As to de Fonte being afterwards President of Chili, it is meant of the Audience of Chili, subordinate to the Viceroy of Peru.
[REMARKS]
ON
The LETTER of Admiral DE FONTE.
The Viceroys of New Spain and Peru, having Advice from the Court of Spain, and not from the Court and the Council of Spain; which latter is the common Form of Expression used in any Matter which had been under the Consideration of the Supreme Council of the Indies, implies that such Advice must have proceeded from the Secret Council, or from the King through his Minister, that the Design of the Equipment of the four Ships, and the Attempt of the Industrious Navigators from Boston might remain a Secret.
The Appellation of Industrious Navigators was conformable to the Characters of Gibbons and Shapley. Sir Thomas Button, in the Extract which there is from his Journal, gives Gibbons a great Eulogium as to his being an able Navigator; and this was the Character of Shapley amongst his Cotemporaries.
The Court of Spain knew that this Attempt to discover a Passage between the Atlantick and the Western Ocean, was intended by the Northward and Westward; and though they allude to all the Attempts to make such Discovery which had been at any Time made, by mentioning the several Reigns in which any such Attempts were made, yet they hint more particularly, that they expect this Attempt will be by Hudson's Bay, as they mention expresly in their Advice the two Voyages of Hudson and James. For what is here said, That the several Attempts, &c. is a Recital from the Advice sent by the Court to the Viceroys, or from the Orders that de Fonte received.
This Expedition from Boston particularly commanded the Attention of the Court of Spain, as Captain James had not absolutely denied there was a North-west Passage; and Fox, though not mentioned here, had published an Account in 1635, by which he had positively declared that there was a North-west Passage; and Sir Thomas Button, who kept his Journal a Secret, was very confident of a Passage, and is said to have satisfied King James the First. The Death of his Patron Prince Henry prevented his being fitted out again. Gibbons, his Intimate, had made the Voyage with him: Afterwards had made a second Attempt by himself, but lost his Season by being detained in the Ice. And now, though a married Man, had a Family, a Person in Trust and Power where he resided, engages in a third Attempt from Boston.
The second, third, and fourth Year of the Reign of King Charles refers solely to the Voyage of Captain James; to the Time he was engaging Friends to fit him out; and the Time when such Voyage was concluded on. As the English used the Julian, and the Spaniards the Gregorian Account, these Transactions which refer to Captain James's Expedition, could not be made to coalesce as to the Time, from the Difference there was between these two Computations, in any other Manner than by putting the Year of the King of England's Reign. As King Charles began his Reign the 27th of March 1625, two Days after the Commencement of the Year, according to the Julian Account, and the second Year of his Reign would not begin until the 27th of March 1626, two Days also after that Year commenced, but according to the Gregorian Account, the Year 1626 began in January; from the 1st of January to the 27th of March, the Year 1626, according to the Gregorian Account, would correspond with the first Year of the Reign of King Charles. As to this Expedition from Boston, it is mentioned to be in the Year 1639, and in the fourteenth Year of the Reign of King Charles; but the Year 1639, according to the Julian Account, is the fifteenth Year of that King's Reign; but according to the Gregorian Account, the Year 1639 corresponds from January to March with the fourteenth Year of that King's Reign.
The Times mentioned in this Letter do not refer to the Times when the Voyages were actually set out on, but when undertaken or resolved on, as it is expressed in the Letter, undertaken by some industrious Navigators from Boston. Captain James did not sail until the Year one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty-one, not getting the King's Protection early enough in one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty, to proceed that Year, or in the fourth Year of the King's Reign. That is, he did not get it early enough in Spring to be ready by the latter End of March, as he must have been to proceed that Year; so the fourth Year of the King well agrees with this Proceeding. And de Fonte did not sail until one Thousand six Hundred and Forty, which was a Year after the Court of Spain had received Intelligence of such Undertaking from Boston. Which they would use the first Opportunity to transmit to New Spain; de Fonte therefore had at least six Months for the Equipment of the four Ships to go on this Expedition; a Time sufficient, in so fine a Climate, and every Thing that was necessary to be done was enforced by Orders of the Crown. Had this Equipment been executed in a much smaller Space of Time, there would have been nothing so admirable in it: Therefore the Objection, as to the Impossibility that Ships should be fitted between the Time the Court received this Information, and their sailing, drops to the Ground.
It is not any way strange that this Design, as it appears to have been, was made known to the Court of Spain the Year before that it was set out on; as that Court entertained a continual Jealousy of these Undertakings, as is apparent from their sending Vessels to intercept Davis; their having Informations as to Captain James's Voyage also, and the Consequences of it, as may be collected from this Letter.