wrecked upon the coast of Spanish America, where all those engaged in it perished, with the exception of four persons.

Previously to these expeditions, however, Sir Francis Drake had reached the Moluccas by the Straits of Magellan and the Great Pacific. He sailed from Plymouth with five vessels, and 164 select sailors, in 1577; and having lost four of his ships on the way, and purchased spices, and other valuable commodities, at Ternate, Java, and other islands, he returned to Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580, being the first Englishman who had circumnavigated the globe.

Cavendish's expedition followed very closely on Sir Francis Drake's. He left England with three ships, and 126 men, in 1586. With these he passed through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific, coasted along the eastern side of the continent of America, till he reached the shores of California, about lat. 24° north; and sailing from thence to the Ladrone and Philippine Islands, returned to this country in 1588.

By land, our countrymen had opened an indirect communication with India at a still earlier period. After the discovery of the port of Archangel, a Company had been formed to carry on the trade with Russia. This Company imported the commodities of India through Persia; for in 1558, Anthony Jenkinson, an agent of the Russian Company, sailed down the Wolga, crossed the Caspian, and entered the Persian port of Boghar, where he found merchants from various parts of Persia, from Russia, China, and India. He performed this voyage seven times, and opened a trade in raw and wrought silks, carpets, spices, precious stones, and other productions of Asia.

About the year 1590, certain members of the Turkey, or Levant Company, performed a journey into India. They passed by the route of Aleppo to Bagdad, carrying with them a quantity of cloth, tin, and other merchandise; from thence down the Tigris to Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, and so on to Goa, on the coast of Malabar. Their enterprising spirit now prompted them to bolder undertakings: they visited Agra, the capital of the Mogul Empire, and Lahore; and crossing Bengal, travelled to Pegu and Malacca; and returned to England in 1591.

In 1589, several merchants addressed a memorial to the Lords of Council, applying for the permission of Government to send out three ships, and as many pinnaces, to India. This was the first application made, and the reception it met with is not known. But in 1591, Captain Raymond fitted out the first expedition that ever left this country direct for India. Its object was rather plunder than commerce. The whole of this expedition did not, however, reach the place of its destination; for one of the three ships was sent back with the sick before they reached the Cape of Good Hope; another was lost in a storm; and Captain James Lancaster, having arrived in the East with the third, and sailed thence to the West Indies, lost that also, and returned to Europe in a French privateer.

Meanwhile, the Dutch, in 1595, sent out four ships to trade with India, by the Cape of Good Hope. This seems to have roused the jealousy and ambition of the English; for in 1599, an association was formed, and a fund subscribed, which amounted to 30,1331. 6s. 8d., and consisted of 101 shares, the subscriptions of individuals varying from 1007. to 3000%. In the Committee of Fifteen, chosen to manage on this occasion, we dis

cover the origin of the Court of Directors. The Queen was petitioned for a charter of privileges, and for warrant to fit out three ships, and export bullion. Sir Foulke Greville, to whom the memorial was referred, made a favourable report; and, in the same year, John Mildenhall was sent overland to India, by the way of Constantinople, as the Queen's ambassador to the Great Mogul. This embassy was attended, however, with but little success, owing to the intrigues of the Portuguese and Venetian agents.

In the course of the year 1600, the charter of privileges was obtained: five ships were fitted out, whose cargo (consisting of iron, tin, lead, cloths, and smaller articles for presents) was estimated at 4545l., exclusive of bullion. Captain James Lancaster was chosen to command the fleet.

The charter granted to the East India Company in 1600, which was the foundation of the vast and irregular power it afterwards reached, was not remarkably different from the incorporative charters obtained in that age by other trading associations. It formed the adventurers into a body politic and corporate, by the name of The Governor and Company of Merchants of London, trading to the East Indies;' and their affairs were to be managed by a committee of twenty-four, and a chairman, both to be chosen annually.

The first fleet equipped by the East India Company, sailed from Torbay on the 2d of May 1601, under the command of Captain Lancaster. It arrived safe in the East; and the first port it entered was that of Acheen, in the island of Sumatra. The English were favourably received; entered into a treaty of commerce with the sovereign; obtained permission to build a factory; purchased pepper; sailed for the Moluccas; left agents at Bantam, in Java; and returned to England in 1603.

