Metallurgy, mining, and English colonization in the Americas, 1550-1624

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Metallurgy, Mining, and English Colonization in the Americas, 1550-1624
By
Karin Alana Amundsen

Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the USC Graduate School
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(HISTORY)

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

August 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... i
CHAPTER 1 ALCHEMY, METALLURGY, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE ..................... 1
ADVANCING ENGLISH METALLURGY ........................................................................................................... 3
THE SPANISH MODEL ..................................................................................................................................12
ALCHEMY AND THE IDEOLOGY OF COLONIZATION .....................................................................................18
CHAPTER 2 THE CATHAY COMPANY AND THE MAKING OF AN ENGLISH GOLD
RUSH ........................................................................................................................................................... 34
THE STRAIT OF ANIAN ................................................................................................................................ 39
THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1576 .......................................................................................................................... 53
MARCASITE OF GOLD ................................................................................................................................. 59
CHAPTER 3 ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD: THE COLLAPSE OF THE CATHAY
COMPANY ................................................................................................................................................. 74
THE SECOND VOYAGE ................................................................................................................................ 74
THE THIRD VOYAGE ................................................................................................................................... 94
A VERY EVIL WORK .................................................................................................................................. 105
CHAPTER 4 SEEKING THE GOLDEN FLEECE: ALCHEMICAL INFLUENCES ON
COLONIAL IDEOLOGY ....................................................................................................................... 120
THE GREAT WORK OF DISCOVERY ............................................................................................................ 121
A PETTY-NAVY ROYAL ............................................................................................................................. 128
THE PROTEAN EMPIRE .............................................................................................................................. 144
CHAPTER 5 THINKING METALLURGICALLY: METALS AND EMPIRE IN THE
PROJECTS OF EDWARD HAYES ....................................................................................................... 155
THE CIRCULATORY ECONOMY ................................................................................................................. 160
A WESTWARD REVOLUTION ..................................................................................................................... 170
REFORMING COINS AND COMMONWEALTH .............................................................................................. 187
CHAPTER 6 TRANSMUTING WORDS INTO GOLD: SIR WALTER RALEGH AND
THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA ........................................................................................................... 200
THE SEARCH FOR EL DORADO .................................................................................................................. 204
THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA .................................................................................................................... 214
ONE MORE IRON IN THE FIRE .................................................................................................................... 231
CHAPTER 7 THE MAGZINE OF METALS: THE GUIANA VENTURES, 1607-1618 .................. 251
RALEGH IN THE TOWER ........................................................................................................................... 255
THE FINAL VOYAGE ................................................................................................................................. 278
A PHYSICIAN WHICH WILL CURE ALL DISEASE ......................................................................................... 293
CHAPTER 8 THE COPPER COLONIES: ROANOKE (1584-1592) ................................................. 312
AN APPALACHIAN EL DORADO ................................................................................................................ 319
THE FIRST COLONY .................................................................................................................................. 328
THE LOST COLONY ................................................................................................................................... 355
CHAPTER 9 THE COPPER COLONIES: THE VIRGINIA COMPANY (1606-1609) ................... 379
VIRGINIA, REVIVED ................................................................................................................................. 380
SAGADAHOC ........................................................................................................................................... 392
JAMESTOWN ............................................................................................................................................ 398
JAMESTOWN ............................................................................................................................................ 410
CHAPTER 10 IRON FOR ENGLAND: THE VIRGINIA COMPANY (1609-1624)......................... 428
CAST THY BREAD UPON THE SEA .............................................................................................................. 429
THINGS SO NECESSARY FOR THE LIFE OF MAN .......................................................................................... 461
AN ARMOR OF PROOF ............................................................................................................................... 484
EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................................................ 492
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 495
BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 498

LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1 DISTILLING FURNACES ...................................................................................................... 237
FIGURE 2 JACQUES LE MOYNE VIRGINEAE .................................................................................... 324
FIGURE 3 NATIVE AMERICANS PANNING FOR GOLD ................................................................... 326

ABBREVIATIONS
BL British Library
CP The Cecil Papers, Hatfield House
CSP Calendar of State Papers
ESRO East Sussex Record Office
FP Ferrar Papers, Cambridge University
HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission
KHLC Kent History and Library Centre
TNA The National Archives, Kew
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
OED Oxford English Dictionary
PC Privy Council
SP State Papers
VC Virginia Company

Contractions and thorns have been silently expanded, v, vv, and j replaced with u, w, and i
where appropriate.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the years of researching and writing I have accrued many intellectual debts for
which this seems an inadequate recompense. I had the privilege of receiving an Institute of
Historical Research-Mellon Pre-Dissertation Fellowship to begin my initial archival
research at The National Archives, Kew and the British Library. Thank you to Angus
Gowland for his encouraging mentorship and introduction to Stephen Clucas, who
generously directed me to manuscripts at the British Library. Further research support for
trips to the UK came from the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and the
Roberta Persinger Foulke Fellowship. Research for the final three chapters was supported
by a joint fellowship sponsored by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and
Culture and the Jamestown Rediscovery Center. Few places match the congenial
atmosphere of the Omohundro. Thank you to Karin Wulf, Nadine Zimmerli, Paul Mapp,
Susan Riggs, and Joshua Piker for your enthusiastic and insightful comments on my
Virginia material, and to Martha Howard for the warm welcome to Williamsburg. I am
especially grateful to Kimberly Borchard for sharing her work, published and unpublished,
on an Appalachian El Dorado, Beverly Straube for guiding me on the archaeological record
at Jamestown and a personal tour of the exhibits at James Fort, and James Horn and the
staff at the Rediscovery Center for entertaining my curiosities and questions. An Endowed
Fellowship and Final Year Fellowship from the University of Southern California’s
Graduate School afforded me the time to write the bulk of this dissertation.
This project could not have been completed without the intellectual support and
guidance at USC. This project began as a seminar paper about Thomas Doughty’s
execution for mutiny and witchcraft on Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage,
written under the direction of Deborah Harkness. Her canny questions, especially about the
connection between Doughty and Burchard Kranich, led to my “revelation” of the
relationship between alchemy and exploration, which I was able to further develop in a
seminar with Peter Mancall and Daniela Bleichmar. Thank you to Cynthia Herrup for her
clarity and calm, which helped me see the forest when I was preoccupied with the trees,
and to Rebecca Lemon for welcoming my forays into literary criticism. To Peter Mancall,
your indefatigable support for my work helped me navigate the bumps and detours of
graduate school and find my voice as a scholar. Words can scarcely express my gratitude.
Research and writing can be an isolating process, so it is with deep appreciation that I
thank Keith Pluymers, Lindsay O’Neill, Nicholas Gliserman, Jeanne McDougall, and
Allison Bigelow for their companionship, encouragement, and willingness to read drafts
of my work. As always, Michelle Tusan has been an unfailing mentor and friend. I hope
someday to be half the scholar and colleague she is. Graduate school as a single parent has
taught me the importance of having a village and how many people contributed to the
completion of this work. Thank you to my parents for the weekly dinners that fed me
emotionally, babysitting so I could attend late classes or academic events, and caring for
my cats while I was away for research. To my ex-husband for becoming the ideal academic
spouse and accommodating this peripatetic life. And to my sisters, my best friends, for the
laughter and love that were my touchstones.
Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my son, Daniel. You willingly tolerated many
trips to the library, tried to decipher early modern hands, sat quietly through visits with
advisors, volunteered to teach my classes about Egyptian pyramids, and you even spent a
summer in London (such hardship!). A dissertation was not the sibling you wanted, but
here it is.
i

I N T R O D U C T I O N

In August 1562, the translator and alchemist Richard Eden wrote a letter to his former
employer Sir William Cecil in which he claimed to have precipitated a silvery microcosmos in an
alembic. Commissioned by Sir Richard Whalley to discover the philosopher’s stone, he had
decocted two substances and left his solution to cool and coagulate overnight. Eden hoped to
achieve a chemical wedding from which the pure matter of the quintessence, called the prima
materia, would derive. The next morning he discovered “A little rounde Iland as brode as riall or
sumwhat more, with at the least A hundreth sylver trees abowt an ynche high, so perfectly formed
with trunkes, stalkes, and leaves, all of most pure and glystering sylver.” Advancing the
substance’s exaltation, Eden stirred and heated it to dissolve the island back into crystalline matter,
and again left it to cool overnight. The next morning, Eden found another silvery island in the
vessel. While Eden stopped short of calling it the philosopher’s stone, the comparison of this
microcosmos with a Spanish réal, which was then coined with American silver, gestured to the
political potential of using art to manipulate nature. Eden suggested to Cecil: “Qui potest facere
Mediam naturam, potest creare Mundos novos (He who can make Middle Nature, can create New
Worlds).”
1
In the absence of English colonies in the Americas, which Eden had long promoted,
alchemical transmutation could ameliorate the Crown’s finances and compensate for the realm’s
dearth of gold and silver mines.

1
The philosopher’s stone comprised the four elements and a fifth essence, a “middle nature” said to join heaven
with earth. The middle nature possessed the soul of the world and could transform base matter into purer forms.
Richard Eden, “Richard Eden to Sir William Cecil,” British Library (hereafter BL), Lansdowne MS 101, fol. 19v (1
August 1562).
ii

To modern eyes Eden’s letter reads as fanciful, most charitably understood as a résumé of
skills that could be placed at the disposal of the Crown. In it, Eden linked seemingly disparate
projects: first, he sought a stipend to translate Pliny’s Natural History from Latin into English;
second, he offered to create an automaton, a mechanical device suspected to hold the key to
longitude; and third, he demonstrated his chemical expertise. The letter likewise hinted at his
interest in a license to mine royal metals, though Thomas Thurland, master of Savoy, had
discouraged his suit, as he had already started negotiations with the Crown on behalf of a German
syndicate for a similar project.
2
Eden, a former clerk in the exchequer, a chemist in the royal
distillery, and an advisor to John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland on overseas voyages in the
1550s, considered these interconnected projects to which he devoted his life.
Eden is well-known for his translations of texts related to the Americas by Sebastian Münster,
Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, and Jean Taisnier, which exposed English adventurers to the
speculative possibilities of the Atlantic world at a time when there was little political will or
financial backing for such ventures. A growing body of literature recognizes Eden’s interests in
inventing mechanical instruments to make transoceanic ventures less risky, his experiments in
transmutation to give the Crown the means to multiply England’s stock of precious metals, and his
skill in assaying ores.
3
Prior to his letter to Cecil, Eden had connected alchemical and navigational

2
BL, Lansdowne MS 101, fols. 17v-18v. In his dedicatory epistle to Sir William Winter, Eden mentioned the
ongoing attempt to devise a reliable clock, or automaton, that would remain accurate despite variable weather and
oceanic conditions on long voyages. This practical method of determining longitude was first mentioned by Gemma
Frisius, whose theory Eden briefly excerpted in his 1555 translation of Peter Martyr’s De Orbo Novo, and by Johannes
Fernelius, physician to King Henry II of France, in De abditis rerum causis. Jean Taisner, A very necessarie and
profitable Booke concerning Navigation, trans. Richard Eden (London, 1575), 4r.
3
David Gwyn, “Richard Eden Cosmographer and Alchemist,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 15, no. 1 (Spring
1984), 13–34; Christopher Kitching, “Alchemy in the Reign of Edward IV: An Episode in the Careers of Richard
Whalley and Richard Eden,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 44 (1971), 313-314; Edmund Valentine
Campos, “West of Eden: American Gold, Spanish Greed, and the Discourses of English Imperialism,” in Rereading
the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires, eds. Margaret R.
Greer, Walter Mignolo, and Maureen Quilligan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 247–269.
iii

arts in The decades of the newe worlde or west India (London, 1555), to which he appended an
excerpt of Vannoccio Biringuccio’s metallurgical treatise Pirotechnia (Venice, 1540) as a guide
for prospective adventurers to identify minerals and anticipate the laborious work of mining in the
New World. Biringuccio had called alchemy the “origin and foundation” of the arts of metallurgy
and distilling, which shared a corpus of theories, vocabulary, practices, and tools, an overlap borne
out in Eden’s own professional activities.
4
Navigational and alchemical arts served similar ends to
undergird the Crown’s sovereignty with a robust exchequer and handsomely reward private
investors, and when combined with colonial projects the potential gains were infinite. The
centrality of metallurgy and alchemy to colonization is the subject of this dissertation.
~
The mid-Tudor period was a time of crisis for England. King Henry VIII’s break from the
Catholic Church caused internal strife and anxieties about religious corruption, as well as threats
to England’s security. Likewise, debasement policies implemented to fund his imperial ambitions
in France and Ireland, and continued by Edward VI and Mary I, engendered distrust in the purity
of England’s coinage and the authority that backed it. The Great Recoinage in 1561-62, which
restored a fine sterling standard, hardly altered these doubts.
5
After vigorous economic expansion
into the 1530s, debasement obstructed English commerce at home and abroad, as merchants and
tradesmen refused to accept embased sterling coins or raised prices to account for their perceived
losses. Through the middle decades of the century, inflation worsened with periodic grain
shortages, depressions in staple industries like cloth and lead, a population boom, and the influx

4
Vannoccio Biringuccio, The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio: The Classic Sixteenth-Century Treatise on
Metals and Metallurgy, trans. Cyril Stanley Smith and Martha Teach Gnudi, (Toronto: Dover, 1990), 337. Tara
Nummedal pointed out that prior to the sixteenth century, metallurgy was not a distinct learned discipline. Tara
Nummedal, Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 33-36.
5
For the social, political, and religious dimension of the mid-Tudor debasements and its potential for
depreciating the Crown’s authority, see Jennifer Bishop, “Currency, Conversation, and Control: Political Discourse
and the Coinage in Mid-Tudor England,” The English Historical Review 131, no. 551 (August 2016), 763–792.
iv

of American silver. A concomitant shift toward wage labor left more people dependent upon
money at a time when compensation for their work lagged behind the rising cost of living, a
situation exacerbated by underemployment. Moreover, attempts by the Crown to strengthen the
provincial arms of the state provoked fears of government over-reach beyond customary
boundaries. These frictions erupted into rebellion on several occasions, sometimes at the
instigation of foreign princes. Even after the price shocks of the mid-Tudor period wore off and
the English economy resumed its expansion, the perception that England was plagued by
corruption in religion, in the economy, and in an idle and unruly people lingered well into the
seventeenth century and prompted innovative strategies to tackle these problems.
6

These disruptions drove technological changes and the pursuit of new markets to buttress
England’s status in Europe and shore up the Crown’s position at home; they also motivated the
Crown, courtiers, and merchants to undertake Atlantic ventures at a heretofore unprecedented
scale. Bullionism, the regulation of foreign commerce in order to maintain a favorable balance of
trade and accumulate gold and silver reserves, became the dominant policy to stabilize the English
state and provide the Crown with the sinews of war. Related to this was the demand to enlarge the
circulating currency to address rising prices for food and fuel. Like his tutor Sir Thomas Smith and
occasional colleague John Dee, Eden thought the surest means to secure, enrich, and pacify the
realm was a merchant marine to end England’s dependence upon continental entrepôts for trade,

6
On the “price revolution” a period of sustained inflation in Europe, which lasted from c. 1470 to c. 1650, and
the effects of population growth and American silver, see David Hackett Fischer, The Great Wave: Price Revolutions
and the Rhythm of History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 65-91; Glyn Redworth, “Philip I of England,
Embezzlement, and the Quantity Theory of Money,” The Economic History Review 55, no. 2 (May 2002), 248–261.
On the synchronic development of new trades to southern Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Americas, with
the expansion, stabilization, and collapse of the English cloth trade between 1480 and 1640, see Robert Brenner,
Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London’s Overseas Traders, 1550-1653
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 3-52. On the interrelationship of religious reforms, the strengthening
of state control over provincial affairs, and the 1536 and 1549 rebellions, see Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath:
Reformation & Rebellion in an English Village (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) and Ethan H. Shagan,
Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 89-128.
v

to train seamen and soldiers for war, and to discover mineral wealth. Eden, Smith, and Dee were
at the vanguard of a movement that coalesced in the 1570s to produce sustained interest in English
colonies in the New World concentrated on mineral exploitation, trade, and settlement. The blend
of alchemy, metallurgy, commerce, national defense, social reform and religion in these first
colonial projects defined the initial stage of English expansion into the Atlantic world between
Martin Frobisher’s attempted mining camp in the Arctic and the first permanent settlement at
Jamestown, Virginia.
The first half of Elizabeth I’s reign witnessed an efflorescence of “big science” projects, as
Deborah E. Harkness has called them, to increase England’s stock of precious metals, to outfit the
kingdom for war, and innovate or introduce new technologies.
7
As economic expansion created a
reservoir of capital, investors looked for new speculative opportunities and spurred the efforts of
projectors, who justified their proposals as beneficial to the commonwealth. For its part, the Crown
was willing to issue protective patents to offset the risks of invention and revitalize decayed
industries, to grant denizen status to foreign experts who imported knowledge and technologies to
England, and, occasionally, to fund the scheme if it served the Crown’s interests.
8
These projects
included the incorporation of joint-stock companies for mining (the Company of Mines Royal and
the Company of Mineral & Battery Works), trading (the Muscovy Company, Spanish Company,
and Levant Company), and industrial alchemy (the Society of the New Art), and there was a
considerable degree of overlap among the participants in these enterprises. Improvements in

7
Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2007).
8
Joyce Appleby said that money became capital when it was invested in an enterprise with the expectation of
profit. Joyce Appleby, The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2010), 7. To this should be added real assets with a monetary value, like a ship, that can be contributed to an enterprise
for productive purposes.
vi

navigational and mining technologies, combined with a newfound ability to mobilize capital for
large-scale enterprises, stimulated colonial projects in the Atlantic world.
While the historiography of English expansion into the Americas is extensive, I integrate
familiar print and archival materials with sources from the mining industry to consider
metallurgy’s role in defining English projects in the New World. These sources include the court
books of the Company of Mineral & Battery Works, the account books of the Company of Mines
Royal, and the correspondences of participants in various mineral enterprises from The National
Archives, Hatfield House, Lambeth Palace, and the British Library, among others. A project like
this is necessarily interdisciplinary, and thus compares colonial projects against the geological and
archaeological data for the regions of English penetration to evaluate the reasonability of their
aims, the adequacy of their technical preparations and skilled personnel, the credibility of their
alleged discoveries, and the critical role of indigenous peoples in shaping events on the ground. In
most cases, the physical evidence validated English expectations for minerals, though not
necessarily their claims to have found mines or their ability to work them. Finally, I refer to the
alchemical texts that circulated in print and manuscript to analyze its influence on ideas about the
generation of metals and how to work them, as well as the language used to promote colonization.
After 1578 alchemical metaphor frequently substituted for actual mineralogical evidence in an
attempt to rescue ventures and their progenitors from ignominy and nourish public support for the
continuation of these ventures as their designs remained unrealized.
My central claim is that after minimal participation in the first half century of European
exploration, advances in metallurgical technologies contributed to Englishmen’s growing
confidence to embark on large-scale Atlantic projects and to the Crown’s willingness to support
them. In these early ventures, projectors prioritized the acquisition of metals from the New World
vii

to purify and expand the English currency, balance trade, satisfy demands for ordnance, and restore
social harmony. From the mining industry, projectors obtained expert personnel for their overseas
ventures, a cohort of investors, and portable technologies for prospecting and assaying. Further,
improvements in the manufacture of metal fittings and instruments contributed to reforms in
English shipbuilding and the art of navigation. Colonization grew out of projectors’ goals to exploit
the mineral resources of the New World, and with each abortive attempt, they refined what kind
of settlement would be required for success. Early on they decided that the long-term settlement
of a cross-section of English society—plantations—was the best way to access the New World’s
hidden treasures. Nevertheless, it took fifty years of trial-and-error, a substantial dose of luck, and
eventually the acknowledgment that their dreams for large-scale colonial mineral enterprises were
premature, though not unfounded.
In the first phase of colonization the role of precious metals and mining has been narrowly
construed as the search for gold, silver, and sometimes copper to bolster the exchequer and check
Spanish ambitions in Europe. The expectation of establishing landed estates was appealing to some
adventurers, particularly religious nonconformists, but it was the prospect that they might replicate
Spain’s acquisition of mineral wealth and find their own Potosí or establish bustling commercial
outposts in exotic commodities that made the high risks of Atlantic ventures worthwhile.
9
Though
gold and silver mines eluded them, historian Carole Shammas claimed that the allure of mines kept
English adventurers interested in the New World in the “awkward” half century between the
conquistadors and the establishment of the plantation system, during which privateers contented

9
David B. Quinn, Explorers and Colonies: America, 1500-1625 (London: The Hambledon Press, 1990), 154-
161; Jack P. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the
Formation of American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 8-10.
viii

themselves with raids on Iberian Atlantic ports and treasure ships.
10
Due to their inability to find
American gold and silver mines, historians tend to regard the quest for mineral riches as a
misguided (if not embarrassing) episode that receded from view once projectors in the British
Atlantic realized the potential rewards of the plantation system, and as such required little
explanation. Historian Kenneth Andrews summed it up thusly: “It is hardly necessary to dwell
upon the more or less crude pursuit of riches which was obviously the main if not the sole motive
of most of the venturers in expeditions of trade or plunder, in many colonizing projects and even
in some exploring voyages.”
11

While most scholars acknowledge the centrality of mines to early colonization efforts, a
thorough examination of the topic has not been undertaken for English efforts.
12
As scholar Lisa
Heuvel observed, minerals have been treated as a footnote in the larger history of colonization,
when they were “a catalyst for English exploratory and colonizing efforts.”
13
Where mining was
discussed, however briefly, scholars collapsed it into the category of plunder or quick profit,
echoing the rhetoric of early American moralists who created a dichotomy to endorse agriculture
as the ideal for industrious, virtuous citizens and mining as the opposite.
14
David B. Quinn, one of
the foremost historians of the period, suggested that interest in mines stemmed from Spain’s
“easily obtained riches,” while historian James Sweet called the hoped-for mines in Virginia a

10
Carole Shammas, “America, the Atlantic, and Global Consumer Demand, 1500-1800,” OAH Magazine of
History 19, no. 1 (January 2005), 61.
11
Kenneth R. Andrews, Trade, Plunder, and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British
Empire 1480-1630 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 31.
12
The historiography on mining in the Americas is almost exclusively focused on the Spanish Empire. Kris Lane,
“Mining, Gold, and Silver,” in Oxford Bibliographies Online, ed. Trevor Burnard (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
last modified 25 May 2011), doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0084.
13
Lisa L. Heuvel, “Early Attempts of English Mineral Exploration,” Virginia Division of Mineral Resources 176
(2007), 2.
14
Joseph M. Thomas, “‘Peculiar Soil’: Mining the Early American Imagination,” Early American Literature 27,
no. 3 (1992), 151-152.
ix

“source of easy wealth.
”15
According to historian Philip D. Morgan, precious metals whetted the
appetite of men like Captain John Martin, whose participation in Sir Francis Drake’s 1585
privateering voyage was conflated with his status as an ancient planter in Virginia.
16
Historian
Joyce Chaplin called the promotional literature’s emphasis on precious metals fantasies about
profiting from American ventures with minimal investment.
17
Carl Wennerlind contrasted the
work of finding and exploiting mines with “the laborious process of clearing, planting, and
harvesting new lands.”
18
Robert Brenner characterized the second Virginia Company charter as
the relinquishment of “earlier expectations of quick windfalls through the discovery of precious
metals” for the hard work of sowing staple crops.
19
Even James Mulholland, a specialist in mining
history, categorized the pursuit of precious metals as evidence of a mentality of “impermanence”
and “temporary exploitation” before the advent of tobacco cultivation in Virginia reoriented
settlers toward permanent plantation.
20
Lacking a firm grounding in the geology of the regions
targeted for English colonies, some scholars dismiss the search for mines as fantasy. Historian
Amir Alexander asserted that the expectation of precious metals “was almost certainly
groundless.”
21

Historians Edmund Morgan and Lorena Walsh were among the few scholars to treat mining
among the other industrial and commercial efforts of early Virginia. Looking at the ambitious but

15
Quinn, Explorers and Colonies, 157; Robert Applebaum and John Wood Sweet, eds., Envisioning an English
Empire: Jamestown and the Making of a North Atlantic World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2005), 10.
16
Philip D. Morgan, “Virginia’s Other Prototype: The Caribbean,” in The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-
1624, ed. Peter C. Mancall (Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg,
Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 348.
17
Joyce E. Chaplin, Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500-
1676 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 16.
18
Carl Wennerlind, Casualties of Credit: The English Financial Revolution, 1620-1720 (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2011), 27.
19
Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 93.
20
James A. Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America (University of Alabama, 1981), 22.
21
Amir Alexander, Geometrical Landscapes: The Voyages of Discovery and the Transformation of
Mathematical Practice (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 45.
x

unrealized plans of the Virginia Company, Morgan observed that the planners anticipated a
colonial economy that was more diverse than the home economy and he made no distinction
between mining for base or precious metals, nor between mining and other extractive industries.
22

Walsh pointed out that the association of plantations with industrial agriculture and private
landholding came only after decades of experimentation. In the first phase of colonization the term
plantation encompassed a spectrum of economic activities, including mining, to make a colony
self-sufficient and commercially viable as a new import and export market.
23

Comparing mining to plunder or quick profit fundamentally distorted the nature of mineral
enterprise and thus rendered an inaccurate understanding of why England embarked on colonial
projects. From their inception, colonization projects struggled to attract investors compared to
trade and plunder ventures in the Atlantic because they were less certain and the profits delayed,
if ever realized. Both Kenneth Andrews and Philip Morgan observed that speculators poured a
significant amount of capital into privateering ventures between 1550 and 1624, and during the
peak years of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) probably garnered an estimated ₤100,000 every
year. Far more efforts were put into raiding than trade or settlement combined.
24
That many of the
investors in colonization projects also sponsored privateering voyages did not mean that they saw
no distinction between mining and plunder; rather, it argues that they did know the difference and
looked for their quick riches where they were most likely to find them—as privateers. Sir Walter
Ralegh exemplified the privateer who re-invested his profits from plunder into colonial enterprises
and the ironworks on his Munster estate. Though Ralegh dreamed about encountering a

22
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 1975; 2003), 45, 85-87, 136.
23
Lorena S. Walsh, Motives of Honor, Pleasure, & Honor: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake,
1607-1763 (Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the
University of North Carolina Press, 2012), 1-3.
24
Andrews, Trade, Plunder, and Settlement, 282-283; Morgan, “Virginia’s Other Prototype,” 349-350n. 9.
xi

metallurgically-sophisticated society in Guiana or Virginia equivalent to the Incans and Aztecs
who would offer up wrought metals for the taking, he also prepared for the likelihood that most of
the riches would have to be mined. Plunder and mining co-existed as means for England to be
enriched by American metals, but few projectors viewed them as interchangeable.
Treating mining as plunder likewise disconnected it from other industrial endeavors for
commercial purposes, as well as changes in English land use that informed the development of the
plantation system. Over the course of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century landlords and
their tenants increasingly adhered to the ethic of improvement, which conveyed the idea that
husbanding one’s lands well enough to produce a surplus served not just one’s private gain but the
public good. Husbandry manuals enjoined landholders to assess the best means to exploit their
grounds for profit and honorably increase their incomes.
25
Encouraging aristocrats to take an active
interest in their estates, Sir Francis Bacon asserted: “The Improvement of the Ground, is the most
Naturall Obtaining of Riches; For it is our Great Mothers Blessing, the Earths; But it is slow. And
yet, where Men of great wealth, doe stoope to husbandry, it multiplieth Riches exceedingly.”
26
He
commended an anonymous nobleman for the variety of undertakings on his lands (sheep-runs,
cornfields, timber, a colliery, lead and iron mines) and compared it to the honor of overseas travel:
“So as the Earth seemed a Sea to him, in respect of the Perpetuall Importation.”
27
The application
of improvement to a range of land-based activities was reflected in more generalized uses of terms
normally associated with agriculture: to manure meant to manage and cultivate one’s lands, while
to husband could refer to a general principle of good stewardship.

25
Keith Wrightson, Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2000), 209-215.
26
Sir Francis Bacon, The essayes or counsels, civill and morall (London, 1625), 207.
27
Bacon, The essayes or counsels, 208.
xii

I bring up the semantics as a way to open up how historians of early colonization think about
plantations, and recognize that for early modern projectors planting a settlement for the purpose
of manurance or husbanding the land was not mutually exclusive from the desire to discover mines.
Indeed, mining validated English claims to dominion in the New World against indigenous and
foreign competitors. One of the ways Europeans justified the dispossession of indigenous people
from their lands was on the basis of res nullius: they had failed to improve the land to achieve its
natural perfection, something only possible through human industry.
28
In North America, where
the local inhabitants engaged in horticulture and other land management, the English argued that
indigenous agriculture did not go far enough and pointed to a lack of native metallurgy as evidence
that they had entirely neglected to cultivate the earth beneath the soil. Of greater consequence (in
their view), Europeans legitimized their right to possession to each other by physically occupying
the land; as Peter Bakewell observed for Latin America: “Nothing suggests the strength of Europe's
growing grasp on other parts of the world so graphically as mining; it was literally a digging into
others’ lands.”
29
Since England encroached upon territories nominally claimed but not effectively
or continuously inhabited by Spain, projectors and the Crown sought incontestable means to
establish their dominion. Mining made the land fruitful, it brought a garrison to protect the miners,
and skilled artisans and farmers to support them. With an understanding that mining was not an
avenue to immediate profit, like agriculture it demonstrated a commitment to permanent
settlement.
30

28
J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2006), 11-12, 30-32
29
Peter Bakewell, ed. Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas (Aldershot, Hampshire; Brookfield, VT:
Variorum, 1997), xxiii.
30
International law required European powers to satisfy two conditions to uphold their legal claim to dominion:
animus, the intent to occupy, and corpus, physical occupation of the land. Though the Crown tried to claim a prior
right of discovery, most of their colonial claims rested on lack of effective physical occupation of certain lands by
another Christian prince. English colonizers established their corpus with garrisons, hedges, and even maps. Ken
xiii

As most colonial projectors knew from experience, mining required significant capital
investment to hire experts to prospect for ore, to establish works with the appropriate technology
for extracting and smelting ore, and to advance wages to miners, colliers, smiths, carpenters,
sawyers, and other laborers before the refined metal had been sold. Larger mineral works also
generated ancillary industries to support miners’ communities like brewing and baking, but the
upfront costs for food, ale, and other staples of daily life were frequently covered by the company.
Increased competition for timber resources added to operational costs as fuel became more
expensive. Mine managers frequently came into conflict with local inhabitants over access to
charcoal and with shipmasters for woodlands located near navigable waterways. In most cases, it
took years for mining projects to realize any profits, and many partners or shareholders never
received dividends.
31
Although the mineral men who organized and/or invested in overseas
ventures understood that mining was not a quick profit scheme, the nature of Atlantic enterprise,
with its motley mixture of adventurers, often placed the need for short-term profits at odds with
long-term sustainability.
In light of the infrastructural demands of even modest mining ventures, a colony had to
produce immediate profits to recompense shareholders and stimulate subsequent capital
investment. Given the inherent uncertainty that any mines would repay efforts to work them or
remain open for the long-term, colonies required alternative commodities for support. Richard
Hakluyt suggested that trade and husbandry would be important auxiliaries to mineral speculation.
In his “Discourse of Western Planting,” which he submitted to the Queen in 1584 to encourage her

Macmillan, Sovereignty and Possession in the English New World: The Legal Foundations of Empire, 1576-1640
(Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2006), 121-177.
31
For a detailed account of the types of expenses incurred by large mining operations, see W.G. Collingwood,
Elizabethan Keswick: Extracts from the Original Account Books, 1564-1577, of the German Miners, in the Archives
of Augsburg (Kendal; Whitehaven: Wilson for the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological
Society; Michael Moon’s Bookshop 1912); Royal Historical Society, Sidney Ironworks Accounts, 1541-1573, ed.
David Wyatt Crossley (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1975).
xiv

support for Sir Walter Ralegh’s Roanoke colony, Hakluyt thought that North America could
become another outlet for English staples and provide the raw materials (especially timber) to
supply English manufacture. Hakluyt saw great possibilities for the development of sericulture,
viticulture and oenology.
32
Fittingly, the types of cultivation Hakluyt promoted were those that
had most benefitted from the application of alchemical principles about the ennoblement of matter
to agriculture. Though historian J.H. Elliot posited Hakluyt’s “empire of commerce” as contrary
to Spain’s mining empire, I demonstrate that his idea of colonies as holistic reproductions of
English society were consistent with the creation of a successful mining operation.
33
Indeed, it was
this very holism that enabled Jamestown to survive once it became clear that gold and silver mines
would not be the colony’s primary economic base.
34

This dissertation disentangles the search for mines from its association with plunder so that
we can understand the varying motives of projectors and adventurers in seeking metals, the
ambivalent feelings provoked by this desire, and re-evaluate the relationship of mining to the
development of plantations in the seventeenth century. A deep analysis of the search for metals in
the Americas affirms that some adventurers indeed viewed it as a form of plunder, but this was not
the full story. Merchants sought precious metals to underwrite their commercial enterprises in
continental Europe and Asia; political economists thought mines could revitalize the domestic
economy and back a fine currency, thereby quashing seditious plots against the Crown; and those
tasked with national defense looked to American mines to provide them with a war chest capable
of matching Spain’s treasury and the resources to expand England’s munitions industry. Gold and

32
Richard Hakluyt, A Particular Discourse Conceringe the Greate Necessitie and Manifolde Commodyties That
Are Like to Grow to This Realme of Englande by the Western Discoueries Lately Attempted, Written in the Yere 1584.
By Richarde Hackluyt of Oxforde. Known as Discourse of Western Planting, eds. David B. Quinn and Alison M.
Quinn (London: Hakluyt Society, 1993), Ch. 3, 16.
33
Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World, 27-28.
34
Allison Games, The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion 1560-1660 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2008), 117-146.
xv

silver may have attracted the most attention, but they were not the only metals English projectors
hoped to find. With the exceptions of lead and tin, England’s mineral resources were inadequate
to meet the growing demand for manufactured metal goods of brass, copper, and iron. The main
factors driving the import of cheaper base metals were rising fuel prices and the limitations of the
available technology to drain and ventilate mines and smelt refractory ores. Industrialists thus
looked to the Atlantic for better conditions to mine and perhaps manufacture metalwares and cast
ordnance. In this way, the search for mines cannot be hived off from other commercial resources
that planners anticipated profiting from or replacement industries like glass, wine, or silk that they
hoped to establish overseas.
As part of this re-framing of minerals as a stimulus for colonial enterprise, I place overseas
projects within the context of developments in the domestic mining industry. C.E. Challis, the
foremost historian of the royal mint, observed that England’s first forays into the Americas looking
for gold and silver mines paralleled similar prospecting efforts in England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland.
35
At the same time adventurers’ embarked on their Atlantic voyages, Cornelius de Vos,
Adrian Gilbert (initially with partner John Dee), Sir Hugh Middleton, Sir Bevis Bulmer, Sir
William Bowes, and Sir William Godolphin, among others, explored for precious metals in
Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria, Lanark, and Wexford. After Ralph Lane’s return from Roanoke he
partnered with the venture’s metallurgist Joachim Gans to mine silver in Cornwall. These efforts
fared little better than their Atlantic counterparts. Apparently responding to critics who dismissed
the search for British mines as absurd compared to the probability of American mines, in 1619
metallurgist Stephen Atkinson, a client of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, defended his partner
Bulmer’s mining activities at Crawford Muir:

35
C.E. Challis, The Tudor Coinage (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1978), 153.
xvi

Some say that gold and silver cannot engender with any other stones or meneralls, without the helpe of the sonn
by day, and the moone and starres by night. Neither is it to be found in any place under the influence of the
heavens, but in hot countries, as is the East and West Indies, &c. which I cannot allowe of, neither will I believe
that to be trew; for that of Scotland is probabilety sufficient, and the works of Keswicke in Cumberland, within
the kingdome of England, is a manifest proofe to the contrary, which is alsoe a cold countrey; nay, in High
Germany, where it is cold, is found both silver, copper, and tynn.
36

As Atkinson noted, though the British Isles sat in the northerly latitudes, they had had modest
success extracting silver from lead (galena) ores in the West Country, Keswick, and co. Wexford,
Ireland, and gold and silver at Crawford Muir, Scotland. From these minor successes at unearthing
precious metals in the British Isles, colonial projectors considered it rational to extrapolate the
likelihood of finding rich American mines from the mid-Atlantic northward according to
prevailing theories about the generation of metals and latitudinal determinism. Notions about the
equinoctial burning zone, which consisted of the golden lands of Africa, Peru, and Mexico, left
them no doubt that precious metals would be readily available to English adventurers in the
Caribbean and South America.
37

Just as the historiography on westward expansion recognized the cloth trade’s volatility as an
important factor in encouraging the new trades to Russia, the Levant, the Americas, and Asia, the
mining historiography has noted a similar inter-relationship between the cloth trade and the
development of English mining from the end of the fifteenth-century.
38
As English woolens
dominated the European cloth market through Antwerp, it facilitated the growth of lead and tin as

36
Stephen Atkinson, The Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1825), 17.
37
Geoff Coyle, The Riches Beneath Our Feet: How Mining Shaped Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2010), 176.
38
David M. Loades, England’s Maritime Empire: Seapower, Commerce and Policy, 1490-1690 (Harlow:
Longman, 2006); David B. Quinn, and A.N. Ryan, England’s Sea Empire, 1550-1642 (London: George Allen &
Unwin, 1983). Cf. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 3-52.
xvii

staple exports in the sixteenth century.
39
Historian Ian Blanchard demonstrated the ways in which
the lead industry initially benefitted from increased traffic between Antwerp and London, as it was
used as ballast on ships carrying cloth and then sold to the central European silver companies;
however, the industry narrowly escaped utter destruction when the dissolution of the monasteries
flooded the market with lead, the cloth trade contracted, and New World silver caused a bullion
crisis in central Europe. Faced with these commercial exigencies, Mendip and Derbyshire
seigneurs like Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk reformed their lead-mining operations with the
introduction of the blast furnace and infringement on the customary liberties of free miners. This
allowed them to produce more useable lead at lower prices.
40
As English shipping increased in the
second-half of the sixteenth century, England became the main supplier of lead to the Spanish
American silver mines via the Iberian Peninsula, monopolized the lead trade in the Baltic through
the Eastland Company, and established the Levant trade with lead as a principal export.
41

The cloth trade aided the revitalization of the copper industry by connecting the Crown and
English investors with the prominent German financial firms, the Fuggers and David Haug, Hans
Langnauer & Co., whose banking and trade empires were funded from mining ventures in central
Europe. Through these networks, English mineral men gained access to expert metallurgists and
miners who could reinvent the copper industry, where the exhaustion of ancient mines had resulted
in the loss of native expertise. Originally hired by Sir Thomas Gresham to re-mint sterling coins

39
“There are five stable [staple] merchandises of England, viz. wooll, woolfels, leather, lead, and tynne.” Sir
Edward Coke, The Fourth Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England Concerning the Jurisdiction of Courts (London,
1817), 238n. g.
40
The number of laborers in the lead industry peaked in the 1520s and 1530s at around 6,000-7,000, but by the
1550s there were perhaps only hundreds. Ian Blanchard, “English Lead and the International Bullion Crisis of the
1550s,” in Trade, Government and Economy in Pre-Industrial England: Essays Presented to F.J. Fisher, eds. D.C.
Coleman, and A.H. John (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), 29, 33-36.
41
The English lead trade to the Spanish Americas steadily declined after the invention of amalgamation (smelting
silver ore with mercury instead of lead) in 1563. Henryk Zins, England and the Baltic Trade in the Elizabethan Era,
trans. H.C. Stevens (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1972), 197; Quinn and Ryan, England’s Sea Empire,
44.
xviii

using liquation, a process of separating copper and silver that English mint workers were
insufficiently skilled to perform, German metallurgists Daniel Ulstat, Sebastian Speydell, and
Johannes “Hans” Loner came to England in 1561 and learned that mining for royal metals (gold,
silver, and copper) had languished. With the support of Thomas Thurland, the Germans convinced
the Crown to hire Johan Steinberg, then employed by Philip II, to survey English mines. The
Fuggers acted as their agents, but the deal fell through. They then approached the London factors
of Haug, Langnauer & Co. and convinced them that the opportunity to bring German metallurgists
to England to prospect for royal mines exceeded their current trade of fustians, wheat, and bronze
ordnance. Between 1561 and 1564, Haug, Langnauer & Co. negotiated with the Crown for a patent
to establish a mining company and in 1563 brought Daniel Hechstetter to England to begin
prospecting for mines. Sir William Cecil was keen to entertain them, as were several noble patrons
and merchants.
42

Long-dependent upon the continent for munitions imports, the 1560s exposed England’s
military weakness if it could not manufacture ordnance to supply its operations in Ireland, France,
and the Netherlands. Moreover, if England was to continue expanding its merchant marine it would
need both ordnance and finished goods to support it—all of which depended upon the metal
industry. After commencing operations at Keswick, Cumbria in 1565, where they found copper
and argentiferous lead ores, the joint–stock German-English venture incorporated in May 1568 as
the Company of Mines Royal. The same month, the Company of Mineral & Battery Works,
another joint-stock venture with English investors and German experts and technology,

42
Henry Hamilton, The English Brass and Copper Industries to 1800, 2
nd
edition (London: Taylor & Francis,
1967): 3-7; M.B. Donald, Elizabethan Copper: The History of the Company of Mines Royal, 1568-1605 (London:
Pergamon Press, 1955), 17, 37, 47-48, 50; William Rees, Industry Before the Industrial Revolution: Incorporating a
study of the Chartered Companies of The Society of Mines Royal and of Mineral and Battery Works (Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 1968), 2:373-376.
xix

incorporated for operations in the West Country, Wales, and Derbyshire. They received their
monopoly to mine for copper, iron and calamine and to establish battery works for the manufacture
of wire used to make wool-cards and brass and iron cast-work. The re-opening of the copper
industry with the latest technology and foreign expertise generated interest from nobles,
gentleman, and merchants in mineral speculation, which played an important role in the boom
mentality that drove investment in Martin Frobisher’s northwest voyages when it was thought that
he had found auriferous ore. Though the English copper industry soon supplied domestic demand,
the company struggled throughout the 1580s and 1590s and by the first decade of the seventeenth
century was on the brink of collapse. Renewed interest in Virginia promised to salvage the
domestic industry from total collapse.
Perhaps no mining industry was more directly tied to English expansion than the iron industry.
When Henry VIII looked to produce munitions domestically and modernize his navy with gun
decks, it was the Wealden ironmasters who innovated in the casting of cannons and shot, a
technological development made possible by the introduction of the blast furnace and the
immigration of French ironworkers in the mid-1540s.
43
Cast-iron artillery held several advantages
over their bronze counterparts: they could be shot more often without time for cooling, its relatively
light weight was more suitable for the gun deck on smaller English ships, and it was cheaper to
manufacture. Lord Seymour of Sudeley, Lord Buckhurst, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Sir Henry
Sidney all had furnaces dedicated to producing guns and shot between the 1540s and 1580s.
44

Historian George Hammersley’s examination of the iron industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth

43
In 1544, Thomas Howard third duke of Norfolk leased land and iron mines to Parson William Levett of Buxted
for the production of iron ordnance. At Norfolk’s Sheffield Furnace, Levett oversaw at least 11 alien ironworkers and
colliers, mostly from France. Oldlands Furnace in Buxted employed several other alien workers. In exchange for their
skilled labor, these men received denization. “Sheffield Furnace,” and “Oldlands Furnace,” Wealden Iron Research
Group Database, available: http://www.wirgdata.org.
44
Rees, Industry Before the Industrial Revolution, 1:203-206.
xx

centuries showed that the iron industry developed rapidly as England’s military operations
extended into Ireland and the Netherlands, and relations with Spain deteriorated into hot war, but
it came at a cost of significantly diminished timber resources. This provoked opposition,
sometimes violent, to the establishment or maintenance of furnaces by local inhabitants and
shipbuilders. Even the Crown and Parliament intermittently obstructed the industry in favor of
naval and local interests with regard to timber, though they also recognized the importance of the
industry to shoring up English power.
45

Mining historian William Rees noted that in its pursuit of timber, the mining industry followed
the path of Englishmen in assembling the Tudor empire with the annexation of Wales and the
conquest of Ireland.
46
Indeed, this was also true of North America. To promote the Virginia colony,
both Thomas Harriot and Robert Johnson explicitly proposed that English ironmasters could move
their operations to North America and therefore ease competition over woodlands.
47
As North
American silver and gold mines proved chimerical in the seventeenth century, colonists established
furnaces and forges to support their communities and supply England with pig and bar iron; though
these initial efforts at large-scale ironworks failed, they established a precedent for colonial
mineral enterprises that would be realized from the late seventeenth century. The story of mining
in colonial America, therefore, primarily became a story about the iron industry.
48
As the above
illustrates, a narrative of mineral speculation in the Atlantic world cannot focus solely on precious
metals, but must also consider the practical importance of base metals like copper and iron to
England’s conquest of and colonial development in America.

45
G. Hammersley, “The State and the English Iron Industry in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in
Trade, Government and Economy in Pre-Industrial England, 166-167.
46
Rees, 1:240
47
Thomas Harriot, A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (London, 1588), B3r; Robert
Johnson, Nova Britannia (London, 1609), C3v.
48
Mulholland, A History of Metals in Colonial America, 18.
xxi

A discussion of the centrality of metallurgy to colonial enterprise would be incomplete
without reference to alchemy. In early modern Europe, alchemy was not just a learned pursuit of
notable people, but a profession from which “entrepreneurial” practitioners hoped to benefit
socially and economically in service to wealthy patrons.
49
Entrepreneurial alchemists and
metallurgists involved themselves in commercial and political worlds, and played an important
role in early modern Europe’s economy and the process of state formation. From the mid-fifteenth
century, as historians Tara Nummedal and Pamela O. Long have shown, alchemy and its kindred
art of metallurgy became a business of the state, which appealed to princely patrons because it
reinforced their own political and economic agendas, and had the potential to generate substantial
royal revenues. Innovations in the technologies to exploit mineral resources induced princes to
assert their regalian rights against free miners and subjects, and gave them the resources for war
and state-building; in addition, improved techniques for assaying assured the integrity of a prince’s
currency, while new methods for casting artillery strengthened their military might. Long argued
that these ventures required cooperation between a range of individuals including princes, nobles,
gentlemen, scholars, merchants, and practitioners, a partnership facilitated by the publication of
treatises where the empirical and theoretical merged to justify the reputability of mineralogical
enterprises to potential patrons. Alchemy and metallurgy correlated the manipulation and mastery
of the natural world with control of the human world, and they provided the collaborative
connections and language for promoting novel projects, such as commercial and colonial
enterprise.
50
If the alleged superiority of English technology and the ability to master nature and

49
Nummedal, Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire, 10.
50
In this period, scholar (or expert) and practitioner were not discrete categories, and neither was investor/patron
and practitioner/expert. Pamela O. Long, Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of
Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore: John Hopkins University, 2003), 175-176; Nummedal, 73-
95.
xxii

their own bodies played a critical role in defining Indians as subordinate, as Joyce Chaplin has
argued, then alchemy was a logical source of practical and ideological support for such a
worldview.
51
A focus on mineral enterprise thus allows for a more thorough consideration of
alchemy’s influence on colonization in the Americas.
Under pressure to cultivate new sources of precious metals, European alchemists and
metallurgists drew on a shared reservoir of knowledge and experience to develop the technology
needed to deep-mine ore and increase the quality and yield of refined metals. The enlarged scale
of mineral works facilitated the growth of joint-stock companies to fund and manage these long-
term, risky enterprises—lessons that could be applied to colonial mining ventures. As historian
Pamela H. Smith noted, the distinction between alchemist and metallurgist was fuzzy, and
demonstrations of alchemical transmutation accorded the practitioner the status of an expert on
minerals and metals, which could be profitably employed in mining operations even if the
individual lacked specific experience with mines. This point is significant for understanding why
investors granted alchemists credibility as advisors and skilled personnel in English colonial
projects.
52
The English Crown and patrons were not any more credulous about the practical
possibilities for alchemical transmutation to augment the realm’s supply of metals and wealth than
were their peers in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain; the efficacy of alchemy was little doubted,
even if the risk of fraud by charlatans was a recognized and frequent occurrence.
Alchemy was not just craft knowledge; it was a philosophy about man’s relationship to the
natural world and the divine. This philosophical dimension played a crucial role in validating the

51
Chaplin noticed the influence of alchemy in the third phase of colonization (1640-1676), but makes only
passing references to it in regards to John Dee and Richard Eden, keeping it within the larger category of natural
philosophy. Chaplin, Subject Matter, 13-23, 230-231.
52
Pamela H. Smith, The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1994), 182.
xxiii

claims of metallurgists, miners, and their patrons that their work was not a corrupt or greedy
commerce, but a social necessity. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century the pursuit of
wealth, especially precious metals, reignited ancient fears about the deleterious effects of mining
and the profit motive. In a tradition that stretched from classical writers, mining was deemed
useless at best and, at worst, the source of corruption and man’s fall from a pacific and bounteous
Golden Age into the bestial Iron Age. But in the sixteenth century, defenses of mining by Saxon
metallurgist Georgius Agricola and Siennese metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio posited that
mining was necessary to sustain civilized life and served the common good.
53
Vindications of
metallurgy as a noble art worthy of honorable men’s efforts laid a framework for reforming English
attitudes toward navigation and overseas commerce.
A perennial problem for speculative enterprise was raising enough capital to undertake a
venture. Promoters therefore needed a language with which to attract substantial investors, and
alchemy offered philosophical justifications for speculative enterprises as advancing man’s
understanding of the divine mysteries of nature, for ameliorating the social disorders of the realm,
and as a tool of providence wherein in Englishmen could act as catalysts to usher in the final age
of history—the Kingdom of God. Historian Bruce Janacek recently suggested that for many
alchemists, Christianity and social reform were at the center of their philosophy. They believed
that the fall had not just corrupted man’s nature, but had corrupted the natural world: “Animals
that had been docile became wild, the soil became unyielding, and mountains and valleys appeared
in place of fertile plains.” Through alchemy and the philosopher’s stone, man would “redeem
‘corrupted’ matter” and transform the natural world back into its pure state of prelapsarian

53
Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica: Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556, trans. Herbert Clark
Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (New York: Dover, 1950), 14-19; Biringuccio, The Pirotechnia, 21-22.
xxiv

harmony.
54
In this way, alchemical philosophy could justify educating and training Englishmen in
navigational and metallurgical arts in order to prepare them for exploration, it could rationalize the
profit motive as a common good, and it could serve both Anglican and orthodox Calvinist politico-
religious aims.
Recently, scholars have started to examine alchemical philosophy in the discourse on
westward expansion. Literary scholar Ralph Bauer argued that alchemy amalgamated mercantile
and aristocratic values, thus uniting the two parties upon whom successful New World ventures
depended. Bauer wrote: “it would be a mistake … to dismiss the language of Occult Philosophy
in this literature as mere European fantasies rationalizing material plunder and economic gain.”
55

Literary scholar Edmund Valentine Campos demonstrated how Richard Eden deployed the
alchemical trope of the uncertainty of gain to separate greed from the pursuit of mineral wealth in
his promotion of an English New World empire.
56
Historian David Harris Sacks analyzed Richard
Hakluyt’s references to Salomon’s voyages to Ophir as a way to grant English colonization
projects in the New World an eschatological importance akin to the erection of a new Holy
Temple.
57
In a discussion of the origins of a cornucopian ideology in the promotional literature,
historian Fredrik Albritton Jonsson found its roots in alchemy and natural theology. Sir Francis
Bacon, he said, looked to overcome the conditions of ecological and spiritual dearth occasioned
by the Fall with industry and expertise to bring forth America’s abundance.
58

54
Bruce Janacek, Alchemical Belief: Occultism in the Religious Culture of Early Modern England
(Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), 3.
55
Ralph Bauer, “A New World of Secrets: Occult Philosophy and Local Knowledge in the Sixteenth-Century
Atlantic,” in Science and Empire in the Atlantic World, edited by James Delbourgo and Nicholas Dew (New York;
London: Routledge, 2008), 102.
56
Campos, “West of Eden,” 247–269.
57
David Harris Sacks, “Rebuilding Solomon’s Temple: Richard Hakluyt’s Great Instauration,” in New Worlds
Reflected: Travel and Utopia in the Early Modern Period, edited by Chloë Houston (Farnham; Burlington, VT:
Ashgate, 2010), 19.
58
Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, “The Origins of Cornucopianism: A Preliminary Genealogy,” Critical Historical
Studies 1, no.1 (Spring 2014), 151-168.
xxv

These preliminary investigations of print sources suggest that alchemy, together with
humanism and Protestantism, played an important ideological role in maintaining interest in the
New World until England gained a permanent foothold in North America at Jamestown.
59
What
they do not do—and what this dissertation seeks to do—is demonstrate alchemy’s practical
influence on the conception of sustainable settlements, or the technical preparation it offered
adventurers for overseas enterprise. With its emphasis on distillation, assaying, and using art to
perfect nature in husbandry, viticulture, and sericulture (among others), alchemy offered the
technical and practical preparation for a long development of mining and colonization dotted with
failure. Just as the promotional literature invoked the union of intellect and experience as the
highest form of knowledge—and one embodied in the art of alchemy—this dissertation examines
both the intellectual and mechanical applications of alchemy to overseas ventures.
~
The structure of this dissertation follows a general chronological pattern, beginning with
Martin Frobisher’s voyages in 1576-78 and ending with the dissolution of the Virginia Company
in 1624, but with significant temporal overlaps. To hone in on the different issues metals were
thought to address—political economy, the balance of trade, defense, and replacement industries—
each chapter is presented episodically and emphasizes a single metal (gold, silver, copper, and
iron). This organization highlights the internal logic of each project: what drew organizers and
investors to one project instead of another, what projects shared with each other, and how they
differed. Even as colonization proceeded as part of a national project that shared an ideological

59
For the influence of civic humanism on the justification literature and colonial ideology, see Andrew
Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America: An Intellectual History of English Colonisation, 1500–1625 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003); on parallel religious discourses in the Spanish and English empires, see Jorge
Cañizares-Esguerra, Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550-1700 (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 2006).

xxvi

framework and drew from previous experiences (good or ill) to guide them, each venture had its
own set of pressing concerns determined by the planners at a given moment in time. This subjective
context not only disrupts the routine association of mining with plunder but brings out the
contingent and discontinuous character of the initial phase of colonization. Progress toward
permanent settlements was not linear, but zigged and zagged, and Virginia’s longevity was far
from evident in 1624.
Chapter 1 provides a context to understand the political, social, and economic motives for
colonization and to establish the alchemical influences on these enterprises. In the historiography
John Dee’s occult activities are often hived off from his participation in colonial ventures and
Richard Eden has been called an “eccentric” whose alchemical views of empire were unusual.
60

However, they shared their outlook with many of their contemporaries, including Sir Thomas
Smith, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Walter Ralegh. Alchemy was
the science of sublunary matter, its origins, generation, and physical transformation. Now
associated primarily with chrysopoeia (transmutation of gold), alchemy was the basis for
metallurgy and iatrochemistry, a branch of medicine concerned with distilling chemical remedies,
and had applications in a variety of arts including viticulture, sericulture, dyeing, and husbandry.
Though not taught in the universities as either natural philosophy or a cosmographical art,
alchemy, as English alchemists like Roger Bacon, Robert Recorde, and Dee argued, transcended
disciplinary boundaries as part of a universal science; additionally, they found in mathematics a
mechanical study that ideally expressed alchemy’s ability to decode nature. The embrace of the
theoretical and mechanical in alchemy made it an apt partner to promote reforms in the art of

60
William H. Sherman, John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance (Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press, 1995) 148-200. Glyn Parry recently argued that Dee’s occult philosophy was
central to his imperial writings. Glyn Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of England: John Dee (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2011), 94-113.
xxvii

navigation, and in England alchemists like Recorde and Dee were among the first promoters of
mathematical astronavigation. Alchemy therefore offered a bridge between mining and navigation
and provided a rich language to promote Atlantic enterprises.
Fresh off successes in the mining industry and concerned that a northeast passage to Asia was
no longer viable, a consortium of investors involved in both the Muscovy Company and the two
mining monopolies commissioned Martin Frobisher to open a northwest passage in 1576. The
discovery of allegedly auriferous black ore ignited a gold rush and England’s first attempt at a
colony in North America. In chapters 2 and 3 I show a significant decline in investment by
experienced mineral men after the first voyage as they became skeptical of the assay results
presented by the Cathay Company’s experts. Much of the new investment were friends and family
of chief financier Michael Lok, and thus resembled an escalation event to recover sunk costs more
than the grip of gold fever. Using metallurgical and alchemical treatises to evaluate why investors
accepted or rejected the specific claims made by the experts, in spite of evidence of deliberate
deception and incompetence,

I conclude that the relentless pressure placed on the metallurgists to
produce results to justify new voyages and to compete against each other created the conditions
for fraud.
61
As the venture unraveled, Chapter 4 shows how alchemical philosophy buttressed an
ideology emphasizing England’s special election to find North America’s interior riches, but only
if the adventurers committed to the uncertainty, dangers, and toils attendant upon these missions,
and looked to reveal God’s heavenly treasures to the occluded eyes of Native Americans.

61
For information about the metallurgical tests done in Nunavut and in England, see D. D. Hogarth, P. W.
Boreham, and J. G. Mitchell, Martin Frobisher’s Northwest Venture, 1576-1581: Mines, Minerals, & Metallurgy
(Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization 1994); Georges Beaudoin and Réginald Auger, “Implications of the
Mineralogy and Chemical Composition of Lead Beads from Frobisher’s Assay Site, Kodlunarn Island, Canada:
Prelude to Bre-X?” Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 41, no. 6 (June 2004), 669 – 681. To evaluate the metallurgical
claims made by the experts, I refer to Agricola, De Re Metallica; Birunguccio, The Pirotechnia, and Lazarus Ercker,
Lazarus Ercker’s Treatise on Ores and Assaying Translated from the German Edition of 1580, trans. Anneliese
Grünhaldt Sisco and Cyril Stanley Smith (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951).
xxviii

Ultimately, the failure of the Cathay Company did not delegitimize or discourage the pursuit of
mineral riches, even if it did make the Crown wary of investing anything more than royal ships in
subsequent ventures.
A number of projectors took advantage of the notoriety of Frobisher’s discovery to organize
their own ventures, including Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who proposed a colony in Norumbega
(modern New England). In chapter 5, I draw on recent work by Carl Wennerlind on alchemy and
the concept of credit as a launching point to reconsider Captain Edward Hayes’s ideas about
political economy and colonization.
62
Chiefly remembered as the chronicler of Gilbert’s 1583
voyage, Hayes was a projector of colonial and coinage schemes in his own right. Galvanized by
socioeconomic crises, Hayes found in alchemy a means of conceptualizing currency as the
lifeblood of a circulatory economy, while metallurgy offered him a technical basis to realize his
vision.

Hayes’s projects for colonization in North America and coinage reforms in Ireland and
England offered metallic medicines for the social and economic ills of debasement, which
poisoned the body politic and interrupted England’s telos toward perfection and plenty. In
justifying his proposals as a public good, Hayes treated mining and metallurgy as important tools
of conquest that went hand-in-hand with colonization and the civilizing mission, whether in North
America or Ireland. Hayes’s efforts demonstrate the importance of monetary reforms in motivating
the pursuit of precious metals in overseas trade and colonization.
Perhaps no voyage best fits the stereotype of greedy adventurers seeking quick riches in the
Americas than Sir Walter Ralegh’s quest for El Dorado in Guiana. Ralegh’s metaphorical
ravishment of Guiana’s maidenhead has received considerable scholarly attention as a phantasm,
but Chapter 6 demonstrates that his venture did not languish because Guiana gold was a myth.

62
Wennerlind, Casualties of Credit.
xxix

Encountering a metallurgically-sophisticated society with a vigorous trade in gold-copper alloy
objects called guanín, Ralegh envisioned conquering Guiana by monopolizing these indigenous
networks. He foresaw Anglo-Guianese relations facilitated by an exchange of metallurgy—English
iron and copper smelting for Guianese gold smelting—and the exchange of European guanín
(bells, hatchets, knives, looking glasses) for their food or labor. Lacking experience in prospecting,
Ralegh returned to England with ore samples that yielded inconsistent results reminiscent of the
Frobisher debacle. I argue that Ralegh’s mining-garrison colony in Guiana never materialized
because he relied too heavily on alchemical metaphors to obscure the uncertainties of the
metallurgical results, which unintentionally subverted the practical, if paltry, evidence for gold
mines, and his complete disregard of Guiana’s commercial resources like tobacco and mahogany
to yield more immediate profits. Promises of indigenous labor and initial cargoes of wrought metal
goods to repay investors while they waited for mines to become profitable could not convince
major investors or the Crown that Guiana was worth the risk of colonizing.
Even before an imprisoned Ralegh whiled away his time in alchemical experiments he had
rectified his earlier lack of metallurgical knowledge and transformed himself into an expert on
metals. His ability to speak credibly about Guiana’s mineral resources and produce new assay
results proving the presence of gold convinced King James to grant him a conditional pardon for
a second voyage to Guiana in 1617-18. Yet it was not just Ralegh’s newfound expertise that
explains the Crown’s authorization of a venture that some scholars have called an “aberration” and
an “anachronism” when compared with the colonial endeavors in Virginia, Newfoundland,
Bermuda, and New England.
63
If political economy helped explain Captain Hayes’s success with
his recoinage scheme in Ireland, a similar logic underpinned the Guiana ventures of the Jacobean

63
Quinn and Ryan, 164; Joyce Lorimer, “The Failure of the English Guiana Ventures 1595-1667 and James I's
Foreign Policy,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21, no. 1, (1993), 6.
xxx

period. Chapter 7 maps the projects of Charles Leigh (1604), Robert Harcourt (1609-13), Sir
Thomas Roe (1610), and Ralegh against alterations in England’s bimetallic ratio, which the Crown
used to draw gold into England to create the King’s much-vaunted perpetual stock of gold. These
monetary policies resulted in the massive efflux of silver, depressing the English economy even
before Sir William Cockayne wrecked the cloth industry after 1614. In chapter 5, I argue that
monetary pressures, coupled with a desire to gain leverage in his negotiations with Spain,
convinced the King to overcome his distrust of Ralegh and risk war with Spain to approve a new
expedition to Guiana.
The final three chapters focus on Virginia, the site of England’s first permanent settlement
beyond the British archipelago. Scholars have dismissed the search for American mines as the
fantasy of work-shy, grasping colonists, which detracted from more serious and sustainable
agricultural efforts.
64
Recently, historians Karen Kupperman, Allison Games, and James Horn
have offered thoughtful amendments to this narrative, recognizing that climate, disease and
malnourishment, unstable Anglo-Indian relations, and the difficulty for gentlemen, artisans and
mineral men to transfer their skills to husbandry as mitigating factors in the colony’s turbulent
early history.
65
Certainly, investors in the Virginia Company hoped to discover precious metals,
but the search for mines included base metals and minerals to fill gaps in the English economy. In
addition, the Virginia Company anticipated that these new colonial industries would provide an
outlet for an underemployed and land-starved populace, as Richard Hakluyt had long advocated.
The importance of base metals in the Virginia enterprise most clearly demonstrates the inadequacy

64
J.H. Elliot, “The Iberian Atlantic and Virginia,” in The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624, 551-552;
Morgan, “Virginia’s Other Prototype,” 359.
65
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, The Jamestown Project (Cambridge, MA: The Belknapp Press of Harvard
University Press, 2007); Games, The Web of Empire, 117-146; James Horn, A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and
the Birth of America (New York: Basic Books, 2008).
xxxi

of the conflation of mining with plunder as a heuristic device to describe the pursuit of minerals in
the Americas.
The main argument of these chapters is that at key points in the development of the Virginia
colony, metals intervened—for better or worse—to influence subsequent developments.
Borrowing an approach from material culture, I treat metals as having limited agency to mediate
events and shape outcomes.
66
English and Indians endowed metals with culturally-specific
meanings and values about how they should function, which they assumed was more or less self-
evident to those they interacted with. This was a significant source of mutual misunderstanding in
the colony’s early decades. Whether traded as a currency with an agreed-upon value or as a
talisman of political or spiritual power, metals were supposed to do something, and historians can
learn much about the breakdown of Anglo-Indian relations from their failure to behave as
expected.
Between 1584 and 1624, metals helped determine the colony’s course. Initially, French,
Spanish, and Indian rumors of an Appalachian El Dorado spurred Ralegh’s interest in the mid-
Atlantic coast for an English colony and sustained interest in the Chesapeake in the intervening
two decades after the Roanoke colony disappeared.
67
Precious metals likewise attracted investors
to the Virginia Company, but with Thomas Harriot’s intelligence about an indigenous copper
economy, they concentrated on locating copper deposits and a quality source of calamine stone to
make brass, and therefore prevent the collapse of the English copper industry. The scrap copper
provided by the Mines Royal proved both a means to establish harmonious relations with the

66
Frank Trentmann, “Materiality in the Future of History: Things, Practices, and Politics,” Journal of British
Studies 48, no. 2 (April 2009), 283-307.
67
Thank you to Kimberly C. Borchard for sharing her unpublished work on an Appalachian El Dorado with me.
Kimberly C. Borchard, “Appalachia as a Contested Borderland of the Early Modern Atlantic, 1528-1682,” West
Virginia History (forthcoming Fall 2017); Kimberly C. Borchard, “From Perú to Appalachia: Amazons, El Dorado,
and the Improbable Mythology of the Virginia State Seal,” Laberinto 7 (2014), 91-118.
xxxii

Powhatan and to unravel them a few years later, after unrestricted English trade devastated the
local copper economy.
68
With the colony on the precipice of disaster, Virginia’s deposits of bog
iron attracted a new wave of investment in the company in 1609 and, more consequentially, in
1617-19, as English ironmasters turned to North America to salvage their industry.
69
The
construction of a blast furnace at Falling Creek, deep in Powhatan territory, initially stood as a
beacon of the Virginia Company’s future success, but ultimately doomed it. In 1622 the Indians
destroyed the ironworks as symbolic retribution for the obliteration of their economy, their native
identities, and their lands; the company’s inability to rebuild the works prompted the Crown to
initiate quo warranto proceedings against the Virginia Company for gross mismanagement. After
a review of company records, the Crown revoked the Virginia Company’s charter in 1624.
Concluding this dissertation with the Virginia Company’s demise is neither intended to
suggest that English adventurers relinquished their dreams for colonial mineral enterprises nor that
the rationales for seeking minerals substantially changed thereafter. It was still by no means
obvious that commercial agriculture would define the trajectory of the British Atlantic and
adventurers continued to pursue mines, albeit with expectations tempered by hard-won experience;
what had become clear after a half century of experimentation was that they had put the proverbial
cart before the horse by attempting industrial development before colonies had a stable foundation
and the capital and labor to support them. While the first colonial projectors found it difficult to
attract yeomen, artisans, and laborers to assume the high risks of settlement for marginally better
rewards than awaited them in England, the religious, political, and economic difficulties of Charles
I’s reign led to an influx of settlers that finally allowed the colonies to clear the hurdle of

68
Carter C. Hudgins, “Old World Industries and New World Hope: The Industrial Role of Scrap Copper at
Jamestown,” The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 2 (January 2004)
69
Keith Pluymers, “Atlantic Iron: Wood Scarcity and the Political Ecology of Early English Expansion,”
The William and Mary Quarterly 73, no. 3 (July 2016), 389–426.
xxxiii

sustainability, and laid a framework for small-scale mineral works to supply the burgeoning
colonial market.
70
There were halting efforts at large-scale ironworks in Massachusetts in the
1640s, but the availability of cheap metal imports suppressed the development of British American
iron and copper industries until the early eighteenth century; the discovery of precious metals came
only after the 1790s and supplied the mint of the fledgling American republic.
71

The story of mineral exploration in the first phase of English colonization is primarily one of
disappointment and false-starts, but they were fortuitous failures. At the time the English embarked
on colonization, the Spanish cast an intimidating shadow across Europe and financed their imperial
ambitions with American silver and gold, and it was tempting to emulate them. However, Spanish
success in the Americas came at the steep cost of stifling the development of intensive agriculture,
manufactures, and a munitions industry at home.
72
The cumulative effects of this under-
development began to manifest at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Political economists
like Martín González de Cellorigo bemoaned Spain’s neglect of its export trade for American
mines:
Our Spain had its eye so much on the trade with the Indies, from whence come its gold and silver, that it has
abandoned commerce with neighboring kingdoms, and if all the gold and silver that Spaniards have found in the

70
Between 1630 and 1640, the colonial population of New England, the Chesapeake, and the Caribbean grew
by about five times due to the migration of about eighty thousand English, Irish, and Scottish. It grew another fifty-
five percent by 1650. Alison Games, Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1999), 4.
71
Mulholland, 37-73. In the second half of the eighteenth century, North America was the third largest producer
of raw iron, surpassing both England and Wales. The rapid expansion of colonial ironworks led to the Iron Acts in
1750 to require all American iron to be stamped to avoid customs impositions but it also prohibited the erection of
any new mills to manufacture iron or steel wares and compete against British manufactures. This added to a growing
list of grievances against the Crown prior to the American Revolution. John Bezis-Selfa, Forging America:
Ironworkers, Adventurers and the Industrious Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004), 8-17.
72
Goodman, Power and Penury, 109-112, 114-115; Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H Stein, Silver, Trade, and
War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press,
2000).
xxxiv

New World and continue to discover were to fill the country, Spain would not be as rich and powerful as it would
be without them.
73

In the sixteenth century, the Spanish had exported wool, salt, cochineal, iron, oil, leather, hides,
alum, codfish, wine, and sugar and was self-sufficient for corn and rice; by 1620, they imported
grains, sugar, iron, alum, leather, woolens, and lost their access to the Newfoundland fisheries.
74

Had the English found their own mines of precious metals, Britain’s economic growth may
likewise have been retarded. Instead, the inability to find American mines fostered a more robust
carrier and commercial trade, domestic manufacturing, and turned their attention toward India and
the Far East. In the late seventeenth century, it prompted investors to deal with the mining
industry’s technological shortcomings.
Between the 1620s and 1670s, cheap imports of Swedish iron and copper suppressed
investment in improvements that would make English mining less expensive, but the collapse of
the Swedish copper mines in the 1680s caused a resurgence in the domestic industry. Declines in
copper imports spurred innovations in English smelting, which led to the introduction of the
reverberatory furnace using stone coal for fuel; after 1712 the Newcomen steam engine
revolutionized mine drainage, making it possible to exploit deeper ores in abandoned tin and
copper mines. Nuala Zahedieh recently connected the revival of England’s copper industry to
overseas expansion, particularly the rise of sugar plantations and rum mills that depended on
copper and brass stills and tools.
75
The iron industry similarly recovered after the Swedish iron

73
Martín González de Cellorigo, Memorial de la politica necessaria, y util restauracion à la Republica de
España, y estados de ella, y del desempeño universal de estos Reynos (Valladolid, 1600), 15v; translation by Elvira
Vilches, New World Gold: Cultural Anxiety and Monetary Disorder in Early Modern Spain (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2010), 45-46.
74
Mauricio Drelichman, “The Curse of Moctezuma: American Silver and the Dutch Disease,” Explorations in
Economic History 42, no. 3 (July 2005), 354.
75
Nuala Zahedieh, “Colonies, Copper, and the Market for Inventive Activity in England and Wales, 1680-1730,”
The Economic History Review 66, no. 3 (2013), 805-825.
xxxv

industry’s collapse in the 1720s, especially once a method of coking stone coal made it possible to
produce quality iron in the reverberatory furnace.
76
These advances in mining helped transform
the economy toward industrial manufacturing, whose exports supplied Britain with the precious
metals they needed for trade, war, and capital. The lack of mines in the colonies meant fewer
distractions from land- and labor-intensive economic activities, such as tobacco, cotton, rice, and
sugar production, which were then exported to Britain.
77

76
The reverberatory furnace was described in Pirotechnia (Venice, 1541) by Vannoccio Biringuccio, and first
mentioned in English by John Rovenzon in 1613. Though Dud Dudley found a method of smelting iron with coal in
a reverberatory furnace, the resulting low-grade iron was undesirable to English ironmongers. Experiments to produce
high-grade metals with coal and the reverberatory furnace resumed in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, with
the greatest strides made in smelting copper. Until a process of coking stone coal was perfected, it would not be used
in iron smelting and only became common in the second half of the eighteenth century. Bezis-Selfa, Forging America,
17; Mulholland, 62-66.
77
Kenneth Pomeranz has argued that the “great divergence” of the British economy toward industrialization was
access to vast coal deposits in proximity to population centers, the steam engine, and colonies to export English
manufactures and import commodities for re-export. Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and
the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 31-68.

1

CHAPTER 1
ALCHEMY, METALLURGY, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF EMPIRE
INTRODUCTION
After a half century of sporadic interest in westward enterprise under Henry VII and Henry
VIII, a steep depression in England’s cloth industry in 1551-52 and subsequent cycles of economic
growth, recession, and stagnation in the second half of the sixteenth century finally brought
sustained enthusiasm among a small group of gentlemen, merchants, and Crown officials in
overseas ventures.
1
The causes of the cloth trade’s volatility are many—monetary debasement, a
European-wide move toward domestic cloth manufacture to replace foreign imports, and Spain’s
and Portugal’s periodic embargos of English shipping at Antwerp and the Iberian entrepôts—but
the result was that some English merchants decided to find more direct routes to Asia and Africa,
where they could exchange woolens for spices, precious metals, gems and other commodities at
lower prices than could be arranged through continental middlemen. Europe remained their
primary market, but English merchants hoped to reduce their dependence upon Antwerp and
invigorate their re-export trade and domestic manufacturing with the luxury goods they obtained
outside of Europe.
2
Expanding English shipping would demand reforms in the art of navigation,
the construction of new shipyards, and a new monetary policy to increase both the Crown’s and
merchant’s credit with European financiers.

1
Loades, England’s Maritime Empire; Brenner, Merchants and Revolution; Quinn, and Ryan, England’s Sea
Empire, 1550-1642; Nicholas Canny, ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. 1: The Origins of Empire:
British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 3-4, 34 .
2
J.D. Gould, The Great Debasement: Currency and the Economy in Mid-Tudor England, (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1970), 9; Brenner, 8; Quinn, and Ryan, xi-xii.

2

Spices were certainly attractive to English adventurers, but in the half-century lag between the
Iberian discovery of new routes to the East as a means of circumventing Muslim and Italian
monopolies over the spice trade in the Mediterranean, the price of entering Asian markets had risen
steeply; if England discovered the Northwest Passage then they would need silver bullion to
exchange as an arbitrage commodity for spices, silks, pearls, and gold.
3
Moreover, trade was only
one facet pushing English explorers to seek riskier, unknown westward routes. In the crucible of
monetary debasement and inflation, Spain’s imperial expansion in Europe (paid for with American
gold and silver), and growing threats to the newly-Protestant English Crown from Catholic states,
the possibility of discovering precious metals in the Americas and Far East in addition to spices
made the dangers worthwhile if it meant protecting English trade, security, and religious reforms.
Lacking native mines of gold and silver, England looked abroad to satisfy the demand for bullion.
Egged on by tales of the East and West Indies’ fabulous wealth, English investors consciously
imitated Spain’s American empire as a model for ventures in the Atlantic.
This chapter considers how England’s changing economy interacted with an expanding
mental landscape that encompassed the globe, and gave Englishmen the confidence to embark on
Atlantic voyages. Printed narratives and English merchants returned from Iberian and other
continental ports spoke about the vast riches Spain brought back from the Americas and offered
lessons for their own ventures. The Spanish experience in the Americas furnished England with
precedents for exploiting the region’s mineral riches, whether plundering rich indigenous
kingdoms like the conquistadors, or requisitioning tributes and native labor in the mines like the

3
Paul Freedman noted that while improved ships, navigational techniques, and geographical knowledge were
necessary for transoceanic ventures, the willingness to engage in these high-risk ventures to the East made no sense
without speculation that spices, gems, and precious metals existed there in great abundance, could be obtained
cheaply, and that they would realize more than modest profits from their sale in Europe. Paul Freedman, “Spices and
Late-Medieval European Ideas of Scarcity and Value,” Speculum 80, no. 4 (October 2005), 1213, 1221. On the
importance of spices to English exploration for the Northwest Passage, see, Peter C. Mancall, Fatal Journey: The
Final Expedition of Henry Hudson (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 19-39.

3

encomenderos, or—more likely—a little bit of this and a little bit of that. As England’s
navigational and metallurgical capabilities changed in response to the mid-century trade problems
and debasement, alchemy offered practical and ideological support to would-be Atlantic
adventurers. Alchemists were at the forefront of a public campaign to elevate the reputation of
mathematics and position it as an essential proficiency for all learned men and artisans. The
mathematical textbooks published by Robert Recorde showed that there was an audience for
technical handbooks, and by the 1570s navigation guides appeared in print. With its emphasis on
joining learning with skill, alchemy conditioned gentlemen to regard mechanical arts as suitable
pursuits for men of breeding and public service as honorable and obligatory. Alchemy, and the
metallurgical treatises that defended mining as indispensable to civilized life, likewise aided in
recasting the pursuit of profit as a public good and contact with foreign peoples as part of God’s
providential plan for England.

ADVANCING ENGLISH METALLURGY
Between 1460 and 1530, continental Europe experienced a mineral rush as the demand for
metals to convert into specie and arms outstripped the supply of ore in surface veins.
4
The
extraction of precious metal from ore necessitated engines for ventilating shafts and removing
water and ore from deeper mines, as well as new methods of smelting and refining. This led to the
creation of animal- and water-powered stamp mills and larger blast furnaces that could reach
higher temperatures. German metallurgists introduced the use of lead to the smelting process to
separate silver from molten copper and innovated in the use of joint-stock companies to fund and
manage mines, just as the English would do with the similarly capital- and labor-intensive overseas

4
Pamela O. Long, “The Openness of Knowledge: An Ideal and Its Context in 16th-Century Writings on Mining
and Metallurgy,” Technology and Culture 32, no. 2 (April 1991), 324.

4

ventures.
5
By the 1550s, speculation from German investors quickly exhausted rich mineral veins,
the supply of lead from England to central Europe to supply the silver mines had dried up, and the
influx of American bullion depreciated the value of local gold and silver, collapsing the silver
industry. This left metallurgists to search for new patrons in Europe and the Spanish Americas, an
opportunity English investors exploited to close the technological gaps in the iron, copper, silver,
and gold industries.
6

While the tin industry had used stamp mills to improve the yield from ore veins since about
1493, mine proprietors in the West Country took advantage of the relative decline in opportunities
for German metallurgists on the continent to bring them to England and train English miners in
deep-mining for copper, iron, silver, and calamine.
7
Burchard Kranich, future expert for the Cathay
Company, was one of these new arrivals. Only a decade earlier, England’s iron industry had
benefitted from the introduction of the blast furnace by French and Flemish ironworkers employed
by Sir Henry Sidney, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Sir Thomas Gresham, among many
others; in 1565, Sir Henry Sidney started transporting German experts to his steelworks in
Glamorgan, Wales.
8
English investors were aided in their projects by Queen Elizabeth’s
willingness to support the introduction of new methods and technology with grants of denization
to foreign metallurgists, along with monopoly licenses.
The Crown benefitted from the availability of foreign metallurgists to reform English money
and discover royal mines. At Sir Thomas Gresham’s recommendation, in 1560 the Crown hired

5
Eric H. Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise in Elizabethan England (Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press, 2004), 28.
6
Long, “The Openness of Knowledge,” 341; Blanchard, “English Lead and the International Bullion Crisis of
the 1550s,” 21, 27-28.
7
Roger Burt, “The International Diffusion of Technology in the Early Modern Period: The Case of the British
Non-Ferrous Mining Industry,” The Economic History Review 44, New Series, no. 2 (May 1991), 259-260.
8
Rees, Industry Before the Industrial Revolution, 1: 204, 279. Royal Historical Society, Sidney Ironworks
Accounts, 1541-1573, 34.

5

metallurgists Daniel Ulstat, Johannes Loner, and Sebastian Speydell to remint embased coins using
liquation to separate the silver from the copper alloy. After the completion of the recoinage, they
remained in England as partners in a new company to open royal mines, which became the
Company of Mines Royal in 1568; that same year Jonas Schutz and mint assayer William Humfrey
chartered their own company for wire and battery works, the Company of Mineral and Battery
Works. To maintain the high standard of English coinage, the Queen funded the alchemical
experiments of Cornelius de Lannoy to transmute gold between 1565 and 1567. For the Queen,
deep mining not only promised to enrich her treasury, but also offered a solution to England’s
currency problem—whether through the discovery of precious metals or the transmutation of
England’s abundant lead, tin, and iron deposits into silver and gold.
9

The debasement of English coin traced back into the fourteenth century, when alchemists’
used their skills to ‘double gold’ for princes and noble patrons. This process of mixing gold with
other substances, like silver or copper, helped princes and local magnates expand their monetary
supply so they could extend their political and territorial influence. Although alchemical processes
debased English coin, it nevertheless became an important element of the Crown’s economic
policies under Edward III, Henry IV, and Henry VII. While alchemists gained legitimacy and
status in Europe’s courts, their influence earned them condemnation as charlatans and
necromancers from the Catholic Church, who felt threatened by the encroachment of secular
princes on the Church’s territorial and political power.
10
Despite these earlier debasements, it was
the clipping and corruption of coins under Henry VIII and Edward VI that proved the greatest

9
James W. Scott, “Technological and Economic Changes in the Metalliferous Mining and Smelting Industries
of Tudor England,” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 4, no. 2 (Summer 1972), 94-95;
Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 47-49; Harkness, The Jewel House, 170. Lannoy promised to transmute 50,000 marks
each year. Cornelius de Lannoy, “Cornelius de Lannoy to the Queen,” The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA),
SP 12/36, fols. 25-26 (9 February 1565).
10
Bruce T. Moran, Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution, (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2005), 31-33.

6

threat to English currency, and generated points of friction between the Crown and its subjects
well into the seventeenth century. In 1549, Hugh Latimer cited the prophet Esau to rail against
debased coins as seditious counterfeits that “tended to the hurte of the pore people, for the
noughtynes of the sylver was the occasyon of dearth of all thynges in the Realme.”
11
The fault for
England’s base coinage was not assigned to the young King Edward VI, but to his councilors. At
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset’s removal as Lord Protector, his opponents claimed that he
“commanded Alchimie, and multiplication to be practised, thereby to abase the Kings coine.”
12

Debasement was thus linked to political and social tumults of the period.
The initial debasements of English coins coincided with the dissolution of the monasteries,
and became bound up in the religious commotions of the period, as Catholics and Protestants
labeled each other counterfeit Christians.
13
In 1556 exiled Protestant polemicist John Ponet, the
former bishop of Winchester, accused Queen Mary and King Philip of robbing the people through
debasement “turning the substaunce from golde to copper, from silver to worse then pewter, and
advaunceing and diminishig the price at their pleasure.” Ponet justified rebellion against Mary by
associating her attempt to re-impose a false church with her continuation of the debasement
policies.
14
The 1611 translator’s preface to King James’ first authorized bible for the Church of
England explicitly compared it to fine gold coins, which no person would fear subjecting to the
touchstone or merchant’s weights for “the same will shine as gold more brightly, being rubbed and

11
Hugh Latimer, The seconde [seventh] sermon of Maister Hughe Latimer which he preached before the Kynges
Maiestie (London, 1549), G1v-G2v.
12
Sir John Hayward, The life, and raigne of King Edward the Sixt (London, 1630), 98-99.
13
Glyn Davies, History of Money, 3
rd
Edition (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2010), 200; M.B. Donald,
Elizabethan Monopolies: The History of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works from 1565 to 1604 (Edinburgh;
London: Oliver and Boyd, 1961), 25.
14
Ponet excused Edward VI as a child beholden to “cruell Counsailours” and blamed Stephen Gardiner, the late
Lord Chancellor, for Henry VIII’s initial debasement policies. Under Mary, the mint did not further debase the coinage
but did not call up the old coins and emit a purer coin either. John Ponet, A shorte treatise on politike power and of
the true obedience which subjectes owe to kynges and other civile gouernours ([Strasbourg], 1556), F2r-F3r.

7

polished.” Indeed, if the philosopher’s stone, a medicinal Catholicon, and Vulcan’s armor gave the
body eternal life, then the Scripture of England’s Protestant church was their spiritual equivalent.
15

As Jennifer Bishop recently showed, currency was a critical medium to represent the monarch’s
public image and sovereignty, so any depreciation in its value suggested a decline in royal
authority, especially when people were reluctant to accept English coins at face value. Rumors of
new debasements likewise fueled seditious plots, like Kett’s Rebellion in 1549.
16
As the Crown
prepared for the Great Recoinage under Queen Elizabeth, mining, alchemy, and soon overseas
voyages offered the best means of purifying and expanding the money supply in the mid-sixteenth
century.
Queen Elizabeth recognized a need to put English currency on a consistent gold and silver
standard to raise England’s commercial reputation in the European market but this required either
access to gold and silver mines in the New World, the plunder of Spanish treasure ships, or the
philosopher’s stone. Principally through William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s patronage and oversight,
the Queen did not confine herself to one remedy but sought solutions wherever success seemed
possible. Among other proposals, Cecil gave precedence to exploration voyages and the
exploitation of mineral resources through mining and alchemy.
17

Amidst the crises of the mid-Tudor period, reformers turned to projecting as a way to bridge
private and public interests in alleviating social ills. The terms project and projection highlight the
association of metallurgy and alchemy with the first era of colonization. In her groundbreaking
work on the transformation of the English economy to reduce imports and increase agricultural
efficiency, Joan Thirsk defined a project as “a practical scheme for exploiting material things …

15
Anonymous, The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, (London, 1611), sig. A4v, A6r-v.
16
Bishop, “Currency, Conversation, and Control,” 766-767, 778.
17
Harkness, The Jewel House, 146.

