Johns and the Lord Say have vouchsafed to approve of it for a general good My Lord these sufferings in my Reputation Life and Fortune by this imprâ—sonment I was resolved to submit unto in a silent patience But some of my distressed friends fearing the deep wounds in my head from that unhappy Arrest might prove to be mortal have occasioned this my Adresse upon a confident hope that the Parliaments Wisdom will not deny a favor of such just concernment to your Lordships Merits and the Lord Viscount Sayes if their more weighty affairs can but permit them leasure to pry into that Politick Act of State whereby Garrisons were acquired for great sums and then it is conceived your Lordships care in securing Lundy Isle will redound to your greater Honour when they shall consider that much Piracy might have been committed in that place without controul which was surrendred through your Prudencies without any other condition than one person to be protected until the possession of his estate were restored to satisfie the just debts of Your Lordships most humble Servant Thomas Bushell April 18. 1659. His Majesties Answer to Mr. Bushel concerning the Surrender of Lundy BUSHEL WE have perused thy Letter in which We find thy care to answer the Trust We at first reposed in thee Now since the place is inconsiderable in it selâ— and yet may be of gâ—eat advantage unto you in respect of your Mines We do hereby give you leave to use your discretion in it with this Caution That you take example by Our Selves and be not over-credulous of vain promises which hath made Us great only in Our Sufferings and will not discharge your Debts From Newcastle 14 July 1646. Mr. Bushels Articles upon his Surrender of the Isle of Lundy The Propositions Articles Conditions Ingagements and Agreements made concluded and assented unto the Tenth of September in the year 1647. between his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight Lord General and the Lord Viscount Say and Seal of the one part and Thomas Bushel Esq Governour of the Islâ—nd of Lundy for the Kings Majesty of the other part in perfuance of several Orders of the Committee of both Kingdoms and an Order or Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as followeth FIrst It is agreed that the said Mr. Bushel shall Surrender and Deliver up the said Island unto the said Lord Say or unto such person as he shall appoint and all Ammunition and Magazin there And that in consideration thereof The Delinquency of the said Mr. Bushel shall be taken off and all Sequestration in respect thereof discharged and he the said Mr. Bushel shall be restored unto his Estate and such right as he or his Assigns had in the Mines of Devon Cornwal and Wales before these troubles and all the persons with him in the Island and not being persons of quality shall be pardoned of their Delinquency and suffered to live quietly at home not acting any thing contrary to the Authority of Parliament Secondly that Mr. Bushel shall be protected from Arrest until he obtain the possession of his said Estate THO. FAIRFAX The Lord Fairfax Letter to the Speaker of the Parliament Master Speaker I Cannot but be sensible of any thing that reflects on the Honour of the Parliament as on my self who for theâ—r service have granted Articles to several persons as importancy of affairs required and particularly to your Petitioner Mr. Bushel but of late there hath been some obstruction in due execution of them to the prejudice of such as cast themselves on your protection which Mr. Bushel more readily did in hope of performance of those Articles made upon his surrender of the Isle of Lundy with the Lord Say and my self on the behalf of the Parliament then concived most reasonable as his papers herewith do expresse therefore intreat at your first opportunity you would acquaint the Honorable House with the contents of my humble desires which is that they would make good Mr. Bushels Articles and be pleased to recompence his great sufferings with their timely assistance that he may be better enabled to satisfie his Creditors which he cannot do but by persute of such Mineral discoveries as Art and Experience hath taught him which will not only be their advantage in securing those debts but render him more capable of doing considerable service to the Common-wealth And in so just an Act you will preserve the Justice and Honour of the Parliament and his who hath ever been Your most humble Servant T. Fairfax Bath 29 July 1659 To the Right Honorable WILLIAM LENTHAL Speaker to the PARLIAMENT Right Honorable MY old Master the Lord Chancellor Bacon would often say That the magnificence of a Parliament consisted much in the presence of their Prince and that the reflection of his Royal Affection was as a foil to render them as Diamonds of greater value in their Countries service If those natural flaws of Self-interest were not frequently known to become a motive to make them forfeit their Trust and subvert their Obedience which invited that Lords observation to reflect upon such a Model of new Laws as no forc'd power should be able to take away the Regality of Soveraign Rights nor their Prerogative have a Medium to intrench upon the privilege of their Subjects and that his Philosophy should be the sole revenue to support the Magi of so magnificent a Machine without any other imposition on the people than its attendance upon Providence and to change the temper of loose and avaritious minds into Moral and Divine vertues But that Lord being commanded by King James to write the life of Henry the seventh and his great imployments in State affairs were the divertisements which retarded his inclination to that study and left only the Essay of his Mineral Philosophy to support his Solomons House described in his New Atlantis as a rest whereby the successe of his other experiments might be judged And now most Honored Sir you having reâ—eived the Lord Fairfax his Letter to the Parliament in answer of mine touching the making good my Articles as also to recompence my great sufferings hath made me so presume on your Lordship as to beseech you to patronize this publication of my proceedings and the rather for that I perceive by the weekly Occurrence Your Honor hath sent a Letter of thanks to the Lord Fairfax in the Name of the whole House for his late opportune service done to the Honorable Parliamenr which hath emboldned me the more to put your Honor in mind of a result of the said Lords Letter directed to your self and dated the 29 of July last lest the interpretation of your Honors Letter should be held in the Diary of a Complement when the Lord Fairfax his Letter is laid aside which concerns his and the Parliaments Honor to make good and because his Lordship did me the favor to send me a true Copy of what was writ I have made bold humbly to present you
An Extract BY Mr. BUSHELL OF HIS LATE ABRIDGMENT OF THE Lord Chancellor BACONS PHILOSOPHICAL Theory in Mineral Prosecutions Published for the Satisfaction of his Noble Friends that importunately desired it LONDON Printed by Tho. Leach in the Year 1660 Charles the 2d by the Grace of God King of great Brittaine France Ireland Defender of the faith HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE G. Faithorne exc DREAD SOVERAIGN SInce Providence hath been propitious to You even to a miracle and having dispell'd those grosse mists and mistakes which formerly Clouded You You now begin to Shine in Your proper Sphere beyond the lustre of your most Illustrious Predecessors which hath drawn to You not only the Addresses but the Admiration of all others lest it should be a sin in me whose heart and actions have ever been humble and loyal to Your Royal Father If I did not to testifie my gratitude make early tender of such a poor Miners mite to the recesses of Your acceptation and honour as was first intended by the Lord Chancellor Bacons Philosophical Theory to Eternize the memory of Your Royal Grand-Father in an Heroick and pious Act without any other countenance of Your Power or contribution of Your Purse than a meer vertuous patronage of this providential work of Mineral discoveries and concealed Treasures Be pleased therefore Royal Sir when Your leisure serves to cast Your favourable Eye upon a small part of the Cabalistick way of that intended practice here humbly presented by his menial Servant to Your sacred Majesty and if Your wisdome upon the perusal thereof shall approve of the same as Your two immediate Predecessors of ever blessed memory have done I doubt not at all by Gods blessing But I shall be instrumental