THE SHOAL OF CODFISH 231 



further thereof. This onely, I thinke that the like 

 before was never scene, and in this place we had very 

 stickle and strong currants. We coasted this mighty 

 masse of ice untill the 30 of July, finding it a mighty 

 bar to our purpose : the ayre in this time was so con- 

 tagious, and the sea so pestered with ice, as that all 

 hope was banished of proceeding : for the 24 of July 

 all our shrowds, ropes, and sailes were so frozen, and 

 compassed with ice, onely by a grosse fogge, as seemed 

 to me more then strange, sith the last yeere I found this 

 sea free and navigable, without impediments." 



Crossing the straits he repaired and revictualled the 

 Moonshine in an excellent harbour among islands where 

 they found it very hot and were " very much troubled 

 with a flie which is called Musketa, for they did sting 

 grievously." Forsaken by the Mermaid, he abandoned 

 the search in Cumberland Sound as he "found small 

 hope to pass any farther that way," and worked south, 

 it being too late to go northwards, crossing Frobisher 

 Bay, which he described as " another great inlet neere 

 forty leagues broad where the water entered with 

 violent swiftnesse, this we also thought might be a 

 passage, for no doubt the north parts of America are 

 all islands." Off the coast of Labrador he found a vast 

 shoal of codfish, of which he caught over forty with a 

 long spike nail made into a hook. These he salted, and 

 some of them, on his return, he gave, at Walsingham's 

 request, to Burghley, who, at an interview, encouraged 

 him to make a further attempt. 



Next year he was off again, this time " to the Isles 

 of the Molucca or the coast of China." He seems to 

 have been on board the Ellen, a small craft of some 



