A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
"Although the first voyages of the English to the East Indies are full
of variety, yet the reader is not to expect such a continued series of
new discoveries, great actions, battles, sieges, and conquests, as are
to be met with in the history of the Portuguese expeditions: For it must
be considered that we made few or no discoveries, as these had been
already made before; that our voyages were for the most part strictly
commercial; that our settlements were generally made by the consent of
the natives; that we made no conquests; and that the undertakings were
set on foot and carried on entirely by our merchants[182]. On this
account it is, probably, that we have no regular history extant of the
English Voyages, Discoveries, and Transactions in the East Indies, as we
find there are many such of the Portuguese and Spanish. It may be
presumed, however, that as the East India Company has kept regular
journals of their affairs, and is furnished with letters and other
memorials from their agents, that a satisfactory account of all the
English Transactions in India might be collected, if the Company thought
proper to give orders for its execution[183]."--_Astley_.
[Footnote 182: These observations are to be considered as applying
entirely to the earlier connection of the English with India. In more
modern days there has been a sufficiently copious series of great
actions, battles, sieges, and conquests; but these belong to a different
and more modern period than that now under review, and are more
connected with the province of political military and naval history,
than with a Collection of Voyages and Travels. Yet these likewise will
require to be noticed in an after division of this work.--E.]
[Footnote 183: A commencement towards this great desideratum in English
History has been lately made, by the publication of the early History of
the English East India Company, by John Bruce, Esquire, Historiographer
to the Company.--E.]
SECTION I.
_Second Voyage of the English to Barbary, in the year 1552, by Captain
Thomas Windham_[184].
Of the first voyage to Barbary without the straits, made by the same
Captain Thomas Wyndham, the only remaining record is in a letter from
James Aldaie to Michael Locke, already mentioned in the Introduction to
this Chapter, and preserved in Hakluyt's Collection, II. 462. According
to Hakluyt, the account of this second voyage was written by James
Thomas, then page to Captain Thomas Windham, chief captain of the
voyage, which was set forth by Sir John Yorke, Sir William Gerard, Sir
Thomas Wroth, Messieurs Frances Lambert, Cole, and others.--E.
[Footnote 184: Hakluyt, II. 463. Astley, I. 140.]
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