Sir Thomas Smith was re-elected Governor of the East India Company in 1607, and again in 1609, when for his great services, and for having procured the first and second charters, the Company offered the sum of £500 for his acceptance, but he declined to take more than half the sum. The East India Company flourished under his wise and energetic administration, and in 1610 the largest merchant ship that had ever been built was launched in the presence of the King, and named _Trade’s Increase_. At the same time the King placed a gold chain round the neck of the Governor of the Company, with his Majesty’s portrait attached. While thus developing the trade with India, Smith was ever mindful of Arctic discovery. As a manager of the Muscovy Company he sent Jonas Poole to Spitsbergen, and induced the East India Company to send Captain Weymouth in search of a passage to Cathay. In 1612 he became the first Governor of a new Company called the “North West Company,” formed with the special object of finding the passage to Cathay. Sir Thomas gathered round him as colleagues Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Francis Jones, Sir John Wolstenholme, Sir William Cockayne, Sir James Lancaster, Richard Wyche, Ralph Freeman, and William Stone, all names well known in Arctic geography. In 1615 Sir Thomas Smith was once more re-elected Governor of the East India Company. The enterprises of these Companies received his unceasing and laborious attention. Again in 1618 and again in 1620 he was re-elected. At length in July 1621, he was allowed to retire, after serving the East India Company for 20 years. He resigned from weakness and old age, after having created and fully established the prosperity of a famous body which, in after years, was destined to found a great Empire. Sir Thomas Smith fostered and encouraged the scientific branch of a seaman’s profession, and lectures on navigation were delivered at his house by Dr Hood, and by Edward Wright, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the introducer and adapter of Mercator’s projection. At the same time he was careful to ensure the safety of the journals of voyages sent out under his auspices by furnishing materials to Hakluyt and afterwards to Purchas. He was the perfect model of an enlightened and patriotic merchant adventurer. This great man died on the 4th September, 1625, and there is a monument to his memory in the south aisle of the church at Sutton-at-Hone, with a long inscription[54].