Our General called this country New Albion, and that for two causes, the one in respect of the white banks and cliffs, which lie towards the sea, and the other, because it might have some affinity with our country in name, which sometimes was so called. There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not probable show of gold or silver. . . . When we had ended our business here we weighed, and set sail to run for the Moluccas; but having at that time a bad wind, and being amongst the islands, with much difficulty we recovered to the northward of the island of Celebes, where by reason of contrary winds, not able to continue our course to run westwards, we were enforced to alter the same to the southward again, finding that course also to be very hard and dangerous for us, by reason of infinite shoals which lie off and among the islands; whereof we had too much trial to the hazard and danger to our ship and lives. For, of all other days, upon the 9th of January, in the year 1580, we ran suddenly upon a rock, where we stuck fast from eight o'clock at night till four o'clock in the afternoon the next day, being indeed out of all hope to escape the danger; but our General as he had always hitherto shewed himself courageous, and of a good confidence in the mercy and protection of God; so now he continued in the same, and lest he should seem to perish wilfully, both he and we did our best endeavour to save ourselves, which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves most happily of the danger. We lightened our ship upon the rocks of three tons of cloves, eight pieces of ordnance, and certain meal and beans; and then the wind (as it were in a moment by the special grace of God) changing from the starboard to the larboard of the ship, we hoisted our sails, and the happy gale drove our ship off the rock, into the sea again, to the no little comfort of all our hearts, for which we gave God such praise and thanks, as so great a benefit required. On the 8th of February following, we fell in with the fruitful island of Barateue, [Borneo] having in the mean time suffered many dangers by winds and shoals.... At our departure from Barateue, we set our course for Java Major, [Java] where arriving, we found great courtesy, and honourable entertainment.... Not long before our departure, they told us that not far off there were such great ships as ours, wishing us to be ware; upon this our captain would stay no longer. From Java Major we sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, which was the first land we fell in withal; neither did we touch with it, or any other land, until we came to Sierra Leone, upon the cost of Guinea; notwithstanding we ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portuguese to be most false, who affirm that it is the most dangerous Cape of the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers which come near the same. This Cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth, and we passed by it on the 18th of June. From thence we continued our course to Sierra Leone, on the cost of Guinea, where we arrived on the 22nd of July, and found necessary provisions, great store of elephants, oysters upon trees of one kind, spawing and increasing infinitely, the oyster suffering no bud to grow. We departed thence on the 24th day. We arrived in England on the 3rd of November, 1580, being the third year of our departure. (Hakluyt, ed. cit., p. 145.) 146. Frobisher's First Voyage Hakluyt Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1594) was distinctively the navigator of the time of Elizabeth in whom Columbus' desire to discover a short passage to Cathay found expression. Through this, the third great incentive to English exploration, he made voyage after voyage to the northern coast of America. The account of George Best, one of those who accompanied Frobisher on his first voyage, well illustrates the character of the expedition, and also gives us a view of the speculative fever that burned in the veins of Englishmen. To these the pyrites well termed "fools' gold" -- brought back by Frobisher, opened visions of treasure surpassing that of the fabled city of Manoa. NARRATIVE BY GEORGE BEST Which thing being well considered, and familiarly known. to our general Captain Frobisher, as well for that he is thoroughly furnished of the knowledge of the sphere and all other skills appertaining to the art of navigation; as also for the confirmation he hath of the same by many years' experience both by sea and land, and being persuaded of a new and nearer passage to Cathay than by Capo de Buona Speranza, which the Portuguese yearly use: he began first with himself to devise, and then with his friends to confer, and laid a plain plot unto them that that voyage was not only possible by the north-west, but also, he could prove, easy to be performed.... He prepared two small barques of twenty and five-andtwenty tons a-piece, wherein he intended to accomplish his pretended voyage. Wherefore, being furnished with the forsaid two barques, and one small pinnace of ten tons burden, having therein victuals and other necessaries for twelve months' provision, he departed upon the said voyage from Blackwall, on the 15th of June, anno domini 1576.... ... And on the 20th of July he had sight of an high land, which he called Queen Elizabeth's Foreland, after her Majesty's name. And sailing more northerly along that coast, he descried another foreland, with a great gut, bay, or passage, dividing as it were two main lands or continents asunder. There he met with store of exceeding great ice all this coast along, and coveting still to continue his course to the northwards, was always by contrary winds detained overthwart these straits, and could not get beyond. Within a few days after, he perceived the ice to be well consumed and gone, either there engulfed in by some swift currents or indrafts, carried more to the southwards of the same straits, or else conveyed some other way; wherefore he determined to make proof of this