Page 66 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

■

66 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST
!
; to the statesmanlike prescience which thus early marked
out the lines which British commercial and political in­
fluence in the East was ultimately to follow.
In an estimate of the causes which led the Company
to occupy this ample stage at the very outset of its career
a prominent place must be given to the character of those
whom it entrusted with positions of responsibility. The
early commanders were almost without an exception a
splendid class, not only excellent seamen and born leaders
it • of men, but individuals in whom a high sense of duty
mingled with a strong patriotism. Their first aim, no
. i i
doubt, was profit, but it was profit with honour, and there
were occasions, as we shall see, when considerations of
honour outweighed the purely material interests. i
r Of the best type of commander was Henry Middleton,
•who took up Lancaster’s dropped mantle and piloted to the
East the second expedition, which, as already mentioned,
•left England early in 1604. Middleton had shown his
mettle in the earlier voyage, when he had held a respon­
i; sible but subordinate position. He was one of a family
•of seamen who have left their mark on the early annals of
, :the East India Company. His selection for the supreme
‘Command was no doubt due to the recommendation of \
Lancaster, whose initial success had elevated him to a
position of considerable influence in the Company and,
indeed, in the public life of London—a position made
more eminent by the knighthood which James had con­
ferred upon him.
Middleton justified the trust reposed in him by bringing
\
the expedition to a brilliantly successful close. With
the same ships which had formed Lancaster’s fleet he made
a good voyage to Bantam, loaded two of his vessels there
:
j

L_ . -_____ j