Page 51 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

HOW LANCASTER INITIATED EASTERN TRADE 51

A day or two later the formal farewell audience took
place. The King handed over to Lancaster his reply to
Elizabeth’s letter, in which with a wealth of Oriental hyper­
bole, he granted freedom of trade to the subjects of “ the
Sultana who doth rule in the Kingdom of England, France,
Ireland, Holland and Friesland,” and expressed the wish
that the Deity would “ continue that Kingdom and Empire
long in prosperity.” Some presents to accompany this
missive were entrusted to Lancaster with a ruby ring for
himself.
There was then a pause, and Lancaster was about to take
his leave when the King broke in with a strange question.
««< Have you the Psalms of David extant among you ? ’
he asked.
“The General answered, ‘ Yea,and we sing them daily.’
“ Then said the King, ‘ I and the rest of these nobles about
me will sing a Psalm to God for your prosperity,’ and so
they did it very solemnly. And after it was ended the
King said—
<< < I would hear you sing another Psalm, although in
your own language.’
“ So there being in the company some twelve of us we
sung another Psalm and after the Psalm was ended the
General took his leave of the King.”
With this delightful scene Lancaster’s sojourn at Acheen
may be said to have terminated, for a few hours later he
was at sea again.
With a passing call at Priaman for a supply of pepper
awaiting him there, Lancaster proceeded to Bantam, which
port he reached in the early days of December. Bantam,
like Acheen, was a small Malay principality, a fragment of
the larger__sovereignty which once wielded sway over a