THE EAST ARNOLD WRIGHT P5 nn Olarnell UnioetBitg iCibtatg THE GIFT OF H. VV. VelVt i-cio-yi. All books are suDject to recall after two weeks Olin/Kroch Library DATE DUE f^ iuesi**' IS99*s«»' ] ?■ ^ i GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A DS 465.W94"l9l7™™"'' '""'"^ ^''^lWfflMi«iiiiMn&* '" ^e East / EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024059705 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST \ By ARNOLD WRIGHT SECOND EDITION NEW YORK E. P. BUTTON & CO. LONDON : ANDREW MELROSE (LTD.) 1917 K' '^,^ ^"cj^ " It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things and not the monarchs of great empires." — Montesquieu. Published April 1917 Reprinted November 1917 PREFACE THIS work covers the period which intervened be- tween Drake's circumnavigation of the world at the close of the sixteenth century and the founding of Calcutta at the end of the seventeenth century. Those were the years in which the initial efforts were made by the English to establish themselves in the East as traders. It was, as far as this part of the world is concerned, pre- eminently the age of the adventurer — ^the merchant ad- venturer, if you will, but still of the true adventurer who seeks fortune by his daring enterprise and his mother wit. For varied interest and picturesqueness, there is no more fascinating period than this in the whole of the Empire's past. Tragedy and comedy mingled their elements in what was in essence one of the most romantic dramas of the world's history. Men started out to build up a com- mercial connexion, and they ended in laying the founda- tions of a dominion over alien peoples more wonderful than that of Eome in her palmiest days. How this was accomplished is told in the accompanying pages, but the author's aim has been not so much to write an exhaustive history as to bring into prominence the personalities of those who were engaged in this great work — to show what 5 6 PREFACE manner of men they were, how they struggled and fought and how in many cases they died for their country in furtherance of aims which on their full fruition in subse- quent years were to lead to the dominance of the British race in India. Their splendid part in the building of the Empire has been obscured by the more dazzling achieve- ments of the men of a later generation who on an ampler stage and with more impressive accessories carried forward the story of British ascendency from crisis to crisis to its magnificent denomment in the unchallenged supremacy of Britain under the eegis of the Crown. Few of those who read this work, however, will be prepared to deny that many of these humble adventurers of the seven- teenth century are fully worthy of a place in the illustrious roll of men who made the Empire. It should be stated that the work is mainly based on the splendid series of records preserved at the India OflSce, which supply a full history of the early life of the English in the East. In the prosecution of his researches the author received the most complete facilities from the cour- teous o£&cials at the India Office Library, and he desires to avail himself of this opportunity of making due acknow- ledgment of their kindness. As far as the earUest years of the period dealt with are concerned he has to express his indebtedness to the useful series of transcripts edited by Mr. Wm. Foster under the authority of the Indian Government. These volumes, reproducing as they do in faithful detail the text of the older documents, many of which are illegible to any but an expert archivist, are of immense value to the writer who is dealing with any PREFACE 7 special phase of British Indian history. The hope may be permitted that the series will be continued until all the rich store of historical fact and incident is made readily accessible to the literary student. A. W. London, Janvmy, 1914. LIST OF CONTENTS CELAPTER I.— THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE Drake's circumnavigation of the globe — ^The defeat of the Invincible Armada and its effects — ^Fenton'a disas- trous enterprise — Cavendish's voyage round the world — Expedition to the East commanded by Raymond — His ship founders in a storm off the Cape — James Lancaster succeeds to the command — His career — He visits Penang — Raids Portuguese shipping in the Straits of Malacca — He returns to England — Subsequent expedition to Brazil — ^Ralph Ktoh and others proceed to the East overland — - Fitch's account of his travels — ^The Dutch Admiral Hout- man conducts a voyage to the Bast — Its effect on Eng- lish enterprise ....... 1-34 CHAPTER II.— HOW LANCASTER INITIATED THE EASTERN TRADE Formation of the East India Company — ^Elizabeth grants a charter — Sir Edmund Miohelborne and Lancaster rivals for the command of the Company's first expedition — The latter appointed — John Davis of Sundridge pro- ceeds with the fleet — Arrival of the expedition at Aoheen — Favourable reception by the King — Portuguese oppo- sition — Successful raid on Portuguese shipping by Lancaster — ^Farewell interview with the King — ^The fleet visits Bantam and returns home — Successful results of the voyage ....... 85-54 CHAPTER ni— A FIGHT TO A FINISH James I gives Michelbome a licence to trade in the East — ^Michelbome's voyage to the East with Davis as chief 9 10 LIST OF CONTENTS lieutenant — Acts of piracy o£E the Javan coast — English ships fall in with a Japanese pirate vessel — Sudden attack by the Japanese — ^A terrific combat — ^Davis is slain — A happy thought — Defeat and extermination of the Japanese — ^Miohelbome returns home PAGES S5-64 CHAPTER IV.— LIFE AT SEA IN THE SEVEN- TEENTH CENTURY Wide range of the East India Company's operations — Henry Middleton conducts a voyage to Bantam — ^Keel- ing, Sharpeigh and David Middleton command expedi- tions to the East — Building of the Trades Increase — James I christens it — Lite on the Company's ships — The character of the crews — Preachers appointed to the ships — ^The Company's commanders — Discourses by Wilham Keehng and Nicholas Downton . 65-72 CHAPTER v.— HOW THE ENGLISH WENT TO INDIA William Hawkins is landed at Surat — ^Makarrab Khan, the local governor — ^A typical Mogul official — His atti- tude towards the English — ^Hawkins proceeds to Agra — Description of the city of that day — Jehangir on the throne of the Great Mogul — He gives Hawkins a friendly reception — ^Takes him into his service — Hawkins' ad- vance to power — ^His marriage — Effect of Jehangir's patronage of Hawkins on the officials at Surat — Jehan- gir's character — His debauchery and cruelty — Downfall of Hawkins ....... 73-90 CHAPTER VI.— ENGLISH CAPTIVES IN ARABIA Sharpeigh conducts an expedition to Aden — Jourdain's account of the voyage — ^Description of Aden — Rejib Aga, the Turkish governor, detains Sharpeigh — Jour- dain and Glasscock proceed overland to Mocha — ^Un- successful effort to trade— Departure of the expedition — Sir Henry Middleton arrives at Aden with a fleet — Pro- ceeds to Mocha in the Trade's Increase — Attacked and made prisoner ....... 91-103 LIST OF CONTENTS li FAOES CHAPTER Vn.— A GALLANT BUT UNFORTUNATE COMMANDER Downton sohemea to release Middleton — ^Frioton between Downton and Middleton — ^A reconciliation — ^Middleton effects his escape — Turns the tables on the enemy — Exacts redress — JemeU, the factor, poisoned by R jib Aga — ^Middleton proceeds with his fleet to Surat — ^Unable to trade owing to combined native and Portuguese oppo- sition — ^Returns to the Red Sea, — Institutes a blockade — Dissensions amongst the commanders — ^Middleton raises the blockade and proceeds to Bantam — Destruction of the Trade's Increase — Death of Middleton — ^His char- acter ........ 104^116 CHAPTER Vin.— ENGLISH AND PORTUGUESE RIVALRY Unfavourable EngUsh prospects in India — ^Thomas Best conducts a fleet to India — ^Is a. tacked by the Portuguese — Defeat of th3 Portuguese with great loss — ^Mogul authorities grant a firman to trade at Surat — ^Mogul Government declares war on the Portuguese — Downton arrives off Surat with a fleet — ^Is attacked in Swally Roads by Portuguese — ^He beats off his assailants — ^The Rev. Peter Rogers attacks Downton — ^Death of Down- ton — His patriotic virtues ..... 116-130 CHAPTER IX.— AN ENGLISH MISSION TO THB COURT OP THE GREAT MOGUL Jehangir's attitude towards the English — Obstruction to trade — Sir Thomas Roe despatched as ambassador — His early career — ^His reception by Jehangir — Opposi- tion of Prince Khurrum and Asaf Khan — ^Roe out of favour with the Emperor — ^Is restored to grace — Jehan- gir's partiaUty for Roe — ^The Emperor's jokes — ^Drink- ing bouts at the palace — ^An Oriental Hansard — ^Roe's difBculties ....... 131-146 12 LIST OF CONTENTS CHAPTER X.— AN IMPERIAL DESPOT m DRESS AND UNDRESS Jehangir moves his Gourt — ^The splendours of the im- perial camp — Jehangir and the fakir — The Court estab- lished at Mandu — ^Roe at Maudu — ^His ill-health — Jehan- gir intercepts and appropriates the presents from Eng- land — Roe and the Emperor — An amusing audience — Jehangir and the English mastifEs — ^A curious ceremony — Prince Khurrum returns in triumph from the war — Roe and the prince — Roe forms an alliance with Asaf Khan and Noor Mahal — ^Asaf Khan espouses the English cause in durbar — Roe's victory .... 147-164 CHAPTER XI.