CHAPTER XI
THE AFRICAN VOYAGES
In the days of Queen Elizabeth, when Michael Locke and Martin Frobisher were contemplating the revival of the search for the North-West Passage, a certain James Alday wrote to the former, asking to be employed in the project.[262] As a recommendation he put forward the claim to have ‘invented’ the trade to the coast of Barbary in the reign of Edward VI. Sir John Lutterell and other merchants, he said, appointed him to command the first expedition to that land in the year 1551. But a great epidemic of the sweating sickness broke out; most of the promoters of the voyage died, and Alday himself was struck down. The ship, called the _Lion_ of London, a vessel of 150 tons, was then at Portsmouth. Thomas Wyndham assumed the command and, leaving Alday behind, took her out to the Atlantic coast of Morocco to a port named Santa Cruz. There he traded, presumably with success, and returned, bringing with him two Moors of noble blood to England. Such is all that is now known of the opening voyage of the African trade, which assumed great importance in the decade which followed.
Thomas Wyndham was the son of a Norfolk knight who had served at sea against the French, and who became a councillor and vice-admiral under Henry VIII. He himself also served in the navy, taking part in the fighting against the French and Scots in 1544–5, and filling spare moments with piracy as did William Hawkins and others of Henry’s officers. In 1547 he was vice-admiral in the fleet which accompanied Somerset’s army up the east coast to the Battle of Pinkie. His next exploit was the Barbary voyage above described. By all accounts he was a fierce, masterful man, making more enemies than friends among his equals, but always able to command the loyalty of his crews; just the type of character of which the service and personality of King Henry bred such numerous examples, and whose traditions were handed on to the golden age of Elizabeth’s sea captains.
A second voyage to the Barbary coast was set forth in 1552, on a larger scale, and its history was written by Hakluyt[263] from the relation of James Thomas, Wyndham’s page on the expedition. Three vessels, the _Lion_, 150 tons, the _Botolph_, 80 tons, and a Portuguese caravel of 60 tons purchased at Newport in Wales, the whole fleet manned by 120 persons, sailed from Bristol at the beginning of May 1552 with Wyndham in chief command. Sir John Yorke, Sir William Gerard, Sir Thomas Wroth, Francis Lambert, and other London merchants, were the promoters or ‘adventurers’, as the investors were then called. After a prosperous passage, which occupied only a fortnight, the fleet arrived at Zafia on the coast of Barbary, in 32° latitude. Some goods were there set on shore to be conveyed to the city of Morocco, and they then proceeded to Santa Cruz, where the _Lion_ had been in the previous year. A French ship was already in the port on their arrival, and hastened to take refuge under the walls of the town, a precaution which was not unjustifiable in view of the reputation for piracy which the English had by this time established at sea. The townspeople, mistaking their intentions, at first fired on them, but on recognizing them as having been there before, received them amicably. Three months were spent at this place before cargoes were completed, consisting of sugar, dates, almonds, and molasses.
On the return voyage the ships stood well out into the ocean in order to get a west wind for England. The _Lion_ sprang a leak, and it was decided to make for Lancerota in the Canary Islands to effect repairs. Part of the _Lion’s_ cargo was unloaded on the island, some of the men being set to guard it. The inhabitants took note of these proceedings and, seeing that the caravel was not of English build and supposing that she had been unlawfully acquired, made a sudden attack on the shore party. Some of the latter were captured and seventy chests of sugar were carried off. Seeing this, Wyndham sent three boats full of men to the rescue and put the Spaniards to flight, killing many and making prisoner the governor of the island, an old gentleman of seventy. After this, both sides having suffered losses, a parley ensued and a mutual restoration of prisoners was agreed upon. In addition, the Spaniards gave an acknowledgement of the damage inflicted which, it was decided, was to be recovered from the Spanish merchants residing in London.
The leak being mended the voyage was resumed. As the English were leaving the roadstead a Portuguese armed fleet sailed in, but did not give chase. The Portuguese had already taken great offence at the English trading on the African coast, and threatened to treat as belligerents any Englishmen found there. When it came to fighting, however, they were generally very faint-hearted, and they never succeeded in capturing an English ship.
After seven or eight weeks’ sailing Wyndham and his fleet reached Plymouth, and thence proceeded to London, arriving at the end of October 1552.
The experience gained in these voyages emboldened those interested to attempt a much more distant adventure, having for its object the acquisition of cargoes more valuable than dates and sugar. There was in London at that time a Portuguese refugee named Antonio Anes Pinteado. He is described as a skilled pilot and captain, who had formerly served on the coasts of Brazil and Guinea, and who was therefore well acquainted with the intricacies of the navigation in the latter region. The cause of his quarrel with his own country is not known, but he was so much in dread of his compatriots that he would not venture unaccompanied into their society even in London; neither was he to be deceived by the fair promises made him by the Portuguese Government, which doubtless was eager to stop the mouth of one who knew so much. This man placed his services at the disposal of the African adventurers, and was engaged by them to guide an expedition to the coasts of Guinea and Benin, where gold, ivory, and other rare commodities were obtainable. With him went Thomas Wyndham, who assumed the chief command. It does not plainly appear whether Pinteado was intended to have any share of the control of the expedition beyond what his duty as pilot entitled him to; if such was the intention of the promoters it was soon overruled by Wyndham, who kept the Portuguese in a strictly subordinate position.
