The unexpected arrival of a well-supplied French ship prevented this from occurring, as the English seized the French ship and left its crew to fend for themselves. When news of this was brought to the captain, he vigorously harangued the crew on their actions before beginning to 'exhort to repentance, and besought all the company to pray, that it might please God to looke upon their miserable present state, and for his owne mercie to relieve the same.' Despite the denunciation of cannibalism, soon after the crew prepared to draw lots to determine which of them should be sacrificed for the survival of the rest. įollowing this incident, the expedition began to experience serious shortage of supplies, to the point where Dawbeny relates that a man was killed and partially eaten by one of his companions.

This was likely an encounter with the Beothuk, although the possibility remains that Hore's crew had encountered the Inuit. According to Oliver Dawbeny, at this point the English encountered some indigenous persons in a canoe, who fled and could not be located afterwards. There the passengers killed and ate a large number of native birds as well as several bears. Īfter embarking from Gravesend in April 1536, the ships sailed for two months without sighting land until they approached Cape Breton, where they turned northeast until they reached the Island of Penguin. Dawbeny, who sailed on the Minion, had been interviewed by Hakluyt's cousin, Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple, while Thomas Butts, who had sailed on the Trinity, was very old when he was interviewed personally by Hakluyt as the last surviving witness to the voyage. Hakluyt derived his narrative from two sources: the testimony of Thomas Butts, son of William Butts, and Oliver Dawbeny. According to Hakluyt, the expedition was to set out on two ships: the Trinity, captained by Hore himself, and the Minion, upon which sailed men such as Armigil Wade. Master Hore, described as 'a man of goodly stature and of great courage' who was 'given to the studie of Cosmographie,' succeeded in attracting a number of gentlemen interested in visiting the North American coast. One of the few contemporary accounts of Richard Hore's life is contained in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, a late 16th century history by Richard Hakluyt.

Apart from his famous journey and its immediate aftermath, little is known about the life of Richard Hore. His travels are attested in the writings of Richard Hakluyt, who documented the ill-fated expedition. 1536) was an English explorer who conducted an early voyage to the coast of what is now Newfoundland, where his passengers allegedly engaged in cannibalism in order to survive.

Minion masters expedition