Nathaniel's nutmeg (12 page)

The ships' crews now decided to abandon their quest for
spices and sail for home. The
Amsterdam
was so rotten that
she was emptied of supplies and set on fire. Then, making
a final stop at Bali in order to take advantage of the
amorous charms of local girls
-
and leaving behind two
men who found those charms irresistible - the Dutch set
sail for home.

When they finally reached Amsterdam more than two
years had passed and two out of every three men on board
had died. For the merchants who had financed the voyage
the lack of spices was far more galling than the lack of men.
They watched the ships' return to port fully expecting
them to be laden with nutmeg, cloves and pepper. As it was,
the cargo unloaded on that August day was silver reals - the
same reals that they had watched being loaded two years
previously. Incredibly, the price of spices had become so
inflated while the ships had been in the East Indies that the
tiny quantity Houtman carried home was enough to make
the venture a profitable one. Had he been a more
responsible commander he could have netted them a
fortune.

The troubles that had plagued Hollands inaugural
voyage to the East did little to deter Amsterdam's merchants
from risking yet more of their money in the spice race.
They argued that they had met with far greater success
than the English who had not only lost two ships on their
first expedition, one more than theirs, but had failed so far
to reach the spice port of Bantam.

Less than seven months after Houtman's return, the merchants placed this unruly commander in charge of a second Dutch expedition to the East Indies, signalling that they had learned nothing from the mistakes of the previous voyage. But if Houtman was not up to the job, the chief pilot was more than qualified. His name was John Davis and he was an Englishman from Devon. A brilliant navigator, whose pioneering Arctic explorations had already carried him to the frozen shores of Greenland, he not only guided the ships to the East Indies and back, but also kept detailed notes on every coastline, port and harbour. Within weeks of completing the long voyage, Davis was hired for a second trip. But this time he was sailing on an English vessel under the command of the veteran James Lancaster. And this time, the two men were sailing as servants of the newly founded East India Company.

chapter three

Music
and

Dancing Damsels

On the evening of
24 September 1599, a loud
cheer was heard coming from the half-timbered
Founders Hall in London's Lothbury Street. For
much of the day the city's merchant adventurers had been
deep in discussion about sending a new fleet of ships to the
East Indies. Now they had at last reached a decision. With
a unanimous show of hands and a roar of excitement it was
decided to apply to Queen Elizabeth I for her assent to a
project that was 'intended for the honour of our native
country and for the advancement of trade of merchandise
within this realm of England'.

No painting survives to record the scene behind the
mullioned windows of Founders Hall on that September
evening but with the Company scribe recording every last
detail for posterity it is not hard to assemble a picture of the
historic events unfolding. Some fourscore men had
gathered to discuss the practicalities of the intended voyage.
These were not aristocrats nor landowners, nor were they
members of the courtly circle; most were merchants and
burghers, men who made their living by speculating on
trading ventures.

Some of the leading lights in this new enterprise had considerable experience of international trade. Richard
Staper and Thomas Smythe, for example, had been principal
founders of the Levant Company and had helped to build a
successful business in the eastern Mediterranean. Others, like
Sir John Hart and Richard Cockayne were well-known
faces in the City of London. Three of the men had held
office as Lord Mayor of London and the chairman of the
meeting, splendidly dressed in wig and robes, was Sir
Stephen Soane, the present occupant of the Lord Mayorship.

Not all were merchants: among the aldermen and
freemen of the London guilds were sailors and soldiers,
bearded and weather-beaten sea dogs who wore gold rings
in their ears and good-luck amulets about their necks.
James Lancaster and John Davis could be seen among the
crowds and so, too, could Francis Pretty, close friend of
Thomas Cavendish. A few of Drake's crew pitched up for
the meeting, as did some who had sailed with Fenton and
Hawkins. Arctic explorer William Baffin put in an
appearance as did the three Middleton brothers - John,
Henry and David - who would all meet with disasters on
the long voyage to and from the Spice Islands.

Such men were crucial to the success or failure of this,
the Company's first venture. They were familiar with the
sight of Portuguese carracks laden with costly spices and
knew the best ports to obtain fresh water and new
provisions. They also knew that although the Spanish and
Portuguese had a vigorous commerce with the East, only a
dozen or so ports were under their direct control. These
were scattered over a huge area from Madagascar to Japan,
and even Goa, the jewel in the crown of Portugal's eastern
outposts, only housed a small settlement of traders and
merchants. It scarcely deserved its suffix - dorado. In the
'riche and innumerable islands of the Mollucos and the Spiceries', where nutmeg and cloves could be had for a
song, the Portuguese influence was spread even more
thinly.They had just two small forts on the islands ofTidore
and Amboyna, leaving dozens of other atolls and skerries
to be claimed, remote places like the nutmeg-producing
Banda Islands.

Since it had become an axiom in international law that
European nations could only claim such places as they had
fortified or in which they had erected some visible symbol
of possession, there were many who argued that it would
make sense to head for these lonely outposts of the Spice
Islands. If the flag could be raised in the Banda Islands, for
instance, then England would have a toehold in the richest
of all the islands in the East Indies.

