letter from the emperor to the English monarch granting freedom to his dominions and every facility of trade to English merchants and ships.

The arrival back at London of Chancellor’s company in the autumn of 1554 was greeted with much rejoicing, while the tales that they told of the strange sights they had seen and the great things they had accomplished filled the merchant adventurers with admiration. Uneasiness over the fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and the men of the two lost ships tempered their enthusiasm; but their hope and belief were strong that the missing ones would ultimately be safely found, and immediate steps were taken toward a search for them.

Acting upon Chancellor’s wondrous reports and the letters he brought, the English sovereign, now Mary, with her consort Philip of Spain, in February, 1555, granted a charter to the promoters under the name of the Merchant Adventurers of England, and constituted Sebastian Cabot governor of the corporation for life, in consideration that he had been the “chiefest setter forth” of the first voyage. Thus was established the great Muscovy Company with a monopoly of the new Russian trade, and empowered further to promote discoveries 125in unknown regions—"lands, territories, isles, dominions, and seigniories"—north, northeast, and northwest.

In the following May (1555) the newly organized company despatched Chancellor on a second voyage to the White Sea again with the “Edward Bonaventure” and a companion ship, the “Philip and Mary,” both freighted with English goods to be bartered for Russian furs and other commodities. Accompanying him were three factors, or agents, of the company, and he carried letters of amity from Mary to Ivan, written in Greek, Polish, and Italian. While this second voyage was essentially a commercial one, Chancellor was to continue his efforts to discover a Northeast passage, being instructed to “use all wayes and meanes possible to learne howe men may passe from Russia either by land or sea to Cathaia.” He was also to make diligent enquiry among mariners and other “travelled persons” for tidings of Willoughby’s party.

This expedition arrived at “Wardhouse” by midsummer, and Moscow was reached in November. As flattering courtesies as before were exchanged between the emperor and Chancellor, and the factors were freely accorded the privileges asked for. Chancellor remained in Moscow through the following winter and spring, and then prepared for his return voyage, Ivan having appointed an ambassador to go back with him personally to convey to the English court tokens of the emperor’s good will and readiness to enter into mutual bonds of friendship. Chancellor had made no further 126Northeastern discoveries, but the fate of Willoughby and his companions had been ascertained, and their two ships had been brought from the tragic Lapland haven to St. Nicholas and added to Chancellor’s fleet there.

The return voyage was begun from St. Nicholas in July (1556), the four ships—the “Edward Bonaventure,” the “Philip and Mary,” and the restored “Bona Esperanza” and “Bona Confidentia”—making a goodly show as they put to sea. On board of the “Bonaventure” with Chancellor was the ambassador, Osep Napea by name, with most of his suite, a brilliant company of “Russes” and numerous servants, the remainder of his train, Russian merchants among them, being passengers on the other ships. The ambassador was well supplied with handsome trappings with which to dazzle his hosts, and he carried letters “tenderly conceived” from Ivan to the English sovereign. All of the ships were heavy laden with Russian goods for the English trade, parts of the cargoes being taken out by the Russians; while on the “Bonaventure” were a quantity of presents from the emperor to Philip and Mary—costly furs, rich skins, and “four living sables with chains and collars.”

For a time the four ships kept gallant company. Then high winds and storms arose and they were separated not to come together again. The “Philip and Mary,” the “Bona Esperanza,” and the “Bona Confidentia,” were all driven on the coast of Norway into “Drenton” waters. The fated ships in which 127Willoughby and his associates perished, were both lost with their passengers and crews. The “Confidentia” was seen to “perish on a rock.” The “Philip and Mary,” finding a snug harbour, was saved to make her way back to England nearly a year later. The “Bonaventure” continued alone on the voyage buffeted by much foul weather. At length, after four long months at sea, she also met her fate. At the close of a bleak November day she was driven by “outrageous tempests” on the north coast of Scotland, and was wrecked off Pitsligo, in Aberdeen Bay. Chancellor bent all his energies to saving the ambassador. Taking him with seven of his “Russes” into the ships’ boat he made for the shore. But it was now night-time, dark and tempestuous, and all of the boat’s company were lost save the ambassador and a few of the sailors. So the brave Chancellor perished at the height of his fame and usefulness as a navigator.

The ambassador thus barely escaping a watery grave was compensated with a magnificent reception. He was provided with fine raiment of silk and velvet, and other furnishings in place of those lost in the wreck (which, by the way, was looted by “rude and ravenous” people of the neighbourhood), and a band of titled Englishmen escorted him from Scotland to London. His formal entry into the city was made on a Saturday, the last day of February. It was a great spectacle, the court and the Muscovy Company combining for to outshine Ivan’s receptions of Chancellor. Hakluyt describes it under the caption, “A discourse of the honourable 128receiving into England of the first ambassador from the Empire of Russia in the year of Christ 1556” (1556/7).

Met at the outskirts by the “merchants adventuring for Russia to the number of one hundred and fortie persons, and so many or more servants in one [uniform] liverie,” he was conducted toward the city, being shown on the way a fox hunt, and “such like” English sport. Near the north line he was met and embraced by “the right honourable Viscount Montague, sent by her grace [the queen] for his entertainment.” Thence, accompanied by “divers lustie knights, esquiers, gentlemen, and yeomen to the number of three hundred horses,” he was led to the north parts of the city where four “notable merchants richly apparelled” presented him a “right faire and large gelding richly trapped, together with a foot-cloth of Orient crimson velvet enriched with gold laces all finished in most glorious fashion.” Mounting the beautiful horse he continued in formal procession on to “Smithfield barres the first limites of the liberties of the citie of London.” Here the Lord Mayor and all of the aldermen, in blazing scarlet, were lined up to receive and join him. Thence the gay pageant passed through the city: the ambassador riding between the Lord Mayor and Viscount Montague, “a great number of notable personages riding before, and a large troupe of servants and apprentices following,” throngs of curious people “running plentifully on all sides.” The procession brought up at the lodgings which had been provided for 129the guest, the chambers being “richly hanged and decked over and above the gallant furniture.”

The ambassador remained in London till early May, the recipient of a continuous round of courtesies. He was feasted and banquetted “right friendly” at the houses of the mayor and of “divers worshipful men;” was royally entertained by Philip and Mary at Westminster when he presented the emperor’s letters; and was given a farewell supper, “notably garnished with musicke, enterludes, and bankets,” by the whole Muscovy Company at the hall of the Drapers’ Guild. Meanwhile the trade alliance was cemented by a league confirmed under the great seal of England, and by letters “very tenderly and friendly written” from Philip and Mary to Ivan. When at length he took his departure from London to return to Russia, a grand company of aldermen and merchants escorted him to Gravesend where a fine fleet of four “tall ships,” the “Primrose,” the “John Evangelist,” the “Anne,” and the “Trinitie,” provided by the Muscovy Company for his conveyance, lay in waiting. The leave-takings on both sides were most fervent, with “many embracements and divers farewells not without expressing of teares.”

This fleet, sailing on the twelfth of May, 1557, carried cargoes of EnglishEnglish merchandise “apt for Russia,” besides quantities of goods taken out by the ambassador and his retinue, together with return presents from the queen to the emperor, including rare silks and velvets, and “two live lions”: so that compliment and 130business were profitably mixed in the voyage. As commander of the fleet was Anthony Jenkinson, gentleman, already favourably known among English merchants as a daring traveller in the Levant in the interest of commerce, and now, through a succession of wonderful travels, to extend the Merchant Adventurers’ field of operations into Central Asia. St. Nicholas was duly reached in July, where the ambassador and his train disembarked to take other craft for Kholmogro, on the Northern Dwina, southwest of Archangel. The fleet went no further, and after discharging cargoes and relading with Russian stuffs, turned back for England, leaving Jenkinson behind to see the ambassador safely arrived at Moscow and then to start on his new travels into Asia.

The story of Jenkinson’s adventures and their results was related in two narratives, both of which Hakluyt preserves. The one covers, as its title runs, “The voyage wherein Osep Napea the Muscovite Ambassadour returned home into his Countrey with his entertainment at his arrival at Colmogro [Kholmogro], and a large description of the maners of the Countrey.” The other is entitled, “The voyage of Master Anthony Jenkinson made from the citie of Mosco in Russia to the citie of Boghar [Bokhara] in Bactria, in the yeere 1558, written by himself to the Marchants of London of the Muscovie Companie.”

At Moscow he was as graciously received as his predecessors had been, and while there he farther advanced the interests of the Merchant Adventurers. 131He remained in the Russian capital for longer periods than Chancellor, and had larger opportunities for observation. Hence his delineations supplied richer colour. Thus the emperor’s “lodging” is pictured:

“The Emperors lodging is in a faire and large castle, walled foure square of bricke, high and thicke, situated upon a hill, 2 miles about, and the river on the Southwest side of it, and it hath 16 gates in the walles & as many bulwarks. His palace is separated from the rest of the Castle by a long wall going north and south to the river side. In his palace are Churches, some of stone and some of wood with round towers finely gilded. In the Church doores and within the Churches are images of golde: the chiefe markets for all things are within the sayd Castle, and for sundry things sundry markets, and every science by it selfe. And in the winter there is a great market without the castle, upon the river being frozen, and there is sold corne, earthen pots, tubs, sleds, &c.”

“The Russe is apparalled in this maner: his upper garment is of cloth of golde, silke, or cloth, long, downe to the foot, and buttoned with great buttons of silver, or els [else] laces of silke, set on with brooches, the sleeves thereof very long, which he weareth on his arme, ruffed up. Under that he hath another long garment, buttoned with silke buttons, with a high coller standing up of some colour, and that garment is made straight. Then his shirt is very fine, and wrought 132with red silke, or some gold with a coller of pearle. Under his shirt he hath linnen breeches upon his legs, a paire of hose without feete, and his bootes of red or yellow leather. On his head he weareth a white Colepecke, with buttons of silver, gold, pearle, or stone, and under it a blacke Foxe cap, turned up very broad.”

“The Russe, if he be a man of any abilitie, never goeth out of his house in the winter but upon his sled, and in summer upon his horse: and in his sled he sits upon a carpet, or a white Beares skinne: the sled is drawen with a horse well decked, with many Foxes and Woolves tails at his necke, & is conducted by a little boy upon his backe: his servants stand upon the taile of the sled.”

“They use sadles made of wood & sinewes, with the tree gilded with damaske worke, & the seat covered with cloth, sometimes of golde, and the rest Saphian leather well stitched. They use little drummes at their sadle bowes, by the sound whereof their horses use to runne more swiftly.”

“In the winter time the people travell with sleds, in towne and countrey, the way being hard, and smooth with snow: the waters and rivers are all frozen and one horse with a sled will draw a man upon it 400 miles in three daies: but in the Summer time the way is deepe with mire, and travelling is very ill.”

Jenkinson started on his eastern travels from Moscow 133in late April, 1558, well furnished with letters from the emperor, directed to all kings and princes through whose dominions he might pass, soliciting safe conduct for him. He was accompanied by two others of the Muscovy Company’s men—Richard and Robert Johnson—and a Tartar guide. His ultimate aim was a passage to “Cathay” from Russia by way of the Caspian Sea, and “Boghar” (Bokhara) overland. He sailed from Moscow on the Moskva River in a small but staunch vessel and carried along with him “divers parcels of wares” for barter and trade as he travelled. At Nijni-Novgorod, at the junction of the Oka and the great Volga rivers, he joined the train of a captain, or governor, who had been sent out by the emperor to rule at Astrakhan, and who had under his command “500 great boates,” some laden with soldiers and army supplies, others with merchandise. Astrakhan was reached in the middle of July. Thence, in early August, Jenkinson and his comrades proceeded alone, and entered the Caspian Sea, the first of Englishmen to plow its waters. Here as they sailed they displayed in their flags the “redde crosse of S. George” for “honour of the Christians.” After weeks of coasting along the shores, and much difficult navigation, they landed, early in September, “overthwart Manguslave”—Mangishlak, in long after times known as Fort Novo-Alexandrovsk. Here they joined a caravan of a “thousand camels” and entered upon a long overland journey, full of adventure and not without peril, by way of Khiva to Bokhara. For twenty days they 134travelled in a “wilderness from the seaside without seeing town or habitation.” At one time they were driven by necessity to eat one of their camels and a horse. During the twenty days they found no water but such as they drew out of “old deep wells which was very brackish and salt.” Far along on their way they encountered bands of “rovers” (highwaymen), one of forty men under a banished prince, and had some sharp fighting.

Bokhara was at length reached two days before Christmas. Presenting the emperor’s letters to the ruler here, Jenkinson was favourably received. Soldiers were sent out after the banished prince’s rovers, and four being captured they were hanged at the palace gate “because they were gentlemen.” Jenkinson remained in the city for more than two months, keenly observant of men and things. He saw merchants and caravans from various countries, Persia, India, and others, and heard much about routes to “Cathay.” He would have pressed on to Persia, but was prevented by wars.

He finally left to return to Russia near mid-March, and in the nick of time, for ten days after his departure Bokhara was besieged. He took back with him, committed to his charge, two ambassadors sent by two kings to the Russian emperor. Along the way four more Tartar ambassadors were added to his train; and later he took on twenty-five “Russes” who had been for a long time slaves in Tartary. He was back at Astrakhan by the last of May. Several small boats 135were here prepared, constituting quite a little fleet, to go up against the stream of the Volga, and in June the last stage of the journey was begun under the protection of one hundred gunners provided by the emperor. Moscow was reached in early September and Jenkinson’s charges safely delivered, for which he was accorded the honours of a hero. He now tarried in Moscow till February, 1560, in the interest of the Muscovy Company. Then he left for Vologhda, and thence went to Kholmogro to take passage for home and report upon his journeyings, by which the entering wedge for English trade with Central Asia had been made. As soon as navigation opened he sailed with Stephen Borough, the master of the “Edward Bonaventure” on the first voyage, then returning from his third voyage to the White Sea.

Stephen Borough was the navigator sailing next after Chancellor for the Muscovy Company. In May, 1556, a year after Chancellor’s departure on his second and last voyage, Borough was sent out at the head of an expedition to discover the harbours in the North coast from Norway to “Wardhouse,” and to renew the search for the Northeast Passage. His ships comprised a pinnace called the “Searchthrift” and a smaller vessel. The little company consisted of himself, his brother William Borough, and eight others. In this adventure, discovery being the paramount object, Sebastian Cabot was especially interested, and “the good old gentleman” was the central figure in the farewell scenes at the sailing. When the “Searchthrift” 136was lying off Gravesend prepared to depart, he came aboard with “divers gentlemen and gentlewomen” to wish her Godspeed. After his party had inspected the ship and “tasted of such cheere” as her company could provide, they went ashore distributing as they left “right liberal rewards” among the sailors. On shore Cabot with a generous hand bestowed alms on the poor, asking them to pray for good fortune to the expedition. The day finished with a merry dinner and dance at “the signe of the Christopher,” in which Cabot’s party and the ship’s company joined. At these parting festivities Borough pleasantly pictures the fine veteran seaman, “for very joy that he had to see the towardness of our intended discovery,” entering into the dance himself “amongst the rest of the young and lusty company.” But when they were over, “hee and his friends departed most gently, commending us to the governance of almighty God.”

This was the last public appearance of Cabot, or the last of which mention is made in the chronicles, although he lived for a year longer. His death occurred probably in London in 1557, sixty-one years after the first commission issued to the Cabots, John and his sons, from Henry the seventh. As in the case of his father, neither the exact date of his death nor the place of his burial is known, and Englishmen and Americans alike much regret that no monument marks the graves of these discoverers of our continent of North America.

The record of Borough’s voyage is his own account, 137which Hakluyt gives under the title, “The navigation and discoverie toward the river of Ob [Obi] made by Master Steven Burrough, master of the Pinnesse called the Searchthrift with divers things worth the noting, passed in the yere 1556.” The outcome of it was the discovery of the strait between Nova Zembla and the island of Waigats leading to the Kara Sea, which entrance was given the discoverer’s name as Burrough’s Strait. While Borough did not get to the Obi, adverse winds and the lateness of the season preventing (off Waigats snow was being shovelled from the “Searchthrift” in August), he was the first Western European to reach the southern extremity of Nova Zembla, and the first to put “Vaigats” on the map. Turning at the new-found strait he worked his way back to the White Sea and wintered at Kholmogro. In the following May he set sail again to seek the three missing ships which had left St. Nicholas with Chancellor and the Russian ambassador the year before. After a search of the coast of Lapland, and a call at “Wardhouse” without result, he was returning to Kholmogro, when calling at Fisher Island, or Ribachi, off Point Kegor, in Russian Finland, he learned their fate from Dutch traders there.

Of this supplementary voyage Borough also wrote a detailed account, with mention of other “divers things” worth noting. Hakluyt reproduces this account as “The voyage of the foresaid M. Stephen Burrough, An. 1557, from Colmogro to Wardhouse, which was sent to seeke the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Confidentia, 138and the Philip and Mary, which were not heard of the yeere before.” Constantly observant, Borough made various practical business notes along the way. At Fisher Island he found Dutchmen with Norwegian ships trading prosperously with the Lapps, giving “mighty strong” beer in exchange for stock-fish. Upon which he shrewdly comments: “I am certaine that our English double beere would not be liked by the Kerils and Lappians as long as that would last.” He arrived back in England in the summer of 1557.

The next year Borough visited Spain, where he received much attention for his part in the discovery of “Moscovie,” as Hakluyt related in the “Epistle Dedicatorie” of his Divers Voyages: “Master Steven Borrows, now one of the foure masters of the Queens nauie, tolde me that, newely after his returne from the discouerie of Moscovie by the North in Queene Maries [Mary’s] daies, the Spaniards having intelligence that he was master in that discouerie tooke him into their contractation house [in Seville] at their making and admitting of masters and pilots giving him great honour, and presented him with a payre [pair] of perfumed gloves woorth five or six Ducates.”

His third voyage, of 1560, on the return of which he brought Anthony Jenkinson home, was the seventh despatched by the Muscovy Company, and was purely commercial. It was made with a fleet of three “good ships”—the “Swallow,” the “Philip and Mary,” and the “Jesus”—freighted with English goods, bound for St. Nicholas. Of the “Swallow’s” cargo were pipes of 139“secker” (sherry), one of which, marked with “2 round compasses upon the bung,” was intended as a present for the emperor, “for it” was “special good.” This voyage was successful throughout, and it was remarked as the first of the seven for the Muscovy Company which got safely back to the home port “without loss, or shipwreck, or dead freight.” Such was the hazard of seafaring with the rude ships of that day in the cruel Northern seas.

In May of the next year, 1561, Borough again sailed with the “Swallow” and two other ships for St. Nicholas, this time taking out Jenkinson as ambassador to Persia, under the patronage of the queen—now Elizabeth—and also still representing the Muscovy Company, to make another expedition into the Transcaspian region, and to establish commercial relations with Persia. This is supposed to have been Borough’s last voyage to Russia. At the opening of 1563 he was appointed chief pilot and one of the four masters of the queen’s navy, which post he was holding, as we have seen, when Hakluyt published the Divers Voyages. He died in his sixtieth year, in 1584.

Anthony Jenkinson’s second Transcaspian expedition was in some respects more wonderful than his previous travels, and his account of it, given in “A compendious and briefe declaration” to the Muscovy Company fills several of the large pages of the Principal Navigations. A summary, however, appears in a subsequent paper, rehearsing all of his travels from his first voyage out of England in 1546. The salient 140points are to be gathered from the two. Starting from Moscow in March, 1562, some months after his arrival out, having been detained there by one cause and another, he passed over his former route to the Caspian Sea; sailed the Caspian to Derbent, or Derbend, then an Armenian city belonging to Persia, on the western shore; thence travelled overland through Media, Pathia, Hercania, into Persia, finally bringing up at the court of the “Great Sophy called Shaw Tamossa,” where he remained for eight months. Along the way he generously scattered presents with which he had been provided for distribution among the “kings, princes, and governors” whom he might meet; and at the great shah’s court he delivered a letter he bore from the queen to the shah, a flattering missive explaining his mission as solely commercial. At length, after much manœuvering, he obtained from “Obdolowcan, king of Hircania”—Abdullah Khan, king of Shirvan—the sought-for trade privileges, which led to the opening of the rich trade centering in Persia to the English merchants. After encountering varied perils and congratulating himself upon getting away alive, in the disturbed relations then existing between Persia and Turkey, he arrived safely back at Moscow in August, 1563. There he remained through the following winter, preparing for a second expedition to Persia for trading purposes, meanwhile sending one of his companions, Edward Clarke, overland to England with letters reporting the result of his mission. In May, 1564, the second expedition was started off under 141three of his associates, employees of the Muscovy Company, while he himself returned to England, reaching London in September.

In the spring of 1565 Jenkinson is found in association with Humphrey Gilbert presenting to Queen Elizabeth a memorial on the subject of the Northeast Passage, and offering to take charge of an expedition to attempt its discovery. Nothing, however, came of this petition, the queen finding other service for both petitioners. Jenkinson was appointed to the command of her ship “Aid” the following September, with instructions to cruise on the coast of Scotland to prevent a landing of the Earl of Bothwell, and to clear the sea of pirates.

In 1566 the Muscovy Company, in consequence of encroachments by various traders upon their monopoly, were reincorporated by the queen’s act and under a new name—the “Fellowship of English Merchants”—with authority to continue the “discovery of new trades.” Then Jenkinson made another voyage to Russia and secured the monopoly of the White Sea trade for the reorganized company. Trade voyages also followed annually to Persia by various navigators for the company. In the summer of 1571 Jenkinson, again as the queen’s ambassador, was in Russia, having been sent to appease the emperor, who, incensed at the failure of overtures made by him for an alliance with England by which each would assist the other in its wars, had annulled the Fellowship’s privileges and confiscated their property. Although upon his arrival 142at St. Nicholas being told that Ivan had threatened to take his head if he should venture into the country, he boldly sought the irate czar, and finally succeeded in bringing him round to a renewal of the privileges.

This was Jenkinson’s last voyage. He had accomplished much in enlarging the geographical knowledge of his time. He next appears as an associate in new ventures for discovery to the Westward, attention now being again directed to the Northwest Passage and to the North American continent.

To Humphrey Gilbert belongs the credit for so reviving the Northwest Passage theory as to turn the thoughts of English merchants and statesmen to adventure and to colonization in America; while Martin Frobisher was the first English navigator fairly to begin the Northwest explorations.

Gilbert, born in 1539, in the county of Devon, was the son of a country gentleman, half-brother of Walter Raleigh, on the mother’s side, an Eton schoolboy and an Oxford man, bred to the law, but taking instead to adventure. When a soldier in Ireland, in 1566–1567, a captain under Sir Henry Sidney against the Irish rebellion, his mind was busied with speculation on cosmography; and in the latter year, being sent home with despatches by Sidney, he took occasion to present to Queen Elizabeth, whose favour he enjoyed, a petition for privileges “concerning the discoverings of a passage by the North to go to Cathaie.” This, it is said, was an alternative to the earlier memorial of Anthony Jenkinson and himself for royal patronage to a new expedition of discovery by the Northeast. Both petitions lay unanswered, and he returned to soldiering. 144In 1570 he was knighted for his services in Ireland, the previous year having been given the government of Münster. In 1571, back in England, he was a member of Parliament for Plymouth. The next year he was fighting in the Netherlands, the first colonel in command of English forces there. Returned again to England, he temporarily retired to country-life at Limehouse, employing his leisure in further geographical investigations and in writing a learned Discourse of a Discovery for a New Passage to Cathaia, partly, it is assumed, in support of his petition still before the queen. One day in the winter of 1574 he showed the manuscript of the Discourse to his friend George Gascoigne, one of the pioneer Elizabethan poets, who afterward edited and published it. Meanwhile it led to the granting of a license by the Fellowship of English Merchants, in 1575, to Martin Frobisher with “divers gentlemen,” out of which grew Frobisher’s Northwest voyage.

Martin Frobisher was of Welsh origin, but of English birth, born in Yorkshire in about 1535. He was now a thoroughly seasoned mariner, having followed the sea from his nineteenth year, going out for a decade in yearly voyages of merchant ships sent to Africa or the Levant by Sir John and Thomas Lock; and afterward employed in the queen’s service, in 1571 off Ireland. He had before this time become “thoroughly furnished of the knowledge of the sphere and all other skilles appertaining to the arte of navigation,” as the historian of his voyages, George Best, assures us, and 145as early as 1560 he had conceived a project for discovery of the short route by the Northwest to “Cathay” and the Indies, and had begun looking about for support for it. During the next fifteen years he schemed to this end, conferring with his “private friends of these secrets,” importuning members of the Fellowship of English Merchants to back him, soliciting men of estate and title, and even the court. But he met little encouragement till his public service in Ireland had brought him under the favourable notice of the queen and the attention of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. At length toward the close of 1574 the queen, moved apparently by Sir Humphrey’s Discourse, still in manuscript, addressed a letter to the Fellowship of English Merchants calling upon them either to despatch an expedition to the Northwest or transfer their privileges in that direction to other adventurers: and sent this pregnant message by the hand of Frobisher. The result was the issue, February, 1575, of their license for his first voyage.

Gilbert’s Discourse is given by Hakluyt presumably as published by Gascoigne, in 1576, but with his own caption: “A Discourse written by Sir Humfrey Gilbert Knight, to prove a passage by the Northwest to Cathaia and the East Indies.” It is an essay in ten chapters displaying not a little erudition and mastery of his subject. The chapter-heads show its trend: “1. To prove by authoritie a passage to be on the North side of America to go to Cathaia, China, and to the East India. 2. To prove by reason a passage to be on the North side of America to go to Cathaia, Molucæ &c. 3. To prove 146by experience of sundry mens travailes [travels] the opening of this Northwest passage, whereby good hope remaineth of the rest. 4. To prove by circumstance that the Northwest passage has been sailed throughout. 5. To proove that such Indians as have bene driven upon the coastes of Germanie came not thither by the Southeast, and Southwest, nor from any part of Afrike or America. 6. To proove that the Indians aforenamed came not from the Northeast; and that there is no thorow [through] passage navigable that way. 7. To prove that these Indians came by the Northwest which induceth a certaintie of this passage by experience. 8. What several reasons were alleaged before the Queens Majestie, and certaine Lords of her Highnesse privie Council by M. Anth. Jenkinson a Gentleman of great travaile and experience, to prove this passage by the Northeast, with my severall answeres then alleaged to the same. 9. How that this passage by the Northwest is more commodious for our traffike then [than] the other by the Northeast, if there were any such. 10. What commodities would ensue, this passage being once discovered.”

The quaint opening paragraph expresses succinctly his theory and the steps by which he had reached it: “When I gave my selfe to the studie of Geographie, after I had perused and diligently scanned the descriptions of Europe, Asia, and Afrike, and conferred them with the Mappes and Globe, both Antique and Moderne: I came in fine to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all descriptions I 147found to bee an Island environed round about with Sea, having on the Southeside of it the frete or straight of Magellan, on the West side Mar del Sur, which sea runneth towards the North, separating it from the East parts of Asia, where the Dominions of the Cathaians are: on the East part an West Ocean, and on the North side the sea that severeth it from Groneland [Greenland] thorow which Northren Sea the Passage lyeth, which I take now in hand to discover.”

In the concluding paragraph we have an exhibition of Sir Humphrey’s highmindedness and his chivalrous devotion of himself to his country: "Desiring you hereafter never to mislike with me for the taking in hande of any laudable and honest enterprise: for if through pleasure or idleness we purchase shame the pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth forever. And therefore to give me leave without offence, always to live and die in this mind, That he is not worthy to live at all that for feare, or danger of death, shunneth his countries service and his owne honour: seeing death is inevitable, and the fame of vertue immortall. Wherefore in this behalfe, Mutare vel timere sperno."

Frobisher’s initial voyage was financed, in the language of to-day, principally by Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. The total amount subscribed for the venture was but eight hundred and seventy-five pounds. Two small barks, the “Gabriel,” of twenty-five tons, and the “Michael” of twenty tons, with a pinnace of ten tons, were furnished, and provisioned for ten months. The company were small but well selected. 148Christopher Hall, the master of the “Gabriel,” and Frobisher’s right hand, was an experienced mariner in the Northern seas, and had presumably sailed with Frobisher in one or another of his eastern voyages. Among his charts Frobisher is supposed to have included the Zeno map, delineating the fourteenth century discoveries of the Venetian brothers Zeno, then comparatively new, having been brought to light in Italy in 1558.

The tiny fleet set sail from Ratcliffe on the seventh of June (1576), but at Detford came to anchor, the pinnace having “burst” her “boultsprit” and foremast, in coming against a ship that was riding there. The next day making a fresh start they bore down on Greenwich, where the court yet was. Here, as a quarter of a century before the Willoughby-Chancellor fleet had done when passing out by the boy king’s court, they made the “best shew” they could by shooting off their ordnance, while Queen Elizabeth waved her hand from a window in affectionate farewell. Afterward the queen sent one of her courtiers aboard the “Gabriel” with a message declaring her “good liking for our doings,” and summoning Frobisher to the court to take personal leave of her. The same day—the narrator is Christopher Hall—"towards night, M. Secretarie Woolly came aboord of us and declared to the company that her Majesty had appointed him to give them charge to be obedient and diligent to their Captaine and governors in all things, and wished us happie successe."

149Accounts of this voyage were written in terse sailor fashion by Christopher Hall, and with more detail and colour by George Best, the historian of all of Frobisher’s Northwest expeditions. Hakluyt gives the text of both. Hall’s appears under this title: “The first Voyage of M. Martine Frobisher to the Northwest for the search of the straight or passage to China, written by Christopher Hall, Master in the Gabriel, and made in the yeere of our Lord 1576.” Best’s is an extended monograph thus entitled: “A true Discourse of the three Voyages of Discoverie, for the finding of a passage to Cathaya, by the Northwest, under the conduct of Martin Frobisher Generall: Before which, as a necessary preface, is prefixed a two-folde discourse, conteining certaine reasons to prove all partes of the World habitable. Penned by Master George Best, a Gentleman employed in the same voyages.”

From these two narrations, the one supplying details omitted by the other, the full graphic story is to be drawn.

It was the first of July before the fleet was clear of the coast of England. Eleven days later new land was sighted “rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snowe,” as Hall, with almost a poet’s touch, described. This Frobisher and his companion navigators agreed must be the “Friesland” of the brothers Zeno as laid down in the Zeno chart. It was, in fact, Cape Farewell, the southern point of Greenland. They sailed toward the shore, and Frobisher with four men in his shipboat strove to make a landing, but was prevented by the accumulation of ice about it. Leaving this coast and taking now a southwestward course they voyaged on through the trackless sea till the twenty-eighth of July, when they had their next sight of land, which Hall supposed to be Labrador. Meanwhile between the two points—Greenland and the supposed Labrador—there had been some pretty serious happenings to the voyagers during storms; and only those on Frobisher’s ship, the “Gabriel,” saw the new land, for the “Michael” had early deserted. We must turn to Best for this part of the story.

“Not far from thence [Greenland] hee [Frobisher] 151lost compnye of his small pinnesse which by meanes of the great storme he supposed to be swallowed uppe of the sea, wherein he lost onely foure men. Also the other barke named The Michael mistrusting the matter, conveyed themselves privily away from him, and retourned home, wyth great reporte that he was cast awaye.” His own ship, too, had sprung her mast, and the top-mast had blown overboard in “extreme foule weather.” Yet, notwithstanding these “discomforts,” the “worthy captaine” continued steadily on his course, “knowing that the sea at length must needs have an ending and that some land should have a beginning that way: and determined therefore at the least to bring true proofe what land and sea the same might be so far to the Northwestwards beyond any man that hath heretofore discovered.”

The new land sighted was a promontory of an island off the main above Labrador: the present Cape Resolution of Resolution Island, about the north entrance to Hudson’s Strait. Being his first discovery Frobisher loyally bestowed upon the promontory his sovereign’s name, calling it “Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland.” So environed was it by ice that the shore could not be reached. Hall tells of efforts made the next day unsuccessfully to find a harbour, for all the sound was filled with ice. Then they sailed northeasterly, following the coast, and early the next morning another headland was descried. Approaching, they found this to be a “foreland” with (it is now Best’s relation) a “great gut, bay, or passage, divided as it were two maine 152lands or continents asunder.” The gut was what we now know as Frobisher’s Bay. Believed to be a strait, and of great possibilities, it was so named for the discoverer—"Frobisher’s Straits."

Hereabouts was also a “store of exceeding great ice,” which kept them off this shore. Nor for a while was it possible to make further headway, contrary winds detaining them “overthwart” the supposed straits. Within a few days, however, the ice largely cleared, “either there ingulfed in by some swift currents or indrafts, carried more to the Southward, ... or els conveyed some other way,” and entrance was effected. Thereupon Frobisher proceeded to explore this water, having high hopes that he “might carry himself through it into some open sea on the back side.” He penetrated it for “above fifty leagues,” having on either hand, as he believed, “a great maine or continent.” As he sailed westward “that land upon his right hand ... he judged to be the continent of Asia, and there to be divided from the firme [land] of America which lieth upon the left hand over against the same.”

When he had sailed thus far a landing was made on an island—"Burchers," as Hall names it—and meetings were had with the people. Hall relates this adventure with a description of the natives:

“The 19 day [August] in the morning, being calme, and no winde, the Captaine and I took our boate, with eight men in her, to rowe us ashore, to see if there were there any people or no, and going to the toppe of the island we had sight of seven boates, which came rowing 153from the East side toward that Island: whereupon we returned aboord again: at length we sent our boate with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boates with their men along the shoare, rowing after our boat till such time as they saw our ship, and then they rowed ashore: then I went on shoare my selfe, and gave every of them a threadden point, and brought one of them aboord of me, where hee did eate and drinke, and then carried him ashore againe. Whereupon all the rest came aboord with their boates, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them not. They bee the Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and flatte noses, and tawnie in colour, wearing Seale skinnes, and so doe the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe [blue] streekes [streaks] downe the cheekes, and round about the eyes. Their boates are made of Seales skinnes, with a keel of wood within the skin: the proportion of them is like a Spanish shallop, save only they be flat in the bottome and sharpe at both ends.”

Here we have the first description of the Eskimo, or the Northwest American coast Indian.

The next day the “Gabriel” was sailed to the east side of this island and Hall with the captain and four men again went ashore and had parleys with the natives here. One was enticed into their boat and taken to the ship, where he was given some trinkets. Then he was sent back in the charge of five of the sailors with instructions to land him at a rock off the 154shore. But the “wilfulness” of these sailors was such that they would go on to the shore and mingle with the people. So they were captured together with their boat; and neither boat nor men were ever after seen. Some of the natives, whose curiosity at length got the better of their caution, visited the ship and made friends with the company. They entertained their hosts with exhibitions of their agility, trying “many masteries upon the ropes of the ship after our mariners fashion, and appeared to be very strong of their armes and nimble of their bodies.” (Best’s relation.) They bartered seal and bearskin coats for bells, looking-glasses and toys, much pleased with their bargains. Repeated attempts were made by Frobisher to secure one or more of them to take back to England as “a token” of his having been in these regions. But all his exertions were foiled by their wariness till he resorted to a “pretty policie.” This was to decoy a group by ringing toy bells, then throwing the bells one by one into the water for them to scramble for, at each throw shortening the distance from the ship. One, in his eagerness, paddled close to the ship, when he was grabbed and hauled aboard with his boat. So angered was the poor fellow at his capture that “he bit his tongue in twain in his mouth.” Nevertheless, he survived till the return of the voyagers to England, but shortly after he died miserably “of a cold which he had taken at sea.”

With this living witness of his “farre and tedious travels towards the unknowen partes of the world” 155(Best’s relation), and with other “tokens” which his companions had collected in their essays ashore—some bringing “floures [flowers], some greene grasse, and one ... a piece of blacke stone much like to a sea cole [coal] in colour which by the weight seemed to be some kinde of metall or minerall”—Frobisher turned his ship’s prow homeward at the end of August. Meanwhile, he had taken formal possession of the region round about the “straits,” in the name of the queen of England, who afterward dubbed it “Meta Incognita.” The name is still seen on modern maps, confined to the point of Baffin Land between Frobisher’s Bay and Hudson Strait.

The homeward voyage was without incident, beyond perils encountered in fierce storms, in one of which, as Hall relates, a sailor was “blowen into the sea,” and in his flight catching hold of the foresail was there held till the captain “plucked him again into the ship.” They arrived in late September, and anchoring first at Yarmouth came to port at Harwich, October second.

Frobisher immediately repaired to London with his report and his “tokens.” There he became the hero of the hour, being “highly commended of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cataya.” The captured native, too—"this strange infidell," as Best wrote, “whose like was never seene, read, nor heard of before, and whose language was neither knowen nor understood of any”—must have been gazed upon with awe.

156But the bit of “blacke stone,” brought as a novelty only, and deemed by the captain of no account except as a souvenir, proved to be the “token” of greatest import, since, quite by accident, it became an instrument that practically transformed the Frobisher project from its original design into a fervid speculative enterprise.

Best tells how this came about: “After his [Frobisher’s] arrival in London being demanded of sundry of his friends what thing he had brought them home out of that countrey, he had nothing left to present them withall but a piece of this blacke stone. And it fortuned that a gentlewoman one of the adventurers wives to have a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in the fire, so long that at length being taken forth, and quenched in a little vinegar, it glistened with a bright merquesset of golde. Whereupon the matter being called in some question, it was brought to certain Goldfiners in London to make assay thereof, who gave out that it held golde, and that very richly for the quantity. Afterwards the same Goldfiners promised great matters thereof if there were any store to be found, and offered themselves to adventure for the searching of those parts from whence the same was brought. Some that had great hope of the matter sought secretly to have a lease at her Majesties hands of those places, whereby to injoy the masse of so great a publike profit unto their owne private gaines. In conclusion, the hope of more of the same golde ore to be found kindled a greater opinion in the hearts of many to advance the voyage againe.”