Between this period and the year 1613, eight other voyages were performed. But, meanwhile, in 1604, a license to trade to China, Japan, and other eastern countries, was granted to Sir Edward Michelbourne and others, which infringed on the charter of the Company, and alarmed its Directors. But in 1609, King James's Government constituted them a body corporate for ever, with the understanding, however, that upon its being proved, at any time, that their exclusive privileges were injurious to the nation, those privileges should cease after three years' notice.

All the early voyages undertaken by the Company were directed to the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and the imports consisted of raw silk, fine calicoes, indigo, cloves, and mace. But in the year 1611, they sent a fleet to the continent of India, and succeeded in establishing factories at Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambaya, and Goga. They were to pay a duty of 3 per cent., and to be subject to no other exaction. A firman of the Emperor, conferring these privileges, was received on the 11th of January 1612; and thus the English first got a footing on the continent of India.

Up to the year 1612, the members of the East India Company were at liberty to subscribe or not, as they pleased, for any particular adventure, which was managed by themselves, although subject to the Company's general regulations. As this mode of proceeding did not, however, confer sufficient power and distinction on the Governor and Directors, they used all their influence to discredit it; and, in the year above mentioned, succeeded in passing a resolution, that, in future, the trade should be

carried on by a joint-stock only. Still the fund was not general, nor fixed in amount, nor divided into regular shares. But all the capital was now deposited in the hands of the Governor and Directors, who were to employ the whole amount in the manner they judged most advantageous to the interests of the subscribers. They were not fortunate in their management. During the period in which individuals conducted and watched over their own concerns, the average profit on the capital employed was 171 per cent. The average profit, when affairs got into the hands of the Directors, was only 87 per cent.

Soon after this, the Company's contentions with the Portuguese and Dutch began. An ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, was sent to the court of the Great Mogul, where he endeavoured to prepossess the natives against the competitors of his countrymen. It seems the Company were anxious, even then, to erect forts, and keep soldiers in pay, on the coast of India; but Sir Thomas Roe assured them that the expense would be much greater than the advantage. The Dutch had already monopolized the spice trade. This was a source of great envy and jealousy to the English, who now sent agents into several of the spice islands, in the hope of supplanting them, but without success. At this time, the Company's chief establishments were at Surat and Bantam.

In 1617-18, a fund, denominated the Company's second joint-stock, and amounting to 1,600,000l., was subscribed. The factors at Surat prevailed upon the Company to open a trade with Persia, where they hoped to dispose of English woollens to a large amount, and to purchase, in return, silk and other commodities, which might sell advantageously both in India and England. It is said, that at this time the Company possessed thirty-six ships, from 100 to 1000 tons burthen ; and that the proprietors of stock amounted to 954.

It would be but little instructive to pursue the obscure contentions of the East India Company with the Dutch and Portuguese: it may be sufficient to relate, that, with the latter, the chief competition was for the inconsiderable trade of Persia; but the Dutch stood in the way of their connexion with the spice islands. Hence hostile feelings and obstinate struggles arose between the English and Dutch Companies. Both parties appealed to King James; and this produced a commission of inquiry, and a treaty, which was concluded at London in 1619. This treaty was to be in force twenty years, and a council was appointed to superintend the execution of it, which was called the Council of Defence. It consisted of eight members, four for each Company. The treaty regulated the pretensions of the contending parties, and included arrangements for mutual profit and defence. It was also stipulated, that each Company should provide and send out ten ships of war to protect their trade in the East.

But the Dutch, being at that time much more powerful than the English in India, disregarded the treaty, and carried things with so high a hand, that the Commissioners of the East India Company declared it would be impossible to carry on the trade, if their arrogance and violence were not repressed. On the shores of the Indian continent the English were more successful. They also fought and conquered the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf; and, in conjunction with the Persians, dispossessed them of the island of Ormus, for which they received a portion of the

plunder of that island, and a grant of half the customs at the port of Gombroon.

The plunder the Company had obtained by their various captures in the East, now excited the cupidity of the King, and of his Lord High Admiral, the Duke of Buckingham, who demanded a share of what they had taken. The Directors did not think fit to resist the demands of the King, but objected to those of the Duke of Buckingham, because they had acted under their own charter, and not under letters of marque from the Admiral. After much solicitation and intrigue, they were compelled to pay 10,000l. to the Lord High Admiral; and as an equal sum was demanded for the King, it is probable that he also received it.