— A GROUP OF ENGLISH ADVEN- TURERS IN INDIA Robert TruUy, the comet player — ^WiUiam Hemsell, the Great Mogul's coachman — Richard Steele — Hia Agra waterworks scheme — ^Thomas Coryat, " the Odoombe Leg Stretcher " — Coryat's early career at the Court of James I — Goryats crudities — Coryat's journey overland to Indian— Coryat's audience of Jehan- gir — The Emperor and a Christian convert — Coryat pre- pares to return home — ^He dies and is buried at Surat — Roe's last days in India— He secures an agreement from the Mogul Government permitting the English to trade — ^He returns to England ..... 165-178 CHAPTER XII.— ENGLISH AND DUTCH RIVALRY IN THE EAST The fight for the spio? trade — ^Tho Dutch predominance in the Eastern Archipelago — Dutch hostility to the English — Jourdaln's expedition to the Moluccas — Jan Pieterson Coen, the great Dutch administrator — ^His interview with Jourdain — Jourdain driven from the Moluccas — Deplorable condition of the English at Ban- tam — The English occupy Poolo Ai — ^Further English expedition to the Moluocas-v-Its withdrawal—Dutch re- oooupy Poolo Ai ...... 177-188 LIST OF CONTENTS 13 PAGES CHAPTER Xin.— FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH New expedition to the Moluccas under Nathaniel Court- hope — Occupation of Poolo Roon by the English — Ihitoh expedition to evict the English — Courthope's de- fiance — The Dutch capture the English ship Swan — Courthope prepares for a Dutch attack — ^The English ship Defence captured by the Dutch — The Dutch Gover- nor, General Reaal, seeks an accommodation with Court- hope — Courthope declines his terms — ^Dutch proclama- tion against the English — ^Unsuccessful attempt to re- lieve Courthope — Courthope's indomitable spirit — Sic Thomas Dale conducts an expedition against the Dutch — ^Action ofi Jakatra (Batavia) — The Dutch retire to the Moluccas — ^The English occupy Jakatra — Dale returns to India — ^His death-^Dutch attack on English ships at Patani — Jourdain is treacherously slain — ^Isolation of Courthope — ^His gallant fight against odds and his heroic death ■ • • • > - ■ ' . 189-208 CHAPTER XIV.— THE BLACK TRAGEDY OF AM- BOmA Conclusion of the Treaty of Defence — ^Disagreements aa to its interpretation. — ^The English in the Eastern is- lands — Gabriel Towerson, the chief agent — ^Van Speult, the Dutch governor — ^Description of Amboina — A Japan- ese arrested for conspiring against the Dutch — ^He impli- cates the English — ^Abel Price under torture confirms the story — Arrest of Towerson and the other EngUsh officials — They are examined and under torture confess their guilt — Subsequent protestations of innocence— The infamy of the transactions .... 209-226 CHAPTER XV.— THE LAST SCENE OF ALL Condemnation of the Amboina prisoners — ^Reprieve of two of the Enghsh — ^A fateful lottery — The condemned Englishmen refused the Ssiorament — ^They solemnly re- new their protestations of innooerioe — The last night passed in prayer and praise — ^A touching memorial of the occasion — The day of execution — ^Meeting between the Enghsh and the Japanese prisoners — Bearing of 14 LIST OF CONTENTS the English in their laat moments — ^The execution — Strange happenings — Effect produced in England by the episode — ^A belated settlement — What was " the Massacre of Amboina " ? — ^The EngUsh withdraw from the Eastern islands ...... FAass 226-239 CHAPTER XVI.— THE ENGLISH IN THE PERSIAN GULF Portuguese supremacy in the Gulf challenged — Goa, the Portuguese capital in the East — Sir Robert Shirley the Shah of Persia's ambassador — EngUsh open a trad- ing factory in Persia — Shah Abbas's hatred of the Portu- guese — ^His gift of Jask to the EngUsh — ^Ruy Ereirede Andrade, the Portuguese commander, conducts a fleet to the Gulf — Portuguese ultimatum to the Shah — Action between the Portuguese and the English off Jask — EngUsh fleet under Captain Shilling drives o£E the Portu- guese — EngUsh fleet under Captains Blyth and Weddell, assisted by a Persian land force, attacks and defeats Portuguese at Kishm — Baffin, the Arctic explorer, killed in the fight — Surrender of Ruy Freire — Ormuz attacked and occupied — Downfall of the Portuguese power in the Gulf 240-255 CHAPTER XVn.— THE ENGLISH SECURE A PER- MANENT FOOTHOLD IN INDIA Joint EngUsh and Dutch attack on Bombay — A Dutch iconoclast — ^Effect of the cruelties of the Inquisition at Goa on the EngUsh and the Dutch — ^EngUsh attack on the Portuguese at Surat — Sir WilUam Courten's associa- tion — ^Acquisition by the EngUsh of territory on the Coromandel Coast — ^Foundation of Fort St. George (Madras) — Occupation of Bombay proposed to the East India Company — Importance of the position — Bombay forms part of the dower of Charles IPs Queen, Catherine of Braganza — Sir George Oxeuden's mission to Western India — Royal expedition for the occupation of Bombay — Portuguese Viceroy decUnes to surrender the island — EngUsh troops landed at Angediva, near Goa — Bombay handed over and occupied by the EngUsh — ^Dutch and French opposition — ^The island ceded by Charles II to LIST OF CONTENTS 15 the East India Company — Oxenden defends the SuTat factory against an attack by Sivaji — Death of Oxenden — Gerald Aungier's successful administration of Bombay — Present grandeur of the city .... CHAPTER XVm.— THE ENGLISH ON THE EAST COAST OF INDIA The first expedition to Bengal — Gabriel Boughton, a friend at Court, obtains trading facihties for the Com- pany — Factories established at Balasor, Cassimbazar and Patna in subordination to Hooghly — Sir Edward Winter's coup ^&at at Madras — George Poxcroft, the President, imprisoned — ^Expedition to restore the status quo — ^Winter surrenders — Sir William Langhome's PAQB3 256-273 274-282 CHAPTER XIX.— THE ARCH INTERLOPER- THOMAS PITT Interlopers in the Bay of Bengal — ^Thomas Pitt, a lead- ing member of the fraternity — Governor Hedge's disorip- tion of an interloping party ashore — Pitt's trading ven- tures — ^He defies the Company — ^He returns to England and is arrested and fined — ^Reappears in India — ^The Company makes terms with him and appoints him president of Fort St. George (Madras) — ^His adminis- tration — ^The Pitt diamond and its history — ^Last years in England — Pitt's character .... 283-289 CHAPTER XX.— JOB CHARNOCK FOUNDS CAL- CUTTA Expedition to Bengal to exact redress for wrongs inflicted upon the English — Job Chamock assigned the post of honour — ^His career — Chamock sacks Hooghly — ^Evacu- ation of Hooghly and temporary occupation of Sutanuti, the modem Calcutta — Subsequent removal to HijiU — Attack by Mogul troops — Gallant defence — ^Dire straits of the garrison — Welcome reinforcements — Peace con- cluded — ^Return of the EngUsh to Sutanuti — Chamock in disgrace — New expedition imder Heath — ^Its failure — English retire to Madras — Are invited back to Bengal — Calcutta founded — Chamock's last days — His charac- ter ........ 290-308 16 LIST OF CONTENTS FASBS CHAPTER XXL— THE ADVENTURERS AND THEIR TIMES The passing of the era of adventure — The early English communities in the East — ^How they Uved — ^Their reli- gious observances — ^The first Indian convert — The pomp observed by the chief officials — ^Their dress — ^Few Englishwomen in India — ^Drinking habits of the men — Literary tastes — ^What expatriation to the East meant in the eighteenth century — The debt Britain owes to the early adventurers ...... 309-318 CHAPTER I The Dawn of the Empire Drake's cirounmavigation of the globe — The defeat of the Invincible Armada and its efEeots — Fenton's disastrous enterprise — Cavendish's voyage round the world — Expedition to the East commanded by Raymond — His ship founders in a storm off the Cape — James Lancaster succeeds to the command — His career — He visits Penamg — Raids Portuguese shipping in the Straits of Malacca — He returns to England — Subsequent expedition to Brazil — Ralph Fitch and others proceed to the East overland-^Fitoh's account of his travels — The Dutch admiral, Houtman, conducts a voyage to the East — Its effect on English enterprise. WHEN the long reign of Elizabeth was drawing towards its splendid close there was planted in the minds of Englishmen a mighty idea. Their con- ception was of an England no longer self-centred and self- contained — no mere " sceptred isle " seated in splendid isolation upon the inviolate sea, but of a power which, bursting the artificial bonds imposed by an arrogant foreign domination, would make its commercial frontiers, co-terminous with the utmost limits of the known world. Many causes contributed to produce this awakening of the national consciousness to the country's higher des- tinies. The voyages of the early navigators, by lifting the curtain upon the realities of that mysterious outer world which had existed hitherto to a large extent only in the imagination, created an interest in strange peoples 17 B 18 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST and unfamiliar lands. The stream of wealth which flowed into Spain and Portugal from their distant possessions also acted as a powerful stimulus to the policy of adven- ture. But undoubtedly it was Drake's circumnavigation of the world in 1577 which gave the first direct impulse to the national desire for a " place in the sun," to use a modern phrase. That wonderful achievement, by its incomparable audacity as an essay in seamanship, not less than by its brilhant success as an exercise in the ever- popular process of " singeing the Spaniard's beard," had thrilled the imagination of the people to an extraordinary degree. It was the electric spark