The lirst Thre
English books
on America.
Richard Eden.
BANCROFT LIBRARY
♦
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
Gift of Henry R. Wagner
%/aam<fa^i
3051.
^m£'Urfiii/Sm^a»^^^;^B^uri//mi/^?i^^r^je/<rt^,
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
jSk
http://www.arGhive.org/details/firstthreeenglisOOarberich
The first Three English books on America.
[? 151 i]-i555 A.D.
7« AI^KK (i-rol. E.), Editor. The first Three English Books on America. I Of
the new landes [a Tract in English printed at Antwerp, about 15 11]. II Munster (Seb.) A Trealyse of the newe India, translated by Richard El)ENriS53]. Ill Mart\T (Peter) The Decades of the Jyew Wcrlde, translated by Richard Edkn 1555. Reprinted in full (No. Ill is 320 pages) with Introduction, Extracts from other Writers and Notes, forming the volume " An English Cyclopsedia of the Geographical Knowledge " of the Age, by Edward Ariikr. large paper (one of one hundred so printed). Impl. 4° (jf3 V)
'88s I
The first
Three English books
on America.
U 15"]— 1555 *•!>•
Being chiefly Translations, Compilations, &c., by
RICHARD EDEN,
From the Writings, Maps, &c., of
PIETRO MARTIRE, of Anghiera (1455-1526),
Apostolical Protonotary, and Councillor to the Emperor Charles V.;
SEBASTIAN MUNSTER, the Cosmographer (1489-1552),
Professor of Hebrew, &'c., at the University of Basle ;
SEBASTIAN CABOT, of Bristol (1474-1557),
Grand Pilot of England :
With Extracts, &c., from the Works of other Spanish, Italian, and German Writers of the Time.
ED ITED BY
EDWARD ARBER, fsa
Fellow of King's College, London ; Hon. Member of the Virginia and Wisconsin Historical Societies ;
Examiner in English Language and Literature, Victoria University, Manchester;
Professor of English Language and Literature,
Sir Josiah Mason's College, Birmingham.
Editor of English Reprints, English Garner, English Scholar" s Library,
A Transcript 0/ the Registers 0/ the Company 0/ Stationers of London, 1554-1640; &c.
BIRMINGHAM I MONTAGUE ROAD. 22 June 1885.
{_Atl rights reserved,')
E Ki
I I I I |. /, l\M. Iv W I I I M. h r, I.
To THE Reader.
Ach of the three Texts in this Volume is of great rarity; the firft two are extraordinarily fcarce.
The prefent impreffion of them was begun fo far back as 1870, and was nearly finifhed by 1872 ; when it came to a ftand dill through the great preffure of other work on all concerned, but more efpecially on myfelf
For then, there came to me the over- powering vocation, for the fake of the Literature of our Golden Age, of attempting (fmgle-handed though it might be, and when every one elfe forfook it and fled) the printing of A Tranfcript of the Regijlers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1 554-1646 a.d. Through the toil and anxiety of the years 1873 to 1877, that great piece of work was religioufly and accurately accomplifhed, in four Demy 4to volumes, containing in all fome 2,800//.: and thus the Bibliography of Sidney, Spenfer, Shakcfpeare, Bacon, Ben Jonfon, and their contemporaries, was fafely fecured from deftruction or oblivion, to the end of time.
Other circumftances then intervened; fo that it was not till January 1885, on the occafion of my firfl vifit to Edinburgh (where the book was in hand), that I was able to refume it. Once, however, the reproduction was again taken up, it was refolutely pufhed through to its completion.
This Volume cannot fail to intereft the cultivated reader. One is able therem to look out on the New World as its Difcoverers and firfl Explorers looked upon it. Now-a-days, this Globe has but few geographical myfleries; and it is lofing its romance as faft as it is lofmg its wild beafts. In the following Texts, however, the Wonderment of \ its Difcovery in all its frefhnefs, is preferved, as in amber, for all time : and they alfo contain notices of not a few barbaric civilizations which have long fince paffed away from off the face of the earth.
B2 »
VI
To the Reader.
But this book has alfo fome very fpecial points of interefl :
It is in many refpects, an Englifh Cyclopaedia of the geographical and fcientific knowledge of its Age.
No one can read the portion of the Decades of Pietro Martire given herein, without wifhing to know a great deal more about him and his writings.
A large portion of what little we do know about Sebaftian Cabot, will be found in the notices of him fcattered through this volume.
It may alfo be regarded as a fitting Literary Monument of one of the Private Secretaries of Lord Burlegh, and a very worthy Englifhman, Richard Eden : of whom fome account will be found at //. xxxvii.-xlviii. ; and who was certainly one of the principal Authors of the reign of Mary Tudor.
It is alfo clear, that from the third Text in this book (Eden's tranfiatlon of the Decades of Pietro Martire), which was publifhed in 1555, Francis Drake muft have obtained all the knowledge that Englifh books could give him refpecting the Weft Indies and the Spanifli Main, before he first went out there, under Captain John Lovell, in 1565.
Laftly, William Shakefpeare read this third Text alfo, and created the character of Caliban in the Tempejl out of the defcription of the Patagonian giants given dXpp. 251-2.
But for us Moderns, the chief intereft in thefe three Works may be, that they are the very beginning of a mighty Literature. The future of Mankind lies with the Anglo- Saxon race : and of all Englifli books relating to the American portion of that race, the three reprinted in this volume are the very firjl.
The large initial letters are in the ftyle of the Spanifh defigns of the Bifcayan, Juan de Yciar (b. 1523), as they are found in the two editions of his Orthographia practica, Saragoffa, 1548 and 1550, 4to. Yciar, who evidently looked upon them as the gems of his Work, calls them Letras de Compas para ilhwiviadores.
In conclufion I desire moft gratefully to acknowledge and record the very kind and
cordial help rendered to me in the reproduction of this volume at Edinburgh, by the late
Mr William Burnefs and the late Mr John Stevenfon, with whom it was commenced:
and alfo by Mr James Skinner, of the firm of Meffrs Burnefs & Co., and Mr James
TurnbuU, of the firm of Meffrs Turnbull & Spears, by whom it has been brought to a
succeffful conclufion.
EDWARD ARBER.
Sir Josiah Mason's College, Birmingham.
Contents.
To the Reader ...,.,..,
Contents . . .
Preface . ^ .....,, .
The First English book on America.
This Text is ike first English book containing tJte word America (Armenica).
li Of the newe landes and of ye people founde by the messengers of the kynge^
of portyngale named Emanuel.
Of the. X. dyuers nacyons cryslened.
Of pope lohn and his landes and of the costely keyes and wonders molodyes
that in that lande is.
[Antwerp, ? 1511,] 4to.
/
[ The voyage round Africa to Indi, Of the blacke Mores [of Guinea] [Of the lande of AUago] Arabia
Of greate Indyen Of Gutchin \Cochin\ that Kyngedome
Of the X. dyverce cristened nacions ,
The fyrst nacion [ The Latins and Germans\ The seconde nacyon [ The Greeks] The thyrde nacyon [They of India under Pope John] .
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden
xxvii-xxix.] xxviii. xxviii. xxviii. xxviii. xxix.
xxx-xxxi.
XXX. XXX. XXX.
The fourth nacyon \The Jacobites ( ? Abyssinians) ]
The fyfth nacyon [ The Nestorians\
The syxte nacyon [ The Maronites\
The seuenth nacyon \The Armenians]
The eyght nacyon [ The Georgians]
The nynthe nacyon [ The Syrians atid Samaritans]
The tenthe nacyon \The Morabites]
V.-Vl.
vii.-x. xi.-xxiu
xxni-xxxvi.
sxx. xxxi. xxxi. xxxi. xxxi. xxxi. xxxi.
\_An abridgement of the mediaeval Legend of Presterjohn xxxii-xxxvi.] Of the people named Pygoies , . . xxxiii.
xxxvii-xlviii.
Richard Eden's Contributions to our Literature, during the reigns of Edward VL and Mary, 1553-1555, A.D.
The Second English book on America.
^ A treaty se of the newe India, with other new foitnde landes and I landes, ^ aszvell eastwarde as westwarde, as they are knowen and found in these oure dayes, after the descripcion of Sebastian Aftmster in his boke of vniversall Cosmographie : wherein the diligent reader may see the good successe and rewarde of noble and ( honeste enterpryses, by the zohich not only wordly ryches are obtayned, but also God is glorified, and the Christian fayth enlarged. Translated out of Latin into Englishe. By Rycharde Eden. [London. 1553.] 8vo. /
(Richard) Eden. [Dedication] To . . . the Duke of Northumberlande, hys Grace . (Richard) Eden. To the Reader ......
The Table ...........
Of the newe India, as it [The description of the Navigations from Spain to the new
India, Eastward ..... Of the Diamande stone, called in Latin Adamas Of the kingdoms and cities of Narsinga and Canonor . How the Elephantes in India are prepared to warre . Of the beaste called Rhinoceros Of Calicut, the most famous market towne of India .
3-42
is knowen and found in these our dayes
Of the maners of the Indians in Calicut .
13] Of Pepper and other spices which growe in the region of Calicut
14 Of byrdes and beastes which are found in the region of
14 Calicut : and of the wyne of the merueylous tree . .
15-16 Of the sundrye kindes of Spices, which are founde in Calicut,
16 and from whence they are brought thyther
16-17 Of 'lis Hand of Zaylon, and of Cinomome found there
5-6
7-1 1
12
13-27
17-18
18
«9
20 20
VI 11
Contents.
Of the cytie of Tamasseri, and the maner of the cytezins there
Of the kingdoms and cities of Pego and Bangella
Of the greate and ryche Ilande of Sumatra, or Samolra, some-
tyme called Taprobana . . . •
Of the Ilande of Bornei ....
Of the Hand of Giaua ..... Of the Hand of laua ..... Of the Hand of Madagascar .... Of the Hand of Zanzibar Of the two Handes, in one of the which dwell onely men^ and
in the other onely women ....
20-21 21
22 22 23 23 23 23
24
Of the greate Empyrc of Cathay, being vnder the dominion of the great Cham (whiche some call the great Can) Emper- oure of Tartaria, in olde tyme called Scythia , . 24-25
Of certaine Prouinces and regions subiect vndcr the dominion
of the greate Cham Emperour of Cathay , . 25-26
Of the Prouince of Mangi, and merueylous cyties conteyned
in the same ...... 26
Of the region of Tangtit, and of the great desertes, and voyces of deuylles heard in the same, and of the Sala- mandra •....., 26-27
C Of the newe India, and Ilandes in the West Ocean Sea, how, when, and by whom they were found, 28-42
[Of the new Islands and India found in the West Ocean sea,
from Spain Westward and South-west . . 28-31, 33-39]
Of the two Ilandes Johanna and Hispatia ... 28
Of the people called Canibales or Anthropophagi, which are
accustomed to eate mans fleshe .... 29
Of the maners of the inhabitantes of the Hand of Hispana and
of suche thynges as are found there ... 29
How Columbus, after he had found new Ilandes, returned
agayne to Spayne, where preparinge a newe nauie, he
toke his viage to ye Canibales .... 29-30 How the Admirall passed manye Ilandes, and what thynges
chaunced to hym and his companie in that viage . 30-31
How the Spaniardes afjused the submission and frendeshippe
of the inhabitantes of the Ilandes . . . . 31
How the Portugals sought new Ilandes in the East partes,
and how they came to Calicut .... 32-33 How Magellanus by a strayght or narrow arme of the sea,
sayled by the west into the East to dyuers Ilandes : where
also he was slayne ..... 33-34
(Richard) Eden. To al aduenturers, and suche as take in hande greate enterpryses
How the Spaniardes came to the Ilandes of Molucca, and of
the people with great hanging eares . .
