STATE PAPERS SUBSEQUENT TO THE FIRST VOYAGE

STATE PAPERS SUBSEQUENT TO THE FIRST VOYAGE.

[Otho, E ., viii, fol. 46 (47) ; Colonial, 27.]

Captayn hath now allready and hath put that matter owt o f [all dowbt] that he there hath found the same seas [passing from] the one into the other. Neither nede I [say an yth in g touching the naturall riches and infinit t[reas]or and the great traffik o f rich merchandise th[at] is in those cuntries of Kathay, China, India, and [other] cuntries therabouts, for that every boke o f histo[ry or] cosmography o f those parts o f the world, which a[re] to be had in euery prynters shop, doo declare [the] same at large: and the cuntries o f Spayn and Portingale doo fynde and feele the same to their great ioy. But o f the matters that chiefly moved me to enterprise and avance this new voyage, and to venture my mony therein so largely : I will say briefly that three things chiefly moved me thereto. F irs t: The great hope to fy[nde] our English seas open into the seas o f East India by that way, which I conceved by the great likelyhood therof which I found in reading the histories o f many mens travailes toward that parte o f the world, whereby we might have passage by sea to those rich cuntries for traffik o f merchandize, which was the thing I chiefly desyred. Secondly : I was assured by manifolde good proofs o f dyvers travailers and histories, that the cuntries o f Baccaleaw, Canada, and the new fownd lands thereto adioining, were full o f people and full o f such commodities and merchandize, as are in the cuntries o f Lappia, Russia, Moscovia, Permia, Pechora, Samoietza, and the cuntries thereto adioyning, which are furres, hydes, wax, tallow, oyle, and other. Whereby y f yt should happen those new lands to stretch to the north pole so that we could not have passage by sea that way which we sought to the northwestward to pas into East India, yet in those same new lands to the northwestward might be established the like trade of merchandize, as is now, in the other sayd cuntries o f the that on the sea coasts to the northwestwards [abunda]nce of flsh o f many kyndes, and o f wha[les and other grejat flashes wherof the trane oyle is made [and the best] place for flashing therof that is in any pla[ce in the w]orld whereby would allso grow to the

realm, and [to all the] followers therof great riches and benefit. And now, to speake o f the good mynde and sufficient [courage] o f this rare and vali­ ant Captayn Martyn Froby[sher], who hath thus put his lyfe in so great hazard and endured such great labours for thebenefit o f his cuntry, as the like is not to be read o f in any history, y f his dooings and theirs be duly consydered and compared. M y eloquence and wit are unsufficient duly to declare the same. Nevertheles, according to my small talent therein, I will briefly show my good will towards him in declaring the truthe o f him and his dooings according to m y knowledge and true information had thereof, referring his due commendations therefore unto other whom God shall move in due tyme to doo the same, according to his great good deserts. H e was borne at o f honest parentage--jentlemen o f a good house and antiquity, who, in his youth for lak o f good scholes therabout, sent him to London, being o f the age o f yeres, where he was put to Sir John York, knight, now deceased, being his kinsman ; who, perceiving him to be o f great spirit and bould courage, and naturall hardnes o f body, sent him in the ship named to the hote cuntry o f Guinea in company o f other ships which were set owt by dyvers merchants o f London, Anno Domini

in which voyage &c., [t]hus being furnished with ship[s and all other things] necessary in as ample manner as the [funds supplied] would reach: in the name of God he set [sail and depa]rted withall on his voyage from Ratclyfe the vii day o f June, anno domini 1576, and [G raves­ end the x iiday o f June aforesayd. And bei[ng ath]wart o f Harwith the xiii day with a contrary wynd he put into Harwich, and departed agayn from thence [on the] xiiii day, and passing along the.coast northwards with skant wyndes was put agayn to Harwich three tym[es], and arived at Yarmouth Road the xviii111 day, and set sail from thence the xixth day, and with fayr weather arived at the lie o f Shotland the xxvi day o f June, wher[e] they ankered one tyde to refresh their water. And the same day at night set sayle agayne with a large wynd and fayr weather on their way northwestward untill th[e] x x x tb day, wheron the weather grew to very great storm, which continued untill the viii day o f July, in which tyme they could beare no manner o f sayle. And in the sayd night they lost the sight o f their small pynnes having three men therein, which they could never syns here of, though they used all possible diligence and means that the weather would suffer to seke lind save the same. And when the storm ceased they set sayle and passed along on their way agayn, and on the xitb day o f Ju ly they had sight of land vnknown to them, for they could not come to set fote theron for the marveilous haboundance o f monstrous great ilands o f ise which lay dryving all alongst the coast therof. But by coniecture had owt o f histories and cartes o f cosmography yt should seeme to be the great Ilond o f Friseland, which they saw all along by the eastern syde therof. And bearing in nerer to discover the same, they found yt mar-

