I 
192, Discoveries Settlements Book I. 
as I lhall have Occafion to fhew hereafter, he may be a Spirit in the Nation of difcovering and fettling in thefe 
truly reputed the great Mailer of Englijh Seamen, and Northern Parts, let the Dangers be what they would, or 
the Father of our Colonies and Commerce. the Difficulties to be overcome ever fo many or apparent*. 
It was this great Man that Hill kept up an Opinion, a very llrong Inftance of which occurred in the twenty- 
which, he had himfelf firll entertained, that fome Paf- eighth Year of his Reign, and is the moll remarkable 
fage there was into the South Seas, by the North- well PalTage in it to our Purpofe : One Mr. Hore, a Merchant 
and upon this Subjedl he wrote with fo much good of London, a Man of good Family, confiderablc Fortune^ 
Senfe and Strength of Reafon, that if the Ships, which, great Courage, and very well verfed in moll of the 
while I am writing this Paragraph, have failed in Search Branches of the Mathematics, was refolved to undertake a 
of this PalTage, ffiould fucceed, the Honour of the Voyage, and attempt a Settlement on and 
Difcovery will redound to him *, arid therefore it is but to go thither himfelf He no fooner made this Intention 
jull, to take this Opportunity of reviving his Reputation, of his known, than he received ail the Countenance and 
His Difcourfes had fuch an Effefl on King Henry VIII. Encouragement from the Crov/n that he could expedt 5 
a Prince of vail natural Parts, great Learning, and and as this gave much Credit to the Expedition, fo, in a 
llrongly inclined to heroic Undertakings, that he refolved Ihort time, abundance of young Gentlemen, of good 
to fend another Ship, or more, on the Difcovery, which Fortunes and dillinguilhed Families, offered to lhare both 
he did in the nineteenth Year of his Reign. Both Hall the Expence and Danger of the Undertaking, 
and Grafton, in their Chronicles, fpeak of this •, and tell Amongll thefe were Mr. JVickes, a Weft-dountry . 
us, that on mature Deliberation, the King fitted out two Gentleman of five hundred Marks a Year •, Mr. Luck, a 
fair Ships, which failed from the Port of London, on the Gentleman of Fortune; yix.Luckfield, Mr. Lhomas , 
20th of May but not a Word of the Captain’s Butts Son of Sir JVilliam Butts, the King’s firll Phylicianj 
Name, or of the Strength of thefe Ships ; the only Parti- Mr. Hardy, Mr. Biron, Mr. Carter, Mr. Raftal, Brother 
cular we have is, that the King fent feveral cunning to Serjeant Raftal, and feveral others ; who went with 
Men on board them. We are to underlland, by cunning Mr. Hore in the largell of his two Ships, the Lrinity, of 
Men, Perfons Ikilled in the Mathematics ; who, with the Burden of one hundred and forty I'ons : In the leffer 
the common Sort of People, paffed now, and long after. Ship went Mr. Armigall Wade, a young Gentleman of 
for cunning Men and Conjurers. great Hopes, and much Learning •, Mr. Oliver Bawehney 
The worthy Mr. Hackluit has taken abundance of Pains of London, Merchant •, and other Perfons of Charadler, 
to fupply us with fome Circumllances of this Expedition, to the Number of thirty, in bothVeffels. About the End 
but to very little Purpofe ; and, notwithllanding all his of April, 153d, all Things were ready •„ the Lrinity and 
Inquiries from Perfons who lived in and near thofe Mnion fit to fail, and the whole of both Ships Company, 
Times, could obtain no other Satisfadlion than this, that to the Number of one hundred and twenty, mullered at 
a Canon of St. Paul’s, who was reputed a great Mathe- Gravefend ; after which they went with much Cerem-ony 
matician, was one of the principal Perfons concerned, and on board. 
