Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/28

8 THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES" OF THE COMPANY ily in the reign of Elizabeth, appears among the paten- tees named in her charter to the Company in December, 1600, but he does not seem to have actually put money into the concern. He had, however, procured a letter from the Lord Treasurer to the committees in 1600, rec- ommending his appointment " as a principal com- mander " on the expedition. This the Company evaded on the ground that " they purpose not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge or commandment in the said voyage/ ' lest " the generality " should " with- draw their contributions.' ' In the following year, 1601, Michelborne was disfranchised by the Company on the ground that he had not paid up his subscription to the first voyage. Having been implicated in the Essex rebellion, he had to digest his wrath as best he could during the remaining years of Elizabeth. But the accession of James gave him his opportunity, and in June, 1604, he obtained a royal license of discovery and trade from Cambay on the coast of India to China, " notwith- standing any grant or charter to the contrary." The reduced scale of the Company's second voyage which had lately sailed gave colour to this infringement of its privileges, and the new grant was confined to traffic at places where the Company had not established itself. But Michelborne 's ideas of " trade and discovery " were founded on the buccaneering models of Elizabeth's reign. After eighteen months of piracy, during which he attacked the Dutch at Bantam, plundered a Chinese ship, and made the English name abhorred in the East-