of the Trades-increase, Captain David Middleton was much
distressed, and resolved to go home. On which account he called a
council, to consult and determine how best to station the ships, and
about manning the Hosiander. It was then thought fit to send home the
Samaritan among the first; the Thomas to Sumatra; the Thomasin to
Amboina, to aid the Concord; and the Hosiander to Patane and Japan to
visit the factories at these places, all of which was put in execution.
They set sail out of Bantam road on the 22d February.[396] They came
into Saldanha bay on the 30th of April, where they found the James,
which had only arrived the day before, though she left Bantam
twenty-three days before them. The Advice and Attendant were here
outward-bound. Weighing anchor from the road of Saldanha on the 17th of
May, they came to St Helena on the 1st of June.
[Footnote 396: Purchas mentions, in a side-note, that the concluding
paragraph of this article was supplied from the journal of Marten. But
in this hurried conclusion, we are left to conjecture whether the Globe
was the ship in which Floris returned to England.--E.]
* * * * *
_Note_. Following the narrative of Floris, in the Pilgrims of Purchas,
vol. I. p. 328--332, is given "A Journal of a Voyage in 1612 by the
Pearl to the East Indies, wherein went as Captain Mr Samuel Castleton of
London, and Captain George Bathurst as Lieutenant; the Narrative written
by John Tatton, Master." This ship was not fitted out by the Company;
but Purchas observes in a side-note, that he had inserted it, "For the
furtherance of marine knowledge," and that, though not directly
belonging to the East India Company, _yet holding society with the East
Indian society_. We suppose it to have been one of those Voyages of
which the annalist of the Company, John Bruce, Esq. so much complains,
as _licensed_ by King James I. in contradiction to the exclusive
charter, which that first king of Great Britain had granted to the
English East India Company.
This journal, as it is called, is so retrenched or abbreviated in many
parts, as to be almost throughout inconsequential, and often so obscured
by the unskilful abridgement of Purchas as to be nearly unintelligible.
We have not therefore deemed it necessary or proper to insert it in our
Collection, as not tending to any useful purpose, nor containing any
valuable or even amusing information. Almost the only circumstance it
cont
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