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 and intelligence was high is attested by the responsibilities from time to time imposed upon the men before the mast. For example, in Jourdain's Journal mention is made of a jury of seamen having been empanelled to try three of their fellows who had been guilty of murder. That the trust shown in their impartiality, even where the life of shipmates was involved, was not misplaced, is shown by the fact that they returned a verdict of guilty and that two of the murderers were hanged as a result of their finding.

A devotion to music was a marked characteristic of these seamen of the early seventeenth century. Some of the men were performers of no mean order. One of the number, a cornet player, attained to some distinction in India in consequence of his playing. Favoured by circumstances he enjoyed a brief hour of glorious life at the court of a native potentate until the inevitable time arrived when his royal patron tired of his performances and passed on his favours to some indigenous entertainer whose playing he was better able to appreciate.

The Company encouraged the musical inclinations of its servants by supplying the ships with suitable instruments. We read in reference to one of the vessels of this time that "a virginal was brought for two to play upon at once," the instrument being so contrived that by the pulling out of a pin "a man could make both go," "which," adds the writer, "is a delightful sight (device) for the jacks to skip up and down in such manner as they will."

Literature was not neglected. As an appropriate food for the mind the directors sent out in the opening years of the Company Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Hakluyt's Voyages, and a then recently published work " of that worthy Bon of Christ, Mr. Wm. Perkins," one of the ablest