coast of Ireland. For three weeks they kept together,
making good progress across the Atlantic. Then in a great
storm that arose the Samson was lost with all on board.

The Mary of Guildford pursued her way alone, and her crew
had adventures strange even for those days. Her course,
set well to the north, brought her into the drift ice
and the giant icebergs which are carried down the coast
of America at this season (for the month was July) from
the polar seas. In fear of the moving ice, she turned to
the south, the sailors watching eagerly for the land,
and sounding as they went. Four days brought them to the
coast of Labrador. They followed it southward for some
days. Presently they entered an inlet where they found
a good harbour, many small islands, and the mouth of a
great river of fresh water. The region was a wilderness,
its mountains and woods apparently untenanted by man.
Near the shore they saw the footmarks of divers great
beasts, but, though they explored the country for about
thirty miles, they saw neither men nor animals. At the
end of July, they set sail again, and passed down the
coast of Newfoundland to the harbour of St John's, already
a well-known rendezvous. Here they found fourteen ships
of the fishing fleet, mostly vessels from Normandy. From
Newfoundland the Mary of Guildford pursued her way
southward, and passed along the Atlantic coast of America.
If she had had any one on board capable of accurate
observation, even after the fashion of the time, or of
making maps, the record of her voyage would have added
much to the general knowledge of the continent.