Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/15

Rh on the contrary, the very evil which Raleigh had most deprecated,—the burdensome amount of the customs,—was, in the penury and short-sightedness of the government, augmented instead of being alleviated. One or two new trading companies were, however, incorporated; and the colonisation of different parts of America, which was more or less successfully proceeded with by the enterprise of private individuals, if it produced scarcely any results for the present, was laying an ample foundation of commercial as of all other greatness for a future age.

Captain James Lancaster, who had sailed from England in April, 1601, in charge of the first adventure of the newly-established East India Company, made his reappearance in the Downs, with the two largest of his four ships full laden with pepper, on the 11th of September, 1603, having previously sent home the other two with cargoes composed partly of pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, partly of calicoes and other Indian manufactures, taken out of a Portuguese carrack which Lancaster had fallen in with and captured. The admiral, as he was called, had been well received by the king of Acheen, in Sumatra, who had concluded a commercial treaty with him, and granted all the privileges that were asked; but the great length of time, nearly two years and a half, that the adventure had occupied, and still more the obstructions of various sorts which kept the goods from being all disposed of, and the accounts finally wound up, for about six years longer, prevented the company from deriving either much ultimate profit or any immediate encouragement from this first attempt. Additional capital, however, having been, though with difficulty, raised, the same four ships were again sent out in March, 1604, under the command of Sir Henry Middleton, who did not return till May, 1606, and then only with three of his ships, laden with pepper, cloves, mace, and nutmegs, the fourth having been lost on the homeward voyage. In the mean time a licence in direct violation of the company's charter had been granted by the king to Sir Edward Michelbome and others, allowing them to send