In 1594 Henry of Navarre wrote to Queen Elizabeth for help in dislodging a force of 3000 Spaniards from the Brittany coast. Raleigh pressed the subject at Court until Frobisher was sent with ten ships to try and save Brest from falling into Philip's hands. Frobisher landed his troops and joined Sir John Norris, who was about to attack Fort Crozon, near Brest. The Spaniards made a stout resistance and many English fell. The Queen, hearing this news, wrote to Norris advising more caution: "The blood of man ought not to be squandered away at all adventures." She wrote, too, in November to Frobisher:-- "Trustie and well-beloved, wee greet you well ... we perceive your love of our service and your owne good carriage, whereby you have won yourself reputation.... We know you are sufficientlie instructed howe to prevent any soddaine mischief, by fire or otherwise, upon our fleet under your charge...." So we see the Queen caring for her men and her ships, and frankly commending her trusty admiral for his foresight--but letting him see that she was ever watchful over his doings. The Crozon fort was taken and razed to the ground, but the brave Frobisher was wounded in the hip by a musket-ball. It would have been a trifle in our days of scientific dressing, but the surgeon, when he extracted the ball, left the wadding behind; the wound festered, fever and death ensued. Here is Frobisher's last letter to the Lord High Admiral as he lay wounded:-- "I was shott in with a bullett at the batterie, so as I was driven to have an incision made to take out the bullett; so as I am neither able to goe nor ride. And the mariners are verie unwilling to goe except I goe with them myself. Yet, if I find it come to an extremitie, we will do what we are able: if we had our vittels, it were easily done." That was just like Frobisher! though he lies on his death-bed, he is ready to go with his men to front the foe, "if it come to an extremitie." CHAPTER V SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, THE FOUNDER OF NEWFOUNDLAND Humphrey Gilbert was the second son of Sir Otho Gilbert of the manor-house of Greenaway in South Devon; his mother was Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernown, of pure Norman descent, having the blood of the Courtneys in her veins. The three brothers, John, Humphrey, and Adrian, living at Greenaway close to the Dart, about two miles above Dartmouth, no doubt often played at being sailors in the beautiful reach of water that runs so deep beneath the windows, that the largest vessels may ride safely within a stone's throw. They were brave boys, full of promise even in their boyhood, and all three destined to win the honour of knighthood for daring deeds. Humphrey, born about the year 1539, was no mere fighting seaman, but a thoughtful, earnest discoverer of such scientific truths as were within the intellectual grasp of the sixteenth century.