1043 



FROBEN, JOHN. 



FROmSHER, 8111 MAKTIN. 





cbililrrn, alike in their looki and clothes Mid behaviour, are all that 

 aa affectionate mamma could wiih her darling* to be. Mr. Frith'* 

 pieturei consequently are the delight of the ladies, and find apodal 

 favour with well-conditioned citizen*. His technical merits are just 

 (uch a> confirm and Moure the kind of admiration which tho range of 

 hi* subject* and the character of hi* personage* excite. Hi* colour i* 

 always bright and freah and gar. Hi* drawing i* good, without parade 

 or affectation. Hi* touch i* light and neat, yet sufficiently varied ; 

 and he finiahe* every part with scrupulous care. 



FliOBKX, or Hi'un.'Nirs, JOHN, was a native of Hnmmelburg 

 in Franconia, where he roc ivc<l hi* earliest education. Ho afterward* 

 went to the university of Rase], and there acquired tho reputation of 

 being an eminent scholar. With the view of promoting useful 

 learning, he applied himself to the art of printing ; and becoming 

 master of it, opened a shop in Basel, probably about 1491. Ho was 

 the fint of the German printer* who brought the art to perfection ; 

 and one of the firt who introduced into Germany the use of the 

 Roman character. Being a man of probity and piety as well as skill, 

 he would never suffer libels, or anything that might hurt the reputa- 

 tion of another, to go through his press for the sake of profit 

 Fruben'i great reputation was the principal motive which led 

 Erasmus to fix his residence at Basel, in order to have his own books 

 printed by him. The connection between them grew clone and 

 intimate, and was one of the sincerest cordiality. Erasmus loved the 

 good qualities of Frobcn, u much as Froben admired the great ones 

 of Erasmus. 



There is an epUtle of Erasmus extant, which contains so full an 

 account of this printer, that it forma a very curious memoir for his 

 life. It was written in 1527, on the occasion of Frobttn'* death, 

 which happened that year; and which, Erasmus 'tells us, be bore so 

 extremely ill, that ho really began to be ashamed of his grief, since 

 what he felt upon the death of his own brother was not to be com- 

 pared to it. Ho says, that be lamented the loss of Frobeu, not so 

 much because he had a strong affection for him, but because he 

 warned raised up by Providence for the promoting of liberal studies. 

 Than he proceeds to describe his good qualities, which were indeed 

 very great and numerous ; and concludes with a particular account of 

 hi* death, which was somewhat remarkable. Erasmus wrote bin 

 epitaph in Greek and Latin, lioth these epitaph* are at the end of 

 his eputle. 



A large number of valuable author* were printed by Froben, with 

 great care and accuracy ; among which may bo enumerated, tho works 

 of St. Jerome, 5 vol*. folio, 1616, reprinted in 1520 and 1624 ; those 

 of St. Cyprian, foL 1521 ; Tertullian, foL 1521, reprinted in 1525; the 

 work* of Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, foL 1523, reprinted in 1520 ; 

 St. Ambrose, 4 voN. folio, 1527. All of these were edited by Erasmus. 

 Frobeu formed a design to print the Greek Fathers, which had not 

 then been done ; but death prevented him. That work however was 

 earned on by his son Jerome Frobenius, and his son-in-law Nicholas 

 liiacbof, or Episcopius, who, joining in partnership, carried on the 

 business with the tame reputation, and gave very correct oditions of 

 those fathers. 



FKOBISHER, SIR MARTIN, an enterprising English navigator, 

 who, as Stow informs us, was born at Doncaiter, in Yorkshire, of 



CnU in bumble life, but it is not known in what year, lieiug 

 ight up to the sea, he very early displayed the talents of a great 

 navigator, and was the first Englishman who attempted to find out a 

 north-west passage to China. He made offers for this purpose to 

 different English merchants for fifteen yean, without effect ; but 

 being at hut patronised by Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, and 

 other persons of rank and fortune, he engaged a sufficient number of 

 adventurers, and collected such sums of money as enabled him to fit 

 himself out for his voyage. He provided only three ships, two barks 

 of about twenty-five tons each, called the Gabriel and the Michael, 

 and a pinnace of ten tons. With these he nulled from Deptford, 

 June 8th 1570; and the court being then at Greenwich, the queen 

 beheld them as they passed by, "commended them, and bade them 

 farewell, with shaking her hand at them out of the window." Bending 

 their course northward, they came on the 24th within night of Fara, 

 on* of the islands of Shetland; and on the llth of July discovered 

 Freeseland, bearing W. N. W., which stood high, and was covered with 

 snow. They could not land by reason of the ice, and great depth of 

 water near the shore. The east point of this inland Captain Frobisher 

 named a Quran Elizabeth's Foreland" On the 28th they had sight 

 of Mate Incognita, being part of New Greenland, on which also they 

 could not land, for the reanon* just mentioned. August 10th 

 t robUher went on a desert lilaud, three miles from the continent, 

 but sttid there only a few hours. The next day he entered into a 

 strait which ho called Frobulier's Strait, a name which it till r 

 On the lath, tailing to Gabriel's island, they came to a sound, which 

 they named Prior'* Sound, and anchored in a sandy bay there. On 

 the 15th they sailed to Priors Bay ; on the 17th to Thomas William's 

 island, and on UM Ibth came to anchor under Burch.-r's island. Hero 

 fcey went on shore, and had some communication with the natives, 

 by who** treachery they lot a boat and five of their men. Frobihcr 

 haing endeavoured in vain to recover his men, set sail again for 

 England on the 2th of August ; came again within sight of Frecsc- 

 tod oa the 1st of September; and notwithstanding a terrible storm 



on tho 7th of the same mouth, he arrived at Harwich on the 2nd of 

 October. 



