[199] The African Company arose out of the slave dealing along the coasts of Africa, but was at first occupied in a legitimate trade in gold and ivory from Guinea (Macph. ii. pp. 72, 115, S.A. 1531-1553), Captain John Hawkins being the first Englishman to trade in negroes, 1562. In 1571 a treaty was made between the Portuguese (who claimed the coast of Guinea as their own), which allowed equal rights of trade to the English (Macph. ii. 153). The French would seem to have had a considerable trade with Senegal at a much earlier period (Macph. ii. 390). In 1637 the Dutch secured a direct commerce in negroes by taking from the Portuguese the castle of St. George del Mina, on the coast of Guinea; and, in 1642, by a special treaty, the Portuguese were permitted to hire English ships wherein to carry their negroes (Macph. ii. 420). At the peace, the result of Lord Rodney’s action, England restored to France, in 1783, what she had taken from her along the coast of Africa. The Royal African Company was first incorporated in 1631. It was constantly in trouble, chiefly with the Dutch, and was repeatedly renewed with fresh privileges. As late as 1800 it received from government an annual grant of 20,000_l._ (Macph. iv. 501). [200] _Vide_ Macpherson, ii. pp. 277-278. [201] One of the last acts of the life of Peter the Great was to plan the survey, entrusted to Behring, a Dane, to determine whether Russia was or was not joined to America. The expedition started, July 1728, from Kamsachkatka, and Behring discovered the straits named after him, but did not himself see America (‘Mar. and Inl. Disc.’ ii. p. 345). [202] A full account of the daring adventures of the buccaneers may be read in ‘Mar. and Inl. Discovery,’ vol. ii. pp. 298-315; and in Archenholtz, ‘Hist. des Filibustiers,’ 8vo. 1806. [203] The attempt to grow mulberry-trees in England with the view of providing food for silkworms was not new. It had been suggested by James I. in 1608, indeed a patent had been granted for the same purpose to Walter Lord Aston in 1629 (see Macpherson, ii. pp. 250 and 358). But this scheme had failed, probably owing to the coldness or damp of the English climate; even in France, as is well known, mulberries are not found to grow sufficiently well north of the Loire. The ground secured for the mulberry plantation, in 1721, was Lord Wharton’s park, of about forty acres, at Chelsea. In Reed’s ‘Weekly Journal,’ Aug. 21, 1721, it is stated that “there is a great concourse of foreigners and others daily in Chelsea Park to see the Raw Silk undertaking, for which a patent was granted by his present Majesty.” One very ancient mulberry-tree still survives in the garden of Tudor House, No. 16 Cheyne Walk, and is perhaps the only survivor of the two thousand said to have been planted in the neighbourhood. [204] See Reports to the Attorney-General, 1718-1720, and full details on this subject in Macpherson, vol. iii. pp. 77-114. CHAPTER VI.