Early English adventurers in the East (1917)/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
Life at Sea in the Seventeenth Century
Wide range of the East India Company's operations—Henry Middleton conducts a voyage to Bantam.—Keeling, Sharpeigh and David Middleton command expeditions to the East—Building of the Trade's Increase—James I christens it—Life on the Company's ships—The character of crews—Preachers appointed to the ships—The Company's commanders—Discourses by William Keeling and Nicholas Downton
ONE remarkable feature of the earliest operations of the East India Company was their wide geographical scope. Within ten years of the granting of the charter the Company's representatives had ranged the East from one extreme almost to the other, had planted the flag of England in the distant isles of the Eastern seas, had established definite though somewhat unsubstantial relations with the Malayan princes in and about the Straits of Malacca, had visited Aden and penetrated to the then largely unknown and, therefore, doubly perilous waters of the Red Sea, and had formed the first connexion of England with the continent of India by sending a representative to the Court of the Great Mogul. Bearing in mind that all this was accomplished with a capital not larger than that of an ordinary suburban trading venture of to-day and in the face of immense difficulties, not the least of which was the bitter hostility of the Portuguese, we can only wonder at the splendid optimism which guided the councils of the Company in this period, and offer our meed of admiration to the statesmanlike prescience which thus early marked out the lines which British commercial and political influence in the East was ultimately to follow.
In an estimate of the causes which led the Company to occupy this ample stage at the very outset of its career a prominent place must be given to the character of those whom it entrusted with positions of responsibility. The early commanders were almost without an exception a splendid class, not only excellent seamen and born leaders of men, but individuals in whom a high sense of duty mingled with a strong patriotism. Their first aim, no doubt, was profit, but it was profit with honour, and there were occasions, as we shall see, when considerations of honour outweighed the purely material interests.
Of the best type of commander was Henry Middleton, who took up Lancaster's dropped mantle and piloted to the East the second expedition, which, as already mentioned, left England early in 1604. Middleton had shown his mettle in the earlier voyage, when he had held a responsible but subordinate position. He was one of a family of seamen who have left their mark on the early annals of the East India Company. His selection for the supreme command was no doubt due to the recommendation of Lancaster, whose initial success had elevated him to a position of considerable influence in the Company and, indeed, in the public life of London—a position made more eminent by the knighthood which James had conferred upon him.
Middleton justified the trust reposed in him by bringing the expedition to a brilliantly successful close. With the same ships which had formed Lancaster's fleet he made a good voyage to Bantam, loaded two of his vessels there with pepper and, having dispatched them home, proceeded with the other two to the Moluccas, where he, in the face of some Dutch opposition, did a brisk trade and established what seemed then likely to prove profitable relations with the native powers. He returned home in May, 1606, with cargoes which brought to the investors a clear return of 95 per cent. on their capital, although one of the four ships had been lost on the voyage back.
In quick succession three other ventures were launched by the Company in the period immediately following Middleton's return. The first of the trio, which figures in history as the third voyage, was commanded by Captain William Keeling, who had as his chief lieutenant David Middleton, a brother of Henry. This voyage is chiefly interesting from the fact that it established the first connexion of the Company with India, one of the three ships of which the fleet was composed—the Hector—paying a flying visit to Surat prior to proceeding to Bantam, and leaving there in circumstances to be related in a subsequent chapter William Hawkins with instructions to proceed as envoy to the Court of Jehangir at Agra. Another of its features was the opening of a factory at Banda, an important seat of the spice trade in the Eastern seas, with a consequent further development of the rivalry between English and Dutch in that region. The venture which followed upon this, known as the fourth voyage, with Captain Alexander Sharpeigh as commander, established relations with Aden and Mocha and further extended the Indian connexion. But its course was so marked with misfortune that it did little to promote the cause of English trade expansion in India. First, Sharpeigh, on landing at Aden, was taken prisoner by the Turkish governor and detained for some time. Not long after he obtained his release his ship was wrecked on the coast of Western India. As a final touch to the disasters of the voyage the other large ship of his fleet, the Union, which had embarked a cargo of spice at Acheen and Priaman, was wrecked on the coast of Brittany on the way home. Better fortune attended the last of the three voyages with which we are now dealing—the fifth of the series—which was conducted by David Middleton in 1609–11. Proceeding to the Moluccas and Banda Middleton did a brisk trade, in spite of the open hostility of the Dutch, and the goods, with an additional lading, he obtained at Bantam constituted a very rich cargo which, when landed safely in England in the late summer of 1611, produced a return which went far to compensate for the loss on Sharpeigh's unfortunate voyage.