The sole existing account of the voyage is not very satisfactory. It was written by Richard Eden and published by him in his _Decades of the New World_ in 1555.[264] It is marred by the deep prejudice against Wyndham and a corresponding bias in favour of Pinteado displayed by the writer. Eden, although he did his contemporaries good service by arousing their interest in travel and geography, was one of those unhappy people who can discover nothing good in their own country and have nothing but censure for the acts of their own countrymen. His temperament can best be illustrated by a quotation of his own words. In the preface to the work above mentioned, after a general eulogy of the Spaniards and King Philip and a severe condemnation of those Englishmen who resented that monarch’s intrusion into the affairs of England, he proceeds: ‘Stoop, England, stoop, and learn to know thy lord and master, as horses and other brute beasts are taught to do. Be not indocible like tigers and dragons, and such other monsters noyous to mankind.... But oh, unthankfull England and void of honest shame! Who hath given the face of a whore and the tongue of a serpent without shame to speak venomous words in secret against the anointed of God ...’, with a great deal more to the same effect. To such a man Wyndham, asserting his authority, was an insane tyrant, ‘a terrible Hydra, with virtues few or none adorned’; while Pinteado, a renegade and traitor to his own country, selling that country’s most cherished secrets to its rivals, was ‘a wise, discreet and sober man, ... a man worthy to serve any prince, and most vilely used’. A realization of Eden’s infirmity is necessary to a just appreciation of his account of the voyage.
On August 12, 1553, not quite a month after Mary’s accession, the little squadron consisting of two ships and a pinnace set sail from Portsmouth. The ships were the _Lion_, which had made the two Barbary voyages, and of which Wyndham was part owner, and the _Primrose_, the pinnace being named the _Moon_. The two last-mentioned belonged to the navy and were lent for the expedition.[265] The three vessels were manned by 140 men, including several of the merchants who had ‘adventured’ the voyage. Most of them were destined never to return. They touched first at Madeira, where wines were bought and duly paid for. Here they encountered a great Portuguese galleon, full of men and guns, expressly sent to prohibit their voyage; but, on a closer view, she refrained from interfering with them, and they proceeded unmolested. At this point the disagreements between Wyndham and Pinteado began. Eden implies that hitherto they had had equal authority, the fleet ‘having two captains’, an improbable arrangement. However that may have been, Wyndham was henceforth supreme, and was evidently backed by the officers and crews, while the merchants, if we are to believe Eden, sided with Pinteado. Voyaging in leisurely fashion so as not to arrive on the coast before the end of the hot season, and touching at various islands on the way, they at length reached the River of Sestos in the westernmost part of Guinea, known as the Grain Coast (the modern Liberia). They did not tarry to load the ‘grains’ of the district, although cargoes of them were frequently brought to Europe by the Portuguese;[266] but, ‘by the persuasion or rather inforcement of this tragical captain’, they pushed on to the Gold Coast, and there traded on either side of the Castle of Mina, the head-quarters of the Portuguese.
The position of the latter on the Guinea coast at this time somewhat resembled that of the English and French on the coast of Coromandel at the opening of Clive’s career, with the exception, of course, that the Portuguese officials were the servants of the Government and not of a trading company. There was no effective occupation of the hinterland or even of the entire coast, but at various places along the latter were Portuguese forts and trading stations, of which Mina, not far from the modern Cape Coast Castle, was the chief. Other places on the coast were ruled over by native chiefs in a state of vassallage to the Portuguese, whose hold over them was not sufficiently rigorous to prevent them from trading with the English and French. Thus there was no colony in the sense in which the word was applied to the Spanish settlements in America, but merely a chain of commercial ‘factories’. Liberty of trade among the Portuguese themselves was restricted to those who had the royal licence for that purpose, a fact which redoubled their annoyance at the invasion of their preserves by others.
Wyndham did not touch at Mina itself, but exchanged his wares with the native chiefs, obtaining in all about 150 lb. weight of gold, a sum which in itself would have cleared all the expenses of the expedition and have paid a handsome profit besides. Eden asserts that it was Wyndham’s unbalanced brain which then caused him to leave this lucrative trade and push on to Benin to seek pepper. But, judging from the accounts of later voyages, it is probable that no more gold was then forthcoming, or that the demand for English goods had slackened. Only one other expedition of which we have particulars secured more than 150 lb. of gold, the supply being limited; and the natives were always very grasping and prone to take offence. The record of Wyndham’s career certainly gives no ground for the supposition that he would forsake the certainty of gold for the possibility of pepper.
The decision to make for Benin was the prelude to a series of disasters. Pinteado opposed it owing to the lateness of the season, and a violent scene was the result. ‘Wyndham ... fell into a sudden rage, reviling the said Pinteado, calling him Jew, with other opprobrious words, saying: This whoreson Jew hath promised to bring us to such places as are not, or as he cannot bring us unto: but if he do not, I will cut off his ears and nail them to the mast.’ Pinteado submitted, and piloted the fleet to the river of Benin,[267] up which he himself with Nicholas Lambert and other merchants proceeded for some sixty leagues in the pinnace. Having completed this distance, they left the pinnace and travelled thirty miles inland to the town of a native king, by whom they were civilly received. The king could speak Portuguese, and promised to buy all their merchandise in exchange for pepper. In the course of a month eighty tons of pepper were collected, and the merchants were assured that more would be obtained until the fleet should be fully laden.
In the meantime the inaction and the climate were producing dire effects on the crews left at the mouth of the river. The men ate without moderation of the tropical fruits, and drank the liquor exuding from the trunks of palm trees, ‘and in such extreme heat running continually into the water, ... than which nothing is more dangerous, were thereby brought into swellings and agues’, so that they sickened and died at a terrible rate, sometimes four or five in a day. This could not go on for long without entailing utter extermination to an expedition which numbered only 140 men to begin with. Therefore, a month having elapsed, Wyndham sent word to Pinteado and the others to return immediately, contenting themselves with such cargo as the pinnace could bring down. But they failed to comply, and wrote instead, telling of the quantity of pepper which they hoped to secure. Wyndham replied with a peremptory order to come back at once, under threat of being left behind; then, in desperation at their callous disregard of the sufferings of the crews, he lost control of himself and ‘all raging, brake up Pinteado’s cabin, brake open his chests, spoiled such provision of cold stilled waters and suckets as he had provided for his health, and left him nothing, neither of his instruments to sail by, nor yet of his apparel; and in the meantime falling sick, himself died also.’