The thyrde nauigacion of Christophortts Columbus Howe Pdrus Alonsus soughte newe Ilandes . Howe Pinzonus, companion to the Admirall, sought newe
Ilandes .......
Of the foure nauigacions of Americus Vesfutius to the newe
Ilandes .......
The fyrste viage of Americus Vesputitts , , .
The seconde viage of Vesputius ....
The thyrde viage of Vesputitts ....
The fourth viage of Vesputius .....
How the king of Portugale subdued certayn places in India :
and of the ryche Cytie of Malacha Of the Hand of Medera, and the fortunate Ilandes, olherwyse
called the Ilandes of Canaria .... Whether vnder the ^Equinoctial circle or burninge lyne (called
Torrida zona) be habitable Regions ,
34-SS
35-36
36
36
37 37-38 38 39 39
4C
40-41
41-42
42
The Third English book on America.
T/ie Decades of the newe worlde or west India, conteynyng the naiiigatiotts\ and conquest es of the Spanyardes, with the particular description of the moste ryche aud large landes and Ilandes lately founde in the west Ocean perteynyng to the inheritaunce of the hinges of Spayne. In the which the diligent reader may not only consyder what commoditie may hereby chaunce to the hole christian world in tyme to come, but also learne many secreates touchynge the lande, the sea, ) and the starres, very necessarie to be knowen to al such as shal attempte any naui- gations, or otherwise haue delite to beholde the strange and woonderfull woorkes of God and nature. Wrytten in the La tine tounge by Peter Martyr of Angleria, and translated into Englysshe by Rycharde Eden.
Londini, In sedibus Guilhelmi Powell. Anno. 1555. /
43-398
The Table of the Contents of this Booke (besyde the Decades) 45
(Richard) Eden. Latin Epistle to King Philip and Queen Mary ...... 46-48
(Richard) Eden. To the Reader . 49-6o
[Section I. ..... . 61-204.]
(Pietro) Martire's Epistle to the Emperor Charles V., 30 September 1516
C3-64
Contents.
IX
Book I. Book II. Book III. Book IV. Book V.
Book I. Book II. Book III. Book IV. Book V.
Book I. Book 11. Book III. Book IV. Book V.
The First Decade (or Ten Books)
{For confeuts, see fp.
391-3)
(For contents, see pp,
393-4)
(For contents, see fp. 395-7)
65-68 68-72
73-79 79-82 82-87
Book VI. . BookVir. Book VIII. Book IX. , Book X. .
The Second Decade
106-111 111-114 114-118 118-120 120-122
Book VI. . Book VII. Book Vlir. Book IX. . Book X. .
The Third Decade
137-142 Book VI. .
142-145 Book VII.
146-150 Book Vlir.
150-156 Book IX. .
156-160 Book X. .
Of the Landes and Ilandes lately founde Pope Alexander VT. Bull dividing the New World between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, 4 May 1593 .... In Latin and English.
65-105 87-90
90-93
94-96
96-102
103-105
106-136 122-125 126-129 129 130 130-134 « 34 136
137-18."; 161-165 165-169 170-174 >7S-'78 i78-i«5
186-200 201-204
[Section II. . . . 205-242.]
(Richard) Eden. To the Reader .......
(Gonzalo) Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdds. Epistle to the Emperor Charles V. .
The [Natural] Hystorie of the weste Indies
Of the ordinary nauygation from Spayne to the Weste Indies ......
Of twoo notable thynges as touchsmg the West Indies : And of the great rychcsse brought from thense into Spayne ......
Of the mynes of golde, and the maner of woorkynge in theym ......
Of the maner of fyshynge for perles
Of the familiaritie which certeyne of the Indians haue with the deuyll, and howe they reccaiie answere of hym of thynges to coome ....
Of the temperature of the regions vnder or neare to the burnt lyne cauled Torrida zona or the Equinocliall : and of the dyuers seasons of the yeare
Of dyuers particular thynges, as woormes, serpentes, beastes, foules, trees, etc. ....
Of trees, fruites, and plantes ....
210
211-213 213-215
215-216
217-218
219-225 225227
Of Reedes or Canes .....
Of venemous apples wherwith they poyson theyr arrowcs
Of fysshes and of the maner of fysshynge .
Of th[e]increase and decrease, (that is) rysynge and faullynge of our Ocean sea and Southe sea caulled the sea of Sur ......
Of the strayght or narowe passage of thelande lyingc bet wene the North and South sea, by the whiche spyces may much sooner and easlyer be brought from the Ilandes of Molucca into Spayne by the West Ocean then by that way wherby the Portugales sayle into East India
Of the maners and customes of the Indians of the firme lande, and of theyr women ....
Oi \}c^& cM\^{& \\xCidL&% Hispaniola xaA Cuba
Of the Ilande of Cuba and other ....
Of the lande of Bacoaleos cauled Terra Bnccalearum, situate on the North syde of the firme lande. .
207
208-209
210-242
227-229
229-230
230-233
233-234
234-236
237-238
239-241
241
242
[Section III Of the Universal Garde and Newe Worlde (Richard) Eden. A Discourse of the Vyage made by
the Spanyardes rounde abowte the Worlde . Maximilian Transilvanius. Epistle to the Emperor
Charles V
245
246-247
243-280.]
(Antonio) Pigafetta. A briefe Declaration of the Vyrge
or Navigation made abowte the Worlde . . 249-262
Of the prices of Precious Stones and Spices . . 263-269
Cadamosto of the Dooues of the Ilande of Madera . 270
Of the Ilande of saynt Thomas under the Equinocliall line 270
247-248
(Francisco) Lopez de G6mara. The Debate and Stryfe betwene the Spanyardes and Portugales
for the diuision of the Indies and the trade of Spices [at the Conference at Badajos, in 152.}] 271-274
/ A J N J ,-^ 1- ?■ Of the Pole Antartike and the Starres about the same, &c. (Andrccis) de Corsali. J
277-280
[Section IV.
Of Moscouie and Cathr.y
(Galeazzo) Butrigarius (Sebastian) Cabot . ,
2S3 283
281-334.]
(Sebastian) MUnster. (Jacopo) Gastaldo. A briefe description of Moscouia ....
283-294
291-293
Contents.
(Jacobus) Ziglerus.
Of the North Regions and of the moderate and continuall
heate in coukie regions aswell in the nyght as in the
day in the soommer season Schondia .... Gronlande .
Islande ....
Of the North Regions
Laponia ....
Norwegia or Norway 295298 Suecia or Svethlande 298-299 Bothnia ....
299 Gothia or Gothlande
300 Finland and Eningia
fference of Regions, and causes of great cities (Paolo) Giovio, Bishop of Nocera. The Historic ... of the Legation or Ambassade of th
greate Basilius Prince of Moscouia to Pope Clement VII. of that name (Sigismund) Liber. Other notable Things concerning Moscovia ....
(Girolamo) Cardano. Of the d
The description of the regions, people, and ryuers, lying
North and Easte from Moscouia Of the famous ryuer of Tanais ....
Edward VI. The Copy of the Letters Missive
322-324 324-325
More directly from Moscouia to Cathay
Of the Tartars
The nauigation by the frosen sea .
sent to the Kynges, Princes, and other
|
. |
295-306 |
|
• |
301-303 303-304 30s 30s 306 305 |
|
le of th2 |
307 |
|
• • |
308-317 |
|
. |
. 318-321 |
|
• • |
325-326 327-330 330-332 |
potentates inhabytynge the Northeast partes of the worlde towarde the myghtye Empire of Cathaye. 1553 . . In Latin and English. .....
[Section V, (Francisco) Lopez de G6mara. )
(Sebastian) Cabot.
Of the foreknowleage that the Poet Seneca had of the fyndynge of this new Worlde and other Regions not then knowen .-..,. 337
Of the great Ilande which Plato cauled Atlantica or
Atlantide ...... 337-338
Of the colour of the Indians .... 338
Why they were cauled Indians .... 339
The fyrste discouerynge of the Weste Indies . . 339
What maner of man Chrystopher Colon was : and howe
he Came fyrst to the knowleage of the Indies . 340
What labour and trauayle Colon tooke in attemptyng his
fyrst vyage to the Indies .... 340-342
Of newe Spayne cauled Noua Hispania, or Mexico . 342
Of Peru ....... 343
Of the great ryuer cauled Rio de la Plata (that is) the
ryuer of syluer ..... 343-344
335-352.] Other notable thynges as touchinge the Indies
Of the hygher East India cauled India Terccra or Terciera Of the landes of Laborador and Baccalaos, lyinge west and
northwest from Englande, and beiiige parte of the
firme lande of the West Indies The discouerynge of the lande of Floryda An opinion that Europa, Africa, and Asia, are Ilandes :
and of certeyne nauigations abowt the same . That the Spanyardes haue sayled to the Antipodes (that
is) suche as go fiete to fiete ageynst vs, and inhabite
the inferiour hemispheric or halfe globe of the earthe,
contrarie to th[e]oppinion of the owlde writers Who fyrst founde the needle of the compasse, and the vfe
therof ......
The Situacion and byggenes of the earth .
What degrees are ......
(Richard) Eden. A demonstration of the roundnesse of the Earth ....
Diodorus, Siculus. What credit ought to bee gyuen to Wryters as touchynge the workes of nature
333-334
337-350
344
344-34S 345-346
346-347
347-348
348-349
349
349-350
350 351
[Section VI. . . . 353-369-]
(Richard) Eden. The prQ^ace to The Booke of Metals . . . . . . 355
(Vannuccio) Biringuccio. Of the generation of Metalles, and their mynes ; with the maner of
fyndinge the same .......... 356-362
Of the myne of golde and the qualitie therof in particular 362-366 | Of the myne of siluer and the qualitie therof . 366-368
Diodorus, Siculus. The maner of workynge in golde mynes in Egipt in owld tyme . . 369
[Section VIL . . . 371-390.]
(Richard) Eden. The Description of the two Viages made owt of England into Guinea (Richard) Eden. A breefe Description of Affrike . . . . . .
The fyrst Vyage to Guinea .........
The Second Vyage to Guinea ........
Gemma Phrysius. The maner of fyndynge the Longitude of Regions by dyuers waycs .
