And, As No Great
Enterprize Can Be Well Conducted And Accomplished Without An Absolute
Authority For Dispensing Justice, The Queen Granted A Commission Of
Martial Law To Captain Lancaster, The General Of The Fleet, For The
Better Security Of His Command.
Every thing being in readiness, the fleet departed from Woolwich, in the
river Thames, on the 13th of February, 1600, after the English mode of
reckoning,[100] or more properly 1601.
They were so long delayed in the
Thames and the Downs, for want of wind, that it was Easter before they
arrived at Dartmouth, where they spent five or six days, taking in
bread and other provisions, appointed to be procured there. Departing
thence on the 18th of April, they came to anchor in Torbay, at which
place the general sent on board all the ships instructions for their
better keeping company when at sea, and directions as to what places
they were to repair to for meeting again, in case of being separated by
storms or other casualties. These were the calms of Canary; Saldanha
bay,[101] in case they could not double the Cape of Good Hope; Cape St
Roman, in Madagascar; the island of Cisne, Cerne, or Diego Rodriguez;
and finally, Sumatra, their first intended place of trade.
[Footnote 100: At this time, and for long after, there was a strangely
confused way of dating the years, which were considered as beginning at
Lady-day, the 25th of March. Hence, what we would now reckon the year
1601, from the 1st January to the 24th March inclusive, retained the
former date of 1600.
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