On receipt of the second summons Pinteado had started for the coast to expostulate, the other merchants still remaining up the river. Before his arrival Wyndham was dead. The surviving officers and men were thoroughly exasperated, and gave him a very bad time with copious abuse and threats of violence. In vain he asked to be allowed to fetch his companions from the interior. They would stay for nothing, and refused even to let him remain behind with the ship’s boat and an old sail, with which he promised to bring Lambert and the others back to England. Eden’s account is very confused, and there is no mention of the pinnace having come down the river again, the messages having evidently been conveyed by smaller boats, possibly by natives. If the merchants still had the pinnace their case would not be altogether desperate. There is no information as to their ultimate fate.
Before commencing the homeward voyage one of the ships was abandoned and sunk for lack of men.[268] A week afterwards Pinteado, who had been degraded to a menial position, fell sick and died ‘from very pensiveness and thought, that struck him to the heart’; and when the remaining vessel at length reached Plymouth scarcely forty men were left of all those who had set forth.
The lessons enforced by the disasters of this voyage were taken well to heart by subsequent adventurers. The succeeding expeditions confined themselves to the Guinea coasts, and left Benin severely alone. They were also careful not to remain on the coast after the beginning of the season of extreme heat, and, as they probably took greater personal precautions against disease, we hear of very little mortality thenceforward. The importance of the information supplied by Pinteado cannot be overestimated. The arrival without a hitch on the Grain Coast, the successful trading in the neighbourhood of Mina, the finding of the native town 150 miles up the Benin river which none of the English had ever seen before, all point to the fact that the expedition was availing itself of the experience that the Portuguese had taken a century to gather. It is no wonder that Pinteado, lending himself to such a purpose, went in fear of his life, as his admirer tells us, from his own countrymen. No provocation can justify a man in betraying his country’s interests, and we cannot feel much commiseration for his melancholy end; he was a traitor receiving a traitor’s wages. Eden’s denunciations of Wyndham’s character as a commander are largely discounted by the fact that he was in command at all. He was a tried man, and his record was known; no company of merchants would have entrusted him with their lives and goods if he had been the irresponsible maniac whom Eden depicts. No doubt he was jealous of his authority, and rightly so, for a hazardous adventure cannot be conducted on republican lines. In the days when success at sea depended primarily on the captain’s personal powers of discipline, harshness was often the only justifiable course, as Drake and many another were to prove.
Terrible as had been the personal sufferings in Wyndham’s last voyage, the commercial possibilities of the Guinea coast had been proved to be most encouraging. A strong syndicate was therefore formed to send out another expedition in 1554, including among others the names of Sir George Barnes, Sir John Yorke, Thomas Locke, Anthony Hickman, and Edward Castlyn. Five vessels were prepared—the _Trinity_, 140 tons, the _John Evangelist_, 140, the _Bartholomew_, 90, and two pinnaces, one of which foundered before getting clear of the English coast—the whole being placed under the command of John Locke. Locke was a merchant rather than a sailor, and the arrangement was thus analogous to that which obtained then and long afterwards in the navy, when the captain of a ship was commonly a soldier, the master being responsible for the handling of the vessel. This was the same John Locke who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the previous year, of which Hakluyt prints a very entertaining account. Eden again supplies the story of this voyage and, having no quarrel with any individual concerned, gives a much more intelligible description of what occurred.[269]
The squadron sailed from the Thames on October 11, 1554, was detained for a fortnight at Dover by adverse winds, and again for three or four days at Rye. After touching once more at Dartmouth the English coast was finally lost sight of on the night of November 1. Thence a fair passage was made to Guinea, the first point of which, Cape Mensurado, was sighted on December 21. Next day they entered the River of Sestos, the principal haven on the Grain Coast, and remained there for a week, trading for grains. Five more days were spent at the mouth of another stream, the Rio Dulce, 75 miles to the south-eastward, and altogether 630 butts of grains were obtained. On January 3, 1555, the expedition made sail along the coast to the eastward, passing Cape Palmas which marks the division between the Grain Coast and the Ivory Coast. Apparently no stay was made at the latter on the outward passage, for by the 11th they had reached Cape Tres Puntas, which similarly divides the Ivory Coast from the Gold Coast. Fifteen miles to the west of Cape Tres Puntas there was a Portuguese fort named Arra. Their head-quarters, the Castle of El Mina, lay about 90 miles to the eastward of the same cape, and well in the middle of the Gold Coast.
Very successful trading was done at the native settlements on either side of El Mina, and altogether 400 lb. of gold was secured—the greatest haul recorded by any single expedition. In particular, they were well received at a town called Cape Corea (probably Cape Corso, the present Cape Coast Castle), where a native chief named Don John maintained his independence against the Portuguese. At another place, called Samma, however, the negroes were in possession of two or three cannon, with which they fired at the English after taking a hostage. The hostage was detained, and the ships had to go on without him. During this time the _Trinity_ had proceeded still further east to the limits of the Gold Coast, and, the others having overtaken her, the homeward voyage was begun from Perecow Grande, otherwise called Egrand, the easternmost port of all. Although it is not specifically mentioned, considerable trading must have been done on the Ivory Coast while the ships were slowly beating westwards against wind and current; for Eden relates that there were 250 tusks among the cargo brought home, and there was no time for these to have been obtained on the outward passage. Also, at some town not named, Robert Gainsh, master of the _John Evangelist_, kidnapped five natives, who were brought home as slaves.[270] This had an unfavourable effect on the attitude of the natives towards succeeding expeditions.
Up to this point Eden follows closely the log of the pilot who gave him the account of the voyage, but here he diverges into a dissertation on elephants, and gives only very meagre details of the homeward passage. Although the latter was begun in the middle of February, it was April 22 before the latitude of 9° was reached, but this was a common experience. Wind and current made it extremely difficult for ships rigged in the fashion of the time to get away from the Guinea coast, and even when that had been accomplished, the course had to be laid well out into the ocean, and contrary winds were met with until the Azores were passed. The expedition arrived in England at some time in July or August 1555. Eden does not give the date, but says the passage took twenty weeks and that twenty-four men died on the way home. Financially, it must have been a dazzling success; the value of the grains and ivory is difficult to estimate, but the gold alone was easily worth £20,000 in the currency of the time, and none of the large ships had been lost.
