268 A. D. 1612. 



be annually eledled out of the court of aldermen and common-councilV 

 for the management of the lands and fifheries of that part of Ireland. 

 Yet it feems King James thought the magiflrates of the city of London 

 were not expeditious enough therein: for in the year 1613 he fent for 

 that newly-ereded corporation to Greenwich, and reprimanded them 

 for their dilatorinefs, 8cc. Whereupon the city fent over to Ulfter an 

 alderman and a commoner, with fome furveyors, who fettled the new 

 colony to the king's, as well as the city's fatisfadion : and the lands 

 and fifheries there have bten fmce greatly improved, to the confider- 

 able benefit of that part of Ireland ; it being a very valuable eftate 

 pofTefl^ed to this day by the city of London in its corporate capacity. 



King James took the benefit of a ftatute [25 Edw. Ill} which enabled 

 the king to levy a reafonable aid for the marriage of his eldeft daughter, 

 and ifiued his precepts to the (herifFs of the feveral counties for the levying 

 thereof, being the fame with that he levied in 1609, for making his 

 eldeft fon a knight, viz. twenty {hillings on every knight's fee ; and the 

 like on every L20 per annum on all lands held of the crown in foccage. 

 Which aid was alfo (we conceive) the laft of the kmd raifed by any of 

 our kings. [Feeders, V. xvi, p. 724.] 



In this fame year, or, as fome others, two years fooner, the Danes 

 firft failed to Eaft-India, w'lcre they have ever lince carried on a com- 

 merce, and have a good fort and town, built about the year 161 7, on 

 the coaft of Coromandel, called Tranquebar ; though their trade be not 

 very confiderable there to this day. 



The ciufter of fmall and very rocky illands, fituated between Europe 

 and America, and named the Bermuda or Somer ifles, in the north la- 

 tirudf of 327 degrees (.500 miles diredly eaft from Carolina), was now 

 planted by the Englifli. They had, almoll 100 years before, been dif- 

 covered by one Bermuda, a Spaniard, but were never planted by any 

 before this time. Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates, in their 

 voyage to Virginia in 1609, were flripwrecked there, and lived there 

 nine months; and having built a fliip of the cedar of the place, they 

 failed thence to Virginia. They left two men in the largeft ifle, whom 

 the colonifts found there. And from the firft-named gentleman they 

 were named the Somers' ifles, though the firft name of Bermuda is 

 moftly ufed. Sir George Somers was, it feems, a fecond time driven on 

 thofe ifles, and died there. But thofe who were with him, on their ar- 

 rival in England, made fo favourable a report of the beauty and fertili- 

 ty of them, that the Virginia company (who, as firft difcoverers, claim- 

 ed the property) fold them to about i 20 perfons, to whom the king 

 granted a charter. And in this year 1 60 perfons fettled on the largeft 

 of them, named St. Qeorge's ifland, and afterwards 500 more followed 

 in 1 61 9; whereupon they inftituted an alTembly, with a governor and 



