1578. MARTIN FROBISHER. 95 



between Greenland and the archipelago of islands, 

 among which is the strait bearing his name ; but 

 his first voyage only was in fact a voyage of dis- 

 covery ; the second and third had for their objects 

 golden mines and a new settlement, and both 

 ended in disappointed expectations. 



Frobisher's three voyages were evidently con- 

 sidered as a total failure by the court, both of im- 

 mediate gain, and of prospective hope as to the 

 original object of the expedition; and for the next 

 seven years we hear nothing more of the general, 

 till, in 1585, we find him commanding the Aid, in 

 the expedition of Sir Francis Drake to the West 

 Indies. In 1588 he commanded the Triumph, one 

 of the three largest ships engaged with the Spanish 

 Armada, in which he fought with great bravery; 

 and received the honour of knighthood from the 

 lord high admiral on board his own ship at sea. 

 In 1590 he was appointed by the queen to com- 

 mand a squadron on the coast of Spain, with 

 orders to co-operate with Sir John Hawkins. In 

 1594 he was detached with four ships of war to 

 assist Henry IV. of France against a body of 

 Leaguers and Spaniards, then in possession of a 

 part of Britanny, and strongly entrenched in the 

 neighbourhood of Brest. On the 7th of Novem- 

 ber, when assaulting the fort of Croyzon, he 

 received a wound in the hip from a ball, of which 

 he died shortly after, having brought his little 

 squadron safely back to Plymouth, where he was 

 interred. The wound, according to Stowe, was not 



