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Rome, to rntreat friendship, as moved with the fame of the ma- 

 jesty of the Roman empire. And have not we as good cause 

 to admire, that the kings of the Molucca, and Java major, have 

 desired the favour of her majesty, and the commerce and traffic 

 of her people? Is it not as strange that the born naturals of 

 Japan, and the Phillipines, are here to be seen, agreeing with our 

 climate, speaking our language, and informing us of the state of 

 their eastern habitations? For mine own part, I take it as a 

 pledge of God's further favour both unto us and them : to them 

 especially, unto whose doors I doubt not in time shall be by us 

 carried the incomparable treasure of the truth of Christianity, 

 and of the Gospel, while we use and exercise common trade with 

 their merchants. I must confess to have read in the excellent 

 history entitled, Origines de Joannes Goropius, a testimony of 

 king Henry the Eighth, a prince of noble memory, whose inten- 

 tion was once, if death had not prevented him, to have done some 

 singular tiring in this case; Avhose words, speaking of his dealing 

 to that end with himself, he being a stranger, and his history rare, 

 1 thought good, in this place, verbatim to record. " Ante viginti 

 et plus eo annos ab Henrico Kncutto Equite Anglo nomine Regis 

 Henrici arram acccpi, qua convenerat, Regio sumptu me totam 

 Asiam, quoad Turcorum et Persarum Regum commendationes, et 

 legationes admitterentur, peragraturum. Ab his enim duobus 

 Asiae principibus facile se impelralurum sperabat, ut non solum 

 tutomihi per ipsorum fines liceret ire, sed ut commendalione etiatu 

 ipsorum ad confinia quoque daretur penetrare. Sumplus quidem 

 non exiguus erat futurus, sed tantaerat principi cognoscendi avidi- 

 tas, ut nullis pecuniis ad hoc iter necessariis se diceret parsurum. 