which set aflame the smouldering ambitions of the nation and brought to life schemes of commercial aggrandisement which had hitherto been mere vague aspirations. It was realized that where Drake and his little handful of men had gone, and where Cavendish had followed, others equally brave and resolute <50uld go. The Eastern seas were wide, the markets there ■open to all who were adventurous enough to resort to "them ; the native populations were not unkindly disposed. Nothing, in fact, but the barrier of an insolent claim to monopoly was interposed to the creation of wide and lucrative new openings for trade. The barrier, it is true, -was a substantial one — nothing less than the armed might of the two greatest naval powers then existing ; but the nation was in the mood to take whatever risks there might ibe in challenging this powerful combination. Accurately interpreting the national will Elizabeth issued her defiant replies to the Spanish protests. In burning words she dechned to accept the limitations by which his most Catholic Majesty sought to keep English ships from trespassing upon his Eastern preserves. Her THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 19 spirited assertions of English independence of the famous decree of Pope Alexander VI dividing the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese were amongst the most potent of the causes which led to the despatch of the Spanish Armada in 1588. And the defeat of the Armada in its turn was another important link in the chain of cir- cumstances which associates Drake's adventure with the establishment of British power in the East. For the victory not only freed England from a foreign religious despotism, but it threw open the seas of the world to her trade. The influence which for nearly a century had made the whole of the opulent markets of the Orient a close pre- serve for Spain and Portugal was, in fact, fatally under- mined by the three days' struggle in the English Channel and the subsequent chase. The bleaching timbers of the Spanish galleons on the Irish and Scotch coasts were the monuments of a dead era. From that time England set her face towards the East, never again to turn from it. Though the defeat of the Spanish Armada was the real turning point in the history of English expansion over- seas the keen spirit of adventure which had been aroused by Drake's circumnavigation of the world found active expression !in several directions prior to the great sea victory. One enterprise which grew out of the enthusiasm of the period was an expedition organized by the Earl of Leicester under the direct patronage of Elizabeth for pur- poses of trade with the East by way of the Cape. To dis- guise the real purpose of the voyage it was given out that its object was the discovery of the North-West passage to India — that will o' the wisp which in the earlier period of the century then closing had lured so many intrepid English and Dutch navigators to splendid failures in the 20 EAELY ENGLISH ADVENTUEERS IN THE EAST icy regions of the Arctic Circle. Two ships, the Beq/r, galleon of 400 tons, and the EdwarA Bonaventure, of 300, were contributed by the Queen, and two smaller craft, of 60 tons and 40 tons respectively, furnished by private enterprise, constituted the fleet. The command was entrusted to Edward Fenton, a scion of a well-known Nottinghamshire family, who with a spirit common in that age had abjured the easy life of a country gentleman for a career of adventure. He had sailed in Frobisher's second voyage for the discovery of the North-West passage in command of one of the vessels of the fleet. But apart from this he had had little ex- perience in seamanship. What he lacked in this respect was supplied by the second in command, Wm. Hawkins, a member of the famous Plymouth family, who had all the genius of his race for navigation. Unhappily, from the outset of the expedition a keen rivalry arose between the two commanders as a result of the superior attainments of the subordinate. Fenton was domineering and headstrong, and he was altogether lacking in the steadfastness which was necessary to bring to a successful conclusion so arduous and even perilous an enterprise as a voyage to the East then was. When the fleet reached St. Helena at the end of Sep- tember the eccentric admiral was seized with the fantastic idea of annexing the island and proclaiming himself king of it. The little Atlantic islet, to be rendered famous more than two centuries later by Napoleon's incarceration upon it, is an agreeable resting-place after a long voyage, but it was then far too isolated and exposed to be held for a year by any power that did not possess absolute mastery at sea. This truth was ultimately realized by Fenton, THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 21 but in abandoning his mad purpose he took up with another scheme equally futile and in its results more mischievous, Instead of prosecuting the voyage to the East he con- ducted a semi-piratical raid along the coast of Brazil. One of his smaller vessels sufEered shipwreck ofE the mouth of the River Plate, and the crew manning it were seized and sent prisoners to Lima. The remaining vessels, after a brush with a Spanish fleet, directed their course to Eng- land, \yhich they reached on June 27, 1583. When the fleet dropped anchor in the Downs Hawkins was a close prisoner in irons. He afterwards gave out that Fenton had attempted his life to prevent the exposure of his folly. Fenton's own story, of course, was different ; but the fiasco in which the enterprise had resulted was too com- plete to be explained away by any failings of a subordinate. Fenton, after the facts had been investigated, dropped into obscurity. What became of Hawkins is an interesting problem of history. He is identified by some authorities with a notable commander in the employ of the East India Company who will be met with further on in this narrative. But the connexion has by no means been satisfactorily established. The strong probability appears to be that he shared the disrepute which attached to the expedition to the extent of not again being entrusted with an impor- tant command at sea. In the year following Fenton's fruitless essay in explora- tion Raleigh conducted the first of the series of memorable expeditions which resulted in the foundation of the Colony of Virginia and the establishment of the English connexion with the North American Continent. His achievements in that region constitute a brilliant page in EngUsh history. But more to the immediate purpose of this work was the 22 EAELY ENGLISH ADVENTUEEES IN THE EAST voyage undertaken by Thomas Cavendish in 1586 to the East. Following closely the course steered by Drake nine years previously Cavendish proceeded by way of the Straits of Magellan to the Moluccas and thence home roimd the Cape of Good Hope. The enterprise was not less successful than was its earUer prototype. Attacks on Spanish shipping in the Eastern seas yielded a rich har- vest of spoil which returned to the promoters of the enter- prise a handsome dividend on their capital outlay. Cavendish's success wiped out the effect of Fenton's failure. People once more turned their thoughts to the possibiUty of opening up a trade with the East. When the country had fairly settled down after the excitement of the defeat of the Armada a further adventure, having for its object the exploitation of Eastern markets, was floated. It brought to the front, in the person of James Lancaster, a man who was destined to leave his mark on the history of the development of the British Empire in the East. Lancaster was a typical specimen of the Elizabethan sea dog. His place of birth and his ancestry are obscure, but his early years of manhood appear to have been spent in roving after the approved manner of his class. From his own statements we gather that he was brought up amongst the Portuguese, that during this period of youth he " lived among them as a gentleman, served them as a soldier, and associated with them as a merchant." He acquired a perfect knowledge of their language and as complete an insight into their character. FamiUarity, in his case, markedly bred contempt. He described them as a people without truth or faith, who if they could not prevail by force would strive to win an advantage with their " deceiv- able tongues." His feeling was something more than the THE DAWN OF THE EMPIEE 23 common prejudice of the period against the two great colon- izing races. It was a passion which savoured of revenge for some dire injury done. As a mental eqiiipment for a leader in an enterprise such as that to which we have referred, the mere despatch of which gave a direct chal- lenge to Portuguese supremacy in the East, it was not to be equalled in stimulative force. Only the burning memory of wrongs suffered could, perhaps, have carried forward to a successful issue the great movement for widening the bounds of England's commerce of which Lancaster may be said to have been the pioneer. Another qualification of value in this connexion to which Lancaster could lay claim was the fact that he had served in the Armada fight directly imder Drake. What that meant to a man of the Elizabethan adventurer class we cannot perhaps at this distance of time adequately realize. But by analogy drawn from the events of a more recent period it is possible to believe that the heroes of the classic con- test carried with them in