ADVENTURE BAY, the name which captain Cooke gave to a bay in the southern part of New Holland, cal led Van Diemen's Land. At the buttons of Adventure Bay there is a beautiful sandy beach, apparently formed by particles which the sea washes from a fine white sand stone. In a plain behind the beach, there is a brackish lake out of which captain Cooke's party caught some bream and trout. A forest of tall trees, rendered im pervious by brakes of fern and shrubs, covers the hilly ground contiguous to the bay. The country appears in general very dry, and the heat is intense.
The inhabitants, mild and cheerful, have little of the wild appearance common to savages. In genius and pre rsonal ctic itt, they are as deficient as the wretched natives of Terra del Fuego.. Their complexion is clef black ; their Lan' perketly woolly ; their nose, are bioad and ; their eves are of a moderate size, and, though neither quick nor piercing, they give the conntenan(e a rank and cheerful appearance. (k) StxrEiiINTe, a name given, *ui by king llenry V1I., to the first society of me• chants aid traders, that had been long established for the advancement of comm&•ce. It was erected by patent by king Edward I., merely for the exportation of wool, :)shire we knew the value of that commodity, and when we were in a great, measure unacquainted with trade.
This company obtained privileges from John, duke of Braliant, in 1296, and established itself at Antwerp, in conjunction with the other English merchants who re sorted to that place. The privileges of this society were successively confirmed by the sovereigns of England. VI. granted it a charter in 1430; and in 1561•, queen Elizabeth formed the company into an English corporation.
Tile Merchant Adventurers of London had long been accustomed to demand a tax from the English merchants resident in other places, for the privilege of trading in the great fairs of Flanders, Brabant, Ecc. This impost amounted at first only to 6s. 3(1. ; but about the time of VII. it had increased to 4.01. The merchants re siding in the out ports, who were called the _Merchant .1ilventurer• of England, applied to Parliament for re lief from this imposition ; and an act was passed in their favour in 1491, 12 Henry VII. cap. 6. reducing the tax to 61. 13s. 4d.
When Charles V. established the inquisition in the Netherlands in 1550, the company of merchant adyen iurers had sufficient influence to prevent its being intro duced into Antwerp. (w)