Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/315

 WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE UNSUCCESSFUL 251 proceeded against Captain Waymouth before the Privy Council, but being satisfied with his defence, agreed to employ him on another voyage. Into his further history I need not enter. The subscribers to the north- west expedition of 1602 lost their money, its separate business was wound up, and the company proceeded to form new groups of adventurers for voyages by way of the Cape. I have dwelt on Waymouth 's expedition for two reasons. It illustrates the relations of the company to a particular voyage from the inception to the close of the venture; and it stands apart from the regular series of Cape voyages, so that I shall not have to refer to it again in my consecutive narrative of the Indian trade. The discovery of the northwest passage con- tinued to be a dream of the East India adventurers, as it continued to be a dream of some of the most gal- lant seamen whom England has produced down to our day. In 1602 the company resolved to make " a final proof whether there be any passage or not/' by means of Waymouth and another captain. In 1606 it granted a license to John Knight to discover the passage on his own account in vain. For years afterwards the proj- ect reappears, and in 1614 the company was again being urged to seek a northern passage to Asia, with the promise of aid from the Emperor of Japan. The permanent machinery by which the company carried on its business consisted from the first of a governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and a board of twenty-four committee-men, elected annually in July.