Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/200

148. Among these adventurers, Magus Hennisen, after having surmounted many difficulties and dangers, got sight of the land, which, however, he could not approach. At his return, he pretended that the ship had been arrested in the middle of her course by rocks of load-stone at the bottom of the sea.

The same year, 1576, in which this attempt was made, Captain Martin Frobisher was sent on the same errand by Queen Elizabeth. He likewise descried the land; but finding it so difficult of approach, returned to England; but not before he had sailed sixty leagues in the strait which retains his name, and landed on several islands, where he had some communications with the natives. He had likewise taken possession of the country in the name of Queen Elizabeth; and brought away some pieces of ore, from which the refiners of London extracted a proportion of gold. In the ensuing spring, he undertook a second voyage at the head of a small squadron equipped at the expense of the public; entered the straits again; discovered upon an island a gold and silver mine; bestowed names upon different bays, islands, and headlands; and brought away a lading of ore, together with two natives, a male and a female. Such was the success of this voyage, that another squadron was fitted out under the command of the same officer, with the rank of admiral; it consisted of fifteen ships, including a considerable number of soldiers, miners, smelters, carpenters, &c., who were to remain all the winter