For fifty leagues Frobisher sailed north-westward into the bay, thinking it to be a strait with Asia on the right hand and America on the left. He landed at what he called Butcher's Island, saw "mightie deere which ranne at him and hardly he escaped with his life in a narrow way where he was faine to use defence and policie," and from a hill-top "perceived a number of small things fleeting in the sea afarre off whyche hee supposed to be porposes or seales or some kind of strange fishe but coming nearer he discovered them to be men in small boates made of leather," who only just failed in capturing his boat before he reached it. Subsequent conferences with the Eskimos ended in his losing the boat with five men who had gone ashore to trade; and finally, having lifted single-handed one of the interesting natives, kayak and all, into the _Gabriel_, he made sail for home. When Lock went aboard on the ship's arrival there were no riches from Cathay, nothing worth mentioning beyond the Eskimo—who soon died—the kayak and paddle, and "the fyrste thynge found in the new land," the black stone. He carried away the stone, after chipping off a few fragments for the friends around, and after a week or two's consideration sent some of it to the Mint to be assayed. The report was not as he expected; the "saymaster" was of opinion that it was marcasite, that is, iron pyrites. Not satisfied, Lock sent some to another expert, who also said it was pyrites. Then he tried a third man, who could find no gold in it. And then he tried a fourth—this time an Italian—who gave him the answer he wanted: "A very little powder of gold came thereout." Lock sent him some more, telling him frankly that three other assayers "could find no such thing therein," but again the Italian was equal to the occasion. "The xviii day of January," writes Lock, "he sent me by his mayde this little scrap of paper written, No. 1, hereinclosed; and thereinclosed the grayne of gold, which afterward I delivered to your majesty." For the Queen had become interested in the wonderful stone which was the talk of the town, its value increasing at every recital until many believed, as Sir Philip Sidney seems to have done, that it was "the purest gold unalloyed with any other metals." Lock was not the man to let such excellent advertisement be lost, and forthwith he projected the Cathay Company for which the charter was obtained from the Crown on St. Patrick's Day, 1577. Lock was named as Governor for six years with remuneration "for ever" of one per cent on all goods imported; Frobisher was named as Captain by sea and Admiral of the ships and navy of the Company for life with a yearly stipend and one per cent, like Lock, on all goods the Company brought in. Queen Elizabeth—notwithstanding the report from the Mint—headed the list of shareholders with £1000; and Burghley, Howard, Leicester, Walsingham, Hunsdon, Sidney, even Gresham, subscribed for shares in this remarkable company.