Page 23 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 23

common prejudice of the period against the two great colon­
izing races. It was a passion which savoured of revenge
for some dire injury done. As a mental equipment for
a leader in an enterprise such as that to which we have
referred, the mere despatch of which gave a direct chal­
lenge to Portuguese supremacy in the East, it was not to
be equalled in stimulative force. Only the burning
memory of wrongs suffered could, perhaps, have carried
forward to a successful issue the great movement for
widening the bounds of England’s commerce of which
Lancaster may be said to have been the pioneer. Another
qualification of value in this connexion to which Lancaster
could lay claim was the fact that he had served in the
Armada fight directly under Drake. What that meant
to a man of the Elizabethan adventurer class we cannot
perhaps at this distance of time adequately realize. But
by analogy drawn from the events of a more recent period
it is possible to believe that the heroes of the classic con­
test carried with them in their undertakings a prestige
which had its influence on friend and foe alike.
Lancaster in the expedition with which we are now
dealing served as second in command under George Ray­
mond, whose appointment as “ General ”—to adopt the
phraseology of the time—had been secured by influence
amongst the little coterie of London merchants who sup­
plied the funds. There were three ships in all equipped
for this formidable task of driving a wedge into the Portu­
guese Eastern trade monopoly. Raymond hoisted his
flag on the Penelope, a vessel of somewhat over 300 tons
burthen ; Lancaster brought to the rendezvous the Edward
Bonaventure, the ship of 300 tons which he had commanded
in the Armada conflict; while a third craft of about 60