I 26 Mary I. Naval Expeditions, ike. of the English, Book. I

1555* ."'We, upori the next Arrival of the

" said Richard Chanceller, may be in-" formed of Your Gracious Difposi-<ic tioti and Answer. Which Your" Benevolence, so to be extended ," We be minded to requite, towards" any of Your Subjects, Merchants," that shall frequent this Our Realm," at Your Contemplation, therefore" to be made. Thus, Right High," Right Excellent, and Right Migh-" ty, Almighty God, the Father, the" S on, and the Holy Ghojl, have You" in his blessed Keeping. Given under" Our Seal, at Our Palace of Wejlmin-" Jler, the first of April, in the Year," &c. 1555. and in the first and second” Years of Our Reigns.”

The Company, at the fame Time>

appointed the above named Richard FactorsGray, and George Killingworth, to be 7 ^jor'ap

nted-

Muscovy

Company,

of Mer-chants-Ad-venturers.

A Charter Before the Writing of this Letter,given to the that is, on the sixth of February of thisYear, the Adventurers for these Dis-coveries, who had before formed them-selves into a Sort of Body or Society,were regularly incorporated by a Char-ter, granted that Day by King Philipand Queen Mary. We have it atLength, in Hackluyt. This first Char-ter was granted to several Noblemen,therein named, as well as Merchants,fy By the Name of Merchant s- A DVEN-

turers of England, for the Discoveryof Lands , ‘Territories , If es, Dominions ,and Seigniories unknown, and, not beforethe late Adventure, or Enterprise, bySea or Navigation, frequented, whichthey should chance to find or discover,in their Sailing Northwards, North-East-wards, and North-West-wards, orany Parts thereof, in that Course, whichother Chris ian Monarchs, in Allianceand Amity with England, had not be-fore haunted or frequented.

By this Charter, Sebastian Cabot wasappointed Governour of this incorpora-firmed Go- ted Company for Life, with Power tovernour for Company, after hisDeceafe, to chuse

their Governours annually. A Courtof Directors was, likewise, nominatedin the Charter, consisting of eight andtwenty eminent Merchants, four

SebastianCabot con-

Lfe..

Fogr C012-

fits fndfour which were named Consuls, and

and twenty

Assistants

appointed.

the Rest Assistants. These were ap-pointed only for one Year , withPower to the Company to chuse thelike Number annually, for the future.For the farther Limitations, and exclu-sive Privileges, mentioned in and grant-ed to the Company, by this Charter, Imust refer the Reader to the Authorabovementioned.

their joint and separateAgents, Factors* p 0 iand Attornies General and special, inRufia, and gave them very ample In-JlruSlions for their Conduct, as well inTrade,as otherwise. To Captain Chan-celler. they gave the Title and Commissionof Grand Pilot of the Fleet. The Rea-der may see the Instructions at large in■ Hackluyt.

I find no where what Number ofShips were fitted out for this Voyage,nor when they departed. In the In-structions Mention, is made of two, theEdward and the Philip and Mary, forwhichDirections are given to the Factors,with Respect to their Return : But howmany went out is not mentioned. Wehave, in Hackluyt, the Copy of a longLetter from Mr. George Killingworth tothe Society, which, however, takes noManner of Notice of the Voyage out-wards, only that they arrived the ele-venth of September, xzt Vologda, fromwhence Chanceller, with some other ofthem, went to Mujcow, where they ar-rived the fourth of OSlober. He givesan Account of their Audience, and En-tertainment at Court, which was justthe fame as Chanceller had met with, inhis former Voyage. The Remainderof this Letter contains several Circum-stances, with Respect to the Establish-ment of their Trade and Factories. Atthe Foot of this Letter, HackluytE-xt, sub-joined A Copy of the firs Privileges gran- ffed uted by the Emperour of Russia, to the theCoHEnglish Merchants, in the Tear, 15^5.

These Privileges were granted to Se-b as ian Cabot, Governour, Sir GeorgeBarnes, &c. Consuls; Sir John Grejham,

8tc. Assistants, and to the Commonaltyof the Society of Merchants-Adventu-rers, to them, and to their respectiveHeirs, for ever: But the Articles ofthem are too many, and too extensive tofind Place here. When and how Chan-celler returned from this fecondVoyage,

I, likewise do not find: But it musthave been the fame Year, because wefind he undertook a third Voyage tothose Parts, the Year follow

Fhe

Privil' e & e

jler

__ mg.

Of this Voyage, I, likewise, find no Chan c 5jparticular Account, only the snstructi-° n j sEM'ored for it, to every Purser, gel.a , . n e ^ost of the Servants, regardingchiefly their Oeconomy, we find in Al-AHackluyt.

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