the said governor in declining to receive any part of the said sum, granted by the assembly, till his Majesty's pleasure should be known therein; I am to acquaint your Lordships, that his Majesty is graciously pleased to permit the said governor to receive the fore-mentioned sum of £1000 per annum during his royal pleasure; and your Lordships are to prepare a new instruction in place of the old one beforementioned, which may effectually restrain governors from receiving gifts and presents, and yet not be liable to the difficulties and objections mentioned in your Lordships' report.

Pursuant to your Lordships' report of the 6th of May last, on the representation of Ambrose Weston and William Cleeves, late Fishing-Admirals at the island of St. Peter's, adjacent to Newfoundland, complaining of illegal trade practised there by one Gallantry, alias Tulon, a native of France; his Majesty approves of the conduct of the said Fishing-Admirals, as justifiable by law and agreeable to their duty. But, in consideration that the said Tulon, among others remaining at St. Peter's, took the oaths of fidelity to his Majesty, and engaged in the fishing in confidence of her late Majesty's letter and the orders given thereupon, it is his Majesty's pleasure, that the produce of the fish taken by the said Tulon at St. Peter's, and sent to Bilboa, be restored to him the said Tulon, after the said produce has been returned from Bilboa to his Majesty, according to the tenor of your Lordships' report.

Upon your Lordships' report of the 31st of May last, relating to the piracies committed in the West Indies, and particularly in the seas about Jamaica, his Majesty being sensible that the British trade in those parts is thereby in great danger, he has been graciously pleased to give such orders thereupon, as have been recommended by your Lordships. In the first place, his Majesty has signified his pleasure to the Lords of the Admiralty, that one fourth-rate and two fifth-rate men of war be ordered to those seas, to suppress the pirates and protect the trade, unless their Lordships have already made other sufficient provision for that service; in which case they are to acquaint me therewith, that I may lay the same before his Majesty without loss of time.

2ndly, His Majesty has ordered a proclamation to be prepared, with an assurance of his gracious pardon to the said pirates, provided they come in and surrender themselves with

in a limited time. 3rdly, his Majesty has appointed a governor of the Bahama Islands, who will be enabled to drive the pirates from their lodgment at Harbour Island and Providence, represented by your Lordships to be the general receptacle of the pirates.

In answer to your Lordships' letter of the 8th of July last, containing the extract of a letter from Colonel Hamilton, governor of the Leeward Islands, dated the 15th of May, 1717, and other papers relating to a settlement intended by the French at St. Lucia, and the confiscation of a British ship at Martinico, and your letter of August the 6th last, containing the copy of a letter from Colonel Spotwood, Lieutenantgovernor of Virginia, dated the 31st of May last, together with a representation from him and the council of that colony, concerning the seizure of an English ship by the Spaniards, and making several of his Majesty's subjects prisoners, I am to acquaint you that I have received his Majesty's commands to transmit the former to his Majesty's ambassador at the court of France, and the latter to his Majesty's envoy extraordinary at the court of Spain, that the proper applica tions may be made for redress, in his Majesty's name, on the respective complaints therein exhibited.

In pursuance to your Lordships' report, of the 26th of July last, on the petition and proposal of Captain Woodes Rogers,1

66

This is the bold and adventurous Capt. Woodes Rogers who made a cruising voyage round the world, first to the South Seas, thence to the East Indies, and homeward by the Cape. He was one of the earliest navigators who went so far to the southward. "We have no night here," he observes on the 10th of January, when, after outriding a tremendous storm, he had reached the island of Juan Fernandez. "Having sent our boat on shore," he says, our men returned bringing abundance of craw-fish, with a man clothed in goat-skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of them." This was no other than the celebrated ALEXANDER SELKIRK, the original of De Foe's ROBINSON CRUSOE. He had been on the island four years and four months, being left there by Capt. Stradling, whose ship came with Capt. Dampier. After leaving Juan Fernandez, Rogers and his crew captured and plundered the town of Guayaquil, took the Aquapulta, and several other rich Spanish prizes, and then put into California for repairs. It was nearly two years after this before he reached England. In 1717, as is seen by the present letter, and one dated Oct. 14th, (page 496,) he was appointed Governor of the Bahama Islands, where he exterminated the pirates infesting those parts, and fitted out several ships for carrying on a trade with the Spaniards in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1721 Rogers transmitted to Mr. John Ker of Kersland a long Memoir of his government, which will be found in Ker's Mem. vol. iii. p. 22-34, published 1726.

about fortifying and settling the Bahama Islands, his Majesty being very well satisfied with your Lordships' representation of the importance of those islands to the British trade and navigation in those parts, as also with the character which is given of the said Captain Rogers by the most considerable merchants of London and Bristol, as a person every way qualified for such an undertaking, he is pleased to appoint the said Captain Woodes Rogers to be governor of the Bahama Islands, and of the garrison which shall be sent thither, and to order your Lordships to prepare drafts of a commission and instructions for that purpose; that the same may be laid before his Majesty for his Royal approbation.

