Page 28 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

El 28 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

Segar, who had been put ashore in an apparently dying
condition by the captain of the Merchant Royal, on the
rather heartless assumption that the man’s chances of
life were greater on land than on board ship. For eigh­
teen months the unfortunate fellow led a Crusoe-like exis­
tence on the island, seeing no human being. When he
was found he was apparently in good bodily health, but
long isolation from his fellow-men had so weakened his
faculties that he was unable to bear the strain of associa­
tion with his old messmates. Within a month of leaving
St. Helena he died, a victim to excessive joy, if Barker’s
! i theory is correct.
The history of the Edward Bonavcnlure after leaving
;
l ; St. Helena was unfortunate. Lancaster, instead of pro­
ceeding home, went off to the West Indies in search, it
would seem, of further adventures. His crew, who had had
more than their fill of this roving life, mutinied, but were
)
afterwards brought sufficiently into submission to enable
Lancaster to go on a cruise off the Gulf of Mexico. In
!
November, 1593, the Edward Bonaventure was driven
ashore on one of the islands in that region, and was there
i ' abandoned. Lancaster and his principal lieutenant,
Barker, took passage home in a French ship which, for­
tunately for them, was anchored at one of the islands
iii in the vicinity of the wreck. Ultimately they landed at
Rye on May 24, 1594, after an absence from their native
country of more than three years.
To a great extent the voyage had been a disastrous one.
ijlj Two of the largest vessels were lost, only a miserable rem­
nant of the crews originally embarked on the fleet lived
to return to England, and apart from a comparatively
K small sum which Lancaster obtained by trafficking in the

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