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In the spring of 1591, James Lancaster, commanding three ships, put out from Plymouth Sound. His destination was south east Asia. The Dutch and Portuguese had been in that part of the world for decades. Some English had penetrated that far.
This expedition, however, was to test what was feasible for British investors. No one expected it to be so, but Lancaster was making a voyage that would be the forerunner of what would become the English East India Company by the end of the century. This was the first proper trading voyage from England to the Indies.
The attraction was not India; British attention would not properly settle on the subcontinent for another two decades. As we saw earlier, London investors were interested in the spice trade. The price was set, not in the far east, but in continental Europe.
All the time there was little fluctuation; spice could be economically bought through third parties, sold at home or imported and then exported again at a reasonable profit. But the continental monopoly suddenly became greedy, for political as well as financial reasons. The price of spice, especially pepper, started to rise. Here was the incentive for British traders to finance an expedition to test if Drake's ten year-old assertion that trade was to be had at an exclusive profit still held good.
By 1598, pepper prices would be trebled by the Dutch. From that point there was no commercial reason for the British to avoid going east. Here was the momentum that would create the British Raj two centuries later.
English fire ships amongst the Spanish Armada, 1588 (Getty Images) View more images
James Lancaster c.1554-1618
Lancaster fought under Drake during the battle against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He led the first flotilla to look for trade in the Indies and at one stage wrote his will on the return trip because he felt sure to perish in terrible seas.
His experience and reliability made him a natural choice to command the first English East India Company fleet in 1600, for which he was knighted. Later, Lancaster too joined those who believed a northwest passage possible but, like the rest, was unsuccessful.
Because of trade winds the nearest port in a storm when heading south to round the Cape of Good Hope and head east was likely to be Brazil, which is what happened on Lancaster's maiden voyage to the East Indies. So difficult were sailing conditions that men died from lightning strikes and the three ship flotilla which left England in April didn't round the Cape until September.
Edmund Barker on one of Lancaster's expeditions
In 1591 Edmund Barker, a sailorman of Ipswich, signed on as lieutenant to James Lancaster, the leader of an expedition to the Moluccas.
"Our fleet arrived at the Canary Islands the twenty fifth of April, from whence we departed the twenty ninth of the same. The fifth of May we passed the Tropic of Cancer. The eighth we were in the height of Cape Verde. All this time we went with a fair wind at North East, always before the wind until the thirteenth of May we met a contrary wind. Here we lay off and on in the sea until the sixth of June. While we lay thus off and on, we took a Portugal caravel laden by merchants of Lisbon for Brazil, in which caravel we had some sixty tons of wine, twelve hundred jars of oil, about a hundred jars of olives, certain barrels of capers, with divers others fit for our voyage…"
(Heavy storms around the Cape of Good Hope:) "In the morning toward ten of the clock, we had a terrible clap of thunder which slew four of our men outright, their necks being wrung asunder without speaking any word. And of ninety four men there was not one untouched, whereof some were stricken blind, others were bruised in their legs and their arms, and others in their breasts so they voided blood two days after; others were drawn out at length as though they had been racked…"
(After fourteen months at sea:) "Now the winter coming upon us with much contagious weather, we directed our course from hence with the islands of Pulo Pinaou, at which islands we arrived about the beginning of June, where we came into anchor. Here we continued to until the end of August. Our refreshing in this place was very small, only of oysters growing on rocks, great whelks, and some few fish which we took with our hooks. Here we landed our sick on these uninhabited islands for their health, nevertheless twenty six of them died in this place, whereof John Hall, our master, was one, and Master Rainold Golding another, a merchant of great honesty and much discretion. The winter passed, and having watered our ship and fitted her to go to sea, we had left us but thirty three men and one boy, of which not twenty two were sound for labour or help, and of them not past a third part sailors."
