t 



APPENDIX. 591 



party thereupon returned to the ships, carrying with them one of their own men dan- 

 gerously hurt by an arrow, and a native woman who had been captured. 



Then all the vessels returned to the Countess of Warwick's Sound. Not long aft- 

 er, the natives came to treat for the return of the captive woman. Frobisher inti- 

 mated to them that he demanded first the release and delivery of his five men. The 

 captive man, who acted as interpreter, was at first so much affected at sight once 

 more of his people that he "fell so out into tears that he could not speake a word in 

 a great space." Then he conferred with them, and afterward assured Frobisher that 

 the men were alive and should be delivered up, calling on him, moreover, to send 

 them a letter. Therefore a letter was written, and on the 7th of August the natives 

 took it, signifying that in three days they would return. At the appointed time they 

 indeed returned, and showed themselves in small numbers, but yet brought no letter 

 or word from the missing men. Moreover, it was observed that many of them were 

 concealed behind the rocks, and it seemed clear that some treachery was meditated ; 

 whereupon the English prudently kept away from the trap. By the 21st of August 

 the work of loading the ships with two hundred tons of the ore was finished, and on 

 the 23d sail was made for England. 



The show of ore which Frobisher took back to England excited so much enthusi- 

 asm for another expedition that a fleet of fifteen vessels was ready to sail in May, 

 1578. It was proposed to establish a colony of one hundred persons, who should live 

 through the year on an island in the Countess of Warwick's Sound. This colony 

 was to consist of miners, mariners, soldiers, gold refiners, bakers, carpenters, etc. A 

 " strong fort or house of timber, artificially framed and cunningly devised by a nota- 

 ble learned man," was to be carried out in the ships and put up on the island. On 

 the way out, however, one of the barks was sunk, and part of the house was lost. 



On the 1st of August the order was given from Frobisher, who had reached the 

 Countess of Warwick's Sound, to disembark from the vessels all the men and stores, 

 and land them on the Countess of Warwick's Island, and to prepare at once for min- 

 ing. " Then," says Hakluyt, " whilst the Mariners plyed their worke, the Captaines 

 sought out new mynes, the goldfiners made tryall of the Ore," etc. On the 9th a 

 consultation on the house was held. It was discovered that only the east side and 

 the south side of the building had come safely to hand, the other parts having been 

 either lost or used in repairing the ships, which had been much beaten by storms in 

 the passage. It was then thought, seeing there was not timber enough for a house 

 to accommodate one hundred people, that a house for sixty should be set up. The 

 carpenters, being consulted, declared that they should want five or six weeks to do 

 the work, whereas there remained but twenty-three days before the ships must leave 

 the country ; consequently it was determined not to put up the house that year. 



On the 30th of August, as Hakluyt says, "the Masons finished a house which 

 Captaine Fenton caused to be made of lyme and stone upon the Countess of War- 

 wick's Island, to the end we might prove, against the next yeere, whether the snow 

 could overwhelme it, the frost break it up, or the people dismember the same." 

 Again : "We buried the timber of our pretended [intended] fort." 



The fact that this expedition carried a large quantity of coal is shown by the fol- 

 lowing extract from Hakluyt, concerning the leakage of water on board the fleet : 

 " The great cause of this leakage and wasting was for that the great timber and sea 

 cole, which lay so weighty upon the barrels, brake, bruised, and rotted the hoopes 

 asunder." 



On the last day of August the fleet set sail on its return to England. 

 The following, upon the same subject, is from the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 

 1754, vol. xxiv., p. 46 : 



