Navigator; born at
Compton, near
Dartmouth, England, in 1539; half-brother of
Sir Walter Raleigh.
Finishing his studies at
Eton and
Oxford, he entered upon the military profession; and being successful in suppressing a rebellion in
Ireland in 1570, he was made commander-in-chief and governor of
Munster, and was knighted by the lorddeputy.
Returning to
England soon after wards, he married a rich heiress.
In
1572 he commanded a squadron of nine ships to reinforce an armament intended for the recovery of
Flushing; and soon after his return he published (1576) a
Discourse of a discoverie for a New Pas-
Sage to Cathaia and the East Indies.
He obtained letters-patent from Queen Elizabeth, dated June 11, 1578, empowering him to discover and possess any lands in
North America then unsettled, he to pay to the crown one-fifth of all
gold and
silver which the countries he might discover and colonize should produce.
It invested him with powers of an absolute ruler over his colony, provided the laws should not be in derogation of supreme allegiance to the crown.
It guaranteed to his followers all the rights of Englishmen; and it also guaranteed the absolute right of a territory where they might settle, within 200 leagues of which no settlement should be permitted until the expiration of six years. This was the first colonial charter granted by an English monarch.
Armed with this,
Gilbert sailed for
Newfoundland in 1579 with a small squadron; for he did not believe there would be profit in searching for gold in the higher latitudes, to which
Frobisher had been.
He was accompanied by
Raleigh; but heavy storms and Spanish war-ships destroyed one of his vessels, and the remainder were compelled to turn back.
Gilbert was too much impoverished to undertake another expedition until four years afterwards, when
Raleigh and his friends fitted out a small squadron, which sailed from
Plymouth under the command of
Gilbert.
The
Queen, in token of her good-will, had sent him as a present a golden anchor, guided by a woman.
The flotilla reached
Newfoundland in August, and entered the harbor of
St. John, where
Cartier had found La Roque almost fifty years before.
There, on the shore,
Gilbert set up a column with the arms of
England upon it, and in the presence of hundreds of fishermen from
western Europe, whom he had summoned to the spot, he took possession of the island in the name of his
Queen.
Storms had shattered his vessels, but, after making slight repairs,
Gilbert proceeded to explore the coasts southward.
Off Cape Breton he encountered a fierce tempest, which dashed the larger vessel, in which he sailed, in pieces on the rocks, and about 100 men perished.
The
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commander was saved, and took refuge in a little vessel (the
Squirrel) of ten tons.
His little squadron was dispersed, and with the other vessel (the
Hind), he turned his prow homeward.
Again, in a rising September gale, the commander of the
Hind shouted to
Gilbert that they were in great peril.
The intrepid navigator was sitting abaft, with a book in his hand, and calmly replied, “We are as near heaven on the sea as on land.”
The gale increased, and when night fell the darkness was intense.
At about midnight the men on the
Hind saw the lights of the
Squirrel suddenly go out. The little bark had plunged beneath the waves, and all on board perished, Sept. 9, 1583.
Only the
Hind escaped, and bore the news of the disaster to
England.
