GILBERT, Sir HUMPHREY ( 1539 Y-83) . An English soldier and navigator. He was born at Compton, Devonshire, and was, on his mother's side, a half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was educated at Eton and at Oxford. He saw active service in Normandy under the Earl of Warwick, in 1563, as well as in the Irish cam paigns of 1566-70. In 1571 he returned to Eng land, and in the following year was sent into the Netherlands with a force of 1500 English volun teers to aid the Dutch. After a futile cam paign Gilbert returned to England, and spent the next five years in retirement in "sundry profitable and very commendable exercises" in literature. During this period he wrote the Discourse of the Discovery for a New Pas sage to Cataia, produced partly in support of two petitions presented to the Queen in 1566, for a commission to search for a northwest or north east passage. The Discourse, with some addi tions, was edited by the poet George Gascoigne, in 1576. In 1577• Gilbert published another treatise, suggesting a plan of 'reprisals' against the King of Spain, and in 1578 he received a commission from Elizabeth, which covered the privileges of discovery and colonization. An ex pedition was immediately fitted out by Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, but was dispersed by the Spaniards off Cape Verde, and the next four Tears were spent by the indefatigable adventurer in endeavors to raise the necessary funds for another undertaking. On June 11, 1583, he sailed from Plymouth with five ships, but the largest –abarque furnished by Raleigh—returned to England after two days at sea. Gilbert made his way across the Atlantic, and on July 30th reached the coast of Newfoundland, and deter mined to plant his colony near the harbor of Saint John's, where he took possession of the country in the name of the Queen. This, the first
English colony in America, was made up of broken-down gentlemen and seamen, and the law lessness of the community was beyond Gilbert's control. Arrangements were made to return to England, whence Gilbert hoped to make another attempt at colonization in the following spring. Meanwhile he explored the coast of Newfoundland toward the south, and lost his largest ship on the shoals off Cape Sable or Cape Breton Island. Disregarding the advice of his friends, he per sisted in sailing in the Squirrel, the smaller and less seaworthy of the two remaining vessels. A storm was encountered off the Azores. "On Mon day, September 9th," reports Hayes, the captain of the other vessel, the Golden Hind, "the frigate was near cast away, yet at that time recovered; and giving forth signs of joy, the general, sit ting abaft with a book in his hand, cried out unto us in the Hind: 'We are as near to heaven by sea as by land.' That same night the watch on board the Hind, observing that the frigate's lights suddenly disappeared, cried out: 'The general was cast away,' which was too true; for in that moment the frigate was devoured and swallowed up in the sea." Some account of Gilbert's career may be found in Bourne, Eng lish Seamen Under the Tudors (London, 1868), and also in Markham, The Fighting Veres (Lon don, 1888). The original narrative of his voy age is in Hakluyt, English Voyages (London, 1600; new ed. 1812; Goldschmid, Edinburgh, 1889). Consult also Payne, Voyages of the Elizabethan &amen (London, 1880).