373
374 375-378 379-388 389-390
A BRYEFE REHERSAL OF THE CONTENTES OF THE DECADES (Richard) Eden. Th[e] Interprelours excuse .....
Index.
391-398
398
399-408
p 3i e df a € e.
riLL labouring in the diffusion of English Literature : we here, with heart-felt pleasure, present the reader with reprints of three exceedingly rare, curious, and costly Cosmographical Works; which are also the very earliest printed documents in our language, relating to South, Central, and North America.
It rarely falls to the lot of man to be able to put one's hand on the very earliest beginnings of a mighty literature. Yet it is not too much to say, that of all the vast multitude of English books that have been, or ever will be, pro- duced, either in, or relating to, what we call our New World ; the three Works reprinted in this Volume are the very first and earliest. However mighty and majestic, however subtle and eloquent, however deep and far-reaching, the American-English literature may become; here are its first fruits ! Whatever period of mental florescence and splendour may yet be in store for the English- speaking races on that vast Continent; with these three Works begins the printed English Story of their Action, their Mind, and their Progress.
Almost all nations light their lamp with fire borrowed from their predeces- sors. They commence with translations ; progress to imitations ; and then, often by distinctly marked steps, the Literature mounts up to the height to which
(through all the It rests not long
the united wit and genius of the nation vicissitudes of earthly empire) can raise it. at the summit ; but first declines, and then decays. In its full ripeness, it oftentimes lights up the mind of younger and suc- ceeding races ; and so, at length, its life and vitality pass away. Thus has the now blazing, now dim, torch of human knowledge and mind-craft been handed down to us over the heads of the nations, through all the successive Ages of Time.
Human literature is also, like human nature, in many essen- tials evermore the same in all Ages. As is the life of a Man ; so is the mind, that is, the higher life, which is the glory of a Nation. Both alike pass through Inception, Growth, Flores- cence, Decay, and Death : both alike but minister to the purposes of a Power greater than they, until the cycle of His plans shall be completed. Then cometh the end, when the World shall crack at the fiat of the Almighty Trinity.
Instances of this Law of successive Literary Cycles inter-ringing one with the other, readily suggest themselves. Such was the Literature of Greece in its earlier relations to Egypt and Phoenicia ; and in its later to Rome. Such also that of the Renaissance in Italy, in respect to the Greek literature of Byzantium ; and to its subsequent influence (which, either as to fulness or extent, has hardly yet been measured) on the rawer nations of Spain, Germany, France, and England.
Such was that of Spain (which now we consider so dead), with reference to the anterior civilisation and letters of the Moorish kingdom there. Such undoubtedly has been, and will be the literature of England ; now, it may be, in the early afternoon of its glory. And such has been, and will be that of English- America; now in the morning of its strength and power. In the words of the great and wise Preacher, " To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."
Under any circumstances, therefore, the present Texts would excite great interest; whatever might be the nature of their contents. It is pleasant, however, to find that each of them has for us modern readers, a distinct interest and a strong charm : while all three do afford us a most vivid picture of those early days of oceanic discovery ; of the terrible real dangers, and the still more terrible imaginary ones, undergone and dared by the many noble-hearted Portuguese and Spaniards for themselves and for us ; when they wan, in their little cockboats, for the succeeding Human Race, a truer knowledge of the Globe in which, by the Divine Providence, it has been placed.
But the first impression — the most salient and significant interest of this volume — is that it contains reprints of The first Three English books on America.
Xll
P R E F A C E.
II.
Ur next consideration respects their contem- porary standpoint ; their relation to the story of the nation, for whom the three Texts were printed: and especially to supply Eden's omissions, as regards the very early oceanic voyages of the English, both East and West.
These publications are of great and perpetual interest, inasmuch as they photograph for all time, the fragmentary and imperfectly attained knowledge, and the vast and credulous wonderment, prevailing in England in respect to far-distant countries, during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his two im- mediate successors. The Texts of this volume embrace, in fact, all that the gentry and merchants of England could, down to the year 1555, A.D., read in the tongue in which they were born, of the wonderful discoveries, and still more marvellous conquests, of the Portuguese and Spaniards in the two Indies.
Neither was this amount of printed information much added to, in Eden's lifetime. His greatest literary feat — the Compila- tion of 1555 — found no immediate imitators : so that it was left to himself (after twenty years more, of great vicissitude, had passed over his head) to undertake its repetition, in the form of a Second and much revised Edition of this labour of love ; in the preparation of which he died. This revised Com- pilation finally appeared in 1577, "set in order, augmented, and finished " by Richard Willes, under the fresh title of The History of Trauayle in the West and East Indies, and other countreys lying either way, 6^c. It was five years later (1582), that R[ichard] H[akluyt] published his first Collection, under the title of Diuers voyages, d^c.
An enquiry into the printed naval literature of Queen Elizabeth's reign, has also elicited the fact, that it was not until about that same year (1577), that our Oceanic Literature fairly began to constitute a distinct section of English books. It soon, however, greatly increased in bulk, variety, and interest ; until now, it has no compeer in any other language.
Eden is therefore, in very deed, the Pioneer of British geographic research, the very First of our Naval Chroni- clers, and the Herald and Forerunner of all our subsequent discoveries and victories at sea. So that in English literary history, Richard Eden stands in the same relation to Richard Hakluyt, that Richard Hakluyt does to Samuel Purchas ; and Samuel Purchas, to our present Hakluyt and Royal Geo- graphical Societies.
This multifarious volume should be studied in conjunction with the inland Chronicles of Halle, Grafton, Stow, and others; together with the more modem histories of the Reformation Age. These are chiefly, if not exclusively, occupied with home and continental affairs ; and but rarely travel further abroad. In this direction, this Work will help, in a very important manner, to complete for us, the external history of England, during the period 1511-1555, a.d.
2. It will soon, however, be seen that it does this rather by way of narrating the deeds of other nations, and thereby teaching and guiding our forefathers to do the like ; than by describing
the English navigations of its own time. Indeed, there are only two English voyages described in it with any detail, and those are rather late ones, viz., the voyages to Guinea in 1553 and 1554. Yet these accounts (the very earliest of their kind ever printed in our language) were not, as it is quite evident from page 388, included in the original conception and plan of the Work : but were added, just as the book was being com- pleted, by way of a postscript ; the extra expense of which, was borne by Master Toy, the London printer and publisher.
It is also to be especially noted, that this omission did not arise because there were no English Voyages to relate ; but be- cause the custom of narrating them in print had not yet arisen in our language. Sea-Histories had not, as yet, become an section of our Literature.
Inasmuch, therefore, as so large a portion of this Volume is occupied with the famous deeds of other nations, and particu- larly of those of the Spaniards ; it may be well (as it is indeed but just to our own race) to place in the forefront of them all, a very slight account, by way of a rescue from oblivion, of the sea-doings and sea-daring of our forefathers in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary : — narrating the Oceanic voyages with fuller detail than those to the Continent and the Levant, as they were the more adventurous and difficult
3. From the capture of Constantinople in 1454, till after the battle of Lepanto in 1572 ; there was an almost ceaseless fight between the Christians and the Turks along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Knights of St. John of Jeru- salem, after they had been driven from Rhodes in 1522, finally settled at Malta in 1530; where by their heroic valour in the frightful siege in 1565, they materially contributed, with the great naval victory of Don John of Austria, to stem the flow of Turkish invasion, which else threatened to swallow up all Christian States.
Recollecting that the formidable, ruthless, and barbaric power of the Turkish empire was at this time ever surging onward and westward in those eastern seas; it will interest most of us to know that there was a regular organised and direct commerce by sea between England and the Levant so early as 15 1 1, a.d. ; and for many years afterwards. For our knowledge of this we are indebted to our great English Worthy and famous Cosmo- grapher Richard Hakluyt, Preacher; sometime a Student of Christ Church in Oxford: who, in the second edition of his great work entitled The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques,and Discoueries oj the English Nation, &'c. ^'c, London, 1 599-1 600 fol., has preserved for us the following important note on —
TTie antiquitie of the trade with Engiijhjhips into the Leuant
|N the yeeres of oure Lord, 151 1, 1512, &c., till theycere 1534. diuers tall fliips oi London, namely, The Chrijlopht^ Campion, wherein was Factor one Roger Whitcome; the Mary George, wherein was Factor William Crejtiam; the great Mary Grace, the Owner whereof, was iVilliam Gun/on, rnd the mafter one John Hely; the Trinitie Fitz<uilliams, whereof was mafter Laurence Arkey; the Afalthiw of London, whereof was mafter William Capling, with certaine other fliips of Southampton and Brijlmo, had an ordinarie and vfuall trade to Sicilia, Candte, Chio, and fomewhilcs to Cyprus, as alfo to Tripolis and Baruiti [Beyrouth in Syria. The com-
Preface.
Xlll
modities which they caried thither were fine Kerfies of diuers colours, courfe Kerfies, white Wefteme dozens. Cottons, certaine clothes called Satutes, and others called Cardinal-whites, and Caluetkins which were well fold in Skilie, &c. The commodities which they returned backc were Silks, Chainlets, Rubarbe, Malmefies, Muflcadels and other wines, fweete oyles, cotten wooU, Turkic carpets, Galles, Pepper, Cinamom, and fome other fpices, &c. Befides, the naturall inhabitants of the forefayd places, they had, euen in those dayes, traffique vrith lewes, Turkes, and other forreiners. Neither did our merchants onely eniploy their owne Englilh (hipping before mentioned, but fundry flrangers alfo : as namely, Car.diols, Ragufeans, Sicilians, Gcnouezes, Venetian galliaffes, Spanish and Portugale fliips. All which particulars doe moll euidently appeare out of certaine auncient Ligier bookes \i.e. Ledgers^ of the R[ight]. W[or(hipful]. Sir William Locke Mercer of London, of Sir William Bixwyer Alderman of London, of mailer lohn GreJJiam, and of others; which I Richard Hakluyt haue diligently perufed and copied out. — Vol. \l.,Part I.,/. 96, Ed. 1599.
4. Next in the order of time comes the mythical voyage of 1517 of Sebastian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert from England towards Cathay ; the sole authority for which is Eden's state- ment at page 6 of this Volume : in which, so far as we have been able to inquire, we believe him to have been utterly mistaken, and that the voyage had no existence ; and the more especially because Sebastian Cabot was at that date in Spain, where he remained until after the Conference of Badajos in 1524, which (as Gomara tells us at/. 272) he attended as an expert on behalf of the Emperor Charles V.