in rendring You the greatest Prince on earth by my prosecution of my Lords Philosophical design aforesaid And as my Lord directed me to have no Partner so my humble sute to Your Majesty is That no Person whatsoever should share with You in the glory of this Philosophical design or frustrate the successe thereof by their self-respects as King Henry the 7th lost the benefit of the West-Indies by following the counsel of such as obstructed his pursuing of that great affair which this Nation hath ever repented in vain But fearing the multiplicity of Your more urgent occasions might not give Your Majesty time to read the whole Narrative of all proceedings in that abridgment Therefore I have thus Epitomiz'd the Way to which I have annexed my Lords chief Ends therein propounded by one of the Fathers of his Solomons House under a continued Prosopopeia and I have discovered withall in the cloze what hath hitherto obstructed my happy progresse in the same all which that your sacred Majesty would be pleased to peruse is the only boon that he humbly craves who hath no other ambition but to subscribe himself as he is in duty bound Your Majesties Beads-man till death Thomas Bushell My Lords and Gentle-men THe most probable expedient to discover and obtain the Treasures of these three Kingdoms that hitherto have layen hid and which statu quo were freely granted by King Iames to the Lord St. Albans towards the erecting and maintenance of that Philosophical College called his Solomons House described in his new Atlantis according to that Lords Cabalistick directions as a way more safe certain and innocent than those of Necromantick Charms Magnetick Rods Inchanted Circles or the corrupt aids of Avaritious mens Purses is first to find out if possible such a regenerate man as is of an humble ingenuous and refined Soul a vertuous mind and a clear intellect so sensible of and truly abhorring all worldly vanity that he had rather be dissolv'd than live any other way than that of penitential Devotions for sins of omission and commission chiefly because they aggravated the tortures of his Saviours Crucifixion let his fastings be mixed with proportionable obedience and self-denial that his fervent Prayers may ascend as incense and his humble Addresses as an evening Sacrifice before the Mercy-Seat of that Omnipotent Deity which inhabits Eternity till by his indefatigable and zealous importunity he hath freely obtained one true grain of lively Faith in his Creators Mercy and his Redeemers Merits and then as in Mat. 17. ver 20. Christ tells his foyled Disciples such a one so fortified and accomplished with Faith and the inseparable concomitants thereof Hope and Charity is not only able to command the rocky Mountains to remove themselves from their mineral Beds that they may discover their riches for pious uses but also to compel the stubborn and subterranean spirits which frequently fright the industrious Miners from their innocent labours to avoid their dismal habitations in the mineral Maeanders and thereby facilitate their honest indeavours which their cursed obstruction had too long made frustrate And further for the illustrating of Gods Glory to constrain those wretched fiends that so frequently fright frail mortals when they are searching for treasure to discover all such concealments as the provident care of well-meaning Parents fallen into dangerous times hath hid as a Patrimony for their surviving Children but being suddenly taken out of this world either by a common calamity or by the Treachery of some false friends whom thâ—y trusted were thereby prevented of all possible means for them to reveal the same and yet who hath not heâ—…d if not observed that Providence hath so ordered the matter that not only the Murther and Murtherers have been strangely disclosed but even some of those laps'd Angels professed enemies to the good of man-kind have both used to haunt the places where such Treasures were hid and also by Alarming the Issue or the Allies of the so deceased with dreadful Noyses horrid Apparitions and ghostly Spectrums they have if I may so speak even terrified them into a kind of Sanctimony of life and put them upon the pursute by Prayer and other holy means of such a lively Faith and so undaunted a Resolution that ere long they have taken heart of Grace as we say and with Christian courage not only questioned but confronted those formidable Gobblins and chased them at least in a seeming flight to their uncouth habitations which as it is probably conjectured are the Cryptick lodgings of such hidden Treasures or the fatal Dormitories of such unfortunate Persons as by wilful murther and Tragical violence being hurryed hence in bloody winding-sheets have been secretly interr'd by their conscious Assassinates to prevent what in them lay the temporal vengeance of impartial Justice for it cannot be constantly doubted much less denyed by the most Atheistical Sceptick that no sooner the same hidden Treasure is utterly lost from the knowledge of mankind but that the spirit of delusion takes its possession and he who is absolute Monarch of the Universe Father of Spirits to whom the good Angels are so many Ministers and the evil ones are subject perforce can command to do his will
Royal Trismegistus himself ever effected or but so much as aim'd at in their stupendious undertakings for these are the men said he must evidence unto us by perspicuous and perfect demonstration those glorious Ideaes which the divine Plato so long before Christs time most learnedly discoursed of Now Courteous Reader Let me tell you that my great Masters modesty and confidence were alike strange and unparallel'd for I speak it upon my own knowledge that when his magnificent Master King Iames of happy memory offer'd him the whole benefit of his Mineral discoveries together with his forfeited Estates of Capital Offendors for a considerable time towards the erecting and maintaining of my Lords Philosophical College mentioned before My Lord like a right and royal Philosopher returned his humble thanks with this Hâ—roick Answer That he had no ends at all upon his Majesties Exchequer either to drain that or to enrich himself but his only aim was to eternize his Majesties Name and Fame by doing such a glorious work as could not be effected in the Reign of any of his Royal Predecessors and for the compleating whereof he craved no other aid and supply but only the profits of such drown'd and utterly-deserted Mineral works as his own Philosophical industry should recover unlesse his Majesty would be pleased to add thereunto such supposed Treasure a Trover as the Art and Industry of all former Ages could never attain unto and to help him herein he desired no other Pioneers but only such penitent persons as being convicted of petty Felonies were condemned for want of Clergy except such Voluntiers as being convicted by their own consciences came into the work with truely-contrite spirits and truly-mortified affections and were willing to vow Voluntary poverty before they were admitted and his reason was if my memory fail me not That Gods providence is all-sufficient to carry on with successe any vertuous undertaking where patient industry simple obedience and humble self-denyal are the principal Agents Religious men the only Surveyors not byassed by interest their diet temperance and the produâ—tion of the whole solely dedicated to his Honour and Service Neither would my Lord admit of any Partners or Co-adjutors in this design But as Princes cannot endure any Competitors and Lovers will brook no Corrivals so it was my Lords only ambition to have no Auxiliaries that should share with him in the honour of his Philosophical discoveries that so he might gratefully ascribe and attribute the whole invention perfection and emolument thereof to the Omnipotent and only-wise Architect of the Universe Now all the premises being laid together I humbly refer to your grave and serious consideration which are more fully set down in my Abridgment of my Lord Bacons Mineral Theory and when to your admiration the mystick propositions therein discoursed of shall be successefully experimented and perfected by such inconsiderable instruments and dis-regarded humble ones then what carnal reason now looks upon as impossible I hope all sober men will acknowledge to be feasible and be brought not only to confesse that all self-seeking worldy wisdom is foolishness with God but also that such matchless precedents of Gods incomprehensible mercy and bounty have not only plausibly perswaded but even powerfully