Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/274

 240

ni.STOIlY OF INDIA.

(Book II.

A.D. 1003. Dutcli Hilip of about 200 tons, which had obtained permission to join him, on a privateering cruise to the Straits of Malacca. Such an expedition was certainly little in accordance with the purely mercantile spirit in which the voyage had been professedly undertaken, and goes far to justify the account given by Sii- William Monson, who says, in his Naval Tracts,^ that Lancaster's "employ- ment was as well to take by violence as to trade by sufferance ; " and adds that this was "unworthy the name of an honest design, for the hands of merchants should not be stained or polluted with theft, for in such case all people would have liberty to do the like upon them." The English commander Portuguese ^as uot restrained by any scruples of this natiu-e, and, when a large Portugues(i

taken. ship made her appearance, somewxiat grotesquely expressed his thankfulness to Providence for having thus fiu-nished him with the means of lading his ships, and supplying all his other wants. Though the ship was of 900 tons burden, and had above 600 persons on board, the capture was easily effected It proved a carraek, bound for Malacca, from St. Thom^, a Portuguese factory on th'^ Coromandel coast, and so fully freighted that Lancaster, after occupying all the vacant room in his own vessels with caUcoes, pintados, and other merchan- dise, was puzzled how to dispose of the residue, which would have sufficed to lade as many more ships if he had had them. Ultimately he resolved to retur.! to Aclieen, where he ingratiated himself still farther with the king by hberal presents of the prize goods, and deposited what he could not take with him, to await the arrival of a new fleet from England

On leaving Acheen on the 9th of November, the Ascension, in which all the pepper, cinnamon, and cloves which had previously been purchased, were loaded, was despatched for England. The Dragon and Hector continued their course in an opposite direction along the south coast of Sumatra to Priaman, where the Susan was found taking in her cargo. Leaving her with orders to sail homewards as soon as it was completed, Lancaster proceeded with the other two vessels through the Straits of Sunda, and, on the 1 6th of December, arrived in the road of Bantam, on the north-west extremity of the island of Java. Here, after the dehvery of the queen's letter and a handsome present, his reception was as favourable as it had been at Acheen ; and he found no diffi- culty in disposing of his prize goods to such advantage, that he had soon sold more than would pay for the lading of both the ships. By the 1 0th of Feb- ruary fidl cargoes of pepper were taken in ; and on the 20th, after a regular factory had been established at Bantam, and a pinnace despatched to the Moluccas, for the purpose of attempting to seciu-e a trade which might be available to the next ships from England, he took his final departure.

The voyage home was very stormy ; and the Dragon, in particular, having lost her rudder, became so unmanageable, that Lancaster privately gave orders

Arrival at Bantam.

The voyage home.

' Churcliill's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 2.31.