Part 11

All things being in readiness, “the sayd captaine Frobisher, with the rest of his company, came aboord his ships riding at Blackwall intending (with Gods helpe) to take the first winde and tide serving him, the 25 day of May, in the yere of our Lord God 1577.... On Whitsunday being the 26 of May ... early in the morning, we weighed anker at Blackwall, and fell that tyde down to Gravesend, where we remained untill Monday at night. On Munday morning the 27 May, aboord the Ayde we received all the Communion by the Minister of Gravesend, and prepared us as good Christians towards God, and resolute men for all fortunes: and towards night we departed to Tilbery Hope. Tuesday the eight and twenty of May, about nine of the clocke, at night, we arrived at Harwitch in Essex and there stayed for the taking in of certaine victuals, untill Friday being the thirtieth of May, during which time came letters from the Lordes of the Councell, straightly commanding our Generall not to exceed his complement and number appointed him, which was one hundred and twentie persons: whereupon he discharged many proper men which with unwilling mindes departed. He also dismissed all his condemned men [men from the prisons who had been incarcerated for petty crimes] which he thought for some purposes very needfull for the voyage, and towards night upon Friday the one and thirtieth of May we set saile and put to the Seas again.”

Sailing with a “merrie wind,” on the seventh of June they reached the Orkneys and put in at one of them for a supply of fresh water, greatly frightening the islanders at their appearance, who thought them pirates. Here they tarried for a day, the gentlemen and soldiers being permitted to go ashore for their recreation. Again at sea, they shortly met three English fisher ships homeward bound from Iceland, and they improved this opportunity to send letters home to England. After twenty-six days without sight of land they came, on the fourth of July, “within the making of Friesland.” Ten or twelve leagues from the Greenland shore they encountered huge icebergs, “great Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some lesse in compasse, showing above the sea 30 or 40 fathoms.”

About Greenland, Settle shiveringly remarked that “in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of sweete gums & pleasant notes of musicall birdes which other Countreys in more temperate zones do yeeld,” they “tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt with snow and haile in June and July.” But Best found it more cheery despite the Boreal blasts. As he observed, “for so much of this land as we have sailed alongst comparing their [the brothers Zeno’s] carde on the coast, we finde it very agreeable.” One day when they lay becalmed they did a little fishing, and Best spins this fine fish yarn: “We ... let fall a hooke without any bayte [bait] and presently caught a great fish called a Hollibut who served the whole companie for a day’s meale.” As on his first voyage, Frobisher made several attempts with his shipboat to get ashore, but could not overcome the bulwarks of ice.

Four days and nights were spent in coasting Greenland, and then the fleet struck out on the last stage of the voyage. On the way they ran into a great storm in which the “Michael” had her topmast blown overboard, and the other ships were hard strained. On the sixteenth of July “Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland” was sighted: and the next day the “North Foreland” or “Hall’s Island” (named for Christopher Hall), “near-adjacent” to the place where the ore had been found on the first voyage. Here both chroniclers assumed—accepting Frobisher’s theory—that they were come between the two “forelands,” near by “the supposed continent of America” on the one side and the “supposed continent of Asia” on the other and at the opening of the “straits” to the real “passage.”

Now Frobisher hastened off with the goldfiners for a prospecting trip on the island where the ore was first taken up, while the ships sought a harbour. As Settle’s account proceeds: “At our first comming the streights seemed to be shut up with a long mure [wall] of yce which gave no little cause of discomfort unto us all: but our Generall ... with two little Pinnesses prepared of purpose passed twice thorow [through] them to the East shore and the Islands thereto adjacent.” Best relates the mournful outcome of this prospecting: “He could not get in all that Iland a peece so big as a Walnut, where the first was found.” Some of his band, however, who sought other islands thereabouts had better luck, for they were found “all to have good store of ore.” With these good tidings he returned to his ship “about tenne of the clocke at night, and was joyfully welcomed by the companie with a volie of shot.”

Early the next morning Frobisher again started out with a larger party, forty “gentlemen and souldiers,” for further prospecting, and also to find a fit harbour for the ships; and this day, on the summit of a snow-capped hill, a dramatic scene was enacted, with the taking possession of the country for England, and a service of thanksgiving, all kneeling in a circle about the English ensign. Best was of this party, and his relation alone describes these pious ceremonies on the lonely hill-top.

