190 A. D. 1589. 



man Hanfe towns, laden with wheat and warUke ftores, to furnifh a 

 new armada againft England, and kept the cargoes, but difcharged the 

 fhips. Thofelfhips, left they fhould be taken, had failed by the Ork- 

 neys, the Weftern ifles of Scotland, and the weft fide of Ireland, becaufe 

 Queen Elizabeth had forewarned the Hanfe towns that they fhould not 

 carry any viduals nor provifion for war into Spain nor Portugal, under 

 pain of lofs of ftiips and goods. Yet although this was a legal capture, 

 it neverthelefs gave Queen Elizabeth much trouble for feveral years 

 after, in anfwering the remonftrances from the empire, and alfo from 

 Poland and Dantzick, they being deeply concerned m this feizure, and in 

 the end produced a total breach between England and the Hanfe towns. 

 At length, after facking Vigo, they returned home to England with 

 1 50 pieces of cannon and a very rich booty (fays Camden), though 

 others thought otherwife, and that all their achievements and booty 

 did not recompenfe the charge and the lofs, of 6oco of their foldiers 

 and failors. This is perhaps the greateft privateering enterprife (if it 

 may properly be fo termed) of any in the later ages of the world. 



In the Came year the brave and enterprifing earl of Cumberland, 

 with feveral fhips, filled on a private adventure to the Azores or Weftern 

 ifles, where he took many good prizes from the Spanifti and Portuguefe 

 Weft-Indies, &c. feized on, and ranfomed, the town of Fayal, and re- 

 turned home with a great booty, though much diftreflt^d by ftorms, &c. 

 At the j^zores Lord Cumberland met with three or four Scottifli ftiips,. 

 who fuppi'ied him with wine and water ; and this is the firft account we 

 have met with of Scottifli ftiips making fo long a voyage *. 



It is fcarcely worth recording, that in the fame year an abortive pri- 

 vateering adventure was attempted from Plymouth, with three ftiips, for 

 the South feas of America, one of which was of 340 and another of 300 

 tons ; but none of them could get through the ftraits of Magellan, and 

 all the three were loft in returning, only fix men getting home to give 

 this account. 



William Lee, A. M. of St. John's college in Cambridge, invented an 

 engine or fteel loom, called the ftocking-frame, for knitting, or weav- 

 ing, ftockings. This was but twenty-eight years after we had firft learn 

 ed from Spain the method of knitting them by wires or needles. Mr. 

 Lee's invention has proved a confiderable benefit to the ftocking manu- 

 fadure, by enabling England, in after times, to export vaft quantities 

 of filk ftockings to Italy, &c. where it feems (by Sir Jofiali Child's ex- 

 cellent Difcourfes on trade, publiftied in the year 1670) they had not 

 then got the ufe of the ftc«:king-frame, though little fhort of 100 years 

 after its invention: yet Dr. Howell, in his Hiftory of the world, [F". ii, 



* It appears by a letter from King Jamss to (and probably alfo fooner) traded to the Cana- 

 Quecii Eli7.:i> etii, [/a-cVra, y. \\i, f>. 336] tliat ric , which are Hill more diftant than the Azoress 

 fome of the Scottifh merchants, in the year J598, M. 



