l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 29 



fore be claimed by Portugal, set out on a voyage to the Labrador 

 coast, touched at Greenland, and possible entered Hudson Straits 

 and the gulf of St. Lawrence, perishing on his second voyage 

 with all his crew. His brother Miguel in 1502 with three ships 

 going in search of him met the same fate, the two brothers and 

 their shipmates being the earliest recorded victims of pelagic vor- 

 acity in the northern waters with the exception of Red Eric's 

 emigrants and of Bjarni Grimolfsson with part of his crew whose 

 fate ( 1 010) is so pathetically told in the Saga Thorfinns Karlsefnis. 

 Down to 1560, 42 voyages of discovery had been made. 

 These may be deemed early efforts to penetrate the arcana of the 

 north. Of the 42, eight were by French, eight b}^ English, six 

 by Swedish and Norwegians, six by Icelandic, two by Venetian, 

 seven by Spanish and four by Portuguese navigators. But with 

 the exception of those of the Cabots and the Cortereals they do 

 not concern us for the present purpose. 



We come to the Elizabethan age (1559- 1603), that age so 

 marked by splendid achievement that even the marvels of the 

 Victorian age have failed to thrust it into the back-ground. 

 Eleven voyages of discovery by English navigators mark that 

 era as the special period of English hyperborean adventure, the 

 records giving but ten voyages by all other nations during 

 Elizabeth's reign — one Danish, one French, three Dutch and five 

 Spanish. 



The high latitudes of Canada were the scene of the achieve- 

 ments of Frobisher and Davis. 



Martin Frobisher deemed the discovery of the north west 

 passage the only thing in the world that was left undone by 

 which a ' ' notable mind might be made famous and fortunate. ' ' 

 There have been many notable minds made famous and for- 

 tunate since Frobisher' s day without reference to the North West 

 Passage, so that in all liklihood Frobisher was what we should 

 call a "crank" on the subject. He had studied the question of 

 circumpolar navigation very closely. To him, to Gilbert and to 

 Willes was due the resumption of the awakened interest in the 

 discovery of a North West Passage, which had slumbered from 

 the time the Muscovy Company, under the powerful influence of 

 Cabot, directed its attention to the North East Passage ; for 



