Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/231

 ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS OF 1527 AND 1536 177 the northwest would be only 2480 leagues. Two ships were despatched in this year, including, according to Hakluyt's account, the Dominus Vobiscum " The Lord be with you." One of the vessels perished off Newfoundland; the other returned, leaving the possi- bility of a northwestern p'as- sage much as it was before. A more persistent attempt was made in 1536 by Master Hore of London " a man of goodly stature and of great courage and given to the study of cosmography." With him went " many gentlemen of the Inns of Court and of the Chan- cery, and divers others of good worship desirous to see the strange things of the world ' sixty men in all, of whom thirty were well born. Start- ing in April, 1536, from Graves- end in two small vessels (one of 120 tons) they reached the coast of Newfoundland. There the crews were driven by starvation to eat each other's flesh. In vain Hore upbraided them " in a notable oration, recounting how these dealings offended the Almighty." They cast lots as to who should next die, but " such was the mercie of God that the same night there arrived a French ship in that port well furnished with victual, and such was the policie of the English that they became masters of A SPANISH SHIP OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.