“The Generall and his Maister being met with their two companions togither after they had exchanged certaine things the one with the other, one of the Salvages [savages] for lacke of better merchandise cut off the tayle of his coat (which is a chief ornament among them) and gave it unto our Generall as a present. But he [the general] presently upon a watchword given with his Maister, sodainely [suddenly] laid hold upon the two Salvages. But the ground underfoot being slipperie with the snow on the side of the hill, their handfast fayled and their prey escaping ranne away and lightly recovered their bow and arrowes, which they had hid not farre from them behind the rockes. And being onely two Salvages in sight they so fiercely, desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pursued our Generall and his Master, being altogether unarmed, and not mistrusting their subtiltie, that they chased them to their boates and hurt the Generall ... with an arrow, who the rather speedily fled backe, because they suspected a greater number behind the rockes. Our souldiers (which were commanded before to keepe their boates) perceiving the danger, and hearing our men calling for shot, came speedily to rescue thinking there had been a greater number. But when the Salvages heard the shot of one of our calivers (and yet having just bestowed their arrowes) they ran away, our men speedily following them. But a servant of my Lorde of Warwick, called Nicholas Conger, a good footman, and uncombred with any furniture having only a dagger at his backe, overtook one of them, and being a Cornishman and a good wrestler, shewed his companion such a Cornish tricke that he made his sides ake for a moneth after.”
So one was captured while the other escaped. With this “new and strange prey” the captain and his companions finally embarked on their boats. But it had become too late to reach the ships, and a storm had arisen. Accordingly they crossed to a small island to tarry the night. They had neither eaten nor drunk through the day, and now could refresh themselves only with a scant supply of victuals which had been put in the boats for their dinner. Then they lay down upon “hard cliffes of snow and yce,” wet, cold, and comfortless; and so, “keeping verie good watch and warde,” the night was spent.
Meanwhile the ships in the bay were having a perilous time of it. Settle relates that they were “forced to abide in a cruell tempest, chancing in the night amongst and in the thickest of the yce which was so monstrous” that they would have been shivered to pieces had not the lightness of the night enabled them to shift about and avoid the rushing ice floes. And Best tells of an earlier peril escaped. The “Ayde” had been set afire through the “negligence of the Cooke in over-heating, and the workman in making the chimney,” and she was saved from destruction only by a ship-boy’s chance discovery of the flames. The next morning, however, opened fair and tranquil. Then “the Generall espying the ships, with his new Captive and whole company, came happily abord, and reported what had passed a shoare.” And then “altogither upon our knees we gave God humble and heartie thankes, for that it had pleased him, from so speedy peril to send us such speedy deliverance.”
That day, the twentieth of July, the ships “stroke over” from the northern shore toward the southern, and the next day a bay was discovered running into the land, which seemed a likely harbour for them. Thither Frobisher, again taking the goldfiners, rowed, to “make proofe thereof,” and at the same time to search for ore on this side, having as yet assayed nothing on the south shore. The sands and cliffs of the islands here visited “did so glister” in the sun and had so “bright a marquesite,” that “it seemed all to be gold.” But, unhappily, upon trial it “prooved no better then [than] black-lead.” Thus, as the philosophic Settle observed, and Best echoed, was verified the “old proverb, All is not gold that glistereth.” On one island, indeed, a mine of silver was struck, but the stuff was not to be “wonne [won] out of the rockes without great labour.” On another, in lieu of precious metal, was discovered, “embayed in yce” a carcass of a great “sea unicorn,” or morse, with a “horne of two yardes long growing out of the snout,” "like in fashion to a Taper made of waxe." And this unicorn’s horn was the sole trophy of the prospecting on this side. It was long afterward to be seen in England, being “reserved as a Jewel by the Queenes Majesties commandement in her wardrobe of Robes.” The harbour, however, appeared satisfactory, and on the next day the ships bore into the sound and came to anchor. This sound they named “Jackman’s Sound,” after the mate of the “Ayde.”
The ships now being in fair “securitie” another formal entry into the country was made and a thanksgiving ceremony performed. Best’s relation is Settle’s account enlarged: “Tuesday the three and twentieth of July our Generall with his best company of gentlemen, souldiers and saylers, to the number of seventie persons in all, marched with ensigne displyede up the continent of the Southerland (the supposed continent of America), where, commanding a Trumpet to sound a call for every man to repaire to the ensigne, he declared to the whole companie how much the cause imported for the service of her Majestie; our countrey, our credit, and the safetie of our owne lives, and therefore required every man to be conformable to order, and to be directed by those he should assigne. And he appointed for leaders, Captaine Fenton, Captaine Yorke, and his Lieutenant George Beste: which done, we cast our selves into a ring, and altogither on our knees, gave God humble thanks for that he had pleased him of his great goodnesse to preserve us from such imminent dangers, beseeching likewise the assistance of his holy spirite, so to deliver us in safetie unto our Countrey, whereby the light and truth of these secrets being knowen, it might redound to the more honour of his holy name, and consequently to the advancement of our common wealth. And so, in as good sort as the place suffered, we marched towards the tops of the mountains [as stated by Settle, now and then heaping up stones on them in token of possession] which were no lesse painfull in climbing then [than] dangerous in descending, by reason of their steepnesse & yce. And having passed about five miles, by such unwieldie wayes, we returned unto our ships without sight of any people, or likelihood of habitation.”
