Under such auspices this second voyage was organized liberally. The queen invested in the venture, together with members of the privy council; and among other subscribers were the Countess of Warwick, the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, Lord Charles Howard, Michael Lok, Anthony Jenkinson, and young Philip Sidney. The total amount subscribed was fifty-one hundred and fifty pounds. A charter was issued for the “Company of Cathay,” with privileges similar to the old Muscovy Company, in which Michael Lok, “mercer,” of London, was named as governor, and Frobisher captain-general of their navy and high admiral of “all seas and waters, countreys, landes, and iles, as well as of Kathai [Cathay] as of all other countryes and places of new dyscovery.” The queen provided one of her large ships, the “Ayde,” of two hundred tons, to serve as the “admiral” of the fleet, the other vessels being the two barks which had started out on the first voyage, the “Gabriel” and the “Michael” (now recorded as of “about thirty ton apiece”). Frobisher was placed at the head as “captain-general of the whole company for her majesty”; George Best was appointed lieutenant; and Richard Philpot, ensign. Christopher Hall was made the master of the “Ayde”; Edward Fenton, “a gentleman of my Lady Warwicks,” captain of the “Gabriel,” with William Smyth, master; Gilbert Yorke, “a gentleman of my Lord Admirals” [Howard], captain and James Beare master of the “Michael.” At the start the company comprised one hundred and forty-three persons, made up of thirty-six officers and gentlemen, fourteen miners and “goldfiners,” and the remainder soldiers and sailors. Of this number the “Ayde” accommodated, with the captain-general and his staff, one hundred. The ships were fully appointed with munitions, and were provisioned for a half year. Hakluyt gives two accounts also of this voyage, and, as in the case of the first one, the whole animated story of it is to be gleaned from the two. They comprise the narratives of Dionysus Settle and of George Best, that of the latter being the second chapter of his _True Discourse_. They are presented under the following titles, respectively: “The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, made to the West and Northwest Regions, in the yeere 1577, with a description of the Countrey and people: Written by Master Dionise Settle,” and “A true report of such things as happened in the second voyage of captaine Frobisher, pretended for the discovery of a new passage to Cataya, China, and the East India by the Northwest Ann. Dom. 1577.” Both narrators were active members of Frobisher’s company throughout the voyage. Best, furnishing a description of the spirited scenes at the departure, properly begins the story.