SIR MARTIN FROBISHER.

Sir Martin Frobisher was born at Doncaster, Yorkshire, of humble parentage, and brought up to the sea, and in early life displayed the talents of a great navigator, and was the first Englishman who attempted to find a northwest passage to China. Under the patronage of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, he fitted out two barks of twenty-five tons, and a pinnace of ten tons, and sailed from Deptford, January 8, 1576, and on July 11^th discovered Freeseland and the strait which still bears his name, and after making numerous discoveries he returned to England, arriving at Harwich 2d October of the same year. On this voyage he took possession of the country in Queen Elizabeth’s name and brought back with him specimens of gold ore. This circumstance raised prodigious expectations, and the Queen lent him a ship of two hundred tons for his next expedition, on which he sailed accompanied with a party of one hundred and forty persons (also two barks of thirty tons each) from Gravesend, May 26, 1577. He made numerous discoveries, but his instructions were to search for ore, and being in the Countess of Warwick Island he took a lading of it and arrived in England the end of September, 1577, and was most graciously received by the Queen, who fitted out another fleet of twelve vessels which sailed from Harwich May 31, 1578, and sighted Freeseland June 20^th, and took possession of the country in the Queen’s name, calling it West England, and after collecting much ore sailed for and arrived in England after a stormy and dangerous passage in the beginning of October. In 1588 he commanded the Triumph in the engagement against the Spanish Armada and received the honor of knighthood for his valor at sea by the Lord High Admiral, 26 July of the same year. In 1590, he commanded a squadron to the Spanish Coast, and in 1594 he was sent with four men-of-war to the assistance of Henry IV. of France, against a body of leaguers and Spaniards then in possession of part of Brittany, who had fortified themselves very strongly at Croyzon near Brest. Here, in an assault upon that fort, November 7^th, he was wounded by a ball in the hip, of which he died soon after he had brought the fleet safely back to Plymouth, and was buried in that town.