A. D. 1615. 279 



1615 We have elfewhere obferved, that, from the very commence- 

 ment of the EngUfli commerce to Eaft-India, there was a fpirit raifed 

 at home again 11: it : that fpirit flill continued, and a fmall tradl was now 

 pubhfhed, entitled, the Trade's increafe, wherein we meet with the 

 following plaufible objedions to it, viz. 



That to follow the Eaft-Tndia trade, they had negleded that to RufTia, 

 in which, laffc year, there were only two fliips employed, inftead of 

 feventeen great fhips formerly employed by the company, befide thole 

 of interlopers : whereas the Dutch, in this year, fent out thirtv-flve 

 fhips thither. To which it was replied, by Sir Dudley Diggs, that the 

 Eall-India company had fpent Li 20,000 in difcoveries only, towards 

 Ruflia, — and do yet make good a flock not only for defending their fifh- 

 ing of the whale at Greenland, which at their own charge was firft dif- 

 covered, and the Bifcayners fent for by them, to teach our nation to 

 kill the whales. 



The Englifh Turkey company's complaints againfl the Eafl-Tndia^ 

 company feemed to be better, or at leaf! more fpecioufly, grounded, 

 viz. that the trade of the later had leffened theirs to the Levant, to 

 which parts they now fent thirty fliips fewer than formerly ; whereas the 

 Dutch now employed above one hundred fail to the Levant ; though the 

 author of the complaint owns they were principally laden with Englifh 

 lead, tin, Norwich ftuflfs, &c. He complains of the lofs of feveral 

 Eaft-India fhips, and of the death of many of their failors, whereby 

 (fays he) when the royal fleet was to be fitted out for conveying the 

 Lady Elizabeth to her fpoufe the eledor palatine, there was a neceflity 

 for a general prefs. 



The above quoted author, in fpeaking of obfolete reftraints-on the 

 tifhing on the coafls of other nations, obferves, 



' I) That the antient cuf^om of the Hollanders and Flemings, before 



* they began their fifhing lor herrings on our coafls, was, to crave leave 

 ' of the governor of Scarborough caflle. 



* II) On that part of the coaft of Norway called IMalllrand, all 

 ' flrangers may fiili only till Chriflmas ; after which they muft pay a 

 ' certain tax on every laft of herrings to the king of Denmark. 



' III) And I can remember, that certain of our merchants of Hull 



* had their fhips and goods taken away, and tliemfelves imprifoned, for 

 ' lifhing about the Wardhoufe, at the North Cape in Norwegian Lap- 

 ' land.' 



To all which Sir Dudley Diggs replied, iii a maflerly manner, in this 

 fame year, in a treatife intitled, the Defence of trade, infcribed to his 

 kinfinan Sir Thomas Smith, governor of the Eafl-India company. 

 Wherein (after accounting for the lofs of fhips and men) he gives a lifl 

 of all the fhips they had employed from the beginning, being only 

 twenty-four in number,, four of wliich had been lofl. — That one of 



