Segar, who had been put ashore in an apparently dying condition by the captain of the Merchant Royal, on the rather heartless assumption that the man's chances of life were greater on land than on board ship. For eighteen months the unfortunate fellow led a Crusoe-like existence on the island, seeing no human being. When he was found he was apparently in good bodily health, but long isolation from his fellow-men had so weakened his faculties that he was unable to bear the strain of association with his old messmates. Within a month of leaving St. Helena he died, a victim to excessive joy, if Barker's theory is correct.
The history of the Edward Bonaventure after leaving St. Helena was unfortunate. Lancaster, instead of proceeding home, went off to the West Indies in search, it would seem, of further adventures. His crew, who had had more than their fill of this roving life, mutinied, but were afterwards brought sufficiently into submission to enable Lancaster to go on a cruise off the Gulf of Mexico. In November, 1593, the Edward Bonaventure was driven ashore on one of the islands in that region, and was there abandoned. Lancaster and his principal lieutenant. Barker, took passage home in a French ship which, fortunately for them, was anchored at one of the islands in the vicinity of the wreck. Ultimately they landed at Rye on May 24, 1594, after an absence from their native country of more than three years.
To a great extent the voyage had been a disastrous one. Two of the largest vessels were lost, only a miserable remnant of the crews originally embarked on the fleet lived to return to England, and apart from a comparatively small sum which Lancaster obtained by trafficking in the
