218 HISTORY OB^ INDIA. [Book I.
A.D. 1504. was so stormy that four weeks were spent in doubling the Cape. In April they arrived at St. Helena. On leaving it they were carried westward tr> the wajst of Brazil, and kept wandering for a time under great hardships, first in the Gulf of Paria, and afterward among the West India Islands. The crew, having tlirown off all subordination, did as they pleased. At last, on the 15th of November, 1593, while the captain and sixteen of the crew were ashore search- ing for provisions, the car[)enter cut the ship's cable, and she drifted away with only five men and a boy in her. Lancaster and his peo[)le separated into parties, as the only means of obtaining even a scanty su-stenance. Ultimately, he and six others got off in a French vessel, which took them to St. Domingo.* Here, leaving the rest to follow, he embarked with his lieutenant in another French vessel for Diejjpe. Having reached it in safety, he crossed over to Rye, where he landed, 24)th May, 1594. He had been absent three years and six weeks. Expedition The Dutch, though they did not attempt the passage by the Cape of Good
Houtmann. Hope SO early as the English, appear to have been more careful in preparing for it, and were accordingly rewarded with more abundant success. Their first voyage, undertaken by a number of merchants, who had assumed tlie name of the Company for Distant Countries, sailed from the Texel on the 2d of April, 1595. The expedition consisted of four vessels — the Maurice, of 400 tons, carrying twenty cannon and eighty-four men; the Holland, nearly of the same size and strength as the Maurice; the Amsterdam, of about 200 tons, carrying sixteen cannon and fifty-nine men ; and a pinnace, of about 30 tons, carrying eight cannon and twenty men. The command of the vessels was given to captains of high naval reputation; but the general commercial superintendence was intrusted to Cornelius Houtmann, at whose suggestion, and on whose infor- mation, the voyage is said to have been luidertaken. He had spent some time in Lisbon acquainting himself with the nature of the Portuguese traffic to the East; and, in the course of his inquiries, had incurred the saspicion of the Portuguese government, who imposed a heavy fine upon him, and imprisoned him till it should be paid. He had no means of doing so ; but, hadng managed to communicate with some merchants of Amsterdam, induced them to pay the fine and obtain his release, in consideration of the valuable information which he would be able to communicate. Its pro- On the 19th of April, the four vessels reached the Canaries, and on the 14th
ceedings,
of June they crossed the line. They had previously fallen in mth several Portuguese vessels, which they might have taken as lawful prizes; but, with a moderation in which much good policy was combined, they met and parted like friends. They now began to long anxiously for land, as the crews were suffering much by scurvy, and reached it on the 4th of Augiist. They had passed the Cape of Good Hope without seeing it, and had anchored in a bay called the Aguada de San Bras, situated about forty-five leagues beyond it. After some intercourse with the natives, they continued their voyage on the
