However, be this as it may, the utter worthlessness of the ore, which was nothing better than micaceous sand, similar to that sent home by the first Virginian planters, was not yet known, and, consequently, the greatest excitement was exhibited on all hands. Special commissioners— gentlemen of great judgment, art, and skill-were appointed by her Majesty, "to look thorowly into the cause for the true triall and due examination thereof, and for the full handling of all matters thereunto appertayning."

The commissioners made a most favourable report, both on the ore and the prospects of a passage to India; though upon what evidence it was based is not known; indeed, the whole of the proceedings of these functionaries is wrapped in great mystery. Arrangements were therefore made for another expedition, on a much grander scale, which embraced likewise a scheme of settlement. For this purpose, one hundred mariners, miners, soldiers, gentlemen, gold-finers, bakers, and carpenters, were selected from the numerous applicants; and the frame of a large house was also constructed, which was to be erected on their arrival at their destination.

The fifteen vessels of which the expedition consisted, assembled at Harwich, on the 27th May, 1578, whence they sailed on the 30th of the same month. About the middle of August, the fleet, after having passed through the most fearful dangers during their progress up the strait, had all assembled in the Countess of Warwick's Sound, with the exception of the Dennis, which had foundered with part of their wooden house on board,

plexions, he did not think he would find those articles in great abundance..-Navarette "Collection," tome 2, document 68. (Washington Irving's "Life of Columbus.")

and the Thomas of Ipswich, which had furtively sailed for England.

The most undaunted courage and ready skill was shown by the commanders of the several vessels during their struggle with the elements at the mouth of the strait. "Some of the ships, where they could find a place more cleare of yce, and get a little berth of sea roome, did take in their sayles, and there lay adrift, other some fastened and moored anker upon a great island of yce, that they were faine to submit themselves and their ships to the mercy of the unmerciful ice, and strengthen the sides of their ships with junk of cables, beds, masts, planks, and such like, which being hanged overboard, on the sides of their ships, might better defend them from the outrageous sway and strokes of the said *** and some even without boord, upon the yce, and some within boord upon the sides of their ships, having poles, pikes, pieces of timber, and ores in their hands, stood almost day and night without any rest, bearing off the force, and breaking the sway of the yce, with such incredible paine and perill, that it was wonderfull to beholde."

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But, "at length it pleased God with his eyes of mercy to look down from Heaven;" he had listened to the prayer so devoutly offered up by those "overlaboured and forewatched" men, who kneeled about the mainmast, and supplicated him for deliverance, and had "sent them help in good time."

The very next day, a fresh wind from W. N. W. drove the ice before it, and gave them an open sea, through which to pursue their course.

"Then ensued a scene which is thus graphically described: some in mending the sides of their ships, some in setting up their topmast and mend

ing their sayles and tacklings; againe, some complayning of their false stemme borne away, some in stopping their leakes, some in recounting their dangers past, spent no small time and labour.'" Their repairs in some measure finished, Frobisher again turned his attention to the prosecution of the voyage. "The seventh of July as men nothing yet dismayed, we cast about toward the inward, and had sight of land, which rose in form like the Northerland of the Straits, which some of the fleetes, and those not the worst mariners, judged to be the North foreland: however other some were of contrary opinion. But the matter was not well to be discerned by reason of thicke fogge which a long time hung upon the Coast, and the new falling snow which yearely altereth the shape of the land, and taketh away oftentimes the Mariners marks. And by reason of the darke mists which continued by the space of twentie days together, this doubt grew the greater and the longer perilous. For whereas indeed we thought ourselves to be upon the Northeast side of Frobishires Straits we were now carried to the Southwestward of the Queen's Foreland, and being deceived by a swift current coming from the Northeast, were brought to the Southwestward of our said course, many miles more than we did think possible to come to pass.5

"The tenth of July, the weather still continuing thicke and darke, some of the ships in the fogge lost sight of the Admirall, and the rest of the Fleete, and wondering to and fro, with doubtful opinion, whether it were best to seeke backe againe to seaward through the great store of yce, or to follow on a doubtful course in a Seas Bay or Straights they knew not, or along a coast, whereof, 5 Hakluyt, v. iii., p. 79.

by reason of the darke mistes, they could not discerne the dangers, if by chance any rocke or broken ground should lie off the place, as commonly in those parts it doth.6

"The Generall, albeit, with the first, perchance, he found out the error, and that this was not the olde straights, yet he persuaded the fleete alwayes that they were in their right course, and knowen straights. Howbeit, I suppose, he rather dissembled his course.” "And as some of the companie reported, he has since confessed that if it had not been for the charge and care he had of the fleete and freighted ships, he both would and could have gone through to the South Sea, called Mar del Sur, and dissolved the long doubt of the passage which we seeke to finde to the rich countrey of Cataya.

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There can be little doubt but that this strait which "Christopher Hall, the chief pilot, stood up and declared, in the hearing of all the crew, that he had never seen before," was that which is now known by Hudson's name. Whether Frobisher's motive for not "dissolving the long doubt of the passage to the rich countrey of Cataya," was really "the charge and care he had of the fleete," or whether, as the author of Cabot's biography, anxious to build up Pelion upon Ossa the fame of his hero, declares, "his own eager sympathies with the more sordid objects of pursuit which induced him to turn away from the peril and the glory of the onward course," will probably never be determined. But it seems hard to judge so harshly a man whom we have shown, in danger, to have been possessed of such great courage and presence of mind; and whom, in other respects, history has recorded to have been one of the worthiest of the naval worthies of Queen Elizabeth's

reign, or to think that he would have turned aside from the attainment of what he well knew was one of the principal objects of his voyage, without a very good and sufficient reason for so doing.

Indeed, if we look at it in one light, his whole mind seems to have been intent on the establishment of the colony; and it was not until that was found impracticable, that he proposed to attempt some discovery, in order to redeem, as far as possible, the unfortunate character of the voyage; which proposal, however, met with the disapprobation of the other commanders.

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The fleet, therefore, turned back from the glorious path which was before them; but their retreat was as unfortunate as their entrance had been. They became so involved in fogs and violent currents, 'which, even in a moment, turned them round about, after the manner of a whirlpool," that they entirely lost all knowledge of their locality, and became dispersed in all directions, individually suffering the greatest hardships, and passing through countless dangers.

When Frobisher subsequently arrived at his purposed haven, the prospects of the proposed settlement became a matter for serious consideration. The greater part of the materials for the house had been destroyed, either in the foundering of the Dennis, or in suspending them from the sides of the ships, to meet the strokes of the ice.

The dangers they had passed through had destroyed most of their provisions, of which, though so large a quantity had been brought out, there now scarcely remained sufficient for a hundred men during one year. It was therefore determined to abandon the enterprise, and accordingly this was effected, though not without considerable damage to some of the vessels.