they do not raise, and such manufactures as they do not make, and cannot buy cheaper from other nations, paying like others the appointed customs; that if an English ship salutes a fort with four guns, it shall be answered at least with two; and that if an Englishman be inclined to hold a plantation, he shall only take an oath of allegiance to the reigning powers, and be suffered, while he lives inoffensively, to retain his own opinion of English rights, unmolested in his conscience by an oath of abjuration.

REFLECTIONS

UPON

THE STATE

OF

PORTUGAL,

From the Foundation of that Monarchy to the present Time;

Shewing its Connections with the several European Powers, and particularly with Great Britain.

[From the Universal Visitor, 1756.]

PORTUGAL, of all kingdoms in the world, is the most dependent upon Great Britain; and the British nation reaps more benefit from Portugal, than from any other country: upon which account, it is an interesting subject to shew the state of Portugal, and its connections with Great Britain.

Portugal, as well as Spain, fell under the dominion of the Moors, in the reign of Roderic, the last king of the Gothic line: but, in 1093, Alphonso VI. king of Castile and Leon, established Henry, one of the princes of Burgundy, upon the throne of Portugal; whose son Alphonso obtained a complete victory over the five Moorish kings; in remembrance of which, five standards are, to this day, borne in the arms of Portugal. By the assistance of a fleet from the Netherlands, he took Lisbon in 1147, and rendered the crown hereditary in his family.

From his death, to that of Ferdinand, in 1383, there were eight princes; but with him ended the race of the first kings of Portugal; and the crown came to John, the natural son of king Peter, who was the predecessor of Ferdinand. Sebastian was the sixth in descent from John; and was so fond of fame, that he undertook an expedition in favour of Muley Mahomet, king of Morocco, whom his brother Muley Molluco had drove from his dominions: but Sebastian was defeated at Alcacer, in Africa, in 1578, in a battle remarkable for the death of three kings on the field; Sebastian, and Muley Mahomet, being slain in the action, while Muley Molluco died of a fever during the engagement. Sebastian was succeeded by his uncle Henry, who died in 1580, when Philip II. of Spain invaded Portugal, which he united to Castile: but, in 1640, the Portuguese nobility shook off the Spanish yoke, and proclaimed the duke of Braganza king, by the name of John IV. who had a visible right to the crown, and was in possession of a fourth part of the kingdom, which he bravely defended against the Spaniards, who, in 1668, gave up all pretensions to Portugal; and his present Portuguese majesty is the great grandson of John IV.

There is scarce a state in Europe, having the title of a kingdom, and a peculiar king, of less extent than Portugal, even including the little kingdom of Algarva, which was added to it in the reign of Alphonso III. about the year 1246, as the portion of his wife Beatrice, daughter of Alphonso king of Castile; but there are few countries which have so extensive a commerce, or that prosecute trade with greater reputation. Its great conquests in both the Indies, its establishments in several parts of the coasts of Africa, and its possession of the Madeira, Azores, and Cape-Verd islands, had for a considerable time supported this commerce; and its original splendor might still have been preserved, if Portugal had not been unhappily annexed to Spain. For the Portuguese were dispossessed of several places by the Dutch; and, though they afterwards repossessed themselves of Brazil, and were restored to most of their forts and establishments on the African coast, yet they could

never afterwards properly re-establish themselves in the East-Indies.

It was John II. who died in 1495, that laid the foundation of the trade of Portugal, by forming a project for the navigation to the East-Indies, which was accomplished in the reign of his successor Emanuel: and, in 1500, Brazil was accidentally discovered by Peter Alvarez Capralis: so that such immense riches were brought into Portugal, during the reign of Emanuel, that it has been usually called, The golden age. But the fatal stroke to the Portuguese trade was struck before the line of Braganza ascended the throne; and John IV. was obliged to make peace with the Dutch, in 1661, after they had taken Malacca, and all on the coasts of Ceylon and Corcmandel, together with Cananor, and other places on the coast of Malabar. Peter, who began his reign in 1683, would not sit a tame spectator in the disputes which arose on account of the Spanish succession; but he received no benefit for his trouble: and his successor, John V. became sensible that it was his immediate interest to study the promotion of trade, and avoid engaging in any of the quarrels which might embroil the other European powers; while he took care to observe a strict neutrality.

Though the trade of Portugal is at present very considerable, it is nothing in comparison to what it was formerly, when all the riches of the Persian Gulph, Arabia, the states of the Moghol, the other coasts of India, China, Japan, and all the islands of that vast part of the ocean, were assembled at Goa, the capital of the Portuguese conquests in the East Indies, and arrived at Lisbon in numerous fleets, to be from thence distributed among all the nations of Europe by the hands of the Portuguese alone. However, the trade to the Brazils is still very great, and carried on solely by the Portuguese themselves, who discovered the first mine of gold there in 1680; and after this many others were found, that have prodigiously enriched the European world, as they furnish 5,000,0001. sterling of gold every year, a fifth of which belongs to the king. The diamond mines are farmed by his Portuguese majesty to a company at Rio Janeiro, for the annual rent of 138,000 cruVOL. IX. Dd

sadoes, or 26,000l. sterling: and the Brazil wood also produces to the value of 30,0001. annually. But this treasure is dissipated among the other European powers, who furnish Portugal with the most considerable articles of trade; particularly the English, Dutch, French, and Hamburghers.

Portugal is pleasantly situated on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, about 300 miles in length from north to south, and generally about 100 miles in breadth from east to west. The climate is very fine; and the air is esteemed as wholsome as any in Europe, notwithstanding it lies so far south, the great heats being commonly tempered by the sea-breeze. The country is fruitful, especially, its vallies, and many of its plains, in wine, oil, fruits, and grain; but their crops of the latter are of all the most uncertain, and particularly for wheat; of which grain, the great city of Lisbon never received, even in the most favourable years, more than a third part of the native growths for its annual consumption; and near the same proportion is wanting of barley, for the feeding of their cattle.

It will take up too much time at present to enter into a discussion of the general trade of Portugal with other countries; but it is requisite to make a few observations upon the trade between it and Great Britain; as also to shew how necessary it is for Great Britain to manifest a friendship for Portugal.

The Portuguese principally depend on the succours and supplies of other nations, both for their protection and subsistance. Their native poverty was so great on the discovery of their gold mines, that they would have found it impossible to have worked them, but from the credit given by other countries, and particularly Great Britain, in the necessary commodities for that purpose. As their returns of bullion augmented, their credit from the British nation, and, by degrees, from all other countries, grew greater: and, though now considerably enriched themselves, they still work their very mines, carry on almost all their colony commerce, and much of their home trade, with foreign capitals. For they are trusted with all kinds of traffic till the returns come round: insomuch that the merchants of other countries