180 THE COMPANY AND THE KING 1619 of being fined £20,000 by the Star Chamber for exporting gold— an experience sweetened after three years by a knighthood from James. This mingled taste of royal discipline and kingly favour led him to seek closer relations with the court, and in 1625 he modestly applied for a grant of the " Terra Australis Incognita,' ' or Unknown South of the World. Three years later, letters patent, more limited in scope and discreetly addressed to the Earl of Pembroke— the late king's gentleman of the bedchamber, and a spirited company- promoter for Virginia, the Northwest Passage, South America, and elsewhere— were granted " in trust for Sir Wiliam Courten." The project failed, and Sir Will- iam, with a purse ever open to his Majesty's needs, obtained in 1635 a more promising license for the East Indian trade. His principal partner in the adventure was Sir Paul Pindar, a man of good family, born after Elizabeth's accession and educated for the University, but with a natural genius for commerce. He learned the secrets of the Eastern trade during fifteen years of profitable businss in Venice and Italy, and practised them for nine years more as James's envoy, and the nominee of the Levant Company, in Turkey. He brought home so great a fortune that Buckingham fitted out Prince Charles for his wooing trip to Madrid with Pindar's diamonds, saying he would talk about payment after- wards. One fine jewel, valued at £35,000, Pindar was wont to lend James I to wear on state occasions; and in two transactions alone he handed over diamonds to
