Many South Asians arrived in Europe by sea as lascars or servants. English commerce on the Indian subcontinent brought some of these people to England and four South Asian men in London answered the call for sailors for the first English East India Company fleet to Asia. Their Portuguese names identifies them as mixed-race Portuguese Luso-Asians. Since the 17th century, the East India Company employed thousands of South Asian "lascars", scholars and workers (who were mostly Bengali or Muslim) mainly to work on British ships and ports around the world.