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-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
harmlessest gain and greatest good that could befall a Commonwealth but also found it to be the chiefest study and industry of the most knowing and best bred persons of other Nations and the highest and most honorable improvement that this world was capable of and I protest as in the presence of God such a progresse I have already made herein that if I could now command as much wealth as ever the Lydian Croesus did possesse I would gladly adventure it all in perforating the barren Mountains to discover the vast Treasures which lie hid in their Rocky entrals for the good of this Nation and to leave after my debts paid a magnificent Monument in memory of my most deserving Master by finishing his SOLOMONS House in all its dimensions and with all the accommodations and endowments thereof according to his Lordships own Heroick Idea If the honourable Parliament shall be pleased to ratifie my Articles I having already by his direction cut through five of the 28 Mountains at the lowest Level which his Lordship and Sir FRANCIS GODOLPHIN did mark out as the most pregnant Hills for discovering the Beds and spreading Branches of this Nations Mineral Treasures so that no man of known judgment but must conclude the rest to be of the same species or of richer natures in their deeper search both for quantity and quality and how happy a successe the great God of Nature hath given to my endeavours in this particular the ensuing Letter sent from Mr. Brodway a learned and judicious Divine and one constantly resident amongst the Miners will better speak than any Pen whatsoever THOMAS BUSHEL A Letter to Mr. Bushel relating some strange Accidents which happened in the Mines Honoured Sir SUffer my congratulations of your late success at Tallybont to be admitted among the rest who represented the same to your imagination not so much for the historical report of it as for speculation on it So it becomes my quality for the rest are interessed I a looker on Your Addit or great drift of Tallybont after above 400 fathome in four years driving to come at the chief â—…ast of the old droâ—ned work of 38 fathome deep beiâ—g peirced by the water of the old work June 27. at midnight there befâ—l two memorable accidents The four workmen about one in the night aâ— their manner was withdrew to take Tobacco within ten fathome of the Addits mouth lest in the fore-field it should damp the air which was coâ—veâ—ed to them by your leaden Pipes with Bellowes Their smoaky banquet was not yet at an end when they heard a mâ—ghty and fearful noise which some of them said was thunder But old Bartholmew Clocker a well experienced Miner although he left the work without any suspition of so near an approach resolved suddenly the work is holed come let us away No sooâ—er had they gotten the free air but out gusheth the torrent of water with an incredible fury such a breach it made in the solid Rock that it arose a full yards height at the Addits mouth and drove away above a hundred Tun of the rockie deads affrighting the people of Tallybont who heard the noise and felt the water in their houses I do not remember that I was ever more astonish'd at the prodigiousness of any spectacle to see what perdition was threatned to the poor men and they so to escape it About four hours after the violence of water being past Fisher one other of the Miners went in with more curiosity than wit to see what effect it had wrought there and being some sixty fathome in creeping very low his candle enkindled a vapour which came on him with three or four flashes and he suddainly returning had his hair burnt off and his clothes scorched in which conclusion it gave a crack like the report of a Piece and in a fierce gust of wind blew out the Candles of three more coming after him To omit the Philosophical inquisition of natural causes I account his preservation in as high a degree of wonder as the first Thus happy are you here when least you think of it for I find the Subterranean spirits the supposed Guardians of concealed treasure as officious for you as if they were in pay with you But in a stâ—le more proper to my pen Behold Sir how dear you are to Providence which for your sake hath vouchsafed to digress into a Miracle and such a one a is able to convert the most Sophistical Atheist whence your piety wiâ—l inferre that the gracious Authour of this incomparable bounty expects from you some grateful service as high above ordinary according to mortal capacity as this favour hath been extraordinary We are all deeply in the same engagement and have learned by this experiment that these Addits or approaches for that 's the sense of the name of old Deluge works are attempts of desperate hazard Me thinks those Mountaâ—ns a e as so many pregnant Wombs and now in labour