1 589.

XIX.

TO SIR GEORGE CAREW,

(Afterwards Earl of Totnes.)

From the Original. Carew Papers: MS. Tenison, dcv. fol. 140 (Lambeth
Palace). Holograph.

CUSSEN GEORGE,

FOR my retrait from the Court1 it was uppon good cause to take order for my prize. If in Irlande they

graphical interest:—“But understanding further, by this bearer, that, in
the absence of your Counsell, your will was that I shoulde consyder of the
booke which passed betweene you and Mr. Browne, and that yt pleased
you to use my opynion therin, I have perused the same accordinglie, and
fynde yt to be intrycatelie penned, and with so great disadvantage for your
parte, that I doubte the course which you are directed will hardlie satisfie
your expectation; for, as I conceave yt, ymmediatlie [after] Her Majesties
revocation, Mr. Browne ys to be discharged of the payment of his rent of
Sooli., but yet your graunt to hym will contynue still in force untill, upon a
perfecte accompte made by hym, you satisfie unto hym within vj monethes
so muche of the somme of 1300li. as before that tyme he shall not have
levyed by vertue of your graunte; and yf he refuse to yeld any such
accompte at all, and so neglecte to receave any suche satisfaction at your
handes, but resolve rather, beinge discharged of his rent, to contynue still
to benyfitte of your graunt, I doubt greatlie that by lawe you shall hardlie
avoyde yt. Wherfore I wyshe your counsell should advysedlie consyder of
the pointe, before you procede with the revocation. And if by the wordes
of the booke he [Browne] have this libertie and advantage in lawe (as I
doubte muche he hath), then ys there nothing in the booke to restrayne
hym, saving onlye his bare covenant, to redeliver unto you the Letters
Pattentes within six monethes after Her Majesties revocation, which was
not so sufficientlie forseene and provyded for by your counsell in the draw-
inge of the booke as was meet. Thes thinges I thought good to make
knowne unto you, and so leave them to your good consyderation, resting
allwayes moost readye to be used by you in any servyce I can performe.
And so, with my humble duetie, I commyt you to God. Your Worship's
moost ready at commandment," &c.
1 See Vol. I. p. 120.

LETTER
XIX.

1589. Dec. 27.

LETTER
XIX.

1589. Dec. 27.

thincke that I am not worth the respectinge they shall mich deceave them sealvs. I am in place to be beleved not inferrior to any man, to plesure or displesure the greatest; and my oppinion is so receved and beleved as I can anger the best of them. And, therfore, if the London] Deputy1 be not as reddy to steed mee as I have bynn to defend hyme,-be it att is may.?

To Sir G. Carew. [From

Cause of his recent absence

from the Court,

Proceed

When Sir WILLIAM FITZWILLIAMS shalbe in Ingland, I take myscalfe farr his better by the honorable offices I hold, as also by that nireness to her Majestye which still

ings of the I injoy, and never more. I am willinge to continew

Lord

Deputy

Fitzwil

liam.

Lawsuits about Lismore.

towards hyme all frindly offices, and I doubt not of the like frome hyme, as well towards mee as my frinds. This mich I desire he should understand; and, for my part, ther shalbe nothinge wantinge that becummeth at frinde; nether can I but hold myself most kindly dealt withall heretherto, of which I desire the continuance. I have deserved all his curteses in the hiest degree.

For the sute of Lesmore, I will shortly send over order from the Queen for a dismis of their cavelacions; and so, I pray, deale as the matter may be respeted for a tyme; and cummend mee to Mr. Sollicitor with many thancks for his frindly deling therin; and I assure yow, on myne honor, I have deservde it att his hands in place wher it may most steed hyme.

For HARDINGE, I will send unto yow mony by exchange with all possible spead, as well to pay hyme (if he suffer the recoverye) as all others; and till then, I pray, if my builders want, supply them.

I look for yow here this springe, and, if possible3 I may, I will returne with yow. The Queen thincks. that GEORGE CAREW longes to see her; and therfore

1 Sir William Fitzwilliam.

2 Som MS., being written hastily for as it ma1.

3

possibly

see her.

Farewell, noble GEORGE, my chosen frind and kinsman, from whom nor tyme, nor fortune, nor adversety, shall ever sever mee.

The 27 of December [1589].

LETTER

XIX.

1589. Dec. 27.

W. RALEGH.

Addressed:

To my lovinge Cussen, Sir GEORGE CAREW, Master of the Ordinance

Endorsed :

in Irland.

Raleghe. The 28th of December, 1589.

I 59 1.

XX.

