the leaders intended to have extended their explorations to Guiana. But the crews refused, and young Dudley was obliged to return. Leaving Trinidad in March, 1595, he touched at Puerto Rico and the Azores, encountering very severe weather. In May he arrived at St. Ives in Cornwall, having sunk and burnt nine Spanish ships and expended all his powder. Owing to unjust treatment after the great queen's death, Sir Robert Dudley abandoned his native country and lived at Florence, where he wrote that superb work, 'Del Arcano del Mare,' and where he died in 1630.
In 1595 also Amyas Preston harassed the Spaniards in the West Indies, with two ships, the Ascension and the Gift. He sacked the towns of Coro and Santiago de Leon, and obliged Cumana to pay a ransom. In 1596 Sir Anthony Shirley followed in Preston's track with nine vessels. He took Santa Marta and Jamaica, visited Puerto Cabello and Truxillo, and returned home by way of Newfoundland; and in the same year William Parker, in the Prudence, made good prizes in the Bay of Campeachy. These audacious voyagers were supplied with a good "Ruttier," or book of sailing directions for the West Indies, translated from the Spanish.
The value of an explorer's training was shown at the taking of Cadiz. Sir Walter Ralegh commanded a division of the fleet, and among those who had been engaged in exploring adventures with him, or at the same time, in the Orinoco and the West Indies, no fewer than four received the honour of knighthood from the Earl of Essex at Cadiz for their gallantry. These were Sir Robert Dudley, Sir George Gifford, Sir Francis Popham, and Sir Amyas Preston.
In the closing years of the brilliant reign of Queen Elizabeth, the first chapter in the history of British India was commenced. The establishment of factories by the Turkey Company in the Levant led the way. In 1583 Fitch, Leedes, and Newberry found their way to India overland, and their story drew attention in England to the wonders of the East. But no English ship had yet made the voyage to India, although Drake and Cavendish had rounded the Cape, coming from the East. The first English voyage to India was undertaken by James Lancaster in 1591. Lancaster was a native of Basingstoke, who had been serving in Portugal both as a soldier and a merchant, though he is only known to fame as an adventurous and able sea-captain. The expedition consisted of three tall ships, the Penelope as admiral, commanded by George Raymond, the Merchant Royal, under Abraham Kendall,