call for your fortunate hands to deliver them to the honour of your Royal Master and perpetuated glory of the Nation What should you doubt in an imployment so serenely smiled upon by the highest both of Heaven and Earth You use no inchantment or magnetical Rod to discover the veins your onely Magick is an ingenious conjecture of Probabilities with a chearful and indefatigable Industry which hath hitherto succeeded beyond Expectation of most and peradventure the Desires of some But who as Agricola makes the question Lib. 1. de R. M. that is not of a nature impoison'd with envy and malitiousness can bear unfriendly thoughts to him whose substance is in a manner presented by the hand of God I know it would be a motive of very feeble operation to tell you how Princes and States have raised their Crowns by descending into such abysses as these with some of whom wanton Antiquity hath been pleased to sport her self and to play upon the simplicity of many as Midas Giges the Argonauts Croesus with the States of Athens over whose Minerals was that renowned Thucydides a Praefect as you are here Of which Pliny delivers what may be worth your attention when he sayes of them That they were in a fruitless soyl and on the Hills as these with us And wheresoever one vein was found it was not far from another among which was one called Bebelo that afforded him 300 pound weight of Silver a day These were then the veins which conveyed the blood and spirit of life through all the Limbs of his victorious Host And have you not here our Britans Asturia before you Who knows whether it may not yield a Bebelo at least a Sneberg or Anneberg Who hath heretofore dream't of a Mine at Comsomâ—och or of the happy Lot you lately drew from the Mountains of Kegmian Tallybont the Darren Broom-Floyd and Cum-mervin What did the outside of these promise you more than the countenances of their Neighbours But the Complaint of learned D. Jourdan may
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
good and honour of their native Countrey and which in a manner is presented unto them by the hands of God May it please your Lordships VVE in all humbleness make bold to certifie your Honours that Mr. Bushels way of Mineral proceed to undermine the waters of drowned and deserted Works is as we humbly conceive of such high concernment for the honour and profit of this Nation as we confidently believe before our Lady day next he will crown his labours with store of hidden Treasure out of the Works now in Rowpits and be inabled though at present poor in purse to put on all his others Works of the West without any Partnership but Providence to assist his Industry for the service of his Countrey in those particulars Valent. Trime Steward of Chewton Liberty wherein Rowpits is Alexander Jet Christ Wright Ja. Middleham Rob. Hill John Ford. Ralph Conyers Hen. Baron Valent. Powel Tho. Nixton Rich. Frier senior Rich. Frier junior Robert Hole Richard Vigor Wil. Smith Mayor Tho. White Recorder Tho. Salmon Justice William Wâ—lrond George Bampsield Tho. Coward Wil. Morgan Esquires Mr. Bushels Petition to the late King To the KINGS most excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of THOMAS BUSHEL your Majesties Servant Most humbly sheweth THat whereas your Royal Father of ever blessed memory who was truly stiled the King of Peace and mirror of Mercy to the sparing of life blood was graciously pleased for saving the lives of such malefactors as were condemned to death by the Law for Petty Felonies being such as were not any scandal to the Church or State nor had imbrewed their hands in blood to admit their transportation to the East-India and Virginia Companies for furtherance of their Plantations In which action doubtlesse Hâ— did also cast his eyes upon the warrantable proceedings and presidents of other most famous Princes in the like kind as the late Queen Elizabeth who built certain Gallies of purpose for imployment of such kind of offenders of strong and able bodies as might attend her memorable designs at Sea especially upon all sudden and resolute enterprizes it being the usual course of other Christian Princes as the K ng of Spain both for the supply of his Gallies against the Turks and Moors and especially for the enlargement of his Indian Mines of Gold Silver Quicksilver and the like and his conquests of Molocco Goa Ormus and other rich and populous Islands The King of France for hâ—s Gaâ—lies at Marsellis The State of Venice The Duke of Florence who by such kind of saved Offenders built Ligorn one of the most famous Sea-ports within the Straights In all which States and Services divers of these Malefactors by good encouragements have sought not so much by surviving as by their incredible labours eff cting matters otherwise held invincible to obliturate their former ignominies by merit of rewards And whereas in this your Majesties