Chap, II. between the Inhabitants of Great-Britain, 
K} fiat hi. 
d /3 
that the Seas were frozen under the North Pole, at a .time 
when the Sun, from its long Continuance on the Horizon, 
mtift have fuch prodigious Force. He like wife judged, 
that .whatever Difficulties might occur in the Beginning of 
iii'ch a Paffage, they muft be quickly and certainly got over, 
and be fully recompenfed, by coming foon on .the Coaftjof 
Tartary and Japon , and fo to Chino, and the Manillas,, io 
fay the Truth, if we confider the Time when this Procon- 
fill was; made, the Sagacity and Penetration of this Gentle- 
man can fcarce be enough commended or admired, fince 
it is very certain, that if ever any Difcovery is made on 
this Side, it muft be made by this Method. 
But, how wife or -how practicable foever Mr. Thorns 
Scheme might be, I do not find that it was ever confidered 
in any other Light, than as a Project too bold to be put in 
Execution ; and to fay the Truth, the firft Perfon that 5 
gave - us any Light- into this Navigation was Sir Francis 
Ir aike, in the Year 1 578. The very next Year Mr. 
Stevens went from Lijbon to Goa by the Cape of Good-Hope , 
and wrote a large Account of his Voyage while he refided 
2.1 Goa. A, D. 1586, the famous Candifhe made his Voy- 
. age round the World, which having clearly opened a Paf- 
fa^e to thefe Parts, Captain George Raymond , in a Ship of 
his own, called the Penelope , accompanied by two others, 
called the Merchant-Royal, and the Edw.ard-Bonaventure, 
failed in the Year 1591 for the Eaft-Indies , not with a 
View- to trade, but to cruize upon the Portugueze. This 
Voyage was extreamly unfortunate ; for Captain Raymond 
found himfelf obliged, at the Cape of Good-Hope, to fend 
home the Merchant-Royal, with the Pick Men they had in 
the three Ships. Having doubled that Cape, and failed 
about fixty Leagues, he was loft in the Peneiope \ fo that 
Captain- James Lancafler , in the Edward-Bonaventure , was 
the only" one that performed this Voyage, and that too 
with: very indifferent Fortune y for after a difaftrous Voy- 
age to the Etft, he was obliged to pafs from thence to the 
Weft-Indies , where having loft his Ship, he with much Dif- 
ficulty, by the Affiftance. of a French Privateer he met with 
in thofe Parts, returned home. 
But in this Space of Time, though no Englifh Ships had 
been fent to the Indies for Commerce, abundance of Eng- 
liflmen had been there in diffeient Seivices, and on their 
return home, gave fuch an Account of thofe Countries, and 
of the Eafe with which the Englifh might fettle Fa&ories, 
and eftablifh a regular Trade thither, that many great Men, 
and rich Merchants, began to entertain a Defire of eftab- 
lifh'ing fuch a Commerce ; and that they might do this ef- 
fe&uSiy, they applied themfelves to Queen Elizabeth for 
a Charter, and fhe accordingly granted them one, which was 
dated the 31ft of December 1600, in the forty-third Year 
of her Reign. By this Charter fhe created them a Body 
Corporate, by the Stile of the Governor and Company of 
Merchants of London \ trading to the Eaft-Indies granted 
them a common Seal, appointed Thomas Smyth, Efq; 
Alderman of London, their firft Governor, and eftablifhed 
a Court of twenty Directors to be chofen annually on the 
firft of July , or within fix Days after. She likewife granted 
them Authority to make Bye-laws, allowed them to export 
Goods Cuftom-free for four Years, permitted them to 
exoort thirty thoufand Pounds in Foreign Coin, with Li- 
cence to do the fame, in every Voyage, provided they 
brought that Sum by their Trade out of Foreign Countries 
into this Kingdom. This Charter was exclufive, and the 
Queen bound herfelf not to grant any Charter to other 
Merchants for the Space of fifteen Years ; but with this 
Provifo, that if within that Space this Charter fhould ap- 
pear to be in any refpeft detrimental to the Publick, it 
fhould, upon two Years Warning, under the Privy-Seal 
become void •, but if from Experience it fhould appear, 
that this new Corporation was a publick Benefit, then fhe 
promifed to renew their Charter, with fuch additional 
C'laufes in their Favour, as fhould appear requifite. 