157Thereupon “preparation was made for a new voyage against the yere following, and the captaine more specially directed by commission for the searching more of this golde ore then [than] for the searching any further discovery of the passage. And being well accompanied with divers resolute and forward gentlemen, her Majesty then lying at the right honourable the lord of Warwicks house in Essex, he came to take his leave, and kissing her highnesses hands, with gracious countenance & comfortable words departed towards his charge.”

Under such auspices this second voyage was organized liberally. The queen invested in the venture, together with members of the privy council; and among other subscribers were the Countess of Warwick, the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, Lord Charles Howard, Michael Lok, Anthony Jenkinson, and young Philip Sidney. The total amount subscribed was fifty-one hundred and fifty pounds. A charter was issued for the “Company of Cathay,” with privileges similar to the old Muscovy Company, in which Michael Lok, “mercer,” of London, was named as governor, and Frobisher captain-general of their navy and high admiral of “all seas and waters, countreys, landes, and iles, as well as of Kathai [Cathay] as of all other countryes and places of new dyscovery.” The queen provided one of her large ships, the “Ayde,” of two hundred tons, to serve as the “admiral” of the fleet, the other vessels being the two barks which had started out on the first voyage, the “Gabriel” and the “Michael” 158(now recorded as of “about thirty ton apiece”). Frobisher was placed at the head as “captain-general of the whole company for her majesty”; George Best was appointed lieutenant; and Richard Philpot, ensign. Christopher Hall was made the master of the “Ayde”; Edward Fenton, “a gentleman of my Lady Warwicks,” captain of the “Gabriel,” with William Smyth, master; Gilbert Yorke, “a gentleman of my Lord Admirals” [Howard], captain and James Beare master of the “Michael.” At the start the company comprised one hundred and forty-three persons, made up of thirty-six officers and gentlemen, fourteen miners and “goldfiners,” and the remainder soldiers and sailors. Of this number the “Ayde” accommodated, with the captain-general and his staff, one hundred. The ships were fully appointed with munitions, and were provisioned for a half year.

Hakluyt gives two accounts also of this voyage, and, as in the case of the first one, the whole animated story of it is to be gleaned from the two. They comprise the narratives of Dionysus Settle and of George Best, that of the latter being the second chapter of his True Discourse. They are presented under the following titles, respectively: “The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, made to the West and Northwest Regions, in the yeere 1577, with a description of the Countrey and people: Written by Master Dionise Settle,” and “A true report of such things as happened in the second voyage of captaine Frobisher, pretended for the discovery of a new passage to Cataya, China, 159and the East India by the Northwest Ann. Dom. 1577.” Both narrators were active members of Frobisher’s company throughout the voyage.

Best, furnishing a description of the spirited scenes at the departure, properly begins the story.

All things being in readiness, “the sayd captaine Frobisher, with the rest of his company, came aboord his ships riding at Blackwall intending (with Gods helpe) to take the first winde and tide serving him, the 25 day of May, in the yere of our Lord God 1577.... On Whitsunday being the 26 of May ... early in the morning, we weighed anker at Blackwall, and fell that tyde down to Gravesend, where we remained untill Monday at night. On Munday morning the 27 May, aboord the Ayde we received all the Communion by the Minister of Gravesend, and prepared us as good Christians towards God, and resolute men for all fortunes: and towards night we departed to Tilbery Hope. Tuesday the eight and twenty of May, about nine of the clocke, at night, we arrived at Harwitch in Essex and there stayed for the taking in of certaine victuals, untill Friday being the thirtieth of May, during which time came letters from the Lordes of the Councell, straightly commanding our Generall not to exceed his complement and number appointed him, which was one hundred and twentie persons: whereupon he discharged many proper men which with unwilling mindes departed. He also dismissed all his condemned men [men from the prisons who had been incarcerated for petty crimes] which he thought for some purposes very 160needfull for the voyage, and towards night upon Friday the one and thirtieth of May we set saile and put to the Seas again.”

Sailing with a “merrie wind,” on the seventh of June they reached the Orkneys and put in at one of them for a supply of fresh water, greatly frightening the islanders at their appearance, who thought them pirates. Here they tarried for a day, the gentlemen and soldiers being permitted to go ashore for their recreation. Again at sea, they shortly met three English fisher ships homeward bound from Iceland, and they improved this opportunity to send letters home to England. After twenty-six days without sight of land they came, on the fourth of July, “within the making of Friesland.” Ten or twelve leagues from the Greenland shore they encountered huge icebergs, “great Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some lesse in compasse, showing above the sea 30 or 40 fathoms.”

About Greenland, Settle shiveringly remarked that “in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of sweete gums & pleasant notes of musicall birdes which other Countreys in more temperate zones do yeeld,” they “tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt with snow and haile in June and July.” But Best found it more cheery despite the Boreal blasts. As he observed, “for so much of this land as we have sailed alongst comparing their [the brothers Zeno’s] carde on the coast, we finde it very agreeable.” One day when they lay becalmed they did a little fishing, and Best spins this fine fish yarn: “We ... let fall a hooke 161without any bayte [bait] and presently caught a great fish called a Hollibut who served the whole companie for a day’s meale.” As on his first voyage, Frobisher made several attempts with his shipboat to get ashore, but could not overcome the bulwarks of ice.

Four days and nights were spent in coasting Greenland, and then the fleet struck out on the last stage of the voyage. On the way they ran into a great storm in which the “Michael” had her topmast blown overboard, and the other ships were hard strained. On the sixteenth of July “Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland” was sighted: and the next day the “North Foreland” or “Hall’s Island” (named for Christopher Hall), “near-adjacent” to the place where the ore had been found on the first voyage. Here both chroniclers assumed—accepting Frobisher’s theory—that they were come between the two “forelands,” near by “the supposed continent of America” on the one side and the “supposed continent of Asia” on the other and at the opening of the “straits” to the real “passage.”

Now Frobisher hastened off with the goldfiners for a prospecting trip on the island where the ore was first taken up, while the ships sought a harbour. As Settle’s account proceeds: “At our first comming the streights seemed to be shut up with a long mure [wall] of yce which gave no little cause of discomfort unto us all: but our Generall ... with two little Pinnesses prepared of purpose passed twice thorow [through] them to the East shore and the Islands thereto adjacent.” Best relates the mournful outcome of this prospecting: 162“He could not get in all that Iland a peece so big as a Walnut, where the first was found.” Some of his band, however, who sought other islands thereabouts had better luck, for they were found “all to have good store of ore.” With these good tidings he returned to his ship “about tenne of the clocke at night, and was joyfully welcomed by the companie with a volie of shot.”

Early the next morning Frobisher again started out with a larger party, forty “gentlemen and souldiers,” for further prospecting, and also to find a fit harbour for the ships; and this day, on the summit of a snow-capped hill, a dramatic scene was enacted, with the taking possession of the country for England, and a service of thanksgiving, all kneeling in a circle about the English ensign. Best was of this party, and his relation alone describes these pious ceremonies on the lonely hill-top.

“Passing towardes the shoare with no small difficultie by reason of the abundance of yce which lay alongst the coast so thicke togither that hardly any passage through them might be discovered, we arrived at length upon the maine of Halles greate Iland, and found there also as well as in the other small Ilands good store of the Ore. And leaving his boates here with sufficient guardes we passed up into the countrey about two English miles, and recovered the toppe of a high hill, on the top whereof our men made a Columne or Crosse of stones heaped up of a good height togither in good sort, and solemnly sounded a Trumpet, and said certaine prayers kneeling about the Ensigne, and 163honoured the place by the name of Mount Warwicke, in remembrance of the Right Honourable the Lord Ambrose Dudley Earle of Warwick, whose noble mind and good countenance in this, as in all other good actions, gave great encouragement and good furtherance. This done we retyred our companies not seeing anything here worth further discoverie, the countrey seeming barren and full of rugged mountaines and in most parts covered with snow.”

No natives were seen during these performances. But as the party were marching toward their boats, their flag at their head swaying in the Arctic summer breeze, hearing strange noises like the “mowing of bulls,” and looking back, they espied a group on the summit of Mount Warwick earnestly signalling them. Frobisher, understanding this peculiar cry as a call of invitation for a meeting, answered with like cries, and also caused a trumpeter to sound his horn. Whereat “they seemed greatly to rejoice, skipping, laughing, and dancing for joy.” Then signs were made to them, two fingers being held up, signifying that two of the English company would meet two of theirs, in the open, apart from both companies; and by other signs it was conditioned that each couple should be without weapons. The proposal was accepted, and the meeting held with much show of friendliness on both sides. Trifling presents were exchanged, and the companies were cordially invited to visit each other. The natives would have the Englishmen “goe up into their countrey,” while the Englishmen offered the natives “like kindnesses” 164aboard their ships. But evidently neither “admitted or trusted the others courtesie.”

The day being now nearly spent, the Englishmen abruptly broke off the palavering and resumed the march to their boats. The whole body of natives followed at a safe distancedistance, with “great tokens of affection” entreating them to remain. When near the boats Frobisher and Hall turned back, and meeting two representatives as before again “went apart” with this couple. Their intention was, under cover of further confab, to seize these two unawares and carry them to the “Ayde.” A lively tussle ensued, closing with the successful performance of a “Cornish trick” by one of the company, who came to the captain’s assistance at a critical moment. The performer was a Cornishman renowned among his fellows as a wrestler:

“The Generall and his Maister being met with their two companions togither after they had exchanged certaine things the one with the other, one of the Salvages [savages] for lacke of better merchandise cut off the tayle of his coat (which is a chief ornament among them) and gave it unto our Generall as a present. But he [the general] presently upon a watchword given with his Maister, sodainely [suddenly] laid hold upon the two Salvages. But the ground underfoot being slipperie with the snow on the side of the hill, their handfast fayled and their prey escaping ranne away and lightly recovered their bow and arrowes, which they had hid not farre from them behind the rockes. And 165being onely two Salvages in sight they so fiercely, desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pursued our Generall and his Master, being altogether unarmed, and not mistrusting their subtiltie, that they chased them to their boates and hurt the Generall ... with an arrow, who the rather speedily fled backe, because they suspected a greater number behind the rockes. Our souldiers (which were commanded before to keepe their boates) perceiving the danger, and hearing our men calling for shot, came speedily to rescue thinking there had been a greater number. But when the Salvages heard the shot of one of our calivers (and yet having just bestowed their arrowes) they ran away, our men speedily following them. But a servant of my Lorde of Warwick, called Nicholas Conger, a good footman, and uncombred with any furniture having only a dagger at his backe, overtook one of them, and being a Cornishman and a good wrestler, shewed his companion such a Cornish tricke that he made his sides ake for a moneth after.”

So one was captured while the other escaped. With this “new and strange 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; 166and 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,” 167that “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 168to 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 169the 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 170to 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, 171a 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 assaultassault 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 172with 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 173of 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 174of 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 175tempest, 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.

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, 177and 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 178the “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.

179The 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 180killed; 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.

Now their trials began. The way to Frobisher’s 181“straits” was found to be “choked up” with “many walles, mountaines, and bulwarks of yce.” Off the Foreland and, as they supposed, about the entrance to the “straits” they were buffeted by high winds and “forced many times to stemme and strike great rockes” of ice. Soon the fleet was dispersed. The “Judith,” carrying the lieutenant-general, Fenton, disappeared. The “Michael” had been early lost from sight by her companion ships. Of those which remained in company the bark “Dennis” shortly foundered, having received a crushing blow against a rock of ice. As she took the blow she signalled her danger by a shot from her great gun, and, fortunately, such quick aid was rendered by the other ships with their shipboats that all her men were saved. With her went down a part of the frame of the house to be erected for the band assigned to winter at Meta Incognita. Next a savage tempest suddenly arose, blowing from the sea “directly upon the place of the straits,” and various devices had to be resorted to to save the ships from destruction. Some getting a little sea room took in sails and drifted. Some were moored to great “islands of ice” and rode under their lee. Others were so shut in that they were at the mercy of the ice. To break its force, “junckes [junks] of cables, beds, masts, planks” were hung over their sides, while the mariners stood for hours beating it off with pikes, oars, and pieces of timber. Four—the “Anne Francis,” Best’s ship, the “Moone,” the “Francis of Foy,” and the “Gabriel”—being farthest from shore, and fast sailers, weathered 182the tempest under sail; and by noon the next day they had got off at sea clear of ice. And here by night of the following day they were joined by the rest of the fleet, which had escaped with a turn of the wind that had broken their ice barriers. Now joyous in fellowship again, they all “played off” more to seaward, there to abide till the ice had further cleared from before the entrance to their “straits.”

On the seventh of July they “cast about toward the inward” for another attempt. Shortly they sighted land, which was before them in form like the North Foreland, or Hall’s Island. But there was a difference of opinion as to whether it was or was not. The coast being veiled in fog was difficult to make out. After a while a height was discerned which some were sure was Mount Warwick. Yet they marvelled how it was possible that they should be so suddenly “shot up” so far into the “straits.” The captain-general sent his pinnace the round of the fleet to take a census of the opinions of all the captains and masters. As the matter grew more doubtful Christopher Hall, the chief pilot, whose knowledge of this Foreland, to whom his name had been given, was the more intimate, “delivered a plain and publique opinion in the hearing of the whole Fleete, that he had never seene the foresayd coast before, and that he would not make it for any place of Frobisher’s Straits.”

They were, in fact, southwestward of Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland, and at the entrance to Hudson’s Strait, to be rediscovered or re-explored thirty-two 183years afterward by Henry Hudson, and so named for him.

The fog continued to hang about them “thick and dark,” and on the tenth they were again partly dispersed. The “Thomas Allen,” aboard of which was the chief pilot with Captain Yorke, having lost sight of the admiral, turned back to sea with two others in her company. The “Anne Francis,” finding herself alone, also put to sea, to remain till the weather should permit the taking of the sun’s altitude. The “Ayde” kept on the course, and leading the rest of the fleet, passed into the “doubtful” strait.

Up this broad passage the “Ayde” and her consorts sailed for “about sixty leagues,” having “always a faire continent upon their starreboard side, and a continuance still of an open sea before them.” Frobisher was the first to realize that they were on a new and unknown water. Yet he dissembled his opinion and continued to persuade his associates that it was the right way, by such policy meaning to carry them along with him for further discovery. This he was said to have afterward confessed when he declared that “if it had not bene for the charge and care he had of the Flete and fraighted ships, he both would and could have gone through to the South Sea [the Pacific] ... and dissolved the long doubt of the passage” to “Cathay.” While he may have been more or less impelled to his adventures, in common with his chief backers, by the “lust for gold,” he was above all moved by the spirit of the true discoverer: a merit in his performances 184which some popular historians have failed to recognize.

When at length he turned the fleet and they sailed back to the entrance of this strait, he found a way into the “old strait” by the inside of Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland, thus incidentally discovering that to be an island. Now within the “proper strait,” after many perils overcome in making it, some of the dispersed ships were met, and others heard from. First appeared the “Anne Francis,” which had long been “beating off and on” before the Queen’s Foreland. At the meeting they joyously welcomed one another with “a thundering volley of shot.” The next day the “Francis of Foy” joined them, having fought her way through the ice out of the “mistaken strait.” She brought tidings of the “Thomas Allen,” which she had left at sea clear of the ice. Later the “Buss of Bridgewater” showed up, and reported the “marvellous accidents and dangers” she had experienced.

The latter’s men also declared that “Frobisher’s Straits” above were so frozen over that it was “the most impossible thing of the world” to reach the destined port—the Countess of Warwick’s Sound. This report spreading through the fleet “brought no small feare and terror into the hearts of many,” and murmurs against venturing further passed from lip to lip. Some urged that a harbour be sought where the battered ships might be repaired, and the fleet might await the dispersion of the ice. Others mutinously declared that they “had as leave be hanged when they came 185home as without hope of safetie to seeke to passe, and so to perish amongst the ice.”

To all these murmurings of discontent, however, the intrepid Frobisher lent a deaf ear, determined to reach the ultimate port or else to “burie himselfe with his attempt.” But, as before, he dissembled. “Somewhat to appease the feeble passions of the fearfuller sort,” he “haled on the Fleete with beleefe that he would put them into harborow.” Accordingly he went with his pinnace among the neighbouring islands as if searching for a haven, but really to see if any ore might be found in them.

Meanwhile another “terrible tempest” suddenly came up from the southwest, and once more the fleet were in part dispersed. It was the twenty-sixth of July, and snow fell so hard and fast that “we could not see one another for the same, nor open our eyes to handle our ropes and sails.” The “Anne Francis,” the “Moone,” and the “Thomas of Ipswich” again plied seaward. The rest of the fleet stayed by the admiral. When the storm was spent these remaining ships under Frobisher’s lead had pushed through the ice up the bay, “with incredible pain and peril,” and at last reached the goal, dropping anchors in the Countess of Warwick’s Sound on the thirty-first of July. At the entrance to the haven, when all hardship was thought to be over, the “Ayde” narrowly escaped sinking through contact with a “great island of ice.” Here, to their astonishment, the new-comers found arrived before them the “Judith” and the “Michael,” 186both of which had been mourned as lost. The happy meeting was celebrated with more exchange of thundering salutes from the great ordnance. Then all came together in a service of praise and thanksgiving, and the minister of the fleet, Master Wolfall, preached a “goodly sermon” to a kneeling company on the “Ayde.”

No time was lost in getting to work at the “mines.” Immediately upon landing on the Countess of Warwick’s Island Frobisher assembled his council of captains and orders of government were adopted. On the first of August the whole company were mustered on shore, the tents set up, and everything got in readiness for operations. On the next day the orders of the council were published and proclaimed by sound of the trumpet. On the next, all were diligently employed in their several classes, the miners plying their trade, the goldfiners trying the “ore,” the sailors discharging the ships: the gentlemen labouring as heartily as the “inferior sort” for “examples sake.” Meanwhile Frobisher was busied in seeking new mines in neighbouring parts. On the ninth of August preparations were made to set up the house for the one hundred men assigned to remain here a year. But half of the frame had been lost with the foundering of the “Dennis,” and the remaining parts, brought out in others of the ships, were imperfect, pieces having been used for fenders in the battles of the ships against the ice. Provisions also were short, the “Thomas of Ipswich” having carried most of the supplies intended for the temporary colonists. Captain Fenton offered to stay 187with sixty men, and the carpenters and masons were asked how soon they could build a house for this smaller number. They replied, in eight or nine weeks, provided enough timber could be found. Of course this would never do, for the fleet must depart much before that time or else be frozen in for the winter. There remained no alternative, and so the general and council were forced reluctantly to decide that the plan of a habitation for this year must be abandoned. Later in the month, however, a little house of lime and stone was erected under Captain Fenton’s direction for possible occupation another year. And when at length the company were making ready to leave the place, this house was stocked with the trifles they had brought for traffic with the natives—bells, whistles, knives, looking-glasses, combs, pins, leaden toy men and women, some on horseback some on foot—"the better to allure" the “bruitish and uncivill people to courtesie” against another coming of the Englishmen.

Toward the middle of August the “Thomas Allen” had joined the fleet here, and her company were working a “mine” which Captain Yorke had found on an island by Bear’s Sound, which he called the “Countess of Sussex Mine.” Near the end of the month the “Anne Francis” and the “Moone” had arrived. Now the fleet were once more together, excepting the lost “Dennis” and the “Thomas of Ipswich,” supposed also to be lost. The “Thomas of Ipswich,” however, as subsequently appeared, had, after the tempest of July twenty-six, when she was at sea in company with 188the “Anne Francis” and the “Moone,” turned about under the cover of night, and scudded home for England.

The “Anne Francis” came up laden with ore which she had taken on an island in a harbour of Queen’s Foreland, which Best had found, and which he reported was in such abundance there that if its goodness equalled its plentifulness it “might reasonably suffice all the gold-gluttons of the world.” The adventures of this ship after the tempest of the twenty-sixth of July—which the chroniclers distinguished as “the day of the great snowe”—were remarkable in several respects, and Captain Best showed himself to be of the same heroic mould as Captain Frobisher. When she, with the “Moone” and the “Thomas of Ipswich” had been for a long time beating about off “Queen’s Foreland,” and were bruised and battered from their contacts with the ice, Best called the several captains and masters to a conference in her cabin. Having grave doubts as to the fate of the rest of the fleet, and considering the sorry condition of their own vessels, together with the lateness of the season, a proposal to abandon further efforts and turn their prows homeward was earnestly debated. Both sides having been fully heard, Best rendered the decision. It should never be spoken of him, he declared, that “hee would ever return without doing his endeavours to finde the Fleete and know the certaintie of the General’s safetie.” It was therefore agreed that first a fit harbour should be sought; that this found, the pinnace brought out in parts on the “Anne Francis” should be put together; 189and that then, leaving the ships in the harbour, he himself would take the pinnace and push up the “straits” to prove if it were possible for the ships to break through the ice and reach the Countess of Warwick’s Land; and also to seek tidings of Frobisher and the rest of the fleet. In the meantime the skippers were to keep the craft together as near as they could, “as true Englishmen and faithful friends should supply one another’s wants in all fortunes and dangers.” Only the next night, however, the company of the “Thomas of Ipswich” was lost, and the “Anne Francis” and the “Moone” alone remained to pursue the adventure as agreed. Harbour was found by Best at an island lying under “Hatton’s Headland,” where he discovered the promising ore. For this “good hap” he called the island “Best’s Blessing.” Here his miners were put to work on the ore, while the carpenters toiled at building the pinnace. How this was done with the shifts they were put to for tools and materials is best told in Best’s words:

“They wanted two speciall and most necessaire things, that is, certaine principall tymbers that are called Knees, which are the chiefest strength of any Boate, and also nayles, where withall to joyne the plancks together. Whereupon having by chance a Smyth amongst them (and yet unfurnished of the necessary tooles to worke and make nayles withall) they were faine of a gunne chamber to make an Anvile to worke upon, and to use a pickaxe in stead of a sledge to beate withall, and also to occupy two small 190bellowes in steade of one payre of greater Smiths bellowes. And for lacke of small yron for the easier making of nayles, they were forced to breake their tongs, grydiron, and fire shovel in pieces.”

At length on the seventeenth of August the boat, although hung together only by the strength of the nails, and lacking some of the principal knees and timbers, was pronounced finished, and Best made ready for his voyage. Veteran seamen strongly advised against the venture in such a frail craft, assured that it could have only a fatal end. Thereupon he called for the best judgment of the master and mariners of his ship upon the matter, and to foster a favourable decision, he urged the absolute necessity for the voyage now that ore had been found, to seek with Frobisher’s company the goldfiners who alone could test the value of their “find.” This court of last resort decided that by careful handling the pinnace might suffice. Then the master’s mate and Captain Upcot of the “Moone” volunteered for the voyage. Others were quick to follow their example; and on the nineteenth Best set off with a goodly crew, the whole company comprising twenty men. With much rowing and cautious sailing, and hugging the shore, they got on without the disaster predicted. On the second day out they had sight of the Countess of Warwick’s Sound in the distance from a hilltop on shore where they had landed for observation. Again afloat, soon smoke was seen rising from a fire under a hillside. As this point was approached people were observed and apparently signalling them 191with a flag or ensign. They suspected that this was a trick of natives, for they saw no ship. Coming nearer tents were seen, and it was perceived that the ensign was “after the English fashion.” They fancied that some of the fleet had been brought up thus far and wrecked, and that they had been spoiled by the natives, who were now signalling them likewise into danger. Then, true Englishmen that they were, they resolved to have that flag, or, “els to lose their lives.” So they made for it, and to their great surprise and joy they found it to be a signal of their own countrymen. When within hailing they shouted “What cheer?” The response came cheerily back, “All’s well.” Then “there arose a sudden and joyfull outshoote [shout] with great flinging up of caps, and a brave voly of shot to welcome one another.” The group thus so happily met were a party working the “mine” on the Countess of Sussex Island. They, in their turn, had supposed when they signalled that Best’s company were survivors of a wreck of one of the ships. From this point the shaky pinnace hastened into the Countess of Warwick’s Sound, where Frobisher and the rest were met with as joyous greetings. Best displayed his samples of ore, and the goldfiners, trying them, “supposed” them to be “very good.” Accordingly Frobisher directed him to freight his ship at Best’s Blessing, and then bring her up. So he returned as he came, and found her already laden. The next day she sailed, and arrived with the “Moone” at the rendezvous on the twenty-eighth of August.

192On the thirtieth the work at the Countess of Warwick’s Island was finished and the fleet were prepared for the homeward voyage. Frobisher endeavoured to persuade his council of captains to make one more effort at further discovery. He would “not only by Gods help bring home his shippes laden with Ore, but also meant to bring some certificate of a further discovery of the Countrey.” His associates were loth to fall in with the proposal, considering the time spent in the “mistaken straits,” and holding that discovery to have been something gained, in that thereby the hope of a passage to Cathay was “much furthered and encreased”; yet loyal to his leadership they were willing as he should appoint to “take any enterprise in hand.” Although the conclusion was reached that under all the circumstances “the thing was impossible,” Frobisher himself took his pinnace and explored some distance farther northward.

On their last day ashore the remnants of the frame of their timber house were buried, and about the lime and stone house were sown peas, corn, and other grain “to proove the fruitfulnesse of the soyle against the next yeere.” These things done, formal leave of the place was taken. The company being assembled, Master Wolfall preached another “goodly” sermon, and celebrated a communion. The next day, the thirty-first of August, all embarked, and the fleet, with the exception of the “Judith” and the “Anne Francis,” which tarried to take in fresh water, hoisted sail for home.

193Now new perils were to beset them. The “Buss of Bridgewater” and the barks “Gabriel” and “Michael,” not fully laden, put into Bear’s Sound to take on a little more, the others meanwhile waiting for them farther down the bay. Frobisher also went ashore in Bear’s Sound to superintend the lading; and so did Best, the latter to take off his miners and their trappings here, in his rickety “kneeless” pinnace. That night an “outrageous tempest” fell upon them and created a general havoc. The fleet down the bay were beaten with such vehement “vigor that anchor and cable availed nought.” They were driven on “rockes and Ilands of yce” and not one escaped damage. The “Judith” and the “Anne Francis” had now joined them. Frobisher could not reach his ship and was compelled to board the “Gabriel.” Best and his men had the roughest time of it. Their crazy pinnace was taken in tow by the “Michael” and rushed through the icy waters till the “Anne Francis” (which with the “Judith” had now joined the fleet) was reached. They scrambled aboard the “Anne” in panicky haste, and as the last man mounted her side the pinnace “shivered and sank in pieces at the ship’s stern.” Thus fitly ended the career of this astonishing craft. Unseaworthy from the start, she had indeed performed wonders, and had miraculously held her own till her full work was done.

Again the fleet was dispersed, not to come together through the remainder of the voyage. The “boystrous blasts” continued so fierce and constant that all 194were blown homeward “will we or nill we” (willy nilly) at a clipping pace. “If by chance any one Shippe did overtake other by swiftness of sayle, or mette [met] as they often did, yet was the rigour of the wind so hideous that they could not continue company together the space of one whole night.” The “Buss of Bridgewater” took her course alone to the southeast of Greenland, and discovered on the way, in latitude fifty-seven and a half degrees north, a phantom island, “seeming to be fruitfull, full of woods, and a champagne country.” It was named “Buss Island,” and got onto the maps; but it was never again found. The other ships came limping home one by one, and by the first of October all had arrived, “some in one place and some in another.” Of the whole company that went out forty had perished during the expedition.

There is no record of public demonstrations at this home-coming, or of elation over the precious freight of the battered ships. During the absence of the voyagers a mystery which had been thrown over the ore previously brought had deepened, and now there was a growing suspicion that it was not the profitable thing that had been supposed. Indeed, before this expedition had started out from England a pretty sturdy quarrel had developed among the assayers. Now the breach between them had widened. There was, too, a rupture in the councils of the Company of Cathay. A sorry situation, therefore, was met by the returned voyagers. Frobisher fell upon evil days. Charges of broken promises were brought against him. He retorted 195with similar charges against the management of the promoting corporation. Finally, the Company of Cathay went to pieces, the adventurers lost heavily in their investment, while of the ore of the last voyage, so laboriously gathered and safely brought to port through such perils, nothing more was heard.

Thus dismally closes the story of the Eldorado of the Northwest. Three centuries afterward, in 1862, Captain Charles Francis Hall, the American Arctic explorer, on a New England whaler, identified the Countess of Warwick’s Island as “Kod-lu-narn,” the “Island of the White Man”; and found, even then in a fair state of preservation, the little house of lime and stone, with a number of relics of its furnishings.

Frobisher, upon the sorry sequel of his third voyage, lost the queen’s favour. He later regained it, however, sufficiently to secure his employment in 1580 as captain of his majesty’s ship the “Foresight” in preventing the Spaniards from aiding the Irish rebellion in Münster. The next year, 1581, he was the chosen leader for a new voyage of Northwestern discovery projected by the Earl of Leicester and others. But when, before the sailing, in 1582, the instructions were changed for the purposes of trade and not for discovery, he withdrew from the enterprise in favour of Captain Fenton, his lieutenant-general in the voyage of 1578.

In 1585–1586 he was in Sir Francis Drake’s warring expedition to the West Indies, in charge of the “Primrose”; and in 1588 he commanded the “Triumph” in the great fight against the Spanish Armada. It was 196then that he received the honour of knighthood, being knighted by Admiral Howard at sea for bravery. In 1590, 1592, and 1594 he was in other engagements, vice-admiral to Sir John Hawkins in one; sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in another; and in the third with Sir John Norris at Brest and Crozon. Wounded in the last fight while leading his men in action ashore, and the victim of unskilled surgery, he died after reaching Plymouth.

He was a brave and resolute man, harsh in bearing, with the rough manner of the sailor, but generous and just.

A decade before Martin Frobisher had opened the north parts of the North American continent to Englishmen, John Hawkins had surveyed the southern tip at Florida, and upon his return had represented this fair and favoured region, then to indefinite bounds included among Spain’s American possessions, and in a corner of which France for more than a year had maintained a slender foothold, as ripe for England to venture in and colonize. His was the first account in detail of Florida by an Englishman, and it was the germ from which fruitage later developed in Raleigh’s schemes.

Hawkins’s were purely trading voyages, and he was a fighting trader, demanding the open market for his wares at the point of the sword when it was denied him by representatives of foreign governments. His wares, too, were more or less fought for. The most profitable of them were Negroes seized on the African coast and bartered into slavery in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main—along the north coast of South America. He was the first (or his father before him as some historians 198say) to bring the African slave trade into English commerce, and to plant Negro slavery in America. Discovery was only an incident in the pursuit of his trade. Yet what he accomplished in this direction was of no slight import, since it opened the way to others of loftier aims. While his fame is tarnished by the blotch of traffic in human beings (in his day, we must remember, deemed by the godly and godless alike as not an unrighteous traffic), it is enduring by virtue of heroic deeds, and his place is fairly with the great English captains of the sea who had part in the beginnings of America.

John Hawkins, born in Plymouth in or about 1532, was the son and grandson of notable mariners, and so well born to the sea. His grandfather, John Hawkyns, had served in Henry the eighth’s navy; his father, William Hawkyns, shipbuilder and merchant, had been one of the principal sea-captains of the west parts of England, and was the first Englishman to carry on a trade with Brazil. Hakluyt informs us that William Hawkyns was “for his wisdome, valure [valour], experience, and skill in sea causes much esteemed, and beloved of K. Henry the 8.” His Brazilian voyages comprised “three long and famous” ones, made in his own “tall and goodly shippe” of two hundred and fifty tons, the “Paul of Plymouth,” between the years 1530 and 1532. He sailed first to the coast of Guinea where he traded with the Negroes for elephants’ teeth and other commodities of the region, and thence crossed to Brazil, where he “used such discretion and behaved 199himself so wisely with those savage people that he grew into great familiarity and friendship with them.” His greatest exploit, or that which won him largest attention, seems to have been the bringing to England on a visit one of the kings of the country, leaving behind as a pledge of his safety and return a member of the ship’s company—Martin Cockeram, a Plymouth man. The savage monarch was brought over on the second voyage and his appearance created great astonishment in London and at court when he was presented to King Henry at Whitehall, as well it might. For, as Hakluyt describes, “in his cheekes were holes made according to their savage maner, and therein small bones were planted, standing an inch out from the said holes, which in his own Countrey were reputed for a great braverie. He had also another hole in his nether lip, wherein was set a precious stone about the bigness of a pease [pea]. All his apparel, behaviour, and jesture were very strange to the beholders.” He remained in London for nearly a year, and then, satiated with his entertainment, embarked for his home in Master Hawkins’s care, on the latter’s third voyage to Brazil. But it was his fate to sicken and die at sea. Thereat Master Hawkins was much troubled, fearing that the life of Cockeram would be forfeited. But when he arrived at port and told his story, the savages were “fully persuaded” that their prince had been honestly dealt with, and freely gave up the hostage. Cockeram returned with his captain none the worse for his sojourn here, and lived to spin, long years after, among his fellows at 200home in Plymouth, rare sailors’ yarns about the Simple Life among savages.

John Hawkins followed early in his father’s footsteps. His earliest voyages were made when quite a young man to the Canary Islands. How he came to engage in the slave trade between the African coast and the West Indies Hakluyt thus naïvely relates:

“Master John Haukins having made divers voyages to the Iles of the Canaries, and there by his good and upright dealing being growen in love and favour with the people, informed himselfe amongst them by diligent inquisition, of the state of the West India, whereof he had received some knowledge by the instructions of his father, but increased the same by the advertisements and reports of that people. And being amongst other particulars assured that Negroes were very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, resolved with himselfe to make triall thereof, and communicated that devise with his worshipfull friendes of London; namely with Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, M. Gunson, his father in law [Benjamin Gonson, then treasurer of the navy], Sir Wm. Winter [also of the navy], M. Bromfield and others. All which persons liked so well of his intention, that they became liberall contributers and adventurers in the action.”

The first voyage of this enterprise was made in 1562–1563 with a fleet of three ships and a company of one hundred men. Sailing in October he touched first in his course at Teneriffe. Thence he passed down to 201the Sierra Leone Coast, where he stayed “some good time” and collected, “partly by the sword and partly by other meanes,” at least three hundred Negroes, whom he packed in his ships, besides “other merchandises which that countrey yieldeth.” With this “praye” (prey) he sailed over the “ocean sea” bound for Hispaniola—San Domingo. Arriving at the port of Isabella he there disposed of some of the English commodities he had brought out, and a part of his living freight, meanwhile alert, “trusting the Spaniards no further then [than] by his owne strength he was able still to master them.” Thence he went to Porto Plata, where he made his sales, while, as at Isabella, “standing alwaies [always] on his guard”; and lastly to Monte Christi, disposing there of the remainder of the Negroes. In these three ports he took by way of exchange “such quantitie of merchandise that he did not onely lade his owne 3 shippes with hides, ginger, sugars, and some quantitie of pearles, but he freighted also two other hulkes with hides and other like commodities which he sent into Spaine.” Then he returned to England with “much gain to himselfe and the aforesayd venturers” as the outcome of this voyage. The two hulks sent to Spain were seized at Seville as smugglers, under the law of the country against unlicensed trading in the Spanish colonies, and their goods confiscated. These Hawkins valued at twenty thousand pounds. Notwithstanding their loss the balance of the profits remained large.

The second voyage, begun in 1564, was that in 202which Florida was visited. In this venture the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Robert Dudley, afterward the Earl of Leicester, were foremost as investors. Four ships constituted the fleet. These were the “Jesus of Lubec,” as “admiral,” or flag-ship, a fine vessel of seven hundred tons belonging to the queen and lent by her; the “Solomon,” Hawkins’s flag-ship in the previous voyage; the “Tiger,” a bark of fifty tons; and the “Swallow,” a bark of thirty tons. The fleet were well supplied with ordnance, including several “faulcons of brasse”—small brass guns—and a plenty of small arms for the men. The company enlisted numbered one hundred and seventy in all.

They sailed from Plymouth on the eighteenth of October. On the ninth of November they had arrived at Teneriffe; and later in November and through December they were cruising along the African coast in the hunt for Negroes. This time the natives were everywhere hostile and they had to be fought for. The sharpest battle was at a point below Cape Verde. An attack was made upon a town from which Hawkins expected to capture a hundred and more Negroes, men, women, and children, comprising the most of the population. But they fought desperately and only ten were taken while seven of Hawkins’s men were slain and twenty-seven wounded. Farther down the coast the hunt was more successful. By the close of January the ships were at Sierra Leone all laden with “a great company of Negroes”; and on the twenty-ninth of that month they set sail with a crowded freight for the West 203Indies. But they were “only reasonably watered,” and before they had been long at sea there was much suffering among the ships’ companies and the living cargo alike. For eighteen days they were becalmed; afterward they were beset by baffling winds. By mid-February, however, fortune again favoured them, when, as the devout slave-catcher’s chronicler recorded, “The Almightie God who never suffereth the elect to perish,” sent just the right breeze to waft them to their destination.

