FOR DRAKE AND THE FLAG 9 



British interests in the Gulf which he laid down his 

 life in defending. 



If we may thus easily trace back the origin of the 

 Indian Marine Survey to Davis and Baffin, we may 

 without any great stretch of fancy go a step still 

 further back, to a name of even greater lustre in our 

 naval annals, for the very beginning of our subject. 

 The immortal Drake, though he did not make any 

 Indian landfall, yet, in the course of his famous 

 voyage of circumnavigation, cruised for some little 

 time in the eastern approaches to Indian waters, 

 where, as if anticipating the modern idea of a marine 

 surveyor, he unconsciously made a noteworthy con- 

 tribution to zoology by discovering and pointing out 

 the economic value of the great Robber Crab. 

 Though Drake was not — as Davis and Baffin were — 

 engaged in the early ventures of the East India 

 Company, he may still be allowed a place in the 

 background of British Indian History ; for he ex- 

 changed state visits with some of the Rajahs of Java, 

 and he entered into negotiations with the Sultan of 

 Ternate in the Moluccas, and it was upon these latter 

 modest diplomatic advances that, according to Corbett, 

 our subsequent intervention in eastern affairs was for 

 many years afterwards based. 



I cannot regard this Introduction — which is meant 

 to show, within the limits of my subject, some of the 



