A. D. 1520. 57 



taking were fo many, that the czar rejeded their propofal. [Monfori's 

 Naval traBs, p. 480.] 



"According to Nicholfon, {ErigUP) bljloricnl library, p. 6, ed. 1696.] 

 ' fince the beginning of King Henry VIII's reign, our eldeft general 

 * geographer or antiquary is faid to have been Thomas Suhno, a Guern- 

 ' fey man, who died at London, anno 1545 ; the year followhig, a 

 ' much greater man of the profeflion. Sir Thomas EUiot, one of King 

 ' Henry's ambafladors, and of Sir Thomas Moore's friends, died alfo. 

 ' Contemporary with thofe two, was George Lilly (fon of William the 

 ' famous grammarian), who lived fome time at Rome with Cardinal 

 ' Poole, and piiblilhecl the firfl exaft map that ever was till then drawn 

 ' of ihis illand.' 



1521 The great fuccefs of theTurks at this time juftly alarmed the 



princes of Europe ; for in the year 1 5 2 1 , the lliltan Solyman the Magnifi- 

 cent not only took the fortrefs of Belgrade from. Louis king of Hungary, 

 but likewife foon after, the city of Buda, the capital of that kingdom. 

 In the year following he alTaulted the famous ifle of Rhodes, fo long 

 poffelled by the knights of St. John of Jerufalem ; and although the 

 city of Rhodes had but 6000 Chriftians in garrifon, they held out fix 

 months againft the whole power of the Turks, who loll 64,000 men be- 

 fore they were able to take it. Solyman alio, out of the Black Sea and 

 other parts, having got together near 600 galleys, &c. attempted the ille 

 of Corfu, and ravaged the neighbouring coafls and ifles, proving too 

 hard for the united fleets of the emperor, Venice, and the pope. This 

 proved a great detriment to the naval commerce of England in the Le- 

 vant feas, where, till novv', thofe zealous knights of St. John had been 

 the common protecT:ors of all Chriftian fnips, and a great obflruclion to 

 the Turkifh depredations. When thofe knights got away from Rhodes, 

 with 50 of their galleys, they carried much riches with them, and many 

 people ; yet, (that v.'e may not any more recur ro this article) in about 

 eight years following, during which they moved about between Candia, 

 Naples, Sicily, Villafrar.ca, &.c. their numbers and riches were much di- 

 minilhed ; until the year 1530, when the Emperor Charles V beilov,-ed 

 on them the ifles of Malta and Goza in tlie Sicilian fea : Here they 

 again foon became the terror of the Mahometans, as they ftill continue 

 to be. Captain Pviorg.m acquaints us, that the naval torce of Malta, in 

 his time, coniifted of feven flout Ihips of war, none carrying fewer than 

 50 guns, beflde galleys and privateers of all fizes, with which they are 

 perpetually harafliiig the coafls of Barbary, and bringing home prizes 

 to Malta. [Hi/l. of Algiers, V. i, p. 315. e'd. 1728.] 



In thofe times, wlien commerce was but in its childhood, there was 

 too much of a monopolizing fpirit throughout all Europe. The ciiy of 

 Hamburgh pretended (and partly ftill pretends^ to an exclufive domi- 

 nion on the river Elbe. Tliis.had been. connived at in the early davs 



Vol. \}, H 



