A. D. 1612. 269 



council. Some have reckoned the iflands 400 in number ; but moft of 

 them too fmall to have any name, they being all circumfcribed within 

 the compafs of little more than about 47 leagues. St. George's, the 

 largefl:, is naturally fortified almoft quite round by rocks ; and where 

 there is any landing place they have forts and batteries ; and their on- 

 ly two harbours are alfo very well fortified. They at firfl planted fome 

 tobacco ; but it did not anfwer expedation. They are faid to have the- 

 finefl oranges in the world, alfo mulberries, olives, &c. and the nobleft' 

 of cedar trees. Yet they produce very little ftaple commodities fit for ; 

 exportation, excepting their cedar floops, with which they trade, and 

 fell them at the Weft-Indies, and fome provifions : with the gain of 

 which trade they are enabled to pay Great Britain for all the necefla- 

 ries they are conflantly fupplied with. It was afterwards, like Virginia,, 

 made a regal government, and fo it ftill continues. As thefe ifles lie fo' 

 remote from America, there were no people found on them by the 

 Englifh : but they found plenty of hogs, which the Spaniards had left 

 there, as they likewife did on many other uninhabited ifles, that they 

 might afterward, in cafe of fhipwreck or ftorms, find fuftenance there- 

 on. The iflands labour under a want of frefh water, and the frequent 

 attacks of furious winds, florms, thunder, &c. At the main ifland of 

 St. George (as well as at the chief town) large (hips may fafely enter 

 and be fecure, both harbours being fo well fortified that an enemy may 

 be eafily kept out: and this is probably what induces government to 

 keep up thofe inconfiderable and much worn-out ifles, which lie fo 

 much in the way of our enemies (in whofe power they ought never to 

 be) as well as of our own fhipping ; there being no produ(^tions there 

 but what maybe had in our other plantations ; and their tobacco is 

 much worfe than that of Virginia. 



The Englifh Eaft-India company now fent out one fhip, carrpng Sir 

 Robert Shirley, as ambaflador from King James to Perfia, and wich him- 

 Sir Thomas Powell, who obtained of the Perfian court certain privi- 

 leges for the company. This fhip returned home with a cargo of pep- 

 per, from Sumatra and Bantam, in 1614 ; and this is ufually reckoned 

 the twelfth voyage of tliis company. 



In the fame year, James Hall and William Baffin failed as high in 

 Hudfon's bay as 6$ degrees 20 minutes of north latitude, fearching for 

 a paflage to China, in vain. They alio made trial of a fuppoied mine 

 there, which had been digged by fome Danes, but found it of no value. 



The Spaniards and Portuguefe lT:ill continuing to infift that none but 

 themfelves had any right to fail beyond the equinodial line, the learn- 

 ed Hugo Grotius, on the part of his own country of Holland, under- 

 took to confute them in his ever-famous fmall Latin treatife, intitled, 

 * Mare liberum, five de jure quod Batavis competit ad Indicana com- 