8

capable of being realized through industry and ingenuity.” In this context, projection described the
act of planning or implementing a diverse range of schemes that included transmutation, mining,
foundry, glassmaking, shipbuilding and navigation, industrial agriculture (e.g. rapeseed, hemp,
flax, and woad), new draperies, and colonization.
18
Along with the social, political, and economic
factors, access to new technologies and to specialized knowledge in print and from experts
supported this era of projects. Eric Ash suggested that innovations in navigational technology
derived from merchants’ desire to open new overseas markets and the availability of skilled
navigators like Sebastian Cabot and Stephen Borough to educate English pilots and introduce new
techniques for transoceanic navigation. Vernacular texts in mathematical astronavigation
contributed to the reform of English navigation. A similar process occurred in mining with the
arrival of skilled metallurgists primarily from Saxony, like Daniel Hechstetter and Jonas Schutz,
in addition to the publication of metallurgical treatises. Expansion of the iron industry directly
contributed to the growth in shipbuilding. Mining also brought capital to colonial enterprises and
experience with the joint-stock structure to raise and maintain sufficient stock to finance ongoing
projects with scheduled repayments in dividends, rather than a liquidation of shares at the
conclusion of discrete activities/voyages.
19

Cartographic projection was an important element in reforming the art of navigation and
encouraging the development of English settlements in the Atlantic world. Cartographers
employed mathematical principles to project the spherical earth on a planar map with greater
accuracy than the portolan and plane charts European navigators had used to reach Africa, Asia,
and the Americas. At a time when interest in westward expansion was gaining momentum in

18
Joan Thirsk, Economic Policy and Projects: The Development of a Consumer Society in Early Modern
England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 1, 24-77.
19
For a discussion of the importance of experts and texts in reforming the art of navigation in England, see Ash,
Power, Knowledge, and Expertise, 87-185.

9

England, Gerard Mercator’s 1569 publication of the first projection map followed a year later by
Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp, 1570), reassured English pilots,
merchants, and adventurers that the unknown was knowable through human art and industry.
Projection maps rendered transoceanic navigation less daunting and represented the riches of the
New World as within their grasp.
Improvements in cartography had domestic benefits as well, enhancing a landlord’s ability to
exploit their own estates with better surveying techniques. Surveying aided in prospecting for
mines, assessing the local availability of timber for fuel, and locating nearby navigable waterways
to reduce carrying costs, concerns colonial projectors had to address when selecting sites for
overseas settlements. Estate improvement and overseas ventures could be interdependent, with the
profits and experience from one potentially generating capital and skill for the other. Had it been
successful, Sir Walter Ralegh’s 1595 Guiana venture would have supported the ironworks and the
manufacture of pipe staves on his manor in Ireland; conversely, proprietors of mineral works like
Sir William Winter, Sir Richard Martin and the elder and younger Sir Thomas Smythe sought to
expand their enterprises into the Atlantic as conditions for domestic operations became difficult.
Projection maps stimulated efforts to train English mariners in mathematical astronavigation
and coastal surveying, and spurred the experiments of English mathematicians Edward Wright and
Thomas Harriot to find reliable methods of determining magnetic meridians, a precursor to
pinpointing longitude.
20
Maps and the technologies to produce them (magnetic compass, quadrant,
sextant, cross-staff) were not merely tools for successful navigation and charting; they also had an
ideological dimension, particularly when paired with descriptive narratives like John Smith’s 1608

20
For a discussion of portolan charts, plane charts, and the innovations in Mercator’s map projection, see Mark
Monmonier, Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2010), 1-30.

10

map of Virginia (first printed in 1612). Maps encoded geographic assumptions about the symmetry
of hemispheres, the notion that just as there were two southern passages around Africa and South
America there must be two northern passages, and latitudinal determinism, the idea that regions
lying in the same latitude had similar climates, soil qualities, and geologies. These conditioned
English expectations about where they might find minerals, safely inhabit and farm, or locate
passable waterways to reach Asia from the west. More importantly, maps validated English claims
in the New World by right of prior discovery. As such they were powerful promotional materials
to encourage colonial ventures and visualize England’s expansionary agenda. Cartographic
projection, both mental and actual, enabled the English to cast their designs upon domestic spaces
and amplify them into the Atlantic world.
Opening direct trade with far-flung places required relatively less justification and expertise
than settling in strange places already inhabited by others or claimed by other Christian princes.
Alchemy thus offered powerful technical and ideological tools for colonial enterprise. In alchemy,
projection was the final stage of the magnum opus: the transmutation of base matter into a purer
form. In the penultimate stage of the great work, the philosopher’s stone was geometrically
multiplied so that it would have sufficient strength to project or accelerate nature’s ripening
processes. If the stone was not strong enough only a weak transformation would occur. Chiefly
endorsed by Lord Burghley, industrial alchemy projects looked to take advantage of England’s
plentiful supply of tin, lead, and iron and cast them into royal metals (copper, gold, and silver) at
far less cost than could be achieved either by mining or overseas ventures. The Society of the New
Art, for instance, planned to transmute iron into copper to supply the munitions industry and
antimony into silver to back England’s fine sterling currency with a steady stock. The venture fell
apart but it did not deter the Crown from pursuing other transmutation projects. The receptivity of

11

the Crown to alchemical projects encouraged Ralph Rabbards to offer his services to precipitate
the philosopher’s stone and obviate England’s need “to seeke out the Sandes of Ganges” to enrich
the realm.
21
Along with the mining industry these alchemical projects helped to train English
experts to exploit the mineral resources of the New World and a created a reservoir of capital from
willing investors.
22

Though literal alchemical projection proved impossible, it offered a vigorous rhetoric to
promote and rationalize colonization in the Americas as a means of England’s spiritual and social
reform. By casting their bread (money) upon the water, as the biblical phrase goes, and inhabiting
unexplored and unhusbanded lands, Englishmen would multiply their currency with the discovery
of rich mines and other lucrative commodities. Through their travail, the English would transform
from corrupt, fractious, and idle people into a virtuous, orderly, and industrious subjects and usher
in a new golden age of peace and plenty for the kingdom. Protestant alchemy rationalized the
expansion and settlement of the English into new lands for the purposes of resource extraction for
profit, but it also tried to impose moral restraints on what constituted legitimate motives and just
profit. In the face of unremitting failures, which included the Virginia Company despite the
colony’s ultimate permanence, alchemical rhetoric helped salvage the idea of colonization as a
worthwhile endeavor: the fault was not in the projects per se but in the practitioners in whose haste
for returns these enterprises had been weakly projected due to a lack of virtue, inadequate labor,
or insufficient support at home.

21
George Ripley, The compound of alchymy, trans. Ralph Rabbards (London, 1591), *1v.
22
Charles Webster, ed., Health, Medicine, and Mortality in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1979), 303.

12

THE SPANISH MODEL
The conflation of mining with plunder or easy riches emerged directly out of the promotional
writings of the period and was cemented in the public imagination by their inclusion in Richard
Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages (London, 1582) and The principal navigations (London, 1589; 1599-
1600). In 1527, Robert Thorne tried to convince Henry VIII that England could emulate Spain and
obtain precious metals in the New World with relative ease. At the time Thorne said this it was
reasonably accurate: until the 1530s, most of the precious metals brought back to Spain were either
plunder or panned from placer mines, a type of mining that required relatively modest effort and
skill compared to mining vein deposits.
23
By pure geological luck, the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas
granted Spain the western portion of the Americas, which contains the American Cordilleras, an
orogenic belt with the highest concentration of metals on Earth.
24
In another stroke of good fortune,
the indigenous inhabitants of Central and South America mined alluvial and surface deposits of
ores and had developed methods of smelting, alloying, casting, and gilding copper, gold, silver,
platinum, and bronze. Since metalworking was primarily to manufacture adornments for religious
purposes and not utilitarian, the Spaniards raided caches of wrought metal objects in the years

23
José de Acosta mentioned the prevalence of placer mining and plunder for gold in the Spanish West Indies.
José de Acosta, The Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies, trans. Edward Grimestone (London,
1604), 213-214. The earliest vein deposits were found at Guanajuato, Mexico in the 1530s, Potosí, Peru (modern
Bolivia) in 1545, Zacatecas, Mexico in 1546, Santa Barbara, Mexico in 1567, and San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 1592.
Kendall W. Brown, A History of Mining in Latin America: From the Colonial Era to the Present, (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 2012), 8. David Goodman has argued that before 1560, the import of precious metals
from the Americas was co-equal to production of peninsular mines. The peak years for American treasure came in the
second half of the sixteenth century, with the highest production of silver in the 1590s, but this also came with
increasingly onerous costs. David C. Goodman, Power and Penury: Government, Technology and Science in Philip
II's Spain, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 151, 172. By 1624 Virginia Company promoter Edward
Waterhouse observed that in the early-seventeenth century Spanish mining operations were being underwritten by
lucrative commercial commodities. Edward Waterhouse, Declaration of the State of the Colony, (London, 1622), 32.
24
Saúl Guerrero, “The History of Silver Refining in New Spain, 16c to 18c: Back to Basics,” History and
Technology 32, no. 1, (2016), 4-5. The process of subduction of tectonic plates to create mountains causes rocks to
undergo metamorphosis, resulting in metal-rich deposits at depths available to mine. The Appalachians are another
orogenic belt that produces precious metals, as is the Variscan orogeny that extends from southwestern Ireland,
through Cornwall, Devon, and Western Europe, to Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains). Other mineral-rich orogenic belts are
found in Spain (Almaden), Norway (Kongsberg), northwest and south Africa, and central Asia.

13

prior to the discovery of rich mines.
25
Spanish looters became aware of indigenous metalworkers’
talent for gilding when they melted down gold objects only to realize they were copper-silver or
copper-gold alloys. Nonetheless, conquering societies with metallurgical skills (the Aztec and
Inca) lessened the labor and capital demands for Spanish entrepreneurs and the German experts
they licensed to oversee operations. Spaniards relied upon native knowledge of local deposits and
the techniques developed to work the mines and refine ores, which not only substantially reduced
or eliminated the uncertainties of prospecting but also decreased the costs associated with initiating
new mineral enterprises.
26

Despite the riches coming out of Spain’s American mines, significant problems emerged in
the 1540s and 1550s: the ban on Indian enslavement and deaths from epidemic diseases had
decreased the workforce; deeper veins became harder to work and refining lower-grade ores with
indigenous methods became less efficient; woodlands became scarce; and the difficulties and
dangers of transporting ore and bullion caused carrying costs to rise. The Privy Council’s
restriction on English lead exports between 1551 and 1554 to raise its price exacerbated these
issues, as Spain relied on English lead to smelt American silver. In 1557, Spain declared

25
On the metallurgical abilities of American metalworkers, see David A. Scott and Warwick Bray, “Ancient
Platinum Technology in South America: Its Use by the Indians in Pre-Hispanic Times,” Platinum Metals Review 24,
no. 4 (1980): 147-157; J.F. Merkel, I. Shimada, C.P. Swann, and R. Doonan, “Pre-Hispanic Copper Alloy Production
at Batán Grande, Peru: Interpretation of the Analytical Data for Ore Samples,” in Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian
Sites and Artifacts, eds. David A. Scott and Pieter Meyers (Marina Del Rey: The Getty Conservation Institute, 1994),
199-227; Robert C. West, “Aboriginal Metallurgy and Metalworking in Spanish America: A Brief Overview,” in
Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas, ed. Peter Bakewell (Aldershot, Hampshire; Brookfield, VT: Variorum,
1997), 41-56.
26
Lacking metal ores on the Yucatan Peninsula, the Mayans did not develop metallurgical skills beyond
hammering, annealing, and repoussé. They obtained ritual metal objects like tumbaga from trade in the Caribbean.
West, “Aboriginal Metallurgy and Metalworking in Spanish America,” 48. German experts settled in Sultapec,
Mexico in 1536, where they introduced lead-reduction techniques for smelting silver and possibly the stamping mill.
The Welsers, a German financial family, obtained a patent from Charles V to settle and mine in Venezuela in 1528
and search for El Dorado; the patent for the Klein-Venedig colony was revoked in 1546. Brown, The History of Mining
in Latin America, 30; West, “Early Silver Mining in New Spain,” 64.

14

bankruptcy.
27
Just as Elizabeth I would later pursue alchemy as a possible solution to England’s
monetary crisis, Philip II hired alchemists to solve the American bullion shortage and help him
resolve his debts. In the late-1550s he employed Italian alchemist Tiberio della Rocca to transmute
quicksilver into silver. Rocca produced a substance that appeared to be silver and could withstand
hammering but not fire; nevertheless, Philip tried to pay his soldiers with the transmuted silver but
they refused the corrupted coins. In 1567 two alchemists tried to convert copper, lead, and tin into
gold, predicting they could make at least 7-8 million reales each year. Their failure to produce any
transmuted gold by 1569 cooled Philip’s interest in alchemy as a solution and he instead turned
his focus to improving the bullion supply from the Americas by using amalgamation.
28

Local experiments with amalgamation, which used salt and mercury from mines in Almaden,
Spain and Huancavelica, Peru to separate silver from refractory ores, yielded more silver and
reduced Spain’s dependence on English lead. These savings were eaten up by carrying costs and
had little effect on overall charcoal consumption but the reduction in labor costs, especially for
skilled refiners, kept silver mining profitable enough to justify operations.
29
Mine owners imposed

27
Indigenous technology like the Peruvian huayras (furnace) continued to operate alongside new technological
imports like amalgamation and blast furnaces. Acosta, The Naturall and Morall Historie, 217-218, 240-241. S.
Guerrero recently observed that silver ores in the oxidation zone (above the water table) undergo weathering that
chemically transforms silver sulphide into silver chloride and native silver, which were easier to refine by basic
pyrotechnology. Thus, early modern metallurgists perceived deeper, harder to work ores as poorer quality than surface
ores. Guerrero, however, challenges assertions of a silver crisis in the 1550s and 1560s leading to technical innovations
like amalgamation. Guerrero, “The History of Silver Refining in New Spain, 16c to 18c: Back to Basics,” 6-7;
Blanchard, “English Lead and the International Bullion Crisis,” 25, 28, 35.
28
Goodman, Power and Penury, 11-13.
29
Vannoccio Biringuccio had mentioned amalgamation in the Pirotechnia (Venice, 1540), but it did not work
on all silver ores (sulpharsenides and antimonides). Biringuccio, The Pirotechnia, 384-385. Trained by a German
metallurgist, Bartolomé de Medina began experiments with American silver ore in 1554, but the patio process was
not perfected until 1571 by Pedro Fernández de Velasco. Though historians have assumed amalgamation reduced the
use of charcoal fuel because the process only used it to decompose the amalgamated silver and mercury, Jason Moore
noted that charcoal was needed to extract mercury from its ore, leading to deforestation at Almaden and Huancavelica.
Still, Guerrero asserted that smelting in New Spain depleted 70 times more woodlands than did amalgamation,
suggesting the environmental impact of mercury refining was limited. Goodman, Power and Penury, 175-177, 187;
Jason W. Moore, “Silver, Ecology, and the Origins of the Modern World, 1450-1640,” in Rethinking Environmental
History: World-System History and Global Environmental Change, eds. Alf Hornborg, J.R. McNeill, and Joan
Martinez-Alier (Lanham: Altamira Press, 2007), 133; Guerrero, 10, 17.

15

mita and repartimiento, systems of forced native labor, and imported African slaves to address
their labor shortages, but the larger operations found it more profitable to attract skilled workers
with higher wages.
30
Where the Spanish did not have access to indigenous or foreign expertise or
ran up against the limits of the available technology to handle certain ores, such as at La Isabela
on Hispaniola, Guiana, Florida, and New Mexico, they experienced similar failures in their
colonial mineral enterprises as did the English. Indeed, the inability of colonists to exploit rich
mines in New Mexico resulted in similar historiographical gaps that gloss over Spanish mineral
speculation in the region, or refer to them as “pure myths and fables.”
31

Ultimately, the ability to exploit indigenous expertise and labor yielded short-term profits
from gold and silver and granted metallurgists in New Spain and Peru time to adapt European
methods to local ores over decades of trial and error, an advantage English metallurgical efforts in
the Atlantic would not have.
32
The chemical composition of ores was unique enough that
metallurgical knowledge was not necessarily readily transferable between European regions much
less from Europe to the Americas. The German experts at Keswick had to admit their knowledge
of Saxon and Bohemian copper and silver mines was inadequate to profitably work Cumbrian ores:
“so has it (compelled) us to have spent more time (in bringing to pass that which is now done) than
we ourselves did make account of in the beginning;” moreover, as the mines accessed deeper ores

30
Peter Bakewell suggested that 60-70% of indigenous silver miners were wage laborers. Bakewell, Mines of
Silver and Gold in the Americas, xvii.
31
Testing of crucible remains, slag, mercury, and galena (likely imported from Spain) at La Isabela revealed
attempts to assay local ores using cupellation and to smelt iron, but the methods suggest technicians with little
metallurgical skill. A.M. Thibodeau et al., “The Strange Case of the Earliest Silver Extraction by European Colonists
in the New World,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, no. 9
(February 2007), 3665; There is some evidence that Spanish and mestizo metallurgists introduced copper and lead
smelting at San Marcos, but the lack of silver and gold ores prompted disinterest and skepticism from colonial officials
in New Spain about the mineral wealth of New Mexico. Ann F. Ramenofsky, C. David Vaughan, and Michael N.
Spilde, “Seventeenth-Century Metal Production at San Marcos Pueblo, North-Central New Mexico,” Historical
Archaeology 42, no. 4 (2008), 106.
32
Guerrero, 20.

16

the best practices for working them changed and experts like Joachim Ganz were hired to reform
the works.
33
In this sense, then, discussions of English metallurgical backwardness to explain the
failures of mineral enterprises at Baffin Island, Roanoke, Guiana, and Jamestown obscures more
than it reveals. English explorers could use metallurgical manuals and experts as guides to
prospecting and initial attempts at refining ores but few investors were prepared to absorb the costs
of years or decades of adaptation before realizing consistent profits, at least not without some
interim means of generating revenues.
But this was a reality too few English knew about or could be expected to discern from the
earliest accounts of Spain’s American empire. English projectors did, however, learn important
lessons from Spanish America. Mining boomtowns created opportunities for agriculture,
manufacturing, and markets as the residents required comestibles and goods. In drawing sectors
of the economy and people together, mining towns made effective imperial centers from which to
conquer and govern the hinterlands, although over time Spain siphoned most of the bullion out of
the colonies and left them underdeveloped.
34
Nevertheless, it demonstrated that mining was not
incommensurate with plantation but worked hand-in-hand with it. The Spanish precedent of using
forced labor and its attendant abuses and destruction of native populations added to anxieties that
the pursuit of gold and silver was deleterious to England’s honor, virtue, and the public benefit. It
therefore became important to English promoters to distinguish their imperial aims as bringing
liberation to indigenous peoples through the true Christian fellowship of their Protestant faith and
induction into modes of English civility. They also placed a premium on constraining adventurers’
passions by prescribing temperance, industriousness, and virtue as the necessary qualities for
aspiring colonizers.

33
Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 147.
34
Brown, 43.

17

Second, the precious metals discovered in the Americas could be reinvested into domestic
projects, including mining, underwrite foreign commerce, or finance military and imperial
agendas. The Fuggers and the Welsers reinvested profits from the American gold mines to finance
silver mining in the Holy Roman Empire; though the influx of American silver in the mid-sixteenth
century eventually collapsed central Europe’s silver industry, at least initially it was a stimulus for
industrial development.
35
Charles V and his successor Philip II financed their imperial aims in
Europe with American gold and silver. With few royal mines in the British Isles, England did not
have to worry about ruining a domestic industry, and a stockpile of precious metals at the mint
would help raise the estimation of English currency in foreign markets after the debasements of
the mid-Tudor period. The Crown was also anxious to forestall any challenges to England’s
sovereignty and assert a more influential role in European politics.
By the time Richard Eden published his translation of Peter Martyr’s The Decades of the Newe
Worlde (London, 1555), soon after meeting the former superintendent of Potosí Agustin de Zárate,
the association of American mines with easy wealth had become entrenched. Eden attempted to
dislodge this assumption with an appended translation of a portion of Vannoccio Biringuccio’s
Pirotechnia. It stressed the uncertainty of gain and the travails any mineral speculator ought to
anticipate, but warned that God ultimately decided whether or not to grant the enterprise success.
Still, the narrative of easy wealth proved intractable, especially when employed by promoters to
lure new adventurers and then blame them for greed and impure motives when the ventures failed.

35
Davies, History of Money, 188.

18

ALCHEMY AND THE IDEOLOGY OF COLONIZATION
In theory and practice there was little distinction between alchemy and metallurgy in the early
modern period, despite some metallurgists’ efforts to distance themselves from alchemists,
particularly the charlatans and those who practiced chrysopoeia (transmutation). Prevailing
wisdom held that the cosmos was divided between the terrestrial and celestial realms, which man
studied through the disciplines of geography, chorography, astronomy, and astrology.
36
Called
lower or inferior astronomy, alchemy bridged these disciplines as the science concerned with the
generation and manipulation of sublunary matter, chiefly metals and minerals.
37
Created in the
seventh generation of humanity by Tubal-Cain (Genesis 4:22) and aligned with the seven days of
the week and seven ages of man, the seven main metals corresponded to the planets—gold (Sun),
silver (Moon), mercury (Mercury), copper (Venus), iron (Mars), tin (Jupiter), and lead (Saturn).
This relationship was encapsulated in the hermetic maxim, “as above, so below.”
38
One of the
Arab influences on medieval alchemy was the blend of religious revelation with a practical science
applicable to mathematics, medicine, commerce and various other arts. Medieval alchemists
increasingly offered their unique services at European courts, and Friar Roger Bacon endorsed
alchemy as a component of a universal science through which man could understand the processes
of the natural world. By the sixteenth century, the same demand to transmit knowledge about

36
Larry Silver and Pamela H. Smith, “Splendor in the Grass: The Powers of Nature and Art in the Age of Dürer,”
in Merchants & Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe, eds. Paula Findlen and Pamela H.
Smith (New York; London: Routledge, 2002), 41; S.K. Heninger, The Cosmographical Glass: Renaissance Diagrams
of the Universe (San Marino: The Huntington Library, 1977), 6.
37
Ripley, The compound of alchymy, sig. K4r; John Dee, Propaedeumata Aphoristica Ioannis Dee Londinensis,
(London, 1568), sig. B4v.
38
Roger Bacon, The Mirror of Alchimy, Composed by the Thrice-famous and Learned Fryer, Roger Bachon,
Sometimes Fellow of Martin Colledge (London, 1597), 16; Antonio de Guevara, Golden epistles conteyning varietie
of discourse, both morall, philosophicall, and divine, trans. Sir Geoffrey Fenton (London, 1577), 138r-v; Lyndy
Abraham, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 13.

19

metallurgy and navigation to a wider audience of potential investors likewise made alchemical
theories and techniques available in printed vernacular texts for the first time.
39

Despite the eager investment of European princes and esteemed patrons in mining projects,
the pursuit of mineral wealth reignited ancient fears about the deleterious effects of mining and the
profit motive. In his account of the four ages of man, the Roman poet laureate Ovid used mining
as an example of the brutality and viciousness of the current Iron Age. Transmuted from clay, man
once lived communally from the earth’s abundance in a perpetual springtime during the Golden
Age, with no need for husbandry or government. After Jupiter’s defeat of Saturn, the world
decayed in the course of a Silver and a Bronze Age until men were reduced to tilling the land for
sustenance and required laws to constrain their wickedness. Soon men dug into the earth’s bowels
in search of metals. For Ovid metals were “The spurres and stirrers unto vice, and foes to doing
well” and the primary cause of war, rapine, and deceit.
40
Ovid was not alone in his condemnation
of mining or its related ill, profit: classical writers from Horace and Pliny the Elder to Xenophon
suggested that at best, since minerals were hidden in the depths they were useless to men, and at
worst, a source of corruption. Boethius called gold a “precious perile,” for since it was first dug up
people had endangered each other to possess it.
41
While these criticisms did not stop medieval and
early modern Europeans from developing extensive mineral works, this did mean that mining
carried a stigma as base labor.

39
In 1605, Sir Francis Bacon doubted that one could create a universal science, or Philosophia Prima, and found
modern attempts to do so “strangely commixed and confused,” especially those concerned with similitudes and
correspondences. Sir Francis Bacon, The twoo bookes of Francis Bacon (London, 1605), 2: 21r; Long, “The Openness
of Knowledge,” 323-325; William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early
Modern Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 38-40.
40
Ovid, The. Xv. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, trans. Arthur Golding (London, 1567),
B2v-B3r.
41
Boethius, Boecius de consolacione philosophie, trans. Geoffrey Chaucer ([Westminster], 1578), Bk. 2, Metrum
5.

20

In this climate of ambivalence, Georgius Agricola defended metallurgy as a noble art and tried
to distance it from transmutation and esotericism. In De re metallica (Basil, 1556), Agricola said
that minerals and metals were necessary to sustain civilized life and defended mining as more
honorable than commerce, an opinion shared by Siennese metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio.
42

Mining provided the resources for medicine, husbandry, architecture, dyes and pigments, and
facilitated just commerce by setting an objective medium of exchange. Agricola even suggested
mines could be more beneficial than tillage because the fruits were more lucrative. To the critics
who believed mines had been hidden to dissuade people from using metals, Agricola chastised
them for the impious belief that God was “the Author of evils” and had intended no good purpose
in creating them. Metals, like fish, existed beneath the surface because nature appointed all things
to their proper place for generation, a point of view shared by alchemist Thomas Norton. Rather,
the problem was people who used metals with ill intentions or thought to quickly enrich themselves
with little effort.
43
As William Fulke observed about iron, it is “most necessary and profitable of
all other metalls, & yet as ill used of many as any other.”
44
Agricola summed up: “Insane indeed
is he who makes more of riches than of virtue. Insane also is he who rejects them and considers
them as worth nothing, instead of using them with reason.”
45

These defenses of metallurgy as a noble art that formed the basis of other worthy mechanical
arts offered a model for praising the art of navigation in the literature for overseas exploration;
moreover, defenses of mining and metallurgy made a case for the legitimacy of public profit, with
just recompense to those whose labors yielded it, as long as the accumulation of wealth was not

42
Biringuccio, 21-22.
43
Agricola, De Re Metallica, xxv, 12, 14-19; Thomas Norton, Thomas Norton’s The Ordinal of Alchemy, ed.
John Reidy (London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1975), 15.
44
William Fulke, A goodly gallerye with a most pleasaunt prospect, into the garden of naturall contemplation,
to behold the naturall causes of all kynde of meteors (London, 1563), 68r.
45
Agricola, 17.

21

pursued for its own sake. Like the potential for fraud inherent in mining, maritime ventures brought
their own specter of corruption in the form of piracy and greed. In the first English-language
reference to Christopher Columbus’ voyage, Sebastian Brant expressed similar ambivalence about
transoceanic navigation as others did metallurgy, castigating mariners and merchants for having
impure hearts and laboring in vain pursuits.
46
Rooted in the desire for money, Brant’s view of
overseas ventures was not unusual, as it stemmed from the Aristotelian idea of commerce as
unregenerative (pecunia non fructificat). Taking their cue from alchemical denunciations of the
charlatan, writers neutralized the specter of greed by emphasizing the uncertainty of gain inherent
in the search for gold or new routes to Asia, and the patience and long-term investment required
for success in such ventures. This emphasis on delayed gratification and the necessity for forward
and constant men to embark on these expeditions helped to recast them as worthy pursuits.
Moreover, connecting alchemy to commercial activity helped transform it into a generative
enterprise that would stimulate the expansion of industries and employment for the production of
surplus goods.
47

The reform of navigation occurred together with a campaign to portray it as a public project
to supply the realm’s wants and reduce social disorder, not to slake private appetites for gain.
William Bavand’s 1559 translation of Johannes Ferrarius claimed “no Citie, no resorte of menne,
can be knitte and united together without the trades of marchaundise” but cautioned that wise men
avoided the hazards of navigation if they could yield similar or greater profits from the land.
48
In
colonization, working the land and overseas commerce did not have to be mutually exclusive, and
taken together mining and exploration could solve problems with unemployment and idle youth.

46
Sebastian Brant, The shyppe of fooles, trans. Henry Watson (London, 1509), sig. P4r.
47
Campos, “West of Eden,” 256; Smith, The Business of Alchemy, 7-9.
48
Johannes Ferrarius, The woorke of Joannes Ferrarius Montanus, trans. William Bavand (London, 1559), fols.
92r-93r.

22

The elder Richard Hakluyt, a lawyer of the Middle Temple who advised merchants and explorers
on the Levant, Russian, and American ventures, envisioned sending young men to Virginia to work
in mines, till fields, and tend cash crops so that “our people void of sufficient trades, may be
honestly imploied, that els may become hurtfull at home.”
49
John Davis recapitulated Ferrarius’
argument for overseas trade to foster communion between nations, but he further justified it as a
means to bring “the word of God” to regions where it “hath pleased his devine Majestie as yet to
detaine the brightnes of his glory.”
50
Navigation, therefore, fulfilled God’s providential plan and
enriched the public treasury.
In the mid-sixteenth century, some alchemists turned to mathematics as the quintessential
expression of the secrets of the natural world and the divine; for them, numbers were the
foundation of all other disciplines. In his 1557 treatise on algebra The whetstone of wit, which he
dedicated to the Muscovy Company, Robert Recorde said that numbers were “not onely the
constitution of the whole worlde … but also the composition of manne, yea and the verie
substaunce of the soule.” Learning mathematics and venturing into “these darke maters” gave men
access to salubrious medicines, commutative and distributive justice, and taught the laws of
celestial motion without which there would be no navigation. Beyond these pragmatic uses,
numbers concealed the secrets of divinity, represented in the unity and trinity, and decoding them
would reunite mankind for eternity.
51
Mathematician Thomas Digges, a pupil of John Dee, cited
Plato’s assertion that those ignorant of geometry could not attain the “higher secrets or misteries

49
Peter C. Mancall, ed., Envisioning America: English Plans for the Colonization of North America, 1580-1640
(Boston; New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 37-39, 42-44.
50
John Davis, The Seamans Secret (London, 1595), Preface.3v.
51
Robert Recorde, The Whetstone of Witte Whiche Is the Seconde Parte of Arithmetike (London, 1557): B1r-v.

23

of Philosophie.” Digges thought that geometry was particularly apt for navigation and military
sciences, such as the placement of mines during sieges and for accurate shooting.
52

Both Recorde’s views on mathematics and his willingness to put his knowledge at the disposal
of explorers proved influential to John Dee, who revised subsequent editions of Recorde’s
arithmetical treatise Grounde of Artes (London, 1542).
53
In his preface to Henry Billingsley’s
translation of Euclid’s The Elements of Geometrie (London, 1570), Dee placed mathematics in a
position of “mervaylous newtralitie” between the natural and supernatural, calling it “the Mercurial
fruite” of reason that offered a key to decipher nature’s secrets. In Dee’s estimation, alchemy was
the highest expression of mathematics and natural philosophy because of its emphasis on testing
propositions with methodologically rigorous experiments. Alchemy united theory with praxis, and
as such was a pertinent model to reform other applied sciences like geography, navigation, and
architecture.
54
Mathematical reforms in the art of navigation and astronomy would also lead to a
better understanding of the lodestone’s ability to attract and repel objects. Dee considered the
lodestone a kind of philosopher’s stone because it sensibly demonstrated the “essential rays” that
suffused the universe and revealed the force of celestial motions on terrestrial objects.
55

Comprehending the natural laws governing these movements would give people greater ability to
account for astrological influences in agriculture, navigation, alchemy, and on human events, as

52
Leonard Digges and Thomas Digges, A Geometrical Practise, named Pantometria (London, 1571), A1v-A2v.
53
Jack Williams, Robert Recorde: Tudor Polymath, Expositor and Practitioner of Computation (London; New
York: Springer, 2011), 214.
54
Euclid, The elements of geometrie of the most auncient philosopher Euclide of Megara, trans. Henry
Billingsley (London, 1570), sig. 1v, A3r; Harkness, The Jewel House, 112-113.
55
“Illa Deus in Magnete proposuit oculis mortalium spectanda, qualia alijs in rebus subtiliori mentis indagini,
& sedulitati experiendi maiori, inuenienda reliquit. Ego tibi vim eius attractiua primo, deinde expulsiuam, repulsiuam,
siue abactiuam, tertio coelestis certique cuiusdam situs appetitionem, Et quarto per solida corpora radios suos
essentiales tranciendi potentiam, nunc solum in mentem redigo: alias alia eiusdem Philosophici lapidis, quasi
miracula (diuino fauente Numine) explicaturus.” Dee, Propaedeumata aphoristica, B4v. Originally published in 1558
and dedicated to cartographer Gerard Mercator.

24

well as insight into God’s creation.
56
In Dee’s philosophy, then, the practical and the transcendental
were closely intertwined.
The increasing promotion of mathematics as a critical aptitude for learned and skilled men
contributed toward an improved public image for metallurgy too. Successful metallurgists,
according to Agricola, ought to know arithmetic to calculate operational costs and geometry to
survey mineral works, define its boundaries, and determine the depths of shafts, as well as to
construct mills and supports for the tunnels and to draw schematics. He also considered lodestone
compasses useful tools to determine the direction mineral veins run, reckoning the winds much
like sailors. Though mining would always be riskier than husbandry, a proper education
distinguished the skilled miner from the unskilled miner, teaching them to discriminate between
profitable and unprofitable mines and giving them the wisdom to form syndicates to lessen their
individual risk.
57

In Agricola’s emphasis on learning and methodology, Richard Eden found metallurgy an
appropriate metaphor for transoceanic navigation and its risks. Eden said the northeastern voyages
to Cathay (China) were “not muche unlyke to the shynyng flowres of Marchasites, which
outwardly appearyng in minerall mountaynes, are signes and token wherby is conjectured what
metal is conteyned therein.” The northeastern voyages did not reach their target, as mineral
prospecting often did not either, but it should not discourage further explorations because “it hath
be often proved and founde by experience, that by folowyng the same, have ben founde great and

56
Not all alchemists accepted that celestial motion had any effect on alchemy or that alchemy offered cosmic
insight about a vital principle governing the universe. The growing corpus of hermetic writings from the Arab world
brought with them the idea of a spiritus mundi that linked God to terrestrial things. William R. Newman and Anthony
Grafton, Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, (London; Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press, 2001), 18, 24; Moran, Distilling Knowledge, 68-69.
57
Agricola, 3-6, 27, 29, 58.

25

rich mynes of metalles.”
58
Eden pointed to Spain and Portugal as confirmation of Agricola’s
wisdom.
The stress on learning and skill in alchemy fit well within the civic humanist paradigm for
gentlemanly life, the vita activa, which promoted an education in liberal arts as preparation for
service to the commonwealth. As an art already practiced by elite men to “ennobl[e] matter through
manual work,” alchemy articulated a relationship between intellect and experience to challenge
the scholastic notion that reason alone was sufficient to obtain certain knowledge, and elevated the
status of manual arts to an activity appropriate for gentlemen.
59
Prior to his appointment as
secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Geoffrey Fenton lauded science as the “very seminaries
or seedes” of virtue, temperance, and courage that purged minds “as the drosse and scumme of
metall is mortified by the industrie of woorkers.”
60
Fenton’s translation of Jean Talpin called
education a forge for young minds, wherein the goldsmith “by the skill of his arte draweth out of
lumpes of mettell and stones unpollished” to produce refined and tempered men.
61
Learning,
William Vaughan said, was like digging a mine:
Like as they, that digge for metals, do strictly and diligently search the veines of the earth, and by earnest noting
the nature thereof, attaine at last to the perfect knowledge of the mine: so they, that will enjoy learning, aswell
for the common good, as for their owne profit, must narrowly study this Art of Logike, which is conversant with
us in our daily conferences … And even as gold by seven fires is tried and purified: so in like maner the truth in
despight of errours is by logicall disputations found out, and restored to her former liberty.
62

Sir Francis Bacon divided natural philosophy into two parts, inquiry and operation, which he called
the “Myne and the Fornace … some to bee Pionners, and some Smythes, some to digge, and some

58
Martín Cortés, The arte of navigation, trans. Richard Eden (London, 1561), 3v.
59
Silver and Smith, “Splendor in the Grass,” 41, 46.
60
Guevara, Golden epistles, A2v-A3r.
61
Jean Talpin, A forme of Christian pollicie, trans. Sir Geoffrey Fenton (London, 1574), 195.
62
Sir William Vaughan, The golden grove moralized in three bookes (London, 1600), Pt. 3, Ch. 40.

26

to refine, and Hammer.” While both were critical to science, Bacon found reason deficient unless
it was borne out and perfected by experience, which could then be applied for practical civil and
economic ends.
63
William Barlow expressed a similar attitude about navigation, which he
confessed as a youth to abhor because of a natural antipathy; however, with the combination of
labor and study he had found sympathy with the art: “And in the minde onely, pure and true Arte,
refined from the drosse of sensible or experimentall knowledge, is to be found.”
64
Through the
cultivation of his mind and labor of his body, Barlow had achieved a more perfect understanding
of navigation.
To promote the marriage of philosophy and mechanical arts in the education of gentlemen,
there were several proposals for new schools that incorporated the arts of alchemy and navigation.
With Cecil’s endorsement, around 1570 Sir Humphrey Gilbert submitted an idea to the Queen for
an academy in London to train gentlemen and court wards in liberal, military, and courtly arts,
which would make them profitable and contributing members of the commonwealth. Gilbert
envisioned a rigorous curriculum of the traditional trivium and quadrivium, along with foreign
languages, natural philosophy, medicine, law, history, theology, navigation, cartography, and
military science. The faculty in natural philosophy and medicine would practice alchemy and
submit an annual report to the Crown on their experimental methods and results, “To thend that
their Successors may knowe both the way of their working, and the event thereof, the better to
follow the good, and avoyd the evill, which in time must of force bring great thinges to light, yf in

63
Bacon, The twoo bookes of Francis Bacon, 2: 24, 48r-v; Cesare Pastorino, “The Mine and the Furnace: Francis
Bacon, Thomas Russell, and Early Stuart Mining Culture,” Early Science and Medicine 14 (2009), 631-633, 640.
64
William Barlow, The navigators supplie (London, 1597), A4v.

27

Awcomistrie [Alchemistry] there be any such thinges hidden.”
65
In the design of his academy,
Gilbert endorsed an education that married intellect and art as necessary for the vita activa.
A few years later, inventor and alchemist Ralph Rabbards proposed an academy “for
ingenious, pollitique and learned men, and apte artificers” to study or develop military
technologies and conduct alchemical experiments on behalf of the realm; by 1605, Francis Bacon
thought alchemists and artificers ought to receive reimbursements from the Crown for their
experiments “whether they be experiments appertaining to Vulcanus or Dedalus, Furnace or
Engyne, or any other kind.”
66
While he did not propose an academy, political economist Gerard
Malynes thought the study of alchemy should be held in higher regard since it imparted knowledge
suitable for “distillations Chimicall, Fire-workes, and other excellent observations in Nature.”
67

These academies illustrated contemporary beliefs that alchemy, navigation, and military science
were interrelated projects that could benefit the Crown if given the appropriate public support.
The “new learning” and the vita activa were not the only ways in which alchemy proved
compatible with reform movements in the Tudor period. With its syncretic blend of Platonism,
Christianity, Hermeticism, and kabbalah, alchemy spoke also to Protestant reformers.
68
For many
English people, Queen Elizabeth’s accession held a providential significance: either her reign
would revivify the Arthurian empire of her forebears, or it would signal England’s thrall to a
greater empire, most likely the Spanish. This understanding of the Tudor monarchy was not new.

65
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, “The erection of an Achademy in London for educacion of her Majesties Wardes and
others the youth of nobility and gentlemen,” BL, Lansdowne MS 98/1, fols. 2r-7r (n.d.).
66
Ralph Rabbards, “A coppie of notes deliuered to her Maiestie by Raphe Rabbards,” BL, Lansdowne MS
121/14, fol. 106r (n.d.); Bacon, The tvvoo bookes of Francis Bacon, 2: 4r-v.
67
Gerard Malynes, Consuetudo, vel lex mercatoria (London, 1622), 258.
68
On the salient features of Tudor humanism see: Markku Peltonen, Classical Humanism and Republicanism in
English Political Thought 1570-1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 9-10, 54-55; Neal Wood,
Foundations of Political Economy: Some Early Tudor Views on State and Society (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1994), 4; Fritz Caspari, Humanism and the Social Order in Tudor England (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1954; New York, 1968), 1:2.

28

During the Wars of the Roses, alchemical symbolism grafted onto Arthurian legends, and through
the prophecies of Merlin, regarded as the first English alchemist, it promised people that harmony
and stability would return under the reign of a new, strong king. Sir Thomas Norton, a gentleman
of Edward IV’s privy chamber, reportedly created some of England’s national emblems from
visions he saw in the flames of a furnace—the red and white roses of Lancaster and York, the red
cross on a white background, and the Welsh red dragon.
69
When Henry VII united the houses of
York and Lancaster under his rule, some interpreted it as fulfillment of Merlin’s prophecy.
In the same period of the revival of Arthurian legends, the biblical story of Salomon’s building
of the Temple of Jerusalem with the gold of Ophir became linked to these millenarian aspirations.
In the Bible, Salomon fulfilled his father’s promise to God to build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem,
which he decorated with gold, silver, and timber obtained from Ophir. Under God’s favor and
through overseas voyages, Salomon became the world’s richest and wisest man (1 Kings 9).
Among alchemical practitioners, the Temple of Jerusalem held particular significance: purportedly
an alchemist, Salomon precisely constructed the Temple according to geometric principles, thus
“encrypt[ing] a model of God’s creation in numerological form.”
70
In this way, historian David
Harris Sacks argued, the voyage to Ophir figured not simply the acquisition of material riches from
afar, but also the discovery of transcendental treasures. Over the course of the sixteenth and early
seventeenth century as precious metals remained elusive, English exploration texts increasingly
associated the search for Ophir with a providential mission to make the world a new Temple, a

69
Jonathan Hughes, “Politics and the Occult at the Court of Edward IV,” in Princes and Princely Culture, 1450-
1650, eds. Martin Gosman, Alasdair A. MacDonald, and Arjo Vanderjagt (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2005), 2: 97-98, 106.
70
Sacks, “Rebuilding Solomon’s Temple, 18-19. Sir Walter Ralegh was skeptical of Salomon’s reputation as a
magi, writing: “Of Salomons bookes of Invocations and Inchantments to cure diseases, and expell evill spirits,
Iosephus hath written at large, though as I conceive, rather out of his owne invention, or from some uncertaine report,
than truely.” Sir Walter Ralegh, History of the World (London, 1617), 504.

29

global commonwealth, by spreading Protestantism to newly discovered peoples and bringing unity
and harmony under Elizabeth’s rule.
European texts on the Atlantic discoveries attempted to locate Ophir in either the Americas or
Asia to justify overseas ventures as divine providence and an honorable pursuit on behalf of the
public weal. When Christopher Columbus encountered the Taíno, who called the land where they
obtained their gold Cibao, it reinforced his belief that he had found Cipangu (Japan), which he
thought was Ophir. Though it soon became clear that Columbus had not reached Asia, the
discovery of rich empires in the Americas prompted Spanish writers to theorize that Salomon’s
Ophir was either Hispaniola or Peru. Pedro de Medina interpreted American gold and silver as
God’s gift to Spain to build their spiritual temple amongst the region’s inhabitants, just as the
riches of Ophir built Jerusalem’s holy temple. José de Acosta considered it unlikely that Salomon
could have sailed to the Americas rather than the East Indies, an opinion shared by Sir Walter
Ralegh and Gerard Malynes, who identified Ophir as the Moluccas and Sumatra, respectively.
Instead, Acosta regarded Ophir as a metonym for distant, strange, and rich lands in which
Europeans would find great stores of precious metals in exchange for converting the natives to
Christianity.
71

Richard Eden’s translation of Sebastian Münster’s A treatyse of the newe India (London,
1553) illustrated the connection of Ophir, alchemy, and overseas voyages. To encourage England’s
imitation of Spain and Portugal, Eden validated their recent enrichment from their American,
African, and Asian dominions by comparing them to the voyages to Ophir, which he placed near

71
Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, The decades of the newe worlde or west India conteynyng the nauigations and
conquestes of the Spanyardes, trans. Richard Eden (London, 1555), A2r-v; Raphael Holinshed, The Third volume of
Chronicles, ed. John Hooker (London, 1586), 1555; Pedro de Medina, Libro de Grandezas y cosas memorables de
España. Compvesto por El Maestro Pedro de Medina, vezino de la ciudad de Seuilla (Madrid, 1568), fol. 51r; Acosta,
The Naturall and Moral Historie, 41-43; Ralegh, History of the World, 175-176, 499; Malynes, Consuetudo, vel lex
mercatoria, 261.

30

the equinoctial line. Ostensibly written to promote the northeastern voyage but more likely to
generate support for a secretive northwest voyage, Eden hinted at the probable riches of North
America: “I wyll speake nothing hereof, bycause I wold be loth to lay an egge, wherof other men
might hatche a serpent.” In alchemy, the egg was the vessel in which the unpurified prima materia,
the serpent, transformed into the philosopher’s stone. Eden was reticent to incubate England’s
courage for American ventures just to have their competitors complete the great work and benefit
from infinite treasures. Eden nevertheless reminded his English audience of the essential unity of
mankind, “That God made of one bloudde, all nacions of menne, to dwell upon the hole face of
the earth,” and England’s duty to reintegrate Christianity’s lost flock within a reconstructed Holy
Temple.
72

Demonstrating the continuation of these ideas well into the seventeenth century, Samuel
Purchas expressed similar sentiments to legitimize the colonization of Virginia. In 1623, he praised
Queen Elizabeth as “in crosses and conquests, another David; in peace, and building the Temple,
Salomon” and King James as her alchemical child, “Man in ripest maturitie, whom her heart
conceived (but concealed, till due time of birth) her just Heire.” He flattered the King to discourage
the abandonment of the Virginia enterprise after the 1622 massacre. Two years later, Purchas
argued that God created all lands rich in some things and poor in others to enforce intercourse and
exchange among peoples; thus, like Salomon’s voyages to Ophir for gold and other rich
commodities to build his temple, England justly inhabited Virginia to obtain commodities and
bring its peoples into conformity with Christian law. Purchas exhorted the King to “be the fift of
fifts, and beyond Elixirs and quintessences,” and enlighten this new Israel.
73

72
Sebastian Münster, A Treatyse of the Newe India, trans. Richard Eden (London, 1553), A2r, sig. A7r.
73
Samuel Purchas, The kings towre and triumphant arch of London (London, 1623), 51-52, 55, 80; Samuel
Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimes (London, 1625), 1811.

31

As the first generation of colonial enterprise came to a close, the example of Ophir became
less of an endorsement to acquire precious metals from overseas colonies than a warning not to
neglect the development of English industries and trade, missionary efforts among indigenous
peoples, or the pursuit of peace in Europe. Amidst the diplomatic crisis created by Ralegh’s second
Guiana voyage in 1617-18, Thomas Gainsford counseled English adventurers against following
Spain’s example and instead to emulate the Dutch trade. Pointing to the underdevelopment of
Spanish industries, he observed that Salomon had only imported Ophirian riches every three years,
but the remainder of the time “had no other cunning, no other wisdome, no other Philosophers
stone, than the industry of Merchants.”
74
In this way, Ophir was recast as a tempering hand on the
quest for mineral riches abroad. John Hagthorpe criticized the English, Dutch, and Spanish for
proffering high-minded rationalizations for overseas ventures as an imitation of Salomon’s
Ophirian voyages to propagate religion, yet they had made few converts. Instead, intra-European
conflicts made these enterprises a “greater studie of their avarice, and ambition, to undermine, kil,
and destroy each other.” Hagthorpe did not advise a withdrawal from colonial enterprises; instead
he advocated for a public fund to redouble English efforts as the only way to check “the ambitious
thirst of [Spain’s] Universall Soveraignty” and bring the realm peace and security.
75

Another allusion that blended overseas voyages with alchemy was the frequent comparison to
Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece on the Argo, a ship constructed with the divine aid of Pallas
Athene. In texts ascribed to Nicholas Flamel, Geber, and Konrad Gesner, the philosopher’s stone
was called the Golden Fleece and the process of transmutation likened to Jason’s labors to attain
it, a metaphor that fit the travails and uncertainty of exploration. Italian alchemist Giovan Battista
Agnello wrote: “The golden fleece is not given unto Jason, unlesse first he undergoe the sure and

74
Thomas Gainsford, The glory of England (London, 1618), 77.
75
John Hagthorpe, Englands-Exchequer (London, 1625), 9, 21.

32

dangerous labours.”
76
In the poems “Ad Thamesin” and “De Navigatione,” Stephen Parmenius
compared Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s upcoming Norumbega colony, in which Parmenius adventured,
to the Golden Fleece. He wrote: “The Queen watches Gilbert's ship depart/ Thus they say Athene
watched/ From Pelion’s tip as Jason’s crew put out/ Into the river Phasis, little knowing how/ The
winds would blow.”
77
Sir Hugh Plat defended English adventurers who sought to join “the
foremost rankes and troupes of all Minervaes crew, and … reach with a victorious arme at the
Golden Fleece,” even as he solicited a public stipend for alchemists to transmute the philosopher’s
stone and render East and West Indian voyages unnecessary.
78

As projectors assessed the progress of colonization in the Atlantic and came to the conclusion
that the emphasis on precious metals had misled too many adventurers to expect easy and quick
riches, references to the Golden Fleece, like Ophir, shifted to other means of profit. William
Vaughan’s promotional tract for the Newfoundland colony, The golden fleece (London, 1626),
argued that English efforts had been derailed by their attempts to emulate Spain’s American riches
(“Peru sheepe”) when England’s original Golden Fleece, the cloth industry, began its decline.
Vaughan was the proprietor of the short-lived Cambriol Plantation in Newfoundland, where he
named one place Colchis—the location of the mythical Golden Fleece. Styling himself Orpheus
Junior, Vaughan claimed the labors of the Newfoundland fisheries, iron mines, timber, and “great
store of Mettals, if they be lookt after” would be “more certaine then Jasons Fleece transported
from Colchos, or the Philosophers Stone, so much dreamed on by the Chymists.” Less lucrative
than precious metals, nonetheless these labors would encourage productivity and virtue among the

76
Konrad Gesner, Treasure of Euonymus, trans. John Hester (London, 1559), A1v; Nicholas Flamel, Nicholas
Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures, trans. Eirenaeus Orandus (London, 1624), 35-37; Giovan
Battista Agnello, A reuelation of the secret spirit (London, 1623), 46.
77
David B. Quinn and Neil M. Cheshire, eds., The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: The Life and Writings
of a Hungarian Poet, Drowned on a Voyage from Newfoundland, 1583 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972),
81, 95. This translation renders the Latin Argo as ship (navis), stripping the poem of its allegorical reading.
78
Sir Hugh Plat, The iewell house of art and nature (London, 1594), B2r-v.

33

English and provide everlasting profits to the realm: “A myne of Gold it is; The Myne is deepe,
the veines are great, the Oare is rare, the gold is pure, the extent unlimited, the wealth unknowne,
the worth invaluable.”
79
Reflecting the attitude of projectors that the search for precious metals
had been premature, Vaughan did not disavow gold and silver mines as desired resources, but he
did subordinate them to more certain and immediate means of profit in the colonies.

CONCLUSION
By the 1570s, adventurers were ready to attempt colonization in the Atlantic world. As the
next three chapters demonstrate, between 1576 and 1578, the three Arctic voyages of Martin
Frobisher created a nexus for testing the value of alchemy to exploration projects and challenged
their ability to turn recent metallurgical successes in England into American riches. These ventures
consulted the expertise of alchemists on the most current cosmographical, astronomical, and
navigational knowledge; they employed alchemists and metallurgists from the two mining
monopolies as expert personnel on the voyages and in the smelting works developed at Dartford;
and Frobisher’s defenders would draw on alchemical philosophy to justify the enterprise and to
claim that, despite failure, it had served a greater benefit to the commonwealth than mere riches
could provide.

79
Sir William Vaughan, The golden fleece (London, 1626), 1-2, 13-15, 82.
34

CHAPTER 2
THE CATHA Y COMPANY AND THE MAKING OF AN ENGLISH GOLD RUSH
INTRODUCTION
By the 1570s, the modest successes of the Mines Royal and the Mineral & Battery Works and
a growing cohort of foreign experts, their English assistants, and investors helped usher in a new
era of speculation in mineral and commercial projects at home and abroad.
1
Martin Frobisher’s
1576-78 Arctic ventures showed that English investors had rather too much confidence in these
limited achievements; nevertheless, the attempt to combine transoceanic navigation with a mining
settlement inaugurated the first phase of English colonization in the Atlantic and sparked repeated
efforts to discover the Northwest Passage to access Asian markets. While it overstates the case to
call English metallurgical technology backwards, especially as it pertained to tin, lead, and iron, it
is fair to say that the lack of gold and silver deposits in England retarded the development of
expertise in prospecting, assaying, and smelting these ores compared to their continental
counterparts. This uneven development was no better illustrated than the paradox that the
company’s metallurgist Christopher “Jonas” Schutz designed the Dartford works with the most
advanced blast furnace technology then available, yet the furnaces were so poorly and hastily
constructed that they could not properly smelt ore.
2

1
Deborah Harkness has called the period between 1560 and 1580 an era of “Big Science,” large scale projects
given special legal protections by the Crown but mostly funded by private investors. These projects employed a range
of personnel, from unskilled laborers to expert technicians to learned aristocratic backers, and sought economic
benefits from their scientific and technological innovations. Harkness, The Jewel House, 142-180.
2 Robert Baldwin, “Speculative Ambitions and the Reputations of Frobisher's Metallurgists,” in Meta Incognita:
A Discourse of Discovery: Martin Frobisher’s Arctic Expeditions, 1576-1578, ed. Thomas H.B. Symons (Hull,
Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), 401-402; James McDermott, The Third Voyage of Martin
Frobisher (London: Hakluyt Society, 2001), 49.
35

The Frobisher voyages marked a turning point for English projects in the Atlantic, but one of
its most enduring legacy has been its association with deception and gold fever.
3
As an exemplar
of the basest motive for overseas projects, precious metals, none of the actors involved have
escaped modern judgment: the Cathay Company’s chief organizers Michael Lok and Frobisher
were either willing dupes or collaborators; the alchemists and assayers were either charlatans or
incompetents; and the investors were ignorant and avaricious. Reinforcing the idea of plantation
and commercial colonies as mutually exclusive from mining, historians David B. Quinn and A.N.
Ryan said of the Frobisher voyages: “the demand for bullion and its romantic attraction overrode
more realistic expansionist projects.”
4
They argued that, in addition to discouraging the Crown
from investing in overseas projects, the Cathay Company’s downfall dampened enthusiasm among
merchants for any mineral discoveries in the New World for a generation.
5
In highlighting the
connection of merchants and gentry to mineral enterprises, this chapter and the next paints a more
complex picture of investment in Atlantic ventures and the desire to acquire precious metals.
Several of the Cathay Company’s goals were unrealistic: that wooden ships could traverse the
ice-choked waterways of the Northwest Passage; that they could plant a colony at Baffin Island
when the English clung to ideas about civility that foreclosed learning from the Inuit how to master
the inhospitable Arctic; and that it was cost effective to transport ore of dubious value to England
for smelting.
6
However, the assertion that they could find mineral wealth so far north was not self-

3 Symons, Meta Incognita, xx. On Frobisher’s connection with metallurgical fraud in the popular imagination
during the Bre-X scandal, see Robert McGhee, The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher: An Elizabethan Adventure
(Seattle; London: University of Washington Press, 2001), 178-182. James McDermott said the greatest consequence
of Frobisher’s Arctic voyages was the incorrect cartographic assumption that confused Meta Incognita with Greenland
in an attempt to correct errors made about the location of Frobisher’s Strait. James McDermott, Martin Frobisher:
Elizabethan Privateer (New Haven, 2001), 425.
4 Quinn and Ryan, 35.
5 Ibid, 34.
6 On the practical and spiritual adaptations the Inuit made to their environment, see Peter C. Mancall, “The Raw
and the Cold: Five English Sailors in Sixteenth-Century Nunavut,” The William and Mary Quarterly 70, no. 1 (January
2013): 6-20.
36

evidently ridiculous, as modern mining ventures on northern Baffin Island and surrounding
Nunavut bear out.
7
It appears equally true that Frobisher did not discover gold, based on geologist
Donald D. Hogarth’s metallurgical analyses of sixty-six samples of black ore from Kodlunarn,
Baffin Island, Smerwick Harbor, and Dartford. Of these samples, half had traces of gold higher
than the average amount in the earth’s crust (3.5 ppb) and two Dartford samples had greater than
120 ppb, yet this was still 200-times less than the Elizabethan assayers found and below the
capacity for sixteenth-century technologies to detect. The mineral profile of the samples showed
that they were low-grade ores, primarily hornblende and other silicates, with some mica (biotite)
but no pyrite or fool’s gold, as commonly supposed. Neither Hogarth nor other geologists and
archaeologists have found the high-quality red ore tested by Jonas Schutz and Burchard Kranich,
leaving a minute possibility of gold in southern Baffin Island.
8
Réginald Auger’s and Georges
Beaudoin’s analysis of lead beads, the products of assaying gold and silver ores by cupellation,
offered strong evidence that the company’s experts salted their gold assays, but tells historians
little about why the deception occurred.
9

In recent years, historians have become more interested in exploring how the enterprise
unfolded and what impelled the organizers, investors, and technicians to continue long after the
signs pointed to failure and fraud. Just as historian James McDermott observed a decline in
merchant capital as the Cathay Company shifted away from the search for the Northwest Passage
to a mining colony, this chapter examines the mineralogical activities of the investors—defined as

7 For instance, northern Baffin Island is the site of the Nanisivik zinc and lead mine, though this is still over 900
miles from Frobisher Bay. The Mary River iron mines are also on Baffin Island, about 780 miles from Kodlunarn.
The Meadowbank gold mine in the Kivilliq Region of Nunavut opened in 2010, almost 1000 miles from Frobisher
Bay. From 2010-13, it produced 1.3 million ounces of gold. At this production rate, the mine will close by 2018. V.
Janvier, S. Castonguay, et al, “Preliminary results of geology of the Portage deposit, Meadowbank gold mine,
Churchill Province, Nunavut,” Geological Survey of Canada Current Research 2015 Issue 2 (2 April 2015), 2.
8 Hogarth, Boreham, and Mitchell, Martin Frobisher's Northwest Venture, 123-138.
9 Beaudoin and Auger, “Implications of the mineralogy and chemical composition of lead beads from Frobisher's
assay site,” 669-681.
37

proprietorship, leases, and financing of mines or works (furnaces, mills, forges, or foundries), the
manufacture of mineral commodities like saltpeter, or alchemy—to show that the proportion of
mineral men fell with each voyage as the assay results triggered their skepticism.

This left an
investor base dominated by inexperienced speculators, most of whom were friends or relations of
Michael Lok. Frobisher’s gold may have generated significant attention in London, yet the Cathay
Company struggled to attract new subscribers or collect arrearages from their members in the
absence of credible and consistent proof of gold.
10
Admittedly reckless, this behavior pointed to
an escalation event to recover sunk costs more than a gold rush. Restrictions imposed in 1577 to
cap the maximum investment by new subscribers and the Cathay Company’s unincorporated status
limited the financial liability to the Crown and Lok, which meant that mineral men—whether
merchant or gentry—retained their interest in overseas ventures and continued to invest in them,
even if they became more cautious. Despite the Cathay Company’s many errors, the sixty or so
subscribers represented the broadest base of financial support for a colonial venture until the
Virginia Company three decades later, and demonstrated the potential for joint-stock companies
to mobilize large amounts of capital for these projects.
11

The weight of inexperience combined with the tantalizing prospect of Arctic riches, I argue,
created the conditions for fraud to occur. Unintentionally, the Cathay Company pitted their experts
against each other and relentlessly pressured them for good results, especially once the Queen and
privy councilors became major shareholders. If, as Auger and Beaudoin suppose, the poor assays
represented the unsalted proofs, it suggested less malicious intent than professional rivalries. By
1577 Giovan Battista Agnello, Jonas Schutz, and Burchard Kranich competed for a potentially
lucrative pension to smelt the ore. The fact that none of the three were professional gold assayers

10 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 117-118.
11 Quinn and Ryan, 35.
38

exacerbated this competition, as each sought to maintain his reputation for skillfulness in the face
of gaps in experience and knowledge. Schutz and Kranich exploited the esteemed reputation
English speculators granted to Saxon metallurgists to add credibility to their work, such that the
investors and assayers’ assistants allowed their perceived abilities to outweigh the evidence of
errors or deception. Even Spanish ambassador Don Bernardino de Mendoza initially believed the
rumors of gold because of Schutz’s Saxon origin.
12
The metallurgists also had to defend their
results against other outside experts, goldsmiths John Brode and George Needham, and alchemists
Edward Dyer, John Dee, and Geoffroi le Brumen, and under the watchful eyes of assistants Robert
Denham, Gregory Bona, George Wolfe, and William Humfrey the younger. In future ventures,
projectors relied on one chief expert to oversee metallurgical trials, thereby reducing the potential
for fraud.
Constrained by the narrow season for safe passage to and from Baffin Island and fearful of
losing England’s claim to foreign competitors (mainly the French), Frobisher added more stress
for positive proofs to authorize new voyages, while Lok pressed for them to encourage delinquent
shareholders to pay their accounts and renew the company’s stock. The timing of the salted assays
in 1577, 1578 and 1579 coincided with threats to the future of the enterprise. Schutz’s account of
the proceedings betrayed an unshakeable belief that the ore was valuable if only he could figure
out the right additives, furnaces, and methods to work the refractory stone, and it appeared he
deliberately falsified assays to buy more time and money to continue his work. This lack of ill
intent is corroborated by his 1579 offer to purchase all of the ore to work at his own cost and the
fact that he suffered no professional damage when the venture went bankrupt.
13

12 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 198; Martin A.S. Hume, Calendar of State Papers, Spain 1568-1579 (London,
1894), 2: 561-573.
13 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 13v.
39

In the historiography on the Frobisher voyages, discussions of alchemy are strikingly absent
despite the involvement of alchemists as experts, advisors, and investors. Alchemy and metallurgy
shared the same underlying assumptions about the generation of metals and experimental practices
for working them. Other than Sir Francis Walsingham’s personal disdain for Agnello,
disagreements between the metallurgists, alchemists, and goldfinders did not stem from a divide
between alchemy and metallurgy, but from interpersonal conflicts as they all jockeyed to become
the chief expert. Even as metallurgical handbooks played on anxieties about charlatans to elevate
the status of metallurgists, in practice the lines between alchemists and metallurgists often blurred,
and patrons tended to hold alchemy in high regard as a philosophy and a science. In understanding
these overlaps, we can eschew the reductive view that the investors’ trust in alchemists was
necessarily gullible in historical context and consider why it seemed reasonable to believe the
specific claims these alchemists and metallurgists made. These chapters thus explain how
metallurgical and alchemical texts reinforced the expertise of the mineral men and allowed
investors to believe Frobisher had found gold despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

THE STRAIT OF ANIAN
After an initial spurt of activity between 1497 and 1505, during which John and Sebastian
Cabot went to North America, interest in a northwest route to Asia waned until John Rastell’s 1517
voyage, though he got no farther than Ireland. Efforts to mount northern expeditions faltered on
the consensus of cosmographers that the Arctic was an impassable sea of ice, but this view began
to change in the 1520s. That year Estevan Gomes explored west of Baccalos (Newfoundland)
between forty and forty-six degrees, where he assured “they have sylver, and copper, & certayne
other metals,” while Giovanni Verrazzano claimed to have found an ingress at thirty-four
40

degrees.
14
Their ventures stimulated the interest of two merchants then residing in Spain, Robert
Thorne and Robert Barlow, and they petitioned King Henry VIII for a northwest voyage in 1525,
to no response. Thorne renewed the suit in 1527 with justifications for new northern expeditions
that would later influence Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s arguments for a northwestern enterprise.
15

In the letter, Thorne lamented that a lack of English initiative had conceded American gold
and access to Asian riches to Spain. Now, the King had a second chance to claim the riches of the
north and Asia for England.
16
Thorne conceived of a globe parted into symmetrical hemispheres:
just as the Cape of Good Hope mirrored the Magellan Strait, there must be two northern passages
to complement the southern passages. John Dee later called this geographical symmetry.
17
Thorne
thought it a reasonable expectation to find precious metals in the Arctic despite the cold, an
impression later supported by Siennese metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio, who said metals could
generate wherever heavenly dispositions can influence the elements.
18
Like Sir Thomas More’s
Utopians, Thorne said the people in these regions did not value gold because of its abundance and
impracticality; instead they “sett more by a knyfe or a nayle of Iron” for its utility.
19
He predicted
that they would willingly exchange English trifles for spices and gold.
In light of the King’s failure to turn military ventures in France and his alliance with Charles
V into territorial gains for England, Thorne thought that America offered an ideal place to expand
English dominion. He tantalized the King with promises of infinite riches obtained with relative
ease, thus birthing a narrative, chiefly sustained by armchair explorers, which conflated the pursuit

14 Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, The history of travayle in the West and East Indies, trans. Richard Eden and
Richard Willes (London 1577), fol. 225.
15 Andrews, Trade, Plunder, and Settlement, 53-56.
16 Robert Thorne, ““Proposal for an Expedition of Discovery to the N. Pole,” Hatfield House (hereafter Hat.),
CP 245/5, fol. 3r (1527).
17 Hat., CP 245/5, fol. 4v-5r, 9r-11v; John Dee, John Dee: The Limits of the British Empire, ed. Kenneth
Macmillan and Jennifer Abeles (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 41.
18 Hat., CP 245/5, fol. 2v; Biringuccio, 28-29.
19 Hat., CP 245/5, fol.2v.
41

of America’s mineral riches with plunder and minimal exertion.
20
Having watched this illusion
collapse under the weight of reality and investor enthusiasm along with it, most experienced
adventurers tried to correct this perception by emphasizing the uncertainty of gain and the toil
required; nevertheless, it proved a persistent and intractable obstacle to promotional efforts.
With support from Cardinal Wolsey, on 10 June 1527 John Rut set out with two ships for
North America, but found the passage north choked by ice and the mainland barren. After Rut’s
return, the project languished until 1536, when competition with François I roused the King to
send Master Richard Hore to retrace Jacques Cartier’s route in North America. The venture ended
ignominiously with reports of cannibalism and piracy.
21
When François again sent Cartier in
search of a northwest passage in 1541, it prompted the Privy Council to reconsider Robert Barlow’s
proposal for a northwest voyage, which he submitted along with a translation of Martín Fernández
de Enciso’s Suma de Geographia (Seville, 1530). The plan floundered when the King refused the
conditions proposed by the Spanish pilot.
22

Sebastian Cabot’s return to England during the protectorate of John Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland renewed interest in the northern routes to Asia. Looking to ameliorate a
depression in the cloth trade, merchants prevailed upon Northumberland to license a northeastern
voyage to open new markets for English woolens and find a shorter route to Asia. In 1553, these
merchants sent Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor to explore the northeastern route;
however, with advice from Richard Eden and Robert Recorde, Northumberland quietly sent out

20 Ibid, fols. 12v-13r.
21 Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
(London, 1589), 517.
22 Robert Thorne died in 1532. Quinn suggested the impertinent pilot was Sebastian Cabot. D.B. Quinn,
“Frobisher in the Context of earl English Northwest Exploration,” in Meta Incognita, 10; Andrews, Trade, Plunder,
and Settlement, 54.
42

another expedition to the northwest, of which almost no information exists.
23
When the imperial
ambassador Jehan Scheyfve reminded Cabot that the Iberians possessed the northwestern lands by
right of a papal bull, Cabot replied that the land belonged to whomever occupied them first.
24

Though a northeastern route remained elusive, the opening of trade with Tsar Ivan IV encouraged
merchants and courtiers to incorporate as the Muscovy Company in 1555. Among them were Sir
William Cecil, Sir George Barne, Lionel Duckett, Sir Thomas Gresham, Alderman William Bond,
Edward Castelin, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and William Humfrey, all of whom also became partners in
the Company of Mines Royal or the Company of Mineral & Battery Works, and investors or
advisors on Frobisher’s northwestern voyages.
25
Several others were involved in the Guinea
voyages to obtain African gold, which launched Frobisher’s seafaring career, including Sir George
Barne, Sir John Yorke, Anthony Hickman, Thomas Lok, and Edward Castelin.
26

Opening new cloth markets loomed large in justifications for the northeastern voyages, yet
the involvement of several Russia merchants in simultaneous ventures to Guinea revealed the
attraction of bullion as a motive for these risky enterprises.
27
While exotic goods like spices

23 On 11 April 1553, Henry Machyn recorded in his diary: “ther [at Ratcliffe] the iij shypes that was rygyng
there, appointed go to the nuw fonland [Newfoundland].” BL, Cotton MS Vitellius F V, fol. 17v. A transcribed letter
from a merchant seaman “Ph: Jon:” (Philip Jones) mentioned a northwest voyage some twenty-three years earlier.
Since he mentioned a northwest voyage with both Frobisher and Fenton the letter had to be written in 1577 or later,
putting the earliest date for this voyage was c. 1553-54. There is a second letter dated in 1586, so the voyage could
have been as late as 1563. ““Concerning a Passage to be made from our North-Sea.” BL, Harley MS 167, fol. 107r
(n.d.); Quinn, “Frobisher in the Context of earl English Northwest Exploration,” 12.
24 Royall Tyler, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Vol. 11: 1553 (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office,
1914), 23-37.
25 Other members of the Muscovy Company and the two mineral companies were the Earl of Pembroke, Sir
Henry Sidney, Alderman William Garrard, Anthony Gamage, Richard Springham, Sir Rowland Hayward, and
Edmund Roberts of Hawkehurst. Others held interests in iron and steel works, such as the Earl of Arundel, Lord
William Paget, and Sir Thomas Gresham. Sir John Yorke had been first an assay master and then under-treasurer of
the Southwark and Tower mints. The identification of the William Humfrey in the charter member list with the
goldsmith is conjectured, as nothing is known about him before 1560. “List of Muscovy Company Members,” TNA,
SP 15/7, fols. 115-117 (1 May 1555); Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 35-63; David Kiernan, ‘Humfrey, William
(c.1515–1579)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (hereafter ODNB) (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2004).
26 In 1561, Sir William Winter joined this consortium for a new Guinea voyage. McDermott, Martin Frobisher,
34-35, 39-40.
27 Quinn & Ryan, xi-xii.
43

appealed to merchants, they were perishable goods with narrower markets subject to unpredictable
gluts. Economist Glyn Davies pointed out that bullion had virtues over other commodities due to
its high value-to-weight ratio and more stable demand in the marketplace and state treasuries.
Given the expense and dangers of transoceanic trade, bullion was a less risky investment than
spices.
28
The Muscovy Company explicitly intended to access the Far East’s spices and gold, free
from Portuguese and Barbary competitors, but had to settle for Russia’s furs, pitch, and timber
when explorers could not locate a northeastern passage.
29
Nevertheless, English speculators
indelibly associated opening a northern route to the East Indies with gold and silver as much as
spices and silks, even for strictly commercial ventures. So obvious was this connection that it often
went unmentioned unless the region was not traditionally known to have precious metals, like
Baffin Island.
30
Thus, when Frobisher set off on his first voyage with assayer’s tools and weights,
it implicitly recognized the hope to find precious metals not just in Asia, but also in the lands along
the way, even if prospecting for mines was not part of the agenda.
Even at the best times, trade with Russia was challenging. After Tsar Ivan IV’s capture of
Narva in 1558, foreign and English merchants who found the Muscovy Company’s privileges too
restrictive used the port to circumvent their monopoly. Alderman William Bond spent time in the
Fleet prison for an illicit venture to Narva in 1564.
31
That same year Anthony Jenkinson returned
to England and soon after proposed a northern voyage to discover precious metals, lead, tin,
copperas, crystal, and jasper in Cathay, as China and its nearby islands were now known.
32
Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, perhaps influenced by Richard Eden during a chance meeting at Le Havre in

28 Davies, History of Money, 185.
29 Brenner, 11-13.
30 Alexander, Geometrical Landscapes, 30.
31 W.R. Scott, The Constitution and Finance of Joint-Stock Companies (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1912), 2:41.
32 Anthony Jenkinson, “Anthony Jenkinson to Q. Elizabeth, Proposing a Voyage of Discovery to Cathay by the
North Seas,” BL, Cotton MS Galba D IX, fol. 4 (31 May 1565).
44

1562, had proposed a northwestern voyage. Sir William Cecil acquainted Jenkinson with Gilbert,
and they debated the merits of a northeastern or northwestern passage before Queen Elizabeth and
the Privy Council. Even though Jenkinson and Gilbert maintained their disagreement over the
likelier route, they proposed a joint northern venture. When the Queen sent Jenkinson to Russia as
a special envoy to negotiate the Muscovy Company’s trading privileges, Gilbert proceeded with
his northwestern project, and called on John Dee to advise him on geography and navigation in
the region.
33

As he prepared to go to Ireland, Gilbert wrote a treatise to accompany his petition with current
cosmographical and geographical opinion. Gilbert defended his project against its detractors. Had
he sought Utopia, he complained, one might rightly accuse him of an “unsetled head,” but Cathay
was no such fantasy. It was a place Sebastian Münster and Gemma Frisius said was accessible
through a route north of the American mainland called the Strait of Anian, which Abraham Ortelius
depicted on his 1564 map Typus Orbis Terrarum. Indeed, to disbelieve the expertise of
geographers, the judgment of philosophers, and the experience of mariners was to be wedded to
one’s own ignorance. Rather, after much study and conference with men of learning and skill, his
opinion was “grounded upon a very sure foundation” of scientia and praxis. In conclusion,
Cathay’s “abundance of riches & treasure, no man of learning, and judgement doubteth.”
34

Assuming a northeast route existed, Gilbert doubted England would enjoy trade to Asia for
very long based on the Tsar’s past behavior regarding the Muscovy Company’s privileges.
35
Trade
by a northwest passage, in contrast, would be safe from the whims and annoyances of any Christian

33 Jenkinson asked Sir William Cecil to include him in the patent in absentia if the Crown approved the project.
Anthony Jenkinson, “Anthony Jenkinson to Sir William Cecil,” TNA, SP 70/147/2, fol. 271v (Kholmogory, 26 June
1566); Quinn “Frobisher in the Context of earl English Northwest Exploration,” 13; Parry, The Arch-Conjuror of
England, 84.
34 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, A discourse of a discoverie for a new passage to Cataia (London, 1576), p3v – p4r.
35 Gilbert, A discourse of a discoverie, G4r.
45

or heathen prince, and the only way for England to possess the infinite riches of the East. Since
the northwest route was shorter, England could sell Eastern wares in Europe cheaper than either
Portugal or Spain, and they could trade cloth, lead, and tin in new markets along the way. With
this expansion of trade and the acquisition of new lands, England could enlarge its navy, vent
superfluous idle and disorderly subjects who are “dayly consumed with the Gallowes,” and set
children to work making trifles to trade with Native Americans.
36
Finally, from these new lands
they could sail to places inaccessible to the Iberians “where ther is to be found great aboundance
of gold, silver, [and] precious stones.”
37
Gilbert supposed providence had reserved this discovery
to a noble prince or a worthy person “therby to make himselfe rich, & the worlde happie.”
38
The
Muscovy Company initially regarded Gilbert’s proposal as derogatory to their privileges, which
irked Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and his elder brother Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick,
who were keen about the speculative possibilities of the project. Gilbert must have accepted their
terms to authorize the expedition, for he soon presented a revised proposal directly to the Queen.
39

The project nonetheless lapsed when Gilbert became preoccupied in Ireland and eventually
directed his attention toward a prospective Munster plantation.
In the years following, several disruptions rattled the state and overseas merchants, creating
fertile ground for northwestern projects to earn support among courtiers and London merchants.
As both Ireland and northern England erupted in rebellion in 1569, Cecil diagnosed the greatest
dangers to the realm: too few young adults married and procreated; disunited Protestant states were
weak against belligerent Catholic states; and foreign and domestic rebels emboldened by rumors

36 Ibid, H1v-H2r.
37 Ibid, H1v.
38 Ibid, H4v.
39 Sir William Garrard and Sir Rowland Hayward, “Sir William Garrard to Cecill,” TNA, SP 12/42, fol. 16 (24
January 1567); Sir Humphrey Gilbert, “Humfrey Gilbert to the Queen,” TNA, SP 12/42, fols. 53-55 (February 1567);
McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 103-104.
46

of the Crown’s poverty sought Spanish aid for their insurrections. An impoverished elite and
insufficient Crown revenues, which caused a scarcity of treasure, munitions, mariners and soldiers,
worsened the state’s imperfections.
40
Sir Thomas Gresham blamed the lack of treasure on trade
volatility, which was exacerbated by the Philip II’s five-year embargo on English traders, which
began in 1568, and the Tsar’s abrupt cancellation of the Muscovy Company’s privileges in 1570;
though restored the following year, it signaled difficult times for the company, especially since the
Dutch used the intervening year to enter the Russia trade. The Queen’s excommunication by the
Pope, followed by a plot to assassinate her in 1571, intensified perceptions that England needed to
stock its arsenal and treasury in preparation for war. As the likelihood of conflict with Spain
increased the Queen sold royal lands to raise money and dispatched Gresham to Antwerp from
1575-76 to settle the Crown’s debts and to acquire as much ordnance as her credit allowed. In the
immediate term the sale of royal lands improved the Crown’s finances, but it ultimately reduced
revenues and encouraged the Crown to consider new sources of income from projects as diverse
as domestic mining, glassmaking, dying, and overseas enterprise.
41

In this decade of commercial and military uncertainty between 1566 and 1576, the mining
industry stood as a beacon of hope, employing perhaps 10,000 people and growing.
42
After a
decade-long ban on bell metal exports, the lead industry had recovered from a forty-year decline
and substantially increased production.
43
A 1574 enquiry found the number of ironworks just in
the Weald (Sussex, Kent, and Surrey) had grown to about forty furnaces and fifty forges in
operation, mainly in the manufacture of cast iron guns and wares.
44
The Mines Royal at Keswick

40 Sir William Cecil, “State of the Realm,” Hat., CP 157/2 (1569).
41 The cumulative effect of this loss of revenue from Crown lands would disastrously manifest in the Jacobean
period. Scott, The Constitution and Finance of Joint-Stock Companies, 43-44.
42
Baldwin, “Speculative Ambitions and the Reputations of Frobisher's Metallurgists,” 402.
43
Ian Blanchard, International Lead Production and Trade in the "Age of the Saigerprozess": 1460-1560
(Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag, 1995), 29.
44
Rees, Industry before the Industrial Revolution, 1:181.
47

had seen a steady increase in copper and silver production, reaching 1200 hundredweight (cwt) of
copper per year from 1570-73 and 1475 ounces of silver in 1572. Though production at Keswick
dipped from 1573-75 because of a glut of refined copper, permission to manufacture copper vessels
and plates restored production and held great potential profit.
45
The two mining monopolies had
not yet returned dividends for its partners, but in the first half of the 1570s they seemed to be on
the cusp of profitability.
The expansion of England’s economic sphere and dominion into new lands appealed to
various sectors of the mineral industry, as it would increase demand for ordnance and equipment
produced by ironworkers and the Mineral & Battery Works, in addition to copper wares
manufactured by the Mines Royal; new outlets for trade would also benefit the tin and lead
industries as they were two of England’s top exports. A thriving domestic mining industry was a
boon to maritime expansion. At the same time, the mining industry was critically low on capital
investment, and overseas ventures promised to bring home sufficient gold, silver, and luxury
commodities to fund mineral works, especially the munitions industry, which was essential to
national defense. This interdependence of mining and maritime ventures was most visible in the
subscription lists for the Frobisher ventures, a point to which I will return.
Metals, whether extracted from the earth or exchanged for merchandise, seemed the likeliest
solution to the Crown’s problems, and predisposed the Crown to favor ventures in pursuit of them.
In 1573-74, Richard Grenville proposed to discover the Strait of Anian from the Pacific side by
passing around the Strait of Magellan and up the western coast of the Americas. Supported by Sir
George Peckham, whose father had been high-treasurer of the mints from 1544-64, and
Christopher Carleill, the grandson of Sir George Barne, Grenville promised the “lykelihode of

45
Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 216-217; Daniel Hechstetter, Memorabilia and Letters 1600-1639: Copper
Works and Life in Cumbria, ed. George Hammersley (Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1988), 170.
48

bringinge in grete treasure of golde sylver and pearle into this relme,” the influx of Spanish silver
to England as payment for the luxury commodities carried from Asia, and lands suitable for
colonization.
46
Perhaps reflecting Peckham’s mint connection, their petition rationalized the
expedition as a public benefit, for the silver brought back would be “the chief furniture of her
Majesties Mynte.”
47
Grenville nonetheless thought it foolhardy to attempt an exploration of the
Strait of Anian from the north due to the brief three-month season it was navigable.
48
Afraid of
antagonizing Spain, still her nominal ally, the Queen did not approve this venture; however, after
Frobisher’s apparent discovery of gold and at the urging of the Earl of Leicester and Sir
Christopher Hatton, she commissioned Sir Francis Drake and Thomas Doughty as joint
commanders to undertake the voyage in 1577, thereby securing the northwest passage as an
English domain from both directions.
Around the same time, Martin Frobisher secured the patronage of the Earl of Warwick, master
of the ordnance, and with his endorsement received the Privy Council’s consent to petition the
Muscovy Company for a northwest voyage in late 1574. Initially hostile to the project, Muscovy
Company treasurer Michael Lok exploited internal dissensions between members who supported
farming their license to the northwest and opening markets less troublesome than Russia, and those
who wanted to restrict all northern ventures to their membership and continue to focus on Russia
and the inland trade to Persia.
49
Lok was the second son of Sir William Lok, a notable merchant

46 Christopher Carleill’s grandfather was Sir George Barne and father was Alexander Carleill. His widowed
mother married Sir Francis Walsingham. “Specification in detail of the advantages to be gained by their proposed
voyage of discovery South of the equinoctial line,” TNA, SP 12/95, fol. 138v (22 March 1574); Sir Richard Grenville,
“Mr. Greenfield’s Discourse of a Streight,” BL, Lansdowne MS 100/4, fol. 53v (c. 1573). Another copy of the petition
is “A discourse addressed to Lord Burghley,” BL, Lansdowne 100/18, fols. 142-146.
47 TNA, SP 12/95, fol. 139r.
48 Sir Richard Grenville, “. “A Discourse of a Voiage Intended by Rychard Grenefeld by Seas Anno 1573,” BL,
Additional MS 48151, formerly Yelverton MS 162, fol. 157 (1573); BL, Lansdowne MS 100/4, fol. 54r.
49 Michael Lok, “The Answer of Michael Lok upon the Second Audit of His Accounts by the Commissioners,”
TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 99 (20 January - 18 February 1578/9); Michael Lok, “Michael Lok to --,” BL, Cotton MS Otho
49

who had expanded the family’s business from Antwerp into the Levant. By the 1550s, the Loks’
business was in dire straits, as debasement made trade to Antwerp difficult and the Levant trade
virtually ceased, and they looked to open new trades.
While his older brother Thomas became involved in the Guinea voyages, Lok went to Spain
and Portugal from 1552-54.
50
In Seville, he witnessed the annual return of the West Indian fleet
with dozens of ships “Laden most with sylver and gold, & other ryche Marchandys;” in Lisbon,
he saw Sebastião I’s ships come back from the East Indies with luxury goods and “with great
aboundans of Treasour.”
51
The wealth brought back from the Indies inspired Lok to learn as much
as he could about the New World, a course of self-study in cosmography, geography, and
cartography that consumed the next two decades of his life, more than ₤500, and supposedly
caused his vocation to suffer as he pursued the public good “in stead of plesure & proffett.”
52

After Lok returned from Portugal, he and his brother-in-law Richard Springham, a partner in
the Mines Royal, proposed a project to establish a domestic silk industry. He remained close to
mercantile affairs, defending the rights of the Muscovy merchants against interlopers and
recommending closer diplomatic ties between the Queen and the Tsar, and advised extending
English trade directly to Persia to cut out Turkish and Venetian middlemen. After the death of his
first wife in 1571, Lok relinquished his continental travels to accept a position as the Muscovy
Company’s London agent so he could care for his eight children. Lok was diligent in his work for
the Muscovy Company, but when Frobisher appeared before their court in late 1574, he had no

E VIII, fols. 47v-48r (The Fleet, London, 16 November 1581), collated with George Best, The Three Voyages of
Martin Frobisher, ed. Sir Richard Collinson, (London: Hakluyt Society, 1867), 80-81.
50 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 40.
51 Michael Lok, “The Doynges of Michael Lok for the Voyage of Kathai, &c.,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 67r (c.
1577).
52 Elsewhere he would claim it was ₤1000. TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 67r; Michael Lok, “Mr. Lok’s Private
Memorial of Expenses for the First and Second Voyages Made by Captain Furbisher to Cathai and the North-West,”
TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 69r, (1577); Michael Lok, “A Brief Account of the Expenses and Requisite for Fitting out Two
Ships,” BL, Lansdowne MS 24/62, fol. 163 (1577).
50

qualms about partnering with him and undermining the company’s interests for his own benefit.
In their moral flexibility, Frobisher and Lok were equally-matched, perhaps to the undoing of their
enterprise.
53

Martin Frobisher was born in Altofts, West Yorkshire near the market town of Wakefield
around 1535. Wakefield served several long-established collieries, which may have influenced
Frobisher’s later interest in farming sea-coal.
54
About 1549, Frobisher went to London to live with
his kinsman Sir John Yorke, a mercer and then under-treasurer of the royal mint. Yorke had
recently switched allegiances from Lord Protector Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset to John
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, a connection to the Dudley family Frobisher later capitalized on. Yorke
had alchemical interests as well, urging Richard Eden to submit an alchemical book to the Earl of
Warwick and offering him a position at the royal mint. Eden declined in favor of patronage by
Richard Whalley, a partisan of the Duke of Somerset, to generate the philosopher’s stone and
transmute unlimited specie.
55

As a member of Yorke’s household, Frobisher witnessed the intersection of two important
economic developments, which would shape his future career. While Yorke presided over the
debasement of English coinage during Henry VIII’s and Edward VI’s reigns, as a merchant he saw
how it harmed the Northern European trade and he expanded his commercial sphere into Iberian
markets to mitigate the damage; like Sir Thomas Gresham, Yorke also desired an end to Antwerp’s
stranglehold over the foreign exchange, which disadvantaged English currency, and sought both

53 Springham and Sir Henry Sidney purchased land from the Mines Royal in 1571. McDermott, Martin
Frobisher, 110-114; Richard Springham and Michael Lok, “Proposals of Richard Springham and Michael Loke,”
TNA, SP 12/8, fol. 70 (1559); “Trade with Russia,” TNA, SP 70/134, fol. 29 (8 May 1575); Donald, Elizabethan
Copper, 92.
54 He sought a patent with partner Richard Morley to be the customer for sea-coal in Newcastle. Martin Frobisher
and Richard Morley, “Martin Frobisher and Richard Morley,” BL, Lansdowne MS 107/89, fol. 151 (n.d.).
55 “Confession of Richard Eden before the Earl of Rutland, Lord lieutenant of Notts,” TNA, SP 46/2, fols. 164r-
v (c. 1557).
51

new markets for English cloth, lead, and tin and sources of bullion to restore the coinage to a fine
standard. Yorke retired from the mint in 1552 and joined a syndicate of merchants for an expedition
to Guinea for gold, luxury goods, and outlets for English merchandize. Of a difficult and boisterous
temper, Yorke sent the young Frobisher on the voyage as a “naturall harnes of Body” to discipline
his euphemistically-described “great Spirit & bould courage.”
56
Thereafter, Frobisher made his
living by the sea, spending time imprisoned at Mina and Lisbon after Captain John Lok left him
in West Africa as a hostage on the 1554 Guinea voyage.
57

Back in England, Frobisher supported himself as a privateer and pirate, for which he spent
time in the Marshalsea. In 1571, the Crown offered Frobisher a chance to redeem his reputation
seizing the ships of his former colleagues on the government’s behalf. In this capacity he came
under the oversight of Captain Edward Horsey, a client of the Earl of Leicester who later pledged
to invest in the northwest voyages.
58
Frobisher proved an effective agent of the Crown, with
Horsey remarking to William Cecil, now Lord Burghley: “I finde in your Lordship’s last lettre that
yow do conceive well of him of late.”
59
He further ingratiated himself to the Crown by conveying
supplies to Ireland. The origin of Frobisher’s interest in the Northwest Passage is unclear. George
Best claimed Frobisher first solicited investors about fifteen years before the first voyage in 1576
and Sir Dudley Digges later said Frobisher learned about the Northwest Passage from a Portuguese
pilot while he was in Guinea; however, since it contested Lok’s attempt to take credit for the

56 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fol. 48r.
57 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 21-6, 35-6, 41-2.
58 In 1577, Captain Horsey and Thomas Randolph, another key investor in the Frobisher voyages, sponsored
Cornelius Stephenson in a project to manufacture saltpeter. The project fell apart at the end of 1580, when Stephenson
still had not produced any saltpeter. Cornelius Stephinson, “Cornelius Stephinson’s proposals for purchasing waste
ground of the Queen in Hampshire, whereon to make saltpetre,” BL, Lansdowne MS 24/51, fol. 137 (1577); Thomas
Randolph, “Thomas Randolph to Lord Burghley, earnestly backing the petition of Stephinson for the saltpetre works,”
BL, Lansdowne MS 24/52, fol. 139 (1577); Sir Edward Horsey and Cornelius Stephinson, “Sir Edward Horsey and
Cornelius Stephinson's letters to Lord Burghley,” BL, Lansdowne MS 30/3, fol. 6 (19 June 1580); David Cressy,
Saltpeter: The Mother of Gunpowder, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 48-49, 59-60.
59 Sir Edward Horsey, “Capt. Horsey to Burghley,” TNA, SP 12/80, fol. 85 (21 August 1571).
52

intellectual genesis of the project and Frobisher’s education on the subject, these assertions have
to be taken with a grain of salt.
60
In any case, by 1574 Frobisher was eager to embark on an
adventure that would bring him fame, honor, and riches.
It is not known when Lok and Frobisher first met, who initiated the partnership, or who
conceived the project. Frobisher had known the Lok family since the aforementioned 1554 Guinea
voyage.
61
Michael Lok said he and Frobisher had known each other some years before becoming
reacquainted in 1574 over their shared interest in the Northwest Passage.
62
Lok would later
describe his decades of amassed knowledge, books, charts, maps, instruments, and personal notes
like a mine, which he opened to Frobisher to reveal their secret treasures and daily instructed him
“therin to my skyll” so he could convincingly sell the project to potential investors. Additionally,
Lok opened his house, purse and credit to Frobisher “when he was utterlye destitute of boath mony
and Credite and of frindes.”
63
Together they pushed for the Muscovy Company to approve the
license: Lok worked from inside the company to gain support from key members and Frobisher
leveraged his Privy Council connections to exert pressure on the Muscovy Company. On 3
February 1575, the Muscovy Company granted Frobisher and Lok a license for a northwest
voyage.