When these transactions became known in Portugal intense indignation was aroused; already, before the return of John Locke, a protest had been lodged, and on July 18, 1555, the Privy Council sent instructions to the authorities of London and Bristol to stop all voyages to Guinea until further orders.[271] This did not mean that the Portuguese view was already accepted, but simply that no decision on the matter had yet been arrived at. The chief factors in the situation were these: King Philip, still remaining in England since his marriage in the previous year, was a supporter of the Portuguese monopoly, based as it was on the papal bull which divided all extra-European lands between Spain and Portugal; it was clear to him that if English merchants carried their point in this affair, a challenge of his own monopoly in the west was certain, sooner or later, to arise. The Council, next in importance so far as effective influence went, were naturally desirous of encouraging the efforts of their fellow countrymen, but at the same time stood in considerable awe of Philip and would not go to the length of defying his clearly expressed commands. Finally, the queen, priest-ridden, harassed, and miserable, but yet at bottom a patriot, was torn between reverence to the decree of Rodrigo Borgia and a consciousness that, in obeying that decree, she was betraying the nation whose crown she wore. While the decision was still in suspense Philip sailed, early in September, for the Netherlands, whence he still continued to exercise his authority over the affairs of England. The Portuguese ambassador, Lopez de Sousa, continued to urge his suit, and the queen committed the negotiations to the Council, which had arrived at no conclusion as late as October 21.[272] A week later they transmitted a copy of his allegations to Philip, together with their own opinion thereupon.[273]
The Portuguese statement was to the following effect:[274] News had been received that in January of this same year, 1555, three large English merchant ships (evidently John Locke’s squadron) had visited the coasts of Guinea, which were either in the possession of the King of Portugal or under his protection, and had forcibly exchanged their merchandise with the natives for huge quantities of gold and ivory, of which commodities they had wellnigh stripped the whole country; in which process they had stirred up the resentment of the natives against the Portuguese. This trade was only permitted under restrictions to the King of Portugal’s own subjects, those who infringed the regulations being severely punished. The ambassador was therefore to demand the punishment of the Englishmen concerned, the handing over of any Portuguese who should have assisted them, the restitution of the treasure, and a proclamation forbidding such enterprises in future under the severest penalties.
[Illustration:
MAP OF GUINEA AND BENIN, 1558. From Add. MS. 5415. A. 7. ]
Such was the position, based on the world-dividing bull of Alexander VI, taken up by the two nations of the Peninsula, and now for the first time flaunted in all its arrogance in the face of an English Government. The Government, already discredited in the eyes of the country, and entangled in the net of the Counter-Reformation, lacked the insight and the courage to take up the challenge. For many a year to come it was to be left to private men, with the fear of the gallows before them, to assert the right of Englishmen to sail all seas and do business in all lands, the prohibitions of popes and emperors notwithstanding. The reply of the merchants opens with words which might serve as the title-deed of a commercial empire.
‘First we say we be merchants who, by common usage of the world, do use traffique in all places of the world, as well Asia and Africa and Europa, and have never been restrained from resort to any places.... And following this our accustomed usage we have of late resorted to sundry places both towards the south and north parts of the world, in both which we find the governors and the people of the places well willing to receive us friendly and gently. Amongst other places, our factors did about two years past resort to sundry places where we found several princes or governors, and with them traffiqued, exchanging merchandises for merchandises, and from them returned quietly, thinking that without any offence we might use there (where we found no resistance) the same liberty that we use and do find in all other places of the world.’
After their return, they continued, they prepared to set forth another expedition to the same place, but were stayed by the Council and commanded not to enter any dominion of the King of Portugal or any other prince without his permission; which command their factors punctually obeyed, not landing in any place where the said king had a town, fortress, or officers or other persons that forbade them. Their factors did not land in any force, but awaited in their ships the resort of the people to them, and even then did not trade with them until the people assured them that they were no subjects of the King of Portugal. The inhabitants offered them ground to build upon if they wished to land and fortify the country, and the assistance of slaves in the work without any charge.[275] Their factors were also with a king of those parts, ‘a prince of power’, whom they call the King of Bynne, in whose country they traded after obtaining his licence; and they left behind them there three English merchants to further view the country, bringing with them also certain men of that country to England, and promising to return in a short time.[276] Accordingly, they made preparations for another voyage at the beginning of this last summer, but were again stayed by command of the king and queen, the King of Portugal saying that his subjects were wronged by these navigations, and promising to show proofs in six weeks or two months at latest. They obeyed this second command, and in the meantime had heard that three ships had sailed from France to those countries, and that two others were preparing to sail. Upon which they continued their preparations, and, if the voyage were now stayed, they would be ruined. They concluded by begging to be allowed to continue the voyage, and offered to bind themselves not to visit or do violence to any of the possessions or merchants of the Portuguese, nor to trade with any country without its ruler’s consent.[277]
The Council, as has been said, forwarded to King Philip a copy of the ambassador’s statement, and put before him at the same time their own advice as to the course to be pursued, namely, that the merchants were within their rights in making these voyages, and ought not to be debarred from the same, especially as they were also being made by the French. Their opinion was, then, that the merchants should be allowed to proceed at their own risk, after giving the sureties which they themselves had offered for their good behaviour.
