The General had brought to him a sable alive, which he sent to his brother, Sir John Gilbert, knight of Devonshire; but it was never delivered. The narrator in Hakluyt bursts into a pæan of delight at the lavish gifts of a munificent God: "Though man hath not used a fifth part of the same, choosing to live very miserably within this realm pestered with inhabitants, rather than to adventure as becometh men." Especially in the matter of minerals had Gilbert ordered his refiner, Daniel, to make diligent inquiry, who one day brought the admiral some ore and said, "If silver be the thing which may satisfy thee, seek no further." Gilbert commanded him not to let others know of his discovery; he sent it on board for further assay when they should be on the high sea. Some people have found fault with Sir Humphrey for not having exercised more forethought for housing his colonists in the winter; but the fault and the failure of the first settlement lay in the men he had been given to take out with him. For indeed many of them were lawless robbers, men who hated honest work--gaol-birds let out to avoid the expense of keeping them at home. The bad men amongst them corrupted the weaker, and in a fortnight Gilbert had such a ruffianly crew that his heart must have sunk within him. Some were for stealing away vessels by night and taking to piracy. One band of marauders carried away out of the harbour a ship laden with fish, after they had set the poor crew ashore. Others--and many of them--stole away into the woods, hiding themselves, and living as wild men; others lay about in drunken exhaustion. Some were sick of fluxes, and many died; and not a few craved licence to depart home. So less than three weeks after the glad blowing of horns and booming of guns, the little colony had grown so weak and dispirited that Gilbert resolved to leave the _Swallow_ behind, to carry home the sick as soon as they could travel, while he himself in the _Squirrel_, with the _Delight_ and the _Golden Hind_, set out to explore the coast to the south. He preferred the little _Squirrel_, because she was so light and could search into every harbour and creek; for he intended to return next year and plant yet another colony, if it pleased God, of a better sort of men. Under Cape Race, at the south-west of the island, they were becalmed several days, and laid out hook and line to fish: in less than two hours they took cod so large and so abundant that for many days after they fed on no other food. On reaching Cape Breton Isle, Gilbert intended to land; but the crew of the _Delight_ turned mutinous, and sailed out to the open sea. The _Golden Hind_ and the _Squirrel_ gave chase, but the _Delight_ sped on faster, and her crew kept up their spirits with noisy music of drums and cornets.