60 George Best, A true discourse of the late voyages of discoverie, for the finding of a passage to Cathaya, by
the Northweast, under the conduct of Martin Frobisher Generall devided into three bookes (London, 1578), 1:45; Sir
Dudley Digges, Fata mihi totum mea sunt agitanda per orbem (London, 1611), 4. W.R. Scott put forth a romantic
story of Sir Humphrey Gilbert bequeathing his project to Frobisher after they met in Ireland. Scott, The Constitution
and Finance, 76-77.
61 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 39-42, 108-109.
62 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fol. 46r; TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 67v.
63 TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 99r.
53

THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1576
Though the Queen was lukewarm about the project, it received critical support from the Privy
Council, especially among those most concerned with the kingdom’s defense like the Earls of
Leicester and Warwick and Sir Francis Walsingham.
64
They viewed Philip II’s 1575 bankruptcy,
which caused a soldiers’ mutiny in the Netherlands over unpaid wages the following year, as an
opportunity for England to expand its dominions and aid other Protestant states. To promote the
venture and spur investment, Gilbert clandestinely published his 1566 treatise as A discourse of a
discoverie for a new passage to Cataia (London, 1576).
65
To encourage substantial investments,
Lok placed his name at the top of the subscription list with a ₤100 adventure. Sir Thomas Gresham
introduced Lok to merchant-financiers Alderman William Bond and customer William Burd to
help him raise more money. In addition to their mercantile pursuits, both men were active members
in the Mineral & Battery Works, holding offices and regularly attending courts in London.
66
With
their influence and subscriptions of ₤100 each, Lok convinced merchants “which before could
fynde no taste therof” to adventure in the voyage.
67
Between merchants and courtiers, Lok and
Frobisher received ₤875 for the first voyage, an insufficient amount to prosecute Frobisher’s
ambitious plan for five ships to sail in 1575, and they postponed the expedition for a season.
Alternately meeting at the London homes of Bond and Burd, by early 1576 they scaled down the

64 This included Lord Burghley and Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex.
65 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fols. 44r-v, collated with Best, 1867, 90-91.
66 Both were listed as members on the 1568 patent of the Mineral & Battery Works. The company’s court book
records that in December 1570, Burd was a deputy and Alderman Bond was an assistant. Company of Mineral &
Battery Works, “Mineral & Battery Workes Commencing December 1568. Ends in May 1586,” BL, Loan MS 16, vol.
1, fol. 93v (1566-1580s).
67 TNA, SP 12/129, fols. 99v-100r.
54

venture to two ships and a pinnace, although Lok still had to put up ₤800 of his own money to
cover the charges for the voyage.
68

There were eighteen subscribers to the first voyage, including five Privy Councilors (Lord
Burghley, the Earls of Sussex, Leicester and Warwick, and Sir Francis Walsingham), a courtier
(Philip Sidney), a diplomat (Thomas Randolph), and eleven merchants (Lok, Gresham, Burd,
Bond, Sir Lionel Duckett, Mathew Field, Edmund Hogan, Christopher Andrews, Robert Martin,
Mathew Kindersley, and Anthony Jenkinson). Underscoring the commercial orientation of the
enterprise and its connection to the increasingly frustrated Russia trade, almost all of the
subscribers were affiliated with either the Muscovy Company or the Mercers’ Company.
69

The emphasis on the mercantile backgrounds of the subscribers obscures the strong presence
of mineral men in this first voyage. Of these eighteen adventurers, seven belonged to the Mines
Royal and the Mineral & Battery Works (Burghley, Leicester, Warwick, Burd, Bond, Duckett, and
Field) and Walsingham would be governor of the Mines Royal in 1580.
70
Seven owned or held
interest in other mineral enterprises like ironworks (Gresham, Leicester, and Warwick), silver and
lead mines (Duckett), or saltpeter (Randolph). Philip Sidney’s family owned iron and steel works
in Sussex and Wales.
71
In addition to mining, at least five were involved in industrial alchemical
schemes such as the Society of the New Art or private experiments (Burghley, Leicester, Warwick,

68 Michael Lok, “Accounts, with Subsidiary Documents, of Michael Lok, Treasurer, of First, Second and Third
Voyages of Martin Frobisher to Cathary by the North-West Passage. Composite Volume,” TNA, E 164/35, fols. 2r-
3r (1576-1578).
69 The ratio of merchants to courtiers among investors was 60/40, but appears larger when honorary
memberships, such as Lord Burghley (Muscovy Company) or the Earl of Leicester (Mercers’ Company), in the two
companies are included. McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 105.
70 BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 43r; William Patten, “Note of the Shareholder in the Mines Royal,” TNA SP
12/144, fol. 70r (19 November 1580); Collingwood, Elizabethan Keswick, 3, 5; Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 43-47,
92.
71 BL, Lansdowne MS 24/52, fol. 139; Ernest Straker, Wealden Iron (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1931),
151; Rees, Industry Before the Industrial Revolution, 1:204, 279, 284; Royal Historical Society, Sidney Ironworks
Accounts, 1541-1573, 6, 25, 32-34.
55

Sidney, and Walsingham).
72
All told, eleven of the initial adventurers were involved in mineral
enterprises, particularly those related to munitions manufacture, an equal proportion to the number
of merchants. The significance of mineral men in the first voyage highlights the importance placed
upon strengthening both England’s treasury and the supply of munitions with an inflow of precious
metals from trade with the Americas and Far East, and the hope they might discover mines in new
lands. It also helps explain why there was not a greater defection of merchants from the Cathay
Company when the aims of the venture shifted to mining in 1577.
Preparations for the voyage included building a pinnace and a new ship, the Gabriel, and
refitting the Michael, which they purchased with its furniture from Christopher Andrews and
Robert Martin, both minor adventurers in the voyage. Furnishing these two ships drew in the
domestic metal industries: William Web provided bar iron, and smiths Richard Lane and Thomas
Bewell, and armorer Richard Luksome sold them iron bolts, spikes, nails, hatchets and other items.
Plumber John Clypson of London and Sir Lionel Duckett procured lead. Pewterer William Curtis
supplied tin and pewter vessels, John James supplied various brass and iron cooking pots, basins,
platters and implements, and John Malyne made latten kettles. Before sailing, Lok purchased
Russian iron ore as ballast for the Gabriel. And of course, there were munitions and ordinance:
calivers, a long musket, lead pellets, crossbar shots, round shots for cast-iron falconets, targets,
plate, long pikes and ship pikes. They also acquired a “great pare of bellowes” for the smith’s
forge.
73
The accounts revealed how dependent England remained on foreign metal imports to equip

72 “A Brief of the Privileges Granted to Sir Tho. Smith,” BL, Lansdowne MS 14/15, fols. 40r-41v (4 December
1572); Parry, 23, 88.
73 TNA, E 164/35, fols. 5v, 6v-7r, 10v-11v, 20r-v.
56

them: bar iron from Spain, vessels from Denmark and Germany, French ewers, amys iron, and
Spruce iron.
74

In merchantable goods, Frobisher carried cloth of gold, velvet, damask, various taffetas, satin,
and sarsenet, as well as trifles like looking glasses, scissors, shears, knives, dog chains, pins, bells,
tin whistles, and straw hats.

Ironmonger Robert Cuttes provided brass troy and avoirdupois weights
and balances for trade. From goldsmith Richard Clarke, Frobisher received luxury items, likely as
gifts for any elites with whom he might initiate trade relations. They included gold and silver rings,
pearls, a piece of unicorn horn, sapphires, a counterfeit ruby, a diamond, an emerald, and colored
beads. Clarke also sold Frobisher a touchstone for assaying gold and a plate of copper with nine
holes to measure pearls or gems he received in trade or discovered.
75
In all, the commodities were
not enough to make a profit trading, indicating their primary purpose was to determine their
salability in new markets.
At the request of Duckett, shortly before Frobisher’s departure John Dee visited Muscovy
House to tutor Lok, Frobisher, and shipmasters Christopher Hall of Limehouse and Owen Griffin
in navigation.
76
In Lok’s recollection, Dee challenged his knowledge about the Strait of Anian, at
which Lok allegedly laid out his amassed navigational library and notes taken over decades,
deflating Dee’s pretension to educate him in the enterprise. The two men nevertheless developed
mutual respect for each other, and Dee instructed Frobisher, Hall, and Griffin in the use of
seafaring instruments, including his paradoxal compass.
77
Alluding to their inability to master the
instrument after one brief lesson, Dee pompously remarked the mariners “became very sorry of

74 Amys iron was imported iron distinct from Spanish, Swedish, or Spruce iron but whose origins are unclear.
Spruce iron was Swedish iron processed in Danzig or other Baltic ports and then transported into Western Europe. It
is perhaps a corruption of “Prussia.” Nancy Cox and Karin Dannehl, Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities,
1550-1820 (Wolverhampton: University of Wolverhampton, 2007), available: British History Online.
75 TNA, E 164/35, fols. 21r, 23v-24v.
76 John Dee, General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation (London, 1577), 2.
77 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fols. 44r-v, collated with Best, 1867, 90-91.
57

their so late acquaintance and conference, for these their waighty affaires furdering.”
78
At Lord
Burghley’s insistence William Borough, an experienced mariner in the Russia trade, oversaw the
outfitting of the ships, hired the mariners, and advised on the best route to the entrance of the
Northwest Passage.
79

On 7 June 1576, Frobisher set out from Ratcliffe, a small hamlet on the north bank of the
Thames, with a crew of 35 men and boys. Not knowing what he might encounter on this first
voyage, he brought with him an English Bible, André Thevet’s Cosmographie universelle in
French and The new-founde world, or Antarticke (London: 1568), Pedro de Medina’s Regimiento
de navegación (1563), recently translated out of Spanish at William Borough’s request, the
voyages of Sir John Mandeville, a Mercator mappa universalis, a printed Ortelius chart, and other
small printed maps and charts. Humfrey Cole, an instrument-maker, metallurgist, former employee
of the Mineral & Battery Works, and a die-sinker in the mint, furnished him with a metal globe
and a Ptolemaic armillary sphere, and Borough sold him an astrolabe. Furthermore, Frobisher
carried twenty compasses and eighteen hourglasses, several brass instruments: a nautical armillary
sphere, a meridian compass, a geometrical holometer, a universal horologium (table of hours), an
annalus astronomicus (astronomical rings), and a standing level, small instruments for geometry
made of iron, and a wood cross-staff called a Balistella.
80

78 Dee’s recollection of the event differed somewhat from Lok’s remembrance: “Where, he found him self
courteously and very worshipfully enterteined. And at that tyme of his abode there, and after that, at sundry other
tymes, of his Resort, thither, and to their Ships, he proceded so with them, according to his Intent: and pleasured them,
so much according to their desire: That he finding them, quick of apprehension, and likely to remaine Thankfull, for
his pithy instructing of them: And they, finding him (aboue their expectation) skilfull: And (more then could be wished
for) Carefull, for their well doing, in this their commendable and honorable Attempt: both the one and the other,
became very sorry of their so late acquaintance and conference, for these their waighty affaires furdering.” Dee,
General and rare memorials, 2-3.
79 McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 121.
80 TNA, E 164/35, fols. 8v-9r ; BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 92r.
58

Leaving late in the season, the ships encountered contrary winds and foul weather that delayed
their progress across the Atlantic. During their passage through Davis Strait, a storm sank their
pinnace, killing four men, and fog separated the two barks. Not wishing to proceed blindly, Captain
Matthew Kindersley of the Michael abandoned the voyage. Reduced to a single ship and only
eighteen men, Frobisher’s luck did not improve as ice increasingly blocked their passage toward
the Strait of Anian. Anchoring at Hall’s Island (modern Little Hall’s Island), Frobisher told his
men that if they could get ashore “to bring him whatsoever thing they could first find whether it
were living or dead, stocke or stone, in token of Christian possession.”
81
The men returned with
green grass, flowers, and Robert Garrard brought back a metamorphic rock the size of a half-penny
loaf that resembled sea-coal, but sparkled and had such weight he thought it might contain metal.
Frobisher apparently regarded the stone as worthless, believing that precious metals were not
engendered so far north, yet he brought it home anyway.
82
On 20 July, after a few days of trading
needles, bells, and knives to the Inuit, five of Frobisher’s men disappeared, among them Garrard,
leaving a crew barely sufficient to sail the ship home. In retaliation, and as another token of their
discovery, Frobisher’s men lured an Inuk man aboard the ship with a bell and took him captive.
As conditions worsened, they headed back to England, where the Gabriel arrived in the Thames
on 6 October 1576.
83
Soon after Frobisher’s return, the Queen appointed Lok, Sir William Winter,
and Thomas Randolph as commissioners to oversee the discharge of the ships and the mariners
and to consider whether or not to attempt a second voyage.
84

81 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fol. 48v, collated with Best, 1867, 80; Best, A True Discourse, 50-51.
82 Perhaps related to Mines Royal member, Sir William Garrard (d. 1571). Best, A True Discourse, 50-51;
Michael Lok, “A Narrative of the Unwarrantable Doings of Captain Furbisher,” BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 2r-v
(May 1579).
83 The Michael had arrived at London on 1 September, and Captain Kindersley reported the Gabriel lost. Richard
Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (London, 1599-1600),
3:31; McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 148.
84 TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 100v.
59

MARCASITE OF GOLD
Failing to find the Northwest Passage, Frobisher arrived in England empty-handed except for
the black stone and the Inuk man, who died shortly after their arrival. In the presence of Rowland
Yorke (son of Sir John) and another gentleman, Frobisher gave Lok the black ore.
85
How it came
to be assayed is unclear, for the stories disagree, either because they were based in hearsay or
crafted to serve particular agendas. Philip Sidney incorrectly reported to Hubert Languet that
Garrard’s friend assayed the ore in England and found it pure gold.
86
To counter accusations of
greed, George Best, a pupil of John Dee, told an apocryphal story about the serendipitous discovery
of the ore by providence rather than prospecting. Another version said the wife of an adventurer
threw the stone into the fire in a fit of pique over the loss of her husband’s investment. In the fire
it appeared to glisten gold and after a vinegar wash—common in gold assaying after an initial
roasting of the ore—“it glistered with a bright Marquesset of golde.”
87
In Lok’s version, Garrard
brought the stone aboard to “prove yf yt woold burne for fyare, whereof they had lacke,” which
revealed its metallic content.
88
With the smith’s bellows, the cook’s vinegar, and the touchstone,
Frobisher’s ship carried the tools for a field assay, suggesting that the stone was purposely brought
back for further testing after an initial assay.
89

Most likely, when Lok showed William Burd, John Dee, or Lord Burghley the sparkling black
stone, it recalled Vannoccio Biringuccio’s reminder that dark, heavy bituminous clay with a
sulfurous odor signified very pure gold of the finest grain. The glistening specks of marcasite were

85 According to Lok, the two gentleman took a sample of the ore with them too. Michael Lok, “Mr. Michael
Lok to the Queen,” TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 68r (London, 22 April 1577).
86 Steuart A. Pears, The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet (London, 1845), 118-119.
87 Best, A True Discourse, 51; Agricola, 231; Alexander, 29.
88 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 2v.
89 It is possible either smith John Jacob or surgeon Philip Berket might have possessed rudimentary knowledge
of field assaying. Hogarth et al., 2; McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 126.
60

another positive sign. Metallurgists disagreed on the precise nature of marcasite. Biringuccio
believed they were the menses of metallic conception, immature metals that had not yet been
purified by the process of time. Others thought marcasites were the fumosities or vapors from ripe
metals. In either case, their presence often indicated richer metals farther beneath the surface. The
land’s very barrenness, with no trees and few vegetals, and rough, high mountains also argued in
favor of the existence of gold. Common metallurgical wisdom held that poisonous exhalations
from metals ripening in the hot earth typically rendered the land sterile, like Potosí in Peru.
90
If the
stone had not been tried aboard Frobisher’s ship, it was most certainly roasted and washed in
vinegar or another acid at this time, which produced a brighter shimmer in the marcasite and
convinced the chief investors to have the stone assayed.
In London, Lok had samples of the stone tested by George Needham of the Mines Royal and
William Williams and his assistant Wheler of the royal mint. Williams was a member of the Mines
Royal and his assistant perhaps related to fellow member goldsmith John Wheeler (d. 1575). All
three men concluded that the stone was non-metallic or marcasite, a generic term for different
sulfide minerals, including iron disulfide, pyrite, bismuth, and occasionally antimony. Marcasite
was often mixed in the earth with precious metals despite its impurity, so this conclusion was not
necessarily a deterrent to further investigation.
91
In his treatise on assaying, Lazarus Ercker,
superintendent of Emperor Rudolf II’s mines, mentioned tales of a marcasite of pyrites that was a
very rich gold ore, though he had never seen it. Dee owned a copy of Ercker’s Beschreibung:
Allerfürnemisten Mineralischen Ertzt Unnd Berckwercks Arten (Prague, 1574) and perhaps told

90 Biringuccio, 16, 29, 92-93.
91 This information would have been accessible to Lok through Richard Eden’s excerpt of Biringuccio in
Anghiera, The decades of the newe worlde, 327v; TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 68r; Biringuccio, 46.
61

his friend Lok or Lord Burghley about this marcasite of gold. This may explain why Lok consulted
an alchemist about the ore after the goldsmiths found nothing.
92

Probably on Lord Burghley’s recommendation, in January 1577 Lok asked Venetian
alchemist Giovan Battista Agnello to assay the ore. Agnello came to England as a religious
refugee, and in search of patronage had published Apocalypsis spiritus secreti (London, 1566). In
it he called the quintessence the dew of heaven that God revealed only to the virtuous, emphasizing
transmutation as a rectification of the soul more so than matter. With the quintessence one could
see the treasures “drowned in the Sea, and hid in the earth” and make all metals pure gold and
silver.
93
Agnello credited the quintessence for some of the Bible’s greatest acts—Noah’s
construction of the Ark, Moses’ tabernacle, Salomon’s Temple, and Abraham’s long life—
concluding it “is better than the trafficke of gold or silver.”
94
Long ago convinced that large-scale
transmutation offered a solution to the Crown’s scarcity of treasure, besides mining and
exploration, Lord Burghley soon became acquainted with Agnello. After William Medley failed
to realize an economical method to precipitate copper from scrap iron and the Society of the New
Art went defunct, Lord Burghley was unwilling to proceed in another mineral venture unless it
could be done economically and efficiently.
95
Agnello was thus consulted to assure investors the
risk was worthwhile.
Three days after giving Agnello the ore sample, Lok returned to his home and was presented
with a small amount of powdered gold allegedly derived from the ore. Agnello asked for another

92 Ercker, Treatise on Ores and Assaying, 95; John Dee, “Catalogue of Dr. Dee’s Library,” Cambridge
University, Trinity College, Wren Digital Library, The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts, O.4.20, p. 1 (16
th

Century).
93 Agnello may have come to England as early as Edward VI’s reign, and was perhaps the “John Baptista Agnelli
& Co.” granted a license to import gold bullion to the mints. Agnello, A revelation of the secret spirit, 9; Challis, The
Tudor Coinage, 181.
94 Agnello, 13.
95 Harkness, The Jewel House, 174; Parry, 88.
62

sample, and on 18 January showed Lok more gold powder, claiming the ore held 1.25 ounces of
fine gold in every hundredweight.
96
When Lok questioned how Agnello could find gold when the
goldsmiths could not, Agnello replied: “bisognas apere adulare la natura, (One must know how
to flatter nature).”
97
Imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, and the alchemist’s especial skill
was to imitate nature’s regenerative and creative abilities.
98
Agnello thus set the alchemists’ art as
superior to the goldsmiths’ art.
Many scholars interpret these many assays and recourse to an alchemist as indicative of
fraud—and it may have been—yet it was consistent with common metallurgical practice to
conduct multiple trials on surface ores, which were usually corrupted with impurities. The first
assay usually fired the ore without additives to determine if it was refractory ore or not; subsequent
assays might adjust the heat or use additives to reduce the ore and separate the metals out.
99
Mining
and alchemy shared a common theoretical framework on the generation of metals, which held that
all metals germinated in the bowels of the earth from the prima materia by the sun’s penetrating
heat. Over time, if purged of their impurities by nature’s subtle art, base metals ripened into the
noble metals, silver and gold. Alchemists merely accelerated this natural process in their furnaces
and vessels.
100
Given these assumptions about the nature of metals, it was not unreasonable to
believe the goldsmiths’ proofs reflected the ore’s present imperfect state, whereas Agnello used
art to materialize its metallic potential. This suggested that the fault lay not with the worthless ore,

96 Giovan Battista Agnello, “Various little notes from John Baptista Agnello,” TNA SP 12/112, fol. 73r (1577).
97 TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 68r; Harkness, The Jewel House, 143.
98 Nummedal, Alchemy and Authority, 7; Silver and Smith, “Splendor in the Grass,” 44-46.
99 Biringuccio, 136-141.
100 Based on Aristotle’s theories of metallic generation through a “male” and “female” seed, medieval
alchemists like Bacon believed argent-vive (mercury) and sulfur were the constituent principles of creation. In the
sixteenth century, Paracelsus introduced the tria prima theory of first principles, claiming sulfur (soul) and salt (body)
congealed under the mediating influence of mercury (spirit). Bacon, The Mirror of Alchimy, 2-4; Nicolás Monardes,
Joyfull newes out of the newfound world, trans. John Frampton (London, 1580), Nn2v-Nn3r; Harkness, 170, 174-175.
63

but the practitioners’ method of working the hard stone. Agnello swore Lok to secrecy until they
could come to an agreement about obtaining and working more of the ore.
When Lok informed Walsingham of his dealings with Agnello, Walsingham was skeptical,
calling it “but an Alchamist matter” and the “devyses of Alchamistes.”
101
Nevertheless, he told
Lok to continue the relationship with Agnello, while he sent samples to the Earl of Leicester’s
secretary Edward Dyer, a close friend to both Philip Sidney and John Dee and a Mines Royal
partner, and French alchemist Geoffroi le Brumen to test. Neither Dyer nor Le Brumen found
precious metals in the ore, though Le Brumen mentioned his previous success reducing refractory
ores by calcining them with borax, sandiver, or saltpeter (“jay aultreffoys reduit des metaux fort
calcines que le borax, saint de verre nitre”), an expense he did not think worthwhile with this
ore.
102
When Frobisher asked Lok about the assay results, Lok told him they had found nothing
yet, though one assayer thought he had found tin and silver.
103

Unbeknownst to Lok, before their 18 January 1577 meeting Agnello had told Sir John
Berkeley and Sir William Morgan about the ore, and they hired Christopher “Jonas” Schutz to test
it.
104
Like Lazarus Ercker, Schutz came from St. Annen Burgh (Annaberg), Saxony, a region called

101 TNA, SP 12/112, fols. 69r-v.
102 Geoffrey Le Brumen, “Geoffroy Le Brumen to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 27r (London,
24 January 1578).
103 TNA, SP 12/112, fols. 68v-69r. Geoffrey le Brumen’s life is little known, as is the precise date of his arrival
in England. He was in London at the beginning of 1577. Bernard Allaire suggested that Walsingham may have met
Brumen when he served as the English Ambassador in Paris between 1570 and 1573. While Brumen has been
described as a physician or surgeon, Allaire says he was in fact an apothecary by trade and sought by Walsingham to
assess the health of many members of Elizabeth’s court. Walsingham also employed him as a technical expert in
scientific or military matters. In 1583, Brumen negotiated on behalf of Joachim Gans of Prague to obtain a license to
make saltpeter using a new, more efficient process, for which Gans translated the section of Lazarus Ercker’s treatise
on assaying relating to saltpeter into English for Walsingham and Lord Burghley. Arthur John Butler and Sophie
Crawford Lomas, eds., Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth: January –June 1583 and Addenda (London:
His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1913), 83; Lazarus Ercker, “Lazarus Erkerne, chief master of the Emperor’s Mines
in Bohemia, right and most perfect way of the whole work of saltpeter, now translated into English by Joachim Gaunz
of Prage. Dedicated to Sir F. Walsingham,” Hat., CP 276/5 (n.d.); Bernard Allaire, “La France et les voyages de Martin
Frobisher (1576-1578),” Revue Historique 298, no. 1 (Juillet-Septembre 1997), 15-16.
104 This Berkeley was possibly Sir John Berkeley of Beverston, Gloucester (d. 1582), who invested heavily in
the Ards colony in Ulster, and was the father of John Berkeley, the overseer of the ironworks at Falling Creek, Virginia
who died in 1622 massacre.
64

Erzgebirge (“Ore Mountains”) in the sixteenth century for its rich silver, lead, and tin mines. Mint
assay master William Humphrey brought Schutz, an expert in working calamine ores and drawing
iron and brass wire, to England in 1565 to erect battery works at Tintern, Monmouthshire. In 1568,
Schutz was Humphrey’s co-patentee in the newly-incorporated Company of Mineral & Battery
Works and granted denization.
105
After copper production at Keswick slumped in 1574-75, the
Mines Royal commissioned Schutz to build them a new furnace that recovered its production in
1576 and cemented Schutz’s reputation as a creditable metallurgist.
106
According to Schutz,
Berkeley and Morgan introduced him to Agnello in January, and combining Agnello’s skill in
alchemy with his expertise in smelting they produced the extraordinary results Agnello reported
to Lok on 18 January.
107

After more proofs by Agnello and Schutz showed gold, Morgan informed Sir William Winter
of the results. For confirmation, Winter had the ore tested in the furnace at his Tower Hill
residence.

Winter, then master of naval ordnance and surveyor of the navy, was a veteran of the
1553 Guinea voyage and a member of both mining companies with a keen interest in overseas
exploration.
108
Even before Winter learned about the ore, rumors about the discovery had already
started to spread. On 16 January, the Earl of Leicester, Philip Sidney, and Edward Dyer visited
John Dee at Mortlake to discuss the upcoming embassy to Frankfurt to build a Protestant coalition
and the recent northwest voyage. The confluence of these events suggested to Dee that the end
times drew nearer. After they left, Dee wrote to Abraham Ortelius inquiring about the northern
passages as he began a new work justifying England’s claim to North America; this prompted

105 BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 11r; Ercker, Treatise on Ores, vii.
106 Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 216-217; Hechstetter, Memorabilia and Letters 1600-1639, 170; Collingwood,
183-184, 186.
107 TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 70v.
108 “Details of the Proceedings of Jonas Shutz and Dr. Burchard in the Trial of the Gold Ore Brought by Mr.
Furbisher,” TNA SP 12/122, fol. 111r (February 1578); David Loades, ‘Winter, Sir William (c.1525–1589)’, ODNB.
65

Ortelius to come to London in March to learn about the Frobisher voyages. On 22 January, Francis
Russell, Earl of Bedford, lord warden of the stannaries, came to Mortlake, where he may have
heard about the ore. With his own mineral works in Cornwall and enthusiasm for alchemy, this
news would have interested him a great deal. When the assay results became public, the Earl of
Bedford made a small investment in the Cathay Company for the second voyage.
109

Agnello’s fervent reassurances of the ore’s richness encouraged Lok’s petition to underwrite
the entire cost of a second venture and pay the Queen ₤3000 if she granted him a license to bring
300 tons of ore from Hall’s Island. Though Walsingham cautioned Lok not to venture so far in the
business “uppon the worde of an Alchamist,” and revealed Dyer’s and Brumen’s negative proofs,
he nonetheless told Lok that if Agnello put forth a bond of surety for the second voyage, he would
encourage the Queen to grant the license.
110
Being “so well parswaded of his honestie” that “the
ure was of sufficient valew to make me Ryche,” Lok stood as Agnello’s surety.
111
On 19 March,
they drew up a contract, witnessed—to Lok’s surprise—by Sir John Berkeley, wherein Lok would
bring a hundred tons of the ore to London and Agnello would pay him ₤30 per ton for it. Agnello
promised to teach his method of working the ore to Lok, or someone Lok assigned, in case he died

109 Edward Fenton suggested they met to discuss plans for Drake’s 1577-80 voyage. John Dee, The Diaries of
John Dee, ed. Edward Fenton (Oxford: Day Books, 1998), 1-2, 16 n. 2; Parry, 122; Richard Hakluyt, “Discourse of
Western Planting,” in The Original Writings & Correspondence of the Two Richard Hakluyts, ed. E.G.R. Taylor
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1935), 2: 279.
110 TNA, SP 12/112, fols. 69v-70v.
111 Ibid, fol. 70r.
66

before completing the contract.
112
When Lok presented the agreement to Walsingham, he was
instructed to inform Frobisher of the assay results, which Lok did on 20 March.
113

After the commissioners, now expanded to include Edward Dyer, Anthony Jenkinson,
Edmund Hogan, and George Winter, met on the 28 March to discuss the second voyage, Sir
William Winter pulled Lok aside and asked him for a conference the following day. At the meeting,
Winter told Lok he knew about the ore, the assays done at Lambeth by Schutz and his ‘Dutch’
workmen, and recently in his own furnace. Winter said the ore was much richer than Agnello had
told him, “the prooffes wherof in Gold he shewed me presently in his Chamber wyndowe.”
114

Schutz said he found four ounces of gold in the hundredweight, the equivalent of ₤240/ton. Calling
the matter too great for private men, Winter declared it “belonged onely to the Prynce,” at which
time Lok revealed he had been in contact with Walsingham since January. Pleased with the
response, Winter interpreted their meeting as providential, saying “God hathe brought us together
this daye for summ good.”
115
With subsequent assays Lok too came to see the discovery as divine
intervention. If the surface ore was this rich, he considered, then the ore in the earth must be
richer.
116

At the beginning of April, Winter urged the Privy Council to proceed with all secrecy and
expedition in the matter, lest a foreign prince claim the region before Frobisher could return.

112 “detto Giouan Baptista lui pagando si come promette di pagare al detto Michele il precio di trenta lire
moneta d’Inghliterra per ogni tonello di quella, fra termino di xij mesi dipoi consignata in Londra, cioe ogni tre mesi
la quarta parte dela valuta al precio sopradetto di quanto montara la quantita consignata di tempo in tempo … Et
piu il detto Giouan Baptista promette al detto Michele di insegnare a lui oa vn altro che per lui sara assegnato, il
uero metodo et Arte che detto Giouan Baptista vsara per cauare gli metalli dal detta terra o materia minerale, fra
termino di sei mesi dipoi la consignatione dela prima parte di detta terra o materia minerale in Londra, et ancora
dare li in scritto gli regoli et vero metodo di detta Arte” Giovan Battista Agnello, “Enclosed: Agreement between M.
Agnello and Michael Lok,” TNA, SP 12/112, fols. 74r-v (19 March 1577).
113 TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 70v.
114 Ibid; TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 111r.
115 TNA, SP 12/112, fols. 70v-71r.
116 Ibid, 71r.
67

Knowing it would solidify his command, Frobisher assured the commissioners that the ore was
abundant on Hall’s Island just off the coast of Baffin Island, and that he had seen “redd sande
glisteringe.”
117
He also petitioned the Queen for a lifetime appointment as high admiral of the
northwest parts and a five percent custom on every hundred tons of freight.
118
On 18 April 1577,
a report from the goldfinders estimated the value of the ore at ₤25 18s 6d in the hundredweight, or
₤418 10s for each ton.
119
Based on their expert opinions, the Queen approved changing the purpose
of the second voyage from a search for the Northwest Passage to a mining expedition.
The commissioners hired Schutz to accompany Frobisher back to Hall’s Island as the assay
master and granted him a pension. The Crown gave Winter permission to impress twelve miners
from the Forest of Dean, probably from among his tenants around Lydney Manor.
120
Lok re-
submitted articles to charter the Cathay Company ahead of the second voyage, but the Queen
ignored the request, wishing to maintain her regalian rights, which entitled her to one-third of all
precious metals, over the potentially lucrative mine.
121
She also increased her personal investment
in the voyage from the contribution of the royal ship Ayde, worth an estimated ₤750 with its
furniture, to ₤1000.
122
This change of purpose led five of the twenty-six new investors to drop out,

117 Lok recalled this in 1579, after Burchard Kranich and Jonas Schutz had claimed a richer reddish ore was
discovered. BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 2v.
118 Martin Frobisher, “Martin Furbisher's requests to Her Majesty to be appointed High Admiral for life,” TNA,
SP 12/119, fol. 70r (1577).
119 “Report of the Goldfinders on the Value of the Ore or Gold Earth Delivered to Them,” TNA, SP 12/112,
fol. 60r (18 April 1577).
120 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 111r; Privy Council “[Meeting] At the Lord Keper’s Howse, the Xxix
th
of Aprill,
1577,” TNA PC 2/11, fol. 181v (London, 29 April 1577). Winter’s son, Sir Edward, established ironworks at
Lydney Manor before 1600 and extensively charcoaled their woodlands to support the works. A.P. Baggs and A.J.R.
Jurica, A History of the County of Gloucester, eds. C.R.J. Currie and N.M. Herbert (London: Victoria County
History, 1996), 5: 46-84.
121 “Heads of Articles for a Grant of Incorporation from the Queen to the Company of Kathai” and “Articles
Agreed upon by the Company of Cathay to for This Their Grant of Incorporation,” TNA SP 12/110, fols. 51r-54v
(1576); Harkness, The Jewel House, 168.
122 Clerks of the Signet, “Warrant to Deliver to Martin Frobisher the Aide,” Hat., CP 8/88 (Hampton Court, 17
January 1577); Benjamin Gonson and William Holstock, “Benjamin Gonson and Wm. Holstock to the Lord High
Admiral,” Hat., CP 8/89 (London, 2 February 1577); William Cecil, Lord Burghley, “Lord Burghley to Benjamin
Gonson and Wm Holstock,” Hat., CP 8/93 (The Court, 15 February 1577).
68

coppersmith and ship magnate Olyffe Burre and four Bristol merchants.
123
Three original investors
dropped out, Christopher Andrews, Robert Martin, and William Burd, while Mathew Kinderlsey
adventured only in-person. While other scholars mistakenly suggest Alderman Bond had dropped
out too, he had in fact died in May 1576, to be replaced by his namesake son on the subscriber list.
The epitaph on his tomb gestured to both his trade and mineral interests: “Here lies a merchant far
greater than the Grecian Jason. He carried away many fleeces more golden than those of Phryxis,
and passed over many seas more rough than the waves of Phasis.”
124

Word of the gold spread quickly through London, bringing in new investors for the second
voyage, though Lok complained that the enterprise’s finances still depended heavily on his
personal fortune.
125
Between October 1576 and March 1577, the Cathay Company had increased
its membership to forty-four subscribers and a total pledged stock of ₤3000, far short of the amount
they would need to outfit 180 men, three ships in excess of 100 tons and smaller vessels, and ₤1200
worth of merchandise. At the beginning of March the Privy Council solicited merchants in
Newcastle and York to raise capital for the venture, to little response.
126
In late March the
commissioners had scaled-back to three ships (the Ayde, Gabriel, and Michael), 115 men, and
₤500 in merchandise, for an estimated cost of ₤4500 of which they had only collected ₤1000. With
these tepid results, they feared the second voyage would have to be postponed for the year.

123 Though a coppersmith by trade, for forty years Olyffe Burre had made his living in overseas trade and owned
a substantial fleet. In 1579, he complained that between trade embargoes and depredations by French and Portuguese
pirates he had lost ₤4000 since 1576. This would help explain his interest in a venture to open a safer route to the East
Indies, and also his withdrawal when the venture shifted to a mining enterprise. BL, Lansdowne MS 24/62, fol. 162r;
“Names of Those Who Have Subscribed, but Not Performed,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 93r (1577); Olyffe Burre,
“Petition of Olyffe Burr, of Southwark, Coppersmith, to the Council,” TNA, SP 12/131, fol. 183r (11 August 1579).
124 John H. Lloyd, The History, Topography, and Antiquities of Highgate, in the County of Middlesex (Highgate,
1888), 230.
125 TNA, SP 12/129, fols. 100v-101r.
126 “Note of the Provision and Furniture Necessary for the Second Voyage under Captain Furbisher for the
Discovery of Cathay; with Request for a Grant of Incorporation,” TNA, SP 12/111, fols. 124r-125r (March 1577);
Privy Council, “[Meeting] At Westminster, the Vj
th
of Marche, 1576,” TNA, PC 2/11, fol. 157r (Westminster, 6 March
1577); McDermott, The Third Voyage, 4.
69

Publicity about the gold only modestly increased the number of subscribers to fifty-eight, likely
due to restrictions on new investors to a maximum ₤50 in stock to ensure the Crown remained the
largest shareholder. However, with a stock of ₤5150 it was enough to proceed with the second
voyage.
127

By May 1577, the composition of merchant to mineral investors shifted and the number of
speculators who subscribed primarily because of personal relations to other investors significantly
increased. This altered the make-up of subscribers from almost two-thirds merchants to slightly
under half, a composition that persisted into the third voyage.
128
Of the new adventurers, two (Earl
of Pembroke, Winter) were current members of the Mines Royal and another two (Julius and
Thomas Caesar) would become members after 1578.
129
Four (Pembroke, Winter, Edward Dyer,
and William Bond the younger) were current members of the Mineral & Battery Works and two
(the Countess of Warwick and Julius Caesar) would become members after 1578.
130
Sir William
Pelham owned ironworks in Sussex, the Earl of Bedford owned iron and steel works in Devon and
Cornwall, and Sir Henry Wallop owned calamine stone mines in Somerset, which he leased to the
Mineral & Battery Works.
131
Of the new investors, six (Dee, Dyer, the Countesses of Pembroke
and Warwick, the Earl of Bedford, and the Queen) were involved in alchemy. Reflecting the Earl
of Warwick’s influence, four of the new subscribers came out of the office of ordnance: Geoffrey

127 In the end, they only spent ₤346 5s 2d on merchandise. Sir William Winter, Thomas Randolph, George
Winter, Edmond Hogan, Anthony Jenkinson, and Michael Lok, “Sir Wm. Wynter, Tho. Randolphe, and Others, to the
Council,” TNA SP 12/111, fols. 119r-121r (London, 30 March 1577); TNA, E 164/35, fols. 42r-44r; McDermott,
Martin Frobisher, 164.
128 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 11.
129 Julius Caesar purchased a quarter-share from John Harrison in 1583, and became governor in 1596. TNA,
SP 12/144, fol. 70r; Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 72-73.
130 Henry Herbert earl of Pembroke inherited his shares from his father, the previous earl. He leased his Welsh
lands to the company. Julius Caesar purchased “one fourthe parte of a Sixe and Thirtiethe parte” from John Harrison
in June 1585. BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fols. 43r, 124r, 135r; Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 73.
131 BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fols. 93r, 127v; Nick Corcos, “Worle, Woodspring, and Wallop: The Calamine
Connection,” Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Proceedings 132 (1988), 197; “Bivelham (Bibelham)
Forge,” Wealden Iron Research Group, available: http://www.wirgdata.org.
70

Turville, William Painter, Richard Bowland, and Pelham. In all, twenty-three investors were either
currently involved in mineral enterprises or soon would be, and half of them pursued alchemical
projects. This demonstrates a reduction in the proportion of experienced mineral men from just
above sixty percent in 1576 to forty percent in 1577, as gold lured more speculators inexperienced
in mineral enterprises. Taken together with Burd’s surprising defection and Sir William Morgan’s
and Sir John Berkeley’s decision not to join the company after their instrumental role in bringing
wider attention to the ore, it suggested that experienced mineral men remained skeptical that the
assay results justified a change in purpose, and considered the Northwest Passage a lower risk than
arctic mining.
132

There were eight new merchant investors: Dee’s brother-in-law Richard Young, William
Bond the younger, John Somers, Robert Kindersley, Thomas Allen, Christopher Hoddesdon,
brother-in-law to Walsingham’s stepson, and William Ormeshaw. Mercer Thomas Marshe chose
only to adventure in-person rather than in-purse. Among the non-mercantile investors were privy
councilors Dr. Thomas Wilson, the brother-in-law of Sir William and George Winter; Sir Francis
Knollys; the Earl of Lincoln; Walsingham’s neighbor Sir John Brockett; the Earl of Pembroke’s
sister Lady Anne Talbot; Simon Bowyer, gentleman usher at court; Duckett’s stepson-in-law jurist
Thomas Owen; and William Harrington. In addition to the aforesaid Julius and Thomas Caesar,
there were eight other of Lok’s children and step-children, and a nephew, whose names were added
to the subscriber’s list to enlarge Lok’s personal share in the enterprise, a decision he would come
to regret. Lok would have done well to heed Agricola’s warning about capping investments: “So
then, in the buying of shares … there should be a certain limit of expenditure which miners should

132 BL, Lansdowne MS 24/62, fol. 162r.
71

set themselves, lest blinded by the desire for excessive wealth, they throw all their money away.”
133

Even with the infusion of new investors, by July eighteen of the subscribers had still not paid their
pledged adventures to the amount of ₤2500, which left a shortfall of ₤1400 for the outward voyage
and an unknown amount of debt once they returned. The next month the Privy Council wrote the
Lord Mayor of London to solicit contributions from the city’s wealthy merchants to the Cathay
Company.
134

In addition to those who joined the company, there was a list of ‘pledged’ investors drawn up
in mid-1577, a mix of interested individuals and those Lok planned to court as new investors, but
none of them invested.
135
From the Mines Royal there was Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Walter
Mildmay, brother-in-law to Walsingham; mercer Thomas Rivet, brother-in-law of William Burd,
Richard Springham, and Mathew Field; and mercer Geoffrey Duckett, a kinsman of Sir Lionel
who had sold linen cloths to the company for the 1576 voyage.
136
From the Mineral & Battery
Works they recruited Lord Keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon, brother-in-law to Lord Burghley; privy
councilor William Brooke, Baron Cobham; Alderman Richard Martyn, warden of the royal mint;
and William Dodington, auditor of the royal mint and another brother-in-law of Walsingham.
137

The list included Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a founding member of the Society for the New Art; Sir
Edward Horsey, captain of the Isle of Wight and a recent sponsor of Cornelius Stephinson’s
saltpeter project; and Sir James Croft, who as Lord Deputy of Ireland had overseen Robert Recorde
and Joachim Gundelfinger at the silver mines at Clonmines, co. Wexford, where he owned Tintern

133 In a letter to Walsingham to explain why he owed less than Thomas Allen’s accounts showed, he claimed
his personal stock was ₤4000, a number that can only be obtained by including the shares of his children and nephew.
TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 96r; Agricola, 29.
134 “Brief Not of the Cost and Charges of the Three Ships for the Second Voyage for Cathai,” TNA, SP 12/119,
fol. 72r; Privy Council, “[Meeting] iiijth Auguste, 1577, Richmond,” PC 2/12, fol. 4r (4 August 1577).
135 BL, Lansdowne MS 24/62, fol. 162r; TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 93r.
136 E 164/35, fols. 11v, 22v; Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 80, 92.
137 BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 43r; Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 36.
72

Abbey until 1575.
138
There were two other mercers, Thomas Dudley, perhaps a kinsman of the
Earls of Warwick and Leicester, and Sir Henry Sackford, a future investor in the Virginia
Company. From the court there was Sir Christopher Hatton, who sent Captain George Best on the
second voyage as his agent, Sir Thomas Heneage, Thomas Sackford, Sir Henry Knyvet, Sir John
Wolley, William Killigrew, and Sir Thomas Garrard, probably the Catholic gentleman who would
later contract with Sir George Peckham and Sir Humphrey Gilbert for a recusant colony in
Norumbega.
139

Many of these prospective investors waited to see how the second venture panned out before
investing capital, but when Sir Humphrey Gilbert proposed his own northwest plan in November
1577 to ‘annoy Spain,’ they joined his venture. In what could have been a swipe at Frobisher’s
black ore, Gilbert compared the King’s professed amity toward Elizabeth to marcasite: “So that
thence legues and fayre wordes, ought to be held but as Mermaydes songes, sweete poysons, or
marquesites, that abuse with owtward plawsabilytie, and gaye showes.”
140
Gilbert told the Queen
that she could defeat Spain without war by establishing a colony in the West Indies (a generic term
for America) and bleeding Spain of its wealth to diminish their purse, credit, and ability. He asked
the Queen for a patent to inhabit the St. Lawrence River region, from which he could plunder
French, Spanish, and Portuguese vessels. He assumed that England’s rivals would be unable to
replace or restore all of their decayed or lost ships, thus reducing their navies by attrition and
consequently, their trade. By contrast, Gilbert’s fleet would return to England with “gowld and
silver Mynes, the profitt of the soyle, and the inward and owtwarde customes from thence.”
141
So

138 BL, Lansdowne MS 14/15, fols. 41r-v; Williams, Robert Recorde, 35-52.
139 Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 80.
140 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, “A Discourse How Hir Majestie May Annoy the King of Spayne; Proposing to Fit
out a Fleet of Ships of War,” TNA SP 12/118, fol. 30r (6 November 1577).
141 TNA SP 12/118, fols. 30r-v, 31v.
73

long as they placed God in the forefront of the enterprise, all would be well. When the Queen
issued Gilbert his patent in June 1578, Walsingham, the Earl of Sussex, Sir William Morgan, Sir
Edward Horsey, Thomas Dudley, and Simon Bowyer were among his investors.

CONCLUSION
With the alteration of the Cathay Company’s purpose in the spring of 1577, the stakes for both
the metallurgical experts and the investors rose. In the initial assays, Schutz and Agnello had
apparently worked together with little conflict, as there was little sense whether or not the investors
would be persuaded to pursue mines. However, once the second fleet returned from Nunavut with
nearly 200 tons of ore, the competition between them became intense, and eventually they refused
to work together. The addition of a third contender Burchard Kranich to the roster of metallurgists
laid the foundation for fraud to occur. For their part, the investors initially brought their accounts
to date and more or less willingly paid the initial assessments to discharge the ships and men, begin
construction at Dartford, and contribute toward the third voyage, but as the assay results
consistently either failed outright or fell below expectations, few were willing to part with any
more money.

74

CHAPTER 3
ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD: THE COLLAPSE OF THE CATHA Y COMPANY
INTRODUCTION
Whilst the commission planned the second voyage as a mining venture, uncertainties about
the discovery already posed problems for recruiting new subscribers, especially among
experienced mineral speculators. This shifted the proportion of investors with little or no
familiarity in mining ventures higher, thus making it easier to keep them ignorant of the day-to-
day troubles with the assaying and smelting of the ore brought back in 1577 and 1578. This chapter
examines the second and third voyages. Throughout 1578 and early 1579, Jonas Schutz and Robert
Denham tried different types of additives and fire levels in an attempt to smelt the ore, but were
constantly frustrated in their efforts. Rather than conclude the ore itself was the problem, they
assumed that they had not yet unlocked the secret to purging the ore’s impurities, but would
eventually. Each time the venture verged on collapse, whether of their own volition or encouraged
by Lok, Frobisher or others, the metallurgists’ salted assays convinced members to continue in
hopes of recouping their investments.

THE SECOND VOYAGE
Frobisher departed London on 27 May 1577 with 143 men, including Schutz, goldsmith
Robert Denham, and refiner Gregory Bona, eight miners, most of whom probably had no
experience mining hard ore, three smiths, and eleven convicts.
1
Among the adventurers were

1 Six of the thirteen miners impressed from the Forest of Dean were discharged as unserviceable before their
departure. They hired an additional miner in Cornwall. The number of men exceeded Frobisher’s commission by 23,
which Lok later claimed cost the company ₤400 in supplies and wages. TNA, E 164/35, fols. 55r, 58r-v, 66r; “Names
75

Andrew Dyer, brother of Edward, merchants Mathew and Robert Kindersley, Thomas Marshe,
Edward Selman, a servant of Michael Lok, and Charles Jackman. At the helm of the Gabriel was
Edward Fenton, a soldier who had served Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland and was a client of the Earl
of Warwick.
2
Fenton received his commission as much from his experience as a soldier as from
his interest in natural philosophy and iatrochemistry, which he shared with elder brother Sir
Geoffrey Fenton. In his 1569 translation of Pierre Boaistuau’s Histoire prodigieuses (Paris, 1567),
a book of wonders intended to provoke admiration for the complexity of God’s creation, he
extolled the virtues of precious minerals and plants “against the inconveniences that come by the
air, by fire, by scalding lead or other metals molten & burning.”
3
Though his knowledge of
metallurgy in 1577 is uncertain, Fenton enthusiastically participated in prospecting for ore and
observed Schutz’s proceedings, both in the Arctic and back in England. Indeed, on the third voyage
Fenton assisted in assaying as master of the works, and afterwards was entrusted with procuring
antimony in Devon and Cornwall to smelt the ore.
The Privy Council instructed Frobisher to secure the original mine on Hall’s Island before
seeking the men lost on the previous voyage, and to prospect for richer mines. If they found better
mines, they were to transfer the miners and laborers from Hall’s Island to the new site. They
commanded the assayers and miners not to “discover the secreates of the riches of suche Moynes”
to anyone except Frobisher or a trustworthy surrogate.
4
Frobisher would survey the area for a fit
place to fortify and take possession of the country, and to bring back “perfect plottes & notes
therof;” if possible, he should leave behind some men and a carpenter to winter there, so “they

and offences of the convicted prisoners,” TNA, SP 12/112, fol. 174r (April 1577); Hogarth et al., 35; McDermott,
Martin Frobisher, 168.
2 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 12.
3 Pierre Boaistuau, Certaine Secrete Wonders of Nature, trans. Edward Fenton (London, 1569), A3r.
4 “Instructions given to Martin Frobisher,” TNA, SP 12/113, fols. 31v-32r, 33v (22 May 1577).
76

maye observe the nature of the ayre and state of the Contrie.”
5
In the event the mines proved rich,
it was critical to the company’s success to establish amicable relations with the Inuit. Toward this
end, the Privy Council ordered Frobisher to give the Inuit little offense and seek their friendship
through trade. Finally, Frobisher was only to search for the Northwest Passage if the mines did not
appear rich, although they did wish him to navigate fifty to a hundred leagues farther up the strait
to find an ingress to the South Sea.
6

With the new focus on mining, this expedition was far better armed in personnel and ordnance
to protect the miners from hostile Inuit or other European interlopers. Among the soldiers was
Dionyse Settle, a servant of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland. Though his primary capital
ventures were privateering expeditions, the Earl of Cumberland’s Yorkshire estates had iron, coal,
and lead mines, which he would later exploit more thoroughly in the 1590s to cope with his
mounting debts. He had recently married Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Bedford and an
alchemist and mine proprietor in her own right.
7
Cumberland likely heard about the venture from
his brother-in-law the Earl of Warwick, but waited to invest until after the second voyage,
apparently to his immediate regret.
8
Little is known about Settle or in what capacity he served the
Earl of Cumberland.
In his account of the second voyage, Settle interpreted Frobisher’s discovery of an arctic
heathen land as God’s will, concluding that whosoever inculcated the Inuit with the perfect

5 TNA, SP 12/113, fol. 32v.
6 Ibid, fols. 32v-33r.
7 Richard T. Spence, “Mining and Smelting in Yorkshire by the Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland, in the Tudor
and Early Stuart Period,” Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 64 (1992), 157–158; Penny Bayer, “Lady Margaret
Clifford's Alchemical Receipt Book and the John Dee Circle,” Ambix 52, no. 3 (Nov. 2005), 281-283.
8 The Earl of Cumberland is not named on any of the adventurers’ lists until 3 May 1578, when he and his
brother-in-law Lord Philip Wharton are listed as joint-shareholders in arrears for ₤67 10s in stock and a ₤10
assessment. He is not listed among the adventurers for the third voyage. “Account of the Sums Remaining Unpaid by
the Adventurers in Mr. Furbisher’s Voyage to the North-West,” TNA, SP 12/124, fol. 3r (3 May 1578); Michael Lok,
“Thaccount gyven by Michael Lok of the third voiage of Martin Furbusher for the discourye of Cathaj &c by the
Northwest parties,” Henry E. Huntington Library, HM 715, fols. 1-3 (1578).
77

knowledge of Christianity would receive both God’s spiritual reward and also “the greater
benefites from those countries.”
9
Calvinist clergyman Abraham Fleming emphasized this theme
in the dedicatory poem, where he compared Frobisher’s travails to Ulysses’ prolonged return to
Ithaca; however, in contrast to Ulysses, God abundantly blessed Frobisher for his labors: “The
Golden fleece (like Jason) hath he got, /And rich returned, sans loss or luckless lot.”
10
Settle later
undermined this professed optimism in Nunavut’s providential significance with his assessment
of the Inuit as incapable of being civilized due to the land’s infertility and barrenness, for without
the capacity to plant, they could not ripen to material and moral perfection.
11
Settle appeared more
ambivalent about the wisdom of continuing the venture than he considered politic to express in
writing.
On the whole, Settle was more sanguine than Lok and other investors about the stones and
sand that sparkled in the sunlight, citing the old proverb, “All is not golde that glistereth.”
12
He
recalled that on the night of 18 July while riding in Frobisher's Strait, “cruell Neptunes force”
nearly swallowed the Aide and the men feared certain death; the next day in “a souden mutation”
Frobisher returned to the ship with news of great riches appearing in the bowels of the barren
mountains. Settle mused: “Behold the glorie of man, to night contemning riches, and rather looking
for death than otherwise: and to morrowe devising howe to satisfie his greedie appetite with
Golde.”
13
His narrative cautioned against letting avarice motivate speculation, though he did note
positive signs of auriferous ore in Nunavut. To counter claims that precious metals were not found
in colder climes due to a lack of the sun’s penetrating heat, Settle assured the reader that warm

9 Dionyse Settle, A true reporte of the laste voyage into the west and northwest regions, (London, 1577), A4v.
10 Settle, A true reporte, A1v.
11 Settle, 34.
12 Ibid, 14-15.
13 Ibid, 12-13.
78

springs ran beneath the permafrost and heated the earth, “which is the onely nutriment of Gold and
Minerals within the same.”
14
Spiders were another promising indication, as miners considered
them “signes of great store of Golde.”
15
He also said that the Inuit made signs about a neighboring
people “that weare bright plates of Gold on their forheads, and other places of their bodies.”
16

Though restrained about the likelihood of finding gold, Nunavut’s natural wonders fascinated
Settle, particularly a narwhal carcass they found. As an experiment to test the two-meter tusk’s
antidotal properties, the men put spiders inside it. When the spiders died they took this as evidence
that the creature was a sea unicorn. After Frobisher’s return to London, he presented the tusk to
the Queen, which became known as the Horn of Windsor and was valued at ₤10,000.
17

Like Settle, George Best’s account of the second voyage balanced between validating
Schutz’s and Agnello’s assays of the ore, and promoting the continuation of the ventures absent
certain proof of gold. Appointed master of the Aide, Best adventured as an agent of Sir Christopher
Hatton.
18
Hatton expressed interest in the enterprise but did not subscribe to the Cathay Company.
Compared to Settle, Best gave a fuller account of the voyages’ progress, especially of their
prospecting activities, so that unlike a mine, Frobisher’s activities would not lie concealed.
19

En route to Hall’s Island, Frobisher stopped at the Orkney Islands, where the goldfinders
reported a silver mine at St. Magnus, and then at Friesland, where small stones like crystal led Best

14 Ibid, 37.
15 Ibid, 33.Agricola mentioned a venomous pest often found in Sardinian silver mines, which was variously
described as an ant, spider, or scorpion. Agricola, 216.
16 Settle, 33.
17 Settle, 15. Konrad Gesner mentioned a healing balm that inures one to poison, and will kill a spider if it goes
near it. Lok later estimated the narwhal tusk’s value at ₤3000, and expressed anger that Frobisher had presented it to
the Queen on his own behalf rather than the company’s behalf. Gesner, The treasure of Euonymus, 278; BL,
Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 6r-v.
18 Best, A True Discourse, A3v-A4r.
19 Best, A True Discourse, A4r. Instead of the Frobisher voyage, in 1577 Hatton became one of the principle
backers of Sir Francis Drake’s 1577-80 voyage. BL, Lansdowne MS 24/62, fol. 162v; “Names of Those Who Desire
to Be Venturers Now,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 91r (1577).
79

to conclude the island was likely very rich.
20
When they reached Hall’s Island, the goldfinders
could find no ore like the large piece picked up by Garrard, which Lok later claimed made Schutz,
Denham, and Bona fall “into great greyfe, and into desperatt minde … and therefore wisshed them
selves rather dedd than alyve.”
21
Best, however, interpreted it in providential terms:
so that it may seeme a great miracle of God, that being only one rich stone in all the Iland, the same should be
found by one of our Countreymen, whereby it shoulde appeare, Gods divine will and pleasure is, to have oure
common wealth encreased with no lesse abundance of his hydden treasures and golde mynes, than any other
nation.
22

Finding these hidden mines was contingent upon their willingness to catechize the Inuit and spread
the gospel to the outer reaches of the earth.
All was not lost and the goldfinders found more ore on the nearby islands. Unfortunately, the
sand and rocks that shimmered with bright marcasite proved no better than black lead (graphite)
in the assays.
23
Moreover, the region offered little in the way of victuals except “golden rockes
and stones, a harde foode to live withall,” and a people more inclined to eat them than to give them
food.
24
Hopes buoyed when the goldfinders detected silver and four sorts of gold ore at Smith’s
Island, though the silver was pried out of the hard rock only with great effort. While Frobisher was
later criticized for not allowing a group of thirty men led by Hall and Jackman to explore for the
Northwest Passage because of the “greedie desire our countrey hath to a present savour and returne
of gayne,” Best defended Frobisher’s singular focus on mines as a fulfillment of the Privy
Council’s instructions.
25

20 Best, A True Discourse, 2:4.
21 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 2v.
22 Best, A True Discourse, 2:8-9.
23 Ibid, 2:10, 14.
24 Ibid, 2:12.
25 Since this was written after the third voyage, Best addressed those, like Lok, who unfairly blamed Frobisher
for the increasingly apparent failure of the enterprise to make a profit, claiming he had failed in his commission to
80

On 26 July, Frobisher took two small barks in search of an inlet to the strait, discovering a
rich mine in the process and lading twenty tons of ore in the Michael. Two days later the ice had
so choked the sound that they had to abandon their exploration. Their luck improved when they
landed on Kodlunarn Island, called the Countess of Warwick Island, and found ore so rich the gold
could be plainly seen in the washing. Frobisher decided to make Kodlunarn their base of operations
and erected a fort called Best’s Bulwark rather than adventure farther and risk their lives; they also
found another mine on nearby Newland Island, which they called Winter’s Furnace. To hasten the
miners’ work, Frobisher even assisted them in digging the ore as an example to the other
adventurers that hard labor was beneath no man, especially if he expected to partake in the profits.
Without the ability to mark possession by husbanding the unfruitful land, the company signified
English dominion of the island with the tailings of mines, stacking stones on the high mountains
where they had prospected.
26
After three weeks of toil wherein the men had their “bellies broken”
and “legges made lame,” their tools busted, basket bottoms torn out, and their clothing left in
tatters, Frobisher deemed the 140 tons of ore they had laded sufficient to recover the costs of the
enterprise.
27
Just before departing Napoleon Bay, Schutz found a red and yellow ore at place they
named Jonas Mount, but since the ships were already at capacity they could not load the ore. Schutz
brought samples of the ore back, which assays later indicated was very rich.
28

In late September 1577, Frobisher and Captain Fenton arrived at Bristol and Captain Gilbert
Yorke at London. Frobisher and Fenton deposited the ore in Bristol Castle, where it was secured

search for the Northwest Passage and out of his own greed pursued mines. Bes, A True Discourse, 2:14, 16; BL,
Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 3r-4r.
26 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:34.
27 Frobisher brought back 124 tons in the Ayde, and Fenton brought back 16 tons of ore in the Gabriel, which
was stored in Bristol Castle, and Yorke returned with 20 tons of ore in the Michael, which was stored in the Tower of
London and a storehouse at Tower Hill. Best, A True Discourse, 2:16, 18-20, 26, 29, 33; TNA, E 164/35, fol. 79r;
Edward Fenton, “Edward Fenton to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/118/40 (Bristol, 25 November 1577).
28 Hogarth et al., 34.
81

by four locks and keys, while Yorke split the ore in the Michael between the Tower of London and
George Winter’s storehouse in Tower Hill, also under four locks and keys. At the Tower of
London, mint warden Richard Martyn and mint master John Lonison took custody of the ore and
were responsible for delivering samples for testing. The Queen appointed Sir William and George
Winter, Sir William Pelham, Thomas Randolph, Frobisher, and Lok to oversee Schutz in the
smelting, and required their presence at trials to ensure the integrity of the results.
29
On 5 October,
Schutz began construction of furnaces at Sir William Winter’s house and Lok recorded expenses
for Robert Denham, Agnello and an English mineral man George Wolfe to build trial furnaces.
30

In an audience with the Queen at Windsor Castle, Frobisher impressed her with the results of the
voyage and presented her with valuable tokens from Nunavut, including three Inuit, all of whom
soon perished.
31
Preparations for a third voyage to the newly-dubbed Meta Incognita were soon
underway.
To conceal the locations of the mines, the Privy Council required all information about
bearings, declinations, and precise distances stricken from writings about the voyages. They tasked
Sir William Winter with confiscating any accounts and associated materials that threatened the
secrecy of the project, specifically those of a London notary named Typottes, who reportedly
translated an account into Spanish. This was probably scrivener Paul Typottes, who came to
London from Brabant seeking religious haven in 1566 and resided in St. Bartholomew the Little

29 “Report to the Council of the Arrival of Capt. Furbisher’s Ships, the Ayde and Gabriel, at Bristol, and the
Michael in the Thames,” TNA, SP 12/115, fols. 102r-v (London, September 1577); Privy Council, “Order of Council
for Payment of 800l. by the Adventurers in Mr. Furbishers’s Voyage to the North-West to Mr. Lok,” TNA, SP 12/116,
fols. 92r-93r (16 October 1577); Privy Council, “[Meetinge] Xvij
th
October 1577, Windesor,” TNA, PC 2/12, fols.
39-40, 42 (Windsor, 17 October 1577).
30 TNA, E 164/35, fol. 74v; “Details of the Proceedings of Jonas Shutz and Dr. Burchard in the Trial of the Gold
Ore Brought by Mr. Furbisher,” TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 111v (February 1578).
31 Best, A True Discourse, 3:1.
82

parish.
32
The Crown considered censorship critical to the future of the enterprise, as it was
impossible to keep the unlading of nearly 200 tons of ore a secret. In this the Crown judged
correctly, and just weeks after Frobisher’s return reports started to make their way to foreign
princes.
On 9 October, Ambassador Castelnau de la Mauvissiere wrote Catherine de Medici about the
enterprise, and proposed that France could embark on their own northern discoveries without fear
of intruding on Spain’s and Portugal’s claims. Mauvissiere supposed Frobisher went to the same
region Francisque d’Albaigne of La Rochelle had proposed to King Charles IX in 1567.
33
He
promised to inform Catherine as soon as he learned the results from the assays. The same day,
Mauvissiere informed King Henri III of Frobisher’s return with a large quantity of gold ore
(quelque quantite de mynes d’or) and that the Queen intended to make a new England. He hoped
that once Henri learned more about the great commodity that would arise with little expense, he
too would partake in this new conquest.
34
By July 1578, Mauvissiere encouraged the King to send
ships to establish a colony as a base to search for the Northwest Passage. With Sir Humphrey
Gilbert’s consent, Mauvissiere placed an agent among the adventurers on his ill-fated attempt to
establish a colony in North America under his newly-granted patent, which Gilbert received in the
optimistic months between Frobisher’s second and third voyages.
35

32 Paul Typottes (Tipoots, Tepottes) registered with the Scrivener’s Company as a notary in the City of London
in 1571 and again in 1582/3. He died in 1619. Privy Council, “[Meetinge ] Seconde of October 1577, Windsor,” TNA,
PC 2/12, fol. 32v (Windsor, 2 October 1577); R.E.G. Kirk and Ernest F. Kirk, eds., Returns of Aliens in the City and
Suburbs of London, 1571-1597 (Aberdeen: The University Press, 1902), 2: 38, 307; “Will of Paule Tipoots, Notary
Public of City of London,” TNA, PROB 11/133/360 (5 April 1619).
33 Luís de Matos, Les Portugais en France au XVIe siècle: Études et Documents (Coimbra: Acta Universitatis
Conimbrigensis, 1952), 12.
34 Conyers Read, “Despatches of Castelnau de la Mauvissiere,” American Historical Review 31 no. 2 (January
1926), 286-287.
35 Read, “Despatches of Castelnau de la Mauvissiere,” 288-289; Allaire, “La France et les voyages de Martin
Frobisher,” 12.
83

Some of the information reaching foreign sources unintentionally came from the adventurers
themselves. On 10 October, Philip Sidney wrote to Hubert Languet in Frankfurt for advice on
working the ore they brought back. Relating the discovery of the black ore to Languet, Sidney said
Frobisher thought “the island is so productive in metals, as to seem very far to surpass the country
of Peru, at least as it now is.” The question now remained how England could carry out mining
operations safe from attacks by foreign states, namely Spain and Denmark. Sidney renewed his
request from a late 1576 letter (now lost) to send him a copy of the Laws of Kuttenberg, a set of
Bohemian mining laws, to guide their activities “for we understand this art little better than we do
the cultivation of wines.”
36

Rebuking Sidney, and indirectly the Queen, for preferring golden mountains above the
Protestant cause in Europe, Languet’s response called the discovery an incitement to evil and
hurtful to humanity. Languet foresaw a gold rush that would engender war as England fought to
maintain its possession of Meta Incognita. Criticism aside, Languet recommended fortifying a safe
harbor and cultivating the land around the mines for food and timber to support a colony, assuming
the island fell below 70 degrees of latitude. He encouraged them to establish a town rather than a
fort, as a garrison would be less useful to the miners and laborers than artisans who could supply
their needs. Languet warned Sidney that while he would try to acquire the Laws of Kuttenberg
from his Bohemian friends, he did not think they would be of much use, for mining in Kuttenberg
was done by private not public enterprise, and only surrendered a tenth to the Crown. Instead, he
advised Sidney to read the works of Georgius Agricola.
37
As John Dee already possessed copies
of De re metallica and De ortu & causis subterraneorum (Basil, 1558), and it is likely Schutz

36 Kuttenberg, Bohemia is now Kutná Hora, Hungary. Pears, The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and
Hubert Languet, 118-120.
37 Pears, 125-129.
84

would have been familiar with Agricola, this advice was not particularly helpful.
38
If Sidney
relayed Languet’s counsel to the commissioners, little of his advice could be applied to the
proposed colony in Meta Incognita, and the Cathay Company proceeded with plans for a fort on
Kodlunarn Island.
The Spanish Lutheran theologian Casiodoro de Reina wrote Wilhelm IV, Landgrave of Hesse-
Kassel, what he had heard of the contents of Sidney’s letter to Languet. Calling Frobisher a swine,
Casiodoro told Wilhelm he suspected Frobisher’s real ambition was the West Indies. He reported
how the soldier found the lump of earth (glebam), its subsequent trials and smelting, and the
goldfinders’ conclusions that it was high-quality gold (invenitur esse optimum aurum maiori ex
parte). Based on these results, the Queen appointed a fleet to return to the island to mine the tawny-
colored earth (terrae illius fulvae). Casiodoro remarked on the ore’s contrary nature compared to
the rest of the country, which was so desolate even the people were half beasts. Casiodoro even
blamed the death of the first Inuk captive on his inability to be civilized. He wryly noted the
Lucianic mendacity of the English to pretend that Cornelis Kettel’s painting of the man, now
hanging at court, had nearly restored the poor man back to life. Casiodoro repeated Sidney’s
concern that the country might itself be worthless but for the gold.
39

At the beginning of November, Schutz performed the first great proof of the black ore before
the commissioners at Winter’s home. For these assays, Denham acquired bone ashes, bricks, lime,
loam, and sand to make a small furnace and cupels, in accordance with Agricola’s and Ercker’s
instructions for assaying equipment. They then smelted the black ore with lead and parted the gold

38 Camb., Western MS O.4.20, p. 9.
39 A. Gordon Kinder, “The Protestant Pastor as Intelligencer: Casiodoro de Reina’s Letters to Wilhelm IV,
Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (1577- 1582), Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 58 no. 1 (1996), 113.
85

and silver with “alom and chayne” (probably saltpeter).
40
Though a brick furnace was fast to erect,
just as Agricola warned, it did not handle assaying as well as an iron furnace: the bellows failed,
too much metal remained in the slag, and Schutz became ill from the fumes.
41
Despite these
difficulties, Schutz cast two ingots of gold and two ingots of silver.
42
Winter reported to
Walsingham that the results fell below expectations, but he remained optimistic that “resonable
myendes” would be contented and the work would ultimately fare better.
43

Schutz mended the furnace for the second great proof at the beginning of December. Based
on his results from the two proofs, Schutz said he could extract 13.3 ounces/ton at an estimated
value of ₤40, though a high quantity of metal still remained in the slag. Schutz blamed the “smale
furnace and evill worke howsse” at Winter’s home for this imperfectly performed trial, an
assessment confirmed by Robert Denham.
44
Schutz promised he could melt two tons of ore each
week and extract at least twenty ounces of metal if the company built a refining house with water-
powered bellows of his own design, at the cost of ₤400.
45
Though he proposed to build the works
in Bristol to save on carrying costs, this idea was soon abandoned in favor of a place closer to
London, where the Privy Council, the commissioners, and most of the investors spent most of their
time. Winter and Lok endorsed Schutz’s plan for great works.
46

40 Loam, brick dust, sand, lime, and bone ash could also be used as additives to melt refractory ores. TNA, E
164/35, fol. 74v; “Four Proofs of Assays of the Ore Brought Home by Capt,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 23r (6? December
1577); Agricola, 230-234, 241; Ercker, 28-29; Hogarth et al., 170.
41 Dr. Gilbert was paid 5s for Schutz’s physick. Jonas Schutz, “Jonas Schutz to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/118,
fol. 100r (John Mighelson’s howse in East Smithfield, 25 November 1577); TNA, E 164/35, fol. 74v; Agricola, 224-
226.
42 PRO C 47/34/6 (c. 1580) quoted in Hogarth et al., 77.
43 Sir William Winter, “Sir Wm Wynter to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/118, fols. 97r-v (Tower Hill, 25
November 1577).
44 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 4; TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 111v; Hogarth et al., 74.
45 Jonas Schutz, “Jonas Schutz’s Estimate of the Charges for Melting down the Gold Ore and Other Charges,”
TNA, SP 12/118, fol. 101r (25? November 1577).
46 Michael Lok, “Michael Lok to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 26r (London, 13 December 1577).
86

In disagreement with Schutz’s method yet refusing to reveal their own secrets for working the
ore, Agnello and George Wolfe carried out their own trials, but with poor results. Responding to a
7 December letter from Walsingham inquiring about his progress, Agnello elided his failure by
saying he had learned how to part the combustible sulfur, iron and ‘terrestrial’ parts of the ore
while preserving the gold with less expense than Schutz could. Using self-effacement to
demonstrate his honesty, Agnello confessed he was neither a professional assayer nor of the age
or fortitude to continue in such labors without appropriate compensation, but averred his
willingness to continue serving the Queen in the matter.
47
Illustrative of their competition, Agnello
asked for a warrant for more ore to assay and wanted Schutz and Denham to run their own tests
on the same ore to see whose method worked best. His test of the ore on 23 January with a wind
furnace proved no more successful than the previous assay.
48

In the meantime goldsmith John Brode, who had loaned Schutz and Denham an iron stamp to
crush the ore for the second proof, conducted his own small assays at Cripplegate and found no
gold, as did “other namyd connynge menn” (probably John Dee and Geoffroi le Brumen) who
submitted testimony to the Privy Council.
49
This caused disagreements among the commissioners
about how to proceed in the work, and led Lok to worry that a perilous “Schisma” divided the

47 “vltimamente di poi molte proue fatte ho trouato, che bisogna separare, la parte sulfurea combustile con
conservatione dell’oro che in essa si ritruoua, et piu glie necessario separare quanto si puo la parte terrestra, et
ancora el ferro che in essa si contiene, il che fatto detta minera sara piu facile alla fusione et con maneo spesa, oltra
di questo l’oro quale era disperso per minima in gran quantita di terrestreita et materia ferrea, sara redotto piu unito
ad douersi recuperare et vnirsi insieme … et tanto piu che questa non é mia professione, per che veramente io non
adoperai mai metalli, glie ben vero che essendo io stato sempre desideroso de intendere i secreti de natura ho pensato
de intender la natura di questa minera come di sopra ho detto…” Giovan Battista Agnello, “Giovanni Baptista
Agnello to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 34r (London, 20 December 1577).
48 Michael Lok, “Michael Lok to Mr. Walsingham,” TNA, SP 12/118/36 (London, 23 November 1577); Giovan
Battista Agnello, “Baptista Agnello’s Request and Proposal for Trying the Ore Now in the Mills at Dartford,” TNA,
SP 12/118, fol. 164r (1577); TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 112v; Hogarth et al., 74.
49 TNA, SP 12/122, fols. 112r-v.
87

company.
50
The commission withheld approval to build a workhouse, which would require an
assessment on the shareholders, until Schutz conducted a third large proof of the ore.
Before he would perform the third great proof, Schutz sought to secure his position and
requested a ₤100 annuity and ₤10/ton toward the charges of smelting and refining the ore.
51
Schutz
admitted he was unfamiliar with this type of refractory ore, which thus far resisted easy reduction;
nonetheless, he reassured the commissioners that he would “Learne to knowe it parfectlye” in the
great works. Winter and Lok wrote to Walsingham about Schutz’s petition, where they expressed
confidence in his honesty and praised him as the “parfectest workmaster in this Art of his
profession.”
52
They likewise thought Robert Denham deserved a reward for his labors. The Crown
agreed and granted Schutz and Denham pensions. Even so, with the persistence of contradictory
results from the assayers, the Queen had Walsingham send samples of the black ore from Hall’s
Island and red ore from Jonas Mount to Burchard Kranich, a royal physician, alchemist, and
metallurgist.
Born about 1515 in southern Germany, possibly Kronach near Erzgebirge, Burchard Kranich
alias Dr. Burcot came to England about 1550. He soon became involved in lead mining in
Derbyshire.
53
In 1554, Kranich petitioned for the pre-emption of tin and to prospect for gold, silver,
and other mines in England. Although Queen Mary denied the pre-emption, she granted him a
twenty-year license for mines anywhere in England. The following year, he opened a silver mine
and established a refinery in Lerryn, Cornwall with Sir William Godolphin as an investor. Early
success turned into sustained losses by 1557, and the Queen appointed local gentlemen John

50 Michael Lok, “Michael Lok to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/118/54 (London, 30 November 1577).
51 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 111v; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 4r-v.
52 Sir William Winter and Michael Lok, “Sir Wm Wynter and Michael Lok to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP
12/119, fols. 22r-v (London, 6 December 1577).
53 John Bennell, ‘Kranich, Burchard (d. 1578)’, ODNB.
88

Trelawney, William Carnsew, and Godolphin to assume control of the works, and Sir John
Chichester and Robert Carey to repair and survey them. Despite initial grants of protection from
his creditors, in 1562 Kranich, now a denizen, was imprisoned for debts.
54
Fortunately for Kranich,
he had earned Queen Elizabeth’s goodwill when he treated her for smallpox in October 1561, and
was widely credited with saving her life. The Queen recompensed him with a license to use his
engines and instruments to mine in Devon and Cornwall, and in 1563/4 the Earl of Bedford paid
Kranich a hundred marks to use his inventions at Restormel Park, Cornwall.
55
At the time
Walsingham contacted Kranich in 1577, he had recently purchased a tenement in High Holborn
from Thomas Doughty, the former secretary of Sir Christopher Hatton infamously executed for
mutiny and sorcery at Puerto San Julián by Francis Drake in June 1578.
56

On 26 November, Kranich wrote Walsingham that he only found a half-ounce of gold per
hundredweight in the black ore, less than either Schutz or Agnello; however, the red ore yielded
two ounces per hundredweight, or forty ounces a ton.
57
Hinting at a commission for the work,
Kranich promised great riches if “the same be well husbanded by a skyllfull & expert man.”
58

Although too old and infirm to make the voyage himself, Kranich said he could tutor others in a

54 “Statement of the prejudice to the tinners of Devon and Cornwall should a grant to Burchard [Kranich] take
place,” TNA, SP 11/4, fol. 6 ([Before 29 May] 1554); Privy Council, “[Meeting] At Grenewiche, the xxviij of
Decembre, 1555,” TNA, PC 2/7, fols. 342-343 (Greenwich, 28 December 1555); Privy Council, “[Meeting] At the
Lorde Chauncellour’s Howse, ix
o
Julij, 1557,” TNA, PC 2/7, fol. 647 (9 July 1557); Privy Council, “[Meeting] At
Grenewiche, the fyrst of January, 1557,” TNA, PC 2/8, fol. 1 (1 January 1557/8).
55 When the Earl of Bedford renewed his license for Restormel Park and Lostwithiel Castle in 1562, the Queen
granted the ₤112 fine to Kranich as a gift. Rees, 1:138, 152; M.B. Donald, “Burchard Kranich (c. 1515-1578), Miner
and Queen’s Physician, Cornish Mining Stamps, Antimony And, Frobisher’s Gold,” Annals of Science 6, no. 3 (1950),
308, 310; Graham Haslan, “The Elizabethan Duchy of Cornwall,” in The Estates of the English Crown, 1558-1640,
ed. R.W. Hoyle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 100.
56 These lands called Purse Rents belonged to Lord Mountjoy before Thomas Doughty’s father purchased them.
“High Holborn from the parish boundary to Little Turnstile,” in Survey of London: Volume 5, St Giles-in-The-Fields,
Pt II, ed. W Edward Riley and Laurence Gomme (London: London County Council, 1914), 3-9. Available: British
History Online
57 Kranich would eventually claim he could get ₤120/ton from the red ore. BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 6r.
58 Burchard Kranich, “Burchard Kranych to Sir Francis Walsingham [endorsed Dr. Burcot],” TNA, SP 12/118,
fol. 102 (26 November 1577).
89

method of field assaying that required no furnaces, charges, or other instruments, and allowed up
to twelve tests per hour. By early December, Kranich promised to extract fourteen ounces of gold
from every ton of ore in exchange for a ₤200 annuity plus work expenses. In consideration of his
proposal, Walsingham had Schutz meet with Kranich to discuss his method. Schutz left the
conference unimpressed with Kranich’s “evell manners & allso his ignorance in divers pointes of
the works, and handelynge of this Ewer,” and refused to work with him.
59
Kranich enlisted
Frobisher’s support by convincing him that only he knew the secret to work the refractory ore, but
the rest of the commissioners found his demands “farre out of reasson.” They refused a pension
until Kranich produced a satisfactory assay; they did, however, grant his request to have Denham
assist him with trials at his home and gave him ₤10 to build a furnace and two-hundredweight of
ore to test.
60

In mid-December, the commissioners and Schutz determined that the Crown lands of Bignor
in Dartford, Kent provided an apt location for the works, with its easy access to the Thames, water
mills, and nearby forests. In early January 1578, the Queen appointed Thomas Fludd, father of the
famed alchemist Robert Fludd, to survey Bignor and negotiate with its lessee William Vaughan
and his tenants to rent or surrender the lands; the Privy Council also agreed to disburse ₤500 to
commissioners Lok, Winter, Randolph, Dyer, Young, and Frobisher to build the furnaces at
Dartford.
61
To build the bellows, waterwheels, and other timberwork, the company hired Sebastian
Copland, a ‘Dutch’ millwright lately employed in Grimesthorpe, Lincolnshire by Richard Bertie,

