l_, and the ship in which he sailed the _admiral_.--E.]

[Footnote 95: This person is called by Purchas _chief governor_. Perhaps
the conduct of commercial affairs was confided to his care.--E.]

[Footnote 96: The burden of this ship was 240 tons.--Ann. I. 129.]

[Footnote 97: Besides there was a pinnace of 100 tons and 40 men.--Ann.
I. 129.]

[Footnote 98: In many of the old voyages, this distinction is made
between mariners and sailors: Unless a mere pleonasm, it may indicate
able and ordinary seamen; or the former may designate the officers of
all kinds, and the latter the common men.--E.]

[Footnote 99: Perhaps the pinnace already mentioned.--E.]

On application to the queen, her majesty furnished the merchants with
friendly letters of recommendation to several of the sovereigns in
India, offering to enter into treaties of peace and amity with them,
which shall be noticed in their proper places. And, as no great
enterprize can be well conducted and accomplished without an absolute
authority for dispensing justice, the queen granted a commission of
martial law to Captain Lancaster, the general of the fleet, for the
better security of his command.

Every thing being in readiness, the fleet departed from Woolwich, in the
river Thames, on the 13th of February, 1600, after the English mode of
reckoning,[100] or more properly 1601. They were so long delayed in the
Thames and the Downs, for want of wind, that it was Easter before they
arrived at Dartmouth, where they spent five or six days, taking in
bread and other provisions, appointed to be procured there. Departing
thence on the 18th of April, they came to anchor in Torbay, at which
place the general sent on board all the ships instructions for their
better keeping company when at sea, and directions as to what places
they were to repair to for meeting again, in case of being separated by
storms or other casualties. These were the _calms of Canary_; Saldanha
bay,[101] in case they could not double the Cape of Good Hope; Cape St
Roman, in Madagascar; the island of Cisne, Cerne, or Diego Rodriguez;
and finally, Sumatra, their first intended place of trade.

[Footnote 100: At this time, and for long after, there was a strangely
confused way of dating the years, which were considered as beginning at
Lady-day, the 25th of March. Hence, what we would now reckon the year
1601, from the 1st January to the 24th March inclusive, retained the
former date of 1600. The voya