FROBISHER’S LOST MEN

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1929, Page 7

FROBISHER’S LOST MEN

AN EXPLORER’S DISCOVERY. MONTREAL, Sept. 18. An alleged clue to the 350-years-old mystery of the fate of the five men left on Kadlunarn Island, in the Arctic, by Sir Martin Frobisher in 1576 has been reported by Dr Donald MacMillan on his arrival at Sydney, Nova Scotia, from a two-months exploration trip in the neighbourhood of Baffin Land.

On the island in the Countess of Warwick Sound Mr Macmillan found an ancient stone house, which the Eskimos said was the work of white men. ■ Inside were bones and other evidences of one-time habitation, the age of which indicated that they probably dated from Frobisher’s time. On Kadlunarn the party found in a fair state of preservation a house >ui!t_ by Frobisher, digging in the earthern floor, they uncovered pieces of pottery and other relics and also found traces near by of slipways down which Frobisher’s men had launched boats after their ships had ben crushed by the ice.

It has hitherto been supposed by some that the five men left by Frobisher attempted to build a fort to protect the supposed gold mines and were killed bv Eskimos. Native tradition, however, asserts that they built a big boat and set out to return to England. Reli's found indicate that they voyaged only some fifty miles, when thei craft was crushed by icebergs, and tl v the survivors then built their shelt' 1 the Countess of Warwick Sound Sir Martin Frobisher first vis* 5 * ie Arctic in 1576 in the 20-to - iar^ e Gabriel, in the course of lr 0 or jL 0 discover a North-West pa <a o e " ,ve of his men disappeared T * V 6 €X pedition’s return to * )n^on " as sated that they had lom ‘’’l} 111 ! 1 ’ los of gold ore,' and übsequently Frobisher made two ot ,er voyages, in oi i and 1578.