THE FIRST ENGLISH VISITORS TO KENYA
Continued

Reaching Zanzibar on November 7th 1591, James Lancaster decided to rest and wait for favorable weather.  A new boat was made from wood stored on board and observations made about native shipping technologies. A letter asking who was on the ship and on what mission was received from the Portuguese trading post (referred to as a “factory” in period literature) ashore. The English flatly lied, claiming to be agents of Antonio the former Prior of Crato. (Of all the cover stories they could have invented, why they had to associate themselves with Antonio is mystifying. He was officially a rebel in Spain and and probably at the top of the most-wanted-list if there ever was one. In fact, less than 10 years previously, four Englishmen suspected of being his agents had been arrested by Portuguese authorities at Hormuz in September 1583 [The Travels of Pedro Teixeira p. xxvi]) However they entered into discussions with local Arabs one of whom was friendly, in exchange they treaded him very well so as to gather as much information as possible about Portuguese activities. In the course of this intercourse with these Arabs, they learnt of the
“false and spiteful dealing of the Portugal’s towards us, which made them believe that we were cruel people and men-eaters, and willed them if they loved their safety in no case to come near us” (The Voyages of Sir James Lancaster, Kt., to the East Indies p. 2).

The intention had been to demonize the English in the eyes of the Arabs and therefore make it harder for them to get acceptance in the eyes of the native people. A high ranking Portuguese official also came to visit them but with ulterior motives. According a local Muslim, the goal was to check the English ships for weaknesses and plan an attack when they were most vulnerable. Near the end of their stay, the English also took captive an African who it was said, was familiar with the West Indies having been there previously. The two English ships weighed anchor on February 15th 1591 and did not stop at Malindi; instead they made for Socotra and then India. They would later leave India in December 1592 and entirely by-pass East Africa on their way home. Though James Lancaster (later Sir) did not land on any part of the Kenyan coast, he no doubt sailed on Kenyan territorial waters. Later on he led another voyage in 1601 to the Far East but this time avoided the East Coast of Africa entirely only stopping at Mozambique and Madagascar.

This first major incursion of the English into Portuguese colonies worried the latter greatly. In 1593, the King of Spain (and hence Portugal due the recent Iberian union) in an apparent reference to the Edward Bonaventure, wrote to the Viceroy at Goa urging “great vigilance … so that by no means may these English set foot on Land” (Travels of Pedro Teixeira p. xxxiii).

No doubt other English vessels did visit Mombasa in the following few decades, but their passage and stay must have been brief and of little consequence for almost no records exists to imply otherwise. This was a historic visit for it was the beginning of the British East India Company. It therefore heralded the start of British influence in India that would last for centuries.  Since James Lancaster’s passage in the East African waters there were occasional visits by English vessels most of which went unmentioned. Since their target was India and the Far East, they seemed to have avoided the Kenyan coast as much as possible so that there are only a small number of recorded appearances. The next recorded visit was by three ships under Commodore John Blankett while engaged in the Napoleonic wars. (Narrative of Voyages To Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia and Madagascar VII p. 105) (Zanzibar in contemporary times p. 2) Next up was the H.M.S. Racehorse in 1810 and the Ternato and the Slyph in 1811. Yet another known visitor was James Prior in the Nisus Frigate who was in Mombasa in 1819. These visits were of little consequence but this was to change in 1823 when the H.M.S Barracouta and thereafter the H.M.S Leven arrived in Mombasa. It was during a turning point in East African history and the consequences of their arrival would be momentous. But this is a story too interesting and too important to be related in a few lines, therefore we will leave it for another day.
More to come
For Comments on this article, email the writer at: dkaranja@ajabuafrica.com