Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/411

 lost and that he had purchased her sails, and that the Phillip and Mary had sailed from Dronton waters for England in the previous March, where, as we learn from another source (, i. 285), she arrived in the Thames the following April. After what manner Borough terminated this voyage we have no information beyond the statement that he was unable to make his way back to Kholmogro on account of adverse winds. It is more than probable that after a short stay in Vado Bay for victualling he directed his course for England, where he arrived at the end of the summer of 1567. Borough's yearly voyages to the north were followed by a journey to the south, whether undertaken on his own behalf or that of the Merchant Adventurers we have no means of determining. Hakluyt writes: 'Master Steuen Borrows tolde me that newely after his returne from the discouerie of Moscouie by the North in Queen Maries daies, the Spaniards, having intelligence that he was master in that discouerie' (probably the one of 1553), 'tooke him into the cotractation house [at Seville] at their admitting of masters and pilots, giuing him great honour, and presented him with a payre of perfumed gloues worth fiue or six Ducates' (Divers Voyages, preface). Hakluyt's reference to 'Queen Maries daies' limits our choice to one of two dates for this journey to Spain, either 1555 (see ante) or 1558. The most probable opinion seems to be in favour of 1558, as we have no record of Borough resuming his yearly voyages to St. Nicholas until two years later. In May 1560 Borough once more took charge of a fleet of three snips in what is known to students of Hakluyt. as the seventh voyage of the Merchant Adventurers to Moscovy. Borough's ship, the Swallow, was freighted with broadcloths, kerseys, salt, sack, raisins, and prunes, which were to be exchanged for foxskins, furs, &c.; we are also informed that 'one of the pipes of seeker [i.e. sherry] in the Swallow, which hath two round compasses upon the bung, is to be presented to the emperour (Ivan IV), for it is special good.' Borough also carried instructions to bring home Anthony Jenkinson, whom he must have found at St. Nicholas waiting to return with the fleet, after his famous journey across the Caspian into Central Asia (, i. 309, 335). Although Borough's name is not mentioned, it may be fairly assumed that his last voyage to Russia was once more in command of the Swallow and two other vessels, which conveyed Jenkinson to St. Nicholas in May 1661, on his journey through Russia as ambassador to Persia. Borough s career may be conveniently divided into two portions, the first as servant to the merchant adventurers trading to Russia, the second as servant to the queen. His first had now terminated. The causes which led to his appointment under the crown may be traced in no very indirect way to his visit to Spain; this, as we have already suggested, may reasonably be assumed to have taken place shortly before the death of Queen Mary, which event took place on 17 Nov. 1558. One of the results of Borough's visit to Spain was the translation of the 'Breve commendio de la sphera y de la arte de navegar, por Martin Cortes,' Seville, 1651, undertaken of the scholarly Richard Eden, at the cost and charges of the merchant adventurers, and known in its English dress as 'The Arte of Navigation,' London, 1561, in the preface to which Eden writes: 'Steuen Borough was the fyrst that moued to haue this work translated into the Englyshe tongue.' Another result, and a most important one for Borough, was his appointment on 3 Jan. 1563 as chief pilot and one of the four masters of the queen's ships in the Medway. It hardly admits of doubt that the main factor in assisting the queen's advisers in their decision in making this dual appointment was the able document drawn up by Borough soon after his return from Spain, bearing the following title: 'Three especiall causes and consideracons amongst others whether the office of Pilott maior ys allowed and estemed in Spayne, Portugale, and other places where navigaĉon flourisheth.' Drafts of Borough's appointment and the above document are preserved in the British Museum Library (Lansd. MS. 116, 10 pp.) The objects in view in creating the office of chief pilot were the instruction and examination of seamen in the art of navigation; but as no machinery existed for carrying these out efficiently, as in the contractation house in Seville, the former appointment was allowed to lapse. Borough's attention in those stirring times being wholly directed to the surveying of ships in the Medway at Gillingham and Chatham. This employment, varied by sundry services at sea, of which we have no record, extended over a period of twenty years. Borough died in his sixtieth year, and was buried in Chatham Church, where a monumental brass to his memory is preserved in the chancel, bearing the following inscription: 'Here lieth buried the bodie of Steven Borough, who departed this life ye xij day of July in ye yere of our Lord 1684, and was borne at Northam in Devonshire ye xxvth of Septemb. 1525. He in his life time discouered Moscouia, by the Northeme sea passage to St. Nicholas, in the yere 1553. At his setting foorth of England he was 