Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/24

20 icy regions of the Arctic Circle. Two ships, the Bear, galleon of 400 tons, and the Edward Bonaventure, of 300, were contributed by the Queen, and two smaller craft, of 60 tons and 40 tons respectively, furnished by private enterprise, constituted the fleet.

The command was entrusted to Edward Fenton, a scion of a well-known Nottinghamshire family, who with a spirit common in that age had abjured the easy life of a country gentleman for a career of adventure. He had sailed in Frobisher's second voyage for the discovery of the North-West passage in command of one of the vessels of the fleet. But apart from this he had had little experience in seamanship. What he lacked in this respect was supplied by the second in command, Wm. Hawkins, a member of the famous Plymouth family, who had all the genius of his race for navigation.

Unhappily, from the outset of the expedition a keen rivalry arose between the two commanders as a result of the superior attainments of the subordinate. Fenton was domineering and headstrong, and he was altogether lacking in the steadfastness which was necessary to bring to a successful conclusion so arduous and even perilous an enterprise as a voyage to the East then was.

When the fleet reached St. Helena at the end of September the eccentric admiral was seized with the fantastic idea of annexing the island and proclaiming himself king of it. The little Atlantic islet, to be rendered famous more than two centuries later by Napoleon's incarceration upon it, is an agreeable resting-place after a long voyage, but it was then far too isolated and exposed to be held for a year by any power that did not possess absolute mastery at sea. This truth was ultimately realized by Fenton,