Queen Elizabeth took great interest in the northern voyages of her own subjects and of her Dutch allies. We find Sir Francis Vere, her General in the Netherlands, sending home a full account of the first voyage of Barentsz on 7th October 1594[43], and adopting Linschoten’s sanguine views of the ultimate commercial success of the enterprise, which was to be renewed in the following year. This letter was the consequence of an order from the Queen to keep her fully informed respecting the maritime, and more especially the Arctic, undertakings of the Dutch. CHAPTER X SIR MARTIN FROBISHER It was more than 20 years after the expedition of Willoughby to the north-east that the efforts towards the north-west were commenced. Their inception was due to Martin Frobisher, one of the greatest of the Elizabethan seamen. Born at Altofts, in the parish of Normanton in Yorkshire, about 1535, Martin was a nephew of Francis Frobisher, who had been Mayor of Doncaster. His father, Bernard Frobisher, died in Martin’s infancy, and his mother sent the boy, being one of several children, to the care of her brother, Sir John Yorke, in London. Martin is described as “a youth of great spirit and bold courage, and natural hardiness of body.” His uncle seems to have found him more than he could manage, so he sent him to sea. Martin’s first voyage was to the coast of Guinea in 1554, and for many years he continued to make voyages to Africa and to the Levant, becoming a thorough sailor, but without much book learning. Yet he was deeply impressed with the importance of Arctic discovery very early in his career. His great ambition was to lead an expedition and to discover the strait which must, he thought, lead into the ocean discovered by Magellan on the north side of America, as Magellan’s Strait leads into it on the south. Frobisher saw service in Ireland, and it has been suggested with much probability that he there became acquainted with Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy. This was the friend of the young King, Edward VI, who on the part of his sovereign, took an active interest in the expedition of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and obtained the appointment of Richard Chancellor as second in command. Sidney would naturally take an equal interest in the project of Frobisher, would encourage his enthusiasm, and exert his influence to enable him to realise his ardent longing. So it was that Sidney’s brother-in-law, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, took the matter in hand, brought it before Queen Elizabeth, and secured her approval.