CHAP. Wards; but Frobisher, in a vessel not much surpassing III. in tonnage the barge of a man-of-war, made his way,

1576. fearless and unattended, to the shores of Labrador.

1577.

1

and to a passage or inlet north of the entrance of Hudson's Bay. A strange perversion has transferred the scene of his discoveries to the eastern coast o! Greenland; it was among a group of American islands, in the latitude of sixty-three degrees and eight minutes, that he entered what seemed to be a strait. Hope suggested that his object was obtained; that the land on the south was America; on the north was the continent of Asia; and that the strait opened into the immense Pacific. Great praise is due to Frobisher. even though he penetrated less deeply than Cabot into the bays and among the islands of this Meta Incognita, this unknown goal of discovery. Yet his voyage was a failure. To land upon an island, and, perhaps, on the main; to gather up stones and rubbish, in token of having taken possession of the country for Elizabeth: to seize one of the natives of the north for exhibition to the gaze of Europe;-these were all the results which he accomplished.

What followed marks the insane passions of the age. America and mines were always thought of together. A stone, which had been brought from the frozen regions, was pronounced by the refiners of London to contain gold. The news excited the wakeful avarice of the city there were not wanting those who endeavored to purchase of Elizabeth a lease of the new lands, of which the loose minerals were so full of the precious metal. A fleet was immediately fitted out, to procure more of the gold, rather than to make any

1 Forster's Northern Voyages, 274-284; Hist. des Voyages, t. xv 94-100.

FROBISHER'S SECOND VOYAGE.

83

27.

7.

further research for the passage into the Pacific; and CHAP. the queen, who had contributed nothing to the voyage of discovery, sent a large ship of her own to join the 1577 expedition, which was now to conduct to infinite opulence. More men than could be employed volunteered their services; those who were discharged resigned their brilliant hopes with reluctance. The mariners, having received the communion, embarked May for the arctic El Dorado, "and with a merrie wind" soon arrived at the Orkneys. As they reached the June north-eastern coast of America, the dangers of the polar seas became imminent; mountains of ice encompassed them on every side; but as the icebergs were brilliant in the high latitude with the light of an almost perpetual summer's day, the worst perils were avoided. Yet the mariners were alternately agitated with fears of shipwreck and joy at escape. At one moment they expected death; and at the next they looked for gold. The fleet made no discoveries; it did not advance so far as Frobisher alone had done.' But it found large heaps of earth, which, even to the incredulous, seemed plainly to contain the coveted wealth; besides, spiders abounded; and "spiders were" affirmed to be "true signs of great store of gold." In freighting the ships, the admiral himself toiled like a painful laborer. How strange, in human affairs, is the mixture of sublime courage and ludicrous folly! What bolder maritime enterprise, than, in that day, a voyage to lands lying north of Hudson's Straits! What folly more egregious, than to have gone there for a lading of useless earth! But credulity is apt to be self-willed. What is there which the passion for gold will not prompt? It defies

1 Best, in Hakluyt, iii. 95.

How rich, then, the alcoves of a

2 Settle, in Hakluyt, iii. 63. library!

III.

CHAP. danger, and laughs at obstacles; it resists loss, and anticipates treasures; unrelenting in its pursuit, it is deaf to the voice of mercy, and blind to the cautions of judgment; it can penetrate the prairies of Arkansas, and covet the moss-grown barrens of the Esquimaux. I 1578. have now to relate the first attempt of the English, under the patronage of Elizabeth, to plant an establishment in America.1

It was believed that the rich mines of the polar regions would countervail the charges of a costly adventure; the hope of a passage to Cathay increased; and for the security of the newly-discovered lands, soldiers and discreet men were selected to become their inhabitants. A magnificent fleet of fifteen sail was assembled, in part at the expense of Elizabeth; the sons of the English gentry embarked as volunteers; one hundred persons were chosen to form the colony, which was to secure to England a country more desirable than Peru, a country too inhospitable to produce a tree or a shrub, yet where gold lay, not charily concealed in mines, but glistening in heaps upon the surface. Twelve vessels were to return immediately with cargoes of the ore; three were ordered to remain and aid the settlement. The north-west passage was now become of less consideration; Asia itself could not vie with the riches of this hyperborean archipelago. But the entrance to these wealthy islands was renMay dered difficult by frost; and the fleet of Frobisher, as to it now approached the American coast, was bewildered Sept. among immense icebergs, which were so vast, that, as they melted, torrents poured from them in sparkling waterfalls. One vessel was crushed and sunk, though the men on board were saved. In the dangerous

1578.

31,

28.

1 Hakluyt, iii. 71–73.

FROBISHER ABANDONS META INCOGNITA.

III.

85

mists, the ships lost their course, and came into the CHAP. straits which have since been called Hudson's, and which lie south of the imagined gold regions. The 1578 admiral believed himself able to sail through to the Pacific, and resolve the doubt respecting the passage. But his duty as a mercantile agent controlled his desire of glory as a navigator. He struggled to regain the harbor where his vessels were to be laden; and, after encountering peril of every kind; "getting in at one gap and out at another;" escaping only by miracle from hidden rocks and unknown currents, ice, and a lee shore, which was, at one time, avoided only by a prosperous breath of wind in the very moment of extreme danger, he at last arrived at the haven in the Countess of Warwick's Sound. The zeal of the volunteer colonists had moderated; and the disheartened sailors were ready to mutiny. One ship, laden with provisions for the colony, deserted and returned; and an island was discovered with enough of the black ore "to suffice all the gold-gluttons of the world." The plan of the settlement was abandoned. It only remained to freight the home-bound ships with a store of minerals. They who engage in a foolish project, combine, in case of failure, to conceal their loss; for a confession of the truth would be an impeachment of their judgment; so that unfortunate speculations are promptly consigned to oblivion. The adventurers and the historians of the voyage are silent about the disposition which was made of the cargo of the fleet. The knowledge of the seas was not extended; the credulity of avarice met with a rebuke; and the belief in regions of gold among the Esquimaux was dissipated; but there remained a firm conviction, that a passage to the

CHAP. Pacific Ocean might yet be threaded among the icebergs and northern islands of America.1

to

While Frobisher was thus attempting to obtain wealth and fame on the north-east coast of America, the western limits of the territory of the United States became known. Embarking on a voyage in quest of 1577 fortune, Francis Drake acquired immense treasures as 1580. a freebooter in the Spanish harbors on the Pacific, and, having laden his ship with spoils, gained for himself enduring glory by circumnavigating the globe. But before following in the path which the ship of Magellan had thus far alone dared to pursue, Drake determined to explore the north-western coast of America, in the hope of discovering the strait which connects the oceans. With this view, he crossed the equator, sailed beyond the peninsula of California, and followed the continent to the latitude of forty-three degrees, corresponding to the latitude of the southern 1579. borders of New Hampshire. Here the cold seemed intolerable to men who had just left the tropics. Despairing of success, he retired to a harbor in a milder latitude, within the limits of Mexico; and, having refitted his ship, and named the country New Albion, he sailed for England, through the seas of Asia. Thus was the southern part of the Oregon territory first visited by Englishmen, yet not till after a 1542. voyage of the Spanish from Acapulco, commanded by Cabrillo, a Portuguese, had traced the American con

June.

tinent to within two and a half degrees of the mouth 1593. of Columbia River;3 while, thirteen years after the

1 On Frobisher, consult the original accounts of Hall, Settle, Ellis, and Best, with R. Hakluyt's instructions, in Hak. iii. 52-129.

2 Course of Sir Francis Drake, Hak. iii. 524; Johnson's Life of Drake.

3 Forster's Northern Voyages