So much has been written of recent years of the history of what is generally known as the East India Company, and so much interesting matter has of late been brought to light from its earliest records, that it seems strange that the first successful English expedition to discover the Indian trade should have been, comparatively speaking, overlooked. Before the first East India Company was formed the Levant Company lived and flourished, largely through the efforts of two London citizens, Sir Edward Osborne, sometime Lord Mayor, and Master Richard Staper, merchant. To these men and their colleagues we owe the inception of our great Eastern enterprise. To the fact that among them there were those who were daring enough, and intelligent enough, to carry their extraordinary programme into effect we owe our appearance as competitors in the Indian seas almost simultaneously with the Dutch. The beginning of "1 our trade with the East Indies is generally dated from the first voyage of James Lancaster, who sailed from Plymouth in 1591.