harter[3] under the name of "The Company of the Royal
Adventurers into Africa."[4]

By this charter the Royal Adventurers received the land and the
adjacent islands on the west coast of Africa from Cape Blanco to the
Cape of Good Hope, for a period of one thousand years beginning with
"the making of these our Letters Patents if the ... grant (made to
Crispe's company in 1631) be void and determined." If, however, the
former charter was still regarded as in force, the grant to the Royal
Adventurers was to be effective upon the surrender or the expiration
of the former company's privileges.[5] A committee of six men, the
earl of Pembroke, Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret, William Coventry,
Sir Ellis Leighton and Cornelius Vermuyden, was named to have charge
of the company's affairs. No mention was made of the office of
governor or of any court of directors. Apparently it was thought that
the committee of six could direct all of the company's affairs. In
Africa, this committee was empowered to appoint the necessary agents
and officials and to raise and maintain whatever soldiers were
necessary to execute martial law. The company had the right to admit
new members if it desired. The king himself reserved the privilege of
becoming an adventurer at any time and to invest an amount of money
not exceeding one-sixteenth of the company's stock.

Furthermore, it was provided that the king "shall have, take and
receive two third parts of all the gold mines which shall be seized
possesed and wrought in the parts and places aforesaid, we ... paying
and bearing two third parts of all the charges incident to the working
and transporting of the said gold." The company was to have the other
third and bear the remainder of the expense. That this provision was
not a matter of mere form, as in so many of the royal charters, is
evident from the stimulus which had led to the formation of the
company. Indeed in one part of the charter the purpose of the company
is presented as "the setting forward and furthering of the trade
intended (redwood, hides, elephants' teeth) in the parts aforesaid and
the encouragement of the undertakers in discovering the golden mines
and setting of plantations there." The trade in slaves was not
mentioned in the charter.

Even before they had obtained this charter the organizers of the new
company induced the king to lend them five of his Majesty's ships.
These vessels, the "Henrietta," "Sophia," "Amity," "Griff