Sir Humphrey Gilbert

by James Baldwin

　　

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More than three hundred years ago there lived in England a brave manwhose name was Sir Humphrey Gil-bert. At that time there were no whitepeople in this country of ours. The land was covered with forests; andwhere there are now great cities and fine farms there were only treesand swamps among which roamed wild In-di-ans and wild beasts.Sir Hum-phrey Gilbert was one of the first men who tried to make aset-tle-ment in A-mer-i-ca. Twice did he bring men and ships over thesea, and twice did he fail, and sail back for England. The secondtime, he was on a little ship called the "Squirrel." Another ship,called the "Golden Hind," was not far away. When they were three daysfrom land, the wind failed, and the ships lay floating on the waves.Then at night the air grew very cold. A breeze sprang up from theeast. Great white ice-bergs came drifting around them. In the morningthe little ships were almost lost among the floating mountains of ice.The men on the "Hind" saw Sir Humphrey sitting on the deck of the"Squirrel" with an open book in his hand. He called to them andsaid,--"Be brave, my friends! We are as near heaven on the sea as on theland."Night came again. It was a stormy night, with mist and rain. All atonce the men on the "Hind" saw the lights on board of the "Squirrel"go out. The little vessel, with brave Sir Humphrey and all his bravemen, was swal-lowed up by the waves.

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