The intercession of the Council, and also that of the queen, was unavailing: Philip, seeing the great principle involved, was obdurate, and commanded that the voyage should be stayed. In a later communication (December 17, 1555),[278] he expressed a wish to have the merchants compensated, but took no active steps to secure that end. A memorandum of the Council’s affairs, however, suggests that the queen herself paid them the costs of the goods which they had provided for the trade.[279] On December 30 Edward Castlyn, Jeffrey Allen, Rowland Fox, and Richard Stockbridge were summoned before the Council to hear its reluctant decision. By the queen’s command they and all other merchants concerned were to bring their ships to such places as were convenient, and there to discharge all the wares they had provided for the Guinea trade, such as were not vendible in any other place; receipts should be given and compensation paid. As to their other expenses, the matter of compensation should be considered.[280]
The queen at the same time wrote a letter to the King of Portugal acquainting him with the above decision.[281] The Venetian envoy, in a dispatch to his Government, states that the queen interceded with the ambassador of Portugal to consent to the Guinea voyage being made ‘this once only’, but that he would not agree. He adds that two or three ships had nevertheless gone secretly.[282]
The official prohibition of the Guinea trade was more ostensible than real. The Council had no intention of stopping it—possibly some of its members were financially interested—and was not prepared to go further than a purely paper submission to the demands of Philip and the Portuguese. Even the steps taken to prevent the individual voyage of Castlyn and his associates were not effectual; for although metal basins and sham jewellery formed part of the cargoes taken to Guinea, there was also generally a considerable quantity of cloth, which would not come under the description of goods not vendible elsewhere, and which would therefore not be surrendered. Such being the attitude of the Council, that of the customers and port authorities throughout the country may well be imagined. When large armed vessels were being manned and provisioned for long voyages and laden with goods which would find a market in no European port, they shut their eyes, or looked another way. And so, besides the three remaining Guinea expeditions of Mary’s reign of which Hakluyt has preserved the particulars, there are traces of several others, doubtless quite as successful, which King Philip, with all his influence over the queen, was quite unable to prevent.
While the official decision had been still under consideration, and while the ships of the syndicate already mentioned had been under a provisional arrest pending a final prohibition, another expedition had slipped off to Guinea on September 30, 1555, sailing from Newport in the Isle of Wight. It was under the command of William Towerson, a merchant of London, and was probably unconnected with the venture of Castlyn and his friends, of whom no mention is made. Towerson, who is himself the narrator of the voyage,[283] refers to the presence of other merchants in the ships, but it is very likely that he himself was the principal adventurer. This time there were only two ships, the _Hart_, of 60 tons, commanded by John Ralph, who had sailed with Locke in the previous year, and the _Hind_, commanded by William Carter, and probably not much larger, since Towerson himself sailed in the _Hart_. After finally clearing from Dartmouth on October 20 they made a fair run down to the Canary Islands, which were sighted on November 6. Thence standing in to the main land they fished in 14 fathoms and caught a quantity of sea bream. A day or two later they saw six Portuguese caravels fishing in the neighbourhood of the Rio del Oro in the present Spanish territory to the south of Morocco, and overhauling one of them they took various stores out of her which they liberally paid for.
On December 12 they sighted the Guinea coast, and on the 15th entered the River St. Vincent, eight leagues to the eastward of the River of Sestos. They found it impossible to beat back to the latter river on account of the winds and currents which set always to the eastward. In the River St. Vincent they obtained a small quantity of grains and ivory, but found the inhabitants very greedy and no profitable trading to be done. After coming very nearly to blows they departed and sailed on towards the Ivory Coast, doubling Cape Palmas on the 23rd. During the ensuing week they bought ivory in a river lying about 40 miles to the east of the cape, and on January 3, 1556, they sighted Cape Tres Puntas, the westernmost boundary of the Gold Coast. Arriving at the town of Samma, where last year a man had been kidnapped and the ships fired upon, they went in cautiously and were able to do little trading at first, but afterwards obtained a fair quantity of gold there. They next proceeded to Don John’s town, beyond the Mina, and after some bartering the sons of that chief attempted to betray them to the Portuguese. Some of the _Hart’s_ men narrowly escaped an ambush, whereupon cannon were mounted in the ships’ boats, which sailed in close to the shore and engaged in an artillery duel with the Portuguese upon a hill. The English suffered no damage. At another place they found the negroes distrustful because some of them had been carried off by the master of the _John Evangelist_ in the previous voyage.
From January 14 to February 4, however, they did excellent business on the more easterly portion of the coast, taking several pounds of gold daily. On the latter date, having taken stock of the provisions, and finding them running low, and finding also that the beer, without which no sailor at that time considered himself properly fed, was turning sour, they decided to begin the return voyage. One entry in Towerson’s log is significant as pointing to the existence of other clandestine expeditions at this time: ‘The fifth day we continued sailing and thought to have met with some English ships, but found none.’ He had evidently received information of their presence on the coast.
Towerson made a better homeward passage than did his predecessors. By February 13 he was clear of Cape Palmas, having passed the whole of the Gold and Ivory Coasts in nine days. He had found by experience, he says, that from two hours after midnight until eight in the morning the wind blew off the shore from the north-north-east, although all the rest of the time it was at south-west. On March 22 he had reached the latitude of Cape Verde, and a month later that of the Azores. On May 14, 1556, both his vessels dropped anchor at Bristol after a most prosperous voyage. Apparently not one man died in either crew. He does not give the total amount of the treasure secured, but a reckoning up of the various daily takings mentioned shows a total of about fifty tusks and 130 lb. of gold. Considering the small size of the two ships employed, and consequently of the general working expenses, this must have yielded an excellent return on the outlay.
