( 100 ) 1583. 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 1583. 



The successful efforts of the Russia company by 

 land gave new vigour to a spirit for foreign traffic 

 and discoveries, and turned men's minds once more 

 to the north-westward. The indefatigable exer- 

 tions of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his great talents 

 and powerful interest, had procured for him letters 

 patent, dated in 1578, authorising him to undertake 

 western discoveries, and to possess lands unsettled 

 by Christian princes or their subjects; and the same 

 year he is said to have made a voyage to New- 

 foundland, of which, however, no detailed account 

 appears to have been published. The grant in 

 the patent was made perpetual, but at the same 

 time declared void, in case no possession was 

 actually taken within the space of six years. Sir 

 Humphrey, therefore,' the year before its expiration, 

 prepared for a new expedition and, in the very 

 same year, being 1583, Queen Elizabeth granted 

 another patent to his younger brother, Adrian 

 Gilbert, of Sandridge, in the county of Devon, 

 and his associates, conferring on them the privilege 

 of making discoveries of a passage to China and 

 the Moluccas, by the north-westward, north-east- 

 ward or northward; to be incorporated by the 

 name of " The Colleagues of the Fellowship for 

 the Discoverie of the north-west Passage." 



Sir Humphrey in the meantime set out to take 