Frobisher took possession of the country he had landed upon in 

 Queen Elisabeth's name, and, in token of such poas*>sion, ordered his 

 men to bring to him whatever they could fint find. One among the 

 rest brought a piece of black stone, in appearance like sea-coal, but 

 very heavy. Having at his return distributed fragment* of it among 

 hia friends, the wife of ono of the adventurers threw a fragment j n t,> 

 the fire, which being taken out again and quenched in vinegar, glittered 

 like gold ; and being tried by some refiners in London, wss found to 

 contain a portion of that rich metal. This circumstance railing pro- 

 digious expectations of gold, great numbers of persons earnestly pressed 

 and soon fitted out Captain Frobisher for a second voyage, to be 

 undertaken in tho following spring. The queen lent him a ship- of the 

 royal navy of 200 ton*, with which, and two small bark* of about 30 

 tons each, he fell down to Gravessnd, May 20th 1677, where the 

 minister of the pariah came aboard the greater ship, the Aid, and 

 administered the sacrament to the company. Two day* after they 

 reached Harwich, whence they sailed on the SUt of May. 



The whole complement of gentlemen, soldiers, sailors, merchants, 

 minor.-, &c., who accompanied the expedition, was 140, furnished 

 with victuals and all other necessaries for seven mouths. They arrived 

 in St. Magnus Sound, at the Orkney islands, upon the 7th of June, 

 whence they kept their course for the space of twenty-six days without 

 seeing laud. They met however with great drifts of wood, and whole 

 bodies of trees, which they imagined to come from the coast of 

 Newfoundland. On the 4th of July they discovered Freeseland, along 

 the coasts of which they found vast islands of ice, some being seventy 

 or eighty fathoms under water, and more than half a mile in circuit. 

 Not having been able safely to laud in this place, they proceeded to 

 Frobisher s Strait ; and on the 1 7th of the sama month made the north 

 foreland in it, otherwise called Hall's Island, as also a smaller island 

 of the same name, where they had in their previous voyage found the 

 ore, but could not now get a piece as large as a walnut. They met 

 with some of it however in adjacent islands. On the 19th they went 

 upon Hall's greater island to discover the country, and the nature of 

 the inhabitants, with some of whom they trafficked, and took one of 

 them, neither in a very just nor handsome manner; and upon a hill 

 here they erected a column of stones, which they called Mount 

 Warwick. They now sailed about, to make what discoveries they 

 could, and gave names to different bays and islands ; as Jackmau's 

 Sound, Smith's Island, Bean's Sound, Leicester's Isle, York's Sound, 

 Ann countess of Warwick's Sound and Island, &c, 



Frobisher' s instructions for this voyage were principally to search 

 for ore in this neighbourhood; he was directed to leave the further 

 discovery of the north-west passage till another time. Having there- 

 fore in the Countess of Warwick's Island found a good quantity, he 

 took a lading of it He set sail tho 23rd of August, and am. 

 England about the end of September. He was most graciously received 

 by the queen, and her majesty appointed commissioners to moke trial 

 of the ore, and examine thoroughly into the probability of a north- 

 west passage to China. The commissioners did so, and reported the 

 great value of the undertaking, and the expediency of farther carrying 

 on tho discovery of tho north-west passage. Upon this, suitable pre- 

 parations were mode with all possible despatch; and because the 

 mines newly found out were sufficient to defray the adventurers' 

 charges, it was thought necessary to send a select number of soldiers 

 to secure the places already discovered, to make farther discoveries 

 into the inland parts, and to search again for the passage to China. 

 Besides three ships, as before, twelve other* were fitted out for this 

 voyage, which were to return at the end of the following summer 

 with a lading of gold -ore. '1 hey assembled at Harwich on the 

 of May 1578, and sailing thence on the 31st, they came within sight 

 of Frecseland on the 20th of June, when Frobisher, who was now- 

 culled lieutenant-general, took possession of the country in the queen 

 of England's name, and called it West England, giving the name of 

 Charing Cross to one of the high cliffs. On July 4th they came within 

 the mouth of Frobisher's Strait, but being obstructed by the ico, which 

 sank one of their bark?, and driven out to sea by a storm, tin y 

 so unfortunate as not to hit the entrance of it again. Instead of which, 

 being deceived by a current from tho north-east, and remaining twenty 

 days in a continual fog, they ran sixty leagues into other m ' 

 straits before they discovered their mistake. Frobisher however, 

 coming back again, made for tho strait which bore hii name ; :in< I mi 

 the 23rd of July, at a pi x . within it called llattou's Headhind, fmuid 

 seven ships of his fleet On tho 31st of the same month he roc 



desired port, and came to anchor in the Countess of Warwick's 

 Sound ; but tho season of the year being too advanced to undertake 

 discoveries, after getting as much ore as he could, he sailed wn 

 fleet for England, where, after a stormy and dangerous voyage, ho 

 arrived in the beginning of October. 



We have no account how Frobisher employed himself from this 

 time to 1585, when he commanded the Aid, in Sir Francis Drake's 

 expedition to the West Indies. In 1588 he commanded tho Triumph, 

 and exerted himself very bravely against tho Spanish Armada on July 

 the 20th, in which year he received the honour of knighthood, on 

 board hU own ahlp, from the lord high admiral, for hU valour, in 

 1590 he commanded one of two squadrons upon tbe Spanish coast. 



