The voyages of Sir James Lancaster, Kt., to the East Indies, with abstracts of journals of voyages to the East Indies, during the seventeenth century, preserved in the India Office. And the voyage of Captain John Knight (1606) to seek the North-west Passage.

London, Hakluyt Society, 1877. . 8vo, xxii, 314 pp., publisher's blindstamped blue cloth gilt, rebacked in blue calf gilt, new endpapers, blindstamp to title and page 49, a very good copy.
Hakluyt Society, first series 56. The abstracts relate to the voyages of Keeling and Hawkins, Sharpie, Middleton, Love, Downton, and Cross. Calendar of ships' journals of the seventeenth century and a list of ships employed by the East India Company in the same period.

Lancaster's first voyage in 1591 to the East Indies was the earliest of the English overseas Indian expeditions. His Indian voyage was an important factor in the foundation of the East India Company. In 1600 he was given command of the East India Company's first fleet. The first English East India Company factory was established at Bantam and a commercial mission dispatched to the Moluccas. The return voyage from 20 February to 11 September 1603 was speedy and prosperous, and Lancaster (whose success both in trade and diplomacy had been brilliant) was rewarded with a knighthood from the newly crowned James I in October 1603.

Lancaster continued to be one of the chief directors of the East India Company until his death in June 1618. Most of the voyages of the early Stuart period both to India and in search of the Northwest Passage were undertaken under his sponsorship and direction.