Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/288

 provide a boat to convey the earl away’ (ib. Irish series, xxxviii. 48). This happened at Lambeth in the previous August, while Desmond was a hostage in England. This and other services brought him under the notice of the queen, and also that of her favourite, Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q. v.] In 1566 Sir Humphrey penned his famous ‘Discourse to prove a Passage to the North West,’ afterwards published in 1576. While yet in manuscript it appears to have been the chief incentive to a letter being addressed by the queen to the Muscovy Company, near the close of 1574, calling upon them either to despatch another expedition in this direction, or to transfer their privileges to other adventurers. The bearer of the letter was Frobisher, to whom a license was granted by the company 3 Feb. 1575, with divers gentlemen associated with him. Out of this grew Frobisher's three voyages in search of a North-West passage. The chief promoter of Frobisher's first voyage was Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick [q. v.], who, with other adventurers, enabled Frobisher to fit out the Gabriel and the Michael, two small barques of twenty-five tons, and a pinnace of ten tons. Frobisher sailed from the Thames on 7 June 1576, sailing up the North Sea, past the Shetland and Faroes. On 11 July he sighted Cape Farewell, the southern point of Greenland, which he judged to be the Friesland (or Faroes) of the brothers Zeni. Shortly afterwards in a storm he lost the company of the Michael, and his pinnace was lost. The Michael returned to Bristol on 1 Sept. On 20 July Frobisher sighted Queen Elizabeth's Foreland, near the south-east end of Frobisher Bay, which he supposed to be a strait. Passing over to the northern shore, he sailed westward into the bay ‘above fifty leagues, having upon either hand a great main or continent.’ The one on his right he supposed to be Asia, and the other on his left, America. After an exchange with the natives of bells, looking-glasses, and toys for their coats of seals and bear skins, and capturing an Esquimau with his canoe, he returned to Harwich 2 Oct. 1576, and thence to London, ‘where he was highly commended of all men … for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay’ ( in, iii. 59). One of the sailors in this first voyage brought home a piece of black pyrite, which an Italian alchymist named Agnello, in defiance of the London goldsmiths, pronounced to contain gold. Whereupon preparation was made for a second voyage the following year, Frobisher being ‘more specially directed by commission for the searching more of this gold ore than for the searching any further discovery of the passage’ (, ib. iii. 60). This falsehood proved the ruin of Frobisher's Arctic expeditions, when the truth became known after the termination of his third voyage. In reply to petitions tendered by Frobisher and his friends, a charter was issued to the Company of Cathay 17 March 1577, with Michael Lock as governor for six years, and Frobisher as captain-general and admiral of the ships and navy of the company. In addition to his two old small barques, the Michael and Gabriel, the latter in charge of Edward Fenton [q. v.], the queen also provided one of her large ships, the Aid, of two hundred tons, the inventory of which is one of the curiosities of naval history (, p. 218). All things being prepared for a second voyage, the fleet left the Thames 27 May 1577, and proceeded on the course of the previous voyage, calling at Kirkwall in the Orkneys. Sailing hence 8 June, two days later they met three sail of Englishmen from Iceland, by whom they sent letters to England. On 4 July Frobisher sighted Greenland, which he again identified with the Friesland of the Zeni brothers, of which Best writes: ‘For so much of this land as we have sayled alongst, comparing their carde with the coast, we find it very agreeable’ (, iii. 62). We have here the earliest mention of the use of the Zeno map in northern navigation. After a storm, in which the Michael was nearly wrecked, the fleet met once more on 17 July at Hall's Island, at the north entrance to Frobisher Bay, ‘whence the ore was taken up which was brought into England this last year’ (1576), the said Christopher Hall, master of the Gabriel, ‘being present at the finding’ ( in, iii. 63). From this period until 23 July Frobisher explored the south part of Meta Incognita, including Jackman's Sound, where, instead of gold, he found the horn of a sea unicorn or morse, which was afterwards ‘reserved as a jewel by the queen's maiestie's commandement in her wardrobe of robes’ (ib. iii. 65). Passing over to the north shore on 29 July, he proceeded to the Countess of Warwick's Island (Kod-lun-arn), where ‘wee found good store of gold to our thinking plainly to bee seen, whereupon it was thought best to load here than to seek further for better’ (, ib.) By the middle of August Frobisher loaded his ship with about two hundred tons of this precious mineral while exploring the northern mainland, building a fort called Best's Bulwark, and capturing a native woman and man. Having altered his determination for any further discovery of the passage through the straits westward, on 24 Aug. Frobisher sailed for England, where he arrived at Milford