Current Literature
Thu stories of the daring and tactful Englishmen who first opened up our trade with the East have often been told, from the time of Halduyt and Purchas, but they always bear re-telling. In Eastward Ho ! (Lane, 12s. 6d.) Mr. Foster R. Dulles deals competently and attractively with five of the pioneers. First comes Richard Chancellor, who sailed to Archangel in 1553, visited Moscow and helped to found the Muscovy Company. Next there is that resolute traveller and adroit diplomatist, Anthony Jenkinson, who won Tsar Ivan's confidence and penetrated into Central Asia and Persia. The third is James Lancaster, who sailed to Malacea in 1591 and commanded the East India Company's first ship ten years later. The fourth is William Adams, who, sailing in a Dutch vessel by way of the Straits of Magellan, reached Japan in 1599, settled there and married a Japanese girl. The last is Sir Thomas Roe, King James's ambassador to the Mogul Jahangir. The narratives are clear and spirited, and are illustrated with some good reproductions of old
prints.
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