262 



HISTORY OP THE SEA. 



travels extant, says that the Buona Speranza was discovered 

 in the following spring by a party of Russians, who found all 

 the crew frozen to death. In 1557, a Drontheim skipper told 

 an Englishman, at Kegor, that he had bought the sails of the 

 Buona ,Confidentia ; but it is not known where she was lost, or 

 what was the fate of the crew. The will of which we have 

 spoken, and a fragmentary diary attributed to Sir Hugh, were 

 found by the Russians, and were restored to the kinsmen of the 

 adventurers in England. 



The Edward Buonaventura, commanded by Chancellor, and 

 which was separated from her consorts off Wardhus, reached 

 Archangel, on the White Sea, in Russia, in safety, and laid 

 the foundation of a commercial intercourse between Russia 

 and England. On his return, his ship was lost on the coast 

 of Scotland, and he himself, with several of his crew, drowned. 

 Thus, of the three ships despatched, not one ever reached 

 home ; and of the officers, merchants, and men, none survived 

 to revisit their country, except, a few of the common sea- 

 men of the Edward Buonaventura. The advantages acquired 

 at such a cost of human life were limited to the barren 

 discovery of the ice-clad coast of Nova Zembla. Nothing 

 had been effected towards the accomplishment of a Northeast 

 Passage. 



Martin Frobisher, a seaman of experience and enterprise, 

 was the first Englishman to cherish the project of attempting 

 to penetrate to Asia by the channel supposed to exist to the 

 north of America. He communicated his design to his friends, 

 and spent fifteen years in fruitless efforts to enlist capital and 

 energy in the cause. Sailors, financiers, merchants, statesmen, 

 — all regarded the scheme as visionary and hopeless. At last 

 Lord Dudley, the favorite of Elizabeth, interested himself in 

 Frobisher's success, and from that moment he experienced little 

 difficulty in accomplishing his object. He formed a company, 

 amassed the requisite sums of money, and purchased three small 



