Gilbert's 'Discourse to the Queen.'

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'To set forth, under such like colour of discovery, certain ships of war to the N(ew). L(and)., which with your good licence I will undertake without your Majesty's charge. In which place they shall certainly once in the year meet in effect all the great shipping of France, Spain, and Portugal; where I would have them take and bring away, with their freights and ladings, the best of those ships, and to burn the worst; and those that they take to carry into Holland or Zeland, or as pirates to shroud themselves for a small time upon your Majesty's coasts, under the friendship of some certain Vice-admiral of this realm, who may be afterwards committed to prison, as in displeasure for the same, against whose returns six months' provision of bread, and four of drink, to be laid in some apt place, together with munition to serve for the number of 5,000 or 6,000 men; which men, with certain other ships of war being in a readiness, shall pretend to inhabit St. Lawrence island, the late discovered countries in the north, or elsewhere, and not to join with the others but in some certain remote place at sea.

'The setting forth of shipping for this service will amount to no great matter, and the return shall certainly be with great gain. For the N(ew-land). F(ish). is a principal, and rich, and everywhere vendible merchandise; and by the gain thereof shipping, victual, munition, and the transporting of 5,000 or 6,000 soldiers may be defrayed.'

The fleet of war-ships and the five or six thousand men thus equipped were to be employed in the conquest of the West Indies. Proper positions were to be seized in the islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, and military

colonies to be established in each as bases for greater operations. An essential feature of the scheme was the plunder of homeward-bound Spanish vessels, whose course lay along the shore of Florida. The resources of the West Indian islands, as Gilbert points out, were sufficient to render the intended colonies there selfsupporting. The possession of the entire Newfoundland fishery would supply another and a not less important base for operations. Newfoundland lay nearer to England, and would be of material use in securing for England the North-west passage by way of the lands recently reached by Frobisher, who had just returned from his second voyage. While Gilbert's project was under discussion at the Queen's council table the London assayers were disputing over the ore Frobisher had brought back; and one effect of his voyages had been to draw increased attention to Newfoundland, which was regarded as belonging to England, though territorial possession had never been taken, and the fishery had always been open to the vessels of other nations.

Before Frobisher's discovery of the supposed mineral wealth of Meta Incognita in 1576 English fishermen had formed but a small fraction of the total number of 'Newlanders.' Hakluyt, wishing to prove that Englishmen had not altogether neglected the shores claimed by England in virtue of Cabot's discovery, cites no better evidence than an Act of Parliament passed in 1548 to protect fishermen going to Iceland and Newfoundland from the exactions of Admiralty officials. Perhaps these exactions had something to do with the slackness of Englishmen to take advantage of the Newfoundland fisheries. In 1574, two years before Frobisher sailed,

The New-land Fishing Fleet.

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not more than thirty English vessels frequented the Newfoundland waters; in 1578 the number had increased to fifty.

The English Newlanders were still far outnumbered by the French and Spanish, and formed only one-seventh of the whole fleet1. The reason assigned for this disproportion is that the Iceland waters were more conveniently situated for English sailors, and that England had carried on a flourishing trade with Iceland long before Cabot sailed for Newfoundland. A more definite reason is given for the increase after 1576. The Newfoundland fishing trade had previously been chiefly in the hands of Bristol men. It was now commonly reported among the fishermen of Devon and Cornwall that their neighbours of Bristol were making vast profits in Newfoundland, and that these were partly due to some other source than the sea, in other words, to the discovery of metal ore; and Cornish and Devonshire

The best ships, both in construction and in 'furniture of munition' or armament, were the English and Spanish; next came the French, the Portuguese last.

2 As an illustration of this it may be mentioned that the roll on which Cabot's patent is filed ('French Roll,' 11 Henry VII, m. 23, in the Public Record Office) includes two licences to English shipowners to trade to Iceland-one to John Beryf the elder of Brightlingsea, another to John Waynflete of Southwold. Beryf was apparently the father of the shipowner of the same name who by his will dated in 1521 charged a legacy of £40 to Brightlingsea church on his ships the Barbara and the Maryflower 'if God send them well home.'

men now ventured across the Atlantic in great numbers. That gold existed in the mountains of Florida was universally believed. Frobisher had found it in Meta Incognita. Had either gold or silver now been discovered in Newfoundland? If so, the time was come for action, for the Spaniards were to the English as four to one in Newfoundland waters, and the French were nearly as strong. Should either nation obtain a footing on the soil of the island, and erect fortifications, it might prove difficult to dislodge them.

Gilbert's 'Discourse to the Queen' throws a sidelight on the treaty made by Elizabeth with the Dutch States in January, 1578. Probably the forty vessels of war to be furnished by the Netherlanders for service under the Queen's captains were intended for some such service as is contemplated in Gilbert's proposals. The Machiavellian suggestion of 'special provisoes,' ostensibly preventing adventurers from attacking the Spaniards or the French under pretence of discovering and inhabiting strange lands, has a prominent place in the letters patent granted to him in June, 1578. If Gilbert, it is provided, his heirs or assigns, shall rob or spoil the subjects of any prince in league and amity with England, he or they shall within a limited time make restitution and satisfaction on penalty of being outlawed. What followed shows how little was meant by all this. At the end of the summer, Gilbert collected a fleet of eleven vessels manned by 500 men, most of them being desperadoes who had joined him with the sole idea of participating in Spanish plunder. By the middle of September he was for his own part ready to sail. But the crews proved an unruly mob, and their

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captains appear to have been divided in opinion as to the course to be pursued. While the men were brawling and roystering in the streets of Plymouth, the captains were wrangling with him over the scheme of the expedition. Gilbert probably adhered in opinion to his original plan of proceeding straight to Newfoundland, though he was compelled to abandon it and sail for the West Indies. Four of his captains deserted him with their ships and crews, and those who remained seem to have induced him to change his plan, though Newfoundland was still the pretended object of the voyage. With the view, perhaps, of giving further colour to this pretence, Gilbert, shortly before sailing, directed the elder Hakluyt to make inquiries about Newfoundland of one Anthony Parkhurst, a Bristol shipowner, who was known to have made several voyages thither. It may, however, be that Gilbert still had hopes of taking Newfoundland in the course of his voyage home, and looked forward to making practical use of the information to be obtained from Parkhurst.

Pursuant to Gilbert's instructions, Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple (his namesake, the preacher, was still residing at Oxford) dispatched a messenger to Parkhurst with a letter of inquiry, instructing him to induce Parkhurst to write at large' in reply to it. The purport of the questions may be inferred from Parkhurst's answer1. What was the nature of the soil and climate of Newfoundland, and what were its natural

'A Letter written to Master Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple, containing a report of the true state and commodities of Newfoundland, by Master Anthony Parkhurst, Gentleman, the 13th day of November, 1578.' (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. pp. 132-4.)