In 1623, the massacre of Amboyna was perpetrated by the Dutch. Captain Towerson, an Englishman, with nine of his own countrymen, nine Japanese, and one Portuguese sailor, were seized, tried, and executed in that island, under pretence that they had formed a conspiracy to expel the Dutch. It has never been ascertained whether they were guilty or not; the regular practice of the East India Company renders it probable that they were at all events, the Dutch appear to have sincerely believed them guilty. But, however that may have been, the transaction kindled an unquenchable flame of resentment against them in the breasts of the English people. Besides, as the Dutch criminal law authorized the use of the torture, it was exercised on Captain Towerson and his companions before they were executed; but this ought not to have excited any extraordinary indignation, as the Company themselves were in the regular habit of torturing their own countrymen in India, under false pretences. Before they were permitted the exercise of martial law, orɔf capital punishment on any but pirates, they were accustomed to whip or starve those to death whom they were desirous of putting out of the way. They were in the habit, also, of murdering private traders, under pretence of their being pirates; and Hamilton relates, that an agent of the Company attempted to swear away his life at Siam.

On the occasion of the affair at Amboyna, the East India Company had recourse to the press, an engine to which they have since shown so much hostility. They procured innumerable pamphlets to be written, exaggerating the horrors of the transaction; and by the assistance of these, and a picture, which they had drawn for the purpose, representing Captain Towerson and his companions expiring under the rack, amidst every circumstance of horror, they so excited the rage of the populace, that the Dutch merchants then in London did not think it safe to remain without the especial protection of the Government.

The English Government attempted to obtain signal reparation of the Dutch, for so great a national injury and affront; but the answer of the latter was coolly insulting,-barely intimating, that the English had leave to retire from the Dutch settlements in India, without paying any duties; and that they might erect forts for the protection of their commerce, provided they were thirty miles from any Dutch fort.

In 1624, the Company petitioned the King for authority to punish their servants abroad by martial law, and their request was granted without any hesitation; of so little importance did it appear to the Government of that time to intrust, to a commercial company, an unlimited power over the lives of their countrymen!

Meanwhile the Company's trade with Persia was of little importance. In 1627, Sir Robert Shirley, who had been ambassador in Persia, claimed 20007. of the Company, as a reward for his exertions in procuring them a Persian trade. The Company denied his services; and urged, besides, that they were unable to pay him, as they had contracted a debt of 200,0007., while their stock had fallen to twenty per cent. discount.

In 1628, the East India Company observing the decline of the royal authority, and the growing importance of Parliament, presented, for the first time, a memorial to the House of Commons. In this they detailed their difficulties, and enumerated the benefits resulting to the nation from the establishment of their monopoly-using nearly the same language as they have used on similar occasions ever since. Their chief subject of complaint was, the hostility of the Dutch. The affair of Amboyna still preyed upon the public mind; the Dutch appeared to desire to inquire into it; but nothing effectual was done.

In 1631-32, a third joint-stock, amounting to 420,7007., was formed by subscription. With this fund seven ships were fitted out; but of the money or goods embarked nothing is known.

The Company was, meanwhile, gaining ground on the eastern coast of the Indian continent. The factory at Masulipatam, not long before removed on account of the exactions of the Natives, was restored; permission to trade to Pipley, in Orissa, was obtained of the Mogul Emperor; Bantam was again raised to the rank of a presidency, and the whole eastern coast placed under its jurisdiction; a treaty was concluded with the Portuguese, by which the English were allowed free access to their ports on the Malabar coast, while in all English factories they were to receive the treatment of friends: and thus the Company obtained a share of the pepper-trade.

But the increase of private adventure now alarmed them exceedingly; their servants abroad, also, neglected their concerns to attend to their own; and, moreover, it began to be agitated by the press, whether the existence of monopolies, and, among others, that of the India Company, was not a real injury to the nation.

Through the means of a gentleman of the bedchamber to the King, a license was about this time granted to a new association to trade with India. This license, it was stated, was founded on the misconduct of the East India Company, which had been productive of no good to the nation; of none, at least, by any means adequate to the great privileges it had obtained. The King had a share in this new association, and Sir William Courten was at its head. Notwithstanding this, the Company sent out instructions to their servants in India to oppose the interlopers. By means of intrigue, misrepresentations, bewailings, and constant addresses to the throne, they at length succeeded in procuring a promise that Courten's license should be withdrawn, on condition that they themselves should raise a new joint-stock, to carry on the trade on a larger scale. The credit of East India adventure was so low, however, that no more than 22,500l. could be raised.

About this time a very singular transaction took place: the King, having now determined to make war upon his people, and being destitute of money, was tempted by the magazines of the East India Company, which he procured for the carrying on of his tyrannical purpose, in the