compelled them to be cordially asisting in their several places and to the utmost of their power by removing all such rubs and Remoras as do any way obstruct or retard the persuing and prosecuting of that which by Gods blessing may in short time be improved to so publick a benefit and in this assurance I Rest The Humblest of your Lordships Servants THOMAS BUSHELL Mr. BVSHEL'S LETTER To the Right Honourable the LORD FAIRFAX Touching his Articles of VVar. Right Honourable BY the inclosed Remonstrance you will discern the readinesse of my industry to do my Countrey service and by my Articles of War how much your Lordship and my Lord Say and Seal are ingaged in Honor to see them ratified and therefore I shall not need to put your Lordship in mind of more than what proceeds from your quick-sighted Genius and springs from the veins of your Noble Blood especially when the fidelity of performance on my part as a private Gentleman shall be ballanced and scanned by your own wisdom For my Lord I held my Articles of War made by such persons of quality and from the Authority of Parliament more impregnable than the strongest Garison And why I should be made the only Trophe of Misfortune by being rendred thus into a Prison upon an Arrest through my confidenâ—e of your engagements to protect me when by my publâ—ck Actions the Honour of a Parliament and your own interests are bound to make them good I know not neither do I see the Equity or Justice of it For it is impossible your Lordships should conceive my judgment so weak I having the late Kings Monitory Letter a true Copy whereof is here under-written when you shall consider the great Debts I have contracted for him and my self as to part from so Tenable a place as Lundy without my Estate restored to enable me to pay them or my Person protected till I got the possession but much rather have died in the place than be exposed to a loathsom prison by the common rigor of Bayliffs and Serjeants unlesse it be decreed by the Eternal Power that future Ages shall find on Record there was a time when a Writ procured by a Mechanick Fellow did baffle an Ordinance of Parliament impowering their General and one of the greatest Peers of the Realm to Treat with me concerning that Garrison In a word my Lord solid judgments do conceive that my Person cannot suffer more by imprisonment than your Honours in the censure of all States for suffering it I write not this my Lord to free my self from prison untill pay the utmost farthing of any just debt I ow either for the late King or upon my own score if both your engaged Honours are not concerned in my Restraint but only crave liberty to persue those Mines which Providence hath in all probability designed to pay such patient Creditors Orphans and Widâ—ws as never laid any other action upon me than their daily Prayers For my Lord the fears of not enjoying when brought to perfection do far transcend any doubts I have of recovering Mineral Riches out of the hardest Rocks and since Divine bounty was pleased to confer such hidden Treasures upon a Heathen King Isa 45.3 it were a sin of a high nature in me that professe Christianity to suspect a lesser successe when the All-seeing Eye well knows my designed end is no more than the love of gratitude to persue those Philosophical Notions described in the Lord Bacons New Atlantis for magnifying the God of Nature in his secret works of Nature And therefore I could wish and humbly pray That the Noblenesse of your Spirit might be the corner stone of such a Fabrick to posterity since the Lord Chief Justice St.
employed should be concentrick in that service and act as the united faculties of one man their hearts being free from all ends and ambitious thoughts save such as conduced to Gods glory and the Common good But so soon as his Lordship had vouchsafed to acquaint me concerning his proceedings with his Majesty in thiâ— Affair he bade me call to mind the many fatherly favours which he had conferred upon me as pious motives to retard my unripe years from hazardous travels and having professed to his Lordship that I could not with any content resolve to live in my Native Country ever since I understood that younger Brothers by the Law of the Land were not participant in their Fathers Inheritance but that they were by the ways of Vertue and Industry to attend the Almighties bounty for acquiring such fortunes as primogeniture had conferred upon their elder Brothers or otherwise to live in an inferior or servile condition and then instanced his acceptance of me for his Servant at fifteen yâ—ars of age upon my own Address his clearing all my debts three several times with no smaller sum in the whole than three thousand pound his preferring me in Mariage to a rich Inheretrix and thereupon not only allowing me four hundred pounds per annum but to ballance the consent of her Father in the Match promised upon his honor to make me the Heir of his knowledge in Mineral Philosophy saying That if thâ—se real expressions of his love could but find the due retaliation of my gratitude he might then assure himself of the hoped Harvest of two lives tâ— one inferring that although Fathers are bound to provide for their Children and worse than Infidels if they do not yet there is no such injunction upon Masters in relation to their Servants and therefore where a Masters pious bounty transcends a Fathers natural love there that so obliged servant must appear most prodigiously ingratefuâ—l which shall not with much zeal and faithfulnesse discharge the duty of a surviving Trust seriously adding this Bushel I must now use you my intended Instrument in the prosecution of my Mineral Designs as Politick Princes do their nearesâ— Servants in their Cabinet Counsels who putting their Masters conceptions into act if they take well with the people must own no more of them than the approbation thereof and the admiration of their Princes wisdom therein but in the contrary effect to salve their Princes honour they must sadly acknowledge the matter wholly their own an Error in their Couâ—sâ—ls and a crime in themselves So you if by my Theory you prosper in your practick must attribuâ—… all the honour of the whole work to me If othe wise you must gratefully preserve my reputation by acknowledging your own mâ—sfortune in mistaking and misacting my directions and so you shall be sure to gain the Title and Character of a gratefull Servant in eiâ—her event And upon my serious â—rotesta ion that I would faithfully obey all his Commands his Lordship advised me not to follow the practice of our Predecessors in their tedious and expensive ways of sinking Airy shafts at every forty fathoms nor to imitate the antient Romans by diâ—ging Mines through deep and open Trenches but by cutting Addits into the Mountains at their lowest Level and by supplying their defect of Air with Pipe and Bellowes being an invention utterly unknown to former Agâ—s And for my first experience to begin with those five Mountains in Cardiganshire reported by Sir FRANCIS GODOLPHIN and a Portugues to be rich in Silver and Lead But if I should by my practick part fail in my deeper search either for want of convenient Air or a sufficient Vein of Ore his Lordship commanded me to persue his directions in that particular no further yet if my happy successe should prove his Theory true in this as also in the several wayes of separating the Metal from the Dross and the Silver from the Lead that then I should not fail to illustrate the innocent Trade of the poor Miners by making his Lordship the Patron of their Profession nor neglect to dedicate the whole profit which Divine Providence should reveal in the one to find out the Riches of the other and above all that I should take special care to elect such honest Agents for the carrying on this innocently profitable work as their vertuous ambitions should aim at no by respect beyond the publick good of their Country they having a competent salary for their modest maintenance But these Embrions proving abortive by the death of that Lord in the Reign of King Iames were the sad motive which perswaded my pensive retirements to a three years solitude until divine providence calling me to a more active life I discovered and perfected Natures ingenuous designs upon my Rock at Enston in Oxfordshire by making it such a delightful Grotto that the same of it invited the late King Charles to a volunrary visit By which means I not only became known to his Majesty but also found an apt occasion to discourse the above-mentioned Proposals of the Lord BACONS Philosophy