When everyone had had the chance to speak Sir
Stephen Soane called the meeting to order. There were
important matters to be settled, not least of which was to
prevent the large sum of money which had been
subscribed just two days earlier from being contributed in
any form other than cash. It was also decided to entrust the
day-to-day running of the Company to fifteen directors
who would organise and regulate the forthcoming voyage.

It was late by the time the meeting finally broke up. The
sailors and adventurers trudged their way back to their
homes in Shoreditch and Wapping, the merchants to their
gabled dwellings in Charing Cross and Lincoln's Inn
Fields. All must have felt that at long last they were on the
brink of partaking in a successful trading enterprise to the
East Indies.

To those subscribers who had gambled their money on
the voyage there were huge riches to be had if it ended in
success. Elizabethan London was home to an affluent
aristocracy who clamoured for every luxury. Queen

Elizabeth herself determined the fashion of the age with
her famous wardrobe of three thousand dresses, and the
ladies of the court followed suit, cloaking themselves in
brocades and satins trimmed with costly laces, sables and
embroideries. The Queen loved the pomp, ceremony and
luxuries that her state afforded her. In her palaces at St
James, Greenwich, Windsor and Hampton Court she was
surrounded by baubles, trinkets and precious objets d'art, as
well as a magnificent library of Greek and Latin poets,
richly bound in velvet.

Some of her more puritanical ministers reacted against
the wanton extravagance of her court. At the wedding of
one member of the aristocracy the celebrant priest,
dismayed by the sight of so much finery, decided to speak
his mind. Aware, perhaps, of the moves afoot for a great
expedition to the East, he clambered into the pulpit and
delivered a damning but topical sermon about the fripperies
of Elizabethan fashion. 'Of all qualities,' he said, 'a woman
must not have one quality, and that is too much rigging.
What a wonder to see a ship under full sail, with her
tackling and her masts, and her tops and top-gallants, with
her upper deck and her nether decks, and so be-dekt with
her streamers, flags, and ensigns
...'
Pausing to survey the
assembled ladies he continued: 'what a world of wonders it
is to see a woman, created in God's image, so miscreate oft
times with her French, her Spanish, and her foolish fashions,
that He
...
shall hardly know her with her plumes, her
faunes, and a silken vizard, with a ruffle like a saile.'

The sermon fell on deaf ears. Elizabeth's courtiers were
not about to abandon their new-found pleasures for this
was an age that demanded excess. They needed to be richly
clad for the pageants, masques and tournaments they
attended and their frivolous needs were reflected in the
trite ballads, odes and sonnets of the day. They loved curios
and oddities, the unusual and the exotic, and it was to satisfy
this vogue that had settled the merchants of London on
their latest venture.

Queen Elizabeth herself was keen for the expedition to
set sail at the earliest opportunity, especially when she
learned that the Portuguese and Dutch had unexpectedly
raised the price of pepper from three to eight shillings a
pound. Pepper had become a basic commodity and with
the price now beyond the means of all but the wealthy few
it was imperative that a well-organised expedition be sent
to seek it at its source. A handful of attempts had been made
in the wake of James Lancaster's voyage but all had ended
in disaster. The most recent, which had sailed under the
captainship of Benjamin Wood, had disappeared without
trace. It was, recorded Samuel Purchas, 'a double disaster;
first in the miserable perishing of the fleet, and next in the
losse of the historie and relation of that tragedie'. Rumours
slowly filtered back to London reporting that the crew had
been ravaged by disease and, one by one, perished at sea.
'Some broken plankes, as after a shipwracke, have yet beene
encountered from the West Indies, which give us some
notice of this East Indian disadventure.' Just four survivors
managed to swim to a small island on the horizon and
three of these were promptly despatched by a cut-throat
Spaniard leaving just one man alive. Even he was not fated
to live for long; fleeing the island aboard a passing ship, he
soon succumbed to a dose of poison.

On 16 October 1599, less than a month after their first
meeting, the London merchants received the Queen's
official blessing. She instructed them to obtain from the
Privy Council a warrant allowing them to proceed with
the voyage, as well as a permit enabling them to carry
overseas the five thousand pounds of bullion which the
merchants needed for their proposed trade. The merchants
were overjoyed at the Queen's enthusiasm, but the Privy
Council, though outwardly enthusiastic, was determined to
stop this voyage in its tracks. Delicate negotiations were just
beginning with Spain and if this expedition were to set sail
with the Queen's blessing — and against the wishes of the
Pope — then Philip of Spain would be well within his rights
to withdraw from the discussions. The merchants were
warned in no uncertain terms that any voyage would have
to be accommodated to the state of public affairs. Suddenly
the expedition had been blocked at the highest level.

The merchants were furious to see their enterprise
undermined by a handful of haughty lords in Elizabeth's
court. They begged the Queen to intervene but although
they had her full sympathy there was little she could do. The
merchants now stiffened their resolve. Blithely ignoring the
lords they 'did enter into the preparation of a voyage the next
yeare following', poring over every map, chart and book of
travels about the region they intended to visit. All this new­found information was then compiled into a document
under the title:'Certayne reasons why the English Merchants
may trade into the East Indies, especially to such rich
kingdoms and dominions as are not subjecte to the Kinge of
Spayne and Portugal; together with the true limits of the
Portugals conquest and jurisdiction in these oriental parts.'