Page 72 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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r 72 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST i
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Surat, “ to have a careful eye over tlie manners and be­
;
! : haviours of both young and old,” and directed that “ if
any be found by excessive drinking or otherwise like to
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prove a scandal to our nation ... to use first sharp
reprehensions, and if that do not prevail then inflict pun­
ishment, and if that work not reformation then by the
first ship send him home with a writing showing the
reasons thereof.” That these instructions were necessary is
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abundantly proved by the frequent references to individual
excesses. Numerous instances are given of men dying with
- “ the flux ” in consequence of “ inordinate drinking of a
pi,:
i wine called tastie (toddy) distilled from the palmetto tree.”
Stern discipline was maintained on the ships to enforce
the rule of decent living. The lash was unsparingly used,
and in a letter included with the records of Middleton’s
voyage with which we shall shortly deal there is a state­
ment which shows that a man suspected of theft was put
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to the torture to extract a confession of his guilt. Undue
stress, however, must not be laid upon the irregularities
which are revealed in the narratives of the early voyages. s
Something surely must be allowed for the ordinary frailties
of humanity in men placed as these pioneers were in situa­
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tions of extreme hardship and peril in strange lands to
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which the depressing influences of a tropical climate
added an element of peculiar malignity. It must not
be forgotten that with all their faults these simple seamen
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never hesitated to lay down their lives at the call of duty
• { and that to their strenuous endeavour we probably owe
the full measure of sovereignty we enjoy in India to-day, for
if less courage and less energy had been displayed the Com­
pany’s operations might easily have been diverted to more
barren fields and the conquest of India left to other hands.

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