populous Kingdom too many such offendors are most untimely cut off in their best abilities of service so is there within the pale of this your Kingdom and without any occasion of Sea or forein service means of imployment for such persons to redeem their lost reputation by indeavouring to do faithful service for their Countries honour and the Kingdoms good in that happy work begun by Your Sacred Majesty for the better discovery of Your Silver Mines His most humble sute therefore is that You would be pleased out of all these weighty considerations and beneficial consequences tending so much to your Honor Crown and Dignity and good of the Commonwealth to grant Your Majesties Commission if it may be thought fit by the advice of Your High and Honorable Court of Parliament for the choosing of such several persons out of the Prisons of this Your Kingdome as are and shall be condemned for small offences and of able serviceable bodies by the approbation of Your Judges and shall implore Your Majesties mercy to be imployed by Your said Subject in the Works of Your Mines-Royal they giving security for their good behaviour with such limitation of time and allowance for their sustentation as to Your Majesties said High Court of Parliament shall be thought fit that by their dutiful and laborious performance therein they may afterwards come into the happinesse of Your Majesties pardon of Grace for their former offences And Your Petitioner shall ever rest c. The Speech of the late Bishop of Worcester near his death to Mr. Bushel concerning the two rich Mines by him discovered Mr. Bushel YOur own eyes see how near I am to the dwelling of death by my gray hairs which are the true Records of fourscore and fourteen years of age next my limbs which have no more strength than those that are lapp'd in the Sepulchre of their winding sheet only my Intellectual parts are yet preserved to ascribe God the glory and to disclose the secrets of two rich Mines the one holding some quantity of Gold worth the extracting the other in Silver worth the Refining to your trust and fidelity with a confidence that your charity cannot conceive me guilty of betraying your judgement with an imaginary treasure when my Soul and Body are so near the approach of death as I must suddainly give an account in the other World besides I have taken upon me the calling of a spiritual profession and have this day received the Sacrament as a pledge of my redemption which I trust are sufficient motives to believe truth from a dying mans tongue who hath no other end than that the hopefulnesse of such riches may not be buried by my dissolution but that the honour and profit thereof might redownd to his Majesty and his Royal posterity as a living and loyal remembrance of his Princely favours to mee and mine Mr. Bushel's Invitation by Letter to Condemned men for Petty-Felonies to work in the Mines of their own Country rather than be banish'd to Slavery in Forein parts FEllow-sufferers in restraint although upon different accounts for you have sought death by the errours of your lives I an Imprisonment by a licentious Prodigality But I hope your Consciences like faithful Mirrors have presented to the eye of your afflicted souls the deformities of your several Crimes as mine hath to my serious consideration my manifold transgressions We have no City of refuge in these our sad perplexities the impartial doom of our Laws hath banished you from the Land of the living unlesse its mercy exile you from the Land of your nativity by a ten years absence to a sordid slavery in some torrid Island whose Climat Air Diet and manner of labour will prove very irksom unto you But the implacable revenge of some of my Creditors doth endeavour to bury me alive in this house of woe when God knows I was plung'd in my Mineral inundations with care and pains to pay them their just debts by the help of Providence But dear Brethren Friends and Companions in Bonds to assure you that I commiserate your
deplorable condition more than mine own I would present you with a more solacious Cordial than that of society in your miseries which I have humbly petitioned the Honourable Parliament for and hope I shall obtain to your temporal and eternal advantage You are therefore first to understand that when our English Aristotle Natures best modern Secretary that excellent Philosopher the Lord Chancellour BACON my ever-honoured Master had compleated his now extant Natural History of Philosophical Experiments he then modell'd his Solomons House in his New Atlantis thereto annexed in which Academy they might be practised But not by those common wayes as he was used to say where even Fools might raise a Pyramis Colossus or Mausoleum to their ridiculous memories Viz. from the Exchequers of bounteous and magnificent Princes Piratick depredations or Monopolous exactions from an opulent people but rather