With how great benefits this Iland of ours hath béene indued from the
beginning, I hope there is no godlie man but will readilie confesse,
and yéeld vnto the Lord God his due honour for the same. For we are
blessed euerie waie, & there is no temporall commoditie necessarie to
be had or craued by anie nation at Gods hand, that he hath not in most
aboundant maner bestowed vpon vs Englishmen, if we could sée to vse
it, & be thankefull for the same. But alas (as I said in the chapter
precedent) we loue to inrich them that care not for vs, but for our
great commodities: and one trifling toie not woorth the cariage,
c[=o]ming (as the prouerbe saith) in thrée ships from beyond the sea
is more woorth with vs, than a right good iewell, easie to be had at
home. They haue also the cast to teach vs to neglect our owne things,
for if they see that we begin to make anie account of our commodities
(if it be so that they haue also the like in their owne countries)
they will suddenlie abase the same to so low a price, that our gaine
not being woorthie our trauell, and the same commoditie with lesse
cost readie to be had at home from other countries (though but for a
while) it causeth vs to giue ouer our indeuours, and as it were by and
by to forget the matter wherabout we went before, to obteine them at
their hands. And this is the onelie cause wherefore our commodities
are oft so little estéemed of. Some of them can saie without anie
teacher, that they will buie the case of a fox of an Englishman for a
groat, and make him afterward giue twelue pence for the taile. Would
to God we might once wax wiser, and each one indeuor that the
common-wealth of England may flourish againe in hir old rate, and that
our commodities may be fullie wrought at home (as cloth if you will
for an example) and not caried out to be shorne and dressed abroad,
while our clothworkers here doo starue and beg their bread, and for
lacke of dailie practise vtterlie neglect to be skilfull in this
science! But to my purpose.
We haue in England great plentie of quicke siluer, antimonie, sulphur,
blacke lead, and orpiment red and yellow. We haue also the finest
[Sidenote: The lord Mountioy.]
alume (wherein the diligence of one of the greatest fauourers of the
common-wealth of England of a subiect hath béene of late egregiouslie
abused, and euen almost with barbarous inciuilitie) & of no lesse
force against fire, if it were vsed in our parietings than that of
Lipara, which onlie was in vse somtime amongst the Asians & Romans, &
wherof Sylla had such triall that when he meant to haue burned a tower
of wood erected by Archelaus the lieutenant of Mithridates, he could
by no meanes set it on fire in a long time, bicause it was washed ouer
with alume, as were also the gates of the temple of Jerusalem with
like effect, and perceiued when Titus commanded fire to be put vnto
the same. Beside this we haue also the naturall cinnabarum or
vermilion, the sulphurous glebe called bitumen in old time for morter,
and yet burned in lamps where oile is scant and geason: the
chrysocolla, coperis, and minerall stone, whereof petriolum is made,
and that which is most strange the minerall pearle, which as they are
for greatnesse and colour most excellent of all other, so are they
digged out of the maine land, and in sundrie places far distant from
the shore. Certes the westerne part of the land hath in times past
greatlie abounded with these and manie other rare and excellent
commodities, but now they are washed awaie by the violence of the sea,
which hath deuoured the greatest part of Cornewall and Deuonshire on
either side: and it dooth appéere yet by good record, that whereas now
there is a great distance betweene the Syllan Iles and point of the
lands end, there was of late yeares to speke of scarselie a brooke or
draine of one fadam water betwéene them, if so much, as by those
euidences appeereth, and are yet to be séene in the hands of the lord
and chiefe owner of those Iles. But to procéed.
Of colemines we haue such plentie in the north and westerne parts of
our Iland, as may suffice for all the realme of England: and so must
they doo hereafter in deed, if wood be not better cherrished than it
is at this present. And to saie the truth, notwithstanding that verie
manie of them are caried into other countries of the maine, yet their
greatest trade beginneth now to grow from the forge into the kitchin
and hall, as may appéere alreadie in most cities and townes that lie
about the coast, where they haue but little other fewell, except it be
turffe and hassocke. I maruell not a little that there is no trade of
these into Sussex and Southampton shire, for want whereof the smiths
doo worke their iron with charcoale. I thinke that far carriage be the
onelie cause, which is but a slender excuse to inforce vs to carrie
them vnto the maine from hence.
Beside our colemines we haue pits in like sort of white plaster, and
of fat and white and other coloured marle, wherewith in manie places
the inhabitors doo compest their soile, and which dooth benefit their
land in ample maner for manie yeares to come. We haue saltpeter for
our ordinance, and salt soda for our glasse, & thereto in one place a
kind of earth (in Southerie as I weene hard by Codington, and sometime
in the tenure of one Croxton of London) which is so fine to make
moulds for goldsmiths and casters of mettall, that a load of it was
woorth fiue shillings thirtie yeares agone: none such againe they saie
in England. But whether there be or not, let vs not be vnthankefull to
God for these and other his benefits bestowed vpon vs, whereby he
sheweth himselfe a louing and mercifull father vnto vs, which
contrariewise returne vnto him in lieu of humilitie and obedience,
nothing but wickednesse, auarice, meere contempt of his will, pride,
excesse, atheisme, and no lesse than Iewish ingratitude.