their undertakings a prestige which had its influence on friend and foe alike. Lancaster in the expedition with which we are now deaUng served as second in command under George Ray- mond, whose appointment as '•' General " — to adopt the phraseology of the time — had been secured by influence amongst the little coterie of London merchants who sup- plied the funds. There were three ships ia all equipped for this formidable task of driving a wedge into the Portu- guese Eastern trade monopoly. Raymond hoisted his flag on the Penelope, a vessel of somewhat over 300 tons burthen ; Lancaster brought to the rendezvous the Edward Bonaventu/re, the ship of 300 tons which he had commanded in the Armada conflict ; while a third craft of about 60 24 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST tons, the Merchant Royal, was in charge of Samuel Fox- croft. It will thus be seen that the united tonnage of this fleet, as it was grandiloquently called, did not exceed that registered for a good sized pleasure yacht of our day. The expedition sailed from Plymouth on April 10, 1591, touched at the Canary Islands about a month later, and in August dropped anchor off Saldania, in the modern Table Bay. Although the voyage had thus far not been an unduly protracted one " the disease of the sea," the terrible scurvy, had worked havoc amongst the crew. The ravages of the malady were so great that Raymond decided to send back the Merchant Royal with the worst of the sick cases in order that his further operations might not be hampered, and the safety of the fleet possibly imperilled by the presence of these miserable human wrecks in his vessels. The voyage was resumed by the Penelope and the Edward Bonaventure on September 8. The Cape was doubled on the following day, and almost immediately the ships fell in with one of those hurricanes which have given unenviable distinction to the great South African promontory in the annals of navigation. In the whole range of natural phenomena there is, per- haps, nothing more awe-inspiring than one of these Atlantic tempests. Immense waves fifty or sixty feet high, whose white tip of foam accentuates their inky blackness, sweep in majestic grandeur along, conveying in their irresistible might a sense of power which seems to reduce to absolute nothingness the puny human efforts to avert the calamity which each mountainous mass of water appears to threaten. The sky overhead, thick with sombre masses of cloud, is gashed with great streaks of lightning which, playing about the masts of the labouring ship, form from time to time balls THE DAWN OF THE EMPIEE 25 of fire whose radiance suffuses the scene with an unearthly brilhancy. All the time the wind howls through the rigging with a shrieking noise which deafens the ear and adds another element of horror to impressions already fully charged with fateful significance. It was into such a scene as this that the two ships were hurried on that eventful September day in 1591. For a time they kept company, but on the evening of the fourth day after leaving Table Bay those on the deck of the Edward, Bonaventure saw an immense wave engulf the Penelope. As from that moment her lights were no longer visible, they drew the inference — correct as it proved — that she had foundered with all on board. The Edward Bonaven- ture continued to battle with the storm for four days. Then an appalling catastrophe occurred which seemed for the moment to have sealed the vessel's fate. About ten o'clock in the morning a flash of lightning, accompanied by a deafening crash of thunder, struck the ship. Not a single soul on board escaped the shock. Four men were killed outright, " their necks being wrung in sender with- out speaking any word," as the graphic narrative of the historian of the expedition puts it. As to the other mem- bers of the crew, " some were stricken blind, others were burned in their legs and others in their breasts so that they voided blood ; while others, again, were drawn out at length as though they had been racked." Happily this was the d3ring effort of the storm. In a few days the conditions had so much improved that the crew were able to rest and recover from the effects of the lightning. A call at Zanzibar enabled Lancaster to take on board a pilot who knew the Bast Indies. He is described in the narrative of Edmund Barker, Lancaster's sub- 26 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST ordinate, as a " negro," but in all probability he was of the same race as the Indian seamen who in this era compose the lascar crews of many of our ocean-goiag steamers in the East. Such have for ages navigated the Indian ocean, and they no doubt constituted a numerous community at Zanzibar at the end of the sixteenth century as they da to-day. Whatever his nationality the pilot must have proved of great service to Lancaster. Drake and Cavendish's expeditions had not touched at any part of India, nor had they utilized in their passage from the China Sea to the Atlantic the Straits of Malacca, which now are almost invariably traversed by vessels proceeding to or coming from the Far East. The pilot's local knowledge enabled Lancaster not only to test the value of the great strategic waterway which we command by the possession of Singa- pore, but, what for him at the time was of more moment, to make personal acquaintance with the natural advan- tages of Penang. When the Edwa/rd Bonaventure got into the Indian Ocean the old enemy, scurvy, reappeared in an aggravated form. The crew in time was so reduced that it became imperative that a rather prolonged stay should be made in some salu- brious locality. After touching at the Nicobar Islands^ Lancaster sailed for Penang where he arrived at the beginning of June with his men in the last stages of weak- ness. The excellent air of the island was a tonic which had its effect on the enfeebled constitutions of many ; but Penang then was an uninhabited waste devoid of the fresh food supplies which were so essential to the invalids. Twenty-six of the unfortunates died in a short time, amongst them Mr. Kainold Golding, " a merchant of great honesty THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 2T and much discretion." He and his fellows were the first of British birth whose bones were laid to rest in Malaya. The survivors in the Edward Bonaventure numbered thirty- three men and one boy, and of these " not past twenty- two were sound for labour and help and not past a third part sailors." Serious, even desperate, as the condition of the expedi- tion was Lancaster did not abandon hope. On the con- trary he made his departure from Penang at the end of August, 1592, the starting-point of some rather audacious freebooting. Espying three ships in the Straits one morn- ing he gave them chase and eventually overhauled them. Two, which were native craft laden with merchandise, be- longing to Pegu traders, were allowed to continue their voyage ; but the third ship, proAong to be Portuguese owned, was confiscated. Afterwards a further small capture was made and a large vessel of 400 tons, the St. Thome, only missed becoming a prize by reason of the fact that the Edward Bonaventure was too shorthanded to spare men to sail her. The same considerations did not prevent Lancaster from attacking a great galleon of 700 tons which a day or two later appeared on the scene, to his immense gratification. The Portuguese captain, after a show of resistance, hauled down his colours. When the ship was searched it was found to be laden with wine and a miscellaneous cargo of silks, velvets and haberdashery. It was a prize rich enough in the eyes of Lancaster to compensate for all the perils of the voyage. He now determined to retrace his course homewards. Early in December he arrived ofi Ceylon, and rounding the Gape in March, 1593, he dropped anchor at St. Helena in the first days of April. There he found a poor wretch named 28 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTUREES IN THE EAST Segar, who had been put ashore in an apparently dying condition by the captain of the Merchant Royal, on the rather heartless assumption that the man's chances of life were greater on land than on board ship. For eigh- teen months the unfortunate fellow led a Crusoe-Kke exis- tence on the island, seeing no human being. When he was found he was apparently in good bodily health, but long isolation from his fellow-men had so weakened his faculties that he was unable to bear the strain of associa- tion with his old messmates. Within a month of leaving St. Helena he died, a victim to excessive joy, if Barker's theory is correct. The history of the Edward Bonaventure after leaving St. Helena was unfortunate. Lancaster, instead of pro- ceeding home, went off to the West Indies in search, it would seem, of further adventures. His crew, who had had more than their fill of this roving life, mutinied, but were afterwards brought sufficiently into submission to enable Lancaster to go on a cruise off the Gulf of Mexico. In November, 1593, the Edward Bonaventure was driven ashore on one of the islands in that region, and was there ■abandoned. Lancaster and his principal lieutenant. Barker, took passage home in a French ship which, for- tunately fof them, was anchored at one of the islands in the vicinity of the wreck. Ultimately they landed at Eye on May 24, 1594, after an absence from their native country of more than three years. To a great extent the voyage had