who so well approved of my Ingenie upon that place and his Lordships Mineral Model that he presently promised me the assistance of his Mint according to the president of other Princes when I should find silver worth the coyning and likewise the accommodation of my own Lead so discovered Custom-free for 21 years as also my choise of renting the whole Custom of that Commodity at the rate of tâ—e Farmers Books calculated by the account of seven years Audit to put the speculations of my Masters Theory into practice These high favors of the late King conferred on my self in memory of that Lords eminent abilities and this his admonition before the Earl of Dorset to me at York That if in the War then like to ensue I should not prove real and active in his service and cordial in the trust reposed in me by my quondam Lord I should justly merit the Title and reputation of a Knave which did then provoke me forwards in my undertakings with a most zealous observation of my obliged fidelity to both till his Majesty at Causam dis-ingaged me in the first that he might enable me as much as in him lay to perform the latter by his gracious letter of permission to surrender Lundy at my own charge fortified and maintained without injury or violence to any upon such Articles as might take off my delinquency and restore me to my Estate and the grants of my Mines Mints and Customs rather than the forementioned design so well digested by my honorable Lord for the general good should be made fustrate by my incapacity to prosecute I being the only man made privy to all those his Mineral speculations and some other of his Philosophical Lucubrations not yet to be promulged until my proficiency and successe in the Mines shall enable me thereto since he in the depth of his wisdom thought it not only the
any your lawful desires And in the mean time these Our Letters shall be a good and sufficient Testimony of Our Royal intentions towards you and our good wishes to the prosperity of your undertakings Given at Our Court at Whitehall under Our Signet the three and twentieth day of February in the twelfth year of Our Reign To Our trusty and welbeloved Subject and Servant Thomas Bushell Esq This is entred in the Signet-Book the 23 of Febr. 1636 Ja. Store The Merchants Letter of Barnstaple to Mr. Bushell concerning their accommodation of transporting his Lead and Oar gratis c. SIR SInce you have been pleased at your own great charge to discover those deserted Works at Combmartin for the publick good of our Countrey and whereas you are interessed in the Mines of Wales which furnish you both with Lead and Lead-Oar These are to request you to be pleased to make this our Harbour partaker of the Benefits may proceed therein and what we buy not from you for ready moneys we shall be ready to transport for you Frait-free instead of Ballast you rendring it aboard to all such Ports as our Vessels shall commerce withall In so doing we suppose the result thereof will more properly conduce to your hopeful proceedings in the said Works of Combmartin which we wish all happy success and remain Your Loving Friends Richard Harris William Leigh George Shurt Robert Dennis Iohn Tucker Thomas Hoâ—wood Anthony Benny William Palmer Lyonel Becher Rich. Harris William Nottel Iohn Down Walter Tucker R. Flemming Richard Medford William Wood Francis Newton Edward Flemming Tho. Cox Nathaniel Fisherleigh Robert Frayn Barnstable the 6 of Octob. 1648. The Attestation of the Physicians College in the City of London VVE whose names are hereunder written have seen a Printed Paper of Mr. Bushels concerning Minerals and opening of Mines and do conceive it fit that he be encouraged in the prosecution of that design which we conceive may be Benefit and Honour to our Commonwealth Fran. Pruiean Collegii Medicor Londines Praeses Thomas Winston H. Clerk Tho. Turner Walter Charleton S. Argall Guliel Rant Robert Loyd Iosh Hinton Tho. Nurse Geo. Bate Edw. Smith Edw. Alstone Novemb. 29. 1652. A Certificate from the Miners presented to the Right Honourable the Lordr and other of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel May it please your Lordships ACcording to your commands Wee whose names are under written being Miners Smelters Refiners Carryers Washers and Monyers belonging to his Majesties Mines Royal in the County of Cardigan in all humility do certifie of our certain knowledge and experience concerning the new works lately discovered by Gods providence to Thomas Bushell Esquire Farmer of his Majesties Mines Royal in these parts that the said Master Bushell at his inestimable charge having cut six hundred Fathome through the Rock at the lowest levels North and South for discovering the lost vein of Cum-sum lock lying East and West two hundred Fathome through the Mountain of Tallibont at sixty Fathome perpendicular three several Addits at Koginenn one above another twenty and thirty Fathome center another at the Darren to come under the Romans work at an hundred Fathom center another at Bryn Lloyd fifty Fathom in length and thirty Fathom center working day and night for the Drayning of the water which formerly in the time of Customer Smith and Sir Hugh Middleton in their working of the Mines Royal was never used they only working upon the Superficies of the earth the works being drowned with water before they could sink to the best of the vein both for quantity and quality and so the charge made to exceed the benefit which danger is prevented by the aforesaid Addits and the Royal Mines become more hopeful especialy by the assistance of his Majesties Mint for the speedy payment of all those that are employed in the said works And Mr. Bushels own invention to save Wood by reducing the Ore into Lead and Silver with Turff and Sea-cole Charked which happy invention had it not been found out the works must needs have been left unwrought the Country not being able to have supplyed necessary fewel And further by the prohibition of transporting Ore unwrought that holdeth silver worth the refining which His Majesty in his Princely wisdom saw to be very prejudicial even to the utter overthrow of his Mines Royal. We have therefore great reason to be confident that his way of Working with the restraint of transporting Ore will in short time greatly encrease the Bullion of this Kingdom for the honour of the King and good of the Common-wealth together with the employment of many hundred poor people which would be otherwise an unsupportable burthen to this barren Country who by their present labour in these Mines are able to subsist with their Families and thousands more might be daily set on work if Mr. Bushels undertakings in the Mines Royal may be confirmed for a certain time by this present high Court of Parliament MINERS David Fowles William Rashly Henry Cockler David Bebb. Joseph Jefferies George Turner Hugh Reece William Davids George Scotsmer Thomas Bâ—ickhead Will. Griffith Peter Baltiser Francis Pierce Maurice Lewis Peter Edriser Edward Blewys Rob Emblin Rob. Tailor Robert Lowning Thomas Fletcher David Evans George Dixon Hugh Mason David op Richard Tho. Blewys Michael Sanders Morgan Williams Tho. Clocker Tho. Green Bartho Clocker Francis Fisher Hugh Benn Iohn Mason George Tickle Iohn Mason Iohn Fisher David Loyd David Williams Henry Emblin Maurice Taylor John Emblin Edward Reece John Mason Sen. Will. Picharets Evan Thomas John Harris Will. Tyson Watkin Reece Iohn Smith Morgan Pritchet Griffith Iohn Will. Reece Iohn Tuddar Iohn Huson David Iinkins Ioseph Acherson Edmund Poole Edward Bebb. Philip Benn Thomas Iames With two Hundred more whom for brevity we omit to name Moniers Henry Such Iohn Corbet Richard Arnold Refiners Iohn Estopp David Estopp Samuel Iohnson Edw. Gibbon Tho. Parker Arthur Elissa Smelters Thomas Botham Hugh Iames. Griffith Evans Iohn Watkin Iinkin Owen Iohn Epslie Iohn Evans Iohn Lewes Ia. Meredith Washers Iohn Wringe Morgan Iohn Lewis Davy Iohn Iohn Ienkins Morgan Griff. Iohn Edmund Symons Reece Morgan Charls Williâ—mâ— Thomas Adams To the Right Honourable the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council ACcording to Yours Honours command we have enquired and considered how the Mines-Royal were lâ—ft to Mr. Bushel by the Lady Middleton and do in all humility declare that the Silver Mines were not worth the working untill Mr. Bushel at his great charge discovered Rich Ore in the adjacent mountains which in all likelyhood will both increase the Bullion and by his way of working in short time give his Majesty a true tryal what the invaluable riches of these his Welsh mountains are for whereas the Mines in these parts were formerly wrought by Pumps and so growing deep were left drowned with water Mr. Bushel cuts through the main Rocks at the lowest levell to an hundred fathom perpendicular according to
