Middleton took such pride, was careened on the beach
for repairs. During the process a renegade Spaniard formed a plot to
burn her to the water's edge, and one night carried it successfully
into execution--a catastrophe which is said to have so affected the
doughty old commander, Sir Henry Middleton, that he sickened and died at
Bantam, May 24, 1613.

The many exploits of Middleton, the _doyen_ of the company's servants in
the East, well deserve to be read: the hardships he had suffered, the
difficulties he had to contend with, the jealous cabals of which he had
been the victim. Among the many insubordinates that prevailed, Captain
Nicholas Downton, one of the ablest commanders in the service, was not
to be persuaded, despite the plots and schemes occasionally undertaken
for that purpose, to abandon the respect and loyalty he owed the old
sea-dog. Once, when in the Red Sea, Middleton wrote sharply to Downton
for an alleged fault; the latter was filled "with admiration and grief."

"Sir," he replied, "I can write nothing so plain, nor with that
sincerity, but malicious men, when they list, may make injurious
construction; but evil come to me if I meant ill to Sir Henry Middleton
or any part of the business. God be judge between him and me, if ever I
deserved the least evil thought from him. I desire that he were so much
himself that he would neither be led nor carried by any injurious person
to abuse an inseparable friend."

Wholly ignorant of the fate reserved for Middleton and the "mightie
merchantman," the Trade's Increase, Downton resumed command of the
Peppercorn and returned direct to England with a full cargo. Many times
her timbers sprang aleak on the voyage--for she was but a jerry-built
craft at best--but she finally got into the harbor of Waterford,
September 13, 1613. Here the rudest of rude welcomes awaited Downton. He
was visited by the sheriff and arrested on a warrant from the Earl of
Ormond, charged with committing piracy. But, for the present, the plots
of his and Middleton's enemies miscarried; their victim was released,
and in a few weeks' time was back in the Thames. Downton's proved zeal
and endurance won him the applause and favor of the merchant
adventurers, and the command of the first voyage under the joint-stock
system in the following year.

Meanwhile, each year the company had been sending out a small fleet of
ships to the East; it was now beginning also to receive communications
from it