A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 8 | Page 9

hermits reside, all
others being forbidden to inhabit there, that the ships may be the better
supplied with victuals, as on coming from India they are usually but
slenderly provided, because no corn grows there, nor do they make any
wine. The ships which go from Portugal for India do not touch there,
because, on leaving Portugal, they are fully provided with bread and
water for eight months. No other person can inhabit St Helena except
the two hermits, or perchance some sick person who may be left there
on shore under the care of the hermits, for his help and recovery.
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. It is unnecessary here to point out the
entire disappointment of the adventurers, or the disastrous conclusion
of the expedition, as these are clearly related by Mr Edmund Barker.
This article is followed by a supplementary account of the same voyage,
by John May, one of the people belonging to the Edward Bonadventure,
who relates some of the occurrences rather differently from Edmund
Barker, or rather gives some information that Mr Barker seems to have
wished to conceal. For these reasons, and because of some farther
adventures in a French ship in which May embarked, it has been
thought proper to insert that narrative in our collection--E.
* * * * *
Our fleet, consisting of three tall ships, the Penelope, Merchant-Royal,
and Edward Bonadventure, sailed from Plymouth the 10th April, 1591,
and arrived at the Canary Islands on 25th of that month, whence we
again took our departure on the 29th. The 2d May we were in the
latitude of Cape Blanco, and passed the tropic of Cancer on the 5th. All
this time we had a fair wind at north-east, sailing always before the
wind, till the 13th May, when we came within eight degrees of the line,
where we met a contrary wind. We