“Passing towardes the shoare with no small difficultie by reason of the abundance of yce which lay alongst the coast so thicke togither that hardly any passage through them might be discovered, we arrived at length upon the maine of Halles greate Iland, and found there also as well as in the other small Ilands good store of the Ore. And leaving his boates here with sufficient guardes we passed up into the countrey about two English miles, and recovered the toppe of a high hill, on the top whereof our men made a Columne or Crosse of stones heaped up of a good height togither in good sort, and solemnly sounded a Trumpet, and said certaine prayers kneeling about the Ensigne, and honoured the place by the name of Mount Warwicke, in remembrance of the Right Honourable the Lord Ambrose Dudley Earle of Warwick, whose noble mind and good countenance in this, as in all other good actions, gave great encouragement and good furtherance. This done we retyred our companies not seeing anything here worth further discoverie, the countrey seeming barren and full of rugged mountaines and in most parts covered with snow.”

No natives were seen during these performances. But as the party were marching toward their boats, their flag at their head swaying in the Arctic summer breeze, hearing strange noises like the “mowing of bulls,” and looking back, they espied a group on the summit of Mount Warwick earnestly signalling them. Frobisher, understanding this peculiar cry as a call of invitation for a meeting, answered with like cries, and also caused a trumpeter to sound his horn. Whereat “they seemed greatly to rejoice, skipping, laughing, and dancing for joy.” Then signs were made to them, two fingers being held up, signifying that two of the English company would meet two of theirs, in the open, apart from both companies; and by other signs it was conditioned that each couple should be without weapons. The proposal was accepted, and the meeting held with much show of friendliness on both sides. Trifling presents were exchanged, and the companies were cordially invited to visit each other. The natives would have the Englishmen “goe up into their countrey,” while the Englishmen offered the natives “like kindnesses” aboard their ships. But evidently neither “admitted or trusted the others courtesie.”

The day being now nearly spent, the Englishmen abruptly broke off the palavering and resumed the march to their boats. The whole body of natives followed at a safe distance, with “great tokens of affection” entreating them to remain. When near the boats Frobisher and Hall turned back, and meeting two representatives as before again “went apart” with this couple. Their intention was, under cover of further confab, to seize these two unawares and carry them to the “Ayde.” A lively tussle ensued, closing with the successful performance of a “Cornish trick” by one of the company, who came to the captain’s assistance at a critical moment. The performer was a Cornishman renowned among his fellows as a wrestler:

“The Generall and his Maister being met with their two companions togither after they had exchanged certaine things the one with the other, one of the Salvages [savages] for lacke of better merchandise cut off the tayle of his coat (which is a chief ornament among them) and gave it unto our Generall as a present. But he [the general] presently upon a watchword given with his Maister, sodainely [suddenly] laid hold upon the two Salvages. But the ground underfoot being slipperie with the snow on the side of the hill, their handfast fayled and their prey escaping ranne away and lightly recovered their bow and arrowes, which they had hid not farre from them behind the rockes. And being onely two Salvages in sight they so fiercely, desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pursued our Generall and his Master, being altogether unarmed, and not mistrusting their subtiltie, that they chased them to their boates and hurt the Generall ... with an arrow, who the rather speedily fled backe, because they suspected a greater number behind the rockes. Our souldiers (which were commanded before to keepe their boates) perceiving the danger, and hearing our men calling for shot, came speedily to rescue thinking there had been a greater number. But when the Salvages heard the shot of one of our calivers (and yet having just bestowed their arrowes) they ran away, our men speedily following them. But a servant of my Lorde of Warwick, called Nicholas Conger, a good footman, and uncombred with any furniture having only a dagger at his backe, overtook one of them, and being a Cornishman and a good wrestler, shewed his companion such a Cornish tricke that he made his sides ake for a moneth after.”

So one was captured while the other escaped. With this “new and strange prey” the captain and his companions finally embarked on their boats. But it had become too late to reach the ships, and a storm had arisen. Accordingly they crossed to a small island to tarry the night. They had neither eaten nor drunk through the day, and now could refresh themselves only with a scant supply of victuals which had been put in the boats for their dinner. Then they lay down upon “hard cliffes of snow and yce,” wet, cold, and comfortless; and so, “keeping verie good watch and warde,” the night was spent.