59 “Note of the Charges for Smelting One Ton of the Ore Brought by Martin Furbisher,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol.
24r (8? December 1577); Burchard Kranich, “Burchard Raurych [Dr. Burcot] to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP
12/122, fol. 6r (6 January 1578); TNA, SP fol. 112r.
60 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 114r; TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 26r; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 5r.
61 William Vaughan, “Claim of Wm Vaughan for Certain Mills at Dartford,” TNA, SP 12/119, fols. 33r-v (20
December 1577); Thomas Fludd, “Tho. Fludd to Lord Burghley,” TNA, SP 12/122, fols. 7r-v (Milgate, 7 January
1578); Privy Council, “[Meeting] Viij Januarij 1577, Hampton Courte,” TNA, PC 2/12, fols. 102-103 (Hampton Court,
8 January 1578).
90

husband of the Duchess of Suffolk, and a ‘Dutch’ mason named Hendrik from the glassworks at
Loxwood, Sussex.
62
When the commissioners tallied the costs for Schutz’s millhouse, Hans
Staddeler’s journey to Germany to hire skilled workmen, the expenses for charcoal, lead and
additives from Yorkshire, and the outstanding wages from the second voyage it came to ₤900. This
could only be paid with a twenty-percent assessment on the shareholders’ stock. With assurances
the Dartford works could be constructed and the ore refined within six to eight weeks, the Privy
Council approved the expenses. They also appointed John Dee, Andrew Palmer, Mathew Field,
and Edmund Hogan to join the commission.
63
In addition to being a goldsmith at the Mint, Palmer
was the secretary for the Mineral & Battery Works and until 1576 leased mines at Machen,
Tongwynlais and Tintern, Monmouthshire.
64

By the end of January, Frobisher worried that they would lose the season for a third voyage if
they had to wait for the completion of the Dartford works, and suggested sending ten tons of ore
to Keswick for smelting. Schutz countered with an offer to perform the third great proof at Winter’s
home to settle doubts about the ore’s potential. He assigned Denham and Humfrey Cole to procure
marcasites to melt the ore, which he said was “of wild nature & full of Iron and steele.”
65
While
they waited for the additives to arrive, Schutz conducted more trials at Winter’s home, greatly
endangering his health with noxious inhalations. On 15 February, an impatient Frobisher stormed
into the workhouse and threatened Schutz with a dagger if he did not conclude the work posthaste,
causing Schutz to drop out of the third voyage and refuse to work with Frobisher thenceforth.
Schutz blamed Kranich for encouraging Frobisher’s enmity and for trying to sabotage his efforts

62 TNA, SP 12/119, fols. 26r-v.
63 Michael Lok, “Mr. Michael Lok to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 17r (London, 19 January
1578); Privy Council, “[Meeting] Xix Januarij, 1577, Hampton Courte,” TNA, PC 2/12, fol. 112 (Hampton Court, 19
January 1578).
64 BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 93r; Challis, The Tudor Coinage, 33; Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 76; Rees,
1:268.
65 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 112v; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 4v.
91

through industrial espionage. Indeed, Kranich used Frobisher to purloin Schutz’s design for the
furnaces at Dartford, and submitted them to Lord Burghley his own, nearly-identical schematic for
a new furnace.
66

Seeing the commission continued to prefer Schutz, on 21 February Kranich sent Walsingham
a half-ounce gold ingot and a 2.5-ounce silver ingot, saying his method of smelting the ore with
antimony would yield 13.5 ounces of gold and thirty-eight ounces of silver per ton, worth ₤50.
Kranich told the commissioners the antimony “held noe manner of mettell at all,” reflecting
Biringuccio’s outdated idea that metals could not be extracted from semi-minerals like antimony.
67

Biringuccio had little familiarity with antimony and considered it a deformed metal prematurely
mined just before it could reach its perfection. He was not aware that stibnite (the chief ore of
antimony) can be argentiferous and often occurred with galena, an argentiferous lead ore.
Biringuccio did mention that alchemists used antimony to give fixed silver a golden cast.
68

However, this error had been corrected by Agricola in De natura fossilium (Basil, 1546).
69
Perhaps
Kranich’s metallurgical knowledge was obsolete, but more likely he counted on the commission’s
ignorance of mineral profiles.
With his position in doubt, Schutz performed the third large proof in the presence of the
commission, John Brode and Humfrey Cole on 6 March. He produced a quarter-ounce of fine gold
and 3.25 ounces of silver, though in his haste he wasted over 6 ounces of silver and more gold in
the slag. Schutz estimated the value at almost ₤24 per ton and he insisted he could capture the
precious metals in the slag with a bigger furnace.
70
In the commissioners’ report taken at Muscovy

66
“Burchardes Furnise,” TNA, MPF 1/304, ([1578]).
67 TNA, SP 12/122, f. 114r; Biringuccio, 78; Hogarth et al., 95.
68 Biringuccio, 91-92.
69 Translated and excerpted at length in Agricola, 2 fn. 4.
70 TNA, SP 12/122, fols. 112v, 114v; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 4v-5r; McDermott, The Third Voyage, 9.
92

House with Schutz, Denham, Brode, and Cole, they inflated the ore’s value to ₤28/ton and
projected the company would make a profit of ₤5 for every ₤8 spent in the enterprise.
71
Despite
the commission’s oversight, Schutz could have used cupels with soluble false bottoms to conceal
gold powder or hollow stirring rods filled with gold powder to surreptitiously contaminate the
sample, all common deceptions. Still, this does not explain the presence of significant silver in the
assay.
72
The perfect storm of self-interest among the experts, the investors, and the adventurers
had created the conditions for fraud, but few were willing to simply cut their losses and end the
venture. Instead, they escalated the enterprise in an effort to recover their sunk costs. In this,
Kranich served as a convenient scapegoat for the third voyage.
Lord Burghley was suspicious of Kranich’s results. He gave a sample of antimony to Richard
Young to test, while Denham assayed it in the presence of John Dee and Edward Dyer. Denham
revealed the antimony held almost thirty ounces of silver per ton, plus lead and copper.
73
Denham
confessed that on 20 January, he brought Lok a piece of the “strange Ewer” not knowing what it
was at the time. Just before Kranich presented his ingots to the commission, Denham secretly
tested the antimony and when he told Kranich it had skewed the assay results, Kranich reminded
Denham of the oath of secrecy he had taken before he came to work for him. Denham further
admitted that Kranich had only assayed one pound of the ore and, extrapolating these small assays,

71 “The Quantity of Silver and Gold Produced from 200 Weight of Ore Melted by Jonas Schutz,” BL,
Lansdowne MS 31/77, fol. 191r (London, 7 March 1577/8).
72 Beaudoin and Auger, 671, 679-680. Sir Hugh Plat described some of the more common frauds: “Let every
man that is besotted in this Art, and dependeth whollie upon other mens practises … take heed also of all false and
double bottomes in Crusibles, of all hollowe wandes or roddes of yron, wherewith some of these varlettes doe use to
stirre the mettall and the medicine together, of all Amalgames or Powders, wherein any Golde or Silver shall bee
craftilie conveyed … but speciallie of a false backe to the Chimney or furnace, having a loose bricke or stone closely
joynted, that may bee taken awaie in an other Roome by a false Sinon that attendeth onely the Alchimistes hemme, or
some other suck like watch-worde … until his confederate may have leysure enough to convey some Gold or Solver
into the melting potte, which were able to deceive the best sighted Argus in the world.” Plat, The Jewell house of art
and nature, 90.
73 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 114v.
93

used “angell Gold and daller Silver” coins to make the ingots delivered to Walsingham. Even as
Denham revealed Kranich’s deliberate deception, he also claimed that he had learned how to smelt
the red ore with additives which yet remained at Kranich’s home.
74
Kranich denied the fraud, and
accused Denham of ignorance and unskillfulness, but his reputation did not recover. By October
his name appeared on a list of crypto-Catholics in London; he died later that month.
75

The knowledge that Kranich counterfeited his results did not deter plans for the third voyage;
indeed, the commissioners put greater faith in Schutz’s and Denham’s credibility after the 6 March
great proof, succumbing to the sunk-cost fallacy that the only way to recoup their original
investment was to proceed in the enterprise. Not all investors agreed. Sidney wrote to Languet that
the ore turned out to be less valuable than Frobisher had boasted, but it was kept a secret lest it
forestall the opportunity for a third voyage; the hope of rich ore or the discovery of the Northwest
Passage, however, kept Sidney from abandoning the venture.
76
In the wake of the fraud, Lady
Anne Talbot, the Earl of Cumberland, the Earl of Bedford, and Sir William Winter all dropped out
of the third voyage, as their experience in mineral enterprise countervailed their desire for riches.
Despite Winter’s key role in the original assays and second voyage, the contradictory assays and
fraud were too much risk to bear. Tellingly, none of the remaining merchants dropped out. The
third voyage did gain a few new subscribers: William Borough; the Earl of Oxford, who would

74 TNA, SP 12/122, fol. 114r; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 5v-6r.
75 Burchard Kranich, “Dr. Burchard Raurych (Dr. Burcot) to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/122, fols. 109r-v;
TNA, SP 15/25, fol. 204 (27 February 1578); Sir William Fleetwood, “Sir W. Fletewood (Recorder of London) to
Lord Burghley,” Hat., CP 161/92 (22 October 1578).
76 Had Duke Casimir not indiscreetly revealed the Queen’s plan to allow Sidney and others to serve him as
private men, Sidney would have gone to the Netherlands instead of continuing in the Frobisher venture. He told
Languet in a 10 March letter of the failure of the mission: “I am starting to contemplate something in the Indies.”
Pears, 145; Sir Philip Sidney, The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney, ed. Roger Kuin (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2012), 821.
94

later pursue the pre-emption of tin from 1595-99; the Countess of Sussex, aunt of Philip Sidney;
widow Ann Francis Kindersley; and Dame Elizabeth Martyn, sister of Edward Castelin.
77

THIRD VOYAGE
Just four days after the commission sent their report to the Crown, Walsingham informed Lord
Burghley and the Earl of Sussex of the Queen’s optimism about the ore and her approval of the
third voyage and a colony of a hundred men to remain in Meta Incognita.
78
In scribbled notes,
Lord Burghley calculated that a hundred miners digging a half-ton of ore per day could lade 1400
tons in twenty-eight days; thus, if their goal was to lade 5000 tons of ore, they either needed to
drastically increase the number of miners or lengthen the time to mine. Concluding a colony was
the most cost efficient, he enlisted engineer Humphrey Locke to design a fort.
Humphrey Locke began his career overseeing the construction of Upnor Castle from 1559-
67, after which the Queen sent him and assistant John Fenton to Russia among a group of
specialists Tsar Ivan IV requested.
79
In Moscow, Locke came into conflict with the Muscovy
Company merchants and Ambassador Thomas Randolph, and asked to return to England. He first
appealed to Lord Burghley in 1568 with a device to make salt faster and with less charcoal; then
in 1572 he dedicated to him “A large treatise of alchemy, divided into 33 chapters,” which
excerpted the works of various alchemists like George Ripley and pseudo-Albertus Magnus on the
philosopher’s stone in its mineral, vegetable, and animal forms. Locke also begged the Earl of

77 James McDermott mistakenly identified Dame Elizabeth Martyn as the widow of investor Robert Martyn,
who dropped out after the first voyage. She was actually the daughter of William Castelin, mercer of London, and the
sister of Edward Castelin, who was appointed bursar of Dartford in 1578. Her second husband was Sir Roger Martyn,
Lord Mayor of London (d. 1573) and her son-in-law was Sir Anthony Culpeper, owner of Bedgebury Furnace in Kent.
She died in 1583. “Will of Dame Elizabeth Martyn, Widow of London,” TNA, PROB 11/65/430 (1 July 1583).
78 Sir Francis Walsingham, “Walsyngham to the Lord Treasurer and the Lord Chamberlain,” TNA, SP 12/123,
fol. 12r (11 March 1578).
79 Humphrey Locke, “Humphrey Lock to Sir William Cecill,” TNA, SP 12/23, fol. 102r (Upnor, 16 June 1562);
Humphrey Locke, “Humfrey Lock and John Fenton to Cecil,” TNA, SP 70/98, fol. 62r (Moscow, 20 May 1568).
95

Leicester to intercede on his behalf. Though it did not immediately earn a recall, it brought Locke
to Lord Burghley’s attention. Locke was likely the “learned man” credited by George Best with
the fort’s cunning design, though carpenter Thomas Towerson actually built the frames.
80

The instructions to Frobisher for the third voyage in March 1578 provided for 130 miners,
fifty soldiers and eighty mariners, of which forty mariners, thirty miners, and thirty soldiers,
goldfinders, gunners, shipwrights, carpenters, and bakers would be left as a colony with thirteen
months’ supplies, munitions, and three ships for exploration.
81
The Privy Council appointed
Edward Fenton commander of the colony and master of the works. He was to collect and catalogue
ore samples in a book and note precisely where and when they found the mines. He would also
assist Denham and Gregory Bona, who was the only assayer from the second voyage to visit Jonas
Mount where the rich red ore was found, in their trials.
82
Once again, the search for the Northwest
Passage was relegated to a subsidiary role, only to be undertaken after the mines at Jonas Mount
and Countess of Warwick Island were relocated and a likely site for the fort established.
To Frobisher’s annoyance, the instructions created an executive council comprised of Fenton,
Gilbert Yorke, Best, Richard Philpott, and Henry Carew, and a general council that included ship
masters Christopher Hall, Charles Jackman, James Beare, and Andrew Dyer. To maintain secrecy
over the mines, only official assayers were permitted to try ores and they designated any precious
minerals, stones, and gems the property of the company, on pain of forfeiting triple wages if

80 The original manuscript of Locke’s alchemical tract no longer exists. The Bodleian has Simon Forman’s
annotated copy of the manuscript, and six other copies exist. The tract apparently drew the interest of Arthur Dee,
Thomas Harriot, and Thomas Browne, among others. Humphrey Locke, “A large treatise on alchemy by Humfrey
Lock, dedicated to The right honorable and his singular goode lorde, Sr Willm Cycill, Lord of Burg[h]lay, knight of
the order of the garter, and highe tresurer of England,” Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 1490, no. 84 (1590); Humphrey
Locke, “Humphrey Locke to the Earl of Leicester,” TNA, SP 70/123, fol. 148 (Russia, 19 May 1572); HM 715, fol.
12r; Best, A True Discourse, 3:3.
81 . “Instructions to be observed by Martin Frobisher in his intended voyage of discovery to Meta Incognita,”
TNA, SP 15/25, fols. 146r, 147v (May? 1578); Best, A True Discourse, 3:3.
82 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 6r, 12r.
96

anyone kept them for private use.
83
Increasingly concerned about Frobisher’s temperament, Lok
sent merchant Edward Selman as his agent on the Aide. After their return in October 1578, Selman
became director of the works at Dartford, to Frobisher’s dismay.
As they planned the third voyage, rumors came from abroad about possible foreign
interlopers. Sir Edward Mansell reported that a Portuguese force prepared to sail with Sir Thomas
Stucley’s fleet (allegedly funded by the Pope), to either Ireland, Africa, or to intercept Frobisher’s
fleet.
84
Frobisher was more concerned about a planned French expedition to the region.
85
In 1577/8
Henri III appointed Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de la Roche, viceroy of New France and
engaged him to colonize Newfoundland, a region he did not acknowledge as a legitimate part of
England’s domains. At the time, the Queen feared the Marquis de la Roche’s Canadian venture
was a ruse to assist James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald in his invasion of Ireland, which was originally
planned for 1578 though not accomplished until the following year. Aware of Fitzmaurice’s
intrigues at the French and Spanish courts, the Queen commanded regular patrols of the English
Channel in 1577 and 1578 and ordered Frobisher to accompany her surveillance fleet to Ireland
before continuing on to Meta Incognita. Whether the Marquis de la Roche attempted a venture in
the late 1570s is unclear, but according to Richard Hakluyt, the 1584 expedition to Canada faltered
when his 300-ton ship was cast away at Brouage.
86

King Philip II instructed Ambassador Don Bernardino de Mendoza to learn what he could
about Frobisher’s voyages. On 31 March, Mendoza said his usual sources were mostly mum, as
the Crown threatened death to any person who divulged the details of the enterprise. What little he

83 TNA, SP 15/25, fols. 147v, 148r-149v, 151r.
84 The plan approved in 1576 was to sail for Ireland, but it was put on hold in 1577. When King Sebastian of
Portugal renewed the plan in 1578, he required Stucley to first transport men to fight the Moors in North Africa before
heading to Ireland. Stucley died at the Battle of Alcazar. Sir Edward Mansell, “Sir Edward Mansell to Lord Burghley,”
Hat., CP 160/120 (Oxenwich, 15 March 1578); Peter Holmes, “Stucley, Thomas (c.1520–1578)” ODNB.
85 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 7r.
86 Taylor, The Writings and Correspondences, 2:227; Allaire, 9-10.
97

knew was a pastiche of truth and fiction, with some details of Drake’s 1577 voyage mixed in.
Mendoza said Frobisher had discovered silver ore three fathoms deep in the barren land. Though
the recent assay results varied, some of the ore had proven valuable. He marveled it could hold so
much silver, though he trusted the veracity of the proofs because they were done by a German
metallurgist who received a pension from the Crown. Furthermore, their plan to establish a colony
argued for the rich returns the Queen expected. He promised the King that he would send ore
samples and attempt to get a chart of the region, which he succeeded in obtaining in September
1578 but did not send until February 1579.
87
By May 1578, Mendoza’s fascination had given way
to disbelief after he heard about the falsified assays, which confirmed his opinion that precious
metals could not be found in a cold land so far north. To uncover the truth, Mendoza planted an
agent among Frobisher’s fleet for the third voyage.
88

When the King wrote back to Mendoza on 13 June 1578, he said that three of the samples that
looked like gold were mere marcasite, and two black pieces were nothing but stone. Given all the
talk of rich ore, the King suspected Mendoza’s spy deliberately gave him worthless stones to
mislead the Spanish. Likewise, the King suspected deception in locating these mines between 62
and 65 degrees of latitude, agreeing that rich mines were unlikely to be found in the Arctic. He
commanded Mendoza to send him as many samples as he could get to verify their assays, and a
chart of the voyages.
89
Concurring with the King’s suspicion that England’s colonial ambitions lay
farther south, Mendoza suborned an Englishman among Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s adventurers to
spy for him on his forthcoming expedition to Norumbega (New England).
90

87 The samples actually did not go out until 22 April 1578 due to the danger of discovery. Hume, Calendar of
State Papers, Spain, Vol. 2, 561-578, 608-618, 642.
88 Hume, CSP Spain, 2:578-587, 618.
89 CSP Spain, 2:587-604.
90 CSP Spain, 2:606-609.
98

In light of these potential threats, colonization took on greater urgency and affirmed the
importance of a garrison to protect the miners and laborers. As George Best later surmised, the
colony was necessary to guard what England had already found and for further discovery of “the
Inland & secreats of those countries,” as well as seek the Northwest Passage.
91
Frobisher, however,
doubted a colony could survive in the harsh environment and jealously guarded his command of
the venture, which he did not wish to share with Fenton.
92
On 3 May 1578, the commissioners
submitted their anticipated expenses for the voyage. They planned to outfit four ships and a
contingent of 150 mariners, 120 pioneers, and 120 soldiers, who would need wages, tents, clothing,
food, armor, weapons, and gunpowder, which did double-duty as a flux for assaying, in addition
to mining implements, bellows, furnaces, and forges for eight smiths. Additional ships would be
impressed into service, though the company would pay their freight and wages. They estimated
the cost to be over ₤9,000 without accounting for discharging expenses, an amount they
downplayed with a projected profit of ₤40,000 if they mined 2000 tons of ore that year. Optimistic
assessments of future profit aside, the charges for this voyage exceeded the company’s available
stock, even assuming all the subscribers paid on-time and in-full.
93

Although the commission kept Kranich’s salted assays a secret from the investors, news of
the other conflicting proofs as well as the hefty assessments from the second voyage and the
Dartford works, discouraged subscribers. Of the sixty-one investors for the third voyage, twenty-
four were in arrears as of 3 May 1578. This number included almost all of the privy councilors,
commissioners Dyer, Randolph, Jenkinson, Field, Pelham, and Duckett, merchants Gresham,
Somers, and Owen, the Countess of Warwick and Earl of Cumberland, and even Frobisher himself.

91 Best, A True Discourse, 3:2-3.
92 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols. 7v-8r.
93 “Estimate of the Charges for Captain Furbisher’s Third Voyage to the North-West,” TNA, SP 12/124, fols.
1r-2r (3 May 1578).
99

Without firmer assurance the ore would prove worth the risk, many of the subscribers—especially
those with the most knowledge of the mineral trials—withheld their money, placing even greater
pressure on the metallurgists to return good assay results.
94

With fifteen ships and 156 Cornish miners, Frobisher embarked on the final voyage on 31
May 1578.
95
Disaster struck on 2 July as they entered the strait just beyond the Queens Foreland
(Resolution Island). Struck by an iceberg, the Bark Denys sank with pieces of their winter fort and
victuals on board, and fog caused the fleet to become separated and lost. In the same way he
interpreted the lone auriferous stone as a blessing, George Best turned the loss of the ship and
perilous icy waters into an example of how tragedy precipitated virtue in the adventurers. Frobisher
with his “invincible minde” had the captains, mariners, and miners use any tool they could to beat
the ice back from the boats—oars, pieces of timber, pikes, and poles—“to the everlasting renowne
of our nation.”
96
Anchored off Resolution Island, Fenton took two small boats ashore to look for
ore, which he found similar to the ore at Kodlunarn and loaded it in the boats as ballast.
97

Their ill luck continued when they inadvertently entered Hudson Strait, which Frobisher
insisted was Frobisher Strait against the opinion of Christopher Hall. Best tried to paint this error
in the positive light of discovery, suggesting that as water was an inferior element subject to the
motions of the heavens, and must follow the primum mobile from east to west, Hudson Strait must
therefore be an outlet for a larger sea, with the implication Frobisher had located a possible ingress
to the South Sea. This detour gave them a chance to assess the country’s natural resources, which

94 “Account of the Sums Remaining Unpaid by the Adventurers in Mr. Furbisher’s Voyage to the North-West,”
TNA SP 12/124, fol. 3r (3 May 1578); McDermott, The Third Voyage, 10, 17.
95 Lok later claimed that most of these men were not actually miners but “showemakers, taylors musitians,
gardeners, and other artyfycers no woorkemen,” and that Frobisher paid them substandard wages and pocketed the
difference. Hogarth et al., 39; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 7v.
96 Best, A True Discourse, 3:14.
97 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 145.
100

Best depicted as more fruitful and grassward than previously known and filled with deer, wild
fowl, gulls, bears, hares, and foxes.
98

When Frobisher’s mistake became clear, they turned back, finally arriving at Kodlunarn on
21 July and set up a base camp. Fenton noticed their former mining camp remained undisturbed,
with “divers osmondes [iron blooms] … untooched of the people.”
99
A few days later, Fenton went
inland to survey the land and prospect for ore. The land was craggy and barren but had some
marshlands, waterfalls (at least one of which he thought capable of powering two mills), and
ground that might work as pasture, in addition to reindeer and partridges. Fenton noted veins of
ore that ran north-northwest and south-southeast.
100
At Napoleon Bay, they discovered a black ore
vein lying west-southwest, which they named Skipwith Mount after the Judith’s pilot, Lionel
Skipwith. They found more black ore of the kind picked up in 1576 at a place he named Fenton’s
Fortune and in a cave he called Jackman’s Cave. Fenton also returned to Winter’s Furnace on
nearby Newland Island on 31 July to begin assays of the ore found the previous year; that same
day, all but four ships reunited at Kodlunarn.
101

With the fleet mostly reassembled, digging began in earnest under Frobisher’s supervision.
Fenton oversaw the erection of tents for the pioneers and soldiers, as well as two workshops for
assaying the ore. Based on archaeological remains, they carried out the initial roasts and melting
of the ore in crucibles fired with coal at the first workshop, which had been built in 1577.
Fragments of cupels, refractory ceramic, and muffles indicate that actual assays were done in a
second workshop using charcoal fires and two types of galena brought from England.
102
Before

98 Best, A True Discourse, 3:22-23.
99 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 152.
100 Ibid, 153.
101 Ibid, 155-156.
102 Beaudoin and Auger, 673.
101

setting the men to work, Frobisher reiterated the command that only Fenton, Denham, and Bona,
or whomever Frobisher or Fenton appointed could conduct assays, and the consequences for
purloining ore or precious stones.
103
This order was widely disregarded and in May 1579 the Privy
Council ordered the adventurers to relinquish any ore, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds to
Frobisher, but only a few did.
104
The ore on Kodlunarn proved extremely difficult to dig, so mining
was done there only when the weather did not permit exploration of the surrounding lands;
likewise, the ore at Winter’s Furnace laid “so uncerteinlie and crabbedlie to gett,” they buried four
men there on 16 August.
105

As weather conditions worsened and provisions dwindled, on 9 August Frobisher convened a
council to determine if they should proceed with the colony or extract as much ore as possible and
return to England. With four ships still missing, including Best in the Ann Francis, they lacked the
“better sort of Myners” and significant provisions.
106
Fenton offered to remain at Kodlunarn with
sixty men to await a supply from England. Frobisher reckoned it would take eight to nine weeks
to construct a stone fort for them, too long for the remaining victuals, and therefore refused. They
instead focused on discovering new mines and lading ore over the next three weeks. Expectations
for success lifted when Denham and Fenton tried a rich black and red ore found on the Countess
of Sussex Island in Beare Sound by Master Davis, Master Morris of the Francis of Foy, and
Edward Selman. Liking the “greatnes and goodnes thereof,” Fenton sent Captain Yorke back to
the island to dig up the vein. Close to shore and relatively easy to dig, the mine on the Countess of

103 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 156; Best, A True Discourse, 3:34-35.
104 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 12r.
105 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 157; Vilhjalmur Stefansson, ed., The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher in
Search of a Passage to Cathay and India by the North-West, A.D. 1576-8 (London: Argonaut Press, 1938), 1:65-66.
106 Best, A True Discourse, 3:36-37.
102

Sussex Island soon became the focus of activity. Further proofs of this mine revealed that even the
worst ores held gold and silver.
107

In Dyers Sound, Andrew Dyer also found a mine, which Frobisher called Denhams Mount.
When they finally had a chance to assay ore found there, it contained four types “in goodness
equall in effect with any the other mynes before discovered.”
108
Not all of the adventurers approved
of these haphazard explorations. In his account to Lok on 2 October, Edward Selman thought the
urgency to bring back ore from many mines led simple men to load both good and bad ore, a pre-
emptive justification for the poor results Schutz and Denham had at Dartford in late 1578 and
1579.
109

In the meantime, George Best had not given up on reuniting with the rest of the fleet, despite
his mariners’ requests to return to England. Instead, he committed to fulfilling the goals of the
venture by mining black ore on “a great blacke Iland,” perhaps Resolution Island, similar to the
type found in 1577. Without an assayer to determine the ore’s worth Best supposed its metallic
content “but by gesse of the eie,” but it was so abundant he thought it might satisfy “all the golde
gluttons of the worlde.” He called the place Best’s Blessing. With assistance from Captain Upcot
of the Moon of Foy, they loaded 130 tons of black ore onto the ships.
110
On 11 August, Best and
his shipmaster, James Beare, hiked to the highest point on Hatton’s Headland to survey the land’s
fruitfulness and look for mines, leaving a “Columne or Crosse of stone” as a token of Christian
possession. Best observed plenty of black ore and precious stones there.
111
Determined to carry on
prospecting and to rejoin Frobisher, Best ordered his carpenter and smith to repair a pinnace for

107 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 160, 162; Stefansson, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, 1:65.
108 McDermott, The Third Voyage, 162.
109 Stefansson, 1:70.
110 Best, A True Discourse, 3:43-44.
111 Best, A True Discourse, 3:45.
103

exploration. Lacking small pieces of iron, great bellows, or a sledgehammer, the smith resorted to
using a pair of small bellows to melt tongs, gridirons, and shovel pieces, which he then pounded
into nails with a pickaxe. The carpenter joined planks together with the few nails available, but
Best and Fenton recalled it was a miracle the vessel remained seaworthy. Fearing the dishonor of
returning to England with a hull full of worthless untried ore, Best and Captain Upcot set out in
the rickety pinnace to find Frobisher.
112

On 22 August, Best and Upcot made it to Beare Sound, where they encountered Captain Yorke
loading ore at the Countess of Sussex mine. Best left some of his miners there and proceeded to
Kodlunarn to have the ore from Best’s Blessing tested. Though Fenton’s initial proofs were not
good, he sent Best back to collect four more samples.
113
Subsequent assays by Denham and Fenton
found it to hold gold and silver. While Frobisher oversaw the lading of ore from the mines, Fenton
built a limestone watchtower on Kodlunarn as an experiment to see how it withstood the winds
and how it wintered, assuming there would be a fourth venture the next year. According to Best,
they left bells, knives, looking glasses, whistles, pipes, lead pictures of men and women, and bread
in the oven built inside the structure “the better to allure those brutish & uncivill people to
courtesie” when they returned.
114
They buried timber and victuals for supply the next year, but
also to make more room to transport ore “whiche we holde of farre greater price.”
115
To assess the
island’s suitability for cultivation, they planted peas, corn, and grain. By the end of August, the
winds, snow, and ice made sailing conditions dangerous and Frobisher commanded the fleet to fill
their hulls and make their way out of Frobisher Strait. Riding heavy with 1340 tons of ore,

112 Ibid, 3:45-46.
113 Ibid, 3:49-50; McDermott, The Third Voyage, 164.
114 Best, A True Discourse, 3:51.
115 Ibid.
104

Frobisher was hopeful of subsequent ventures despite their inability to establish the mining
colony.
116

By the time the ships reached Resolution Island on 2 September, several pinnaces were lost
and the fleet dispersed as their captains beat a hasty retreat from the ice-packed bay into the open
ocean. Edward Selman unfairly criticized Frobisher for the losses, saying it was his greed to lade
more ore that caused it.
117
The situation hardly improved in the Atlantic. A storm on the night of
14-15 September burst open Frobisher’s cabin and swept away its contents, including the register
of assays, and nearly drowned helmsman Francis Austen. On 17 September, miner George Yong
died, followed ten days later by ‘Dutchman’ Cornelis Riche. As the ships trickled into Portsmouth
in late September and early October, scurvy afflicted many of the men and at least twenty-four
perished.
118

In spite of the dangerous crossing, only the Emmanuel of Bridgewater failed to return,
wrecking off the coast of Smerwick, Ireland. The mariners salvaged all but eight of its one hundred
tons of ore, which was cold comfort to the Emmanuel’s owner Richard Newton when the Privy
Council granted him the worthless stone as compensation for his lost ship. In 1580, papal soldiers
fighting for the Earl of Desmond hastily reinforced Smerwick fort with the stockpiled ore, earning
it the name Dún an Óir (Fort of Gold). In the final reckoning, Frobisher and Fenton deposited 1136
tons of ore at Dartford, and the pressure on the metallurgists intensified as Frobisher bragged the
ore was worth ₤60 or ₤70 per ton.
119
On 29 October 1578, the Privy Council ordered the

116 Selman’s tally was as follows: the Ayde, 130 tons; the Thomas Allen 160 tons; the Hopewell 140 tons; the
Francis of Foy 130 tons; the Ann Francis 130 tons; the Moon of Foy 100 tons; the Bear Leicester 100 tons; the Judith
80 tons; the Gabriel 20 tons; the Michael 20 tons; the Armonell 100 tons; the Emmanuel of Bridgewater 100 tons; the
Salomon of Weymouth 130 tons. Stefansson, 1:69-70.
117 Stefansson, 1:69.
118 Stefansson, 73; Christopher Hall, “Cristofer Hawle to the Lord Treasurer,” Hat., CP 202/149 (Portsmouth,
29 September 1578).
119 Privy Council, “Westminster, the Xxvjth of February, 1578,” TNA PC 2/12, fol. 410 (Westminster, 26
February 1578/9); BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 9v; Hogarth et al., 47, 62-63.
105

commission to confiscate any charts, descriptions, or writings about the third voyage from
adventurers, and to have the chief officers set down their accounts of the venture. They further
ordered the speedy conclusion of assays on the ore.
120

A VERY EVIL WORK
Given the expense of the third voyage and the failure to establish the colony, many of the
adventurers were displeased by the results of the expedition. Even though Frobisher returned with
twice as much ore as originally planned, this was a double-edged sword, as they now owed twice
the freight charges, and would need to collect ₤6000 from the investors to discharge the ships and
men, an astonishing eighty-five percent assessment.
121
As costs ballooned, two-thirds of the
subscribers opted to remain indebted rather than continue to spend good money after bad without
any indication the ore would answer their investments. By the end of November only the Queen,
Dr. Wilson, the Earls of Leicester and Oxford, Walsingham, Gresham, Thomas Allen, Christopher
Hoddesdon, and Richard Young had paid all or some of their charges.
122
Lok complained about
wasting three weeks at court trying to collect money, which the “evill successe at Darteforde”
made difficult.
123
To resolve the acute money shortage, on 7 December the Queen sent out a
general order threatening to eject subscribers from the company if they did not bring their accounts
up to date within ten days of receipt; the Privy Council summoned twelve of the worst offenders,

120 Privy Council, “The Council to the Lord Mayor and Sir Wm. Cordell,” TNA, SP 12/126, fol. 42 (29 October
1578); Privy Council, “[Meeting] 2 Novembris, 1578,” TNA, PC 2/12, fols. 287-288 (2 November 1578).
121 CSP Spain, 2:618; Privy Council, “The Council to Mr. Michael Lok,” TNA, SP 12/126, fol. 41r (29 October
1578).
122 Michael Lok, “Account of Monies Not Paid in by the Adventurers in Mr. Furbisher’s Third Voyage,” TNA,
SP 12/126, f. 167r-v (30 November 1578); McDermott, The Third Voyage, 47.
123 Michael Lok, “The Answer of Michael Lok upon the Second Audit of His Accounts by the Commissioners,”
TNA SP 12/129, fols. 98, 102v (20 January - 18 February 1578/9).
106

including Sir William Winter, to appear before them. This accomplished little and a second notice
of debt went out on 13 January 1579.
124

Worsening finances exposed fissures in the company, and led to Lok’s removal as treasurer
on 8 December after Frobisher denounced him for fiscal mismanagement and cozening the Earl of
Oxford into assuming half of his stock.
125
New treasurer Thomas Allen sourly informed
Walsingham that Lok’s last disbursement paid the full charges for the Beare Leicester, his own
ship.
126
An aggrieved Lok accused Frobisher of behaving like a “mad beast” and blamed him for
all manner of defects, from the ridiculous (the wreckage of the vessels due to icy waters and bad
weather, and not discovering the Northwest Passage) to the unprovable (that he conspired with
Kranich to salt the assays) to the reasonable (not relocating the red ore because he caused Schutz
to quit the voyage, and his excessive charges for extra men, ships, and victuals). He laid the cost
for the lost Bark Denys and extra charges—to the tune of ₤10,200—at Frobisher’s feet. Denying
any responsibility for the proceedings, Lok said that if anyone was liable for the debts incurred it
was Schutz and Denham, upon whose analysis of the ore the company undertook the last two
voyages.
127

Disaffection and recriminations abounded and Allen reported at least three suits by ship
owners for their freight and mariners’ wages.
128
Frobisher and his partisans exacerbated Allen’s

124 Privy Council, “[Meeting] 7 Decembris 1578,” TNA PC 2/12, fols. 332-333 (7 December 1578); Privy
Council, “The Council to the Earl of Pembroke and others; calling upon them to pay the amount of money due for
their contributions in the adventure of Captain Furbisher's voyage to the North-west,” TNA, SP 12/127, fol. 14 ([7]
December 1578); “General order, by command of the Queen, to the adventurers in Captain Furbisher's voyages,”
TNA, SP 12/127, fols. 17-18 ([7] December 1578).
125 The Earl of Oxford’s total debt was ₤2520, of which he had paid all but ₤540 by 6 May 1583. BL, Lansdowne
MS 100/1, fol.11r; Michael Lok, “Accounts, with Subsidiary Documents, of Michael Lok, Treasurer, of First, Second
and Third Voyages of Martin Frobisher to Cathary by the North-West Passage. Composite Volume,” TNA, E 164/36,
fols. 317-323 (1576-1581).
126 Thomas Allen, “Tho. Allen to Sir Fr. Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/127, fol. 20 (London, 8 December 1578).
127 TNA, SP 12/129, fols. 98r, 102v-103v; TNA SP 12/130, fols. 34r-35r; BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 14v.
128 This included Thomas Bonham, owner of the Thomas of Ipswich. Thomas Allen, “Tho. Allen to
Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/130, fol. 25 (20 March 1579); Thomas Bonham, “The Humble Suit of Tho. Bonham,”
TNA, SP 12/126, fol. 64 ([October] 1578).
107

trouble collecting arrearages by spreading rumors that Lok still had over ₤4000 in his possession,
leading many subscribers to refuse to pay.
129
As of 25 April 1579, thirty-two subscribers still owed
the company on their initial stock and assessments because “the Ewre brought home remayneth
untried and so unprofitable.”
130
The Queen had the Privy Council issue a notice to re-subscribe to
the company with a date to pay their accounts in full, or sign a bill refusing further adventure and
relinquishing all benefits in the company.
Sensing the enterprise was unraveling and realizing he lacked the legal protection of an
incorporation charter to pursue delinquent shareholders, Lok sought reimbursement for his debts
from the company. Lok’s personal stock was ₤4920, of which he had recently contracted with the
Earl of Oxford to assume ₤2000. He claimed the company still owed him ₤1200 for loan interest,
travel, warehouse, and household charges he accrued while treasurer. The auditors appointed to
verify his accounts determined the loans were not for the company’s benefit but to increase his
personal stake in the venture. They thought Lok tried to take advantage of the large purses of the
Privy Council and Crown for his own gain. Thus, they allocated only ₤430 to cover his business
expenses.
131
Lok appealed to the Privy Council, hoping to satisfy his creditors for a brief time. He
worried that his wife and children would have to beg for food “except God turne the Stones at
Dartford into his bread agayne.”
132
They did not intercede on his behalf.
Had the mineral trials answered expectations, few shareholders would have withheld their
money, but the trials did not go well. While the fleet was in Meta Incognita, the company finished

129 Michael Lok, “Relation of the Abuses Committed by Capt. Furbisher,” TNA, SP 12/130, fol. 35v (25 March
1579).
130 “Note of the Sums Remaining Unpaid by the Adventurers in Capt. Furbisher’s Voyages,” TNA, SP 12/130,
fols. 109-110 (25 April 1579); Privy Council, “The Council to the Adventurers in Furbisher’s Last Voyage to the
North-West,” TNA, SP 12/130, fol. 120 (April 1579).
131 “Answer to Mr. Lok’s Request for 1200l,” TNA, SP 12/126, fols. 67r-v (October 1578).
132 Michael Lok, “Petition of Michael Lok to the Council” and “Statement of M. Lok,” TNA, SP 12/130, fols.
37-38 (25 March 1579).
108

construction of the refining house and transported the ore from Bristol to Dartford, where it was
stored in the chapel of the royal manor.
133
By the time the fleet arrived in England, the furnaces
were ready, William Humfrey the younger had been hired to assist in smelting, the four Saxon
workers had arrived in London, and Humfrey Cole had returned from Newcastle with “Markesyt
of Seacolle” to smelt the ore.
134
With the unexpected return of the colonists, pessimism about the
success of the venture took hold. In his 10 October letter to Lord Burghley, Lok refused to believe
Denham’s opinion that the ore held one ounce of gold in every hundredweight until Schutz
performed the large proofs, which he originally planned to start the following Monday with two
furnaces, but could not manage.
135
The Crown appointed a new commission on 29 October, which
included Gresham, Duckett, Pelham, and Randolph, to supervise proofs of both the old and new
ore. Lok hired merchant Edward Castelin, treasurer of the Mineral & Battery Works and adventurer
in the Guinea voyages, as bursar of Dartford to procure carts, men, and other necessities for Schutz
and Denham. He resigned the position after an altercation with Frobisher; his successor Edward
Selman similarly found himself the victim of Frobisher’s violent outbursts.
136

Schutz finally began a proof of the 1577 ore on 8 November 1578, using marcasite of sea-coal
as an additive. The “woorke proved verye evill,” which Schutz blamed on the sulfurous marcasite
and “evill frame” of the bellows made by the carpenter. A second proof of the new ore went little
better, with Lok calling the results “somewhat reasonable, but was farr from the rytches looked

133 Privy Council, “[Meeting] Iij Julij, 1578,” TNA, PC 2/12, fols. 216, 218 (Greenwich, 3 July 1578).
134 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 10r. While in Yorkshire, Cole visited Robert Bowes in Richmondshire and
found deposits of “green ore,” which was probably malachite (copper carbonate), near where Bowes’ manor was being
built. Cole sent a sample of the ore to Edward Dyer, who gave it to Lord Burghley. As the Cathay Company’s future
looked doubtful, on 4 December 1578, Cole tried to persuade Lord Burghley that Richmondshire would be a good
place for the Mines Royal to direct its attention, and hoped this discovery might merit him a preferment. Humphrey
Cole, “Mr Humphrey Cole to Lord Burghley,” BL, Lansdowne MS 26/22, fol. 52r (London, 4 December 1578).
135 Michael Lok, “Michael Locke to Lord Burghley,” Hat., CP 161/71 (London, 10 October 1578).
136 Though Castelin did not appear in Allen’s company accounts after 31 December 1578, Lok said that despite
Frobisher’s attempts to oust Castelin and take over his position, Castelin still acted as bursar until Selman took over
on 15 April 1579. BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fols.10v, 12v-13r.
109

for.”
137
On 18 November Schutz tendered an offer to the commission to work the ore for ₤13 11s
with copper marcasite brought from the Caldbeck mine near Keswick, and return gold and silver
worth ₤28 15s per ton. Back in 1572, the refiners at Caldbeck realized that roasting ore with galena
extracted more silver at less cost than metallic lead, and Schutz hoped this would likewise apply
to the arctic ore. They accepted Schutz’s offer, and sent Denham to Cumbria to procure galena and
copslighe, a rich copper ore, from Mines Royal manager Daniel Hechstetter.
138
As soon as the
Caldbeck ore arrived, Schutz conducted another large proof on 29 December, but it too “succeaded
but evill, throwghe his hast made thereof.” Another large proof of ore on 20 January 1579 had
better success, showing a metal content worth ₤10/ton, which while “somewhat comfortable” was
still well below expectations.
139
Although these failures were attributed to workmanship, the
prognosis was dire and the metallurgists pinned their hopes on discovering more of Kranich’s
antimony to coax the metals out of the ore.
Even before the last two large proofs underperformed, Lok had encouraged Walsingham to
send an agent to Peter (aka Piers) Edgcumbe in Cornwall to discover the source of Kranich’s
antimony. Schutz and Denham insisted that antimony was “the most good & most fytt” additament
for the hard ore, a conclusion endorsed by an English metallurgist named Goodyear, who
conducted small assays at Lok’s house on Sir Lionel Duckett’s recommendation.
140
At the end of
December, the Privy Council sent Fenton to Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall, where Kranich said he
had found his “vitriol” of antimony.

137 Ibid, f.10r.
138 Andrew Palmer, “Note by Mr. Palmer Relative to the Offer Made at Muscovy House by Mr. Jonas Schutz,”
TNA, SP 12/126, fol. 151 (Muscovy House, 18 November 1578); Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 203; Hogarth et al.,
92.
139 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 12v.
140 Michael Lok, “Michael Lok to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/127, fol. 25 (London, 11 December 1578).
110

The Edgcumbe family had a long history of copper mining in southwest England, and it was
on their lands near Newquay that Kranich had established his silver works in about 1554. With
Edgcumbe’s copper works now inoperable, he and Kranich had planned to seek a license from the
Mines Royal for Devon and Cornwall mines, but Kranich’s recent death derailed the suit.
141
Even
with a letter of introduction from his patron the Earl of Bedford, Edgcumbe was unhappy with
Fenton’s visit and offered little assistance in locating antimony ore. Where Edgcumbe proved an
inhospitable host, local gentlemen Mr. Godolphin and Mr. Arundel enlisted their tenants to help
Fenton collect ore samples to send to London. Fenton especially commended Mr. Coswarth for his
service, probably referring to Lok’s nephew Edward Cosworth, who was a client of Dr. Wilson
and son-in-law to John Arundell of Trerice.
142
When Fenton showed Kranich’s ore to local miners,
they said they had never seen such an ore in any of the mines. Unable to conduct small assays, or
find a skilled person to do it, Fenton awaited the Privy Council’s directions on how to proceed.
143

With his letter, Fenton sent a calendar of nine types of ore. From St. Austell, he sent samples
“liek Copper called myndick” (mundic) and another like tin or lead; from St. Ewe a sample “called
by the Tynners Calle” (kall or cal aka tungsten); a yellow ore found near Newquay, either at Perran

141 William Rees mistakenly assigned Edgcumbe’s partnership with Kranich to 1579. In 1579, Edgcumbe did
ask for three shares in the Mines Royal to allow him to mine in Cornwall and Devon; the same year, the Queen granted
him a license to mine gold, silver, copper, lead, antimony, alum, and copperas in Ireland beyond the Pale. By 1581,
Edgcumbe was back in England as a partner to Thomas “Customer” Smythe and Sir Lionel Duckett in a mining license
for Devon, Cornwall, and Cardiganshire. In 1583, he proposed re-opening Kranich’s silver works and hired William
Carnsew the younger to survey them. Rees, 1:136, 2:424-425; “. “Extract from a Grant of the Queen to Peter
Edgecombe,” BL, Lansdowne MS 28/8, fols. 15-18 (1579); Peter Edgcumbe, “Mr. P. Edgecumb Shows to Lord
Burghley That He Has Formed a Scheme for Improving Irish Mines,” BL, Lansdowne MS 29/1, fol. 3 (15 June 1579).
142 Mr. Godolphin could refer either to Sir Francis (c. 1534-1608), nephew and heir of Sir William Godolphin
(d. 1570), vice-warden of the stannaries and Kranich’s former partner, or his lesser-known brother, William (d. 1589),
who assisted in the family’s mineral operations in Cornwall. Mr. Arundell was most likely John Arundel of Trerice
(d. 1580), whose daughter married Edward Cosworth, but may have been Sir John Arundel of Helston (d. 1590),
whose grandfather was Sir Peter (Piers) Edgcumbe of Cotehele (d. 1539), and thus a cousin of Peter Edgcumbe.
Andrew Foot, “Burchard Cranach (c. 1515-1578),” Lerryn Historical Society (19 November 2010), 2-3; John
Goodwin Locke, Book of Lockes: A Genealogical and Historical Record of the Descendants of William Locke, of
Woburn (Boston; Cambridge: James Munro and Company, 1853), 358.
143 Edward Fenton, “Edw. Fenton to the Council. Enclosed, Calendar of Several Sorts of Ores Sent up in Bags
to London from Cornwall by Mr. Fenton,” TNA, SP 12/129, fols. 2r-v (Mount Edgcumbe, 2 January 1578/9).
111

(Perranzabuloe) or at St. Columb, where Kranich dug a silver mine to twenty-two fathoms depth
before water flooded the shaft. Near Kranich’s former works, Fenton found slags containing a
substance to melt down the ore, which he could not identify, but entered into the calendar. He also
included samples from Helston, St. Tamesse (St. Agnes), Truro, and an ore “with their leades Red”
from Edgcumbe’s lands.
144
On 13 January 1579, Fenton dispatched three more types of ores found
in Devon. The first “blidinge call … not much unlike the Common raddell” (raddle, red ochre),
which dissolved in water; the second, a marcasite so poor it was not worth the expense for
transport; and the third from a silver mine on Lord Mountjoy’s estates at Bere Ferrers, of which
he could only obtain a small sample “by reason the same worke hath been discontynued thies 100
yeres (as I am enformed).”
145

With these samples, he forwarded an offer made by Richard Edgcumbe, younger brother of
Peter, to dig for more of Kranich’s ore, claiming he had sent it to Kranich seven years earlier after
its discovery at Pillaton, Cornwall. The younger Edgcumbe offered to mine it at his own cost and
deliver it to Dartford in exchange for suitable compensation. Not wishing the Crown to disburse
any more money in the search for Kranich’s mines on “so slender and uncertein a grownde,”
Fenton assessed Edgcumbe’s suit as honest and reasonable if the Privy Council wished to proceed.
A sense of disillusionment in mineral enterprise had apparently taken hold of Fenton, as he grimly
concluded that the mineral experts, despite their apparent simplicity, were quite cunning and would
not “plainelie … unfolde the good or badd successes of thaccion” if it meant losing their labor and
maintenance.
146
Idle remark or not, Fenton had summed up the Cathay Company’s experience
juggling multiple experts the past two years.

144 TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 4r.
145 Edward Fenton, “Edw. Fenton to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 18r (Exeter, 13 January 1578/9).
146 Edward Fenton, “Edw. Fenton to the Council,” TNA, SP 12/129, fols. 16-17 (Exeter, 13 January 1578/9).
112

The recent proofs did little to calm anxieties that the company was in a tailspin. By mid-
January, Allen complained to Walsingham of Frobisher’s slanders against him, having been
accused of saying that the ore at Dartford was worthless.
147
On 7 February, Don Bernardino de
Mendoza finally sent the chart of Baffin Island and ore samples to Philip II, although they were
clearly worthless. To Mendoza, this was conclusive evidence that the previous year’s assays had
been exaggerated to promote the enterprise. The King’s assayers later confirmed the ore was of
“little value.”
148
Amidst this growing crisis for the company, Schutz conducted another large proof
of ore, mixed with galena and litharge from Keswick. It yielded eighteen ounces of silver and gold,
but only a half-ounce of the latter. Demonstrating at least some awareness that the galena and
litharge contained its own silver, Schutz deducted only one ounce of silver to account for it, which
suggested he intentionally misled the commissioners about the value of the ore at a time when the
future of the work was once again in doubt.
149

Not comprehending how Schutz’s late proofs could show so little gold, the commissioners
and chief adventurers became suspicious of “some false dealings” at Tower Hill the previous year,
either by Schutz, Denham, Frobisher, or Lok. Commissioners Gresham, Duckett, Fenton, Yorke,
Allen, and Hoddesdon demanded Schutz perform another proof in front of them precisely
replicating those earlier trials with ore from Kodlunarn. At this demonstration on 24 March, Schutz
produced enough metal “withowtt anye falshoode” for a profit of ₤15 per ton, which well-satisfied
the commission.
150
Under pressure for positive results, Schutz may have resorted to various
methods of trickery to enhance the metal content without detection by those observing his

147 Thomas Allen, “Tho. Allen to Walsyngham,” TNA, SP 12/129, fol. 21 (London, 13 January 1578/9).
148 CSP Spain, 2: 642, 662-668.
149 “Amount of the Gold, Silver &c. Obtained from One Ton of the Ore Brought by Capt. Furbisher,” TNA, SP
12/129, fol. 94r (17 February 1578/9).
150 Jonas Schutz, “Certificate by Jonas Schutz of the Amount of Gold and Silver Contained in Two Cwt of Ore,”
TNA, SP 12/130, fol. 31r (24 March 1579); BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 13r.
113

operations. The commission did nothing to discourage chicanery, consulting yet another expert.
John Barton, a gentleman with experience in mineral works, had offered to smelt all the ore within
a year and yield at least ₤20/ton, and a few days after Schutz’s proof, the commission debated
continuing the work with Schutz, or negotiating with Barton.
151
By constantly keeping the
metallurgical experts insecure in their position and pushing them to promise more profit with less
cost, the commission unwittingly created the conditions for fraud.
Though they did not grant Barton’s suit, they also would not provide money for Schutz and
Denham to acquire more additives to smelt the ore, bringing the works to a halt. To salvage their
reputations, Schutz, Denham, and the German workers offered to purchase all the ore for twenty
marks/ton and work it at their own costs at Dartford.
152
Lok proffered his own proposal to buy out
his share of the ore, 150 tons, and work it himself. Not to be excluded from any profits, Frobisher
complained to the Privy Council that Lok and Schutz sought to undercut the company and Crown
for their private profit. After a hearing before the commission on 3 May 1579, Sir Thomas Gresham
led the others in rejecting both suits on the grounds “that yt would be a great dishonour unto her
Majestie to make anye bargaine to sell awaye the Ewre.”
153
Lok then accused Frobisher of
colluding with Duke Casimir of Saxe-Coburg, who supposedly promised to send six skilled
mineral men to Dartford, while simultaneously initiating a compact with Schutz and Denham to
work the ore themselves, which they refused. Lok was incensed that the company would neither
grant a license for the ore, nor continue the work themselves.
154
He revived the suit again in 1580/1,
this time offering to pay ₤6000 over seven years in exchange for an outright grant of the Dartford

151 Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Lionel Duckett, John Dee, Christopher Hoddesdon, Edward Fenton, Martin
Frobisher, Michael Lok, Thomas Allen, and Gilbert York, “Sir Tho. Gresham, and Others, to the Council,” TNA, SP
12/130, fols. 40r-v (28 March 1579).
152 BL, Lansdowne MS 100/1, fol. 13v.
153 Ibid, fol. 13v.
154 Ibid, fols. 13v-14r.
114

works, with all the implements and furnishings, a license from the two mining corporations to
search for and dig up to five tons of ore for additives, and discharge from all his debts to the Cathay
Company. If this was unsatisfactory, he proposed to work the ore for the company for ₤5 per ton
and 20s for each work day.
155

These suits indicated that if fraud had been committed it was done to keep the business afloat
until they figured out how to properly and profitably smelt what they still believed to be valuable
ore. Even at this late date, there was still considerable confidence in the ore’s quality, as
demonstrated by a petition from the mayor and officers of Dover for a license to transport annually
200-300 tons of ore from Nunavut as a means of rejuvenating the declining fortunes of their port.
156

A definitive conclusion on the ore’s value came only on 28 July 1583, when mint assay-master
William Williams submitted the results of two proofs he performed. In the first, he smelted the ore
with just lead, and in the second he used both lead and unspecified additives. In both proofs the
only silver detected came from the additives and not the ore, and he detected no gold.
157

In the final account, the total stock for the company was ₤20345 with ₤3000 still unpaid in
1581. The actual costs ended up closer to ₤25000. The total amount of ore brought back from
Nunavut was 1530 tons, and much of it was recycled as general building stone in Dartford, such
as the western boundary wall of the Royal Manor House. William Camden passingly mentioned
its use to repair highways.
158
Though the venture led to the erection of southern England’s largest
refining facility, a 1580 examination of the Dartford furnaces by George Needham and Daniel

155 Michael Lok, “The Offer of Michael Lok,” BL Lansdowne MS 30/4, fols. 10r-v, 11r (1580). Another copy
in SP 12/147, fols. 122r-v is dated February 1580/1.
156 “Petition of the Mayor, Jurats, and whole Commonalty of the town and port of Dover, to the Council,” TNA,
SP 12/133, fol. 97 (1579).
157 William Williams, “Certificate of the Proofs Made by William Williams of the Ore Brought over by Captain
Furbisher,” TNA, SP 12/161, fol. 105r (London, 28 June 1583).
158 William Camden, Annales the true and royall history of the famous empresse Elizabeth Queene of England
France and Ireland &c., trans. Abraham Darcie and Robert Vaughan (London, 1625), 363-365.
115

Hechstetter of the Mines Royal determined that they were so poorly constructed one could not
properly smelt ore in them.
159
The facility was abandoned, later to become a paper mill under its
new owner jeweler John Spilman, a Bavarian emigre. In a work dedicated to Sir Walter Ralegh,
Thomas Churchyard wrote an alchemical paean about the paper mill as a means of purifying the
body politic and augmenting England’s wealth, demonstrating Dartford’s continued association
with the speculative enterprise.
160

In a letter dated 9 April 1581, Castelnau de Mauvissiere recounted a conversation with
Frobisher at a celebration given on the occasion of Sir Francis Drake’s return to England laden
with riches, during which Frobisher mentioned his desire to continue the search for the Northwest
Passage, and the benefits that would accrue to the Queen by its discovery. He still planned to make
another voyage, bitterly adding that he would amuse himself searching for mines whose profits
would be small because the expense was so great.
161
Another Artic voyage was not to be for
Frobisher; instead, John Davis carried out three voyages between 1585 and 1587 for the Northwest
Passage, even bringing back samples of black and white ore, which were regarded with appropriate
skepticism.
162
Like most of the chief organizers and experts in the enterprise, Frobisher suffered
few ill consequences from his involvement in the Cathay Company, even if it did not earn him the
renown and riches Drake did. Both Schutz and Denham continued their metallurgical careers,
Schutz as a consultant to landowners looking to identify the mineral potential of their lands, and

159 Michael Lok, “Michael Lockes Note of the Money Paid by Him in Three Years for the Service of the
Merchant-Adventurers,” BL Lansdowne MS 31/80, fol. 194r (1581); McDermott, The Third Voyage, 49.
160 Thomas Churchyard, A sparke for frendship and warme goodwill (London, 1588).
161 « et aussi qu’il s’étoit amusé à rechercher des mines d’or dont le proffit seroit petit parce que la despense y
est trop grande» quoted in Allaire, 12.
162
Financier William Sanderson sent his agent Henry Morgan on the second voyage in 1586. Morgan brought
the samples back to England, but warned Sanderson they were probably worthless. Albert Hastings Markham, ed.,
The Voyages and Works of John Davis, the Navigator (London: Hakluyt Society, 1880), 37.
116

Denham as a mine manager for the Mines Royal.
163
Only Lok was held accountable, imprisoned
at the Fleet for debts by 1581, where he wrote a blistering account of the three voyages.
As a side effect of the Cathay Company’s collapse and substantial capital losses, in 1579 Sir
Lionel Duckett, William Burd, Sir William Winter, and Mathew Field were among the signatories
on a letter of complaint from the English partners in the Mines Royal that they had yet to see any
dividends after fourteen years. They objected to Daniel Hechstetter’s request for another ₤1000 to
run the Keswick mines for the fifteenth year. They agreed to bring Hugh Brinckhurst and Philip
Bayer from Germany to survey the mines, and reported an offer from another “expert stranger,”
who had assayed their copper ore and said he could yield one-third more than Hechstetter could.
The next month, they approved a plan for Henry Pope to use his furnaces to extract sulfur out of
the copper ore from Keswick, and thus improve the copper yield and create additional products for
sale. At the cost of ₤100, employing Pope seemed a more efficient use of capital than Hechstetter’s
proposal. This discontent among the partners eventually led to a reorganization of the Mines Royal
in 1580, with Thomas “Customer” Smythe and the younger Daniel Hechstetter becoming the
primary shareholders. In 1581, they brought Joachim Gans of Prague, future metallurgist for the
1585-86 Roanoke colony, to Keswick to introduce new methods of smelting copper.
164

It is tempting to consider that Edward Fenton’s sojourn in Cornwall and Devon, which
produced a general survey of some of the local mines, may have helped shift the focus of the Mines
Royal to southwest England by highlighting new opportunities for licensees. Duckett and Sir
William Winter joined Smythe in re-opening the Treworth copper and lead mines near Perran

163 R. C. D. Baldwin, “Schütz, Christopher (1521–1592),” ODNB.
164 “The English Partners of the Mines,” BL, Lansdowne MS 28/6 (6 April 1579); “A True Copy of an
Agreement of the Partners in the Mines at Keswick,” BL, Lansdowne MS 28/10, fol. 27 (London, 20 May 1579);
George Needham, “Offers Made by Joachim Gaunse for the Making of Copper, Vitriol, and Copperas, and Smelting
of Copper and Lead Ores; with the Opinions of George Nedham Thereon, and a Description of Their Doings at the
Copper Mines by Keswick in Cumberland, Anno 1581,” TNA, SP 12/152, fols. 148-149 (9 March 1582/3).
117

Sands, which employed Robert Denham in 1583-84 as a surveyor and as a manager until 1586.
New works were established at Neath in South Wales.
165
The Frobisher voyages made another
impression on the Mines Royal: George Needham donated a Dutch translation of Sebastian
Münster’s Cosmographia to the company library, which the younger Hechstetter expanded to
include Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (London,
1590) and Jose de Acosta’s The Naturall and Morall History of the East and West Indies (London,
1604), reflecting the company’s later involvement in the Virginia enterprises as providers of scrap
copper to the Jamestown colony.
166

Similarly, William Burd spearheaded an audit of the Mineral & Battery Works in 1580 after
receiving an offer to farm a license from the company for ₤124 each year. This proposal helped
him appreciate the value in shifting the burden of erecting and maintaining mineral works from
the company to the farmers, while earning profits for the shareholders through rents. After
assessments totaling over ₤2600 in the past twelve years with no profit to the shareholders, Burd
concluded that the company could command ₤600 a year from rents alone. In moving forward
with the company’s reorganization, the officers issued a general order to the shareholders that
those in arrears would have until 20 October 1580 to pay their accounts in full, or be excluded
from any profits until they did pay.
167
Both of these reorganizations brought much-needed capital
to the two mining companies, forestalling their decline for another decade.

165 Thomas Smythe, “Thomas Smythe to Ulricke Frosse, overseer of the mineral works at Perin Sands, &c. in
Cornwall,” TNA, SP 12/171, fol.64r (17 June 1584); Collingwood, 200.
166 Hechstetter, 268; Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 40-41.
167 “The State of the Battery and Wire-Works, as Divided into Thirty-Six Parts,” BL, Lansdowne MS 31/26 (6
January 1580/1); BL, Loan MS 16, vol. 1, fol. 98r.
118

CONCLUSION
The Frobisher voyages marked the waning of England’s mineral rush, as the initial wave of
optimistic investment in mineral enterprises gave way to more cautious expenditures when
dividends did not materialize; they also rendered the Crown unwilling to support overseas ventures
with anything more than letters patent and the loan of royal ships. English overseas ventures had
thus reached a turning point. Although colonization had factored in as a possibility from the 1560s,
and in Ireland was already underway, before 1578 it had not been the focus of Atlantic ventures.
Numerous failures and accusations of deception provoked a reassessment of speculative overseas
enterprise. The Frobisher voyages clarified how best to use expert advisors and technicians to
avoid reproducing the conditions under which fraud occurred, and subsequent projectors
designated their chief metallurgists and assistants from the outset to forestall rivalries. In reaction
to the Cathay Company’s errors and the problems with delinquent investors, colonial projectors
eschewed the joint-stock structure in favor of traditional partnerships until the Virginia Company’s
charter in 1606. This led to the emphasis on privateering to create a reservoir of capital,
inadvertently condemning the Roanoke colonies to failure, or meant shareholders simply dropped
out when they lost interest or became distracted by other responsibilities, as with the Guiana
ventures.
Critically, the Frobisher voyages proved that transporting unrefined ore of dubious value back
to England for smelting was impractical and too risky. Instead, efficient exploitation of the New
World’s mineral potential would require long-term investment and extensive infrastructure—in
other words, colonies to support miners that would reproduce English life abroad. Colonies would
have the added benefit of siphoning off surplus population, employing the idle, solving the land
crisis, and expanding commercial networks. This emphasis on plantation shifted attention
119

southward to more temperate regions to sustain husbandry. But mines alone were insufficient to
repay investors. Colonial projects from the 1580s stressed the availability of commodities like
timber, pitch, tar, drugs, and spices to replace imports to England and subsidize the settlers.
As the next chapter shows the increasing prominence of alchemical philosophy in the
promotional literature reinforced a stronger assertion of an English identity based in Protestantism.
A millenarian sense of England’s election brought a new philosophical imperative to the ideology
of exploration. Promotional literature framed overseas ventures as a patriotic and religious duty to
reform the virtue of English subjects, advance the cause of European Protestantism, and save the
souls of indigenous peoples from both their pagan idolatries and also from popish superstitions.
Through colonization and Protestant proselytization, the English would act as catalysts for
perfecting man’s nature, reuniting body and soul in preparation for the Kingdom of God.
Promoters of Atlantic enterprises would find alchemical notions of transmutation and the
perfectibility of nature useful concepts for promoting this new colonial ideology.
120

CHAPTER 4
SEEKING THE GOLDEN FLEECE: ALCHEMICAL INFLUENCES ON COLONIAL IDEOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
If we take alchemy seriously as a technical practice, it asks us also to grapple with the
philosophy that underwrote it. This chapter examines how alchemical philosophy shaped
perceptions on what the Frobisher voyages ought to achieve, and the language promoters used to
attract more subscribers and preserve the credibility of the Crown and chief adventurers after the
enterprise folded. Alchemy proved a potent ideological tool in encouraging England’s nascent
colonial projects in North America, even if it could not salvage the Cathay Company in the absence
of actual gold. Historian Amir Alexander traced a shift in travel writings from imagining Cathay
as the golden land that fueled long-distance exploration, to conceptualizing North America as a
more accessible golden land suitable for their imperial ambitions.
1
This is not to say that the
association of North America with precious metals or as a site of English interest was new, but
that in the context of intra-European conflicts it came into heightened focus as a result of the
Frobisher voyages. Subsequent enterprises by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Ralegh
reinforced this association, as did the publication boom of Englished versions of French and
Spanish exploration and navigation texts. That England’s first attempt at settlement in North
America was a mining colony also had significant implications for the aims projectors thought
colonies ought to serve. Alchemical philosophy facilitated this reorientation toward the Atlantic
with an ideology that emphasized England’s special election to find North America’s interior

1
Alexander, 28.
121

treasures, but only if the adventurers committed to the uncertainty, dangers, and toils attendant
upon these missions, and revealed God’s heavenly treasures to the occluded eyes of Native
Americans.
2

THE GREAT WORK OF DISCOVERY
That alchemy should influence the promotional literature for colonization should not be a
surprise, as philosophical inquiry into divine mysteries were often compared to setting out into the
unknown and dark depths. Fifteenth-century alchemist George Ripley described transmutation in
terms of navigation, summarizing his twelve step process:
Consider first the latitude of this precious Stone … And as in the west was the beginning of thy practise./ And
the North the perfect meane of profound alteration:/ So in the East after them the beginning of speculation is:/
But of this course up in the south the sun maketh consummation./ Ther bin the elements turned into fire by
circulation.
3

Paracelsus likewise used the language of exploration to describe alchemy: “And I judged that it
was necessarie to travell, and to goe unto farre places, to seeke out learning and knowledge, and
not to hope or looke for it, sitting at home idlelie.” Through the great toil of such a long journey,
Paracelsus hoped to bring Christians who had been misled by false teachings back to the true
doctrine.
4
Nicholas Flamel explicitly connected the nigredo stage of transmutation to navigation:
“Horror holds us in prison by the space of fourescore dayes, in the darknesse of the waters, in the
extreme heate of the Summer, and in the troubles of the Sea.”
5
With its emphasis on diligent labor,
piety, and concern for the public benefit not private gain, and allegorical allusions to mastery of

2
The characterization of America as replete with mineral wealth that could only be accessed with toil and God’s
grace was also a common trope in Spanish imperial narratives. Brown, A History of Mining in Latin America, 1-2.
3
Ripley, The compound of alchymy, K3v.
4
Paracelsus, A hundred and fourtene experiments and cures, trans. John Hester (London, 1583), B1v.
5
Flamel, Nicholas Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicks, 93-94.
122

the sea as a precursor to infinite treasures, alchemy fit well with the humanist and religious
discourses used to encourage overseas ventures.
On the first Arctic voyage in 1576, Martin Frobisher carried with him a bible, the travel
narratives by André Thevet and Sir John Mandeville, and Pedro de Medina’s guide to navigation.
Probably at John Dee’s urging, Frobisher also brought two alchemically-inflected works, Robert
Recorde’s Castle of Knowledge (London, 1556) and William Cunningham’s The Cosmographical
Glasse (London, 1559). Rushed through lessons in the two weeks before their departure, Dee
recommended the Castle of Knowledge because it targeted mariners with a self-study curriculum
for mathematical astronavigation. Best known for his vernacular textbooks on mathematics and a
treatise on urology, Recorde had been considered England’s foremost scientist in the 1550s and
maintained an extensive manuscript library. Appointed as a royal physician in 1548, by 1551 the
Welsh polymath was surveyor of the silver mines at Clonmines in co. Wexford and comptroller of
the Dublin mint. He also consulted on overseas ventures and advised the Duke of Northumberland
on the northeast and northwest voyages of the early 1550s.
6
While historians acknowledge the
influence of The Castle of Knowledge on early English explorers, they have paid less attention to
its alchemical framework, which was neither incidental nor unrelated to the development of
English exploration and colonization in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Like others who practiced alchemy, Recorde placed mathematics and alchemy under the
rubric of cosmographical arts dedicated to decoding nature’s secrets; given this, it is unsurprising
that the frontispiece for The Castle of Knowledge employed alchemical symbolism to amplify the
text. On the left side of the illustration, a finely-dressed Destiny stood securely on a cube holding

6 Heninger, The Cosmographical Glass, 4; David Gwyn, “Richard Eden Cosmographer and Alchemist,” The
Sixteenth Century Journal 15, no. 1 (Spring 1984), 23; Robert Recorde, “Account of Robert Record, surveyor of the
mines of Clomyne in the county of Wexford in Ireland,” TNA, E 101/274/9 (5-7 Edward VI).
123

an armillary sphere in her right hand and a compass in her left hand. Her sight was unimpeded
because of her commitment to the discovery of knowledge. On the right side, Fortune teetered on
a sphere with a bridle clasped in her left hand. Her right hand was tethered to the Sphæra Fortunæ
(Wheel of Fortune) inscribed with the motto Qui modo scandit corruet statim (“He who rises will
soon fall”). Blindfolded, barefoot, and dressed in rags, ignorance enslaved and impoverished her.
In the center, two men took astronomical readings of the night sky from the turrets of the Castle
of Knowledge. Atop the castle, the queen presided over their work.
7
In alchemical symbolism, the
architecture of the fortress was a place where the sacred and profane united in pure understanding
and enabled adepts to uncover occult knowledge; mariners would have recognized the castle as a
platform erected on a warship to elevate soldiers during sea battles, earning them the appellation
Castles.
8
In addition, the fortress gestured to growing mid-Tudor concerns about domestic unrest
and European economic and military competition. With the Castle mediating the contraposed
Destiny and Fortune it suggested that England’s prosperity and stability rested on men’s
willingness to marry the experience obtained from mechanical arts with the wisdom gained
through liberal arts. Since alchemy already embodied this union, it provided a model to reform the
art of navigation, yet warned that the work would be arduous and success left to divine providence.
Similar to George Ripley’s description of the alchemical process as a series of gates passed in
the “Philosopher’s Castle” using his text as a key, Recorde conceived of his manuals as step-by-
step revelations of the secrets to successful navigation using mathematical, astronomical, and
cosmographical knowledge.
9
In his “Admonition” to the reader, Recorde said that mariners ought

7 Heninger, 5-6.
8 György E. Szónyi, “Architectural Symbolism and Fantasy Landscapes in Alchemical and Occult Discourse:
Revelatory Images,” Glasgow Emblem Studies, v. 3: Emblems and Alchemy, eds. Alison Adams and Stanton J.
Linden (Glasgow: Department of French, University of Glasgow, 1998): 62-63; Quinn and Ryan, 50.
9
Ripley, D1r.
124

to start with arithmetic in The Ground of Artes (London, 1543), and once they had conquered “the
slyppery slabbes,/That may him force to slyde or falle,” to proceed to geometry with The Pathway
to Knowledge (London, 1551). With mastery of geometry mariners could approach and pass the
Gate of Knowledge and enter the Castle, wherein the principles of astronomy and cosmography
were contained. Unlike the “most hard metals fretted into dross,” the heavens were incorruptible
and knowledge of their workings were essential to husbandry and navigation. Recorde planned,
though never published, a final treatise on navigation called the Treasure of Knowledge, which
marked the epitome of the mariner’s work.
10
In his rhetorical depiction of a narrow, treacherous
pathway leading to an unknown world and its interior treasures, Recorde’s curriculum for
intellectual exploration resembled narratives of discovery.
11
Recorde’s textbooks did not purport
to reveal new knowledge to its readers; instead, it allowed mariners to master old knowledge in
preparation for obtaining new knowledge via exploration. From their travail, Englishmen would
bring the world, first in their country and then beyond, to greater perfection. Unfortunately for
Frobisher, possession of Recorde’s manual and instruction from Dee in the use of his paradoxal
compass was insufficient to achieve mastery of mathematical navigation and on the third voyage
Frobisher mistakenly took his company up Hudson Strait instead of Frobisher Bay.
12

The inclusion of physician and astrologer William Cuningham’s The Cosmographical Glasse
(1559) among Frobisher’s small library was a sensible choice, since it had been the first English
compendium of cosmographical knowledge. In addition to augmenting the wealth and security of
the country, Cuningham expected his advice on astrology and geography to contribute to medicine,
assist in jurisprudence by teaching men temperance, and to help determine if Paradise had a

10 Recorde told the Muscovy Company that he would publish a treatise on navigation. Robert Recorde, The
Castle of Knowledge, (London, 1556), A4v, A5v-sig. A6r, sig. A7r; Recorde, The whetstone of witte, A3r.
11 Alexander, 86.
12 BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, fol. 44r-v, collated with Best, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, 90-91.
125

terrestrial or strictly celestial situation.
13
Dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, Cuningham created
his “Cosmographical Glasse” as a mirror for men to behold all of creation and detect if the monster
Ignorance of Daedalus’ time had crept into any corner of the world. More pragmatically,
cosmography allowed humans to comprehend and manipulate the natural world, and enriched
merchants and the realm by “fineding out suche commodities, as without it shuld remaine, as not
knowne.”
14

The engraved title page conveyed his message about the virtue of cosmography and its related
disciplines. At the center of the image was the motto “vulnere virescit veritas (truth grows stronger
from a wound),” gesturing to the importance of tribulation in exploration.
15
At the left under the
auspices of the Sun, the alchemical symbol for gold, Ptolemy rested one hand on a terrestrial globe
and pointed at the heavens with the other, Aratus held a geometric square, Hipparchus raised a
quadrant, Geometria clasped a ruler, square, and compass, and Arithmetica displayed a numeric
tablet for digital calculations. At the right under the domain of the moon, the alchemical symbol
for silver, Marinus, measured the globe with a compass and pointed at the earth, Strabo drew a
map of England, Polybius determined the angles of the stars with a cross-staff, Astronomia rotated
an armillary sphere, and Musica played the lute. The placement of Ptolemy and Marinus above the
other arts indicated that they looked up “toward philosophical and universal truth.”
16

The alchemical symbolism in the image was oddly portentous, calling up the association of
the philosopher’s stone in its corrupt state with black, icy earth. It could explain Frobisher’s
inclination to bring back the glittery black ore found on the first voyage and Lok’s belief in its

13
McDermott, Martin Frobisher, 20; William Cuningham, The Cosmographical Glasse, Conteinyng the
Pleasant Principles of Cosmographie, Geographie, Hydrographie, or Navigation (London, 1559): A4r-sig. A5r.
14
Cuningham, The Cosmographical Glasse: A2r, sig. A5v.
15
Heninger, 1-2.
16
Joseph M. Ortiz, Broken Harmony: Shakespeare and the Politics of Music, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
2011), 107. While Ortiz attributes the woodcut to John Dee’s Mathematicall Preface, it was actually first used with
Cuningham, though both were printed by John Day.
126

potential value. At the top-center of the page was Saturn, the “veritatis inventor (discoverer of
truth)” who swept his scythe to mow down men in their three ages to show the inexorable passage
of time. Invoking the alchemical aphorism “time bryngeth thinges to their perfection,” Cuningham
analogized cosmography to the magnum opus as a path to unity, stasis, and the redemption of the
soul. Saturn was the unripened prima materia needed to begin transmutation, as it concealed the
white stone beneath its gross exterior, and corresponded with lead, a base metal known for its
blackness. In the nigredo (putrefaction) stage, the cold earth of Saturn was lightly decocted until
its darkness became prominent. If an alchemist saw the color black in the speculum or glass it
meant they had attained the “clavem operis (key of the work)” and could proceed. Much like the
process of exploring unknown lands, the great work was plagued with false starts and obstacles,
and completion attainable only so long as the practitioner had the proper motives and techniques,
though it ultimately depended on God’s inscrutable will.
17

Transmutation occurred by successive cycles of dissolution and coagulation of opposites, and
these were shown at the left and right corners. The first chemical wedding appeared at the left,
figured by an aged old king, a cherubic child, and the green lion, the philosophic mercury or female
principle required to cement their union. The second union was on the right with the conjunction
of red king (soul) and white queen (body), after the queen rescued him from drowning, as indicated
by a lobster. The picture of Gemini, the twins, at the bottom was another chemical wedding of
brother and sister. The product of these chemical weddings appeared at the bottom of the page: the
god of commerce and the mother of all metals, Mercurius. Mercurius reconciled all opposites,
male and female, dark and light, fixed and volatile, good and evil. Alchemists believed Mercurius

17
Bacon, The mirror of alchimy, 13-14; Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, hoc est, Emblemata nova de secretis
naturae chymica (Oppenheim, 1618), 58. Saturn was both the most exalted planet and lead the most inferior metal,
embodying the hermetic maxim “as above, so below.” Joseph Du Chesne, The Practise of Chymicall, and Hermeticall
Physicke, trans. Thomas Timme (London, 1605), H4v, I1v.
127

was the perfect mediator to heal man’s fractured post-lapsarian state. In the creation of the
quintessence, philosophical mercury was the necessary spirit to unite Sol (soul) and Luna (body).
Mercurius’ feminine aspect, the virgin, was symbolized by Virgo at his right.
18
Cuningham’s book
conveyed the message that people could reunite the divine and material realms if they studied the
cosmographical disciplines and performed honorable service to their country based on that
knowledge; moreover, as mentioned above, George Ripley had compared transmutation to the
reunion of East and West in biblical prophecy, lending Frobisher’s search for the Northwest
Passage especial significance.
A flurry of printing followed the public announcement of auriferous ore in mid-1577 as
Frobisher embarked on his second expedition to Meta Incognita. These books promoted more
northwest voyages, as well as Sir Francis Drake’s reconnaissance of the Pacific coast of the
Americas, which embarked in December 1577, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s petition for a West
Indian voyage to annoy the Spanish. The latter soon morphed into a project to colonize Norumbega
(modern New England).
19
At the urging of the Countess of Warwick, an investor in the second
Frobisher voyage, Richard Willes edited and expanded Richard Eden’s translation of Peter Martyr,
The history of travayle in the West and East Indies (London, 1577), which was published before
Frobisher returned to England from the second voyage. However, Willes remained skeptical about
the Cathay Company’s new agenda. Exposing his own opinion about which discovery was likelier
to bring England great riches, Willes removed the excerpt from Biringuccio’s Pirotechnia as
“superfluous translations,” and replaced it with a short discourse on the Northwest Passage.
20

18
Heninger, 2-3; Abraham A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 126-128, 206, 210.
19 The chief financiers of the Drake voyage were the Earl of Leicester, Hatton, Sir William Winter,
Walsingham, George Winter, John Hawkins and Drake himself. The Queen provided one of her ships for the
expedition. “An Account of Stores, &c. on Board a Ship (probably the Swallow, Bound to Alexandria),” BL, Cotton
MS Otho E VIII, f. 8v-9r.
20 Anghiera, The history of travayle, i.v-ii.r, 231.
128

Willes dedicated the volume to his patron the Countess of Bedford, stepmother to the Countess
of Warwick and whose husband invested in the second voyage. Similar to Recorde’s corpus, which
considered navigation the fruition of learning, Willes placed geography atop the ladder of
knowledge. Past generations had perfected grammar, logic, natural philosophy, and geometry, but
it was the current age’s turn to perfect geography, which heretofore had “laye hydden … in
darknesse and oblivion.” He pointed to Spain’s “millions of golde and silver” and England’s new
trades to Russia, Guinea, and Barbary as evidence of the importance of travel, and thus the study
of geography.
21
Though he did not use alchemical language, Willes’ defense of the Frobisher
ventures demonstrated the compatibility of alchemy and humanist discourses on temperance, the
vita activa, and virtue in promoting overseas enterprise. Willes said: “where vertue is guyde, there
is fame a folower, and fortune a Companion. But the way is dangerous, the passage doubtfull, the
voyage not throughly knowen, and therfore gaynesayde by many.” The northwest remained largely
unknown and unelaborated in his brief section on the Northwest Passage, yet Willes was confident
that Frobisher was the vanguard of an English movement across the Atlantic and into Asia that
would yield equal or better benefits to England as Columbus’ discoveries had for Spain.

A PETTY-NAVY ROYAL
Shortly after Willes’ publication, John Dee published the General and rare memorials
pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation (London, 1577), a manuscript written the previous
summer for Edward Dyer but updated to promote the Cathay Company. In it he advised the Queen
to establish a petty-navy royal to advance the wealth and security of the kingdom, and reclaim
King Arthur’s lost empire in Europe and North America. Dee revised his manuscript to interpret

21
Anghiera, The history of travayle, ii.v.
129

the discovery of black ore as the fulfillment of a prophecy portended by a 1572 supernova. At the
time, Dee had told Edward Dyer that the philosopher’s stone would be discovered on the Queen’s
behalf and usher in a new age of reform, religious unity, and political harmony under her rule as
the Last World Emperor.
22
According to a work attributed to the seventh-century Arab alchemist
Khalid ibn Yazid (aka Geber), the philosopher’s stone was “vile, blacke, and stinking: It costeth
nothing: it must bee taken alone: it is somewhat heavie, and it is called the Originall of the world,
because it riseth up like things that bud forth.”
23
It would, Geber wrote, appear to be an ordinary
stone although it was not stone.

