3^4 



A. D. 1620. 



And for preventing the Hollanders from fettling efFeflually, as they 

 imagined, on Ceylon, on which they had for fome years cafl; a longing 

 eye (having in 161 2 made a treaty for that end with the king of Cey- 

 lon), the Portuguefe at this time increafed the numher and flrength of 

 their forts along the coafts of that ifland, whereby they fo much 

 hemmed in the king of that country, that without their permifTion he 

 could not hold correfpondence with any foreign nation : of which vio- 

 lence they afterwards found the bad efFeds therafelves. 



Our voyage-writers give accounts of fundry abortive attempts to 

 make fettlements in the country fmce called New-England ; as, firft, at 

 the charge of the lord chief-juftice Popham, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 

 and others, in the year 1606, who had obtained of King James a grant, 

 enabling them to plant between the degrees of 38 and 45 north lati- 

 tude ; and a fecond time in 1608. Another in 161 1, a fourth in 161 2, 

 a fifth in 1 6 15 by the Virginia company, a fixth in 161 6, and alfo 

 again in 161 8 and 1619: though indeed fome of them were rather 

 trading voyages for filTi, train-oil, and furs, than aftual attempts for 

 planting. They, however, made many occafional difcoveries and fur- 

 veys of rivers, bays, &c. preparatory to fuch a plantation. At firft, it 

 was called by fome of the old geographers Norumbega, or more pro- 

 perly North-Virginia. But the firfl: permanent plantation, which re- 

 mains to this time, was not made till this year, at a place named Ply- 

 mouth, in New-England ; after having gained over fome of the fachems 

 or chiefs of the Indians, and difpofleffed others of them, who made op- 

 pofition thereto. And Captain John Smith, having furveyed the in- 

 land country, and prefented a map of it to Charles prince of Wales, the 

 prince gave the country the name of New-England. 



This year four of the Englifh Eaft-India fhips, outward bound, made 

 folemn publication in Saldania bay, near the Cape of Good Hope, of the 

 poflellion of the adjacent country for King James, and ereded a mount 

 in token of it. They thence failed to India, where they fought fuccefs- 

 fully with the Pertugueie fleet, and took feveral prizes. They likewife 

 took fome of the mogul's own fhips called junks, and fome of the king 

 of Decan's likewife, who had ufed our people ill ; and they returned 

 home in 1622. 



Giles Hobbs, one of our Ruflia company's fadlors, made a journey 

 from Mofcow to Ifpahan, by the way of Aftracan, and acrofs the Cas- 

 pian fea, as the company's agents had done in Queen Elizabeth's time. 

 In his letter he gives an account of a great trade for raw filk at fundry 

 ports on the Calpian fea ; and infmuates how ealily the company might 

 carry on that filk trade, by tranfporting it to RulTia. He fays, that at 

 Aftracan the Perfian vefTels bring in their dyed iilks, calicoes, and Per- 

 fian fluffs ; and, in return, carry home cloth, fables, martens, red leather, 

 and old Ruflia money : but that the Turks, Arabs, Armenians, and 



