QUEEN ELIZABETH'S LETTERS 



A.D. 

 1596. 



The letters of the Queenes most excellent Majestic 

 sent in the yere 1596 unto the great Emperor 

 of China by M. Richard Allot and M. Thomas 

 Bromefield marchants of the citie of London, 

 who were embarqued in a fleet of 3 ships, to 

 wit, The Beare, The Beares whelpe, and the 

 Benjamin; set forth principally at the charges 

 of the honourable knight Sir Robert Duddely, 

 and committed unto the command and con- 

 duct of M. Benjamin Wood, a man of ap- 

 prooved skill in navigation : who, together 

 with his ships and company (because we 

 have heard no certaine newes of them since 

 the moneth of February next after their de- 

 parture) we do suppose, may be arrived upon 

 some part of the coast of China, and may there 

 be stayed by the said Emperour, or perhaps 

 may have some treacherie wrought against 

 them by the Portugales of Macao, or the 

 Spaniards of the Philippinas. 



Lizabetha Dei gracia Angliae, Franciae, 

 & Hiberniae Regina, verae & christianae 

 fidei contra omnes falso Christi nomen 

 profitentes invictissima propugnatrix 

 &c. Altissirno, Serenissimoque Principi, 

 potentissimo magni regni Chinas domi- 

 natori, summo in illis Asiae partibus 



Insulisque adjacentibus imperatori, & magno in orienta- 

 libus mundi regionibus Monarchae, salutem, multosque 

 cum omni optimarum rerum copia & affluentia laetos 

 & foelices annos. Cum honesti & fideles subditi nostri, 

 qui has literas nostras ad serenitatem vestram perferunt, 

 Richardus Allott & Thomas Bromefield, civitatis nostrae 

 Londini in dicto nostro regno Angliae mercatores, im- 



XI 417 2D 



