The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-11-02
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By Roger Pocock
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT
A. D. 1888

HE Is not worthy to live at all, that
for any fear, of danger of death, shun-
meth his country's service and his own
honor
This message to all men of every
English nation was written by man
who once with his lone sword covered
retreat, defending a bridge against
twenty horsemen, of whom he killed
one, dismounted two and wounded
six.
In all his wars and voyages Sir
Humphrey Gilbert won the respect of
his enemies, and even of his friends,
while in his writings one finds the first
idea of British colonies overseas. At
the end of his life's endeavOr he COM
manded a squadron that set out to
found q first British colony in Vir-
ginia, and On the way he called at the
port Of Saint Johns in Newfoundland.
Six years after the first voyage of Co
lumbus, John Cabot had rediscovered
the American mainland, naming and
claiming this New-found Land, and its
port for Henry VII of England. Since
then for nearly a hundred years the
| fishermen of Europe had come to this
coast for cod, but the Englishmen
claimed and held the ports where the
fish were smoked. Now, in 1888, Gill
bert met the fishermen, English and
strangers alike, who delivered to him
stick of the timber and turf of the
soil in token of his possession Of the
land, while he hoisted the flag of Eng
land over her first colony, by this act
founding the British empire.
When Gilbert left Saint Johns, he.
had a secret that made him beam for
| Joy and hint at mysterious wealth.
Perhaps his mining expert had found
pyrites and reported the stuff as gold,
or glittering crystals that looked like
precious stones. Maybe it was the
parcel Of specimens for which he sent
his page boy on board the Delight, who,
failing to bring them. got terrific
thrashing.
When the Delight, his flagship, was
cast away on Sable island, with hun
dred men drowned and the sixteen sur
vivors missing, Gilbert mourned, it was
thought, more for his secret than for
! ship or people. From that time the
wretchedness of his men aboard the
ten-ton frigate, the Squirrel, weighed
upon him. They were in rags, hungry
and frightened, so to cheer them up he
left his great ship and Joined them.
The Virginia voyage was abandoned,
they squared away for England, horrf-
fed by a walrus passing between the
ships, which the mariners took for
demon jeering at their misfortunes.
They crossed the Atlantic in foul
weather, with great seas running, so
that the people implored their admiral
no longer to risk his life in the half
swamped Squirrel.
81 will not forsake my little COM
pany," was all his answer. The seas
became terrific and the weird corpo-
SAINTS, Saint Elmo's electric fires,
"fiamed amazement" from masts and
spars, sure harbinger of still more
dreadful weather.
A green sea filled the Squirrel and
she was near sinking, but as she shook
the water off, Sir Humphrey Gilbert
waved his hand to the Golden Hind.
"Fear not, my masters!" he shouted,
1--WE are as near to Heaven by sea as
by land"
AS the night fell, he was still seen
sitting abaft with book in his hand.
Then at midnight, all of sudden the
frigate's lights were out, "for in that
moment she was devoured, and swal-
lowed up by the sea-" and the soul Of
Humphrey Gilbert passed out OF the
great unrest.