And how great your care hath beene heerein, the course of your life hitherto dooth manifest it. For after that you had seasoned your primer yeares at Oxford in knowledge and learning, a good ground and a sure foundation to build therevpon all your good actions, you trauelled into France, and spent there a good part of your youth in the warres and martiall seruices. And hauing some sufficient knowledge and experience therein, then after your returne from thense, to the end you might euerie waie be able to serue your prince and commonweale, you were desirous to be acquainted in maritimall affaires. Then you, togither with your brother sir Humfreie Gilbert, tra|uelled the seas, for the search of such countries, as which if they had beene then discouered, infinit commodities in EEBO page image 63 sundrie respects would haue insued, and whereof there was no doubt, if the fleet then accompanieng you, had according to appointment followed you, or your selfe had escaped the dangerous sea fight, when manie of your companie were slaine, and your ships therewith also sore battered and disabled. And albeit this hard begin|ning (after which followed the death of the said woorthie knight your brother) was a matter sufficient to haue dis|couraged a man of a right good stomach and value from anie like seas attempts; yet you, more respecting the good ends, wherevnto you leuelled your line for the good of your countrie, did not giue ouer, vntill you had re|couered a land, and had made a plantation of the people of your owne English nation in Virginia, the first Eng|lish colonie that euer was there planted, to the no little derogation of the glorie of the Spaniards, & an impeach to their vaunts; who bicause with all cruell immanitie, contrarie to all naturall humanitie, they subdued a naked and a yeelding people, whom they sought for gaine and not for anie religion or plantation of a commonwelth, ouer whome to satisfie their most greedie and insatiable couetousnesse, did most cruellie tyrannize, and most tyrannicallie and against the course of all humane nature did scorch and rost them to death, as by their owne hi|stories dooth appeare. These (I saie) doo brag and vaunt, that they onelie haue drawne strange nations and vn|knowne people to the obedience of their kings, to the knowledge of christianitie, and to the inriching of their countrie, and thereby doo claime the honor to be due to themselues onelie and alone. But if these your actions were well looked into, with such due consideration as apperteineth, it shall be found much more honorable in sun|drie respects, for the aduancement of the name of God, the honour of the prince, and the benefit of the common wealth. For what can be more pleasant to God, than to gaine and reduce in all christianlike manner, a lost people to the knowledge of the gospell, and a true christian religion, than which cannot be a more pleasant and a sweet sacrifice, and a more acceptable seruice before God? And what can be more honorable to princes, than to inlarge the bounds of their kingdoms without iniurie, wrong, & bloudshed; and to frame them from a sauage life to a ci|uill gouernment, neither of which the Spaniards in their conquests haue performed? And what can be more bene|ficiall to a common weale, than to haue a nation and a kingdome to transferre vnto the superfluous multitude of frutelesse and idle people (heere at home dailie increasing) to trauell, conquer, and manure another land, which by the due intercourses to be deuised, may and will yeeld infinit commodities? And how well you doo deserue euerie waie in following so honourable a course, not we our selues onelie can witnesse, but strange nations also doo ho|nour you for the same: as dooth appeare by the epistle of Bassimerus of France, to the historie of Florida: and by Iulius Caesar a citizen of Rome in his epistle to his booke intituled Cullombeados. It is well knowne, that it had beene no lesse easie for you, than for such as haue beene aduanced by kings, to haue builded great houses, purcha|sed large circuits, and to haue vsed the fruits of princes fauours, as most men in all former and present ages haue doone; had you not preferred the generall honour and commoditie of your prince and countrie before all priuat gaine and commoditie: wherby you haue beene rather a seruant than a commander to your owne fortune. And no doubt the cause being so good, and the attempt so honorable, but that God will increase your talent, and blesse your dooings, and euerie good man will commend and further the same. And albeit the more noble en|terprises a man shall take in hand, the more aduersaries he shall haue to depraue and hinder the same: yet I am persuaded, as no good man shall haue iust cause, so there is none so much carried with a corrupt mind, nor so enuious of his countries honour, nor so bent against you, that he will derogate the praise and honour due to so worthie an enterprise; and that so much the sooner, bicause you haue indured so manie crosses, and haue through so much enuiengs and misfortunes perseuered in your attempts, which no doubt shall at last by you be performed when it shall please him, who hath made you an instrument of so worthie a worke. And by how much the more God hath pleased thus to blesse you, so much the more are you bound to be thankefull vnto him, and to acknow|ledge the same to proceed from his grace and mercie towards you. Giue me leaue therefore (I praie you) to be bold with you, not onelie to put you in mind hereof, but also to remember you, how it hath pleased God to bring you into the fauour of your prince and souereigne: who besides hir great fauour towards you manie waies, she hath also laid vpon you the charge of a gouernement in your owne countrie, where you are to command ma|nie people by your honourable office of the stannarie, and where you are both a iudge and chancellor, to rule in iustice and to iudge in equitie. Wherin you are so much the more to be circumspect and wise, bicause vpon your iudgement (and such as you shall appoint to be vnder you) the determinations of all their causes dooth rest and depend, knowing that a hard iudgement abideth for such as be in authoritie, if they iudge not vprightlie, and doo not yeeld iustice to euerie man indifferentlie. Be you therefore carefull in this respect, that you be well reported for your vpright dealings, both herein, & in euerie of all your other actions to all men. Be you a patterne of vertue, & an example of true nobilitie, which is grounded & hath hir foundation vpon vertue, for as the poet saith, Ex vir|tute nobilitas nascitur, non ex nobilitate virtus: virtus sola nobilitat, nõ caro nec sanguis. And therfore saith Demost|henes; Palingenius. Demosthenes. If thou draw thy descent & pedegree euen from Iupiter himselfe, yet if thou be not vertuous, iust & good, Ignobilis mihi videris; In my opinion thou art no gentleman. It is a noble thing to be borne of noble ancestors (as Aristotle saith) but his nobilitie faileth, when his ancestors vertues in him faileth, Hic enim verè nobilis est cẽsendus, cui non aliena sed sua virtus ad gloriam opitulatur. Your ancestors were verie ancient, and men of great nobilitie, beneficiall to their princes and countrie manie & sundrie waies. And as in nature you are descended from them, so it hath pleased God to blesse you with knowledge in learning, with skill of warlike seruice, and in experience in maritimall causes, and besides hath placed you among the nobles, and in the good grace and fauour of your prince. Wherefore you are so much the more to be carefull to restore the house of your decaied forefathers to their ancient honor and nobilitie, which in this later age hath beene obscured, abiding the time by you to be re|stored to their first and primer state: which you are not onelie taught by their old and good examples, but also by the ensignes of their and your nobilitie. For the fusils, being an instrument of trauell and labour, doo aduertise Fusils, instru|ments of la|bours. you, that yo [...] are one of the sonnes of Adam, borne to walke in a vocation, and therein to be a profitable mem|ber in the church of God, and in maintenance of the common societie: which when you behold and looke vpon, you must so endeuour your selfe, euen as Agathocles king of Syracusa, whose cupbords, though they were well furnished with great store and varietie of rich plate, yet he thought not the same sufficientlie fraughted, vnlesse Agathocles. he had also his earthen pitchers and stone cups, in which he vsed to drinke, to teach & remember him in the mid|dle of his roialtie, to be mindfull of his origin estate and dutie.