On the ninth of March they had come to the island of Dominica. Here they landed in search of water. Only rain-water was found “and such as fell from the hills and remained as a puddle in the dale”; and with this they filled for the Negroes. Then they cruised among the neighbouring islands, and along the Spanish Main, but were denied traffic by the Spanish officials at all places. At Burburata, Venezuela, in April, after arguing the point Hawkins brought the governor to terms with a demonstration of his fighting spirit. Landing with a hundred men “well armed with bowes, arrowes, harquebuzes, and pikes,” he marched them in battle array toward the town. Thereupon the governor threw up his hands, as the modern phrase is, and trade was opened without more ado. Here a number of the Negroes were profitably disposed of. Next, in May, they came to Rio del Hacha, now of Colombia. A sharper demonstration was necessary at this place before the Spanish officials would remove the prohibition. When they would listen to no argument, and 204were even unmoved by Hawkins’s “diplomacy” in the audacious pretension that he was “in an armada of the Queens Majesties of England and sent about her other affaires,” and had been driven out of his intended course and into these parts by contrary winds, he sent them the word “to determine either to give him license to trade or else stand to their own harmes [arms].” With this ultimatum he landed again the one hundred men in armour, with two of his “faulcons.” At the first firing of these little guns the officials surrendered with the desired grant. Traffic then proceeded briskly, and within ten days the remainder of the Negroes were bartered off prosperously. This accomplished, the fleet sailed northward, now in search of a good place to take on a supply of fresh water. After beating about Jamaica they passed the west end of Cuba and came into the gulf of Florida: and so the mainland of Florida was reached.

As they ranged along this coast pursuing their quest for several days, dropping anchors at night wherever they happened to be, the voyagers observed the luxurious country with keen interest. They found it “marvellously sweete with both marish and medow ground, and goodly woods among.” As they sailed onward Hawkins in his shipboat explored the creeks and estuaries, and frequent landings were made from the fleet on the green shores. Sorrel was seen growing “as abundantly as grasse,” and about the habitations of the natives were “great store of maiz [maize: Indian corn] and mill, and grapes of great bignesse,” tasting 205much like the English grape. Deer were “in great plentie, which came upon the sands before them.” There were quantities of “divers other beasts, and fowle, serviceable to the use of man”; and luscious fish with strange creatures of the waters. The natives were observed apparelled in deer skins, hand-painted, “some yellow and red, some blacke and russet, and every man according to his own fancy.” Their bodies were also painted, “with curious knots or antike worke.” The colours were picked into the flesh with a thorn. When arrayed for war their faces were daubed with “a sleighter colour” to give them a fiercer show. Their weapons were bows and arrows of hard wood and reeds. The arrows were of great length, feathered, and variously tipped: with viper’s teeth, or bones of fishes, flint stones, occasionally with silver. The women’s apparel, besides painted deer skins, comprised “gowns of mosse,” long mosses, “which they sew together artificially.”

Hawkins was impressed with the spaciousness as well as the richness of the region ready for the white man’s cultivation. As he put it: “The commodities of this land are more then [than] are yet knowen to any man: for besides the land itselfe, whereof there is more then any king Christian is able to inhabit, it flourisheth with meadow, pasture ground, with woods of Cedar and Cypress and other sorts as better can not be in the world.” There were of “apothecary herbs, trees, roots, and gummes great store.” Turpentine, myrrh, and frankincense were abundant. As for the 206precious metals, the natives wanted neither gold nor silver, for both were worn for ornament; but where they were to be obtained had not yet come to light. It was thought that the hills would be found to yield them, when sufficient people, Europeans, were here to abide. Life could easily be sustained in this land with its plenty of maize, which made “good savoury bread and cakes as fine as floure [flour].”

The voyagers penetrated to the “River of May,” now St. John’s River, coming to the seat on its banks of Laudonnière’s colony of French Huguenots. They had been established here for fourteen months, and were now in a wretched condition. The fleet anchored off their port, and Hawkins and his chief men going ashore were “very gently entertained” by Laudonnière and his captains. The Frenchmen gave a pitiful account of the extremities to which the colony had been put for food. They had brought out a scant stock of provisions expecting to receive fresh supplies from France by ships that were to follow them with recruits. But these had not arrived. From two hundred strong at the beginning the colonists were now reduced by death and desertions to about half that number. They had early exhausted all the maize that they could buy of the natives. New supplies were got in return for the service of a number of their soldiers with a king of the Floridians in a tribal war. But the relief thus obtained was only temporary. When this supply had gone they resorted to acorns and roots. The acorns “stamped [crushed] small and often washed to take 207away the bitterness” were used for bread; the roots as vegetables. Many of the roots albeit the sort that “served rather for medicine than for meats alone,” they found to be “good and wholesome.” They must, however, have had rich drink with this dull food, for Hawkins noted that during the fourteen months here they had made twenty hogsheads of wine from the native grapes. In the midst of the colony’s distresses a rebellion arose. Some of the soldiers turned upon Laudonnière, seized his armour, and imprisoned him. Then taking a bark and a pinnace they set off, “to the number of fourscore,” on a piratical cruise. They went “a roaming” to Jamaica and Hispaniola, spoiling the Spaniards. Having taken the caravels laden with wine and “casair [cassava], which is bread made of roots, and much other victuall and treasure,” the marauding crew hovered about Jamaica, with frequent carousals on shore. At length their revels were cut short when a ship that had come out from Hispaniola bore down upon them. Twenty were taken prisoners, “whereof the most part were hanged, the rest sent to Spain.” Some twenty-five escaped in the pinnace and returned to the colony. Upon landing they were thrown into prison, and four of the ringleaders were “hanged at a gibbet.” Other troubles had come upon the colony through the enmity of natives, hitherto friendly, who had been robbed of maize by some of the colonists when nothing was left to barter for it. For such offences several Frenchmen had been seized by the Floridians and slain in the woods. When 208Hawkins’s fleet appeared the colony had not more than forty soldiers unhurt and “not above ten days’ victuals” in store.

Hawkins relieved their immediate wants with provisions and other comforts and offered to convey them back to France. The generous offer was declined with expressions of gratitude, and instead Laudonnière arranged for the purchase of one of his ships, stocked with provisions, to make the home voyage independently. Then with mutual exchange of good wishes Hawkins departed for his homeward voyage.

The tragic end of the hapless Huguenot colony was not far off. When shortly after Hawkins’s departure, Laudonnière and his people were about to embark on the ship bought from him, sails were descried of the long-looked-for French fleet approaching their port. These welcome ships brought out Ribault to take the command, with emigrants in families, implements of husbandry, domestic animals, and every supply for a well-equipped colony. New life and hope were instilled into the colony by the new comers. Then suddenly the terrible Pedro Menendez de Aviles burst upon them with an invading army of Spaniards and destroyed them with awful massacre, “Not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans,” as he proclaimed, only a few escaping, Laudonnière and Le Moyne, the artist of the colony (to whom we are indebted for the first drawings of American natives and scenes), among these, to tell the tale. And then, two years afterward, Menendez’s act was avenged by the fiery soldier of Gascony, Dominic 209de Gourgues, with massacre of Spaniards in Florida, “Not,” as he in turn proclaimed, “as unto Spaniards but as unto Traitors, Robbers and Murderers.” All this as told in the accounts of Laudonnière and others reproduced by Hakluyt, constitutes one of the saddest and bloodiest chapters in early American history.

Hawkins’s return voyage was tempestuous. Contrary winds beset the fleet and so prolonged the passage that their provisions ran short. Relief was had, however, on the banks of Newfoundland by a large take of cod; and farther along when two French ships were met sufficient supplies for the remainder of the voyage were bought from them. Home was at length reached on the twentieth of September, when the fleet arrived at Padstow, Cornwall. Commercially it had been a most prosperous voyage, for it had brought “great profit” not alone to the venturers but “to the whole realme.” In addition to the gains from the unholy traffic in human beings Hawkins brought his ship home freighted with “great store” of gold, silver, pearls, and other jewels. Accordingly the chronicler reverently closes his account with the pious and doubtless sincere prayer, “His Name therefore be praised for evermore Amen.”

A third voyage was soon planned, to be made over the same course, with a second visit to Florida. In this Francis Drake, a young kinsman of Hawkins, later destined to be the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, had part. It ended in disaster through conflict with a Spanish fleet in the Gulf of 210Mexico, but its consequences were large in after performances, especially of Drake.

The fleet assembled for this third voyage comprised six ships. The “admiral” was again the “Jesus of Lubec,” commanded by Hawkins. Young Drake had charge of the smallest of the lot—the “Judith,” a staunch little craft of only fifty tons. The others were the “Minion,” the “William and John,” the “Angel,” and the “Swallow.” Hakluyt gives us Hawkins’s signed narrative of the adventure under a title foreshadowing its unhappy nature: “The third troublesome voyage made with the Jesus of Lubeck, the Minion, and foure other ships, to the parts of Guinea, and the West Indies, in the yeeres 1567 and 1568 by M. John Hawkins.”

The fleet left Plymouth on the second of October. After only a week out the first trouble came with a dispersion of the ships in an “extreme” storm, which raged for four days and with such damage to the “Jesus” that Hawkins felt obliged to turn her back homeward. Soon afterward, however, the wind veered and the weather cleared, when she was returned to the outward course. The other ships were met at the Canaries, where repairs were made. Again in sailing trim the hunt for Negroes was begun along the African coast. As before, the natives were found ready to fight for their liberty. Arrived at Cape Verde, Hawkins landed one hundred and fifty men, expecting to make a large catch here. But a battle ensued in which many of the English force, Hawkins among them, were 211hurt, and several mortally, by the natives’ envenomed arrows; and only a few captures were made. Similar luck followed down to Sierra Leone, scarcely one hundred and fifty Negroes having been got together. Since this number was too small profitably to take to the West Indies, and it was now quite time to get away, Hawkins decided to give over further quest and to go to the “coast of the Mine” (the Gold Coast) in the hope of obtaining enough gold for his merchandise at least to meet the expenses of the voyage. But just as this decision was reached it was overruled by an unexpected opening to more captures. A messenger from a Negro “king” at war with neighbouring “kings” came aboard the flag-ship asking the Englishmen’s aid in his war, with the promise that all the natives he might capture should be “at their pleasure” as well as those taken by them. The proposal was eagerly accepted and one hundred and twenty men were sent ashore to join the king’s forces. The allies began an assault upon a fortified town of eight thousand inhabitants. It was, however, so strongly impaled, and so valiantly defended, that they could not prevail against it. Six of the English were killed and forty wounded in this attack, and reinforcements were called for. Thereupon Hawkins himself took a hand. An assault now opened both by land and sea, Hawkins with the king leading the land attack. Shortly the frail little houses, covered with dry palm leaves, were set afire and the inhabitants put to flight. So the town fell. Hawkins and his men captured two hundred and fifty 212of the fleeing people, men, women, and children, while the king’s men took six hundred. Of the king’s lot Hawkins was expecting to take his pick, when, lo! during the following night the artful monarch secretly moved his camp and stole away with all of his prisoners.

This breach of faith scandalized Hawkins and led him to write down that in the Negro “nation is seldome or never found truth.” But later during this “troublesome” voyage he was to experience a greater treachery, and one more disastrous in its results, on the part of representatives of a civilized nation, as we shall presently see.

Having, with his acquisitions from the spoiled town and a few other takings, a cargo of between four and five hundred Negroes, Hawkins set his fleet without further delay on his original course. The West Indies were duly reached, at the island of Dominica, toward the close of March, after a harder passage than before. They coasted from place to place, making their traffic with the planters “somewhat hardly,” because the Spanish governors had been more strictly commanded to suffer no trade with foreigners. Still they did a fairly thriving business, and had “courteous entertainment” all along from the island of Margarita to Cartagena, “without anything greatly worth the noting,” saving at Rio de la Hacha—the same where the sharpest opposition had been met on the previous voyage. The officer in authority here not only denied them permission to trade, but would not suffer them even to stop and take water. The place, too, was found to be newly 213fortified with “divers bulwarks.” No time was wasted in arguments at this port. Two hundred men were put ashore and the bulwarks stormed. They were speedily broken through with a loss to the Englishmen of only two men, and none at all to the Spaniards, for “after their voly of shot discharged they all fled.” No further obstacles appearing, a semi-secret trade was opened and carried on briskly till two hundred of the Negroes had been sold. When Cartegena was reached the Negroes had been nearly all disposed of.

Leaving this point on the twenty-fourth of July Hawkins sailed the fleet northward, hoping to escape the dangers of the season of hurricanes, and to do some profitable trading in that direction. On the twelfth of August they were passing the west end of Cuba, toward the Florida coast, when a fierce storm struck them. The gale continued through four days, causing havoc among the fleet, and most seriously afflicting the “Jesus.” She was so “beat” that all her “higher buildings” had to be cut down. Her rudder was also “sore shaken,” and she was “in so extreme a leake” that it was feared she must be abandoned. Yet “hoping to bring all to good passe” they sped on for Florida. But no haven could be found into which the ships could enter, because of the shallowness of the water. While off this coast a second storm burst upon them and raged for three days. In this extremity their only alternative was to make across the Gulf of Mexico for the port of “Sant John de Ullua [San Juan d’Ulloa, the port of Vera Cruz], which serveth the citie of Mexico,” in 214“New Spain.” On the way they fell in with three ships carrying an hundred passengers, and with these they kept helpful company, hoping that the passengers would be “a meane” to them the better to obtain a quiet place for the repairing of the fleet, and to purchase supplies.

This port was safely reached on the sixteenth of September and being mistaken for an expected fleet from Spain their reception was most cordial. But when upon coming aboard the “admiral” the Spanish officers discovered their mistake they were “greatly dismayed” till Hawkins assured them that only stress of weather had brought him hither and that he desired “nothing but victuals.” In the same little port were found anchored twelve Spanish ships which “had in them by report 200,000 pounds in gold and silver.” For the moment Hawkins with his superior force had control of things. But although these tempting ships, as he says, were in his “possession,” together with the passenger-ships that had come with him, and he also held an island guarding the mouth of the harbour, he magnanimously set them “at libertie without taking from them the weight of a groat.” This was done, however, not through any excess of virtue on his part, but, as he frankly explains, “onely because I could not be delayed of my despatch.” Since his needs were urgent, and also because some authoritative understanding was imperative to prevent collision with the Spanish fleet daily expected, he immediately despatched a messenger to the “Presidente [the Spanish viceroy] 215and Councill,” at the distant city of Mexico, with report of his arrival at this port by the force of weather, and the necessity for repairs to his vessels, and provisions for his company, which they asked as peaceful Englishmen, “friends to King Philip,” to be furnished them for their money; and also with a request that the viceroy should issue “with all convenient speede,” commands for the “better maintenance of amitie” between the expected Spanish fleet and his own, that no cause of quarrel need arise. Meanwhile he retained on his ship “two men of estimation” from those who had come aboard at his arrival. The messenger left for Mexico at the close of his first day in port, and the very next morning the Spanish fleet, “thirteene great shippes,” hove in sight.

Action was now necessary on Hawkins’s part without waiting the movements of the local officials, and it was promptly taken directly with the general of the fleet. Hawkins held the point of advantage. The Spanish fleet could not enter the port while he commanded the entrance. This was the situation as he defined it. “It is to be understood that this Port is made by a little Iland of stones not three foote above the water in the highest place, and but a bow-shoot of length any way: this Iland standeth from the maine land two bow-shootes or more; also it is to be understood that there is not in all this coast any other place for ships to arrive in safety, because the North winde hath there such violence that unlesse the shippes be very safely mored with their ankers fasted upon this Iland, there 216is no remedie for these North windes but death: also the place of the Haven is so little that of necessitie the shippes must ride one aboord the other, so that we could not give place to them or they to us.” But strong as his position was, it was also embarrassing, and he found himself on the horns of a dilemma: “and here I beganne to bewaile that which after followed, for now, said I, I am in two dangers, and forced to receive the one of them. That was, either I must have kept out the fleete from entring the Port, the which with Gods helpe I was very well able to doe, or else suffer them to enter in with their accustomed treason, which they never faile to execute where they may have opportunitie to compasse it by any meanes: if I had kept them out, then had there bene present shipwrack of all the fleete which amounted in value to sixe Millions, which was in value of our money 1,800,000 li., which I considered I was not able to answere, fearing the Queenes Majesties indignation in so weightie a matter. Thus with my selfe revolving the doubts, I thought rather better to abide the Jutt [jut—push or thrust] of the uncertainty, then [than] the certaintie. The uncertaine doubt I account was their treason which by good policie I hoped might be prevented, and therefore by chusing the least mischiefe I proceeded to conditions.”

His first move was the sending of a messenger to the Spanish general with courteous greetings, advising him of the circumstances of the presence of the English fleet, and desiring him to understand that before 217he could be suffered to enter the port some order of conditions should pass between them for the safety of the English fleet and the maintenance of peace. This messenger returned with the report that a viceroy was on the fleet (Don Martin Henriques, coming out as a successor of the one at Mexico), who had authority “both in all this Province of Mexico, otherwise Neva Espanna, and in the sea,” and that this official had requested Hawkins’s conditions, promising on his part that they should be “both favourably granted and faithfully performed,” with “many faire wordes,” or compliments, as to favourable things he had heard of Hawkins. These conditions were despatched forthwith: victuals for their money; license to sell as much of their wares as might furnish their wants; twelve gentlemen from either side as hostages for the maintenance of peace; the island to remain in their possession during their stay, for their “better safetie,” with the ordnance they had planted there: eleven brass pieces; and orders issued that no Spaniard should land at the island with any kind of weapon.

The viceroy at first “somewhat misliked” the condition as to the guard of the island in the keeping of the Englishmen; but in the end he acceded to them all, with the exception that the number of hostages was cut to ten. The agreement was then put in writing and sealed with the viceroy’s seal: the hostages were received on either side; the orders were duly proclaimed with trumpet blasts; the two generals met and “gave faith ech to other for the performances of the premisses;”premisses;” 218and then the Spanish fleet passed into the harbour, each fleet saluting the other “as the maner of the sea doth require.”

All went well for nearly three days. Two of the three were spent in “placing the English ships by themselves and the Spanish ships by themselves, the captaines of ech part & inferiour men of their parts promising great amity on al sides.” But with all the show of faithfulness to the agreement the Spaniards were plotting mischief. A thousand men from the mainland were being secretly taken on their ships, and they were proposing, on the third day, at dinner time, suddenly to set upon the Englishmen on all sides.

On the morning of this third day the Englishmen’s suspicion was aroused by various activities on the Spanish ships: “as shifting of weapon from ship to ship, planting and bending of ordnance from the ships to the Iland where our men warded, passing to and fro of companies of men more then [than] required for their necessary busines, & many other ill likelihoods.” Hawkins sent a peremptory demand to the viceroy for an explanation of these goings on. His reply was the issue of a “commandement to unplant all things suspicious,” and an assurance to Hawkins that “he in the faith of a Viceroy would be our defence from all villanies.” But Hawkins and his chiefs were not satisfied with this assurance for they now “suspected a great number of men to be hid in a great ship of nine hundred tunnes which was mored next unto the Minion.” A second messenger was sent, this time the master of 219the “Jesus,” who could speak Spanish, to demand of the viceroy “if any such thing were or were not.” This brought matters to a crisis. “The Viceroy now seeing that the treason must be discovered foorthwith stayed [held] our master, blew the Trumpet, and of all sides set upon us.”

Desperately brief as was the time for preparation, the English ships had been made ready for the awful assault. But the men on the island were taken quite unawares, and abandoning their guns fell a quick prey to their onrushing assailants. The story of the unequal battle Hawkins graphically relates with soldierlike brevity.

"Our men which warded a shore being stricken with sudden feare, gave place, fled, and sought to recover succour of our ships; the Spaniardes being before provided for the purpose landed in all places in multitudes from their ships which they might easily doe without boates, and slewe all our men a shore without mercie, a fewe of them escaped aboord the Jesus. The great ship which had by the estimation three hundred men placed in her secretly, immediately fel aboord the Minion, but by Gods appointment, in the time of the suspicion we had, which was onely one halfe houre, the Minion was made readie to avoide, and so leesing her hedfasts, and hayling away by the sternefastes she was gotten out: thus with Gods helpe she defended the violence of the first brunt of these three hundred men. The Minion being past out, they came aboord the Jesus, which also with very much a doe and the losse of manie 220of our men were defended and kept out. Then there were also two other ships that assaulted the Jesus at the same instant, so that she had hard getting loose, but yet with some time we had cut our headfastes and gotten out by the sternefastes.

“Nowe when the Jesus and the Minion were gotten about two shippes length from the Spanish fleete the fight beganne so hotte on all sides that within one houre the Admirall of the Spaniards was supposed to be sunke, their Viceadmirall burned, and one other of their principall ships supposed to be sunke, so that the shippes were little able to annoy us.” But the guns on the island which had fallen into the Spaniards’ hands, were worked with direful results. All the masts and yards of the “Jesus” were so cut by their shot that “there was no hope to carrie her away”; and one of the small ships was sunk. Thereupon it was decided to bring the battered “Jesus” to the land side of the “Minion” and use her as a defence for the “Minion” against the batteries, till night, and then to shift as much of her provisions and other necessities to the “Minion” as time would permit, and abandon her. But just as the “Jesus” had been so placed alongside the “Minion,” suddenly the Spaniards had “fired two great shippes which were comming directly with” them. Having no means to avoid the fire this “bredde among our men a marvellous feare, so that some sayd let us depart with the Minion, other said, let us see whither [whether] the winde will carrie the fire from us.” Then “the Minions men which had alwayes their 221sayles in a readinesse, thought to make sure worke, and so without either consent of the Captaine or Master cut their saile, so that very hardly I was received into the Minion. The most part of the men that were left alive in the Jesus made shift and followed the Minion in a small boat, the rest which the little boate was not able to receive, were inforced to abide the mercie of the Spaniards (which I doubt was very little) so that with the Minion only and the Judith [Drake’s little bark] we escaped.”

Throughout the engagement Hawkins was at the fore, and his coolness was superb, as this dramatic incident at the height of the action, quaintly related by one of the survivors, Job Hartop, shows: "Our Generall couragiously cheered up his souldiers and gunners, and called to Samuel his page for a cup of Beere, who brought it to him in a silver cup; and hee, drinking it to all men, willed the gunners to stand by their ordnance lustily like men. He had no sooner set the cup out of his hand but a demy Culverin shot stroke away the cup and a Coopers plane that stoode by the maine mast, and ranne out on the other side of the ship; which nothing dismaied our Generall, for he ceased not to incourage us, saying ‘feare nothing, for God who hath preserved me from this shot, will also deliver us from these traitours and villaines.’"

That night the “Minion” rode only two “bow-shootes” off from the Spanish ships with her crowded company. During the night the “Judith” "forsake" them in their “great miserie,” as Hawkins wrote; but 222it was afterward stated that she had lost sight of the “Minion” in the confusion of the disaster. The following morning the “Minion” attained an island about a mile from the scene of the furious action, and the fugitives hoped for a little relief. But here the dreaded north wind took them; “and being left onely with two ankers and two cables (for in this conflict we lost three cables and two ankers),” they “thought alwayes upon death which ever was present.” On the next day, however, the “weather waxed reasonable” and they again set sail. For fourteen days “with many sorowful hearts” they wandered about the gulf till hunger enforced them to seek the land. At this time such were their straits that “hides were thought very good meat, rats, cats, mice, and dogs, none escaped that might be gotten, parrats and monkeyes that were had in great price, were thought there very profitable if they served the turne [of] one dinner.” They at length came to land in the bottom of the gulf, but it afforded them no haven of relief or place where they could repair the “sore beaten” ship. But they were able to take on a supply of fresh water. Here a number desired to remain and take their chances in the unknown country. Accordingly Hawkins divided the crowded company. “Such as were willing to land I put them apart, and such as were desirous to go homewardes I put apart, so that they were indifferently parted a hundred of one side and a hundred of the other side: these hundred men we set a land with all diligence in this little place beforesaid, which being landed, we determined there to 223take in fresh water, and so with our little remaine of victuals to take the sea.”

They departed hence with their lighter load on the sixteenth of October. A month later they were “clear from the coast of the Indies and out of the channel and gulf of Bahama.” Afterward approaching the “cold country” many of the company “oppressed with famine” died, while those that were left “grew into such weaknesses” that they were scarcely able to manage the ship. Shortly new perils came upon them. “The winde alwayes ill for us to recover England, we determined to goe with Galicia in Spaine, with intent there to relieve our companie and other extreame wantes. And being arrived the last day of December in a place neere unto Vigo called Ponte Vedra, our men with excesse of fresh meate grew into miserable diseases, and died a great part of them. This matter was borne out as long as it might be, but in the end although there were none of our men suffered to goe a land, yet by accesse of the Spaniards our feeblenesse was knowen to them. Whereupon they ceased not to seeke by all meanes to betray us.” To escape this danger they made with all speed for Vigo. Here at last fortune favoured them. With the help of some English ships in this port and “twelve fresh men” they “repaired their wants” sufficiently to complete the voyage; and on the twenty-fifth of January, 1568/9 the “Minion” entered Mounts Bay, Cornwall, and the worn and shattered survivors were at home.

“If all the miseries and troublesome affaires of this 224sorowful voyage should be perfectly and throughly written,” Hawkins opined in closing his narration, “there should neede a painefull man with his pen, and as great a time as he had that wrote the lives and deathes of the Martyrs.”

The tribulations of the hundred and more men who were landed in the Gulf of Mexico to shift for themselves, and the marvellous adventures of those who lived through awful hardships, were related in large detail by three of them: Miles Philips, David Ingram, and Job Hartop. The tales of Philips and Hartop fill many of Hakluyt’s ample pages. Both supplement Hawkins’s official report of the San Juan d’Ulloa affair in small particulars. Philips told of miseries sustained by himself and companions among savage people; of their ultimate falling into the Spaniards’ hands; of how they were worked as slaves; how they were reviled as “English dogs and Lutheran heretics,” suffered the Inquisition, which was brought into “New Spain” while they were there, and were hardly used in the “religious houses”; and how some of them escaped after years of bondage. Philips also told of meeting in the city of Mexico the English hostages whom Hawkins had given at San Juan d’Ulloa. They were there prisoners in the viceroy’s house. After four months’ imprisonment they were sent to Spain, where, Philips had heard it “credibly reported,” many of them died “with the cruel handling of the Spaniards in the Inquisition house.” In Mexico, too, and at the viceroy’s house, Captain Barret, the captured master of the 225“Jesus,” was found. He also was afterward sent to Spain, and suffered the Inquisition; and at the last that Philips had heard, he was condemned to be burned, and with him another of Hawkins’s men named John Gilbert. Philips got back to England and told his story in 1582. Hartop was one of the gunners of the “Jesus.” The sum of his experiences covered twenty-three years, and included two years’ imprisonment in Mexico; a year in an Inquisition house in Spain; twelve years in the galleys; four years in the “everlasting prison remidilesse” with the “coat of St. Andrews cross on his back”; and three years a “drudge” to the treasurer of the king’s mint. Ingram’s experiences were the most marvellous of all, according to his narration, and the things that he saw, or imagined he saw, were amazing. He told of travelling with two companions afoot along the coast of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to near Cape Breton. He averred that he “never continued in any one place above three or four days, saving in the city of Balma,” wherever that may have been, where he tarried about a week. He saw fair dwellings topped with “banquetting houses” built with “pillars of massy silver and crystal”; many strange peoples; wondrous beasts, elephants, a “monster beast twice as big as a horse,” another “bigger than a bear,” with neither head nor neck, the eyes and mouth in the breast; and many strange birds, “thrice as big as an eagle and beautiful to behold.” Hakluyt gave his story in the first edition of the Principal Navigations, but left it out of the later 226editions, because, as Purchas in his Pilgrimies afterward explained, of some of its “incredibilities”: the “reward of lying,” Purchas observes, “being not to be believed in truths.”

Hawkins made no more voyages for a period of two decades. In 1572 he was returned to Parliament from Plymouth, and the next year was made treasurer of the navy. He was a vice-admiral in the fleet against the Spanish Armada (1588), commanding the “Victory,” and he was created a knight for his effective services in that great engagement. His last voyage was made in 1595, again with Drake, and once more against the Spanish West Indies: and there he died, at Porto Rico, on the twelfth of November that year.

Drake returned from the bitter experience at San Juan d’Ulloa the implacable foe of Spaniards. After fruitless efforts to obtain compensation from Spain for his losses in the San Juan affair, he determined on a campaign of revenge, and in 1570 he was found again at sea on the forerunner of astonishing voyages of reprisal.

From these buccaneering expeditions he was led to his greater exploit in “ploughing a furrow” round the globe, with the incidental discovery of California for the English.

Francis Drake was born near Tavistock, Devonshire, where a colossal statue of the great navigator now stands. The date of his birth is uncertain. By local tradition it is given as about 1545, and this is generally accepted by his later biographers, but some authorities place it five years earlier. Authorities also differ as to his parentage. Some contemporary writers aver that his father was Robert Drake, first a sailor, afterward a preacher; according to others he was Edmond or Edmund Drake, also a sailor turned preacher, who, in 1560, became vicar of Upchurch in Kent, and died there in 1566. The second Sir Francis Drake, nephew of the navigator, related of the father that he suffered persecution, and “being forced to fly from his home near South Tavistocke in Devon unto Kent,” was there obliged “to inhabit in the hull of a shippe, wherein many of his younger sonnes were born.” He had twelve sons in all, “and as it pleased God to give most of them a being on the water so the great part of them dyed at sea.” William Camden, the contemporary historian 228and antiquarian, recorded that the father, after coming to Kent, earned his living by reading prayers to the seamen of the fleet in the River Medway.

When yet a boy Francis Drake was a trained sailor. He was early apprenticed to the master of a bark employed in a coasting trade, and sometimes carrying merchandise into Zealand and France. The youth’s industry and aptness in this business, says Camden, so “pleased the old man,” his master, that, “being a bachelor, at his death he bequeathed his bark unto him by will and testament.” At twenty, assuming the true date of his birth to have been about 1545, he joined with one Captain John Lovell in a trading voyage to Guinea and across to the West Indies and the Spanish Main. The next year, 1566, they made a second voyage to the same points, and on the Spanish Main, at Rio del Hacha, they suffered losses through the Spaniards. Doubtless the knowledge gained in these two voyages made him particularly serviceable to his kinsman, John Hawkins, and brought him the command of the “Judith” in their fatal voyage of the following year. He is said to have invested in this disastrous venture the whole of his little property acquired in his previous voyages and in the earlier coasting trade, and to have lost it all through the affair at San Juan d’Ulloa.

Upon reaching home with the “Judith,” bringing the first news of the fate of this expedition, he was immediately, on the very night of his arrival, despatched to London by Hawkins’s brother William, at that time governor of Plymouth, to inform the privy 229council and Sir William Cecil, then the secretary of state, “of the whole proceedings,” "to the end that the queen might be advertised of the same." Thus he was brought to the attention of the influential minister and, indirectly, to the favour of the court. At least he was given the support of letters from the queen in the move that he at once instituted for recompense from Spain for his losses. When at length he had become satisfied that nothing could be obtained through diplomatic councils, he determined to “use such helps as he might” to redress by ravaging the Spanish Main on his own account. Accordingly he first made two voyages in succession, the one in 1570 with two small ships, the “Dragon” and the “Swan,” the other in 1571 with the “Swan” alone, particularly to obtain “certain notice of the persons and places aimed at.” These reconnoitring expeditions convinced him that the towns would fall an easy prey to a small armed force, and were also gainful in plunder taken off the coast along the way. Thereupon he promptly arranged for his freebooting voyage, to avenge not only the San Juan d’Ulloa affair but the earlier one at Rio del Hacha.

For daring and audacity this voyage was astonishing, and its results were quick wealth to Drake and renown as a masterful man of the sea. Two ships, the “Swan” of the previous voyages, and the “Pasha,” a larger vessel, of seventy tons, with three “dainty” pinnaces in parts, stowed in the holds of the ships to be set up when occasion served, comprised the equipment. 230Drake sailed the “Pasha” as the “admiral,” while one of his brothers, John Drake, was captain of the “Swan” as “vice-admiral” of the fleet. Another brother, Joseph Drake, went along as a sailor. The company numbered in all seventy-three men and boys. All were volunteers, and all were under thirty years of age, excepting one who was not over fifty. The ships were well provisioned for a year, and they were fully armed, each like a man-of-war of that day. Although the enterprise was ostensibly Drake’s alone, it had a substantial backing furnished by influential silent partners.

The expedition set sail from Plymouth on Whitsunday eve, the twenty-fourth of May, 1572, with intent first to raid Nombre de Dios, on the north coast of the Isthmus of Darien, then “the granary of the West Indies wherein the golden harvest brought from Peru and Mexico was hoarded up till it could be conveyed into Spain.” On the sixth of July the high land of Santa Marta was sighted, and six days later the ships were anchored in a secret harbour within the Gulf of Darien, framed in a luxuriant mass of trees and vine, which Drake had discovered on his second reconnoitering voyage, and called “Port Pheasant,” "by reason of the great store of these goodly fowls which he and his company did then daily kill and feed upon" here. It is supposed to have been the Puerto Escondido, or “Hidden Haven” of the Spaniards. Upon entering it was seen that the nest had very recently been occupied, and, landing, Drake found nailed to a great tree 231a lead plate upon which was posted a warning that their rendezvous had been discovered by the Spaniards, signed John Gannet, and dated five days before. Gannet was presumably the former master of the “Minion,” of Hawkins’s ill-fortuned fleet. He had come out to the Spanish Main on a voyage of his own shortly before the sailing of Drake. Undisturbed by this warning Drake put his carpenters to work at setting up the pinnaces, and the rest of the company at fortifying the place with ramparts of trees. In the meantime there sailed into the snug harbour another English bark. This was captained by James Rouse, the former master of the lost “William and John” of the Hawkins expedition. He also had sailed on a part trading and part buccaneering voyage before Drake had left Plymouth. His company numbered thirty men, some of whom had been in Drake’s second reconnoitring voyage. They brought in two small prizes, one a caravel of Seville, a despatch boat, bound for Nombre de Dios, which they had captured the previous day, the other a shallop taken at Cape Blanc. Rouse joined forces with Drake.

Having got the pinnaces and all things in readiness within a week’s time, the fleet was off for their first foray. Coming to the Isla de Pinos (Isles of Pines), a group at the mouth of the Gulf of Darien (called by them “Port Plenty”), they found here two frigates for Nombre de Dios lading planks and timber, with a number of black men on board at work. These blacks were half-breeds, belonging to a local tribe sprung from 232self-freed Negro slaves and native Indians, known as “Cimaroons,” or “Maroons,” as the English sailors termed them, enrolled under two chiefs, and constant enemies of the Spanish. The frigates were seized, and the black men were taken to the mainland and set ashore to join their tribe and gain their liberty if they would, or, if they were disposed to warn Nombre de Dios, to make the troublesome journey overland, which they could not finish before the Englishmen could reach the place by sea. Then leaving the three ships with the prize in charge of Captain Rouse, and taking fifty-three of his own men and twenty of Rouse’s band, and adding Rouse’s shallop to his fleet of pinnaces, Drake “hastened his own going with speed and secrecy.” Five days later they had arrived at the island of “Cativaas” (Catives), off the mouth of the St. Francis, to the westward of which Nombre de Dios lay. Here they landed and spent part of a day making ready for the assault. Drake distributed the arms among the men and delivered a heartening speech setting before them the “greatness of the hope of good things” in this store house of treasure which might be theirs for the taking. That afternoon they again set sail and at sunset they were alongside the main. Keeping “hard aboard the shore” that they might not be “descried of the Watch House,” they made their cautious way till they had come within two leagues of the port. At this point they anchored till after dark. Then again “rowing hard aboard shore,” as quietly as they could, they attained a sheltered place in the harbour under 233high land, where they lay “all silent,” purposing to make the attack at daylight. When, however, talk of the “greatness of the town” and of its strength for defence, based upon stories told by the blacks at the Isles of Pines, was found to be spreading among the men, Drake “thought it best to put these conceits out of their heads,” by prompter action, taking advantage of the rising of the moon that night which he would persuade them “was the day dawning.” By this strategy the advance was begun at three o’clock, a “large houre sooner than first was purposed.”

The surprise of the town was complete. As the four pinnaces were sailing forward, the rowers noiselessly plying their oars, a Spanish ship laden with Canary wines, newly arrived in the bay, espied them, and immediately sent off one of her boats townward, evidently to give an alarm. But Drake dexterously checked this move by cutting “betwixt her and the Towne forcing her to goe to the other side of the bay.” At the landing place a platform was found fortified with “six great pieces of ordnance mounted upon the carriages,” but only a single gunner on guard. The gunner fled to arouse the town, while Drake’s men dismantled the guns. Then Drake marched his men up a neighbouring hill, where he had heard that ordnance was to be placed that night, to dismantle it if found. But none had yet been set, and he hurried back now to make direct for the town’s treasure. Leaving a guard at the platform to secure the pinnaces, and a trumpeter to sound his trumpet at intervals 234while the other trumpeters were sounding theirs in other parts, to give an impression of a large force of besiegers, Drake divided his men into two companies. One, of sixteen men, under his brother John, was to execute a flank movement upon the King’s Treasure House near by; the other, led by himself, was to march up the broad main street to the Market Place, where the two were to come together. Meanwhile the alarm-bell of the church had been set a-ringing by an official of the town, drums were beating, and the startled people were mustering in the Market Place, their first thought being that their common enemy, the Cimaroons, were upon them.

