The Ships Bound For Portugal Leave Cochin Between The 15th And 31st
January, Steering For Cabo De Buona Speranza, And The Isle Of St
Helena, Which Island Is About Midway, Being In Lat.
16 deg.
S. It is a small
island, but fruitful of all things, with great store of fruit, and gives
great succour to the ships homeward-bound from India to Portugal. It is
not long since that island was discovered, by a ship that came from the
Indies in a great storm. They found in it such abundance of wild beasts
and boars, and all sorts of fruit, that, by these means, this ship,
which had been four months at sea, was wonderfully refreshed both with
food and water. It received its name because discovered on the day of St
Helen. This island is so great a succour to the Portuguese ships, that
many of them would surely perish if it were not for the aid they get
here. For this reason, the King of Portugal caused a church to be built
here to the honour of St Helena, where only two hermits reside, all
others being forbidden to inhabit there, that the ships may be the
better supplied with victuals, as on coming from India they are usually
but slenderly provided, because no corn grows there, nor do they make
any wine. The ships which go from Portugal for India do not touch there,
because, on leaving Portugal, they are fully provided with bread and
water for eight months. No other person can inhabit St Helena except the
two hermits, or perchance some sick person who may be left there on
shore under the care of the hermits, for his help and recovery.
Ships depart from Goa for Mozambique between the 10th and 15th of
January; and from Mozambique for Goa between the 8th and 31st August,
arriving at Chaul or Goa any time in October, or till the 15th of
November.
From Ormus ships bound for Bengal depart between the 15th and 20th of
June, going to winter at Teve? whence they resume their voyage for
Bengal about the 15th of August.
SECTION VI.
First Voyage of the English to India in 1591; begun by Captain George
Raymond, and completed by Captain James Lancaster.[7]
INTRODUCTION.
We have at length arrived at the period when the English began to visit
the East Indies in their own ships; this voyage of Captain Raymond, or,
if you will, Lancaster, being the first of the kind ever performed by
them. From this year, therefore, 1591, the oriental navigations of the
English are to be dated; they did not push them with any vigour till the
beginning of the next century, when they began to pursue the commerce of
India with unwearied diligence and success, as will appear from the
narratives in the next succeeding chapter.
[Footnote 7: Hakluyt, II. 286. Astley, I. 235.]
"As for Captain Raymond, his ship was separated near Cape Corientes, on
the eastern coast of Africa, from the other two,[8] and was never heard
of more during the voyage, so that, whether he performed the voyage, or
was lost by the way, does not appear from Hakluyt; from whose silence,
however, nothing can be certainly concluded either way, for reasons
that will appear in the sequel[9]." - Astley.
[Footnote 8: This is a singular oversight in the editor of Astley's
Collection, as by that time there were only two ships, the Royal
Merchant having been sent home from Saldanha bay. - E.]
[Footnote 9: These promised reasons no where appear. - E.]
The full title of this voyage in Hakluyt's Collection is thus: "A Voyage
with three tall ships, the Penelope, Admiral; the Merchant-Royal,
Vice-Admiral; and the Edward Bonadventure, Rear-Admiral, to the East
Indies, by way of the Cape of Buona Speranza, to Quitangone, near
Mozambique, to the isles of Comoro and Zanzibar, on the backside of
Africa, and beyond Cape Comorin, in India, to the isles of Nicobar, and
of Gomes Palo, within two leagues of Sumatra, to the Islands of Pulo
Pinaom, and thence to the Mainland of Malacca; begun by Mr George
Raymond in the year 1591, and performed by Mr James Lancaster, and
written from the mouth of Edmund Barker of Ipswich, his Lieutenant in
the said Voyage, by Mr Richard Hakluyt."
This voyage is chiefly remarkable as being the first ever attempted by
the English to India, though not with any view of trade, as its only
object seems to have been to commit privateering depredations upon the
Portuguese trading ships in India, or, as we would now call them, the
country ships, which were employed in trading between Goa and the
settlements to the eastwards. It is unnecessary here to point out the
entire disappointment of the adventurers, or the disastrous conclusion
of the expedition, as these are clearly related by Mr Edmund Barker.
This article is followed by a supplementary account of the same voyage,
by John May, one of the people belonging to the Edward Bonadventure, who
relates some of the occurrences rather differently from Edmund Barker,
or rather gives some information that Mr Barker seems to have wished to
conceal. For these reasons, and because of some farther adventures in a
French ship in which May embarked, it has been thought proper to insert
that narrative in our collection - E.
* * * * *
Our fleet, consisting of three tall ships, the Penelope, Merchant-Royal,
and Edward Bonadventure, sailed from Plymouth the 10th April, 1591, and
arrived at the Canary Islands on 25th of that month, whence we again
took our departure on the 29th. The 2d May we were in the latitude of
Cape Blanco, and passed the tropic of Cancer on the 5th. All this time
we had a fair wind at north-east, sailing always before the wind, till
the 13th May, when we came within eight degrees of the line, where we
met a contrary wind. We lay off and on from that time till the 6th June,
when we crossed the equinoctial line.
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