The successful return of the _Hart_ and the _Hind_ was the signal for renewed preparations for further Guinea adventures, and for a fresh outburst of activity on the part of the Council, ostensibly intended to frustrate the same. On July 7, 1556, orders were sent to all customers, &c., not to permit any one to ship goods for ‘Mina, Guynye, Bynney or any other place thereabouts within the King of Portingales dominions’; and on the 28th the command was repeated with instructions for warning to be given to all merchants. Again on August 8 the Council addressed a letter to Anthony Hussey, Governor of the Merchant Adventurers in the Low Countries, to the effect that they had heard that Miles Mordeyne, a London merchant, had prepared a cargo in Flanders to be sent to Bristol and thence to Guinea. Hussey was to make search for the wares and sequester them until further orders, sending particulars as to their condition and value. On the same date they also sent word to the Mayor and Customers of Bristol to arrest and unload two ships which certain merchants contemplated setting forth for Guinea. The cargoes had been secretly conveyed to the Welsh coast to be loaded. Miles Mordeyne, who was apparently at Bristol, was to be sent before the Council. On September 22 Giles White and Thomas Chester were held to bail in £500 as a guarantee of their appearance when called upon in the matter of sending two ships from Bristol to Guinea.[284]
These measures give the impression that the Council was actually in earnest; but the fact remains that, in spite of them, Towerson and others were able to sail once more for Guinea in this same autumn. If there had been any genuine desire to put a stop to these enterprises nothing would have been easier than to imprison the adventurers on their return and to confiscate their spoils. The fact that this was never done leads to the conclusion that the Council was merely making a show of zeal to deprecate Philip’s anger.
Towerson, on his second expedition,[285] had to use more precaution than formerly in order to get safely away. The _Tiger_, of 120 tons, his principal ship, was equipped at Harwich, and sailed from thence to Scilly on September 14, 1556. At Scilly he was to meet the _Hart_ and a pinnace of 16 tons which had been prepared at Bristol. These may have been the two vessels which the Council professed itself so anxious to arrest. The _Hart_ and the pinnace failed to appear at the rendezvous, at which the _Tiger_ arrived on the 28th. After waiting for some time Towerson in the _Tiger_ put back to Plymouth, being joined there by his consorts shortly before the middle of November, and on the 15th of that month the whole squadron set sail for Africa nearly two months after the intended time of departure. The nature of the intrigue which finally set them at liberty can only be imagined, as no clue has survived, but it is difficult to suppose that they departed otherwise than with the knowledge and connivance of the Council.
As was usual, a fairly quick outward passage was made, the Guinea coast being sighted on December 30. The inaccuracy of the prevailing methods of calculating longitude is illustrated by the fact that the River of Sestos, the intended landfall, was overshot by some 150 miles. Shortly after reaching the coast the sails of three ships and two pinnaces were seen to windward. The English prepared for action, manœuvred to recover the wind, and then gave chase. The strangers likewise cleared for action and, when ready, offered battle ‘very finely appointed with their streamers and pendants and ensigns, and the noise of trumpets very bravely’. When within hailing distance, however, it was discovered that the opposing fleet was manned, not by Portuguese, but by Frenchmen, bound upon the same errand as the English; and, instead of fighting, an alliance was struck up, both sides agreeing to trade without cutting prices and to support each other against the Portuguese. The French ships were from Havre, Rouen, and Honfleur, under the chief command of Denis Blondel. He informed Towerson that they had been six weeks upon the Grain Coast with very little result, apparently fearing to push on to the Gold Coast on account of reports of a Portuguese armed fleet at Mina. They had fallen upon a single Portuguese vessel of 200 tons in the River of Sestos, and had burned her, only three or four of the crew being saved. Blondel seemed extremely glad of the presence of the English, and offered to share his victuals with them and act under their orders in all things.
For the first fortnight of January 1557 they all proceeded slowly along the Ivory Coast, arriving at Cape Tres Puntas on the 14th. A small quantity of ivory was picked up on the way, but for the most part the negroes were shy of trading. At one point they attempted elephant hunting on their own account, without success. Their methods certainly read as if they were designed rather for the assault of a city than of an elephant: thirty men were landed, ‘all well armed with harquebusses, pikes, long-bows, cross-bows, partizans, long swords, and swords and bucklers: we found two elephants, which we stroke divers times with harquebusses and long-bows, but they went away from us and hurt one of our men’.
At a native town where they were well received the negroes told them that they had witnessed a fight of two ships against one a month before; and further on they received definite intelligence of the presence of another English ship on the coast, which had brought back one of the negroes kidnapped by Robert Gainsh two years previously. The Frenchmen also asserted that they knew of five other French vessels making the same voyage.
The combined squadrons were now past Cape Tres Puntas and doing daily business with the inhabitants of the Gold Coast, who seem at this time to have been in a state of hostility towards the Portuguese. On January 25, while they were anchored off Samma with most of the ships’ boats and merchants ashore, five Portuguese ships suddenly appeared. Guns were fired, the crews hastily embarked, and anchors were weighed; but by this time night had fallen and nothing could be done but prepare for action on the following day. In the morning it was seen that the Portuguese had anchored near the shore; the English and French did likewise, ‘within demiculverin shot of them’. It was not for them, in their rôle of peaceful traders, to commence hostilities, but the challenge was sufficiently obvious. Night again came on without further developments taking place.
Next day both sides made sail, but the allies gained the wind of the Portuguese and gradually bored them in towards the shore until they were forced to tack and make for them. The allies tacked also and stood out to sea ahead of the enemy; then, when they had sufficient room to fight, they took in their topsails and waited. The Portuguese came up one by one, the first being a small bark well armed and very fast, which exchanged broadsides and then passed on ahead. Next came a caravel, which did some damage to the French admiral’s ship. After her came the Portuguese admiral in a large ship, whose fire was ineffective owing to the guns being carried too high, followed by two caravels more. Towerson says that the _Tiger_ ‘was so weak in the side, that she laid all her ordinance in the sea’, which seems to mean that the wind laid her over so much that sufficient elevation could not be given to the guns. The Portuguese, being to leeward, were just as badly off, since they could only fire over their enemies’ heads. Accordingly the _Tiger_ and the _Espoir_, Denis Blondel’s ship, made an attempt to board the Portuguese admiral. The _Espoir_ missed her and fell astern, missing also the two caravels which followed. The other two Frenchmen stood aloof, and the _Hart_ was far behind. Nevertheless, the Portuguese made no offer to stop and fight Towerson, but stood on out to sea. He chased them for two hours, and they then turned shorewards again, hoping to catch the French admiral, who for some unexplained reason was close to the land. He was caught under the lee of the whole Portuguese squadron, received all their broadsides, and would have been boarded but that the _Tiger_ stood in to his assistance. The _Hart_ and the other two French ships meanwhile looked on and did nothing. The French admiral was still full of fight and, with the _Tiger_, regained the wind of the enemy and chased them till nightfall.