When Dee heard about Frobisher’s fortuitous discovery of the
black ore, it echoed this description of the philosopher’s stone.
24

Reminiscent of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s arguments for the existence of the Northwest Passage,
which he helped formulate, Dee envisioned these enterprises as a way to increase England’s naval
and commercial capacity. He thus offered his “Plat of a Petty-Navy Royal” as a master key to
alleviate England’s lack of treasure and its vulnerability to foreign and domestic threats.
25
Like a
precious balm, the economic opportunities afforded by overseas ventures would enhance
England’s international stature and from this “Publik fowntain” each person would have “his
proportionall parte of delitious Refreshing, and vitall preservation, in very godly sort, and politik
order.”
26
Yet, as historian Glynn Parry recently observed, few scholars appreciate the degree to
which Dee’s interest in empire emerged from his occult philosophy.
27

22 Parry, 98, 107, 122.
23 Bacon, The Mirror of Alchimy, 44-45.
24 Best, A True Discourse, 51; Robert Baldwin, “John Dee's Interest in the Application of Nautical Science,
Mathematics and Law to English Naval Affairs,” in John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance
Thought, ed. Stephen Clucas (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2006), 119.
25 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 8; Sherman, John Dee, 153.
26 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 11.
27 Parry, 95.
130

Scholars have long-admired the frontispiece of the General and Rare Memorials for its
symbolic content, which literary scholar William Sherman called “a mnemonic aid to the project
outlined in the text.”
28
At the top of the image was a classical slogan of intellectual magic Plura
latent quam patent (“More things are concealed than are revealed”) and the Queen’s coat of arms.
29

A red and white rose flanked both sides to symbolize the Tudor dynasty, whose unification of the
Houses of Lancaster and York fulfilled a prophecy that a second Arthur would unite Britain. In
addition, the pairing of the red and white roses symbolized the philosopher’s stone, which emerged
from the union of the red and white stones.
30
With a limited print run of a hundred copies, of which
he distributed less than half before the Queen suppressed it, this book was not directed at a general
readership but instead addressed to those interested in the practical possibilities of alchemy to solve
England’s ills, like the Queen, Burghley, and Leicester.
31

Enclosed by a border reading Hieroglyphicon Brytanicon or “British Hieroglyphic,” Dee’s
alchemical imagery articulated his conception of a universal British Empire. At the center,
Elizabeth sat at the helm of her “Imperiall Ship” named Europa, ready to confront an armada on
behalf of all Protestant states.
32
Next to her ship, the mythical Europa rode the bull, a symbol of
Taurus, which Dee had previously interpreted in his Monas Hieroglyphica (Antwerp, 1564) as the
exaltation of the Moon in the springtime, a propitious time for the embarking on the great work of
alchemy and the best time to begin transatlantic journeys.
33
On the coast between a skull and an
inverted stalk of wheat, a symbol of man’s heart and gold, Britannia kneeled in supplication to the

28 Sherman, however, denied that the image held secret symbolic meaning only apparent to adepts in alchemy
Sherman, 152.
29 Stuart Clark, “Magic and Witchcraft,” in Finding Europe: Discourses on Margins, Communities, Images
ca. 13th-ca. 18th Centuries, eds. Anthony Molho et al. (New York: Berhhahn Book, 2007), 126.
30 Hughes, “Politics and the Occult at the Court of Edward IV,” 126; Abraham, Dictionary, 146, 173.
31 Dee, John Dee, 2.
32 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 53.
33 John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica Ioannis Dee, Londinensis (Frankfurt, 1591), 51-53.
131

Queen, asking for an armed fleet (“ΣΤΟΛΟΣ ΕΞΩΠΛΙΣΜΕΝΟΣ”) to lead them to the fortress of
security (“ΦΡΟΥΡΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΑΣΦΑΛΕΙΑΣ”) and end their kingdom’s disordered and
impoverished state.
34
Above the fortress, Opportunity stood on a pyramid whose divine perfection
and eternal durability suggested that the Queen would initiate the apocalyptic final age of Jupiter.
35

An alliance with the Dutch, whose ship rode at anchor in the river below the fortress, would open
this new era. In addition, the Queen needed to assert control over the archipelagic fisheries, find
new sources of timber and minerals, and open a northern passage to Asia. Above this scene of
impending violence flew the archangel Michael with a shield bearing St. George’s cross to signify
God’s favor in restoring the Arthurian empire, which extended into North America.
36

Mining was one of the domestic industries that would benefit from a petty-navy royal. Dee
considered Britain’s natural resources in lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold underexploited, and
thought greater efforts to open new mines “might incredibly encrease both the Threasor Royall,
and also of all the Partners Publik and Private.”
37
Perhaps bitter that his 1574 suit to discover
hidden treasure in exchange for an annuity had been denied because (among other things) it
conflicted with monopoly rights, Dee argued that monopolies induced greater scarcity by inflating
the prices of goods as the partners sought to immediately recoup the capital spent establishing the
business. Moreover, he lamented that foreign experts who “unaturally … deale with the True and

34 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 53; C.H. Josten, ‘Robert Fludd’s ‘Philosophicall Key’ and his
Alchemical Experiment on Wheat,” in Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix, ed. Allen G.
Debus (Huddersfield: Jeremy Mills Publishing, 2004), 16; Peter J. French, John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan
Magus (New York: Routledge, 1972; 2002), 184-185.
35 Parry, 108-113.
36 It is perhaps not a coincidence that one of the Cathay Company’s ships was the Michael, though Captain
Kindersley had to abandon the first voyage. On 4 May 1578, Dee completed his manuscript of “Brytanici Imperii
Limites,” in which detailed a long history of English contact with North America from King Arthur to Owen
Maddoc to the Cabots. He argued that Estotiland was an Arthurian colony. Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 54;
Dee, John Dee, 43-46.
37 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 28-29, 35-37.
132

Naturall Body Politik” were at the forefront of English mineral enterprises. Dee insinuated that the
lack of native skill and monopolies quashed new mineral discoveries.
38

Instead, Dee advocated granting landowners and the Crown a larger share of the profits from
mining than licensees, and reserving a share for the petty-navy royal. This would encourage more
landlords to assume the risks of mining on their own estates and ensure more people benefitted
from the works than just a few private investors. A notable exception to this expansionary agenda
was the iron industry. Dee deemed ironworks “greatly disordred” because they competed with the
navy for limited timber resources and fed an illicit export of munitions to England’s enemies,
without the benefits of lower prices or better-quality iron for domestic consumers. From these
amendments in mineral rights, the Queen—the “Touchstone of all Subjects wisdom”—would earn
love and obedience and reduce sedition in this “Templum Pacis, or Solomons Temple (as it were),
I mean, of the whole Brytish Monarchie.”
39
Calling the kingdom a Temple of Solomon connected
mining and empire, as Solomon had used the gold and silver of Ophir, a far-flung land, to begin
construction on the temple. Some alchemists like Giovan Battista Agnello believed Solomon
accomplished this feat with the assistance of the philosopher’s stone, as mentioned in Chapter 2.
Dee called it a “Mathematicall demonstration” for the petty-navy royal to preserve Britain’s
security through increased revenues for the Crown and commonwealth. He envisioned a
proportional expansion of the navy, “And so, the Fame, Renowm, Estimation, and Love, or Feare,
of this Brytish Microcosmus, all the whole and Great world over, will speedily be spred, and surely
be settled.”
40
Natural philosophers had long considered man the microcosm, or little world, in
which the union of body, soul, and spirit reflected God’s creation. By the sixteenth century, this

38 Ibid, 29; John Dee, “J. Dee to Lord Burghley,” BL, Lansdowne MS 19/38, fols. 82r-v (3 October 1574).
39 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 14, 16, 30.
40 Ibid, 10.
133

microcosm-macrocosm analogy had a literal dimension, such that some interpreted the diseases
that afflicted people as indicative of society’s civil and spiritual decay: “as it fareth with man, so
it fareth with the worlde.”
41
Alchemists likewise understood their distillations as reproducing
God’s perfect creation in miniature form within the alembic and referred to the philosopher’s stone
as a microcosmus because it too embodied a union of body, soul, and spirit.
42
In this context, Dee
perceived England’s social and religious ills as a microcosm of the world’s diseased condition; if
England could rectify its own decayed estate through the restoration of the Arthurian empire and
new discoveries—“this true Philosophers stone of traffique” as Philip Sidney allegedly called
them—the benefits would spread to Europe and the rest of the world.
43

The metaphorical philosopher’s stone of traffic and conquest could not, however, be
accomplished without obtaining the actual philosopher’s stone, as Dee had prophesied in 1572. In
addition to two or three men skilled in foreign languages like Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Chinese,
and “Canadien,” and an engineer to devise fortifications, weapons, and engines, the petty-navy
royal would support four “Christian Philosophers” (alchemists) skilled “both in Speculation, and
also Practise, of the best Manner of the Ancient and Secret Philosophie.” This “Courteous Kalid,”
a direct reference to Geber, would reveal the secrets of the philosopher’s stone to the Crown to
revitalize British Empire. Through diligent study and experimentation, these men “but opened the

41 Friedrich Nausea, A bright burning beacon forewarning all wise virgins to trim their lampes against the
comming of the Bridegroome, trans. Abraham Fleming (London, 1580), H3v.
42 Paracelsus, Paracelsus his Aurora, & treasure of the philosophers (London, 1659), 22; Dee, Monas
hieroglyphica, 49. In his dedication to Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, Thomas Timme wrote: “the Spirit of God
moved upon the water: which was an indigested Chaos or masse created before by God, with confused Earth in
mixture: yet by his Halchymicall Extraction, Seperation, Sublimation, and Conjunction, so ordered and conjoyned
againe, as they are manifestly seene a part and sundered: In Earth, Fyer included … and Ayre … in Water, howbeit
inuisibly.” Du Chesne, The Practise of Chymicall, and Hermeticall Physicke, A3v.
43 Fulke Greville, Baron Brooke, The life of the renowned Sr Philip Sidney (London, 1651), 165.
134

Doore of his Philosophicall and Politicall Brytish Furniture” to those of keen insight and zeal for
the public weal to apprehend.
44

Another comet in late-1577 appeared to confirm Dee’s prophecy, and from 25-28 November
Dee conferred with the Queen, Walsingham, and Sir Christopher Hatton about what the comet
portended and the Queen’s legal rights to Greenland, Estotiland, and Friesland. In gratitude for his
counsel, the Queen promised to protect his “rare studies & philosophicall exercises” from anyone
in England who might impeach him.
45
Unfortunately for Dee, the timing of the publication of
General and Rare Memorials coincided with the Crown’s efforts to censor any writings connected
with the Frobisher voyages and the Queen ordered Dee to keep his remaining copies, thus
diminishing the work’s influence on ideas about empire outside of a narrow coterie.
46

Often treated as an anomaly, General and Rare Memorials represented an overt alchemical
and religious turn in the literature published to support the venture, almost as if to transmute words
into gold as investor fatigue undermined efforts to replenish the Cathay Company’s stock. In early
1578, two publications buoyed interest in Meta Incognita in those heady months when Jonas
Schutz, Burchard Kranich, and Giovan Battista Agnello competed to produce the best assay
results. The first was Francisco López de Gómara’s relation of the conquest of Mexico, The
Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the Weast India, now called new Spayne (London, 1578), a
translation by merchant Thomas Nicholls (Nicholas) dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham. Before
becoming secretary of the Muscovy Company in 1555, Nicholls had apprenticed under Sir William
Lok. In 1556 he went to the Canary Islands as a factor for Thomas Lok and Edward Castelin,
treasurer of the Mineral & Battery Works and future bursar for the Dartford works. A few years

44 Dee, General and Rare Memorials, 62; Parry, 111.
45 John Dee, “Supplication of John Dee,” BL, Cotton MS Vitellius C VII, fol. 7r (Mortlake, 1592); John Dee,
The Diaries of John Dee, 3.
46 Dee, John Dee, 2; Cf. Parry, 127.
135

after his trial by the Spanish inquisition, Nicholls returned to England to become a rector in
Widford, Gloucestershire; deprived of his benefice in 1577 for his zealous Calvinism, Nicholls
went to London to offer his linguistic skills to Walsingham and Edward Dyer for patriotic
endeavors.
47
To cast himself as Richard Eden’s successor in the great work of translating New
World texts, Nicholls told an apocryphal story of meeting former colonial official Agustín de
Zaráte in Toledo. In 1554, Zárate had met Eden when a Spanish convoy deposited ₤13,000 of
American silver in the Tower mint, thus inspiring Eden’s translation efforts.
48
Nicholls anticipated
that readers would be similarly inspired by Hernán Cortes’ conquest of the rich Aztecs to volunteer
as adventurers in English westward voyages.
Scattered through Nicholls’ introduction was symbolism that recalled both Recorde’s and
Cuningham’s cosmographical works, such as the tower, pillar, mirror, and painful travail. Nicholls
praised Michael Lok’s “great paynes, procurement, and first invention” for revealing that cold
climates could harbor gold ores “environned with admirable Towers, Pillers and Pynacles, of
Rockes, Stone, and Ise,” not just in the torrid East and West Indies. Undoubtedly, he said, God
appointed England to discover these riches to install the Queen as the ruler of Meta Incognita’s
inhabitants so “that the name of Christ may be knowen unto this Heathenish and Savage
generation.” Nicholls intended his English edition of the Spanish conquests as a “Mirrour” to
perceive God’s glory and for adventurers to comprehend that honor, renown, and riches were “not
gotten but with greate paines, travaile, perill and daunger of life.” Referring to the mixed results
of Frobisher’s first two voyages, Nicholls pointed out that “perfection of honor and profite is not
gotten in one daye, nor in one or two voyages.”
49
Though a straightforward elaboration of the

47
R. C. D. Baldwin, “Nicholls, Thomas (1532–1601),” ODNB.
48
Francisco López de Gómara, The Pleasant Historie of the Conquest of the VVeast India, trans. Thomas
Nicholls (London, 1578), A3r.
49
López de Gómara, The Pleasant Historie, A2r-sig. A4r.
136

theme of uncertain gain and the centrality of the public profit and missionary efforts to future
rewards, it contained a Protestant alchemical subtext urging the continuation of overseas ventures
as materially and spiritually transformative.
Like Robert Recorde’s stadial model, Nicholls hinted at just how far Frobisher’s company had
come toward revelation in the Arctic: they had entered the tower where the sacred and profane
united in pure understanding; they had mastered the pillars of knowledge—philosophy (earth and
water), astronomy (fire and air), and alchemy (the ability to work all four elements), and virtue—
to embark on the pinnacle work; they had uncovered the prima materia in the black rock from
which to derive the philosophical stone and cornerstone of immortality; and they had separated the
albedo (snow) from the dregs.
50
Now all that remained was to refine and redouble their efforts.
Hearkening back to 2 Corinthians 3:15-18, Frobisher’s ventures had removed a veil from God’s
providential plan for England to pursue their own rich empire and bring the light of Christianity to
northwestern peoples. In laboring for the cornerstone of Christianity, Englishmen would reflect
God’s glory in themselves as if a mirror, and purify and reform the realm; from this transcendental
treasure, Englishmen would reap earthly riches. Satirist Stephen Gosson’s dedicatory poem
reinforced the advantages of overseas ventures: “Whilste learned wittes in forrayne landes doe
finde,/ That labour beares away the golden fleece,/ And is rewarded with the flower of Greece.”
51

By committing to the hardships of navigation and exploration on behalf of the commonwealth,
England would obtain its own golden fleece and the adventurers would elevate their own social
position and fortunes as England’s flowers.

50
On Paracelsus’ four pillars of knowledge, see Paracelsus, Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von
Hohenheim, 1493-1541: Essential Theoretical Writings, ed. Andrew Weeks (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 10-14; P.G.
Maxwell-Stuart, The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy (London; New York: Continuum, 2008), 86. On
alchemical symbols, see Abraham, Dictionary, 172, 184, 203-204.
51
López de Gómara, sig. B2r.
137

The second book, Thomas Churchyard’s A prayse and reporte of Maister Martyne
Forboishers voyage (London, 1578), was released in May just as Frobisher left England with
colonists for a mining settlement in Meta Incognita. Though a client of Sir Christopher Hatton, he
dedicated it to Dr. Thomas Wilson, the only privy councilor not in arrears on his investment.
Commending men who desired to be profitable members of the commonwealth, he called the late
voyages a “joyfull pilgrimage,” the continuation of which would open “the perfite passage too all
worldly felicitie.”
52
Churchyard portrayed Frobisher’s voyages in transmutational terms as the
redemption of their corrupt Iron Age back into the Golden Age of their forebears, the
metamorphosis of barren ground into fertile soil and idle people into workers, and the fortification
of England to withstand foreign machinations against them. Frobisher and his captains Edward
Fenton, George Best, and Gilbert Yorke ought to be honored in perpetuity for preferring nothing
more than “the unfoldyng of hard matters and hidden secretes,” chiefly in proselytizing to the Inuit
who “rather live like dogges then men

.” Churchyard argued it was better for England to convert
the Inuit to Christianity, a superior treasure to the “mightie Masse of wealthe” they would soon
enjoy by conquest, than to allow Spain to despoil them.
53
Whether or not Spain had any just title
to the northern reaches of the Americas, Churchyard thought England should not fear offending a
state that purchased their pugnacity against other European states with American gold.
54

Churchyard also compared the fortitude necessary to embark on ventures of uncertain gain to
the process of separating pure metal from corrupted ore: “man is but his mynde: so it is to bee
daily tride, that the bodie is but a mixture of compoundes, knitte together like a fardell of fleashe,

52 Thomas Churchyard, A prayse and reporte of Maister Martyne Forboishers voyage to Meta Incognita,
(London, 1578), A5r-v,
53 Churchyard, A prayse and reporte, A5v, C3v. An alchemical reading of Churchyard is supported by his
“Commendation to them that can make gold, shewing that many heretofore hath found out the Philosophers Stone,”
which he dedicated to Sir John Russell, a kinsman and member of the Earl of Bedford’s household. Thomas
Churchyard, Churchyard’s challenge (London, 1593), 131-135.
54 Churchyard, A prayse and reporte, C4r.
138

and Bondll of bones, and united as a heavie lumpe of Leade (without the mynde) in the sillie
substaunce of a shadowe.”
55
As metal became stronger by extracting impurities, the trials of
overseas enterprise would refine English minds by revealing the knowledge to make barren lands
fruitful, and harden English bodies through temperance and industry. Frobisher had just such a
strong mind, assaying the danger for the public weal when so few men were willing to try the
matter themselves, so they might eventually enjoy the fruits of their labors. Churchyard criticized
those who had never gone farther from Dover than Calais for doubting what benefits could be
found in the Arctic. He deferred to men more knowledgeable than he “that can looke depely into
the bowels and bothome of suche causes and businesse,” though he was certain the third voyage
would bring good things.
56
Churchyard observed that God was as likely to reward an idle person
commodity in the earth as let him catch a cloud. After the Cathay Company’s collapse, panegyrics
like Churchyard’s poem to Frobisher outlasted the scandal of the worthless ore to form part of the
patriotic lore of English expansion as a series of noble if faltering enterprises on behalf of the
public benefit. If investors became charier and demanded shorter term profits from new ventures,
they were not immune to the romantic appeal of seeing themselves as knights-errant.
At the height of the Frobisher ventures, William Bourne, a self-taught mathematician,
published the Treasure for traveilers (London, 1578) and dedicated it to Sir William Winter under
whom he had served as a gunner. The book touched on geometry, perspective, cosmography,
natural philosophy, and statics (the science of weight and equilibrium), subjects that Bourne argued
were exceeded only by gold and silver in their benefits to travelers. Bourne’s indebtedness to John
Dee was evident in his brief summary of the mathematical preface from The elements of

55 Ibid, sig. A8r.
56 Ibid, B1r-v, B2v, B3r.
139

geometrie.
57
Whereas Dee’s work reached a limited audience, Bourne was a popular author on
mathematical navigation because he used the language of a layman. He had published A Regiment
for the Sea in 1574 as an antidote to Richard Eden’s translation of Martin Cortes’s Art of navigation
(London, 1570), parts of which he considered impractical for ordinary English mariners.
Bourne defended the Cathay Company ventures and the turn toward mining as a Christian
duty and a boon to England’s economy. Bourne lamented that the English were only interested in
private profit and ease, and that some people hoarded wealth to prevent its just distribution among
the masses. In his opinion, men were born to serve God, their prince and country, and to provide
for their household. Proper service to God was not achieved merely by religiosity, but in exploiting
all of nature’s gifts to humans: “all his minerals, as we do dig out of the earth, Gold, Silver, and
all other metals,” timber, grass, corn, fish, and the seas “to pass from Country unto Country.” In
discovering more of God’s earthly treasures, England could restore the just distribution of wealth
and divert people away from their vain and wanton pursuits. Travel was especially important for
England to maintain its civility, for by learning about foreign peoples and places the realm was
better able to defend itself. If England isolated itself in a misguided distrust of overseas commerce
“in process of time we should become barbarous and savage.”
58
Bourne demonstrated that the
search for minerals in Meta Incognita was compatible with religious and humanist discourses on
service to the commonwealth as an important means of maintaining the state in good order.
Thomas Churchyard’s second poem to Frobisher similarly considered New World mines as
critical to the nation’s health. Upon Frobisher’s dispiriting return to England in the fall 1578 with
the colonists who were supposed to remain in Meta Incognita, Churchyard chided the “slothfull

57 William Bourne, A booke called the Treasure for traveilers, devided into five Books or partes (London, 1578),
*2v, sig. *4r.
58 Bourne, Treasure for traveilers, **2v, **3v.
140

snayles” and “cold crousts” as short-sighted in their criticisms of Frobisher. If nobody took to the
sea in search of gold mines or trade, then “The worlde would sone be at an end” from a lack of
necessary imports or riches. Their beggared minds may have been satisfied with “A pecke of
drosse” as long as it required no “paynefull toyle,” but therein laid the ruin of good governance,
prosperity, and virtue.
59
Luckily, Churchyard said, England now had plenty of intrepid men like
Frobisher, Gilbert, and their adventurers willing to embark on these necessary voyages. Indeed,
with no word of Francis Drake since his departure from England nearly a year earlier, Gilbert’s
forthcoming voyage appeared England’s best chance of realizing the golden promises of the New
World.
Gilbert’s target was unclear, as he had mentioned the St. Lawrence River in his 1577 petition
to annoy Spain, but John Frampton’s 1578 translation of Martin Fernández de Enciso’s Summa de
geografia, which focused on the rich lands of the Caribbean and indigenous metallurgy, suggested
a southerly course to establish a base for English privateers to intercept Spanish ships leaving the
West Indies.
60
Some critics touted Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s “greedie hope of gayne,/ And heapes
of gold you hope to find” as his main motive, but Thomas Churchyard’s 1578 celebratory poem
attributed it to a desire to serve the commonwealth: “I trust for Countreys good:/ And for the
common wealthes avayle/ you offer life and bloud.” Churchyard figured overseas ventures as
perfecting man’s nature from sinful to virtuous, a rhetoric that resembled alchemist Thomas
Norton’s description of alchemy as purging the practitioner of vanity, ambition, and intemperance,
and teaching them to tolerate adversity.
61
At home, Englishmen had become corrupted: they were

59 Thomas Churchyard, A Discourse of the Queenes Majesties Entertainement, (London, 1578), L1r-v, L2v
60 The book was dedicated to Gilbert, so the selection of text may have been relevant to his proposed plan.
Martin Fernández de Enciso, A briefe description of the portes, creekes, bayes, and havens, of the Weast India, trans.
John Frampton (London, 1578), 14-18. Donald Beecher mistakenly said no copy of the publication survived. Donald
Beecher, “John Frampton of Bristol, Trader and Translator,” in Travel and Translation in the Early Modern Period,
ed. Carmine G. Di Biase (Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2006), 108.
61
Norton, The Ordinal of Alchemy, 10.
141

effete, idle, burdened by debts and household cares, and prone to rudeness, riot, and theft. Abroad
men tamed their bodily appetites and learned obedience through travail and deprivation: an
adventurer’s rations were spare, his clothing unadorned, and his behavior constrained by strict
codes of conduct. Abroad men earned knowledge at the least, and wealth at the best; they learned
wisdom and to serve the common good instead of themselves. In sum, “Thus prove I travel’s best,/
for body, soul, and sense.”
62

When Frobisher’s lieutenant George Best published his account of the three voyages in
December 1578, he reproached the “ignorant multitude” who preferred to slander the enterprise
rather than recognize the toils the men had suffered to bring honor to England. Best lauded the
Cathay Company’s contribution toward correcting England’s previous defects of a parsimonious
nobility and dearth of expert cosmographers, which had caused England’s belated entry into
transoceanic navigation.
63
Calling the late adventurers no inferiors to either the Portuguese or
Spanish explorers, Best argued that by employing men as mariners, miners, shipwrights, and in
other trades, as well as expanding navigational knowledge, the enterprise had already repaid its
costs despite the inability of their labors to open the Northwest Passage or arctic gold mines.
64

Best employed alchemical language to describe Frobisher’s contributions to the art of
navigation and the corpus scientia with these voyages: “the world is waxed finer, and growen to
more perfection, not only in all the speculative Artes and Sciences, but also in the practicall
application of the same, to Mans use.”
65
Best marveled that Salomon’s Ophir paled in comparison
to the abundance of gold and silver daily dug out of all parts of the earth, even “in the supposed

62 Churchyard, A Discourse of the Queenes Majesties Entertainement, I1v-I3v.
63 Best, A True Discourse, B1r, B2r.
64 Ibid, A4r-v.
65 Ibid, 1:2
142

hard and congealed frosen Lands.”
66
Surely this was a blessing from God, so long as these precious
metals were put to good uses; indeed, Best asserted, it was the high-minded man who applied his
industry to increase the public wealth and earned rewards with a proportional benefit to his private
estate. The Ophirian analogy came up again in Best’s recollection of the icebergs. To underscore
Meta Incognita’s wealth, Edward Fenton named one of these massive mountains of ice Salomon’s
porch, invoking the eastern colonnaded entrance of the Holy Temple, which Salomon built with
the precious metals of Ophir. Moreover, Salomon’s porch was the site of many miracles performed
by the apostles, gesturing again to the providential and wondrous nature of England’s late
discovery of arctic ore. Interestingly, by the nineteenth century coal miners in northern England
came to call the gallery of the tunnel exiting a mineshaft the porch, perhaps indicating that
Solomon’s porch had become linked to mining.
67

Even though Best was pessimistic about Meta Incognita’s capacity for cultivation, and found
little to bring Englishmen pleasure, he remained optimistic about the region’s mineral potential.
To counter the notion that the Arctic was inhospitable to the generation of precious metals, Best
mentioned the intensity of the sun’s rays. Comparing this “bloming heate” to a furnace, Best said
that sometimes the wind carried across the ice a blast of air akin to entering a hothouse. John Davis
later confirmed this arctic heat from his experiences attempting to find the Northwest Passage from
1585-87.
68
Though the region might be barren in most respects the arctic heat meant it abounded
in “golde, silver, steele, yron and blacke lead,” as well as precious gems like blue sapphire.
69
. With
evidence that the Inuit engaged in long-distance exchanges for iron bars, dart points, needles, and

66 Ibid, 1:2
67 Ibid, 3:31; Acts 3: 11-2, 5:12-4; "porch, n." OED Online. September 2016. Oxford University Press.
http://www.oed.com.libproxy1.usc.edu/view/Entry/147952?redirectedFrom=porch (accessed September 07, 2016)
68 Best, A True Discourse, 3:28; Davis, The Seamans Secret, J5v.
69 Best, A True Discourse, 3:68.
143

copper buttons, which they wore on their foreheads as English ladies ornamented with pearls, Best
also perceived great benefits in trafficking base metal goods to the Inuit. The Inuit supposedly
valued these trinkets as luxury goods, but their trade partners were people who wore bright golden
plates as decoration.
70
This indicated the possibility for relations with the Inuit to facilitate access
to a North American trade network in precious metals.
Sailor Thomas Ellis’ account presented a more ambiguous picture of Frobisher’s
accomplishments, not even mentioning mines until halfway through the brief narrative. Ellis’s
narrative opened, like Dionyse Settle’s 1577 account, with an Abraham Fleming poem that
compared Frobisher to Ulysses but dropped all reference to an Argolian Fleet.
71
And yet appended
to his narrative was a poem by alchemist Simon Forman under the pseudonym John Kirkham.
72

The earth, sea, and skies resounded with “silver harmonie” to commend Frobisher’s toils and
tribulations in his voyages for the Golden Fleece. This prize, Forman rhapsodized, was greater
than Jason’s Golden Fleece or Alcides’ Hesperian fruit, and Frobisher was braver than either man
in risking his life in the Arctic for his country’s benefit. Forman agreed with Fleming: Frobisher
was England’s Ulysses, a sentiment echoed by Ellis in his own poem.
73

Where Fleming’s poem credited Frobisher with little else besides his labors and honor,
Forman implied an infinite benefit to England. On one level Forman’s allusion to the Golden
Fleece promised great riches from arctic gold mines, referring to Georgius Agricola’s explanation
of it as a metaphor for Thuringian placer mining, wherein animal skins used as sieves trapped gold
particles during the washing of alluvial ore. On another level, Forman, like John Dee, hinted that
the Arctic was the key to a much greater, mystical discovery. In alchemy, both the apples of the

70 Ibid, 3:64.
71 Thomas Ellis, A True Report of the Third and Last Voyage into Meta Incognita (London, 1578), A1v.
72 Richard Williams and Frederick James Furnivall, Ballads from Manuscripts, vol. 2, (London, 1873), 284.
73 Ellis, A True Report, B4v-C3r.
144

Hesperides and the Golden Fleece of Colchis were symbols of the philosopher’s stone and believed
to confer immortality to their possessors. Interestingly, Richard Hakluyt omitted these poems when
he reprinted Ellis’ account in The principal navigations (London, 1598-1600). Hakluyt did not
typically include prefatory epistles, but even so, with contemporaries drawing the parallel between
Frobisher’s Meta Incognita and Sir Walter Raleigh’s search for El Dorado (1595-97), which he
likened to the Golden Fleece, Hakluyt was all too aware that it associated colonial enterprises with
the dubious legacy of gold fever and high risk speculation.
74
If the poems appended to Ellis’
account of the third Frobisher voyage promised future golden discoveries, the poor results of the
assays in late-1578 and into 1579 turned this into a distant dream, at least in the Arctic. Instead,
overseas efforts shifted southward.

THE PROTEAN EMPIRE
There was some initial consideration of a fourth Arctic voyage, which prompted merchant
John Frampton to translate an English edition of Marco Polo’s travels in Asia to promote future
explorations of the Northwest Passage and a re-orientation toward new trades rather than a mining
colony; however, with the Cathay Company in disarray by May 1579, evident in Frampton’s
dedication to Edward Dyer, the northwest venture was abandoned until 1582.
75
With attention
turning southward, Frampton published a new edition of Nicolás Monardes’ Joyfull newes out of
the newfound world (London, 1580) to publicize the mineral and pharmacological riches of the
West Indies. On the docks of Seville, the Spanish physician and botanist heard about the silver
mines of Zacatecas, gold mines in Ecuador, mines of sulfur—which he called the father of all

74 Agricola, 327-330; Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:39-44.
75 Marco Polo, The most noble and famous travels of Marcus Paulus, one of the nobilitie of the state of Venice,
into the east partes of the world, as Armenia, Persia, Arabia, Tartary, with many other kingdoms and provinces, trans.
John Frampton (London, 1579), *ii.r.
145

metals in accordance with alchemical theories—near Quito and in Nicaragua, sassafras in Florida,
and mechoacan (rhubarb) and guaiacum (lignum vitae) in Mexico.
76

Originally published in 1577, in the wake of England’s difficulties finding arctic gold the
second edition encouraged speculators to turn their gaze inward upon the realm’s native deposits
of iron with his inclusion of Monardes’ “Dialogue of Iron.” The expansion of England’s iron
industry had begun in earnest in the 1540s with the immigration of French ironworkers to the
Weald and the introduction of the blast furnace for the manufacture of cast iron ordnance. This
reduced England’s dependence upon imports from Spain at a time when the price of iron was
increasing.
77
Philip II’s 1568-73 embargo on English trade further encouraged the multiplication
of blast furnaces in England and Wales, many of them outside the Weald to supply pig and bar
iron to manufacturers. By the 1580s, domestic production soared to about 15,000 tons/year.
Despite the resumption of a vigorous Anglo-Spanish trade between 1573 and 1585, which included
a new charter for the Spanish Company in 1577, imports of Spanish iron did not recover.
78
The
embargo may not have caused the iron industry’s expansion, yet it reinforced the importance of
England’s self-sufficiency to its security. Just as the failure of the Frobisher ventures encouraged
organizational reforms in the two copper mining companies, Frampton called for greater
investment in England’s iron industry.

76
Monardes, Joyfull newes out of the newfound world, C2v, F3v, H2v-H3r, M2r.
77
Thirsk, Economic Policy and Projects, 25-27; Rees, 1:202-204.
78
The number of blast furnaces increased from forty-four in 1560-1569 to sixty-seven in 1570-1579. G.
Hammersley, “The Charcoal Iron Industry and Its Fuel, 1540-1750,” The Economic History Review 26, no. 4 (1973):
595, 599-600. Peter King estimated that English demand for iron doubled between 1540 and 1590, in no small part
because of the increase in shipbuilding, and that the English iron industry’s share of the market rose from 25% to 90%
in the same period. Iron imports from Spain had peaked at 3000 tons/year in the 1530s and then declined as the English
iron industry expanded; by the 1560s it was only 1000 tons/year and by 1588, 500 tons/year. Peter King, “The
Production and Consumption of Bar Iron in Early Modern England and Wales,” The Economic History Review 58,
no. 1 (February 2005): 16, 20.
146

In a conversation between a doctor, an apothecary, and a Basque blacksmith it was revealed
that American gold and silver had induced malaise and anxiety among Spaniards, which could
only be cured by transferring their appreciation for precious metals to a worthier and more vital
metal. Citing the theory that all metals were engendered from sulfur and mercury but some had
more or less impurities depending on the conditions of their generation, the doctor claimed that
despite their purity, precious metals were good only as currency. Unclean by nature, iron was
nevertheless the “true golde and silver without which wee could not live,” supplying tools for
mining precious metals, husbandry, carpentry, surgery, and many other arts, as well as vessels for
food and storage. Albeit iron and steel weapons were assuredly “an invention of the Devill, for to
carrie many to hell,” they were the means for princes to enlarge and defend their kingdoms and
preserve domestic tranquility: “This mettall hath so much authoritie in the world, it conserveth
peace and quietnesse in common wealthes, in cities, in feeldes, and in the desertes.”
79
The needle
not only kept women from idleness and lewdness but was a prized trade item with Americans, in
addition to making transatlantic navigation possible when paired with the lodestone. So wonderful
was iron, according to the blacksmith, that alchemists esteemed it “more apte for their causes and
effectes” in transmuting the quintessence than either gold or silver. In the lengthy second part of
the dialogue of iron, the doctor averred the benefits of iron filings for treating a variety of ailments
and to stop bleeding, and the three men mused that the lodestone might have similar salubrious
effects.
80
While it is unclear how much influence, if any, the new edition of Monardes had on
developments within the domestic iron industry, the association of iron with empire helped make
base metals a target for adventurers in its own right. Several years later Thomas Harriot

79
Monardes, fol. 143r-144v, 146v-147r.
80
The Bay of Biscay became renowned in the late middle ages for its red hematite, the form of iron used to make
steel, so it made sense for Monardes to make his expert on iron and steel a Basque man. Monardes, fol. 148r, 150r-
163v.
147

recommended Virginia as a new site for iron production that would provide the profits necessary
to continue the search for precious metals. The Virginia Company implemented the proposal from
1609.
After the embarrassments of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s abortive voyage in 1578-79 and the
Cathay Company’s demise shortly thereafter, Sir Francis Drake’s September 1580 return to
England laden with riches renewed enthusiasm for Atlantic enterprises even as it caused a
diplomatic situation with Spain. In early 1581, translator Thomas Nicholls published Agustín de
Zaráte’s The discoverie and conquest of the provinces of Peru (London, 1581) to stoke interest in
American mines, an intention underscored by the cover image of the mountain Potosí struck
through with mineral veins reminiscent of illustrations from Georgius Agricola’s De re metallica.
Zárate had been a royal auditor in the viceroyalty of Peru and superintendent of the King’s silver
mines at Guadalcanal. At the time Nicholls supposedly met Zaráte in 1570, the Spaniard was
headed to Madrid to petition for a license to explore the gold-rich Amazon basin. When they parted
ways, Zaráte

gave Nicholls his account of Peru.
81

The work described the metalworking skills of Incan artisans and indigenous technology like
the huayras (furnace), Atahualpa’s great treasury of gold and silver objects, gold and emerald
mines, and the opening of the silver mines at Potosí. Though Potosí fell within the Torrid Zone,
its situation on a cold and desolate plateau was a powerful counterargument to those who doubted
gold and silver could be generated in colder climates. Zaráte’s account even suggested that the
Levantine artisans manufactured ordnance in Peru using metals and saltpeter mined locally, which

81
The region was described as near Peru and adjoining Brazil, which R.C.D. Baldwin said referred to the region
south of the Orinoco River. Zaráte’s account was published in Venice in 1563 and not until 1577 in Seville, so Nicholls
could have acquired the Italian edition without ever meeting him. The King commissioned Zaráte to survey the mines
at Guadalcanal in July 1570. López de Gómara, A3r; Goodman, 169-170.
148

influenced Sir Walter Ralegh’s idea of founding a munitions industry in Guiana (see Chapter 6).
82

The relation of Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of Peru (1524-33), which was plagued with
insufficient victuals, infighting, and hostile natives, suggested that English adventurers should
anticipate false starts and heavy travail as the natural course of empire and a predecessor to
extraordinary rewards. Nicholls admonished the critics of overseas ventures that “sweet Roses
groweth among Thornes,” and that “the hie pathway to the Court of eternall Fame” was not
obtained with “white handes, perfumed gloves, daintie fare, or softe lodging.”
83

That summer instrument-maker and self-styled hydrographer Robert Norman published The
newe attractive (London, 1581), a layman’s tract on the proper use of the lodestone to calculate
magnetic declination for navigation. Dedicated to William Borough, an advisor on all of the
Frobisher voyages and investor in the third expedition, and inspired by Robert Recorde’s
mathematical guides, Norman thought a tutorial on “this Philosophicall Stone” tended towards
God’s glory and the public commodity. Whereas Frampton promoted iron as superior to precious
metals through Monardes’ work, Norman elevated the lodestone to a preeminent position above
gold, silver, and the richest gems, an opinion he claimed merchants and mariners shared with him.
Comparing the lodestone to the alchemist’s tincture, Norman said it “hath substance, vertue, and
operation,” projecting its magnetism to inert iron, which had “no Attractive vertue, nor power of
it self, untill it hath received it of the Stone,” without being diminished in the process. Iron and
steel were inherently susceptible to magnetite’s “vitall spirite” because they were engendered in
the same mines. As a mere mechanician rather than a learned scholar like Richard Eden or John

82
Dedicated to Cathay Company investor, Dr. Thomas Wilson. Agustín de Zaráte, The discoverie and conquest
of the provinces of Peru, and the navigation in the South Sea, along that coast And also of the ritche mines of Potosi,
trans. Thomas Nicholls (London, 1581), B1r, B3v, E1r, fols. 80v. The huayras was a smelting furnace that used wind
instead of bellows to reduce silver ore.
83
Zaráte, The discoverie and conquest of the provinces of Peru, sig. A5r-v.
149

Dee, Norman did not attempt to explain the origins of the lodestone’s power and instead referred
his readers “to the cornerstone, I meane God” for enlightenment.
84
If English adventurers were to
perfect the project begun by Frobisher and his associates, then mariners needed easily
comprehensible methods of mathematical navigation. With Norman’s guidance, the lodestone
promised to unlock the secrets of navigation and reveal the New World’s treasurers, thus
multiplying England’s store of precious metals.
By the time the fourth expedition set out in 1582, Frobisher had dropped out of the enterprise
when chief financier the Earl of Leicester appointed Edward Fenton as vice-admiral. Leicester
promoted Fenton to admiral and hired Luke Ward, veteran of all three northwest voyages, as vice-
admiral. In light of Drake’s successful circumnavigation through the Strait of Magellan, Fenton
planned to take the southern route to reach the East Indies strictly for trade and plunder. Learning
their lesson about having sufficient stock to pay discharging costs after the ships returned to
England, the company reserved one-third of their capital for mariner’s wages. Christopher Hall,
Richard Fairweather, and Nicholas Chancellor, veterans of the Arctic voyages, adventured with
Fenton and Ward; they were joined by Walsingham’s stepson Christopher Carleill, John Walker,
and Portuguese pilot Simão Fernandes, leaving them unavailable for Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s 1583
excursion to Newfoundland and Norumbega. The venture ended abruptly in January 1583, when
Spanish ships attacked Fenton’s fleet off the coast of Brazil.
85

With two projects in the planning stages—Gilbert’s Norumbega and Fenton’s East Indies—
Richard Hakluyt published Divers voyages touching the discoverie of America (London, 1582) as

84
Robert Norman, The newe attractive Containyng a short discourse of the magnes or lodestone (London, 1581),
A2v, A3v, sig. B3v-B4r, C1r-C3r, E2r.
85 “The Frobisher/Fenton Voyage 1582,” BL, Cotton MS Otho E VIII, f. 151r-152v (1582); Scott, The
Constitution and Finance, 81-2; Rachel Lloyd, Elizabethan Adventurer: A Life of Captain Christopher Carleill
(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1974), 64.
150

an endorsement of further English projects in the Atlantic. He dedicated the book to Philip Sidney,
an investor in Gilbert’s colony.
86
Lok contributed a map to the volume, and possibly even the
writings he had collected for more than two decades. Hakluyt felt certain that England was destined
to discover the Northwest Passage, but he reprimanded the Cathay Company for forgetting “that
Godlinesse is great riches … and that as the light accompanieth the Sunne, and the heate the fire,
so lasting riches do waite upon them that are zealous for the advancement of the kingdome of
Christ, and the enlargement of his glorious Gospell.”
87
Though critical of the pursuit of mines for
their own sake, it was also well within the alchemical tradition to emphasize transmutation as
above all spiritual, to be pursued for God’s glory and not greed. As alchemist Thomas Norton had
warned: “The philosopher’s work do not begin/ Til all things be pure without & within.”
88
Now
that England had been chastened by huge losses, Hakluyt confidently asserted the time was ripe
for England’s success in finding the strait, so long as they kept God at the forefront of their
enterprises.
89

Emphasizing the importance of the civilizing mission in colonization, Hungarian poet Stephen
Parmenius, Hakluyt’s former roommate at Oxford, described Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s intended
colony in Norumbega as England’s quintessence. Parmenius rejoiced that God had reserved North
America for Gilbert to conquer on the Queen’s behalf: “The secret nature of the earth, which once/
Was drawn with threefold sides but honoured bold/ Columbus’ memory with yet a fourth,/ Is now
to be explored along a fifth.” Though David B. Quinn found the reference to a fifth part of the
world a mere fancy unexplainable by contemporary geographical assumptions and could not

86
David Beers Quinn, The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert (London: Hakluyt
Society, 1940), 2:262-263.
87 Richard Hakluyt, Divers voyages touching the discouerie of America (London, 1582), ¶2v, P4r; McDermott,
Martin Frobisher, 109.
88
Norton, The Ordinal of Alchemy, 42
89 Hakluyt, Divers voyages, ¶2v.
151

explain Parmenius’ reference to Proteus, it makes sense when read as alchemical allusions.
Proteus, an ancient sea god, was one of the names given to the prima materia in its volatile state.
To make the philosopher’s stone, the alchemist had to fix the volatile matter, a process likened to
taming the seas.
90
Successfully traversing the ocean, then, was a path to rebirth and reform before
attaining the final goal of the great work, a powerful image to support English navigation.
This alchemical reading was reinforced by Parmenius’ prognosis for England’s future if
Gilbert succeeded. He deemed the Queen a new Astraea, whose return to earth betokened the
restoration of Saturn’s Golden Age. Once Gilbert inducted indigenous Americans into Christian
civility under English rule, a period of peace and plenty would return, the earth would yield its
fruits without labor and people would live in perpetual youth.
91
Colonization, therefore, would
bring England infinite wealth and resources, as well as eternal life, but only if England first
committed their labors to converting indigenous people. Thomas Harriot’s “Three Sea
Marriadges” similarly interpreted navigation in alchemical terms. He compared three navigational
unions to the chemical weddings of the magnum opus: the cross-staff and astrolabe represented
the first conjunction, the sun and the stars “which now agree like sister and brother” aligned with
the incestuous union, and finally, the card and compass “will now agree like master & mate,”
which corresponded to the conjugal union. If mariners did well in their journey, then England
could contest Spain’s dominion in the Americas “To bringe you to silver & Indian gold,” England’s
philosopher’s stone.
92

John Dee would take up Hakluyt’s challenge in late 1582 after his spirit sessions with scryer
Edward Kelly convinced him that North America had a providential role to play in the re-

90
Quinn and Cheshire, The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius, 85, 115; Abraham, Dictionary, 158.
91
Quinn and Cheshire, 89, 93.
92
Thomas Harriot, BL, Additional MS 6788, fol. 490r. The symbolism of incest emphasized that two apparently
opposing substances shared essential similarities that allowed their union. Abraham, Dictionary, 106-107.
152

assemblage of all parts of King Arthur’s empire, both American and European. The early plans for
what would become John Davis’ northwestern voyages (1585-1587) were the most overtly
influenced by alchemy. Through Kelly, the angel Bynepor revealed “in these last tymes, of the
second last world … I begynne new worldes, new peoples, new kings [& new] knowledge of new
Government.” He then descended into a globe where he saw King Carmara come to stand on a hill
of clay among a multitude of “Ugly people a far of” and said to them “Beholde, All the Earth with
her bowells and secrets what soever, are delivered unto me … Unto my Prince, (my subject) are
delivered the keyes of the Mysteries of the earth.” The next day, King Carmara said this project
yet required a “mete receptable … a stone,” and that it was hidden in the secret depths “In the
uttermost part of the Roman Possession.”
93
Dee interpreted this to mean North America, nominally
claimed by Catholic Spain.
On 23 January 1583, Walsingham visited Dee at Mortlake. Finding alchemist Adrian Gilbert,
brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Ralegh, already there, the three men discussed a new
project for a northwest voyage. The next day, John Davis joined them at the home of Mr. Beale to
show Walsingham charts and rutters. Davis, a former scryer for Dee, probably learned much about
navigation and mathematics at Mortlake, and when Dee left England, Davis purloined many books
on the subject from his library, a fact Dee annotated in his 6 September 1583 inventory with “Jo.
Davis spoyle” next to the books he took. Eventually, Dee, Gilbert, and Davis discussed the project
with former Cathay Company adventurers Richard Young and Christopher Hoddesdon and
Alderman George Barnes of the Muscovy Company.
94

93 Christopher Whitby, “John Dee’s Actions with Spirits,” Ph.D. Thesis, (University of Birmingham, 1981),
202-203, 218.
94 James Orchard Halliwell, ed., The Private Diary of John Dee, (London, 1842), 18-19; Camb., MS O.4.20,
p. 5; Parry, 24.
153

In March 1583, the spirit Medicus Dei reiterated this vision of “New manners: strange men:
The true light, and thorny path, openly seen.” Kelly told Dee the spirit required a third man to
complete this great work, the “aeternall liquor … the supercaelestiall dew,” and showed him an
image “somwhat like to Mr Adrian Gilbert.” Dee invited Gilbert to join his great work to carry the
name of Jesus to the infidels, and from which “The corners and streights of the earth shall be
measured to the depth: And strange shalbe the wonders that are Creeping in to new worldes.”
95

Dee, however, remained unsure of Gilbert’s aptitude for the task, an unsurprising concern for the
man John Aubrey called “the greatest buffoon in England” despite his positive qualities.
96
On
Maundy Thursday, Dee asked Medicus Dei to confirm Gilbert’s suitability, and suggested perhaps
that the spirit had meant John Davis instead. Medicus Dei replied: “John Davis, is not of my
Kalendar.” When Dee and Gilbert submitted their first proposal to the Queen, she rejected it.
97

While they planned for their northwestern venture, Dee and Gilbert purchased the silver and lead
mines at Combe Martin, Devonshire from Sir Lionel Duckett on 3 May 1583.
98
The Crown issued
their patent for the “northerly parts of Atlantis called Novus orbis” in February 1584, though
Walter Ralegh had replaced Dee after he fled to the continent.
99

CONCLUSION
The preceding chapter has shown the central role alchemical philosophy played in generating
an ideology to support English colonial efforts in the Atlantic World and establishing mineral
enterprises as central to that goal. As the Cathay Company groped its way in the Arctic and gold

95 Whitby, “John Dee’s Actions with Spirits,” 226-228, 240-241.
96 John Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, (Oxford, 1898), 1: 262.
97 Whitby, 252-255.
98 Dee, The Private Diary of Sr. John Dee, 20.
99 Sir Francis Walsingham, “A Brief Collection of the Substance of the Grant Desired by the Discoverers of
the North-West Parts,” TNA, SP 15/28/1, f. 120-122 (January? 1584).
154

did not materialize, alchemical language became more prominent in printed tracts in the hopes that
fantasies of precious metals might soon be converted into actual mineral discoveries. In tandem
with English translations of New World texts, which contained frequent mentions of American
metals, alchemical philosophy nourished England’s imperial ambitions through the first
generation’s twisted peregrination toward a permanent settlement in the Americas. Just as alchemy
aided in the ideological development of colonization, the next chapter shows how it functioned as
a way to conceptualize the inner workings of the economy and the roles metals and overseas
colonies, including Ireland, played in English commerce. Captain Edward Hayes borrowed
alchemical ideas to rationalize his projects for coinage reforms and colonization as essential
remedies for England’s disordered body politic.

155

CHAPTER 5
THINKING METALLURGICALL Y: METALS AND EMPIRE IN THE
PROJECTS OF EDW ARD HA YES
INTRODUCTION
In a 1611 letter to promote his most recent scheme, Edward Hayes begged Lord Treasurer
Robert Cecil “to peruse these wast lynes, which are the ruptures of a hidden Myne, ether to be
vented, or the foundacons ruyned.” Hayes invoked the persistent problem of inadequate
technology to drain water from mines, which too often resulted in their premature closure and
wasted the labor and fortunes of industrious men unless new solutions were developed. Lamenting
his declining fortune, Hayes hinted at the inestimable and as-yet-hidden benefits of his ideas; he
expressed his hope that the Earl of Salisbury’s patronage, the “precious Baulmes . . . to the Curing
of desperat woundes,” might vent his mind’s mine to the Crown’s advantage. Although few of his
previous suits had succeeded, he returned “agayn unto the Sea” to propose two new projects: a
conduit to bring fresh water to London and an unspecified venture, a “Childe which I suspect
others have fathered.” This may refer either to the recently incorporated Newfoundland Company
(1610) or to competing bids to mint small copper coins by Sir John Harrington and Gerard de
Malynes.
1
While this was the only time Hayes compared his projecting to a rich mine,
metallurgical and iatrochemical language was prevalent in his writing and reflected his ideas about
the utility of alchemical arts in solving England’s social and economic crises.

1
Edward Hayes, “Edw. Hayes to Salisbury,” TNA, SP 14/66, fol. 91r (September 1611). In the sixteenth century,
various water drainage engines like the chain pump used pistons and pipes to draw water out of mines. The term
“waste lines” referred to the pipes that conveyed water and other matter out of the mines, much as waste-pipes used
in urban drainage. Although a significant advance, water remained the limiting factor in the depth mines could attain
until the eighteenth century development of the steam engine. Agricola, 147, 172-200.

156

Much about Hayes’s life is unknown. Although we lack direct evidence of Hayes’s interest in
alchemy, it is conjectured from his familiarity with metallurgy. When and where he came by his
metallurgical education is a mystery, but it is borne out by his prolonged involvement in minting
schemes and his request to assay the allegedly argentiferous ore found in Newfoundland in 1583.
Following his namesake father, a Liverpool merchant trading in Ireland, London, and possibly at
the Mines Royal complex at Keswick, Hayes became involved in overseas enterprise beginning
around 1578.
2
He had matriculated at King’s College, Cambridge in 1565 but left without taking
a degree after 1571. Hayes had then entered the household of the widowed Lady Elizabeth Hoby,
one of the famed Cooke sisters, likely as a tutor to young Thomas Posthumous.
3
As the sister of
Lady Mildred Burghley, Lady Hoby maintained close relations with the Cecils at Bisham Abbey
and in London, bringing Hayes within the patronage sphere of William Cecil, Lord Burghley.

Hayes later fondly recalled this time, “wheare I had my fyrst brede [bread],” as the root of his
loyalty and service to the Cecils.
4

Hayes invested in Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s voyage in 1578; the following year he made his
first overture to Lord Burghley about coining small copper monies and began overseas trading.
5

After adventuring with Gilbert in the 1583 Newfoundland voyage, Hayes’s mercantile and colonial
activities dominated his time until 1596. On Sir Robert Cecil’s recommendation, Hayes then
partnered with his kinsman Captain Thomas Hayes, lately returned from the Low Countries after
ten years’ service, to propose a recoinage plan for Ireland in 1599/1600.
6
Hayes’s involvement

2
Keswick manager Daniel Hechstetter recorded several transactions involving wrought copper with a
merchant “Edward Heyss (Hees)” of Lancashire in 1576–77. Collingwood, 188, 195.
3
D. B. Quinn, “Edward Hayes, Liverpool Colonial Pioneer,” Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire
& Cheshire 111 (1959), 27.
4
Edward Hayes, “Edward Hayes to Mr. Secretary, Hat., CP 251/94 (c.1600).
5
Quinn and Cheshire, 22.
6
Thomas Hayes, “Captain Thomas Hayes,” Hat., CP 29/77 ([1595]); Thomas Hayes, “Capt. Thos. Hayes to
Lord Burghley; Enclosed, Considerations offered by Capt. Thos. Hayes to the Privy Council,” TNA, SP 12/251,

157

with the recoinage netted him a position on a royal commission to consider the efflux of treasure
from England and recommend policies to prevent it. Other members of this commission included
mint master Sir Richard Martin, metallurgist Sir Bevis Bulmer, and merchant and political
economist Gerard de Malynes, who published A Treatise of the Canker of Englands Common
Wealth (London, 1601) after they submitted their report to the Privy Council.
7
Riding these recent
achievements, the Hayeses and Edward’s brother-in-law Sir Oliver Lambert advised the Crown to
establish a permanent militia in 1603.
8
By 1610 the Hayeses were constructing pipes of wood and
stone to bring fresh water to London, though the Crown eventually granted the license for
London’s water supply instead to goldsmith Sir Hugh Myddelton.
9
Between 1611 and 1613 Hayes,
now working alone, petitioned Lord George Carew, master of the ordnance, and Lord Thomas
Howard de Walden, commissioner of the treasury, to re-open the Dublin mint and issue small
copper monies. Hayes was last recorded living near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1613, after
which the archival record is silent.
10

Edward Hayes is now best known as the chronicler of Gilbert’s 1583 voyage, not for his
monetary schemes.
11
Nicholas Canny named Hayes, along with Richard Hakluyt, among the

fols. 80–81 (5 March 1595); Thomas Hayes, “Thomas Hayes to Secretary Cecil, Enclosed: A Plott for the defraying
of Her Majesties Chardges perpetually in Ireland” TNA, SP 63/212, fols. 244r, 248r (c. 1602).
7
“Report of Sir Rich. Martin and 11 commissioners appointed by the Queen, on nomination of Lord Keeper
Egerton, and Lord Treas. Buckhurst, to inquire concerning the preservation and augmentaiton of the wealth of the
realm; addressed to the Council,” TNA, SP 12/279, fols. 179r–180v (May? 1601).
8
Thomas Hayes may have known Sir Oliver Lambert from their time serving in the Low Countries. Edward
Hayes, “Edward Hayes to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 91/36; TNA, SP 12/253, fol. 61r (7 January 1603).
9
Anthony Munday mentions only Thomas Hayes in relation to this scheme. We only know about Edward
Hayes’ involvement in the project by his 1611 letter to the Earl of Salisbury, where he mentioned his worked was at
a standstill. John Stow and Anthony Munday, The Survey of London Containing the Original, Increase, Modern
Estate and Government of That City (London, 1633), 12; TNA, SP 14/66, fol. 91r.
10
Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts Preserved in the Archepiscopal Library at Lambeth, Volume 5: 1603-
1623 ed. J. S. Brewer and William Bullen, (London, 1870), 138–140; Quinn, “Edward Hayes, Liverpool Colonial
Pioneer,” 30.
11
Quinn, “Edward Hayes”; Peter C. Mancall, Hakluyt’s Promise: An Elizabethan’s Obsession for an English
America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 103, 121, 126–127.

158

principal contributors to the new literature promoting colonization in the Tudor period.
12
In
particular, Philip Edwards and Andrew Fitzmaurice noted, Hayes’s use of Protestant and humanist
discourses shaped an English colonial ideology.
13
Carole Shammas credited Hayes and Thomas
Harriot with advanced economic thinking about America compared to Gilbert and Sir Walter
Ralegh.
14
With Hayes’s interest in colonization spanning three decades, D. B. Quinn argued that
he played a significant role in England’s earliest colonial endeavors and said his colonizing plans
are of “enduring interest.”
15
Yet Quinn, whose 1959 essay remains the fullest study of Hayes’s
career, found no apparent connections between his colonial and monetary projects. Numismatists,
in turn, have shown little interest in Hayes’s colonial projects, and his involvement in coinage
reforms in Ireland between 1600 and 1613 has earned only brief mention by a handful of scholars.
16

At a glance, Hayes appears to be an inveterate and largely unsuccessful projector. K. R.
Andrews called him an “amateur of projects,” suggesting a haphazard entrepreneurialism, but a
closer look reveals metallurgy as a common thread in most of his projects.
17
Implicitly drawing on
the idea of a circulatory economy, Hayes’s projects for colonization in North America and coinage
reforms in Ireland and England offered metallic solutions for England’s ills and deployed
alchemical metaphors to rationalize them as a public good. For Hayes, mining and metallurgy were

12
Nicholas Canny, “England's New World and the Old, 1480s–1630s,” in The Oxford History of the British
Empire, vol. 1, The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century, ed.
Nicholas Canny (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 150.
13
Philip Edwards, “Edward Hayes Explains Away Sir Humphrey Gilbert,” Renaissance Studies 6, nos. 3–4
(1992): 269–86; Andrew Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America: An Intellectual History of English Colonisation,
1500–1625 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 20-57.
14
Carole Shammas, “English Commercial Development and American Colonization, 1560–1620,” in The
Westward Enterprise: English Activities in Ireland, the Atlantic, and America 1480–1650, ed. K. R. Andrews, N. P.
Canny, and P. E. H. Hair (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1978), 160.
15
Quinn, “Edward Hayes,” 42–43; David B. Quinn, “Hayes, Edward (b. c.1550, d. in or after 1613),” ODNB.
16
Henry Symonds, “The Elizabethan Coinages for Ireland,” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal
Numismatic Society 17 (1917): 118–123; Challis, The Tudor Coinage, 20; Vera L. Rutledge, “The Commission of Sir
George Carew in 1611: A Review of the Exchequer and the Judiciary of Ireland” (PhD diss., McGill University, 1986),
102–103, 236–241.
17
Andrews, Trade, Plunder, and Settlement, 194.

159

important tools of conquest that went hand-in-hand with colonization and the civilizing mission,
whether in North America or Ireland. As Hayes crystallized his ideas to rectify England’s monetary
crisis, his projecting vision ripened and fastened on currency as the lynchpin of economic health
and social harmony in the realm. With this narrower focus, he found some success convincing the
Crown to approve his proposals.
This chapter re-appraises Hayes’s career to examine how he combined alchemy, metallurgy,
and political economy in his projects, both ideologically and in practice. Historians have long-
recognized that one of the main justifications for the search for precious metals in the Americas
was to accumulate a stock of silver to underwrite English commercial activity, both in foreign and
domestic trades, and restore confidence in English monies. Recent work on the influence of
alchemy on the literature of justification for colonization and the development of a credit economy
are the launching point for this re-examination. Both Ralph Bauer and David Harris Sacks have
demonstrated that alchemy contributed intellectual vigor to the debate on English expansion into
North America, especially in amalgamating mercantile and courtly values to promote
colonization.
18
For the seventeenth century Carl Wennerlind has shown that though alchemy failed
to fulfill its moneymaking potential through the discovery of the philosopher’s stone, the promise
of transmutation to infinitely expand the money supply, and thus increase the velocity of
commercial activity, provided the theoretical apparatus to make credit currency possible.
19
Before
political economists could make this leap to credit, I argue, alchemy aided in conceptualizing the
circulation of money in the economy, and how best to ensure its orderly commutation for the
benefit of a healthy body politic. This chapter, then, gives a glimpse into the kind of alchemically-
influenced economic thinking that motivated merchants to invest in colonial enterprises and

18
Bauer, “A New World of Secrets,” 99–126; Sacks, “Rebuilding Solomon’s Temple,” 17–55.
19
Wennerlind, Casualties of Credit, 46, 48.

160

revealed a desire to acquire precious metals that was not easily reducible to avarice and indeed
was ambivalent about it.
Looking at Hayes’s letters, his project proposals, and his printed reports, I illustrate how one
man put his ideas about economics, conquest, and colonization into practice, and thus reconnect
the seemingly disparate halves of his career. Since alchemy and metallurgy shared the same
underlying assumptions about the generation of metals and the techniques for manipulating them,
particularly in the arts of assaying and coining, alchemical philosophy offered Hayes a way to
think about the relationship between metals, socioeconomics, and England’s growing imperial
ambitions, while metallurgy provided a technical basis to realize his ideas. Rather than an
abandonment of his interest in colonization, Hayes’s coinage schemes in Ireland showed a
maturation in his ideas about how metallurgy could best be used in the colonial sphere to England’s
profit.

THE CIRCULATORY ECONOMY
In the sixteenth century, English economic thought mirrored that of cosmology, theology, and
natural philosophy in conceptualizing the economy as circulatory.
20
A full treasury would increase
England’s trade and improve the credit of both the Crown and English merchants in foreign
exchanges; in turn, the expansion of exports would attract more bullion to England and enable the
Crown to maintain a finer monetary standard.
21
According to Gresham’s Law, named after
contemporary Sir Thomas Gresham, fine coinage discouraged the hoarding of gold and silver by

20
S. Todd Lowry, “The Archaeology of the Circulation Concept in Economic Theory,” Journal of the History
of Ideas 35, no. 3 (July–September 1974), 430.
21
In England, the “fineness” of coins described the proportion of pure silver or gold to base alloy (generally
copper and tin). Fine coins had close nominal and intrinsic values; the wider the gap between nominal and intrinsic
value, the less fine or more debased the coin. After the Great Debasement from 1544–51, extraordinary weight was
put on the fineness of coins as an index of commercial confidence. Gould, The Great Debasement, 8–9.

161

inspiring confidence in its value; this confidence caused more money to be released into domestic
circulation for internal trade and stimulated greater production of surplus goods for export.
22
Then
the cycle began anew. Long before Adam Smith called money “the great wheel of circulation,”
English political economists subscribed to a neo-Aristotelian view that the flow of money through
society distributed to each man his just proportion of wealth and in doing so upheld a harmonious
social order.
23
Robert Recorde, the polymath alchemist, advisor on transatlantic voyages, and
comptroller of the Dublin mint, thought a monetary standard governing the proportion of alloy to
fine metal preserved economic balance in the realm. He blamed the late religious, social, and
economic disorders on currency debasements between 1544 and 1551 for disrupting this fragile
equilibrium.
24
By the second half of the Tudor period, however, men like Hayes thought this
system was crumbling and looked to overseas enterprise for a solution.
England’s growing mercantile and colonial interest in the Atlantic world coincided with the
mid-Tudor economic crisis. The release of American gold and silver into the English economy
exacerbated inflationary price trends caused by debasement, trade imbalances with the Continent,
volatility in domestic production, and a swelling population.
25
Inflation, Hayes implied, was not

22
Although called Gresham’s Law, the theory that bad money drives good money out of circulation preceded
Sir Thomas Gresham. Nicolas Oresme may have anticipated the concept in De moneta in the mid-fourteenth
century, though the earliest manuscript copies of the treatise lack the passage similar to Gresham’s Law. C. G. A.
Clay, Economic Expansion and Social Change: England 1500–1700, vol. 2, Industry, Trade, and Government
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 206–208; Nicholas Oresme, The “De Moneta” of Nicholas
Oresme and English Mint Documents, trans. Charles Johnson (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1956), xi–
xii.
23
Aristotle compared the commonwealth to a body, which was only kept healthy by the proportionate
distribution of resources. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Dublin,
1776), 23–27; Aristotle, Aristotles Politiques, or Discourses of Government, trans. J.D. (London, 1598), 166;
Wennerlind, 19–20.
24
Robert Recorde, The Ground of Artes Teachyng the Worke and Practise of Arithmetike (London, 1552), sig.
A7v-A8r, A9v.
25
For instance, during the reign of Mary and Philip, over ₤40,000 in Spanish silver was introduced into
English circulation, an increase of 12 percent in circulating silver coinage. This caused an inflationary bump
unparalleled in the early modern period. Redworth, “Philip I of England, Embezzlement, and the Quantity Theory of
Money,” 258.

162

inherently harmful to a healthy and bountiful economy, but in times of scarcity it worsened existing
conditions.
26
As described by Secretary Sir Thomas Smith, who was banished to Eton for his
disagreement with the Lord Protector over debasements, these conditions of dearth were evident
in England’s grain shortages, underemployment, and extortionate rents. Smith attributed domestic
tumults and threats from abroad to corrupt sterling monies, reckoning the Crown’s debasement
and revaluation policies a critical, if misguided, failure in the system.
27
While the infusion of
American silver into the English economy helped increase the amount of fine currency circulating
in the second half of the sixteenth century, the supply fell short of commercial demand, especially
for small change, forcing common people into various credit relationships, often to their detriment.
When demand exceeded supply, there were two possible ways to enlarge the circulating currency:
either speed money’s movement through the economy or increase the stock of precious metals to
mint more coins.
28

In the earliest efforts at American colonization, projectors like Hayes, Gilbert, and Ralegh
focused on increasing the supply of precious metals. Without sufficient treasure, they thought, the
Crown lacked the sinews of war to secure its interests in Europe, and English merchants stood at
a grave disadvantage in foreign exchanges. Even more disturbing, the Crown’s subjects had little
faith in their monarch’s currency and questioned its worth, a direct challenge to sovereign authority
that could encourage sedition.
29
According to Lord Burghley, this dearth of treasure placed
England on the precipice of disaster.
30
Expanding trade was an important part of raising the stock

26
Thomas and Edward Hayes, “Thomas and Edward Hayes to Secretary Cecil, concerning the Exchange of
Ireland,” TNA, SP 63/209, fol. 357v (21 December 1601).
27
Though unpublished until 1581, Smith likely wrote this manuscript in 1549 during his time at Eton. Sir
Thomas Smith, A Compendious or Briefe Examination of Certayne Ordinary Complaints of Divers of Our Country
Men in These Our Dayes (London, 1581), fol. 11r; Mary Dewar, Sir Thomas Smith, (London: The Athlone Press,
1964), 50-53.
28
Wennerlind, 18.
29
Bishop, “Currency, Conversation, and Control,” 777.
30
Sir William Cecil, “State of the Realm,” Hat., CP 157/2 (1569); “Dangers to England,” CP 199/8 (c. 1585).

163

of precious metals, but the Spanish example suggested that American mines could be a more
durable and abundant supply of bullion.

Crown officials like Lord Burghley and Secretary Smith,
and projectors like Hayes, thus favored bullionist policies that would enable the Crown to
accumulate precious metals. Hayes considered it a maxim of English policy to prioritize the export
of commodities instead of treasure for imports: toward this end a re-established Irish mint would
be a means of “bringing in of bullion … to inriche the Contrie … A key to lock it within the
Kingdom: And a Storehouse for the King, to supply his Majestie as loving subiectes”
31

As the science chiefly concerned with the generation and manipulation of metals, alchemy
and metallurgy were particularly apt sources of analogies for thinking about the role of money in
the economy. In the circulatory economy, money acted as a guiding force to maintain balance in
the system. Money was thus not merely a medium of exchange but was also a catalyst for growth
and change.
32
In alchemy, the great work was called the opus circulatorium, a phrase that described
the distillation process whereby the alchemist first separated purities from impurities, then
dissolved them, and finally reunited them into one crystalline, pure body. Only through successive
cycles of separation and coagulation could the philosopher’s stone be reduced to its primal state.
Simultaneously, this circulation restored the prelapsarian unity of the alchemist’s body and soul.
33

Symbolized by the ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, the opus circulatorium proposed that
nature inexorably moved toward perfection, a process potentially accelerated by an agent force,
making it a constructive comparison for thinking about money’s agency in assuring England’s
economic telos of perfection and plenty.

31
“Project for a Mint in Ireland,” BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, no. 35, fol. 259r (bef. 1603).
32
Wennerlind, 45.
33
Abraham, Dictionary, 137–138.

164

Medicinal metaphors aided in this conceptual shift from alchemy to economy. Alchemist and
cosmographer Richard Eden’s translation of Thomas Gemini’s Compendiosa Totius Anatomie
Delineatio (London, 1559) analogized the roles of various organs in the body to the equipment
used in distillation: the lungs were the bellows; the heart, the “ruler and director of spirite &
bludde,” was the sun, or source of innate heat; the stomach was the furnace where decoction and
digestion took place; and the liver the place where matter underwent a second digestion to
transmute into blood.
34
Italian naturalist Andrea Caesalpino’s theory of pulmonary circulation as
chemical distillation of the blood and humors almost certainly influenced Giordano Bruno’s
description of circulation as a perfect circle of consumption and regeneration that resembled
processes in the cosmos. Belief in alchemical pulmonary circulation was shared by many scholars
in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including the French Paracelsian Joseph Du
Chesne, who called the vena cava “the Pellican of nature, or the vessel circulatory,” and Thomas
Harriot’s associate, Walter Warner. Until William Harvey published his theory that the heart
governed both pulmonary and systemic circulation in 1628, Galenic theories about the heart and
circulation prevailed despite challenges from anatomists like Andreas Vesalius and physicians like
Du Chesne.
35
This underscored the intertwining of Galenic and Paracelsian ideas throughout the
early modern period, a syncretic blend Hayes would later use to compare the unpopular Irish
recoinage to an unpleasant though vital emetic to purge the body politic of evil humors: “And that
one Bytter hearb doth make all Medecyns distastfull unto them.”
36
Through medicine, economic

34
Andreas Vesalius and Thomas Geminus, Compendiosa Totius Anatomie Delineato, Aere Exarata: Per
Thomam Geminum (London, 1559) sig. A3v.
35
During Bruno’s time in England from 1583–85, he associated with would-be colonizers Philip Sidney and
Sir Walter Ralegh, and translator John Florio. Walter Pagel, William Harvey’s Biological Ideas: Selected Aspects
and Historical Background (Basel; New York: S. Karger, 1967), 104, 188–191; H. P. G. Bayon, “The Significance
of the Demonstration of the Harveyan Circulation by Experimental Tests,” Isis 33, no. 4 (December 1941): 447–
448; Du Chesne, The Practice of Chymicall, and Hermeticall Physicke, K4v.
36
Thomas and Edward Hayes, “Captain Thomas Hayes and Captain Edward Hayes to Sir Robert Cecil,” TNA,
SP 63/208/1, fol. 0244r (24 March 1601).

165

ideas could be shifted from the microcosm of the alembic to the human body and then related to
the macrocosm of the body politic.
Drawing on Paracelsian alchemy, early modern writers deemed money the lifeblood of the
economy, either maintaining the system’s health or, when unbalanced, acting as a poison. A
parliamentarian compared the mint to the heart of the body politic to express his concern about the
extreme dearth of silver coin emissions and its relationship to the trade crisis: “I heard a wise man
compare the hammers of the Mint in the state unto pulses in a natural body. For as if these beat
strongly, it argues health; but if faintly, weakness in the body natural.”
37
Political economist Gerard
Malynes, Hayes’s colleague, said “Money then (as the Bloud in the bodie) containeth the Soule
which infuseth life.” According to Malynes, too little money slowed the pace of exchange, while
a plentiful monetary supply increased commerce; therefore, a reduction in the circulating currency
evidenced a poisoned body politic.
38
Calling the circulation of money the “Sanguification of the
Common-wealth,” Thomas Hobbes said gold and silver passed from man to man to nourish every
part of the body politic but also underwent continuous revitalization in the heart (the mint) to
remain free of debasement.
39

Using the idea that the liver generated blood through chemical digestion, several writers
compared the treasury to the liver, with the mint as its archeus, or inner alchemist, producing vital
blood—money—from digested bullion. They portrayed the monarch and Privy Council as
physicians who needed to apply a chemical remedy to England’s economic woes.
40
Claiming a

37
Wallace Notestein, ed. Commons Debates, 1621 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1935), 2: 137.
38
Malynes, Consuetudo, vel lex mercatoria, 253, 378.
39
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or, The Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common Wealth, Ecclesiasticall and
Civil by Thomas Hobbes (London, 1651), 130.
40
Moran, Distilling Knowledge, 74. For information on Paracelsus’s bodily economy of the archeus and its
smaller divisions, the monads, see Walter Pagel, Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era
of the Renaissance (Basel; New York: Karger, 1982), 107–8. For iatrochemical influences on seventeenth-century
economic thought, see Alain Clément, “The Influence of Medicine on Political Economy in the Seventeenth
Century,” History of Economics Review 38, no. 1 (2003): 10–12.

166

canker had taken root in England’s liver, Gerard de Malynes called on the lord treasurer to cure
the disease through a reform of the exchange.
41
Merchant and political economist Edward
Misselden likened the export of coins to hepatitis, claiming it sapped England of its lifeblood.
42
In
this metaphor, exchequer officers chemically transformed bullion into money and redistributed
this vital spirit through circulation into the other organs and members of the body politic. Through
this orderly commutation, money maintained the health of the commonwealth.
When money failed in its role as the economy’s lifeblood, it was the Crown’s obligation to
intervene with a cure to bring the system back into balance. Malynes and Misselden applied this
Paracelsian vision of monetary circulation to focus on reforming foreign exchanges, while Hayes
diagnosed England’s economic defects as rooted in the currency itself. Hayes offered the Crown
colonization and coinage projects as metallic medicines to cure English money of its ill humors:
the former by accumulating a greater stock of precious metals and the latter by retaining gold and
silver in England and preventing its outflow to other European states. An intellectual magpie like
most educated men of his day, Hayes may not have explicitly invoked Paracelsus’s theory of the
archeus in his medicinal understandings of the economy, but it contributed to a reservoir of
knowledge he could draw from to conceptualize currency and just commutation, and borrow from
to describe economic disorder in iatrochemical language.
The influence of alchemy on economic thought in England was not merely analogical.
Metallurgical techniques for assaying with weights and measures, upon which mint officials
depended to ensure coins met a consistent standard, had come out of alchemical experiments with
metals.
43
As recently as Henry VII’s reign, the Crown employed alchemists to expand the

41
Gerard Malynes, The Center of the Circle of Commerce (London, 1623), 38.
42
Edward Misselden, Free Trade. Or, The Meanes to Make Trade Florish Wherein the Causes of the Decay of
Trade in This Kingdome, Are Discouered (London, 1622), 10.
43
Agricola, 248.

167

monetary supply by “doubling” gold with alloys of silver or copper in order to shore up political
authority at home or enforce territorial aims abroad.
44
Sovereign authority to coin money was
likewise alchemical. In the secret spaces of the royal mints, the Crown endowed substance
(bullion) with form (the royal stamp) to create legal tender. The Trial of the Pyx, named after the
box that held the Eucharist, affirmed the Crown’s transformation of inert bullion into money, the
vital blood of the market, by testing the coins to ensure they met strict standards.
45
Like the
charlatan, counterfeiters usurped the arcana imperii by producing money that bore the similitude
of fine coin, though base frauds. Counterfeiters thus became convenient targets to displace
responsibility for the decayed condition of England’s coins away from the state, undergirding
sovereign authority by preserving its monopoly over the mystery of minting.
46
The association of
the mint with alchemy was strong enough that in 1551 John Pryse called its workers alchemists
for debasing the coinage with an increased proportion of base alloy, a change undetectable by the
common person and a source of distrust in the purity of all of the Crown’s currency.
47
Yet if
alchemy could debase the currency, it could also purify it again.
In the mid-sixteenth century, metallurgical alchemy offered a range of solutions for monetary
shortages to the Crown and private investors; these solutions had broader implications for the
development of overseas enterprises and the eventual turn to colonization. From the 1550s, the
Crown supported English speculators in parallel endeavors in search of gold and silver: alchemists
attempted to transmute metals in their labs; metallurgists and miners prospected for them in the
ore fields of England, Wales, and Ireland; and explorers sought metals in new lands or plundered

44
Moran, 31–33.
45
Christine Desan, Making Money: Coin, Currency and the Coming of Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2014), 72–78.
46
Bishop, 779–780.
47
W. A. J. Archbold, “A Manuscript Treatise on the Coinage by John Pryse, 1553,” The English Historical
Review 13, no. 52 (October 1898): 709.

168

ships. In 1560, the queen decried, or devalued, the debased English sterling and contracted German
metallurgists to recoin it to a finer standard using their superior liquation process to separate copper
from silver, which English mint workers could not do efficiently. The contract was so lucrative
that the German metallurgists remained in England and provided expertise for the newly formed
Company of Mines Royal.
48
In the mid-Tudor period, grants of denization to foreign metallurgists,
which allowed them to reside permanently in England, and monopoly licenses for their English
patrons fostered the introduction of new methods in mining and smelting in the mid-sixteenth
century, a crucial technological leap for England.
49
From that point forward Englishmen believed
they could exploit any mines they might find in the New World. Moreover, mining at home
advanced the English shipbuilding and navigational technologies needed to exploit New World
deposits by providing native copper for instrument- and mapmakers, cast-iron munitions and
ironwork for ships, and lodestone compasses.
50
The circulation of alchemical theories in print and
manuscript also contributed to a growing corpus of natural knowledge that allowed Englishmen to
reform the art of navigation for transoceanic voyages, particularly in mathematical
astronavigation; for John Dee alchemy was not only the highest form of mathematics, the key to
decipher nature’s secrets, but also the sovereign experimental science to guide advances in arts
like navigation and geography.
51

With these improvements in English metallurgy, colonial projectors now had a cohort of
experts to hire as advisors or skilled labor for their ventures. In the first phase of colonization,
these experts developed portable technologies for prospecting abroad and conducted field assays
on reconnaissance voyages; metallurgists were also hired to establish mineral works in the

48
Donald, Elizabethan Monopolies, 27.
49
Rees, 1: 203–206; Blanchard, “English Lead and the International Bullion Crisis,” 33–36.
50
Baldwin, “Speculative Ambitions,” 411.
51
Euclid, The elements of geometrie, A3r-v.

169

colonies. From the Company of Mines Royal at Keswick, Martin Frobisher hired Christopher
(Jonas) Schutz for his 1577 arctic voyage and to construct works at Dartford to smelt the ore they
brought back; Sir Walter Ralegh hired Joachim Gans of Prague for the 1585–86 Roanoke colony.
At Jamestown, Captain John Martin served as master of the battery works to oversee the
hammering of copper or brass into ordnance and other wrought goods and John Martin was a
refiner; they were the son and grandson of Sir Richard Martin, master of the mint and former
governor of the Mines Royal. In this same period, investors in the mining companies were frequent
speculators in Atlantic enterprises.
52
Beyond these practical technologies, alchemical philosophy
contributed a language to legitimize and promote overseas speculation and its potential profit as
honorable and necessary to the commonweal. Metallurgical alchemy thus played a crucial role in
opening the Atlantic world to English speculation.
Within this context, competence in alchemy allowed men like Edward Hayes to stake their
claims as expert advisors to the Crown or private patrons, to establish their credibility as
eyewitnesses in printed promotional tracts, or to proffer their own projects. In learning alchemy,
Hayes engaged in a vibrant intellectual culture then popular at court, including the queen herself,
and it supplied a language in which to couch his ideas. With its theoretical and methodological
foundation in alchemy, metallurgy gave Hayes an understanding of the assaying process for both
coining and mining, while the apparatuses developed for metallurgical work held applications in
other engineering projects. In the latter case, Hayes seems to have learned most of what he knew
about engines from his partner, Thomas Hayes.
53
Like so many others in this period, Hayes tried

52
Theodore Rabb found that one-third of shareholders in the Company of Mines Royal and Company of
Mineral and Battery Works invested in one or more of Martin Frobisher’s arctic voyages (1576–78). Theodore K.
Rabb, Enterprise & Empire: Merchant and Gentry Investment in the Expansion of England, 1575–1630 (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 114.
53
In 1599, the Crown granted Thomas Hayes a ten-year license to manufacture military devices including
“portsacks,” targets, and staffs. “Privilege for 10 years, to Capt. Thos. Hayes, of the making of three military
inventions, viz., a port-sack, a target with a gamash, and a staff or pilum,” TNA, SP 12/271, fol. 72 (1599); Thomas

170

to parlay his specialized knowledge of alchemy and metallurgy into patronage from the Cecils,
hoping it would lend him the credibility to execute coinage and colonization projects for public
benefit and private reward.
54

A WESTWARD REVOLUTION
At the time of Hayes’s service to the Hoby family, Lady Hoby’s brother-in-law Lord Burghley
was involved in the Society of the New Art with Secretary Smith, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Robert
Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and alchemist William Medley.
55
They incorporated the society so that
Medley could perfect his use of vitriol to transmute iron into copper and antimony and lead into
quicksilver, in addition to working the alum and copperas mines on Lady Mountjoy’s lands at
Poole. The primary purpose for these transmuted metals would be in the manufacture of ordnance
and munitions “and other like uses.”
56
With the society seeking potential investors in 1574, these
activities probably attracted attention at Bisham Abbey, as Lady Hoby had recently married John
Lord Russell, who came from a family of alchemy enthusiasts.
57
Hayes, then, found himself
immersed in a community devoted to the study of alchemy and its practical applications to satisfy
England’s socioeconomic needs. If Lord Burghley lobbied Lord Russell to invest in the Society

Hayes, “Thos. Hayes to the Earl of Devonshire,” and “A discourse touching military inventions devised by Capt.
Thos. Hayes,” TNA, SP 14/9A, fols. 249, 257–261 (1604).
54
Ash, Power, Knowledge, and Expertise, 8–9.
55
“Memorandum that the Society of the new Art do go forward as it is signed,” TNA, SP 15/13, fol. 245
(1567); “A brief of the privileges granted to Sir Tho. Smith,” BL, Lansdowne MS 14/15 (4 December 1572); The
Selden Society, Select Charters of Trading Companies, A.D. 1530–1707, ed. Cecil T. Carr (London: B. Quaritch,
1913), 21–27.
56
Carr, Select Charters of Trading Companies, 21.
57
John Dee recorded Lord Russell’s visit with Philip Sidney to meet the Polish alchemist Albert Lasky in
1583, while Lady Russell was a frequent visitor to Dee well into the 1590s for magical counseling. The Earl of
Bedford, Lord Russell’s father, was more interested in mining, owning mines at Restormel Park, Cornwall. The earl
also invested in several overseas voyages, including Frobisher’s 1577 voyage and Sir Francis Drake’s 1577–80
voyage. His sister, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, is well known for her alchemical activities,
investment with partner Richard Cavendish in lead mines, and attempts to smelt iron with stone coal. Dee, The
Private Diary of Sr. John Dee, 2, 20.

171

for the New Art, it may have been Hayes’s introduction to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, at least by
reputation. He had certainly heard of him by 1576, when Gilbert published A Discourse of a
Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia (London) to promote Martin Frobisher’s first arctic
voyage that year.
The late 1570s were heady times for speculators and would-be colonizers. Frobisher returned
from his voyage with black ore alleged to contain gold. This discovery initiated a gold rush in
London, as a handful of alchemists and metallurgists made increasingly extravagant promises
about the ore’s worth, prompting gentlemen and courtiers to invest in the subsequent voyages.
58

Even the queen and Privy Council were drawn in. The investors ultimately lost about ₤25,000
when the ore proved worthless.
59
Nevertheless, the excitement of Frobisher’s discovery spawned
related ventures, including Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation voyage (1577–80), which
reconnoitered the coast of Chile in search of potential sites for English outposts to access Peru’s
mines, and Gilbert’s first North American voyage (1578–79). Hayes subscribed to the voyage as
“Mr. Haies, gent. of Leerpolle,” but he was not listed on the crew manifests, indicating his
adventure was in purse rather than in person.
60
Gilbert’s precise objective is unknown, but the
venture failed when Sir Henry Knollys and his associates abandoned the fleet to plunder the
Spanish coast and the remainder of the ships were blown off course and forced to return to England.
Despite the failure of Gilbert’s first voyage, promising intelligence about the mineral and
commercial potential of Norumbega convinced Hayes to participate in Gilbert’s second venture.
In 1580, John Walker returned from a reconnaissance voyage in North America and reported

58
McDermott, The Third Voyage, 10–11.
59
Hogarth, 136.
60
“The names of all the ships, officers, and gentlemen, with pieces of ordnance, &c., gone in the voyage with
Sir Humfrey Gylberte,” TNA, SP 12/126/49 (18-19 November 1578); “Additions to the former articles between Sir
Humfrey Gilberte and the adventurers with him, touching new lands to be discovered by him,” SP 12/156, fols. 24v
(12 December 1582).

172

finding a silver mine in a hill on the north side of the Norumbega River (modern Penobscot River);
not long after, fabulist David Ingram testified to the Privy Council, and privately to Gilbert, his
partner Sir George Peckham, and John Dee about his travels in North America, where he claimed
to have seen cities with pillars of “massie” silver and large pieces of alluvial gold.
61
On this
intelligence, Gilbert hired a Saxon metallurgist named Daniel to conduct field assays and collect
ore samples on the voyage. Tempted by the lure of silver, Hayes was equally drawn by the
mercantile potential of the colony Gilbert planned to settle in North America, either as a source of
new commodities or an outpost for discovering a northwest passage to Asia. With his own
metallurgical knowledge and his interest in expanding England’s monetary supply either by trade
or treasure, Hayes must have decided the project held enough potential to offset the risks, for he
adventured his own bark, the Golden Hind, and accompanied the voyage as its captain.
Considering Gilbert’s problems on the first voyage and previous conflicts with Medley in the
Society for the New Art, Lord Burghley probably recruited Hayes as his agent to report on any
discoveries and perhaps mitigate Gilbert’s rashness and overeagerness for success in mineral
enterprises. After Secretary Smith went to France in 1572, Gilbert had been appointed to oversee
the works at Poole, where he was by turns easily misled by Medley’s promises and angered by his
delays. After quarreling with Gilbert, Medley disappeared to Ireland for almost a year, nearly
ruining the venture.
62
After Medley returned to England in 1574, the society employed Sir John
Hibberd and metallurgist Humfrey Cole to oversee his work and mediate with Gilbert, a role

61
“Sondrie Reportes of the contrie which Sr Humfrie Gilbert goeth to discover,” BL, Add. MS 48151, fols.
161r-166v (1582); “Examination of David Ingram,” TNA, SP 12/175, fol. 163v (1582); Dee, The Private Diary of
Sr. John Dee, 8, 17; Quinn, The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 2: 248–250, 262–
263.
62
Though Sir Henry Sidney and Sir John Wynn persuaded Medley to return to the works in 1574, the venture
went defunct in 1575. Humfrey Cole, a maker of navigational instruments and die-sinker for coins at the mint, also
assisted in the smelting works at Dartford for the Frobisher venture. Sir Thomas Smith, “Sir Thomas Smith to Lord
Burghley,” TNA, SP 70/122, fol.193 (8 February 1572); Sir Thomas Smith, “Mr. Secretary Smith to Lords Burghley
and Leicester,” BL, Lansdowne MS 19/45 (16 December 1574); Parry, 88–93.

173

Burghley may have expected Hayes to fulfill with Daniel the Saxon. However, when they arrived
at St. John’s Bay, Newfoundland, in August 1583, Hayes was injured, which interfered with his
plans to conduct experiments and accompany the prospecting party Gilbert led along the shore and
inland. If Daniel the Saxon’s assays were correct, the prospectors had found iron and silver ore,
though Hayes could not verify the results. Satisfied with the discovery, Gilbert loaded the Delight
with ore samples and the fleet, minus a ship to carry sick men back to England, departed for the
mainland.
63
Unfortunately, Gilbert’s notorious temper arose once again to imperil the venture.
After quarreling with his shipmaster over the best route to the mainland, Gilbert chose a path
of west-northwest, causing the Delight, which carried Daniel the Saxon and the purportedly
argentiferous ore, to sink off the coast of Nova Scotia along with nearly one hundred men. Hayes
recalled Gilbert’s demeanor as “out of measure grieved” by the loss and beat his serving boy
because he had not brought the ore aboard the Squirrel as ordered.
64
With only two ships and few
victuals remaining, Gilbert and Hayes decided to return to England. On the Atlantic crossing, the
Squirrel was swallowed by the waves and Gilbert with it; only Hayes’s ship made it back to
England. Without samples of the silver ore, the only evidence of the discovery was Hayes’s
testimony, but it proved sufficient to spur competing plans for colonization in Newfoundland and
North America. Back in England, Hayes reported to Lord Burghley and Sir George Peckham, who
with Sir Thomas Gerrard and Sir Philip Sidney had licensed land from Gilbert to establish a

63
There is reason to believe Gilbert did find silver at Newfoundland, since small silver deposits were
prospected and mined beginning in the seventeenth century. The largest silver deposit was discovered on Avalon
Peninsula, where Little Placentia was renamed “Argentia.” Silver has also been found near St. John’s Bay. Edward
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage and Successe Thereof, Attempted in the Yeere of Our Lord, 1583. by Sir Humfrey
Gilbert Knight,” in Hakluyt, 1589, 689. “Prospecting Environments Newfoundland,” Department of Natural
Resources, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada website, January 2005,
http://www.nr.gov.nl.ca/nr/mines/maps/prospectingenvironmentsnl.pdf.
64
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 696.