in the treâ—sures of Ledd and to free other works of greater moment from their contagious damps that now lie deserted on purpose that the overplus of their revenew proceeding from such a deplorable condition and raised by the hand of Providence and Industry might go as Mr. Bushell did likewise aver upon the word of a Gentleman to charitable uses of discovering richer Metals exprest in his late Remonstrance to his Highness as well as by his late Will and Testament for the first fruits thereof to ledd the Tower and School in the Church of Wells Wee of the grand Jury do likewise make this Order and Decree That if any misdemeanor as aforesaid shall be proved to be done against the said Tho. Bushell his Agents Servants or works such are not only to be banished the occupation upon Mendyp but we do humbly implore his Highness to send them to the Mines of Iamaica that they may not infect others nor bring by their exorbitant courses more scandal upon the whole profession of a Miners innocent calling since we are satisfied in our consciences that the way of Mr. Bushell's Mineral proceedings will in this Age bring wonderfull things to pass and be admired in the next for the glory of the Nation And especially when as the said Tho. Bushell doth aver that he will transport all his rich Western Mines lying upon the Sea-side which are or shall be discovered in Wales Devon Cornwall and Ireland unto the Port or Haven at Up-hill to receive their true separations according to the Lord Chancellour Bacons Philosophy and so to be minted in the adjacent City of Wells for satisfying all returns as well as to pay the Miner with his own Coyn and without any further salary than in one place to pay the whole of that Commerce Io Radford Foreman of the Mineral Grand Jury there with his fellows Walter Webb Richard Frank. Richard Adams Iohn Phelps Thomas Younge William Dowgling Alexander Cuer William Hopkins Ionas Lexstond Iohn House Richard Ayrer To our Dread Sovereign Lord the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTIE May it please your Majestie WE do most humbly and thankfully acknowledge that your Majesties vouchsafing to this your Principality the trust of a branch of your Royal Mint is an honour that neither our Ancestors nor our selves durst wish for and we do as humbly and as thankfully acknowledge and confesse that by it you have not only honoured us more than any of your Royal predecessors but have thereby offered us the means to enrich our selves to the making of us happier than our Fathers in freeing us fâ—om the cares and fears that hindred us from diving into these Mountains that promise a masse of Treasure For be pleased to know that before your Majestie vouchsafed unto us this great favour we were fearfull to adventure far into the Mountains because we had far to send before we could make the Silver current that we should at charge recover Nor was our care of carriage and recarriage the least hinderance to our proceedings from all which by your Majesties goodnesse and the endeavours of your industrious and faithfull Servant Thomas Bushel we are happily freed for which favour we whose names are hereunto subscribed in the behalf of all the Inhabitants of this your Principality of WALES do render all humble and hearty thanks and for them and our selves do hereby promise to Your Sacred Majestie that we will do our utmost endeavours to find out that Treasure which we believe God and Nature from the Creation hath preserved for your Majesties use that thereby we may approve our selves your Majesties loyal and most Obedient Subjects and humble Servant Thomas Milward Knight Chief Justice of Chester Marmaduke LLoyd Knight Richard Price K. Baronet James Price Knight Sampson Eure Knight Iohn Lewis Knight Timothy Turner Esq L. Littleton Esq Walter LLoyd Esq Thomas Price Esq Robert Corbet Esq Evan Gwin Esq Morgan Herbert Esq John Vaughan Esq Vincent Corbet Esq Humfrey Green Esq Iohn LLoyd Esq David LLoyd ap Reighnald Esq Thomas Phillips Esq Iohn Edmund Esq Hugh LLoyd Gent. David Rees Gent. Iohn Bowen Gent. William Watkin Gent. Iohn Meredith Gent. Iames Kegitt Gent. Die Sabbati 14. Aug. 1641. WHereas this House hath been informed that Thomas Bushell Esquire undertaker of his Majesties Mines-Royal in the County of Cardigan by his great charge and industry in cutting Addits hath gained His Majesties old drowned and forsaken works or Tallybont and other works and made new discoveries of Royal-Mines there which are already very considerable And whereas divers persons of qual ty encouraged by his Majesties Letters to them directed do intend to adventure great sums of mony in the said works which in time if well incouraged may prove of great consequence both for Honour and Profit to His Majesty and the Kingdom And whereas also it appeareth unto this House by divers Affidavits and Certificates of credit that some persons ill-affected to these Honourable and Publick services who in time may receive deserved punishments have disturbed the possession of the said Tho. Bushell in some of his Majesties Mines-Royal and Edifices appertaining to the Royal-works and have plucked up divers plumps cast in the Rubbish drowned and so much as in them did lye destroyed the said work so as it hath been a labour of four years night and day to recover the same And that also the said Tho. Bushell hath been disturbed in the getting of Turf and Peat for the service of his Majesties works being an invention of his own very commendable and commodious for the preserving of Wood which hath been heretofore by the former Undertakers much wasted in those parts Now for the remedy of the said Mischiefs and that the said Tho. Bushell and his Assigns and such persons as are or shall be Undertakers and Adventurers with him in the said service may receive all due incouragement and assistance in those chargeable undertakings It is ordered by the Lords in the Upper House of Parliament now assembled That the Speaker of this House in the Name and by the Authority of the same shall direct His Letters unto the Iudges of Assize and Iustices of the Peace of the said County of Cardigan Requiring them that they do in all lawfull things endeavour to advance and encourage the said service in his Majesties Royal Mines and assist the said Tho. Bushell and other Undertakers in all things so far as lawfully they may both for the continuance of his lawfull Possessions and and the quiet and peaceable working of the said Mines untill he shall be evicted by due course of Law as also for getting and working of Turf and Peat according to his Legal right upon his Majesties Wastes and other places lawfull and all other lawfull accommodations of necessary passages and other Legal things which may any waies advance His Majesties service in the said Royal Mines JO. BROWN Cler. Parliament The Miners contemplative Prayer in his solitary Delves which is conceived requisite to
so he left me Having assigned a value of about two thousand Duckets for a Bounty to me and my fellows For they give great Largesses where they come upon all occasions The Impressa of Mr. Bushels Golden Medal FRA BACON VICECO S CT ALBAN ANGLIAE CANCELL DEVS EST QVI CLAVSA RECLVDIT THO BVSHELL THe Lord St Alban's Atlantis is a Magazine of compendious but sublime documents to inrich a Common-wealth with universal Notions as far above a vulgar capacity as the Empyreal Heavens are the Earth for which cause himself stiled it his Solomons house or six daies work But the way to advance a proportionable Revenue proposed by his Philosophical Theory to accomplish the vast design of such a Magnificent Structure without a Princes Purse will seem as abstruse to some acute apprehensions as the immortal descent of the Soul to animate the Embryon in the Womb yet if any responsible persons are incredulous of Mr. Bushell's proceedings to perfect the said Lords Philosophical Theory in Mineral discoveries according to his undertakings let them or any other that have heretofore given him credit upon the late Kings score or his own repair to the assurance Office at the Royal Exchange where they shall have tendered by Friends of his Medals of Gold by way of Mart to raise 1000 l. per week according to the tenor of a Bill exprest at large in his Abridgement of the Lord Chancellor Bacon's mineral Prosecutions so soon as it is setled