Ships depart from Goa for Mozambique between the 10th and 15th of
January; and from Mozambique for Goa between the 8th and 31st August,
arriving at Chaul or Goa any time in October, or till the 15th of
November.
From Ormus ships bound for Bengal depart between the 15th and 20th of
June, going to winter at Teve? whence they resume their voyage for
Bengal about the 15th of August.
SECTION VI.
First Voyage of the English to India in 1591; begun by Captain George
Raymond, and completed by Captain James Lancaster.[7]
INTRODUCTION.
We have at length arrived at the period when the English began to visit
the East Indies in their own ships; this voyage of Captain Raymond, or,
if you will, Lancaster, being the first of the kind ever performed by
them. From this year, therefore, 1591, the oriental navigations of the
English are to be dated; they did not push them with any vigour till the
beginning of the next century, when they began to pursue the commerce of
India with unwearied diligence and success, as will appear from the
narratives in the next succeeding chapter.
[Footnote 7: Hakluyt, II. 286. Astley, I. 235.]
"As for Captain Raymond, his ship was separated near Cape Corientes, on
the eastern coast of Africa, from the other two,[8] and was never heard
of more during the voyage, so that, whether he performed the voyage, or
was lost by the way, does not appear from Hakluyt; from whose silence,
however, nothing can be certainly concluded either way, for reasons
that will appear in the sequel[9]." - Astley.
[Footnote 8: This is a singular oversight in the editor of Astley's
Collection, as by that time there were only two ships, the Royal
Merchant having been sent home from Saldanha bay. - E.]
[Footnote 9: These promised reasons no where appear. - E.]
The full title of this voyage in Hakluyt's Collection is thus: "A Voyage
with three tall ships, the Penelope, Admiral; the Merchant-Royal,
Vice-Admiral; and the Edward Bonadventure, Rear-Admiral, to the East
Indies, by way of the Cape of Buona Speranza, to Quitangone, near
Mozambique, to the isles of Comoro and Zanzibar, on the backside of
Africa, and beyond Cape Comorin, in India, to the isles of Nicobar, and
of Gomes Palo, within two leagues of Sumatra, to the Islands of Pulo
Pinaom, and thence to the Mainland of Malacca; begun by Mr George
Raymond in the year 1591, and performed by Mr James Lancaster, and
written from the mouth of Edmund Barker of Ipswich, his Lieutenant in
the said Voyage, by Mr Richard Hakluyt."
This voyage is chiefly remarkable as being the first ever attempted by
the English to India, though not with any view of trade, as its only
object seems to have been to commit privateering depredations upon the
Portuguese trading ships in India, or, as we would now call them, the
country ships, which were employed in trading between Goa and the
settlements to the eastwards.
