10 THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES" OF THE COMPANY They were stirred into fresh action partly by royal promises and partly by a new royal menace to their privileges— the grant to Richard Penkevell to trade to China and the Spice Islands by way of the northwest or northeast passage. No real harm came to the Com- pany this time; but it felt compelled to fit out a fourth WILLIAM HAWKINS. voyage in 1608. It could raise only a capital of less than half that subscribed for the first voyage, and barely sufficient to equip two ships, both of which per- ished at sea. The contributors lost their money, and in 1609 only one ship could be sent out on the fifth voyage, with a capital of ■ less than a fifth of the sub- scription to the first voyage in 1601.
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