in Parliament for their encouragement and himself hath liberty to attend Providence in the successe FINIS Post-Script to the Judicious Reader READER IF thou hast perused the foregoing Treatise of the Isle of Bensalem wherein the Philosophical Father of Solomons House doth perfectly demonstrate my Heroick Masters the Lord Chancellour Bacons design for the benefit of mankind then give me leave to tell thee how far that illustrious Lord proceeded in the practical part of such his Philosophical Notions and when and where they had their first rise as well as their first Eclipse their first rise as I have heard him say was from the noble nature of the Earl of Essex's affection and so they were clouded by his fall although he bequeathed to that Lord upon his presenting him with a secret curiosity of Nature whereby to know the season of every hour of the year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in his Chamber Twitnam Park and its Garden of Paradise to study in But the sudden change of his Royal Mistresses countenance acting so Tragical a part upon his only friend and her once dearest Favourite he likewise yielded his Law-studies as lost despairing of any preferment from the present State as by many of his Letters in his Book of Remains appears so that he retired to his Philosophy for some few months from whence he presented the then rising Sun Prince Henry with an experiment of his second Collections to know the heart of Man by a sympathizing stone made of several mixtures and usher'd in the conceit with this ensuing discourse Most Royal Sir Since you are by birth the Prince of our Country and your vertues the happy pledge to our posterity and that the seigniory of Greatnesse is ever attended more with flatterers than faithfull Friends and loyal Subjects and therefore needeth more helps to discern and prie into the hearts of the People than private persons Give me leave noble Sir as small Rivulets run to the vast Ocean to pay their tribute so let me have the honour to shew your Highnesse the Operative quality of these two triangular stones as the first fruits of my Philosophy to imitate the pathetical motion of the Load-stone and Iron although made up by the Compounds of Meteors as Star-shot jelly and other like magical ingredients with the reflected beams of the Sun on purpose that the warmth distilled unto them through the moist heat of the hand might discover the affection of the heart by a vis ble sign of their attraction and appetite to each other like the hand of a Watch within ten minutes after they are laid upon a marble Table or the Theatre of a Looking-glasse I write not this as a feigned story but as a real truth for I was never quiet in mind till I had procured those Jewels of my Lords Philosophy from Mr. Archy Prim-Rose the Princes Page But the sudden death of that Prince give new cause of sorrow to the whole Nation as well as to that Lord whereupon his Lordship dedicated his Advancement of Learning to his Brother Charles the surviving Prince and to his prudent Father King Iames his Novum Organum who so much approved of his transcendent knowledge and singular eloquence as in his Royal Wisdome he made him Lord Chancellor during life and Lord Protector during his absence in his Scotish Progresse and though this eminent greatnesse gave many advantages to envious tongues yet when his Lordship had revealed the most mysterous parts of his Philosophy to his Master the King and delivered him his opinion concerning the disposition of Mr. Suttons charity exprest also in his Remains he thereby so indulged his Majesties Genius as he prevailed with him to call a Parliament chiefly for his Majesties own pressing occasions and to confirm this Academy of learning in his way of Mining by an Act of State upon hopes of perfecting all other expencefull tryals by the said Revenue and to that purpose his Lordship had prepared the heads of a Speech to the said Parliament which were as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen the King my Royal Master was lately graciously pleased to move some discourse to me concerning Mr. Suttons Hospital and such like worthy foundations of memorable piety which humbly seconded by my self drew his Majesty into a serious consideration of the Mineral Treasures of his own Territories and the practical discoveries of them by way of my Philosophical Theory which he then so well resented that afterwards upon a mature digestion of my whole design he commanded me to let your Lordships understand how great an inclination he hath to farther such a hopeful work for the Honor of his own Dominions and the publick good as the most probable means to relieve all the poor thereof without any other stock or benevolence than that which divine bounty should confer on their own industries and honest labors in recovering all such drowned Mineral works as have been or shall be therefore deserted And my Lords all that is now desired from his Majesty and your Lordship is no more than a gracious Act of this present Parliament to authorise them therein adding a mercy to a munificence which is the persons of such strong and able petty Felons who in true penitence for their Crimes shall implore his Majesties mercy and permission to expiate their offences by their assiduous labors in so innocent and hopeful a work For by this unchâ—rgeable way my Lords have I proposed to erect the Academical fabrick
of this Islands Solomons-House modeled in my new Atlantis And I can hope my Lords that my midnight studies to make our Countryes flourish and out-vie European neighbours in mysterious and beneficent Arts have not so ingratefully affected your noble intellects that you will delay or resist his Majesties desires and my humble Petition in this benevolent yea magnificent affair since your honorable posterities may be inriched thereby and my ends are only to make the world my Heir and the learned Fathers of my Solomons-House the successive and sworn Trustees in the dispensation of this great service for Gods glory my Princes magnifice this Parliaments honor our Countryes general good and the propagation of my own memory And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals in order to this great Architype seemed so rational and feisable to my Royal Soveragin our Christian Solomon that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this Honourable Parliament to confirm and impower me in my own way of Mining by an Act of the same after his Majesties more weighty affairs were considered in your wisdomes both which he desires your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are chosen as the Patriots of your respective Countries to take speedy care of which done I shall not then doubt the happy issue of my undertakings in this design whereby concealed Treasures which now seem utterly lost to mankind shall be confined to so universal a piety and brought into use by the industry of converted Penitents whose wretched Carcases the impartial Laws have or shall dedicate as untimely feasts to the worms of the earth in whose wombe those deserted Mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost abortments unless those be made the active Midwives to deliver them For my Lords I humbly conceive them to be the fittest of all men to effect this great work for the ends and causes which I have before exprest All which my Lords I humbly refer to your grave and solid Judgments to conclude of together with such other assistances to this frame as your own oraculous wisdom shall intimate for the magnifying our Creator in his inscrutable providence and admirable works of Nature But before this could be accomâ—lished to his own content there arose such complaints against his Lordship and the then Favorite at Court that for some dayes put the King to this Quere whether he should permit the Favorite of his affection or the Oracle of his Counsel to sink in his service whereupon his Lordship was sent for by the King who after some discourse gave him this positive advice to submit himself to his House of Peers and that upon his Princely word he would then restore him again if they in their honors should not be sensible of his merits Now though my Lord foresaw his approaching ruine and told his Majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude when his Enemies were to give fire if he did not plead for himself yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being that he resolv'd his Majesties will should be his only Law and so took leave of him with these words Those that will strike at your Chancellor its