466 A. D. 1655. 



*' rigorous laws made under the kings again ft fo innocent a people would 



* happily be repealed: fo that we hope now for better treatment from 



* your gentlenefs and goodnefs ; fince, from the beginning of your go- 

 *■ vernment of this commonwealth, your highnefs hath profefled much 

 ' refpect and favour towards us. Wherefor, I humbly intreat your 

 ' highnefs that you would, with a gracious eye, have a regard to us and 

 ' our petition, and grant vmto us, as you have done unto others, the free 

 ' exercife of our religion ; that we may have our fynagogues, ancl' 

 ' keep our own public worfliip, as our brethren do in Italy, Germany, 

 ' Poland, and many other places ; and we fliall pray for the happinels 



* and peiice of this your much renowned and puifiant commonwealth.' 

 He proceeds to fliew, that other ftates have thought it their intereft to 

 encourage the Jews in their dominions; as, for inflance, the king of 

 Denmark invited them to fettle at Gluckftadt in Holflein ; the duke of 

 Savoy, at Nice ; the duke of Modena, at Reggio ; and in India there are 

 four fynagogues at Cochin for the ufe of the Jews, a fourth part of 

 whom are of a white complexion, and the other three quarters are 

 tawny. That in Perfia there are great numbers of Jews, and many of 

 them in great favour at court. That in Turkey they are moft numer- 

 ous, many of them living in great ftate, and in favour with the fultan 

 and his bafhaws ; there being in Conftantinople alone 48 fynagogues ; in 

 Salonichi 36; and above 80,000 Jews in thofe two cities. That in ail 

 the Turkifh dominions their number amounts to many millions of 

 people. Next, he refutes all the accufations againft the Jews, and fliews 

 the damage which accrued to Spain and Portugal by banifhing the Jews 

 out of their dominions ; and the great benefit, in point of revenue, to 

 the public, and in refpedl to the increafe of commerce and manufac- 

 tures, which would accrue by re-admitting them : fo that in conclufion 

 they were re-admitted, and have remained in England, ever iince, though, 

 not in fuch great numbers as in fome other parts. 



The republic of Tunis not only refufed to comply with Admiral 

 Blake's jufl: demands in behalf of the Englifh commerce, (who was then 

 with a fquadron in the Mediterranean for watching the motions of the 

 French fleet) but even treated his propofals with much infolence and 

 contumely ; and we learn by that great admiral's letter to Secretary 

 Thurloe, that he failed with his fquadron into the harbour of Porto-Fa- 

 rino, and burnt all their fliips, being nine in number, with the lofs of 

 only twenty -five men killed ; and then, having reduced them to reafon, 

 he returned to Cagliari in Sardinia, whence he dates that letter. [T/jur- 

 he, V. iii, p. 390.] He afterwards brought Algiers and Tripoli alfo to 

 terms of peace. 



In India the Dutch this year took the city of Calecut from the Portu- 

 guefe ; and in the following year (1656) they alfo deprived them of 

 Columbo, their capital fettlement in Ceylon, and thereby became mal- 



