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Portuguese ships sailing from India, but his crews had had their fill of wanderings and adventures, and as their leader was stricken down by sickness at this juncture, they insisted upon sailing for the Cape. Lancaster's voyage could hardly be accounted much of a success, but it was memorable because it was the first attempt made by the English to strike right into the heart of the Por- tuguese empire in the East. Drake and Cavendish had both passed through the Malayan Archipelago, and each had done his best to cause trouble to the Spaniards be- fore ever Lancaster sailed from Plymouth; but Caven- dish, at any rate, had had some not unfriendly inter- course with the Portuguese merchants in Java, and both he and Drake had come by the Cape Horn route, and had sailed for the Cape of Good Hope without attempting to penetrate into the Straits of Malacca. Lancaster, on the contrary, though in effect he accomplished little, sailed round Africa by the great Portuguese highway; harried Portuguese shipping from the Atlantic to the mouth of the Pêrak River; and captured vessels almost within sight of the great Portuguese stronghold of Malacca. This was a considerable achievement, for he had given practi- cal demonstration of the fact that the position of the Portuguese in the East was by no means unassailable, and hc brought back with him some valuable information, not only regarding routes and trade, but also on the subject of the political situation in Asia.

During the last decade of the sixteenth century, indeed, the secrecy which the Portuguese had been at such pains to maintain concerning their eastern conquests and dis-