Note 251 — Chapter XVIII · THE PRICE OF PARCHMENT

Owing to a gap in the Ambassador’s correspondence and to the absence from the scene of our candid Treasurer, much of what follows rests on the authority of North’s second-hand reports (see Life of Dudley North, pp. 90-92) and of a Narrative which the Levant Company submitted to the King (Register, S.P. Levant Company, 145), both sources in sad need of critical scrutiny.