They kept silence, as he sighed and looked away through the rigging. Anon they would talk of next year's voyage, please God! and Sir Humphrey reserved unto himself the north for discovery, affirming that this voyage had won his heart from the south, and that he was now become a northern man altogether. "But what means have you, General, to compass the charges of so great a preparation for next spring--with two fleets, a southern and a northern?" "Oh! leave that to me, friends; I will ask a penny of no man. I will bring good tidings unto her Majesty, who will be so gracious to lend me a thousand pounds. Nay, lads, be of good cheer; for I thank God with all my heart for that I have seen in Newfoundland: enough there for us all, and no need to seek any further." Such comfortable words Sir Humphrey kept oftentimes repeating, with demonstration of great confidence and fervency, and belief in the inestimable good which this voyage should procure for England. But his hearers looked on and listened, with considerable doubt and mistrust. "I will hasten to the end of this tragedy," writes Mr. Hayes; "as it was God's ordinance upon him, even so the vehement persuasion and entreaty of his friends could nothing avail to divert him from a wilful resolution to go through in his ten-ton frigate, which was overcharged upon her decks, with nettings and small artillery, too cumbersome for so small a boat that was to pass through the ocean at that season of the year." All the answer which his well-wishers got was a cheery refusal to stay: "I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils." It is worth noting, too, that a squirrel was in the crest of the Gilberts. So, seeing he would not bend to any reason, they carried some better provision for him aboard the _Squirrel_ and committed him to God's protection. By this time they had brought the Azores south of them, and were still keeping to the north until they had got to the latitude of South England. Here they met with very foul weather and terrible seas, "breaking short and high, pyramid-wise"; so that men said they never saw more outrageous seas. Also upon the mainyard sat a little fire by night which seamen call Castor and Pollux, a sure sign of more tempest to follow. Monday, the 9th of September, a great wave passed over the little _Squirrel_, yet she shook herself like a bird and recovered; and then they saw Sir Humphrey Gilbert sitting abaft with a book in his hand. And as oft as the _Golden Hind_ approached within hearing, the crew heard him cry out to them from his frigate, "Courage, my friends; we are as near to heaven by sea as by land." This speech he repeated more than once, "well beseeming a soldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was."