expedition. The return voyage was extremely difficult for the sick and short-handed crew. Another ship was lost and when the one remaining ship returned to England only 40 of the original 140 crewmen were still alive. Frobisher was one of the survivors, perhaps a confirmation of York's assessment that Frobisher had "great spirit and bould courage, and natural hardnes of body." Despite the loss of two ships and 100 lives, the 1553 voyage was considered a financial success and investors, including York, funded another trading expedition to Portuguese Guinea in 1554. Undaunted by his first experience, Frobisher joined the new expedition and served as an apprentice merchant working for York's trading representative, John Beryn. Three ships left Dartmouth in November 1554 under the command of John Lok. This may have been Frobisher's first acquaintance with the Lok family, a relationship that would play an important role in his future. After seven weeks' sailing, they made their first landfall near the Cestos River in present-day Liberia. They traded for a quantity of pepper and then proceeded to the Gold Coast, the West African gold trade centre. The local government refused to deal with the English until they provided a hostage to ensure negotiations in good faith. Frobisher volunteered to serve as the hostage and discussions were allowed to proceed. However, before they could conclude a deal, a Portuguese ship appeared offshore and fired on the English fleet. The expedition abandoned Frobisher and went elsewhere to trade, eventually returning to England with a valuable cargo of gold, pepper, and ivory. His African captors then handed Frobisher over to the Portuguese at their trading post of Mina, where he was imprisoned in the castle of São Jorge da Mina. After nine months or so, the Portuguese authorities sent him to Portugal, whence he eventually made his way back to England about 1558. Privateer and pirate The circumstances and timing of Frobisher's return from Portugal are unclear. There is no indication of any diplomatic or financial effort to secure his release; perhaps the Portuguese simply saw no advantage to holding a low-ranking political prisoner any longer. Frobisher must have returned to the sea soon after his release. There is some evidence that by 1559 he led a voyage to the Barbary Coast to secure the release of an English hostage, Anthony Hammond. In September of the same year the well-known pirate, Henry Strangways, testified