by a Philosophical Elixar and Chymical extraction so quaint and admirable that it seems to convince the Maxim Out of nothing is made nothing For he proposed no other means to erect and maintain that stupendious Fabrick and the Magi thereof who were by him designed thereto by his Theory than the recovery of the Lost by the help of the Dead Resolve the Riddle and find your Cordial for though it be truly Magical 't is not Necromantick But not to delay you I as your Oedipus thus open it The Lost are drowned and desperately deserted Mineral Works the Dead convicted and attainted persons who are indeed so in Law and what is lost is not in nature as to the use and propriety of mankind Cheer up my Comrades I have opened my dark lantern to you and light is comfortable to the benighted Now know that that excellent Lord affecting my homebred simplicity and being ambitious to raise a Younger brothers fortunes by such Experiments instituted me as his much-favored Pupil in his mysterious Philosophical way of recovering and searching Mines by mollifying their hardest Rocks undermining their Waters separating their Metals and carrying Air through the lowest levels of Hills or Mountains without the vastnesse of former charge to sink Shafts for Air every twenty Fathom But he suddenly falling from an eminent height as I by that time had deviated from his grave directions in the secure Paths of Vertue imposed on me a new task Which was not to search the Rocky bosoms of the barren Mountains but by a timely retirement to some solitary place where I might seclude my self from the treacherous vanities of the tumultuous world to explore the deceitful Meanders of my stony Heart and when Divine grace should have assisted my better Reason in overcoming the rebellious affections of my Sensual appetite if then the like Providence should call me thence to a more active life in the prosecution of his Mineral documents I should without any regret of my former penance attend the good hand of God in that design with humble patience assuredly believing that since he had supported me in the conquest of my self he would conduct me through all difficulties to the accomplishing so great a work for my Countryes good and his own glory And according to his counsel and prediction after I had lived three years as a Recluse in a desolate Island in the Irish Seas only conversing with God in my repentant tears prayers and contemplations he miraculously called me thence to an unexpected fortune brought me into favor with my Prince who granted me a Patent for all the Mines Royal in order to my Lords Proposals and a Branch of his Royal Mint to coin such Silver as I should extract from all Lead of my own finding which was not a little witnesse the many great services I did for that King therewith notwithstanding my great losses in the late Wars But as the Times so we in them are chang'd Now here to prevent any that may ask Why since by my Articles of War I am to be restored to all my former rights I seek no more from the present State than an assurance of the deserted Mines of our Territories I answer That they will be enough which is better than more that then I was no way obnoxious to that government but in my Soveraigns favor and he in Peace now these States look upon me as a pardoned and reconciled Enemy and their vast expence in the Republick service permits Delinquents no such allowance therefore I modestly ask the crumbs which they scorn to gather up and therewith doubt not to perform my undertakings to the honor of my Country and my Masters memory But me thinks I hear our proud first Enemy that envious spirit of delusion whisper to some of you What will your condition of slavery be better here in your native Mines than in a Forein Plantation where your friends cannot see your sufferings nor you their prosperities to their or your afflictions because they cannot mitigate yours nor you participate of theirs which will be no small abatement to your shames and their sorrows To this I reply That as the innocence of the sufferer not the rigor of the torment makes one a Martyr so the cause of shame is in the act of the Crime not in the nature of the Servitude wheresoever to be suffered your guilt is known and accompanies you every where is it not then better here to expiate it where a safer and easier means is offered if you intend to lead a new life Consider the tediousnesse and dangers of your transportations through Storms Enemies and a sparing salt diet If you Land safely 't is but to be sold like Beasts and most likely to men of barbarous souls through whose cruelty you shall gasp out your dolorous lives with excessive labors and when Hunger shall call for natures recruits be forced to think the worst imployed horses of your own Country happier than your selves in their natural food and after all this if you can outlive your bondage in