[Footnote 180:

Vol.

II. p. 7.]

"In the next year, 1552, Windham made a second voyage to _Zafin_ or _Saffi_ and Santa Cruz without the straits, which gave so much offence to the Portuguese, that they threatened to treat the English as enemies if found in these seas. Yet in the year following, the same Thomas Windham, with a Portuguese named Antonio Yanez Pinteado, who appears to have been the chief promoter of the attempt, undertook a voyage to Guinea, with three ships having an hundred and forty men; and having traded for some time on the coast for gold, they went to Benin to load pepper: But both the commanders and most of the men dying of sickness, occasioned by the climate, the rest returned to Plymouth with one ship only, having burnt the other two for want of hands, and brought back no great riches. In 1554, Mr John Lok made a voyage with three ships to the coast of Guinea, whence he brought back a considerable quantity of gold and ivory. These voyages appear to have been succeeded by others almost every year. At length, upon application to Queen Elizabeth, two patents were granted to certain merchants. One in 1585, for the Barbary or Morocco trade, and the other in 1588, for the trade to Guinea between the rivers Senegal and Gambia[181]. In 1592, a third patent was granted to other persons, taking in the coast from the river _Nonnia_ to the south of Sierra Leona, for the space of 100 leagues, which patents gave rise to the African company. In all their voyages to the coast of Africa they had disputes with the Portuguese. Several of these voyages have been preserved by Hakluyt, and will be found inserted in this chapter, as forerunners to the English voyages to the East Indies.

[Footnote 181: The former for twelve years, was granted to the Earls of Leicester and Warwick, and certain merchants of London, to the number of 32 in all. The other for ten years to eight persons of Exeter, London, and other places. By this latter patent, it appears that this trade was advised by the Portuguese residing in London, and one voyage had been made before the grant. See Hakluyt, II. part 2. pp. 114 and 123. - Astl. I. 139. a.]

"The views of the English extending with experience and success, and finding the long attempted north-east and north-west passages to India impracticable, they at length determined to proceed for that distant region round Africa by the same course with the Portuguese. In 1591, that voyage was undertaken for the first time by three large ships under the command of Captain Raymond; and in 1596, another fleet of three ships set out on the same design under Captain Wood, but with bad success. In the mean time several navigators were employed to discover this course to the East Indies. At length in 1600, a charter was obtained from Queen Elizabeth by a body of merchants, to the number of 216, having George Earl of Cumberland at their head, under the name of the _Company of Merchant Adventurers_, for carrying on a trade to the East Indies.

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