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DISASTROUS VOYAGE OF EDWARD FENTON 189 by the Cape of Good Hope, or if needful by the Straits of Magellan, to open trade and to establish small settle- ments at places, to fight the Spaniards if attacked, and to inquire whether the northern passages which had defied all efforts from Europe could not be opened out from Asia. It was a vast enterprise, with a squad- ron of four ships aggregating 740 tons, besides pinnaces and shallops, provisioned for thirteen months, and with a subscribed capital of 11,600, of which 2000 were invested in merchandise. After a year's absence Captain Fenton returned to Plymouth in May, 1583, with a sad tale of failure. He has been accused of deviating from his instructions, with the design of seizing the Island of St. Helena, " theire to be proclaimed Kyng." It is certain that he took six months to reach Brazil. Contrary winds and want of victuals, he wrote to Burleigh, then pre- vented him from passing the Cape of Good Hope, while the news of a great Spanish fleet at the Straits of Magellan deterred him from attempting that route. He decided to traffic, or buccaneer, along the coast of Brazil; fought a battle with a Spanish squadron; and came back with the empty words that, but for these mishaps, he dared well assure the lord treasurer they had brought home in honest trade above 40,000 or 50,000. As a matter of fact, he bartered away one of his ships to the Portuguese, lost another at the River Plate, quarrelled with his officers, buried forty-five of Ms men, and did nothing. It still took men of the