"The rest of this letter, by the malice of the bearers, was suppressed, but was probably the same in substance with the former; yet I have added this also, because it contains several things not mentioned in the other. This William Adams _lately_[64] died at Firando, in Japan, as by the last ship, the James, returning home in the year 1621, we have received intelligence."--_Purchas_. [Footnote 64: This is in reference to the year 1625, when the Pilgrims of Purchas was published.--E.] SECTION XI. _Voyage of Sir Edward Michelburne to India, in_ 1604.[65] INTRODUCTION This voyage is given by Purchas under the title of "The Second Voyage of John Davis, with Sir Edward Michelburne, into the East Indies, in the Tiger, a ship of 240 tons, with a pinnace, called the Tiger's Whelp." Purchas adds, that, though later in time than the first voyage set forth by the English East India Company, he had chosen to insert it in his work previous to their voyages, because not performed in their employment; and we have here followed his example, because not one of the voyages equipped by the Company. It is called the _second_ voyage of John Davis, because he had been to the East Indies before, as related in the ninth section of this chapter, and went upon this voyage with Sir Edward Michelburne. But it ought to have been called his _third_, and indeed it is actually so named in the table of contents of the Pilgrims; as, besides his _first_ voyage along with the Dutch in 1594, he appears to have sailed in the first voyage instituted by the Company for India, in 1601, under Lancaster. The editor of Astley's Collection supposes this journal to have been written by the captain or master of one of the ships, from some expressions in the narrative; at all events, it was written by some person actually engaged in the voyage. It is very singular that Sir Edward Michelburne, though a member of the first East India Company, and the fourth of the list in the original patent, should have set forth this voyage on private account. [Footnote 65: Purchas his Pilgrims, I. 192. Astley, I. 306.] We learn from the annals, of the India Company, that the lord-treasurer of England, in 1600, when the company was first instituted, proposed that Sir Edward Michelburne should be appointed to command the first fleet dispatched to India; but this was firmly declined, as will afterwards appear. Sir Edward now commanded what may be called an interloping trading voyage to India, under a licence granted by James I. in absolute contravention of the exclusive privilege granted to the Company.--E. * * * * *