_Braem's "Mémoires touchant le Commerce."_--Having lately seen a MS., of
which I subjoin the title, and not being able to discover any further
account of the writer of it than what is briefly given in the volume
itself, I submit my wish to know something more about the author, and
his, perhaps, still inedited work, to you and to your numerous readers,
both in England and in Holland (where you have an able imitator), in the
hope of gaining some further information about him. The MS. is a
foolscap folio, containing about 340 pages, written in a bold, open
hand, and bears the following title: _Mémoires touchant le Commerce que
les Provinces Unies des Pays-Bas font dans les divers Endroits du
Monde_. At page 306. this part of the MS. ends, and is signed by "Daniel
Braems," who says of himself, that he left the Dutch possessions in the
East Indies in 1686, and made his Report to the States-General of what
he had seen, and delivered in a written copy. Mr. Braems says farther,
that he was "dernièrement Teneur-Général des Livres à Batavie, et a
ramené en qualité de Commandeur la dernière Flotte des Indes en ce
pays;" and that his Report, as regards East India affairs, was made
"touchant la constitution des affaires dans les Indes Orientales, ainsi
qu'elle estoit lorsque la ditte flotte est partie de Batavie," and was
delivered in May 26, 1688. The remaining pages of the MS. are taken up
with a detailed account of the ecclesiastical and civil revenues of
France for 1692, and also the "estat des affaires extraordinaires" for
the years 1689, 1690, 1691, 1692.