5. Important and authentic as is that early Levant traffic ; it was a very different thing from a voyage across the then but half discovered Atlantic. As Pietro Martire vaunts, few or none but Spaniards were licensed to go from Spain to the New World. It is, therefore, very striking to find, ere Cortes had consolidated his marvellous conquest of Mexico, or Pizarro had finally set forth to imitate him in Peru ; and while at home, the great Cardinal was in serene prosperity and unruffled power, our first printed New Testaments were being secretly read in the principal English towns, and our nation's Reforma- tion was just beginning to bud forth : it is indeed surprising to trace one Englishman at least in the West Indies ; to learn, of a certainty, that one, if not two English expeditions had reached the American coast ; and, most startling of all, to know that one of these squadrons found in the harbour of St John's, Newfoundland, not another royal fleet of discovery, but a fleet of fourteen fishing-boats (and, if Spanish reports be correct, thirty or forty more in the neighbourhood), that had ventured (at a time when, to us, so little appears to have been known of the north-eastern seaboard of America; and so much to have been dreaded in a voyage thither) across the wide Atlantic, simply for the sake of codfish.
6. Hakluyt gives the following account of Thomas Tyson or Tison, the first Englishman known to have reached the West Indies : —
A briefe note concerning an ancient trade of the Euglijk Marchants to the Canarie-ilands, gathered out of an olde ligier booke [ledger] of M. Nicolas Thome the elder a worfhipfull marchant of the city of '&x\Qi.o\\.
JT appeareth euidently out of a certaine note or letter of remem- brance, in the cuftody of me Richard Hakluyt, written by M. Nicolas Thome the elder a principall marchant of Brifloll, to his friend and factour Thomas Midnall and his owne feruant William Ballard at that time refident in S. Lucar in Andeluzia ; that in the yeere of our Lord 1526 (and by all circumstances
and probabilities long before) certaine Englilh marchants, and among the reft himfelfe with one Thomas Spacheford exercifed vfuall and ordinary trade of marchandife vnto the Canarie Hands. For by the fayd letter notice was giuen to Thomas Midnall and William Ballard aforefayd, that a certaine fliip called The Chriflopher of Cadiz bound for the Wejl Indies had taken in certaine fardels of cloth both courfe and fine, broad and nar- row of diuers forts and colours, fome arouas [aroliasj of packthreed, fixe cerons or bagges of fope, with other goods of M. Nicolas Thome, to be deliuered at Santa Cruz, the chiefe towne in Tenerifa, one of the feuen Canary-Hands. All which commodities the fayd Thomas and William were authorized by the owner in the letter before mentioned to barter and fell away at Santa Cruz. And in lieu of fuch mony as (hould arife of the fale of thofe goods, they were appointed to retume backe into England good ftore of Orchell (which is a certaine kinde of mofle growing vpon high rocks, in thofe dayes much vfed to die withall), fome quantity of fugar, and certaine hundreds of kid-ikinnes. For the procuring of which and of other commodities, at the beft and firft hand, the faid Thomas and William were to make their abode at Santa Cruz, and to remaine there as factours for the abouefaid M[after] Nicolas Thome.
And here alfo I thought good to fignifie, that in the fayd letters mention is made of one Thomas Tifon, an Englilh man, who before the forefayd yere 1526 had found the way to the Wefl Indies, and was there refident, vnto whom the fayd M[afler] Nicolas Thome fent certaine armour and other commodities fpecified in the letter aforefayd. — Principal Navigations, (Sr^f. Sfc. Of the English Nation, Vol. II. , Part 11., p. 3, Ed. 1599.
Hakluyt, referring again to this note, hazards the following surmise : —
This Thomas Tifon (fo farre as I can coniecture) may feeme to haue bene fome fecret factour for M. Thorne aud other Englilh marchants in thofe remote partes, whereby it is probable that fome of our marchants had a kind of trade to the Weft Indies, euen in thofe ancient times and before alfo. — Idem, Vol. III., /. 5cx), Ed. 1600.
This conjecture is confirmed by the fact that Nicolas Thorne, at his death in 1527, owed this Thomas Tyson the sum of ;^i2 : 5s. (probably on account of business). — See Letters and Papers on the Reign of Hairy VIII., Edited by the Rev. J. S. Brewer, M.A., IV. (2),/. 1256.
7. Imbedded in Halle's Chronicle is the following note, quite unconnected with anything going before or after, and to which also he makes no subsequent allusion whatever : —
This fame moneth [May 1527, 19 lien. VIII.], the kyng fent two fayre fhippes, well manned and vitailed, hauing in theim diuers conning men, to feke ftrange regions; and fo furth thei fet, out of the Thamis, the twentie day of May, if thei fped well you lliall here at their retorne. fol. 158, b.
This note Richard Grafton, who had printed Halle's Chro- nicles in 1548, transferred (with but variations of spelling) to/. 1 149 of his own Chronicle, printed by Henry Denham in 1569.
Richard Hakluyt, in his Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries, thus records his researches as to this expedition : —
ND whereas mafter Hall and mafter Grafton fay, that in thofe Ihips there were diuers cunning men, I haue made great inquirie of fuch as, by their yeeres and delight in nauigation, might giue me any light to know who thofe cunning men (hould be, which were the directers in the aforefayd voyage. And it hath bene told mee by Sir Martin Frobilher, and mafter Richard Allen a Knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of S. Paul in London, which was a great Mathematician, and a man indued with wealth, did much aduance the action, and went therein himfelfe in perfon, but what his name was, I can not learne of any. And further they told mee that one of the (hips was called the Dominus vobiscum, which is a name likely to bee giuen by a religious man of thofe dales, and that failing very farre Northweft- ward, one of the (hips was caft away as it entred into a dangerous gulphe, about the great opening, betweene the North partes of New found land, and the countrey lately called by her maieftie Mela Iiuognita \i.e. Labrador].
XIV
Preface.
Whereupon the other (hip (haping her courfe towards Cape Brittor, and the coaft of Norumbega [Hakluyt substitutes Aramhec in his 1600 Edition], and oftentimes putting their men on land to fearch the ilate of thofe vnknowen regions, returned home about the beginning of October, of the yeere aforefaid. And thus much (by reafon of the great negligence of the writers of thofe times, who (hould haue vfed more care in preferuing the memories of the worthie actes of our nation) is all that hitherto I can leame, or find out of this voiage.— /. 517, Ed. 1589; also, iii 129, Ed. l6co.
Of this enterprise, Purchas some thirty-five years later has preserved for us, at //. 808-91 of the Third volume of his Pilgrimcs, 1625, the following more authentic testimony: —
' EE will recreate you with a plaine Mariners Letter endorsed in homely phrafe, To the Honourable Kings Grace of Eng- land, here (as I thinke) giuen you from the Originall. I haue alfo another written to Cardinal Wolfcy touching the fame voyage in Latin, by Albertus de Praia ; for the antiquitie rather then any remarkable raritie, worthy here to be mentioned.' '' I mentioned before Mafler Thames fathers finding out New-found Land, with Mailer Eliol. Thefe animated King Henrie the eight to fet forth two (hips for difcouerie, one of which perifhed in the North parts of New- found Land. The Mafler of the other, lohn Rul, writ this Letter to King Henrie, in bad EngUfli and worfe Writing. Ouer it was this fuperfcription. ° Mafter Grubes two (hips departed from Plymatilh the 10. day of lune, and arriued in the Nexu- found- Land in a good Harbour, called Cape de Bas, the 21. day of July : and after we had left the fight of Selk [? Scilly], we had neuer fight of any Land, till we had fight of Cape de Bas.
^ leafing your Honorable Grace to hcare ofyourferuant lohn Rut, with all his Company here, in good health, thanks be to God, and your Graces fhip. The Mary of G[u]il[d]ford with all her thanks be to God: And if it pleafe your
honorable Grace, we rannein our courfe to the Northward, till we came into 53. degrees, and there we found many great Hands of Ice and deepe water, we found no founding, and then we durfl not goe no further to the Northward for feat e of more Ice, and then we cajl about to the Southward, and within foure dayes after we had one hundred and fxtie fathom, and then •wee came into 52. degrees, and fell with the may ne Land, and within ten leagues of the mayne Land we met with a great Hand of Ice, and came hard by her, for il wasflanding in deepe water, andfo went in with Cape de Bas, a good Harbor, and many small Hands, and a great frefh Riuer going vpfarre into the mayne Land, and the maytie Land allwilderneffe and mountaines and woods, and no naturall ground but all moffe, and no inhabitation nor no people in thefe parts: and in the woods we found footing of diners great beafls, but we faw none not in ten leagues. And pleafe your Grace, the Samfon and wee kept company all the way till within tioo dayes beforewee metwith all the Hands of Ice. That was the firfl day of luly at night, and there rofe a great and a mar- uailous great florme, and much foule weather; I trufl in Almightie lefu to heare good newes of her. And pleafe your Grace, we were confidering and a writing of all our order, how we would wafh [? watch'\ vs, and what courfe wee mould draw, and when God doe fend fault weather, that with Cape de %'^xflie [i.e. each fhip'\ fhould goe, and he that came firfl fhould tarry the fpace of fixe weeks one for another, and watered at Cape de Bas ten dayes, ordering of your Graces fhip, andfifhtng, andfo departed toward the South- ward to feeke our fellow: the third day of Auguft we entered into a good Hauen, called Saint lohn, ajtd there we found eleuenfaile «/" Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a fifhing, and fa we are readie to depart towatd Cape de Bas,* and that is twentie fiue leagues, as
1 The very high antiquity of these letters — which are the earliest ever known to have been sent home by Englishmen from America — constitutes their great modern value.
8 The next two sentences are a jumble of error. It is clear from the text that the expedition consisted of three ships : Master Gnibe's or Grub's two ships, one of which was called the Sampson, the name of the other does not transpire (if it could be ascertained to be the Dominus Vobiscuyn, the chain of testimony would be complete) : together with the King's ship, the Mary 0/ GuiLi/ord. commanded by John Uut.
^ Purchas evidently intends us to understand that the endorsement is contemponuy with the letter.
* This is evidently a mistake through the hurry in writing. It should be Cape de Sper [Cabo de Spcra, " tlu Cape 0/ the Spear "X For the two ships, after having stayed
fliortly as we haue fifhed, and fo along the coaft till we may mcete with our fellow, andfo with all diligence that lyes in me toivards parts to that Hands that we are commanded by the grace of God, as we were commanded at our departing. And thus lefu faue and keepe your honorable Grace, and all your honourable Reuer., in the Hauen of Saint lohn, the third day ofAugufi, written in hafie. 1527.
By your feruant lohn Rut, to his vttennoft of his power.
I haue by me alfo Albert de Praia's'^ originall Letter, in Latin (lille, almofl as harsh as the former Englifh, and bearing the fame date, and was indorfed. Reverend in Chrifto Patri Domino Domino Cardinali el Domino Legato Anglice: and began, Reuerendiffime in Chrifto Pater falutem. Retierendiftime Pater, placeat Reuerendiftimcc paternitati veftrce fcire Deo fauente poftquam exiuimus h Plemut qucefuit x. lunij &'c. (The fubftance is the fame with the former, and therefore omitted.) Datum apudle Bay a Saint lohan in Terns Nouis, die x. Augufti 1527. Reuer. Pair. veft. humilis feruus, Albertus de Praia (the name written in the lowed comer ol the (lieet).