The year 1609 was in several ways an important one for the Company. Its chief interest lies in the circumstance that it witnessed the abandonment of the system of separate investments for each voyage in favour of a common stock, simultaneously with the renewal of the Company's charter for fifteen years with all its privileges of exclusive trading, subject to a proviso that in the event of the trade not proving profitable to the realm the monopoly might be withdrawn on three years' notice being given. To inaugurate the new era the Company had built the largest ship which up to that time had ever left the stocks in England. With its 1,100 tons burden, it was in the eyes of the people of that age a veritable leviathan, and for very many years after it represented the maximum size of trading ships. In fact right down to the era of steam the East Indiamen rarely exceeded that tonnage. The standard size of the ships of the Company's fleet was 500 tons, and it was vessels of this class which throughout the long period of the Company's history as a trading organization conducted the bulk of its extensive operations.
James, who by this time had obtained a clearer knowledge of the value of the Indian trade and of the desirability of encouraging it in the only practicable way by giving the Company a free hand, deigned to identify himself specially with the new phase of commercial activity which the construction of this big ship was destined to introduce. Accompanied by the Queen and Prince Henry he, on December 30, 1609, went to the docks where the vessel was lying and formally christened it the Trade's Increase, and at the same time bestowed upon the pinnace which was to be its consort the whimsical though not inappropriate name of the Peppercorn. A third ship, the Darling, to which Nicholas Downton was posted as commander, completed the composition of the new fleet.
It may be of interest at this point, before we follow Middleton's ship on what was to prove an eventful voyage, to say something about the manner of life of those who were employed in the Company's service in these early years. The crews,like the commanders, appear to have been selected with care. They must have been on the whole well educated men, according to the standard of the time, and a few of them were probably of superior ability. An individual was recommended for service in one of the earliest fleets because he could speak fluently Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. His qualifications were not altogether exceptional if we may judge from the frequent references to the linguistic attainments of individuals in the records. And that the general average of knowledge 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 exponents of Calvinism, then so much in vogue. Each ship was also equipped with a full supply of Bibles and Books of the Psalms for the services which were held daily when time and circumstance permitted.
The moral welfare of the crews was specially entrusted to "preachers," who accompanied all the larger ships. Evidence of the pains taken to select these early predecessors of the Indian chaplains is to be found in the Company's minutes. Apparently candidates for the office had to preach trial sermons before the directors. Nor when they had emerged from this ordeal successfully were they sure of selection, for a careful scrutiny of their antecedents was made, and if any adverse facts came to light a ban was put upon the applicant. One, a certain William Evans, who had "practised physic for twenty years in France and England and studied divinity for eight years," was rejected because it was found that "as ill a report goeth as any about this town of his coat (cloth)," while another failed to pass muster as it was discovered that "he hath a straggling humour, can frame himself to all company as he finds men affected and delighteth in tobacco and wine."
The Company's commanders re-inforced the teachings of the regular ministers of religion. A discourse of Keeling to the factors he took out with him, which figures in the records, dwells upon the care which the Company took to furnish them with things needful for their spiritual comfort and the health of their bodies, and admonishes them to be more "respective," and "to shun all sin and evil behaviour that the heathen may take no advantage to blaspheme our religion by the abuses and ungodly behaviour of our men." In a similar strain Nicholas Downton enjoined the representatives he left behind at Surat, "to have a careful eye over the manners and behaviours of both young and old," and directed that" if any be found by excessive drinking or otherwise like to prove a scandal to our nation ... to use first sharp reprehensions, and if that do not prevail then inflict punishment, and if that work not reformation then by the first ship send him home with a writing showing the reasons thereof." That these instructions were necessary is abundantly proved by the frequent references to individual excesses. Numerous instances are given of men dying with "the flux" in consequence of "inordinate drinking of a wine called tastie (toddy) distilled from the palmetto tree."
Stern discipline was maintained on the ships to enforce the rule of decent living. The lash was unsparingly used, and in a letter included with the records of Middleton's voyage with which we shall shortly deal there is a statement which shows that a man suspected of theft was put to the torture to extract a confession of his guilt. Undue stress, however, must not be laid upon the irregularities which are revealed in the narratives of the early voyages. Something surely must be allowed for the ordinary frailties of humanity in men placed as these pioneers were in situations of extreme hardship and peril in strange lands to which the depressing influences of a tropical climate added an element of peculiar malignity. It must not be forgotten that with all their faults these simple seamen never hesitated to lay down their lives at the call of duty and that to their strenuous endeavour we probably owe the full measure of sovereignty we enjoy in India to-day, for if less courage and less energy had been displayed the Company's operations might easily have been diverted to more barren fields and the conquest of India left to other hands.