the sound of Denmark which they frequented; together with the inveterate malice and craftie crueltie of the Hanse. And because the name, office, and dignitie of the masters generall, or great Masters of Prussia would otherwise have bene utterly darke and unknowen to the greater part of Readers, I have set downe immediatly before the first Prussian ambassage, a briefe and orderly Catalogue of them all, contayning the first originall and institution of themselves and of their whole knightly order and brotherhood, with the increase of revenues and wealth which befell them afterward in Italy and Germany and the great conquests which they atchieved upon the infidels of Prussia, Samogitia, Curland, Liefland, Lituania, &c. also their decay and finall overthrow, partly by the revolt of divers Townes and Castles under their jurisdiction, and partly by the meanes of their next mightie neighbour the King of Poland.

After all these, out of 2. branches of 2. ancient statutes, is partly shewed our trade and the successe thereof with divers forren Nations in the time of K. Henry the sixt.

Then followeth the true processe of English policie, I meane that excellent and pithy treatise de politia conservativa maris: which I cannot to any thing more fitly compare, then to the Emperour of Russia his palace called the golden Castle, and described by Richard Chanceller pag. 255. of this volume: whereof albeit the outward apparance was but homely and no whit correspondent to the name, yet was it within so beautified and adorned with the Emperour his majesticall presence, with the honourable and great assembly of his rich-attired Peers and Senatours, with an invaluable and huge masse of gold and silver plate, & with other princely magnificence; that well might the eyes of the beholders be dazeled, and their cogitations astonished thereat. indeed the exteriour habit of this our English politician, to wit, the harsh and unaffected stile of his substantiall verses and the olde dialect of his wordes is such; as the first may seeme to have bene whistled of Pans oaten pipe, and the second to have proceeded from the mother of Evander: but take you off his utmost weed, and beholde the comelinesse, beautie, and riches which lie hid within his inward sense and sentence; and you shall finde (I wisse) so much true and sound policy, so much delightfull and pertinent history, so many lively descrip

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tions of the shipping and wares in his time of all the nations almost in Christendome, and such a subtile discovery of outlandish merchants fraud, and of the sophistication of their wares; that needes you must acknowledge, that more matter and substance could in no wise be comprised in so little a roome. And notwithstanding (as I said) his stile be unpolished, and his phrases somewhat out of use; yet, so neere as the written copies would give me leave, I have most religiously without alteration observed the same: thinking it farre more convenient that himselfe should speake, then that I should bee his spokesman; and that the Readers should enjoy his true verses, then mine or any other mans fained prose.

Next after the conclusion of the last mentioned discourse, the Reader may in some sort take a vieu of our state of merchandise under K. Edward the fourth, as likewise of the establishing of an English company in the Netherlands, and of all the discreet provisoes, just ordinations, & gratious privileges conteined in the large Charter which was granted for the same purpose.

Now besides our voyages and trades of late yeeres to the North and Northeast regions of the world, and our ancient traffique also to those parts; I have not bene unmindefull (so farre as the histories of England and of other Countreys would give me direction) to place in the fore-front of this booke those forren conquests, exploits, and travels of our English nation, which have bene atchieved of old. Where in the first place (as I am credibly informed out of Galfridus Monumetensis, and out of M. Lambert his Apɣacovoμía) I have published unto the world the noble actes of Arthur and Malgo two British Kings. Then followeth in the Saxons time K. Edwin his conquest of Man and Anglesey, and the expedition of Bertus into Ireland. Next succeedeth Octher making relation of his doings, and describing the North Countreys, unto his soveraigne Lord K. Ecfrid. After whom Wolstans Navigation within the Sound of Denmark is mentioned, the voyage of the yong Princes Edmund and Edward into Sweden and Hungarie is recorded, as likewise the mariage of Harald his daughter unto the Russian duke Jeruslaus. Neither is that Englishman forgotten, who was forced to traveile with the cruel Tartars into their Countrey, and from thence to beare

