WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. IJ.] 
247 - 
trade to Guinea: ships were accordingly fitted out; 
but the profits not being found to answer expecta¬ 
tion, the proprietors soon afterwards withdrew their 
contributions; and the charter was suffered to ex¬ 
pire.* 
In 1631, king Charles I. erected, by charter, a se¬ 
cond company for a trade to Africa; granting to Sir 
Richard Young, Sir Kenelm Digby, and sundry 
merchants, to enjoy the sole trade to the coast of 
Guinea, between Cape Blanco and the Cape of 
Good Hope, together with the isles adjacent, for 
thirty one years to come. As the English had by 
this time began the settlement of plantations in the 
West Indies, negroes were in such demand, as to 
induce the new company, at a great expense, to 
erect forts and vyarehouses on the coast, for the 
protection of their commerce; but so many private 
adventurers and interlopers of all nations, broke in 
upon them, as in effect to force the trade open, 
and so it continued until after the restoration of 
Charles II, 
In the year 1662, a third exclusive African com¬ 
pany was incorporated, consisting of many persons 
of high rank and distinction; at the head of whom 
was the king’s brother, the duke of York. This 
company undertook to supply our West Indian 
* Queen Elizabeth is said to have granted a patent in the 30th year 
©f her reign, for carrying on an exclusive trade from the river Sene¬ 
gal to a hundred leagues beyond Sierra Leone; but I do not find that 
any voyage was ever made in consequence of it. 
