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It was with means thus feeble, that the intrepid navigator went to encounter the ice in localities which had never been visited since the time of the Northmen. Setting out from Deptford on the 8th of June, 1576, he sighted the south of Greenland, which he took for the Frisland of Zeno.
After which, he equipped a bark of his own, in which he returned to Frisland where he made a report to his lord of all that had befallen him, and of the discovery he had made of an extensive and wealthy country.
Vpon the breach betwixt Don Iohn and the States, he was made Colonel generall of all the English forces there present, or to come, which he continued 2 yeeres: he was then made Marshal of the field vnder Conte Hohenlo: and after that, General of the army in Frisland: at his comming home in the time of Monsieurs gouernment in Flanders, he was made lord President of Munster in Ireland, which he yet holdeth, from whence within one yere he was sent for, and sent Generall of the English forces which her maiestie then lent to the Low countries, which he held til the erle of Leicesters going ouer.
Favourable winds and strong gales bore them rapidly across the sea. On July 11, they sighted the southern capes of Greenland, or Frisland, as they called it, that rose like pinnacles of steeples, snow-crowned and glittering on the horizon. They essayed a landing, but the masses of shore ice and the drifting fog baffled their efforts.
Shaping our course to the westwards, we passed several islands subject to Frisland, and arrived at Ledovo, or the Lewis, where we staid a week to refresh ourselves, and to provide the fleet with necessaries. Departing thence, we arrived on the first of July off the island of Ilofe, or Islay; and the wind being favourable, did not stop there but stood on our voyage.
But the inhabitants showed themselves everywhere so hostile, and opposed such resistance to the strangers landing, that Sinclair after a long and dangerous voyage was obliged to return to Frisland.
The seuenth a pinnas called Frisland, of burden about seuenty tuns. The Master Iacob Cornelison, the Factor Walter Willekens. The eighth a pinnas that had been in the former voiage called the Pidgeon, now the Ouerijssel, of the burden of fifty tuns. The Master Symon Iohnson. The Factor Arent Hermanson.
In thinking of the exploits of these Elizabethan sailors in the Arctic seas, we must try to place ourselves at their point of view, and dismiss from our minds our own knowledge of the desolate and hopeless region against which their efforts were directed. The existence of Greenland, often called Frisland, and of Labrador was known from the voyages of the Cabots and the Corte-Reals.
Their apparell is after the rudest sort of Scotland. Their money is all base. This benefite endureth in those parts not 6. weekes, while the sunne is neere the Tropike of Cancer: but where the pole is raised to 70. or 80. degrees, it continueth much longer. The 4. of Iuly we came within the making of Frisland.
These 100 men were carefully chosen; there were bakers, carpenters, masons, gold-refiners, and others belonging to all the various handicrafts. The fleet was composed of fifteen vessels, which set sail from Harwich on the 31st of May, 1578. Twenty days later the western coasts of Frisland were discovered. Whales played round the vessels in innumerable troops.
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