234 A. D. 1742. 



from Britain and Ireland, and alfo all tlie fliips of our American plan- 

 tations, fliould be regiftered as Britifh, IrilTi, or plantation, built, or elfe 

 prize-lhips made free: and a certificate of fuch regifter was to be always 

 ready in the mailer's hands : many frauds had neverthelefs been dif- 

 covered in this refped:, certificates of luch regifters having been fre- 

 quently fold to foreigners, whofe fhips, under colour thereof, have been 

 admitted to trade to and from the Britifli plantations, contrary to thofe 

 former laws. For prevention whereof, the mafier of every iliip arriv- 

 ing in America mufl now take an oath of all the qualifications necei- 

 fary for afcertaining fuch IKip to be a qualified one for trading thither, 

 and to be abfolutely and folely the property of his majefly's Britifh, 

 Irifh, or American, fubjecls. 



Some Rullian adventurers from Tartary having now, as well as in 

 fome former years, difcovered the coafl:s of America, of which they 

 actually had fight, and particularly of California, had, it feems, failed 

 I2| de'2;rees north of that country, where no voyager had been before. 

 From thofe difcoveries of the Ruffians, it may be concluded (fays Dr. 

 Bufching, in the firfl volume of his very valuable Geography of Europe, 

 p. 524, Englifh tranflation), that Afia and America, about the 66th 

 degree of norih latitude, are feparated from each other only by a very 

 narrow channel. 



At the city of Dublin in this year 1742 there were chrifiened 1 357 

 children; buried 2 :;2o perfons. This lafl number, multiplied by '^'^, 

 gives the probable number of fouls in Dublm to be 76,560, provided 

 the numerous papi'ls of that city, and all the proteflant diffenters due- 

 ly regifler their burials, which is at leafl doubtful. 



At Amtlerdam there arrived this year 1591 fhips. 



1743 Though the controverfy from the prefs between Mr. Dobbes 



and Captain Middleton, concerning the pafTage through Hudlon's bay 

 wertward to China, &c. and the nature of the Hudlon's-bay company's 

 trade M'ith the favages of that bay, be too prolix to be totally tranfcrib- 

 cd into this work, yet there were lundry branches thereof thereby 

 brought to light, which are well worth recording. 



The captain in his farther vindication, printed in 1743, obferves, 

 ' that, until a little above twenty years before, the voyage to Hudfon's 

 ' bay was fe'dom made without wintering there.' This fhews that 

 the company has thereby made a confiderable improvement therein, 

 and a confidera 4e faving mufl needs be made by not wintering at their 

 forts on U) inh ifpitable a fhore. 



Mr. Dobbes has taken the pains to give the public the entire fale of 

 all that company's returns in the year 1743, viz. 



26,750 beaver fkins, fold for - - L9780 4 o 



12,370 marten's fkins _ _ - 4242 7 o 



2360 damaged ditto - - 442 10 o 