Inspired by this journey to further exploration, several of the company urged Frobisher to permit them to march with a picked band thirty or forty leagues inland to discover it, and “do some acceptable service” for England. But he, “not contented with the matter he sought for [that is, gold], and well considering the short time he had in hand, and the greedie desire our countrey hath to a present savour and returne of gaine,” declined their petition at that juncture, and “bent his whole indevour only to find a Mine to fraight his ships.” After he had found freight for the barks he would hope to “discover further for the passage” through the supposed strait.
So on the twenty-sixth he set off again for the northland, taking the two barks, and leaving the “Ayde” alone riding in Jackman’s Sound. That night he came to anchor in a little haven to which he gave the name of “Bear’s Sound,” for the master of the “Michael.” Here more trouble was encountered. “The tydes did runne so swift, and the place was so subject to indrafts of yce,” that the barks were in constant danger. Still, they rode without serious injury through the next day, while the party having found “a very nice Myne, as they supposed” on a neighbouring island (named by them Leicester’s Island), managed to get together “almost twentie tunne of ore.” But the next day the ice came driving into the sound with such force that both barks were “greatly distressed,” and it became imperative at once to get away from this dangerous place. Thus they were obliged to leave the ore they had dug up in a pile on the island. They got off on the next flood toward morning. About “five leagues” beyond they came upon another sound, so “fenced on eche [each] side with smal ilands lying off the maine, which breake the force of the tides,” as to form an exceptionally good harbour. Accordingly they decided to anchor here, under one of the isles. Then landing, they found on this isle such an abundance of ore “indifferent good,” that they concluded to load here rather than to seek further “for better and spend time with jeoperdie.”
This decision being reached the miners were put diligently to work, Frobisher setting a good example by his own energetic action, and every man of the party “willingly layd to their helping hands.” The “Michael” was despatched back to Jackman’s to bring up the “Ayde,” and on the last day of July the ships were all in this haven, and all of the company busy at mining. Within twenty days from the start of these operations nearly two hundred tons of the supposed ore had been shipped, and preparations had begun for the homeward voyage. Meanwhile a little fort had been built on the island for accommodation and defence. This was devised by Best, and his name was given it as “Best’s Bulwark.” Both sound and island were named the “Countess Warwick’s Sound and Island,” in honour of “that vertuous Ladie, Anne Countesse of Warwicke.” The Countess of Warwick’s land is the Kod-lu-narn of to-day.
While the work of mining was going forward on this island more scrimmages with the natives were had. Captain Yorke of the “Michael,” when coming up from Jackman’s Sound, had a sharp fight with a body of them on the shore of a little bay, afterward called for him “Yorke’s Sound.” And here, in one of their seal-skin tents, were found relics—an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and shoes—of the five Englishmen whom the natives had captured on the first voyage. Thereupon rescue parties were sent out; a letter advising the lost men, if any were alive, of the presence of their friends, was left in the custody of those of the natives who seemed the most friendly, with pen, ink, and paper for communicating their whereabouts; and threats of reprisal were made if the men were not produced or their fate disclosed: but all to no purpose. One rescue party under Master Philpot, the ensign, came into conflict with a group off Yorke’s Sound, who began an assault[assault] with a flight of arrows; and on their flying retreat Philpot’s men captured a young woman and child to add to the living “prey” to be taken back to England. Several of the natives, when wounded by the Englishmen’s return fire, leapt into the sea and drowned themselves. The young woman was taken with an old one, the two “not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one for her age, and the other being incombred” with the child. Some of the pursuing Englishmen suspected the old woman of being “eyther a devill or a witch,” and to satisfy themselves on this fearful point, they “had her buskins plucked off to see if she was cloven footed.” She was finally let go because of her “ougly [ugly] hue and deformity.”
Fuller information about the natives and their customs was given in the narratives of this voyage than of the first one. Settle describes the men as “of a large corporature and of good proportion.” They wore their hair “something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very disorderly.” The women also wore long hair, but theirs was “knit up with two loupes, shewing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest foltred upon a knot.” Their apparel was comprised of “skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinews of them.” These garments were made with “hoods and tailes which tailes they give when they thinke to gratifie any friendship shewed unto them: a great sign of friendship with them.” Their legs were encased in “hose of leather with the fur side inward, two or three pairs on at once.” These stockings were held up by a bone placed inside them, reaching from the foot to the knee, instead of by garters. In them they carried their “knives, needles, and other things needful to beare about.” The beasts, fishes, and fowls that they killed provided all their wants. They were their “meat, drinke, apparell, houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails of their boates, with many other necessaries,” and “almost all their riches.”