Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	great_a	province_n	5,554	4	7.9737	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59617	A discourse touching Tanger in a letter to a person of quality.	Sheeres, Henry, Sir, d. 1710.	1680 (1680)	Wing S3058; ESTC R219091	15,852	52

A DISCOURSE Touching Tanger In a LETTER To a PERSON of QUALITY LONDON Printed for the Author 1680. A DISCOURSE Touching Tanger Honour'd Sir I Remember at our parting I made you a promise to gratifie your curiosity the best I could with an abstract of my judgment and observations touching his Majesty's City and Port of Tanger and had obey'd you long since and had not my Head been rather oppress'd than employ'd by the unexpected difficulties of my toylsom charge which to this day render me so little Master of my Resolutions that the few Minutes I borrow like broken Slumbers scarce afford me leave to reflect seriously on any other Subject Be pleas'd therefore to take this short account only as an earnest of what you may farther expect when with more freedom of thought I shall be enabled to send you a Present of the same kind better worth your acceptance Tanger according to remotest accounts I find to have been a Colony of the Romans which conquering People did from thence lead their Armies by which they subdu'd all that part of Africa They call'd a great Province by that name and thought it so well worth their labour that they Planted Peopled and Built it to the Magnitude of the greatest Cities as we find by the Fragments of their Structures where ever we have occasion to break ground in the Fields and by the noble Aquaeducts some whereof to this day supply the Town with Water said to be the best in the World But by the declension of that Monarchy it shrunk by degrees to the dimension it now bears It was here the Moors form'd and from hence prosecuted their great design of conquering Spain the advantageous Situation whereof is thought to have not only incouraged those Infidels to the Attempt but lent them such aids as mainly conduc'd to their success At length about the year 1474 while the Princes of Barbary were at War amongst themselves this with other Towns upon the Coast fell into the hands of the Portuguez c. Upon his Majesty's Marriage with our present Queen Tanger was given in part of her Dowry a Capitulation much oppos'd by the Spanish Ministers and gave that Government so much apprehension that upon his Majesty's sending so great a Garrison as he did upon our first possessing it jealous what design there might be withdrew a great part of their Army from the Frontiers of Portugal and Quarter'd them along the Coast of Andaluzia to have an Eye upon our Motions by which State contrivance as is thought of the Portuguez they got the respite of one whole Campaign from the Incursions of the Spaniard This I the rather mention to excite our own value for Tanger which barely our possession of gives other Princes so much caution This sufficing for the Historical part of Tanger to the time of his Majesty's possessing it I will now proceed with the brevity of a Letter to treat upon the four following heads viz. Upon The Service Tanger has already rendred the Crown What Service it may render it if improv'd The mischief it may do us if possess'd by any other Powerful Prince Some general Observations touching Trade Tanger is as I have observ'd so advantageously Situated that it Surveys the greatest Thorough-fare of Commerce in the World having in one view almost the whole Sea comprehended between the four Capes of Travalgar Gibraltar Spartel and Ceuta those on the European these on the African shore so that no Ship or Vessel can pass in or out of the Mediterranean unobserv'd from thence It comes therefore to pass by means of this narrow Gap or Inlet that Men of War Pirats and Corsairs of all Nations covet to Ply and Cruiz in and about that Station where they are sure to speak with all Ships that pass Here it was that a Squadron of the Dutch on two several occasions during that War lay in wait for our New-found-land-Fleet who had no recourse for safety but to Tanger where they were protected and secur'd till the danger was over the greatest part whereof had otherwise demonstrably fallen into the Enemy's hands It was on this Station that Sir Thomas Allen during the first Dutch War incounter'd their Smyrna Fleet and here in the last War with Algier a whole Squadron of Turks fell into our hands at once and were all destroy'd and both then since by Sir Iohn Narbrough there has been by a manifold degree more mischief done to that Enemy on this Station than in all the Ocean besides and we have frequent examples of single Ships being chased into this Port for shelter To this Port upon the breaking out of the last Dutch War was sent us advice of a Squadron of their Merchant Ships that were bound from Malaga homeward but ill guarded with an exact account when they were to depart which Squadron we incounter'd and had the Affair been more fortunately manag'd they had all fallen into our hands though as it was the greatest part were destroy'd and taken To this Place on divers occasions both by Sea and Land we have received notice from Salli and other places on the Coast of proper Seasons whereby to Attack that Enemy and have often succeeded in our Attempts upon those intimations and I think I may with good assurance aver That by the advantage of this Place we have destroy'd more of those Pirates than all Nations besides put together who have been industrious to their power to prejudice them especially the French Dutch and Portuguez And yet farther to shew you how this Place has been already useful let it be remember'd that during the Plague in England when it was penal in the highest degree in Spain to hold the least Commerce with us notwithstanding the hazard they ran the Spaniards themselves came over by stealth and by degrees did here supply their wants without paying Custom either here or there this Place being the general Magazine to all the Coast along What quantities of French Commodities were lodg'd here during their War with Spain and were by little and little in Spanish Vessels fetch'd over and put on Board their Gallions when they were ready to receive them without ever Landing them With what ease and expedition did Sir Iohn Narbrough the last year Carreen and Refit the Ships under his Command within the Mole where we had neither Hulk nor any sort of Provision for that Service When I often heard him say with great satisfaction That he would undertake to Refit a Squadron in half the time and with half the charge that it could be done any where else out of England and I think I do not give him more than his due if I presume to say he is as qualified for credit in that particular as any man whatever of his Profession How many Merchants Ships in peril by Distress of Weather have been reliev'd and preserv'd by the assistance they have receiv'd from hence I could also insist on the damages done on the French