TO THE LORD TREASURER BURGHLEY.

From the Original. MS. Lansdowne, vol. lxix. fol. 60, verso (British Museum). Holograph. Without address, and without date of the year.

MAY IT PLEAS YOUR LORDSHIP,

LETTER

XX.

1591. Oct. 16.

To Lord

All which Burghley.

UPPON Her Majesties motion for the understandinge of the valew of thes late prises brought in by Mr. WATTS' shipps, wee have conferred together and sett downe the trew valew of all; what parts go out, and what remaynes amonge twelve of us. amounteth not to the increas of one for one, which is a small returne. Wee might have gotten more to have sent them a fishinge. I assure your Lordship, what soever is taken, fifty of the hundred goes cleare away from the Adventurers to the mariners, the Lord Admirall, and to the Queene; the rest, being but fourteen thousand pounde or ther about, is a small

From
Durham

House.

On the

value of

certain

prizes cap

the Ships

of John Watts and

matter amounge twelve Adventurers; and of which
fourteen [thousand pounds], the settinge out cost us
very nire eyght thousand. This is the very trewth, I
assure your Lordship before the livinge God, as nire as
wee can sett downe or gett knowledge of. Of which, if
ought should be taken, ther would never one man of
warr put out; and so all our shipps may rote, our
mariners run awaye, and Her Majesty lose the best part
of her custom. And, besyds, the sume not worth the
looking after. Thus humblie praying your Lordship's
favorable consent in our rightfull cause, I humblie take
my leve.
From Derum House, this xvi of October
[1591].

Your Lordship's humblie to do you service,

LETTER
XXI.

TO SIR ROBERT CECIL.

As printed by MURDIN, from the Original in the Cecil Papers (Hatfield). [See Vol. I. pp. 146—158.]

SIR,

I RECEVED your letters this present day at ChatMarch to tame, concerninge the wages of the mariners and others.

1591-1592.

1 On the back of this letter appears an account thus headed: “Goods brought to London by the shipps of John Watts, Merchant, and others, in company." Then follows an estimate of the value of the merchandise and bullion captured, amounting, in the whole, to £31,150. "Whereout is to

LETTER

XXI.

1591-1592.

March 10.

To Sir R.

Cecil.

From

For myne own part, I am very willing to enter bonde, as yow perswaded me, so as the Privey Seale be first sent for my injoyinge the third; but I pray consider that I have layd all that I am worth, and must do, ere I depart on this voyage. If it fall not out well, I can but loose all, and if nothinge be remayning, wherewith shall I pay Chatham. the wages? Besides, her Majestie told mee hersealf Preparathat shee was contented to paye her part, and my Lord Admirall his, and I should but discharge for myne own shipps. And farther, I have promised her Majestie that, if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow Sir MARTEN FURBRESHER,' I will without fail returne; and bringe

be deducted for the third of mariners' part, £10,383; for my Lord his tenth, £3,015; for the Queen's customs, 1600; in charges for bringing the goods, £1200 = £16,198. Rests unto the owners and victuallers, to be divided amongst twelve, £14,952.”

1 NOTE ON RALEGH AND FROBISHER.

By the hypothetical expression—“if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow Sir Marten Furbresher"-Ralegh seems to glance at the then notorious unpopularity of Frobisher with mariners, on account of his sternness of character and the 'martinet' severity of discipline which he maintained. This eminent navigator was probably, at the time when Ralegh's letter was written, fifty years of age, and he survived little more than two years longer; dying, in November 1594, of wounds received in the expedition which he had bravely conducted in aid of the defence of Brest against the troops of the King of Spain. What is known of Frobisher's life has been recently collected by Admiral Collinson, in the highly interesting volume published by the Hakluyt Society, and entitled, Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, in Search of a Passage to Cathaia. It is by an oversight, however--as will be shown presently-that the gallant Admiral has said of Frobisher, when speaking of his share in Ralegh's expedition of 1592,— "He had but three ships, yet he made a shift to burn one rich galleon, and to bring home another." The famous voyages of 1577 and 1578, which won for Sir Martin his most enduring laurels, present some curious incidental parallelisms with occurrences in the long subsequent voyages to Guiana of Ralegh, and in the metallurgic transactions which grew out of them. His own unfortunate experiences must have many times brought to Ralegh's mind the previous troubles of poor Frobisher with his "gold ores" and his foreign mineralogists. But the expedition of 1592 is the only one which is known to have brought Ralegh and Frobisher into direct intercourse.

tions for
an Expedi-
tion
against

the

Spanish

Allusion

to rumours about his Marriage.