ABSTRACT
The Roman empire was not sufficiently durable, and too eagerly disputed, to improve in any considerable degree the industry of the Britons. Even the small progress that husbandry and the arts had made during this period, was lost as soon as that haughty power had determined to abandon this conquest. All nations were affected with this dreadful plague, the most destrudive, perhaps, that ever was recorded in the annals of the world; but the calamities which Great Britain particularly experienced are inexpressible. The Portuguese, who found that part of the Indian trade with Asia and Europe was likely to be diverted to Persia, imposed restraints upon it; they would not suffer the Persians to purchase merchandise any where but from their magazines. Some traders, fired with the relation of the advantages to be obtained in India, resolved to make voyages thither.