Drake led his men with trumpets playing and drums beating, and their “firepikes” lighting the way, into the Market Place, and were here “saluted” by a body of Spanish soldiers and people lined up near the Governor’s House, with a “jolly hot volley of shot.” The Englishmen returned this “greeting” with a flight of arrows. Then they brought their firepikes and their short weapons into effective play, and soon routed the town’s defenders, who fled out of the gate—the only gate of the town—leading toward Panama. In this skirmish Drake received a painful wound in the leg. But he valiantly concealed his hurt, “knowing if the generall’s heart stoops the men’s will fail.” Now making their stand in the Market Place, Drake commanded two or three Spaniards whom he had taken prisoner in the flight to conduct him with a detachment to the Governor’s House. It was here that the long 235teams of mules bringing the king’s treasure from Panama were unladen and the silver placed, while the gold, pearls, and jewels were deposited in the stronger-built (of lime and stone) King’s Treasure House. The door of the Governor’s House was found open, and before it a fine Spanish horse, ready saddled. Entering, by means of a lighted candle on the stairs, they saw a vast heap of silver in the lower room. This consisted of silver bars piled up against the wall, some “seventy feet in length, ten in breadth, and twelve in height, each bar between thirty and forty pounds weight,” as they calculated, about the value of “a million sterling.” Drake ordered his men not to attempt to take any of this plunder, for the town was so full of people that it would be impossible to remove it; but at the King’s Treasure House, near the water side, he told them there was “more gold and jewels than all of” their “four pinnaces could carry away”; and he would presently send out a force to break it open.

Accordingly they returned to the Market Place, thence to go for the Treasure House. Back in the Market Place they received a startling report that their pinnaces were in danger of capture. John Drake was hurried to the landing with a guard to meet this emergency. He found the force there much alarmed by a report of a Negro spy that the Spanish soldiers which the blacks at the Isles of Pines had told them had been ordered from Panama, to defend the town from an expected attack of the Cimaroons, had arrived. John Drake quieted their fears. Now a new trouble arose. 236A “mighty shower of rain” with a “terrible storm of thunder and lightning” burst upon the town. Drake and his men sought shelter near the King’s Treasure House. But before they had got under cover some of their bow-strings were wet, and their match and powder hurt. Some of the men began “harping on the reports lately brought” and “muttering of the forces of the town.” Thereupon Drake exclaimed that here he had brought them to the “mouth of the Treasure of the World,” and if they did not gain it they “might henceforth blame nobody but themselves.” So soon as the fury of the storm had abated Drake ordered John Drake and John Oxenham, another officer, to break open the Treasure House, the rest to follow him to “keep the strength” of the Market Place till their work was done. But as he stepped forward he suddenly fell prone in a swoon from loss of blood from his wound, which to this moment he had successfully concealed. This produced consternation among the band. Upon his revival his scarf was bound about the wound, and he was entreated to go aboard his pinnace to have it dressed. He persistently refused, and finally, “with force mingled with fair entreaty” he was seized and borne to his boat. Then all hurriedly embarked and got away, with what little plunder a few had managed to pick up.

So was abandoned “a rich spoil for the present,” but “only to preserve their captain’s life.” It was afterward admitted by the Spaniards that but for the mishap to Drake necessitating their precipitate departure, 237the buccaneers would have fully succeeded in sacking the town.

It was but daybreak when they left. They had besides the captain “many of their men wounded, though none slain but one trumpeter.” On their way out of the harbour they tarried long enough to capture, “without much resistance,” the Spanish ship lying there with her cargo of wines, “for the more comfort of the company.” Before they had quite cleared the haven the Spaniards on shore had got one of the great guns into play upon them. But the shot fell short of their boats. They landed with their prize at the Isle of Bartimentos, or, as they called it, the “Isle of Victuals,” westward of Nombre de Dios. Here they stayed through the next two days to “cure their wounded and refresh themselves” in the “goodly gardens” they found “abounding with great store of all dainty roots and fruits, besides great plenty of poultry and other fowls no less strange and delicate.” Return was then made to the Isles of Pines, where Captain Rouse with their ships was joined.

Thus the incident of the famous raid upon Nombre de Dios, the first object of the expedition, closed with small gain. Hakluyt gives a brief and incomplete account of it, written and recorded, as his title relates, by “one Lopez Vaz a Portugall, borne in the citie of Elvas, in maner follow: which Portugale, with the discourse about him, was taken in the River of Plate by the ships set foorth by the Right Honourable the Earle of Cumberland, in the yeere 1586.” The larger account, 238which Drake himself is said to have “reviewed,” or edited, was not published until more than half a century after the event. It then appeared in a history of the expedition, brought out in 1626, under this inspiriting title: Sir Francis Drake Revived; Calling upon this Dull or Effeminate Age to follow his noble steps for Gold and Silver, By this Memorable Relation of the Rare Occurrences (never yet declared to the world) in a third voyage made by him unto the West Indies, in the years 1572 & 1573 when Nombre de Dios was by him, and 52 others only in his company, Surprised.

Subsequent exploits made up for the failure to loot the “Treasure of the World.” Shortly after the return to the Isles of Pines Captain Rouse parted company with the expedition and went his own way, while Drake continued his enterprise alone, as he had originally planned. His next assault was to be against Cartagena. Toward this port he at once sailed his own fleet, the two ships and the three pinnaces. Arriving in the harbour he found here a “great ship of Seville” making ready to sail for San Domingo. This he took in sight of the town, but beyond the reach of its “great guns,” which opened upon him. The next morning he captured two frigates from Nombre de Dios for Cartagena, on board of which were two “Scrivanos” (escribano, a notary), with letters reporting his attack on Nombre de Dios and his continued presence on the coast, warning the Cartagenians to “prepare for him.” From them ascertaining that he was now discovered to the chief places along the main, he made no further advance 239upon Cartagena, but sought instead a good hiding-place till the “bruit” of his being here “might cease”; intending later to make an alliance with the Cimaroons and raid the treasure route between Panama and Nombre de Dios. Meanwhile the “Swan” was scuttled in order thoroughly to man the pinnaces, and the “Pasha” was utilized as a storehouse. During the next two months roving the coast with the pinnaces, many Spanish ships were seized and relieved of their cargoes, mostly provisions for “victualling” Nombre de Dios and Cartagena, and also the fleets to and from Spain. Such quantities of provisions of all kinds were thus obtained that the company built and stocked at different points, on islands and on the main, four storehouses; and there was sufficient as the season advanced to supply besides themselves, the Cimaroons, and also two French ships that fell in with them in “extreme want.” Later their rendezvous was at the mouth of the Rio Diego, where they built a fort which they called “Fort Diego.” In October, while attempting to take a frigate, John Drake was killed. Early in January the “calenture,” or hot fever, broke out among the company, and several died, among them Drake’s younger brother Joseph.

On the third of February the land journey across the isthmus toward Panama was begun. At that time twenty-eight of the company had died, and several were yet ill. Since it was necessary to leave a few sound men with the sick ones, the number that made this march was only eighteen. The rest of the band were 240Cimaroons, thirty in all. The highest point of the dividing ridge was reached on the eleventh of February when Drake, from a tree top, got his first sight of the Pacific and uttered his earnest prayer familiar in the histories, to be permitted once to sail an English ship upon it. The chronicler of the voyage thus well portrays the animating scene:

"The fourth day following we came to the height of the desired hill, a very high hill lying East and West, like a ridge between the two seas, about ten of the clock; where the chiefest of these Cimaroons took our Captain by the hand and prayed him to follow him if he was desirous to see at once the two seas, which he had so longed for. Here was that goodly and great high Tree in which they had cut and made divers steps to ascend up near unto the top, where they had also made a convenient bower wherein ten or twelve men might easily sit: and from thence we might without any difficulty plainly see the Atlantic Ocean whence now we came and the South Atlantic [Pacific Ocean] so much desired. South and north of this Tree they had felled certain trees that the prospect might be the clearer.... After our Captain had ascended to this bower with the chief Cimaroon, and having, as it pleased God, at this time by reason of the breeze a very fair day, had seen that sea of which he had heard such golden reports: he ‘besought Almighty God of His Goodness, to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that Sea!’ And then calling up all the rest of our [seventeen English] men he acquainted 241John Oxnam [Oxenham] especially with this his petition and purpose, if it would please God to grant him that happiness. Who understanding it presently protested that ‘unless our Captain did beat him from his company he would follow him by God’s grace.’"

Drake’s outlook is supposed to have been near the spot where Balboa, the discoverer, sixty years earlier, had “thanked God” that he was “the first Christian man to behold that sea”; and it is presumed that Drake had Balboa’s thanksgiving in mind when he framed his ardent prayer.

Two days later the band had come to the open region of savannas over which savage herds of black cattle roamed, whence glimpses of Panama (the old city north of the present one) were had. As they marched on, Drake saw the Spanish ships riding in the harbour; the Pacific beyond stretching placidly to the horizon. Now they were within a day’s journey of the city. Toward sunset they reached the shelter of a grove through which the road ran, about a league from Panama. Here they rested while Drake despatched a spy, disguised as a Negro servant, into the city—a Cimaroon who had once served a master there and so was familiar with the place—to learn all about the movements of the “recuas:” the mule treasure and merchandise teams. The spy returned after dark with the joyous word that that very night a string of mule teams was to come out. The richest was to head the line accompanying the Spanish treasurer of Lima, Peru, on the way with his family to Nombre de Dios, there to take 242an “advice ship” in waiting for Spain. This team comprised fourteen mules, of which eight were laden with gold and one with jewels. Two others immediately to follow were each of fifty mules, and were to carry provisions for the fleet at Nombre de Dios, with a small quantity of silver. They were to make the journey in the cool of the night, and to take the route by way of Venta Cruz (Cruces, on the left bank of the Chagres River). With this information Drake determined to intercept the whole string and take off the richest treasure. Accordingly the march was resumed away from Panama and toward Venta Cruz, some four leagues distant.

They came to a halt in a secluded spot about two leagues south of the town. Near by one of the Cimaroons scented out a Spanish soldier, whom they literally caught napping. He was one of the guard hired to protect the Lima treasurer’s train outward from Venta Cruz, and while waiting, knowing that he could get no rest till their safe arrival at Nombre de Dios, he had lain down in the grass and dropped asleep. He was terrorized at falling into the hands of the merciless Cimaroons, and being brought into the presence of Drake he plead for protection. He assured the captain, on the honour of a soldier, that that night he might have, if he would, “more gold, besides jewels and pearls of great price” than all his men could carry, and for his own part he asked only as much of the plunder as would suffice for himself and wife to live on comfortably. Holding the soldier for what service he might render, 243Drake divided his band into two companies and ambushed in long grass on either side of the road. He headed one companycompany, and John Oxenham, with the chief of the Cimaroons, the other. Drake’s lay on one side of the road some fifty paces above Oxenham’s on the opposite side. The foremost company were to seize the mules by their heads as the team came up, while the “hindmost” secured the rear: for the mules tied together were always driven one after the other. The Englishmen all drew their shirts over their apparel by Drake’s order that they might be sure to know each other in the “pell mell of the night.”

The two sections had thus lain for above an hour when the notes of deep sounding bells, which the mule teams invariably bore, were heard in the distance in both directions, betokening the approach of trains from and to Venta Cruz. Then the nearer sound of a horse trotting over the road fell on the listening ears. As it was passing the ambuscade one of the Englishmen, a sailor who had taken too much wine and become reckless, crept up close to the road and raised himself and gazed at the rider. He was a cavalier, well mounted, with a page running at his stirrup. A Cimaroon quickly pulled the sailor down and sat on him. But it was too late. The cavalier had caught sight of the white-shirted object, had recognized it as an Englishman of Drake’s crew, and had put spurs to his horse and galloped off to warn the approaching treasurer’s team of danger. Meeting it on the road the cavalier reported what he had seen, and his conjecture that Drake was in the neighbourhood 244for plunder of treasure teams to recompense himself for his failure at Nombre de Dios; and he persuaded the treasurer to turn his train out of the way, and let the others that were to follow pass first. Their loss, if “worse befel,” would be of far less account, while they would serve to discover the party in ambush. And just this happened. As the others with the lesser treasure reached the ambush the captains blew their whistles for the attack, and both teams were speedily taken; but the spoil, besides the provisions, netted not more than two “horse-loads” of silver, and Drake’s game was fully discovered. One of the chief carriers told him how their ambush had been exposed by the imprudent sailor and how the cavalier had spread the warning, and counselled his party to “shift for themselves betimes” unless they were able to combat the whole force of Panama before daybreak.

Instead, however, of following this advice Drake took that of the chief of the Cimaroons, which was that he should boldly march on to the town and “make a way with his sword through the enemies.” So, after enjoying a full supper of meat and drink from the captured provisions, the march upon Venta Cruz was begun. The band mounted the mules and thus made the journey comfortably. When within a mile of the town and in a deep woods they dismounted, and leaving the muleteers here, bidding them not to follow at their peril, made the remainder of the way on foot. Half a mile beyond a couple of Cimaroons of the advance guard discovered a Spanish force in ambush in a jungle at the 245side of the road. They were a body of soldiers with a number of fighting friars of a monastery at Venta Cruz. With this news Drake cautioned his men to move quietly, and pressed on. As they neared the ambuscade the Spanish captain appeared in the roadway before them and called out “Hoo!” Drake replied with the sailor’s response to a hail, “Hallo!” The Spaniard queried, “Que gente?” Drake answered, “Englishmen.” The Spaniard demanded their surrender, "in the name of the ‘King, his master,’" with the promise, as a “gentleman soldier,” of courteous treatment. Drake demanded passage “for the honour of the Queen, his mistress,” and advancing toward the Spaniard fired his pistol in the air. This was taken as a signal by the men in ambush and they let off a volley. Drake was scratched, and several of his men were wounded, one fatally. He blew his whistle, and the English returned shot for shot, with a flight of arrows. Then the Cimaroons took a hand, and under the combined Indian and English warfare the Spaniards were routed. Close by the town gate they made another stand. Drake’s men again scattered them, and with a rush entered the town. Guards were placed at the entrances at either end that the raiders might be secure while here. They stayed only an hour and a half. Drake ordered his men to take no heavy plunder, for they had a long march to make back to their ships, and they were yet in danger of attack. Still, many of them and the Cimaroons managed to make “some good pillage.”

246Having now practically completed the journey across the isthmus, and having been absent from the ships nearly a fortnight, a rapid return march was deemed imperative. The start was hastened by a little episode at the Panama gate. While the marauders were at breakfast just before daybreak they were startled by a lively fusillade at that end of the town. A company of cavaliers from Panama had galloped up, supposing that Drake had left, and had encountered his sentries at the gate. Several of the cavaliers were killed in the skirmish and the rest scattered. Fearing that they were a scouting party and might be followed by a large force, Drake gave immediate orders to fall in for the departure. At dawn they were crossing the Chagres bridge and on their way at a quick gait. It was a hard and rushing march throughout to the coast where the ships lay, the men for days with empty stomachs and footsore. But it was cheerfully performed under Drake’s buoyant leadership and his promise of golden spoil they were yet to win before they finally sailed back to England.

After the return to their rendezvous Drake divided the company into two bands to rove in the pinnaces, one eastward the other westward, for plunder off the coast. The eastward rovers soon captured a fine Spanish frigate; and this ship, because of her strength and “good mould,” Drake retained, and fitting her as a man-of-war added her to his fleet. He was in need of some new craft, for he had recently sunk one of his three pinnaces. Shortly after, in March, additional strength came in a French ship, a rover out of Havre, 247under one Captain Tetou with seventy men. The Frenchman had appeared when Drake’s ships were again at the “Cativaas,” needing water and provisions. Drake supplied his wants. Then the Frenchman, desiring to join him in a venture, the two struck a bargain for a second raid on the isthmus treasure teams. The Frenchman with twenty of his men was to serve with Drake, “for halves”: the plunder obtained to be equally divided.

For this expedition Drake selected fifteen of his men and the Cimaroons with him before, so that the whole company, exclusive of the natives, numbered but thirty-five, besides the two captains. Leaving his “Pasha” and the French ship in a safe road, he manned the reformed Spanish frigate and his two pinnaces, and sailed toward “Rio Francesco.” The frigate was left at Cabecas, with a crew of English and French, the pinnaces alone continuing to Rio Francesco. Here the band landed and took up their march, Drake charging the masters of the pinnaces to be back at this place without fail on the fourth day following, when they expected to return. They proceeded in covert through the woods toward the highway over which richly laden “recuas” were now coming daily from Panama to Nombre de Dios. When they had marched, as in the previous journey to Panama, to a “convenient point” between Rio Francesco and Nombre de Dios, they bivouacked for that night. As they rested “in great silence” they could hear the distant sounds of many carpenters working on the ships at Nombre de Dios, 248which was customarily done in the night time because of the great heat of the day; and their ears were charmed with the music of the bells of the trotting mule teams on the road.

Early the next morning, April first, a jangle of bells nearing their cover told the approach of an unwonted number of recuas. Putting themselves in readiness they cautiously moved down toward the highway. Three great teams from Panama were coming along together. One consisted of fifty mules, the other two of seventy each, and each mule carried three hundred pounds’ weight of silver: one hundred and ninety mules in all with a total of fifty-seven thousand pounds of the metal; while some were also laden with a small quantity of gold. Their guards comprised forty-five soldiers, fifteen to each recua. At the moment the teams were abreast them Drake’s band sprang out, and took such hold of the heads of the foremost and hindmost mules that the rest stopped short and lay down. There followed a quick exchange of bullets and arrows, and then the flight of the guard “to seek more help abroad.” In the skirmish the French captain was painfully wounded and one Cimaroon was killed. The raiders hurriedly relieved the mules of their burden, taking all of the treasure that they could well carry, including a few bars and quoits of gold, and burying a large part of the rest in various places—in burrows which great land crabs had made, beneath the trunks of fallen trees, and in the sand and gravel of a shallow river—to be taken away later as occasion might offer. Two hours were consumed 249in this business. Then the return march was started by the way they had come. They had scarcely re-entered the woods when they heard both horse and foot clattering along the road behind them. This force, however, did not pursue them, and it was supposed that they tarried to repossess the mules and the rifled packs. The march had not far progressed when the wounded French captain was obliged to drop out and seek rest in the woods, hoping soon to regain his strength. He was never again seen by his companions, though repeatedly sought, and it was afterward learned that he fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Later on the march another of the Frenchmen was missed. His fate, also ascertained subsequently, was not so tragic as his captain’s, though hard and with sorry results to the band in that through it they lost much of the treasure which they had hidden. While rifling the teams he had drunk much wine, and overloading himself with pillage, had started ahead of the rest and become lost in the woods. He, too, was captured by the Spaniards, and under torture he revealed the places of the buried plunder. Rio Francesco was reached after two days of marching and here no pinnaces were met. Instead they saw a fleet of seven Spanish pinnaces cruising off the coast. They “mightily suspected” that these Spaniards had taken or spoiled their boats.

In this emergency Drake determined to reach his ships at all hazard. From trees that had been brought down a river by a recent storm he had his men construct a raft. For a sail a biscuit sack was utilized, 250and a young tree was stripped for an oar to serve instead of a rudder. Upon this rude craft he embarked with a few volunteers, and as he pushed off he comforted the company left behind with the assurance that “if it pleased God he should put his foot in safety aboard his frigate he would, God willing, by one means or other get them all aboard despite of all the Spaniards in the Indies.” He had thus sailed out into the sea some three leagues, under a parching sun and for about six hours all the while sitting up to the waist in water and at nearly every surge to the armpits, when two pinnaces were descried coming inward under a spanking breeze. As they neared they were seen to be his own pinnaces. At the sight the half-drowned raftsmen set up a shout. But they were evidently not seen by those on the pinnaces, for the boats shifted and ran into a cove beyond a point of land. Since they did not come out again Drake concluded that they were to anchor there for the night. Thereupon he piloted his shaky craft ashore, and leaping off, ran around the point and so came upon them, to the great astonishment of their occupants and his greater relief. Their masters accounted for their delay in reaching the rendezvous in telling how they had been beaten back by a heavy storm, and had been obliged to stand off to avoid the Spanish pinnaces. Drake’s companions of the raft were first succoured; and then he himself, not stopping for rest, that evening rowed to Rio Francesco, where the remainder of the company and the treasure were taken off and brought to the pinnaces. At dawn next 251morning all set sail back again to the frigate, and thence directly to the ships at Fort Diego. Upon the arrival here Drake at once divided the treasure by weight into two even portions between the English and French.

Shortly after twelve of Drake’s men and sixteen of the Cimaroons were secretly sent again to the isthmus, for the buried treasure, and also, if possible, to recover the French captain. They learned no more than that Captain Tetou had been taken by the Spaniards, while the treasure had mostly disappeared, the earth having been dug and turned up for a mile about the hiding places. They found, however, thirteen bars of silver and a few quoits of gold, which they took off.

Now it had become “high time to think of homewards.” The frigate was supplied from the “Pasha” with what necessaries were needed fully to supply her, and the “Pasha” was turned over to the few Spaniards whom they had all this time detained. Then Fort Diego was left, the French ship accompanying Drake’s little fleet. For a few days they rode among the Cabecas. Afterward they parted with the French ship, and cruised about seeking another Spanish frigate which they might take to augment the fleet. Meanwhile they passed “hard by” Cartagena, in the sight of the Spanish ships lying off that port, defiantly displaying the flag of St. George in the main top of the frigate, “with silk streamers and ancients down to the water.” Finally in July they were on the homeward voyage in two captured Spanish frigates and with their pinnaces. Their parting with the Cimaroons was most affectionate. 252Drake gave Pedro, their chief, a rich cimeter which he had received as a gift from Captain Tetou, and which the savage had secretly coveted, and Pedro gave Drake four wedges of gold as a “pledge of his friendship and thanks.” Drake would decline the gold, but seeing that Pedro would be pained at a refusal, he accepted it and turned it into the common stock of his company.

The return voyage was made with such a merry wind that the distance from Cape San Antonio in Florida to the Scilly Islands was accomplished in twenty-three days. Plymouth was reached on a Sunday, August nine, during “sermon time,” and the news of Drake’s arrival "did so speedily pass over all the church and surpass their minds with desire and delight to see him that very few or none remained with the preacher: all hastening to see the evidence of God’s love and blessing toward our Gracious Queen and country, by the fruits of our Captain’s labours and success. Soli Deo Gloria." So piously ends the chronicle.

The profits of this buccaneering voyage, with the bullion brought home, were large to all who had part in it. Drake’s share made him comparatively rich. As the historian Camden put it, he had “gotten a pretty store of money by playing the sailor and the pirate.” Among the prizes that he took were a number of frigates engaged in the coasting trade, carrying gold, silver, and merchandise, and newly built through the energy and skill of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the destroyer of the French colony in Florida.

Three years later Drake had begun his preparations for his crowning exploit in the voyage round the globe. In the interim he had served voluntarily in Ireland (1573) under the Earl of Essex, furnishing at his own expense three frigates, with their equipment of munitions and men. This service brought him a strong friend and ultimate patron in Sir Christopher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain. And by Hatton he had been favourably presented to the queen, who received him most flatteringly, and is said to have encouraged him to follow up his attacks upon the colonies of Spain, her bitterest enemy, though yet nominally at peace with her.

This voyage was planned with the utmost secrecy and its real object was carefully concealed. Even when the fleet had actually set sail the company on board were not aware of their true destination; and the mystery enveloping the enterprise most fascinated the bold and daring spirits enlisted in it. The statement had been given out that Constantinople was the goal of the voyage, but it was pretty generally felt that sooner or 254later the Spanish American possessions would be reached. Spain, which at length had been apprised by her envoy of Drake’s movements, shrewdly suspected that his aim, as before, was the Spanish Main; and it was the Spaniards’ belief that he particularly contemplated a fresh attack upon Nombre de Dios and the “Treasure of the World.” To prey upon Spanish ships and loot Spanish possessions was indeed an uppermost purpose with him, but his scheme involved a far greater sweep of operations than the Spaniards imagined. He meant, above all, to accomplish his ardent desire expressed on that tree top on the Isthmus of Panama, to sail an English ship into and to explore the Pacific, and incidentally to harass the Spanish colonies on the Pacific Coast, which from Patagonia to California was then under Spanish rule. The encompassing of the globe, however, was an afterthought growing out of the circumstances in which he found himself on the western North American coast.

The fleet assembled for this voyage were five small ships, the largest of only one hundred tons, the smallest of fifteen, and the average of the whole lot fifty-five tons. They comprised: the “Pelican,” the flag-ship, and the largest, with Drake in command; the “Elizabeth,” eighty tons, Captain John Winter; the “Marigold,” thirty tons, Captain John Thomas; the “Swan,” a flyboat, fifty tons, Captain John Chester; the “Christopher,” a pinnace, fifteen tons, Captain Thomas Moon. And in the holds of the larger ships were stored four pinnaces in parts, to be set up when needed. The vessels 255were stocked and provisioned for a year or more. Some of them, at least Drake’s ship, were luxuriously furnished. We are told of his rich tableware embellished with silver, presumably some of it prizes taken on his previous voyage; of silver pots and kettles in the cook-room; and of other sumptuous fittings. “Neither,” says the historian, “had he omitted to make provision also for ornament and delight, carrying to this purpose with him expert musicians,” a band of fiddlers to play for him at dinners; “and divers shews of all sorts of curious workmanship whereby the civility and magnificence of his native country might amongst all nations whithersoever he should come, be the most admired.” The company comprised, according to the account which Hakluyt gives, one hundred and forty-six men, gentlemen and sailors; another puts the number at one hundred and sixty-three “stout and able seamen.”

They sailed out of Plymouth on the fifteenth of November, 1577. But this proved to be a false start. The wind falling contrary they were forced the next morning to put into Falmouth, where a furious tempest struck them and nearly wrecked the whole fleet. So they were obliged to return to Plymouth for repairs. The second start was made successfully, on the thirteenth of December. Twelve days later they were off the coast of Barbary, and on the second day they called at Magador, where they tarried long enough to put together one of their pinnaces. While at this work they entertained some of the natives, who promised to 256bring them choice provisions in return for gifts of linen cloth, shoes, and a javelin. But the next day an unlucky incident changed the aspect of affairs. A group supposed to have come with the provisions appeared at the water side and a shipboat was sent out to meet them. As the boat touched the shore a sailor sprang from it with outstretched hand to give a hearty sailor’s welcome. He was instantly seized, flung across a horse’s back and galloped away. It was afterward learned that this violent act was committed only to ascertain to whom the ships belonged. It was feared that they might be Portuguese ships, and these Moors were then at war with the Portuguese. The captured sailor was brought before a chief, and when this chief found out that the ships were English, the sailor was hurried back with apologies and loaded with presents. But the fleet was then gone. The sailor was returned to England at the first opportunity, none the worse for his experience.

From Magador the fleet coasted the shore and put next into port at Cape Blanco. On the way down their first captures were made. These included three Spanish fisher boats, “canters,”—or canteras, they were termed—and three Portuguese caravels, the latter bound to the Cape Verde Islands for salt. At Cape Blanco a ship was found riding at anchor with only two “simple mariners” aboard her. She was promptly taken and her cargo added to their spoil. In this harbour the fleet remained four days, during which time Drake mustered his men on land and trained them 257“in warlike manner to make them fit for all occasions.” Before departing he had shifted such things as he desired from the captured canters and returned them to their owners save one, for which he gave in exchange one of his little barks, called the “Benedict,” or the “Christopher,” which name the canter afterward bore. Only one also of the captured Portuguese caravels was retained. Next the Cape Verde Islands were reached, and a landing made at Mayo (Maio), where luscious fruits were added to their stock of provisions. Drake sent out a company of his men to view this island, and they feasted on “very ripe and sweet grapes,” and cocoa which was new to them. Next the fleet sailed by St. Jago [San Thiago], but far enough off to escape danger from the inhabitants whom they mistrusted: and properly, for the latter discharged three pieces at them as they passed by, the shot falling short of them. Off this island they took their richest prize thus far. She was one of two Portuguese ships to which they gave chase. They boarded her, when overhauled with a shipboat, without resistance. She yielded them with other valuable articles a good store of wine. Her pilot, one Nuno da Silva, was retained for service, which proved to be excellent, through a considerable part of the voyage, while the rest of her crew and her passengers, of whom there were several, were sent off in the newly set-up pinnace, graciously provided by her captors with a butt of wine out of their booty and some victuals. She was added to the fleet, with the name of “Mary” bestowed upon her, and put under 258the charge of Master Doughty, a volunteer and perhaps investor in the expedition, and a personal friend of Drake. Doughty was not a seafaring man, and he seems to have got into difficulty with his crew soon after taking command of the prize. Within a few days complaints of his conduct of her coming to Drake, he was called to the “Pelican,” and the captain’s own brother Thomas Drake (another younger brother) appointed to his place, the captain accompanying Thomas Drake on the prize. In the “Pelican” Doughty had no better luck, for complaints of abuse of his authority here soon arose. Accordingly he was deposed and sent to the “Swan” in no post of command. Farther along on the voyage he came to a tragic end, the central figure of a dramatic scene, as will appear later in this narrative. Next after San Thiago, Fuego (Fogo), the “burning island,” then throwing out volcanic flames, and lastly “Brava,” found in contrast a “most pleasant and sweet” isle, were passed.

Then they “drew towards the line,” where they were becalmed for three weeks, but yet “subject to divers great stormes, terrible lightnings, and much thunder.” Along with this “miserie,” however, they enjoyed an abundance of fish, as “Dolphins, Bonitos, Flying fishes,” some of the latter falling into their ships. It was now known to the company that their next destination was America, at Brazil.

From the moment of leaving the Cape Verde Islands, they sailed fifty-four days without sight of land. On the fifth of April the Brazilian coast presented itself to 259view. In the distance they saw fires on the coast. These they afterward learned were set by the natives when their ships were sighted, as a sacrifice to “the devils about which they use conjurations.” The custom of these natives, it seemed, whenever a strange ship approached the coast was to perform weird ceremonies to conjure the gathering of shoals and the outbreak of tempests by which the ship would be cast away. Two days afterward there actually came upon them a “mightie great storme both of lightning, rayne, and thunder,” during which they lost the “Christopher,” their captured canter. While sailing southward, however, they found her a few days later, and the place where she was met Drake called the “Cape of Joy.” Landing, they found no people, but the footprints they saw in the clay ground led them to believe that the inhabitants were “men of great statute,” if not giants. On or about the twenty-seventh of April they were at the great river La Plata. They merely entered it, and finding no good harbour bore to sea again. In bearing out the “Swan” was missed. They next made harbour in a fair bay where were a number of islands, on one of which were seen many “sea wolves” (seals). In early June they were anchored in another harbour, farther south, which they called “Seal Bay” because of the abundance of seal here. They killed from two hundred to three hundred of them, the chronicler averred, within an hour’s time. Again the “Swan” was found, and having become unseaworthy, she was stripped of her furnishings and burned. A few days 260later the “Christopher” was also discharged for the same reason. On the twentieth of June the fleet came to anchor at Port St. Julien, Patagonia, above the Strait of Magellan, giving entrance to the Pacific.

St. Julien was the original winter port of Magelhaens, so named and established by him, and whence he sailed to his discovery of the mysterious strait. Drake similarly made it his port for recuperation and preparation before attempting his passage of this strait to the goal of his ambition. Here two months were spent, while the ships were put in thorough condition,—three only, now, the “Mary,” the Portuguese prize, having been broken up on her arrival because leaky,—and the company disciplined for the better conduct of the adventures before them. The stay was most dramatically and painfully marked, however, by the trial, conviction, and beheading of Drake’s friend, the unfortunate Master Doughty, on the charge of inciting a mutiny in the fleet. The sight of a gibbet set up, as was supposed, seventy years before by Magelhaens for the execution of certain mutineers in his company, may have suggested this inexplicable proceeding, which has been the subject of much speculation by historians and of condemnation by Drake’s harsher critics. The affair is thus vividly reported, with careful particularity, by Hakluyt’s chronicler:

“The Generall began to inquire diligently of the actions of M. Thomas Doughtie and found them not to be such as he looked for, but tending rather to contention or mutinie, or some other disorder, whereby (without 261redresse) the successe of the voyage might greatly have been hazarded: whereupon the company was called together and made acquainted with the particulars of the cause, which were found partly by master Doughtie’s owne confession, and partly by the evidence of the fact, to be true: which when our Generall saw, although his private affection of M. Doughtie (as hee then in the presence of us all sacredly protested) was great, yet the care he had of the state of the voyage, of the expectation of her Majestie, and of the honour of his countrey did more touch him (as indeede it ought) then [than] the private respect of one man: so that the cause being thoroughly heard, and all things done in good order as neere as might be to the course of our lawes in England, it was concluded that M. Doughtie should receive punishment according to the qualitie of the offence: and he seeing no remedie but patience for himselfe, desired before his death to receive the Communion, which he did at the hands of M. Fletcher our Minister, and our Generall himselfe accompanied him in that holy action: which being done, and the place of execution made ready, hee having embraced our Generall and taken his leave of all the companie, with prayers for the Queenes majestie and our realme, in quiet sort laid his head to the blocke, where he ended his life.”

Whether he were guilty or not, Doughty’s fine courage and manly bearing throughout his ordeal calls only for admiration.

The execution over, Drake made a speech to the assembled 262company, persuading them to “unitie, obedience, love, and regard of” their voyage: and “for the better confirmation thereof” he “willed every man the next Sunday following to prepare himselfe to receive the Communion as Christian brethren and friends ought to doe.” This, the chronicler concludes, was done “in very reverent sort, and so with good contentment every man went about his businesse.”

St. Julien was left on the seventeenth of August, and on the twentieth the mouth of the Strait of Magellan was reached. At the entrance, Drake, as another chronicler recorded, caused the fleet, in homage to the queen of England, to “strike their topsails upon the bunt as a token of his willing and glad mind to shew his dutiful obedience to her highness, whom he acknowledged to have full interest and right” in his discoveries; and he formally changed the name of his own ship from the “Pelican” to the “Golden Hind,” in remembrance of his “honourable friend and favourer,” Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest bore this design. Then the chaplain delivered a sermon and the ceremonies closed.

The passage of the strait was successfully made in the remarkable time of sixteen days, and on the sixth of September the little fleet emerged in the sea of their desire on the “backside” of America.

Instead, however, of the tranquil ocean that Magelhaens had named the Pacific, because of its serenity when he first saw it, they encountered a rough and turbulent water; and no sooner had they cleared the 263strait than a great storm arose by which they were driven some two hundred leagues westward, and separated. The “Golden Hind” was struggling against the almost continuous tempest for full fifty-three days. From the west she was carried south as far as fifty-seven degrees, and Drake was enabled to see the union of the Atlantic and the Pacific, and by chance to discover Cape Horn. He sighted numerous islands, and gave the name of the “Elizabethides” to the whole group of Tierra del Fuego. While beating about west and south the fleet came together again, but only soon to be parted forever. In the middle of September a harbour was temporarily made in a bay which Drake called the “Bay of Severing Friends.” Working northward again they stood in a bay near the strait. The next day the cable of the “Golden Hind” parted and she drove out to sea. Thus she lost sight of the “Elizabeth,” and never saw her more. It was supposed that she had been put by the storm into the strait again, and that she would ultimately be met somewhere above. The first part of this supposition was correct. She had recovered the strait. But instead of returning to the Pacific course Captain Winter made the passage back to the Atlantic, and so continued his voyage homeward, reaching England on the first of November. Captain Winter prepared an account of his companionship with Drake from the start, and of his experiences after parting with him, which Hakluyt reproduced. On the second of October the “Marigold,” in trying to regain lost ground, fell away from the “Golden Hind” and 264afterward (though Drake was not aware of her fate) foundered with all on board.

Now the “Golden Hind” was left alone with a single pinnace. Subsequently the pinnace with eight men in her separated from him and was seen no more. Her crew, as was some years after related by the single survivor, had marvellous adventures, which included the return passage through the strait; a voyage to the River La Plata; fights with Indians in woods on the shore; escape of those left alive to a lone island, where the pinnace was dashed to pieces on the rocks; two months on this island by the survivors, now only two, who subsisted on crabs, eels, and fruits with no water to drink; and final escape to the mainland by means of a raft of plank, where one of the two died from over-indulgence in the sweet water of a rivulet.

At length after her wanderings southward the “Golden Hind” with a favourable wind got fairly off on a northwestern course. Again coming to the height of the strait she coasted upward, Drake always hoping to meet or hear of his missing consorts. Through the inaccuracy of his charts he was carried more to the westward than he intended, and on the twenty-ninth of November fell in with an island called la Mocha. Here he came to anchor in the hope of obtaining water and fresh provisions, and of recuperating. Taking ten of his men he rowed ashore. The inhabitants were found to be Patagonians, who had been compelled by the “cruell and extreme dealings of the Spaniards” to flee from the mainland and fortify themselves on this 265island. They thronged down to the water side with “shew of great courtesie,” and offered potatoes, roots, and two fat sheep, Drake in return giving them trinkets. A supply of water was also promised by them. But the next day when the same party rowed to the shore and two men were put on land with barrels to be filled, the people, mistaking these men for Spaniards, seized and slew them. Another account says that in attempting to rescue their comrades the party were assailed, and Drake was wounded in the face by arrows. The ship then at once weighed anchor and got off.

Drawing toward the coast again, the next day anchor was dropped in a bay called St. Philip. Here an Indian came out in a canoe, and taking the “Golden Hind” to be Spanish, told of a great Spanish ship at a place called “S. Iogo” (Valparaiso), laden from Peru. For this exhilarating news Drake rewarded the canoeist with divers trifles, and under his pilotage straightway put off for Valparaiso to seize the prize if there. True enough, she was found in that harbour riding quietly at anchor, with only eight Spaniards and three Negroes on board. They also supposing the new comer to be Spanish, welcomed her with beat of drum and made ready a “Bottija [a Spanish pot] of wine of Chili to drink” to her men. So soon, however, as the craft was come up to, one of Drake’s impatient men began to lay about him, and striking one of the Spaniards cried “Abaxo Perro, that is in English Goe downe dogge!” This, in modern parlance, gave the “Golden Hind” away. But not a moment was lost in parley. “To be short,” 266says the chronicler, “wee stowed them away under hatches all save one Spaniard, who suddenly and desperately leapt over board into the sea, and swamme ashore to the towne ... to give them warning of our arrival.” There were then in Valparaiso “not above nine households,” and it was instantly abandoned. Drake proceeded to rifle the place. A lot of Chili wine was taken from a warehouse, and from a chapel a silver chalice, two cruets, and an altar cloth were carried off. All of the pious spoil was generously given by Drake to his chaplain, Master Fletcher. This business done, all of the prisoners were freed with one exception, John Griego, a Greek, whom Drake held to serve him as pilot to the haven of Lima, and the “Golden Hind” set sail again with the Spanish prize in tow. She was rifled leisurely when at sea, and produced “good store of the wine of Chili, 25,000 pezoes of very pure and fine gold of Baldivia, amounting in value to 37,000 ducats of Spanish money or above.” This was reckoned a pretty fine haul for the first one on the Pacific coast, but greater were to follow.

