for England the 26th of August; and, notwithstanding a terrible storm on the 7th, arrived safe at Harwich on the 2d of October.

He took possession of that country in the queen of England's name; and, in token of such possession, ordered his men to bring whatever they could first find. One among the rest brought a piece of black stone, much like seacoal, but very heavy. Having at his return distributed fragments of it among his friends, one of the adventurer's wives threw a fragment into the fire; which being taken out again, and quenched in vinegar, glittered like gold; and, being tried by some refiners in London, was found to contain a portion of that rich metal. This circumstance raising prodigious expectations of gold, great numbers earnestly pressed Frobisher to undertake a second voyage the next spring. The queen lent him a ship of the royal navy of 200 tons; with which, and two barks of about 30 tons each, they fell down to Gravesend May 26, 1577, and there received the sacrament together; an act of religion not so frequently performed as it ought to be, among men exposed to so many perils, and more particularly under the protection of heaven. They sailed from Harwich on the 31st of May, and arrived in St. Magnus Sound at the Orkney Islands, upon the 7th of June; from whence they kept their course for the space of twenty-six days, without seeing any land. They met, however, with great drifts of wood, and whole bodies of trees; which were either blown off the cliffs of the nearest lands by violent storms, or rooted up and carried by floods into the sea. At length, on the 4th of July, they discovered Friezeland; along the coasts of which they found islands of ice of incredible bigness, some being 70 or 80 fathoms under water, besides the part that stood above water, and more than half a mile in circuit. Not having been able safely to land in this place, they proceeded for Frobisher's Straits; and on the 17th of the same month made the North Foreland in them, otherwise called Hall's Island; as also a smaller island of the same name, where they had in their last voyage found the ore, but could not now get a piece so large as a walnut. They met with some of it, however, in other adjacent islands, but not enough to merit their attention. They sailed about to make what discoveries they could, and gave names to several bays and isles; as Jackman's Sound, Smith's Island, Beare's Sound, Lei,

cester's Isle, Anne countess of Warwick's Sound and Island, York Sound, &c.

The captain's commission directed him in this voyage only to search for ore, and to leave the further discovery of the north-west passage till another time. Having, therefore, in the countess of Warwick's Island, found a good quantity, he took a lading of it; intending the first opportunity to return home. He set sail the 23d of August, and arrived in England about the end of September. He was most graciously received by the queen; and, as the gold ore he brought had an appearance of riches and profit, and the hope of a north-west passage to China was greatly increased by this second voyage, her majesty appointed commissioners to make trial of the ore, and examine thoroughly into the whole affair. The commissioners did so, and reported the great value of the undertaking, and the expediency of further carrying on the discovery of the north-west passage. Upon this, suitable preparations were made with all possible dispatch; and, because the mines newly found out were sufficient to defray the adventurers charges, it was thought necessary to send a select number of soldiers, to secure the places already discovered, to make further discoveries into the inland parts, and to search again for the passage to China. Besides three ships as before, twelve others were fitted out for this voyage, which were to return at the end of the summer with a lading of gold ore. They assembled at Harwich the 27th of May, and sailing thence the 31st, they came within sight of Friezeland on the 20th of June; when the general, going on shore, took possession of the country in the queen of England's name, and called it West-England. They met with many storms and difficulties in this voyage, which retarded them so much, that the season was too far advanced to undertake discoveries; so that, after getting as much ore as they could, they sailed for England, where, after a stormy and dangerous voyage, they arrived about the beginning of October.

It does not appear how captain Frobisher employed himself from this time to 1585, when he commanded the Aid, in sit Francis Drake's expedition to the West Indies. In 1588, he bravely exerted himself against the Spanish Armada, commanding the Triumph, one of the three largest ships in that service, and which had on board the greatest number of men of any in the whole English fleet. July

26th, he received the honour of knighthood, from the hand of the lord high admiral, at sea, on board his own ship; and when afterwards the queen thought it necessary to keep a fleet on the Spanish coast, he was employed in that service, particularly in 1590, when he commanded one squadron, as sir John Hawkins did another. In 1594, he was sent with four men of war, to assist Henry the Fourth of France, against a body of leaguers and Spaniards then in possession of part of Bretagne, who had fortified themselves very strongly at Croyzon near Brest. But in an assault upon that fort, Nov. 7, he was wounded with a ball in the hip, of which he died soon after he had brought the fleet safely back to Plymouth; and was buried in that town. Stow tells us, the wound was not mortal in itself, but became so through the negligence of his surgeon, who only extracted the bullet, without duly searching the wound and taking out the wadding, which caused it to fester.

