1554-1575.] His Voyages to Africa and elsewhere.

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of body, sent him in a ship to the Gold Country of Guinea, in company of other ships set out by divers merchants of London." That was in the autumn of 1554. The expedition in which young Frobisher was put to learn seamanship was the first, with the exception of a short tentative voyage undertaken in the previous year, in which Englishmen explored the western coast of Africa, and followed in the track of Portuguese voyagers past the Cape of Good Hope to India. Its commander was John Lock, either the uncle or the brother of Michael Lock, and the adventurers, after traversing the Gold Coast, landed and made a beginning of a prosperous trade in elephants' teeth and African gold. They returned to London in the summer of 1555. For the next eleven years we hear nothing of Frobisher; but it is pretty certain that he continued the occupation in which his rich kinsman had started him, and shared in some of the expeditions which were every year despatched either to the west coast of Africa or to its northern shores and the district of the Levant. By the summer of 1566, at any rate, he had risen to the rank of captain. On the 30th of May, and again on the 11th of June, in that year, he was examined by order of the Queen's Council on suspicion of having fitted out a ship with the intention of using it in piratical ways. Of the issue of that examination we are ignorant, and we lose sight of him for five other years. We can only infer that he continued to make way as

* HAKLUYT, vol. ii., part ii., pp. 14—23.

† RECORD OFFICE MSS., Domestic Series, vol. xl., Nos. 2-7.

sailor, trader, and pirate-piracy being an employment which in those times was either praised or punished according to its value or inconvenience to the State. In August, 1571, we find that a hulk was being built for him at Portsmouth, with the sanction, if not under the direction, of Lord Burghley, to be used in furtherance of Elizabeth's plans for the subjugation of Ireland and the annoyance of Irishmen, and he appears to have been frequently employed upon Irish work during the next two or three years. This employment brought him into close relationship with the State and under the immediate notice of Queen Elizabeth. It probably also secured for him the friendship of Sir Henry Sidney and of Sidney's brother-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, as well as of Sidney's favourite, Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

One result of these associations was the Queen's letter conveyed, as we have seen, in December, 1574, by Frobisher to the Muscovy Company. The Company found Russian trade so profitable that it demurred to Queen Elizabeth's suggestion of a voyage in quest of Cathay. Thereupon without delay the Queen sent a second message, ordering that, if the Company refused itself to take the matter in hand, it was to grant a licence for the enterprise to certain adventurers who desired to embark upon it. A licence was accordingly granted, in February, 1575, to Master Martin Frobisher and divers gentlemen associated with him; and out of

* RECORD OFFICE MSS., Domestic Series, vol. lxxx., Nos. 31, 54; Irish Series, vol. xxxviii., No. 48.

1574-1575.] of a New Cathayan Enterprise.

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that grew Frobisher's three voyages in search of a north-west passage to the Indies.*

The chief promoter of the work was Sir Humphrey Gilbert; but his pupils appear to have soon grown jealous of him, and while they zealously pursued their quest his services were well-nigh forgotten.

* Lock's Memoir, in Cotton MSS., Otho E. viii., fols. 41-43.

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CHAPTER VI.

MARTIN FROBISHER'S THREE VOYAGES IN THE DIRECTION OF CATHAY.

[1575-1579.]

THE licence granted to Martin Frobisher and his partners in the enterprise for finding a north-west passage to Cathay was dated the 3rd of February, 1575. During the next sixteen months the friends were busily preparing for the work. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, no great traveller, brought the results of long study and much scientific observation, but, having little money with which to second his arguments, and meeting with much opposition from richer and less learned men, soon turned aside from it in chagrin, or only watched its progress from a distance. Michael Lock was the richest of the group, and his influence with City people secured promises of assistance from others richer than himself, and helped to bring into the little company of schemers some men of large experience and scientific observation. Science was represented by Dr. Dee, the astrologer. The advisers of most practical experience in northern voyaging were Stephen Burrough, the old associate of Willoughby and Chancelor, and Anthony Jenkinson, the famous Russian traveller and early advocate of a

1575.]

The Preparations for Frobisher's Voyage. 125 north-eastern voyage to the Indies. Frobisher himself brought great experience in seamanship, acquired in more temperate regions, and the favour of Queen Elizabeth and Lord Burghley; but, as Lock alleged four years afterwards, when the friends had quarrelled, very little liking from some supporters of the project.

The first thing to be done was to collect money enough for the enterprise. Lock himself subscribed 1007.; and Sir Thomas Gresham, then fifty-six years old, and at the height of his commercial greatness, William Bird, then Customer-that is, chief collector of customs -of London, and Alderman William Bond, also contributed 1007. a piece; Lord Burghley, the Earl of Sussex, the famous Earl of Leicester, and his brother the Earl of Warwick, each subscribed 507.; and promises of 251. a piece were given by Leicester's nephew, Philip Sidney, by Secretary Walsingham, by Anthony Jenkinson, by Lionel Duckett, the great merchant of London, and by four other gentlemen. Thus a fund of 8751. was secured; but this, though the amount must be multiplied by six or seven, to get its equivalent in modern currency, was quite insufficient for carrying out the project, and no more could be collected in time for action during the summer of 1575. At that, says Lock, Frobisher was "a sad man." In a very boastful account of his services in the work, which must be read with some distrust, however, Lock represents that he pledged himself to secure its accomplishment in the following year; and then Frobisher was "alive again." In default of other assistance, Lock reports that he him