630 A. D. 1415. 



minated among the Portuguefe a fcience hitherto fcarcely known to any 

 Chriftian nation, except the commercial ftates of Italy *, and contribut- 

 ed to nourifh that fpirit of enterprife, which in time accompliihed the 

 greateft revolution that ever happened, or probably ever can happen, in 

 the commercial world. 



Prince Henry, being defirous of making difcoveries upon the weft 

 coaft of Africa (but whether with the expedation of finding a paffage to 

 India, I will not venture to fay) fent out two veflels, with orders to pro- 

 ceed as far as poffible along the coaft, which they traced only as far as 

 Cape Bojador in 27 degrees north latitude. {^Piircbas's Pilgrims, B. i, 

 <r. 2, § I ; B. K, c. I ; and authors there quoted.'\ 



141 6, March — The crimes of clipping, waftiing, and filing, the money 

 of the kingdom were declared by parliament to be treafon ; and the pu- 

 niftiment of them, as well as of importing bafe money, was committed 

 to the judges, [^fls 3 He?i. V^ flat. 2, cc. 6, 7.] 



It has been obferved (p. 515) that merchant veflels ufed to fail in 

 fleets in time of war, that their united force might enable them to re- 

 pell the attacks of the enemy. Before they failed, they eledted admirals 

 among themfelves, and all the commanders, in prefence of the magif- 

 trates of the port of departure, fwore to ftand by their admirals. In 

 confequence of a feparation of the vefTels of a fleet from Bourdeaux, one 

 of the admiral fhips, a vefl'el belonging to Hull with a valuable cargo, 

 was taken : and the owner of her applied to parliament to oblige the 

 owners of the other veflTels to indemnify the lofs fuftained by their de- 

 fertion. \Cotton''s Abridgement, p. 548.] 



It appears from the rolls of the king's wardrobe, that the greateft part 

 of the linen ufed in England, efpecially by thofe of the higher ranks, 

 was imported, and was chiefly of the fabrics of Reynes (or Rennes) and 



* If we may credit the accounts given of maps l!(hed by Formaleoni, wherein Africa appears with 

 executed in tliis age, trpetiiSny the Venetian ones, a chai' fea to the foiilLward of U, one of tlic Azores, 

 not only the Cape of Good Hope, under the name or Wcllein idands, lias the name of Brafii* , and to 

 of the Fore front of /ifr'ica, but even the Straits the weltward of them there is adliially delineated 

 of Magellan, called the Dragons tad, were now a great illiind called y^iilUHa. But it may well be 

 known. Pedro, an elder brother of Henry, is faid doubled, whether envy of the naval pre-eminence, 

 to have got a map of the world at Venice in the fiiatched out of their hands by the Portuguefe and 

 year 1428, wherein thofe foutliern extremities of Spaniards, may not have inlligated the Venetians 

 the old and new continents were delineated : and to make interpolations upon, and give fiflitious 

 Cralvano relates, that Francis dc Sola Tavares told dates to, fome antlcnt maps ; for iflands can eafdy 

 him, that in the year 1528 he faw a map, drawn be inferted in the void fpace reprefenting the fea 

 in 1408, containing ' all the navigation of the long after the original conilrudion of a manufeript 

 ' E.ill-Indies with the Cape of Bona Speran^a map, without the overciowding or crafure, which 



• (Good Hope) according as our later maps have detect interpolatiuns in a manufcript book ; and 



• defcrlbed it.' [_Pur(.has, B. x, /). 1673.] To we, who fee them only in engraved copies, have 

 »hcfc may be added the maps, (llll prefcrvcd in the not the fmalkil opportunity to judge of their gen- 

 library of S'. Mark at Venice, bearing the name uinenefs. 



of Andrea Bianco and the date of 1436, and pub- 



* In Tcnreira, onr of lh<! Ajcrcs, tliirc arc two hills ' ihe enchanted ifl:>nj, llic ])..radifc of the pagan Irifh,* was 

 Cillcd Brcfyl. \Lllfdl,trHl^'li\(l)^rJ,fj>.lii,l'6(l■^ I know fuppoffd to he fituatcd in ihc Ocean to the Wtftward of 

 r.ot if il bt worth while to otftrvc, th.tt ' U-/ lirsfajl, or lithnid. [I'ulufucyj Coll. de rth. Hit'crii. yi. xi, f. 282.] 



