Sir Martin, a celebrated English navigator of the sixteenth century, was born (in what year is not known) at Doncaster in Yorkshire. He was the first Englishman that sailed in quest of the north-west passage to China and the Indies. "Being thoroughly furnished of the knowledge of the sphere and all other skills pertaining to the art of navigation, and being persuaded of a new and nearer passage to Cataya than by Capo de Buona Speranza, which the Portugalls yearly use, and knowing this to be the only thing of the world that was yet left undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," he applied to various English merchants to assist him in his projected enterprise, but for fifteen years without success. At the end of that period he was enabled, through the assistance of Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and others, persons of rank and fortune, to set out on the expedition. He sailed from Deptford, June 15th, 1576, with three small vessels, two of them, the Gabriel and the Michael, barks of twenty-five tons each, and the third a small pinnace of ten tons. As they passed Greenwich, the queen, who happened to be there with her court, "commended them, and bade them farewell with shaking her hand at them out of the window." After passing the Shetland islands they came in sight of "Freeseland" (July 11th), where they were unable to land on account of the ice, and on the 28th of the same month they reached that part of Greenland which Frobisher named "Meta Incognita." On the 11th August they sailed through a strait which Frobisher called by his own name. Pursuing their way they passed several islands, to which they gave names, and came on the 18th to Burcher's Island, where they lost a boat and part of their crew through the treachery of the natives. After this they turned their prows homewards, and reached England, September 7th. Frobisher had taken possession of the various places he touched at in the name of the queen; and in token of this had ordered his men to put on board ship whatever they first laid hands on. Among other things thus secured was a lump of black stone, which, when Frobisher returned home, was accidentally discovered to contain gold. This discovery was soon noised abroad, and in the following spring Frobisher readily found the means to fit out another expedition, partly scientific and partly with a view to prosecuting the search for gold. The queen lent him from the royal navy a ship of 200 tons, with which, and two smaller barks, he sailed from Harwich, May 31, 1577. On arriving at the scene of their former discoveries they found that little of the gold ore remained, but they opened forthwith communications with the natives for the purposes of traffic. One of these, "a man of large corporature and good proportion," they carried away with them neither in a very just nor handsome manner. They also caught an old woman, "whom they took for a devil or a witch," and stripped off her buskins "to see if she were cloven-footed." After discovering and naming a good many places, and procuring a good deal of ore, he turned his prow southwards, August 23d, and reached home in the end of September. The ore, when smelted, was found to pay the expenses of the voyage and more; and a third expedition was fitted out in 1578, which, however, through stress of weather and other circumstances, had no sooner reached the gold country than it was obliged to return from the lateness of the season. This was the last of Frobisher's polar voyages. It is not known how he was occupied during the next seven years, but in 1585 he accompanied Sir Francis Drake on his expedition to the West Indies, and three years later did such good service against the Spanish armada as to be rewarded with the honour of knighthood on board his own ship by the lord high admiral. In 1594, after various exploits against the Spaniards, he was sent to assist Henri IV, of France against the Spaniards and the members of the League. The enemy had fortified themselves strongly in Croyzon, near Brest; and in an attack on their position Frobisher was mortally wounded. He lived to take his fleet safely home, and shortly after died at Plymouth.—(Biog. Brit.; Hakluyt's Collect. of Voyages; Stow's Annales, &c. &c.)