And here I cannot but enter into the consideration and acknowledgment of GOD's great favour towards our nation; who, by putting this purchase [_booty_] into our hands, hath manifestly discovered those secret trades and Indian riches which hitherto lay strangely hidden and cunningly concealed from us: whereof there was, among some few of us, some small and unperfect glimpse only; which now is turned into the broad light of full and perfect knowledge. Whereby it should seem that the will of GOD for our good is, if our weakness could apprehend it, to have us communicate with them in those East Indian treasures: and, by the erection of a lawful Traffic, to better our means to advance true religion and his holy service. [_Just at the time RICHARD HAKLUYT printed this, 1600 A.D.; he and others were chartered by Queen ELIZABETH, as the English East India Company._] * * * * * The Carrack, being in burden, by the estimation of the wise and experienced, [of] no less than 1,600 tons; had fully 900 of those, stowed with the gross bulk of merchandise: the rest of the tonnage being allowed, partly to the ordnance, which were 32 pieces of brass of all sorts; partly to the passengers and the victuals; which could not be any small quantity, considering the number of the persons, betwixt 600 and 700, and the length of the navigation. [Sidenote: A brief Catalogue of the sundry rich commodities of the _Madre de Dios_.] To give you a taste, as it were, of the commodities, it shall suffice to deliver you a general particularity of them, according to the Catalogue taken at Leaden Hall, the 15th of September 1592. Where, upon good view, it was found that the principal wares, after the jewels (which were no doubt of great value, though they never came to light), consisted of _Spices_, _Drugs_, _Silks_, _Calicoes_, _Quilts_, _Carpets_, and _Colours_,&c. The _Spices_ were Pepper, Cloves, Maces, Nutmegs, Cinnamon, Green Ginger. The _Drugs_ were Benjamin [_the gum Benzoin_], Frankincense, Galingale [_or Galangal_], Mirabolams, Aloes, Zocotrina, Camphor. The _Silks_ [were] Damasks, Taffatas, Sarcenets, _Altobassos_ that is counterfeit Cloth of Gold, unwrought China Silk, Sleaved Silk, White twisted Silk, Curled Cypress [=_Cypress lawn, a cobweb lawn or crape_]. The _Calicoes_ were Book Calicoes, Calico Lawns, Broad white Calicoes, Fine starched Calicoes, Coarse white Calicoes, Brown broad Calicoes, Brown coarse Calicoes. There were also Canopies, and coarse Diaper Towels; _Quilts_ of coarse Sarcenet, and of Calico; _Carpets_ like those of Turkey. Whereunto are to be added the Pearls, Musk, Civet, and Ambergris. The rest of the wares were many in number; but less in value: as Elephants' teeth; Porcelain vessels of China; Cocoanuts; Hides; Ebony wood, as black as jet; Bedsteads of the same; Cloth of the rinds of trees, very strange for the matter, and artificial in workmanship.