in Hakluyt’s Collection[180], represents himself as the first promoter of this trade to Barbary, and observes that he would have performed this voyage himself, with the sole command of the ship and goods, had it not been that Sir John Lutterel, John Fletcher, Henry Ostrich, and others with whom he was connected, died of the sweating sickness, and he himself, after escaping that disease, was seized by a violent fever, so that Thomas Windham sailed from Portsmouth before he recovered, by which he lost eighty pounds.

[Footnote 180:  Vol.  II. p. 7.]

“In the next year, 1552, Windham made a second voyage to Zafin or Saffi and Santa Cruz without the straits, which gave so much offence to the Portuguese, that they threatened to treat the English as enemies if found in these seas.  Yet in the year following, the same Thomas Windham, with a Portuguese named Antonio Yanez Pinteado, who appears to have been the chief promoter of the attempt, undertook a voyage to Guinea, with three ships having an hundred and forty men; and having traded for some time on the coast for gold, they went to Benin to load pepper:  But both the commanders and most of the men dying of sickness, occasioned by the climate, the rest returned to Plymouth with one ship only, having burnt the other two for want of hands, and brought back no great riches.  In 1554, Mr John Lok made a voyage with three ships to the coast of Guinea, whence he brought back a considerable quantity of gold and ivory.  These voyages appear to have been succeeded by others almost every year.  At length, upon application to Queen Elizabeth, two patents were granted to certain merchants.  One in 1585, for the Barbary or Morocco trade, and the other in 1588, for the trade to Guinea between the rivers Senegal and Gambia[181].  In 1592, a third patent was granted to other persons, taking in the coast from the river Nonnia to the south of Sierra Leona, for the space of 100 leagues, which patents gave rise to the African company.  In all their voyages to the coast of Africa they had disputes with the Portuguese.  Several of these voyages have been preserved by Hakluyt, and will be found inserted in this chapter, as forerunners to the English voyages to the East Indies.

[Footnote 181:  The former for twelve years, was granted to the Earls of Leicester and Warwick, and certain merchants of London, to the number of 32 in all.  The other for ten years to eight persons of Exeter, London, and other places.  By this latter patent, it appears that this trade was advised by the Portuguese residing in London, and one voyage had been made before the grant.  See Hakluyt, II. part 2. pp. 114 and 123.—­Astl.  I. 139. a.]