Note 44 — SPECIMEN OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE. (continued 2)

Francisco de Faria, who designed himself interpreter and secretary of languages to Gaspar de Abreu de Freitas, ambassador from the crown of Portugal, was one of the witnesses concerning the popish plot. He pretended he had been employed by the Portuguese ambassador to assassinate Oates, Bedlow, and Shaftesbury. His narrative was licenced for publication on 19th November, 1680; and concludes with an impudent affectation of admiring the Divine Providence, which had brought him, “from almost the utmost parts of the far distant habitable world, to be an instrument, in England, to detect, or at least more convincingly to prove the truth of these horrid treasons and conspiracies.” Faria was a native of Fernambuco, in Brazil, and apparently a Portuguese Jew.