246 THE FIKST ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY in great detail the scope and objects of the voyage, together with minute regulations for its conduct and trade. In the third place, Royal Letters Patent author- ized, when needful, the coinage of money or export of specie for the voyage. In the fourth place, Letters Mis- sive were sought from the sovereign to the foreign kings, princes, and potentates at whose ports the ships were to trade. A curious circular letter of introduction from Elizabeth " to the Great and Mighty King of- leaves the address blank, to be filled up and delivered at the discretion of the commander of the expedition. The subsequent letters from King James are usually directed to specified princes in the East. These four instruments stand out as landmarks of the separate voyages above a mass of correspondence and detail. The example of a single voyage must serve to illustrate the routine proceedings for its sanction and equipment. Three months after the first voyage round the Cape of Good Hope, set forth (as we shall see) from Torbay on the 22d of April, 1601, the company received a letter from " one George Waymouth, a navigator," proposing a voyage for the discovery of the northwest passage to India. He asks whether the company will undertake it, or allow private men to do so, with a grant to them of the sole trade by that route for cer- tain years if they discover the passage. After an ad- journment a general court decided to undertake the venture, and to raise the money by a voluntary levy of five per cent, on the subscriptions of the first voyage, from such members as chose to embark on the venture.
