Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/561



APPENDIX No. 1, Vol. ii., p. 70.

The Booke made by the Right Worshipful Mr. Robert Thorne, in the yeere 1527, in Sivil, to Doctour Ley, Lord ambassadour for King Henry the Eight, to Charles the Emperoar, being an information of the parts of the world, discovered by him and by the King of Portingal: and, also of the way to the Moluccaes by the North.

Right noble and reverend in I.C. I have received your letters, and have procured and sent to know of your servant, who, your Lordship wrote, should be sick in Merchena. I cannot there, or elsewhere heare of him, without he be returned to you, or gon to S. Lucar, and shipt. I cannot judge but that of some contagious sicknesse hee died, so that the owner of the house, for defaming his house, would bury him secretly, and not be knowen of it. For such things have often times happened in this countrey.

Also to write unto your Lordship of the new trade of Spicery of the Emperour, there is no doubt but that the Islands are fertile of cloues, nutmegs, mace, and cinnamom; and that the said islands, with other there about, abound with golde, rubies, diamonds, balasses, granates, jacincts, and other stones and pearls, as all other lands that are under and near the Equinoctiall. For we see where nature giveth anything she is no nigard. For as with us, and other, that are aparted from the said Equinoctiall, our mettals be lead, tin, and iron, so theirs be gold, silver, and copper. And as our fruits and grains be apples, nuts, and corne, so theirs be dates, nutmegs, pepper, cloues, and other spices, and as we have jeat, amber, cristal, jasper, and other like stones, so have they rubies, diamonds, balasses, saphyres, jacincts, and other like. And though some say that