THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE 



in Paris, which by the malice of some too much afFectioned 

 to the Spanish faction, had bene above twentie yeeres 

 suppressed, assoone as that booke came to the view of that 

 reverend and prudent Counseller Monsieur Harlac the 

 lord chiefe Justice of France, and certaine other of the 

 wisest Judges, in great choler they asked, who had done 

 such intollerable wrong to their whole kingdome, as to 

 have concealed that woorthie worke so long ? Protesting 

 further, that if their Kings and the Estate had throughly 

 followed that action, France had bene freed of their long 

 civill warres, and the variable humours of all sortes of 

 people might have had very ample and manifold occasions 

 of good and honest emploiment abroad in that large and 

 fruitfull Continent of the West Indies. The application 

 of which sentence unto our selves I here omit, hastening 

 unto the summarie recapitulation of other matters con- 

 tained in this worke. It may please your Honour there- 

 fore to understand, that the second part of this first 

 Treatise containeth our auncient trade and traffique with 

 English shipping to the Hands of Sicilie, Candie, and Sio, 

 which by good warrant herein alleaged, I find to have 

 bene begun in the yeere 1 5 1 1 . and to have continued 

 untill the yeere 1552. and somewhat longer. But shortly 

 after (as it seemeth) it was intermitted, or rather given 

 over (as is noted in master Caspar Campions discreet 

 letters to master Michael Lock and master William 

 Winter inserted in this booke) first by occasion of the 

 Turkes expelling of the foure and twentie Mauneses 

 or governours of the Genouois out of the He of Sio, 

 and by taking of the sayd Hand wholie into his owne 

 hand in Aprill, 1566. sending thither Piali Basha with 

 fourescore gallies for that purpose ; and afterward by 

 his growing over mightie and troublesome in those 

 Seas, by the cruell invasion of Nicosia and Famagusta, 

 and the whole He of Cyprus by his lieutenant Generall 

 Mustapha Basha. Which lamentable Tragedie I have 

 here againe revived, that the posteritie may never 

 forget what trust may bee given to the oath of a 



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