Their weapons comprised bows and arrows, darts, and slings. The bows were of wood, “a yard long, sinewed at the back with strong sinews.” The bow-strings were also sinews. The arrows were wooden, half a yard or a little more in length, “nocked with bone and ended with bone,” feathered, and of three styles of heads: one, of stone or iron, “proportioned like to a heart”; another, of bone with a hooked tip; the third, of bone sharp on both sides and sharp pointed. The darts were of two kinds, one with “many forkes of bone in the fore end and likewise in the midst,” the other with “a long bone made sharpe on both sides, not much unlike a Rapier.” Their boats were of leather, “set out on the inner side with quarters of wood artificially tyed together with thongs of the same”; and they were of two sorts: one large, to carry sixteen or twenty men, and provided with a sail made of the “guts of such beasts as they kill very fine and thin, which they sew together”; the other, a canoe, intended for one man only, with a single oar or paddle.
Their winter habitations Best thus described: “Upon the maine land over against the Countesses Iland we discovered and behelde to our great marvell the poore caves and houses of those countrey people, which serve them (as it would seeme) for their winter dwellings.” They were “made two fadome under grounde, in compasse round, like to an Oven, being joyned fast one by another, having holes like to a fox or Connyberry, to keepe and come togither. They undertrenched these places with gutters so, that the waters falling from the hills above them, may slide away without their annoyance: and are seated commonly in the foote of a hill, to shield them better from the cold windes, having their doore and entrance ever open towards the South. From the ground upward they builde with whales bones for lacke of timber, which bending one over another, are handsomely compacted in the top together, and are covered over with Sealesskinne, which instead of tiles fence them from the raine. In which house they have only one roome, having the one halfe of the floure [floor] raised with broad stones a foot higher than ye other, whereon strawing Mosse they make their nests to sleep in.”
The company finished the lading of the ships with their precious freight on the twenty-first of August, and the next day took formal leave of the place with a demonstration. Bonfires were lighted on the highest mount; then all marched in procession, with ensign displayed, round about the island; and finally a “vollie of shott” was given “for a farewell” in honour of the Countess of Warwick.
They set sail on the twenty-third with a prosperous wind, but before clearing the sound were becalmed and obliged to come to anchor again. The next morning, making a fresh start, they proceeded to sea. Here they took a more southerly course to “bring themselves the sooner into the latitude of their own climate.” The wind was so strong that they lay “a hull” the first night, and had snow half a foot deep on the hatches. Three or four days later the “Michael” lost company of the other two ships, and shaping her course toward the Orkneys she arrived first in England, making port at Yarmouth. Later the “Gabriel” was separated from the “Ayde.” On the thirtieth of August, with the force of the wind and a “surge of the sea,” the “Gabriel’s” master and the boatswain were both cast overboard. The boatswain was saved but the master lost. In the same storm, on the first of September, the “Ayde” was disabled, her rudder being “torn in twain.” The next day, when a calm succeeded the tempest, an heroic work was performed in mending the break. “They flung halfe a dozen couple of our best men overboard, who taking great paines under water, driving plankes and binding with ropes, did well strengthen and mend the matter.” This done (it is Best’s relation) the men returned “the most part more than halfe dead out of the water.” The "Ayde" first dropped anchor in “Padstow road,” Cornwall. On the twenty-third of September she was at Milford Haven, in Wales; and a month later came up to Bristol. Here the “Gabriel” had earlier arrived. After the loss of her master, and when she was floundering at sea, she had the good fortune to meet with a Bristol ship, which piloted her thither. Here also word was had of the first arrival of the “Michael.” Of the one hundred and twenty men comprising the whole company all reached home in safety except two—Master Smyth of the “Gabriel” and one of the gentlemen, who died at sea.
Their return with the two hundred tons of glistering stone and earth was a great event. The treasure was committed to keeping in the Castle at Bristol, while Frobisher repaired with all haste to the court, now at Windsor, to make report to the queen.
XIV
THE LUST FOR GOLD
Of Frobisher’s interview with the queen and what followed we have account in the introductory paragraph of the third chapter of Best’s True Discourse:
“He was courteously enterteyned, and hartily welcommed of many noble men, but especially for his great adventure commended of her Majestie, at whose hands he received great thankes, and most gracious countenance, according to his deserts. Her Highnesse also greatly commended the rest of the Gentlemen in this service, for their great forwardnes in this so dangerous an attempt.... And finding that the matter of the gold Ore had appearance & made shew of great riches & profit, & the hope of the passage to Cataya, by this last voyage greatly increased, her Majestie appointed speciall commissioners chosen for this purpose, gentlemen of great judgmente, art, and skill, to looke thorowly into the cause, for the true triall and due examination thereof, and for the full handling of all matters thereunto appertaining. And because that place and countrey hath never heretofore beene discovered, and therefore had no speciall name by which it might be called and knowen, her Majestie named it very properly Meta Incognita, as a marke and bound utterly hitherto unknowen.”
A part of the ore was brought up from Bristol Castle and deposited in the Tower of London under lock and key; and after “sufficient triall and proofe” of it had been made, and they had also become satisfied of the “likelyhood” of the Northwest Passage, the commissioners advised the queen that “the cause was of importance, and the voyage worthy to be advanced again.”
Accordingly a third expedition was planned on quite a grand scale, and with this project was coupled a scheme of what might be termed limited colonization in Meta Incognita. One hundred selected “souldiers and discreet men” were to be assigned to inhabit the place at least through a year, for the “better guard” of those parts already found; for further discovery of the inland and of its “secrets,” meaning mineral wealth; and, lastly, for further search for the passage. For their accommodation the frame of a fort or house of timber, “cunningly devised by a notable learned man” in London, was to be carried out in parts in the ships; also a pinnace, in parts.