Page 52 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

52 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

considerable part of Malaya. The ruling prince at the
time of Lancaster’s visit was a lad of ten or eleven years
of age. He was, of course, a mere figurehead. The real
power was vested in a council of officials, who were as
grasping as most Orientals of their class were at that time, \
but who were sufficiently sensible of the advantages of ex­
! panded trade to place no direct obstacles in the visitors’ way.
Many days had not elapsed after the arrival of the English
fleet before a position had been occupied ashore and a brisk
trade was being done in the commodities with which Lan­
I I caster’s ships were laden. At that period, and indeed
I
throughout its history as a European trading centre in the
East, the port of Bantam had a very bad reputation for
unhealthiness. “ That stinking stew ” was the phrase
applied to it in one of the earliest letters of the English
factors, and that the designation was deserved is shown
by the terrible mortality lists with which the first records
are interspersed. The most prominent of the early vic­
tims was John Middleton, Lancaster’s second in command,
a man of great experience, who, though less known than his
brother Henry, who we shall meet with presently in a
prominent position, was an equally able and enterprising
seaman. Middleton’s death warned Lancaster not to linger
unduly at Bantam. When, therefore, he had dispatched
a pinnace to the Moluccas to open up trade in that quarter
and had settled a staff in the factory under William Starkey
he on February 20, 1G03, sailed for England.
The return voyage nearly ended in disaster. In the
dreaded region of the Cape the fleet met a terrific storm in
which the vessels were battered about for several days with­
out intermission. At length the carrying away of the rudder
of the Red Dragon appeared to seal the fate of that vessel.