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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Narratives
- SEBASTIAN CABOTA
- SIR MARTIN FROBISHER
- MASTER JOHN DAVIS
- CAPTAIN GEORGE WAYMOUTH
- MASTER JOHN KNIGHT
- MASTER HENRY HUDSON
- SIR THOMAS BUTTON
- JAMES HALL
- CAPTAIN GIBBONS
- BYLOT and BAFFIN
- CAPTAIN HAWKRIDGE
- CAPTAIN LUKE FOX
- CAPTAIN JAMES
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX: SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
- POST-SCRIPTUM
- Plate section
SIR MARTIN FROBISHER
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Narratives
- SEBASTIAN CABOTA
- SIR MARTIN FROBISHER
- MASTER JOHN DAVIS
- CAPTAIN GEORGE WAYMOUTH
- MASTER JOHN KNIGHT
- MASTER HENRY HUDSON
- SIR THOMAS BUTTON
- JAMES HALL
- CAPTAIN GIBBONS
- BYLOT and BAFFIN
- CAPTAIN HAWKRIDGE
- CAPTAIN LUKE FOX
- CAPTAIN JAMES
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX: SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
- POST-SCRIPTUM
- Plate section
Summary
Except an abortive attempt, of which the particulars are not known, made by the Dominus Vobiscum and another vessel, in 1527, “no more consideration was had for the voyage” for eighty years after the failure of Sebastian Cabota. The project was revived by Sir Martin Frobisher, a man of no eminent lineage, but endowed with superior mental qualifications. It appears that, at an early age, he was sent from his native place to a school in London, and placed under the care of “Sir John Yorke, knight, his kinseman; who, perceiving him to be of great spirit and bould courage, and naturall hardnes of body, sent him to the hote cuntrye of Guinea”, on board a ship forming part of a fleet fitted out by several merchants of London. As he advanced in years, he is represented to have been “thorowly furnished of the knowledge of the sphere, and all other skilles appertayning to the arte of navigation”. By incessant and long study of the subject; by “sundry sure reasons and secret intelligence”, the nature of which, however, is not communicated, Frobisher wrought himself to a conviction of being able to accomplish the notable design he contemplated. His fortune was not commensurate with his desire : “he lacked altogether meanes and abilitie to performe the same”; and for fifteen years he conferred earnestly, but fruitlessly, with his private friends, and with merchants, on the project. The former proved lukewarm; and the latter, he soon perceived, were not wont to regard “vertue, without sure, certaine, and present gaines”.
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- Narratives of Voyages Towards the North-West, in Search of a Passage to Cathay and India, 1496 to 1631With Selections from the Early Records of the Honourable the East India Company and from Mss. in the British Museum, pp. 7 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1849