Be you a pattern of virtue, and an example of true nobility, which is grounded and hath her foundation upon virtue; for, as the poet saith, ex virtute nobilitas nascitur, non ex nobilitate virtus; virtus sola nobilitat, non caro nec sanguis. And therefore, saith Demosthenes, if thou draw thy descent and pedigree even from Jupiter himself, yet if thou be not virtuous, just, and good, ignobilis mihi videris; in my opinion thou art no gentleman. It is a noble thing to be born of noble ancestors, (as Aristotle saith), but his nobility faileth, when his ancestors' virtues in him faileth, hic enim verè nobilis est censendus, cui non aliena sed sua virtus ad gloriam opitulatur. Your ancestors were very ancient, and men of great nobility, beneficial to their princes and country many and sundry ways. And as in nature you are descended from them, so it hath pleased God to bless you with knowledge in learning, with skill of warlike service, and in experience in maritimal causes, and beside hath placed you among the nobles, and in the good grace and favour of your prince. Wherefore you are so much the more to be careful to restore the house of your decayed forefathers to their ancient honour and nobility, which in this later age hath been obscured, abiding the time by you to be restored to their first and primer state; which you are not only taught by their old and good examples, but also by the ensigns of their and your nobility.

For the fusils being an instrument of travail and labour, do advertise you, that you are one of the sons of Adam, born to walk in a vocation, and therein to be a profitable member in the church of God, and in maintenance of the common society; which when you behold and look upon, you must so endeavour yourself, even as Agathocles, king of Syracusa, whose cupboards, though they were well furnished with great store and variety of rich plate, yet he thought not the same sufficiently fraughted, unless he had also his earthen pitchers and stone cups in which he used to drink, to teach and remember him in the middle of his royalty, to be mindful

of his origin, estate, and duty. The white colour or silver metal doth teach unto you virtue, sincerity, and godliness. For as silver is a most excellent metal, and next unto gold excelling all others, and with which, for the excellency thereof, the Lord God would have his tabernacle and his temple to be adorned and beautified with vessels and ornaments thereof; and as the white colour, if it be spotted and foul, doth lose his grace, even so it teacheth you to be a man of an honest and of a godly conversation; to lead a life in all uprightness without reproach and disgrace; and that you should be serviceable to God and your country in all good actions; and therewith also (which by the gulie colour is meant) you be bold and valiant for the defence of your country, and for the safety thereof to spend both life and goods, that you should be beneficial to all men, hurtful and injurious to no man. And such kind of men were your ancestors, who for the same were beloved and honoured, and their names for ever registered in immortal fame and memory. And so shall it be with you, if you do the like, and follow their steps and examples, God shall bless you, and you shall prosper and flourish as did Joseph; you shall be honoured, as was Daniel; and you shall be in favour before God and man, as were your ancestors; the whole people shall speak good of you, the honour of your house shall be restored, and your talent shall be augmented and increased, and all things shall go well with you.

-According to such instructions and collections as are come to my hands, I have after the method and nature of an history most sincerely and faithfully set down what is material and worthy the writing. And forasmuch as yourself was a party and a doer in some part of the Desmonds' wars, (in which you were a painful and a faithful servitor, and therefore can give some report and testimony to this discourse), and also for the love and honour which I do owe and bear unto you, I thought it my part and duty to offer and present,

and presently in most humble manner I do offer and present, the same unto your good favour and protection. And albeit, the thing itself be very slender, and too far an inferior present to be offered to one of your estate and calling, yet let your courtesy cover that, and accept my goodwill; which as time and occasion hereafter shall serve, I shall and will be most willing (as your lordship's most devout and assured) to supply in all the good services I may or shall be able to do at your commandment. The Lord bless you, and multiply your days, to the honour of God, the good service of her Majesty, the benefit of the commonwealth, the comfort of your friends, and to your own increase in all honour.-Exon. October 12, 1586. Your L. very good friend and ally at commandment,

JOHN HOOKER.}

N°. II.

HAKLUYT'S DEDICATION PREFIXED TO HIS TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH OF LAUDONNIERE'S HISTORY OF FOUR VOYAGES TO FLORIDA.

[From HAKLUYT's Voyages, III, 301, folio, 1600.]

To the Right Honourable Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, Cap tain of her Majesty's Guard, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and her Highness' Lieutenant-General of the County of Corn wall, R. H. wisheth true felicity.

'SIR,-After that this history, which had been concealed many years, was lately committed to print, and published in France under your name by my learned friend M. Martiné Basanier of Paris, I was easily induced to turn it into Eng. lish, understanding that the same was no less grateful to you

my

here, than I know it to be acceptable to many great and worthy persons there. And no marvel though it were very welcome unto you, and that you liked of the translation thereof, since no history hitherto set forth hath more affinity, resemblance or conformity with yours of Virginia, than this of Florida. But calling to mind that you had spent more years in France than I, and understand the French better than self, I forthwith perceived that you approved mine endeavour, not for any private ease or commodity that thereby might redound unto you, but that it argued a singular and especial care you had of those who are to be employed in your own like enterprise, whom, by the reading of this my translation, you would have forwarned and admonished as well to beware of the gross negligence in providing of sufficiency of victuals, the security, disorders, and mutinies, that fell out among the French, with the great inconveniencies that thereupon ensued, that by others' mishaps they might learn to prevent and avoid the like; as also might be put in mind by the reading of the manifold commodities and great fertility of the places herein at large described, and so near neighbours unto our colonies, that they might generally be awaked and stirred up unto the diligent observation of every thing that might turn to the advancement of the action, whereunto they are so cheerfully entered. Many special points concerning the commodities of these parts, the accidents of the Frenchmen's government therein, the causes of their good or bad success, with the occasions of the abandoning one of their forts, and the surprise of the other by the enemy, are herein truly and faithfully recorded; which because they be quoted by me in the margents, and reduced into a large alphabetical table, which I have annexed to the end of the work, it shall be needless to reckon up again. And that the rather, because the same with divers other things of chiefest importance are lively drawn in colours, at your no small charges, by the skilful painter James Morgues, sometime living in the Black-friars in Lon

don, (whom Monsieur Chastillion, then admiral of France, sent thither, with Laudonniere for that purpose), who was an eye-witness of the goodness and fertility of those regions, and hath put down in writing many singularities which are not mentioned in this treatise; which since he hath published together with the portraitures.

These four voyages I knew not to whom I might better offer than to yourself, and that for divers just considerations. First, for that as I have said before, they were dedicated unto you in French. Secondly, because now four times also you have attempted the like upon the self-same coast near adjoining. Thirdly, in that you have pierced as far up into the main, and discovered no less secrets in the parts of your abode, than the French did in the places of their inhabiting. Lastly, considering you are now also ready (upon the late return of Captain Stafford, and good news which he brought you of the safe arrival of your last colony in their wished haven), to prosecute this action more thoroughly than ever. And here to speak somewhat of this your enterprise, 1 affirm, that if the same may speedily and effectually be pursued, it will prove far more beneficial in divers respects unto this our realm, than the world, yea many of the wiser sort, have hitherto imagined. The particular commodities whereof are well known unto yourself and some few others, and are faithfully and with great judgment committed to writing, as you are not ignorant, by one of your followers, which remained there about a twelvemonth with your worshipful lieutenant Mr. Ralph Lane, in the diligent search of the secrets of those countries.

6 Touching the speedy and effectual pursuing of your action, though I wot well it would demand a prince's purse to have it thoroughly followed without lingering, yet am I of opinion, that you shall draw the same before it be long to be profitable and gainful, as well to those of our nation there remaining, as to the merchants of England that shall trade here