HKB
THE KING OF SPAIN, HIS LETTERS TO THE LIEUTENANT FOR THE PLACING OF JOHN FOX IN THE OFFICE OF A GUNNER, ETC.
To the illustrious prince, Vespasian Gonsaga Colonna, our Lieutenant and Captain-General of our realm of Valencia, having consideration that John Fox, Englishman, hath served us, and was one of the most principal which took away from the Turks a certain galley, which they have brought to Taranto, wherein were two hundred and fifty-eight Christian captives. We license him to practice, and give him the office of a gunner, and have ordained that he go to our said realm there to serve in the said office in the galleys, which by our commandment are lately made. And we do command that you cause to be paid to him eight ducats pay a month, for the time that he shall serve in the said galleys as a gunner, or till we can otherwise provide for him, the said eight ducats monthly of the money which is already of our provision, present and to come, and to have regard of those which come with him. From Escurial the 10th of August, 1577.--I, the King,
JUAN DEL GADO.
And under that a confirmation of the Council.
VERSES WRITTEN BY A. M. TO THE COURTEOUS READERS, WHO WAS PRESENT AT ROME WHEN JOHN FOX RECEIVED HIS LETTERS OF THE POPE.
Leaving at large all fables vainly used, All trifling toys that do no truth import, Lo, here how the end (at length) though long diffused, Unfoldeth plain a true and rare report; To glad those minds which seek their country's wealth, By proffered pains to enlarge his happy health. At Rome I was, when Fox did there arrive, Therefore I may sufficiently express, What gallant joy his deeds did there revive In the hearts of those which heard his valiantness. And how the Pope did recompense his pains, And letters gave to move his greater gains.
But yet I know that many do misdoubt, That those his pains are fables and untrue; Not only I in this will bear him out, But diverse more that did his patents view. And unto those so boldly I daresay, That nought but truth John Fox doth here bewray; Besides here's one was slave with him in thrall, Lately returned into our native land, This witness can this matter perfect all, What needeth more? for witness he may stand. And thus I end, unfolding what I know, The other man more larger proof can show. Honos alit artes, A. M.
THE VOYAGE MADE TO TRIPOLIS IN BARBARY, IN THE YEAR 1584, WITH A SHIP CALLED THE JESUS, WHEREIN THE ADVENTURES AND DISTRESSES OF SOME ENGLISHMEN ARE TRULY REPORTED, AND OTHER NECESSARY CIRCUMSTANCES OBSERVED. WRITTEN BY THOMAS SANDERS.
This voyage was set forth by the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Osborne Knight, chief merchant of all the Turkish Company, and one Master Richard Stapers, the ship being of the burden of one hundred tons, called the Jesus; she was builded at Farmne, a river by Portsmouth. The owners were Master Thomas Thompson, Nicholas Carnabie, and John Gilman. The master (under God) was one Zaccheus Hellier, of Blackwall, and his mate was one Richard Morris, of that place; their pilot was one Anthony Jerado, a Frenchman, of the province of Marseilles; the purser was one William Thompson, our owner's son; the merchants' factors were Romaine Sonnings, a Frenchman, and Richard Skegs, servant unto the said Master Stapers. The owners were bound unto the merchants by charter party thereupon in one thousand marks, that the said ship, by God's permission should go for Tripolis in Barbary, that is to say, first from Portsmouth to Newhaven in Normandy, thence to S. Lukar, otherwise called S. Lucas, in Andalusia, and from thence to Tripolis, which is in the east part of Africa, and so to return unto London.