188 ENGLAND'S ATTEMPTS TO REACH INDIA the East India Company, twenty years later, turned into facts. These possibilities and the ruin and discredit in which Frobisher 's search for gold had ended, somewhat abated the national interest in the northern routes. But expeditions still went on. In May, 1580, the Mus- covy Company sent out two vessels of forty and twenty tons, the joint crews numbering but fourteen men and two boys, to discover a northeastern passage to the " dominions of the mighty prince, the Emperor of Cathay." One of the little barks, under Jackman, per- ished at sea; the other, under Pet, discovered the straits which bear his name between Waigatz and Russia, but was forced back by ice and returned to England in December, 1580. After much negotiation a fourth voyage was en- trusted to Frobisher, which marks the growing resolve of England to penetrate to Asiatic seas by the forbid- den southern route. Its object was to "be only for trade and not for discovery of the passage by the north- east to Cataya," unless the information could be inci- dentally obtained. Frobisher declined the command, and in June, 1582, the ships sailed under Captain Ed- ward Fenton with designedly ambiguous instructions. " You shall take your right course to the isles of the Moluccas for the better discovery of the northwest pas- sage," provided that the discovery may be made " with- out hindrance of your trade; " and also to find a north- east passage if, on the same conditions, he could. The main idea seems to have been to reach the Moluccas