much to be feared will strike at your Crown and wish'd that as he was then the first so he might be the last of Sacrifices Soon after according to his Majesties commands he wrote a submissive letter to the House and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result which I was loath at my return to acquaint him with for alas his Soveraigns favour was not in so high a measure but he like the Phoenix must be sacrifized in flames of his own raising and so perish'd like Icarus in that his lofty design the great revenue of his Office being lost and his Titles of Honour saved but by the Bishops Votes whereto he replied That he was only bound to thank his Clergy the thunder of which fatal sentence did much perplex my troubled thoughts as well as others to see that famous Lord who procured his Majesty to call this Parliament must be the first subject of their revengeful wrath and that so unparalleld a Master should be thus brought upon the publick stage for the foolish miscarriages of his own servants whereof with grief of heart I confess my self to be one Yet shortly after the King dissolved the Parliament but never restored that matchless Lord to his place which made him then to wish the many years he had spent in State-policy and Law-study had been solely devoted to true Philosophy for said he the one at best doth but comprehend mans frailty in its greatest splendor but the other the mysterious knowledge of all things created in the six dayes work Wherefore considering his fatherlike favors to my undeservings exprest in my confession to the honorable Council and knowing the Library he left to the world viz. His great work intituled Instauratio Magna an admirable piece containing First de Augmentis Scientiarum or his advancement of Learning in nine Books written in Latine and dedicated to King Charls then Prince of Wales Secondly Novum organum sive Judica vera de interpretatione naturae written in Latine and dedicated to King James Thirdly Sylva Sylvarum or his Natural History his New Atlantis his History of Life and Death historia ventorum all dedicated to King Charles by D. Rawley sometimes his Lordships Chaplain Sermones fideles sive interioria rerum otherwise called his Essays dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham De sapientia veterum or the wisdom of the Antients dedicated to the Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge and to the University a double dedication which was afterwards translated by Sir Arthur Gorges and dedicated to the Queen of Bohemia Dialogus de Bello Sacro dedicated to Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester The History of Henry the Seventh dedicated to K. Charls His Elements of the Law Resuscitatio certain excellent Discourses Letters and the like being his Remains set forth by the said Doctor Rawley A Manual of Devotions intituled Comfortable Crums of refreshment by Prayers Meditations Consolations and Ejaculations with a confession of Faith published by the aforesaid worthy and faithfull Doctor Rawley Doctor in Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplains I willingly then betook my self to that penance of solitude imposed me by his Lordships Fatherly advice as is exprest in my Letter to my fellow Prisoners for Debt before I should dare to attempt any of his Mineral â—rust formerly consign'd me by the favour of his affection as doth more at large appear in my humble Remonstrance to the Honourable Council the which for three years I strictly kept as if obliged by a Religious Vow from whence I was grown so sensible of other mens suffering restraint for Conscience sake as I procured the liberty of many Jesuite Priests Anabaptists Brownists Familists of love Adamites and one of the Rosie-Crucians whose humility and
straw consigned them by the Christian charity of some honest Farmer or good Free-holder but after a thankful remembrance to the All-disposer they had a repetition of the present times and the bounty of rich mens Tables as well as the mock-Beggars Palaces giving their verdict as canonical amongst the sage Beggars by inspection from their own observation what must become of their actions and issue that quoth he live by oppression and in pleasures whereof yoâ—ng man I must tell you my Father was held a great Astrologer for those hidden mysteries in the Beggars fraternity although his education had no other Tutorship then 76 years experience under the green Canopy of summer hedges called the Beggars College in moonshiny nights and as I take it the Shepheards Calendar went no further with them in the literal sense of Astrology than the cognisance of all Creatures behaviours in their lives and deaths intimating once a month as a general Lector to our memory that nothing more of learning was required from us mortals but the glory of humility and obedience Which caused me to propose this question Whether his mind was not addicted to the same study of his fathers Collections or whether they were buried in his own Sepulchre Who with a sigh and sobbing heart told me in short It was his greatest grief for he had nothing of the book but seven Prayers for every day in the week one Aâ—d yet young man said he if you have a desire to see fashions in a Beggars habit as well as in the gay clothes of the Worlds converse I will conduct you to the acquaintance of those persons that were of repute with my father and of such singular documents and principles without worldly ends as they in short time will make you heir to the track of their knowledge in moral vertues if they find by your physiognomy and carriage an inclination of yoâ—rs to do good to the sad condition of their own tribe as well as to your self and indoctrinate the rest by winnowing the chaff from the corn the good from the bad For we have most commonly once a week in our Barn Gypsies Bedlams and all sorts of lazie Vagabonds which we conceive iâ— the poor and honest Beggars purgatory and a great trial of his humâ—ne patience when such a misery is added to his poverty there being all degrees of professions from the highest to the lowest that come within the verge of our Beggars assembly to give us an abstract of the rest of the family as well as the occasion that brought them to our acquaintance and then we commonly shew them their pedigree from the Usurers book the Lawiers library the Courtiers cheaâ— the Countrimans fraud the Merchants falsity and what sprang from their own exorbitant fooleries when and where came the curse to them of such a desolation and how to salve the same from despair of Gods mercy which ever attends their consciences in such wicked actions I had no sooner received the Epiâ—ome of those Beggars pilgrimages in a far larger measure than is here exprest but I began to contemplate upon the happinesse I should receive if a Summers progresse were spent in such a service that was called by him the Charnel-house of the living being buried alive because it was observed that some of every family had alwayes their recourse to this impregnable Citadel of misery that can and must hold out as he did aver to the last man Which considerations brought me then to loâ—th my self and the whole Worlds Commerce for his solid society But some ten days after I was summoned by the Governour of that Island upon the old score of a Spie Where giving him the same account as before exprest in answer to his Queries I found him so rigidly bent to make me his prisoner as I was forced to put on the disguise of a discontented Lover and to implore the intercession of three vertuous and amiable Ladies that were accidentally present letting them know that I had lost the Mistresse of my heart by death which is Natures Serjeant a month before and could not asswage that passion of affection remaining with me in remembrance of her fidelity unless I should interre my self in her Tomb or use this means of so itude to ease my groaning spirit and oppressed mind hoping their compassionate natures wouâ—d favour me with their piâ—ies and palliate the Governours fury through their familiar acquaintance if they had ever been in Love themselves or did believe there was such a prevalent power in that passion after the death of his or her dearly beloved Friend From whence with joynt consent they rose up like Lightning tore the Warrant made for my Commitment saying It were impossible for such expressions of fervent love to proceed from so simple a fellow as I did seem to be but that it must be the cause of my obscurity and not any other affinity to the nature of a Spie than contemplating on her memory that was