We are fortunately able to trace this expedition still further. By " towards parts to that Hands that we are commanded," John Rut meant the West Indies ; and we have accounts by two Spanish historians of his arrival there, which will demand of us some further attention.
Gonzales Fernandez de Oviedo y Valde's — b. at Madrid 1478, ti. at Valladolid 1557, and who resided for many years in the West Indies — wrote, in addition to the Natural hysteria de las Indias printed at Toledo on 15th February 1526, from which Eden has translated large extracts at pp. 208-242 of this Volume; another and his most important work, entitled La historia general de las Indias, the printing of which was com- pleted at Seville on 30th September 1535 (or about eight years after Rut's expedition) ; every copy of which is attested with Oviedo's written signature. It does not appear that Eden had met with this important work, or he would have assuredly have made the following extract from it.
On folio clxj. of this work, being the Thirteenth chapter of the Nineteenth book, is the following passage, for the literal translation of which we are much indebted to the courtesy and kindness of the celebrated Spanish scholar, Don Pasgual de Gayangos.
Before we come to the extract ; an error as to its date (which misled Hakluyt, and may mislead others) must be noted for avoidance, in the Third Volume of J. B. Ramusio's Navigationi e Viaggi. Each Volume of this celebrated Collection was printed in a different year by L. A. Giunti at Venice. Vol. I., of which a First Edition had been printed in 1550, appeared corrected and enlarged in March 1554. Of Vol. II., the Preface of which is dated 7th July 1554, the earliest known is that of 1559; while Vol. III., the Preface of which is dated 20th June 1553, appears to have been first printed in 1556; that is to say, in the year after Eden's Compilation was published in London.
Now, at p. 204 of this Third Volume, of 1556, occurs this important typographical error. Oviedo in 1535 begins Elanno
ten days, 21-31 July 1527, at Cape de Bas, sailing southward, had reached St. John's harbour on the 3d of August, and then purposed to go 75 miles more, evidently to the southward, to Cape de Sper, the appointed rendezvous, where they hoped to meet the Sampson. From the date of the priest's letter, however, it is evident that the two English ships stayed a week longer at St. John's. These letters were probably sent to England in one of the Norman or Breton fishing boats.
1 I have quite failed to find any notice of this Albertus de Prata Might that be a latinised form of Albert Prat ? or was the bearer of the name a foreigner? I can trace no such name in Le Neve's Fasti or Newcourt's Repertorium. It would be interesting if he coul'i be tdcntiiicd with Hakluyt's mathematical Canon of Sl Paul's.
Preface.
XV
de M.d.xxvij. annos, S^c; which Ramusio in 1556 translates JVe/ 13 ly instead of Nel 15 2J. Hakluyt in 1589, not suspect- ing any falsification, thereupon adduces the following extract in support of fabulous English voyage of 1517, hereafter asserted by Eden at /. 6 : but the date being wrong, his argument, of course, falls to pieces.
It would also seem that Oviedo was residing in the city of Santo Domingo, when he wrote this portion of his history.
Chapter 13. Of certain foreign corsairs -which passed to these parts and Indies, and what has been the cause and origin of their bad thoughts.
\ N the year Mdxxvii. an English corsair, under colour or pre- tence that he was going to discover land, came with a large ship to the Brazil on the coast of Tierra Firme, and from thence crossed to this Island Hispanola, and arrived close to the mouth of the harbour of this city [Santo Domingo]. He sent his boat properly manned, and asked for permission to come into port, saying that he came with merchandise and to barter [with the inhabitants]. At the same moment the Governor, Francisco de Tapia, ordered a gun to be fired against the said [English] ship, which was coming straight into the harbour ; which being observed by the English, they went away, after taking on board the said boat's crew. And, to tell the truth, the Governor [Tapia] was wrong in what he did, for had the English vessel entered the harbour, armed though she was, she could not have left without the con- sent of this city and castle.
So that the English, seeing the reception that was made to them, sailed in the direction of the Island of San Juan, and having entered the Bay of San German, spoke to the inhabitants of that town, and asked for provi- sions : uttering complaints against the people of this island [Hispaniola], and saying that they had not come to annoy the people, but to traffic with them, if they consented, for money or merchandise . Provisions were given to them, and they gave pewter vessels and other goods in return. After which the ship sailed for Europe ; but it is supposed that she never reached her destination, for nothing more was heard of her.
Considering that Oviedo printed the above less than eight years after the event, there can hardly be any mistake as to the year being 1527. Yet in a later Spanish historian we find these circumstances, in much fuller detail, narrated as occurring in 1519. So that of the three dates 1517, 1519, and 1527; the last is the true one.
Antonio de Herrera Tordesillas, [^. issgat Cuella de Segovia; d. 29th March 1625 at Madrid], was born two years after the death of Oviedo. The first four Decades of his Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i tierra firme were printed in 1601, the last four in i6i5;both at Madrid. In the second Decas, which was published seventy-four years after Rut's voyage, we have an account of him and his doings, evi- dently derived from a written deposition ; as Oviedo's had been either from hearsay or from personal observation. It consists of the narrative (for the translation of which I am indebted to my friend, the late H. Pyne, Esq., Assistant Tithe Commissioner) of Ginfes Navarro, master of a Spanish caravel, who apparently piloted Rut's ship from Porto Rico by the island of Mona to Santo Domingo, and then back again to San Germano in the island of Porto Rico.
The Arrival of an English Ship in the Indies, and the State OF Affairs in the Islands.
FTER the departure of the ships which carried [? to Spain'] the gold pearls and ordinary merchandise ; a caravel of Saint Domingo being in the island of San Juan [de Porto Rico], loading with casava ; there arrived [at Porto Rico] a ship of three masts, and of the burden of 150 tons. The
master of the caravel, [who] went out in his boat to this ship, supposing it to be a Spanish vessel, discovered [coming towards him] a pinnace containing twenty-five men armed with corslets and cross-bows, and having two pieces of artillery in its prow.
They said that they were Englishmen, and that their ship was from England ; that, in company with another armed ship, they had sailed to seek the country of the Great Khan, but that the ships had been separated in a tempest : and that theirs, proceeding on its voyage, came to a frozen sea, where they found large islands of ice ; that they had then altered their course, and came to a hot sea [? the Gulf Streani], which seethed like water in a caldron ; and in order that the caulking of the ship might not be melted, they went in search of the Baccalaos,' where they found fifty'^ Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships, and that they wishing to land thert in order to obtain an Indian interpreter, they [the Indians] killed the pilot, who was a Piedmontese. From thence, they had coasted as far as the Rio de Chicora [the River of Chicora, i.e. River in Carolina], and had crossed over from that river to the island of San Juan [de Porto Rico].
Upon being asked. What they were searching for in those islands ? they said that they were desirous of seeing them, for the purpose of giving an account of them to the King of England, and to take a cargo from Brazil.
They invited the master of the caravel, who was called Gines Navarro, to come on board their ship, and to show them the course to Saint Dom- ingo. He saw in the ship a quantity of wine, flour, and other provisions ; as well as much cloth, linen, and other articles of merchandise. They carried much artillery and a forge, and carpenters for ship-building, and an oven for baking bread ; and there were [in the ship] threescore men.
Gines Navarro further stated that, if he could have read them, the captain of the ship wished to show him the instructions which he brought from the King of England ; that they had sent a company ashore at the Island of Mona, ' and that they had bartered some pewter in the Island of San Juan.
This ship went to the port of Santo Domingo, and sent the bark ashore, saying That they were desirous of trading ; and [it] tarried there two days, The governor of the Castle, upon the arrival of the ship, sent to inform the Magistrates [? the Royal Audicnce\ for the purpose of their giving him orders what to do ; and as they returned no answer, he discharged a gun at the ship, in consequence of which, she forthwith recalled the bark, and by and by set sail.
The ship then returned to the back of the island of San Juan, and tarried a short time there, trading with the inhabitants of the town of Saint Germans ; and did not appear again.
The magistrates [of Saint Domingo] arrested the governor, saying that he ought to have waited for their answer ; and sent information of this affair to the King [of Spain], as well as of the bad condition of the fortress, so that orders might be given for the fortification of it, and [that] there should be directions [given] for the providing it with men, artillery, and military stores. — Decades, ii.. Book v., Chapter 3., Ed. 1601.
Thus from four perfectly distinct and independent sotu-ces, comes to us the certainty of this English voyage across the Atlantic in 1527; for a further discussion of which see that masterpiece in its way, and rare book (in the Ej.stern hemisphere at least), Mr. J. G. Kohl's History of the Discovery of Maine, published by the Maine Historical Society at Port- land, in 1869; and Mr. Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, London 1832. Both these writers think that the Piedmontese pilot was the celebrated Verazzano.
It is interesting to know that John Rut got back safely to England. For in Sept-Dec. 1528, while still in the command
/■
1 The Indian word for codfish, applied by S. Cabot to the land he first discovered, and afterwards loosely and vaguely applied to the American coast from Labrador far to the southward. Here it evidently includes Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the north- em seaboard States of the United States.
* This number may be an exaggeration. If it be correct, the English squadron mi:st have met thirty or forty other fishing-boats on the Newfoundland ' banks,' beside the fourteen they saw in St. John's harbour 3 Mona is a small island in the track from Fort Rico to Santo Domingo.
XVI
Preface.
of the Mary of Guildford, he was employed in freighting home, on the King's behalf, wine from Bourdeaux. See Royal M.S. 14. B. xxix., in the British Museum.
8. We have seen by the above that the King's ships left the Thames on 20th May 1527. Whatever else may be doubtful, that is certain : and therefore it is equally certain that the ' Book ' which Robert Thome, the Bristol merchant, wrote at Seville in that year, and sent to Doctor Leigh, the King's almoner, and the English ambassador in Spain, had nothing to do with the fitting out of that London expedition.
This far-seeing discourse, with its preliminary exhortation to the King, was first printed by R[ichard] H[akluyt] in his Diuers Voyages, cvc. in 1582. Its only date is 1527, which occurs twice ; each time after the author's signature — ' Robert Thome. 1527.' As Hakluyt reproduced Thome's curious ' Carde ' or map, it is quite evident that he had before him, in 1582, the original and autographic book penned by the author ; and therefore the date 1527 must be accepted by us without a doubt.
Now it was the English custom at that time, to reckon the year from the 25th March, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin. The ' Book ' was therefore written at the earliest after the 25th March 1527.
The two following passages in it, taken together, would seem to show that it was not written till the summer was far advanced, probably while Rut's expedition was skirting the American coast.
In a flote of three (hippes and a carauell that went from this citie, armed by the merchauntes of it, which departed in Aprill lad pad, I and my partner haue 1400. Ducates that we employed in the fayd fleete, principally for that two Engliflimen friends of mine \see p. xiii.] whiche are fomewhat learned in Cofmographie, (houlde go in the fame (hippes, to bring mee certaine relation of the fituation of the countrey, and to bee experte in the Nauigation of thofe feas, and there to haue informations of many other things, and aduife that I defire to know efpecially. Seeing in thefe quarters are fliips, and marriners of that countrey, and cardes \charts\ by which they fayle, though much vnlike ours, that they fhould procure to haue the faid cards, and learne howe they vnderflande them, and efpecially to know what Nauigation they haue for thefe Ilandes North- wardes and Northeaftwarde. B. 4.
