the 2nd of July, they reached what they supposed to be the mouth of Frobisher Strait, Christopher Hall, the chief pilot, maintained that they had made a mistake, and that he had never seen that passage before. George Best, who afterwards wrote a narrative of the three voyages, was of the same opinion, and Frobisher himself seems to have been doubtful of the latitude: but, whatever the passage, it was so much obstructed by ice that the ships were unable to enter it. A storm arose, and their position became perilous. One of the barks was crushed by the ice, but the crew were saved by the boats of the other ships, which were all the time in imminent danger of the same fate. The wind presently abated, however, and then changed to the westward, and the exhausted seamen saw, with much thankfulness, the masses of ice which had so lately threatened them with destruction drifting into the open sea. These word-pictures of Arctic ice and snow recall the passage (Psalm cxlvii.)-" He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth: His word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth His ice like morsels: who can stand before His cold?"

Frobisher now sailed into the passage, but a thick fog came on, and the ships became separated. They were in constant danger from fogs and floating ice for fourteen days, but then the fog rose, and, though they were still beset with ice, the crews were able to see and avoid the danger with which it threatened them. Frobisher landed on an island in Bear Sound, which he named after the Countess of Sussex, and picked up some mineralogical specimens, supposed to be gold ore, but probably iron or copper pyrites; but the weather continued unfavourable for exploration, and on the 31st of July, the two vessels having joined company the preceding day, the expedition sailed for England. Stormy weather was

Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

33

encountered on the return voyage, and they were again separated, but both reached the Thames in safety towards the end of September.

Then came, in 1583, the disastrous expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a pious and learned gentleman, who undertook to explore and settle Newfoundland. As a voyage of discovery, this trip was altogether fruitless. Sir Humphrey found what a "curious minerall man and refiner" he had with him told him was silver ore. He also noticed the prosperous fisheries the "Portugals" and French had set on foot on the cod-banks, established Her Majesty's authority, and started for home with his head fuller than ever of getting to China and the Moluccas, and "bringing off the salvages from their diabolical superstitions to the embracing the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Christ."

On the return home, the largest ship," the admirall,” named the Delight, went down, with nearly a hundred men, including the poor refiner, silver ore and all. Then came the great storm, and the scene that every English schoolboy has pictured to himself, of the little Squirrel, of ten tons, carrying the admiral's flag, tossing like a bubble on the huge Atlantic swell. Then the noble old knight refusing to forsake his "little company" for the larger ship. Then the red stormy sun, as it set, shining on the labouring bark, and the grey, gentle old man, "sitting abaft, with a booke in his hand." Then the last brave, quiet words, "Courage, lads! we are as near heaven by sea as by land." Then the dark night, and in the morning the waste of tossing water once more; but no ship, and no Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

"Eastward from Campobello

Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed :

Three days or more he seaward bore,

Then, alas! the land-wind failed.

Ꭰ .

Alas! the land-wind failed,

And ice-cold grew the night;
And never more, on sea or shore,
Should Sir Humphrey see the light.

He sat upon the deck,

The Book was in his hand;

'Do not fear! Heaven is as near,'

He said, 'by sea as by land.""

The attempt to discover a north-west passage was renewed in 1585 by John Davis, who had a strong belief in the existence and practicability of such a passage, though he says, in his narrative of his discoveries, he was "not experienced of the nature of those climates, and having no direction, either by chart, globe, or other certain relators, in what latitude that passage was to be searched." Sailing from Dartmouth, he steered a north-westerly course, which brought him to Greenland," the land being very high, and full of mighty mountains, all covered with snow, no view of wood, grass, or earth to be seen, and the shore two leagues off into the sea so full of ice as that no shipping could by any means come near the same." He followed this desolate coast to the west and north until they "were past all the ice, and found many green and pleasant hills bordering upon the shore, but the mountains of the main were still covered with great quantities of snow."

In the latitude of sixty-four degrees, "or thereabout," Davis anchored in a harbour which, from the situation, seems to have been that called by the Danes, Goodhaab; and there he was visited by the natives, whom he describes as " of good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, and of tractable conditions." Understanding from their signs that there was a great sea towards the north and west, and finding the sea free from ice, he steered a north-westerly course, "thinking thereby to pass for China;" but, on reaching the sixty-sixth parallel of latitude,