*236 DISCOVERIES OF 1531. 



He succeeded at length in persuading Mr. Henry 

 Briggs and Sir John Brooke to petition His Majesty 

 Charles I. for the loan of one of his ships, and for 

 his countenance of the voyage, who, we are told, 

 " graciously accepted and granted hoth." Fox 

 says he was allowed to chuse his own ship, and 

 that he pitched on a pinnace of the burden of 80 

 tons, which was named the Chatties, manned with 

 twenty men and two boys, victualled for eighteen 

 months, and well fitted in every respect. Sir 

 Thomas Roe and Sir John Wolstenholme were ap- 

 pointed to superintend the fitting out of this 

 entcrprize, and the master and wardens of the 

 Trinity House were ordered to give their assistance. 

 The narrative of the voyage is written by Fox 

 himself, who affectedly assumes the name of the 

 North-west Fox. He was a keen shrewd York- 

 shi reman, and evidently a man of considerable 

 talent, but conceited beyond measure ; and the 

 style of his journal is so uncouth and the jargon 

 so obscure and comical, as in many places to be 

 scarcely intelligible. " Gentle reader," he thus 

 begins, '* expect not heere any florishing phrases 

 or eloquent tearmes ; for this child of mine, begot 

 in the north-west's cold clime, (where they breed 

 no schollers,) is not able to digest the sweet milke 

 of Rethorick," &c. 



He leaves England, however, highly satisfied 

 both with himself and with his equipment. " I 

 was victualled," says he, " compleatly for eighteea 



