EUROPE IN WEST AFRICA 329 "pertained to our Queen's Highnesse." Church and State watched over their operations, and they worked in an odour of the highest sanctity.

Another famous EngHsh sailor, Drake, who as a young man accompanied Hawkins on one of his earlier expeditions to the coast, was more humane or more fastidious in his tastes than his great leader, for after one experience he never again went slave-raiding.

Except for a patent granted in 1588 to Exeter merchants, the English trade was left during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the hands of individuals. The first charter to an English company for the purpose of trading to the coast was granted by King James in 161 9. The charter was supposed to convey exclusive rights, but the private merchants who were already interested continued, in spite of regulations, to trade on their own account, and with many complaints of the " interlopers " who robbed them of their profits, the Chartered Company acknowledged its failure and withdrew. The Dutch West India Company, being either better organised or more vigorous in holding its own against ** interlopers," from whom it also suffered, in the meantime pursued with success its design of supplementing the Portuguese, and became a very important power upon the coast. Charles I. granted a fresh charter to another English company. But England was shortly afterwards distracted with civil and foreign war, and this company had no better fortune. The Dutch and the Danes profited by the opportunity to push their West African trade. They not only increased the number of their forts and settlements, but being well supported by their respective Governments, and protected by what was then the best navy in the world, they seized English merchant ships, and inflicted damage to an extent afterwards estimated at 300,000.

The Chartered Company being of course ruined, a petition was presented to Parliament shortly after the restoration of Charles II., which stated the condition of