dead to the world though living to my self But his hard heart being frozen with age from any such affection signed another warrant to secure my person his prisoner which made me then disclose my name and whose servant I was with contempt to his power Dinner then comming in I took my leave saying to the Ladies That the Mistris I meant to harbour in my breast as my only companion in this solitude was to exchange the habitual errors of my youth for vertuous acts And though the place can now afford me being known no other content than shame yet the Mother should sooner forget her Child than I their noble civilities and to that purpose I would wait upon them in another habit towards my Journey to London where giving my quondam Master an account with the reason of my revolt he said It shewed I was luke-warm in my Devotion when I was ashamed of such an innocent profession howsoever he seemed glad of my return and said If he were assured of my perseverance to endeavour the Mastery of my self he would trust me in the secrets of his Mineral design before any Kinsman or Scholar of his acquaintance being jealous as I conceive from his following discourse that the one might be careless or covetous and the other arrogate the whole honour to himself although Divine Providence gave the encrease and inspired that Lords Philosophy to make the model from such a promiscuous Chaos as drowned Minerals and Condemned men hoping by their conversions to do the work for Gods greater glory and his own more perpetual honour The Moral of which truth in trying a retired life confirmed by my Lords trust and my perseverance in the like way induced the late King to grant me not onely my own desires in the Mines Mint and Customs but afterwards his Majesty was confined to Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight where amongst other Discourses with which some of his Attendants entertained him he was assured of the truth of
this passage between my self and the Beggar he called to mind a Treatment I had given him and divers of his Nobility at my Grotto in Oxfordshire 33. years ago where one by my appointment in the habit of one of those Philosophical Hermits before mentioned in the 28 page of my Lords Atlantis addressed himself to his Majesty by this ensuing speech ascending out of the ground as a prophetick preludium to the practical discovery of Mineral Treasures and all mysterious Arts for I must tell you the third year following I gave him a collation of his own coined Silver newly discover'd out of his barren mountains wherby the utmost grandure of humane Empire might be compleated by such true Hermits if persued in the like nature commanded me to ask my Lord Say whether it might not be possible to have his restraint limited to that place and not to return to the said Castle any more giving such of the Nobility as were his friends engaged as Security that he should not go out of the Precincts of that Grotto nor intermeddle with any State-affairs until themselves found it expedient for the general good But this being denied made me decline the recesses of that solitude And now gentle Reader since that Lord in his wisdom conceived it necessary to limit the aforesaid Practice according to the Dictates of his own Theory I refer my self to your judicious censure although I confess my simplicity is so great that I cannot arrogate any thing of â—nowledge to my self which may seem to lessen the merits of that unparallel'd Lord but am like the Mule that bears his Masters Treasure or a Porter that carries a Letter yet knows not the worth of its contents The Moral whereof is this That the Poor mans Tale may be heard as well as the Rich and that self-will'd persons of self-intereâ—… may not sway the judgement of a whole state from trying the Divine Mysteries of that Lords Philosophy lest his Overtrres penned by his Pupils observation in this foregoing Treatise for setting the Poor on work easing the Subjects Tax and giving the Tenth of what Treasure-trove shall be discovered by such Art or of Drowned Lands recovered from the Sea without prejudice to any should prove witnesses against us in the next age to the perpetual shame and dishonour of this I write not this Gentle Reader to ingratiate my self into your good opinion for releasing me from imprisonment or to be restored to the possession of my Estate according to Articles lest a Critick oâ— self-ended person should carp at the same and report I had trapan'd the Judgement of a State under the notion of this Treasure although I am assured that the Parliament and the then Lord General will find their Honours as much imprisoned as my person when they shall read their own Articles signed by their General and confirmed by themselves which makes me not remove my body by a Habeas Corpus to the upper Bench or Fleet as others in my condition do for I find the major part of my just Creditors are satisfied at the s ght of my sufferings as well as the others are pleased that I do suffer from their severe cruelties and I pray God the rest of their Estates and reputation do not consume and come to nothing since they have brought me to this sad condition for I assure you some of them that were actors in ruining my credit by detraction and had wrested my Estate from me by getting the possession in those times of War and pleading Outlawries to my Bills of Equity came to my Bed-side when they were sick to death told me before my servants that they could not dye with a quiet Conscience until they had asked me forgiveness and so revealed the Plots of others that had a hand in my ruine whâ—…h hath reduced me to a contended mind in the middest of discontent But that which grieves my Soul is I fear my Ghost will walk when I am dead in those shades of Mineral obscurities to see so matchless a design of my Lord Bacons Atlantis that is Translated into all Languages for its exquisite contrivancy his Mineral Philosophy that was consigned to support its Fabrick should suffer shipwrack through self-interest when meer Providence in these revolutions and junctures of time hath brought it so far to light as I dare ingage my life that out of those drowned works I have now in hand and many others prescribed by that Lord I may in the effecting this great Work for my Countries good vie with the wisdom of a State the valour of an Army and the City purses if Justice permit me to enjoy what Providence shall produce out of those works provided no other follow the way of my Lords Mineral experiments and become my corrival in the deserted works So that Gentle Reader I have no more to write but to end as I begun with the Lord Gondomar's to King James who said they had a Spanish Proverb That that man which sought by the ruine of his native Countrey to erect a Trophy of honour to his own name more than to Gods glory was in his conception cursed his Mother bewitcht and himself nurst with a Tyger Inferring that the hands of publick persons imployed to Noble actions are his vicegerents upon Earth in making the world their Heir without ends of their own and so become the truest Stewards of those Talents which his gracious Providence hath committed to their trust Your faithful friend and humble Servant T. B. The Hermits Speech when he ascended out of the ground as the King and some of his Nobility entred Mr. Bushels Rock VVITH bended knees thus Humbly do I pray You blessed powers that glorifie this day And to my frozen lips have utterance given Speak O speak the Commands you bring from Heaven For by times Embleme that since Noahs flood I thus have grasp'd my Soul hath understood The world no farther journey hath to sail Than is betwixt the Serpents head and tail If then before the Earths great funeral Most glorious SIR you hit her come to call The Inmates of this solitary place To strict accompt for Heaven sake daign the grace To lend your patience and a Gentle ear To what I ought to speak and you may hear A Prodigal profuse in vast expence That nothing studied but to please his sense Trimming a glorious outside whil'st within He cherisht nought but propagating sin That multipli'd so fast there was no place Allow'd for vertue or for saving grace God of his mercy pleased was at last A glorious Eye upon his Soul to cast Which being so near a final rack as now His onely care his study is but how He may redeem the years he lost in sin And live as he to live now did begin What followed next must be conceiv'd of course Confession contrition and remorse These guides to Heaven he happily persu'd View'd his past life and that again review'd And to that end he