Imatges de pàgina
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let me be quiet this short time I have to live"; which he several times repeated. Then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he began the psalm, Ad te levavi oculos meos, etc., but was again interrupted by the ministers, calling upon him to join with them in prayer, which he refused to do, telling them that his faith and theirs was not the same. But he desired the Catholics to pray for him, and to bear witness that he died in and for the Catholic faith, and not for any crime whatsoever, or treason against the state. With that he was thrown off the ladder; and, according to sentence, was cut down alive and quarter'd. And tho' the Lord Mayor and other magistrates who were present at the execution sought to hinder the Catholics from carrying home with them any relics of the confessor, yet some there were who, in spite of all their precautions and threats, carried off some of his blood, or fragments of his bones, or pieces of his clothes, which they kept as treasures; so great was the veneration they had for his virtue and the cause for which he died.

Having receiv'd sentence, he was carried to the Tower, 227. Exeand there kept in a dungeon, loaded with irons, from Friday, cution of James Fenn the day of his condemnation, till Wednesday following, which (1584) was the day of his execution. In the meantime, Mr. Popham, the attorney general, and a doctor of the civil law, formerly school-fellow to Mr. Fenn, came to him to exhort him to comply and acknowledge the queen's authority and obey the laws; promising, that if he would, they would use their best endeavours to save his life. The confessor told them, he willingly acknowledg'd the queen's authority in all temporal matters; but that he neither could nor would acknowledge her supreme head of the church, but only as one of the sheep, subject in spirituals to that shepherd to whom Christ committed his whole flock: and that he was ready to die in and for the profession of this faith.

On the day of execution he was laid on a hurdle to be drawn with his companions from the Tower to Tyburn. It was a moving spectacle to many to see his little daughter Frances, with many tears, take her last leave of her father upon this

228. Voyage of Frobisher

occasion, whilst the good man, who had long since been dead to all things in this world, looking upon her with a calm and serene countenance, and lifting up his hands as well as he could, for they were pinion'd, gave her his blessing, and so was drawn away. At Tyburn he was not suffer'd to speak many words; but after he had pray'd for a while, he only declared to the people his innocence of the crime that had been falsely laid to his charge in the court; and then recommended himself and the queen, to whom he wish'd all manner of happiness, to God's mercy. And so the cart being drawn away, he was left hanging for a little while, and then cut down alive, bowell'd and quarter'd. His quarters were disposed on four of the gates of the city, and his head upon London Bridge.

III. COMMERCE AND EXPLORATIONS

The voyage of Martin Frobisher with three vessels in search of the Northwest passage in 1576 was the first of a long series of such attempts. Some extracts from his logbook are here given. The queen was then living at Greenwich, and the expedition was watched by her and her court as it sailed down the Thames from London. They found icy seas and arctic lands and the Eskimos, but no Northwest passage around America.

The 8th day being Friday, about 12 of the clocke we wayed at Detford, and set saile all three of us, and bare downe by the Court, where we shotte off our ordinance and made the

June 8, 1576 best shew we could: Her Majestie beholding the same, com

mended it, and bade us farewell, with shaking her hand at us out of the window. Afterward shee sent a Gentleman aboord of us, who declared that her Majestie had good liking of our doings, and thanked us for it, and also willed our Captaine to come the next day to the Court to take his leave of her.

The same day towards night Mr. Secretarie Woolly came aboorde of us, and declared to the company, that her Majestie had appointed him to give them charge to be obedient and

diligent to their Captaine and governours in all things, and

wished us happie successe.

Labrador

The 28. day in the morning was very foggie: but at the July 28, off clearing up of the fogge, wee had sight of lande, which I suposed to be Labrador, with great store of yce about the land: I ranne in towards it, and sownded, but could get no ground at 100 fathom, and the yce being so thicke, I could not get to the shoare, and so lay off, and came cleare of the yce. Upon Munday we came within a mile of the shoare, and sought a harborowe. All the sownd was full of yce, and our boate rowing ashoare, could get no ground at 100 fathom, within a Cable's length of the shoare: then we sailed Eastnortheast along the shoare, for so the land lyeth, and the currant is there great, setting Northeast and Southwest and if we could have gotten anker ground, wee would have seene with what force it had runne, but I judge a ship may drive a league and a halfe, in one houre, with that tide. . .

