Author: FROBISHER, MARTIN
Title: Historia Navigationis Martini Forbisseri Angli Praetoris sive Capitanei, A.C. 1577. Majo, Junio, Julio, Augusto & Septembri mensibus, Jussu Reginae Elisabethae, Ex Angliâ, in Septemtrionis & Occidentis tractum susceptae, [.]
Description: Hamburh, Joh. Naumann & Georg Wolff. 1675, Second Latin Edition. Soft cover, 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book, Modern brown-grey card covers, [17], 37 pages. Enlarged facsimile of the frontispiece showing Eskimos, a map of Frobisher Strait (now Frobisher Bay), Davis Strait and America as well as an illustration of a unicorn. (From a scan of the copy in the University of Sasketchawan library). Pages are very clean. In the spring of 1577, Martin Frobisher set sail aboard the 200-ton ship Ayde with orders from Queen Elizabeth I to claim the Arctic regions in the name of England and to gather as much gold as he could carry in the ship. During his first voyage the previous year, Frobisher had been convinced that he had, indeed, discovered the Northwest Passage to Cathay (the Orient). He had captured an Inuit who he had mistaken for an 'Asian'. He had also found vast quantities of gold. Six weeks after setting sail, Frobisher claimed the Arctic for England and named it Meta Incognita (Of Limits Unknown). As Frobisher searched the area for more Inuit, the rest of the crew began mining the ore and loading the ship. He located an abandoned village where he discovered a few scraps of European clothing. From this, Frobisher believed that his men had been murdered by the Inuit, but Inuit oral history denies this. Frobisher was not greeted kindly by the Inuit he encountered. Instead, he found himself in a war during which he was wounded. He managed to capture several Inuit as slaves, but many more jumped into the sea to avoid capture. Frobisher returned to England with his shipload of gold ore which turned out to be worthless His captured slaves died less than a month after their arrival. Very Good.

Keywords: Martin Frobisher, Frobisher Strait, Greenland, Meta Incognita, Arctic Seas, Eskimos, Innuit, Inuit, Bay, Baffin Island,


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