Meanwhile the ships in the bay were having a perilous time of it. Settle relates that they were “forced to abide in a cruell tempest, chancing in the night amongst and in the thickest of the yce which was so monstrous” that they would have been shivered to pieces had not the lightness of the night enabled them to shift about and avoid the rushing ice floes. And Best tells of an earlier peril escaped. The “Ayde” had been set afire through the “negligence of the Cooke in over-heating, and the workman in making the chimney,” and she was saved from destruction only by a ship-boy’s chance discovery of the flames. The next morning, however, opened fair and tranquil. Then “the Generall espying the ships, with his new Captive and whole company, came happily abord, and reported what had passed a shoare.” And then “altogither upon our knees we gave God humble and heartie thankes, for that it had pleased him, from so speedy peril to send us such speedy deliverance.”

That day, the twentieth of July, the ships “stroke over” from the northern shore toward the southern, and the next day a bay was discovered running into the land, which seemed a likely harbour for them. Thither Frobisher, again taking the goldfiners, rowed, to “make proofe thereof,” and at the same time to search for ore on this side, having as yet assayed nothing on the south shore. The sands and cliffs of the islands here visited “did so glister” in the sun and had so “bright a marquesite,” that “it seemed all to be gold.” But, unhappily, upon trial it “prooved no better then [than] black-lead.” Thus, as the philosophic Settle observed, and Best echoed, was verified the “old proverb, All is not gold that glistereth.” On one island, indeed, a mine of silver was struck, but the stuff was not to be “wonne [won] out of the rockes without great labour.” On another, in lieu of precious metal, was discovered, “embayed in yce” a carcass of a great “sea unicorn,” or morse, with a “horne of two yardes long growing out of the snout,” "like in fashion to a Taper made of waxe." And this unicorn’s horn was the sole trophy of the prospecting on this side. It was long afterward to be seen in England, being “reserved as a Jewel by the Queenes Majesties commandement in her wardrobe of Robes.” The harbour, however, appeared satisfactory, and on the next day the ships bore into the sound and came to anchor. This sound they named “Jackman’s Sound,” after the mate of the “Ayde.”

The ships now being in fair “securitie” another formal entry into the country was made and a thanksgiving ceremony performed. Best’s relation is Settle’s account enlarged: “Tuesday the three and twentieth of July our Generall with his best company of gentlemen, souldiers and saylers, to the number of seventie persons in all, marched with ensigne displyede up the continent of the Southerland (the supposed continent of America), where, commanding a Trumpet to sound a call for every man to repaire to the ensigne, he declared to the whole companie how much the cause imported for the service of her Majestie; our countrey, our credit, and the safetie of our owne lives, and therefore required every man to be conformable to order, and to be directed by those he should assigne. And he appointed for leaders, Captaine Fenton, Captaine Yorke, and his Lieutenant George Beste: which done, we cast our selves into a ring, and altogither on our knees, gave God humble thanks for that he had pleased him of his great goodnesse to preserve us from such imminent dangers, beseeching likewise the assistance of his holy spirite, so to deliver us in safetie unto our Countrey, whereby the light and truth of these secrets being knowen, it might redound to the more honour of his holy name, and consequently to the advancement of our common wealth. And so, in as good sort as the place suffered, we marched towards the tops of the mountains [as stated by Settle, now and then heaping up stones on them in token of possession] which were no lesse painfull in climbing then [than] dangerous in descending, by reason of their steepnesse & yce. And having passed about five miles, by such unwieldie wayes, we returned unto our ships without sight of any people, or likelihood of habitation.”

Inspired by this journey to further exploration, several of the company urged Frobisher to permit them to march with a picked band thirty or forty leagues inland to discover it, and “do some acceptable service” for England. But he, “not contented with the matter he sought for [that is, gold], and well considering the short time he had in hand, and the greedie desire our countrey hath to a present savour and returne of gaine,” declined their petition at that juncture, and “bent his whole indevour only to find a Mine to fraight his ships.” After he had found freight for the barks he would hope to “discover further for the passage” through the supposed strait.

So on the twenty-sixth he set off again for the northland, taking the two barks, and leaving the “Ayde” alone riding in Jackman’s Sound. That night he came to anchor in a little haven to which he gave the name of “Bear’s Sound,” for the master of the “Michael.” Here more trouble was encountered. “The tydes did runne so swift, and the place was so subject to indrafts of yce,” that the barks were in constant danger. Still, they rode without serious injury through the next day, while the party having found “a very nice Myne, as they supposed” on a neighbouring island (named by them Leicester’s Island), managed to get together “almost twentie tunne of ore.” But the next day the ice came driving into the sound with such force that both barks were “greatly distressed,” and it became imperative at once to get away from this dangerous place. Thus they were obliged to leave the ore they had dug up in a pile on the island. They got off on the next flood toward morning. About “five leagues” beyond they came upon another sound, so “fenced on eche [each] side with smal ilands lying off the maine, which breake the force of the tides,” as to form an exceptionally good harbour. Accordingly they decided to anchor here, under one of the isles. Then landing, they found on this isle such an abundance of ore “indifferent good,” that they concluded to load here rather than to seek further “for better and spend time with jeoperdie.”

