218 BAFFIN BAY 



three other assayers "could find no such thing therein," 

 but again the Italian was equal to the occasion. " The 

 xviii day of January," writes Lock, " he sent me by his 

 mayde this little scrap of paper written, No. 1, herein- 

 closed ; and thereinclosed the grayne of gold, which 

 afterward I delivered to your majesty." For the Queen 

 had become interested in the wonderful stone which 

 was the talk of the town, its value increasing at every 

 recital until many believed, as Sir Philip Sidney seems 

 to have done, that it was " the purest gold unalloyed 

 with any other metals." 



Lock was not the man to let such excellent adver- 

 tisement be lost, and forth with he projected the Cathay 

 Company for which the charter was obtained from the 

 Crown on St. Patrick's Day, 1577. Lock was named as 

 Governor for six years with remuneration " for ever " 

 of one per cent on all goods imported ; Frobisher was 

 named as Captain by sea and Admiral of the ships and 

 navy of the Company for life with a yearly stipend and 

 one per cent, like Lock, on all goods the Company 

 brought in. Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the 

 report from the Mint headed the list of shareholders 

 with 1000 ; and Burghley, Howard, Leicester, Wal- 

 singham, Hunsdon, Sidney, even Gresham, subscribed 

 for shares in this remarkable company. 



To bring home more of the "golden ore," a new 

 expedition was entered upon at once, and on the 26th 

 of May, Whit-Sunday as it happened, Frobisher 

 started on his second voyage. He had three vessels, 

 the Aid of two hundred tons, lent him from the 

 Royal Navy, and the Gabriel and Michael as before, 

 and one hundred and twenty officers and men, of whom 