adlually had took a Share in the Voyage •, but to this They foon after failed, and arrived in the Space of two 
reverend Perfon’s Name both Sic Martin Frohijher 2cnE Sir Months at Cape Breton •, from whence they failed round 
Richard AlUen, 'who were Mr. Hackluif s Kwfnoxs, were a great Part of Newfoundland xo Penguin Eland, in the 
Strangers ; one of them, however, remembred the Name Latitude of about 50 Degrees, as they computed ; but 
of the biggell Ship, which was Dominus Vobifcum, or the which lies, truly, in 50 Degrees 40 Minutes ; where they 
Lord with them, which agrees very well with the other found great Plenty of thofe Fowls, from whence the 
Part of the Story, that the chief Promoter of this Voyage Hand takes its Name; They afterwards went on Ihore 
was a Priell. Thefe Ships failing very far to the North- upon the Eall-fide of Nezvfoundland, and had an acci- 
well, the largell of them was call away in the Mouth of dental View of a Boat full of the Savages that .inhabited 
a very large Gulph, very probably in the Entrance to that Country, whom they purfued both by Sea and Ljand, 
Hudfon’s Bay, and there periffied ; the other, having but were not able to overtake them. They llaid here till 
coalled along, the Hand of Cape Britton (fo they wrote their Viduals began to grow very fhort, and being then 
it then) returned in Odlober following, and brought a large afraid to trull themfelves at Sea in fuch a Condition, 
Account of the Places they had feen, and of the Hardlhips they delayed going on board till they were in fuch Diflrefs 
they had undergone. that they aflually eat one another ; that is to fay, fome 
It appears from thence, that thefe early Attempts to killed their Companions privately in the Woods, hid them, 
difcover new Countries, and extend our Commerce, were and then roalled and eat their flelh fecretly, till this 
attended with great Difficulties, much beyond thofe that horrid Praflice coming to the Knowledge of their Captain, 
were met with by the Spaniards and Portugueze, which he, by a moll judicious and pathetic Speech, brought 
may be attributed to feveral different Caufes, and amongll them to refolvc rather to live upon Grafs and Herbs than 
others thefe : Our Shipping was then but mean, though fub fill by this detellable Method any longer, 
both the Kings whom Cabot ferved appeared, to be very But it fell out foon after, that a French Ship put in 
defirous of having a naval Force, fince Henry VIE had there well manned and well viftualed, of which our 
fpent fourteen thoufand Pounds in building one large Ship, Countrymen refolved to take Advantage, being weary of 
and his Son VIII. added feveral others to the Navy ; a Country in which they had endured fuch Miferies ; 
yet I think our Ships were, generally fpeaking, larger and therefore, watching a fair Opportunity, they poffeffed 
than thofe of moll of our Neighbours ; but very pro- themfelves of the French Ship, and, leaving their own, 
bably they were built abroad, and neither in Form nor in failed diredlly for the Coaft of England. They returned 
Materials were fit for thofe Seas to which they were na- fafely, and arrived at St . Ives in Cornwall ^ about the Erid 
vigated. The Skill of our Seamen could not be very great of OBober and then the Gentlemen, difperfing them- 
at this time ; for as in all other pradtical Cafes, fo in this, felves, returned to London ; but fo much altered by 
nothing advances .People fo faff as Experience, and there- their Fatigues, that Sir William Butts, and his Wife, 
fore I reckon that the want of this was a great Deficiency could not know their Son, but by a particular Mark 
in thefe Times ; we may add, that we purfued, with in- upon his Knee. We had never known a Word of this 
credible Diligence, thofe Difcoveries that carried us into llrange Adventure, if it had not been for Mr. Richard 
dangerous and difagreeable Climates, which was diredlly Hackluit, who rode two hundred Miles to gain thefe Par- 
contrary to the Pradlice of the Spaniards and Portugueze \ ticulars from the Mouth of Mr. Thomas Butts, the only 
befides thofe Voyages produced little or no Advantage, fo Perfon then living, who had a Share in that Expeditiori ; 
there was nothing to provoke the common, or even the and no wonder, fince it was fifty-three Years afterwards 
trading, fort of People, to engage in them : And lallly, ^th9,t he obtained this Communication: There is another 
King Henry VIII. was bent upon finding a North-well Circumllance relating to this unfortunate Enterprize, 
PalTage, that he might have a Way of his own to the which mull, by no Means, be omitted. 
Eaft Indies, and not be obliged to follow the Rout either Some Months after, the Frenchmen came to England, 
of the Spaniards or of the Portugueze. ' with a dreadful Complaint, that the Englifh nad ran 
5. It was this Inclination of the King’s, that produced with their Ship, and had left them to ftarve, if they had, 
