A. D. I qo8. 



33 



feflion of Mafcate ; alio of fimdry ifles in the Perfian gulf, and the 

 important town and port of Balfora at the upper end of that gulf. 

 They, in brief, were become very formidable to all the princes of In- 

 dia, many of whom they made tributary ; and as their fleets were very 

 powerful and numerous, (b was their dominion on the Indian feas ex- 

 tremely arbitrary, infomuch that no fliip whatever could fliil thereon 

 without their permilTion ; and if any did prefume fo to do, they feized 

 on fhips and goods, and imprifoned their failors : Likewife, they almofl 

 every where committed great cruelties and mafllicres on the conquered 

 people at land, and thought to expiate all their crimes and enormities 

 by building a great number of churches and monaflcies wherever they 

 weffe mafters. This great profpeiitv they held throughout all the fix- 

 teenth century, and were conflantly increafmg in power, fame, and 

 riches ; yet whoever well confiders the prefenc fli.te of the fmall king- 

 dom of Portugal, will be almofl apt to marvel how they got to fuch a 

 pitch of grandeur and power both by lea and land, and to hold it for 

 near a century and an half, in fpite of the emulation of their European 

 neighbours ; on which point, though we do not here undertake to en- 

 large, we may, however, curforily obferve, i. That Portugal was then 

 much more populous than at this day, and that their prefent feeble ftate 

 (for want of manufatSures) is owing to the draining of their people to 

 colonize Africa, India, and Brafil. 2. That the Portugnefe conquefts 

 were made partly over effeminate Afiatics, in warring with whom they 

 had great advantages, and no P^uropean rivals, and partly over the mi- 

 ferable favages of Brafil and Africa, utterly unacquainted with fire ar- 

 tillery, iron, warlike weapons, and the European art of war. But when 

 the Hollanders once got to India, we (liall fee how pitifully thofe mighty - 

 Portuguefe conquerors defended their numerous conquefls there and in- 

 Afnca. 



1509 — Rnflia was now aggrandized and fh-engthencd by the conqueft' 

 of the city and territory of Pleflcow (hitherto an independent lordihip), 

 by the great duke, or czar, Bafilius IV, who alio conquered from the 

 Poles the flrong frontier town of Smolenlko. As Rulfia had long be- 

 fore this time fallen under the fubjedion of the Crim-Tartars, and had. 

 been divided into many petty principalities, whofe princes were tribut- 

 aries to the Tartars, this czar, Bafilius IV, by reducing and uniting 

 many of thofe principalities, and by his other lucceisful wars againfl: the 

 Tartars,, has occafioned chronologers to commence the fuccelfion of the 

 czars of Ruflia or Muicovy from him. 



This year is alio remarkable for the death of Henry VIT king of 

 England. How diiTjvently Ibever his conduct or charader may be ani- 

 madverted on by various authors, it is enough for our prefent purpcfe- 

 to confider its conlequences in a politico-commercial view. We may, 

 therefore, jullly remark, that feveral laws made in his reign, and hr- 

 Vo^.II, E 



