Ever since recorded history begins, and probably for untold centuries before, a never-ending strife between the East and the West has been in progress, and the tide of conquest and invasion has been mounting eastward or westward, only to reach its high-water mark, stand still for a moment, and then commence slowly or quickly toretire. The writers of the old classical world of antiquitysaw this clearly enough. Herodotus, the father of all European historians, began his famous book with a tale of legendary raids and counter-raids between Europe and Asia, and traced down from them the great war of Greek and Persian which had formed the all-engrossing interest of his own youth.

During the Session of 1918–19 a series of communications relating to the national archives of the British Empire and some Allied States was received and has been published in the last volume of the Transactions.1 Since then a further series of communications on this subject has been arranged, and such of these as have come to hand are printed in the following pages. The previous communications dealt with the public records of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and the State archives of the United States of America, France, and Italy. In the present series the Council hoped to include notices of the archives of the British Dominions and Crown Colonies (including the Channel Islands), Belgium, Portugal, and Serbia,2 together with a supplementary report on the French archives.

The first European to make acquaintance with the main stream of the mightiest of all rivers, the river of the Amazons, was the Spaniard, Francisco de Orellana. This man was one of the leaders of an expedition of discovery, which left Quito on Christmas Day, 1539, under the command of Gonzalo Pizarro. After the endurance of terrible hardships, Pizarro at length reached the banks of the river Napo. Here a brigantine was built, and as his men were starving in the pathless forests, the chief placed Orellana and fifty men on board with orders to descend the stream in search of provisions. Towards the close of the year 1540 Orellana started on his quest, and never returned. He reached the ocean on August 26, 1541. This adventurous voyage, the details of which have been preserved by Friar Gaspar Carvajal, one of the companions of Orellana, created a great sensation. When the news of it reached Madrid, Charles V gave Orellana a commission to conduct an expedition to take possession of the newly-discovered lands, of which he was appointed Governor. The attempt ended in utter disaster, and Orellana himself perished at sea. After his failure and death nearly a century passed before any other voyager traversed the Amazon from the mountains to the ocean.

The following paper contains the results of an independent study of an episode in the commercial history of this country which has been the subject of some important researches during recent years. The beginnings of mercantile adventure in Russia and other regions of Northern Europe and the Far East have been related by contemporary men of action, most of whose narratives have been carefully edited in the Hakluyt Series; but the political and economic environment of the Muscovy Company itself was still in need of elucidation from contemporary State Papers and other records. Some of these sources have been used by Madame Lubimenko, Dr. A. J. Gerson and Mr. O. T. Williams for special aspects of the subject; but a large mass of material of the first importance has remained untouched.

The subject of this paper is to be found in two volumes of correspondence from royal and private persons belonging to the city of Coventry, and in one other MS., the diary of Robert Beake, mayor of Coventry in 1655. Where the original of this latter MS. is I do not know; possibly it has perished; but a copy exists in the writing of the Rev. F. J. Eld, whose father was a former mayor of Coventry, and this copy still is in the son's possession.

The epidemics of the fourteenth century have been the subject of much discussion by eminent scholars, whose investigations have been supplemented by detailed studies of various localities. No considered attempt, however, has been made to trace the course of the disease within Wales, which, by reason of its isolated position and mountainous character, is frequently regarded as having largely escaped the visitation. The study of the effects of such an agent upon a society predominantly pastoral offers a subject of special interest.

In 1914 Professor Pollard read a paper before the Royal Historical Society on “The Authenticity of the Lords' Journals in the Sixteenth Century,”1 in the course of which, by revealing how inadequate a presentation of the manuscript originals was contained in the printed journals, he showed that the original journals might be a valuable field for historical gleanings. In addition to Professor Pollard, Professor. Maitland and Mr. L. O. Pike also examined the manuscript of an Elizabethan Lords' journal;2 but in 1916 two American scholars, Professors Notestein and Usher, turned to the Commons' journals of the early seventeenth century, and in advocating a critical survey of the manuscript originals, challenged the conventional view of their authenticity which an uncritical edition of them has easily created.3 The fact is, of course, that even an accurate edition of a document—and a fortiori an inaccurate one—may destroy valuable historical evidence if it convey no clear idea of the appearance of the original manuscript. It is one thing to visualise a large folio sheet of print: a materially