Henry Stevens 
Dawn of British Trade 
To the East Indies, as Recorded in the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1599-1603, Containing an Account of the Formation of the Company, the First Adventure and Waymouth’s Voyage in Search of the North-West Passage

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The original manuscript from which this volume is printed, is preserved in the India Office, London, where it is known as the first volume of the Court Minutes of the East India Company; and consists of 120 leaves foolscap folio, written in the old court hand of the Elizabethan period. Some few years ago it was sent, with other documents, to the Public Record Office to be calendared, and there fell under the notice of my late father, Mr. Henry Stevens of Vermont, who, ever watchful for new materials for history, especially American, immediately recognised its importance. Finding that only a very small portion had ever been quoted, he determined with the sanction of the Authorities of the India Office, to print it in full, and forthwith employed an expert to transcribe it exactly with all its peculiarities of spelling and contraction. This proved a work of time and of considerable difficulty, as the handwriting is extremely illegible in places, and in some cases several opinions were required to decipher certain passages.