But if it pleafe God that into Englande I may come with your Lordfhip, I will fhewe fome coniectures of reafon though againfl the generall opinion of Cofmographers, by which fliall appeare this that I fay not to lacke fome foundation. And tyll that time I befeeche your Lord(hip let it bee put to fdence : and in the meane feafon, it may pleafe God to fende our two Engliflimen, that are gone to the fpicerie, which may alfo bring more plaine declaration of yat which in this cafe might be required. . . Z>. 3.
It would seem that Thome by ' April lad parte ' means April 1527 ; for if he had intended April 1526, and wrote this ' Book ' in the seven days of 25-31 March, then by English custom reckoned as the first days of 1527, he would assuredly have said 'April lad year.' It is also evident from the allusion that a considerable time had elapsed since the two Englishmen had left for the West Indies; and that, at the time of writing, Thome was looking forward to their return. The earliest approximate date that can therefore be assigned to its composition is the summer of 1527. Dr. Leigh did not retum to England till January 1530.
We must therefore assign the occasion and preparation of this English voyage of Oceanic discovery of 1527 to other
persons than Robert Thome. Such an important effort, as this expedition most certainly was, could not have been suddenly determined upon, and probably originated in the previous year. Thome's ' Book ' is also interesting for another reference to a very early English voyage across the Atlantic.
So that as afore is fayde, if betweene our Newe founde landes or Norway, or IHande the Seas towarde the north be Nauigable, wee fhoulde goe to thefe Ilandes a (horter way by more then 2000. leagues. And though wee went not in the faide Ilandes, for that they are the Emperours or Kinges of Portingale, wee ihoulde by the way, and comming once to the line Equi- noctiall, finde landes no lefie riche in Golde and fpicerie, as all other landes are vnder the faide line Equinoctiall : and alfo (houlde, if wee may palTe vnder the North, enioye the Nauigation of all Tartaric.
Which (hould bee no lefle profitable to our commodities of clothe, then thefe fpiceries to the Emperour, and King of Portugale.
But it is a generall opinion of all Cofmographers that paffing the feuenth clyme, the fea is all ice, the colde fo much that none can fuffer it. And hitherto they had all the like opinion that vnder the line Equinoctiall for muche heate the lande was inhabitable.
Yet fince by experience is proued no lande fo much habitable nor more temperate. And to conclude, I thinke the fame (houlde bee founde vnder the North, if it were experimented. For as all iudge, Nihil fit vacuum in rerum natura, fo I iudge there is no lande inhabitable [i.e. uninhabiiable\, nor Sea innauigable. If I (hould write the reafon that prefenteth this vnto me, I (houlde be too prolixe, and it feemeth not requifite for this prefent matter. God knoweth that though by it I flioulde haue no great intereft, yet I haue had and dill haue no little minde of this bufineffe : So that if I had facultie to my will, it ilioulde bee ye fird thing that I woulde vnderdande, euen to attempt, if our Seas Northwarde be nauigable to the Pole or no. I reafon, that as fome fickenefles are hereditarious, and come from the father to the fonne, fo this inclination or defire of this difcouerie I inherited of my father, which with another merchant of Bridowe named Hugh Eliot were the difcouerers of newe found lands, of the which there is no doubt, as now plainly appeareth, if the marriners would then haue been ruled and folowed their pilots mind, the lands of the Wed Indies, from whence all the gold commeth, had beene ours. For all is one coade, as by the carde appeareth, and [as] is aforefaide. . . . Z>. 2.
A most excellent account of the merchant family of the Thomes of Bristol will be found in English Merchants, 1869, written by my fellow-student at King's College, Mr. H. R. Fox Bourne.
9. The next English Voyage on our record introduces us to a very famous name. It is thus preserved to us by Hakluyt.
A Voyage to Brasill, made by the worshipfull M[aster] Wil- liam Haukins of Plimmouth, father to sir John Haukins, Knight, now living,* in the yeere 1530.
Lde M. William Haukins ol Plimmouth, a man for his wifdome, valure, experience, and (kill in fea caufes, much edeemed and beloued of King Henry the eight, and being one of the prin- cipall Sea Captaines in the West partes in his time, not con- tented with the fhort voyages commonly then made onely to the knowen coades oi Europe, armed out a tall and goodly Hiip of his owne of the burthen of 250 tunnes, called the Pole [Paule, Ed. 1600] oi Plim- mouth, wherewith hee made three long and famous voyages vnto the coad of Bra/ill, a thing in thofe dayes very rare, efpecially to our Nation. In the courfe of ■hhich voyages he touched at the Riuer of Sc/los vpon the coad of Guinea, where hee trafiqued with the Negroes, and tooke of them Oliphants [Elephants, Ed. 1600] teeth, and other commodities which that
I As this was printed in 1589, old William Hawkins lived to see the overthrow of the Spanish Armada, and so b very properly introduced by the Rev. Canon Kingsley, with his usual truthfulness in details, in his celebrated Elizabethan romance of Wcsttvard Ho ! as a very old man, present at Plymouth with the Captains who were waiting the arrival 01 the grc£tt Spanish Fleet.
Preface.
XV 11
place yeeldeth : and fo arriuinij on the coatl of Brafil, vfed there fuch dif- cretion, and behaued himfelf fo wifely with thofe fauage people, that he grew into great familiaritie and frienddiip with them. Infomuch that in his 2. voyage, one of the fauage kings of the countrey oi Brafill, was con- tented to take fliippe with him, and to bee tranfported hither into England, whereunto M\ajler\ Haukins agreed, leaning behinde in the Countrey as a pledge for his fafetie and retume againe, one Martin Cocke- ram oi Plimmouth. This BrafUian king being arriued \i.e. in 1531], was brought vp to London, and prefented to King Henry the 8. lying as then at Whitehall: at the fight of whome, the King and all the Nobilitie did not a little marueile, and not without caufe : for in his cheekes were holes made according to their fauage raaner, and therein fmall bones were planted, (landing an inche out from the faid holes, which in his owne Countrey was reputed for a great brauerie. He had alfo another hole in his nether lippe, wherein was fet a precious (lone about the bignefle of a peafe. All his apparell, behauiour, and geflure were very (Irange to the beholders.
Hauing remained here the fpace almod of a whole yere, and the king with his fight fully fatiffied, M\after'\ Uaukim according to his promife and appointment, purpofed to conuey him againe into his Countrey : but it fell out in the way that, by change of ayre and alteration of diet, the faid fauage king died at Sea, which was feared would turne to the lolTe of the life of Martin Cockeram his pledge. Neuerthelefle, the Sauages being fully perfwaded of the honed dealing of our men with their Prince, redored againe the faide pledge, without any harme to him, or any man of the com- panie : which pledge of theirs they brought home againe into England, with their (hippe fraighted and fumifhed with the commodities of the Countrey. Which Marline Cockeram, by the witneCTe of Sir lohn Haukins, being an officer in the towne of Plimmouth, was liuing within thefe fewe yeares.— /. 520, Ed. 15S9.
10. Let us now look eastward. In 1592, (three years after the appearance of the First edition of his Voyages, &c.), Hakluyt became acquainted with a very old man, a Londoner named John Williamson, then apparently the sole suivivor of our first traffic in the Levant; which dying out, had been revived in 1580.
These early Levant voyages were veiy important; inasmuch as they were the school in which some of the principal Agents and Captains of the Moscovy Company, like Richard Gray and Richard Chancellor, received their chief training.
A voyage made ivith the Jhippes called the Holy CrofTe, and the Matthew Gonfon, to the lies 0/ Candia and Chio, about theyere 1534, according to a relation made to Majier Richard Hackluit by lohn Williamfon, Cooper and citizen of London, who lined in theyere 1592, and went as cooper in the Mathew Gonfon the next voyage after,
' He (hippes, called the Holy Croffe and the Matthew Gonfon, made a voyage to the Ilandes of Candia and Chio in Turkic, about the yeere 1534- And in the Mathew went as Captaine M[ader] Richard Gonfon, fonne of old Mader William Gonfon, paymader of the kings Nauie. In this fird voyage \i.e. of the two described by Williamson\ went William Holflocke (who after- wards was ControuUer of her Maiedies {i.e. Queen Elizabeth's] Nauie, lately deceafed) as page to M[ader] Richard Gonfon aforefaid, which M[ader] Gonfon died in Chio in this his fird voyage. The (liip called the Holy Croffe was a (liort (hippe, and of burden 160 tunnes. And hauing beene a full yeere at the fea in performance of this voyage, with great danger (he ■•etunied home, where, vpon her arriuall at Blacknvall, in the riuer of Thames, her wine and oyle ca(ke was found fo weake that they were not able to hoyfe them out of the (hip, but were condrained to draw them as they lay, and put their wine and oyle into new velTels, and fo to vnlade the (hippe. Their chiefe fraight was very excellent Mufcatels and red Malmefie, the like whereof were feeldome feene before in England. They brought home alfo good quantitie of fweete oyles, cotton wooUes, Turkic Carpets, Galles, Cynamon, and fome other fpices. The faide (hippe called the Holy Croffe was fo (haken in this voyage, and fo weakened, that (lie was layd vp in the docke, and neuer made voyage after. — Vol. II., Fart I., p. 98, Ed. 1599. Edek.
Another voyage to the lies ^Candia and Chio made by thefliifpe, the Mathew Gonfon, about the yeere I535> according to the relation o/'Iohn Williamfon, then Cooper in the fame fhip, made to M[ayljr] Richard Hackliut, in the yeare 1592.
^ff^reraS He good (liippe called the Mathao Gonfon, of burthen 300 i_sl (\^ tunnes, whereof was owner old M[ader] William Gonfon, pay-mader of the Kings Nauie, made her voyage in the yere 1 535- In this fliip went as Captaine, Richard Gray, who long after died in RuJJla. Mader William Holflocke, afterward ControuUer of the Queenes Nauie, went then as purfer in the fame voyage. The Mader was one John Picket, feruant to old M[ader] William Gonfon. lames Rumnie was Maders mate. The mader cooper was lohn William- fon, citizen of London, liuing in the yeere 1592, and dwelling in Sa\f\nt Dunflons parish, in the Ead. The M[ader] Gunner was Lohn Godjrey of Brifloll. In this (hip were 6 gunners and 4 trumpetters, all which foure trumpetters at our retume homewards went on land at Meffma in the Hand of Sicilia, as our (hip road there at anker, and gat them into the Gallies that lay neere vnto vs, and in them went to Rome. The whole number of our companie in this (hip were about 100. men, we were alfo fumifhed with a great bote, which was able to carry 10 tunnes of water, which at our retume homewards we towed all the way from Chio vntil we came through the draight of Gib[r]altar into the maine Ocean. We had alfo a great long boat and a (kiff. We were out vpon this voyage eleuen months, yet in all this time there died of ficknede but one man, whofe name was George Forrefl, being feruant to our Carpenter called Thomas Plummer. — Idem,
The Island of Scio, the extreme point of the above two voyages, had long been the property of a Genoese family, the Justiana, under the sovereignty of the Senate of that city. How the Turks first put it to tribute, and finally took posses- sion of it in 1568, is thus narrated in two letters, written on the 14th of February 1569 by an Englishman, Caspar Campion, who had " traded in this countrey \i.e. the island and its vici- nity] about this 30. yeres \i.e. 1539-1569], and haue beene marled in the towne of Chio full 24. yeres \i.e, 1544-1569]."