been a disastrous one. Two of the largest vessels were lost, only a miserable rem- nant of the crews originally embarked on the fleet lived to return to England, and apart from a comparatively small sum which Lancaster obtained by trafficking in the THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 29 West Indies with the despoiled cargo of the captured Portuguese galleon there was nothing to show for the con- siderable outlay on the venture. The only substantial asset was a fund of experience of Eastern navigation, which, however valuable from the larger standpoint of national commercial development was of small account in the calculations of merchants seeking a profitable new field for the utilization of their capital. Still, the spirit of enterprise in England at that period was such that men were found ready to employ Lancaster afresh in a specula- tive imdertaldng overseas. Only five months after he had returned from the Eastern voyage we find him once more on his native element, the commander of a new fleet of three vessels equipped for a perilous foray on the Por- tuguese possessions in South America. The aggregate toimage of this little squadron did not reach 500, yet such was the spirit of the man and his fine contempt for the Portuguese that he made directly for the Brazilian port of Pemambuco, which was then one of the chief centres of Portuguese trade in the West and as such heavily fortified. By a display of cool daring and resourcefulness which was proof alike against the feeble defensive measures and the crooked diplomacy of the local Portuguese authorities he compelled the submission of Kecif e, the port of Pemam- buco, extracted a heavy ransom in the shape of treasure and goods, and with heavily laden ships made for home, arriving at Blackwall in July, 1595. It was a purely piratical expedition which cannot be justified on any modern principle, but the Elizabethan age was not a fastidious one in these matters. In the then near past the country had suffered grievous wrongs at the hands of both Portugal and Spain. For long years the nation 30 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTUREES IN THE EAST writhed under them with only occasional opportunities ioT reprisals. Now that the opening of the seas had given the opportunity of hitting back efEectively neither the Government nor the common people was disposed to look too critically upon exploits which, besides paying ofl old scores, brought a refreshing stream of wealth in their train. So the indignant protests which in due course came from the peninsula were drowned in a chorus of popular acclama^ tion amid which Lancaster retired for a period to the back- ground to enjoy a well earned respite from active command. Meanwhile, the old idea of commercial expansion in the East was quietly fermenting in the mind of the merchant class, which in the closing years of the sixteenth century had become perhaps more powerful than at any previous period in English history. The formation of the English Turkey Company in 1579 had opened up an avenue of independent trade with the near East, to the immense widening of the knowledge of the countries of Asia. Constantinople was then one of the principal emporiums of the globe. Into its portals came caravans from all parts of Asia, bearing the products of the looms of Persia, India and China, and the spices of the remoter regions of the Eastern seas. The great world of the Orient, which had hitherto been known in Britain mainly through the refracted medium of Venetian, and Spanish and Portuguese eyes, now became more or less familiar by the direct narra- tives of Englishmen who had entered the East by its Mediterranean door. As early as 1583 five Englishmen, Ralph Fitch, James Newberry, J. Eldred, W. Leedes, and J. Story, started out from Tripolis in Syria on a tour in Asia, which even to-day would be considered remarkable. From Tripolis they pro- THE DAWN OF THE EMPIEE 31 ceeded to Aleppo and thence by caravan to a town on the Euphrates. They travelled down the Euphrates to the head of the Persian Gulf, where Eldred left the party. Fitch, with his three companions, afterwards went to Ormuz, where the Portuguese, who wanted no poachers on their preserves, promptly clapped the party in prison. Eventually they were shipped ofE to Goa to be dealt with by -the Viceroy, whose seat of authority was at the Western India port. They continued in captivity until the end of the year when Story, having appealed to the local author- ities in a tender place by turning monk, secured the release of the entire party. Two sureties had to be foimd for the good behaviour of the wanderers, and these were forth- coming in the persons of two Jesuits, one of whom, it is interesting to note, was Thomas Stevens, of New College, Oxford, who arrived in Goa by way of the Cape in 1579, and consequently was probably the first Englishman who ever visited India. Newberry settled down in Goa, but Fitch and Leedes, :finding the hfe of the Portuguese city irksome, contrived to escape into native territory. After various vicissitudes Leedes took service under the Great Mogul and disappears from history at the court of that monarch. Fitch con- tinued his travels, visiting in turn Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Siam, Malacca and other parts of Malaya. He returned home overland in April, 1591, after an odyssey which had brought him into contact with many of the centres of Eastern life from the Mediterranean to the China Sea. An account written by Fitch of his prolonged wander- ings is to be found in the useful pages of Hakluyt. It is a matter-of-fact narrative in which the utilitarian rather than the romantic side of the toui is presented. As a 32 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST merchant Fitch wrote for merchants, and he did not write in vain. His information about the trade of the many Asiatic lands that he had visited aroused an interest in commercial development in the East which penetrated to every class of Society. Fitch himself must have been an interesting figure in the httle world in which he moved in the years immediately following his return from his travels. It is quite con- ceivable that at some time or another he met Shakespeare on terms of friendly intimacy. London then was quite a small place, not much more extensive than the " one square mile " which constitutes the City of London as we know it to-day. At its wine shops over the cup of sack or Gascony the citizens of the time were wont to discuss the latest news which filtered in from abroad and to listen to the experiences of those who had first-hand knowledge of foreign lands. The great dramatist, ever on the look- out for local colour, would have quickly discovered Fitch and drawn upon his vast store of out of the way knowledge for those wonderful studies of human nature which still hold a unique place in the world's literature. There is, at all events, a direct suggestion that Shakespeare was well acquainted with Fitch's story in the passage in Act I, scene 3 of Macbeth, where a character is made to say " Her husband to Aleppo gone, niaster of the Tiger." It was the Tiger on which Fitch and his companions voyaged to the Eastern Mediterranean, and it was at Aleppo, as has already been stated, that they disembarked prepara- tory to commencing their Asiatic wanderings. The com- mercial significance of Fitch's travels, however, completely overshadows any literary interest that they may possess. His narrative lifted the veil on the mysterious East, if less THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 33 dramatically than Drake and Cavendish's voyages had done, with far greater efEect. The best markets were indi- cated, the profits to be made there were set forth with the precision of an expert, and, above all, the truth was em- phasized that to the bold and strong there were great possibilities in the regions in which the Portuguese and the Spaniards and, as regards Persia and the nearer East, the Venetians had previously exercised a practical mono- poly. Lancaster's imfortimate voyage, which followed almost immediately upon Fitch's return, rather damped the ardour of the mercantile classes for Eastern adventures, more especially as an expedition sent out to China in 1596, under the command of Captain Benjamin Wood, also ended in disaster ; but the setback was only temporary. As time went by, interest was re-kindled by evidence which came to hand, notably from the English ambassador at the Spanish Court, of the splendid field which was ready for the occupation of English merchants in the countries of the Orient. A decisive turn was given to the arguments in favour of a further effort to tap the Eastern markets when the news reached England in 1597 of the remarkable success of the voyage made to the East by a fleet of Dutch ships under the conmiand of Cornelius Houtman. This expedition, which laid the foundation of Dutch power in the Eastern Archipelago, carried a warning for England which was not to be disregarded. On all hands it was recognized that the time had come for English merchants to secure a share of the Eastern trade if they were not to be altogether supplanted by their energetic Dutch rivals. The closing years of the sixteenth century were a period of energetic preparation and eager anticipation in London 34 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTUEERS IN THE EAST mercantile circles. Out of this travail