The voyagers still kept in with the coast and next arrived at “a place called Coquinobo” (perhaps Copiapo). Here Drake sent fourteen of his men to land for fresh water. They were espied and a body of horsemen and footmen dashed upon and killed one of them. Then the attacking force quickly disappeared. The Englishmen went ashore again and buried their comrade. Meanwhile the Spaniards reappeared with a flag of truce. But they were not trusted, and as soon as his 267men had returned Drake again put to sea. He now had a new pinnace, having at this place set up another of the three brought out ready framed. The next place at which a landing was made was Tarapaca. On the shore a Spaniard was found lying asleep with thirteen bars of silver beside him. Drake’s party took the silver and left the man. Not far from this place a boat’s load going ashore for water met a Spaniard with an Indian boy driving eight “llamas,” sheep of Peru, as “big as asses,” each carrying on its back two leather bags, together containing one hundred pounds’ weight of silver. They took the sheep with their burdens, and let the man and boy go. Still coasting along the buccaneering voyagers came next to the port of Arica. In this haven lay three barks well freighted with silver. They were instantly boarded and relieved of their cargoes. From one alone were taken fifty-seven wedges of silver, each of “the bigness of a brickbat,” and of about twenty pounds’ weight. They were unprotected, their crews having fled to the town at the approach of the Englishmen. Drake would have ransacked the town had his company been larger. As it was, the spoil of the barks so easily taken contented him. Now he was bound for Lima. Along the way he fell in with a bark which, being boarded and rifled, produced a good store of linen cloth. When as much of this stuff as was desired had been taken the bark was cast off.

Callao, the port of Lima, was reached on the thirteenth of February, and entered without resistance. 268A dozen or more ships were met in this haven, lying at anchor, all without their sails, these having been taken ashore, for the masters and merchants here felt perfectly secure, never having been assaulted by enemies and fearing the approach of none such as Drake’s company were. All were held up and rifled. In one were found fifteen hundred bars of silver; in another a chest of coined money, and stocks of silks and linen cloth. Drake questioned the crews as to any knowledge they might have of his lost consorts, for which he had kept up a continual lookout; but he could learn nothing from them. He learned something else, however, which hastened his departure. This was that a very rich Spanish ship, laden with treasure, had sailed out of this port just before his arrival, bound for Panama. She was the “glory of the South Sea,” named the “Cacafuego,” in English equivalent the “Spitfire.” Drake was soon in full chase of her, and to prevent himself being followed from Callao he cut all the cables of the twelve ships, letting them drive as they would, to sea or ashore.

On this run he paused long enough to overhaul and loot a brigantine, taking out of her eighty pounds’ weight of gold, a gold crucifix studded with emeralds, and some cordage which would come in handy on his ship. Drake promised his men that whichever should first sight the “Cacafuego” should be rewarded with the gold chain he wore. It fortuned that his brother John, “going up into the top,” spied her at three o’clock one afternoon, and so won the chain. By six she was 269reached and ordered to stand. Three pieces of ordnance were shot off at her and struck down her mizzen. She was then boarded and easily possessed. Her treasure comprised jewels, precious stones, eighty pounds of gold, and twenty-six tons of silver. Among some plate were two gilded silver bowls which belonged to her pilot, Francisco by name. These particularly took Drake’s fancy. So with suavity he observed to their owner, “Senor Pilot, you have here two silver cups, but I must have one of them.” The “Senor Pilot” responded as affably, and, “because he could not otherwise chuse,” handed over one to the general and bestowed the other upon the steward of the “Golden Hind.” As he departed his boy, a lad with a clever wit, spoke up to Drake, "Captain, our ship shall be called no more the ‘Cacafuego’ but the ‘Cacaplata,’ and your ship shall be called the ‘Cacafuego.’" “Which prettie speech of the Pilot’s boy,” the chronicler records, “ministered matter of laughter to us, both then and long after.”

The point where this prize was taken is given as some one hundred and fifty leagues below Panama. She was sailed out into the sea beyond the sight of land, and there rifled. When this was done Drake cast her off and continued on his course up the coast, standing out to the westward to avoid Panama, where he was too well known. On an early April day, another fine ship was met with. She was taken without resistance. She was a merchant ship from Acapulco, in Mexico, rich laden with linen cloth, China silks, and porcelain ware. 270Her owner was on board, a Spanish gentleman, Don Francisco de Carate. Drake treated him with great courtesy, and evidently won his admiration, for we read that he gave his captor a handsomely wrought falcon of gold with a great emerald set in the breast. Drake in return gave him a hanger and silver brazier. He released the merchant after three days when, having finished his business with the captured ship, he suffered her to continue on her voyage. The pilot, however, was retained for his service. Afterward Carate gave a careful account of his experience with Drake in a letter to the viceroy of New Spain, and to this letter we are indebted for an engaging description of Drake’s outfit, his characteristics, and his person.

This intelligent and gracious witness pictures the general as “about thirty-five, of small size, and reddish beard,” and characterises him as “one of the greatest sailors that exist both for his skill and for his power of commanding.” His men were “all in the prime of life and as well trained for war as if they were old soldiers of Italy.” He treated them “with affection, and they him with respect.” Among them were “nine or ten gentlemen, younger sons of leading men in England,” who formed his council. But he was not bound by their advice, though he might be guided by it. These young gentlemen all dined with him at his table. The service was of silver “richly gilt and engraved with his arms.” He dined and supped to the music of violins. He had “all possible luxuries, even to perfumes.” He had two draughtsmen, who portrayed 271the coast “in its own colours.” His ship carried thirty large guns, and a great quantity of ammunition, as well as artificers who could execute necessary repairs.

Carate’s retained pilot directed Drake up to and along the coast of North America, and about the middle of April had brought him to the Mexican haven of “Guatulco” (Acapulco). He landed with a few of his men and went presently to the town, where, in the Town-House, a trial of three Negroes charged with conspiring to burn the place was proceeding. Judge, officers, and prisoners were all seized and brought to the ship. The judge was required to write a letter commanding the townspeople to “avoid” that the ship might water here. This done, and the captives released, Drake’s men ransacked the town. In one house they found a pot of the size of a bushel full of reals of plate. A flying Spanish gentleman was overtaken and a gold chain and jewels were filched from him. At this port Nuna da Silva, the Portuguese pilot retained all along from the time of his capture in the Cape Verde Islands, was discharged and put aboard a Spanish ship in the harbour. He subsequently made a written report to the viceroy of New Spain, comprising a circumstantial account of the voyage as far as he was compelled to make it. This account passed from that official to the viceroy of the Portugal-Indies, and some years afterward got to England, when Hakluyt published it. It follows the narrative of the chronicler of Drake’s company in the Principal Navigations, and well supplements that.

Now, at Acapulco, or at an island below this port 272which the chronicler calls “Canno,” while his “Golden Hind” was undergoing a complete refitting, Drake was pondering his future course. His ship was rich in treasure, and his company were thinking of home. He now felt himself “both in respect of his private injuries received from the Spaniards, as also of the contempts and indignities offered” to his country, “sufficiently satisfied and revenged”; and he believed that the queen would be contented with this service. Accordingly he decided no longer to continue on the coast of New Spain. But whither should he turn? It was unwise to go back as he had come. It was not well to make return by the Strait of Magellan for two reasons: “the one, lest the Spaniards should there waite and attend for him in great number and strength whose hands, hee being left but one ship, could not possibly escape.” And it happened that a fleet was actually making ready for this purpose. The other was the dangerous situation of the Pacific mouth of the strait with “continuall stormes reigning and blustering, as he had found by experience, besides the shoalds and sands upon the coast.” Finally, after consultation with his “council,” he resolved to strike boldly out into the great sea and make for the Moluccas, the Spice Islands, of the East Indian Archipelago. He may have been influenced toward this decision through his capture while at Canno of a prize with two pilots and a Spanish governor on board bound for the Philippines; or by an earlier taking from the Spaniards, according to Silva’s account, of some charts of seas hitherto unknown 273to the English. At the same time it is believed that he had serious thoughts of trying for an “upper north” passage to the Atlantic from the “backside” of America, as Frobisher had sought the Northwest passage from the east side three and more years before.

The start on the western course, directly into the Pacific, was made about the middle of April. But almost immediately, in order to get a wind, it was necessary to steer somewhat northerly instead of due west. And thus northward the ship continued to sail, “six hundred leagues at the least,” for some fifty days, or till the third of June, when she had come, as the chronicler recorded, “in 43 degrees towards the pole Arctike.” The air had now grown so cold that the voyagers, coming from a torrid climate, were “grievously pinched” by it. On the fifth of June, because of the increasing cold, and of contrary winds, they thought it best to seek the shore.

The coast they first sighted was “not mountainous but low plaine land.” It was the lower part of the present great American state of Oregon. Hakluyt’s chronicler made no mention of a stop here, but a later one (Drake’s chaplain, Fletcher) told of their dropping anchor in a “bad bay” in which there was “no abiding” for any length of time. To go farther north, under all the circumstances, was out of the question, and if Drake really had thought seriously of seeking a northern strait between the oceans, that scheme was now abandoned. Again under sail, with the wind straight from the north, they were carried southward 274till they had come “within 38 degrees toward the line.” And now “it pleased God” to send them “into a faire good Baye with a good winde to enter the same.” This was on the coast of our present California. Here they came comfortably to anchor, and looking about them, saw little huts close by the waterside and strange natives pressing to the shore with welcoming gestures.

So Drake discovered for the English the coast of Oregon and California. He was the first European to see the coast of Oregon and to anchor on its shores. Earlier discovery of the Californian coast was claimed for Portuguese ships in 1520 and 1542–1543; and for the Spaniards in 1542. The Spaniards first applied the name of California to an indefinite territory up the coast above Mexico. Drake named the region which he visited, “New Albion,” because of the “white bankes and cliffes” lying toward the sea, which he saw as he approached the place of his anchorage, and in remembrance of the ancient name of Britain. The situation of his “faire good Baye” was a mooted question with historical authorities till near the close of the nineteenth century. The weight of evidence appeared to point to San Francisco Bay till the exact identification of Point Reyes Head, a little north of San Francisco Bay, as Drake’s landfall. This was made in full accordance with the chroniclers’ descriptions, by Prof. George Davidson, of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, who definitely fixed the disputed port under the eastern promontory of Point Reyes Head, 275the haven now called Drake’s Harbor. The “bad harbor” above, on the Oregon coast, Professor Davidson identifies in an open roadstead off the mouth of the Chetko River, protected in part by Cape Ferrelo.

Drake and his companions stayed in this port for thirty-six days and had wonderful intercourse with the natives. These people greatly marvelled at the things they brought and the presents they bestowed and thought their visitors to be gods. The Englishmen pitched their tents and built a temporary fort about them near the waterside at the foot of a hill, while from its summit groups of natives gazed, wide-eyed, down upon their work. Then followed a succession of stately ceremonies.

First, the people, assembled on the hill-top, put forth one of their number as spokesman, who “wearied himself” with a long oration directed at the Englishmen mustered below. This over, the men, leaving their bows and arrows behind them, came down the hill bearing presents to the Englishmen, feathers and bags of “tobac,” assumed to have been tobacco. Meanwhile the women, remaining on the hill-top, “tormented themselves lamentably, tearing their flesh from their cheekes,” which was understood to be a sacrifice, a pagan performance that distressed the Englishmen, who expressed their disapproval of it by gestures and endeavoring to offset it with a service of prayer and scripture reading. Then the presents were delivered and this ceremony ended. Next the native king, accompanied by his chief men and a throng of his people, 276formally welcomed the newcomers with a great demonstration. Of this spectacle the chronicler furnished a minute description, warranted by the novelty of it and the surprising climax:

"The people that inhabited round about came downe and amongst them the King himselfe, a man of a goodly stature & comely personage, with many other tall and warlike men: before whose comming were sent two Ambassadors to our Generall to signifie that their King was comming, in doing of which message their speach was continued about halfe an houre. This ended, they by signes requested our Generall to send some thing by their hand to their King as a token that his comming might be in peace: wherein our Generall having satisfied them, they returned with glad tidings to their King, who marched to us with a princely majestie, the people crying continually after their manner, and as they drew neere unto us, so did they strive to behave themselves in their actions with comelinesse. In the forefront was a man of a goodly personage who bare a scepter or mace before the King, whereupon hanged two crownes, a lesse and a bigger, with three chaines of a marveilous length: the crownes were made of knit worke wrought artificially with fethers of divers colours; the chaines were made of a bonie substance, and few be the persons among them that are admitted to weare them: and of that number also the persons are stinted, as some ten, some twelve &c. Next unto him which bare the scepter, was the King himselfe with his Guard about his person, clad 277with Conie skins, & other skins; after them followed the naked common sort of people, every one having his face painted, some with white, some with blacke, and other colours, & having in their hands one thing or another for a present, not so much as their children, but they also brought their presents.

"In the meane time our Generall gathered his men together, and marched within his fenced place, making against their approaching a very warre-like shew. They being trooped together in their order, and a generall salutation being made, there was presently a generall silence. Then he that bare the scepter before the King being informed by another, whom they assigned to that office, with a manly and loftie voyce proclaymed that which the other spake to him in secrete, continuing halfe an houre: which ended and a generall Amen as it were given, the King with the whole number of men and women (the children excepted) came downe without any weapon, who descending to the foote of the hill set themselves in order. In comming towards our bulwarks and tents, the scepter-bearer began a song, observing his measures in a daunce, and that with a stately countenance, whom the King with his Guarde, and every degree of persons following, did in like manner sing and daunce, saving onely the women, who daunced and kept silence.

“The Generall permitted them to enter within our bulwarke, where they continued their song and daunce a reasonable time. When they had satisfied themselves they made signes to our Generall to sit downe, to whom 278the King and divers others made several orations, or rather supplications, that hee would take their province and kingdome into his own hand and become their King, making signes that they would resigne unto him their right and title of the whole land and become his subjects. In which to perswade us the better the King and the rest with one consent and with great reverence, singing a song, did set the crowne upon his head, inriched his necke with all their chains and offered unto him many other things, honouring him by the name of Hioh, adding thereunto as it seemed, a signe of triumph: which thing our Generall thought not meete to reject, because he knew not what honour and profit it might be to our Countrey. Wherefore in the name, and to the use of her Majestie he took the scepter, crowne, and dignitie of the said Countrey into his hands, wishing that the riches & treasure thereof might so conveniently be transported to the inriching of her kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in ye same.”

After these ceremonies the general and his company marched up into the country and visited the villages of the natives. They found the land fair and abounding particularly in deer, of which great herds, a thousand in a herd, they reckoned, were seen. The houses in the villages were circular in form. They were “digged about with earth,” and had “from the uttermost brimmes of the circle clefts of wood set upon their joyning close together at the top like a spire steeple.” The beds herein were of rushes strewn upon the ground. The men were almost entirely without apparel, while 279the women wore a single garment woven of bulrushes with a deer-skin on their shoulders.

Of the resources of the region scant report was given beyond this significant statement, which was left to be verified for nearly three centuries: “There is no part of earth heere to bee taken up wherein there is not some probable shew of gold or silver.”

Just before his departure Drake nailed upon a “faire great poste” a plate “whereupon were engraven her Majesties name, the day, and yeere of our arrivall there, with the free giving up of the province and people into her Majesties hands, together with her highnesses picture and armes, in a peace of sixe pence of current English money under [beneath] the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our Generall.” And to this record the chronicler adds, to clinch the English claim, “It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never bene in this part of the Countrey, neither did ever discover the land by many degrees to the Southwards of this place.”

While in the “New Albion” port the “Golden Hind” was careened and refitted, so that she finally sailed on the next stage of her voyage in excellent condition. The port was left on the twenty-third of July, the kind natives, who parted with the Englishmen most reluctantly, keeping up fires on the hills as the ship ploughed her way, now westward, perforce with a northwest wind, into the trackless sea.

The next day the Farallones, directly west of San Francisco Bay, were passed, Drake calling them the 280“Islands of St. James.” After these islands were lost to view they sailed without sight of land for more than two months, or sixty-eight days, when they fell in with “certain islands 8 degrees Northward of the line,” supposed to have been the Pellew Islands. Only a brief stay was made here, and the natives were found so untrustworthy that Drake disgustedly named the group the “Islands of Thieves.” In October they were among the Philippines, and watered off Mindanao. Thence pursuing their way southward, in November they had come to the “Spice Islands.”

At Tenate, where they first anchored, they spent three weeks, the while receiving flattering attentions from the native king, with great show of barbaric splendour. Drake began the exchange of courtesies the morning after his arrival by sending a messenger to the king bearing a velvet cloak as a present to him and also as a token that the Englishmen were here in peace, requiring nothing but traffic. The king responded graciously, and sending Drake a signet, he offered himself and his kingdom to the service of the queen of England. Afterward he made a formal call at the ship. Preceding him there came four great canoes bringing out his men of state and their retinues. The dignitaries were all attired in “white lawne of cloth of Calicut,” and sat in the order of their rank beneath an awning of thin perfumed mats on a frame of reeds. With those in each canoe were “divers young and comely men,” also dressed in white. Guarding them were lines of soldiers, standing, on either side. Without 281the soldiers were the rowers, sitting in galleries, four score in each gallery, of which there were three rising one above the other and extending out from the canoe’s sides three or four yards. All of the canoes were armed, and most of their passengers carried their weapons, the dignitaries or their young attendants each with sword, target, and dagger, the soldiers bearing lances, calivers, darts, and bows and arrows. Reaching the ship the canoes were rowed around her in order one after another, while the dignitaries “did their homage with great solemnity.” The king followed, accompanied by six “grave and ancient persons,” all of whom “did their obeisance with marveilous humilitie.” The king seemed most delighted with the music of the ship’s band.

The next day a deputation composed of several of the gentlemen in the ship’s company, the vice-king being retained aboard as hostage, received a great entertainment ashore. They were conducted with great honour to the “castle,” where, the chronicler avers, were at least a thousand persons assembled. Sixty “grave personages,” said to be the king’s council, sat in seats of honour. Presently the king entered, walking beneath a rich canopy and guarded by twelve “launces.” He was sumptuously attired in a garment of cloth of gold depending from his waist to the ground. His legs were bare, but on his feet were shoes of cordovan skin. His head was topped with finely wreathed hooped rings of gold. About his neck was a gold chain in great links. On his fingers were six jewels. He took his chair of state, and a page standing at his right began 282“breathing and gathering the ayre” with a gorgeous fan, “in length two foote, and in breadth one foote, set with 8 saphyres, richly imbroidered, and knit to a staffe 3 foote in length.” At the conclusion of their entertainment Drake’s men were escorted back to their ship by one of the king’s council.

From Ternate, with an abundance of cloves added to their rich cargo, they sailed to the southward of Celebes, and anchored off a small uninhabited island, where they remained twenty-six days refreshing themselves, and meanwhile graving the ship (cleaning the ship’s bottom). Again underway, after sighting Celebes, by contrary winds they became entangled among islands and barely escaped wreck on a rock. They escaped only by lighting the ship of three tons of their precious cloves and several pieces of ordnance, and the sudden coming of a “happy gale” which blew them off. In February they fell in with the fruitful island of “Barateve” (Batjan), where they rested three days enjoying the hospitality of the friendly people and repairing the ship. Thence their course was set for Java major. Here they arrived in March, and also met much courtesy from the natives, with “honourable entertainment” by the rajahs then governing the island. From Java they steered for the Cape of Good Hope. This they passed in June. They found it not at all the dangerous cape that the Portuguese had reported, but a “most stately thing,” and the finest cape they had seen in all their travels. A month later they were at Sierra Leone. Here they stopped long enough to take in fresh provisions. Then 283setting sail for the last time, they finally arrived at their home port in England on the third of November, 1580, after an absence of three years.

Their arrival with their astonishing freight of riches in gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, silks, spices, and with their amazing tales of adventure, was a momentous event. All England was stirred by the story of the marvellous voyage. At first men of affairs were chary and avoided a recognition of Drake’s achievements, knowing that they must lead to complications with Spain. The queen withheld her approbation while an official inquiry into his conduct was proceeding. In the meantime some critics in high places raised a clamour against him, and termed him the “Master Thief of the Unknown World.” But, with the increasing tension in the relations between the two nations, sentiment changed. On the fourth of April, 1581, five months after his return, the queen visited him in state on the “Golden Hind,” now at Deptford, and at the close of a banquet on the deck of the famous ship, she formally knighted him for his services, and conferred upon him a coat of arms and a crest. At the same time she gave directions for the preservation of the “Golden Hind,” as a monument to his own and England’s glory. So this ship remained for more than a century. Then, having fallen into decay, she was broken up, and from remnants of her frame a chair was made which found a permanent place in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Drake made no more voyages of discovery. His 284subsequent exploits on the sea were all for the harassment of Spain. In 1585 he was admiral, with Martin Frobisher vice-admiral, as we have seen, of a fleet sent to intercept the Spanish galleons from the West Indies, and to “revenge the wrongs” offered England by Spain. In 1587 he sailed a fleet to Lisbon and there burned many ships, which he termed “singeing the King of Spain’s beard.” In 1588 he was the resourceful vice-admiral of the great fleet against the Spanish Armada. In 1589 he commanded the fleet sent to restore Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal. Lastly, he was with his old leader, Sir John Hawkins, again in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main.

And here, in 1595, he died, on board his own ship, near Nombre de Dios, the object of his first assault in his first voyage of reprisal, a quarter of a century before.

Less than a fortnight after the departure of Martin Frobisher on his third and last Northwestern voyage, in May, 1578, Humphrey Gilbert had obtained the letters-patent which he had long coveted from Queen Elizabeth for the “inhabiting and planting of our people in America”; and before the summer was far advanced he had organized an expedition of his own with these objects.

This pioneer charter providing definitely for English colonization in America bore date of eleventh of June 1578, and was limited to six years. The full text is given in the Principal Navigations. It conferred upon Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, large powers, and provided the machinery necessary for the government of a colony. It gave him and them free liberty and license to “discover, finde, search out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous countreys and territories not actually possessed by any Christian prince or people,” and to have, hold, occupy, and enjoy such regions with all their “commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties 286both by sea and land,” the single condition being that one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore that might be obtained be paid over to the queen. They were empowered to “encounter, expulse, repell, and resist as well by Sea as by land” all persons attempting to inhabit without their special license in or within two hundred leagues of the places occupied by them. They were to have a monopoly of the commerce of such places, no vessels being permitted to enter their harbours for traffic except by their license. The rights of Englishmen were promised to all people who might become members of the colony.

Associated with Sir Humphrey in his enterprise under this charter were “many gentlemen of good estimation,” while his right hand in all the work of preparation was his notable half-brother, Walter Raleigh. By autumn was assured the assemblage of a “puissant fleet able to encounter a king’s power by sea.” There were eleven sail in all in readiness, and a volunteer company of four hundred men, gentlemen, men-at-arms, and sailors, collected for the venture. In the mean time, however, the enterprise had been diverted from its apparent original object to a secret assault upon the West Indies, with possibly an after attempt at colonization on the southern coast of North America, while the preparations had been hampered by divided councils and dissensions among the captains. The breaches in the organization had the more serious effect, for when the time for sailing had come the greater number of the intended voyagers had dispersed, and Sir Humphrey 287was left with only a few assured friends. Nevertheless, with his fleet reduced to seven ships and his company to one hundred and fifty men, he set off from the Devon coast, as agreed, on the twenty-first of September. But the ships had barely got to sea when they were driven back to port by hard weather. A second start was made on the eighteenth of November. Of the course and of the details of this voyage nothing satisfactory is recorded; and the fragmentary accounts are contradictory. All that appears to be clearly known is that, after an absence of several months, the fleet in part returned to Plymouth, Gilbert arriving first, and Raleigh with his ship last, in May, 1579; and that there had been encounters at sea with the Spaniards in which one of the chief vessels was lost, and also one of the leaders in the expedition, Miles Morgan, “a valiant gentleman.”

In this venture Sir Humphrey had so heavily invested that his personal estate was impaired. But its failure so little disheartened him that he at once began planning another one, this one directly for colonization. Meanwhile, in the summer immediately following his return he served with his ships on the Irish coast. After a year or two, still being without means to perfect his scheme, he gave assignments from his patent to sundry persons desiring the privilege of his grant to plant in the north parts of America “about the river of Canada,” his hope being that their success would further his scheme which was then to colonize southward. Time, however, went on without anything being done 288by his assigns, and the six years’ limit of his charter was nearing. Consequently if the patent were to be kept in force action was imperative.

At this juncture (in 1583) he was successful in effecting a new organization. Raleigh was again in close hand with him; but the chief adventurer was Sir George Peckham, who had been an associate with Sir Richard Grenville and others in support of a second petition of Gilbert’s to the queen in 1574, for a charter to discover “riche and unknowen landes.” A good deal of time was spent by the projectors in debating the best course to adopt,—whether to begin the intended discovery of a fit place to colonize from the south northward or from the north southward. Finally it was decided that the voyagers should take the north course and follow as directly as they might the “trade way unto Newfoundland,” whence, after their “refreshing and reparation of wants,” they should proceed southward, “not omitting any river or bay which in all that large tract of land” appeared to their view worthy of search.

This programme arranged, five ships were assembled and made ready for the voyage. These were the “Delight, alias the George,” of one hundred and twenty tons, the “Bark Raleigh,” two hundred tons, the “Golden Hind,” forty tons, the “Swallow,” forty tons, and the “Squirrel,” ten tons. The “Delight” was designated “admiral” of the fleet to carry Sir Humphrey as general. The “Raleigh,” the largest vessel in the squadron, was to be “vice-admiral,” and the “Golden Hind” "rear admiral." The “Raleigh” had 289been built and manned at the expense of Raleigh, but he did not personally join the expedition, the queen refusing to give her permission for him to go out with it. The company brought together numbered in all two hundred and sixty men of all sorts and condition. Among them were shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths; a “mineral man” and refiner; gentlemen, adventurers, and sea-rovers. For entertainment of the company and for allurement of the savages who might be met, “musick in good variety,” and toys, as “Morris dancers, Hobby horses, and Mayfair conceits,” were provided. Also a stock of petty haberdashery wares was put in to barter with “those simple people.”

The account of this voyage which Hakluyt gives was the official one, prepared by Edward Hayes, the captain, and also owner of the “Golden Hind,” which alone of the fleet completed it and returned to Plymouth with its tragic story. His narrative appears in the Principal Navigations under this much-embracing title: “A Report of the Voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in that action, intended to discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in place convenient, upon those large and ample countreys extended Northward from the Cape of Florida, lying under very temperate Climes esteemed fertile and rich in Minerals, yet not in actual possession of any Christian prince, written by M. Edward Haie gentleman, and principall actour in the same voyage, who alone continued unto the end, and by Gods speciall 290assistance returned safe and sound.” To Captain Hayes we are also indebted for some particulars of Sir Humphrey’s efforts that culminated in his first abortive voyage of 1578–1579, which are detailed by way of preface to his story of this voyage.

The start was auspiciously made from Plymouth harbour on the eleventh of June, 1583, Gilbert wearing on his breast the queen’s gift of an emblematical jewel,—a pearl-tipped golden anchor guarded by a woman,—sent him on the eve of the departure as a token of her good wishes for his venture. But when only the third night out, with a prosperous wind, consternation was occasioned by the desertion of the “Raleigh.” Earlier in the evening she had signified that her captain and many of her men had fallen sick; then later, with no further communication, she put about on a homeward course. Although after his return from the voyage Captain Hayes heard it “credibly reported” that her men were really affected with a contagious sickness, and that she arrived back at Plymouth greatly distressed, he could not accept this as sufficiently accounting for her act. The real reason he “could never understand.” Therefore he left it “to God.”

With this desertion of the “Raleigh” Captain Hayes’s “Golden Hind” succeeded to the place of vice-admiral, and accordingly her flag was shifted from the mizzen to the foretop. Thus the remaining ships sailed till the twenty-sixth of July when the “Swallow” and the “Squirrel” were lost in a fog. The “Delight” and the “Golden Hind,” now alone, four days later sighted 291the Newfoundland coast,—seven weeks from the time that the fleet had left the coast of England.

The two ships continued along the east coast to Conception Bay, where the “Swallow” was met again. After her disappearance in the fog she had engaged in piratical performances on the sea. An especially mean act had been the despoiling of a fishing bark and leaving her sailless to make her homeward voyage, some seven hundred leagues away. The “Swallow’s” crew were hilarious over their exploits, and many of them appeared in motley garb made up of the clothing filched from the despoiled fishermen. Her captain, an “honest and religious man,” was held blameless in this business. He had had put upon him men “not to his humour or desert”: a crew of pirates, whom he evidently could not control. Later, the same day, the now three ships had come before the harbour of St. John’s, and here the “Squirrel” was found. She was lying at anchor off the harbour mouth, entrance having been forbidden her by the “English merchants” of St. John’s, who, as the elected “admirals,” represented the Newfoundland fishing fleets of different nationalities, of which thirty-six sail happened then to be inside this harbour.

Sir Humphrey prepared to enter by force if necessary, “any resistance to the contrary notwithstanding.” But when he had shown his commission to the “admirals,” and explained that he was here to take possession of the lands in behalf of the crown of England and “the advancement of the Christian religion in those Paganish regions,” and that all he required was their “lawful 292aid” in refreshing and provisioning his fleet, he was cordially received, and all the great guns of the fishermen belched forth salutes of welcome.

A landing was made on the next morning, Sunday, the fourth of August. The general and his company were that day courteously escorted about the place by the English merchants. They were shown their hosts’ accustomed walks in a part called by them “The Garden.” This was found to be a product of “Nature it selfe without art,” comprising a pleasant tangle of wild roses, “odoriferous and to the sense very comfortable,” and “raspis berries” in great plenty. The next day the ceremony of taking possession was performed, which the narrator thus describes in faithful detail:

"Monday following, the Generall had his tent set up, who being accompanied with his own followers summoned the marchants and masters [of the fishing barks in the harbours] both English and strangers to be present at his taking possession of those Countries. Before whom openly was read & interpreted unto the strangers his Commission: by vertue whereof he tooke possession in the same harbour of S. John, and 200 leagues every way, invested the Queens Majestie with the title and dignitie thereof, had delivered unto him (after the custome of England) a rod & a turffe of the same soile, entring possession also for him, his heires, and assigns for ever: And signified unto al men, that from that time forward, they should take the same land as a territorie appertaineing to the Queene of England, and himselfe authorised under her Majestie to possesse and 293enjoy it. And to ordaine lawes for the government thereof, agreeable (so neere as conveniently might be) unto the lawes of England: under which all people comming thither hereafter, either to inhabit, or by way of traffique, should be subjected and governed.

"And especially at the same time for a beginning, he proposed & delivered three lawes to be in force immediately. That is to say: the first for Religion, which in publique exercise should be according to the Church of England. The 2. for maintenance of her Majesties right and possession of those territories, against which if any thing were attempted prejudiciall the parties offending should be adjudged and executed as in case of high treason, according to the lawes of England. The 3. if any person should utter words sounding to the dishonour of her Majestie, he should loose his eares, and have his ship and goods confiscate.

“These contents published, obedience was promised by generall voyce and consent of the multitude aswell of Englishmen as strangers, praying for continuance of this possession and government begun. After this, the assembly was dismissed. And afterward were erected not farre from that place the Armes of England ingraven in lead, and infixed upon a pillar of wood.”

The next step was to grant in fee farms, or parcels of land, lying by the waterside on this and neighbouring harbours, the grantees covenanting to pay a certain rent and service to Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, and yearly to maintain possession by themselves or their assigns. Thus the grantees were assured of grounds 294convenient to dress and dry their fish, which had not previously been enjoyed, the first comers into these harbours in the fishing season taking possession of the available places.

While this business was going forward by the chiefs the men of the company were divided into groups and each group assigned to a particular work. One group were set at repairing and trimming the ships; another at the collection of supplies and provisions. Others were delegated to search the commodities and “singularities” of the region and report to the general all they could learn either from their own observations or from those who had longest frequented this coast. Another group were to obtain the elevation of the pole, and to draw plats of the country “exactly graded.”

Meanwhile Sir Humphrey and his principal men were being right royally entertained by the fishing-ship owners and masters, who, with their crews, constituted the European population of the place during the fishing season. It was the rule to choose the “admirals,” practically the governors of the community, anew each week, or rather they succeeded in orderly course, and to solemnize the change with a weekly “admirals’ feast.” The general and the captains and masters of his fleet were not only guests at this feast, but they were continually invited to other banquets. Even with the “abundance at home” in England, such entertainment as they received would have been delightful, says the chronicler: but here, in this “desolate corner of the world, where at other times of the yeare wild beasts and 295birds have only the fruition of all those countries,” it was more acceptable to them and of greater “contentation.” Also the supplies furnished them for their ships, for which all the fishermen in the harbours, “strangers” as well as English, were taxed, were unexpectedly rich and abundant. The Portuguese fishermen were the most liberal contributors. Wines were received in generous quantity; marmalades, “most fine ruske or biskit, sweet oyles, and sundry delicacies.” There were, too, brought them daily quantities of salmon, trout, lobsters, and other fish.

The group assigned to inquire into the “singularities” of the region were directed among other things to look for metals, and the mineral man and refiner was particularly charged by Sir Humphrey to be diligent in the search for ore. This expert was a “Saxon borne, honest and religious, named Daniel,” upon whose conservative judgment Sir Humphrey relied. Daniel first came upon “some sort of Ore seeming rather to be yron than other metall.” The next find was more important and was displayed by him to Sir Humphrey with “no small shew of contentment.” Indeed, so sure was he that his specimens were evidences of silver in abundance that he was ready to pledge his life, which was “as deere unto him as the Crowne of England unto her Majesty,” if it should not fall out accordingly. If silver were the thing that would satisfy the general and his associates in England, Daniel advised him to seek no farther. The rich thing was here. Sir Humphrey would have acted upon his advice if his “private humour” only was 296to be satisfied. But the promise to his friends, and the “necessitie to bring the South countreys within compasse of the patent nearly expired, as they had already done in these North parts,” made it imperative for him to continue on his course as originally planned. So he had the samples secretly placed on board of one of the ships, and cautioned those who knew of the find to say nothing about it while they remained at St. John’s lest the “foreigners” there—the “Portugals, Biscanes, and Frenchmen”—should learn of it; when they were again safe at sea the ore should be tested, and if it were then desired he would bring the company back to St. John’s.

By this time disorder had appeared among the rougher elements of the company, and some were plotting mischief. A number were discovered scheming to steal the ships at an opportune moment when the general and captains were on shore, and make off with them, perhaps on a buccaneering cruise. But this happily was nipped in the bud. Others banding together seized a fishing bark full laden in a neighbouring harbour and set the fishermen ashore. A larger number hid themselves in the woods, intending to return home by such shipping as daily left the coast. Many of the loyal members fell sick and several died. Numbers in ill health were licensed by the general to return to England as best they could. Thus by one means and another the company were much diminished, and when it was decided to start for the voyage southward there were scarcely enough sound men to furnish the ships.

In this dilemma Sir Humphrey thought it better to 297drop the “Swallow” out of the fleet and send her home to England with the sick members. The captain of the “Delight” was assigned to take charge of her, while her own captain and crew (including the fellows who had indulged in piracy on the high seas) were shifted to the “Delight.” The captain of the “Squirrel” was also relieved of his command to return on the “Swallow.”

The remainder of the fleet, the “Delight,” the “Golden Hind,” and the “Squirrel,”—supplied as generously as if they had been in a “countrey or some Citie populous and plentiful of all things,” besides necessities in fresh and dried fish and rusk, having rich stocks of wines, marmalades, figs, lemons, and other delicacies, nets and lines for fishing, and pinnaces “fit for discovery,”—set sail for the continuance of the voyage on the twentieth of August, seventeen days after their first arrival in St. John’s harbour: never to return to this port. Sir Humphrey chose to sail in the “Squirrel” instead of in the flagship, the smaller vessel being the more convenient for exploring the coast and searching harbours and creeks. Accordingly she was supplied from one of the other ships with additional ordnance for protection in case of trouble, and so was overweighted, which in the end wrought her ruin, as we shall presently see.

The course was taken toward Cape Breton with the intent to reach the mainland of North America. Eight days were spent in this navigation, all the time out of sight of land, the ships being hindered by the current. On the seventh day they fell “into such flats and dangers” 298that all barely escaped wreck, and two days later the flagship,—the “Delight,”—went down with most of her men and all of her cargo.

Now the narrative becomes tragic. “The maner how our Admirall was lost” is thus circumstantially described, with due note of “portents” that foreran the disaster.

"Upon Tuesday the 27 of August, toward the evening, our Generall caused them in his frigat [the "Squirrel"] to sound, who found white sande at 35 fadome, being then in latitude about 44 degrees.

