lorously defended themselves for two months under the conduct of
the wife of their absent general, Mondragon, surrendered and evacuated
the citadel. The proposed alliance was now converted into a formal
union, by the treaty called the Pacification of Ghent, signed November
8, 1576, by which it was agreed, without waiting for the sanction of
Philip, whose authority, however, was nominally recognized, to renew the
edict of banishment against the Spanish troops, to procure the
suspension of the decrees against the Protestant religion, to summon the
States-General of the northern and southern provinces, according to the
model of the assembly which had received the abdication of Charles V, to
provide for the toleration and practice of the Protestant religion in
Holland and Zealand, together with other provisions of a similar
character. About the same time with the Pacification of Ghent, all
Zealand, with the exception of the island of Tholen, was recovered from
the Spaniards.

SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE BY FROBISHER

A.D. 1576

GEORGE BEST

Martin Frobisher, the English navigator, was born in Yorkshire about
1535. When a lad he went to sea, and seems early to have dreamed of
a shorter route to China through the Arctic Ocean. He became the
pioneer in the long search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic
to the Pacific by the northern coasts of the American continent. He
even contemplated the planting of English colonies on the Pacific
shore of the New World.

Columbus had found the western way to China barred by the continent
of America. Magellan discovered a southwest passage around that
continent. Half a century later Frobisher entered upon the northern
quest.

Frobisher was poorly educated, and wrote with difficulty. The
narrative of his first voyage was written by George Best from an
account furnished by Frobisher himself, whom Best accompanied on his
second and third voyages. The present narrative has therefore all
the value of a first-hand record, and it is included in the
_Principal Navigations_ of Hakluyt.

Although over two hundred voyages have now been made in search of
this passage, which in 1850-1854 was achieved by Sir Robert McClure,
the long-cherished hopes of its advantages have not been realized.
The route, for commercial purposes,