A. D. 1295. 455 



in return was defired to have the required fccurity taken in Germany, 

 before the vedels fhould be permitted to move. {Foedern, V. ii, p. 679.] 

 . A merchant of Bayonne, having taken in 174 bafl<ets of almonds ou 

 the coafl: of Africa, and alfo 150 boxes* of Malaga raifins, and 490 

 frailes (' flayons') of Malaga figs, when proceeding with thofe and other 

 goods to England, anchored on the coafl; of Portugal, where, notwith- 

 ftanding the truce fo lately made with the merchants of Spahi and Por- 

 tugal, he was taken by armed men, who carried him into Lifbon. There.. 

 his property was fold, and the king of Portugal received a tenth part 

 of it from the pirates, whereby the merchant was injured to the amount 

 of £']Oo fterling. King Edward's lieutenant in Gafcoigne thereupon 

 granted to him and his heirs licence to feize the property of the Portu- 

 guefe, and efpecially of the inhabitants of Lifbon, wherever he could 

 find it, during five years to come, or till he fhould be reimburfed for 

 his lofs and all expenfes. \Fosdera, F^. ii, p. 6gi.} This is, I believe, 

 the earliefl notice, to be found in Englilh records, of letters of marque 

 or reprifal. . 



September 28'" — The king direded John of Botetourt, his warden 

 of the coafl of Yarmouth, to permit the people of Holland, Zeland, 

 and Frifeland (whofe fovereign had engaged to alfifl: him in his war 

 againft France) to fifh freely on the coafl: near Yarmouth ; and he de- 

 fired him to make frequent proclamation, that no peribn fliould pre- 

 fume to injure or hinder them in their fifiiing, and that they fhould 

 give them every requifite afliflance, till the 1 1'" of November f . [F^dera, 

 V. ii, p. 688.] 



Dantzick was now for the firfl time inclofed with a wall, which was 

 made of planks, by Primillaus duke of Poland. In the year 1343 a 

 ftone wall was begun. But the houfes were built with reeds and mud 

 as late as the end of the fourteenth century, there being then only one 

 brick houfe, wherein the magiflrates aflembled. [Bertii Rer. Germ. L. 

 iii, p. 102.] 



Nicolo and Matheo Polo, two brothers of a noble family in Venice, 

 having gone upon a trading adventure to Conflantinople and various 

 parts of Afia, after a variety of fortune arrived at Cambalu in Cathay ij:, 

 the refidence of Cublai khan, the conqueror of China, who treated 

 them very favourably, and retained them in his fervice. Being fent as 

 his ambalTadors to the pope, they arrived in Italy in the year 1269, and 

 returned to the Eafi in 1271 with letters from the pope, accompanied 

 by Marco the fon of Nicolo. Y''oung Marco foon acquired the languages 



* ' Confines,' which apparently ought to be from him by Schook. in his D'tjfert, Je harengis, 



rojines, boxes or ballcets. The word coffin was not § 38. 



antiently rcftricled to a box for containing a dead j There can be little doubt that Cambalu, 



body. which, Marco informs us, lignifies the city of the 



+ This is doubtlefs the permiflion, dated by ting, is Pekin. Cathay is a name ftill ufed in Afia 



Selden in his Marc claufum in 1265, and copied for the northern part of China. 