veilous High, and full of*high ragged roks all along by the coast, and some o f the ilands o f ise were nere yt o f such heigth as the clowds hanged about the tops o f them, and the byrds that flew about them were owt [o f sight] they lost [shi]p Michael, to their great discomfor[ture] [u]ntill their return to London for that [com]pany o f that ship Michael being to make discovery o f newe lands nor cou­ ra g e ] that he possessed at his departure from [Being] now (rather willingly then by force), separated from their captayn, and put to their own shift [and governm ent, toke counsaile with his mariners and comfrades] in the ship what they were best to doo. And among [them ]- selves concluded (as they say), that having yet a good [ti]m e o f the yere, and iudging themselves to be not far from [the] new land named Labrador, they wolde procede accor[din]g to their commission, at the least, to see that land and proceeding within iiij dayes, they saw that land, and found [it] so compassed with monstrous high ilands o f ise fleting [b ]y the sea shore, that they durst not approche with [th]eir ship, nor land theron with their bote. And [so] in great discomfort cast about with the ship the [n]ext day : and set their course bak agayn homward to [L]ondon, where they arived the first day of September. * And in this mean tyme the sayd captayn with his ship Gabriel (as is sayd before) being overset with a sea which they shipped on the xiij day o f July in the rage [o f] an extreme storm which cast the ship flat on her syde. And being open in the wayste, fylled her with water so as she lay still for sunk : and would not weare nor steare with any help of the helm : and could never have rysen agayn but by the marveilous work o f God’s great mercy to help them all. In this distrej3 when all the men in the ship had lost their courage, and did dispayre o f lyfe : the captayne like himselfe with valiant courage stood up and passed alongst the ship’s Bide in the chayn wales lying on her flat syde, and caught holde on the weather leche o f the foresaile and in the weather coyling o f the ship, the foreyard brake. And to lighten the ship, they cut over the misn maste. And the mariners allso would have cut over the mayn maste, which the capit[ayn] [u]pright agayn being fu ll o f w[ater]. And so with the rolling o f the both sydes, the water yssued and withall [m ]any things fletiDg over the ships sydes. [A n]d so they put the ship before the sea all [that day] and next night in that storm : wherin allso they their mayn maste afterward, and mending it ag[ayn]. And the storm being ceased, and being now owt o f [hope] any more to mete with his other ship : yet sti[ll determined alone to follow his enterprise and voyage a[ccor]ding to commission to the uttermost o f his power. A [nd] rather to make a sacrifice onto God of his lyfe than to return home withowt the dis­ covery o f K[athay] except by compulsion o f extreme force and necessity. And so returned to the course o f his way toward t[he] Land o f Labrador, according to commission. And by fay[re] and by fowle on the xxixth day of July .the capitayn himself first had sight o f a new land o f a mar-

