14^ A. D. 1567. 



tity thereof could be had ; which flattering hopes produced a fecond 

 voyage ten years after, although no north-weft paffage was found. 



Sir Thomas Grefham, an eminent merchant of London, who in the 

 ftile of thofe times was called the queen's merchant, becaufe he had the 

 management of all her remittances, and her other money concerns with 

 foreign ftates, and with her armies beyond fea, ereded a building in 

 London (then efteemed a fine one) for the daily public refort of mer- 

 chants. The queen would not have that place called, as in other coun- 

 tries, the Bourfe, but gave it the name of the Royal exchange. Its fi- 

 gure is to be feen in fundry books, confifting, like the prefent one, of a 

 fquare piazza, with a building over it, much like that at Grefliam col- 

 lege, which was Sir Thomas's own dwelling-houfe. When it was finifh- 

 ed, the queen came in perfon, and proclaimed its name with the heralds 

 at arms, trumpets founding, &c. It was burnt dov/n in the great con- 

 flagration of the year 1666, and foon rebuilt in its prefent much greater 

 fplendour. There was before this time a place in Lombard-ftreet for 

 the meeting of merchants, but it was now by the increafe of commerce 

 found to be too fmall. 



We have feen, under the year 1564 to 1566, the ill fuccefs of the 

 French in their attempts to fettle in Florida. Another attempt was now 

 made by Captain Gourgues, who arriving with three (hips in Florida, 

 took the Spanifh forts, and put all the Spaniards to the fword ; but not 

 having ftores fufficient for remaining there, he re-embarked, promifing 

 the Indians to return the following year, and arrived in France in 1568. 

 It was conjec^ired that the admiral Coligny intended Florida as a laft 

 refuge for thofe of his own perfuafion, the proteftants of France, fore- 

 feeing that they would probably be overpowered by the catholics ; yet 

 no farther attempts were made by the French : And the fame country 

 was afterwards colonized by the Englifh, and divided into the provinces 

 of North CaroUna, South Carolina, and Georgia. 



We muft here obferve, that in all thofe voyages to Florida, there 

 were many plaufible accounts given of gold and fiiver mines, pearls and 

 pretious ftones, which later difcoveries have proved to be entirely fabu- 

 lous. And this remark may be applied to almoft all our own firft Eng- 

 lifh attempts for fettlements in the iflands and continent of America. 



1568 — Some fhips of Bifcay being chafed by the French into Ply- 

 mouth, Falmouth, and Southampton, Queen Elizabeth detained the fum 

 of 200,000 piftoles, found onboard them, upon a prefumption of its 

 belonging to Spaniards ; but fome Genoefe merchants, who intended 

 to form a bank in the Netherlands, proving it to be their property, fhe 

 reftored it to them : neverthelefs, the duke of Alva thereupon feiz- 

 ed the effeds of the Englifh merchants-adventurers at Antwerp, to 

 the vakie of about Lico,ooo Sterling ; and Elizabeth, by way of re- 

 prifal, feized the Netherland and Spaniili fl;iips and effedls in England,, 



