Page "East India Company" Paragraph 4

Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean.

The permission was granted and in 1591 three ships sailed from England around the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea.

One of them, the Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin and on to the Malay Peninsula and subsequently returned to England in 1594.