England in America, 1580-1652 | Page 6

the Northwest to Cathaia and the East Indies," which was
shown by Gascoigne, a friend of Gilbert, to the celebrated mariner
Martin Frobisher, and stimulated him to his glorious voyages to the
northeast coast of North America.[25] Before Frobisher's departure on
his first voyage Queen Elizabeth sent for him and commended him for
his enterprise, and when he sailed, July 1, 1576, she waved her hand to
him from her palace window.[26] He explored Frobisher's Strait and
took possession of the land called Meta Incognita in the name of the
queen. He brought back with him a black stone, which a gold-finder in
London pronounced rich in gold, and the vain hope of a gold-mine
inspired two other voyages (1577, 1578). On his third voyage Frobisher
entered the strait known as Hudson Strait, but the ore with which he
loaded his ships proved of little value. John Davis, like Frobisher, made
three voyages in three successive years (1585, 1586, 1587), and the
chief result of his labors was the discovery of the great strait which
bears his name.[27]
Meanwhile, the idea of building up another English nation across the

seas had taken a firm hold on Gilbert, and among those who communed
with him were his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh, his brothers Adrian
and John Gilbert, besides Richard Hakluyt, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir
Richard Grenville, Sir George Peckham, and Secretary of State Sir
Francis Walsingham. The ill success of Frobisher had no influence
upon their purpose; but four years elapsed after Gilbert's petition to the
crown in 1574 before he obtained his patent. How these years preyed
upon the noble enthusiasm of Gilbert we may understand from a letter
commonly attributed to him, which was handed to the queen in
November, 1577: "I will do it if you will allow me; only you must
resolve and not delay or dally--the wings of man's life are plumed with
the feathers of death."[28]
At length, however, the formalities were completed, and on June 11,
1578, letters to Gilbert passed the seals for planting an English colony
in America.[29] This detailed charter of colonization is most interesting,
since it contains several provisions which reappear in many later
charters. Gilbert was invested with all title to the soil within two
hundred leagues of the place of settlement, and large governmental
authority was given him. To the crown were reserved only the
allegiance of the settlers and one-fifth of all the gold and silver to be
found. Yet upon Gilbert's power two notable limitations were imposed:
the colonists were to enjoy "all the privileges of free denizens and
persons native of England"; and the protection of the nation was
withheld from any license granted by Gilbert "to rob or spoil by sea or
by land."
Sir Humphrey lost no time in assembling a fleet, but it was not till
November 19, 1578, that he finally sailed from Plymouth with seven
sail and three hundred and eighty-seven men, one of the ships being
commanded by Raleigh. The subsequent history of the expedition is
only vaguely known. The voyagers got into a fight with a Spanish
squadron and a ship was lost.[30] Battered and dispirited as the fleet
was, Gilbert had still Drake's buccaneering expedient open to him; but,
loyal to the injunctions of the queen's charter, he chose to return, and
the expedition broke up at Kinsale, in Ireland.[31]

In this unfortunate voyage Gilbert buried the mass of his fortune, but,
undismayed, he renewed his enterprise. He was successful in enlisting a
large number of gentlemen in the new venture, and two friends who
invested heavily--Sir Thomas Gerard, of Lancaster, and Sir George
Peckham, of Bucks--he rewarded by enormous grants of land and
privileges.[32] Raleigh adventured £2000 and contributed a ship, the
Ark Raleigh;[33] but probably no man did more in stirring up interest
than Richard Hakluyt, the famous naval historian, who about this time
published his Divers Voyages, which fired the heart and imagination of
the nation.[34] In 1579 an exploring ship was sent out under Simon
Ferdinando, and the next year another sailed under John Walker. They
reached the coast of Maine, and the latter brought back the report of a
silver-mine discovered near the Penobscot.[35]
[Footnote 1: Cf. Bourne, Spain in America, chap. xvi.]
[Footnote 2: Cf. Cheyney, European Background of American History,
chap. v.]
[Footnote 3: Prescott, Hist. of the Reign of Philip II., III., 443.]
[Footnote 4: Ibid., chaps, xi., xii.]
[Footnote 5: Maine Hist. Soc., Collections, 2d series, II., 59.]
[Footnote 6: Hakluyt, Discourse on Western Planting.]
[Footnote 7: Robertson, Works (ed. 1818), XI., 136.]
[Footnote 8: Nova Britannia (Force, Tracts, I., No. vi.).]
[Footnote 9: Purchas, Pilgrimes (ed. 1625), III., 809; Hakluyt, Voyages
(ed. 1809), III., 167-174.]
[Footnote 10: Hakluyt, Voyages, III., 171; IV., 198.]
[Footnote 11: Purchas, Pilgrimes, III., 808;