Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/265

 Chap. X.] CHARTER GRANTED. 231

kind must have been done, since the number of persons actually incorporated ad. leoo. by the charter is not confined to those of the original list, but amounts in all to 218.

Among other arrangements made previoas to the date of the charter, may Appoint- be mentioned the appomtments of Captam James Lancaster to the Red officers to Dragon, with the title of general or admiral of the fleet, and of Captain John ti^J^^ Davis to the second command, with the title of pilot-major. Both of these officers had previously made the voyage: the one under Captain Raymond, in the unfortunate expedition which has already been described ; and the other in 1 598, as a pilot, in the employment of the Dutch. The terms of agreement with the former are not mentioned; but those with the latter deserve notice, in furnishing a good idea of the spirit in which the voyage was undertaken, and of the hopes entertained as to its success. The terms were £100 wages, £200 on credit as an adventure, and a commission on the profit, rated alternatively at £500, £1000, £1500, or £2000, according as the clear retm-ns on the capital should yield two for one, three for one, four for one, or five for one. The lead- ing object in this arrangement was to give Captain Davis a personal interest in the success of the voyage. The same object was kept steadily in view in arranging with all other parties. Thus the factors or supercargoes, thirty-six in number, were arranged in four different classes: of which the first received £100 wages, and £200 advanced as an adventure; the second £50 wages, and £100 adventure; the third £30 wages, and £50 adventure; and the foui-th £20 wages, and £-lr0 adventure. Even the common seamen were treated on the same principle, and received four months' pay, of which the half only was paid {IS wages, while the other half was advanced as an adventure.

The charter was gi'anted on the last day of the sixteenth century, 31st ^''•'^'"ter

, _ grauted.

December, 1 600. Like all deeds of the same kind, it is spun out to such a length by verbiage and vain tautology, as to occupy twenty-six pages of a printed quarto volume. It is, of course, impossible to give it at length. For- tunately it is also unnecessary, as everything of importance in it may be C(mipressed within comparatively narrow limits.

Proceeding in the queen's name in the form of letters- patent, addressed "to '*^ *'o™

/v. . ., . , and object.

all our officers, mmisters, and subjects, and to all other people, as well within this our realm of England as elsewhere," it begins with stating that " Our most dear and loving cousin, George, Earl of Cumberland, and our well-beloved sub- jects, Sir John Hart, of London, knight. Sir John Spencer, of London, knight, Sir Edward Michelborne, knight, William Cavendish, esquire. ' nine aldermen of London, and other individuals specially named, amounting in all to 218, have "been petitioners unto us for our royal assent and licence, " that they, "at their own adventiu-es, costs, and charges, as well as for the honour of our realm of El) gland, as for the increase of our navigation, and advancement of trade of merchandize, within our sjiid realm, and the dominions of the same, mi^ht adven-