Next day the whole fleet reunited, with the exception of one Frenchman who had fled. The master of the _Hart_ excused himself, saying that his ship ‘would neither rear nor steer’. The French admiral had half his crew sick or dead, and the other Frenchmen said they could do no more fighting. The English pinnace had to be burnt owing to her bad state of repair. However, the Portuguese had likewise had enough of it, and troubled them no more.
Trade was now resumed, and the allies sailed slowly down to the eastern part of the Gold Coast, where the natives were more amenable and the greater part of the profits of the voyage were obtained. Business went on throughout the month of February, entirely undisturbed by the Portuguese. The English kept to the leeward or eastward of the French, doubtless skimming the cream off the trade; and when one of the Frenchmen attempted to push on ahead of them he was fired on and reduced to obedience. After this incident Towerson makes no further mention of the French, and it is evident that the allies parted company here or soon afterwards. At the end of February a native chief called King Abaan sent friendly messages, inviting them to make a settlement and build a fort. His town was said to be as large in circuit as London, and with 1,000 ricks of corn outside the walls. After doing business at this place they began to retrace their course along the coast, passing a fort where they saw the five Portuguese ships at anchor. Next day they were surprised at anchor by a new fleet just out from Portugal, consisting of a ship of 500 tons, another of 200, and a pinnace; but they were able to escape without fighting. The _Hart_ was badly handled, and her captain was reproved by Towerson.
The new arrivals brought the enemy up to a strength of seven fighting ships against the English two, and it was folly to expect that any more undisturbed trading could be done. Towerson therefore sailed for England on March 4. On the 18th the _Hart_ parted company, intentionally as was thought, her master having taken offence at his reproof. The _Tiger’s_ perils were not yet past; on April 23, when nearing English waters, they were set upon by a Frenchman of 90 tons, who, judging them weak from a long voyage, laid them aboard and commanded them to strike sail. ‘Whereupon’, to quote Towerson’s words, ‘we sent them some of our stuff, crossbars and chain shot and arrows, so thick that it made the upper work of their ship to fly about their ears, and we spoiled him with all his men, and tore his ship miserably with our great ordinance, and then he began to fall astern of us, and to pack on his sails and get away: and we, seeing that, gave him four or five good pieces more for his farewell; and thus we were rid of this Frenchman who did us no harm at all.’ On April 29, 1557, having failed to double the Land’s End for Bristol, they arrived instead at Plymouth after an exceptionally quick passage. The daily takings of gold on the coast for this voyage amounted to 76 lb., but the figures for some of the trading are not given, so the total must have been actually greater.
There is no record of any official notice being taken of Towerson’s return, nor of further proclamations being issued against African voyages. The Government was preoccupied with other things; a war was beginning with France (formal declaration, June 7), and Philip’s influence and pretensions were becoming more and more unpopular in the country. It was therefore not a fitting time to punish Englishmen for distant trading adventures. The difficulty in obtaining large ships, caused by the war, may have been the reason that Towerson did not begin his third voyage until January 30, 1558[286], instead of setting out in the autumn as was usual. In the winter most of the vessels of the fleet were put out of commission, a piece of economy which resulted in the loss of Calais; and Towerson sailed for Guinea with the _Minion_, the _Christopher_, the _Tiger_, and the _Unicorn_, a pinnace. The Count of Feria, Philip’s representative in England, wrote to his master that two of the above were queen’s ships and among the best she had, and that they sailed with the knowledge and approval of William Howard, the Lord Admiral. He added that the adventurers gave out that they were going to Barbary, and distributed 3,000 ducats in bribes, being in reality bound for Guinea.[287]
The day after leaving England they fell in with two Danzig ships coming from Bordeaux with wines. They examined them strictly on suspicion of carrying French-owned cargo, and, in spite of denials, convicted them. But considering the lateness of the season they did not think well to take them back as prizes to an English port, and, having despoiled them of such goods as they needed, including eight guns, they let them go. On February 12 they entered the roadstead of Grand Canary to repair the pinnace, which had broken her rudder. While they were there a Spanish fleet of nineteen sail, bound for the Indies, came in. Compliments were exchanged, but afterwards a misunderstanding arose owing to the English refusing to strike their flag. The Spaniards fired upon them, but the Admiral apologized, declaring that it had been done without his orders.
On March 10 they arrived at Rio das Palmas on the Grain Coast. Going on from thence to the River of Sestos they heard news of six French ships on the coast, and decided at once to make for the Mina region lest the French should spoil their trade. Picking up some ivory on the way, they reached Hanta on the Gold Coast on March 31. Next day five Portuguese ships were sighted, but no action took place till after dark, each side cautiously manœuvring to get to windward of the other. In the night Towerson in the _Minion_, having got the wind of the Portuguese admiral, fought with him for about two hours, shooting him several times through the hull, while the Portuguese were only able to fire into the _Minion’s_ rigging. After this the Portuguese sheered off and attacked the _Christopher_ without doing much damage. Next morning the enemy were nowhere to be seen; it was decided to seek for and fight them before continuing to trade, but after two days’ fruitless search the plan was given up and the squadron returned to the coast.
Here they heard that some French ships were in the vicinity, and, England and France being now at war, decided to attack them. On April 5 they saw three Frenchmen and gave chase. They were successful in capturing one of 120 tons, the _Mulet de Batuille_, and in her 50 lb. 5 oz. of gold. Arriving at Egrand, the easternmost place on the Gold Coast, they found the French prize to be leaky, and were obliged to spoil and sink her. Towerson now proposed to go on to Benin, but the majority of the company refused. The fleet then separated to trade at various places on the coast, agreeing to rally on the _Minion_ if attacked. At this time the men began to be sickly, and six died. Having sold all her cloth at Egrand the _Minion_ sailed westwards on May 10, picking up the _Christopher_ and the _Tiger_ on the way. Both reported little trade, and the negroes in general seemed hostile and suspicious. For another six weeks they continued on the coast, trading at some places and being repulsed at others, until victuals began to run short. The crews of the _Tiger_ and the _Christopher_ were willing to attack the Portuguese ships at Mina and so supply themselves, but the _Minion’s_ men would not consent for fear of hanging when they should reach home. At Samma the natives refused to supply either gold or food, having made an agreement with the Portuguese, and the English therefore burned the town. Next day, June 25, they set sail for England.