He was a man of great courage, experience, and conduct, but accused by some of having been harsh and violent. There is a good painting of him in the picture gallery at Oxford. '

FROELICH (ERASMUS), a learned medallist, was born at Gratz in Stiria in 1700, and entered the society of the Jesuits in 1716. His reputation afterwards procured him the professorship of belles lettres and mathematics at Vienna, where he employed his leisure hours in the pursuit of medallic history. He died in 1758. His works are, 1. "Utilitas rei nummariæ, et Appendiculæ ad numos coloniarum per Cl. Vaillantium editæ," Vienna, 1733, 8vo. 2. " Quatuor Tentamina in re numaria vetere," ibid. 1737, 4to. 3. "Animadversiones in quosdam numos veteres urbium," ibid. 1738, 8vo, reprinted at Florence in 1751. 4. "Appendiculæ duæ novæ ad numismata antiqua a Cl. Vaillantio edita," ibid. 1744, 8vo, reprinted at the end of "Opusculum posthumum de familia Vaballathi," where there is also an eulogium on Froelich. 5. "Annales compend. regum et rerum Syriæ," ibid. 1744, folio. 6. “Regum veterum numismata," ibid. 1753. 7. "Dubia de Minnisari, aliorumque Armeniæ regum numis et Arsacidarum epocha nuper vulgatis proposita," ibid. 1754.

8.

Biog. Brit.-In Pennant's Introduction to his Arctic Zoology, are some remarks on the errors in the original map of Frobisher's voyages.

"Diplomatórium Garstensium emendatum, auctum, et illustratum," ibid. 1754, 4to. 9. "Casulæ S. Stephani, regis Hungariæ, vera imago et expositio," ibid. 1754, 4to. 10. "Ad numismata regum veterum anecdota aut rariora accessio nova," ibid. 1755, 4to. 11. "Notitia elementaria antiquorum illorum, quæ urbium liberarum, regum et principum, ac personarum illustrium, appellantur," ibid. 1758, 4to, a work which Mr. Pinkerton pronounces "most excellent and useful," although not altogether without faults. He particularly mentions that the list of Greek cities of which we have coins is defective in about a third of the number; and he censures, in strong terms, the plan of splitting the series of kings of every realm into different epochs. After Froelich's death was published, as already mentioned, the "Opusculum posthumum de familia Vaballathi numis illustrata," with an appendix to the "Numismata antiqua," edited by Joseph Khell, 1762, 4to. Saxius gives us the title of another work by Froelich printed the year of his death in 4to, "Specimen Archontologiæ Carinthiæ."

FROISSART (JOHN), an eminent and ancient French historian and poet, was born in Valenciennes, about 1337. Of his parents we know only that his father, Thomas Froissart, was a painter of arms, and although our historian is titled knight, at the beginning of a manuscript in the abbey of St. Germain des Prez, it is thought that the copyist had given it to him of his own authority. His infancy announced what he would one day be: he early manifested that eager and inquisitive mind, which during the course of his life never allowed him to remain long attached to the same occupations, and in the same place; and the different games suitable to that age, of which he gives us a picture equally curious and amusing, kept up in his mind a fund of natural dissipation, which during his early studies tried the patience and exercised the severity of his masters. He loved hunting, music, assemblies, feasts, dancing, dress, good living, wine and women; these tastes, which almost all shewed themselves from twelve years of age, being confirmed by habit, were continued even to his old age, and perhaps never left him. The mind and heart of Froissart being not yet sufficiently occupied, his love for history filled up that void, which

Dict. Hist.-Saxй Onomast.—Pinkerton's Essay on Medals, Preface, p. xv.

his passion for pleasure left; and became to him an inexhaustible source of amusement.

He had but just left school, and was scarcely twenty years old, when at the intreaty of "his dear lord and master sir Robert de Namur, lord of Beaufort," he undertook to write the history of the wars of his own time, more particularly of those which ensued after the battle of Poitiers. Four years afterwards, having gone to England, he presented a part of this history to queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III. However young he might then be, he had already travelled into the most distant provinces of France. The object of his visit to England was to tear himself from the pains of an attachment which had tormented him for a long time. This passion took possession of his heart from his infancy; it lasted ten years, and sparks of it were again rekindled in a more advanced age. The history of this attachment may be seen in our authority. It appears to have been first childish, and then roinantic, and for his feelings in either state, we have only poetical evidence, and from that we learn that he had more mistresses than one. He had made two journies to England, but on which occasion he presented his history to queen Philippa is not certain. It was well received, however, and probably gained him the title of Clerk (secretary or writer) of the chamber to that princess, which he was in possession of from 1361. She is said frequently to have amused herself, in that age of romantic gallantry, by making Froissart compose amorous ditties; but this occupation must be considered solely as a relaxation that no way impeded more serious works, since during the five years he was attached to the service of queen Philippa, he travelled at her expence to various parts of Europe, the object of which seems to be a research after whatever might enrich his history.

Of all the particulars of Froissart's life during his residence in England, we only know that he was present at the separation of the king and queen in 1361, with their son the prince of Wales and the princess his lady, who were going to take possession of the government of Acquitaine; and that he was between Eltham and Westminster in 1363, when king John passed on his return to England. There is in his poems a pastoral which seems to allude only to that event. With regard to his travels during the time he was attached to the service of the