174

Catholic colony in North America; Peckham used Hayes’s account of Newfoundland as the basis
of his pamphlet A True Reporte . . . of the New-Found Landes (London, 1583).
65

As the failures in Atlantic ventures accumulated, critics like Richard Hakluyt blamed them on
greed and a lust for lucre that overwhelmed adventurers’ reason and stressed that success would
emerge only from virtuous motives.
66
In light of fears that colonial ventures engendered
corruption, authors of promotional tracts justified these projects as chiefly products of patriotic
and religious duty, not the desire for private gain.
67
In the report promoting his Newfoundland plan
with Gerrard and Sidney, Peckham expressed confidence in the mineral potential of the region but
wanted to decouple the desire for treasure from the avarice to which many attributed both
Frobisher’s and Gilbert’s failures. Peckham observed that the influx of American gold and silver
to Spain was a sequel to the establishment of missions and said that God would reveal his earthly
treasures to Englishmen only if they first revealed God’s spiritual treasure to North America’s
pagan people. Though proselytization was the primary aim of his proposed colony, he nevertheless
designated mineral men the most valuable settlers and offered those men privileges as first-degree
adventurers. Peckham also thought England’s growing number of idle men could be put to work
in North American mines.
68
The plan faltered when Sidney dropped out and Peckham could not
raise enough capital; in debt and imprisoned in 1584 on charges related to his Catholicism,
Peckham was unable to continue the venture.
69

Christopher Carleill likewise tried to separate the pursuit of mineral riches from greed, but did
so by appealing to merchants with the benefits of increased traffic. Carleill opened his 1583

65
David B. Quinn, “Hayes, Edward,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto: University of
Toronto/Université Laval, 1979).
66
Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, sig. ¶2v.
67
Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America, 20–57.
68
Sir George Peckham, A True Reporte, of the Late Discoueries, and Possession, Taken in the Right of the
Crowne of Englande, of the New-Found Landes (London, 1583), sigs. B4v, E3r, I2v.
69
James McDermott, “Peckham, Sir George (d. 1608),” ODNB.

175

pamphlet by linking colonization with metallurgy, comparing Gilbert’s voyages to a goldsmith’s
use of a touchstone to test gold:
When the Goldsmith desireth to finde the certaine goodnesse of a peece of gold, which is newly offered unto
him, he presently bringeth the same to the Touchstone, where, by comparing the shew or touch of this new piece
with the touch or shew of that which he knoweth of old, he foorthwith is able to judge what the value is of that,
which is newly offered unto him. After the example whereof I have thought it good to make some briefe repetition
of the particular estate of many other foren voiages and trades already frequented and knowen unto us, whereby
you may be the better able to conceive and judge what certaine likelyhood of good there is to be expected in the
voiage, which is presently recommended unto your knowledge and resolution.
70

Invoking the Muscovy Company’s early unprofitable years, Carleill urged investors to consider
previous ventures as assays that would enable a more perfect attempt at a Newfoundland colony.
Acknowledging that Newfoundland’s mineral potential awaited positive proofs, Carleill suggested
that grapes, olives, salt, pitch, tar, hemp, and furs would repay initial investments. Not only would
a Newfoundland colony reduce imports from the Baltic, Spain, and Italy, its proximity to England
and independence from European politics would make trading there less troublesome.
71
Whether
by trade or treasure, Newfoundland would provide the precious metals England lacked. With the
help of his stepfather, Sir Francis Walsingham, Carleill raised ₤1,000 from Bristol merchants for
a 1584 venture. Inexplicably, when his three ships reached the coast of Ireland, he abandoned the
venture to patrol Irish waters.
72

In response to anxieties about greed, in his first plan for a Newfoundland colony Hayes
followed Carleill’s success attracting merchant capital for a colony and de-emphasized the
possibility of finding rich mines in favor of highlighting the island’s commercial potential. In the

70
Christopher Carleill, A Breef and Sommarie Discourse upon the Entended Voyage to the Hethermoste Partes
of America ([s.l.], 1583), sig. A1v.
71
Carleill, A Breef and Sommarie Discourse., sigs. A2v–A3r.
72
Hakluyt, 1589, 718.

176

intervening time between Gilbert’s death and the establishment of the Roanoke colony in 1585,
Hayes found the Crown uninterested in his discourse of Newfoundland. Nevertheless, in May 1585
he took advantage of the optimism of the previous month’s dispatch of colonists to Virginia under
Sir Walter Ralegh’s aegis to write Lord Burghley of his intention to send two “platts” or plans
demonstrating the benefits of a Newfoundland colony to the commonwealth and testifying to the
great riches the island no doubt possessed.
73
Hayes sent the abstract and project description to Lord
Burghley in January and February 1586, but received no response.
74
Perhaps if he had been aware
that Sir Henry Wallop, lord lieutenant of Ireland, had sent samples of Newfoundland ore to
Walsingham in August 1585, he would not have downplayed the potential for mineral riches in his
proposal.
75
This ore likely proved worthless, but it demonstrated that, though hesitant to invest
monetarily in colonization projects, the Crown was not as ambivalent about the pursuit of mineral
riches as the pamphlet writers.
When Hayes’s discourse of Gilbert’s voyage finally reached publication in Richard Hakluyt’s
Principal Navigations (London, 1589), the references to silver ore became more prominent, but
his concern to establish the proper motives for overseas expansion betrayed his anxiety about the
deleterious potential of metallic riches. Under Hakluyt’s editorial influence, Hayes reconciled this
desire to find precious metals by harmonizing it with Protestant millenarianism:
And the same, who feeleth this inclination in himselfe … or rather confidently repose in the preordinance of
God, that in this last age of the world … the time is complete of receiving also these Gentils into his mercy: And
that God will raise him an instrument to effect the same. It seeming probably by event of precedent attempts

73
Edward Hayes, “Edward Hayes to Lord Burghley,” BL, Lansdowne MS 37/73, fol. 166 (Charing Cross,
London, 10 May 1585).
74
Edward Hayes and Mr. Herritt, “Mr. Herritt and Mr. Hayes’s discourses concerning the discovery of
Newfoundland,” BL, Lansdowne MS 100/9, fols. 83v, 84v, 86r ([1586]).
75
Sir Henry Wallop, “Henry Wallop to Walsingham,” TNA, SP 63/118, fol. 143 (Dublin, 19 August 1585).

177

made by the Spanyardes and French sundry times: that the countryes lying North of Florida, God hath reserved
the same to be reduced unto Christian civilitie by the English nation.
76

Once Englishmen demonstrated their commitment to spread Protestantism to pagan peoples, he
said, God would reveal “a certaine obscure and misty knowledge” and “the riches within [those
countries], hitherto concealed.”
77
With religious strife exacerbating rivalries among European
states, this was a time of eschatological fervor as divines interpreted contemporary events through
the lens of the Book of Revelation. Judicial astrologers John Dee and Richard Harvey interpreted
natural occurrences like the comets of 1572, 1577, and 1582, a solar eclipse in 1582, and the Dover
Straits earthquake in 1580 as portents of impending upheavals.
78
Casting himself in the scholarly
mold of Sir Thomas Smith, Robert Recorde, and Dee, Richard Harvey used his discourse on an
upcoming great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1583 to prophecy the beginning of the
apocalypse. Citing an old prophecy by Regiomontanus, “Octogesimus octavus mirabilis Annus,”
that 1588 would be the wonderful year of the Second Coming, Harvey foresaw floods, pestilence,
disease, and war in the coming years, as well as a “fearefull and pernicious Eclipse” in 1585.
79

The end-times had long been associated with alchemy, a legacy from medieval scholars. The
Bible was replete with references to God’s judgment as akin to smelting. Mathew 13:42 warned
of Christ’s return to cast people into “a furnace of fire” to purge their wickedness. Malachi 3:3
foretold a messenger who would prepare Christ’s way by rendering humanity righteous again:
“And he shall sit as refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purifie the sonnes of Levi, and purge

76
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 680.
77
Ibid.
78
Deborah E. Harkness, John Dee’s Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 133–34, 139.
79
Richard Harvey, An Astrological Discourse upon the Great and Notable Coniunction of the Two Superiour
Planets, Saturne & Iupiter, Which Shall Happen the 28 Day of April, 1583 (London, 1583), 5, 9, 31, 45.

178

them as gold & silver.”
80
Often referenced in apocalyptic traditions, Ezekiel 22:17–22 described
the judgment of Jerusalem as “The Refining Furnace”:
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Sonne of man, the house of Israel is to me become drosse: all
they are brasse, and tinne, and yron, and lead in the midst of the furnace: they are even the drosse of silver.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Because ye are all become drosse, behold therefore I will gather you into the
midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brasse, and yron, and lead, and tinne into the midst of the furnace,
to blow the fire upon it, to melt it: so will I gather you in mine anger, and in my fury, and I will leave you there,
and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shalbe melted in the
midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the middest thereof, and
ye shall know that I the Lord have powred out my furie upon you.
81

If God’s judgment was the furnace and man’s soul base metal, Christ was the philosopher’s stone
who would redeem their corrupted matter and make it pure, everlasting gold. The scriptural basis
for this interpretation was found in Psalm 118, Isaiah 28, and Acts 4, where Christ was described
as the cornerstone of the church, and in Revelation 2, where those who repented their sins would
be given a white stone. This characterization of Christ as the true quintessence was found in John
Donne’s poem “Resurrection, Imperfect,” where Donne called him a tincture with the power to
make sinful flesh immortal, and George Herbert’s “Easter”: “That, as his death calcined thee to
dust, / His life may make thee gold, and much more just.”
82
It is not surprising, then, that Hayes’s
eschatological justifications for North American colonization would also have an alchemical
undertone.

80
The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall
Tongues: & with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Reuised, by His Maiesties Speciall
Comandement (London, 1611).
81
Ibid.
82
John Donne, Poems, by J. D. With elegies on the authors death (London, 1633), 161 (misnumbered 145);
George Herbert, The Temple: Sacred poems and private ejaculations (Cambridge, 1633), 33.

179

Not everyone conceived the apocalypse as a cataclysmic return of Christ to judge the wicked
and save the repentant. Millenarians viewed the end-times as an opportunity to reconcile
Christianity’s cleaved communities of Catholics and Protestants, generally by the triumph of one
over the other, and bring infidels into the fold. This unification would usher in a new Golden Age
of peace and plenty. Projectors for overseas colonization like Richard Hakluyt, John Dee, and
Edward Hayes tended to frame their projects within this Protestant millenarian vision. In
anticipation of the 1583 great conjunction, Dee consulted with his spirits for guidance on the new
world to come. Through scryer Edward Kelley, the spirit Medicus Dei (medicine of God) told Dee
he had been chosen along with Kelley and Adrian Gilbert, brother of Sir Humphrey and Sir Walter
Ralegh, for a great work, the “aeternall liquor . . . the supercaelestiall dew.” Medicus Dei said
Gilbert would travel deep into the “Roman Possession” to deliver the name of Jesus among the
infidels and save them from damnation, which Dee interpreted as an endorsement for new
colonization efforts in North America.
83
In 1583, Dee, Gilbert, and John Davis submitted a
proposal for the “northerly parts of Atlantis called Novus orbis” and received a patent for Davis’s
three northwest voyages in 1584.
84

Coming on the heels of the Armada invasion in the portentous year 1588, when colonial
ventures were suspended, Hayes’s discourse capitalized on patriotism, religious chauvinism, and
fears about economic upheaval to encourage new ventures in America. If England was to triumph
in the Golden Age, they needed forward, morally upright men to lead the charge in Atlantic
enterprises. Hayes’s emphasis on pure motives to frame his discourse thus evoked the ideal of the
virtuous alchemical practitioner. Mourning the lost congregation of Protestants under the queen’s

83
Whitby, “John Dee’s Actions with Spirits,” 201, 218, 241.
84
“A brief collection of the substance of the grant desired by the discoverers of the North-west parts,” TNA,
SP 15/28/1, fols. 120–122 (January? 1584).

180

predecessors, Hayes declared that any future enterprise must make proselytization the foundation
of the venture or it would fail.
85
Echoing the alchemist’s emphasis on right motives in the great
work, or the metallurgist's dependence upon God’s grace for success in mineral discovery, Hayes
argued that only by “imitating the nature of the munificent God” would England find material
enrichment abroad.
86
This declaration set up the narrative arc in which Gilbert brought about his
own demise by placing his honor and riches before God’s glory.
Afraid of permanently losing his credit, Gilbert spent his wife’s dower and his personal fortune
outfitting the venture and desperately recruited men unfit for the service.
87
Corrupted by ill
motives, Hayes presaged Gilbert’s alchemical transformation in the crucible of northwestern
waters.
88
As alchemists prepared impure ore for refining with temperate fire, God decocted Gilbert
with the great expenses and the tribulations of exploration: “he had consumed much substance,”
literally decoxerat in Latin, “and lost his life at last,” foreshadowing Gilbert’s death.
89
The
employment of a stolen French ship, renamed the Swallow, and its piratical crew also
foreshadowed Gilbert’s loss of divine protection, as they plundered a fishing vessel on the outward
voyage. God exacted retribution for their depredations by sinking the Delight and the Squirrel.
90

In pursuing colonization for his personal gain and not for God’s glory, Gilbert proved himself an
unworthy agent of His providence and England’s enrichment. Nonetheless, as Mary C. Fuller
noted, Hayes portrayed Gilbert’s redemption by giving him a hero’s death. Though motivated by

85
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 680.
86
Ibid.; Biringuccio, 21–22; Ripley, sig. B1v.
87
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 696.
88
Sophie Lemercier-Goddard and Frédéric Regard, “The Northwest Passage and the Imperial Project: History,
Ideology, Myth,” in The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Knowledge, Nation and Empire, 1576-1806, ed. Frédéric
Regard, (New York: Routledge, 2013), 5.
89
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 681. “Decoquo, decoxi, decoquere, to boyle, or to sethe very moche.
somtyme to chaunge, or digest perfitely. Also to consume or wast a mans substance, or to brynge detrymente or
losse.” Thomas Elyot, The dictionary of syr Thomas Eliot knyght, (London, 1538), fol. 30v.
90
Edwards, “Edward Hayes Explains away Sir Humphrey Gilbert,” 279–280.

181

“intemperate humors,” the travails and afflictions Gilbert suffered in the venture had been a moral
purgation that restored his honor: “Then as he was refined, and made neerer drawing unto the
image of God: so it pleased the devine will, to resume him unto himselfe.”
91
Just as the first phase
of alchemy, the nigredo or black stage, required the death of corrupt matter, it also cleared the
pathway to purification; with Gilbert sacrificed to make way for God’s true agent, Hayes argued,
colonial projectors ought to place future ventures on a foundation of piety and the public good and
thereby reveal God’s hidden treasures.
Hayes had no doubt that England was specially elected to inhabit Newfoundland and to gain
its riches. In recounting Newfoundland’s commodities, Hayes recalled the mountains “generally
make shewe” of minerals, referring to reflectivity or colors of the earth, which metallurgists called
“fumosities,” from ripening metals’ vaporous exhalations.
92
He claimed there was iron, lead, and
probably copper, but would not “avere of richer mettals,” albeit he had “more then hope” of them.
As mentioned above, when Daniel the Saxon told Gilbert the field assays indicated silver, Hayes
asked for ore to test himself, but Gilbert replied: “Content your selfe, I have seene ynough.” Gilbert
promised Hayes further trials once the ships were underway and safe from Portuguese, Biscayne,
or French fishermen learning of the discovery. Although Hayes “could not follow this confident
opinion of our refiner to my owne satisfaction,” he memorialized the deceased metallurgist as the
“Discoverer of inestimable riches,” and declared himself satisfied by Gilbert’s assurances that he
would proceed discreetly before planning any further ventures.
93
Hayes’s overall balance between
validating Gilbert’s discovery of mines in Newfoundland while criticizing his rashness and ill-
temper lent his eyewitness observations credibility in the absence of physical proof of the silver

91
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 697; Mary C. Fuller, Voyages in Print: English Travel to America, 1576–
1624 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 35.
92
Biringuccio, 16, 29, 92–93.
93
Hayes, “A Report of the Voyage,” 689–690, 692.

182

ore. Unlike accounts lionizing Martin Frobisher and overlooking his defaults amidst the Cathay
Company’s gold frenzy, Hayes’s report appeared little swayed by the possibility of metallic riches
in his assessments. Still, he could not attract sufficient interest in a Newfoundland enterprise, and
he returned to privateering and trade.
94

With Ralegh imprisoned and then rusticated after 1592 and his Roanoke colonists lost, Hayes
exploited his disgrace to petition for a North American colony, this time in New England. In it he
argued that English colonization served an eschatological purpose. Alluding to Isaiah 43 and
Matthew 24, Hayes claimed the “Revolution of Gods word, which hytherto hath moved
Cyrcularly” had spread west and north from the Near East into Europe, and now “We must beleve
by Chryst hys own prophesy that the gospell shalbe . . . carryed into these Northwest Regions of
America.” Matthew 24 held particular resonance for English Protestants, as it prophesied the
election of one nation hated for its true religion to carry forth God’s word “thys being the last of
the last Age of the world.”
95
Like Theodor de Bry’s edition of Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True
Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (London, 1590), which juxtaposed John White’s
illustrations of Native Americans with images of Britain’s Picts, Hayes insisted that as the Romans
had converted England’s native peoples, it was now England’s duty to convert Americans and
reunite the Christian flock before the second coming: “Whearupon veary many zealous men, are
moved by the same Charitable Spyrit towards those paganish Americans, whearby holy men in
elder tymes were styrred upp to the converting of us.”
96

94
Churchyard, A Prayse and Reporte; Quinn, “Edward Hayes, Liverpool Colonial Pioneer,” 28.
95
Edward Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage Intended for the Planting of Chrystyan Religion and
People in the North West Regions of America in Places Most Apt for the Constitution of Our Boddies, and the
Spedy Advauncement of a State,” in New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 1612, vol.
3, ed. D. B. Quinn, Alison M. Quinn, and Susan Hillier (New York: Arno Press, 1979), 158; Edwards, “Edward
Hayes Explains Away Sir Humphrey Gilbert,” 275.
96
Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage,” 158.

183

The concept of history as moving in a revolution toward the perfection of the kingdom of God
aligned with the alchemical opus circulatorium. For many practitioners, the great work of alchemy
paralleled the spiritual journey to redeem corrupted matter and transform the natural world back
into its pure state of prelapsarian harmony.
97
Over the course of Christian history, the pure
(Christians) had first been separated from and then reunited with the impure (pagan) to enlarge the
Christian community. Now, Hayes urged that with a Christianity distilled of Catholicism’s corrupt
“myxture of superstition & error,” Protestantism, England should perform the last cycle of God’s
great work by converting indigenous Americans and joining them with the Christian community:
“And may happely more purely [be] preached also in the North by us.”
98
In performing this work,
Englishmen would also reform “that deffect in our churche,” becoming more virtuous and worthy
of God’s gift of mineral riches. Not to embark on colonization would spurn the benefits God
offered to England.
99

Hayes mirrored this religious revolution with his circulatory economics, in which he
prioritized trade as the conduit to obtain precious metals and restore economic harmony. Compared
to the 1586 plan, though, Hayes was more explicit in his confidence that England would find rich
mines in North America. Hayes wrote that minerals appeared evident in many places and that he
had assurance of metals, including silver, alum, and a copper mine discovered by the French.
100

While colder regions were thought less hospitable to the generation of precious metals, frigid
conditions did not preclude their discovery since the telos of all metals was to ripen into silver and
gold.
101
Moreover, in New England they would “possess goold & Sylver in health of boddy &

97
Abraham, Dictionary, 137–138; Janacek, Alchemical Belief, 3.
98
Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage,” 158.
99
Ibid., 157-158.
100
Ibid., 159, 163.
101
Agricola, 32.

184

delyght,” because the climate was more amenable to English constitutions than warmer regions.
102

In any case, Hayes wrote, silver and gold mines alone did not make a commonwealth prosperous.
Instead, the foundations of wealth were “ A temperat & holeswome land: well peopled: replenished
with comodities albeit gross, yet needfull for mans use: Aptly scytuated for concourse & recourse
of Nations to the mayntenaunce of trade.”
103
Once these conditions existed, a nation lacking in
mines could obtain bullion either through trade or conquest.

In declaring “it is trade that inrycheth Contries and causeth the same to abound in wealth &
prosperitie,” Hayes hoped to attract merchant investment in colonization and to secure a firmer
foundation for the colony to survive its first years.
104
For Hayes, a colony would invigorate trade
and enrich the treasury by keeping treasure in England through replacement commodities for
imports. New colonial exports would attract silver and gold to England from European merchants
eager for the goods:
By meanes whearof, shall we have brought thyther in exchaunge of ours: all maner of comodities that Europe
doth yeald. ether to Supply our wants, or to advaunce our wealth. And our habi[tacions] wylbe made A staple &
receptacle both of Comodities deryved from the same Countr[ies] and also of English. Frenche & Spanyshe
wares.
105

The colony would also be tied in a dependent relationship with England, exchanging precious
metals and other wares for woolens.
106
Finally, metals were profitable commodities in their own
right. In the East Indian trade, European merchants transported silver bullion as an arbitrage

102
Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage,” 163.
103
Ibid., 163.
104
Ibid., 161.
105
Ibid.
106
Ibid.

185

commodity that could be exchanged for silks and spices, and lead and tin had long been staple
exports for England.
107

Downplaying the search for precious metals also discouraged speculators only interested in
quick profit and private gain. The pool of private investors for overseas enterprise was already
limited, but experience had taught Hayes that retaining capital for a second adventure was nearly
impossible without good returns on the first adventure or tangible evidence of future profit. Hayes
wrote that vendible commodities were more likely to attract adventurers and assistants in the
voyage, “Who wyll sooner adventer a C
li
[₤100] upon certayn grounds confyrmed with theyr eyes:
than ten shyllings upon a bare probabilitie of matters they have not seen.”
108
Just as the
Newfoundland venture faltered without an ore sample, Thomas Harriot’s 1586 return from
Roanoke without mineral evidence and Ralegh’s failure to bring back gold ore from his 1595
Guiana voyage diminished enthusiasm among investors for the continuance of these enterprises.
For Hayes, emphasis on finding precious metals had detracted from an appreciation of other
resources that could offset the initial costs of colonization and sustain long-term investment. Hayes
proposed that first adventurers would have their initial investment recompensed with fish, train
oil, and other gross commodities, and subsequent investments returned with the first fruits of art
and industry in the colony, including mines. Referring to Spain’s experience in the Americas,
Hayes believed that without the willingness to spend time in establishing a secure and self-
sufficient colony, England would never discover the “infynit lands, left for us in the Northwest
regions of America. which contayn m[any] regions so temperat, kyngdoms & cytties of great

107
Ibid., 163–66; Dennis O. Flynn, and Arturo Giraldez, “Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the
Mid-eighteenth Century,” Journal of World History 13, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 391–427; Coke, The Fourth Part of the
Institutes of the Laws of England, 238, note g.
108
Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage,” 166.

186

wealth & state by all lykelyhoo[d] further upp in the bowels of that large continent” or find the
South Sea to the East Indies.
109

Unfortunately, Hayes’s colonial project was criticized as too idealistic, with one critic baldly
admitting that without the discovery of mines—of which he remained skeptical—or other rich
commodity there would be no second adventure to secure a colony.
110
Only the promise of wealth
sufficient to outweigh the risks would move typically dilatory Englishmen to adventure their
money and lives in North America.

Despite this pessimistic assessment of Hayes’s plan, the critic
thought that if projectors could arrange joint financing by the Crown and merchants, and if
gentlemen provided governance over obedient and industrious settlers, then a colony could be a
“glorious action”—honorable, profitable in time for the commonwealth and investors, and
acceptable service to God.
111

We cannot know if Hayes knew of these criticisms, but by 1596 it was already clear to him
that his plans for a North American colony had little hope of success. Unlike Gilbert or Ralegh,
Hayes had few court connections or influential backers to bring his venture to fruition, or to
overcome the sense that his project was based rather on conjecture and wishful thinking than
rational risk evaluation. Although the New England colony was the last colonization project Hayes
proposed, he did not lose interest in North America, as evidenced by his 1606 advice to publicly
finance the Virginia Company.
112
Living at Hamsell Park in Sussex, likely the lessee of an iron
furnace and forge, in 1596 Hayes returned to his plans for coinage reforms in Ireland and

109
Ibid., 167.
110
“Considerations on a proposition of planting an English colony in the North West of America,” TNA, CO
1/1, no. 9, fol. 22r (c. 1600).
111
TNA, CO 1/1, no. 9, fols. 22v–23r, 24r.
112
Edward and Thomas Hayes, “Edward and Thomas Hayes to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 119/6 [1606]; “
Reasons offered to the Parliament for raising a public stock to support a colony in Virginia,” BL, Lansdowne
160/101, fol. 349 (1607); Quinn, “Edward Hayes, Liverpool Colonial Pioneer,” 42n.40.

187

England.
113
When the Crown appointed him as commissary of the musters in Leinster in 1599,
Hayes finally found conditions that were amenable to his projecting vision, and he narrowed his
focus to a single problem: coinage. In recoinage, Hayes found a catalyst for socioeconomic reform,
but he also saw the power of the economy as a tool of conquest, one perhaps mightier than the
sword.

REFORMING COINS AND COMMONWEALTH
In May 1596, Hayes wrote a letter to Cecil, ostensibly praising Ralegh’s late voyage to Guiana
but really promoting his newest coinage scheme, which he presented as a service to the state equal
to Ralegh’s in providing for the common defense. He hoped the venture would “not only graciously
Cure many Inconveniences in the Comonweale: but gather besydes a present Mass of treasure.”
Nearly two years into Tyrone’s Rebellion, Hayes saw the Crown’s pressing need for bullion to
offset growing expenses in Ireland. Hayes admired Ralegh’s diligent planning to provide “salves
for every soare” in executing his first Guiana trip, and he expressed his eagerness to adventure
with Ralegh on a second voyage to Guiana if Cecil willed it. But he would only do so if he did not
succeed in his primary goal—to get Cecil’s approval for his currency project, a brief abstract of
which (now lost) he enclosed with the letter. Hayes claimed that his previous failures had tempered
him for the present project: “through imperfections in my former Labores now in my last
reformed.”
114
By juxtaposing his coinage plan with Ralegh’s hopes of finding El Dorado, Hayes
implicitly linked them: both furnished the exchequer with the precious metals the Crown needed
to wage war and restore social order.

113
Quinn, “Edward Hayes, Liverpool Colonial Pioneer,” 28 n14; Straker, Wealden Iron, 262.
114
Edward Hayes, “Edward Hayes to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 40/82 (Hamsett Park, Sussex, 15 May 1596).

188

Though colonization had monopolized the previous two decades of Hayes’s life, coinage had
never been far from his mind. In 1579 Hayes submitted to Lord Burghley his first plan for base
money, one of several small money projects proposed between 1559 and 1583.
115
Given the effort
the Crown, and especially Lord Burghley, had made to restore the sterling standard after the Great
Debasement, there was a strong bias against issuing base money, either of sterling or copper.
Besides the difficulty in minting small coins, opponents cited as reasons to reject them fears about
debasement and counterfeiting, sentiments the Crown shared.
116
By the 1590s, however, the twin
financial drains of the Anglo–Spanish War and Tyrone’s Rebellion in Ireland created the perfect
storm to convince the queen to relent on issuing base monies, but this she only allowed in Ireland.
The rise of Sir Robert Cecil as secretary of state in 1596, and the death of Lord Burghley in 1598,
also removed significant opposition to debasement as a means of raising extra-parliamentary
revenue to finance the wars.
117
In the last years of Elizabeth’s reign, the potential Crown profits to
be gained from decrying and reminting coins in Ireland proved irresistible, and Hayes found his
first real success.

115
Between 1559 and 1561/2, mercer Christopher Bumpstead proposed minting small copper monies. Lord
William Paget, “Lord Wm. Paget to Sir Thos. Parry, Treasurer of the Household, and Sir Wm. Cecil,” Hat., CP
152/30, 80–82, 93 (3 February 1558/9); Christopher Bumpstead, “Memorial by Chr. Bumpstede to the Queen,”
TNA, SP 12/20, fol. 123 (London, 1561). Alderman John Ussher, customer of Dublin, proposed a plan for minting
twopence, halfpenny, and farthing coins in Ireland in July 1572. Robert Weston, “Lord Chancellor Weston to
Burghley,” TNA, SP 63/37, fol. 18 (6 July 1572). In 1574, Mr. Wickliffe and William Humfrey, assayer at the mint
and founding partner of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works, proposed halfpenny and farthing coins of
sterling, copper, and alloy. “A proposal for coining of small money,” BL, Lansdowne 22/4, fols. 8-9 (1576). An
anonymous proposal for pure copper halfpenny and farthing coins was submitted in 1576. Sir Richard Martyn, “Sir
Rich. Martyn, master of the mint, to Ld. Burleigh, touching small coins to be made of copper,” BL Cotton MS Otho
E X, fol. 305 (1 October 1576). In 1578, Mr. Wickliffe and Humfrey proposed small sterling monies and copper
monies. “Another paper concerning small coins, addressed to Mr. Wickliff and Mr. Humfrey,” BL Cotton MS Otho
E X, fols. 306-7. In 1583, Richard Martyn, master of the mint, and goldsmith Andrew Palmer, comptroller of the
mint and secretary of the Mines Royal, offered a plan for copper farthings. Sir Richard Martyn and Andrew Palmer,
“Mr. Martin and Mr. Palmer’s proposals for the making of farthings at the Tower,” BL, Lansdowne MS 37/62
(1583). None of these plans were approved.
116
Challis, The Tudor Coinage, 205–210.
117
J. Hurstfield, “The Profits of Fiscal Feudalism,” The Economic History Review, new ser., 8, no. 1 (1955):
53–61.

189

In the 1590s Hayes actively cultivated Cecil’s patronage and at his urging partnered with
Thomas Hayes, who had proposed his own coinage plan using a stamping engine he had devised.
118

In their partnership, Thomas provided the engineering skills, while Edward supplied the ideas.
119

In 1599/1600 the two Hayes submitted a scheme to mint Irish shilling and sixpence to a debased
standard of 3 oz. sterling to 9 oz. alloy; they also proposed making copper pennies and halfpennies
to facilitate day-to-day commerce.
120
By temporarily debasing smaller Irish monies and
prohibiting the import of English sterling through the Irish exchange, they promised the Crown
would gain ₤150,000 per annum without interfering with the army’s payments and victuals. They
also claimed it would draw the good sterling money back to England, where it had more buying
power.
121
Widely consulted on financial matters, chief justice Sir John Popham supported the
recoinage as a service of moment to defend the area of Ireland under English jurisdiction and sever
the rebel forces.
122
Sir George Carey, vice-treasurer of Ireland, urged the queen to support the
project as both profitable to the Crown and a public good.
123
With Cecil’s endorsement, in
February 1601 the queen approved the Hayeses’ plan and commissioned Sir Richard Martin to
provide them with sterling and puncheons.
124
While Edward Hayes wrapped the plan in platitudes
about serving the public good, it ruthlessly applied monetary debasement as a tool of conquest by

118
Thomas Hayes, “Thomas Hayes to Secretary Cecil,” TNA, SP 63/212. fol. 244 (c. 1602).
119
For the period between 1601 and 1610, it is difficult to isolate which ideas belonged to Edward alone, as
both he and Thomas were usually signatories to the letters and proposals. However, Edward’s previous involvement
in copper coinage projects as well as his continuation with the plans after their partnership dissolved suggests that
Edward is the source of much of the economic thinking.
120
Symonds, “The Elizabethan Coinages for Ireland,” 114; TNA, SP 63/212, fol. 244.
121
Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, Vol. 3: 1589-1600, 506–7. An unsigned critique of the plan that the
recoinage would not save the Crown money, it would not draw good gold and silver out of Ireland through the
English exchange, and it would not inhibit the rebels’ trade with foreign states.
122
Sir John Popham, “Sir John Popham to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 80/33 (Serjeant’s Inn, 15 June 1600).
123
Sir George Carey, “Sir George Carey to Sir Robert Cecil,” TNA, SP 63/207, fol. 67 (Dublin, 9 March
1600).
124
Acts of the Privy Council of England, vol. 31, 1600–1601, ed. John Roche Dasent (London: His Majesty's
Stationary Office, 1906), 286.

190

inducing scarcity that would destroy the rebels and their supporters with famine rather than the
sword.
English officials and soldiers in Ireland, including Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had long
recommended defeating the rebels by means of famine and dearth, and the recoinage plan reflected
this strategy.
125
Answering objections to the recoinage, Hayes explained the problem of rebellion
in Ireland as a problem of specie: by allowing the free flow of sterling monies between England
and Ireland under cover of supplying the army, “in veary truth her Majestie did Arme and enable
[the rebels], with her owne Treasure and with the Treasure of this Land to make warrs against her
sellf.”
126
This forced the Queen “to resort Continewally for farder aydes and Contribucions from
her subiectes,” which threatened to destabilize England.
127
Further, sterling money rendered Irish
red (copper) monies worthless and raised the price of commodities, leaving the poor encumbered
by dearth and susceptible to joining the rebels. By contrast, the rebels—already wealthier in cattle,
corn, and lands—obtained sterling from the merchants, which they used to purchase munitions,
powder, iron, wine, and salt, especially from Spaniards. English sterling also found its way to
Scotland, France, and even Spain, “which would have Beggard the state of England yf Reformation
had not ben made to stopp that Course.”
128
Hayes hoped that by restricting their debasement plan
to smaller coins and for a limited duration, they could induce just enough scarcity to starve the
rebels of their supply, discourage Spaniards from trading with them, and thus end the rebellion.
129

125
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, “A plot to overthrow the Traitors in Munster,” Lambeth Palace Library, Carew MS
628, p. 309 (1579); Sir George Carew, 1
st
Earl of Totnes, “Sir G. Carew to the Privy Council,” MS 605 fols. 193r–
94v (6 March 1601); Thomas Churchyard, A Generall Rehearsall of Warres, called Churchyardes Choise (London,
1579), sig. D2v; Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, Vol. 3: 1589-1600, 353–55.
126
Edward and Thomas Hayes, “The important Considerations which moved her Majesty to reform the Monies
of Ireland and to reduce the same unto the ancient Standard of the Country,” TNA, SP 63/209, fol. 354v (1601).
127
Ibid., 355r.
128
Ibid., fol. 354r.
129
Ibid., fols. 354r–v, 356v.

191

He envisioned the transmutation of the coinage as a means of reducing fractious and popish Irish
so they could be brought to English civility and Protestantism.
The concept of “reducing” barbarous peoples to civility and Protestantism was a common
trope in propaganda for colonization in America and Ireland.
130
In promoting the Virginia colony,
Richard Hakluyt had used the term reduce (reducere) to refer to the process of converting and
civilizing barbarous peoples, evoking the apocalyptic tradition in which the scattered tribes of
Israel would be lead back into the Christian fold, reuniting humanity into an original state of
wholeness and inaugurate the Kingdom of God.
131
Reduction was also an alchemical term for
bringing matter, particularly metals, into a purified state. If successful, the alchemist’s work not
only reduced the matter within the crucible but also brought the practitioner’s soul and body into
their original unity. In this way, the alchemical tradition fit well with an emergent English
Protestant millenarianism and English colonization plans.
132
It also semantically inverted the
reduction of the Irish standard, in truth a corruption of sterling coins, into a means of purgation,
forestalling objections to the project.
In justifying their debasement scheme, Hayes treated the rebels as a canker in Ireland that
needed to be excised before any other reforms could succeed. If money was the lifeblood of the
economy, then in Ireland it had turned perilously toxic. Therefore, the Crown should play
alchemist and apply a metallic medicine—a commixture of small copper monies and debased
silver—to restore the salubrity of the Irish body politic. If the dose makes the poison, then a limited
debasement ought not to precipitate economic collapse, Hayes thought.
133
After the initial

130
For examples, see Settle, A true reporte, fol. 14r; Carleill, A breef and sommarie discourse, A3r; Peckham,
A true reporte, F2v, F3r-v; Hakluyt, Discourse of Western Planting, ch. 1; Harriot, A Briefe and True Report, E2v-
E4v
131
Sacks, 42.
132
Janacek, 3.
133
Thomas and Edward Hayes, “A Consideration touching the Exchange betwixt England, and Ireland,” TNA,
SP 63/209, fol. 357v (21 December 1601).

192

emissions of the debased coins in 1601, Hayes boasted, “sythence the Reformacon of this error,
by withdrawing her Majesties starling from thence: the Rebells have ben more weakned thereby
then by the Sword.”
134
In the face of worsened economic conditions caused by the plan, he
defended the debasement:
Then let it further be examined, what the Subjects in their particulars have suffered, and it shall be found no
otherwise then as the sound parts of the Body are distempered when a man hath received a strong potion to purge
and expel corrupt humors wherefore the clamors have exceeded more then was cause, and yet is their just cause
of reformation.
135

Hayes went on to suggest the debasement had played a crucial role in the English defeat of the
Spanish at Kinsale in early 1602. In 1606, he would even recommend that this economic warfare
serve as a precedent for future English policies to curb Irish disobedience.
136

With the rebels weakened, the Hayeses proposed a new scheme to restore socioeconomic
balance to Ireland. In 1602, they recommended raising the standard of silver Irish coins (from
shilling down to threepence) to 9 oz. silver and 3 oz. alloy, and offered to issue copper twopence
through farthing coins that would serve for commerce and public charity. To mint these new coins,
the Hayeses wanted to reestablish the Dublin mint and use an engine they had devised for
coining.
137
Despite their optimistic spin, the troubles created in implementing the new coinage and
the costs to the Crown condemned new small coinage projects to failure, and not just for the
Hayeses.
138

134
TNA, SP 63/209, fol. 354v.
135
“Important considerations which moued our late Queene to restraine the current of Starling monies from
hence into Ireland, and to send thither base monies, giueing Starling in Exchaunge of the same here in England,”
BL, Add. MS 41613, fol. 156v (c. 1603-1625).
136
Edward Hayes and Thomas Hayes, “ A petition of Tho. and Edw. Hayes, to the King, shewing the
advantages of base money and exchanges in Ireland,” BL, Cotton MS Titus B X, fol. 185r (1606).
137
“A Plott for ye defraying of Her Maties Chardges perpetually in Irelannd: wth out allowinge an Exchange,”
TNA, SP 63/212, fol. 248 (c. 1602).
138
Thomas White Sanders, “Thomas White Sanders to Viscount Cranborne, Enclosed: Proposals for coinage,”
Hat., CP 108/25–26 (19 December 1604); Humphrey Covert, “Humphrey Covert to the E. of Dorset, shewing the
necessity of copper coinage,” BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fol. 315 (n.d.).

193

It is easy to see the appeal of their initial plan to the Crown. Between October 1595 and the
queen’s death in 1603, the Crown spent ₤1,845,696 on the army in Ireland but had annual revenues
of only around ₤300,000. Had the debased coins been adopted at face value, the Crown would
have benefitted substantially. Despite assiduous efforts to induce merchants to exchange English
sterling for Irish, however, the merchants instead exchanged the new Irish monies for English
sterling at rates that cost the Crown far more than anticipated. The existence of two standards
created great economic hardship, as retailers either increased prices to offset perceived losses or
refused to accept the debased sterling and new copper coins. These monetary problems fell heavily
on the soldiers, who threatened to mutiny if the government did not reform the system. With the
Crown receiving little benefit from the recoinage, in July 1602 it demonetized the new copper
coins. Soon after his accession, King James reinstated the previous sterling standard and decried
the new monies; nevertheless, in recognition of the Hayeses’ service, he granted them a generous
₤100 lifetime annuity.
139

Between 1603 and 1613, Hayes continued to promote his plans for small copper coins and a
new Dublin mint. Compared with his colonization plans, Hayes’s coinage projects articulated a
clearer connection between economic and social reforms and the role colonies would play in
improving conditions in England. While he promoted his North American colony as an outlet for
vagrants and the unemployed, Hayes had projected most of the civilizing benefits outward onto
indigenous Americans, not inward onto English subjects. His coinage projects reversed this and
promised the King’s subjects would be rendered more frugal, charitable, and obedient.
140
In the

139
C. E. Challis, “Tudor Coinage for Ireland,” British Numismatic Journal 40, no .9 (1971): 115–19; Calendar
of the State Papers, Ireland, vol. 11, Elizabeth, 1601–1603, ed. Robert Pentland Mahaffy (London: His Majesty's
Stationary Office, 1912), 434; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of James I, 1603–1610, ed.
Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1857), 30, 39.
140
BL, Lansdowne 100/9, fol. 84; Hayes, “A Discourse Concerning a Voyage,” 164, 167; Edward Hayes, “
Edw. Hayes, on the necessity of small money,” BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fols. 316r-318v (n.d.).

194

colonial space of Ireland, Hayes reached the epitome of his circulatory economic thinking, which
interwove the accumulation of precious metals and trade expansion with an orderly and
harmonious society.
In a 1611 letter to Lord George Carew, a member of the Irish Council who probably met
Hayes during Gilbert’s first voyage and had retained him in his company from 1601–3 (at least),
Hayes summed up his rationale for monetary reform:
141

The happiness of a kingdom consisteth chiefly in two points, namely, in true religion which furnisheth the mind
with all virtues, next, in acquiring of wealth. For the last, the well and skillful ordering of a mint is a fundamental
point and corner-stone to build the public weal upon.
142

Just as Christ was the cornerstone of the church and the philosopher’s stone for humanity, money
had transformative effects on the body politic, giving it perpetual life. Like his colonization plans
for North America, Hayes justified the economic conquest of Ireland by claiming it would increase
trade and draw treasure to the Dublin mint, which like the Tower mint belonged to the king. In an
opinion first expressed c.1603, Hayes said that if trade was one of the pillars of a state’s wealth,
then maintaining a mint in Ireland “discovereth the wealth of a Kingedome” and showed the rest
of Europe that King James presided over rich dominions.
143
Ireland was a fertile country that could
be profitable but lacked industry and artisans. If the Crown reopened the Dublin mint, it would
draw master artisans from England, who would employ Irish apprentices, and encourage land-
seeking Englishmen to cultivate Irish soil and teach their tenants good husbandry. Attracting

141
Quinn, The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 46; George Carew, 1
st
Earl of
Totnes, “Sir George Carew to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 99/54 (Coventry, 27 March 1603).
142
Edward Hayes, “Edward Hayes to Lord Carew, 7 December 1611” in Calendar of Carew MS, 1603-1623,
138.
143
BL, Add. MS 41613, fol. 152v.

195

skilled Englishmen as colonists would thus make the Irish “aunswerable, in Ciuillitie, obedience,
and industrie” after the country had been “reduced, to Peace, Manurance, and trade againe.”
144

Hayes envisaged increased treasure in the Dublin mint from an expanded Irish trade as the
chief means of reform. By taking in hand this “bountie of God and nature,” Ireland could produce
more corn, tallow, and linen to sell in Southern Europe, especially to Spanish merchants who
would pay for Irish goods with American silver and gold.
145
Hayes even advised the Crown to
exploit Catholic sympathy between Ireland and Spain to foster stronger trade relations, supposing
that Irish merchants would be more welcome in Spain. While relying on the Tower mint led to
detrimental delays, he argued that an Irish mint would encourage commercial activities by quickly
converting bullion into useable money.
146

Hayes also wanted to tie Ireland into a dependent economic relationship with England through
the monetary standard and exchange. First, the Crown should issue small copper monies—the
“verie soule” of just exchange—as legal tender in Ireland.
147
These base coins could be substituted
for sterling only at the English exchanges. Second, the Crown should prohibit the import of sterling
into Ireland, forcing Irish merchants to spend the sterling they obtained from the English exchanges
on English commodities for sale in Ireland or on the Continent.

In these ways, the Crown would
stop wasting silver in the minting of small monies, prevent the outflow of treasure from England,
and earn revenues from Ireland’s increased customs and minting.
148

For Hayes, the expected expansion of industry and trade in Ireland highlighted the importance
of having small copper monies not just in Ireland but also in England. As the economy’s inner

144
Ibid., 153r.
145
Ibid.
146
“Project for a Mynt in Ireland,” Cotton MS Otho E X, fol. 259r (bef. 1603).
147
BL, Add. MS 41613, fol. 156r.
148
Ibid., fols. 154v, 156r; Gould, 8.

196

alchemist, the treasury helped achieve social harmony through its just and proportionate
distribution of money among the classes. Echoing Jean Bodin’s defense of small copper coins,
Hayes lamented that the lack of base monies in England and Ireland encouraged profligacy and
dearth among the multitude, and reduced alms for the poor.
149
Deprived of small denominations,
people overbought pricier but superfluous goods like distilled spirits but could not afford staples
like bread. Likewise, overly fine monies encouraged hoarding, which decreased the amount of
circulating currency. The result of insufficient divisions of currency was unemployment,
drunkenness and gluttony, idleness and vagrancy, as well as the consumption of “curious and
needelesse wares.” Perhaps worse was that there was little sense in the policy that all money ought
to have precious metals, since even England’s chief rivals Spain, France, Venice, and the Low
Countries had base copper monies.
150

In the 1605 version of this plan entitled “a Project of Bee Hives,” an allusion to the popular
model for an orderly commonwealth under monarchical rule, Hayes petitioned Cecil to support his
base money scheme because the “infection [of] ydell, Loose and vagrant people” had grown worse
and only small copper monies offered the opportunity for a “perfect Reformacon” and “so publike
a Cure.”
151
In response to this need for small monies, various tradesmen privately minted tokens
of lead, copper, tin, or leather for use in commerce, but this risked economic chaos as they could
either flood the market with tokens or artificially restrict the supply. To control the supply, the
corporation of Bristol stamped copper tokens for use within its jurisdiction, and eventually
received a special license from the Crown to continue minting them.
152
In his “Project for Ireland,”

149
Jean Bodin, The Six Bookes of the Common-Weale, trans. Richard Knolles (London, 1606), 691.
150
BL, Add. MS 41613, fols. 156v; “A Project for Ireland,” BL, Add. MS 41613, fols. 158r, 159v; Cotton MS
Otho E X, fols. 316–319.
151
Edward Hayes and Thomas Hayes, “Edward and Thomas Hayes to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 112/53
(From Lady Scott’s house in Clerkenwell Close, 7 September 1605).
152
In November and December 1577, the Privy Council appointed Sir John Popham and his son-in-law
Thomas Hannam, then recorders of Bristol, to investigate the Bristol coinings. Popham’s report must have

197

Hayes denounced the private minting of tokens as an encroachment upon the royal prerogative
because the Crown lost its seignorage. He also blamed tokens for price inflation, as they tied
consumers to specific suppliers who could set higher prices for their goods than was just, thereby
abridging “the poore Subjectes of libertie freelie to buie where they will.”
153
In contrast, copper
coinage would increase Crown revenues while forcing suppliers to maintain just prices in order to
keep their customers. The masses would also be more frugal in their spending and increase their
donations to public charity “to give A peny, ob [halfpenny], or qua [farthing] to the poore.”
154

Hayes’s solution to the disharmony wrought by the lack of small monies focused on restoring
justice to monetary system, the “Comon Instrument of Comutacon.” He divided money into two
sorts—royal and base—the use of which largely corresponded to social status. As the wealthy used
plate for their household wares and the commons used pewter or earthenware vessels, money
should likewise serve its user appropriately. For overseas trade and large expenses like rents, silver
and gold monies were the appropriate medium of exchange, while base monies of smaller
denomination would cover the trivial expenses of the masses.
155
These new copper monies would
generate credit in the monetary system by eliminating the taint of debasement associated with
small sterling monies. Hayes argued that the value of copper monies would be imposed by the
king, rather than its intrinsic value, and thus be incapable of debasement.
156
As an added benefit,

convinced them that the copper tokens served a necessary function in local commerce, as they granted Bristol a
special license to continue minting the tokens on December 8, 1577. Privy Council, “[Meeting] Seconde of
November, 1577, Windesor,” “[Meeting] xvii Novembris, 1577, Windesor,” and “[Meeting] viii Decembris, 1577,
Windesor,” TNA, PC 2/12, fols. 55, 67, 91; Challis, The Tudor Coinage, 209.
153
BL, Add. MS 41613, fol. 159v. Another copy is “Two papers, both entitled, "A project for Ireland;" relating
to a mint in that kingdom,” BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fols. 253r -260v. In BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fols. 308–13,
there is an unattributed document called “Another discussion concerning small coins” that brings up similar
arguments about the use of tokens.
154
BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fol. 316r.
155
BL, Add. MS 41613, fol. 158r.
156
BL, Cotton MS Otho E X, fol. 252r; TNA, SP 63/209, fol. 352r.

198

copper coins would preserve minting as an arcana imperii by removing much of the public
discourse on the coinage, which trod a fine line between obedience and criticism of the Crown.
157

Though King James eventually accepted small copper monies as a solution to his worsening
silver shortage, Hayes was not awarded the license to mint them in England. Instead in May 1613,
the king rewarded his daughter’s guardian Lord John Harrington and his associate Gerard de
Malynes with the license for copper farthings; after 1613, Hayes proffered no new plans for
coinage. When Lord Harrington died in Bohemia in the summer of 1613, the license for base
monies transferred to Malynes.
158
In his petition for the license, Malynes echoed Hayes’s
arguments to justify small copper coinage, perhaps reflecting conversations on money and
exchange they had while serving together on the royal commission on England’s lack of treasure
back in 1600–1601. At the very least, their common ideas indicate a wider currency among
economic thinkers of the period.
159
Despite anticipated extraparliamentary revenue for the Crown
and an expanded monetary supply from minting the small copper farthings, the new coins proved
exceedingly unpopular and easily counterfeited. By 1619, Malynes was bankrupt and in debtor’s

157
For a discussion on the paucity of English economic treatises in the Tudor period and the dangers of
publicly discussing the state of the coinage, see Bishop, 763–792. In 1549, Hugh Latimer complained that he had
been “bene tost for the truthes saked, and tried with the stormes of persecutyon, as golde in the fornace” for daring
to criticize their “muckye monye.” Latimer, The seconde [seventh] sermon of Maister Hughe Latimer, sig. A8r-v.
158
“A Proposition for two pence, pence, and half pence to be made half sterling,” and “Propose proclamation
for the issue of copper money, to be called imprest money” TNA, SP 14/70, fols. 84-85, 90 (August? 1612); “Grant
to John Lord Harrington of the sole privilege, for three years, of making farthing tokens of copper,” SP 14/72, fols.
253-254v (May? 1613). The son of an assay master of Antwerp who probably came to England during the recoinage
of 1560–61, Malynes’s metallurgical ventures include an alum and lead mine in Yorkshire with Sir Thomas
Chaloner and a silver mine in Durham. These were defunct by September 1606. In 1609, Malynes became a
commissioner of the royal mint. Gerard Malynes, “Gerard Malynes to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 117/86 (1
September 1606); “A declaration of the proceedings between Mr. Wm. Turner and Gerard Malynes, concerning the
allum works in the north,” BL, Cotton MS Vespasian C XIV, vol. 1, fols. 9–12; Perry Gauci, “Malynes, Gerard (fl.
1585–1641), ODNB.
159
Gerard Malynes, “Project by Gerard Malines, for the making, by competent persons, of farthing tokens of
copper,” TNA, SP 14/72, fol. 248 (May? 1613); “Reasons to prove the necessity for making small copper coins,”
TNA, SP 14/72, fols. 242-243 (May ? 1613); TNA, SP 12/279, fols. 179r–180v.

199

prison; the monopoly for copper coins, however, passed through several patentees until the onset
of the English Civil War.
160

CONCLUSION
While the two halves of Edward Hayes’s career appear disconnected at first glance, his
transition from colonial projects in North America to monetary schemes in Ireland were the
product of his evolving views on the economy and the role colonies could play within an expanded
English domain. Envisioning a circulatory economy undergirded by bullionist policies to increase
the stock of precious metals, Hayes offered his projects as metallic solutions to England’s recent
problems with religious and social disorder, recurrent trade disruptions, and fears about debased
currency. Sir Walter Ralegh’s Guiana venture in many ways was the flip-side to Hayes. At first
Ralegh had no broader economic ideas informing his pursuit of the rich kingdom of El Dorado,
and he treated Guiana as a site for resource extraction and a new front in the ongoing war with
Spain. In this way, Ralegh epitomized the privateering mentality scholars have come to expect.
Yet this image of Ralegh elides the degree to which his Guiana venture shifted between 1595 and
1617. Finding no wealthy kingdom and returning with only controversial proofs of gold mines,
even a popular narrative of the voyage, replete with alchemical allusions, could not generate
enough interest to continue the venture. By the time Ralegh planned his second Guiana voyage, he
too engaged with the problem of currency manipulations and their effect on the English economy
as a way to convince King James to release him from prison and allow the venture.

160
Gerard Malynes, “Gerard Malines to the King,” TNA, SP 14/105, fol. 175 (16 February 1619).
200

CHAPTER 6
TRANSMUTING WORDS INTO GOLD:
SIR WAL TER RALEGH AND THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA
INTRODUCTION
Sir Walter Ralegh’s ventures in Guiana are often represented as the epitome of English
adventurers’ greed for gold and quick profits in the first phase of colonization, and whose
failure helped usher in the primacy of plantations and commerce, not minerals, as the bedrock
of English colonies.
1
It is undeniable that from 1594-1598, Ralegh’s preoccupation with El
Dorado was predicated on his dire financial straits and exile from court. For Ralegh, finding
El Dorado and an overland passage into Peru would satisfy not only his own desires, but also
the Crown’s need for ready-gold to pay for its ever-increasing military expenditures in the
1590s. More importantly he believed it would strike a fatal blow to their greatest foe Spain. In
Ralegh’s estimation, England’s ills required an immediate remedy and so he developed a
project that resembled English privateering raids but promised a much greater and enduring
reward. But Ralegh’s vision was not accepted uncritically; indeed, his primary supporters and
investors were not interested in chasing phantasmal golden cities when there was evidence of
gold mines. Specifically, Sir Robert Cecil revised Ralegh’s original manuscript for The
Discoverie of Guiana (London, 1596) to highlight gold mines, an editorial decision which kept

1 Anthony Pagden, “The Struggle for Legitimacy and the Image of Empire in the Atlantic to c. 1700,” in
The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 1, ed. Nicholas Canny (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998),
36.
201

Guiana at the forefront of English colonization projects until the 1620s, and even precipitated
greater Dutch involvement in the region.
Although Robert Schomburgk’s 1848 recreation of the 1595 voyage demonstrated that in
many cases Ralegh’s descriptions of where gold could be found corresponded to newly-opened
goldfields in the region, many historians remained doubtful about Ralegh’s credibility. J.A.
Williamson not only deemed the modern gold rush insufficient evidence that Ralegh had
discovered gold but argued it was “no proof that a very great amount of gold existed at one
point.”
2
A.L. Rowse categorically called Ralegh’s quest “a mirage, an hallucination,”
influencing a generation of literary studies to treat Ralegh’s dreams of El Dorado as little more
than fantasies of plunder and conquest, a fetishistic projection of England’s imperial desires
that had no basis in reality.
3

The work of anthropologists in the past three decades has done much to rehabilitate
Ralegh’s claims. Neil L. Whitehead explained that El Dorado’s notoriously moveable
geographic position was not just a projection of Spain’s advancing imperial frontiers from
Peru, but was also a mistranslation between Europeans and their indigenous informants, who
took El Dorado to refer to any place where guanín/karikuri (gold-copper or gold-copper-silver
alloy objects) was manufactured or traded, all while concealing the location of mines to
maintain indigenous control of the trade. Other anthropologists revealed ancient trans-
Caribbean trade networks in guanín originating in Guiana’s interior, and which effloresced at
the end of the precontact period. This metallic economy provided Spaniards entry into South

2 James A. Williamson, English Colonies in Guiana and on the Amazon, 1604-1668 (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1923), 79.
3 A.L. Rowse, The Expansion of Elizabethan England (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003),
224-225.
202

America, as they brought their own base metal goods—European guanín—to trade.
4
In light
of the geological and anthropological evidence, most historians now remain agnostic about
whether or not Ralegh found gold, instead gravitating toward the anodyne conclusion that
Ralegh’s claims were a blend of truth and convenient fiction.
5

One aspect missing from the historiography is a consideration of how Ralegh’s encounter
with this indigenous metallic economy shaped the Guiana project he submitted to the Crown
in late 1595, and his decision to wrap his narrative of the venture in alchemical rhetoric. For
Ralegh, the ghost of Martin Frobisher’s 1576-78 voyages freighted his search for gold with
anxieties about deception and greed, a perception difficult to refute when the ore samples
brought back from Guiana yielded contradictory results. In the absence of adequate physical
proof of his discovery, Ralegh turned to alchemy to rationalize colonization in Guiana as
England’s destiny and advocate perseverance in the conquest despite a lackluster beginning.
This reliance upon alchemy to mask disappointing results became more intense in Lawrence
Keymis’ account of his Guiana voyage, A Relation of the second Voyage to Guiana (London,
1596), a pamphlet scholars mostly neglect beyond the commendatory poem by George
Chapman.
Historian Joyce Lorimer amply demonstrated the metallurgical elements of Ralegh's
narrative under Cecil’s editorial influence, but did not notice the alchemical allusions in the

4 The 1990 discovery of a gold alloy chest pectoral in the Mazaruni River near a native metallurgical center
in the Essequibo-Cuyuni district corroborated sixteenth-century accounts of these objects and of indigenous gold
mining. Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, ed. Neil L.
Whitehead (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 72-73; Janette Forte, “Karikuri: The Evolving
Relationship of the Karinya People of Guyana to Gold Mining,” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-
Indische Gids 73, no. 1/2 (1999), 59; José R. Oliver, “Gold Symbolism among Caribbean Chiefdoms: Of Feathers,
Çibas, and Guanín Power among Taíno Elites,” in Precolumbian Gold: Technology, Style and Iconography, ed.
Colin McEwan (London: British Museum Press, 2000), 197-198.
5 Williamson, English Colonies, 78; Joyce Lorimer, “The Location of Ralegh’s Guiana Gold Mine,” Terrae
Incognitae, 14, no. 1 (1982): 77–95; Ryan and Quinn, 149.
203

text.
6
By contrast, Charles Nicholl and Ralph Bauer considered the alchemical aspects of The
Discoverie of Guiana, but neither examined the archival or anthropological evidence, and thus
missed how Ralegh unintentionally subverted the metallurgical evidence he did have with this
alchemical structure, thus undermining the entire project.
7
This chapter weaves together the
metallurgical claims and alchemical metaphors in The Discoverie of Guiana to give a fuller
picture of Ralegh’s projecting vision in Guiana. When the second voyage likewise
disappointed expectations, Keymis imitated Ralegh’s alchemical structure but with far less
success. With alchemy as the thematic axis of the two narratives, I propose a new reading of
Chapman’s epic poem, “De Guiana,” as an allegory for alchemical transmutation and the
redemption of England through the trials of colonial expansion.
Ultimately, Ralegh’s attempt to substitute rhetoric for gold was unconvincing to potential
investors and the Crown. Though a participant in alchemical experiments, Ralegh lacked the
specific metallurgical skills in prospecting and assaying to make credible claims. Further, what
he did say was too speculative to induce those with capital—primarily merchants—to accept
the high risks of attempting colonization in the Iberian Americas. For merchants, Ralegh’s
disinterest in Guiana’s commercial possibilities deterred them from investing in his project.
Though the “desire of golde will aunswere many objections,” alone it was insufficient to
sustain a colony.
8
If not for the commencement of a lucrative contraband tobacco trade at the
close of the sixteenth century, Guiana might not have captured more than fleeting interest in
England. Adventurers showed up in Guiana seeking gold, but came back year after year

6 Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, ed. Joyce Lorimer (London: Ashgate for
the Hakluyt Society, 2006).
7 Charles Nicholl, The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado (New York: William Morrow and Co.,
1995); Bauer, “A New World of Secrets,” 99-126.
8 Sir Walter Raleigh, The discoverie of the large, rich, and bevvtiful empire of Guiana (London, 1596), L4r.
204

because of short-term profits available from other commodities. In this way, Ralegh’s Guiana
venture demonstrated that while precious metals might spur the initial adventure, prospective
investors rarely considered mining as equivalent to plunder or quick profit, but understood it
as part of the long-term economic plan for colonies. Moreover, they required tangible evidence
of a region’s mineral potential and looked to short-term extractive commodities to answer their
investments. Ralegh failed to produce results on both counts, and his project languished.

THE SEARCH FOR EL DORADO
In England, interest in establishing outposts in parts of South America unoccupied by
either Spain or Portugal stretched back to the presidency of John Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland, and continued intermittently until 1586, when Captain Jacob Whiddon,
commander of Ralegh’s ships, fortuitously captured the Spanish explorer Pedro Sarmiento de
Gamboa, an expert on Spanish attempts to find El Dorado and author of Historia de los Incas
(1572).
9
In the Spanish chronicles, El Dorado originally described the ritual practice of the
Muisca of Colombia to anoint their king with gold dust and send him on a raft to the center of
Lake Guatavita to make gold votive offerings. Once the Spanish despoiled the Muisca of all
their gold and their colonial designs turned toward the upper Amazon in the 1530s, El Dorado
evolved into the name of a golden kingdom whose capital city was Manoa. The shifting
geographic location of this kingdom forecasted Spanish imperial designs and motivated the
advance of their frontier from Peru. By the 1580s, Spanish conquistadors concentrated on
Guiana, then only nominally under Spanish authority. In 1584, Don Antonio de Berrío,

9 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 2:120-121; Joyce Lorimer “Ralegh's First Reconnaissance of Guiana? An English
Survey of the Orinoco in 1587,” Terrae Incognitae 9, no. 1, (1977), 12-16.
205

governor of Trinidad, made the first of three explorations for El Dorado in Guiana.
10
Though
Sarmiento probably did not know about Berrío’s recent expedition, he would have been able
to confirm rumors about an undiscovered golden kingdom in South America.
With his colonists’ unanticipated return from Virginia in July 1586 and the prospects for
success at Roanoke dimming, Ralegh saw South America as an alternative if Virginia proved
fruitless. He pumped his Spanish prisoner for information about Peru and Guiana, a vast region
between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers that Spain could hardly protect against European
competitors. Ralegh soon released Sarmiento without ransom, presumably accepting
intelligence as payment. The following January he and Dom Antonio, the claimant to the
Portuguese throne who was then living in England, sponsored a reconnaissance voyage to
Guiana. With assistance from France, Captain Jean Retud transported an Italian captain who
was a member of Dom Antonio’s English entourage, twenty harquebusiers, and four English
boys to the Orinoco to find a place upriver to settle. Retud left two of the boys on Trinidad and
the other two in the Orinoco. The expedition faltered when the Spanish seized Retud’s ship off
the coast of Jamaica in March 1587. Retud was executed shortly after his confession; the fate
of the Italian captain and four English boys is unknown.
11

With his own fortunes in precipitous decline with John White’s failure to find the lost
Roanoke colonists in 1591 and the revelation of his clandestine marriage to Elizabeth
Throckmorton in 1592, Ralegh became more allured by Guiana. He viewed El Dorado as a
source of gold that did not require specialized labor, mining, or smelting, but could
immediately satisfy England’s growing demand for bullion to finance military operations, and
return him to royal favor. Letters from Spanish colonial officials intercepted by Captain John

10 Raleigh, 1596, 72-73.
11 Lorimer, “Ralegh's First Reconnaissance of Guiana?” 10-11, 15-17.
206

Watts in 1590 all complained about the interruption of American mining operations, whether
due to climatic conditions, mercury shortages, or just a general inability to smelt the ore,
indicating that Spain’s American empire was not only vulnerable, but showing signs of
decay.
12
On the other hand, they still discovered new mines, proving the New World’s mineral
potential had not yet been exhausted. As the Crown’s finances stretched ever thinner to pay for
the recently-renewed rebellion in Ireland, to maintain English forces in the Low Countries, and
to prepare for rumored Spanish invasions, Ralegh received support from Sir Robert Cecil and
Lord Admiral Charles Howard in his proposed venture. Though Lady Ralegh appealed to
Cecil, “I hope for my sake you will rather draw fur Watar [Walter], towardes the est [east] then
heulp hyme forward toward the soon [sun] sett,” Cecil found the prospects too promising to
ignore.
13

Similar to Sir Richard Grenville’s 1574 proposal, Ralegh would use an English settlement
in Guiana as a staging ground for an inland invasion of Peru and New Granada and to conduct
raids on the West Indies.
14
Given the Iberians’ weak hold in the region and the natural barrier
of the currents to a Spanish attack from their Caribbean colonies, Guiana was ideally-situated
for a military garrison. Ralegh, however, was keenly aware of the limits of plundering Spanish
holdings; despite the influx of bullion into England from privateers, these attacks were little
more than annoyances so long as Spain retained its “Indian Gilde.” What England required
was its own source of American gold comparable to Spain’s richest mines.
15
Guiana gold, he

12 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:558, 561, 563-564.
13 Lady Elizabeth Raleigh, “Lady Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 22/50 (February 1594).
14 Sir Richard Grenville, “A Discourse of a Voiage Intended by Rychard Grenefeld by Seas Anno 1573,”
BL, Add. MS 48151, fol. 157r (1573); Sir Richard Grenville, “Petition of divers gentlemen of the West parts of
England to the Queen,” TNA, SP 12/95, fols. 136-139 (22 March 1574).
15 Raleigh, 1596, ¶3v, A4r; David B. Quinn, Raleigh and the British Empire (London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1947), 162-163.
207

thought, would fund English military ventures in the Low Countries, Ireland, and perhaps
Spain and Italy.
After the first voyage to Guiana, Ralegh recommended teaching Indian metalworkers to
produce armor, weapons, and ordnance from locally-mined iron and copper. This would save
the expense of transporting military supplies to Guiana, provide a source of metals that did not
place further demands on English timber resources or capital, and furnish allied caciques
(leaders) with the weapons they desired. In light of Amerindians’ willingness to collaborate
with them, Ralegh proposed an army of English officers and indigenous soldiers for the
invasion of Peru to induce the Queen to support opening a new theater of war without fear of
depleting her military of English soldiers or supplies.
16
This was not all patriotism on Ralegh’s
part. He hoped to profit in his share of the gold and a return to the Queen’s favor, and to
invigorate his Munster plantation with capital. In co. Waterford, he had recently established
ironworks at Ardmore and Tallow to produce hoops for casks and he expected to resume the
lucrative production of wood staves to transport into England, thus sparing domestic
woodlands and addressing a shortage of casks. Staves could also be traded in the Canary
Islands for lucrative Iberian, African, and Eastern goods.
17

In preparation for the venture, mathematician Thomas Harriot created star charts for
astronavigation and tutored Ralegh’s captains and masters in using them. Harriot especially
relied upon fellow mathematician Lawrence Keymis of Wiltshire to act as a navigational and
scientific expert on the voyage, much as he had done at Roanoke in 1585. Like Harriot, Keymis

16 Sir Walter Raleigh, “Of the Voyage for Guiana,” BL, Sloane MS 1133, fol. 51 (1595).
17 Eileen McCracken, “Charcoal-Burning Ironworks in Seventeeth and Eighteenth Century Ireland,” Ulster
Journal of Archaeology 20 (1957), 134; Quinn, Raleigh and the British Empire, 153-156; Sir Walter Raleigh,
“Sir Walter Raleigh to Lord Burghley,” Hat., CP 22/100 (15 June 1593).
208

joined Ralegh’s household after attending Oxford University.
18
Unfortunately, as his recondite
account of the second Guiana venture attested, Keymis showed little of the curiosity that had
animated Harriot’s ethnographic and geographic observations, and made his Briefe and True
Report of Virginia (London, 1588, 1590) a bestseller and powerful propaganda to sustain
interest in a Virginia colony into the Jacobean era. Ever the devoted servant, Keymis followed
Ralegh’s instructions, but his own lack of inquisitiveness, along with his reliance on obscure
alchemical language, undercut his ability to effectively promote the Guiana project.
Merchant William Sanderson, Ralegh’s kinsman, acted as surety on a bond for ₤50,000 to
finance the venture. Sanderson had been the chief financial backer for John Davis’ three
northwest voyages (1585-87) and in 1587 joined Ralegh in a loan from Sir Thomas ‘Customer’
Smythe to fund the Roanoke venture. Sanderson also had an interest in mining. He managed
coal pits and ironworks when he temporarily took possession of Sir John Zouche’s Codnor
estate, and leased mines from the Mines Royal at the beginning of James’ reign.
19
Ralegh and
Sanderson outfitted Captain Whiddon for a reconnaissance voyage in 1594. Though it ended
prematurely after a Spanish attack at Trinidad, Whiddon returned with four indigenous men,
all of whom returned to Guiana as Ralegh’s interpreters in 1595.
20
Just as the testimony of
Wanchese and Manteo attracted adventurers to the 1585 Roanoke colony, the information

18 Though Marck Eccles and Charles Nicholl identified Keymis as the alchemist mentioned in Gabriel
Harvey’s annotation of a John Hester advertisement, this is incorrect. Harvey likely referred to the noted “ancient”
chymist Kemish/Kemech living in Lothbury mentioned by George Baker in 1576 and Sir Hugh Plat before 1603.
Lawrence Keymis of Wiltshire (b. c. 1562) would have been too young and had no connection to Lothbury until
after Ralegh’s imprisonment. Mark Eccles, Brief Lives: Tudor and Stuart Authors (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1982), 78; Nicholl, The Creature in the Map, 75; John Hester, These Oiles, Vvaters,
Extractions, or Essence[s,] Saltes, and Other Compositions (London, 1585?); Gesner, The newe Jewell of Health,
A4r; Plat, The jewell house, 3:9.
19 Ruth A. McIntyre, “William Sanderson: Elizabethan Financier of Discovery,” The William and Mary
Quarterly 13, no. 2 (April 1956), 189, 191.
20 Alden Vaughan, “Sir Walter Ralegh’s Indian Interpreters, 1584-1618,” The William and Mary Quarterly,
Third Series, 59, No. 2 (April 2002), 359; Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 31 n. 1.
209

obtained from these Amerindian hostages convinced Cecil and the Lord Admiral to invest in a
larger venture. Sanderson raised nearly ₤30,000, mostly from friends and kin of Ralegh, but
this fell far short of their loan, saddling Sanderson with debts from the interest until 1611.
21

Enticed by the mineral and mercantile potential of the project, Sanderson nevertheless
dissociated himself from the project when Ralegh foisted the debts onto him and the initial
assays of the ore samples returned poor results, a defection that may explain Ralegh’s fatal
oversight of the commercial prospects in Guiana.
By September 1594 preparations for the expedition were well advanced and Ralegh
assembled his fleet at Plymouth. There Ralegh met Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of the
Earl of Leicester and Lady Douglas Sheffield, who had partnered with Captain George Popham
for their own expedition to El Dorado. In 1571 John Dudley of Stoke Newington, a founding
member of the Mines Royal, became his guardian. Preoccupied with navigation, mathematics,
and architecture, Dudley was remembered as “a rare Chymist, and of great knowledge in
Physick.”
22
A lifelong friendship with his Oxford tutor Sir Thomas Chaloner, author of A
shorte discourse of the most rare and excellent vertue of nitre (London, 1584) and an
acquaintance of John Dee, cultivated Dudley’s interest in alchemy.
23
Originally, Dudley
planned a circumnavigation voyage akin to Thomas Cavendish’s fateful 1591-93 expedition,
but the Queen would not permit the venture and only allowed him to go to the West Indies.
Discouraged that he would not be able to accomplish anything “woorth the registring,”
Popham’s recent return from the Canary Islands with copies of intercepted notarial letters by

21 John W. Shirley, “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Guiana Finances,” Huntington Library Quarterly 13, no. 1
(November 1949), 60-62.
22 Sir William Dugdale, The antiquities of Warwickshire (London, 1730), 252.
23 John Westby-Gibson, “Chaloner, Sir Thomas, the younger (1563/4–1615),” rev. Kenneth L. Campbell,
ODNB; Dee, The Private Diary of Sr. John Dee, 44.
210

Domingo de Vera y Ibarguen buoyed Dudley’s ambition for a great feat of navigation and the
promise of enrichment.
24
These letters recounted the camp master’s 1593 exploration of the
Orinoco on Berrío’s behalf and affirmed Spain’s enduring belief in El Dorado.
Vera reported to the King that upon reaching the confluence of the Orinoco and Caroní, a
cacique called Renato greeted his men amiably and gave them a great quantity of gold brought
from the interior. He promised more if the Spanish would help them defeat their enemies.
Renato told them how his people panned for alluvial ore and turned it into gold dust, which
they wrought into crescent pectorals of eagles. Vera’s men traded some Jews’ harps for a gold
eagle pectoral weighing twenty-seven pounds.

Vera offended Renato when he feigned
disinterest in the gold crescent and threw it to the ground, thinking thereby to earn his trust.
Instead, Renato conspired against them and forced the Spanish to go back to Trinidad.
25

While Ralegh did not learn about these letters or the objective of Dudley’s and Popham’s
hastily-organized Guiana voyage until the autumn of 1595, he was paranoid of any ventures to
the West Indies that might “attempt the chefest places of my enterprise.” After Dudley’s
embarkation in December 1594, Ralegh unsuccessfully entreated Cecil to use rumors of an
impending Spanish invasion to embargo ships going to the West Indies. In the event, he had
little to fear from the Dudley/Popham voyage except bad publicity.
26
Dudley returned to
England with casks full of marcasite and a gold-alloy pectoral, not enough to generate any
enthusiasm for a greater enterprise.
27

24 Simon Adams, “Dudley, Sir Robert (1574–1649),” ODNB; Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:574-575.
25 This section does not appear in the original letters at the Archivo Generales des Indias in Seville, a
transcription of which is in BL, Additional MS 36316. “Part of the Copy That Went to His Majesty of the
Discovery of Nuevo Dorado” TNA, SP 12/246, fol. 8v-9r (7 November 1593).
26 Sir Walter Raleigh, “Sir Walter Raleigh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 27/46; Hat., CP 29/61 (20 July
1594).
27 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:574-6; Sir Richard Dudley, Captain Wyatt, and Abraham Kendall, The Voyage of
Sir Robert Dudley, to the West Indies, 1594-1595, ed. George F. Warner (London, 1899), 23-28, 41.
211

Dudley’s voyage had a difficult start: poor weather swamped one of his pinnaces off the
coast of Spain and Captain Munck abandoned the venture, taking his two pinnaces and victuals
with him. Dudley arrived at Trinidad in late January 1595 with great hopes to discover gold,
but his initial findings were inauspicious. At Curiapan they found Trinidadians eager to trade
pineapples, tobacco, and hogs for hatchets, knives, brass bells and glass buttons. The
Amerindians told them of a gold mine on the island, so Dudley appointed Captain Thomas
Jobson to scout it. Once at the place Dudley called Minera di Calcuri, every man gathered ore
into casks, leaving almost a quarter of a hogshead behind because they could not carry it all
back to the ships. The next morning, Captain Jobson tacked an inscribed lead plate to a tree
near the mine as a token of England’s possession of Trinidad.
28
The mine turned out to be
marcasite, leading Dudley to dismiss the episode with a terse “but all is not gold that glistereth,”
the same comment Dionyse Settle had made about Frobisher’s fool’s gold in 1577.
29

Before Popham’s ship arrived at Trinidad in late February, Dudley sent two carvels to raid
the West Indies, and thus ensure the venture was not a complete loss. He also made inquiries
among the Indians about gold mines. In daily conference with Baltizar, a captive Indian who
spoke Spanish, Dudley learned green stone, which cured fits of stone, could be found at
Moruca. The kingdom of Yguiri had mines of copper or base gold, while the highlands of Paria
had silver mines. Baltizar spoke of a gold mine at Seawano, but the richest mines were
reportedly in the kingdom of Orocoa on the Orinoco. On pain of death, Baltizar promised to
show Dudley the location of this mine in Guiana.
30
Dudley’s eagerness to pursue these leads
was not shared by all; his shipmaster Abraham Kendall threatened to mutiny if forced to go up

28 Dudley et al., The Voyage of Sir Robert Dudley, 23-28.
29 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:575; Settle, 15.
30 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:576; Dudley et al., 34, 45.
212

the Orinoco. Instead, Dudley sent Captain Jobson, Baltizar, and twelve men (including the
armorer—the closest to an expert in metals among the adventurers) in a boat to search for gold
mines.
31

In the portion of the Orinoco delta along the Amana River, which Dudley labelled
Tivitivas, a Warao cacique promised Captain Jobson a canoe full of gold from Orocoa, but the
sub-chief of the village refused to give it to them unless they brought their own European
guanín to trade. The sub-chief was probably Putijma, the Orocoan leader Ralegh and Keymis
later encountered.
32
Putijma had the cacique assure Jobson that he had a gold mine and refiners,
and would willingly exchange goldwork for the Englishmen’s brilliant metallic goods. As
tokens of good faith, Putijma sent Captain Jobson several crescent and half-moon gold
pectorals and silver bracelets. As additional incentive, Putijma mentioned El Dorado, where
the people gilded themselves with gold dust. A meeting with Putijma was not to be, for Baltizar
led the English into a treacherous portion of the river and escaped into the thicket. Short on
victuals and without a guide, Jobson was unable to proceed up the Orinoco to meet Putijma or
learn more about El Dorado, and headed back to Trinidad.
33

Meanwhile, Dudley and Popham conferred with several Trinidadian chiefs about mines.
According to Captain Wyatt, these chiefs gave Dudley information about a nearby village
called Carao where they smelted gold. Near this village on the coast lived a refiner named
Braio. Desiring to see a trial of the alleged gold, on 8 March Dudley and Popham marched
forty men inland, where they found the village abandoned; however, they did find melting pots

31 Dudley et al., 36.
32 Both Ralegh and Lawrence Keymis mention Orocoa as the village Putijma ruled as sub-chief and overseer
of gold mines in Topiawari’s Aromaia province. While Dudley’s map locates Orocoa within the Orinoco delta,
both Ralegh and Keymis claim it was located further inland near the Guanapo River, 20 miles east of the Caroní.
Ralegh, 1596, 82-83; Lorimer, “The Location of Ralegh’s Guiana Gold Mine,” 79.
33 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:576; Dudley et al., 41.
213

with dross, which Dudley took as confirmation of the chiefs’ reports.
34
These chiefs also told
Dudley they called the mainland Calcurie because of its richness. Expecting Ralegh’s
imminent arrival at Trinidad, Dudley and Popham remained until March 11 or 12 in hopes of
consorting with him to explore the mainland, but dwindling supplies compelled their return to
England.
35
Ralegh did not reach Trinidad until 22 March. Dudley arrived in England in May
1595 and Popham six months later after a Caribbean detour. Shortly thereafter Dudley wrote
to Cecil promising to make a full report of his discoveries.
36

Dudley’s account did not appear in print until Richard Hakluyt published it in The
principal navigations (London, 1599-1600). Dudley addressed Ralegh’s oblique criticisms that
he had ignorantly confused marcasite with gold and had rather sacked Indian villages for gold
than attend to the public good.
37
He focused on the likelihood of gold mines to encourage more
enterprises in Guiana, an indication that El Dorado had failed to lure potential investors. To
establish himself as a credible authority, Dudley underscored his measured approach to the
search for gold: he ordered his men to collect ore samples, he consulted with indigenous
informants, he saw physical evidence of smelted ore in the refiner’s pot, and he returned with
examples of goldwork. At the end of his account, Dudley even provided a glossary of
indigenous words, many of which were mineral terms (calcurie: gold, perota: silver, arrara:
copper, mointiman: iron and steel, tacorao: green stone, caulpiri: white stone). Dudley
downplayed his imprisonment of Baltizar and generally antagonistic interactions with the
Indians, and emphasized that the Trinidadians willingly submitted themselves to English

34 Dudley et al., 45-46.
35 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:577.
36 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, xlv; Sir Robert Dudley, “Robert Dudley to Sir Robert
Cecil,” Hat., CP 32/93 (Wilton, 11 June 1595).
37 Ralegh, 1596, ¶2; Sir Walter Raleigh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 36/4 (10
November 1595).
214

overlordship. It was not his gold lust or lack of skill that led to failure, Dudley argued, but the
want of honest men and sufficient victuals, two tropes Ralegh used to excuse his own failure.
38

The brief narrative revealed Dudley’s continued belief in the mineral potential of Guiana
and reluctantly supported Ralegh’s claims. Indeed, in 1608 an exiled Dudley convinced
Ferdinando de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany to outfit a voyage to explore the coast of
Guiana as far as the Amazon River in search of gold mines and for a place to establish a fort.
His commander Robert Thornton returned to Florence in June 1609 with several Carib Indians,
one of whom claimed to have visited Manoa and knew of silver mines near “Chiana.” Dudley
included these sites on his map of southern Guiana and northern Brazil in Dell’Arcano del
Mare (Florence, 1647).
39
Golden dreams of Guiana were clearly not Ralegh’s self-delusion,
but commonly accepted among those who travelled to this part of South America.

