SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT'S VOYAGE TO NEWFOUNDLAND

By Edward Hayes


PREPARER'S NOTE

This text is one of the items included in Voyages and Travels:
Ancient and Modern and was prepared from a 1910 edition,
published by P F Collier & Son Company, New York.




INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the founder of the first English colony in North
America, was born about 1539, the son of a Devonshire gentleman,
whose widow afterward married the father of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was
educated at Eton and Oxford, served under Sir Philip Sidney's father in
Ireland, and fought for the Netherlands against Spain. After his return
he composed a pamphlet urging the search for a northwest passage to
Cathay, which led to Frobisher's license for his explorations to that
end.

In 1578 Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth the charter he had long
sought, to plant a colony in North America. His first attempt failed,
and cost him his whole fortune; but, after further service in Ireland,
he sailed again in 1583 for Newfoundland. In the August of that year he
took possession of the harbor of St. John and founded his colony, but