o satisfy her highness in the same. To conclude, having the
same honourable escort for my return from court that I had on my way
there, I embarked with my suite, and arrived soon after in England, when
I repaired to court, and ended my embassy to her majestys satisfaction,
by giving a relation of my services.

SECTION XIV.

_Embassy of Henry Roberts from Queen Elizabeth to Morocco in 1585,
written by himself_[303].

Like the former ambassador, Edmund Hogan, Mr Henry Roberts was one of
the sworn esquires of the person to Elizabeth queen of England, and the
following brief relation of his embassy, according to Hakluyt, was
written by himself. This, like the former, does not properly belong to
the present portion of our arrangement, but seemed necessary to be
inserted in this place, however anomalous, as an early record of the
attentions of the English government to extend the commerce and
navigation of England, the sinews of our strength, and the bulwark of
our glorious constitution. Mr Roberts appears to have spent three years
and five months on this embassy, leaving London on the 14th August 1585,
and returning to the same place on the 12th January 1589, having, in the
words of Hakluyt, remained at Morocco as _lieger_, or resident, during
upwards of three years.

[Footnote 303: Hakluyt, II 602.]

In the commencement of this brief notice, Mr Roberts mentions the
occasion of his embassy as proceeding from the incorporation of a
company of merchants, for carrying on an exclusive trade from England to
Barbary; upon which event he was appointed her majestys messenger and
agent to the emperor of Morocco, for the furtherance of the affairs of
that company. It is not our intention to load our work with copies of
formal patents and diplomatic papers; yet in the present instance it may
not be amiss to give an abridgment of the patent to the Barbary company,
as an instance of the mistaken principles of policy on which the early
foundations of English commerce were attempted.--E.

_Letters Patent and Privileges granted in 1585 by Queen Elizabeth, to
certain Noblemen and Merchants of London, for a Trade to Barbary.[304]_

[Footnote 304: Hakluyt, II. 599.]

Elizabeth, &c.--Whereas our right trusty and well beloved counsellors,
Ambrose earl of Warwick, and Robert earl of Leicester, and also our
loving and natural subjects Thomas Starkie, &c.[305] all merchants of
London, now trading into the country of Barbary, in the p