THE DISCOVERY OF GUIANA
After months of contrary winds, delays, and the desertions Amyas Preston and the London
goldsmith hired for the venture, Ralegh finally sailed from Plymouth in late February 1595.
40

When he anchored at San Josef, Trinidad Ralegh bruited about the believable lie that he had

38 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:577-578.
39 Dudley et al, 95. Joyce Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement on the Amazon River, 1550-1646 (London:
Hakluyt Society, 1989), 34, 147-148. After Dudley lost his suit to legitimize his birth and claim the titles of
Leicester and Warwick, he left England in 1605 and entered the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, converting
to Catholicism. By the time Thornton returned in June 1609, Duke Ferdinando was dead and Duke Cosimo was
insecure in his succession, quashing any further attempts for an Italian colony in Guiana. All but one of the Indians
died of smallpox shortly after arriving in Florence. The lone survivor remained for several years in employment
at the court of Cardinal Medici. Dudley remained in Florence and designed warships for the Dukes. Although
James I declared him an outlaw and confiscated his estates, Dudley remained in contact with Chaloner, and
through him corresponded with Prince Henry on matters of navigation and shipbuilding. In 1646-47, he published
his memoirs Dell’Arcano del Mare (The Secret of the Sea), the first atlas of sea charts that he created. He died in
Florence in 1649. William Davies, A true relation of the travailes and most miserable captivitie of William Davies
(London, 1614), C3, D2v. Adams, ODNB.
40 Amyas Preston, “Captain Amyas Preston to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 25/48 (Plymouth, 22 February
1595).
215

intended to reach Virginia, but was blown off course by foul weather. He plied Spanish soldiers
with alcohol to coax information about Governor Berrío’s forces.
41
Learning of their weak
defenses, Ralegh ordered his men to sack the town and capture Berrío, ostensibly to protect
them from Spanish assaults while they explored the Orinoco; it was also revenge for the deaths
of Whiddon’s men the previous year. After reducing the town to ashes, Ralegh inscribed in the
marketplace, “Omnis plantatio quam Pater meus non plantavit erradicabitur” (Every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not propagated, shall be rooted up).
42
After the attack, the
Trinidadians complained to him about the oppressions they endured under Spanish rule. In
response, Ralegh displayed a miniature of the Queen and said she was Spain’s enemy, at which
time they supposedly begged for her overlordship and protection.
43
The imprisoned Berrío
more or less willingly told Ralegh about his expeditions into the Orinoco and what he had
learned about Guiana and El Dorado. Another prisoner Captain Jorge informed him of a silver
mine up the Caroní River, which Ralegh sent Captain Whiddon to investigate.
44

When Ralegh revealed his true plan, Berrío futilely attempted to dissuade him from
seeking El Dorado. Steadfast in his resolve, Ralegh led a hundred men into the delta through
the distributary Caño Mánamo and sailed up the Orinoco River as far as its confluence with
the Caroní River.
45
Here Ralegh visited the village of Morequito, then under the leadership of
Topiawari since Berrío had murdered its previous cacique. Topiawari kindly entertained them
and spent several days conferring with Ralegh about recent socio-political changes in Guiana,

41 Raleigh, 1596, B2v.
42 Omitted from the print version. Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 30; The Holy Bible,
Matthew 15:13.
43 Ralegh, 1596, B4r.
44 Ibid, K1v-K2r.
45 Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana, ed. Robert H.
Schomburgk (London, 1848), 45 n. 1.
216

including an influx of alien Amerindians called Epuremei, who Ralegh interpreted as Incas.
46

They also talked about El Dorado and its golden capital of Manoa. Convinced he was on the
right track, Ralegh directed his boat into the Caroní, but could not pass the first cataract.
Stymied, he divided his men into three prospecting parties: Captain Thynne headed inland
towards the mountains, Captain Whiddon searched the river banks, and Ralegh hiked up the
Caroní. Ralegh soon realized that they had neither the equipment nor personnel to properly
prospect for gold and lacked the supplies to attempt an exploration for Manoa, so they doubled
back to Morequito.
Before Ralegh left for Trinidad, Topiawari confirmed their alliance by showing him
alluvial gold in the soil, samples of which Ralegh collected, and they exchanged hostages,
including Topiawari’s son. Ralegh left behind Hugh Godwin and Francis Sparry, a servant of
Captain George Gifford. Gifford and Sparry shared an interest in occult sciences and as the
likely translator of a book on geomancy, Sparry was an ideal candidate to remain in Guiana to
learn the language and find a route to Manoa.
47
Before reaching the delta, Ralegh stopped at
the Guanapo River and met Putijma, the overseer of Topiawari’s gold mines. Eager to establish
relations with the English, Putijma took Captain Keymis on an overland trek to reveal a gold
mine, but Keymis misinterpreted his signs to mean he wanted to show them a waterfall, and so
he returned to the ship.
48
With casks of ore to assay and some guanín idols, Ralegh set sail for
England in high spirits. On the way, he botched a raid on Margarita and the Spanish captured
four men; at Cumaná, a disastrous assault resulted in the deaths of many men, among them

46 Ralegh, 1596, L1v-L2r.
47 “The Examination of George Throckmorton.” TNA, SP 12/192, fols. 62r-v (London, 17 August 1586);
Christoforo Cattan, The geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan Gentleman, trans. Francis Sparry (London,
1591).
48 Lawrence Keymis, A Relation of the second Voyage to Guiana (London, 1596), D1r.
217

Captain Whiddon.
49
Ralegh’s diminished company landed at Plymouth in early September
1595.
50

Although he did not return the discoverer of El Dorado or with a hull filled with gold, he
came home confident of a subsequent voyage. News of his success initially conflicted, with
Lady Ralegh warning Cecil they arrived with “gret honor … but with littell riches,” while
others reported a rich cargo that included his Guianian hostages.
51
Wishing to undertake a
second voyage as soon as possible, Ralegh immediately drafted his manuscript and took up
residence at Durham House to be close to the court in case the Queen summoned him. On 9
October he dined with John Dee. Their conversation that night perhaps influenced Ralegh’s
decision to represent his journey as an alchemical quest of travail and redemption.
52
London
gossips murmured that the atheist Ralegh came home a transformed man and attended daily
sermons “because he hath seen the wonders of the Lord in the deepe.”
53
As Ralegh worked on
the manuscript, Cecil requested Richard Hakluyt’s advice. Hakluyt sent him excerpts from
Jose de Acosta’s Natural and Moral History of the West Indies (Seville, 1590) confirming
Spanish accounts of El Dorado. Judging by his dedicatory preface in The principal navigations,
where he advocated a new Virginia colony as a better use of limited resources than either
Ireland or Guiana, Hakluyt counseled against Ralegh’s plan.
54

49 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord de L’Isle & Dudley Preserved
at Penshurst Place, Volume II: 1557-1602, (hereafter HMC Lord de L’Isle & Dudley), ed. C.L. Kingsford
(London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1934), 163-164; Quinn, Raleigh and the British Empire, 155; Nicholl,
259-261.
50 Sir Thomas Heneage, “Sir Thomas Heneage to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 34/108 (At Well Hall, Mr.
Roper’s house, 9 September 1595).
51 Lady Elizabeth Raleigh, “Lady Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 172/71 (September 1595); Sir Hugh
Beeston, “Hugh Beeston to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 35/31 (26 September 1595); HMC Lord De’Lisle and
Dudley, 164, 167.
52 Dee, The Private Diary of Sr. John Dee, 54
53 HMC Lord de L’Isle & Dudley, 173.
54 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 2: ¶2.
218

Soon after his arrival, Ralegh and Sanderson sent samples of ore and guanín to several
metallurgists for assay, including the refiner Westwood (probably Humphrey Westwood),
Bevis Bulmer, a former partner of his brother Adrian Gilbert and lapidary John Poppler in the
Combe Martin silver mines, William Dymock, the Goldsmiths’ Company’s common assayer,
and Andrew Palmer, the comptroller of the mint and former secretary of the Company of
Mineral & Battery Works. Coincidentally, Palmer had been a commissioner for the Cathay
Company in 1578.
55
Ralegh also sent gemstones to the Queen’s jeweler Peter Vanlore.
56
Some
of the adventurers likewise had their own ore tested, though Ralegh supposedly warned them
it was only marcasite.
Most of the Guiana ore had too little gold to be worth working or none at all. According
to Ralegh, his samples of ore yielded better results, but to experts in gold assaying the values
seemed unbelievably high and reminiscent of the claims made to the Cathay Company by
Burchard Kranich, Giovan Battista Agnello, and Jonas Schutz two decades earlier. Whereas
modern gold mines rate their production in terms of grams per ton, with South Africa’s yield
of one ounce of gold per metric ton considered high, the assayers said Ralegh’s ore held an
astonishing 2440 to 9781 ounces of gold per metric ton.
57
This was even more unbelievable

55 Identified only as “Master Dimoke assay master,” Ralegh likely meant William Dymock, appointed
Common Assayer of the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Assay House in London in 1592. Ralegh, 1596, ¶2v; William
Sanderson, “W. Sanderson to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat.. CP 172/67, (n.d.). Sir Walter Sherburne Prideaux, Memorial
of the Goldsmiths' Company Being Gleanings from Their Records between the Years 1335 and 1815 (London,
1896), 1:87; Challis, The Tudor Coinage, 153.
56 Sir Walter Raleigh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 36/9 (Sherbourne, 13 November
1595).
57 Ralegh’s Tower assays between 1607 and 1612 yielded a more modest yet still unusual 2% gold per
metric ton. In a 1603 proposal to the Estates General for a Dutch colony in Guiana, the petitioners reported assay
results on ore from a vein of gold and silver yielded from 10 guilders (60 florins) per ton of ore to an extraordinary
3 florins per pound of ore, though they cautioned the richness of the mine could not be accurately assessed until
they sent metallurgical experts and miners to Guiana. Colin J. Paterson, “Ore Deposits of Gold and Silver,”
Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review: An International Journal 6 (1990), 49; Paul R. Sellin,
Treasure, Treason, and the Tower: El Dorado and the Murder of Sir Walter Raleigh (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate,
2011), 268-269. George L. Burr, ed. U.S. Commission on the Boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana:
219

since Guiana’s low-grade ore could not be profitably mined until the mid-nineteenth century
development of mechanized placer mining and the use of mercury to capture more gold.
58
As
all of these men had well-deserved reputations for their assaying skills, there is little reason to
suspect they intentionally salted their assays, as Kranich and Schutz had done in 1577-78.
Accidental salting could have occurred from improperly cleaned cupels or grinding surfaces.
A far likelier explanation was that Ralegh, then unfamiliar with what constituted realistic
outcomes for gold assays, exaggerated the results. Significantly, Cecil did not disavow the
reports even in the face of criticisms by other metallurgists who had not personally tested the
ore.
These contradictory results fueled rumors that Ralegh never left England, instead hiding
out in Cornwall and passing off Barbary gold as Guiana gold. More commonly, he was accused
of fabricating El Dorado and bringing back ore as worthless as Frobisher’s black rock.
59
In his
defense, Ralegh singled out a man only identified as “an Alderman of London and an officer
of her majesties mint” as his chief critic. This was probably Sir Richard Martyn, warden of the
Goldsmiths’ Company, master of the mint, and a longtime member of the Mines Royal. Martyn
had recently invested in an unspecified Ralegh venture, maybe even the 1595 voyage itself.
60

Report and Accompanying Papers (hereafter Report and Accompanying Papers), (Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1897), 2:29.
58 Most gold found in the Guiana shield comes from alluvial deposits, so the primary method of mining is
placer mining. The development of hydraulicking, the use of water jets to force greater quantities of paydirt
through sluices, was a significant factor in the gold boom between 1884 and 1908 and continues to be used in
gold mining. Though there are large mining corporations in the region, artisanal miners comprise the bulk of the
industry and their use of mercury for amalgamation allows them to yield up to 98% of gold from alluvium ore.
J.B. Harrison, The Geology of the Goldfields of British Guiana (London: Dulau and Co., 1908), 6-8; Nora L.
Alvarez-Berríos and T. Mitchell Aide, “Global demand for gold is another threat for tropical forests,”
Environmental Research Letters 10 (January 2015): 1-11.
59 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, liv; Raleigh, 1596, A3r.
60 In 1595 the Warden’s accounts for the Goldsmith’s Company: “The Company accept of Sir Richard
Martyn, as security for the payment by him to them of ₤400 by instalments, his share of Sir Walter Rawlye's ship
adventure money.” This could also refer to an earlier privateering venture or the 1595 voyage. Ralegh, 1596, ¶2;
Prideaux, Memorial of the Goldsmiths' Company, 89.
220

Back in 1577 Martyn had been lured by gold into pledging ₤50 for Frobisher’s second venture,
though he never paid it, and well-recalled the metallurgists’ outrageous claims.
61
When assays
of Ralegh’s ore came back with equally extraordinary results, Martyn attempted to wield his
authority to suppress the results and avert another disaster.
Martyn had little to fear, for Ralegh’s distrustful rivals ensured plenty of doubts about his
credibility, which dampened investor enthusiasm for a Guiana colony. Worse still, investor
fatigue among the partners in the two mining companies, who otherwise might have found
Guiana appealing, was high as the early promise of the monopolies had become an
interminable demand for new assessments with few dividends to show for it. Ralegh and Cecil
countered this negative publicity by circulating his manuscript among potential subscribers.
Ralegh’s account attracted a few key investors for a small second voyage under the command
of Lawrence Keymis. Among them were Cecil, the Lord Admiral, Lord Burghley, the Earl of
Northumberland, Sir Edward Hoby, and the Earl of Essex.
62

As the weeks progressed and the Queen did not invite him back to court, Ralegh’s spirits
deflated and by November he sent desperate letters to Cecil begging his partner to press for a
patent. On 10 November, Ralegh worried about a possible French or Spanish entrada into
Guiana. He also expressed concern that if Dudley returned to Guiana before he did, then the
whole enterprise would be lost.
63
Sympathetic to Ralegh’s growing anxiety, Cecil sent him
copies of Popham’s intercepted Spanish letters to use as corroborating evidence in his suit. In
one of the letters, Domingo Martinez of Jamaica reported that a frigate had come from Guiana

61 Michael Lok, “Names of Those Who Have Subscribed, but Not Performed,” TNA, SP 12/119, fol. 93r
(1577).
62 Lord Burghley asked Ralegh for a copy of the manuscript on 15 October. On 13 December 1595,
Rowland Whyte told Robert Sidney that Lord Burghley invested ₤500, and Cecil furnished a new ship valued at
₤800. Cambridge University Library, MS Ee.3.56, no. 62; HMC Lord de L’Isle & Dudley, 198.
63 Hat., CP 36/4.
221

with a golden idol weighing forty-seven quintals, which Ralegh estimated to be worth at least
₤100,000. Ralegh was convinced this was just the tip of the iceberg.
64
By the end of November,
still without any commitment from the Queen, he asked Cecil “whether wee shalbe travelers
or tinkers, conquerors or crounes [imbeciles].”
65
Unable to criticize the Queen directly, Ralegh
instead lamented England’s accursed future if they lost the inestimable good of a Guiana
conquest by their procrastination. Nonplussed by the Queen’s silence, in December he
threatened to approach the Dutch Estates General to finance the venture.
66
Realizing his only
hope for a Guiana colony lay with private investors, Ralegh rushed his manuscript into print
to attract subscribers.
Much scholarly ink has been spilled in discussing the literary, ethnological, and historical
merits of Ralegh’s The Discoverie of Guiana, which became an immediate bestseller. Less
often considered is how Ralegh used alchemy to obscure his own metallurgical inexperience
and overshadow the paltry evidence for the existence of either El Dorado or gold mines.
Ralegh’s interest in alchemy dated at least to 1583, when he was an associate of John Dee and
John Hester dedicated a translation of Paracelsus to him. By 1592 he had started his own
alchemical experiments.
67
Despite this interest, Ralegh hired or consulted experts like Joachim
Gans, Thomas Harriot, or his brother Adrian Gilbert when it came to metallurgy. When his
mineral expert quit shortly before the 1595 voyage, Ralegh had little familiarity with
prospecting or field assays, and overall his mineral samples proved hardly better than the rest.
68

Nevertheless, through diligent inquiries with unsuspecting Spaniards, Indian elders and pilots,

64 George Popham, “On Discovery of New Dorado,” TNA, SP 94/5, fol. 62 (7 November 1595); Sir Walter
Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 36/9 (Sherbourne, 13 November 1595).
65 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 36/44 (26 November 1595).
66 HMC Lord de L’Isle & Dudley, 200.
67 Paracelsus, A hundred and fourtene experiments and cures; Sir Walter Ralegh, “Paper, Headed Clavis
Adversariorum Equitis Walteri Ralegh,” TNA, SP 12/240, fol. 271 (1592).
68 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, liv.
222

Ralegh learned critical information about the sociopolitics of the region, which he could use to
monopolize the indigenous gold trade, make a more effective conquest, and locate potential
mines.
69
The latter interest reflected more Cecil’s and Howard’s concerns, but Ralegh did
consider gold mines an adequate consolation should they not find El Dorado or a route to Peru.
Reflecting Ralegh’s desire to monopolize the indigenous gold trade and to discover gold
objects that could be quickly melted down into bullion, the majority of references to gold were
about the gold trade, wrought gold objects, local smelting practices, and golden cities.
Under Cecil’s influence, one of the greatest changes made for print was the amplification
of evidence for the existence of gold mines and the fineness of the ore.
70
In a vehement protest
that he knew the difference between marcasite and gold, Ralegh mentioned that he saw the
“trew signes of rich mineralles,” which the Spanish called el madre de oro and metallurgists
called “the scum of gold.” Here Ralegh likely repeated Topiawari’s description of indigenous
prospecting wherein they searched alluvium for black rocks that they called gold shit or the
excrement of gold, a practice still used in modern Guyana and Venezuela by the Karinya
(Carib) free miners.
71
In Ralegh’s opinion, the likeliest sources of gold were grains and nuggets
found in alluvium or hard stone he called white spar, a mining term for quartz and other
crystalline stones, a reasonably accurate assessment of Guiana’s Precambrian geology.
72

Ralegh admitted they did not have the appropriate tools to work the hard stone, but on a ridge

69 Raleigh, 1596, E2v
70 Joyce Lorimer, Untruth and Consequences: Ralegh's Discoverie of Guiana and the 'Salting" of the Gold
Mine (London: Hakluyt Society, 2007), 8.
71 Raleigh, 1596, ¶2v; Forte, “Karikuri,” 62.
72 The Guiana shield is a Precambrian formation that shares significant geological similarities with West
Africa and western Australia, regions long known for their gold production. Sir Clement Foster Le Neve, “On the
Caratal Gold-Field,” Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 25 (1869), 336-343; David S. Hammond, et al.,
“Causes and Consequences of a Tropical Forest Gold Rush in the Guiana Shield, South America,” Ambio: A
Journal of the Human Environment 36, no. 8 (December 2007), 661, 664.
223

his men managed to dig out samples of white spar with axes and daggers.
73
According to
Francis Sparry’s later testimony, it must have been a sufficient amount of ore and of promising
enough complexion that Ralegh decided to return to England for assays.
74
As vaporous humors
or fumosities from metals were believed to stain the earth with distinctive colors, Ralegh
reported a bluish stone he took to be “steele,” as well as red earth on the riverbank, both
indications of iron in the form of hematite.
75
He edited out the assertion that he “never saw
stone in Guiana, that in mine opinion held not some mettle, either gold, sylver, copper, or
steele,”

perhaps because while all these metals are found in the region, the samples he brought
back were disappointing; Ralegh did retain the hyperbolic claim that every stone they picked
up promised either gold or silver “by his complexion.”
76

Ralegh even cited Indian and Spanish metallurgical expertise as evidence of Guiana’s
richness. Asking how the Epuremei made guanín, Ralegh learned that they alloyed the gold
grains with copper in an earthen pot with holes in it. For bellows, the metalsmith inserted canes
into the holes and then breathed into to it to increase the heat. The molten alloy would then be
placed into clay molds to cast into different shapes.
77
In discussing the “curiouslie wrought”
gold pectorals, a sword inlaid with gold, and other guanín objects, Ralegh hinted that though
they lacked the ability to smelt iron for tools or weapons, indigenous metalsmiths held
metallurgical secrets for working the local gold ores. Read in concert with the prospectus “Of

73 Raleigh, 1596, ¶2v, H1v.
74 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 269.
75 Hematite, an iron oxide, leaves the soil a characteristic red color, but the stone itself can be red, brown,
steel grey, and black. Hematite is abundant in the Guiana Shield. Raleigh, 1596, I1v; George R. Rapp,
Archaeomineralogy (Berlin: Springer, 2002), 164; Biringuccio, 13.
76 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 116; Raleigh, 1596, K2v.
77 Raleigh, 1596, L4v-M1r. Lacking bellows to increase furnace temperatures, Peruvians developed the
blow tube using a piece of cane. This technology diffused northward to Mexico, where the Aztecs employed a
simpler form of blow tube, as appeared in the ninth book of Bernardino de Sahagún’s The Florentine Codex. On
the use of blow tubes in South and Central America, see West, “Aboriginal Metallurgy and Metalworking in
Spanish America,” 50.
224

the Voyage for Guiana,” Ralegh envisioned an exchange of metallurgical knowledge—English
iron and copper smelting for Guianese gold smelting—as an important feature of the tributary
relationship he believed England should establish in Guiana.
78
Moreover, while his men
greedily collected every shiny stone they found, Ralegh cultivated alliances with the
Amerindians in recognition that he needed their expertise to locate gold ore in the ever-shifting
riverine terrain. To distinguish his purpose from the gold-hungry Spaniards and encourage the
Guianians to be more forthcoming, Ralegh concealed his true intentions from them. Instead he
distributed gold sovereign coins with the Queen’s image, the Tudor rose, and the inscription
“It is the work of the Lord, and wonderful in our eyes” to the elites. These coins not only
conveyed Ralegh’s willingness to participate in Guiana’s metal-based exchange networks, but
as a symbol of the Queen’s authority, Ralegh considered their acceptance of the coins as
evidence of their submission to English dominion.
79

The discovery of a refiner’s basket gave him hope they would soon learn a method of
smelting pure gold from the hard ore. In an encounter with the Spanish on the Orinoco,
Ralegh’s men gave chase to four canoes, among whose passengers was a Spanish refiner.
Though he escaped into the bushes, the refiner left his basket behind with remnants of gold
dust, quicksilver, and saltpeter. Cecil underlined the passage in the manuscript to indicate its
importance, and in editing for print, Ralegh significantly revised and lengthened the story.
Ralegh added that the Spaniards fled in a small canoe with ore and gold, and said he offered
₤500 to any soldier who captured one of them, to no avail. Whereas in the manuscript Ralegh
complained that if they had captured the refiner, they would have discovered many rich mines,

78 Ralegh probably did not write “Of the Voyage for Guiana” himself, but delegated the task to Lawrence
Keymis or maybe Thomas Harriot. Raleigh, 1596, D2v, E1r-v; BL, Sloane MS 1133, fol. 51r; Ralegh, Sir Walter
Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, xxxvi.
79 Raleigh, 1596, M1r.
225

in print Ralegh said he did capture one of their Indian pilots and learned where the Spanish had
searched for gold. Ralegh kept this information secret from his men because the rising river
meant they could not tarry to pursue these mines. He also did not want avaricious soldiers to
anticipate him in a second venture and rupture the amicable Anglo-Indian relations he had
established, and thus destroy any hope of a peaceful conquest or the discovery of gold.
80

When reading The Discoverie of Guiana together with “Of the Voyage for Guiana” it
becomes clear Ralegh did not envision a plantation settlement in Guiana, at least not at this
early stage. When Ralegh justified his unwillingness to expend great labor to dig for ore by
saying it “had beene Opus laboris but not Ingenii” it hinted at his intention to use native labor
to supply England with gold, similar to the Spanish system.
81
In this light, Ralegh’s emphasis
on the native metal trade and metallurgy demonstrated the ease with which English settlers
could obtain Guiana gold: while English settlers attended to military matters they would
acquire the gold their Guianian allies mined and smelted through trade, tribute, or coercion.
Ralegh’s portrayal of Guiana as a bounteous land amply providing food with little human labor
signaled to investors that they would not have to expend much capital for victuals. Nor would
husbandmen be necessary, as the Amerindians could supply the settlers with food; in
recompense, the English would induct them into civility and Christianity. Until England ousted
Spain from South America, the Guiana colony would be a garrison settlement of soldiers and
merchants with some artisans, especially armorers, gunsmiths, and engineers, to teach the
Indians how to manufacture armor and ordnance from local sources of steel and copper.
82

Ralegh’s vision for a Guiana colony deviated from what had become the standard promotional

80 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 114, 116; Raleigh, 1596, G4v-H1r.
81 Raleigh, 1596, H2r.
82 BL, Sloane MS 1133, fol. 51r.
226

model of settlement as the reproduction of English life abroad to ameliorate English problems
with unemployment and land shortages. Taken together with his disinterest in commodities
other than gold, it alienated another cohort of potential investors.
Besides the metallurgical aspect of The Discoverie of Guiana, Ralegh’s admittedly
imperfect ethnographic attention to Guiana’s political landscape reinforced his preferred plan
to enter Guiana not as a conquistador but as an ally and eventual overlord through the metallic
economy.
83
In one important respect, the trans-Caribbean metallic economy mirrored that of
sixteenth-century England: both prioritized the circulation of metal currency over its hoarding
to lubricate social and trade relationships. Elites controlled the guanín trade, and one way they
renewed alliances and tributary relationships from generation to generation was the funerary
ritual of distributing the deceased’s guanín among honored guests, thereby creating social
obligations to his or her heirs. Goldwork was thus not generally buried with the dead, but re-
circulated among the living.
84
When Europeans first arrived they were able to enter this
metallic economy by circulating their own guanín—bells, knives, hatchets, and beads—base
metal alloys that shone brilliantly.
While Europeans interpreted this as an uneven exchange that disproportionately benefitted
them, initially Amerindians did not feel ill-used in these transactions, as they valued gold and
other metals for their luminosity and smell not for their purity. The fact that these alloys did
not occur in nature added to their value by imbuing them with otherworldly significance.
However, as the Spanish became more entrenched in the Caribbean and South America the
trade shifted to favor them, reaching a peak exchange rate of 200:1 of gold for base metal

83 BL, Sloane MS 1133, fol. 47r. For a detailed explanation of the value of Ralegh’s ethnographic
observations and his misinterpretations, see Neil L. Whitehead in Ralegh, 1997, 60-116.
84 Oliver, “Gold Symbolism among Caribbean Chiefdoms,” 198-199.
227

goods. As the amount of goldwork declined, and caciques became wary of trading with them,
the Spanish eventually demanded to know the source of their gold. This pushed caciques to
keep their mines secret and to invent deterrents among their subjects not to aid the Spanish,
such as stories that evil spirits or dragons protected the mines and could only be propitiated by
elites. When the English arrived with their own guanín, the caciques saw an opportunity to
restore the balance of trade and contain the encroachment of the Spaniards and their indigenous
allies into Guiana. Just as they had tempted the Spanish with knowledge of El Dorado, the
caciques indulged Ralegh’s interests for their own reasons. If Topiawari showed Ralegh one
of his mines, he did so to obligate him to provide military support against the Spanish and their
indigenous enemies.
85

Ralegh’s attention to native metallurgy not only concerned how to enter their metallic
economy, but also helped him navigate the tricky nexus of royal versus common mineral rights.
Coming from England, where royal mineral rights had only received clarification with the
Duke of Northumberland’s 1568 lawsuit against the Crown and the Crown controlled the metal
trade, it was critical for Ralegh to assess aboriginal mineral rights and trade networks to figure
out how Englishmen could first insert themselves in and then dominate the local gold trade.
86

According to Domingo de Vera y Ibarguen anyone could pan for gold in the rivers as long as
they paid a tribute and gave the cacique any grains larger than a kernel of maize. The mines,
however, were under elite control.
87
In this context, the claim that Topiawari and his sub-chief
Putijma showed Ralegh and Keymis their mines, and granted them access in exchange for

85 Oliver, 202; Ralegh, 1997, 76-77.
86 Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 138-144.
87 Luis Torres de Mendoza, ed. Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y
organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de America Y Oceania (Madrid, 1866), 6: 562.
228

military support, was tantamount to authorizing English colonization in the region, as mining
was not a short-term undertaking.
Despite Ralegh’s attempts to firm up the metallurgical evidence in The Discoverie of
Guiana, he could not overcome its overall weakness. The weight of his narrative thus rested
on reading it as an alchemical journey of redemption for himself and ultimately for England.
While Jennifer R. Goodman noted Ralegh’s conformity to English chivalric romance, she did
not mention that often early modern English writers framed the themes of regeneration and
heroic quests in the language of alchemy.
88
Indeed, Ralegh’s narrative of the voyage to Guiana
evoked Thomas Charnock’s description of the great work as a sea journey in The Breviary of
Naturall Philosophy (1557):
And we are now ready to the Sea prest,/ Where we must abide three moneths at the least;/ All which tyme
to Land we shall not passe,/ No although our Ship be made but of Glasse,/ But all tempest of the Aire we
must abide,/ And in dangerous roades many tymes to ride;/ Bread we shall have non, nor yet other foode,/
But only faire water descending from a Cloude:/ The Moone shall us burne so in processe of tyme,/ That we
shalbe as black as men of Inde:/ But shortly we shall passe into another Clymate,/ Where we shall receive a
more purer estate;/ For this our Sinns we make our Purgatory,/ For which we shall receive a Spirituall body:/
A body I say which if it should be sould,/ Truly I say it is worth his weight in Gold.
89

In The Discoverie of Guiana, Ralegh represented his recent misfortunes as the nigredo (black)
stage of alchemy, sometimes described as a prison and its progress one of great travail.
90

Ralegh viewed his imprisonment, exile from court, and the difficult expedition into the Orinoco

88 Jennifer R. Goodman, Chivalry and Exploration, 1298-1630 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1998),
168-191; Gareth Roberts, The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas and Images in Manuscripts and Books from
Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century (London: British Library, 1994), 74-75.
89 Thomas Charnock, “The Breviary of Naturall Philosophy” in Theatrum chemicum Britannicum, eds.
Robert Vaughan and Elias Ashmole (London, 1652), 292.
90 Abraham, Dictionary, 156.
229

as a “paineful pilgrimage” in which he had “undergone many constructions” in the hopes of
regaining the “gracious construction” of the Queen’s restoration to his previous honors.
91

Plagued by great labor, hunger, heat, sickness, and peril, Ralegh insisted exploring the
Orinoco was worse than the Tower, especially for a man corrupted by the ease and indulgences
of court life. Despite not reaching Manoa and returning to a poor estate, the venture was his
mortification: purged of vanity and arrogance in the Tower, the Orinoco tamed his
concupiscence and restored his fidelity to the Queen.
92
Ralegh underwent this moral purgation
in order to become a worthy agent of God, the Queen, and the commonwealth in the conquest
of Guiana. Cecil unwittingly assisted this rhetorical ploy by striking out a ribald passage
extolling the availability of women, drink, and tobacco in Guiana.
93
For Ralegh, the 1595
voyage was not the end of the great work but merely the conclusion of its earliest stages. Ralegh
desired the Queen’s approval to fulfill what he believed to be England’s destiny, but in the
event he could not, he promised that his successor would accomplish a conquest greater than
Hernán Cortés in Mexico or Francisco Pizarro in Peru. Ralegh’s references to Cortés have been
taken as evidence of his intent to plunder Guiana. Ralegh certainly anticipated finding stores
of wrought gold in El Dorado as Cortés had at Tenochtitlán and from the Tarascans, but Cortés
made much of his fortune as an encomendero and proprietor of silver mines in Mexico.
94

In the course of his reformation Ralegh boasted of his mastery of secret knowledge,
acquiring information denied to the Spanish, as well as previous Englishmen, because of their
impure motives and actions. Minimizing the complexity of Hispano-Indian relations and

91 Raleigh, 1596, A2v-A3r.
92 Raleigh, 1596, A3v, C; Louis A. Montrose, “The Work of Gender in the Discourse of Discovery,”
Representations 33, Special Issue: The New World. (Winter, 1991), 11.
93 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 206.
94
He claimed the Tamazula area, a main region for silver, as his own. In 1534, he acquired mines in
Zumpango. By the early 1540s, he owned all or a share in twenty mines in Sultapec, Taxco, and Zacualpan. West,
“Early Silver Mining in New Spain,” 121-124.
230

excluding mention of his own hostile encounters with Guianians, Ralegh stressed indigenous
animosity as the chief reason Spain had not yet found Manoa. For example, during the months
Berrío lived in Amapaia, Morequito did nothing to prevent the red water filled with worms and
serpents from decimating the Spanish force. By contrast, Ralegh learned that they could safely
consume the water collected from the river precisely at mid-day.
95
More significant, the
Amerindians never told the Spanish the antidote for their poisoned arrows, as the soothsayers
and priests concealed this knowledge and passed it from father to son, much as occult
knowledge passed from master to adept. Ralegh bragged that the Spanish “either by gift or
torment [never] could attaine to the true knowledge of the cure.”
96
Evincing the esteem in
which they held him, Ralegh claimed the brother of Toparimaca inducted him into their
mysteries, telling him the poison came from the juice of the Tupara root. In the tradition of
alchemical opacity, Ralegh never revealed the cure. Literary scholar Ralph Bauer argued that
not only did Ralegh portray himself as an English magus initiated into New World mysteries,
but occult philosophy helped him amalgamate indigenous and European epistemologies as a
prelude to colonization.
97
Moreover, given the weakness of his metallurgical credentials,
Ralegh hoped his access to heretofore secret knowledge would validate his claims and attract
private investors to the venture.
Ralegh’s mystical rhetoric was nowhere more evident than in his description of El Dorado.
Though he heeded much of Cecil’s advice to amplify the metallurgical information and to write
with greater certitude about the gold mines, this material was a distraction from his true purpose
to discover Manoa. In the printed version, Ralegh expanded the section on El Dorado and cited

95 Ralegh, 1596, E1v-E2r.
96 Ibid, I2r.
97 Bauer, 110-112.
231

Spanish sources to conflate the Muisca golden king with Atahualpa’s exiled brother. Ralegh
implied that England had a providential role to play in the restoration of the Incan king to his
rightful place as the ruler of Peru. In the conclusion of The Discoverie of Guiana, he repeated
an apocryphal Peruvian prophecy that the Inca would be restored to their empire and the
Spanish defeated with the aid of “Inglatierra.” If England could locate the “Golden King” of
the Inca and make him a tributary in exchange for military support, then England would reap
the benefit of both Peruvian and Guianian riches. In an analogy to the chemical wedding,
Ralegh’s narrative hinted that the exiled Incan golden king, after his purgatory in Guiana,
would be assisted by England’s white queen to assume his rightful throne. Thereafter, the union
of the two nations would spawn an eternal golden age for England. In this context, it is
unsurprising Ralegh used metallurgical language to describe Guiana’s proposed ravishment:
To conclude, Guiana is a Countrey that hath yet her Maydenhead, never sackt, turned, nor wrought, the face
of the earth hath not beene torne, nor the vertue and salt of the soyle spent by manurance, the graves have
not beene opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledges, nor their Images puld down out of their
temples.
98

With soil that had never endured the hand of human art and industry, and its interior riches still
undiscovered, Guiana was not simply a virgin, she was an Ovidian golden-age land that
provided sustenance without human labor. Through Guiana's conquest, England would return
to its own golden age, quite literally by bringing home Guiana gold.

ONE MORE IRON IN THE FIRE
While Ralegh edited his manuscript and lobbied the Crown, reports of French and Spanish
ventures to the region made him anxious that England would soon lose its advantage in

98 Ralegh, 1596, N4v.
232

claiming Guiana. On 17 January 1596, Sir John Gilbert relayed information out of Spain about
Philip II’s proclamation seeking men, women, and children to settle in Guiana. The Earl of
Cumberland confirmed this news on 19 February, adding that a fleet of 36 flyboats would be
ready to depart for Trinidad and Guiana at the end of the month. In May, Gilbert further
reported six ships carrying 600 men, women, and children, and 1400 soldiers had left Sanlúcar
for El Dorado.
99
This news upheld Ralegh’s belief that El Dorado was not a chimera and time
was of the essence if the English intended to take Guiana for themselves. For the second
voyage, Ralegh instructed Lawrence Keymis to return to Topiawari’s seat on the
Orinoco/Caroní and survey the gold mines, and also to secure indigenous alliances and assure
Topiawari of Ralegh’s imminent return.
100

Keymis departed from England with two ships on 26 January 1596, but lost one in rough
seas a couple days later.
101
He brought with him a Guianian named John Provost, who probably
came to England with Ralegh the previous September. Unlike the previous voyage, Keymis
did not land at Trinidad first but followed the current farther south to Cape North in the
Amazon estuary. Starting just north at the Araguari River, Keymis traveled up the coast to
explore the mouths of the main rivers between the Amazon and Orinoco looking for ingresses
to circumvent Spanish blockades of the Orinoco, and to establish contacts with the inhabitants.
Just north of Wiapoco (Oyapock) at the Caux River, Keymis learned from a Yao cacique
named Wareo that the Spaniards had allied with the Arawak to drive them from their home in
the Orinoco delta. Wareo had allegedly heard about the Queen’s justice, virtue, and grace, and

99 Sir John Gilbert, “Sir John Gilbert to Sir Walter Raleigh,” TNA, SP 12/256, fol. 26 (17 January 1596);
George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, “George, Earl of Cumberland to Sir Rob. Cecil, with enclosure,
Examination of Thos. Saunders,” TNA, SP 12/256, fol. 126r (Plymouth, 19 February 1596); Sir John Gilbert, “Sir
John Gilbert to Sir Walter Raleigh,” TNA, SP 12/256, fol. 197 (16 March 1596).
100 Lorimer, Untruth and Consequences, 21 n. 38.
101 Keymis, A Relation of the second Voyage to Guiana, B1r.
233

asked if Keymis was the vanguard of the English army Ralegh promised to send. Keymis
reluctantly admitted that they were only there for trade and information. Still desiring English
aid, Wareo purportedly told him the land in Guiana was plentiful enough for the English to
live there peaceably with its indigenous inhabitants, who would eagerly welcome them.
102

Wareo provided Keymis with a guide for his explorations, a man “bred in Guiana sworne
brother to Putima [who] can direct us to many Gold mines.”
103

Keymis continued up the coast to the Wiapoco, Courantyne, and then Essequibo River,
and arrived at the Orinoco (which he called Raleana) on 6 April.
104
Spending a night in
conference with two caciques, Keymis learned of an alternate route to Manoa by the Wiapoco
River or the Barima River, and about a cacique named Carapana who had much gold in his
village. Keymis nevertheless pressed on to Topiawari’s port.
105
Hopes for a successful
expedition plummeted when Keymis found out about Topiawari’s death and his people’s
retreat inland to escape the Spanish. Since Ralegh’s departure, Berrío had rebuilt San Josef and
established a fort called San Thomé at the site of the English encampment at the mouth of the
Caroní, blocking access to Topiawari’s mines. Berrío allegedly financed these settlements with
the gold he sent back to Spain with Domingo de Vera in 1595. But Keymis heard that all was
not well for Berrío. Berrío’s discovery sparked infighting among the Spanish for control of the
region, and the governors of Margarita and Caracas not only petitioned the King to vacate his
patent but also sent soldiers to Guiana to assassinate him. This strife among the Spanish leaders
opened a gap the English could exploit, especially in forming indigenous alliances.
106

102 Ibid, B2v-B3r.
103 Ibid, B4r.
104 Ibid, C1r.
105 Ibid, C3r.
106 Ibid, C1v, C2r, D2r; Ralegh, 1997, 30.
234

Upon hearing that Berrío knew they were in the Orinoco, Keymis abandoned plans to
survey Topiawari’s mine and went in search of Putijma at Guanapo, some twenty miles east
of the Caroní. Keymis thought Putijma might help him displant the Spanish at San Thomé and
trade gold for knives and hatchets, but he found Putijma’s village abandoned. Though his
Indian pilot Gilbert offered to take him inland to find Putijma’s gold mine, Keymis declined
the offer because even if they succeeded, they could not extract and transport the ore without
alerting the Spanish to their presence. Believing secrecy to be of the utmost importance to
England’s dominion in Guiana, Keymis instead returned to England.
107

Keymis’ ship landed at Weymouth on 29 June 1596 and Lady Ralegh informed Cecil they
returned with little of worth. Based on what had transpired in the Orinoco delta since 1595,
Keymis advised Ralegh to shift his explorations southeast to the region between the Essequibo
and Wiapoco Rivers.
108
Soon after Keymis’ return, Thomas Harriot told Cecil his chart of
Guiana was nearly complete but warned that if the Queen intended a conquest they must keep
its contents secret. On this note, Harriot told him that William Downe and Samuel Mace were
selling copies of Ralegh’s account with a map of the discoveries.
109
Cecil ordered Sir George
Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey, knights of the shire in Dorset, to confiscate the documents
and send them to London. Downe and Mace protested that they merely attempted to recover
their losses from the 1595 voyage, and proclaimed their willingness to adventure again for
Ralegh or Cecil in another Guiana venture.
110

107 Lorimer, “The Location of Ralegh’s Guiana Gold Mine,” 79; Keymis, C4r-v.
108 Lady Elizabeth Ralegh, “Lady Ralegh to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 43/29 (Milend July 1596); Lorimer,
English and Irish Settlement, 18.
109 Thomas Harriot, “Thomas Harriot to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 42/36 (11 July 1596).
110 Joyce Lorimer argued that BL, Additional MS 17940a, which is usually attributed to Harriot, was
probably one of Downe’s copies based on its crudity. Sir George Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey, “Sir George
Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat.. CP 43/17 (Dorchester, 31 July 1596); Sir George
Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey, “Sir George Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP
43/72 (Wolveton, 10 August 1596); Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 59 n. 2.
235

Keymis spent the summer after his return writing a pamphlet about the voyage to get ahead
of the naysayers. He rationalized a Guiana plantation as just, profitable, and necessary for
England, particularly in light of economic scarcity caused by successive crop failures in
England and increasing military expenditures.
111
With even less metallurgical evidence the
account published in October 1596 was more explicitly alchemical in its rhetoric. Like The
Discoverie of Guiana, Keymis’ narrative was both transparent and opaque: he gave specific
information gleaned from his indigenous informants about the ever-shifting socio-political
terrain in Guiana but was evasive about where he explored or where the gold mines were said
to exist. Keymis vowed to remove “all fig leaves from our unbeleefe,” yet he rooted his
authority in secret knowledge and used symbolic language to communicate with Ralegh’s
alchemically-minded supporters, much as alchemists demonstrated their credibility by
mastering arcane information and metaphorical descriptions of the distillation process.
112

Keymis still referred to the search for Manoa and efforts to pin down the precise location El
Dorado, but while Ralegh treated it primarily as a geographic place, in Keymis’ account it
assumed a symbolic character, embodying English desires to usher in a new golden age by the
conquest of Guiana.
The two “De Guiana” poems, one by playwright George Chapman and the other by
Keymis, set the tone for his account. In the first poem, Chapman compared the Queen to an
alchemist, with Ralegh and his associates both her assistants in the great work of discovery
and the necessary ingredients to generate a British Empire. The poem began with what
appeared to be an act of fellatio, as Ralegh’s tumescent “Eliza-consecrated sworde” tenderly
opened the Queen’s aged throat and animated her barren yet virginal body by pouring “fresh

111 Keymis, “To the Reader”, E3r.
112 Ibid, “To the Favorers of the Voyage.”
236

youth through all her vaines.” Ralegh brought Guiana “whose riche feet are mines of golde”
into submission to England. Bowing, Guiana kissed the Queen’s hand in deference, while the
Queen welcomed her as both sister and daughter.
113
With this infusion of vital energy from
England’s young men, who yearned for riches, conquest, and renown, the Queen achieved
reproduction in creating an English empire in Guiana. Chapman wrote of the virgin Queen's
newfound regenerative ability: “Whose barrennesse/ Is the true fruite of vertue, that may get,/
Beare and bring foorth anew in all perfection,/ What heretofore savage corruption held/ In
barbarous Chaos; and in this affaire/ Become her father, mother, and her heire.”
114
Elizabeth’s
infertility, analogous to England’s gold-poor soil, would be mitigated by her personal virtue
and purity, which inspired her subjects to overcome the Spaniards’ “savage corruption” of
gold-bearing Guiana and bring her into full fecundity through the industry and cultivation of
true Christian Englishmen. In doing so, the Queen would fulfill England’s destiny: “Gold is
our Fate.”
115

Literary scholars Mary C. Fuller and Kristen Brookes interpreted the incestuous sister-
daughter relationship between England and Guiana, and the Queen’s newfound procreative
ability as parthenogenesis. Drawing on the legal fiction of the monarch’s “two bodies,” which
endowed the Queen with a “political hermaphroditism” wherein she could possess both a weak
female body and a male heart and stomach, they suggested that in the poem this became a
literal hermaphroditism.
116
Given early modern notions that without the vital properties of male
sperm, female menstruum begat foul and monstrous creatures such as the basilisk, and how the

113 Ibid, A1v.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid, A3v.
116 Mary C. Fuller, “Ralegh’s Fugitive Gold,” Representations 33, Special Issue: The New World (Winter,
1991), 59; Kristen G. Brookes, “A Feminine ‘Writing that Conquers’: Elizabethan Encounters with the New
World,” Criticism, v. 48, no. 2 (Spring 2006), 234-235; Christopher Haigh, Elizabeth I, 2nd edition (Harlow,
England: Longman, 1998), 25.
237

Queen balked at comparisons to the sexually aggressive Amazons, it was unlikely Chapman
would make the impolitic comparison to an emasculating female sexuality, as in Ovid’s tale of
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.
117
An alchemical reading of the poem, however, resolves the
paradox of a generative virgin Queen. It also allowed Chapman to acknowledge the Queen as
the fount from which all overseas ventures sprang, yet ultimately centered attention back on
Ralegh and his associates as the keys to their success.
Chapman alluded to the enervating effects of the Queen’s foreign policy on her male
subjects, but he wisely displaced the site of the Queen’s reproduction of a new, golden-age

117 Paracelsus, “Of the Nature of Things,” in Michal Sedziwój, A new light of alchymie, trans. John French
(London, 1650), 6.
Figure 1: left: The master and assistant distilling alcohol, a primitive form of reflex
condenser. Wellcome Library, London. right: an instrument for distilling burning water.
Conrad Gesner, The newe iewell of health, trans. George Baker (London, 1576).
238

world from her own womb to the artificial womb of the alchemist’s alembic. Though the
magnum opus generally took place within a glass alembic, with the Queen’s “flesh of brasse,
and rib of steele,” Chapman referred to various apparatuses to distill aqua vitae. These copper
(“brass”) vessels were sometimes supported by iron (“steel”) rods, and from the neck of the
vessel a pipe led through the head to a receiving vessel, often of glass. [Figure 1] Thus,
Ralegh’s sword represented the philosophical fire that initiated the first stages of the opus; the
heat from this fire opened the Queen’s throat, or the neck of the vessel, to pour out the “fresh
youth” or the “water of lyfe.”
118
Chapman likened the Queen’s breath to the bellows of a
furnace, beseeching her, “let your breath/ Goe foorth upon the waters, and create/ A golden
worlde in this our yron age.”
119
David McInnis observed that though the cycle of history
suggested the eventual return of a golden age, in Chapman’s “De Guiana” this was not a
passive process, but one in which the Queen would be the primary agent.
120
In this work, the
Queen needed to be diligent, neither letting the flames of discovery peter out from neglect nor
become too inflamed by petty piracies and greedy ambitions. Just as God breathed life into
creation, the Queen’s zephyrous breath would create a new world through England’s discovery
and conquest of the maiden Guiana.
As alchemist, the Queen orchestrated the union of England and Guiana through a male
proxy, thus denaturing the apparent improprieties of the incestuous relationship and female
parthenogenesis. In alchemy the creation of the philosopher’s stone involved a catalyst to join
male and female principles together into one body. In the first of three conjunctions, the

118 In the sixteenth century, the word brass was often synonymous with copper and steel to any iron harder
than wrought iron. Gesner, The newe Iewell of Health, 215v-216r; Abraham, Dictionary, 214.
119 Keymis, A1v-A2r.
120 David McInnis, “The Golden Man and the Golden Age: The Relationship of English Poets and the New
World Reconsidered,” Early Modern Literary Studies, 13, no. 1 (May, 2007), 1.7.
239

chemical wedding was often described as incestuous, between father and daughter, mother and
son, or brother and sister, as it symbolized the essential similarities between the male and
female principles in the prima materia.
121
Whilst England and Guiana’s sister-daughter incest
demonstrated their oneness and the enveloping of Guiana into England’s body politic, it could
not produce a golden age without a male principle—the soul—needed to bring form to matter.
Given the need for a male seed, at the end of the poem Chapman suggested Ralegh,
“Th’industrious Knight, the soule of this exploit,” as the Queen’s surrogate in a marriage with
Guiana.
122
If in consummating this marriage by conquest, each man in Ralegh’s “Argolian
fleet” behaved as an Orpheus to bring order and civility to the Guianians, then England and
Guiana would form a society held together by “Adamantine chaines,” their hearts joined in
(common)wealth “whom wealth disjoyn’d.”
123
The fruit of this union would be a fortress of
riches—palaces and temples reaching the sky, created entirely from Guiana gold and English
industry. In using art to create new life, the alchemist Queen could be Guiana’s father, mother,
sister, and heir—the one entitled to possess her—without the hint of any improper sexual or
moral conduct, whether on the part of a chaste Queen or Ralegh and his associates.
Chapman criticized the gentlemen and peers of England who idly waited for their
inheritances and regarded the noble deeds of other men with incredulity, all the while using
“gold-made men, as dogges” to prosecute actions they were too timid to engage in themselves.
He warned that these Englishmen would lose their gold and their souls if they did not change.
In contrast, he lauded forward men, the “Patrician Spirites that refine/ Your flesh to fire, and
issue like a flame/ On brave indevours,” who undertook the conquest of new lands on behalf

121 Lyndy Abraham, “Weddings, Funerals, and Incest: Alchemical Emblems and Shakespeare's ‘Pericles,’
‘Prince of Tyre’,” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 98, no. 4 (Oct., 1999), 527.
122 Keymis, A3v.
123 Ibid, A4r.
240

of the Queen and commonwealth rather than for personal gain (“And let the mynes of earth be
Kinges of you”).
124
Just as the alchemist’s work was a series of arduous tasks and obstacles,
Chapman showed its parallels to the work of exploration. Both were great mysteries into the
unknown that potentially yielded the light of wisdom and riches.
125
While the sea “closeth her
wombe” and, like Avarice, tried to swallow all who traversed the oceans in order to keep its
mysteries secret, through the Queen’s intervention, Guiana would open herself to discovery
and consequently prevent England’s decline into the “rude breath and prisoned life of
beastes.”
126
Chapman acknowledged Ralegh had not yet succeeded in the venture, “O how
most like Art then (heroike Author of this Act),” but in the attempt he would clear his
conscience of any blame when compared with those who stayed at home.
127

The second “De Guiana” poem by Keymis added to Chapman’s poem by emphasizing the
providential aspect of the conquest. Dedicated to his friend Thomas Harriot, he considered it a
favorable omen that Ralegh had proceeded farther in one month than did the Spaniards, who
“sweated in that furnace” for seven years and failed nine times to find El Dorado (Hispanus
clinis illis sudavit, & alsit septem annos, novies: nec tamen invaluit.). After commending
Guiana’s riches, Keymis paraphrased Horace, “What we seek is either there or nowhere” (Est
ibi, vel nusquam, quod quaerimus), to implore Englishmen to demonstrate their chivalric virtue
and embark on the conquest of Guiana. In repurposing a phrase that became an alchemical
aphorism stressing the uncertainty of success and the necessity for right motives in the magnum
opus, Keymis framed the search for El Dorado as an analogous process that, while risky, held
the promise of infinite enrichment, if only Englishmen would rouse from their somnolence to

124 Ibid, A2v.
125 Alexander, 111.
126 Keymis, A3r.
127 Ibid, A3r-v.
241

perform it. Underscoring that the treasure England sought could not be found at home, Keymis
altered the original Horatian phrasing “here or nowhere” (hic est aut nusquam) to read “there
or nowhere.” Keymis concluded, “Therefore let us entreat: God grant, let us possess this
Canaan” (Ergo petamus: Det Deus, hanc Canaan possideamus). Guiana was England’s
promised land of abundance and plenty, the possession of which would fortify them against
their enemies and give the state perpetual life.
128

Keymis continued the alchemical themes in the narrative of the voyage. In the account,
anecdotes that superficially dismissed native lore as superstitions carried a subtext in which
certain Guianians were magi who might pass their occult knowledge to Englishmen. The
Pariagotos (Parias) of the Essequibo/Berbice were great sorcerers who became invulnerable
by swallowing white stones “of such hardnesse, that by no arte or meanes they can bee
pearced.”
129
Keymis thought the fable referred to diamond mines but he tantalized his readers
with the possibility that these men knew the secrets of the philosopher’s stone. Keymis’
Guianese pilot Gilbert made a more explicit reference to the philosopher’s stone. Gilbert was
not just the bearer of secret intelligence about the location of gold mines and how to work
them, but an alchemist conveying “light & knowledge” to his English adepts.
130
When they
failed to find Putijma, Gilbert offered to show Keymis a gold mine one day’s journey from
their anchorage. He then pointed to a mountain, the same mountain Putijma had wanted to
show Keymis the previous year. Gilbert revealed to Keymis how they mined alluvial gold
without digging and told him the elders had devised a tale about a dragon guarding the gold

128 Ibid, A4v.
129 Ibid, D4r.
130 Ibid, E3r.
242

mines to discourage people from showing the Spanish their location.
131
If Keymis returned to
Guiana with strong wine, Gilbert promised to “so charme this Dragon, that he shall do us no
harme”
132
On the ground, Keymis interpreted this as Gilbert’s attempt to obtain alcohol and
he refused the offer; narratively, this anecdote confirmed the mystic quest for El Dorado.
133
El
Dorado had become less a geographic location than a symbol of Guiana’s interior treasures,
which they would use to defeat the King of Spain and enrich the English nation.
In depicting Guiana as a golden age land, Keymis’ description of a dragon that guarded
the gold mines but could be pacified with strong wine conjured up Jason’s drugging of the
Colchian dragon with magical herbs to steal the Golden Fleece. Tied with Chapman’s reference
to their “Argolian fleet,” Keymis’ oblique allusion to Jason and the Golden Fleece evoked
Ralegh’s earlier reference to the Incan prognostication about “Inglatierra.”
134
In the myth, King
Aeëtes put the Golden Fleece under the dragon’s guard after a prophecy warned that he would
lose his kingdom if he ever lost it. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Golden Fleece frequently
symbolized the philosopher’s stone in alchemical texts and slaying the dragon was a critical
step to attain unlimited riches.
135
In addition, the symbolism of slaying dragons represented
the nigredo or mortification stage of transmutation, during which putrefied matter dissolved
into two bodies out of which the prima materia would emerge after their purification and
conjunction. The nigredo stage of alchemy, a metaphor for Ralegh’s journey into Guiana, was
one of great suffering and turmoil for the adept, but a trial one must endure to obtain the
wisdom and humility to complete the work. Having undergone this trial by fire, both in person

131 Laurens Storm Van’s Gravesande, Storm Van’s Gravesande: The Rise of British Guiana, eds. C.A.
Harris and J.A.J. de Villiers (London: Hakluyt Society, 1911), 2:468.
132 Keymis, D1r.
133 Ibid; Ralegh, 1997, 81.
134 Raleigh, 1596, 100.
135 Flamel, 66. Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. David Raeburn (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 255.
243

and now by proxy, Ralegh had been cleansed of his vanity and was ready for the next stage of
his great work.
Keymis further implied the alchemical aspect of the dragon with the “strong wine” or aqua
vitae, which linked to his later argument that England would bring good government, the “dew
of Hermon,” to Guiana. In alchemy, aqua vitae (“water of life”) was the catalyst for
transmutation. Artephius, the twelfth-century alchemist reputed to live for a millennium,
identified aqua vitae as the “dew of grace,” which washed the black matter and brought it into
its pure, white stage (albedo).
136
Having passed through death (nigredo), aqua vitae first
separated the matter into two bodies, then unified and re-animated it into a single, everlasting
body. The process of this great work paralleled the journey of man’s soul from sin to salvation,
from mortal death to immortal life.
In Psalm 133, God used his agent, Aaron, to cleanse the Israelites with the “dew of
Hermon,” the healing ointment of good government and a unified church, and from this
blessing they received eternal life.
137
In validating the conquest of Guiana as a just endeavor,
Keymis argued that its heathen inhabitants yearned for discipline, justice, and good order “the
sence and sweetnesse thereof, is as the dewe of Hermon.” However, they could not achieve it
alone, and so sought it—nay, they “doe prostitute themselves unto us like a faire and beautiful
woman”—from their English allies.
138
In delivering these people from Spanish oppression and
the tyranny of idolatry, the Queen as alchemist would endow Guiana with this good
government, the dew of grace, and thereby accomplish conquest without violence. Keymis
insisted: “they could hope for, nor desire no better state and usage, then her Majesties gracious

136 Flammel, 172; Abraham, Dictionary, 4, 9, 124-128
137 The Holy Bible, Psalm 133.
138 Keymis, D3v, F2v.
244

government.”
139
This precious dew would not only anoint Guiana, but just as it flowed from
the geographically distant Mount Hermon to Mount Zion, it would reach across the ocean to
cleanse England. The conquest of Guiana, Keymis argued, would bring the commonwealth
riches as “her chiefe treasure house,” employment for the idle, and an end to petty lawsuits
between neighbors.
140

For Keymis, a Guiana plantation mirrored the chemical wedding: English and Guianians
joined together into a single body from which both divine and earthly treasures would flow.
United they would form an indomitable body to attack the “monstrous body” of Spain and the
West Indies. Countering critics who called Ralegh’s discovery a fantasy, Keymis cited Spain’s
recent dispatch of colonists and African slaves to Trinidad and Guiana as proof of a kingdom
so rich Philip II would leave himself vulnerable in other parts of the empire “to keep this one
Iron more in the fire, on no other assurance, but a peremptorie disdaine of prevention.”
141

Though Spanish industry and toil had fashioned a large empire of wealth and plenty, it was
“tyed together with cables onlie” into an imperfect and fragile entity.
142
Keymis asserted that
the diversity of the Spanish American colonies was its Achilles’ heel, and Spain’s dependence
upon American treasure demonstrated they did not possess the West Indies, but were possessed
by them. The King’s growing awareness of this fatal weakness was an existential blow, and so
he distracted England away from Guiana by sending Jesuits and seminarians to sow discord in
England and threatened new invasions. By contrast, Ralegh’s previous success in making
indigenous alliances showed England would genuinely incorporate Guiana into its body
politic, and together they would be stronger and more defensible than England alone against

139 Ibid, D3r.
140 Ibid, E2v, F2v, F3v.
141 Ibid, E4r-F1v.
142 Ibid, F2r.
245

Spain. From Guiana, indigenous forces under the command of English officers would penetrate
the heart, or treasury, of the Spanish Empire in Peru and New Granada, and thus render Spain
a “purse without money, or a painted sheath without a dagger.”
143

Lacking Harriot’s keen observations and Ralegh’s engaging prose, Keymis’ fusty account
found less success with readers and corresponded with declining interest among Ralegh's
backers to finance ventures with uncertain and heretofore unprofitable aims. Though the legend
of El Dorado was a weak draw for capital, Ralegh was not yet ready to give up on his dream.
After a fit of pique over the Queen’s continued chilliness toward him, during which he
threatened to “goe to the plough, and never harken after imploiements any more,” Ralegh
heeded Keymis’ advice and on 27 December 1596 dispatched Captain Leonard Berry to
explore the Oyapock, Courantyne, and Essequibo rivers for a route to Manoa.
144
In the
Courantyne they met Captain John Ley, a veteran of Frobisher’s northwest voyages.
145
Using
Keymis’ account as a guide, Ley took the initiative to open English trade on the southeast coast
of Guiana and search for Manoa. For a time, Berry and Ley consorted together to explore the
region. Though they heard reports that Lake Parima, the supposed location of Manoa, was one
day’s journey from the Essequibo’s termination, Berry and Ley had no means to pass that far
inland and feared provoking the enmity of the gold-rich Wacchawayans, through whose
territory they needed to pass. Berry returned to England with nothing of note, while Ley
continued to the Amazon River, where he traded with some Tupi for enough greenstones and
spleen stones to recoup his costs in the venture.
146
Ley returned to Wiapoco in 1598 to leave

143 Ibid, E3v, F1v, F2v.
144 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, xc; HMC Lord De L’isle & Dudley, 218.
145 Hakluyt, 1599-1600, 3:694.
146 The Essequibo and Courantyne do not intersect, though it is possible that inland the floodplains caused
during the inundations created temporary connections. Lake Parima was in fact the floodplain of the Rupununi
Savannah. Ibid, 3:695-696.
246

an agent for trade; the same year, John Meysinge visited Cuyuní and probably initiated the
profitable but illicit tobacco trade that buoyed interest in an English colony in South America
even as hopes of finding gold remained unfulfilled.
147

Back in England Ralegh, newly restored as Captain of the Guard, planned an Azores
expedition with Cecil and the Earl of Essex, and employed Keymis as his lieutenant.
148
The
expedition was a fiasco and ended a brief detente between Ralegh and Essex. Though there
were whispers of a new Guiana voyage with Lord Thomas Howard and Sir George Carew as
investors, the opportunity to rebuild his dissipated estate and ambition for a seat on the Privy
Council consumed Ralegh’s time and attention.
149
Unable to prosecute a new venture
personally, in September 1598 Ralegh encouraged John Stanley to petition Cecil to lead a new
venture. Recently liberated from a Madrid prison where he had met Francis Sparry, he told
Cecil that Sparry had mapped gold mines unknown to the Spanish. However, Stanley soon
confessed he had only procured his release by converting to Catholicism and entering into a
plot with English Jesuits to poison the Queen.
150

This was no matter to Ralegh, since he was already in conference with Duke Karl, Regent
of Sweden, to finance a Guiana colony. Fresh off what at first appeared a decisive victory in
Sweden’s civil war, on 25 September Ambassador James Hill wrote Cecil that the Duke would
commit twelve ships for Ralegh’s venture.
151
This agreement with Duke Karl may have
coordinated with his nephew’s hastily-organized expedition to colonize Guiana in October and

147 Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 314-315; Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 19-
20, 25; Williamson, English Colonies, 27.
148 The Queen elevated Ralegh to Captain of the Guard in late May or early June 1597. HMC Lord De
L’isle & Dudley, 286.
149 HMC Lord De L’isle & Dudley, 244.
150 Captain John Stanley, “Captain Jo. Stanley to Sir Robert Cecil,” Hat., CP 64/44 (22 September 1598);
Ralegh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 267n. 6.
151 James Hill, “James Hyll to Lord Buckhurst,” Hat., CP 64/55 (Finland, 25 September 1598).
247

November 1598. Sir John Gilbert the younger’s voyage never materialized, probably due to
the rapid disintegration of the peace agreement in Sweden, which left Duke Karl unable to
honor his commitment to Ralegh.
152
For the time being Ralegh had to be content with sending
messages to his Amerindian allies via English merchants, a strategy that successfully stoked
their hopes for his eventual return. In fact, Ralegh’s name became revered in Guiana, and
subsequent English and Dutch traders used it to establish relations with the Amerindians for
trade. In the late seventeenth century, visitors to Surinam still reported Waterali was an
honorific title.
153

Even as the specter of Frobisher’s fool’s gold provoked skepticism in the Queen and
English speculators about the practicality of Ralegh’s project, other European adventurers
considered it credible enough to embark on their own enterprises—the Dutch from 1596,
Florence in 1608-09, and France in 1609 and 1613—which nourished Ralegh’s belief that
Guiana was a golden prize worth capturing for England.
154
The Dutch, who had been trading
in South America for many years and briefly considered establishing a Guiana colony in 1581,
made the most concerted imperial efforts in the region. In 1597, Adraien Cabeliau invited
Ralegh to join a Dutch expedition under the command of Jacob Cornelisz, an offer Ralegh

152 This was not the end of Swedish interest in Guiana. In 1609 Dutch merchant Abraham Cabeliau,
probably Adriaen Cabeliau of the 1598 Dutch voyage to Guiana, took up residence in Göteberg, a Dutch
settlement in Sweden established by Karl IX. He became a trusted advisor to Adolphus Gustavus, who appointed
him director of Sweden’s South Sea Company (Söderssjökompagnie) in 1629. Though Sweden never established
a colony in Guiana, Paul Sellin recently argued that before his death in August 1628, the Duke of Buckingham
entered secret negotiations with Adolphus Gustavus to discover Ralegh’s mines in the Orinoco. John
Chamberlain, “John Chamberlain to Dud. Carleton,” TNA, SP 12/268, fol. 141v (20 October 1598); Richard
Bayley, “Ri. Bayley to Col. Sir Wm. Stanley,” TNA, SP 12/268, fol. 181v (19 November 1598); Vincent T.
Harlow, Ralegh's Last Voyage (London: The Argonaut Press, 1932), 5; George Edmundson, “The Swedish
Legend in Guiana,” The English Historical Review 14, no. 53 (January 1899): 84-86; Sellin, Treasure, Treason,
and the Tower, 1-24.
153 Ralegh, 1997, 46; Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimes, 6:1264.
154 Williamson, 39 n. 1, 64; Van de Veken received his license from the Estates General on 24 March 1597.
Burr, Report and Accompanying Papers, 2:3-9; William Leedal, “Declaration of Wm. Leedal,” TNA, SP 12/257,
fol. 86 (28 April 1596); Lorimer, Untruth and Consequences, 13.
248

entertained long enough to direct Cabeliau to prospect on the banks of the Caroní. Cabeliau
continued without Ralegh, using The Discoverie of Guiana as his guide and a miner provided
by Trinidad’s new governor Fernando de Berrío to look for mines according to Ralegh’s
description. Though Cabeliau found no evidence of gold, he remained confident that the mines
existed and told the Estates General they first needed to earn the trust of the Guianians by
allying with them against the Spanish before they could discover their location.
155

Based on mineral samples brought back by Dutch merchants, subsequent Dutch
expeditions followed in 1599, and by 1603 the Estates General debated a petition for a colony
in Wiapoco.
156
The petitioners said assay results on ore found in a vein of gold and silver
yielded from 10 guilders (60 florins) per ton of ore to an extraordinary 3 florins per pound of
ore, though they cautioned that the richness of the mine could not be accurately assessed until
they sent metallurgical experts and miners to Guiana. They also recommended no further
explorations until the Dutch secured a fort and pacified the native inhabitants. The petitioners
concluded: “For the manifold experience of many years has shown that on the aforesaid coasts
of America no riches can be drawn from the mines, and no profit earned from the fertility of
the soil, unless the land be first colonized.”
157
The petitioners anticipated a Dutch colony would
attract the aid of foreign speculators, particularly English, Swedish, French, and German, who
would be eager to exploit Guiana’s mines; moreover, they proposed that a Dutch colony in
Guiana could open a new theater of war against Spain, thereby exerting enough pressure to
end the Dutch Republic’s protracted struggle for independence. For the time being, the Estates

155 Burr, 2:15, 20.
156 Burr, 2:23.
157 Ibid, 2:29.
249

General held off on establishing a colony in Guiana but by 1613 Guiana increasingly became
a Dutch sphere of influence.
158

For their part, the Spanish sent reinforcements to Trinidad, established a new fort in the
Orinoco at Los Arias, and reaffirmed alliances with the Arawaks and other native groups.
Illness, however, plagued the two forts, killing Don Antonio de Berrío and leaving only 150
Spaniards in the province.
159
Ferdinando de Berrío, Antonio’s son and successor, nevertheless
continued to search for El Dorado and planned to bring settlers and cattle from Spain,
Margarita, and New Granada.
160
Cabeliau told the Estates General that while the Spanish
persisted in their conquest of the gold-rich Guiana (“om het goudryk Weyana te
conquesteren”), strong opposition from the Caribs had thus far impeded their efforts.
161
By the
early seventeenth century, the Spanish abandoned the quest for El Dorado and despite finding
alluvial deposits near San Thomé had not established any large-scale gold mining works.
Guiana had yet to bring Spain riches but provincial officials could not abide English and Dutch
encroachments in the region, and begged the King for more resources to shore up Spain’s
tenuous hegemony. Increasingly alarmed at the presence of Dutch and English merchants, Don
Diego Juarez de Amaya complained to King Philip III about Flemish ships lading salt at the
Araya mines near Cumaná and trading at Margarita. He grumbled about becoming a
“Hobgoblin at night” in arranging ambushes to keep the English and Dutch away.
Nevertheless, before 1612 there was little Spanish officials could do to stop the illicit traders.
162

158 Ibid, 2:32-3; Williamson, 64.
159 The Spanish abandoned Los Arias in 1601, leaving only San Thomé in the Orinoco. Adrian Cabeliau,
“Mem. of J. Canmer upon Pedro de Agila, a Prisoner,” TNA, SP 94/5, fol. 177 (20 March 1597).
160 Don Diego Guarez de Amaya, “Don Diego Guarez de Amaya to Philip III, and Petition,” TNA, SP 94/7,
fols. 137v-138r (Trinidad, 4 November 1600).
161 Burr, 2:18.
162 TNA SP 94/7, fol. 136-137.
250

CONCLUSION
K.R. Andrews long ago noted that the Crown was most likely to become involved in
overseas ventures that promised more immediate gains in gold or power, not projects involving
the transport of commodities or people.
163
If this is true (and I agree it is), then, superficially,
Ralegh’s venture in Guiana should have appealed to the Queen, but it did not. Part of this
failure was how he chose to represent his project, while the other was a fundamental
incompatibility with the Queen’s policy priorities. As a result of his own metallurgical
inexperience, Ralegh relied too heavily on El Dorado and plunder to make his case for a Guiana
colony. Despite Cecil’s editorial interventions to emphasize mines, this could not overcome
the apprehension that this was another gold fever like the Frobisher venture, especially when
some of the goldsmiths’ assay results indicated there was not enough gold to make smelting
profitable, while others reported extraordinarily good results. As Andrews wrote, “The talk of
gold aroused scepticism, as it had done ever since shiploads of rock from Baffin Island had
been used to mend the highways.”
164
While Ralegh conceived of his garrison colony as a
strategic necessity, the Queen disagreed about the wisdom of committing royal ships and
monies on any uncertain venture when they were needed in the European theater, a decision
reinforced by Spain’s 1595 attack at Penzance. Moreover, when it became clear that he would
need private investors to finance the project, Ralegh miscalculated in his decision to mask the
defects in his metallurgical evidence with an alchemical quest. Though appealing on its literary
merits, it was inadequate to convince prospective adventurers the risk was worth it.

163 Andrews, 14.
164 Ibid, 290.
251

CHAPTER 7
THE MAGAZINE OF METALS: THE GUIANA VENTURES, 1607-1618
INTRODUCTION
Sir Walter Ralegh’s imprisonment for treason between 1603 and 1616 brought Guiana back
to the forefront of his mind, yet this time around, he would be armed with his own metallurgical
expertise. At some point after his return from Guiana in 1595, Ralegh learned about metallurgy
and by 1602 was competent enough in assaying that Sir George Carew sent him ore samples from
Ireland to test for gold.
1
Ralegh continued his alchemical and metallurgical experiments in a garden
henhouse he converted into a still near his Tower cell, and wrote the now-lost manuscript, “Of
Mines and trials of Minerals.”
2
Whereas the myth of El Dorado had substituted for Ralegh’s lack
of metallurgical skill, he abandoned it as a rationalization for English intervention in Guiana as he
grew more confident in his abilities. Representative of his acquaintance with Agricola’s De re
metallica, Ralegh’s alchemical interpretation of Jason’s search for the golden fleece as a metaphor
for the discovery of Manoa evolved into a metallurgical fable about placer mining in the Caucasus,
wherein miners used wool as a sieve to separate gold grains from the alluvium. In Orpheus’ re-
telling, the obstacles faced by Jason and the Argonauts were allegories for the travails of mineral

1 Calendar of Carew Manuscripts, 1601-1603, 304-305.
2 On the lost manuscript, “Of Mines and Trials of Minerals” or “A tryall of cares and indications of mettalls and
Mines,” John Aubrey said it was in the possession of his friend Edmund Wyld, a fellow of the Royal Society with
particular interest in metallurgy. Anthony á Wood recorded “with other things which I have not yet seen. But I say it
again, that I verily think that several of those things before-mentioned, which go under his name, were never written
by him.” William Oldys mentioned it, though had never seen it. Sir William Waad, “Sir William Waad to the Earl of
Salisbury,” Hat., CP 112/16 (Tower, 19 August 1605); Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to [the Council],” Hat.
CP 107/108 (Tower, [9 November 1605]); Anthony á Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (London, 1691), 373; T. N.
Brushfield, A Bibliography of Sir Walter Raleigh, knt. (Exeter: James G. Commin, 1908), 311.
252

enterprise.
3
Guiana gold was not a fabulist’s creation, but an arduous labor for enterprising
Englishmen to embark upon and achieve the honor and riches of legend.
Ralegh’s 1617-18 Guiana voyage has been called an “aberration” and “anachronism” among
Jacobean colonial ventures like Virginia, Newfoundland, and Somers Island.
4
Scholars often
conflate this later voyage, which primarily sought a gold mine, with Ralegh’s earlier quest for El
Dorado. Rather, it was an aberration because he did not appeal to merchants in a period where
their capital played a critical role in the development of permanent colonies in the Americas, and
sustained English activities in Guiana during the first three decades of the seventeenth century.
Where Ralegh gave lip service to Guiana’s commercial prospects in the 1590s, after 1607 he
mentioned little but gold, dismissing the tobacco trade as “piddling.”
5
But for all its variance from
other ventures, Ralegh still convinced the King to release him from prison in 1616 to undertake
the voyage. How then do we explain James’ decision to permit this second voyage?
Historian Joyce Lorimer convincingly situated the Guiana projects among the vagaries of
Anglo-Spanish diplomacy. In 1603 the King declared his primary aim was peace, the wellspring
of commercial riches and public order. Yet at key moments he used the Guiana projects to pressure
Spain into terms more acceptable to England, especially in marriage negotiations for the Prince
(first Henry, then Charles) to wed the Infanta.
6
Motivated by Hispanophobia and what he regarded
as a dishonorable peace, a condition for the King to consider war, Ralegh turned to metallurgy to
promote the Guiana venture as a way for the King, bolstered by West Indian gold, to negotiate
with Spain from a position of strength rather than dependence. As historian Vincent T. Harlow

3 Agricola, 327-332. Raleigh, The History of the World, 431-432.
4 Ryan and Quinn, England’s Sea Empire, 164; Lorimer, “The Failure of the English Guiana Ventures,” 6.
5 Sir Walter Raleigh, An Abridgment of sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World (London, 1700), 57.
6 James I, King James VI and I: Political Writings, ed. Johann P. Somerville (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994), 134; Lorimer, “The Failure of the English Guiana Venture,” 20.
253

noted, after Sir Thomas Roe’s return from Guiana in 1610, a voyage Ralegh partially financed, he
no longer mentioned El Dorado. Instead he based his proposals on new assays of ore collected in
1595. Unfortunately, Ralegh’s venture, and indeed all of the Guiana ventures of the period, never
had a chance when the King tendered and withdrew his support for them seemingly upon a whim,
discouraging all but a few intrepid adventurers.
7

This was only part of the story. Upheavals in the Anglo-Spanish relationship mirrored the
kingdom’s financial distress, as a dearth of silver caused monetary contraction and commercial
stagnation. The government exacerbated these problems. In the absence of Parliamentary subsidies
to relieve the King’s debts and raise revenues, the Crown exploited the royal prerogative to squeeze
money from customs with additional impositions on goods. While impositions comprised an
important source of income, it inadequately addressed the Crown’s insolvency; it also fractured
the relationship between King and Parliament, stymying the first two Stuart Parliaments, which
would not consider supply without a redress of grievances. Vexed by Parliament’s obstinacy, the
King relied more heavily on the Spanish alliance and the prospect of a large dowry and handsome
annuity, which, in turn, informed his incoherent policy on American ventures.
Consumed by his exhausted exchequer, the King was not insensible to the sluggish economy
and deepening cloth depression after 1614, but his policies were limited by contemporary
conceptions about currency. In the wake of the mid-Tudor debasements, the English derived their
confidence in the currency from the close match between its intrinsic value and face value. King
James deemed fine monies necessary for just commutation and the surety of social order,
effectively nullifying debasement as a solution to monetary shortages.
8
Consequently, the King
adjusted gold and silver values to influence bimetallic flows. Imprisoned in the Tower near the

7 Harlow, Ralegh’s Last Voyage, 19; Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 40.
8 James I, Political Writings, 30.
254

royal mint and often laxly monitored, Ralegh was well-positioned to observe its happenings and
perhaps confer with mint officials, workers, and councilors about the King’s concerns regarding
money.
In the previous regime, the Crown maintained an 11:1 ratio of silver and gold to stimulate the
inflow of silver. Merchants eagerly imported silver to England, where it had more buying power
than in other European states, and profitably traded bullion or specie at the royal mint for newly-
struck silver coins. Undervalued gold was exported or hoarded, with the cumulative effect of the
loss manifesting in the last years of Elizabeth’s reign.
9
Whereas the Queen would have happily
accepted any gold Ralegh found in Guiana, her economic policies focused on the acquisition of
silver and she was unwilling to risk opening a new theater of war on the mere hope of a golden
kingdom. By contrast, King James’ disdain for the money economy and his preoccupation with
amassing gold led him to endorse policies to raise its value and encourage bullion imports. In
addition to strategic considerations, this chapter argues that the King’s attitude toward precious
metals and his financial distress, which was acute after 1615, played a critical role in the
continuation of the Guiana ventures; indeed, in 1616 it was the lynchpin for the King to overcome
his distrust of Ralegh and credit the metallurgical evidence enough to commission him for a new
expedition.
James, who compared himself to David and Solomon, both alleged alchemists, envisioned
himself as the golden king whose glorious reign would fulfill the promises of the white (silver)
queen’s reign. As such, the raiment of his kingdom would be “an immovable and perpetual stocke”

9 In 1599/1600, the Crown raised the bimetallic ratio to 11.5 to 1 to reduce the efflux of gold, but in 1601 dropped
it back down to 11 to 1 to keep silver in the realm. Between 1559 and 1603, silver dominated mint production at
approximately eighty-five percent, though in the 1590s it reached twenty-three percent. Barry Supple, “Currency and
Commerce in the Early Seventeenth Century,” The Economic History Review 10, no. 2 (1957), 241; C.E. Challis, The
Tudor Coinage, (Manchester, 1978), 168-9; C.E. Challis, ed., A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), 251.
255

of gold to cultivate a high reputation among the princes of Europe, enrich the commonwealth, and
preserve order.
10
To create this stock, the King revalued gold several times to retain and attract it
into the realm. However, as his relationship with Parliament deteriorated, the King adjusted the
ratio too high, precipitating the massive efflux of silver after 1611 and slowing the pace of
commercial activity as silver became scarcer for everyday transactions. While the mint’s output
between 1611 and 1618 nearly tripled the Elizabethan mint in its last seven years, the proportion
of silver coins struck never exceeded five percent, and in 1616-20 reached a nadir of .6 percent or
less.
11
As mentioned in Chapter 5, the Crown issued copper farthings as an interim solution, to
popular protest. Though concerned about the silver shortage, with debts nearing ₤1 million, the
King considered gold more answerable to repay his creditors and establish his perpetual stock. In
the midst of his fiscal crisis and unwilling to call a new Parliament, the King risked rupturing the
Anglo-Spanish alliance to address his financial woes with an influx of American gold.