veilous great heith : which by the account o f the course and way they iudged to be ,tbe Land of Labr[ador] as in dede upon good proof after­ ward they iudge yt s[till] so to be. The hed land wherof he named Elizabeth Foreland in memory o f the Quene’s Majestie. And drawing still nere thereto in great comfort, when they approched nere they fownd the sea-shore full o f monstrous high ilands and mountayns o f ise fleting and driving with the wyndes and tydes and streams so as the^ durst not yet approche with their ship to land theron. Nevertheles remayning still with hope by some means o f serch to fynde a safe place to enter with the ship ; and passing still to and fro along the coste, still in the sight o f land as occasion required to avoyd dangers : within the tyme o f xvj dayes the yse being well consumed and gone : they did land in three or four places upon Hands, and the master o f the ship did land upon the first iland and named it Halls Iland after his own name, and there repayred his ship o f her laks and leaks they fo[un]d y [t ] betwene two great mayn [wh]ich they named Frobysher’s streict, by [reason of his] name who discovered y t : and many ilands good harboroughs for ships which they discovered as] they passed. And on the xixth day o f August [they f]ownd "an iland which liked them, and named yt by the naem o f one o f the mariners which first [espyed] the same. And thereon they landed. And the capi[tayn] and six o f his men went to the top o f an high moun[tain] therof to discover about them : and there theie espyed «[vij] strange botes with men rowing toward that iland. [W h]erupon in great haste they ran down agayn to recover [the]ir own bote which hardly they recovered before the ari[va]ll o f those vij botes. But so he returned to his ship [wi]th his bote to put all in readynes for defence y f nede [sh]ould be. And sent aland his skyf with men, [to] vewe the men and have speache with them as they could. They made o f friend • ship to our men for desyre to have [th]em on land to take their rest. And by signes yt was agreed that one o f their men came in the skyf aborde the ship, and in pledge for him one o f our men went on land to them. And this man being in the ship made great wondering at all things : and the capitayn gave him to taste o f the ship’s meat and drink and wyne : but he made no countenance o f liking any. And he gave him and other tryfles which he liked well and toke them with him to land where he was delyvered and our man received bak agayn. And hereby the captayn perceiving these strange people to be o f coun­ tenance and conversation proceding o f a nature geven to fyersnes and rapyne, and he being not yet well prepared in his ship for defence, he set sayle presently, and departed thens to take more tyme to prepare for • defence to an other iland which they named by name o f being very nere to the mayn land (on the northern syde) which they named on land. But be[in ]g no [w ] [w]ynde contrary they passed from [th]e west­ ern land: and there ankered [and] prepared them selves to defend the best they [could as] nede should be ; which was no force having so [small a]

ship now armed with sotfaynt and weake men [who had] so great labours and disseases suffered at the sea [jhe] captayn only excepted, whose force and courag[e never] fay led for all his labours passed. And on this [w est­ ern shore the capitayn with o f his men went on [shore] on an iland mynding to have gone to the top o f an high [moun]tayn to discover what he could of the straiets o f the sea [and] land about, and there he saw far the two hed lands at [the] furdest end o f the straiets and no likelyhood o f land to th[e] northwards o f them and the great open betwene th[em] which by reason o f the great tydes of flood which they found comming owt o f the same, and for many other good reasons they iudged to be the West Sea, whereby to pas to Cathay and to the East India. And on this syde the sa[ydj hedlands they saw many ilands not far asonder. A fnd] there allso they found the walls o f xij olde houses o f the cuntry-like cottages but no people in them. Which cottages seemed rather to have byn woork ‘ o f ’ houses, th[an] dwelling houses where they perchance used to dres leather, trane oyle o f some whales, or seales, or other great fisshes, o f whose bones they saw there great store. And withall they allso espyed in a valley right under them iij houses covered with leather of seales skyns like tents, and allso two dogs. And presently to avoyd danger the captayn with his men repayred to the bote at the sea shore and assone as they were entred they espyed a great bote o f that cuntry with men therin hard by them behynde a rok, who made signes o f freendship (by laying their head in their hands) to them : to come on land and take their rest. But the captayn would not trust them, but made signes to them to come into his ship. And the master o f our ship being one in the bote was his ship before. An[d we]nt on land to the people being who received him and led him by the [hand into their] houses, or rather cottages. And they thus [having got the] master among them, some o f them made secret [signs to the] man for pledge in our bote that he should es[cape out] o f the bote into the water, which signes th[e cap]itayn perceived. And, therefore, having in his han[da fjayer long partezan gylt, he held the poynt therof [to] the strange mans brest, threatening by signes to [k i]ll him y f he did ones stir. And thus the master [w]as led into their houses and there saw their manner of [f]oode and lyfe, which is very strange and beastly, as hereafter shall be shewed. And he being returned to the bote [and] entred therein the stranger kept for pledge was delyvered on land, and presently an other o f those strange men went willingly in the capitayns bote aboord the ship to see the same : to whom was given many tryfles o f haberdash, which pleased him well. And he being in the ship the capitayn had talke with him by signes in a bargayn which they made that he should be their pylot through the Streiets into the West S ea : to pas in his little bote rowing before the ship thither : which he agreed onto, and made signes that in two dayes rowing he should be there : and for his labour he should have many tryfling things which there were shewed him, and layd owt for him.