Chap. I.] NEW CHARTER BY KING JAMES. 247
separate analysis of it is altogether superfluous. The only points deserving of ad. leio. notice are, that while the number of members specially named in Queen Elizabeth's charter amounted to 218, in that of King James it is increased to 276; that the provisions against interlopers are rendered more stringent, by an authority given to the Company to seize and confiscate the ships and goods of contraband traders in any place.s, whether within the Bi-itish dominions or not, provided they be places where the " Company, their factors and ministers, shall trade and traflic by virtue of these our letters-patents;" and that the duration of the privileges of the charter, instead of being restricted to fifteen years, and a conditional renewal for other fifteen after the former should have expired, is made perpetual. This last clause loses much of its ai)parent importance by a subsequent provision, in which full power is reserved to the crown to recall the charter at any time "after three years' warning."
In the preamble to this charter. King James declared that he had found i""en«ed
subscription
" by certain experience, that the continuance of the said Company and trade will umier new
not only be a very great honour to us, our heirs and successors, and to our realm
and dominions, but also in many respects profitable unto us and our common-
wealtli." In this declaration, as well as in the provisions of the charter itself,
there was certainly an additional security that the exclusive privileges of the
Company would not be rashly infringed. To this it may have been partly
owing that the subscription for the sixth voyage was the largest that had yet
been made, amounting to £82,000. Three ves.sels were fitted out, one of them,
the Trades Increase, of 1000 tons burden; and the command was given to Sir
Henry Middleton, who had made the second voyage. He set sail in the .spring
of 1610, arrived in Saldanha Bay on the 2-ith of July, and, after dou))ling the
Cape, sailed northwards to the island of Socotra. It would seem tiiat the Red
Sea, and not India, was the oiiginal ilestination ; for the commander, instead
of continuing his course across the Indian Ocean, left the Pepper-Corn, the
second largest c^f his vessels, at Aden, and then steered for Mocha, where he
wa-s induced to believe a ready market would be foimd for all his merchandise.
At Aden he had been unable to procure a pilot, and had ventured for some
distance within the Straits of Babelmandeb without one. At last two Arabs rroceedings
came aboard, professing great skill in navigation. Having been intrusted with 'jiid.'
the pilotage, they ran the Trade's Increase on a sandbank shortly after the
town of Mocha had been descried. The subsequent proceedings leave little
doubt that it was wilfully done.
Sir Henry Middleton seems to have been little qualified for his command. When the ship could not be got off", the most valuable part of her ciirgo was sent ashore with the view of liglitening her. He afterwards landed with many of his people without taking any precautions for safety, and, as soon as the Arabs had completed their treacherous preparations, found hiuLself a prisoner in their hands. Ultimately, after losing many of his men and remaining a
f Sir Henry Uetun.
