NOTE. "TO TRADE IN BARBARY," 1585.

It was in July, 1585, that Lord Burghley noted, in his Chronology, a Privilege "graunted
to the Erles of Warwick and Leycester, and certayne Merchaunts for the space of twelve years,"1

This was the famous Barbary Company, the terms of which are no secret, the Charter
having been published in 1589 by Hakluyt in "Principal Navigations" dedicated to Sir Francis
Walsingham, and often reprinted since. But whereas it is now commonly believed that the
dealings of England with Morocco were primarily commercial, and had no political complexion,
actually the affairs of the exiled King Antonio were closely intermingled with the trading
ventures of Leicester, who, from 1581 to 1588, was one of Antonio's most powerful sympathisers.

The passport issued in 1584 by Antonio to his Captains,2 and the publication in 1585 of
the English, Latin, French, and Dutch versions of Antonio's "Explanation " of his "Right and
Title"* have not hitherto been brought into juxtaposition with each other or with the Charter
to the Barbary Company.

As to the doings of Englishmen in Morocco, unpublished correspondence is forthcoming
in the later volumes of this History. Daring and diplomatic soldiers, venturesome and valiant
merchants, sent by Lord Leicester to Africa, have left on paper enough to indicate that very
much more than mere exchange and barter was in the minds of the founders of the Barbary
Company during the eventful summer of 1585.

1 State Papers, Murdin (1759), p. 782.

2E,E, VoLV.p, 112.

aE,E, Vol. IV. pp. 24-25; 39-44.

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