"Wednesday toward night the wind came South and wee [the "Golden Hind"] bare with the land all that night, Westnorthwest, contrary to the mind of Master Cox [the “Golden Hind’s” master]; nevertheless we followed the Admirall deprived of power to prevent a mischiefe, which by no contradiction could be brought to hold other course, alleaging they could not make the ship to work better nor to lie otherwaies.

"The evening was faire and pleasant, yet not without token of storme to ensue, and most part of this Wednesday night, like the Swanne that singeth before her death, they in the Admirall, or Delight, continued a sounding of Trumpets, with Drummes, and Fifes; also winding the Cornets, Haughtboyes; and in the end of their jolitie, left with the battell and ringing of doleful knels.

"Towards the evening also we caught in the Golden Hinde a mighty Porpose, with a harping yron, having first striken divers of them, and brought away part of 299their flesh, sticking upon the yron, but could recover onely that one. These also passing the Ocean in heardes did portend storme. I omit to recite frivilous reportes by them in the Frigat of strange voyces, the same night, which scarred some from the helme.

"Thursday the 29 of August, the wind rose, and blew vehemently at South and by East, bringing with all raine, and thick mist, so that we could not see a cable length before us. And betimes in the morning we were altogither runne and folded in amongst flats and sands, amongst which we found shoale and deepe in every three or four shippes length, after we began to sound: but first we were upon them unawares, till master Cox looking out discerned (in his judgement) white cliffes, crying (land) withall, though we could not afterward descrie any land, it being very likely the breaking of the sea white, which seemed to be white cliffes through the haze and thicke weather.

"Immediately tokens were given unto the Delight to cast about to seaward, which, being the greater ship and of burden 120 tunnes, was yet foremost upon the beach, keeping so ill watch that they knew not the danger before they felt the same, too late to recover it: for presently the Admirall strooke a ground, and had soone after her sterne and hinder partes beaten in pieces: whereupon the rest (that is to say the Frigat on which was the Generall and the Golden Hinde) cast about Eastnortheast, bearing to the South, even for our lives into the windes eye, because that way caried us to the seaward. Making out from this danger, we sounded one 300while seven fadome, then five fadome, then foure fadome and lesse, againe deeper, immediately foure fadome, then but three fadome, the sea going mightily and high.

“At last we recovered (God be thanked) in some despaire, to sea roome enough. In this distresse wee had vigilant eye unto the Admirall, whom we saw cast away, without power to give the men succour, neither could we espie of the men that leaped overboord to save themselves, either in the same Pinnesse, or Cocke, or upon rafters, and such like meanes, presenting themselves to men in those extremities: for we desired to save the men by every possible meanes. But all in vaine, sith God had determined their ruine: yet all that day, and part of the next, we beat up and downe as neere unto the wracke as was possible for us, looking out, if by good hap we might espie any of them.”

In this wreck perished almost a hundred men. Among them was Stephanus Parmenius, a learned Hungarian, who was to have been the historian of the voyage. He had written a Latin poem, a few years before, extolling Sir Humphrey’s achievements, which is preserved in the Principal Navigations. While at St. John’s he wrote a letter to the elder Richard Hakluyt, of the Middle Temple, briefly recounting the events of the voyage to that time, which was probably despatched on the returning “Swallow.” This letter Hakluyt gives with the literature of this expedition. Daniel, the Saxon, was another of the lost, and with him perished most of his evidences of “inestimable riches” in 301silver at Newfoundland. Also went down with this ship “cards and plats” that the draughtsmen had drawn, with the due gradation of the harbours, bays, and capes. Captain Brown stood by his ship to the last, refusing to take to the pinnace running at her stern. He chose “rather to die then [than] to incurre infamie by forsaking his charge, which then might be thought to have perished through his default.” So, when all hope of saving her was passed, exhorting his men “not to despair but strive to save what they could,” he “mounted upon the highest decke where hee attended imminent death and unavoidable.”

Fourteen escaped in the pinnace, and “committed themselves to God’s mercy amiddest the storme and rage of sea and windes, destitute of foode, not so much as a droppe of fresh water.” The little boat was overloaded for such foul weather, and to lighten her one of her company, Edward Headly, a “valiant soldier,” proposed that they should cast lots, those upon whom the lots fell to be thrown overboard, and offered himself with the first “content to take his adventure gladly.” But Richard Clark, the master of their lost “Delight,” who was of the number, protested, advising them “to abide Gods pleasure, who was able to save all as well as a few.” So they held together, and after six days and nights in the open ocean, carried before the wind, they arrived on the coast of Newfoundland, weak and famished, all save two,—the valiant soldier Headly, and a sailor called “Brazil,” because of his travels in that country. Later they were taken off by some kindly 302French fishermen, and ultimately reached their homes by way of France.

The “Golden Hind” and the “Squirrel” continued for two days “beating the sea up and downe,” expecting when the weather cleared to bear in with the land which it was judged was not far off, “either the continent or some Island.” But it remained thick and blustering with increase of cold, and the men began to lose courage. “The Leeside of us lay full of flats and dangers inevitable, if the wind blew hard at South. Some againe doubted we were ingulfed in the Bay of S. Lawrence, and coast full of dangers, and unto us unknowen. But above all, provisions waxed scant, and hope of supply was gone with losse of our Admirall. Those of the Frigat were already pinched with spare allowance, and want of clothes chiefly.” Thereupon the “Squirrel’s” men besought the general to head for England before they all perished. “And to them of the Golden Hinde they made signes of their distresse, pointing to their mouthes, and to their clothes thinne and ragged: then immediately they of the Golden Hinde grew to be of the same opinion and desire to return home.”

Finally the return was agreed upon. Sir Humphrey expressed himself satisfied with what he had seen and knew already, and promised to set them forth again “right royally” the next spring if “God sent them safe home.”

So in the afternoon of Saturday the thirty-first of August they changed their course for the homeward 303run. At that very instant, “even in the winding about,” a wondrous thing met their astonished gaze.

Between them and toward the land they were now forsaking there passed along a strange monster of the sea: a “very lion” to their seeming, “in shape, hair, and colour, swimming after the maner of a beast by mooving of his feete, but rather sliding upon the water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, neither yet diving under, and againe rising above the water, as the maner is of Whales, Dolphins, Tunise, Porposes, and all other fish: but confidently shewing himselfe above water without hiding: Notwithstanding we presented ourselves in open view and gesture to amase him, as all creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with ougly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring eies, and to bidde us farewell (comming right against the Hinde) he sent forth a horrible voyce, roaring or bellowing as doeth a lion, which spectacle wee all beheld so farre as we were able to discerne 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. What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the Generall himselfe, I forbeare to deliver; but he took it for Bonum Omen, rejoycing that he was to warre against such an enemie, if it were the devill.”

The wind was “large” for England at the start but very high, and the sea rough, insomuch that the “Squirrel” 304was almost swallowed up. On Monday the general came aboard the “Golden Hind” to have her surgeon dress his foot, which he had hurt by treading upon a nail on the “Squirrel’s” deck. While here he and the “Hind’s” officers “comforted ech other with hope of hard successe to be all past, and of the good to come.” It was agreed that both ships should show their lights always by night that they might keep together. The general was entreated to remain on the “Hind,” where he would be far safer than on the little “Squirrel,” but refused. Immediately after his return to the “Squirrel” a sharp storm arose, but this both ships, though in much peril, happily “overpassed.”

A morning or two later, the weather having at last become fair, the general again came aboard the “Golden Hind” to “make merie together with the Captaine, Master and company.” This was their last meeting with him. He remained with them throughout the day till nightfall. Their talk fell upon “affaires past and to come.” Sir Humphrey lamented much the loss of the “Delight”: "more of the men, but most of all of his bookes and notes," and of something else which he avoided mentioning, but for which he was “out of measure grieved.” This something the narrator gathered “by circumstance” to be the ore specimens which had gone down with Daniel the Saxon. “Whatsoever it was,” the narrator noted, “the remembrance touched him so deepe as, not able to containe himselfe, he beat his boy [the cabin boy] in great rage even at the same time so long after the miscarying of the great ship, because 305upon a faire day, when wee were becalmed upon the coast of the New found land, ... he [had] sent his boy aboord the Admirall to fetch certaine things: amongst which this [the ore] being chiefe was yet forgotten and left behind. After which time he could never conveniently send againe aboord the great ship, much lesse hee doubted her ruine so neere at hand.” That Daniel the Saxon’s find and the existence of rich mines in Newfoundland, which it seemed to warrant, had wrought a radical change in Sir Humphrey’s plans, had become apparent in his actions and in this last talk. Says the narrator, “Whereas the generall had never before good conceit of these North parts of the world: now his mind was wholly fixed upon the New found land. And as before he refused not to grant assignments liberally to them that required the same into these Northern parts, now he became contrarily affected, refusing to make any so large grants especially in S. Johns.... Also his expression of a determination in the Spring following for disposing of his voyage then to be reattempted: he assigned the captaine and master of the Golden Hind unto the South discovery, and reserved unto himself the North, affirming that this voyage had wonne his heart from the South, and that he was now become a Northerne man altogether.”

Again he was vehemently entreated by the captain, master, and others of his “well willers” to stay on the “Golden Hind” for the remainder of the voyage. They dwelt on the preciousness of his life and the dangerous condition of the “Squirrel” with her decks overcharged 306with guns, small artillery, nettings “too cumbersome for so small a boate that was to pass through the Ocean sea at that season of the yere,” when much foul weather was to be expected. But these entreaties were in vain as before. All were swept aside with his final answer, “I will not forsake my little company going homeward with whom I have passed so many stormes and perils.” Since he would not “bend to reason,” such provisions as were wanting on the “Squirrel” were furnished from the “Hind,” and then, committing him to “God’s protection,” he was reluctantly and sorrowfully set aboard his pinnace.

The ships were by this time more than three hundred leagues onward of their way home. They had brought the Azores south of them: but were then keeping much to the North to get into “the height and elevation” of England. This attained they met with very bad weather and terrible seas breaking short and high, “Pyramid wise.”

"Munday the ninth of September, in the afternoone, the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed by waves, yet at that time recovered: and giving forth signes of joy, the Generall sitting abaft with a booke in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind (so oft as we did approach within hearing), We are as neere to heaven by sea as by land. Reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a souldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testifie he was.

“The same Monday night, about twelve of the clocke, or not long after, the Frigat being ahead of us in the 307Golden Hinde, suddenly her lights were out, whereof as it were in a moment, we lost the sight, and withall our watch cryed, the Generall was cast away, which was too true. For in that moment the Frigat was devoured and swallowed up of the Sea.”

All that night the “Golden Hinde” kept up a constant lookout hoping to sight her again. But not a fragment of her could be seen or a single survivor.

Then the “Hind” continued on the course alone, still maintaining the lookout. AtAt length, after “great torment of weather and perill of drowning,” she came safely to a home port, with her doleful tale of disaster, arriving at Falmouth on the twenty-second of September—a Sunday.

Upon the lamentable death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and the consequent failure of his scheme of colonization, Walter Raleigh immediately took up the cause energetically, with a view of attempting a settlement on the continent in the milder southern clime; and within nineteen months, or about a year and a half, after the return home of the forlorn remnant of Sir Humphrey’s expedition, Raleigh’s first company of American colonists sailed out of Plymouth bound for the salubrious country then comprised in “Virginia.”

Raleigh’s patent, obtained from Queen Elizabeth in March, 1584, in the securing of which, as we have seen, Hakluyt’s writings were so influential, constituted him a lord proprietary with almost unlimited jurisdiction over a vast region indefinitely defined. Its provisions were similar to those of Gilbert’s patent but more ample. It licensed him, his heirs and assigns, to “discover, search, find out, and view such remote, heathen, and barbarous lands, countries, and territories not actually possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by 309Christian people,” as to him, his heirs and assigns, should seem good; and to hold, occupy, and enjoy such lands and regions with all “prerogatives, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, priviledges, franchises, and pre-eminences thereto or thereabouts both by sea and land, whatsoever” the queen by her letters-patent might grant, and as she or “any of our noble projectors” had heretofore granted to “any person or persons, bodies politique or corporate”: the proviso, as in Gilbert’s patent, being made that a fifth part of all the “oare of golde and silver” that should be obtained be reserved for the queen. Powers to make laws for the government of a colony were conferred, these ordinances to be, as near as conveniently might be, agreeable to the English form of statutes, and not against the faith professed by the Church of England. They were to be in force over all who should from time to time “advantage themselves in the said journeis or voyages,” or that should at any time inhabit “any such lands, countries or territories aforesaid,” or that should abide within two hundred leagues of the place or places that Raleigh’s companies should inhabit within six years from the date of the patent. Raleigh might make grants from his territory at his pleasure.

Hakluyt gives the text of the patent in the Principal Navigations under this title: “The letters patents granted by the Queenes Majestie to M. Walter Ralegh, now Knight, for the discovering and planting of new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no more.”

Raleigh was now high in the queen’s favor, and with large influence at court. He was in or about his thirty-second year, of rugged manhood, handsome, and debonair. The son of a country gentleman, well connected through his father’s three marriages with families of prominence, and taking young to adventure, he was early concerned in lively affairs. He was born about the year 1552, at Hayes, near Budlegh Salterton, South Devonshire, the second son of his father’s third wife, who was the widow of Otho Gilbert and the mother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Through his father’s first wife, who was Joan Drake, he was related to Sir Francis Drake. His own brother was Sir Carew Raleigh, who was concerned with him in Gilbert’s first expedition of 1578. As a boy he became interested in seamanship and the life of the sea from talks with sailors returned from distant voyages. At fifteen he was at Oxford, entered in Oriel College. At seventeen he was serving as a volunteer in the French Huguenot army. He remained in France through the next five years. Back in London in 1576, he was variously employed. The next year, or early in 1578, he was warring in the Low Countries under Sir John Norris. Later in September he was at Dartmouth, busied with Humphrey Gilbert in fitting out the fleet for that year’s venture, in which he sailed in command of the “Falcon.” In 1580 he was serving in Ireland as captain of a company, and he had part in the awful and cruel massacre at Somerwich in November of that year. Toward the end of 1581 he was sent home to England with despatches 311from the new governor of Münster. Coming to the court he attracted the fancy of the queen by his manly presence, bearing, and gallantry, and he rose instantly into the royal favor. With this time is dated the tradition of his spreading his new plush coat over a muddy way for the queen to walk upon. He was granted lucrative monopolies, particularly the “wine licenses,” the profits of which enabled him liberally to prosecute the schemes of Western adventure he was then developing.

Raleigh’s patent received the royal signature on the twenty-fifth day of March, 1584, and only a month later, as we have seen (Chapter I), his preliminary expedition, comprising his two barks under the experienced captains Amadas and Barlow, charged to investigate, hasten back, and report, had sailed off; and under the inspiration of the warm-coloured story that these captains told upon their return in September, the first colonization band was formed. This fascinating narrative, therefore, is the prologue to the epic of true English colonization in America, culminating in the permanent settlement at Jamestown.

It appears in full in the Principal Navigations with this caption: “The first voyage made to the coasts of America with two barks, where in were Captaines M. Philip Amidas, and M. Arthur Barlowe, who discovered part of the Countrey now called Virginia, Anno 1584. Written by one of the said Captaines, and sent to sir Walter Ralegh knight, at whose charge and direction the said voyage was set forth.” Barlow was the author.

312The captains set sail on the twenty-seventh of April, taking the southern course by the West Indies toward the coast of Florida. Their landfall, now reckoned to have been shoals out from Capes Fear and Hatteras, was made on the fourth of July. Their approach was propitious, for as they struck shoal water two days before, by which they were assured that land was not far off, they “smelt so sweet and so strong a smel as if we had bene in the midst of some delicate garden abounding in all kinds of odoriferous flowers.” They first supposed the coast they saw to be that of a continent and “firme land.” They ranged along it northward some “hundred and twentie English miles,” seeking an opening. At length they came to an inlet which they entered, “not without some difficultie,” and dropped anchor “about three harquebuz-shot” within the haven’s mouth. Just where this inlet was has been a matter of long discussion by historical investigators. Some have confidently identified it with Ocracoke, now Oregon Inlet: others with New Inlet. A later authority (Talcott Williams) designated it as a passage long ago closed by the drifting sands, north of Roanoke Island, and near Collington Island. After giving thanks to God for their safe arrival thither, they manned their small boats and went ashore on the “island of Wocokon” (identified as Collington Island); and here forthwith performed the ceremony of taking possession of the region “in the right of the Queenes most excellent Majestie, as rightful Queene and Princesse of the same,” and for Raleigh under his patent.

313This ceremony over they viewed the land about them. While sandy and low by the waterside it soon rose into fair little hills. Close by the water’s edge were masses of grape vines. So “full of grapes” indeed was the place that “the very beating and surging of the Sea overflowed them.” There was such plenty “as well there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the greene soile on the hils, as in the plaines, as well as every little shrubb, as also climing towardes the tops of high Cedars,” that the narrator thought that in all the world the “like abundance” was not to be found: and he was a much-travelled man. Ascending one of the little hills they saw the place to be an island and not the main. Below them they beheld valleys “replenished with goodly Cedar trees.” Upon discharging their “harquebuz-shot” such a flock of cranes, mostly white ones, rose that their cry “redoubled by many echoes” was “as if an armie of men had showted together.” The island was seen to be rich in “many goodly woodes full of Deere, Conies, Hares, and Fowle, even in the middest of Summer in incredible abundance.” The woods contained “the highest and reddest Cedars of the world ... Pynes, Cypres, Sarsaphras, the Lentisk, or the tree that beareth the Masticke, the tree that beareth the vine of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter [of Drake’s fleet that entered the Pacific] brought from the straights of Magellan, and many other of excellent smel and qualitie.”

They remained at this island for two whole days before they had sight of any natives. On the third day 314when on ship-board they espied a canoe paddling toward them with three Indians in it. When it had come within “foure harquebuz-shot” of their ships it put into the point of land nearest to them. Two of its three occupants went up into the island, while the other walked to and fro along the point, viewing the ships with evident interest. Then the two captains and a few others rowed to the shore to meet him. As they approached he made no shew of “feare or doubt.” After he had spoken with them “of many things” which they could not understand, he was invited by gestures to visit the ships, which he showed was quite to his liking. On board he was entertained with a taste of their wine and their bread, which he “liked very much,” and was given a shirt, a hat, and some other things. When he had viewed both barks to his satisfaction, he was sent back ashore. Again taking his canoe which he had left in a creek he fell a-fishing not far from the ships, and in less than half an hour he had laden his boat “as deepe as it could swimme.” Then returning to the point of land nearest the ships he here divided his fish into two parts, pointing one part to one of the ships and one to the other. And so, “as much as he might,” requiting the benefits he had received from the Englishmen, he departed from their sight.

The next day a considerable body of natives appeared and formally made the Englishmen welcome:

"There came unto us divers boates, and in one of them the king’s brother, accompanied with fortie or fiftie men, very handsome and goodly people, and in 315their behaviour as mannerly and civill as any of Europe. His name was Granganimeo, and the king is called Wingina, the countrey Wingandacoa. The maner of his comming was in this sort: hee left his boates altogether, as the first man did a little from the shippes by the shore, and came along to the place over against the shippes followed with fortie men.

"When he came to the place his servants spread a long matte upon the ground on which he sate downe, and at the other ende of the matte foure others of his companie did the like, the rest of his men stood round about him, somewhat afarre off: when we came to the shore to him with our weapons, hee never moved from his place, nor any of the other foure, nor never mistrusted any harme to be offred from us, but sitting still he beckoned us to come and sit by him, which we performed: and being set hee made all signes of joy and welcome, striking on his head and his breast and afterwardes on ours, to shew wee were all one, smiling and making shew the best he could of all love and familiaritie.

“After he had made a long speech unto us, wee presented him with divers things, which he received very joyfully and thankfully. None of the companie durst speake one worde all the time: onely the foure which were at the other ende, spake one in the others eare very softly.”

The king himself, it was explained, could not appear, for he was lying at the chief town of the country, six days’ journey off, sore wounded from a fight with the king of “the next countrie.”

316A day or two after this welcoming meeting the Englishmen fell to trade with the natives, exchanging various trinkets for “chamoys, buffe, and Deere skinnes.” A bright tin dish had more attractions than anything else in their packet of merchandise. One of the natives “clapt” it on his breast and making a hole in the rim hung it about his neck as a shield, with gestures to indicate that it would defend him against his enemies’ arrows. The dish was exchanged for twenty skins worth twenty English crowns. A copper kettle was traded for fifty skins worth as many crowns. The natives offered good exchange for hatchets, axes, and knives, and would have given anything for swords: but with these the Englishmen would not part. The king’s brother took a special fancy to the Englishmen’s armor. He offered to lay a great box of pearls in gage for a suit, together with a sword and a few other things. His offer was declined for the reason that the captains did not want him to know how highly they prized the pearls till they had learned in “what places the pearls grew.” They afterward apparently satisfied themselves on this point, when, in an exploration of a neighbouring river, they found “great store of Muskles in which there are pearles.”

After a few days Granganimeo came aboard the ships and was entertained like the first visitor, with wine, meat, and bread, to his great pleasure. Another day he brought his wife, daughter, and two or three children aboard. The wife was of small stature, “very well favoured, and very bashful.” She was attired in a long 317cloak of skin with the fur inwards. Her forehead was adorned with a band of white coral. From her ears depended “bracelets” of pearls, each pearl, of the size of a pea, extending to her waist. Her women attendants, who remained on the shore, some forty of them, during her visit, had pendants of copper in their ears, and some of Granganimeo’s children and those of other “noble” men wore five or six in each ear. Granganimeo’s apparel was a cloak like his wife’s, and on his head was a broad plate of gold or copper. The women wore their hair long on both sides, the men on but one. These natives were of a yellowish colour and generally with black hair.

Their boats were made out of whole trees, either pine or pitch trees. Their manner of constructing them was thus: “They burne downe some great tree or take such as are winde fallen, and putting gumme and rosen on one side thereof they set fire unto it, and when it hath burnt it hollow, they cut out the coale with their shels, and even where they would burne it deeper or wider they lay on gummes which burne away the timber, and by this meanes they fashion very fine boates, and such as will transport twentie men.” Their oars were “like scoopes,” and “many times they set with long pooles as the depth serveth.”

The king’s brother was very just in keeping his promises and generous with supplies. Every day he sent to the ships a brace or two of fat “Bucks, Conies, Hares, Fish the best of the world.” Also “divers kindes of fruites, Melons, Walnuts, Cucumbers, 318Gourdes, Pease, and divers roots,” and of their “countrey corne, which is very white, faire, and well tasted, and groweth three times in five moneths.” The Englishmen “proved” the soil, putting some pease into the ground; in less than ten days, the narrator averred, they were of “fourteene ynches high.” The natives also raised beans “very faire of divers colours and wonderful plentie: some growing naturally, and some in their gardens”; and both wheat and oats. The soil was declared to be “the most plentifull, sweete, fruitfull and wholesome of all the worlde.” There were counted fourteen or more different “sweete smeling” timber trees. The most part of the underwoods were “Bayes and such like.” There were oaks like those of England, but “farre greater and better.”

The narrator with seven others went “twentie miles into the river that runneth towarde the citie of Skiwak [Indian village], which river they [the natives] call Occam, and in the evening following ... came to an island which they call Roanoak.” At the north end of this island was a village of nine houses built of cedar and fortified round with sharp trees to keep out their enemies, the entrance being “made like a turne pike very artificially.” This village was the home of Granganimeo. As they neared it his wife came running down to the waterside to meet them. Granganimeo was not then in the village, and his spouse did the honours of host most graciously. She bade some of her people to draw the Englishmen’s boat through the beating billows to the shore; others to carry the visitors on their 319backs to the dry ground; others to take their oars to her house lest the boat might be stolen. After they were come into her dwelling, a hut of five rooms, they were sat by a great fire while their wet garments were washed and dried by her women, she herself in the meantime taking “great paines to see all things ordered in the best maner shee could,” and “making great haste to dress some meat” for their supper. When they had comfortably dried themselves they were conducted into an inner room where, “on the board standing along the house,” a tempting banquet of venison, fruits, and wheat foods was spread. The whole entertainment was marked by “all love and kindnesse, and with as much bountie (after their maner) as they could possibly devise.” Here, as in their other experiences, the Englishmen found the people “most gentle, loving, and faithful, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live after the maner of the golden age.”

Throughout the visit at Roanoke their hostess was assiduous for their welfare. This was most energetically displayed in an incident while they were at supper. “There came in at the gates two or three men with their bowes and arrowes from hunting, whom when wee espied we beganne to looke one towardes another, and offered to reach our weapons: but assoone asassoone as she espied our mistrust shee was very much mooved, and caused some of her men to runne out, and take away their bowes and arrowes and breake them and withall beate the poore fellowes out of the gate againe.” When as the evening waned the Englishmen made ready to return 320to their boats, declining the hospitality of the village over night, she had the viands left over from the supper, “pottes and all,” carried to their craft. When they embarked and rowed off a “prettie” distance from the shore, there to lie through the night, she was much grieved at this evidence of mistrust, and again entreated them to rest in the houses of the village. And when they still declined, she sent “divers men and thirtie women to sit all night on the banke side” opposite them; and as rain began to fall mats were sent out to them for protection against the storm. The narrator explained that they were thus cautious because they were “fewe men,” and if they had “miscaried” the expedition would have been in great danger, so they “durst not adventure any thing.” Yet they had no cause to doubt the sincerity of these natives, “for a more kinde and loving people there can not be founde in the worlde, as farre as we have hitherto had trial.”

On other days further explorations were made around Albemarle Sound, and information more or less authentic was gathered from the natives as to Indian towns, and relations between the tribes and the several kings of the region round about. They found that beyond the islands lay the mainland. They were told of the greatest Indian city called “Scicoak,” on the “River Occam”: of another great town on a tributary of this river, under a “free lord,” independent of neighbouring kings; and another, four days’ journey southwest of Roanoke, called “Sequotan,” or “Secotan.” The friendship of the natives increased in warmth on closer 321intercourse with the Englishmen. Their interest in the English ships was unbounded. Whenever a gun was discharged, “were it but a hargubuz,” they would tremble “for the strangeness of the same.” Their own weapons were principally slender bows and arrows. The arrows were small canes headed with a sharp shell or a fish’s tooth, but “sufficient ynough to kill a naked man.” They used swords of hardened wood, and a sort of club with the sharp horns of a stag fastened at the heavy end. They wore wooden breastplates for defence. When they went to war they carried with them “their idol of whom they aske counsel as the Romans were woont of the Oracle of Apollo.” They sang songs as they marched forth to battle instead of sounding drums and trumpets. Their wars were “very cruel and bloody.” For this reason, and as a result of civil dissensions that had happened among them in recent years, the people of the region were “marvellously wasted, and in some places the countrey [was] left desolate.”

When the reconnoitering captains finally set sail for the return to England they carried with them two of the natives, “lustie men,” Wanchese and Manteo by name. Manteo afterward became of considerable service to the first two colonies, and rose to the distinction of a native American baron—the “Lord of Roanoak,” as will duly appear with the development of the story of colonization in the following chapters.

The country to which Queen Elizabeth gave the name “Virginia,” upon the return of Raleigh’s reconnoitering captains in September, 1584, with their flattering report, comprehended vaguely the whole of the seaboard of North America above Florida to a point toward Newfoundland, and inland indefinitely. In the following Spring Raleigh’s first company of intended colonists were ready to depart for the fruitful region, the attractions of which Captains Amadas and Barlow had set forth so enchantingly.

This pioneer band comprised gentlemen of standing, experienced navigators, younger sons of noble houses or gentry seeking adventure, restless spirits with an eye for pelf, hardy sailors. Ralph Lane at the head as governor, was a sailor-soldier of merit, and when invited by Raleigh to this post was serving in Ireland. Captain Amadas, of the reconnoitering expedition, was Lane’s deputy, afterward designated “admiral of the country”—Virginia. Thomas Hariot, or Harriot, named as surveyor, and also to be the historian of the colony, had been Raleigh’s tutor: he became in after years distinguished 323as a mathematician and astronomer, and materially advanced the science of algebra. John White, to be the principal draughtsman, was a man of affairs as well as a painter of some note, and was later to become governor of Raleigh’s second colony and grandfather of the first English child born in North America—Virginia Dare; and in his drawings, with those of the artist Le Moine, of the Huguenot colony in Florida, 1562–1566 (afterward in London a “servant” of Raleigh’s), we have the first accurate knowledge of the North American Indian and of the natural history of the country. Sir Richard Grenville, a cousin of Raleigh’s, a British naval hero, was the general of the fleet assembled to carry the company out. Captain Thomas Cavendish, navigator and freebooter, soon to circumnavigate the globe, was commander of one of the ships. The two Indians, Wanchese and Manteo, whom Amadas and Barlow brought home with them, were joined to the company as guides.

The fleet comprised seven sail: the “Tiger,” admiral or flagship, of one hundred and forty tons; a “Flie-boat called the Roe-bucke, of the like burden”; the “Lyon,” one hundred tons, “or thereabouts”; the “Elizabeth,” fifty tons; the “Dorithie,” a small bark; and two small pinnaces. They weighed anchor and sailed out of Plymouth harbour on the ninth of April, 1585. The outward voyage was a leisurely one, with stops at Porto Rico, Hispaniola, and other places, and with seizures of Spanish prizes along the way, so that their destination at Wocokon and Roanoke Island was not reached till 324the end of June. Their sometimes exciting adventures on this passage are summarily related in the diary of one of the company, which Hakluyt gives with this unusually brief caption: “The voiage made by Sir Richard Greenvile for Sir Walter Ralegh to Virginia in the yeere 1585.”

The longest stop was made off Porto Rico, at the “Island of S. John de Porto Rico.” Here a temporary fort was erected close to the seaside, and backed by woods, and within it a pinnace was built from timber, some of which was cut three miles up the land and brought upon trucks to the fort, the few Spaniards on the island “not daring to make or offer resistance.” One day while they were at this work eight horsemen appeared out of the woods about a quarter of a mile back, and there halting, stood silently gazing upon them for half an hour; then, a company of ten of their men being started out in marching order, the horsemen disappeared in the woods. Another day a sail was seen afar off approaching their haven. Supposing her to be either a Spanish or a French warship, the “Tiger” was made ready and went out to meet her. As the strange craft was neared, however, she was discovered to be Captain Cavendish’s ship of their own fleet, which had been separated from them at sea in a storm. Thereat there was rejoicing instead of a fight, and the ships’ guns were discharged in mutual peaceful salutes. Again, on another day, a second and a larger band of horsemen appeared, and nearer the fort. Twenty footmen and two horsemen, the latter mounted on Spanish horses 325that had been seized, were sent against them. When the Englishmen were within hailing distance the Spaniards displayed a flag of truce, and made signs for a parley. Two from each side accordingly came together on the sands between the two lines. The Spanish representatives offered “very great salutations” to the English, but expostulated against the Englishmen’s coming and fortifying in their country. The English representatives assured them that their company were here only to furnish themselves with water, victuals, and other necessities of which they stood in need. They hoped the Spaniards would yield these to them “with faire and friendly meanes”; but if this were not done they were resolved to “practice force” and relieve themselves by the sword. At this the Spaniards, with “all courtesie and great favour,” expressed their readiness to render every assistance, and promised a supply of provisions. And so the parley ended graciously.

The very next day the pinnace was finished and launched. Then the general, with his captains and gentlemen, marched up into the country to meet the Spaniards with the promised provisions. But the Spaniards came not. Whereupon the general fired the woods roundabout, and his party marched back to their fort. Later, the same day, they fired their fort and all embarked to sail the next morning on their course. In the meantime Ralph Lane, taking a Spanish frigate that they had captured, with a Spanish pilot, had made a successful venture with twenty of his men to “Roxo bay, on the southwest side of S. John,” after a cargo of 326salt. He threw up entrenchments about a salt hut here, and quietly loaded the frigate while “two or three troupes of [Spanish] horsemen” stood off and “gave him the looking,” but offered no resistance. When the fleet sailed from St. John most of the company were itching from the stings of swarms of “muskitos” which they had got on shore.

That night at sea they took a Spanish frigate whose crew had abandoned her upon sight of the fleet. Early next morning another was captured: this a more profitable prize, having a “good and riche freight and divers Spaniards of account in her.” The Spaniards were afterward ransomed “for good round summes” and were landed at St. John.

The next call was made at Hispaniola. Here there was much impressive exchange of courtesies between the Spaniards and their uninvited guests. The fleet anchored at Isabella on the first of June. Upon his arrival, apparently, the general entertained some local grandees on his ship. For on the third of June the “governor of Isabella and captaine of Port de Plata,” having heard that there were “many brave and gallant gentlemen” in the fleet, sent a “gentle commendation” to Sir Richard with a promise shortly to make him an official call. On the appointed day the governor appeared at the landing off which the fleet lay, accompanied by a “lustie Fryer” and twenty other Spaniards with their servants and Negroes. Thereupon Sir Richard and his chief men, “every man appointed and furnished in the best sort,”—in briefer phrase, wearing 327his best clothes,—took the shipboats and were rowed forth in fine feather to meet them. The reception was most cordial on both sides. The Spanish governor received the English general “very courteously,” while the Spanish gentlemen saluted the English gentlemen, and “their inferior sort did also salute our Souldiers and Sea men, liking our men and likewise their qualities.”

Then followed a sylvan banquet: “In the meane time while our English Generall and the Spanish Governour discussed betwixt them of divers matters, and of the state of the Countrey, the multitude of the Townes and people, and the commodities of the Iland, our men provided two banquetting houses covered with greene boughes, the one for the Gentlemen, the other for the servants, and a sumptuous banquet was brought in served by us all in plate, with the sound of trumpets, and consort of musicke, wherewith the Spaniards were delighted.” The feast ended, the Spaniards in their turn, in recompense of the English courtesies, provided a bull fight, or hunt, for them. “They caused a great heard of white buls, and kyne to be brought together from the mountaines, and appoynted for every Gentleman and Captaine that would ride, a horse ready sadled, and then singled out three of the best of them to be hunted by horsemen after their maner, so that the pastime grewe very pleasant for space of three houres, wherein all three of the beasts were killed, whereof one tooke the Sea and was slain with a musket.” After this brutal sport rare presents were exchanged. The next day 328the thrifty Englishmen “played the Marchants in bargaining with them by way of trucke and exchange of divers of their commodities, as horses, mares, kine, buls, goates, swine, sheepe, bull-hides, sugar, ginger, pearle, tobacco, and such like commodities of the Iland.”

On the seventh of June they departed, with great good will, from these Spaniards and Hispaniola. “But,” the diarist shrewdly observed, “the wiser sort doe impute this great shew of friendship and courtesie used towards us by the Spaniards rather to the force that wee were of, and the vigilancie and watchfulnesse that was amongst us, then [than] to any heartie good will or sure friendly intertainement: for doubtless if they had been stronger then wee, wee might have looked for no better courtesie at their handes then Master John Haukins received at Saint John de Ullua, or John Oxnam neere the streights of Dariene, and divers others of our Countreymen in other places.”

Resuming the voyage, short stops were made at some of the Bahama Islands, and on the twentieth of June they fell in with the mainland of Florida. On the twenty-third they were in great danger of wreck “on a beach called the Cape of Feare,” so first named by these voyagers. The next day they came to anchor in a harbour where they caught “in one tyde so much fish as would have yeelded us twentie pounds in London.” Here they made their first landing on the continent. Two days afterward they had arrived at Wocokon.

In entering the shallow harbour three days later the 329flagship struck aground and, according to the diarist, “sunk,” but she was not lost. On the third of July word of their arrival at Wocokon was sent by Manteo to king Wingina at Roanoke Island. And ultimately the company went up to Roanoke Island and began their settlement there.

Grenville remained with them for about two months and then returned with the ships to England, promising to come back with supplies by the next Easter. The month was spent mostly in explorations of the neighbouring waters and country; while one harsh and ill-judged act was committed by Sir Richard’s orders against the Indians, whom Amadas and Barlow had found so friendly and hospitable, which had evil results in fostering conspiracies against the new comers. The first exploration, with visits to Indian towns, was made in state soon after the arrival, and occupied eight days. Sir Richard, Master John Arundel, and “divers other gentlemen,” led in the “tilt-boat”; Governor Lane, Captain Cavendish, Heriot, and twenty others, followed in the “new pinnace,” which had been built at St. John; Captains Amadas and Clarke, with ten others, in one shipboat, and White, the artist, with Francis Broke in another. They crossed the southern part of Pamlico Sound to the mainland and discovered three Indian towns—Pomejok, Aquascogoc, and Secotan. On the next day Pomejok was visited; on the next, Aquascogoc, and two days after, Secotan, where they were well entertained. The next day was marked by the harsh act of large consequences. They had returned 330to Secotan and thence “one of our boates with the Admirall was sent to Aquasogok to demand a silver cup which one of the Savages had stolen from us, and not receiving it according to his promise, wee burnt and spoyled their corne, and Towne, all the people being fled.”

The fleet left Wocokon on the twenty-first of July for Hastorask, where they arrived and anchored on the twenty-seventh. Soon after, the courteous receiver of Amadas and Barlow on their first coming, King Wingina’s brother Granganimeo, came aboard the flagship with Manteo, and paid his respects to Sir Richard.

The colony being finally established at Roanoke Island, the ships weighed anchor on August the twenty-fifth and Grenville was off on his return to England. When less than a week at sea he came upon a fine Spanish ship of three hundred tons, and forthwith took her, with a rich cargo. In this performance a reckless show of bravery was made, Sir Richard boarding her “with a boate made with boards of chests, which fell asunder and sunke at the ship’s side, assoone as ever he and his men were out of it.” Afterward Sir Richard took charge of the prize and completed the voyage in her, arriving at Plymouth on the eighteenth of September. As was natural with this plunder, he was “courteously received by divers of his worshipfull friends.” The “Tiger,” of which he had lost sight in foul weather on the tenth, had previously arrived at Falmouth.

