6 Voyage of the Novara. 



the appearance of the commercial section of the Novara 

 publications. 



A Dutchman, named William Bolts, formerly in the service 

 of the British East India Company, in the year 1774 made 

 to Count Belgiojoso, at that period Ambassador in London of 

 the Empress Maria Theresa, proposals for direct commercial 

 intercourse between the Netherlands and Trieste and Persia, 

 the East Indies, China, and Africa, with the objectof sujoplying 

 the harbours of the Austrian dominions with the products 

 of India and China, without the costly intervention of other 

 countries. This proposition having been brought under the 

 notice of the Imperial Chancellor, Prince Kaunitz, at Vienna, 

 was so cordially received by that minister, that Bolts received 

 an invitation to j^i'esent himself at the Empress's palace, in 

 order to develope his plans more fully in person in that august 

 presence. Bolts arrived in Vienna in April, 1775, and very 

 shortly afterwards was invested by the Empress with all the 

 requisite privileges for facilitating the prosecution of his great 

 project. The imperial officials at Trieste were entrusted 

 with the equipment and arming of the vessel, the supreme 

 military council were required to provide the necessary pay 

 for the soldiers and subaltern officers, and Bolts by special 

 commission was formally empowered in the name of the 

 Empress Queen, as also in that of her successors upon the 

 throne, to take possession of all the territories which he 

 might succeed in getting ceded by the princes of India, for 