place, to see how far that gut had continuance, and whether he might carry himself through the same into some open sea on the back-side, whereof he conceived no small hope; and so entered the same on the 21st day of July, and passed above fifty leagues therein, as he reported, having upon either hand a great main of continent.... And it is especially to be remembered that at their first arrival in those parts there lay so great store of ice all the coast along, so think together, that hardly his boat could pass unto the shore. At length, after divers attempts, he commanded his company, if by any possible means they could get ashore, to bring him whatsoever thing they could first find, whether it were living or dead, stock or stone, in token of Christian possession, which thereby he took in behalf of the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, thinking that thereby he might justify the having and enjoying of the same things that grew in these unknown parts. Some of his company brought flowers, some green grass, and one brought a piece of black stone, much like to a sea coal in colour, which by the weight seemed to be some kind of metal or mineral. This was a thing of no account in the judgment of the captain at first sight; and yet for novelty it was kept in respect of the place from whence it came. After his arrival in London, being demanded of sundry his friends what thing he had brought them home out of that country, he had nothing left to present them withal but a piece of this black stone. And it fortuned a gentlewoman, one of the adventurers' wives, to have a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in the fire, so long, that at the length being taken forth and quenched in a little vinegar, it glistered with a bright marquesite of gold. Whereupon the matter being called in some question, it was brought to certain gold-finers in London to make assay thereof, who gave out that it held gold, and that very richly for the quantity. Afterwards the same gold-finers promised great matters thereof if there were any store to be found and offered themselves to adventure for the searching of those parts from whence the same was brought. Some that had great hope of the matter sought secretly to have a lease at Her Majesty's hands of those places, whereby to enjoy the mass. of so great a public profit unto their own private gains. (Hakluyt, ed. cit., p. 64.) 147. The Beginnings of American Colonization Hakluyt In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh fitted out an expedition for the purpose of exploration with a view to establishing a colony. This resulted in the discovery of a country which was afterward known as Virginia. The extract given was written by Arthur Barlowe, one of the captains of the expedition, and by him sent to Raleigh. The account is more picturesque than accurate, but is interesting as illustrating the fourth of the great incentives to the sea-rovers of the Elizabethan era the incentive of colonization. FIRST VOYAGE TO VIRGINIA The 27th day of April, in the year of our redemption, 1584, we departed the West of England, with two barks well furnished with men and victuals, having received our last and perfect directions by your letters, confirming the former instructions and commandments delivered by yourself at our leaving the river of Thames. And I think, in a matter both unneccessary, for the manifest discovery of the Country, as also for tediousness sake, to remember unto you the diurnal of our course, sailing thither and returning; only I have presumed to present unto you this brief discourse, by which you may judge how profitable this land is like to succeed, as well to yourself (by whose direction and charge, and by whose servants this our discourse hath been performed) as also to her Highness, and the Commonwealth, in which we hope your wisdom will be satisfied, considering that as much by us hath been brought to light, as by those small means, and number of men we had, could any way have been expected, or hoped for. The tenth of May we arrived at the Canaries, and the tenth of June in this present year, we were fallen with the Islands of the West Indies.... The second of July, we found shoal water, where we smelt so sweet and so strong a smell, as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers, by which we were assured, that the land could not be far distant: and keeping good watch, and bearing good slack sail, the fourth of the same month we arrived upon the coast, which we supposed to be a continent and firm land, and we sailed along the same a hundred and twenty English miles before we could find any entrance, or river issuing into the sea. The first that appeared unto us, we entered, though not without some difficulty, and cast anchor about three arquebus-shot within the haven's mouth, on the left hand of the same; and after thanks given to God for our safe arrival thither, we manned our boats, and went to view the land next adjoining, and "to take possession of the same, in the right of the Queen's most excellent Majesty, as rightful Queen, and Princess of the same, and after delivered the same over to your use, according to her Majesty's grant, and letters patent, under her Highness' Great Seal. Which being performed, according to the ceremonies used in such enterprises, we viewed the land about us, being, whereas we first landed, very sandy and low towards the water's side, but so full of grapes, as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them.... We passed from the sea side towards the tops of those hills next adjoining, being but of mean hight, and from thence we beheld the sea on both sides to the north, and to the south, finding no end any of both ways. This land lay stretching itself to the west, which after we found to be but an island of twenty miles long, and not above six miles broad. Under the bank or hill whereon we stood, we beheld the valleys replenished with goodly cedar trees, and having discharged our harquebus-shot, such a flock of cranes (the |