THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



Queen. The worthless stuff he brought home did not 

 extinguish the hopes of the promoters, and in 1578 he 

 put out once more, this time in command of no fewer 

 than fourteen vessels. But his success was no greater 

 than before. His explorations were hampered by the 

 quest for gold ore, and the outcome of his three voyages 

 was the discovery of Hudson*s Straits, much recrimination 

 among the undertakers, and no gold. A fourth ex- 

 pedition was planned, but when at last it was ready 

 for sea, the command was given to Captain Fenton, 

 and its purpose changed to piracy in the South Seas. 

 The return of Drake in 1580, treasure-laden from his 

 voyage round the world, had cast a pallor upon Northern 

 enterprise. 

 The three The three voyages of John Davis, in 1585 and the 



oyiges of ^^^ following years, were the last Elizabethan effort 

 to discover the North West passage. It is a testimony 

 to the geographical enthusiasm of the time that these 

 voyages were undertaken in the very years when the 

 Spanish invasion of England was imminent. Like 

 Frobisher, Davis found a wealthy merchant patron and 

 support in high quarters ; like Frobisher, he was crippled 

 in his explorations by the necessities of gain. Some of 

 his ships were told off for cod-fishing and the fur-trade, 

 yet he explored Cumberland Sound, coasted the West 

 of Greenland by Davis Straits, and reached Baffin's Bay. 

 By the death of Sir Francis Walsingham in 1590 he 

 lost his chief friend at Court, but his heart was still 

 set on the North West, and he took service under 

 Cavendish in the following year, induced only by the 

 promise that he should have the loan of a vessel to 

 search for the farther entrance to the passage, on the 



