ATTEMPTS AT THE NORTH- WEST PASSAGE. 123 



pinnesse, and at his falling downe lie made such a terrible noise in the water, that a man 

 would greatly have marvelled, except he had known the cause of it; hut, God be thanked, 

 we were quietly delivered of him." Burrowe returned to England in the autumn, having 

 reached in an eastward direction a further point than any of his predecessors. Meantime, 

 Chancelor, returning to England in company with the newly-appointed Russian ambassador, 

 was wrecked in Pitsligo Bay, Scotland, the former losing his life, and the latter being 

 saved with difficulty. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



EARLY ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. 



Attempts at the North-west Passage Sir Humphrey Gilbert's advocacy The one thing left undone Frobisher's Expeditions 

 Arctic "Diggins" A Veritable Gold Excitement Large Fleet Despatched Disaster and Disappointment Voyages 

 of John Davis Intercourse with the Natives His Reports concerning Whales, &c. The Merchants aroused 

 Opening of the Whaling Trade Maldonado's Claim to the Discovery of the Xorth-west Passage. 



WHILE these attempts at a north-east passage were being made, the north-west 

 question was by no means forgotten. Several learned men, including Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 

 employed their pens in arguing the practicability of such a passage. In his defence of 

 such an attempt he spoke of a friar of Mexico who had actually performed the journey, 

 but who, on telling it to the King of Portugal, had been forbidden to make it known, lest 

 it should reach England. Whatever the facts of this case, some enthusiasm on the subject 

 was the result, and Martin Frobisher spoke of it as the one thing " left undone." But 

 although he also persisted in his advocacy, it took fifteen years of perseverance and constant 

 effort before he could find any one who would give him the assistance he needed. At last, 

 when hope was nearly dead within him, Dudley Earl of Warwick, came to the rescue, 

 and aided him to fit out two small barques, the Gabriel and the ~Mickael, thirty-five and 

 thirty tons burthen respectively. With these small craft mere cockle-shells for such a 

 voyage he left the Thames. As he passed Greenwich Palace, on the 8th of June, 15 70, 

 Queen Elizabeth waved her farewell from a window. Briefly, they reached what is believed 

 to have been the southern part of Greenland and Labrador, where they could not land 

 because of the icy field surrounding the coast. Sailing to the northward, Frobisher met 

 with a gigantic iceberg, which fell in pieces within their sight, making as much noise 

 as though a high cliff had fallen into the sea. They saw a number of Esquimaux, and 

 perhaps the description given of them by the commander is as good as any ever given 

 in few words : " They be like to Tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, and natte noses, 

 and taunie in colour, wearing scale skinnes; and so doe the women, not differing in the 

 fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes 

 and round about the eyes." They came near the ship timidly, and after a while one of 

 them ventured into the ship's boat, when Frobisher presented him with a bell and a knife, 

 and sent him back with five of the crew. They were directed to land him apart from 

 the spot where a number of his countrymen were assembled, but they disobeyed his orders, 