The tenth I tooke foure men, and my selfe, and rowed to August 10 shoare to an Island one league from the maine, and there the flood setteth Southwest alongest the shoare, and it floweth as neere as I could judge so too. I could not tarry to prove it, because the ship was a great way from me, and I feared a fogge....

The 19th day in the morning, being calme, and no winde, August 19 the Captaine and I tooke our boate with eight men in her, to rowe us a shoare, to see if there were there any people, or no, and going to the toppe of the Island, we had sight of seven boates, which came rowing from the East side, toward that Island: whereupon we returned aboord againe at length we sent our boate with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boates with their men along the shoare, rowing after our boate till such time as they sawe our ship, and then they rowed a shoare: then I went on shoare my selfe, and gave every of them a threadden point, and brought one of them aboord of me, The Eskimos where hee did eate and drinke, and then carried him on shoare againe. Whereupon all the rest came aboord with their boates, being nineteene persons, and they spake, but we understoode

August 28 they turn back toward England

September 25

229. A narrative of the voyage of Drake (1577-1580)

them not. They bee like to Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and flatte noses, and tawnie in colour, wearing Seale skinnes, and so doe the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe streekes down the cheekes, and round about the eyes. . . . The 28th day we went our course Southeast.

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The 25th day of this moneth we had sight of the Island of Orkney, which was then East from us.

The first day of October we had sight of the Sheld, and so sailed about the coast, and ankered at Yarmouth, and the next day we came into Harwich.

The romantic adventures of Sir Francis Drake and his companions in their journey to the coasts of South America, through the straits of Magellan, up the west coast of South and North America, and on westward till they had circumnavigated the world and returned to England, are well told in the narrative of Thomas Cavendish, one of Drake's companions on the voyage and the leader of a similar expedition some years later.

The 15. day of November, in the yeere of our Lord 1577, Mr. Francis Drake, with a fleete of five ships and barkes, and to the number of 164 men, gentlemen and sailers, departed from Plimmouth, giving out his pretended voyage for Alexandria but the wind falling contrary, hee was forced the next morning to put into Falmouth haven in Cornewael, where such and so terrible a tempest tooke us, as few men have seene the like, and was in deed so vehement, that all our ships were like to have gone to wracke: but it pleased God to preserve us from that extremitie, and to afflict us onely for that present with these two particulars: The mast of our Admirall, which was the Pellican, was cut over boord for the safegard of the ship, and the Marigold was driven ashore and some-what bruised for the repairing of which damages wee returned againe to Plimmouth, and having recovered those harmes, and brought the ships againe to good state, we set forth

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the second time from Plimmouth, and set saile the 13. day of December following.

The 25. day of the same moneth we fell with the Cape Cantin, upon the coast of Barbarie, and coasting along, the 27. day we found an Island called Mogador, lying one mile distant from the maine, betweene which Island and the maine, we found a very good and safe harbour for our ships to ride in, as also very good entrance, and voyde of any danger. . . .

From the first day of our departure from the Islands of First sight of Cape Verde, wee sayled 54 dayes without sight of land, and the Brazil, 33° S. first land that we fell with was the coast of Brasil, which we saw the fift of April in ye height of 33. degrees towards the pole Antarctike, and being discovered at sea by the inhabitants of the countrey, they made upon the coast great fires for a sacrifice (as we learned) to the devils, about which they use conjurations, making heepes of sande and other ceremonies, that when any ship shall goe about to stay upon their coast, not onely sands may be gathered together in shoales in every place, but also that stormes and tempests may arise, to the casting away of ships and men, whereof (as it is reported) there have bene divers experiments.

From hence we went our course to 36. degrees, and entered the great river of Plate, and ranne into 54. and 55. fadomes and a halfe of fresh water, where wee filled our water by the ship's side: But our Generall finding here no good harborough, as he thought he should, bare out againe to sea the 27. of April. . . .

The twentieth of June, wee harboured our selves againe in a very good harborough, called by Magellan Port St. Julian, where we found a gibbet standing upon the maine, which we supposed to be the place Magellan did execution upon some of his disobedient and rebellious company. . . .

In this Port our Generall began to enquire diligently of the Court martial actions of M. Thomas Doughtie, and found them not to be such of Thomas Doughty as he looked for, but tending rather to contention or mutinie, or some other disorder, whereby (without redresse) the successe of the voyage might greatly have bene hazarded whereupon the company was called together and made acquainted

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