This decision being reached the miners were put diligently to work, Frobisher setting a good example by his own energetic action, and every man of the party “willingly layd to their helping hands.” The “Michael” was despatched back to Jackman’s to bring up the “Ayde,” and on the last day of July the ships were all in this haven, and all of the company busy at mining. Within twenty days from the start of these operations nearly two hundred tons of the supposed ore had been shipped, and preparations had begun for the homeward voyage. Meanwhile a little fort had been built on the island for accommodation and defence. This was devised by Best, and his name was given it as “Best’s Bulwark.” Both sound and island were named the “Countess Warwick’s Sound and Island,” in honour of “that vertuous Ladie, Anne Countesse of Warwicke.” The Countess of Warwick’s land is the Kod-lu-narn of to-day.

While the work of mining was going forward on this island more scrimmages with the natives were had. Captain Yorke of the “Michael,” when coming up from Jackman’s Sound, had a sharp fight with a body of them on the shore of a little bay, afterward called for him “Yorke’s Sound.” And here, in one of their seal-skin tents, were found relics—an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and shoes—of the five Englishmen whom the natives had captured on the first voyage. Thereupon rescue parties were sent out; a letter advising the lost men, if any were alive, of the presence of their friends, was left in the custody of those of the natives who seemed the most friendly, with pen, ink, and paper for communicating their whereabouts; and threats of reprisal were made if the men were not produced or their fate disclosed: but all to no purpose. One rescue party under Master Philpot, the ensign, came into conflict with a group off Yorke’s Sound, who began an assault with a flight of arrows; and on their flying retreat Philpot’s men captured a young woman and child to add to the living “prey” to be taken back to England. Several of the natives, when wounded by the Englishmen’s return fire, leapt into the sea and drowned themselves. The young woman was taken with an old one, the two “not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one for her age, and the other being incombred” with the child. Some of the pursuing Englishmen suspected the old woman of being “eyther a devill or a witch,” and to satisfy themselves on this fearful point, they “had her buskins plucked off to see if she was cloven footed.” She was finally let go because of her “ougly [ugly] hue and deformity.”

Fuller information about the natives and their customs was given in the narratives of this voyage than of the first one. Settle describes the men as “of a large corporature and of good proportion.” They wore their hair “something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very disorderly.” The women also wore long hair, but theirs was “knit up with two loupes, shewing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest foltred upon a knot.” Their apparel was comprised of “skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinews of them.” These garments were made with “hoods and tailes which tailes they give when they thinke to gratifie any friendship shewed unto them: a great sign of friendship with them.” Their legs were encased in “hose of leather with the fur side inward, two or three pairs on at once.” These stockings were held up by a bone placed inside them, reaching from the foot to the knee, instead of by garters. In them they carried their “knives, needles, and other things needful to beare about.” The beasts, fishes, and fowls that they killed provided all their wants. They were their “meat, drinke, apparell, houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails of their boates, with many other necessaries,” and “almost all their riches.”

Their weapons comprised bows and arrows, darts, and slings. The bows were of wood, “a yard long, sinewed at the back with strong sinews.” The bow-strings were also sinews. The arrows were wooden, half a yard or a little more in length, “nocked with bone and ended with bone,” feathered, and of three styles of heads: one, of stone or iron, “proportioned like to a heart”; another, of bone with a hooked tip; the third, of bone sharp on both sides and sharp pointed. The darts were of two kinds, one with “many forkes of bone in the fore end and likewise in the midst,” the other with “a long bone made sharpe on both sides, not much unlike a Rapier.” Their boats were of leather, “set out on the inner side with quarters of wood artificially tyed together with thongs of the same”; and they were of two sorts: one large, to carry sixteen or twenty men, and provided with a sail made of the “guts of such beasts as they kill very fine and thin, which they sew together”; the other, a canoe, intended for one man only, with a single oar or paddle.