Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation

---

The voyage of the two ships, whereof the one was called the Dominus vobiscum, set out the 20 day of May in the 19 yere of king Henry the eight, and in the yere of our Lord God 1527. for the discoverie of the North partes.

MASTER ROBERT THORNE of Bristoll, a notable member and ornament of his country, as wel for his learning, as great charity to the poore, in a letter of his to king Henry the 8 and a large discourse to doctor Leigh , his Ambassadour to Charles the Emperour, (which both are to be seene almost in the beginning of the first volume of this my work) exhorted the aforesaid king with very waighty and substantial reasons, to set forth a discovery even to the North Pole. And that it may be knowne that this his motion tooke present effect, I thought it good herewithall to put downe the testimonies of two of our Chroniclers. M. Hall, and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort. This same moneth (say they) king Henry the 8 sent 2 faire ships wel manned & victualled, having in them divers cunning men to seeke strange regions, & so they set forth out of the Thames the 20 day of May in the 19 yeere of his raigne, which was the yere of our Lord. 1527.

And whereas master Hal, and master Grafton say, that in those ships there were divers cunning men, I have made great enquirie of such as by their yeeres and delight in Navigation, might give me any light to know who those cunning men should be, which were the directers in the aforesaid voyage. And it hath bene tolde me by sir Martine Frobisher, and M. Richard Allen, a knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of Saint Paul in London , which was a great Mathematician, and a man indued with wealth, did much advance the action, and went therein himselfe in person, but what his name was I cannot learne of any. And further they told me that one of the ships was called The Dominus vobiscum, which is a name likely to be given by a religious man of those dayes: and that sayling very farre Northwestward, one of the ships was cast away as it entred into a dangerous gulph, about the great opening, betweene the North parts of Newfoundland , and the countrey lately called by her Majestie, Meta Incognita. Whereupon the other ship shaping her course towards Cape Briton, and the coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those unknowen regions, returned home about the beginning of October, of the yere aforesayd. And thus much (by reason of the great negligence of the writers of those times, who should have used more care in preserving of the memories of the worthy actes of our nation,) is all that hitherto I can learne, or finde out of this voyage.