^jS Ir, you (hall vnderdand that the Ifland of Chio in time pad **' ' hath bene a Signiorie or lordlhip of it felfe, and did belong to the Genowaies. There were 24. of them that gouemed the illand which were called Maunefes. But in continuance of time the Turke waxed fo drong and mightie, that they, confidering they were not able to keepe it, unlefie they (hould become his tributaries, becaufe the Idand had no come, nor any kind of vitailes to fudaine themfelues, but onely that which mud of neceffitie come out of the Turkes dominions, and the fayd idand being inclofed with the Turks round about, and but 12. miles from the Turks Continent, therefore the faid Genowaies did compound and agree to be the Turkes tributaries, and to payhim 14000. thousand ducates yeerely, Alwayes prouided that they Ihould keep their lawes both fpiritual and temporall, as they did when the Hand was in their owne hands. Thus he granted them their priuiledge, which they inioyed for many yeeres, fo that all drangers and alfo many Englifh men did trade thither of long continuance, and went and came in fafety. In this meane time, the prince Pedro Doria (being a Genouois) became a captaine to ferae the Emperour with 30. or 40. gallies againd the Turke. And fince that time diuers other captaines belonging to Genoa haue beene in the feruice of king Philip againd the Turke. Moreouer, whenfoeuer the Turke made out any army, he perceiued that no nation did him more hurt then thofe Genouois, who were his tributaries. Likewife at the Turkes fiege of Malta, before which place he lay a great while, with loffe of his men, and alfo of his gallies, he found none fo troublefome vnto his force as one luanette Doria, a Genouois, and diuers others of the Hand of Chio, who were his tributaries. At which fight, he tooke fuch difpleafure againd them of Chio, that he fent certaine of his gallies to the Hand, for to feife vpon all the goods of the 24. Maunefes, and to tume them with their wiues and children out of the Hand ; but they would let none other depart, becaufe the Hand fiiould not be vnpeopled. So that now the Turke hath fent one of his chiefe men to rule there.— //aX///)'/, Vol. II., Part I., p. ln,Ed. IS99'
XVlll
Preface.
Another letter of Campion's, begins thus :
It may pleafe your worfhip to vnderftand, that as concerning the voyage to C/u'o, what great profit would be gotten, both for merchants and alfo for owners of Ihippes (as it was well knowen in thofe dayes when iheMalt/ie-M Gonfon, the Trinitie FiliTwilliains, and the Sauiotir of Brijlaw, with diuers other (hips, which traded thither yerely, and made their voyage in ten or twelue moneths, and the longed in a yeere), M[after] Francis Lambert, M[after] John Brooke, and M[after] Drauer c£.n truely inform you hereof at large. And by reafon that wee haue not traded into thofe parts thefe many yeeres \i.e. previous to 1569], and the Turke is growen mighty, whereby our (hips doe not trade as they were woont . . . . — Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol. II., Part I.,/. 116, Ed. 1599.
Finally we may take leave on this occasion of the interesting subject of the early English trade in the Mediterranean, with the following note of Hakluyt's.
i His trade into the Leuant. . . . was very vfuall and much frequented from the yeere of our Lord 1 5 1 1 till the yeere 1534, and afterwards alfo, though not fo commonly, vntil the yeere 1550, when the barke Aucher under the conduct of M [after] Roger Bodenham made a profperous voyage into Sicilia, Candio, Sio, and other places within the Leuant. Since which time the forefaid trade (notwithftanding the grand Signiors ample priuilege granted to M[afterJ Anthony lenkenfon 1553, and the ftrong and weighty reafons of Gafpar Campion for that purpofe) was vtterly difcontinued, and in maner quite forgotten, as if it had neuer bene, for the fpace of 20. yeares or more [/'.<■. from the date of Jenkinson's privilege of 1553 until 1575 ; when the preliminary steps which resulted in the formation of the Turkey Com- pany, were taken]. Voyages, Vol. II., Part I., p. 136, £d. 1599.
11. We now come to the tragical English voyage to New- foundland, in 1536 ; as narrated by Master Oliver Daubeny, a London merchant, to Hakluyt's cousin and namesake, Richard Hakluyt of the Inner Temple ; and by Master Thomas Butts of Norfolk, to himself. It will ever be thought one of the worthiest acts of our younger Hakluyt's worthy life, that, for the simple assurance, with further details, of this voyage, he travelled 200 miles on horseback, probably into Norfolk and back.
T&i voyage of majler I/ore and diuers other Gentlemen, to Netafound land and Cape Breton, in the yeere 1536. and in the 28. yeere of King Henry the eight.
,Ne mafter Hore of London, a man of goodly ftature and of great courage, and giuen to the ftudie of Cofmographie, in the 28. yeere of King Henry the 8. and in the yeere of our Lord 1536. encouraged diuers gentlemen and others, being affifted by the kings fauour and good countenance, to accom- pany him in a voyage of difcouerie vpon the Northwefl partes of America : wherein his perfwafions tooke fuch effect, that within fliort fpace many gentlemen of the innes of court, and of Chauncerie, and diuers other of good worfhip defirous to fee the ftrange things of the world, very willingly entered into the action with him, fome of whofe names were as foUoweth : M[after] Wickes, a gentleman of the Weft countrey of fine hundred markes [tv/«- valent to an income of £2^00 of the present day'] by the yeere lining. Mafter Tucke, a gentleman of Kent. Mafter Tuckfield. M[after] Thomas Buts, the fonne of Sir William Buts, Knight of Norfolke, which is yet aliue, and from whofe mouth I wrote moft of this relation. Mafter Hardie, Mafter Biron, Mafter Carter, Mafter Wright, Mafter Raftall Sarieant Raftals brother, Mafter Ridley, and diuers other, which all were in the admirall called the Trinitie, a fliip of feuen fcore tunnes, wherein M[after]. Hore him- felfe was imbarked. In the other ftiippe, whofe name was the Minion, went a very learned and vertuous gentlemen, one mafter Armigil Wade, father to the worftiipfull mafter William Wade, now clerke of the priuie counsel). Master Oliuer Daubeney merchant of London, M [after] loy after- ward gentleman of the kings chappell, with diuers other of good account. The wliole number that went in the two tall fliips aforefayd, to wit, the
Trinitie and the Minion, were about fix fcore perfons, whereof 30. were gentlemen, which all were muftered in warlike maner at Grauefend, and after the receiuing of the facrament, they embarked themfelues at the end of Aprill, 1536.
From the time of their fetting out from Grauefende, they were very long at fea, to witte, aboue two moneths, and neuer touched any lande vntill they came to part of the Weft Indies about Cape Breton, fliaping their courfe thence Northeaftwards, vntill they came to the Ifland of Penguin, which is very full of rockes and ftones, whereon they went and founde it full of great foules white and gray, as bigge as geefe, and they fawe infinite nombers of their egges. They draue a great nomber of the foules into their boates vpon their failes, and tooke vp many of their egges, the foule they flead and their Ikinnes were like hony combes full of holes being flead off: they drefTed and eate them, and found them to be very good and nouriftiing meate. They fawe alfo ftore of beares both blacke and white, of whome they killed fome, and tooke them for no badde foode.
M[after] Oliuer Dawbeney, which (as it is before mentioned) was in this voyage, and in the Minion, tolde M\ajler'\ Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple thefe things following: to wit. That after their arriuall in A'hty&wnrf land, and hauing bene there certaine dayes at ancre, and not hauing yet feene any of the naturall people of the Countrey, the fame Daiubeny walk- ing one day on the hatches fpied a boate with Sauages of thofe partes, rowing downe the bay towarde them, to gafe vpon the fhippe and our people, and taking viewe of their comming aloofe, hee called to fuch as were vnder hatches, and willed them to come vp if they would fee the naturall people of the Countrey, that they had fo long and fo muchdefired to fee: Where- upon they came vp and tooke view of the Sauages rowing toward them and their ftiippe, and vpon the viewe they manned out a fliipboote to meete them and to take them. But they fpying our fliipboote making towards them, returned with niaine force, and fled into an Ifland that layevpinthe bay or riuer there, and our men purfued them into the Ifland, and the Sauages fledde and efcaped: but our men founde a fire, and the fide of a beare on a wodden fpit left at the fame by the Sauages that were fledde.
There in the fame place they founde a boot of leather garniflied on the vtter fide of the calfe in certain braue trailes, as it were of rawe filke, and alfo founde a certaine great warme mitten : And thefe carried with them, they returned to their fliippe, not finding the Sauages, nor feeing any thing elfe befides the foyle, and the things growing in the fame, which chiefly were ftore of fire and pine trees.
And further, the faid M. Dawbeny told him, that lying there they grewe into great want of victuals, and that there they found fmall reliefe, more then that they had from the neft of an Ofprey, that brought hourely to her yong great plentie of diuers forts of fifhes. But fuch was the famine that increated amongft them from day to day, that they were forced to feeke to relieue themfelues of rawe herbes and rootes that they fought on the maine : but the famine increafing and the reliefe of herbes being to little purpofe to fatifhe their infatiable hunger, in the fieldes and defertes here and there, the fellowe killed his mate while hee ftouped to take vp a roote for his reliefe, and cutting out pieces of his body whome hee had murthered, broyled the fame on the coles, and greedily deuoured them.
By this meane the company decreafed, and the officers knewe not what was become of them ; and it fortuned that one of the company driuen with hunger to feeke abroade for reliefe, founde out in the fields the fauour of broyled flefh, and fell out with one that hee would fuffer him and his fellowes to fterue, enioying plentie as he thought : And this matter growing to cruel fpeaches, he that had the broyled meate, burft out into thefe wordes, If thou wouldeft needes knowe, the broyled meate that I had, was a piece of fuch a mans buttocke. The report of this brought to the (hip, the Captaine found what became of thofe that were miffing, and was perfwaded that fome of them were neither deuoured with wilde beaftes, nor yet deftroyed with the Sauages ; And hereupon he ftcod vp and made a notable Oration, containing, How much thefe dealings offended the Almightie, and vouched the Scriptures from firft to laft what God had in cafes of diftreffe done for them that called vpon him, and told them that the power of the Almightie was then no leffe, then in al former time it h.id bene. And added, that if it had not pleafed God to haue holpen them in that diftreffe, that yet it had been better to be puniflied in body, and to haue lined euerlaftingly, then to haue relieued for a poore time their mortal bodies, and to bee con- demned euerlastingly both body and foule to the vnqucnchable fire of hel.
