INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 
9 
West Passage was renewed by Sir Martin Frobisher, 
after having been neglected for nearly eighty years. 
Frobisher had been agitating his plans for fifteen 
years, and at last obtained support from the Earl of 
Warwick, and from Michael Lok, a man of wealth. 
Hence he christened Greenland, West England. On 
July 28 he saw Queen Elizabeth's Foreland, and went 
fifty leagues up Frobisher's Bay, which he considered 
to be a strait, and which he flattered himself would 
lead him to Cathay. He took home a piece of iron 
pyrites under the impression that it was an ore rich in 
gold. His second voyage was simply occupied in 
procuring three ship-loads of this ore, which was found 
to be worthless. On the third voyage (in 1578) he 
took out fifteen ships to be laden with this ore. When 
off the Queen Elizabeth's Foreland a storm blew him 
towards the straits, which he called Frobisher's Mis¬ 
taken Straits, but which are commonly known as 
Hudson's Straits. He entered them, and found a fine 
open passage, through which, it is said, he “ would and 
could have gone through to the South Sea." There 
was plenty of ice at the entrance, but farther in the 
sea was free from ice. However, his duty was to get 
the ore, and it was only when he found he had mis¬ 
taken his way that he returned by a cross channel into 
Frobisher's Bay. In 1585 the London merchants again 
