Relics from Barentsz’s hut. (National Museum, Amsterdam)
The exact manner of the house wherein we wintered.
Queen Elizabeth took great interest in the northern voyages of her own subjects and of her Dutch allies. We find Sir Francis Vere, her General in the Netherlands, sending home a full account of the first voyage of Barentsz on 7th October 1594[43], and adopting Linschoten’s sanguine views of the ultimate commercial success of the enterprise, which was to be renewed in the following year. This letter was the consequence of an order from the Queen to keep her fully informed respecting the maritime, and more especially the Arctic, undertakings of the Dutch.
CHAPTER X
SIR MARTIN FROBISHER
It was more than 20 years after the expedition of Willoughby to the north-east that the efforts towards the north-west were commenced. Their inception was due to Martin Frobisher, one of the greatest of the Elizabethan seamen.
Born at Altofts, in the parish of Normanton in Yorkshire, about 1535, Martin was a nephew of Francis Frobisher, who had been Mayor of Doncaster. His father, Bernard Frobisher, died in Martin’s infancy, and his mother sent the boy, being one of several children, to the care of her brother, Sir John Yorke, in London. Martin is described as “a youth of great spirit and bold courage, and natural hardiness of body.” His uncle seems to have found him more than he could manage, so he sent him to sea. Martin’s first voyage was to the coast of Guinea in 1554, and for many years he continued to make voyages to Africa and to the Levant, becoming a thorough sailor, but without much book learning. Yet he was deeply impressed with the importance of Arctic discovery very early in his career. His great ambition was to lead an expedition and to discover the strait which must, he thought, lead into the ocean discovered by Magellan on the north side of America, as Magellan’s Strait leads into it on the south.
Frobisher saw service in Ireland, and it has been suggested with much probability that he there became acquainted with Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy. This was the friend of the young King, Edward VI, who on the part of his sovereign, took an active interest in the expedition of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and obtained the appointment of Richard Chancellor as second in command. Sidney would naturally take an equal interest in the project of Frobisher, would encourage his enthusiasm, and exert his influence to enable him to realise his ardent longing. So it was that Sidney’s brother-in-law, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, took the matter in hand, brought it before Queen Elizabeth, and secured her approval.
The discourse of Sir Humphrey Gilbert to prove a passage to Cataya and the East Indies was printed in 1576, but it had been written some years before, and its powerful advocacy was no small help to the persuasions of Frobisher. It is divided into ten chapters. The first is to prove the existence of a passage from authority, in the second is the proof from reason, and the third shows that America must be an island. The next four chapters discuss the traditions that the passage had been sailed through[44], and the eighth contests the reasons given by Anthony Jenkinson for preferring a north-east passage. In the ninth it is argued that a north-west route will be more commodious for traffic, and in the tenth the manifold advantages of the discovery are set forth. At the close of his discourse Sir Humphrey exclaims: “He is not worthy to live at all who for fear or danger of death shunneth his country’s service or his own honor, since death is inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal.”
The advocacy of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and the support of the Queen’s ministers and courtiers enabled Frobisher to make progress in collecting funds. A difficulty was raised by the Muscovy Company, represented by Mr Michael Lock, who maintained that the voyage was contrary to the Company’s privileges. But the Privy Council ordered the Company either to make the attempt itself, or to grant a licence to Frobisher to do so, and the latter alternative was preferred. Moreover Frobisher won over Michael Lock to his side, a most important ally.