I64f DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH. 
what ransom they expected for the English. The 
reply was, that three of their countrymen had, 
some weeks before, been carried off by an English 
ship ; and that till these were restored, the pledges 
should not be returned, although they were to 
offer in ransom the whole squadron, and all that 
it contained. As the natives remained immove- 
able in this determination, Fenner was at last 
obliged to depart without any hope of recovering 
his countrymen. In touching at Mayo, one of 
the Cape de Verde islands, he was surprised by 
an attack from a number of Portuguese galleys, 
from which he escaped without any serious in- 
jury. In passing by the Azores he engaged suc- 
cessively with two Portuguese armadas, each of 
which was superior in force to his squadron ; but 
both were beat off with the greatest gallantry^ 
He then proceeded homeward, and arrived at 
Southampton. 
Towards the close of the sixteenth century the 
English began their attempts to form establish- 
ments on the central rivers of Africa. In 1588, 
Queen Elizabeth granted a patent to certain rich 
merchants of Exeter, to carry on the trade of the 
Senegal and Gambia. Accordingly, in 1591, a 
voyage thither was undertaken by Richard Rai- 
XJOLDs and Thomas Dassel,* who visited succes- 
* Hakluyt, Vol. II. Part II. p. 188. 
