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70 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

and intelligence was high is attested by the responsibilities
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from time to time imposed upon the men before the mast.
For example, in Jourdain’s Journal mention is made of a
jury of seamen having been empanelled to try three of their
fellows who had been guilty of murder. That the trust
shown in their impartiality, even where the life of ship­
. mates was involved, was not misplaced, is shown by the
* fact that they returned a verdict of guilty and that two of
the murderers were hanged as a result of their finding.
A devotion to music was a marked characteristic of
these seamen of the early seventeenth century. Some
of the men were performers of no mean order. One
of the number, a cornet player, attained to some distinction
in India in consequence of his playing. Favoured by cir­
cumstances he enjoyed a brief hour of glorious life at the
court of a native potentate until the inevitable time
arrived when his royal patron tired of his performances
and passed on his favours to some indigenous entertainer
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whose playing he was better able to appreciate.
The Company encouraged the musical inclinations of
its servants by supplying the ships with suitable instru­
ments. We read in reference to one of the vessels of this
time that “ a virginal was brought for two to play upon
at once,” the instrument being so contrived that by the
pulling out of a pin “ a man could make both go,” “ which,”
adds the writer, “ is a delightful sight (device) for the
jacks to skip up and down in such manner as they will.”
Literature was not neglected. As an appropriate food
for the mind the directors sent out in the opening years
of the Company Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Hakluyt’s Voy­
ages, and a then recently published work “ of that worthy
son of Christ, Mr. Wm. Perkins,” one of the ablest ex-