How fared the colony in “Virginia” after Sir Richard had left with the ships is told in Ralph Lane’s report to 331Raleigh: “An account of the particularities of the imployments of the English men left in Virginia by Sir Richard Greenevill under the charge of Master Ralph Lane Generall of the same, from the 17 of August 1585 until the 18 of June 1586 at which time they departed the Countrey: sent and directed to Sir Walter Ralegh.”

There were in all one hundred and eight men of the company remaining in the colony. They finished the building of a fort on Roanoke Island, which had apparently been begun before Grenville left; and set up their houses, presumably of logs, the best of these thatched with grasses. But their principal occupation was in exploration for discovery of the country about them. These expeditions were mainly by water and only in small boats, all the craft they had. One much used was a four-oared boat, which could carry not more than fifteen men with their trappings and provisions for seven days at the most. The largest apparently was the pinnace built at St. John, but she drew too deep water for the shallow sound about their settlement, and so could not be employed as readily as the smaller rowboats. Others were “wherries,” perhaps shipboats. With these slender facilities the extent of their explorations was surprising. Their discoveries were extended from Roanoke Island south, north, northwest, and west for considerable distances. Southward the farthest point reached was “Secotan,” or “Croatoan,” in the present county of Carteret at the southern end of Pamlico Sound, which they estimated to be eighty miles from Roanoke Island. To the northward they 332went one hundred and thirty miles to the “Chesepians,” so passing into the present Virginia. They penetrated into the Chesepian’s territory some fifteen miles from the shore, nearly reaching the Chesapeake Bay, below Norfolk. Northwestward they travelled one hundred and thirty miles to “Chawanook,” on the Chowan River, at a point just below the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottaway rivers. And westward they ascended the “River of Moratoc”—the Roanoke River—till they were distant one hundred and sixty miles from Roanoke Island.

On the voyage up the Chowan, Lane learned from a native monarch, “Menatonon,” king of the “province of Chawanook,” whom he had prisoner with him for two days, and described as, “for a savage, a very grave and wise man,” that by a canoe journey of three days, and overland four days to the northeast, he would come to a rich king’s country which lay upon the sea, whose place of greatest strength was an island in a deep bay. This pointed to Chesapeake Bay and Craney Island, in Hampton Roads, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Lane had early become satisfied that Roanoke Island, with its poor harbour and the dangerous coast, was not the fittest place for a settlement; and having Menatonon’s information he resolved “with himself” that, should the expected supplies from England come before the end of April, and with them more boats or more men to build boats in reasonable time, he would seek out this king’s stronghold; and if the country were as represented he would move the colony to that point. This 333project was thoroughly and judiciously planned, as appears in the outline of it that he gives in his report. He would have two expeditions starting from Roanoke Island. One should go out in a small bark and two pinnaces by sea northward to find the bay, sound the bar if there were any, and to ride in the bay about the island stronghold till the other should arrive. The other, led by himself, should comprise two hundred men, taking all the small boats he could have built, and should penetrate to the head of the “river of Chewanook” (the Chowan), and thence overland. He would have with him Indian guides whom Menatonon would provide: and that these guides would be selected from the best of Menatonon’s men he was assured, for he had cleverly retained the king’s “best beloved son,” "Skyko," as his prisoner or hostage. He would, too, have this young brave keep company with him “in a hand-locke with the rest, foote by foote all the voyage over-land.”

Thus, if he had been enabled to prosecute this venture to the finish Lane would have found Chesapeake Bay and Craney Island, and removing his colony thence, would have anticipated the settlement at Jamestown by about twenty years. But the relief from England did not come as expected, and in April Lane had a formidable Indian conspiracy against the life of the colony to meet.

King Wingina became an enemy of the colony and plotted to destroy it. His father, Ensenore, and his brother, Granganimeo, continued friendly, and stayed his hand for a while. But Granganimeo died not long 334after the arrival of the colony, and Ensenore died in April. Wingina, upon the death of Granganimeo, changed his name to “Pemisapan,” and Pemisapan he is afterward called in Lane’s report. The conspiracy was his conception, and was formed immediately upon Ensenore’s death. Wanchese, the companion of Manteo in the visit to England, was among the chief conspirators. But Manteo remained the Englishmen’s staunch and steadfast friend, and rendered them signal aid in times of their greatest perils.

Wingina’s cunning diplomacy was first exercised at the time of Lane’s ascension of the Moratoc (Roanoke) River. This exploration Lane deemed of large importance, the natives having reported “strange things” of the head of that river, and told of a wondrous mine thereabouts, producing a “marvellous mineral,” and a people skilled in refining ore. The river, they said, sprang in a violent stream out of a huge rock, which stood so near to the sea that in great storms the ocean’s waves were so beaten into the river that its fresh water for a certain space grew salt and brackish. In the opinion of Master Hariot, which Lane quoted, the head, from the savages’ description of the country, rose either “from the bay of Mexico or els from very neere unto the same, that openeth out into the South Sea [the Pacific].” The mine was of copper and famed for its richness among all the tribes of the region, those of the mainland as well as on the river’s banks. Such abundant store of the metal had the tribe dwelling nearest to it-the “Mangoaks”—that they beautified their houses with large 335plates of it. These stories moved Lane to a great effort to attain this promising point, for, as he observed, with a touch of humor or of pessimism, in the light of previous western enterprises of his countrymen, “the discovery of a good mine, or the passage to the South Sea, or some other way to it, and nothing els can bring this Countrey in request to be inhabited by our nation.”

Accordingly he planned his largest expedition to this end, comprising some forty men with two “double wherries.” The head of the river, he was told, was a thirty or forty days’ canoe voyage above the principal Indian town on its banks, which had the same name as it—Moratoc. Therefore he purposed to go up stream as far as the quantity of provisions he could carry would supply his company, and then obtain fresh provisions from the Moratocs or from the Mangoaks farther up. The expedition started out in March. They had proceeded only three days on their voyage from Menatonon’s dominions and had come to the Moratocs’ country, when they found that all the people had withdrawn and taken their whole stock of corn with them into the interior. Not a single savage could be seen in any of the towns or villages, nor a grain of corn be found. The voyagers were now a hundred and sixty miles from “home”—Roanoke Island—and with only two days’ victuals left. It was evident that they had been betrayed by some of their own Indians, and that the intent was to starve and so destroy them.

And so it proved. This was Pemisapan’s scheme. Lane had been obliged to take Pemisapan into his confidence, 336because he depended upon him for a guide to the Mangoaks, and the wily savage had secretly given the tribes word of his coming, with the declaration that his real purpose was to kill them all off. On the other hand, he had told Lane that the tribes had such intention toward the English, plotting their destruction, and had repeatedly urged him to go against them. He had told of a general assembly by Manatonon at Chawanook of all his “Weroances” and allies to the number of three thousand bows, to go against the English at Roanoke Island; and had declared that the Mangoaks, who were able to bring as many more fighting men to the enterprise, were in the same confederacy. And true it was that at that time this assembly was held at Chawanook, and the confederacy was formed, but this, as Menatonon afterward confessed to Lane, was “altogether and wholly procured by Pemisapan himselfe.” He had fabricated the story of the Englishmen’s hostile intention in passing up the river, notwithstanding that they had entered into a league of amity with representatives of both the Moratocs and the Mangoaks, and they had heretofore dealt kindly with each other.

On the night of their arrival at the deserted villages, before placing his sentinels, Lane informed his company of the situation they were in, and of his belief that they had been betrayed and “drawen foorth upon a vaine hope to be in the ende starved,” and he left it to be determined by the majority whether they should venture the spending of all their victuals in further voyaging onward with the hope of better luck above, or return. 337That the matter might not be acted upon hastily, he advised them to reserve their decision till the next morning. At that time they resolved almost unanimously, “not three of the contrary opinion,” that, “while there was one-half pint of corn for a man, they should not leave the search of that river.” If the worst fell out they had two mastiffs with them, and they could make shift to live on a “pottage” of these dogs with sassafras leaves, for two days, which time, they then returning, would bring them down the current back to the entrance to the sound. They would patiently fast for two days, “rather than to draw back a foot till they had seen the Mangoaks either as friends or foes.”

So these plucky Englishmen kept on for two days more when their victuals were gone. Lying by the shore through the nights they saw nobody, but they perceived fires at intervals along the shore where they were to pass, and up into the country. On the afternoon of the second day they heard savages call from the shore, as they thought, “Manteo,” who was then in the boat with Lane. At this they were all glad, hoping for a friendly conference. Manteo was bidden to answer. He did so, and presently the savages began a song. This the Englishmen took as in token of his welcome by them. But Manteo seized his piece, telling Lane that they meant to fight. No sooner had his words been spoken and the “light horsemen” made ready to be put on shore, than a volley of arrows lighted amongst the company. None, however, was hurt. Immediately the other boat lay ready with her shot to scour a place 338for the “hand weepons” to land. A landing was quickly accomplished, although the shore was high and steep. Then the savages fled. They were followed for a while till they had “wooded themselves,” the pursuers knew not where. That night was spent at this point, on guard.

The next morning all agreed that further advancement was impossible, for there was no prospect of obtaining victuals. The worst had now fallen out, and the party were obliged to resort to their “dogges porredge.” So before sunrise they began their return voyage. By nightfall of the next day they were within a few miles of the river’s mouth. They had rowed in one day with the current as great a distance as they had made in four days up stream against the current. That night they lodged upon an island, where they had “nothing in the world to eat but pottage of sassafras leaves.” They had next day to pass the broad sound with empty stomachs. That day the wind blew so strong and the billows rose so high that the passage could not then be made without danger of sinking their boats. That evening was Easter eve, “which was fasted most truely.” Easter morning, however, opened calmly, so that they could proceed with safety. Late in the afternoon they arrived at Chypannum. The savages they had left here had all fled, but their weirs yielded them some fish, with which they thankfully broke their fast. The next morning they reached “home,” at Roanoke.

Their return astonished and dismayed Pemisapan 339and his allies. A “bruit” had been raised among the tribes that they had all been destroyed by the Chaonists and the Mangoaks, part of them slain and part starved. This had developed in Pemisapan and the hostile confederates a contempt for the English. Instead of a “reverent opinion” that had formerly been shown toward the Englishmen’s God, they had begun “flatly to say that our Lorde God was not God since he suffered us to sustaine much hunger and also to be killed.” Pemisapan had further planned to starve out the rest of the colonists at Roanoke Island, and had now made ready to put this plan into execution. He proposed to take his savages off and leave his ground in the island unsown. This done, the English could not have been preserved from starvation. For at that time they had no fish weirs of their own, nor men skilled in making them; neither had they a grain of corn for seed.

All was changed by Lane’s safe return with the whole of his party, and by the reports of their adventures made to Pemisapan by three of his own savages whom Lane had had with him besides Manteo; also by the knowledge that Menatonon had been made prisoner, and his favourite son Skyko taken and brought to Roanoke. “Old Ensenore” again became potent in Pemisapan’s councils. He reasoned that the English were the servants of God and could not be destroyed by them. Contrariwise, that those savages that sought their destruction would find their own. That the English “being dead men were able to doe them more hurt than now” they “could do being alive.” It was an 340opinion confidently held by the “wisest” among the tribes, as well by their old men, that at night when a hundred miles from any of the living English some of their people had been shot at in the air, and stricken by English men that had died among them from sickness. And many of them believed that the English were “dead men returned into the world againe, and that we doe not remaine dead but for a certaine time, and that then we returne againe.”

Ensenore’s influence and such reasoning temporarily restored the Englishmen’s power. But that which had the largest effect was an act of Menatonon’s in bringing one of the kings to formal allegiance to the English queen and to Sir Walter Raleigh:

“Within certaine dayes after my returne from the sayd journey [up the Roanoke] Menatonon sent a messenger to visite his sonne the prisoner with me, and sent me certaine pearle for a present, or rather, as Pemisapan tolde mee, for the ransome of his sonne, and therefore I refused them: but the greatest cause of his sending then, was to signifie unto mee that hee had commanded Okisko, King of Weopomiok, to yeelde himselfe servant, and homager to the great Weroanza of England, and after her to Sir Walter Ralegh: to perfourme which commandement received from Menatonon the sayd Okisko joyntly with this Menatonons messenger sent foure and twentie of his principallest men to Roanoke to Pemisapan, to signifie that they were ready to perfourme the same, and so had sent those his men to let me knowe that from that time forwarde, 341hee, and his successours were to acknowledge her Majestie their onely Soveraigne and next unto her as aforesaid.”

This done and acknowledged by them all in the presence of Ensenore, and Pemisapan and his council, apparently quite changed Pemisapan’s disposition. At all events he agreed with Ensenore that his people should set up weirs for the colonists, and sow his land. This was done, and by the end of April the Indians had sown sufficient land to produce a crop that would have kept the whole company for a year. The king also gave the colonists a plot of land for themselves to sow. These proceedings put them in “marvellous comfort,” for if they could keep themselves till the opening of July, which was the beginning of the Indian harvest, they would then have, even though their expected new supplies from England had not then arrived, enough store of their own to sustain them.

But Ensenore died within a few days after these promising arrangements, and now Pemisapan perfected his conspiracy. The plot was artfully contrived. First king Okisko of Weopomiok, who had so dramatically given his allegiance to the English queen, was to be moved through the agency of a “great quantitie of copper” to take a hand in it with the Mangoaks to the number of seven or eight hundred bows. They of Weopomiok were to be invited ostensibly to a “certaine kind of moneths mind,” or ceremony which the savages were wont to hold in memory of a dead personage, in this case Ensenore. At the same time the Mangoaks and 342the Chespians with their allies, to the number of seven hundred, were to be assembled at “Dasamonguepeio” or Dasamonguepeuk—the mainland lying west of Roanoke Island. The clans here were to lie low in ambush till signals were exchanged with the other forces, the signals to be fires, denoting the moment for action. Then Pemisapan and his fellows were to seize and execute Lane and some of his principal men, while the Dasamonguepeuk bands were to cross to Roanoke and despatch the rest of the colony. It was expected that they would then be dismayed by hunger and scattered over the island and elsewhere, seeking crabs and fish for food. For it was to be agreed that from the time of the formation of the conspiracy no corn or other supplies should be sold the colony, and that the weirs which had been built for them should be robbed at night and broken up. By these means Pemisapan felt assured that Lane would be enforced for lack of sustenance at Roanoke to disband his people into sundry places to live upon shell fish as the savages themselves were accustomed to do while their corn was growing.

Lane and his chief men were to be despatched in this fashion. Two of Pemisapan’s principal braves, “very lustie fellows,” with twenty more, were charged with Lane’s taking off. “In the dead time of the night they would have beset my house and put fire in the reedes that the same was covered with: meaning (as it was likely) that my selfe would have come running out of a sudden amazed in my shirt without armes, upon the instant whereof they would have knockt out my braines. 343The same order was given to certaine of his fellowes for M. Heriots: so for the rest of our better sort, all our houses at one instant being set on fire as afore is saide, and that as well for them of the fort as for us at the towne.” It was arranged that the blow should be struck on the tenth of June.

In the meantime Pemisapan continued an ostentatious show of friendship. But Lane was aware of his designs. He was kept informed by young Skyko, his prisoner, who was in the confidence of Pemisapan, the plotter believing that he was secretly the Englishmen’s “enemy to the death.” At one time he had attempted to escape, when Lane put him in the “bylboes” and threatened to cut off his head, but refrained from that drastic punishment at Pemisapan’s earnest entreaty. So Pemisapan held him his true friend, for favours received. Afterward, however, he was well used by Lane, while the colonists generally made much of him, and he became attached to them. Lane accepted Pemisapan’s show of friendship while the scheme was maturing, and bided his time to spring a trap on his savage enemies.

While laying his plans Pemisapan went over to Dasamonguepeuk for three causes. One was to see his grounds there broken up and sowed for a second crop; another to avoid Lane’s daily calls upon him for the sale of victuals for the colonists, his stock of excuses apparently having become exhausted; the third, to despatch his messengers to Weopomiok and to the Mangoaks. King Okisko declined to be a party to 344the conspiracy and retired with his forces into the mainland. The others joined it. Lane relied on Menatonon and the Chaonists who since his last visit to them had given tokens of a desire to join in perfect league with the English. One expectation of Pemisapan’s was realized. The shortage of food had become so serious that Lane was obliged to scatter the colonists. Captain Stafford with twenty men was sent to Croatoan, “My Lord Admirals Island,” there to find food for themselves, and also to watch for any shipping that might appear upon the coast, the expected relief fleet, or any other, and give warning of the approach. Master Pridiox and the “Provost Marshal,” with ten others, were sent in the pinnace to Hastorask, there to live as best they could, and look for shipping. Sixteen or twenty of the rest of the colony were sent every week to the mainland “over against us,” to live on “casada” and oysters.

To put “suspicion out of his head” that his conspiracy was known, and to draw him on, Lane sent word to Pemisapan that he was presently to go to Croatoan, since he had heard of the arrival of his relief fleet from England (which he had not), and asking him to loan some of his men to fish for the colonists. Pemisapan made reply that he would come himself. But he deferred from day to day. At length on the last day of May his savages began to “make their assembly at Roanoak at his commandement sent abroad to them.” Now Lane took the aggressive.

"I resolved not to stay longer upon his comming over, 345since he meant to come with so good company, but thought good to go and visit him with such as I had, which I resolved to do the next day: but that night I meant by the way to give them in the Island a canvisado, and at the instant to seize upon all the canoas about the Island to keepe him from advertisements. But the towne tooke the alarme before I meant it to them: the occasion was this. I had sent the Master of the light horsman, with a few with him, to gather up all the canoas in the setting of the Sun, & to take as many as were going from us to Dasamonguepeio, but to suffer any that came from thence, to land. He met with a Canoa going from the shore, and overthrew the Canoa and cut off two Savages heads: this was not done so secretly but he was discovered from the shore; whereupon the cry arose: for in trueth they, privy to their owne villanous purposes against us, held as good espiall [spy] upon us, both by day and night, as we did upon them. The allarme given they tooke themselves to their bowes and we to our armes: some three or foure of them at the first were slaine with our shot: the rest fled into the woods.

“The next morning with the light horsman & one Canoa taking 25 with the Colonel of the Chesepians, and the Sergeant major, I went to Dasamonguepeio: and being landed, sent Pemisapan word by one of his owne Savages that met me at the shore, that I was going to Croatoan, and meant to take him in the way to complaine unto him of Osocon who the night past was conveying away my prisoner, whom I had there present 346tied in a handlocke. Heereupon the king did abide my comming to him, and finding my selfe amidst seven or eight of his principall Weroances and followers, (not regarding any of the common sort) I gave the watchword agreed upon (which was, Christ our victory) and immediately those his chiefe men and himselfe had by the mercy of God for our deliverance, that which they had purposed for us. [In other words they were slain.] The king himselfe being shot thorow by the Colonell with a pistoll, lying on the ground for dead, & I looking as watchfully for the saving of Manteos friends, as others were busie that none of the rest should escape, suddenly he started up and ran away as though he had not bene touched, insomuch as he overran all the company, being by the way shot thwart the buttocks by mine Irish boy with my petronell. In the end an Irish man serving me, one Nugent, and the deputy provost, undertooke him; and following him in the woods, overtooke him; and I in some doubt least we had lost both the king & my man by our owne negligence to have beene intercepted by the Savages, wee met him returning out of the woods with Pemisapans head in his hand.”

Seven days later word came to Lane at Roanoke from Captain Stafford at Croatoan that he had sighted a great fleet of three and twenty sail approaching the coast: but whether they were friends or foes he could not discern, and he advised the governor to “stand upon as good guard” as he could. They proved to be 347the fleet of Sir Francis Drake on his “prosperous” return from the sacking of St. Domingo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine. This spoiling of Spanish possessions accomplished, Sir Francis had turned from the direct homeward course to visit Sir Walter’s colony and see how it fared with them. The next day Captain Stafford followed close upon his messenger, having travelled through the night before and that day twenty miles by land, and arrived at Roanoke with a letter from Sir Francis conveying a “most bountifull and honourable offer” to the governor. He would supply the colony with what necessities they required,—victuals, clothing, munitions, barks, pinnaces, and boats manned and provisioned. The following day the fleet appeared in the road of Roanoke’s “bad harborow” and came there to anchor. And the next, Lane and Drake met on his flagship and exchanged greetings.

Sir Francis renewed his offer, to which he said all the captains of his fleet had assented, and asked for details of the colony’s needs. Thanking him and his captains with warmth for their generosity Lane craved the following: That Drake would take with him to England a number of weak and unfit men of the colony, and in their places supply oarsmen, artificers, and others; that he would leave sufficient shipping and provisions to carry the colonists into August or later, when they might have to return to England; also some ships’ masters, not only to convey them to England “when time should be,” but to search the coast for some better harbour, if there were one; provide them a number of 348small boats; and supply them with “calievers, hand weapons, match and lead, tooles, apparell, and such like.” All these desires Sir Francis stood ready cheerfully to meet. At his request Lane sent to him the various officers of the colony with their lists of needs—the “Master of the Victuals,” the “Keeper of the Store,” the “Vice-treasurer.” Drake forthwith turned over to Lane the “Francis” of his fleet, “a very proper bark of 70 tun,” and ordered her to be provisioned for an hundred men for four months. Also, two pinnaces and four small boats. And two of his masters, with their consent, were assigned to Lane’s service till the time he had promised for their return to England.

On the twelfth the bark was provisioned, the two loaned masters were aboard her, and several of Lane’s best men, ready to pass from the fleet’s anchorage to Roanoke Island. The very next morning an unwonted storm arose which scattered the fleet. The tempest raged through four days, and “had like to have driven all on shore if the Lord had not held his loving hand over them, and the Generall very providentially forseene the worst himselfe.” As it was, several of the fleet were driven to put to sea, while the “Francis,” with her precious cargo, the two masters, and Lane’s choice men, was seen to be free from the others and also “to put cleere to Sea.” After the storm was over Drake came ashore and offered Lane another ship, provisioned as the “Francis” had been, and with another master. This was a large bark, the “Bonner,” of one hundred and seventy tons, and Sir Francis said that she 349could not be brought into the harbour but must be left in the road.

Thereupon Lane called his remaining chiefs into council, and the upshot of their deliberations, considering the situation of the colony,—their reduced numbers, the carrying away of the “Francis” with her provisions and company, the hopelessness of the arrival of Sir Richard Grenville with the relief fleet now long overdue,—was the decision that Sir Francis’s second offer, “though most honourable of his part,” must be declined, and that he be petitioned in all their names to give the colony passage with him back to England. This request Lane personally delivered, and Drake promptly granted. Accordingly his pinnaces were sent to Roanoke to take off the men and their effects. But the weather was yet boisterous, and the pinnaces were so often aground that much valuable stuff was lost. “The most of all we had, with all our Cards [charts], Books, and writings were by the Sailers cast overboard, the greater number of the fleet being much aggrieved with their long and dangerous abode in that miserable road.”

The returning colonists were bestowed among the several ships, and on the nineteenth all set sail for home, where they duly arrived, at Portsmouth, on the twenty-seventh of July.

Almost immediately after the colonists had abandoned Roanoke and sailed off with Drake, a ship sent out by Raleigh at his “sole charges” to their relief, arrived on the coast of Carolina. She had left England after 350Easter, freighted plentifully with stores most necessary for the infant colony. When her captain found this “paradise of the world,” as he termed their seat, deserted, he returned with his cargo to England. Hakluyt gives the brief account of this voyage as third in the series of Raleigh’s Virginia expeditions. A fortnight later Sir Richard Grenville’s delayed relief fleet, comprising three ships full laden with supplies of all sorts, at last arrived at the deserted place. In order to preserve possession of the country for England he left fifteen men (not fifty as some after chroniclers stated) at Roanoke Island, and then returned as he had come.

While so much material was lost by the colonists in the hurry of departure, Thomas Hariot preserved notes from which he subsequently wrote out a particular and helpful description of the country of “Virginia,” its inhabitants, productions, animals, birds, and fishes, which was first published in 1588 and Hakluyt reproduced the next year; and John White brought home many sketches, drawings, and water colours, which subsequently appeared as illustrations of Hariot’s book.

Others of the colonists brought home specimens of the country’s products, among them the tobacco plant and the potato root. Both were first introduced into general use in Europe by Raleigh.

Upon the return of his first colonists Raleigh at once bent his superb energies to the formation of his second or New Colony. The failure of the first colonists instead of dismaying inspirited him to larger effort. Lane’s report and Hariot’s account of the excellencies of the country moved him to plan his New Colony on a broader scale. He would now plant in “Virginia” a prosperous English agricultural state. The new colonists should include families, men, women, and children, and a regular government should be established at the outset. In accord with Lane’s theory, Roanoke Island should be passed by and the New Colony be seated on Chesapeake Bay.

To these ends Raleigh sagaciously determined to admit a number of investors to share in the privileges of his patent, and under date of January seventh, 1587, he executed an instrument granting a charter to thirty-two persons for the new settlement. These were divided into two classes. Nineteen, comprising one class, were gentlemen or merchants of London who were to venture their money in the enterprise; thirteen, 352constituting the other class, were to venture their persons. The latter were to be known by the corporate name of “The Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Ralegh in Virginia,” and were described as “late of London gentlemen.” The former were styled “merchants of London and adventurers.” They were to be “free of the corporation, company, and society ... in the citie of Ralegh intended to be erected and builded,” and were to adventure “divers and sundry sums of money, merchandises and shipping, munition, victual, and other commodities” into “Virginia.” In consideration of their investment they were granted free trade in the new settlement and in any other settlement that Raleigh might make by future discovery in America; and were exempted from all duties on their commerce, rents, or subsidies. An appropriation was made to them of one hundred pounds, to be ventured in any way they should see fit, the profits to be applied in “Virginia” in “planting the Christian religion and advancing the same,” and for “the common utility and profit of the inhabitants thereof.” In this indenture Raleigh as the grantor was styled “Chief governour of Assamocomoc, alias Wingandacoa alias Virginia.” In the list of the nineteen investing “merchants” appears the name of Richard Hakluyt. At the head of the thirteen to be planters of the “citie of Ralegh” was John White, the artist and man-of-affairs of the “Old Colony,” as governor; and among these was his son-in-law Ananias Dare, who became the father of Virginia Dare.

353The company brought together to plant this colony numbered one hundred and fifty persons, of whom seventeen were women and nine were “boys and children.” They embarked on three ships in charge of Simon Ferdinando, and sailed from Portsmouth harbour on April the twenty-sixth, 1587.

The narrative of the outward voyage Hakluyt first published under the title, “The fourth voyage made to Virginia with three ships in the yere 1587. Wherein was transported the second Colonie.” The narrator early displayed a feeling of resentment against Ferdinando, which grew in warmth as the account proceeded; and this feeling seems to have been fully justified by the captain’s conduct. He was a Spaniard by birth, and it has been conjectured that he was acting in the interest of Spain. Another explanation of his strange course is found in his differences with White on the voyage. He unquestionably lied on more than one occasion; ruthlessly abandoned one of the ships of the fleet at sea and “grieved” at her reappearance with her passengers at the end of the voyage; nearly wrecked his ship off Cape Fear; and when Roanoke Island was reached refused to carry the colonists further, regardless of Raleigh’s positive directions to deliver them at Chesapeake Bay, stopping at Roanoke only long enough to take on, if found, the fifteen men left there by Grenville. He is said to have been twice before on the coast of Carolina as a pilot. He was with Captains Amadas and Barlow on their reconnoitering expedition, and his second voyage may have been with Grenville’s relief 354fleet. His name appeared among the twelve assistants to Governor White.

"Our fleete being in number three saile, viz., the Admirall [the "Lion"] a ship of one hundred and twentie Tunnes, a Flie boate, and a Pinnesse, departed the sixe and twentieth of April from Portesmouth, and the same day came to an ancher at the Cowes in the Isle of Wight, where wee stayed eight dayes.

"The fift of May at nine of the clocke at night we came to Plimmouth, where we remained the space of two dayes.

"The 19 [June] we fell with Dominica, and the same evening we sayled betweene it and Guadalupe:

“The 22 we came to an anker at an Island called Santa Cruz, where all the planters were set on land, staying there till the 25 of the same moneth.”

At their first landing here a number of the company, men and women, ate freely of a “small fruit like green apples,” which they found in abundance, and soon were “fearfully troubled” with a burning in their mouths, and swelling of their tongues “so bigge that some of them could not speake.” The first night five great tortoise were caught, “some of them of such bignes that sixteene of our strongest men were tired with carying of one of them but from the seaside to our cabbins.” They sought a fit watering place, but found only a 355“standing ponde,” the water of which was so “evill” that many of the company fell sick from drinking it; while those who washed their faces with it in the morning before the sun had drawn off the corruption, suffered a burning sensation, and their faces became so swollen that their eyes were closed and they could not see in “five or sixe dayes, or longer.”

The next stopping place was “Cottea,” which was reached two days after leaving Santa Cruz, the pinnace arriving there before the admiral. Here they lay at anchor for a day and a night. Next they came to anchor at St. John’s, in “Musketos Bay.”

At this place three days were spent taking in fresh water, and “unprofitable,” since during their stay more “beere” was consumed than the “quantitie of the water came unto.” When they weighed anchor and were off again, two Irishmen of the company—"Darbie Glaven and Denice Carrell"—were left behind.

No more stops were permitted by Captain Ferdinando till they were off the coast of Florida. On the evening after the departure from Mosquito Bay they fell in with “Rosse Bay,” where Ferdinando had promised they should take in salt. White appointed “thirty shot, tenne pikes, and ten targets” to man the pinnace to go to the shore for this purpose, and they were about to start out when Ferdinando demurred. He was not sure, he now said, that this was really the place where the salt was to be obtained. Besides, if the pinnace should go she could not come back without peril till the next night. Meanwhile should a storm arise the 356admiral would be in danger of being cast away. While thus arguing, as the narrator avers, he had craftily got the ship into shoal water, and suddenly “dissembling great danger” he cried to the helmsman, “Bear up hard! Bear up hard!” So she went off, and they were “disappointed of salt by his meanes.” The next day, sailing along the west end of St. John, White desired to go ashore at “St. Germans Bay,” to gather young plants of oranges, lemons, plantans, and pines to set out in “Virginia.” These grew in plenty near the shore, as was well known to the governor and some of the other planters who had been with the first colony. But “our Simon” denied it, and refused to stop. He however promised to come to anchor at Hispaniola. There he would go ashore with the governor and other of the chief men, to see if he could speak with “his friend Alanson,”—the Spanish governor of Hispaniola,—by whom he hoped to be furnished with cattle, and all such things as they could have taken at St. John. The next day, the third of July, they came to Hispaniola. All that day they bore with the coast, and the next, and till noon of the following, but no preparation was made to land. When they had passed the place where “friend Alanson” dwelt, the governor demanded of the captain whether he intended to keep his promise. Whereupon Ferdinando coolly declared that it was to no purpose to touch at Hispaniola, for he had been told by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had it from the French ambassador, that the king of Spain had sent for Alanson to come to Spain: and Ferdinando really thought him dead.

357So the next day they sailed out of sight of Hispaniola, and “haled off for Virginia.” Coming to the “Island Caycos” Ferdinando told of two good salt ponds here. Accordingly a landing was made, and the better part of a day spent in roaming about this isle: some of the company seeking the salt ponds which they did not find; others fowling; others hunting swans, “whereof we caught many.” The next land sighted was the Carolina coast. On July sixteenth they fell with the “main of Virginia.” Ferdinando took it to be the island of Croatoan, and came to anchor. But after riding here for two or three days he found out his mistake. Then setting sail again he bore farther along the coast. The following night “had not Captaine Stafford bene more carefull in looking out than our Simon Ferdinando, we had bene all cast away upon the beach called the Cape of Feare, for we were come within two cables length of it: such was the carelesnes and ignorance of our Master.”

Immediately upon their arrival Governor White with forty of his best men went aboard the pinnace to pass up to Roanoke Island forthwith and seek the fifteen men left by Grenville. When they had been met, as he confidently expected they would be, and after a conference with them as to the state of affairs, he was to return, and the fleet were without further delay to sail up the coast to the Chesapeake Bay country. But as soon as the pinnace with his party had put off from the 358admiral Ferdinando caused one of his chief men to call out to her sailors not to bring the party back from Roanoke Island, but to leave them there, all except the governor, “and two or three such as he approved”: for the summer was far spent, and therefore Ferdinando would “land the planters in no other place.” Since it appeared that all the sailors both in the pinnace and on board the admiral were in agreement with Ferdinando’s decision, it “booted not the governour to contend with them.” Accordingly he proceeded to Roanoke and made preparations there for the temporary accommodation at least of his colonists.

The island was reached at sunset and White and his companions landed at the point where he understood that Grenville’s fifteen men had established themselves. Not one was found. But the discovery of the bones of one of them led the searchers to fear that all had perished at the hands of the Indians. The next morning White with several of his party walked up to the Old Colony’s plantation at the north end of the island, hoping there to find some trace of the missing men. The place was deserted. The fort had been razed, and its site was overgrown with vines. The “decent dwelling houses” of the colony yet stood, but they were open to the weather, and, like the site of the fort, overgrown with vines, and within them deer were feeding. With this melancholic spectacle the governor’s party returned “without hope of ever seeing any of the fifteene men living.”

Then the governor gave orders for the repairing of 359the houses on the deserted plantation and for the erection of new cottages; and when this work was well under way the colonists were all brought up here. On the twenty-fifth the fly-boat appeared in the road off Roanoke with all her passengers safe, to the joy of their fellow planters and the grief of Ferdinando. For when he had “purposely left them in the Bay of Portugal, and stole away from them in the night,” he had hoped that the master of the ship, Edward Spicer, “for that he had never bene in Virginia would hardly finde the place, or els being left in so dangerous a place as that was, by meanes of so many men of warre as at that time were abroad, they would surely be taken or slain.” Such is the record, but let us cherish the hope that the chronicler misinterpreted Ferdinando’s strange act, and that he was not guilty of so diabolical a scheme.

On the twenty-eighth, when the new colonists were probably settling themselves at Roanoke, one of the assistants, George Howe, was set upon and slain by a little band of Indians who had come over to the island either to spy upon the new comers, or to hunt deer, or both. He was alone at the time, and some distance from the plantation, wading in the water catching crabs with a forked stick. He was only half dressed and had no weapon, his gun perhaps having been left on the shore. The savages stealthily approached him from a hiding place among tall reeds, where deer were often found asleep, and killed by the Indian hunters. They sprang at his back and gave him sixteen wounds with 360their arrows, finally beating him to death with their wooden swords. The deed done, they “fled over the water to the main.” These savages belonged to the remnant of the dead Wingina’s—or Pemisapan’s—people, who were now dwelling on the mainland at Dasamonguepeuk.

The quest for traces of the fifteen men was continued while the work of setting up the plantation was going forward. On the last day of July Master Stafford and twenty men started off with Manteo for the island of Croatoan, where Manteo’s kindred dwelt, and where the Indians had been friendly with the Old Colony, hoping from them to get some definite news of the lost men. At the same time the new comers would renew “old friendships” and endeavour to ascertain the present attitude of the other tribes of the country, besides Pemisapan’s broken band, toward the English. Upon their landing at Croatoan the natives appeared on their guard, but when Manteo showed himself and called to them in their own language, they threw down their bows and arrows and made hospitable demonstrations. When told that the Englishmen were come to renew the “old love” with assurances of their desire to live with them only as “brethren and friends” they were greatly pleased, and invited the visitors “to walke up to their Towne”: which they did, and there were feasted. Then at a conference that followed, the fate of the fifteen men was revealed. They had been attacked by a band from Pemisapan’s former confederates and driven from Roanoke Island, and all had disappeared, 361most of them killed, the others probably drowned. As the Croatoans told it the story thus ran.

Eleven of the fifteen were at Roanoke when the attack was made: the remaining four were off in a creek gathering oysters. The attacking band, composed of thirty savages, crept to the island and hid themselves behind trees, which were thick near the houses where the Englishmen were living carelessly. Two of the band first approached the houses as if alone, and apparently unarmed, and with friendly signs called for two of the Englishmen to come out without their arms and speak with them. The Englishmen unsuspiciously acquiesced. When the four met and one of the Indians was embracing one of the Englishmen, the other Indian drew his wooden sword from beneath his mantle, and slew this Englishman. His companion fled toward the houses while the remainder of the band sprang from their hiding places and pursued him with a flight of arrows. The little body of Englishmen crowded into the house where all their weapons and their provisions were, and prepared for a stubborn defence. Presently, however, the savages set the house afire, and they were driven into the open with what weapons they could catch up. A skirmish followed and continued for above an hour, in which the Indians had the advantage through their nimbleness in dodging behind trees. At length the surviving Englishmen backed fighting to the waterside where their boat lay. Taking to the boat they fled toward Hastorask, on the way picking up the four who had been absent on the oyster trip. All landed on a 362small island near Hatteras. Here they were able to remain only for a little while. Their departure from this place was the last heard of them. It was supposed that in making their escape they were drowned.

As to the disposition of the natives in the other towns nothing decisive was obtained. It was therefore agreed at this conference that the Croatoans should undertake to convey a message to those that had before come into Pemisapan’s confederation, and bring back to Roanoke either their chief “governours” or their answer to the English governor within seven days. Those towns were to be told that if they would accept the friendship of the new colonists all past unfriendly dealings on both sides, the Indian and the English, would be forgiven and forgotten. All their business being despatched, Master Stafford and his party departed the same day and returned to Roanoke to await the outcome of these negotiations.