was bom with the new century the historic East India Company, an institution which, beyond any other purely private organization, in the centuries following moulded the destinies of the British Empire. CHAPTER II How Lancaster initiated the Eastern Trade Formation of the East India Company — Elizabeth 'grants a charter — Sir Edmmid Miohelbome and Lancaster rivals for the com- mand of the Company's first expedition — ^The latter appointed — John Davis of Sundridge proceeds with the fleet — Arrival of the expedition at Acheen — ^Favourable reception by the King — Portuguese opposition — Successful raid on Portuguese shipping by Lancaster — Farewell interview with the King — The fleet visits Bantam and returns home — Successful results of the voyage IT is fair to surmise that when the plain London citizens who were the principal moving spirits in the formation of the East India Company sat down to draw up a scheme for their organization they had only a dim perception of the character of the enterprise upon which they were embarked. Their , last thought probably was political aggrandisement and territorial sovereignty. Their calcu- lations were in terms of the ledger and their ambitions took shape in the phrases of the letter book. To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest was their guid- ing principle. Yet that is not to say that no higher motive than a sordid love of gain mingled in the alloy of their project. The Elizabethan spirit of ardent patriotism, expressed largely in a hatred of Spain and Portugal as the 35 36 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST chosen instruments of Rome, though not at the white heat of a decade earUer, still burned with steady brilliancy in the Englishman's breast. It was peculiarly a beacon Ught in the City of London, where more than elsewhere in the country, perhaps, there was a clearer appreciation of all that an independent England implied in the material sphere and where intimate contact with the Court lent a natural breadth and spaciousness to men's views on exter- nal pohtics. In such an environment there would naturally be a full recognition of the fact that the rehgious phase of the struggle which had ended so decisively in 1588 needed a further efiort for the vindication of the nation's rights to a trade which would not be fettered by the arbitrary decrees of a hated foreign ascendancy. To the English mercantile commimity the mere assertion of a right to monopolize the trade of the East on the part of Portugal and Spain appeared as an afEront to the dignity of the country which must be met by effectual steps to establish a distinctively English trade in the prohibited regions. Thus reasoning they brought to their practical deliberations a spirit of patriotic zeal which had its in- fluence in shaping the enterprise and giving to it the national character it ultimately largely assumed. Few of those busy city men whose hurrying feet on week days re-echo through the dingy purlieus of Founder's Court in Lothbury, in the heart of the City of London, are aware that within a few yards of that spot was witnessed the birth of the organization which established the founda- tions of British power in the East. The old Founder's Hall, which was the cradle of the mighty British Indian Empire, went the way of many^ other famous buildings in the Great Fire of London, but the tradition remains, HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 37 and this stuffy little alley will always be a hallowed spot to all Britons who £md inspiration in the memories of the past. The beginnings of this enterprise had a strangely modern character. Just as to-day when some great national efEort is to be made the initial step is a meeting of person- ages of influence presided over by the Lord Mayor, so on a late September day in 1599 a gathering of leading merchants and men of light and leading in Court circles assembled in Founder's Hall, with the chief magistrate of the year — Sir Stephen Soame — in the chair, to give public sanction to the project for establishing trade relations with the East. Zeal for the undertaking must have run high, for -the subscription list which emanated from the meeting reached a total of £30,000 — a very large sum for those none too affluent times. Subsequently the amount was raised to £72,Q00. With this solid backing the adventurers approached Elizabeth with a formal application for a charter of in- corporation. George, Earl of Cumberland, headed the signatories to the petition, who were 215 in number and included, in addition to many influential merchants, a substantial body of noblemen and personages of distinction in the public life of the country. The Queen, whose spirit of- adventure was still active in spite of advancing years and infirmities, had no difficulty in acceding to a request so thoroughly in harmony with the traditions of her reign. On January 24, 1600, letters patent were issued to " the Oovemor and Company of the Merchants of London trad- ing to the East Indies " authorizing them to carry on their operations, and approving their choice of James Lancaster to act as their " Governor and General " in the 38 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST particular enterprise upon which they were about to embark. Lancaster's selection for the supreme office, though plainly indicated by his skill as a seaman and his excep- tional knowledge of the region which the promoters had marked out for their operations, was not made without a struggle. He had a rival, a rather formidable one, in Sir Edward Michelbome, a gentleman adventurer who had served under the Earl of Essex in the Island Voyage of 1597, and who, possessing Court influence, was strongly recommended for the position by the Lord Treasurer. The shrewd city merchants in whose hands the arrangements for the voyage were placed, with a lively recollection pro- bably of Fenton's disastrous enterprise, declined to enter- tain the proposal on the sensible ground that the business in hand was more suitable for one of their own class than for a Court favourite. Michelbome was so incensed at the decision that he declined to pay the subscription for which he had made himself responsible, and his name was in consequence removed from the Company's roll. We shall meet him again a prominent actor on the stage of Eastern adventure, but for the time being he may be allowed to drop into the background nursing his grievance. The discriminating care which was shown by the direc- tors in their choice of a commander was reflected in the other arrangements for the voyage and notably in the selection of men for the subordinate commands. By far the most famous of these lieutenailts of Lancaster was John Davis, of Sundridge, in Devon, the brilliant navigator whose name will ever be associated with the efiorts made in the latter part of the sixteenth century to discover a North- West passage to India. Sir Clements Markham, in HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 39 his introduction to the volume of Davis's Voyages in the Hakluyt Society's publications, states that " as a seaman combining scientific knowledge and skilled pilotage with the qualities of a fearless and determined explorer John Davis stands foremost among the navigators of the great Queen." This reputation was earned by an almost con- tinuous service at sea from the day in 1585 when he sailed on his first voyage of discovery to the frozen North. Three separate expeditions were conducted by him in this direc- tion, and he served besides with the Earl of Cumberland ofi the Azores in 1585 and with Cavendish on his voyage to the South Seas in 1591. But the achievement which helped to recommend him most to the promoters of the enterprise with which we are dealing was the successful piloting of the Dutch Admiral Houtman's fleet on its memorable voyage to the East in 1597. His appointment on that occasion was due to the recommendation of the Earl of Essex, and there was afterwards a suspicion on the part of the Dutch that he had been sent by his noble patron to spy upon their movements. It is an unworthy suggestion, not supported by the smallest evidence. Davis discharged his duties to his Dutch employers honourably and well. It was, indeed, largely to his bravery and re- sourcefulness that the ship in which he sailed was saved from capture on the occasion of a treacherous attack made upon it off Acheen, in Sumatra. His narrative of Hout- man's voyage, which is the classic account of that under- taking, represents him as a shrewd and intelligent ohserver, as a seaman wedded to his profession and as a man zealous for the reputation of the Western races. Five ships composed the fleet which Lancaster had under his command. They were not in any sense homogeneous, 40 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTUEERS IN THE EAST being in fact a miscellaneous collection of vessels acquired from various quarters. The largest ship — the admiral's — was the Mare Scourge of 600 tons, which was built by the Earl of Cumberland for the special purpose of cruising against the Spaniards, and which was bought from him by the adventurers for £3,700. Re-christened the Red Dragon it took its place at the head of the line, a taut and seaworthy craft enough, but one which was perhaps better adapted by its construction for work in the colder latitudes of the north than for tropical navigation. A picture of this vessel has come down to