Historic Tales, Vol. 1 | Page 9

leg.
But, to their great joy, the mariners found plenty of the shining yellow
stones, and stowed abundance of them on their ships, deeming, like
certain Virginian gold-seekers of a later date, that their fortunes were
now surely made. They found also "a great dead fish, round like a
porepis [porpoise], twelve feet long, having a Horne of two yardes,
lacking two ynches, growing out of the Snout, wreathed and straight,
like a Waxe-Taper, and might be thought to be a Sea-Unicorne. It was
reserved as a Jewell by the Queens' commandment in her Wardrobe of
Robes."
A northwest wind having cleared the strait of ice, the navigators sailed
gayly forward, full of the belief that the Pacific would soon open to
their eyes. It was not long before they were in battle with the Eskimos.
They had found European articles in some native kyacks, which they
supposed belonged to the men they had lost the year before. To rescue
or revenge these unfortunates, Frobisher attacked the natives, who
valiantly resisted, even plucking the arrows from their bodies to use as
missiles, and, when mortally hurt, flinging themselves from the rocks
into the sea. At length they gave ground, and fled to the loftier cliffs,
leaving two of their women as trophies to the assailants. These two, one
"being olde," says the record, "the other encombred with a yong childe,

we took. The olde wretch, whom divers of our Saylors supposed to be
eyther the Divell, or a witch, had her buskins plucked off, to see if she
were cloven-footed; and for her ougly hewe and deformitie, we let her
goe; the young woman and the childe we brought away."
This was not the last of their encounters with the Eskimos, who,
incensed against them, made every effort to entrap them into their
power. Their stratagems consisted in placing tempting pieces of meat at
points near which they lay in ambush, and in pretending lameness to
decoy the Englishmen into pursuit. These schemes failing, they made a
furious assault upon the vessel with arrows and other missiles.
Before the strait could be fully traversed, ice had formed so thickly that
further progress was stopped, and, leaving the hoped-for Cathay for
future voyagers, the mariners turned their prows homeward, their
vessels laden with two hundred tons of the glittering stone.
Strangely enough, an examination of this material failed to dispel the
delusion. The scientists of that day declared that it was genuine
gold-ore, and expressed their belief that the road to China lay through
Frobisher Strait. Untold wealth, far surpassing that which the Spaniards
had obtained in Mexico and Peru, seemed ready to shower into
England's coffers. Frobisher was now given the proud honor of kissing
the queen's hand, his neck was encircled with a chain of gold of more
value than his entire two hundred tons of ore, and, with a fleet of fifteen
ships, one of them of four hundred tons, he set sail again for the land of
golden promise. Of the things that happened to him in this voyage, one
of the most curious is thus related. "The Salamander (one of their
Shippes), being under both her Courses and Bonets, happened to strike
upon a great Whale, with her full Stemme, with suche a blow that the
Shippe stood still, and neither stirred backward or forward. The whale
thereat made a great and hideous noyse, and casting up his body and
tayle, presently sank under water. Within two days they found a whale
dead, which they supposed was this which the Salamander had
stricken."
Other peril came to the fleet from icebergs, through the midst of which
they were driven by a tempest, but they finally made their way into

what is now known as Hudson Strait, up which, filled with hope that
the continental limits would quickly be passed and the route to China
open before them, they sailed some sixty miles. But to their
disappointment they found that they were being turned southward, and,
instead of crossing the continent, were descending into its heart.
Reluctantly Frobisher turned back, and, after many buffetings from the
storms, managed to bring part of his fleet into Frobisher Bay. So much
time had been lost that it was not safe to proceed. Winter might surprise
them in those icy wilds. Therefore, shipping immense quantities of the
"fools' gold" which had led them so sadly astray, they turned their
prows once more homeward, reaching England's shores in early
October.
Meanwhile the "ore" had been found to be absolutely worthless, the
golden dreams which had roused England to exultation had faded away,
and the new ship-loads they brought were esteemed to be hardly worth
their weight as ballast. For this disappointment the unlucky Frobisher,
who had been appointed High Admiral of all lands