inriching your taskmasters the Spaniard for revenge or avarice may surprize your completed Plantations and carry you away to consume the sad remnant of your miserable days in his Mines without merit expiation or hope but thus you cannot suffer at home where you may turn your necessities into vertues by a patient and humble submission to Gods will for all evil of punishment is from him I propose not this to you as Mineral Pioneers out of any design of advantage to my self your food clothes and materials will cost me as much as the hired expert Miners my plot upon you is the only salvation of your souls and restitution of your liberties through your contrition and penance by Christs merits and Gods mercy with temporal rewards of benefit and expiation by your industrious discoveries in your allotted portions which that you may obtain sacrifise but your sins on the broken altars of your contrite hearts to the Lord of mercies and you have his own words for your free pardons O how will your conversion and deliverance make your
friends and the Angels of Heaven to rejoyce for I verily believe the true compunction of your hearts will more facilitate the penetration of our Rocky Addits than the strokes of your hands And to encourage and asist you therein I shall provide such holy and Orthodox Instructors for you that by your conscientious observance of their moral and divine Lectures as well as their examples you shall with much alacrity be able to overcome all the obstacles of this great work For they will voluntarily participate with you in all things that thereby they may cheerfully lead you into Christs own fold And therefore consult with your Consciences and they will doubtlesse dictate to your memories that the best way to pilot your sad souls bodies lives and reputations from tempestuous storms of worldly vanities into a safe harbor is with humble hearts to take this Mineral calling upon you and to think speak and deport your selves towards God in it as if all the world did behold you and to live and converse with man as in the immediate sight of our divine Creator and then we shall rejoyce in enjoying one another for as I desire the Almighty not to forgive me my sins nor receive my soul if I have any other ends than what hath been exprest so I desire none of you to remove your selves to this harmlesse and laborious calling unless your resolutions be firm to those ends which may crown your industry otherwise we must be forc'd in obedience to our trust to return you bak to the Judge of your first condemnation and pray that the All-Disposer may call you by some other means to repentance which shall be the constant and fervent Petition of Your most Compassionate Friend Thomas Bushel To my Fellow-Prisoners for Debt in Mind or Body DEarly beloved Brethren in Bonds I could heartily rejoice if we were so onely for Christs sake for then our patience therein would render us happy in his mercy Yet since the inhumanity of our Creditors through the power of the Laws usurps that revenge which is onely God's in justice let us with all humility submit our selves to his permissive will for the evil of punishment is his My honourable Master the late Lord Chancellor Bacon was wont to tell me That as Gentry bought nothing at Market so Imprisonment paid no Debts but those of the Penal Laws and that he did verily believe the fraudulent Contracts of most Creditors begot the disability of their Debtors satisfaction I shall refer to your own Consciences the respective cause of your several restraints Mine own is like that of the adventurous Merchant who having sent all his own Stock in several Vessels to far distant Factories through the various dangers of the Deep is constrained to take upon Trust at home till the return of his Cargazoons according to their success proclaim him happy or bankrupt and if I had ever any other design in borrowing let my Redeemer exclude me from the general pardon of his precious merits who came not to call the just but sinners to repentance assuring us that the blessed Angels rejoice more at the conversion of one true Penitent than the integrity of ninety nine righteous from whence we may conclude 't is ninety nine to one odds that there are very few sincere Converts But my beloved Fellow-sufferers since now the Supreme Power of this Common-wealth doth as I hear intend like S. Peters good Angel to open the doors of your Prisons by the wisdom of their mercies I earnestly exhort you to mark the first day of your unexpected Jubile with a white stone or red letter in commemoration of so happy a deliverance lest God consume your lives with new afflictions and troubles alwayes remembring his glory and your eternity And then take the grave admonition for your Cure as the Mirror of my honoured Master prescribed to me which was To deny all my treacherous Senses their most delighting Objects I fed