When the seven days had passed and no tidings had come from the men of Croatoan on their mission of peace, the governor now determined to avenge the killing of George Howe and the driving off of Grenville’s men by moving upon the remnant of Pemisapan’s men at Dasamonguepeuk. So with Captain Stafford, and a force of twenty-four men, one of them Manteo as guide, he set out on this expedition at midnight of the eighth of August. The party crossed to the mainland and landed early the next morning, while it was yet dark, near the enemy’s dwelling place. Silently passing through a stretch of woods they came to a point where they had the 363Indians’ houses between them and the water. Then—"having espied their fire and some sitting about it, we presently set on them: the miserable soules herewith amazed, fled into a place of thicke reedes, growing fast by, where our men perceiving them, shot one of them through the bodie with a bullet; and therewith we entred the reedes, among which we hoped to acquite their evill doing towards us": when it was discovered that a sad mistake had been made. For “those Savages were our friends, and were come from Croatoan to gather the corne & fruit of that place, because they understood our enemies were fled immediately after they had slain George Howe, and for haste had left all their corne, Tobacco, and Pompions standing in such sort, that al had bene devoured of the birds, and Deere, if it had not bene gathered in time: but they had like to have payd deerely for it: for it was so darke, that they being naked, and their men and women apparelled all so like others, wee knew not but that they were all men: and if that one of them, a Wiroance’s [chief man’s] wife, had not had a child at her backe, shee had been slain in stead of a man; and as hap was another Savage knew master Stafford, and ran to him, calling him by his name, whereby he was saved.” The Englishmen did what they could in reparation of their blunder. They gathered all the corn and other crops found ripe, leaving the rest unspoiled, and took the chief man’s wife and child and others of the savages back to Roanoke with them. Although Manteo was grieved at this mishap to his own people, he imputed their harm to their own 364folly, saying to them that if their Wiroances had kept their promise and come to the governor and reported at the time appointed they had not suffered such mischance.

A few days after the return from this expedition,—on the thirteenth of August,—the unique ceremony of christening the savage Manteo and investing him with the title of “Lord of Roanoke” was performed before the assembled colonists. This was done by order of Raleigh before the colonists left England, and was in reward of his faithful service. On the eighteenth was recorded the birth of a daughter “to Elenor, daughter to the Governour, and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the Assistants,” and on the Sunday following, the christening of the infant: “and because this child was the first Christian borne in Virginia, she was named Virginia.” Afterward—the date is not given—a child was born to the wife of Dyonis Harvie: the second white child born in the colony.

By about the third week in August the ships had unladen the goods and victuals of the planters and begun to take in wood and fresh water, and the workmen had started newly to calk and trim them for the return voyage to England; while the planters were preparing their home letters and “tokens” to go back on them. They were ready to depart on the twenty-first, when a violent tempest broke from the northeast. The “Lion,” then riding out of the harbour, was forced to cut her cables and put to sea. The planters feared that she had been cast away, the more so because at the time 365that the storm struck her the most and the best of her sailors were ashore. She, however, lay outside beating off and on for six days, and with clearing weather, on the morning of the twenty-seventh, she reappeared without the bar, and was riding beside the fly-boat, both again ready for the departure.

In the meantime some controversies had arisen between the governor and the assistants over the selection of two of their number to return with the ships as factors for the company to their associates in London. For none desired to go. After much persuading by the governor, Christopher Cooper agreed to be one of the two. But the next day, through the persuasions of “divers of his familiar friends,” he changed his mind, and withdrew his acceptance. Thereupon the whole company with “one voice” requested the governor himself to go. He, it was argued, could better and sooner than any other obtain the supplies and necessaries for the comfort and development of the colony. But he refused. He could not so soon return he declared, leaving behind so many whom he “partly had procured through his perswasions to leave their native countrey” and embark in this venture, without discredit. At his return in England some enemies of himself and of the enterprise “would not spare to slander falsely both him and the action, by saying hee went to Virginia but politikely, and to no other end but to leade so many into a countrey in which hee never meant to stay himselfe, and there to leave them behind him.” Besides, it had been agreed that the colony should 366presently remove fifty miles farther up into the main. If this should be done, and he being absent, his own stuff and goods might be spoiled, or pilfered in transportation, so that at his coming back he would be forced to provide himself of all such things again; and he had already had some proof of the insecurity of his property when once absent from the colony for only three days. Now stronger pressure was brought by his associates, and they agreed to give him their bond, “under all their handes and seales” for the safe preservation of all his things at his return to Virginia, so that if any were lost or spoiled such would be made good to him or his assigns. Under this pressure and with the execution of the bond, he reluctantly reversed his decision, and made ready to go.

Since Captain Ferdinando was now impatient to be off, the governor had only half a day’s time to prepare for sailing. He left Roanoke on the morning of the twenty-seventh and at midnight boarded the fly-boat. The next morning both ships weighed anchor.

Before he left the plantation White had agreed with the assistants that should the colony move from Roanoke before his return they should carve on a tree trunk or other conspicuous post, the name of the place to which they had gone.

Of his parting from his associates, or from his daughter Eleanor and his little grandchild, nothing is said in the record. Nor of the wistful farewells as the ships sailed off for the home that the more than a hundred colonists left behind were never again to see. Here 367their story abruptly ends. How they lived after the ships had sailed away, and how they perished, or what was their fate, none can tell. With the departure of Governor White history closes the chapter.

The return voyage was one of hardship and adventure. At the very start, at the weighing of their anchors, twelve of the fly-boat’s men were thrown from the capstan and hurt, and for a time only five of her complement of fifteen men were able to do the ship’s work. Nevertheless she kept company with the “Lion” for about twenty days. Then seeing that Ferdinando did not mean to make any haste for home, but was determined to loiter along the way in the hope of taking Spanish prizes, she left the admiral and struck out on her own hook for England. Repeated storms were encountered on the passage; through “foure dayes together” her master could see “neither sunne nor starre”; her fresh water gave out; several of her sailors sickened and two died. At length on the sixteenth of October she made the Irish coast and came to Smerwick. A few days after her arrival the boatswain, the steward, and the boatswain’s mate died. Subsequently White took passage on another ship, sailing from Dingen for England, and landed at Cornwall on the fifth of November. The fly-boat came up three days later to Hampton. Here it was learned that the “Lion” had arrived three weeks before, at Portsmouth. Ferdinando had experienced hard luck. He and his company “were not onely come home without any purchase [seizure] 368but also in such weaknesse by sicknesse and death of the chiefest men, that they were scarce able to bring their ship into harbour, but were forced to let fall their anker without which they could not wey againe, but might all have perished there if a small barke by great hap had not come to them to help them.”

White at his return found the whole kingdom in a turmoil over the threatened invasion by the “Invincible Armada” of Spain,—that “mightie” navy, “as never the like before that time had sailed the Ocean sea,” comprising nearly one hundred and forty grand ships and thirty thousand fighting men, among them many grandees and gentlemen volunteers,—Philip of Spain’s now open and bold stroke for the conquest of England, and her “reduction to his Catholic religion,” in revenge for the “disgrace, contempt, and dishonour” which he had “endured of the English nation.” Raleigh, Grenville, and Lane, the latter knighted after his return from America, were all members of the council of war that Elizabeth had hurriedly called together; while other friends of American colonization were engrossed in affairs of state. Scant attention, therefore, to the needs of the distant handful of colonists could be expected at this time of peril at home. Yet Raleigh was quick to act, and generously, in their behalf. In the thick of his activities for England’s defence, he found leisure to fit out, again at his own charges, a small fleet to be despatched at the earliest moment with supplies and probably a few new colonists. Grenville was to take charge as commander of this expedition, and White, of course, was 369to return with him. But before the ships were ready to sail all of them were impressed by the government, and Sir Richard was required to attend Sir Walter in Cornwall and train troops there. Not long after another attempt was made. White, with Raleigh’s aid, succeeded in obtaining two barks, and with these he sailed on the twenty-second of April, 1588, bound for Virginia. But their men were more anxious to fight the Spaniards than to hasten to the colony. In an encounter at sea with Spanish ships they were worsted and were obliged to limp back ingloriously to England. So this intended voyage was abandoned.

Nothing more was done or well could be done under the condition of affairs for nearly two years. In July and August, 1588, the “Invincible Armada” was defeated and dispersed. While with Howard, the lord high admiral, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher bore off the larger glory for this signal achievement, Raleigh shared in all the dangers of the protracted sea fight. But with the return of comparative tranquility he found himself too much reduced in means to prosecute his colonial projects to the extent of his desires. He had expended in his various ventures upward of forty thousand pounds for which he had received no return. Still he continued undaunted to do what he could to accomplish his ends. With his assistance in March, 1590, an opportunity opening, White made another effort to get to the colony, and this time succeeded in reaching “Virginia.”

The opportunity was furnished by an enterprise of 370John Watts, a London merchant. Watts had a fleet of three ships at Plymouth in readiness to sail ostensibly for a trading voyage to the West Indies, when they were held up by a general order of government prohibiting any vessel from leaving England. White hearing of this sought Sir Walter and proposed that he should use his influence to obtain a license for these ships to proceed on their intended voyage, upon the condition that they should transport White and a few other passengers with their belongings, together with a quantity of provisions, and land them at Virginia. Thereby, White urged, the “people of Virginia [if it were God’s pleasure] might speedily be comforted and relieved without further charges unto him.” Raleigh readily obtained the desired license, the ships’ owner to be bound to him or his assigns in three thousand pounds, to carry out the agreement. But, as White afterward wrote to Richard Hakluyt, the bond was not taken according to the terms. No passengers were permitted to embark or any goods to be shipped, except White alone with his chest. He was not even allowed “so much as a boy” for his personal service. This “crosse and unkind dealing” much “discontented” him; but the fleet being all ready to sail when he went aboard there was no time to make complaint to Raleigh. It was apparent that the “governours, masters, and sailors” of the enterprise, “regarding very smally the good of their countreymen in Virginia, determined nothing less [no more] than to touch at those places, but wholly disposed themselves to seek after purchase and spoiles.”

371The story of this quest, White’s last one, is White’s own “true discourse” written for Hakluyt, and presented with this title: “The fift voyage of M. John White into the West Indies and parts of America called Virginia, in the yeere 1590.”

At the start from Plymouth the fleet comprised the “Hopewell,” the “John Evangelist,” the “Little John,” and two small shallops. They sailed on the twentieth of March, and so much time was lost on the outward voyage, largely in chasing and taking prizes, that the Carolina coast was not reached till the beginning of August. Along the way they were joined by Captain Edward Spicer, with a pinnace, whom they had left in England.

They came first upon this coast in a storm, and on the third of August were off low sandy islands west of Wocokon. But the weather was so foul that they were forced to put to sea again, and there remain for six days, till the storm had abated. Then they came up to these islands and a landing was made on one of them, where they took in fresh water and caught a great quantity of fish. On the morning of the twelfth they sailed for the island of Croatoan, and at night came to anchor at its northeast end. On the fifteenth they were at Hastorask. On their first coming to anchor here they saw a “great smoke” rising from Roanoke Island, which put them, especially White, in “good hope” that the colony were there, still expecting his return from England. Bright and early next morning the impatient and expectant governor set out for Roanoke:

372"Our 2 boates went ashore & Captaine Cooke & Cap. Spicer & their company with me, with intent to passe to the place at Roanoak where our countreymen were left.

"At our putting from the ship we commanded our Master gunner to make readie 2 Minions and a Falkon well loden, and to shoot them off with reasonable space betweene every shot, to the ende that their reportes might bee heard to the place where wee hoped to finde some of our people. This was accordingly performed, & our twoe boats put off unto the shore: in the admirals boat we sounded all the way and found from our shippe untill we came within a mile of the shore, nine, eight, and seven fadome: but before we were halfe way betweene our ships and the shore we saw another great smoke to the Southwest of Kindrikers mountes [assumed to be sand hills near the present Nags Head, the highest on this coast]: we therefore thought good to go to that second smoke first: but it was much further from the harbour where we landed than we supposed it to be, so that we were very sore tired before wee came to the smoke.

“But that which grieved us more was that when we came to the smoke we found no man nor signe that any had bene there lately, nor yet any fresh water in all this way to drinke. Being thus wearied with this journey we returned to the harbour where we left our boates, who in our absence had brought their cask a shore for fresh water: so we deferred our going to Roanoak untill the next morning, and caused some of those saylers to 373digge in those sandie hills for fresh water whereof we found very sufficient. That night wee returned aboord with our boates and our whole company in safety.”

A fresh start was made on the following day as agreed, but under less favourable conditions, and a tragic happening almost at the outset much distressed this expedition:

“The next morning being the 17 of August our boates and company were prepared againe to goe up to Roanoak, but Captaine Spicer had then sent his boat a shore for fresh water by meanes whereof it was ten of the clocke aforenoone before we put from our ships which were then come to an anker within two miles of the shore. The Admirals boat [in which was White] was halfe wey toward the shore when Captaine Spicer put off from his ship. The Admirals boat first passed the breach, but not without some danger of sinking, for we had a sea brake into our boat which filled us halfe full of water, but by the will of God and carefull styrage of Captaine Cooke we came safe ashore, saving only that our furniture, victuals, match and powder were much wet and spoyled. For at this time the winde blew at Northeast and direct into the harbour so great a gale, that the Sea brake extremely on the barre, and the tide went very forcibly at the entrance. By the time that our Admirals boate was hailed ashore, and most of the things taken out to dry, Captaine Spicer came to the entrance of the breach with his mast standing up, and was halfe passed over, but by the rash and indiscreet styrage of Ralph Skinner his Masters mate, a very 374dangerous sea brake into their boate and overset them quite: the men kept the boat, some in it, and some hanging on it, but the next sea set the boat on ground, where it beat so that some of them were forced to let goe their hold, hoping to wade ashore; but the Sea still beat them downe, so that they could neither stand nor swimme, and the boat twise or thrise was turned the keel upward, whereon Captaine Spicer and Skinner hung untill they sunke & were seene no more. But foure that could swimme a little kept themselves in deeper water and were saved by Captaine Cookes meanes, who so soon as he saw them oversetting stripped himselfe, and foure other that could swimme very well, & with all haste possible rowed unto them & saved foure. They were 11 in all, & 7 of the chiefest men were drowned.”

This mishap so disturbed the sailors in White’s boat that they were “all of one mind not to goe any further to seeke the planters.” But through the persuasions and commands of White and Captain Cooke they recovered courage, and set to work refitting both boats. Then the remaining company, nineteen in all, put off once more. Before Roanoke Island was reached night had fallen, and in the darkness they overshot the place of plantation by a quarter of a mile. Toward the north end of the island they saw the light of a great fire through the woods, and in its direction they presently rowed. When they had come directly over against it they let fall their grapnel near the shore and sounded a trumpet call. This bringing no response they gave some familiar English tunes, then sang some English songs, and 375“called to them friendly.” Still there came no answer, and the hope that the colonists were here died out within them. At daybreak they landed, and coming to the fire they found grass and rotten trees burning, but no human beings about the place. Then they tramped through the woods to that part of the island over against Dasamonguepeuk, and thence returned by the water side round about the north point till they had reached the place where White had left the colony:

"In all this way we saw in the sand the print of the Salvages feet of 2 or 3 sorts troaden ye night, and as we entred up the sandy banke, upon a tree, in the very brow thereof were curiously carved these faire Roman letters

which letters presently we knew to signifie the place where I should find the planters seated according to a secret token agreed upon betweene them & me at my last departure from them, which was, that in any ways they should not faile to carve on the trees or posts of the dores [of their houses] the name of the place where they should be seated: for at my coming away they were prepared to remove from Roanoak 50 miles into the main. Therefore at my departure from them in An 1587 I willed them, that if they should happen to be distressed in any of those places, that then they should carve over the letters or name a Crosse in this forme ☩, but we found no such signe of distresse.

"And having well considered of this, we passed toward 376the place where they were left in sundry houses, but we found the houses taken downe, and the place very strongly enclosed with a high palisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers very Fort-like, and one of the chiefe trees or postes on the right side of the entrance had the barke taken off, and 5 foote from the ground in fayre Capitall letters were graven

without any crosse or signe of distresse: this done we entred into the palisado, where we found many barres of Iron, too pigges of Lead, foure yron fowlers, Iron sacker-shotte, and such like heavie things, throwen here and there, almost overgrowen with grasse and weedes.

"From thence wee went along by the water side towards the pointe or Creeke to see if we could find any of their botes or Pinnisse, but we could perceive no signe of them, nor any of the last Falkons and small Ordinance which were left with them at my departure from them. At our returne from the Creeke, some of our Saylers meeting us, tolde us that they had found where divers chests had bene hidden and long sithence [since] digged up againe and broken up, and much of the goods in them spoyled and scattered about, but nothing left, of such things as the Savages knew any use of, undefaced.

“Presently Captaine Cooke and I went to the place, which was in the ende of an olde trench, made two yeeres past by Captaine Amadas: wheere wee found five 377Chests, that had bene carefully hidden of the Planters, and of the same chests three were my owne, and about the place many of my things spoyled and broken, and my bookes torne from the covers, the frames of some of my pictures and Mappes rotten and spoyled with rayne, and my armour almost eaten through with rust; this could bee no other than the deede of the Savages our enemies at Dasamonguepeuk, who had watched the departure of our men to Croatoan [the island, not the main land so named, at Dasamonguepeuk, as on early maps]: and assoone as they were departed, digged up every place where they suspected anything to be buried: but although it much grieved me to see such spoyle of my goods, yet on the other side I greatly joyed that I had safely found a certaine token of their safe being at Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was borne, and the Savages of the Iland our friends.”

With these findings, the day being near spent, the party returned to their boats and made off for the ships as fast as possible for a stormy night threatened. They reached the ships in the evening and got aboard with “much danger and labour,” for the storm had now fallen with high wind and a heavy sea.

The next morning the ships were made ready immediately to sail for the island of Croatoan, the wind being good for that place, all hands fully expecting to come upon the colony there. But in hoisting the admiral’s anchor the cable broke, and the anchor was lost: whereupon the ship was driven so fast shoreward that she was forced to let fall another anchor, and this 378“came so fast home” that she barely escaped running ashore by “Kendricks mounts.” She fortunately got clear again but not without some injury. She now had but one cable, and but one anchor left of her equipment of four. Meanwhile the weather was becoming “fouler and fouler.” Under these conditions, and in view of their diminishing stock of victuals, together with the loss of a cask of fresh water that they had been obliged to leave on shore, it was decided that the visit of Croatoan must be given up for this time, and that, instead, the ships must at once make for Saint John or some other island to the southward for fresh water and new supplies. It was further proposed that the ships should winter in the West Indies, with the hope of making “two riche voyages of one”: and Captain Cooke of the admiral, at White’s earnest plea, agreed that they should then return to “Virginia” and again seek the colony at Croatoan.

But to this proposal the captain of one of the ships objected on the ground that his vessel was too weak and leaky to attempt to continue so long a voyage. Accordingly that night they parted company, this consort heading direct for England, and the admiral setting her course for Trinidad. So the Carolina coast was forsaken, and no return was made. After various adventures the admiral ultimately reached home with White heartbroken at his failure to reach his people, to whom he believed he had been so near.

The “evils and unfortunate events” attending this expedition, “as well to their owne losse as to the hindrance 379of the planters of Virginia,” he wrote Richard Hakluyt, “had not chanced if the order set downe by Sir Walter Ralegh had bene observed, or if my dayly & continuall petitions for the performance of the same might have taken any place.” And “thus,” he sorrowfully concludes, “you may plainely perceive the successe of my fift & last voiage to Virginia, which was no lesse unfortunately ended than frowardly begun, and as lucklesse to many as sinister to my self. But I would to God it had bene as prosperous to all, as noysome to the planters, & as joyfull to me as discomfortable to them. Yet seeing it is not my first crossed voyage, I remaine contented. And wanting my wishes, I leave off from prosecuting that whereunto I would to God my wealth were answerable to my will.” With this letter, written “from my house at Newtowne in Kylmore the 4 of February 1593,” White took leave of the matter, committing “the planters in Virginia to the merciful help of the Almighty.” He could do no more. From this time he seems to have remained in retirement in Ireland till the close of his life.

Of the fate of the Lost Colony conjectures of historians have been various. That they did actually replant themselves on the then existing “island of Croatoan,” presumed to have been some part of the banks lying between Capes Lookout and Hatteras, and in the present county of Carteret, is accepted as fairly proved by White’s finding of the inscription on the “chiefe tree” of the palisado at Roanoke. No further clue to the mystery of their passing is to be found, unless it be in 380this statement made a century and a quarter afterward by an early historian of Carolina (Lawson, 1714): “The Hatteras Indians who lived in Roanoke Island, or much frequented it, tell us that several of their ancestors were white people who could talk in a book as we do.”

Perhaps a remnant that survived massacre, misery, or homesickness were, as this statement implies, and the later Carolina historian, Hawkes, assumed, gradually incorporated with these friendly Indians and faded from civilization into the savage life.

With unquenchable hopefulness Raleigh continued his quest for the Lost Colony to the close of Elizabeth’s reign, and abandoned it only when forced to do so by the attainder of James stripping him of his rights and liberty. By Elizabeth’s last year he had fitted out at his own charges five several expeditions solely for this purpose. While during this period, 1589–1603, his marvellous energies had been directed in many channels, he had remitted no efforts for the succour of his colonists. While performing many parts,—courtier, captain of the queen’s guard, statesman, member of parliament, mariner, sea-fighter, explorer, gold seeker,—and with varying fortunes, now falling under the queen’s displeasure, imprisoned in the Tower of London, again restored to her favour, engaged in dazzling adventure, American colonization was ever paramount in his thoughts.

And how crowded with extraordinary activities by this most versatile of the Elizabethan men these years were, the record of his greater achievements, mostly chronicled in the Principal Navigations, shows. What 382he had done up to the time of White’s abandonment of the search for the Lost Colony in 1590 we have seen. In 1591 he was the organizer of a fleet for service against Spain’s American possessions, and was appointed second in command under Lord Thomas Howard. But the queen refusing to let him go out, his cousin Sir Richard Grenville was appointed in his place; and with this expedition Sir Richard’s career closed, he being wounded to death when off the Azores, the last of August, in one of the most stubborn and desperate sea-fights of naval history. The next year, 1592, Raleigh promoted the privateering expedition under Frobisher and Burroughs which captured, among other prizes in the West Indies, the “Madre de Dios,” greatest of the Spanish treasure-ships then afloat. It was in this year, in July, that he was disgraced and sent to the Tower, but in October, when the privateers had returned with their rich prize, the queen, who had the largest share in this privateering venture, released him, since he alone could superintend the division of the plunder. In 1593 he matured a plan for a voyage to the “Empire of Guiana” and the fabled “El Dorado,” the “citie of gold,” in the unexplored northwestern part of South America, of which the natives had told Spanish travellers, with mines far excelling those of Peru. In 1594, in accordance with this plan, he sent out a preliminary expedition, under an experienced navigator, Captain Jacob Whiddon, to explore the coast contiguous to the great River Orinoco, and also the river with its tributaries, above which “El Dorado,” or “Manoa” as called by the Indians, was 383supposed to lie. In 1595 he sailed himself for Guiana at the head of a fleet of five ships and a company of one hundred officers, soldiers, and gentlemen adventurers. By a perilous voyage in small boats he succeeded in penetrating the Orinoco far up to the mouth of the Caroni, and the latter river to impassable falls, yet two hundred miles short, as it was reckoned, of the “citie of gold.” Upon his return to England in the summer, with some specimens of ore which he had picked up along the way, and the son of a local king as a pledge of friendship against his next coming, he prepared, maybe with Hakluyt’s assistance, a glowing account of this voyage, embellished with the tales that had been told him of the wonders of the region besides its richness in mines: among them, the “Amazons,” a warlike race of great women, and the “Ewaipanoma,” a headless nation, whose eyes were in their shoulders and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and who wore “a long train of hair growing backward between the shoulders.” And when this story was printed, under the inviting title, “The Discouerie of the large, rich, and beautifull Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden citie of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El Dorado,” it was eagerly read and heightened his reputation. In 1596 he sent out Captain Laurence Keymis, a companion of his first voyage, with two well-equipped ships to renew the exploration of the Orinoco, especially with a view to planting an English colony in the region. Keymis returned in June with a report that confirmed Raleigh’s belief in its great mineral 384wealth. But at this juncture Raleigh was engrossed in a venture nearer home for checkmating Spain’s move of a second “Armada” against England. He was now united with Howard and the Earl of Essex in command of a fleet to attack Cadiz. With the ship “Warspite” he led the van in the great fight of June twenty-one which resulted in the destruction of the fleet intended for the descent upon England, and the capture of the city. Later, the same year, he despatched one of the smaller ships that had been in the Cadiz fight to Guiana, but this voyage had no important result. In 1597 he sailed as second in command with Essex in an expedition to strike another blow against Spain, and this was effectively done with the capture of Fayal. In 1598 his scheme of colonization in the fertile valley of the Orinoco had developed, and he planned to send out a colony. But for some reason not known the enterprise was abandoned. In 1600 he added to his several offices that of Governor of Jersey. In 1602 he despatched his fifth expedition for the relief of the “Virginia” colony.

This expedition was put in charge of Captain Samuel Mace, an excellent mariner, who had already made two voyages to “Virginia.” He returned unsuccessful and Raleigh planned to send him out again. Raleigh could not, however, do any more at his personal cost alone. He had now exhausted his own means in the undertaking which, as Hakluyt wrote, “required a prince’s purse to have it thoroughly followed out.” He had renewed his endeavours to bring the privy 385council into his scheme, but without success. Elizabeth’s end was approaching and her ministers were busy with their personal affairs, manœuvring for their own advancement with her successor on the throne. Notwithstanding his failure to find support his splendid hope for his “Virginia” was not crushed. On the eve of his own downfall, which came swift upon the accession of James, he had written, “I shall yet live to see it an English Nation.” This faith he carried with him to the Tower of London, into which James thrust him in December, 1603, under sentence of death on a trumped-up charge of treason; and while in durance here he saw his cherished hopes realized through Richard Hakluyt’s efforts.

In 1605 Hakluyt brought his arguments to bear upon various men of condition, friendly to colonization, to induce them to join in a petition for patents for the establishment of two plantations on the coast of North America. The issue of this petition was James’s charter bearing date of April tenth, 1606, by which the two companies, subsequently designated the London and the Plymouth Companies, were created, between whom were divided in nearly equal parts the vast territory then known as Virginia, stretching from Cape Fear to Halifax, and back a hundred miles inland: the company occupying the southern part to be called the “First Colony of Virginia” and that occupying the northern part, the “Second Colony of Virginia.”

Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, and Edward Maria Wingfield, as patentees, 386were the chief adventurers in the London or South Virginia Company. Ten of the nineteen adventurers styled merchants, remaining in England, at the establishment of the corporation of “The Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Ralegh in Virginia” became subscribers to the South Virginia Company. Sir Thomas Smith, chief among the nineteen merchants, was made their first treasurer. Just a year after the issue of the patent their “First Colony of Virginia,” sailing from England in December, 1606, arrived out at Chesapeake Bay, the region which Ralph Lane had determined as the fitter place than Roanoke for settlement, and in which Raleigh had directed White with the Second—the Lost—Colony to plant, as they would have done had Captain Ferdinando been true to them. And in May, 1607, the permanent settlement here was at last begun as Jamestown.

Raleigh was condemned to be executed on the eleventh of December, 1603, but the day before he was reprieved, and he was held a prisoner in the Tower, with this unjust sentence hanging over his head, for thirteen dismal years. During this cruel imprisonment his great talents were occupied in philosophic and literary work, and he wrote out his notable Historie of the World. Meanwhile his statesmanlike interest in the developing American colony continued constant and keen. At one time he sought release for a visit to Virginia, promising to bring the king rich returns therefrom. At length, in 1616, James liberated him for the purpose of 387making another expedition to Guiana upon his pledge to find the fabulous gold mine or else bear all the expenses of the undertaking. Thus at liberty, while making his preparations for this voyage, he was enabled to see Pocahontas from Virginia, who was in England that year. He sailed on his forlorn hope in June, 1617, with a fleet of fourteen ships and four hundred men, accompanied by his son Walter, and his faithful friend Captain Keymis. The expedition was a tragic failure, for his plans were betrayed to the court at Madrid, through the Spanish ambassador, under whose influence James had fallen, and immediate steps were taken to thwart them. The fleet were attacked by the Spaniards at a new Spanish settlement on the Orinoco, and in the fight that ensued young Raleigh was killed. Sir Walter himself had been detained at Trinidad, sick with a violent fever, and when the report of this disaster with the loss of his beloved son was brought to him, his stout heart was broken. Upon his return to England he was rearrested at the representation of the Spanish ambassador, on a charge of breaking the peace with Spain. Again he was thrust into the Tower. Trial was denied him, and the truculent James, at the behest of the king of Spain, now ordered his execution, finding a legal cover for this judicial murder in the original sentence of 1603. He was brought before the Court of King’s Bench on the twenty-eighth of October, 1618, and the next morning was beheaded on Tower Hill, meeting death with great fortitude. “Prythie, let me see the axe, dost thou think, man, I am afraid of it?” he asked 388of the executioner; “a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases.”

In St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, is the beautiful Raleigh Window, the gift of Americans, with this inscription from the pen of James Russell Lowell:

Hakluyt’s monument is the Hakluyt Society, worthy among historical institutions, in the membership of which Americans are united with Englishmen, founded in England in the first half of the nineteenth century, in a manner to continue Hakluyt’s work through the printing of hitherto unpublished or rare accounts of voyages and travels, so to open an easier way to a branch of knowledge which, as the founders truly say, “yields to none in importance and is superior to most in agreeable variety.”

“For any one who has an interest in travel, in adventure, and in the hardihood of the pioneer this is a great story.”—Baltimore Herald.

“Probably no incident in the Winning of the West exceeds or even equals in romantic interest that pioneer journey across the continent by Lewis and Clark.”—The Churchman.

“It is concise, comprehensive, and readable, and will be useful to young and old alike. The book is illustrated by reproductions of drawings from Catlin, Schoolcraft, and other early observers. Ernest Thompson Seton contributes four animal drawings.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“More readable than a romance, full of hair-breadth escapes and imminent perils from savage man and beast, by storm and flood, by sickness and cold and starvation.”—Chicago Post.

“Unconsciously as he reads of the brave deeds, the boy’s heart is thrilled and his higher nature throbs with knightly longings.”—Philadelphia Times.

“He who walks in the way these following ballads point will be manful in necessary fight, fair in trade, loyal in love, tender in the household, plain in speech, simple in behavior, and honest in all things.”

“It is quite the beau ideal of a book for a present to an intelligent boy or girl.”—Baltimore Gazette.

“Amid all the strange and fanciful scenery of these stories, character and the ideals of character remain at the simplest and purest.”—The Independent.

The great hero stories of Persia retold from the Shah Naameh and beautifully illustrated. What Homer was to Greece and Virgil to Rome, Firdusi was to Persia, and there are no more thrilling stories of fighting and adventure than those of Rustem, the champion of the Heroic Age of Persia, quite different as they are from the tales of every other nation. Rustem was as brave and chivalrous as any of King Arthur’s knights and had just as many adventures and trials, and the story of his heroism and knightly courtesy, coupled with all the mysticism and splendor of the East, make this book a fascinating one. The book has a striking cover of Persian design.

The most interesting parts of Catlin’s famous book about the North American Indians and their history and habits and customs in war, peace, and hunting, arranged for boys and superbly illustrated from reproductions of the author’s drawings. George Catlin, the Indian painter, lived among the Indians and studied them at close range, and his story of the dangers and hardships of the war-path, the hunting and trapping, and life in the villages when they were at peace with their neighbors, and the illustrations cannot fail to interest the American boy who is fond of healthy out-door sports and adventures. The book is edited and arranged for boys by Mary Gay Humphreys.

Transcriber’s Note

The punctuation of the index, especially the use of semi-colons and commas, seemed inconsistent, and has been regularized to use commas to separate page references.

Spelling, in quotations from original documents, has been left as printed, due to the idiosyncratic nature of the orthography of the various times. Occasionally, odd (to the modern eye) phrases are seemingly misquoted. Our 'as soon as' is most frequently spelled, in Hakluyt, 'assoone as', and where another variant (e.g., 'assoonas' on p. 319) appears, the typical spelling is provided.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

60.1	As[ ]soone therefore as we came to the Court	Inserted.
64.20	[n/m]ay not of any other of our subjects be frequented	Replaced.
97.3	one of them called “The Dominus [R/V]obiscum.”	Replaced.
129.26	carried cargoes of Engp[il/li]sh merchandise	Transposed.
164.6	followed at a safe di[ts/st]ance	Transposed.
171.12	began an ass[ua/ua]lt with a flight of arrows	Transposed.
217.30	for the performances of the premisses;[”]	Added.
243.3	He headed one c[a/o]mpany	Replaced.
307.10	A[t] length, after “great torment of weather and perill of drowning,”	Inserted.
319.24	but [assoonas/assoone as] she espied	Replaced.
396.11	“Menatonon,” [I]ndian king,	Restored.
400.30	“Second Colony of Virginia,[”]	Added.

CHAPTER		PAGE

I.	Beginnings of America	1
II.	Richard Hakluyt the Man	17
III.	“The Principal Navigations”	32
IV.	The Early Voyages	36
V.	Quest for the Northwest Passage	53
VI.	The Voyages of the Cabots	62
VII.	The English Claim to America	77
VIII.	Ventures in the Cabots’ Track	90
IX.	The Northeast Passage	96
X.	The Opening of Russia	104
XI.	Voyages for the Muscovy Company	124
XII.	Revival of the Northwest Theory	143
XIII.	Frobisher in Arctic America	150
XIV.	The Lust for Gold	176
XV.	Hawkins in Florida	197
XVI.	Drake’s Great Exploits	227
XVII.	On the Pacific Coast	253
viiiXVIII.	Gilbert’s Voyages	285
XIX.	Footprints of Colonization	308
XX.	“Virginia”	322
XXI.	Raleigh’s Lost Colony	351
XXII.	Jamestown	381

Queen Elizabeth Going Aboard the “Golden Hind”
	From a painting by Frank Brangwyn.	Frontispiece
		FACING
		PAGE

Fac-simile of Title-page of “Divers Voyages”		10
	From the copy in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building).

Fac-simile of Title-page of the Third, or American, Volume of Hakluyt’s “Voyages,” Edition of 1598–1600		32
	From a copy of the original edition in the New York Public Library (Lenox Building).

“The Great Harry,” an English Ship of the Fifteenth Century		50

Kidder’s Sketch-map of John Cabot’s Voyage in 1497		69

King Henry VIII		94
	From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker and Boutall, of a painting.

Sebastian Cabot at About Eighty Years of Age		136
	Reproduced from the engraving in Seyer’s "History of Bristol," published in 1823. The original painting was attributed to Holbein and was destroyed by fire in 1845.

Martin Frobisher		144

Queen Elizabeth		180

ixSir John Hawkins		198

Sir Francis Drake		228

Drake Overhauling a Spanish Galleon		268

Sir Walter Raleigh at the Age of Thirty-four		310
	From a photograph, copyrighted by Walker and Cockerell, of the portrait attributed to Federigo Zaccaro in the National Portrait Gallery.

The Arrival of the Englishmen in Virginia		324
	From a drawing by John White, of Raleigh’s first colony, 1585.

A Map of Virginia, 1585		350
	From the map in Hariot’s “Relation.”

The Lost Colony		376

A Spanish Galleon of the Sixteenth Century		382

THE
BOY’S HAKLUYT
ENGLISH VOYAGES OF
ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY

PREFACE

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

I
BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA

II
RICHARD HAKLUYT THE MAN

III
“THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS”

IV
THE EARLY VOYAGES

V
QUEST FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

VI
THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS

VII
THE ENGLISH CLAIM TO AMERICA

VIII
VENTURES IN THE CABOTS’ TRACK

IX
THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE

X
THE OPENING OF RUSSIA

XI
VOYAGES FOR THE MUSCOVY COMPANY

XII
REVIVAL OF THE NORTHWEST THEORY

XIII
FROBISHER IN ARCTIC AMERICA

XIV
THE LUST FOR GOLD

XV
HAWKINS IN FLORIDA

XVI
DRAKE’S GREAT EXPLOITS

XVII
ON THE PACIFIC COAST

XVIII
GILBERT’S VOYAGES

XIX
FOOTPRINTS OF COLONIZATION

XX
“VIRGINIA”

XXI
RALEIGH’S LOST COLONY

XXII
JAMESTOWN

INDEX

THE BOY’S HAKLUYT ENGLISH VOYAGES OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY

PREFACE

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

I BEGINNINGS OF AMERICA

II RICHARD HAKLUYT THE MAN

III “THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS”

IV THE EARLY VOYAGES

V QUEST FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

VI THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS

VII THE ENGLISH CLAIM TO AMERICA

VIII VENTURES IN THE CABOTS’ TRACK

IX THE NORTHEAST PASSAGE

X THE OPENING OF RUSSIA

XI VOYAGES FOR THE MUSCOVY COMPANY

XII REVIVAL OF THE NORTHWEST THEORY

XIII FROBISHER IN ARCTIC AMERICA

XIV THE LUST FOR GOLD

XV HAWKINS IN FLORIDA

XVI DRAKE’S GREAT EXPLOITS

XVII ON THE PACIFIC COAST

XVIII GILBERT’S VOYAGES

XIX FOOTPRINTS OF COLONIZATION

XX “VIRGINIA”

XXI RALEIGH’S LOST COLONY

XXII JAMESTOWN