Great difficulty was experienced in getting away from the coast. Six days after sailing they again sighted land and found themselves 18 leagues to leeward of the place they had started from, owing to the extraordinary strength of the current. It was now decided to head southwards as far as the equator before attempting to beat to the westwards, and on July 7 they arrived at the Island of St. Thomé. A stay of nearly a month was made at this island before, on August 3, a fresh start was made and the homeward passage was begun in earnest. The shortage of victuals became more serious, and on the advice of a Scot, taken prisoner in the French ship, they called at the Isle of Salt, one of the Cape Verde group. They obtained a few goats and a quantity of fish and sea-birds. The Scot went ashore on the island and was not seen again: it was supposed that the inhabitants found him asleep and carried him off. On August 24 the master of the _Tiger_ reported his ship leaky and his men too weak to keep her afloat. There were now only thirty sound men in the whole fleet. A fortnight later the _Tiger_ had to be abandoned in mid-ocean, in latitude 25° N. Still the long voyage was protracted, and the latitude of Cape St. Vincent was not reached until October 6. The _Christopher_ being now very weak, it was agreed to put into Vigo and send for more men from England. But a fair wind sprang up, and Towerson decided to make one more effort to reach home, fearing that, once in Vigo, the treasure would never be allowed to go out again. Two guns were fired to warn the _Christopher_, and the _Minion_ sailed on. The _Christopher_ appeared to be following, but, the next morning being foggy, they lost sight of her. Towerson mentions that he concluded at the time that she had either outsailed them or gone back to Vigo, but he strangely omits to state which supposition turned out to be correct, and we are left quite in the dark as to the _Christopher’s_ fate. At the time they parted company there were only twelve men in health in the two ships. After losing most of her sails in a great south-westerly gale, the men being too weak to handle them, the _Minion_ arrived at the Isle of Wight on October 20, 1558.
The total amount of gold and ivory obtained on this voyage cannot be stated owing to want of clearness in the account, but it would appear that it was not nearly such a successful venture as the previous ones, although more capital was involved. The truth was that, between the French and the English, the Guinea trade had been somewhat overdone, and the huge profits of the first adventurers could not be expected to continue. The Portuguese had hitherto restricted their own trade on the coast for this very reason, but now the negroes were becoming spoiled and inclined to play off one competitor against the other. One new thing was certainly revealed by these voyages, and that was that the Portuguese were impotent to make good their boasted monopoly. A simple process of reasoning led Englishmen to ask if the Spaniards were in the same case; and it was not long before an affirmative answer was to be supplied by Hawkins and Drake.
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Footnote 262:
Hakluyt, vi. 136.
Footnote 263:
vi. 138.
Footnote 264:
Reprinted in Hakluyt, vi. 141–52.
Footnote 265:
Strype, _Memorials_, ii. 504. Strype says the two ships were lent to Wyndham and his associates in 1552, and were intended for the voyage in search of the North-East Passage.
Footnote 266:
Stanford’s _Compendium_ (1907) says that the ‘grains’ of this coast were pepper. Eden, although he describes them as ‘a very hot fruit’, speaks of pepper as a distinct article further on.
Footnote 267:
Probably the Niger.
Footnote 268:
Eden speaks of having seen the _Primrose_ after her return, hence it must have been the _Lion_ which was abandoned.
Footnote 269:
Reprinted by Hakluyt, vi. 154–77.
Footnote 270:
See Towerson’s first voyage, and marginal note to Eden’s account of the present voyage.
Footnote 271:
_Acts of the Privy Council_, v. 162.
Footnote 272:
_Venetian Cal._ vi, No. 251.
Footnote 273:
_R. O., S. P. Dom., Mary_, vol. xiv, Nos. 4 and 5 (erroneously calendared under date 1558).
Footnote 274:
_R. O., S. P. For., Mary_, vol. vii, No. 448.
Footnote 275:
This evidently refers to John Locke’s voyage, and tallies with Eden’s account, except that the latter does not mention the offer of land for a settlement.
Footnote 276:
This would seem to relate to Wyndham’s visit to Benin. No other place-name is mentioned in any of the voyages which bears any resemblance to ‘Bynne’. If such is the case, it throws a fresh complexion on Eden’s story of the abandonment of the merchants.
Footnote 277:
_R. O., S. P. For., Mary_, vii, No. 449.
Footnote 278:
_Cal. For. S. P., Mary_, p. 198.
Footnote 279:
_R. O., S. P. Dom., Mary_, vi, No. 83.
Footnote 280:
_A. P. C._, v, p. 214.
Footnote 281:
_R. O., S. P. For., Mary_, vii, No. 450.
Footnote 282:
_Venetian Cal._ vi, No. 327.
Footnote 283:
Hakluyt, vi. 177–211.
Footnote 284:
_A. P. C._, v. 305, 315, 322, 358, 384.
Footnote 285:
Hakluyt, vi. 212–31.
Footnote 286:
The date of this voyage is given, by a misprint, in the 1598–9 editions of Hakluyt as 1577. Modern reprints have perpetuated the mistake. The date is correctly given in the 1589 Hakluyt as 1557, that is 1558 by our present style of beginning the year on January 1.
Footnote 287:
Kervyn de Lettenhove, _Les Pays-Bas et l’Angleterre_, i. 152: ‘Los navios ... eran dos de la Reyna y los mejores que Su Majestad tenian.’
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