us. Its outlines are familiar from the reproductions of the famous Armada tapestries, which were not the least of the treasures which perished in the fire which destroyed the old Houses of Parliament. The enormously high stern, with its ornate poop suggestive of quite spacious cabin accommodation, the low waist and the narrow jutting prow, with its elaborate figure-head, are features which we recognize as characteristic of the Eliza- bethan " sea scourge." Next in point of size to the Red Dragon was the Hector, of 300 tons, then the Ascension, of 260 tons, followed by the Susan, of 240 tons, with the little Guest, of 130 tons, in the wake, discharging the r61e of a victualling ship. The lading of the ships was a matter of careful forethought. A mixed cargo of iron, wrought and unwrought, lead, Devonshire kersies of all cotton and Norwich woollen goods, was embarked with a variety of articles which were thought to be suitable for presentation to native poten- tates. Merchants were allotted to each vessel to take charge of the goods on the voyage and superintend their sale at the Eastern ports. The better to promote the enter- prise Lancaster was entrusted with six letters from Queen HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 41 EKzabeth for presentation to Asiatic princes in whose dominions he might find himself. The communications were identical in terms, and there was a blank left for the name of the royal recipient to be filled in. As a final touch to the equipment each imit of the fleet was provided with twelve streamers, two flags and one ancient, so that on ceremonial occasions there might be a fitting display of decorative bunting. The flag flown in the place of honour was the broad cross of St. George. More than a hundred years were to elapse before the first Union flag appeared in the Company's vessels and twice that length, of time ere the Union Jack was hoisted on them. On a cold dull day in 1601 the five ships, which had been anchored off Woolwich, dropped down the river on their eventful voyage. Contrary winds were encountered, so that some weeks elapsed before those on board caught what was, for many of them, their last glimpse of the white cliffs of England. A successful run was made as far as the coast of Guinea, where there was a diversion in the shape of the capture of a Portuguese vessel which had the ill fate to sail into the track of the fleet. From her hold were taken 146 butts of wine — Canary, no doubt — and 176 jars of oil, with sundry hogsheads and casks of meal. From Africa Lancaster stood over to the coast of Brazil to catch the favouring trade wind which he hoped to find to help him on his voyage. When off Cape St. Augustine on July 20 the Guest was dismantled and abandoned. The step was rendered necessary by the ravages of the dread scurvy, which had decimated the crews of some of the ves- sels. A course was now laid for the Cape, but baffling winds so delayed the fleet that it was not'until September 9 that the shelter of Table Bay was reached. None too soon 42 EAELY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST did the vessels drop anchor in this veritable harbour of refuge. As the ships had progressed on the voyage the scurvy had tightened its terrible grip on the unfortunata crews. On the Hector, the Siisan and the Ascension, the conditions were such that there were not enough men to da the routine duties of the ships, and Lancaster had to send his own men on board to furl the sails. The Red Dragon had enjoyed a practical immunity from sickness, for the simple reason that Lancaster had taken a supply of lemon, water on board and had served it out regularly to his men. He must have imderstood its qualities as an anti-scorbutic, but the full value of the fruit can hardly have been realized, for the melancholy tale of disease continued long year& after this period. It was often at or near the Cape that the fell malady reached its highest point of destructive energy. Out of that circumstance probably grew the grisly tradition of the Carlmilhan, the phantom ship which in the watches of the night appeared with its ghastly crew Ijmig prone in agonized attitudes about its decks or hanging in the awful realism of death over the bulwarks to carry terror into the minds of the superstitious seamen. The history of the sea at this period has, at all events, a number of well accredited cases in which an entire crew perished, and the vessel, deprived of intelligent direction, was carried aimlessly about until some day the pitiful truth was revealed to a. passing ship which had put off to ascertain the character of the derelict. Not without cause, indeed, was the great African promontory given ux the first instance the designa- tion Cape of Torments. The horrors of one of the most painful of diseases were there associated with Nature's elemental manifestations in their most terrifying aspect. HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 4» ■vsrhile the changed character of the heavens — the fading out of the old constellations and the appearance of new ones — seemed to give a further and sinister significance to- portents already big with the decrees of Fate. We catch something of the relief with which this dreaded region was left behind in the increased Uveliness of the narrative of Lancaster's voyage as the vessels approach the Indian Ocean. But death still dogged the course of the fleet. At Madagascar there expired on the Red Dragon " the master's mate, the preacher and the surgeon with some ten other common men," and as the captain of the Ascension was going ashore in his boat to the funeral of the departed he and his boatswain's mate, who accompanied him, were slain by a shot from one of the guns fired as a ceremonial salute in accordance with the custom followed on such occasions. " So they that went to see the burial were both, buried there themselves." The narrator adds that those who succumbed at Madagascar " mostly died of the flux,, which in our opinion came with the waters we drank " — a. highly probable circumstance. Quitting Madagascar, Lancaster steered directly for the Straits of Malacca. Assisted by the favoioring south-west monsoon he made a good passage to Acheen, off which port his fleet dropped anchor on Jvine 5. In selecting thia spot he no doubt followed the advice of Davis, whose ex- perience with Houtman's fleet taught him that this was one of the most important centres of the spice trade, which was then, to a large extent, the staple Eastern conunodity. The capture of a share of this trade was the primary object of the expedition. An immediate effect of the Dutch intrusion into the East had been to raise the price of Indian pepper in the English market from 3«. to 8s. per pound,, 44 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST and there was, therefore, a very strong reason for estab- lishing at the earhest moment independent relations with the chief sources of supply. Acheen, on the north-east coast of Sumatra, is chiefly familiar to the present generation as the scene of an ap- parently unending war between the Dutch and the local Malay power, arising out of the unwillingness of the natives to accept the yoke imposed permanently upon them by the arrangement made between Great Britain and Holland nearly a century ago, under which, roughly speaking, British rights in Sumatra were renounced in exchange for a hke renunciation on the part of the Dutch Government of any title to Singapore or to political influence in the Peninsular States. But many years before that struggle commenced — long, indeed, before Europeans appeared in force in the East — ^Acheen had been an important commercial centre by reason of its strategic position at the northern end of the Straits of Malacca and its proximity to the prin- cipal spice-growing districts in that region. The Dutch had thought so well of it that they had promptly estab- lished a factory there, and amongst the first to welcome Lan- caster were two Hollanders, who had been left behind to look after the Dutch interests. From them Lancaster learned not only that the King was well disposed to strangers, but that he held in especial estimation the English, on account of their great victory over the Spaniards in the Armada fight, about which he appeared to be well informed. The course of events showed that the Dutch visitors to the English fleet had not exaggerated the impression made upon this distant Eastern potentate's mind by the memor- able conflict of 1588. Curiosity, mingled no doubt with a ieeling of self-interest, prompted him to receive with open HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 45 arms the representatives of a power which had successfully combated a nation in intimate alliance with the Portuguese, whose might had wrested from the Malays the principal seat of their power and whose heavy hand had been for generations oppressively felt throughout the length and breadth of the Straits and the islands of the Eastern seas wherever members of the Malay race were settled. Whatever his motives, his reception of Lancaster was princely. When the English commander landed on the third day after his arrival the King sent to the landing-place " great elephants with many drums, trumpets and streamers with much people " to escort him to Court. The biggest of the elephants was about thirteen or fourteen feet high and " had a small castle like a coach upon its back covered with crimson velvet. In