Page:Remarkable account of a shipwreck on an uninhabited island.pdf/3



Certain English Merchants, encouraged by the great advantages arising from the Eastern commodities, in the year 1569, having obtained Queen Elizabeth's royal license, furnished out for the East Indies four ships of which Edward English was chosen factor ; who embarked on the 3d of April, O. S. with his wife and family, consisting of a son of twelve years old, a daughter fourteen, two maid servants, a female negro slave, and George Pine his book-keeper, on board one of the said ships, called the East India Merchant, of four hundred and fifty tons, being provided with all manner of necessaries and conveniences, in order to settle a factory there.

By the 14th of May, they were in sight of the Canaries ; and soon after arrived at the Cape de