ere taken prisoners by the natives. All effort to
rescue them was made, but to no purpose. Among the curiosities which he
brought home was a piece of stone, or black ore, which gave rise to the
belief that gold was to be found in this new country.

[1577]

A second and larger expedition sailed in 1577. The Queen gave 1,000
pounds and lent the royal ship Aid, of two hundred tons. The Gabriel and
the Michael of the former year were again made ready, besides smaller
craft. This voyage was to seek gold rather than to discover the
northwest passage. The fleet set sail May 27th, and on July 18th arrived
off North Foreland, or Hall's Island, so named for the man who had
brought away the piece of black earth. Search was made for this metal,
supposed to be so valuable, and large quantities were found. The fleet
sailed back to England with a heavy cargo of it.

In 1578 a third and the last voyage was made to this region, to which
the name meta incognita was given. Two large ships were furnished by the
Queen, and these were accompanied by thirteen smaller ones.

[1578-1580]

It was now the purpose to found a colony. The expedition set sail May
31st, going through the English Channel, and reaching the coast of
Greenland June 21st. Frobisher and a few of his sailors landed where,
perhaps, white men had never trodden before. As he came near the bay he
was driven south by stormy weather, and entered, not knowing his
whereabouts, the waters of Hudson's Straits, which he traversed a
distance of sixty miles. He succeeded at length in retracing his course,
and anchored on the southern shore of Frobisher's Bay, in the Countess
of Warwick's Sound. But the desire for gold, the bleak winds, barren
shores, and drifting icebergs, all combined to dispel the hopes of
making a successful settlement, and the adventurers turned their faces
homeward, carrying once more a cargo of ore, which proved, like the
first, to be of no value whatever.

Almost three hundred years later Captain Hall, the American explorer,
visited the Countess's Island and Sound. Among the Eskimos, from 1860 to
1862, he learned the tradition of Frobisher's visits, which had been
preserved and handed down. They knew the number of ships; they spoke of
the three times that white men had come; how five of these strangers had
been taken captive, and how, after remaining through the winter, they
had been allowed to build a boat, and to launch themselves upon the icy
seas, never