The Journal of John Jourdain, 1608-1617. Edited by William Foster,
B.A. (For the Hakluyt Society, Cambridge.)—John Jourdain, a native of Lyme Regis, after trading for some time on his own account, took service in 1607 with the East India Company, which was then in the eighth year of its existence. It is interesting to know that he was to receive .£3 per month, with £10 for outfit. He was engaged for what is known in the Com- pany's history as the Fourth Voyage. The enterprise was carried on by two ships, which were to cost £1,735 17s. 6d. Wages, pro- visions, and miscellaneous expenses brought up the outfit to £14,600. The cargo was of the value of £3,400, and specie to the amount of £15,000 was sent in Spanish pieces of eight rials (or £6 each). This accounts for the capital of £33,000 which was embarked in the undertaking. All the employes of the Company were not as well conducted and as capable as Jourdain. One of the ships, the 'Union,' which was in trouble from the first, was lost by the folly of the sailing-master. Generally we get a very vivid picture of what commerce was in those days. The Company's method of having separate "voyages," each with its own interest, though doubtless advantageous in some respects, had the great drawback that the executive officers, looking to their own possible profits, were jealous of those engaged in other enterprises. And then, besides the caprice and exaction of native potentates, there was the ceaseless hostility of Dutch and Portuguese rivals. Holland and Portugal, it will be remembered, were predomin ant in Eastern waters. The 'Ascension' was lost not long after its consort, but Jourdain got other employment under the Company. Finally he reached England in 1617, having spent more than nine years, ashore and afloat, in the East. Two years afterwards he was killed, it would not be going too far to say murdered, by the Dutch at Patani, in the peninsula of Lower Siam ; at least, he was shot after a flag of truce had been flying for an hour or so. This is a peculiarly interesting specimen of the Haklnyt Society's publications.
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