the middle thereof was a great bason of gold and a piece of silk exceedingly richly wrought to cover it." This contrivance was thoughtfully furnished to provide a suitable depository for Ehzabeth's letter. There the precious missive was accordingly put with due ceremony. Lancaster himself took his place in stately isolation upon another of the huge animals with running footmen on each side. In this imposing way he and his personal escort of thirty men made their way through streets packed with an eager wondering crowd to the palace. On the arrival of the party at the palace the King ten- dered the Englishmen a welcome which was almost efEu- , sively courteous. Probably he had foreknowledge of the presents which were on the way to him from the royal Elizabeth. Nothing, at all events, was allowed to delay the impoEjtant ceremony of their presentation. The King had no reason to complain of either the attractiveness or the 46 EAELY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST intrinsic value of the gifts. They included " a bason of «Uver with a fountain in the midst of it weighing 205 ■ounces, a great standing cup of silver, a rich looking-glass and headpiece with a plume of feathers, a case of very fine daggers, a rich wrought embroidered belt to hang a sword on, and a fan of feathers." The King immediately pounced upon the fan, " and caused one of his women to fan him therewithall, as a thing that most pleased him of all the rest." Later the visitors were entertained at a ban- ■quet, where they ate off plates of precious metal and were entertained with dancing damsels, " richly attired and adorned with bracelets and jewels." Finally, Lancaster and his chief lieutenants were invested with robes of honour and equipped each with a kris, the Malay dagger, which is ^ sjTnbol of authority. In this honorific fashion they were dismissed to their ships. The Elizabethen letter, which with so much ceremony had been conveyed to the Acheen prince, was a highly •characteristic effusion embodying the royal sentiments as to the establishment of a trade connexion with the English Company. She promised the King that he should be very well served and better contented than he had pre- "viously been with the Portugals and Spaniards, the enemies of England, who " only and none else of these regions," the Queen went on to say, " have frequented those your, and the other kingdoms of the East : not suffering that the ■other nations should doe it, pretending themselves to be monarchs and absolute lords of all these kingdoms and provinces as their own conquest and inheritance as appeareth by their lofty title in their writings." Then came the pith ■of the document — an application for a site for a factory and for protection for those who might be left to manage it. HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 47 The note struck by the Queen's disdainful sentences about Portuguese and Spanish pretensions awakened a congenial echo in the heart of the Malay prince, who had only too good cause to appreciate their truth. But, though all graciousness about the desirability of an alliance with so high and mighty a potentate as Elizabeth, he was in no hurry to make the definite concession which was asked. The proposal was referred by him for consideration to two •of his principal officials — " one the chief bishop of the realm and the other a member of the ancient nobility." Meanwhile the Englishmen were granted a general freedom to trade — a favour which, while it committed the King to nothing, was calculated to enrich his coffers both directly and indirectly. Lancaster speedily found that trading at Acheen, on anything like profitable terms, was practically impossible. He had been led by Davis to expect that he would be able to purchase pepper — the staple commodity — at a price -of four Spanish reals of eight the hundred pounds weight, but the actual cost was about five times that sum. In the -circumstances, it is not surprising that he " grew daily full ■of thought how he should lade his ships." To increase his perplexities a Portuguese ambassador appeared on the scene, primed with instructions to do his best to defeat the EngUshmen's schemes. His first move was to make a bold demand to the King for a factory and for a site for a fort at the entrance to the river for its security. The insolence of the request aroused the ire of the prince. Addressing the Portuguese envoy, according to the nar- Tator of Lancaster's voyage, he said : " Hath your master a daughter to give that he is so careful of the preservation of my country ? He shall not need to be at so great a 48 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST charge as th.e building of a fort, for I have a fit house about two leagues from the city which I will spare him for a fac- tory where his people shall not need to fear enemies, for I will protect them." The royal sarcasm hit its mark. The Portuguese am- bassador retired in dudgeon to concoct new plans for the discomfiture of the hated English. From this point the struggle became a contest of wits between the wily Portuguese on the one hand and the bluS Englishman on the other, with the Kin in the background an interested and gleeful spectator of the combat. Lan- caster's early association with the Portuguese and his perfect knowledge of their ways gave him an immense initial advantage in the confiict. He knew that it was no good wasting time in attempting to counter intrigues on the spot, the ramifications of which, in the absence of local experience, he would be powerless to follow. For him, situated as he was, the line to take was the bold one of carrying the war into the enemy's country — in other words, to raid the Portuguese shipping in the Straits. He was the more disposed to adopt this course because of the now obvious impossibihty of obtaining a cargo on reasonable terms. But though he saw his plan of campaign plainly marked out he only too clearly realized that if the Portu- guese envoy left a warning would be given to Portuguese shipping, and he would have but small chance of making any valuable captures. After thinking the matter over he decided to enlist the aid of the King in fvtrthering his projects. As events proved this was an easy matter. The prince had formed a great liking for Lancaster. The seaman's frank, downright manner, with the impression of force of character which was conveyed in his control of HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 49 the men under his command, appealed to the instinctive love of manliness which exists deep down in the Malay mind. There was, too, a community of sentiment in sport, which peeped out when, as often happened, the prince and his guest foregathered over a display of cock-fighting, which is the national pastime of the Malays. So that when the English commander approached the King with a request that he would take measures to detain, the Portuguese ambassador until the English ships had got well clear of the port he met with a prompt acquiescence in his scheme. " Well," said the King, and laughed, " thou must bring me a fair Portugall maiden when thou returnest and then I am pleased." No time was lost by Lancaster in putting his plans into execution. A few days later he was at sea, on the look-out for a big Portuguese galleon of whose likely advent he had news irom friends in port. She duly appeared on the scene on about the day expected, October 3, making a gallant sight as, with all sails set, she came with a favouring wind down the Straits. The English fleet, immediately on sighting her, stood across to her and on getting into range commenced to fire. The fight was hot until a volley from the Red Dragon brought down the galleon's mainmast and put her out of action. She proved to be an exceedingly rich prize of 900 tons — one of the largest ships sailing the seas in those days. Her holds were stuHed full of mer- chandise of all descriptions, and there was found on her besides much valuable loot in the shape of jewels and plate and miscellaneous property. The riches were so extensive, indeed, as almost to be embarrassing. When the holds of the four ships had been filled to the last corner there was still left a residue sufliciently large to cause Lancaster much 50 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST perplexed thought as to its disposal. But he was not in the mood to allow any small difficulties to interfere with his thorough enjoyment of the situation in which he now found himself. By a single stroke he had satisfactorily settled what had at one time seemed likely to prove the insoluble problem of how to fill his ships and make the voyage a financial success. That the desired end had been gained by a privateering raid on another power, if it con- cerned him at all, probably added a zest to the memory of his achievement, since by its means he had struck another heavy blow at his ancient enemy. Lancaster now determined to make his way home by way of the Sunda Straits. Experience had shown him that Acheen was a hopeless place for business in present cir- -cumstances, and that the real centres of the spice trade ■was at Priaman to the southward on the eastern coast of •Sumatra and at Bantam on the island of Java. It was •clearly in this direction that the permanent establishment • could be most profitably located, more especially as the -Dutch had made Bantam their headquarters. On his return to Acheen Lancaster sought an audience