Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman, commanding two vessels, set out in 1580 with instructions to sail through the strait leading between Nova Zembla and Waigat, and from thence eastward beyond the Obi River. They reached Wardhuys on the 23d of June. About two weeks later they approached Nova Zembla, but ice retarded their advance. They sighted Waigat on the 19th of July. While trying to push their way along its southern coast, they were embarrassed by shallows and obliged to go round by the north. They forced their way between the shore and a low island only to be closed in by the ice, which stopped further progress. The ships were widely separated, and could only communicate with each other by the beating of drums or firing of muskets. Warping their ships as opportunity offered, they finally got in closer communication. Of the weather, they write at this time, “Winds we have had at will, but ice and fogs too much against our wills, if it had pleased the Lord otherwise.” Surrounded by fields of ice, enveloped in fog, they were obliged to make fast to icebergs, where, “abiding the Lord’s pleasure, they continued with patience.” By the 13th of August the season was considered too far advanced to penetrate farther. Pet had discovered a strait between the mainland and Waigat leading into the Kara Sea, and with this news he returned to England. Jackman wintered in a Norwegian port; sailing home in the spring, his ship with all on board was lost at sea. [Sidenote: _SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT_] The distinguished British naval commander, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, near relative of Sir Walter Raleigh and favourite of Queen Elizabeth, being ambitious to colonize Newfoundland, obtained in 1578 full power from the queen to undertake a voyage of discovery and settle such parts of North America “as no Christian prince or his subjects could claim from previous possession.” His second voyage was undertaken in 1583, and with five ships under his command, he sailed out of Plymouth Sound, June 11. [Illustration: MARTIN FROBISHER] A contagious disease breaking out on one of the vessels, the property of Sir Walter Raleigh, and commanded by Captain Butler, it returned to England; the four remaining, the _Delight_, the _Golden Hinde_, the _Swallow_, and the _Squirrel_, sighted Newfoundland about June 30. Here they landed August 3, taking possession of the harbour of St. John’s in the name of Queen Elizabeth. A miner, brought for the purpose of finding precious metals, should such exist in the newly discovered territory, claimed to locate a silver mine, which news was greeted with much enthusiasm by the entire fleet. So many of the crew having become ill, Sir Humphrey found it advisable to send home the _Swallow_ with the sick on board. He then embarked on the _Squirrel_, of only ten tons, the smallest ship of the fleet.