them company into Hungary and Poland. And because those Northeasterne Regions beyond Volga, by reason of the huge deserts, the colde climate, and the barbarous incivilitie of the people there inhabiting, were never yet throughly traveiled by any of our Nation, nor sufficiently knowen unto us; I have here annexed unto the said Englishmans traveile, the rare & memorable journals of 2. Friers, who were some of the first Christians that travailed farthest that way, and brought home most particular intelligence & knowledge of all things which they had seene. These Friers were sent as Ambassadours unto the savage Tartars (who had as then wasted and overrunne a great part of Asia, and had pierced farre into Europe with fire and sword) to mitigate their fury, and to offer the glad tidings of the Gospel unto them. The former, namely Johannes de Plano Carpini (whose journey, because he road sixe moneths poste directly beyond Boristhenes, did, I thinke, both for length and difficultie farre surpasse that of Alexander the great, unto the river of Indus) was in the yeere 1246. sent with the authoritie and commission of a Legate from Pope Innocentius the fourth: who passed through more garisons of the Tartars, and wandered over more vast, barren, and cold deserts, then (I suppose) an army of an hundred thousand good souldiers could have done. The other, to wit, William de Rubricis, was 1253. by the way of Constantinople, of the Euxin sea, and of Taurica Chersonesus imployed in an ambassage from Lewis the French King (waging warre as then against the Saracens in the Holy land) unto one Sartach a great duke of the Tartars, which Sartach sent him forthwith unto his father Baatu, and from Baatu he was conducted over many large territories unto the Court of ManguCan their Emperour. Both of them have so well played their parts, in_declaring what befell them before they came at the Tartars, what a terrible and unmanerly welcomming they had at their first arrivall, what cold intertainment they felt in traveiling towards the great Can, and what slender cheere they found at his Court; that they seeme no lesse worthy of praise. then of pitie. But in describing of the Tartars Countrey, and of the Regions adjacent, in setting downe the base and sillie beginnings of that huge and overspreading Empire, in registring their manifolde warres and bloody conquests,

in making relation of their hords and mooveable Townes, as likewise of their food, apparell and armour, and in setting downe their unmercifull lawes, their fond superstitions, their bestial lives, their vicious maners, their slavish subjection to their owne superiours, and their disdainfull and brutish inhumanitie unto strangers, they deserve most exceeding and high commendation. Howbeit if any man shall object that they have certaine incredible relations: I answere, first, that many true things may to the ignorant seeme incredible. But suppose there be some particulars which hardly will be credited; yet thus much I will boldly say for the Friers, that those particulars are but few, and that they doe not avouch them under their owne names, but from the report of others. Yet farther, imagine that they did avouch them, were they not to be pardoned as well as Herodotus, Strabo, Plutarch, Plinie, Solinus, yea & a great many of our new principall writers, whose names you may see about the end of this Preface; every one of which hath reported more strange things then the Friers between them both? Nay, there is not any history in the world (the most Holy writ excepted) whereof we are precisely bound to beleeve ech word and syllable. Moreover sithens these two journals are so rare, that Mercator and Ortelius (as their letters unto me do testifie) were many yeeres very inquisitive, and could not for all that attaine unto them; and sithens they have bene of so great accompt with those two famous Cosmographers, that according to some fragments of them they have described in their Mappes a great part of those Northeastern Regions; sith also that these two relations containe in some respect more exact history of those unknowen parts, then all the ancient and newe writers that ever I could set mine eyes on: I thought it good, if the translation should chance to swerve in ought from the originals (both for the preservation of the originals themselves, and the satisfying of the Reader) to put them downe word for word in that homely stile wherein they were first penned. And for these two rare jewels, as likewise for many other extraordinary courtesies, I must here acknowledge my selfe most deepely bounden unto the right reverend, grave, and learned Prelate, my very good lord the Bishop of Chichester, and L. high Álmner unto her Majestie; by whose friendship and meanes I

had free accesse unto the right honor. my L. Lumley his stately library, and was permitted to copy out of ancient manuscripts, these two journals and some others also.

After these Friers (though not in the next place) foloweth a testimonie of Gerardus Mercator, and another of M. Dee, concerning one Nicholas de Linna an English Franciscan Frier.

Then succeedeth the long journey of Henry Earle of Derbie, and afterward king of England into Prussia & Lithuania, with a briefe remembrance of his valiant exploits against the Infidels there; as namely, that with the help of certaine his Associates, he vanquished the king of Letto his armie, put the sayd king to flight, tooke and slew divers of his captains, advanced his English colours upon the wall of Vilna, & made the citie it selfe to yeeld. Then mention is made also of Tho. of Woodstock his travel into Pruis, and of his returne home. And lastly, our old English father Ennius, I meane, the learned, wittie, and profound Geffrey Chaucer, under the person of his knight, doeth full judicially and like a cunning Cosmographer, make report of the long voiages and woorthy exploits of our English Nobles, Knights, & Gentlemen, to the Northren, and to other partes of the world in his dayes.

Neither have we comprehended in this Volume, onely our Trades and Voiages both new and old; but also have scattered here and there (as the circumstance of times would give us leave) certaine fragments concerning the beginnings, antiquities, and grouth of the classical and warrelike shipping of this Island: as namely, first of the great navie of that victorious Saxon prince king Edgar, mentioned by Florentius Wigorniensis, Roger Hoveden, Rainulph of Chester, Matthew of Westminster, Flores historiarum, & in the libel of English policie, pag. 195. and 196. of this present volume. Of which Authors some affirme the sayd Fleet to have consisted of 4800. others of 4000. some others of 3600. ships: howbeit (if I may presume to gloze upon the text) I verily thinke that they were not comparable, either for burthen, strength, building, or nimble stirrage unto the ships of later times, and specially of this age. But howsoever it be, they all agree in this, that by meanes of the sayd huge Fleet he was a most puissant prince; yea, and some of them affirme