Moreover, by way of addition to this already handsome portion,
the Queen of Portugal was ready to assign over and annex to the
English crown, the Island of Bombay, in the East Indies, and
Tangier on the African coast--a place of strength and importance,
which would be of great benefit and security to British commerce.
Nor was this all. Portugal was likewise willing to grant England
free trade in Brazil and the East Indies, a privilege heretofore
denied all other countries. This was indeed a dower which none
of the "dull and foggy" German princesses could bring the crown.
The prospect of obtaining so much ready money especially
commended the alliance to the extravagant taste of his majesty,
who had this year complained to Parliament of his poverty, by
reason of which he "was so much grieved to see many of his
friends come to him at Whitehall, and to think they were obliged
to go somewhere else for a dinner."

The merry monarch was therefore well pleased at the prospect of
his union, as were likewise the chancellor and four or five
"competent considerers of such an affair" whom he consulted.
These worthy counsellors and men of sage repute, who included in
their number the Duke of Ormond and Sir Edward Nicholas,
Secretary of State, the Earl of Manchester, and the Earl of
Southampton, after regretting it was not agreeable to his majesty
to select a queen who professed the protestant religion, gave it
as their opinion there was no catholic princess in Europe whom
he, with so much reason and advantage, could marry as the infanta
of Portugal. They, moreover, added that the sum promised as part
of her portion, setting aside the places, "was much greater--
almost double to what any king had ever received in money by any