Since the charter of these Senegal adventurers did not prevent anyone from resorting to the Gold Coast and the regions to the east thereof, two voyages were made to Benin, one in 1588 and another in 1590.[19] In 1592 certain English merchants received a patent from the queen authorizing them to trade to certain specified portions of Africa.[20] The trade to Africa continued in this desultory fashion until 1618. At that time a patent comprising the whole explored western coast of Africa south of the territory of the Barbary Company was granted to some thirty persons, among whom the most important was Sir William St. John, who was said to have built the first English fort in Africa.[21] The early years of their trade, which consisted in the exchange of English for African products, was especially unfortunate. Vessels were either lost or brought back small returns. After 1621 it was difficult to procure fresh additions of capital. To add to this trying situation, the House of Commons attacked the company's monopoly and, later, voted it to be a grievance. Thereafter, although the company sometimes issued licenses for the African trade, the interlopers who resorted to Africa quite freely, usually did not deem it necessary to obtain them.[22] The moving spirit of the next company, which received a patent in 1631, was Sir Nicholas Crispe, who had been a successful interloper during the life of the previous company. In 1624 he had built the first permanent English settlement at Kormentine. Although not incorporated, this company enjoyed for thirty-one years a monopoly of trade to all the region lying between Cape Blanco and the Cape of Good Hope. Just previous to the Civil War Charles I confirmed the charter for twenty years. The company's monopoly was looked on with disfavor by the leaders of the Puritan party, however, and in 1649 the company was summoned before the Council of State, where it was accused of having procured its charter by undue influences. Later, the company's case was considered by the committee of trade, and finally, on April 9, 1651, the Council of State recommended that the company's monopoly to that part of West Africa extending from a point twenty miles north of Kormentine to within twenty miles of the Sierra Leone River be continued for fourteen years.[23]