Martin Frobisher Had Cold Man Parts

English: Sir Martin Frobisher by Cornelis Ketel, circa 1577. Frobisher wears a jerkin closed only at the neck over a peascod-bellied doublet. Français : Martin Frobisher par Cornelis Ketel, vers 1577 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second in a series of blogs called, "Canadian History as I see it".

 

In the late 1500s the English and the French were obsessed with getting to the Orient by water to plunder, pillage and rape  trade for gold and spices. 

Unfortunately North America was in the way.

The difference seems to be that the French 'got' the new World long before the English did.

While Martin Frobisher and John Davis were freezing their man parts in the Arctic and looking for a north-west passage to Asia, the French were moving into the much more hospitable St. Lawrence Lowlands.

They were also starting to eyeball all of those sassy Canadian beavers.

They knew a good thing when they saw it.

 And so did their king.

 

In 1600 Henry IV of France granted the first North American fur trading monopoly and by 1608 Samuel de Champlain had founded Quebec City!

 

Meanwhile the Brits were still keeping their man parts on ice.

In 1610, Henry Hudson and his band of unmerry men sailed into the frigid waters of Hudsons Bay.

And as you know, Henry Hudson did not come sailing out again.