He carried 1, tons of the ore back to England, where, after years of smelting, it was realized that the ore was a worthless rock containing the mineral hornblende. As an English privateer , he plundered riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in The family was left in the care of his uncle, Francis Frobisher. Little else is known of his early life in Yorkshire; his education appears to have been rudimentary.
In hopes of better opportunity, young Frobisher was sent to London in to live with a maternal relative, Sir John York. In , Thomas Wyndham led the first English expedition to West Africa, comprising three ships and men. York was an investor in the enterprise and Frobisher accompanied the fleet in an unknown capacity. After plundering Portuguese ships in the vicinity of Madeira , they made their most successful transactions on the Gold Coast, trading English cloth for pounds of gold.
Pushing further south they reached Benin and negotiated directly with Oba Orhogbua for 80 tons of melegueta pepper. Lacking sufficient sailors to crew the entire fleet, they abandoned one ship and, in their panic to leave, even left behind some members of the 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 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 [ sic ]. Despite the loss of two ships and lives, the voyage was considered a financial success and investors, including York, funded another trading expedition to Portuguese Guinea in Undaunted by his first experience, Frobisher joined the new expedition and served as an apprentice merchant working for York's trading representative, John Beryn.
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.
