238 A. D.I 743- 



trade laid open, and thofe tine inland countries upon Rupert's, Moofe, 

 Albany, and X'elibn, rivers, fettled by our people, we might regain the 

 whole trade from the French, and fupply the natives with woollen and 

 iron wares, &c. wliich, he fays, the company do not do ; but, inflead 

 thereof, by their exorbitant rates, do enable the French from Canada to 

 underfeil them. He adds, with refpedlto this company, that eight or nine 

 private merchants engrofs nine tenth parts of the company's capital flock, 

 whereby they arc perpetual diredors. Mr. Dobbes, for the greater cor- 

 roboration of his opinion of the probability of a paffage out of Hudfon's 

 bay into the South feas, gives us an abflract of the voyage of De Fonte, 

 the vice-admiral of Peru, from Lima northward, on the weft fide of 

 North-America, as far as the Tartarian feas in 77 degrees of north lati- 

 tude, in the year 1640, by order of the king of Spain, who had advice 

 of frefh attempts in 1639 ^^^ ^ north-weft paflage by certain naviga- 

 tors from New-England ; and that the Spanifti admiral had found in 

 thofe feas a lliip from Bofton in New-England, commanded by one 

 Capi.ain Shaply, who was told by that admiral, that his inftrudions were, 

 to make prize of any people feeking a north-weft paflage into the South 

 fea ; but that, neverthelefs, he would look upon them as merchants trad- 

 ing with the natives for beavers, &c. and fo difmifled him generoufly. 

 Which account Mr. Dobbes thinks has all the appearance of being 

 authentic, though it is plain there are fundry very improbable circum- 

 ftances in it; particularly that admiral's aflerting, at the conclufion of his 

 journal, that he found there was no pafTage into that fea by what is 

 called the north-weft paffage, after he had related his finding the New- 

 England fliip in the Tartarian fea ; which circumftance, however, Mr. 

 Dobbes b.as laboured to clear up. He thinks, that fhip might have 

 pafltd into the Tartarian fea through fome of the openings near Whale- 

 cove, in trading for furs, and might have been afterwards loft, or elfe 

 furprifed by the Ei'quimaux favages, upon her return home, feeing no 

 account of this voyage was ever tranfmitted from Bofton ; and that, 

 upon Sir Charles Wager's making inquiry, whether any of the name of 

 Shaply had lived at that time in Bofton, it did appear from certain writ- 

 ings, that fome of that name had then lived at Bofton ; which, fays Mr. 

 Dobbes, adds to the weight of De Fonte's account, and confirms its be- 

 ing an authentic journal *. 



The fuburbs of London ftill increafing on every fide, and particularly 

 towards the hamlet of Bethnal green, which at this time was increafed 

 to about i8oo houfes, and computed to have more than 15,000 inha- 

 bitants, v.'hich is above eight perfons to each houfe (by reafon they are 

 nioftiy manufacturers, and the meaner fort of working people, many 



* 11 furli a voyage liaJ been undertaken from other fabricated Spanifh navigator) are now uni- 



Eolton, the n-.emor\- of it could Ti.jt have been iit- vcrfally allowed to be mere fables. The Spaniards 



ttvrly !o.1 in that place in the courfe of a century, have no accounts of any fuch difcoverers. M. 



But the difcoveiies of Fuentc, and L/c Fuca (an- j 