on nothing that pleased my appetite looking willingly on nothing which I formerly liked nor accompanied any creature that affected my concupiscence But frequented devious wayes and solitary groves and at last found out a desolate Island in the Irish seas where three years I sadly lamented the errours of my youth mingling the waters which I drank with the brine of mine eyes and did sparingly eat the bread of affliction as it had been ashes These were my first steps towards Gods Mercy-seat in a most unfeigned contrition for the Treason I committed against his Eternal Majesty And surely he was not displeased therewith for out of this depâ—h of desolation he graciously called me to the publick servicâ— of my Countrey in the innocent way of a Miner and how I have proceeded therein with intention chiefly to glorifie him this annexed Treatise will give you an account But there the inhumanity of my Creditors stopt me yet I am confident so soon as the Republique affairs will permit the Honourable Parliament will enlarge me in order to my Mineral service and their own Articles as they have done you in mercy And then I say if any of you either for a present subsistence or a penitential way to expiate your former errours or to reclaim your affections or in hope to raise your lost fortunes and enable you to pay your honest Debts will sweat with me in the way of this hopeful vertuous and Philosophical labour you shall eat bread with me so long as you please whereby at last we may obtain such Mineral blessings from the Lord of Bounty that we in true charity may be able to cast our bread upon the waters by relieving many distressed Penitents whose sins have brought them to want bread and whose age or sickness hath taken away their ability to work And here I think 't is proper to give you the Epitome of my Lords Design for the regulating his Solomons House or Academy He proposes six principal Officers of State to succeeding times as Trustees six exquisite lucre-hating Philosophers to bring his Theorie into experimental practice are to be handsomly maintained upon a sacred oath to be true to the trust of his Philosophical secrets Convicted men adventurous Voluntiers are to be chief instruments of the Mineral work and are to be cloathed in good Canvas or Welsh Cottons their food Bisket Beef Pease and Bacon thrice a week the other days White-meat Oyl and Roots their Drink of allowance for the most part is to be Water but they shall not be barr'd Beer or Ale in orderly proportion they are to lie on Mats unlesse they rather choose a clean Plank Lots and Delves shall be assigned to them in which if God bless their honest diligence they shall comfortably participate whereby at last they may make themselves free if a true and constant penitence be their heavenly guide for impenitence barricadoes the Gates of Heaven faster against us than our Sins For as true Contrition makes our hearts grateful sacrifices to God so
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
be puhlished that the Redder may know his heart implores Providence for his Mineral increase aswell as Petitions liberty from men to dig for Treasure in their barren Mountains MOst glorious and omniscient Lord God who inhabitest Eternity and by thy omnipotent fiat didst in the beginning create the admirable fabrick of the Universe the Heavens are thy Throne and the Earth is thy Foot-stool on which thou didst frame our first Parent of red Clay and from thence gavest him his name into whose Nostrils thou didst breath the Spirit of Life enduing him with a reasonable Soul and madest him Lord of all thy Creatures But he being in honour could not abide so but became like the Beast that perisheth through the treachery of that first Rebel Satan who ever since endeavoureth to supplant his wretched posterity of whom my sinfull self am one Give me therefore O Lord a true sense of mine own sins without despair sincere contrition unfeigned sorrow and earnest repentance without hypocrisie make my Prayers fervent holy and gratefull that they may come before thee as the incense of a true penitent soul for a broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice which thou wilt not despise And now O God having first sought thy mercy on my soul give me leave to implore thy blessing on my temporal affairs to thy sole glory O Lord thy Spirit hath affected mine with the speculation and practice of Mineral Philosophy and thou wert pleased to blesse that most Royal and antient Philosopher who understood and writ of the natures of all vegetables from the Cedar of Lebanon to the pellitory or mosse on the wall as plainly appeared by the successe of his Miners transported by Hyram's Mariners to Opher whence they returned with 450. Talents of Gold for effecting whereof that King built and rigged a powerfull Navy at Ezron Gebar on the red Sea with a vast expence of his own or