I have been the more-particular with refped to this Point, 
becaufe I look upon it that there never was any publick 
Act of this Nature better confidered, or drawn with greater 
Wifdom and Forefight, both for the Benefit of the Adven- 
turers, and the publick Good ; by which I mean the In- 
tereft of the whole Nation,- Circumftances which ought to 
be equally confidered in all fuch Cafes, fince whatever the 
Defign may be - of the Per ion 3 concerned- in fuch Adven- 
tures, it ought to be the Care of the' Government* that 
even thefe exclufive Companies fhould be calculated for the 
common Advantage* and be fo guarded, as that Perfons 
concerned therein may never have it in their Power to iacri- 
fice the general Intereft of a People to their particular Profit* 
and private Advantage. 
4. It was in Confequence of this Charter, that the Com- 
pany immediately began to raife a joint Stock for carrying 
their Project into Execution *, and this with fuch Induftry, 
that in a very fhort Space their Treafuref had in his Hands 
feventy-two thoufand Pounds , upon which it was reiolved 
to fit out five able Ships to begin their Gorrefpondence in 
that Part of the World. Thefe were the Dragon of fix 
hundred Tuns, Admiral of the Squadron : The Heitor, 
Vice-Admiral, of three hundred Tuns : The Sufannah , of 
two hundred Tuns : The Afcenjion, of the fame Burthen : 
The Gueft , a Store Ship, of a hundred and thirty Tuns. 
The Complement of Men in all their Ships were four hum 
dred and eighty, and the Expence of equipping them 
amounted to forty-five thoufand Pounds, and their Cargo 
took up the other twenty-feven thoufand Pounds. On the 2d 
of May 1.601, they failed from Torbay , and without any 
confiderable Accident continued their Voyage to the Indies, 
where Captain James Lancafter, who commanded with the 
Title of Admiral, made a Treaty with the King of Achen, 
fent a Pinnace to the Moluccas , and ereefted a Factory in 
the Bland oh Java-, after which the Admiral returned fafely, 
and with good Profit, into England. 
This was the only Voyage that was undertaken by the 
Company in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ; but upon her 
Demife, they found a very kind Mafter, as well as power- 
ful Protedtor in her Succelfor King James, who from his 
Acceflion to the Throne, fhewed them all the Countenance, 
and afforded them all the Affiftance that they could defire, 
which, with the Profits of their firft Voyage, engaged them 
to undertake a fecond in the Year 1604, Sir Henry Mid- 
dleton, in the Red Dragon, having the Title of Admiral, 
the Hell or Vice-Admiral, the Afcenjion , and the Sufannah. 
Thefe Ships vifited the Moluccas, and the Ifland of Java , 
were well received by all the Indian Princes, but met with 
very indifferent. Ufage from the Dutch , who began already 
to lofe all Senfe of Gratitude to the Nation that had pre- 
ferved them, endeavoured all that in them lay to mifrepre- 
fent the Englifh to the Indians, as a cruel, unjuft, and am- 
bitious People, who meant not to trade with them fairly 
for their Commodities, but to feize their Country, and to 
take them by Force. That this Difpofition in the Dutch 
did not take Rife, either from their Hatred or Contempt 
of King James, but was bred in them by their own Self- 
love, and Averfion to all other Nations, appears moft 
clearly from the Letter of the King of Ternate to King 
James by Sir Henry Middleton, in which he exprefsly afi 
ferts, that the Dutch had ufed their utmoft Endeavours to 
root out the good Opinion which himfelf and his Subjects 
entertained of the Englifh from the Time that Sir Francis 
Drake had vifited their Ifland *, and thus thofe Difputes 
began, of which we ffiall have fo much to fay in the Courfe 
of this Secftion. 
When Sir Henry Middleton failed from Bantam, he re- 
ceived from the King a Letter for his Britannick Majefty, 
and a Prefent of Bezoar Stones. In their Paffage home 
they met with the Heitor, beating off of the Cape of 
Good-Hope, with only ten Men left alive, by whom they 
were informed of the Lofs of the Sufannah, and in Com- 
pany with this Ship they arrived fafely in the Downs , 
May 6, 1606. The very next Year the Company under- 
took a third Voyage, in which three Ships only were em- 
ployed, viz. the Dragon , the Heitor , and the Confent , 
under the Command of Captain William Keeling . Their 
Voyage was very fuccefsful, efpecially in the Moluccas, 
where they were, notwithftancling, extreamly ill ufed by the 
Dutch. This did not hinder them, however, from bring- 
ing home a very valuable Cargo of all forts of Spice, with 
which they arrived in the Downs, May 10, 1610, with 
this extraordinary Mark of good Fortune, that in their 
whole Voyage out and home, they loft not fo much as a 
fingle Man. With this Captain Keeling went out Captain, 
William Hawkins , with the Title of the King’s Embaffador 
, to 