RALEGH IN THE TOWER
On James’ accession to the throne of England, panegyrists celebrated him with imagery of the
sun, gold, and metals. At the coronation, Henry Petowe complimented the new king’s “reflecting
gleames, Compos’d of sacred metall: made by Jove.” The golden glow of his princely love, Petowe
flattered, transformed hostile Englishmen into loyal subjects.
12
Poet Michael Drayton depicted

10 James I, By the King. A proclamation against exportation of gold and silver (London, 1615), 258; Simon
Wortham, “Sovereign Counterfeits: The Trial of the Pyx,” Renaissance Quarterly 42, no. 2, (1996), 343.
11 The proportion in April 1616- March 1617 was 99.4, in April 1617- March 1618 was 99.9, in April 1618-
March 1619 was 99.7, and in April 1619- March 1620 was 100 percent. This estimate is based on a report given to the
Privy Council in 1618, which compared mint output between 1596-1603 to mint output from 1611-1618. Privy
Council, “A letter to the King,” TNA, PC 2/30, fols. 45-46 (30 November 1618); Challis, A New History of the Royal
Mint, 313.
12 Henry Petowe, England's Caesar His Majesties most royall coronation (London, 1603), C3r.
256

James’ reign as the realization of England’s imperial destiny to expand beyond the archipelago
and across the Atlantic:
Saturne to thee his soveraignty resignes,/ Op’ning the lock’d way to the wealthy mines:/ And till thy raigne Fame
all this while did hover,/ The North-west passage that thou might’st discover/ Unto the Indies, where that treasure
lies/ Whose plenty might ten other worlds suffice./ Neptune and Jove together doe conspire,/ This gives his
trydent, that his three-forkt fire,/ And to thy hand doe give the kayes to keepe,/ Of the profound immeasurable
deepe.13
Drawing on the myth of Saturn’s golden-age rule and his association with the Roman treasury,
Drayton proposed that if James encouraged the discovery of the Northwest Passage, then England
would experience its own golden age undergirded by the bullion of America’s wealthy mines.
Linking exploration with alchemy in engendering this golden age, Saturn represented the prima
materia in the black stages of transmutation, which the “three-forkt fire” of mercury, sulphur, and
salt transformed into the philosopher’s stone.
The Scottish king’s accession did not inaugurate a golden age for everyone. Before the
Queen’s death, Ralegh had unwisely rebuffed James’ attempt to cultivate his support, and
unbeknownst to him Sir Robert Cecil and Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton spent two years
convincing the King of Ralegh’s opposition to his succession in England.
14
Shortly after
Elizabeth’s funeral the King deprived Ralegh of his position as Captain of the Guard, his
monopolies, and Durham House; just days before the coronation in July 1603, he imprisoned
Ralegh as a conspirator in the Main Plot to depose him in favor of Lady Arabella Stuart. Deeply
depressed at this sudden reversal of fortune, Ralegh made a futile suicide attempt. Despite weak
evidence against him, the jury returned a guilty verdict. In a public demonstration of his royal

13 Michael Drayton, To the Majestie of King James A gratulatorie poem by Michaell Drayton (London, 1603),
A4v.
14 Pauline Croft, “Howard, Henry, earl of Northampton (1540–1614),” ODNB.
257

authority, the King did not inform Ralegh that his death sentence had been commuted to life
imprisonment until after he was on the scaffold.
After his reprieve, Ralegh borrowed metaphors of natural science and alchemy in his oft-
quoted letter to the King on 21 January 1604. In declaring his innocence of treason, Ralegh
employed metallic imagery:
But your great Majesty and not I, must Judge of both, Name, Bloud, Gentillety or estate I have none, no not so
mich as a being, no not so mich as vita planta, I have only a penetent sowle in a body of Iron which moveth
towards the loadstone of death, & cannot be witheld from towchinge it unles your Majesties mercy turne the
poynt towards it which repelleth.
15

Here Ralegh compared himself to Job: forsaken by friends, dispossessed of his wealth and
patrimony, and punished for crimes he denied committing. In the liminal state of civil but not
physical death, Ralegh bemoaned that he had neither his estate and patrimony nor even his
vegetative soul (vita planta), the animating force shared by plants, metals, animals, and humans,
which elevated them from mere substance into generative beings.
16
Stultified by prison life and
reduced to mere flesh, he was inexorably drawn to the relief from tribulation death promised. Just
as Job wondered if his body was made of brass to endure perpetual travails, Ralegh said that though
his iron body had withstood great trials, only the anticipation of the King’s mercy and eventual
liberation to serve him prevented Ralegh from seeking the solace of death.
Ralegh’s depression lifted a few months later as he saw an opportunity to renew his suit for
Guiana with the conclusion of the Anglo-Spanish War and the King’s new mineral and monetary
policies, which favored the acquisition of gold. The King had previously declared the righteous

15 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to the King,” Hat., CP 102/111 ([21 January 1604]).
16 Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle’s De Anima: in the version of William of Moerbeke and the
Commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Kenelm Foster and Silvester Humphries (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1954; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2007), 210-212.
258

and just monarch’s duty was to procure the wealth and prosperity of his subjects, an objective
achieved by securing peace for the realm from both external and internal conflicts.
17
One source
of conflict was a lack of royal metals to base a creditable monetary standard. To increase the
domestic supply of gold and silver, he granted Bevis Bulmer and George Bowes licenses and start-
up capital to mine at Crawford Moor in Scotland; he also issued new patents for the Mines Royal
and the Mineral & Battery Works.
18
The King decried Ireland’s debased sterling coins and
reinstated the former silver standard for their monies, deeming confidence in sterling monies
critical to restoring order in Ireland. Hereafter, he resolved against future debasements.
19

The volatility of silver values bespoke flux and disorder for the King, and with political
economists like Gerard Malynes blaming this instability on foreign exchange and debasements, he
distrusted the money economy because of the potential for private profit to erode the social fabric.
20

Comparatively untouched by debasements and of relatively stable standard, gold appeared as “a
‘true’ and constant touchstone of value … thought to transcend ephemeral changes of exchange
rate.”
21
Harmonizing the valuation and fineness of England’s coinage with an ideal bimetallic ratio
could thus fix both social and economic relations according to notions of a divine, natural order
over which the King presided as pater patriae. On 15 November 1604, the Crown proclaimed a
recoinage of monies to a new ratio of 12:1. Assuring the people that the new coins would be of an
enhanced, “uniforme Standard and allay,” the Crown instituted this to remedy the disordered
proportion that led to the outflow of gold.
22
The King also increased the seignorage on striking

17 James I, Political Writings, 143.
18 CSP James I, 1603-1610, 51, 68, 90, 135.
19 Sir George Carey, Lord Deputy, and Council, “Ireland, the Moneys there,” TNA, SP 63/215, fol. 230 (11
October 1603.
20 Gerard Malynes, A Treatise of the Canker of Englands Common wealth (London, 1601), 100.
21 Wortham, “Sovereign Counterfeits,” 342.
22 James I, A proclamation for coynes (London, 1604).
259

gold coins to make it more profitable for the Crown. As a result, mint output of gold coins increased
from 6.1% to 46.3% in one year.
23

As Crown officials implemented the King’s plans to increase stores of precious metals, they
finalized the Treaty of London on 28 August 1604 to end the war with Spain. This treaty affirmed
the status quo antebellum with Spain, but left the legitimacy of English colonies in the Americas
unresolved; nevertheless Cecil and the Lord Admiral convinced the King to press his right to
colonize any part of the Americas unoccupied by a Christian prince.
24
Ralegh capitalized on the
peace to solicit a pardon so he might serve the King, possibly in Holland “wher I shall perchance
gett some imployment uppon the Indies,” unaware of Cecil’s manipulation of the King's antipathy
toward him.
25
When he discovered his erstwhile friend’s perfidy soon thereafter, he wondered at
Cecil’s transformation from amity to callousness toward him: “I know that law, & condemnation
ar formal arguments to men of Iron harts.”
26
Ralegh operated under the mistaken belief that
Guiana’s fate was inextricably linked to his own, but Cecil and the Lord Admiral had already
anticipated him in renewing the project, lobbying the King to grant a license for Charles Leigh to
settle at Wiapoco. Leigh planned to prospect for gold and plant sugarcane, flax, and cotton.
27
This
venture served a dual purpose to assert the King’s imperial rights in the Atlantic world and bring
gold into the exchequer. Though Leigh brought refiner Thomas Richardson with him, he
discovered no mines. Illness, growing hostility from Amerindians, and a mutiny led by Master
Martin Pring doomed the colony early on; nevertheless, Leigh remained optimistic about the
enterprise. Two attempts to re-supply the colony could not sustain it, and after Leigh’s death at

23 Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, 313, 317.
24 Quinn, Explorers and Colonies, 325-328.
25 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Lord Cecil,” Hat., CP 109/16 ([1604, before Aug. 20]).
26 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Viscount Cranborne” Hat., CP 109/13 ([1604. after August]).
27 Lorimer, “Failure of English Guiana Ventures,” 16.
260

Wiapoco in 1606, the settlers arranged passage back to England on merchant ships visiting the
area to obtain tobacco.
28

As the Guiana colonists limped back to England between 1606 and 1607, English merchants
came to the grim realization that peace had not normalized trade relations with Spain and the West
Indies. Spain violently suppressed nascent attempts at settlement by the Dutch, French, and
English in the West Indies, and became more dogged about preserving the Americas as an Iberian
domain. Two merchants imprisoned in Lisbon after their capture in the West Indies objected that
Spaniards treated English merchants indistinguishably from Flemish or French traders, assaulting
them and impounding their ships. They worried about the fate of “Captain Catalini,” one of Charles
Leigh’s settlers who had been pressed into galley service.
29
Near Puerto Rico, Spanish merchants
captured Sir Ferdinando Gorges’ ship commanded by Captain Henry Challon, on its return from
the new Sagadahoc settlement, the second colony under the recently-incorporated Virginia
Company.
30
The merchants were outraged and Parliament held a conference to consider reprisals
against Spain.
It was not just the interruption of trade with Spain that the King worried about, but also
declining deposits of bullion at the mint. The gold mines at Crawford Moor produced little to show

28 Charles Leigh, “Capt. Chas. Leigh to the Council,” TNA SP 14/8, fol. 174 (Guiana, 2 July 1604); Williamson,
English Colonies in Guiana, 38-39; Purchas, 1625, 6:1250-1255. Leigh was a client of the Cecils. In 1597, he
commanded the attempt to establish a Brownist settlement at the Magdalen Islands. In 1602, the Lord Admiral and
Cecil commissioned Leigh for a voyage to Algiers and on the return he reconnoitered the Guiana coast. Joyce Lorimer,
“Leigh, Charles (bap. 1572, d. 1605),” ODNB; David B. Quinn, “The First Pilgrims,” The William & Mary Quarterly
23, no. 3 (July 1966), 371-732.
29 This could refer to Captain Cataline (Catlin), who was the second-in-command on Sir Oliph Leigh’s Oliph
Blossom in 1605. John Nicholls counted him among the four men who became ill and arranged passage back to Lisbon
before they reached Cabo Blanco in Africa. It could also be Captain Catlin, one of Charles Leigh’s original settlers at
Wiapoco, who left Guiana on 14 October 1605 in a Flemish ship according to Doctor William Turner. William Squire
and Thomas Tiler, “William Squier, factor for John Eldred, and Thomas Tiler, factor for Mr. Cromblie, to the Earl of
Salisbury,” Hat., CP 115/148 (Lisbon, 19/29 March 1606/7); John Nicholl, An Houre Glasse of Indian Newes (London,
1607), B2r; Purchas, 1625, 6:1267.
30 Nevill Davis, “Nevill Davis to Sir John Popham. Lord Chief Justice,” Hat., CP 120/53 (Seville, 25 January/
4 February 1606/7); Sir Ferdinando Gorges, “Sir Ferdinando Gorges to the Earl of Salisbury, Enclosed The Relation
of Daniel Tucker, Merchant,” Hat., CP 115/88-89 (4 February 1606/7).
261

for the Crown’s investment, as the white spar proved difficult to work and Scotland’s wet and
windy weather limited the mining season; by 1608 Bulmer was mining silver on the Lord Advocate
of Scotland’s lands.
31
The effects of the 1604 adjustment had largely worn off, and while mint
output of gold coins rose to 63.4% by 1608-09, growth plateaued as neighboring states adjusted
their ratios to prevent the outflow of gold.
32
Sir Richard Martyn, former master of the mint, worried
that the reduction in gold coins was due to the resumption of gold exportation.
33
Furthermore, the
Crown had long since spent the ₤400,000 subsidy granted by Parliament in solidarity with the King
after the Gunpowder Plot. Beset by climbing debts leftover from Elizabeth’s reign and the royal
family’s profligacy, the King met with the Privy Council and avowed he would observe “as straite
a dyete” and “suche remedies & antidotes” as they might recommend for his “eating canker of
wante” because he perceived his dearth as a potentially fatal weakness that could topple his
monarchy.
34

A glimmer of hope to resolve the King’s gold shortage came with Christopher Newport’s
anticipated arrival in England with the first ore samples from Virginia. Kept abreast of Jamestown
news, in the weeks before his return Ralegh exploited the excitement to revive the Guiana suit
based on a new analysis of ore brought back in 1595. In his chemical notebook, Ralegh left a
receipt for assaying the Guiana ore, annotated with the names of goldsmiths Beale and Andrew
Palmer. Ralegh explained his test of the ore with Beale’s technique:

31 James Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, “Lord Balmerino to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 190/145
(Holyroodhouse, 29 July 1605); Magdalen Bowes, “Magdalen Bowes to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP Petitions 576
([1607?]); George Bowes, “Geo. Bowes to Lord Cecil,” TNA, SP 14/8, fol. 227r (Cadrus Cottage, 18 July 1604); John
Reynolds, “Certificate by John Reynolds of a trial made of silver ore,” TNA, SP 14/35, fol. 86r (Tower of London,
13 August 1608); J.D. Gould, “The Royal Mint in the Early Seventeenth Century,” The Economic History Review 5,
no. 2 (1952), 245.
32 Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, 313.
33 Sir Richard Martyn, “Sir Richard Martyn to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 195/46 (6 September 1608).
34 James I and VI, King of England and Scotland, “King James to the Council,” Hat., CP 134/113 (19 October
1607).
262

I tried the oare of Guiana in this sort; I took of the oare beaten small, 12 graynes of filled lead half an ownce, of
Sandever a quarter of an ownce. I beat the Sandever small & then mixed all together & putt it into a crosett,
covering it with another crosett that had a little hole in the topp and luted both together; then I covered all with
good coal & with two paire of ordenary bellowes we blew in it till all was melted down. Then we putt the lead
uppon a test under a muffle till the lead was consumed, & had of the 12 graynes a quarter of a grayn of gold.
35

Using this method, Ralegh yielded a quarter-grain of gold out of twelve grains, or 2% gold, far
lower than the original 1595 results but still well above the expectation for high-grade ore.
36
With
Palmer’s method, he first melted the ore with a black flux of ground tartar and saltpeter to fuse the
metals apart from the slag. The resulting metal button was then melted with lead oxide, which
vaporized any remaining impurities and alloyed with any silver, leaving a gold bead in the
crucible.
37
This process of first melting ore with a flux and thereafter with lead accorded with assay
instructions in Agricola’s De re metallica, a compendium of best metallurgical practices.
38
Ralegh
mentioned no results from Palmer’s method, possibly indicating an unfavorable assay. In the
Tower, Ralegh took Beale’s and Palmer’s methods a step further. An alchemist named Sampson
later recalled assisting Ralegh to precipitate gold with aqua fortis (nitric acid). Called quartation,
this process separated the gold by dissolving any remaining silver in the metallic bead. The weight
of the remaining gold was then subtracted from the weight of the gold-silver bead to calculate
ounces per ton of ore.
39

35 This may be William Beale, goldsmith of London, who lived at All Hallows Honey Lane. “Palmer” referred
to Andrew Palmer, who died in 1599. Sir Walter Raleigh, “Chemical receipts of Sr Walter Rawleigh,” BL, Sloane MS
359, fol. 52v (17
th
Century). Sandiver is liquid saline matter, also known as glass-gall, used as a flux to reduce and
separate the metal from the slag. Crosett is cruset (creuset), or crucible. “Crevet, or Cruset, from the French word
Creux, hollow, a Goldsmiths melting pot.” Edward Phillips, The new world of English words (London, 1658), K3v.
36 Sellin, 270.
37 Saltpeter is potassium nitrate. Tartar is bitartrate of potassium, a residue of fermented wine also called argol.
Red lead or lead oxide is obtained from litharge by exposing it to hot air.
38 Agricola, 232-244.
39 John Ward, Diary of the Rev. John Ward, ed. Charles Severn (London, 1839), 168-169. Quartation was
described by both Biringuccio and Agricola, and perhaps introduced to England by 1594. In later wet techniques,
assayers precipitated gold using aqua regia, a mix of nitric and hydrochloric acid to separate the gold by dissolving
the silver. Thomas Kirke Rose, The Metallurgy of Gold (London, 1898), 398. Theodor Bodemann and Bruno Kerl, A
263

In July 1607 Sir Amyas Preston informed Cecil about Ralegh’s new assays. When questioned
whether or not this hitherto obscure mine was a pretension to obtain his liberty, Ralegh told Cecil
that he had collected the ore near a mountain easily accessible by the river. Unwilling to trust Cecil,
he remained vague on its location in the event the suit failed. Ralegh revealed his logic for
obfuscation in a defense of alchemists in the History of the World (London, 1614). Though
alchemists ought to share their discoveries for the public good, Ralegh understood their decision
to keep them out of print or veiled in esotericism:
For it is a kinde of injustice, that the long travels of an understanding braine, beside the losse of time, and other
expence, should be cast away upon men of no worth; or yeeld lesse benefit unto the Author of a great worke,
than to meere strangers; and perhaps his enemies.
40

In this passage, not only did Ralegh align himself with alchemists, but he evoked inevitable
comparisons between alchemists called charlatans and his own excoriation over Guiana while
other men like Cecil, Charles Leigh, and Robert Harcourt looked to build their fortunes on his
labors. In any case, Ralegh’s limited metallurgical knowledge in 1595, coupled with Cecil’s doubts
about the ore’s richness and its “similitude … with other merquesite formerly found” had
convinced him that it held no value. Ralegh nonetheless kept a store of the ore with him at the
Tower.
41

During an apocryphal visit from a refiner, Ralegh chanced to show him the quartz rock and
promised ₤20 if he could detect gold or silver in the ore. Ralegh dismissed concerns that the refiner
cozened him, mentioning that he had reserved some of the ore for another trial. By 1611, Ralegh
described the ore as “slate” and the following year he said he had accidentally discovered the

Treatise on the Assaying of Lead, Copper, Silver, Gold, and Mercury, trans. W.A. Goodyear (New York, 1878), 13,
173-174, 177.
40 Ralegh, History of the World, 516-517.
41 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 124/121 ([1607]).
264

Guiana sand he used to blot ink was auriferous. Three or four tests of the sand reportedly yielded
sixteen percent gold. Ralegh sent samples of the ore to the Privy Council and Lord Thomas Knyvet,
warden of the mint, apparently confirmed his results. With these positive assays, Ralegh beseeched
Cecil to weigh his animosity toward him in the balance of his “wisdome & pietie,” or, more
accurately, to let his desire to find new revenue trump his hatred.
42
Cecil dutifully presented
Ralegh’s suit to the Privy Council despite reservations about the new assays, doubts shared by Sir
Walter Cope. Comparing Ralegh’s trials to assays on the Virginia ore, Cope sniped: “yow shall
not be fed by handfulls or hattfulls after the Tower measure.”
43

Ralegh projected the venture could be undertaken with an investment of ₤5000, of which
Ralegh and his partners would put up a third part. Ralegh offered the Queen and Cecil half of the
profits if they contributed the remaining two-thirds parts. Alluding to the vast quantities of
worthless ore Frobisher brought to England, Ralegh estimated higher initial costs to support
mining operations in Guiana for three or four months and to purchase six pairs of large bellows
and bricks so they could smelt the ore into bullion, “for to bring all in oare would be more
notorious.”
44
This comment likewise applied to Newport’s transport of equally worthless ore from
Virginia. To allay concerns about conflict with the Spanish, Ralegh planned only to trade with the
Guianians and to keep their arrival a secret. As Newport was still in England, the venture could
sail under the guise of going back to Virginia with him.
With Cecil’s half-hearted support, Ralegh appealed to the Queen to present his suit to the
King. As earlier in The Discoverie of Guiana, Ralegh claimed the journey was worse than
imprisonment and hence not embarked upon with dishonest motives: “for to him that hath not

42 Hat., CP 124/121; Raleigh, 1848, 166; Raleigh, 2006, 302.
43 Sir Walter Cope, “Sir Walter Cope to the Earl of Salisbury,” Hat., CP 124/18 ([August, 1607]).
44 Hat., CP 124/121.
265

beene bredd a slavish marriner the imprisonment of a longe navigation is farre more greivous than
the Tower of London.”
45
He saw it as God’s providence for the Crown to obtain Guiana’s easy
riches in spite of their “malitious enemies abroade and your grunting subjects at home,” but
predicted they would not lay hidden much longer. If pardoned to discover these mines, Ralegh
promised he would make “good proofe” of his loyalty to the King.
46
He also tried to commission
John Ramsey, Viscount Haddington, a Scottish noble and favorite of the King, to adventure with
him. He told Viscount Haddington that his destiny was not to live out his days in prison but rather
in service to the King, and implied his true motive was not freedom but the discovery of a
salubrious remedy to the King’s ills and the recovery of his reputation and estate.
47

The project ultimately faltered when Ralegh balked at Cecil’s condition to send Lawrence
Keymis to the Orinoco to find the mine and bring home proof before Ralegh would have his liberty
for a larger venture. Ralegh insisted that the cost of two voyages was too great for him to bear,
since he was embroiled in a lawsuit over his Sherbourne estate, which the King desired to give to
his favorite Sir Robert Carr. Ralegh partially conceded to Cecil’s request, outfitting the Primrose
to carry factors to trade at Wiapoco and renew relations with his indigenous contacts.
48
In October
1608 the Exchequer Court ruled against Ralegh’s conveyance of Sherbourne to his eldest son due
to a clerk’s transcription error back in 1603. Ralegh’s uncertain financial situation persisted until
9 February 1610, when he finally reached an agreement to surrender Sherbourne to the King in
exchange for a lump sum of ₤8000 and a ₤400 annuity given to trustees Thomas Harriot, John

45 Sir Walter Raleigh, The Letters of Sir Walter Ralegh, eds. Agnes M.C. Latham and Joyce Youings (Exeter:
University of Exeter Press, 1999), 330.
46 Raleigh, The Letters, 331.
47 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to Viscount Haddington,” Hat., CP 103/49 (1610?); Raleigh, The
Letters, 301.
48 Raleigh, The Letters, 322-323; Robert Harcourt, A Relation of a Voyage to Guiana (London, 1613), 7.
266

Shelbury, and Lawrence Keymis for the care of his wife and heir.
49
By then, the King had long
since scuttled Ralegh’s project, favoring Robert Harcourt to attempt a new colony at Wiapoco.
Serious doubts about Virginia’s long-term potential in 1609 brought Guiana back into
contention as a promising site for English colonization and the discovery of gold to enrich the
King’s over-burdened treasury. Cecil assiduously campaigned for a subsidy from Parliament but
prospects looked bleak, not least due to the King’s reservations about curtailing his privileges to
redress Parliament’s grievances. In a speech before Parliament on 21 March 1609, the King averred
his greatest treasures were the riches of his people, but he cautioned that with his estate
encumbered by debts, the kingdom lacked the sinews of war and peace. To his mind, a wealthy
exchequer promoted peace by securing domestic harmony and reducing England’s dependence on
foreign alliances, yet signaled the Crown could afford a war if necessary. He warned Parliament
how their continued denial of supply appeared to foreign princes and diminished his reputation
abroad: “And what can they thinke … but that either ye are unwilling to helpe mee, thinking me
unworthy thereof, or at least that my State is so desperate, as it cannot be repaired.”
50

The King reiterated this point in a proclamation, where he said a “perpetuall Stocke” of bullion
would adorn the state in peacetime, and make it “redoubtles & puissant” in time of war. Praising
England’s natural commodities as the “Contynewall springe-head of Treasure of Gold and Silver”
to ornament and be stored by the Crown, he strengthened laws preventing the export of bullion,
saying private greed undermined the public peace, “which is increase of wealth and Riches.” He
singled out the East India and Levant trades as “a Naturall Drayne” of bullion from the realm;
conversely, American colonies would be a net contributor of treasure by expanding the domestic

49 In November 1608, Cecil encouraged the King to proceed with granting Robert Carr the estate. Raleigh, The
Letters, 314n. 5; James I, “King James to [the Earl of Salisbury],” Hat., CP 134/149 (23 November 1608).
50 James I, Political Writings, 195, 198.
267

supply of natural commodities and stimulating the re-export trade. The King called advances in
the monetary standard a necessary but ultimately unnatural means, “an artificall Engyne,” of
attracting bullion and reducing the import of foreign luxuries. Even the reconstituted office of the
Royal Exchanger could not prevent the efflux of bullion.
51
This proclamation therefore advised
merchants of more stringent regulation by the customers, while his council advised on further
actions to ensure “the tru institucon of Marchaundizinge & permutacon or Monyes may be
fixed.”
52

The timing of the two Guiana ventures undertaken by Robert Harcourt and Sir Thomas Roe
thus came at an ideal time to rescue the King’s embattled finances. Harcourt approached Sir
Thomas Chaloner, an old friend of his expatriate kinsman Sir Robert Dudley, to secure Prince
Henry’s patronage for a new colony. Appointed the governor of Prince Henry’s household in 1603,
Chaloner used his position to cultivate the Prince’s interest in navigation.
53
A member of a well-
known recusant family, Harcourt was likely motivated by the opportunity to recover his dissipated
estate, though he later said his only motivation was to resume not highjack the noble enterprise
begun by Ralegh.
54
Harcourt conferred with associates of the late Charles Leigh and even Ralegh
grudgingly aided him, probably to ingratiate himself to Prince Henry. With the Prince’s
intercession, on 13 February 1609 the King granted Harcourt a license to settle in Wiapoco to trade
and search for gold. He departed from England in April with 130 adventurers, including Guianians

51 Sir Thomas Chaloner may have occupied this office between 1608 and 1611. Sir Thomas Chaloner, “To the
King,” Hat., CP 124/4 ([1607]); B.E. Supple, Commercial Crisis and Change in England 1600-1642: A Study in the
Instability of a Mercantile Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 180-181.
52 “Stay of Gold and Silver,” Hat., CP 206/82 (August 1609); Sir Francis Bacon, “Sir Francis Bacon to
Salisbury,” TNA, SP 14/47 fol. 124 (Gray’s Inn, 10 August 1609).
53 Westby-Gibson, “Chaloner, Sir Thomas, the younger (1563/4–1615).”
54 Harcourt had alienated much of the familial estate to pay off his recently-deceased father’s creditors and lived
off a petty income from ironworks on his manor at Chebsey. “Sir Edward Stafford’s petition,” BL, Lansdowne MS
85/41, fols.79-81 (1597); Joyce Lorimer, “Harcourt, Robert (1574/5–1631),” ODNB; Harcourt, A Relation of a Voyage
to Guiana, B4r.
268

Anthony Canabre, who had resided in England since 1595, and Martin, who came to England in
1605.
55

Though Harcourt preferred the wider commercial prospects of Guiana, especially for tobacco
and sugar, he griped of his company’s “greedy desire” and “golden hopes.” They nearly mutinied
when their Amerindian guide proved ignorant of the location of mines. Harcourt claimed he
restored order by convincing them of the profitability of other commodities, but only evidence of
gold lifted their morale.
56
Amerindians brought Harcourt guanín objects they called “Carrecoory”
(karikuri or caracoli), a term adopted among Cariban and Arawakan people after European contact
to refer to alloys and gold and copper in its mineral state.
57
Anthony Canabre produced a piece of
white spar, which Harcourt or apothecary Humfrey Croxton assayed and found traces of gold and
silver. He said this quartz, which was “the purest white of all others,” almost certainly held gold
and silver, “but the best lie deeper in the earth.”
58
Exploring the Maroni River, Harcourt’s cousin
Unton Fisher encountered an Amerindian who remembered Ralegh; he told Unton that a week’s
journey from the head of the Essequibo River, the floods deposited large grains of gold on the
plain, perhaps describing the Rupununi savannah where Lake Parime and Manoa were said to
exist. For two months after the floods, the people collected this alluvial gold under threats by the
priests and chiefs to keep it a secret from the Spanish, yet “it seemeth they are willing the English
should have it, or else hee would never have related so much of the state of his Countrie.”
59
Fisher
had to abandon the search for want of victuals and drowned before he could make a second
search.
60

55 Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 39; Harcourt, 1613, 6.
56 Harcourt, 1613, 38-39.
57 Forte, 66.
58 Harcourt, 1613, 40.
59 Purchas, 1625, 6:1284.
60 Purchas, 1625, 6:1285; Harcourt, 1613, 47-48, 51-53.
269

Leaving his brother Michael behind with a small company, Harcourt went back to England
for supplies in December 1609 not knowing how Fisher and Croxton had fared in their
explorations. At Harcourt’s arrival, some people confused his venture with Sir Thomas Roe’s
expedition and mistakenly reported that he had sailed on Ralegh’s behalf and returned with his
ship laden with gold ore.
61
Harcourt was hard-pressed to counter these rumors, as he faced
recusancy charges. Financial difficulties prevented his return to Guiana, and even though Harcourt
sent a new cohort of colonists to Wiapoco with Zeeland merchants, for three years the settlers had
to rely on Dutch and French merchants for supplies.
62

Helping Harcourt plan his Guiana colony must have been a bitter pill for Ralegh. As a salve
to the man he had come to respect, Prince Henry arranged an unlikely partnership with Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton and Sir Thomas Roe, a former member of the Virginia Council,
for another expedition to Guiana.
63
They also enlisted Cecil’s support, for he now viewed Guiana
as both a check on Spanish power and a way to raise revenues. From 1609, not only did Cecil
endorse a marital alliance with the Protestant Elector Palatine but he encouraged the King to join
an anti-Spanish coalition with France to appease English merchants harassed by Spanish officials.
As Cecil readied the Great Contract for Parliamentary review in the summer of 1609, under which
the King would relinquish certain privileges in exchange for a one-time subsidy of ₤600,000 and
a fixed annuity of ₤200,000 from Parliament, he could not foreclose opportunities to increase
customs or import bullion. An English outpost in Guiana could be a safe haven for English

61 John Chamberlain, “John Chamberlain to [Dudley Carleton],” TNA, SP 14/50, fol. 163 (30 December 1609).
62 “Grant to Robt. Campbell of the benefit of the recusancy of Robt. Harcourt of Stanton-Harcourt, Oxford,
Chris. Biggs of Stapleford, Wilts, and Edm. Tattersall of Catmere, Berks.,” TNA, SP 14/49, fol. 27 (8 November
1609); Middlesex County Records: Volume 2, 1603-25, ed. John Cordy Jeaffreson et al. (London, 1887), 210-229;
John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith (London, 1630), 49.
63 Roe and his associates contributed ₤1100, Ralegh ₤600, the Earl of Southampton at least ₤100, and Sir
Stephen Powle ₤20. “Common-place Book of sir Stephen Powle, clerk of the crown,” Bodleian Library, Tanner MS
168, fol. 2; Williamson, 53.
270

merchants in the West Indies, a pressure point to use in Anglo-Spanish diplomacy, and a steady
source of revenue for the Crown.
64

For the remainder of 1609, they planned how to conduct the voyage without breaking the
fragile peace with Spain. Early on Cecil convinced Roe to leave settlement for a subsequent voyage
and to avoid the Orinoco, instead probing the Amazon for an ingress to Manoa. The company
departed from Dartmouth on 24 February 1610. Roe spent more than a year exploring Guiana,
sailing 200 miles up the Amazon and scouting the Oyapoc River to find Manoa. When he finally
reached Trinidad, he learned that the settlers at San Thomé, now situated on the Caroní three miles
east of its confluence with the Orinoco, openly rebelled against Spanish officials due to repression
of the contraband tobacco trade. Roe wrote to Cecil about Spanish preparations to send new
colonists and renew their conquest of Guiana, but supposed an English force could easily take the
fort. Informants told him about a Venetian who had recently fled into the mainland to escape
Spanish officials in Caracas. Roe said: “I am sure he knowes of mynes undiscovered to the Kynges
officers.” Roe thought he might be willing to serve England and sent a shallop to find him. Since
Roe had yet to discover any gold mines, Cecil would not authorize an attack on the Spanish fort
without certainty that England’s profit would outweigh the political costs. This was especially
important in light of the Great Contract’s abject failure, which prompted the King’s furious
dismissal of Parliament in February 1611.
65

Not finding “all the West Indies to be full of Gold, as some suppose,” Roe sailed for England,
arriving at the Isle of Wight in July 1611. Undeterred, Roe looked to establish tobacco plantations
near the Amazon River, safe from Spain’s increased patrols on the northern Guiana coast. Roe sent

64 Harlow, 17; Lorimer, Untruth and Consequences, 15.
65 Sir Thomas Roe, “Sir Thomas Roe to Salisbury,” TNA, CO 1/1, no. 25, fol. 92r-v (Port d’Espaigne, Trinidad,
28 February/ 10 March 1611).
271

two groups of English and Irish planters to the Amazon between 1612 and 1615, when the King
appointed him ambassador to the Moghul Empire.
66
In 1614 Captain Morton found a “steel” mine
near Sapanow and carried home casks of ore for assays, an activity mentioned by the Portuguese
in official correspondence. Before the advent of carbonizing iron to make steel, the term steel
referred to a clean but imperfect iron made of pure quicksilver, whereas iron was said to come
from impure quicksilver.
67
Unable to continue his Guiana ventures, Roe did not lose interest in the
region and received updates about his settlers from Sir George Carew until 1618, when he heard
four or five men returned to England with ₤2300 of tobacco and ingots of gold.
68
Despite Roe’s
optimism, for Ralegh it concluded a two-decade search for El Dorado; thereafter, his sole focus
would be gold mines.
69

During Roe’s absence, the English economy received a blow when Holland raised its
bimetallic ratio to 12.5 to 1, draining both gold and silver from the realm. The King’s prohibitions
against melting fine monies into plate or exporting them did not stop gold from “stirring abroad”
rather than sit in his immoveable stock.
70
By October 1611 the King wanted to call up gold and
over objections ill-advisedly raised England’s ratio to 13 to 1.
71
The King defended the revaluation
as a royal benevolence, saying the Crown would have benefitted more by recoinage, but to “avoide

66 Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 156; John Stow and Edmund Howes, Annales, Or, a Generall
Chronicle of England (London, 1632), 1022.
67 Bacon, Mirror of Alchimy, 3; Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 42, 166.
68 George Carew, Earl of Totnes, “Geo. Lord Carew to Sir Thos. Roe,” TNA, SP 14/95, fol. 45 (Savoy, 18
January 1618).
69 Ralegh himself had not mentioned El Dorado in the any of his proposals, but Roe’s search for Manoa indicated
he had not quite given up on it. Harlow, 19; Lorimer, English and Irish Settlement, 40.
70 “Proclamation against melting or conveying out of the King's dominions gold or silver coin. Printed,” TNA,
SP 14/187, fol. 49 (18 May 1611).
71 Cecil believed the ideal proportion was 12 to 1, and mint officers recommended only raising it to 12.5 to 1 to
balance the foreign exchange. An anonymous project advised reducing the ratio back down to 12 to 1, and issuing
small copper coins to raise the valuation of silver. Another anonymous projector proposed issuing “imprest money,”
copper monies exchanged for sterling as a seven-year loan to the Crown. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic series,
of the Reign of James I: 1611-1618, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1858), 83, 92; “Project to raise 500,001.
on loan to the King, by coining brass. money, of the size of silver coins,” TNA, SP 14/67, fols. 72-77 (November?
1611).
272

all commixture” of the Crown’s benefit and reformation of the public good he opted for an
adjustment.
72
The King misguidedly expected this proclamation to encourage more frequent use
of gold coins in exchange, overlooking that most transactions were too small to make gold coins a
practical currency.
While this boosted gold deposits at the royal mint, it precipitated the massive efflux of silver
and made it more profitable for merchants to import goods than silver. Finer coins were melted
into plate and either hoarded or exported, a practice encouraged by goldsmiths and merchants, who
offered four pence and two pence more, respectively, than the mint price for silver. Mint output of
gold now comprised more than ninety-seven percent of new coins but at the cost of strangling the
circulation of silver currency for everyday use.
73
Years later Sir Francis Bacon, who drafted the
proclamation, remarked: “a State may have a great Stock, and yet starve. And Money is like Muck,
not good except it be spread.”
74
The Privy Council was in a bind: without base moneys or
debasement the only solution to scarcity was revaluation, but political economists held that any
adjustments in silver rippled through the economy, triggering inflation and greater dearth. This
most affected those dependent upon fixed incomes from rents, tithes, and annuities—mainly
gentlemen, nobles, and the Crown. Impotent, they fixated on the balance of trade, especially
reducing imports of foreign trifles, as the solution to silver scarcity. In this context American
commodities could substitute imports, provide another market for exports, and be a source of
precious metals. In the meantime, the council persisted in the King’s policy to stockpile gold.
75

72 James I, By the King. The care of the Kings of this realme our progenitors, for the restraint of exportation of
gold and siluer into forraine parts (London, 1611), 2.
73 Challis, A New History of the Royal Mint, 312, 316; Supple, “Currency and Commerce,” 242.
74 Bacon, The essayes, 85.
75 The revaluation of gold was thought to produce less consequences in the prices, whether inflationary or
deflationary. “Reasons against Raysing the Currant value of Silver Moneys” BL Add. MS 41613, fols. 212-213 (1612);
John Milward, “Treatise by John Milward on the coin of the realm,” TNA, SP 14/68, fols. 37–52 (22 January 1612);
Malynes, Consuetudo, vel lex mercatoria, 310; Supple, “Currency and Commerce,” 243n. 1.
273

Prince Henry’s endorsement of the Guiana ventures and the King’s priority to raise gold stocks
attracted speculators, among them Ralegh’s estranged brother Adrian Gilbert. The two men had
fallen out over old debts sometime before 1609, when Gilbert groused about some “grevose debts
layd upon me by an ungratefull brother.”
76
About 1610/1 Gilbert and Theophilus Howard, Baron
de Walden offered Keymis ₤20,000 to lead them to the mines. According to Ralegh, Keymis
replied that he would rather die than betray Ralegh and steal his only chance for liberty.
77
Spurred
into action by his brother’s disloyalty, Ralegh appealed to Cecil to reconsider his suit. Ralegh tried
to head off the condition of a prospecting voyage and reminded him how the King quashed the
previous project by confiscating Sherbourne from him in 1608. Ralegh wryly remarked the price
for this condition was now “twentie thousand pound worse for me then the former, my land being
now disposed,” an allusion to the King’s deal with Carr, now elevated as Viscount Rochester, to
return Sherbourne to the Crown for Prince Henry’s use in exchange for ₤20,000.
78

Snide comments aside, Ralegh reminded Cecil that it had been sixteen years since either he
or Keymis were in the Orinoco, and changes in the topography would make locating the mine hard
enough with both of them, much less one of them. If Keymis died from illness or shipwreck before
discovering the mine, then the whole enterprise would be overthrown. After years of purposeful
obfuscation, Ralegh basically admitted his uncertainty about the mine’s location because either he
only saw it at a distance or he never saw it. However, he never doubted a mine existed. He also
knew it would be impossible to keep their activities secret from the Spanish, warning: “It may now
be brought away by twoe shipps, the next yeare hardly with twentie.”
79
If Keymis had to return to

76 Adrian Gilbert, “Adrian Gilbert to Salisbury,” TNA, SP 14/48, fol. 202 (29 October 1609); Cecil Monro, Acta
Cancellariae; or, Selection from the Records of the Court of Chancery (London, 1847), 179-180.
77 Baron de Walden was the great nephew of the Earl of Northampton. Raleigh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie
of Guiana, 301.
78 Raleigh, The Letters, 322-323.
79 Raleigh, The Letters, 323.
274

England for assays, it would be at least ten months before they went back to Guiana, plenty of time
for the Spanish to appropriate the mine. In a second attempt there would be no way to avoid
conflict.
Once it became clear that the Privy Council would not recommend his release without proof
of the gold mine, Ralegh agreed to send Keymis to the Orinoco.
80
According to a Spanish spy
privy to the negotiations, Ralegh now claimed Topiawari took him, Keymis, and another captain
(now dead) to a mountain near his village, and there dug up turf with an iron pickaxe to expose
alluvial sand “yellow like gold” beneath the surface. Topiawari did this again a few paces on,
careful to replace the turf and keep the gold a secret.
81
In a new offer, Ralegh pledged to bear the
entire charge of the expedition if Keymis did not bring back a half-ton of “slate golde oare whereof
I gave a sample to my Lord Knevit.”
82
If Keymis succeeded, the King promised to release Ralegh
for a second voyage but made a full pardon contingent upon finding gold.
Ralegh’s slipperiness on the type of gold ore—white spar, slate, or alluvium—is often
interpreted as evidence of his deceit, but it was also a calculated risk, as gold in Guiana can be
found in all three forms. If Ralegh hoped to succeed under the imposed conditions, then this
imprecision increased the likelihood of discovery without exposing his gamble. Though Ralegh
insisted that he had seen a white spar mine on the Caroní—which the Spanish at San Thomé
attempted to work between 1596 and 1618, with no appreciable results—he knew the ore would
be extremely difficult to work in a payable quantity in such a short time; conversely, alluvium and
slate, likely a reference to moco de hierro, surface deposits of limonite that often contain auriferous

80 Raleigh, 1848, 166.
81 Raleigh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 300.
82 Raleigh, The Letters, 326.
275

quartz, would be much easier to collect in a brief venture. With only two ships for supplies and
men, Keymis could only succeed if the labor was relatively easy.
83

At this advanced stage the project stalled in council due to opposition from the Earl of
Northampton and Viscount Rochester. The two men feared that if Ralegh succeeded, then he
would use his influence over Prince Henry to return to power and retaliate against those who had
either condemned him as had the Earl of Northampton or feasted on the corpse of his estate as Carr
had done. Coincident with Roe’s return from Guiana, the Privy Council re-opened the investigation
into the Gunpowder Conspiracy when the Earl of Northumberland’s former servant implicated
Ralegh in the plot. With the Earl of Northampton and Viscount Carr at the helm of the
investigation, Ralegh again became a close prisoner in the Tower. The Privy Council could find
no evidence against him, but they nevertheless censured Ralegh; mostly, they hoped to remind the
King of Ralegh’s treason.
84

In between the two 1611 proclamations regarding the coinage, Ralegh appealed to the Queen
to convince the King to accept the “riches which God hath offred him, therby to take all
presumption from his enemies arising from the want of treasor, by which (after God) all states are
defended.” The presumption to which Ralegh referred may have been Philip III’s recent offer to
wed his youngest daughter to Prince Henry after betrothing his eldest to Louis XIII of France, an
arrangement James took as a slight.
85
Prince Henry lobbied on Ralegh’s behalf and in 1612 the
King warmed to his project. According to a Spanish informant, they negotiated a scheme whereby

83 Raleigh, 1848, 167; Lorimer, “Location of Ralegh’s Mine,” 94; Agnes M.C. Latham, “Sir Walter Ralegh’s
gold mine: new light on the last Guiana voyage,” Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association 4 (1951),
98.
84 Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, “Hen. Earl of Northampton to Visct. Rochester,” TNA, SP 14/65, fols.
44-45 (Tower, [July 12] 1611); Sir John Bennet, “Sir John Bennet to Sir Dud. Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/65, fol. 53v (15
July 1611).
85 Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh to the Queen,” TNA, SP 14/67, fol. 196 (Tower, 1611?). Agnes Latham
and Joyce Youings dated this letter to after July 1611. Lorimer, “The Failure of the English Guiana Ventures,” 14.
276

Ralegh agreed to outfit a force of 400-500 men in thirty ships, twenty of which would be outfitted
by Prince Henry, Prince Maurice of Nassau and his brother Frederick, and the Portuguese
pretender Dom Manuel. Ralegh planned to send two ships ahead to Guiana to prospect for gold,
prompting the spy to dispatch five memorials to Madrid to warn Philip III and recommend tracking
Ralegh’s progress so they might seize the gold mine after its discovery.
86

As Ralegh’s suit took a step closer to realization, Harcourt rallied his new partners Sir Thomas
Chaloner and metallurgist John Rovenzon to petition for a monopoly license for the region
between the Essequibo and Amazon Rivers.
87
While Harcourt was unexpectedly detained in
England and unable to outfit a supply ship, his brother had maintained continuous occupation at
Wiapoco for the past three years. In 1612 Michael Harcourt and many of the colonists returned to
England with tales of gold mines, Manoa, and precious stones, renewing interest in the colony; by
contrast, Ralegh’s project received a crushing defeat in November, when Prince Henry suddenly
died from typhoid fever. London buzzed with gossip that a cordial Ralegh gave to the Prince had
actually poisoned him.
88
Before his illness, the Prince reportedly convinced the King to release
Ralegh to undertake his voyage, but when he grew gravely ill, the Prince made a deathbed apology
to Ralegh that his death would nullify any agreements made with the King.
89
With Ralegh’s chief
support gone, the Earl of Northampton and Viscount Rochester ensured his project died in council.
With Ralegh out of the way, Harcourt sallied forth with his plans.

86 Lorimer, “Location of Ralegh’s Mine,” 83n. 21, 87- 88; Raleigh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana,
299.
87 In 1613 Rovenzon (aka Robinson), a client of Prince Henry, obtained his former master Simon Sturtevant’s
revoked patent to smelt iron and other metals with sea-coal and pit coal. He published A Treatise of Metallica (London,
1613), the first English-language book to describe the reverberatory furnace, which would revolutionize England’s
mining industry in the late seventeenth century. Reverberatory furnaces were used in Germany from the fifteenth
century, in New Spain before 1556, and in Spain from the mid-sixteenth century. Goodman, Power and Penury, 158-
159.
88 An autopsy performed after the Prince’s death found no evidence of poison. John Chamberlain, “Chamberlain
to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/71, fol. 46v (London, 12 November 1612).
89 Raleigh, Sir Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana, 297.
277

In early 1613, Harcourt curried the favor of Prince Charles to support his petition, dedicating
a hastily produced manuscript to him. The King granted the patent on 28 August 1613 and Harcourt
sent a small contingent of colonists to Guiana.
90
A month later he published A Relation of a Voyage
to Guiana (London, 1613). Akin to Thomas Harriot’s account of Roanoke, Harcourt made a
detailed list of commodities to encourage adventurers to regard Guiana as a new Canaan, a land of
milk and honey. He highlighted tobacco, sugar, balsam and gums as the most profitable. If the
illicit trade was any indication, tobacco would bring England as much profit as Spain’s richest
West Indian silver mines when planters weighed the cost-benefit ratio of setting up operations.
91

With its perpetual spring and summer, fertile lands, storehouse of commodities, and amiable
Amerindians, Harcourt said Guiana was preferable to Virginia, with its harsh winters, grain
shortages, pestilent diseases, and hostile people.
92

Harcourt’s metallurgical discussion was brief and inconsistent. Contradictorily, Harcourt said
he had performed an assay on white spar and was given guanín, yet he had no confirmation of
precious metals other than the “good testimony thereof.” Likewise, he simultaneously accepted
Amerindian and English sources as sufficient proof that mineral wealth awaited future discovery,
even as he denied the physical evidence. This awkward straddling of mercantile interests and
speculation led historian David B. Quinn to consider Harcourt’s skepticism the salient feature of
the pamphlet, but, significantly, the last sentence of his discourse expressed optimism for the
discovery of rich mines within a few years.
93
Regardless of his preference for tobacco and sugar
cultivation, Harcourt knew Guiana was synonymous with gold in the English imagination—

90 Privy Council, “An open warrant with generall direccion,” TNA, PC 2/27, fol. 43v (15 July 1613); “Grant to
Robt. Harcourt, Sir Thos. Challoner, and John Rovenson, and to the heirs of the said Robert, of all that part of Guiana
or continent of America between the rivers Amazon and Dollesquebe ,” TNA, SP 14/141, fol. 65 (28 August 1613).
91 Harcourt, 1613, 60.
92 Ibid, B3r, B4v, 18, 29, 33-34, 37.
93 Ibid, 66; Quinn, Ralegh and the British Empire, 244.
278

especially the King’s—and without its promise few adventurers would risk settling in the Spanish
Americas. With alternatives in Virginia, Newfoundland, and the newly-established Somers Island
(Barbados), Harcourt struggled to find adventurers. He sold the remainder of his estate to finance
a new group of colonists in 1614, but it was not enough to outfit a new venture.
94

As England stepped up their activities in Guiana, Spanish colonial officials worried that if
they did not eject the settlers before they fortified, then they would never be rid of them. From
1613, the Iberians escalated their attacks, torching the Dutch fort on the Courantyne and violently
expelling the French from Maranhão.
95
One author, C. T., lamented that in Guiana “the Treasure
of this land is vented for smoke” and saw these attacks as a sign that England should plant tobacco
at home. Estimating annual expenditures of ₤200,000 sterling to import tobacco, he considered
domestic cultivation a means to cut off this flow of treasure to Spain and keep English sterling
circulating in the domestic economy.
96
Others encouraged the settlers to remove to Barbados or
Virginia, where John Rolfe successfully sowed Trinidad tobacco (aka “Indian tobacco”) in 1612.
Though these attacks deterred many from Guiana, the re-emergence of a powerful anti-Spanish
faction at court led by the new favorite George Villiers and a serious economic downturn in 1615
proved the perfect storm for the King to approve Ralegh’s Guiana project.

THE FINAL VOYAGE
His ego bruised by Philip III’s deferrals in the marriage negotiations, and counting upon a
large dowry and annuity to salvage his finances without a Parliamentary subsidy, the King

94 A History of the County of Oxford, volume 12: Wootton Hundred (South) Including Woodstock, eds. Alan
Crossley and C.R. Elrington (London: Victoria County History, 1990), 274-281.
95 Great Britain, Further Documents Relating to the Question of Boundary Between British Guiana and
Venezuela (London, 1896), 204; Williamson, 64.
96 C. T., An advice how to plant tobacco in England (London, 1615), A3r-A4r.
279

entertained a French match for Prince Charles. With negotiations stalled in early 1614, the King
called a Parliament in April to ask for a new supply. In what became known as the Addled
Parliament, the House of Commons again gridlocked over impositions and withheld consideration
of a subsidy until the King abolished them. They also criticized the royal family’s profligacy. For
their temerity, the King dismissed Parliament in June and imprisoned four members of the
Commons. At the same time the King suddenly revoked the Merchant Adventurers’ charter and
approved Sir William Cockayne’s scheme for the King’s Merchant Adventurers, a new monopoly
to export finished woolens to Europe that promised to enhance the Crown’s yearly customs by
₤47,500. This disastrous project not only failed to meet the King’s revenue expectations, but led
to an embargo on all English cloth in the Netherlands. With cloth sales already stagnant in 1614,
the scheme catalyzed a crippling depression that lasted for many years to come.
97

The King unintentionally hampered trade further with his monetary policies. The 1611
adjustment in England’s ratio did not go unchallenged by other European princes, who also looked
to establish their own beneficial flow of precious metals. As England drew gold with its high ratio,
France responded by equalizing their ratio in late 1614; the next year, the Dutch lowered their ratio
back down to 12 to 1 to draw silver.
98
It was a metallic arms race and Crown officials remained
paralyzed into maintaining an unworkable monetary system they felt powerless to remedy without
worse consequences.
To forestall the loss of silver, James issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of gold and
silver, and tried to force commodity-for-commodity exchanges. He said precious metals were

97 When the scheme collapsed in 1617, the King restored the Merchant Adventurers’ monopoly, but it cost the
company ₤80,000. The Crown eventually settled for ₤50,000 and in 1619 extracted a new imposition on cloth exports.
Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 210-211; Tim Harris, Rebellion: Britain’s First Stuart Kings, 1567-1642
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 135-137.
98 Rice Vaughn, A Discourse of Coin and Coinage (London, 1675), 22; Gould, “The Royal Mint in the Early
Seventeenth Century,” 241-242.
280

ordained to be “as immovable and perpetuall stocke, which should never goe forth againe, and
should receive dayly increase, without diminution.”
99
Furthermore, gold should be conserved in
peacetime to adorn his kingdom in pursuit of an ephemeral and illusive reputation. While the King
justified this policy as a reserve against future expenses, like “honourable Warres,” his priority to
preserve peace at almost-all costs belied this reasoning. As ever, the King was more interested in
spending gold on the accoutrements of power, prestige, and strength.
100
Desperate for an infusion
of gold to reduce his ₤680,000 debt, the King agreed to sell the Cautionary Towns back to the
Dutch and alienated Crown lands, but this tarnished his reputation abroad and reduced his revenues
in the long term. A Dutch libel lampooned the King, depicting him in a doublet and hose with his
pockets turned out and the inscription: “Have yow any more townes to sell.”
101

Embarrassed on the international stage, and with Ralegh’s chief opponents gone, the King
succumbed to pressure from the anti-Spanish faction to resurrect the Guiana project.
102
At Sir
William St. John’s behest, in 1615 Ralegh submitted a prospectus to the new Secretary of State Sir
Ralph Winwood, a member of the anti-Spanish faction. Ralegh perhaps jointly proffered this
prospectus with his “Prerogative of Parliaments,” in which he defended impositions as a trifling
burden on merchants while nevertheless advising the King to concede something to Parliament.
The bonds of subjects might be “wrought out of Iron” and the bonds of kings “but with Cobwebs,”
yet “if the feet lye in fetters, the head cannot be freed.”
103
He advised the King to leave
consideration of impositions and monopolies to the Commons, so long as his revenues were
unabated. Toward the reconciliation of King and Parliament, Ralegh offered his Guiana project to

99 James I, A proclamation against exportation of gold and silver, 258.
100 Wortham, 344.
101 Sir William Lovelace, “Sir Wm. Lovelace to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/90, fols. 205r-v (London, 11 March
1617); Harris, Rebellion, 138.
102 The Earl of Northampton died in mid-1614 and in 1615 Robert Carr, now Earl of Somerset, was disgraced
by his implication in the murder of Thomas Overbury.
103 Sir Walter Raleigh, Prerogative of Parlaments in England (London, 1628): A3r-v.
281

pay the King’s debts, saying it would cost the Crown nothing but his liberty to implement. Of the
Cockayne scheme (among others), he said: “I heare of many inventions to inrich His Majestie, at
least to supply his present occasions, but some of them are litle ones, some require too longe a
time and other are rather devised to inrich those that shalbe imployed in them than to inable the
King.” After years of dithering, Ralegh alleged, the late Treasurer had finally recognized Guiana
as the best solution to the King’s ills when the Great Contract miscarried.
104
With debts even worse
than in 1611, he implied Cecil’s wisdom remained relevant to the present estate.
While he awaited a response, Ralegh used English tobacco merchants headed to the Orinoco
to scout potential gold mines.
105
In a follow-up letter, Ralegh exaggerated his experience and
averred he personally saw the gold mine, saying the rejections of his previous petitions were
motivated by his enemies rather than a question of credibility. Indeed, Prince Henry had
wholeheartedly supported his project, and twice the Queen’s brother Christian IV petitioned for
his liberty and offered to employ Ralegh to explore Guiana on Denmark’s behalf.

With the support
of Winwood and Villiers, the King granted Ralegh a conditional pardon on 17 March 1616 and
released him from the Tower in June. On 28 July 1616, the King officially commissioned Ralegh
to command the Guiana venture.
106

In the new prospectus, Ralegh made the well-worn comparison between his project and
Columbus’ suit to Henry VII, but while Columbus could only offer the “promise of riches by
report,” Ralegh had seen the gold with his own eyes and took it out of the ground with his own
hands. If Henry VII had such proofs, “I assure my self that the Castilians had never bene Lords
and Monarkes of the west Indies.”
107
Mistaken about the ore’s value at the time, he nonetheless

104 Cecil died of cancer in May 1612. Raleigh, The Letters, 333-334.
105 Lorimer, “The Failure of the English Guiana Ventures,” 4.
106 Raleigh, The Letters, 335-337; Harlow, 22; CSP, James I: 1611-1618, 377, 387-388.
107 Ernest A. Strathmann, “Ralegh Plans his Last Voyage,” The Mariner’s Mirror 50, no. 4 (1964), 263.
282

recalled the mine “lay within 9 Inches of the Superficies and did rise up in a broad slate, and not
in small Veines, there was never a Mine of gold in the world promising so great abundance.”
108

Ralegh compared what this mine might yield to the Potosí silver mines, from which Philip III
received ₤325,000 each year, predicting it would enrich the King by ten times that amount. This
gold mine, less than a foot beneath the grassy surface, might be richer than any other mine
heretofore possessed by a European prince, assuming “the body hold proportion with the face.”
109

Ralegh included a line item breakdown of the cost to outfit the expedition with an estimated
total of ₤10,000. He allotted ₤220 for knives, hatchets, and shirts to pay Amerindians to carry
baskets of ore from the mine to the riverside. A smith’s forge with an anvil and other instruments,
pickaxes, spades, iron crowbars, and baskets lined with leather for the pioneers would cost ₤120.
Four barges to carry the ore back to the ships and bring victuals to the miners would be about ₤180.
To protect the miners, he planned to equip one hundred soldiers with muskets and copper
bandoliers for ₤100. Ralegh had no intention of carrying unrefined ore back to England, but
planned to melt it into bullion. The ships would thus carry furnace bricks as ballast, to be replaced
by bars of gold on the return journey. The refiners required lead, saltpeter, sandiver, and iron
instruments, which he estimated at ₤100 but referred the specific charges to James Achinson, an
engraver at the mint.
110
One of the more interesting charges was ₤40 for four copper desalination
furnaces to distill fresh water “whereby we shall not be driven to seeke land and to hynder our
cours, as also to avoide the unhealthfulness of drinking unsavoury water.”
111
A furnace of Ralegh’s
invention, he tested it with Thames water during his imprisonment. It does not appear Ralegh took

108 Strathmann, “Ralegh Plans his Last Voyage,” 263.
109 Ibid, 264
110 Ibid, 265; Gerard Malynes called James Achinson unskilled in silver refining. Malynes, Consuetudo, vel lex
mercatoria, 265.
111 Strathmann, 265.
283

these desalination stills with him on the final voyage, as he repeatedly referred to water shortages
and blamed dehydration as a major cause of death among the sick men.
112

Prominent members of the anti-Spanish faction rallied to Ralegh’s project. Sir Dudley
Carleton’s correspondents informed him that the primary backers of the venture were Sir William
St. John and Sir Edward Harwood, a former servant of Prince Maurice of Nassau who would
command the land forces in Guiana. Perhaps at Harwood’s urging, Ralegh’s Lieutenant-General
Captain John Pigott sought the return of forty to fifty soldiers from the Netherlands in December
1616. John Chamberlain credited Winwood and the Countess of Shrewsbury with Ralegh’s release
and told Carleton that there were plenty of adventurers, including Sir James Lancaster, director of
the East India Company.
113
Sir George Carew regaled Sir Thomas Roe with gossip about three
French friars who had wandered the Amazon after the Portuguese expelled the colonists at
Maranhão in 1615.

At Terceiras, they told an Englishman they saw great quantities of gold: “itt is
able to sett a mans hart on fire to make proofe of suche a tokene, but how to effect itt, hoc opus
hic labor est (this is the hard part, this is the toil).”
114
Ralegh encouraged these stories of mines
awaiting English discovery, stoking gold fever as Ambassador Don Diego de Acuña, Count
Gondomar demanded the venture’s termination.
As the plan took shape, Ralegh and his backers agreed to send his ships under color of going
to Virginia. In the Orinoco, they would bypass the hard quartz mine on the Caroní near San Thomé
and go to an inland gold mine Putijma had pointed out to Lawrence Keymis in 1595. There they
would collect alluvial gold and depart before the Spanish grew wise to their presence, thus avoiding

112 Sir Walter Ralegh, “A journal of Sir Walter Raleigh’s last? voyage to the West Indies,” BL, Cotton MS Titus
B VIII, fol. 165r (n.d.).
113 Edward Sherburn, “Edw. Sherburn to [Carleton],” TNA, 14/86, fol. 167v (23 March 1616); John
Chamberlain, “Chamberlain to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/86, fol. 188r (27 March 1616); John Piggot, “Capt. John Pigott
to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/89, fol. 129 (Utrecht, 8 December 1616).
114 George Carew, Earl of Totnes, “Geo. Lord Carew to Sir Thos. Roe,” TNA, SP 14/90, fol. 43v (18 January
1617).
284

a breach of the peace. That, at least, was the plan the King told Count Gondomar to justify the
venture; Ralegh did not concede that there could be any breach of the peace when Topiawari had
accepted English overlordship in 1595, making it an English territory. Realistically, Ralegh and
the King knew that it was unlikely they could avoid conflict with the Spanish. When Sir Francis
Bacon worried that Ralegh would become a pirate, he quipped: “my Lord, did you ever hear of
any that was counted a pirate for taking millions?”
115
Clearly, Ralegh believed the King would
grant an ex post facto pardon for any hostile acts as long as he returned with gold, as Elizabeth had
done with Sir Francis Drake in 1580.
To mollify Count Gondomar, who had insinuated himself among the King’s counselors to
pressure him to maintain pro-Spanish policies, the King ordered Ralegh to disclose all information
about his route, the dates of his departure from England and arrival in Guiana, and the precise
number of men and ships in the expedition.
116
Knowing Count Gondomar would use this
information to warn officials in Spain and the West Indies of his impending arrival, thereby
allowing time to reinforce, this command precluded a secret entry into the Orinoco and virtually
guaranteed a fight. Caught in an untenable position by the King’s diplomatic vacillations, Ralegh
entertained an Anglo-Venetian action against Genoa between May 1616 and February 1617.
117

Though this could be interpreted as evidence that Ralegh had lied about the gold mine, it also
potentially resolved his double bind. If the King committed to an act of war against Genoa, a

115 Sir Francis Bacon, The Letters and Life of Sir Francis Bacon, ed. James A. Spedding (London, 1872), 6:347.
116 At San Thomé in the possession of Governor Don Diego Palomeque, Keymis found a letter to the King from
Count Gondomar dated 19 March 1617, a week before Ralegh left for Dover. Sir Walter Ralegh, “Sir Walter Ralegh
to Sir Ralph Winwood,” Hat., CP 242/12 (St. Christophers, 21 March 1618); Latham, 98-99.
117 Ralegh wrote to his wife from Cayenne: “Wee are yett two hundreth menn and the reste of my fleet are
reasonable stronge, stronge enoughe I hope to performe what wee have undertaken-- if the diligent care at London to
make our strength knowne to the Spanishe kinge by his ambassador have not taughtt the Spaniardes to fortifie all the
entrances againste us.” Raleigh, The Letters, 345; Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives
of Venice, Vol. 14: 1615-1617, ed. Allen B. Hinds (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1908), 209-210, 413-
417, 434; Thomas Allen Kirk, Genoa and the Sea: Policy and Power in an Early Modern Maritime Republic, 1559-
1684 (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005), 88-89.
285

Spanish tributary state, then he might later countenance Ralegh’s Guiana project without imposing
an impossible condition to maintain the peace.
118

By February 1617, Ralegh reportedly spent ₤40,000 (all but ₤16,000 his personal investment)
outfitting ships for Guiana, including the prophetically named admiral the Destiny and the vice-
admiral Jason, implicitly linking his Guiana venture to the search for the golden fleece. The
London grapevine speculated that he would turn pirate and never come back to England due to the
King’s appeasement of the Spanish ambassador’s demands.
119
That month Philip III announced
his intention to settle the marriage treaty, offering the King a ₤600,000 dowry and another
₤500,000 annuity during the his life. With the Spanish Match back in play, initially the King stayed
Ralegh’s departure and then allowed him to proceed at the end of March, apparently unwilling
either to release the pressure until Sir John Digby concluded the treaty in Madrid or relinquish a
potential source of precious metals.
120

For the King, Ralegh’s venture was worth the political risk, as the flow of silver into the mint
had virtually ceased and slackening trade had decreased the King’s customs. In March 1617 the
King banned imports of silver and gold thread and restricted its manufacture to members of a new
monopoly. He also prohibited goldsmiths from selling or melting any silver or silver-alloy, except
to anneal or repair plate.
121
As the political situation devolved over the contested succession in
Bohemia in 1617, neighboring states turned to debasement and revaluation to fill their war chests,

118 Harlow, 28-29.
119 Lady Ralegh sold her estate at Mitcham in Surrey for ₤2500 on 17 February 1616, and called in a ₤3000
loan to the Countess of Bedford. Ralegh said she also put up the ₤8000 from the sale of Sherbourne to the Crown in
1610. CSP, Venice, 14:434; CSP James I, 1611-1618, 495-496; TNA, SP 14/90, fol. 50v; John Chamberlain,
“Chamberlain to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/92, fol. 209v (London, 5 July 1617); Sir Walter Ralegh, “Relation, by Sir
Walter Raleigh, of his voyage to Guiana,” TNA, SP 14/98, fol. 80v (London, July? 1618).
120 John Chamberlain, “Chamberlain to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/90, fol. 217 (London, 15 March 1617); George
Gerrard, “Geo. Gerrard to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/90, fol. 237v (The Strand, 20 March 1617).
121 James I, By the King, a proclamation for reforming the abuses in making of gold and silver threed within
this realme and for the inhibiting the importation thereof, from the parts beyond the seas (London, 1617).
286

worsening the trade slump and encouraging greater export of silver to Eastern Europe, where “they
can neither sell for ready money nor in barter for vendible Commodities.”
122
With the Crown’s
debt risen to ₤726,320 by October 1617, the financial crisis was too desperate to quash the Guiana
venture. If Ralegh failed he could be sacrificed to appease Philip III without derailing the marriage
negotiations; if he succeeded, the King would have money enough to bargain as an equal with
Spain, not just in marital discussions but also as it pertained to overseas trade and colonization.
With no choice but to go through with the venture, Ralegh made one last gamble and entered
into discussions with Henry II, Duke of Rohan to send French ships and Huguenot soldiers to
displant the Spanish at San Thomé while his men prospected for mines. In this way, Ralegh could
honor his commission to the letter, if not the spirit, and the King could save face with Spain by
blaming any hostilities on the French. Afterwards, Ralegh would return to a French port with his
gold and await the King’s pleasure. The King knew about these plans but at the last minute changed
his mind about involving the French. Ralegh later told his keeper Sir Thomas Wilson that the King
forbade him from entering the Duke of Rohan’s service.
123

Despite the King’s interdiction, Ralegh entrusted Anthony Belle and Captain Faige to each
carry a letter to former ambassador Samuel Spifame, Sieur de Buisseaux to ask the Duke of
Montmorency for a commission. While he waited to rendezvous with the French ships in the
Orinoco, his men would work the mines; if the mines proved poor, then they would attack the West
Indian treasure fleet and return to France. By hook or by crook, Ralegh intended to come back to
England with gold. Ralegh also appealed to the Duke (later Cardinal) of Richelieu through
Ambassador Sieur des Marêts. Ralegh later confessed that anti-Spanish councilors had encouraged

122 “A paper on the causes of the decay of the woollen trade, and the remedies proposed,” BL, Cotton MS Galba
E I, no. 160, fols. 390-391; Supple, “Currency and Commerce,” 248-249.
123 Sir Thomas Wilson, “Sir Thos. Wilson to the King,” TNA, SP 14/103, fol. 19v-20r (Tower, 4 October 1618);
Harlow, 29.
287

him to attack Spanish holdings to rupture Anglo-Spanish relations, and Des Marêts guaranteed
him protection in France. Neither Belle nor Faige reached France. Faige absconded to the
Mediterranean to trade and was captured by a Genoese galley, while Belle fled to Rome and
confessed his deal with Ralegh. Sent to Madrid, Belle surrendered the letter.
124
In the aftermath,
this collaboration with the French ambassador would be one of the key pieces of evidence against
Ralegh.
After so much uncertainty, the fleet finally embarked on 12 June 1617. Ill fortune plagued
them from the start: foul winds scattered the ships to Ireland, his men were ambushed on Gran
Canaria during a supply run, and Captain John Bailey deserted them at Lancerota.
125
By
September, calenture already afflicted sixty men, eventually claiming the lives of Cape Merchant
Kemishe and principal refiner John Fowler of London, “to our great greif.”
126
Compounding the
illness, the fleet drifted in a dead calm some 400 leagues off the coast and had only a week’s supply
of fresh water, hastening the death of John Talbot, a scholar who had lived with Ralegh in the
Tower between 1605 and 1616. On 31 October, Ralegh awoke in the grip of a “violent cold,”
which quickly turned into a burning fever lasting much of the remaining voyage.
127
Nevertheless,
his welcome at Cayenne by the cacique Harry, who had lived with him for two years in the Tower,
lifted his hopes for success.
128
With the entire fleet assembled, he dispatched five ships under
Keymis’ command to the Orinoco and took the rest to Trinidad to stand sentinel for the anticipated

124 Raleigh, The Letters, 341; Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Archives of Venice,
Vol. 15: 1617-1619, ed. Allen B. Hinds (London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1909), 339; Harlow, 31-32, 126-
127.
125 George Carew, Earl of Totnes, “Geo. Lord Carew to Sir Thos. Roe,” TNA, SP 14/95, fols. 54v, 56v (Savoy,
18 January 1618); BL, Cotton MS Titus B VIII, fols. 163r, 165r.
126 BL, Cotton MS Titus B VIII, fols. 167v-168v.
127 Ibid, fols. 169r, 172r; Privy Council, “[The Council] to [the Lieutenant of the Tower (? Sir William Waad)].
[The Enclosure], “The Persons permitted to haue Access to Sr Walter Raleighe,” Hat., CP 115/21 (September 1605?).
128 Raleigh, The Letters, 346.
288

armada and purchase tobacco. He did not learn of the attack on San Thomé and his eldest son’s
death until February.
129

Admittedly, Ralegh preferred to seize San Thomé before seeking the mine; nonetheless he
instructed Keymis to head for the mine and try the ore first.
130
If it proved rich, they would establish
a garrison to secure it; if it proved poor, Keymis would collect baskets of ore to bring back to
England and validate their attempt. Ralegh ordered him to encamp away from San Thomé and
avoid all contact with Spaniards. Once there, however, Keymis determined they could not safely
work the mine until the town was under English control, pretending he only now discovered San
Thomé’s relocation twenty miles from its original site.
131
Spanish and English sources disagree
about who attacked first, but the conflict started when the English encountered a Spanish patrol
and chased them into town. Always a bit of a hothead, Wat Ralegh “haveinge more desyre of
honour then of saftie” charged into the fray and was impaled on a Spanish sword.
132
They killed
the governor and captured his Colombian servant Christopher Guayacunda while the rest of the
Spaniards escaped to conduct guerilla raids during the month they held the town. Ralegh later said
they abandoned the town to defend the passages to gold mines about five miles away.
133

With several refining houses in the town the English expected to find a rich storehouse, but
there was only a small amount of plate.
134
As Keymis sought the nearby gold mine the Spanish
attacked his boat, killing two men and wounding one in the head. Since his last visit, Keymis found

129 BL, Cotton MS Titus B VIII, fols. 173v-174v; Hat., CP 242/12, fol. 349.
130 “A short defence of Sir Walter Raleigh,” BL, Cotton MS Vitellius C XVII, no. 16, verso ([1618]).
131 Keymis reported the relocation of San Thomé to the site of Ralegh’s encampment at the confluence of the
Caroní and Orinoco in 1596; since then, it had only moved another three miles, which would have been well-known
to English tobacco merchants. Lorimer, “The Location of Ralegh’s Guiana Gold Mine,” 79, 81; TNA, SP 14/98, fols.
76v-77v.
132 Hat., CP 242/12, fol. 349; George Carew, Earl of Totnes, “Geo. Lord Carew to [Sir Thos. Roe],” TNA, SP
14/86, fols. 27r-30v (Savoy, 24 January 1616).
133 CP 242/12, fol. 350.
134 Fray Simon said they stole 40,000 reales worth of treasure, including three African slaves and two Indians.
TNA, SP 14/98, fol. 78r; Raleigh, 1848, 215-216n.1.
289

the country unfamiliar “beinge aspera et fragosa” (rough, overgrown). He continued up the
Orinoco as far as the Guarico River, but grief stricken over Wat’s death and distraught about
Ralegh’s unlikely recovery, Keymis abandoned the search for gold and returned to San Thomé,
albeit against his men’s wishes.
135
Captain Parker said “his delayes [were] meere illusiones and
him selfe a mear machevill.”
136
Unwilling to risk more lives waiting for reinforcements, Keymis
ordered a retreat to Trinidad. When he told Ralegh what had transpired, Ralegh raged that he was
undone and angrily exclaimed that he would rather have lost one hundred soldiers to save his credit
than return with no gold; wounded by his words, and knowing Ralegh would face the King’s
retribution, Keymis retreated to his cabin and committed suicide.
137

With his plans to find the gold mine lost, Ralegh called a council to consider their options.
Ralegh urged interception of Spain’s treasure fleet, saying his French commission protected them
from piracy charges. Unpersuaded by this lie, the majority of the council voted against it, opting
for a Virginia landfall.
138
Several captains opposed the council’s decision, loath to sacrifice their
adventures to abstain from raiding the West Indies. Captain Thomas Whitney and Captain Richard
Wollaston abandoned the fleet at Granada and much of the rest deserted at Nevis.
139
Unable to
make Virginia, the master gunner led a mutiny against Ralegh and locked him in the gunroom.
Ralegh convinced the mutineers to put in at Ireland after he promised to obtain pardons for them.
Ralegh eventually reached Devon in June 1618.
Devastated by the loss of his eldest son and heir, Ralegh nonetheless jumped into damage
control mode, laying the blame entirely on the feckless Keymis and mutinous captains in letters to

135 Hat., CP 242/12, fol. 350.
136 Raleigh, 1848, 219.
137 Raleigh, The Letters, 354; Hat., CP 242/12, fol. 350-351; Sir Francis Bacon, A declaration of the demeanor
and cariage of Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight (London, 1618), 38.
138 Sir Thomas Wilson, “To the King,” TNA, SP 14/99, fol. 145 (Tower, 21 September 1618).
139 Raleigh, The Letters, 357.
290

Secretary Winwood and his wife. If Captain Whitney and Captain Wollaston had not deserted him
for piracy, he vowed, he would have “left my body at St. Thomas by my sonnes” or brought back
enough gold to satisfy the King and his credit.
140
Furthermore, his nephew confessed that Keymis
had told him he could have taken his men to the mine within two hours, but with Wat’s death and
Ralegh’s lack of pardon and mortal sickness, he had no reason to open the mine for either the
Spanish, who would swoop in to claim it, or the King.
141

Fortunately, Christopher Guayacunda informed Ralegh that the Spanish had two gold mines
and a silver mine near San Thomé, but they were unable to exploit these mines without African
slaves or Indians to work them. Ralegh boasted that he knew of five or six other mines that would
be easy to possess. While this sounded like the hallucinations of a desperate man, Paul R. Sellin
found a c. 1734 map by Pablo Díaz Fajardo that marked eight gold mines and one silver mine east
of the Caroní, all located within the geologic band of potentially auriferous quartz-feldspar gneiss
called the Imataca Complex. Three mines were within two leagues of San Thomé, one about a
mile away on the Río Usupamo, a second mine about five miles up the Usupamo valley, and a
third six miles east at a place called “Aruacas.”
142
Even assuming these mines existed, it would
not have helped Ralegh, as European technology was inadequate to profitably work them. Rather
than seek forgiveness for this grievous debacle, Ralegh tried to convince the Crown that he could
still find a gold mine. In closing, Ralegh told Winwood of his plan to go to Europe until the King's
wrath subsided. Unknown to him, Winwood had died on 27 October 1617 and Sir Thomas Lake,
who had pro-Spanish and Catholic sympathies, became the Secretary of State.
143

140 Captain Richard Wollaston would later go to Massachusetts and founded Mount Wollaston in modern
Quincy in 1625. The Puritans ejected him from the colony for contraband trade with the Indians. Hat., CP 242/12,
fols. 350-351.
141 Ibid, fols. 351-352.
142 Sellin, 104 (plate 4), 154-55; Raleigh, The Letters, 357.
143 After Cecil’s death the office of Secretary of State remained vacant, but after lobbying Viscount Carr for
two years, the King appointed Winwood to the position in 1614. Winwood’s opposition to the Cockayne scheme and
291

Back in England rumors about the Guiana venture abounded. At the end of January 1618
Captain Alley arrived in England bearing bad news about the heavy death toll, among them Edward
Hastings, brother of the Earl of Huntingdon. He was nonetheless optimistic about the treatment
Ralegh and his men had received from the Amerindians.
144
An “honest gentleman” who spoke
with Alley and saw Ralegh’s letters mistakenly gossiped that Ralegh was “within the bowels of
the goulden mines, and hath the absolute possession of whatsoever he hoped for in those parts.”
145

Court observers remained curious but skeptical about these reports. Alley carried an account by
one of the gentlemen-adventurers R. M., which cast a favorable light on Ralegh’s enterprise.
Although unknown a likely candidate for authorship of Newes of Sr. Walter Rauleigh was Master
Molineux. He may have been related to Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton, father-in-law to Ralegh’s
late nephew Sir John Gilbert. Ralegh recalled that Molineux wanted to follow Carapana to a gold
mine he offered to show them but was over-ruled by the rest of the men.
146

Circulating in manuscript for months before its publication in late 1618, this piece of
propaganda encouraged the English to regard the venture as the latest in a half-century’s long
patriotic project to build a formidable English empire.
147
As in 1595-96, alchemy once again
substituted for metallurgical evidence. Convinced Guiana would furnish the King with much gold,
R. M. reckoned its “shining glory … would eclypse all the beames” of Spain.
148
In language
reminiscent of the King’s rationalizations for revaluing gold, R. M. pointed out Spain’s persistent

championship of a Parliamentary subsidy as the way through the financial crisis did not endear him to the King, and
in 1616 the King co-appointed his chief rival Sir Thomas Lake as Secretary of State. Lake received a ₤500 annuity
from Count Gondomar. M. Greengrass, “Winwood, Sir Ralph (1562/3–1617),” ODNB; Roger Lockyer, “Lake, Sir
Thomas (bap. 1561, d. 1630),” ODNB.
144 John Chamberlain, “Chamberlain to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/96, fol. 22v (London, 7 February 1618); Sir
Gerard Herbert, “Capt. Sir Gerard Herbert to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/96, fol. 28v (London, 13 February 1618).
145 Nathaniel Brent, “Nath. Brent to [Carleton],” TNA SP 14/96, fol. 24v (London, 7 February 1618).
146 Sir John Gilbert died in 1608 from smallpox. SP 14/98, fol. 79v.
147 It was entered into the Stationer’s Register on 17 March 1618. English Short Title Catalogue (London:
British Library), S110582.
148 R. M., Nevves of Sr. Walter Rauleigh (London, 1618), 39.
292

inability to conquer Guiana for its gold, “which makes me Prophetiquely suppose … such a
Paragon and rich stone as shall adorne no crowne but the crowne of King James.”
149
Reserved by
God for England’s possession, the recent voyage, like the early stages of the magnum opus, was
an “Embrion, conceived, and farre, from that happy perfection.”
150
A true adept could not reach
the top of “hye Scales, Mountaines, or Pyramides” by leaping, but slowly and deliberately
ascended each step through noble and purely-motivated travail, for nature defended “all her most
excellent workes” from base speculators. This was even truer for Guiana—the “the middle of the
world … The heart of the world” and “the very Magazine of all rich Mettalls.”
151

R. M. traced the lineage of the Guiana ventures back to Sir Francis Drake’s final West Indian
voyage in 1595-96. In this genealogy, he made the link to alchemy explicit:
and therfore to achive this Magisteri or true Philosophers stone, being indeed the mother of all mines and perfect
treasure, he [Drake] againe betooke himselfe to the Sea in the yeare of our Lord 1595 … But it was not the
pleasure of the everliving God, that by him the worke should bee finished …
152

Whereas a piratical raid on Puerto Rico undid Drake, Ralegh explored the Orinoco and gained the
enduring loyalty of its people by eschewing plunder. For this reason God chose Ralegh to continue
the great work Drake began. R. M. included Martin Frobisher’s northwest voyages in the
genealogy, but conspicuously elided the scandal of the black ore. Rather, God elected not to
“perfect his intent” and sent Frobisher home with “much wealth and a great deale of
knowledge.”
153
Given how Frobisher’s ghost haunted the Guiana projects, R. M.’s omission tried
to decouple Ralegh’s search for gold from accusations that he had defrauded the King with salted

149 R. M., Nevves of Sr. VValter Rauleigh, 30-38.
150 Ibid, 2.
151 Ibid, 3-4, 17.
152 Ibid, 9.
153 Ibid, 13.
293

assays, as the metallurgists did in 1577-78. Ultimately, R. M.’s narrative could not salvage
Ralegh’s reputation from imputations of deceit and treason, and the pro-Spanish faction at court
encouraged his execution to preserve the Anglo-Spanish alliance.

A PHYSICIAN WHICH WILL CURE ALL DISEASE
As it happened, the King underestimated Philip III’s anger about the sack of San Thomé. With
the opening sally of the Thirty Years’ War, the Defenestration of Prague in May 1618, and the
failure of his monetary policies to remedy the imbalance of trade and loss of silver, James could
not afford to lose the Spanish Match. Knowing he would be expected to support his son-in-law’s
cause in the contested succession, the King relied on the Spanish marriage to create a war chest
and to sway Philip III against interfering in the region. Count Gondomar exploited the King’s
anxiety to extract a promise to impose a pirate’s punishment—execution—if it turned out that
Ralegh had committed any hostilities against Spanish subjects.
154
Count Gondomar also threatened
that Philip III would confiscate the goods of English merchants if the King did not make
appropriate redress of the assaults, a threat carried out on 12 July.
155

In preparing the case for execution, the King found Ralegh’s disgruntled adventurers an ideal
source to defame him. After his May arrival in England, a disillusioned Roger North testified
before the council that he now believed Ralegh was deluded about the mine, though he reserved
his bitterest recriminations for Keymis’ gross errors. Though Ralegh disdained adventurers like
North as “puppyes” for believing that Keymis killed himself because “he had seduced so many
gentlemen and others with an ymaginatory myne,”
156
the council, already biased against him, used

154 Raleigh Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002), 508-509.
155 Francis Cottington, “Fras. Cottington to [Winwood],” TNA, SP 14/104, fol. 59r (Madrid, 21 October 1617-
10 December 1618); CSP Venice, 15:326.
156 Bacon, The Letters and Life, 6:417; TNA, SP 14/98, fol. 79r.
294

this testimony to call anyone who could shed light on Ralegh’s intentions. On 25 May Sir Anthony
Ashley informed Secretary Lake that recusant Thomas Keymish was a frequent visitor to kinsman
Lawrence’s Tower Hill home. There he was perhaps privy to whether or not Ralegh lied about the
mine, his plans to attack San Thomé, or his plan to escape to France. Afraid of detainment,
Keymish escaped into the country from his residence in Holborn.
157

When Ralegh landed he was taken into custody, first by his friend Vice Admiral Christopher
Harris and then by his distant kinsman Sir Lewis Stucley. They remained in Devon pending official
orders for his arrest. Although the King originally promised to send Ralegh and his captains to
Madrid for execution, the Privy Council strongly objected, especially new Lord Chancellor Francis
Bacon. Pressed from all sides and with his royal dignity at stake, the King entrenched himself in
the position that Ralegh must be executed, yet despite his anger at the Council’s defiance, he
grasped the precarious political consequences of handing over several well-regarded English
subjects to Spain. The King easily assented to Spain’s demand for Ralegh’s blood, but balked at
Count Gondomar’s insistence that all his captains should be punished with him. He was aware that
the ambassador’s demands dangerously undermined his royal authority and the jurisdiction of his
courts, not to mention adding to the people’s grievances against the Crown. The King was adamant
that only Ralegh would be executed to satisfy his honor with Spain. On 13 July the Privy Council
issued Ralegh’s arrest warrant. The royalist James Howell later remarked: “that great wise Knight
being such an Anti-Spaniard, was made a Sacrifice to advance the Matrimoniall Treaty.”
158

157 Thomas served the Earl of Essex until the uprising in 1601 and was perhaps the Thomas Keymis who became
a Jesuit at Douay in 1604, returning to England the following year. Sir Anthony Ashley, “Sir Ant. Ashley to Lake,”
TNA, SP 14/97, fol. 192 (High Holborn, 12 May 1618); Henry Cobham, Baron Cobham, “Henry, Lord Cobham to
Sir Robert Cecil, Enclosure: William Bowyer,” Hat., CP 77/39 (Blackfriars, 9 March 1600/1); Henry Foley, Records
of the English Province of the Society of Jesus … in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Oxford, 1875), 218.
158 James Howell, Epistolae Ho-elianae (London, 1650), 97.
295

As the court roiled with controversy over Ralegh’s fate, he made the first of two escape
attempts to France.
159
Foiled, Ralegh journeyed back to London under Stucley’s supervision.
Accompanying him was Manoury, an itinerant French alchemist who procured potions to cause
pustulent sores and vomiting. Ralegh feigned what appeared to be leprosy to buy time against his
return to the Tower and examination by the Privy Council.
160
At Sherbourne they stayed with Sir
Edward Parham and met Sir John Digby, who told Ralegh that he would be tried under admiralty
law as a pirate. At this news, Ralegh planned his second escape and bribed Stucley to come with
him in exchange for jewelry and ₤1000. At Salisbury, where the King stayed, Ralegh staged the
revelation of his illness for the court physicians. Manoury used his chemical expertise to make
Ralegh’s urine appear polluted, tainting the glass with a drug to give the urine “an earthy humour,
of a blackish color, and … an ill savour.” The physicians declared Ralegh’s malady mortal and
without human remedy.
161
This performance enabled Ralegh to pass through Salisbury without
being summoned before the King or Council.
When they reached Brentford just outside London, Ralegh met David de Novion, Sieur de La
Chesnée, a translator for the French embassy. The French agent Le Clerc had sent him to assist
Ralegh in seeking asylum in France, apparently at the Queen’s encouragement in preference for a
French daughter-in-law.
162
To recover from his apparent illness, Ralegh obtained special
permission to take physick at his home in Lothbury, from which he would steal away to Gravesend
and sail to France. In the wee hours of 10 August, Ralegh gave Manoury a letter to take to Mistress
Harris in Radford commanding her to relinquish “an yron fornace with a Distillatory of Copper

159 Bacon, A declaration of the demeanor, 41-42.
160 Ibid, 49.
161 Ibid, 51.
162 Lady Carew mentioned the Queen’s involvement in Ralegh’s escape to France in her interview with Sir
Thomas Wilson. Ambassador Des Marêts had returned to France in January 1618 and Le Clerc acted as France’s
ambassador in his absence. CSP James I, 1611-1618, 565; Sir Thomas Wilson, “Account by [Sir Thos, Wilson] of an
interview with Lady Carew,” TNA, SP 14/99, fol. 148r (Tower, 19 September 1618); CSP Venice, 15:334.
296

belonging unto it” to bring to France. This may have been the sole prototype of the desalination
furnace Ralegh invented.
163
Disguised in a false beard, Ralegh and Stucley boarded a barge at the
Tower dock, but had only gone a short distance down the Thames before being intercepted. Stucley
pretended he had entrapped Ralegh and promptly placed him under arrest. At dawn, Stucley
delivered Ralegh into the Tower. This escape attempt only compounded Ralegh’s error, as the
French agent’s interference caused a rift between England and France, and pushed the King closer
to Spain. With a keen eye toward self-preservation, Manoury readily disclosed Ralegh’s secret
meetings with Le Clerc, while Le Clerc invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid answering the Privy
Council’s inquiries. The King placed both Le Clerc and La Chesnée under house arrest, an act
France took as a grave insult.
164

An inventory of the personal items Ralegh carried with him in his escape revealed his
unshakeable belief in Guiana’s mineral riches, and his plans to launch a new venture from France
to find the gold he had promised the King, and thus purchase his safe return to England. Among
such curiosities and valuables as a spleen stone, ambergris, a loadstone, several diamond rings
(one given to him by the late Queen), and a gold whistle studded with diamonds, Ralegh had the
following:
Item A Guiana Idall of gold & Copper
Item A Iaccintt Seale set in gold with a Neptune cut in yt with certen Guiana oare tyed to yt
Item one Wedge of ffine gold at 22 Carractes:
Item one other slobb of courser gold:
Item one Plott of Guiana and Nova Regnia and an other of the River of Orenoque:
The discription of the river of Orienoque

163 Bacon, A declaration of the demeanor, 58.
164 Privy Council, “sundry particulars and circumstances touching the late intended escape of Sir Walter
Ralegh,” TNA, PC 2/29, fols. 520-521 (27 September 1618); CSP James I, 1611-1618, 569-570.
297

A Plott of Panama
A tryall of Guiana ore with a discription thereof
ffyve Assayes of the Silver Mine
165

Wilson wrote to Secretary Robert Naunton that there was naught but trinkets in his possession,
and sneered that Ralegh most valued his “chymicall stuffes, amongst which there are so many
spirits of things, that I think there is none wanting that ever I heard of, unless it be the spirrit of
God.”
166
Hindered in his escape, Ralegh depended on the defense he had written on the journey to
London as his only means of salvation.
Unlike The Discoverie of Guiana, which primarily focused on providing evidence for gold
mines, in the “Relation of his Voyage to Guiana” Ralegh took it as a moot point that the mines
existed. Instead, he dismantled Count Gondomar’s case that the attack on San Thomé constituted
a breach of the peace. If Guiana was an English dominion, as both Ralegh and the King asserted,
then the Spaniards were interlopers and Ralegh’s soldiers had just as much right to expel them as
if they had invaded domestic soil. On the other hand, if the King conceded his right to Guiana to
the Spanish, then even a prospecting voyage should have been regarded as a breach of the peace
by Count Gondomar, yet it was not; ergo, Count Gondomar tacitly acknowledged Guiana was an
English dominion. Besides, Ralegh argued, his men only attacked San Thomé in self-defense after
the Spaniards ambushed them, and the King could hardly expect his men to offer their necks for
the noose without resistance.
167
This was the lynchpin of his defense both before the King’s Bench
on 28 October and in his scaffold speech the next day.

165 Sir Lewis Stucley, “An Inventory of such things as were found on the Body of Sr Walter Rawley,” TNA,
SP 14/98, fol. 116r (10 August 1618).
166 Naunton succeeded Winwood as Secretary of State in 1618. Villiers, now elevated as Marquess of
Buckingham, lobbied the King to promote the pro-Protestant, anti-Spanish Naunton as a counterbalance to Lake’s
pro-Catholic, pro-Spanish partisanship. Sir Thomas Wilson, “Sir Thomas Wilson to Sir Robt. Naunton,” TNA, SP
14/99, fol. 50r (Tower, 17 September 1618).
167 TNA, SP 14/98, fol. 82r.
298

Though the deck was stacked against Ralegh, he had no shortage of powerful supporters,
among them the Queen, Lord George Carew, the Earl of Arundel, and the Earl of Pembroke, albeit
none powerful enough to counterbalance the King’s compulsion to appease the Spanish. Ralegh’s
defenders would not openly contradict the King, but as more of the adventurers blamed Keymis
for the attack on San Thomé, they advocated for a reinstatement of his life imprisonment rather
than heed Gondomar’s calls for summary judgment.
168
Always sensitive to suggestions that he was
easily manipulable, the King’s deafness to pleas for clemency came from his no-win situation: if
he saved Ralegh’s life it would terminate the marriage negotiations and the King would lose his
leverage to prevent Spain’s interference in Bohemia. Whereas Ralegh’s execution risked popular
discontent, it would maintain the fragile peace with Spain and avoid a war England could ill afford.
Only the discovery of gold could have offset the political fallout of losing the Spanish alliance;
absent gold, the King could see no alternative to executing Ralegh.
With Ralegh securely ensconced in the Tower, the King tasked a judicial commission headed
by Chancellor Bacon with constructing a legal argument to execute him.
169
As they wrestled with
the legalities, Ralegh turned to the promises of alchemical ingenuity in an attempt to sway the
King toward mercy. In conversations about the manifold services he could still perform for the
state, Ralegh tempted Wilson with a description of the copper desalination furnace he invented.
This furnace could distill enough saltwater “sweet as milk” to supply one quart per day for 240
men. He explained that vitriol was the salt of the earth and the cause of its greenness, but in his
copper furnace he could rectify it and make saltwater pure enough for consumption.
170
Ralegh

168 Trevelyan, Sir Walter Raleigh, 513-515
169 The committee of six was Lord Chancellor Bacon, Lord Privy Seal Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester,
Secretary Naunton, Master of the Rolls Sir Julius Caesar, Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, and George Abbot,
Archbishop of Cantebury. Trevelyan, 531.
170 Sir Thomas Wilson, “Notes of a conversation with Raleigh,” TNA, SP 14/99, fol. 217r (Tower, 30 September
1618).
299

derived his theory of desalination as essentially transmutational from hermetical ideas about the
preliminary stages to create the red tincture, an elixir used to convert base metals into gold.
171

Ralegh’s desalination furnace demonstrated how some practitioners turned the magnum opus to
pragmatic purposes, in this case obviating the need to carry large quantities of potable water in
degradable casks on ships or to stop in hostile ports for fresh water. Unimpressed, Wilson
dismissed this invention as another counterfeit. As an anonymous libel frankly noted, Ralegh’s
fate was sealed when the Crown no longer perceived him as potentially useful: “And then wert
lost, when it was understood/ Thou might’st doe harme, but could’st not doe more good.”
172

All this legal jockeying to justify a foregone execution made Philip III impatient. On 15
October the King received a Spanish agent at Royston to press for Ralegh’s expeditious death.
James replied it would be done soon and in token gave the messenger two pieces of Guiana gold
taken from Ralegh’s possessions. On 18 October, the commission concluded that the original
attainder from 1603 still applied; two days later, the King decided a secret commission would hear
his case to avoid making “him too popular … where by his witt he turned the hatred of men into
compassion of him,” as occurred in 1603. The only record of this hearing was Sir Julius Caesar’s
scribbled notes. Chancellor Bacon informed Ralegh of his death sentence on 24 October. The
mortally ill Queen appealed to her husband to spare Ralegh from death, as did a Spanish
Dominican, who feared it would alienate pro-Spanish and crypto-Catholic English from their
cause.
173
In a final bit of political theater, on 28 October the King’s Bench unexpectedly summoned
Ralegh to offer a statement and receive his sentence from the Lord Chief Justice. Lord Chief Justice

171 Paracelsus, The Hermetical and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of
Horenheim, called Paracelsus the Great, ed. Arthur Edward Waite (London, 1894), 61.
172 “Two epigrams on Sir Walter Raleigh; beheaded when he was 74 years of age,” TNA, SP 14/103, fol. 99r
(31? October 1618).
173 Harlow, 297-300; John Chamberlain “Chamberlain to Carleton,” TNA, SP 14/103, fol. 92v (London, 31
October 1618).
300

Sir Edward Coke, the same man who prosecuted Ralegh for treason in 1603, announced he would
die the next day.
As Ralegh mounted the scaffold on t