Page 218 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

218 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

were forthwith issued for the apprehension of the whole of
the English within the jurisdiction of the Government.
Towerson was first seized at the English factory and kept
a prisoner there. The other members of the staff, John
Beomont, Edward Collings, Emanuel Thomson, Wm. Web­
ber, Ephraim Ramsey, Timothy Johnson, John Fardo and
Robert Brown, were sent on board the Dutch ship in the
roads. Afterwards Samuel Coulson, John Clark and
George Sharrock who were at Hitoe and Wm. Griggs and
John Sadler, who were at Larica, were brought in. Finally,
the party was completed by the addition of John Powle, I
John Wetherall and Thomas Ladbrook who had charge
of the factory at Cambello.
The Dutch net had been cast so wide as to include every
single representative of the English nation, however mean
his status. For example, Fardo and Sadler were butlers
and Brown was a tailor, while Ramsey and Webber were
clerks. If we are to accept as accurate the descriptions
given in the Dutch records the unfortunate company was
- thoroughly representative of the various parts of the king­
I
dom. Collings came from London, Beomont from Berk­ »
shire, Griggs from Bedfordshire, Webber from Devon,
Coulson from Newcastle, Wetherall from Rutland. Price,
;
as may be surmised, was a Welshman, and Brown and
Ramsey hailed from Scotland—rather curiously as there
were few Scotchmen in the East India Company’s service
in these early days, though a century later they were very
numerous.
It was probably without serious misgiving that the
prisoners faced their confinement. How little they sus­
pected the fate that was preparing for them is shown by
the well attested circumstance that during the examina-