A. D. 1637. 395 



1 6.37 — This was properly the firfl time that France began to fliew a 

 fuperiority over Spain at fea, as fhe had before done at land : and after- 

 wards Richlieu went on deflroying the remains of Spain's naval flrength, 

 till at length it was reduced to the lowefl: ebb. 



Count Maurice of Nafllui, the Dutch Weft-India company's governor- 

 general in Brafil, took another fortrefs from the Spaniards : and fome 

 of that company's (hips failed from thence to the coaft of Guinea, and 

 made themfelves mafters of the famous caftle of St. George del Mina, 

 the principal Portuguefe fort of all that coaft, which they have kept to 

 this day, as alfo of feveral other lefl'er forts there. By thefe conquefts 

 on the Guinea coaft the Dutch were fupplied at firft hand with negroes 

 for carrying on their fugar plantations, &c. in Brafil. 



King Charles iflued a proclamation, importing, ' that being inform- 



* ed that numbers of his fubjedts are every year tranfporting themfelves 

 ' and families, with their eftates, to the Englifti plantations in America, 

 ' amongft whom there are many idle and refradory humours, vvhofe 

 ' only or principal end is to live as much as they can without the reach 



* of authority ;' the king thereby commands all the officers of the fe- 

 veral ports that they do not hereafter permit any perfons being fubfidy- 

 men (i. e. payers of the ufual fubfidies) to embark themfelves thither, 

 without a licence from the commiflioners for plantations ; nor none un- 

 der the value of fubfidy-men, without a certificate of his having taken 

 the oaths of fupremacy and allegiance, and likewife, from the minifter 

 of the parifti, of his converfation, and conformity to the orders and dif 

 cipline of the church of England. This was levelled againft the puri- 

 tans, then going in great numbers to New-England to avoid perfecution 

 at home : and a better fample needs not to be defired of the wifdom of 

 this king and his minifters. [Fasdera, V. xx, p. 143. J 



Some of the Englifti Eaft-lndia company's ftnps having in the year 

 1 634 touched at Goa, the capital of the Portuguefe poft'eflions in India, 

 they were kindly treated by the viceroy there, with whom the Englifti 

 concluded a truce, and alfo a free trade, not only thither, but to C;jina 

 and all other parts where the Portuguefe were fettled in India ; where- 

 upon, in the following year (1635), King Charles granted a licence to 

 Captain John Weddell, &c. with fix ftiips, to make a voyage to Goa 

 and the coaft of Malabar, and alfo to the coafts of China and Japan, 

 there to trade in fuch commodities as they could to the beft advantage 

 for themfelves and all other his fubjeds for the future : * but the Eaft- 



* India company having neither planted n.)r fettled a trade in thoie 



* parts as we expedled, nor made luch fortifications and places of furety 

 ' as might encourage any hereafter to adventure to trade thither ; nei- 

 ' ther have we received any annual benefit from thence as other princes 



* do, by reafon of the faid company's negled to fortify, they having 

 ' merely purfued their own prelent profit, without providiu^j any fafety 



3D 2 



