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the traffique of merchants. And the rest of my 

 tyme I have spent in England under the happy 

 raigne of the Queenes Ma tie now being. 5 Lock was 

 one of the promoters of Frobisher's voyages and was 

 greatly impoverished through their failure financially. 

 He was imprisoned in the Fleet at the instance of 

 William Borough in 158 1. He died about 161 5. 

 The map, which is dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, 

 is taken from the copy in the Hunterian Library, 

 University of Glasgow, of the Divers Voyages touching 

 the discoverie of America, published by Hakluyt in 

 1582. 



Letter from John Davis to Walsingham, 3rd 



October, 1585, . . . . . .392 



John Davis, or Davys, 'the Navigator,' was born at 

 Sandridge about 1550. He was a neighbour and 

 companion of Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert. 

 In 1585-6 he made his voyages in search of the 

 North-west passage, and on his return home from 

 his first voyage in 1585 he wrote this letter to Sir 

 Francis Walsingham. In 1589 he joined the Earl 

 of Cumberland's expedition off the Azores, and 

 in 1 59 1 he went with Thomas Cavendish as Rear- 

 admiral on the * Desire.' In 1598 he was pilot of a 

 Dutch ship, the * Lion,' and in 1600 was appointed 

 Pilot-major of the first East Indian fleet under 

 Captain James Lancaster. In 1605, when pilot 

 of the 'Tiger' under Sir Edward Michelborne, 

 his ship was treacherously attacked by Japanese 

 pirates near Bintung, in the Straits of Malacca, 

 and he was killed. He wrote a treatise on naviga- 

 tion, the Seaman's Secrets, first published in 1594, 

 and the Worldes Hydrographical Description, published 

 in 1595, and he invented the ' backs taff/ for taking 

 the altitude of the sun. 



The following is the translation of the letter, which is re- 

 produced from the original in the British Museum : 