Your Lordships' representation of the 16th instant, upon the memorial of Lord Archibald Hamilton, relating to a sum of two thousand seven hundred and six pounds six shillings and three pence, advanced by his Lordship and the council of Jamaica for subsisting his Majesty's forces there, and to other demands on account of his Lordship's salary, &c., having been also laid before his Majesty, he is graciously pleased to approve the same; and, whereas your Lordships have set forth that the assembly of Jamaica did neglect to re-imburse the said sum of £2706 6s. 3d. though recommended by his Majesty's letter of the 13th of May, 1715, I am to signify to your Lordships his Majesty's pleasure, that the said sum of £2706 6s. 3d. be paid to the Lord Archibald Hamilton and others to whom the same is due, out of the first and readiest of the revenues of that island unappropriated. But, in case your Lordships find the entire revenue of the said island to be appropriated, your Lordships are to draw up an instruction for Sir Nicholas Lawes to recommend to the assembly at their next meeting, in the most effectual manner, to make provision for so just a debt; and, whereas the memorialists lent the said sum to supply the exigences of government, and this debt has stood out so long a time, and whereas likewise very large interest has been allowed by an act of assembly, on the 10th of November last, to Colonel Haywood, the present commander-in-chief of Jamaica, for money advanced by him on the like service, it is his Majesty's further pleasure, that interest be also. paid to the memorialists according to the ordinary rate of interest in Jamaica, for so long a time as they have been kept out of their money; and, as to the arrears of salary and

other debts claimed by the Lord Archibald Hamilton out of the revenues of Jamaica, his Majesty defers to declare his pleasure therein, till Sir Nicholas Lawes, after his arrival there, shall have transmitted an account of what shall appear to be justly due to his Lordship.

Your Lordships having in your letter of the 28th instant represented the necessity you are under of having recourse, from time to time, to several of the plantation laws, but that by reason the said laws are contained in several large bundles of parchment, it is difficult and tedious to come at what is immediately wanted; for which reason your Lordships think it will be for his Majesty's service, that you should have an order to his Majesty's printer to print, from time to time, such of the said laws as your Lordships shall send him; his Majesty is graciously pleased to comply with this your Lordships' proposal, and I am to give such an order to his Majesty's printer as is therein mentioned.

I am, &c.,

J. ADDISON.

ADDISON TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE

MY LORDS,

TREASURY.

Whitehall, September 6th, 1717.

The king having been pleased to direct Vice-Admiral Cornwall, his Majesty's Plenipotentiary for treating and concluding a peace between his Majesty and the Emperor of Fez and Morocco, to pay three thousand dollars and the further sum of five hundred pounds to the ministers and officers of the said Emperor, as likewise the sum of ten thousand dollars, alleged by the Court of Alequinez to have been promised by Captain Paddon, his Majesty's late Plenipotentiary there, in order to facilitate the success of that negotiation and the release of his Majesty's subjects there under captivity; his Majesty commands me to signify his pleasure to your Lordships, that you do immediately direct credit to be given to the said Vice-Admiral Cornwall at Gibraltar, for the respective sums of three thousand dollars, five hundred pounds, and ten thousand dollars above-mentioned.

I am, my Lords, your Lordships'

Most obedient and most humble servant,
J. ADDISON.

ADDISON TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY.

MY LORDS,

Whitehall, September 6th, 1717.

I transmit to your Lordships, by His Majesty's commands, a copy of a letter from the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations to me, with a copy of a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia to the said Commissioners, and accounts of His Majesty's revenue of two shillings per hogshead on Tobacco, and of His Majesty's quit-rents in Virginia; and the said Lieutenant-Governor taking notice in his said letter, that the 2s. per hogshead on tobacco (appropriated for the support of the government) falls short of discharging the last half-year's salaries, £1973 10s. 4d.; but that there is in the Bank of the revenue of the quit-rents £3766 1s. 4d.; and therefore desiring that so much of the quit-rents, as will discharge the said debt on the establishment, may be applied for that purpose, (as has been heretofore done in like cases,) His Majesty is pleased to refer these matters to your Lordships' consideration.

I am, my Lords,

Your Lordships' most obedient,
humble servant,

MEMORANDUM.

The Papers enclosed were,

J. ADDISON.

Copy of a Letter from the Lords Commissioners of Trade to Mr. Secretary Addison, dated Whitehall, August 15th, 1717.

Copy of a Letter from Col. Spotswood to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of Trade, dated Virginia, May 30th, 1717. The Accounts of His Majesty's Revenue of 2s. per hogshead, &c., arising within the colony of Virginia, from the 25th day of October, 1716, to the 25th day of April, 1717.

Account of His Majesty's Revenue of Quit-rents, &c., from the 25th of April, 1716, to the 25th of April, 1717, received within the colony of Virginia.

MY LORD,

ADDISON TO THE EARL OF STAIR.

Whitehall, September 6th, 1717. Mr. Churchill being now going to France, to solicit the French Court to make good their contract for transporting prisoners during the late war, and it having been form