peoples treasure But O Lord my modest design requires no such charge or means the propositions of that great modern Philosopher my worthy honored Lord are to discover those hidden Treasures which thy inscrutable wisdom hath lodged in the Bowels of the most barren Mountains and desperately deserted Mineral works of our native Countries It is true Lord they that descend to the Sea in ships see they wonders in the depth thereof but such as search the secret Entrails of the Earth to find out thy concealed wonders there carry their lives in their hands being free among the dead whence they pray unto thee and praise thy marvellous works of nature when men ride over their heads But O Lord the insatiate thirst of riches or vain glory spurs not me on to this dangerous and laborious attempt but my zeal to thy glory and my Countries good Solomon beautified thine own Temple which he had built with his far sought Mineral Treasure and I would therefore willingly erect a house to the honour of his name in which fabrick designed by my honored Master true Christian Philosophers of eminent knowledge virtuous lives and holy conversations might by practical search and discoveries reveal to succeeding ages these beneficent rarities and profitable experiments which that great King first treated of being lost as is conceived to all mankind through thy several Judgements thrown in thine own back sliding people till that Lord my quondam Master assisted by thy Spirit of wisdom did in his natural History and that most excellent model in his New Atlantis propose to the world a new means to make use of them to thy glory and the benefit of all thy servants without any considerable charge to this or any other State But O Lord the blindnesse stupidity and diffidence of mans heart hath as yet obstructed the procedure thereof Dives desired no other means than a Messenger from Hell for the conversion of his Brethren which he had misled now the living which converse with the subterranean spirits cannot be believed in reporting thy wonders in the bosome of the Earth The Ninevites were converted when thy fugitive Prophet brought them a penitential Sermon out of the belly of the Whale grant O my God that I which am at present buried alive and secluded from the World may be thence heard by thee and so credited by the present ruling Power that I thy humble suppliant who like the poor bedridden men at the Pool of Bethesda have lain long impotent and unable to move may find some faithfull Patriots to assist my cause and make them sensible that I beg nothing but that which is lost and the help of the dead only to recover it The Mines that I Petition for are drowned and their works desperately deserted the persons I propose for their recovery are such as are dead in Law and crave as a mercy to be buried in them by a patient undergoing their punishment as pioneers and turning their necessities into such virtuous actions rather than a forc'd banishment should expose them to a seven years slavery in forein plantations Diamonds best cut Diamonds the stony-hearted are fittest to cut the stony Addits of the Mines and like to like will agree best when a penitential Soul strikes the blow For O Lord we all know the Prodigal Child was punisht with its opposite and believe all others have congruity in the like when thy only Son was forc'd for taking upon him the sins of man to descend himself into Hell before he could ascend into Heaven and who knows O Lord but that this Mineral imployment is the best way found out for us Mortals to discipline all offenders capable of mercy with discovering thy concealed Treasures and make such thy only creatures when the person which thou placest over them by thy Ministers of State shall take delightfull care in their education and amendment to thy own glory and the publick good fince thou joyest more in one of them than in 99. righteous that need no repentance O Lord in these designs I earnestly beg thy assistance since thy Son our Saviour hath bid us to ask seek and knock that we may obtain find and be admitted pardon then my confidence diligence and importunity I have now spent many Lustres of my life and some Treasure in prosecution of this defign O let me effect it so to thy glory before I go hence as my Feoffees in trust may not be discouraged to go on where I have left for time makes hast to call for natures debt and Death is none of thy Creature Let not then my worst Creditor be only satisfied before thou hast assisted me in some measure to pay the Debt of Zeal and Obedience which I owe to thee that of Love and Service due to my native County the real sums due to confiding friends and the great Debt of gratitude to the memory of my famous Master Foster-Father and Instructor in these undertakings Pardon then my sins and grant this my Boone since mercy and bounty are the most essential Attributes of thy Glory