A. D.I 579- 1^5 



This was what is called in England a regulated company, i. e. a com- 

 pany trading, not on a joint ftock, but every one on his Teparate bottom, 

 under certain regulations. We fhall fee this charter farther confirmed 

 by one from King Charles I, in 1629. Neverthelefs, they have been 

 frequently complained of by the Englifh merchants as a monopoly, and 

 were therefore curtailed by legal authority (as we fhall fee) in the year 

 1672. And finally, being, with all other monopolizing companies, 

 (not confirmed by parliament) deemed illegal in times of true liberty, 

 after the revolution, in confequence of the aft called the declaration of 

 rights, &c. they do not now exifl commercially, or otherwife, but in 

 name only, which it feems they ftill keep up, by continuing to elect 

 their annual officers ; and having (like the merchants of the Staple, 

 another company in fimilar circumfl:ances) a little ftock in our public 

 funds, the interefl thereof defrays the expenfes of their yearly meetings, 

 which are for no end but to commemorate their former exiftence in a 

 reftridive capacity, and to eleft their principal annual officers, now 

 merely nominal, which they ftill continue to do. 



"We cannot too much commend the indefatigable induftry of the fa- 

 mous patriot, (for fo he juftly deferves to be ftiled) Mr. Richard Hakluyt, 

 of the Middle Temple, London, in fo eamefi:ly promoting new difco- 

 veries and improvements for the benefit of England. In his fecond 

 volume of Voyages and difcoveries he directs Morgan Hubblethorne, a 

 dyer, who was fent into Perfia this year to learn the arts of dying there, 

 and of making carpets, &c. There are (fays he) perfons there who fi;ain 

 linen cloth ; it hath been an old trade in England, whereof fome ex- 

 cellent cloths yet remain, although the art be now loft in this realm *. 



In the fame year, William Harburn, an Englifti merchant, fent into 

 Turkey by Queen Elizabeth, obtained of the fultan Amurath III, that 

 the Englifh merchants might in all refpefts as freely refort and trade to 

 Turkey, as the French, Venetians, Germans and Poles, did at this time ; 

 by which roncefiion a foundation was laid for the Euglifli Turkey com- 

 pany, which was foon after efiiablifhed. 



1580. — Sir Francis Drake accomplifhed the fecond circumnavigation 

 of the terraqueous globe He began it in the year 1577, g^^^^S through 

 the Magellanic ■•trait, with five fhips, and 164 men. He pillaged St. 

 Jago of Chili, and other places on the weft coaft of America, which was 

 in fa 61: the principal end of his voyage. In fome of the harbours on 

 this coaft he found ftiips which had no perfon in them ; fo fee are were 

 the Spaniards, as not fo much as to dream of any enemy in thofe feas. 

 He at length took the imraenf^ly rich prize named the Cacofogo, 

 with twenty-fix ton of filver, and eighty pound weight of gold, befides 



* Mr. Anderfon here confounds Haklayt of tioiis for Hubb'ctliurne, who, as we learn by the 

 Oxford, the coUeftor of voyages, with his coufin inftruftions, was fent out a'c tlit cxpenfe of the 

 of the Middle Temple, who drew up the inflriic- city of London. M. 