Prefacf.
XIX
And thus hauing ended to that effect, he began to exhort to repentance, and befought all the company to pray, that it might pleafe God to looke vpon their miferable prefent (late, and for his owne mercie to relieue the fame. And fuch was the mercie of God, that the fame night there arriued a French fhippe in that port, well fumillied with vittaile, and fuch was the policie of the Englifh, that they become mafters of the fame ; and changing {hipz and vitayling them, they fet faile to come into England.
In their ioumey they were fo farre Northwards, that they fawe mightie Iflands of yce in the fummer feafon, on which were haukes and other foules to reft themfelues, being wearie of flying ouer farre from the maine. They fawe alfo certaine great white foules with redde bils and redde legs, fomewhat bigger then Herons, which they fuppofed to be ftorkes. They arriued at Slaiiti]. lues in Cornewall about the ende of October. From thence they departed to a certaine Caftle belonging to sir /u/in Luttrcl, where M\_ajler\ Thomas Bids ■axiA M\ajler\ KaJlaUajiA other gentle- men of the voyage were very friendly intertained : after that they came to the Earle of Bathe at Bathe, and thence to Brijloll, and fo to London. A/[a/ler] Buts was fo changed in the voyage with hunger and miferie, that sir William his father and my Lady his mother knewe him not to be their fonne, vntill they found a certaine fecret marke which was a wart vpon one of his knees, as he tolde me Richard Hakluyt ofOxforde himfelfe, to whome I rode 200. miles onely to leame the whole trueth of this voyage from his owne mouth, as being the onely man now aliue \i.e. in or about 1589] that was in this difcouerie.
Certaine moneths after, thofe Frenchmen came into England, and made complaint to king Henry the 8 : the King caufing the matter to be exa- mined, and finding the great diftreffe of his fubiects, and the caufes of the dealing fo with the French, was fo moued with pitie, that hee punifhed not his fubiects, but of his owne purfe made full and royal recompenfe vnto the French.
In this diftrefTe of famine, the Englifh fomewhat relieue their vital! fpirits by drinking at the fprings the frelh water out of certaine wooden cups, out of which they had drunke their Aqua compofUa. before. — Hakluyt, Voyages, pp. 5 1 7-5 '9. E.d. 15S9.
12, These are all the oceanic voyages performed by the English in the reign of Henry VIII. which we have been able to trace. It was under Edvtfard, that our sailors first began to creep down the African coast. The special significance of these voyages lay in the then accredited proprietorship (through the Papal Bull, reprinted at //. 201-204) of the Portugese to the entire continent of Africa; and in the intentional and studied ignorance of its coast line, in which the World was kept by that nation. Every P^nglish voyage to its west coast was therefore at once an act of revolt against the Papacy, and a challenge to the pretensions of Portugal.
The Levant trade was open to all who would dare to run the gauntlet of the Turks. The Spaniards recognised the claim of the English discovery, by the Cabots, of Baccalaos ; and had not yet worked up northward to it. But the African sea coast, so honourably and so patiently discovered, was (by all laws, human and divine, hitherto accepted) the possession of its brave discoverers. It was therefore a new impulse, that made our English ships, passing the familiar Straits of Gibraltar on their left hand, to go forward southward, first to Barbary, and then to Guinea ; cost what it might.
Discoveries are made by successive steps, one after another ; and the passage of English ships around the world and to the Eastern seas was but the succession and development of these first attempts to Marocco. All that we know of these Barbary voyages is preserved to us by Hakluyt, who collected his information forty to fifty years after the event, and has thus transmitted it to us.
The First Voyage to Barbary in 1551, described by James Alday, Servant to Sebastian Cabot.
The original! of the firft voyage for traffique into the kingdom of Marocco in Barbaric, begun in the yeere 1551, with a tall (hip called the Lion of London, whereof went as captaine Matter Thomas Windham, as appeareth by this extract of a letter of lames Aldaie, to the worthipfull mafter Michael Locke, which Aldaie profeffeth himfelfe to haue bene the firfl inuenter of this trade.
Orfhipfull Sir, hauing lately bene acquainted with your intent to profecute the olde intermitted difcouerie for Catai, if therein with my knowledge, trauell or induftrie I may doe you feruice, I am readie to doe it, and therein to aduenture my life to the vttermoft point. Trueth it is, that I haue bene by fome men (not my friends) euill fpoken of at London, faying that although I be a man of knowledge in the Arte of Nauigation and Cofmo- graphie, and that I haue bene the inuenter of fome voyages that be now growen to great effect ; yet fay they malicioufly and without iuft caufe, that I haue not bene willing at any feafon to proceed in thofe voyages that I haue taken in hand, taking example efpecially of two voyages. The one was when I was mafter in the great Barke Aucher ]whiih left Gravesend on lyh November 1550] for the I^euant, in which voyage I went not, but the caufes they did not know of my let from the fame, nor of the other. But firft the very trueth is, that I was from the fame voyage letted by the Princes letters, which my Mafter Sebajlian Cabota had ubatined for that purpofe, to my great griefe.
And as touching the fecond voyage which I inuented for the trade of Barbaric, the liuing God knoweth that I fay moft true, that when the great fweate was YThe sweating sickness began in London on i)th Jiily 1551, «W continued till the following Septetnber} (whereon the chiefe of thofe with whom I ioyned in that voyage died, that is to fay, Sir John Lutterell, lohn Fletcher, Henry OJlrich and others), I my felfe was alfo taken with the fame fweate in London, and after it, whe.her with euill diet in keeping, or how I know not, I was caft into fuch an extreame feuer, as I was neither able to ride nor goe ; and the (hippe being at Tort/mouth, Thomas Wind- ham had her away from thence before I was able to ftand vpon my legges, by whom I loft at that inftant fourefcore pound [ = ;^8oo of the present day}. Befides I was appointed by them that died (if they had lined) to haue had the whole gouemment both of (hippe and goods, becaufe I was to them' the fole inuenter of tliat trade.
In the firft voyage to Barbary there were two Moores, being noble men, whereof one was of the Kings blood, conueyed by the faid Mafter Thomas Windham into their countrey out of England.
Yours humble at your commandement, James Alday.
The Second Voyage to Barbary in 1552, described by Master James Thomas.
The fecond voyage to Barbary in the yeere 1552. Set foorth by the right worlhipful Sir John Vorke, Sir William Ger[r]ard, Sir Thomas Wroth, Mafter Trances Lambert, Mafter Cole, and others. Written by the relation of Mafter James Thomas, then Page to Mafter Thomas Windham, chiefe Captaine of this voyage.
He (liippes that went on this voyage were three, whereof two were of the Riuer of Thames, That is to fay, the Lyon of London, whereof Mafter Thomas Windham was Captaine and part owner, of about an hundred and fiftie tunnes : The other was the Buttolfe \Botolph\ about fourefcore tunnes, and a Portugall Carauel, bought of certaine Porlugals in Neiuport in Wales, and fraighted for this voyage, of fumme fixtie tunnes. The number of men in the Fleete were an hundred and twentie. The Mafter of the Lyon was one John Kerry of Mynh^a\i in Somerfetftiire, his Mate was Dauid Landman. The chiefe Captaine of this fmall Fleete was Mafter Thomas Windham a Norfolke gentleman borne, but dwelling at Marjlijield-parke in Somerfetfhire.
This Fleete departed out of King\s\-rode neere Brijloll about the begin- ning of May 1552. being on a Monday in the morning {^The 2d and <jth oj
XX
P R E 1' A C E.
May 1552, were Mondays], and the Monday fortnight next enfuing in the eueninjj came to an anclier at their firft part in the roade Za/ia or A/aft on the coaft of Barbarie, ftanding in 32. degrees of latitude, and there put on land part of our marchandife to be conueid by land to the citie of Morocco : which being done, and haue refrelhed our felues with victuals and water, we went to the fecond port called Santa Cruz, where we difcharged the reft of our goods, being good quantitie of linnen and woollen cloth, corall, amber, let, and diuers other things well accepted of the Moores. In which road we found a French (hip, which not knowing whether it were warre or peace between England and France, drewe her felfe as neere vnder the towne wals as fhe could polTible, crauing aide of the towne for her defence, if need were, which in deed feeing vs drawe neere, (hot at us a piece from the wals, which came ouer the Lion our Admiral!, between the maine made and foremad. Whereupon we comming to an anker, prefently came a pinnes aboord vs to know what we were, who vnderdanding that we had bene there the yere before [ This confirms Aldny's statement], and came with good leaue of their king in merchant wife, were fully fatif(ied, and gaue vs good leaue to bring our goods peaceably on fliore, where the Viceroy, whofe name was Sibill Manache, within ihort time after came to vifite vs, and vfed vs with all curtefie. By diuers occafions we fpent here very neere three moneths before we could get in our lading, which was Sugar, Dates, Almonds, and Malaffos or fugar Syrrope. And for all our being here in the heate of the Sommer, yet none of our company periflied by fickneffe.
Our (hips being laden, wee drew into the Sea for a Wefterne wind for England. But being at fea, a great leake fell vpon the Lion, fo that we were driuen to Lancerota and Forteitentura, where, betweene the two Hands, we came to a road, whence we put on land out ol our fayd (liip 70. cheftes of Sugar vpon Lanca'ota with fome dozen or fixteene of our com- pany, where the inhabitants fuppofing we had made a wrongful! prize of our carauell, (uddenly came with force vpon our people, among whom I my felfe was one, tooke vs prifoners, and fpoiled the fugars : which thing being perceiued from our (liips, they manned out three boates, thinking to refcue vs, and draue the Spaniards to flight, whereof they flewe eighteene, and took their gouernour of the Hand prifoner, who was a very aged gentle-
man about 70. yeeres of age. But chafing the enemie fo farre for our recouerie, as ponder and arrowes wanted, the Spaniardes perceiuing this, returned, and in our mens retire [retreat] they (lewe fix of them. Then a Parle[y] grew, in the which it was agreed, that we the prifoners (hould be by them reftored, and they receiue their old goueniour, giuing vs a tefti- monie vnder his and their hands what damages wee had there receiued ; the which damages were there reftored, and made good by the King of Spaine his marchantes on our retume into England.
After we had fearched and mended our eake, being returned aboord, we came vnder faile, and as wee were going to the fea on the one fide of the Hand, the Cacafuego and other (hips of the King of Portugals Armada entered at the other, and came to anker in the road from whence we were but newly departed, and (hot o(f their great ordinance in our hearing. And here by the way it is to bee vnderftood that the Portugals were much olfended with this our new trade into Barbarie, and both in our voiage the yeere before, as alfo in this they gaue out in England by their marchants, that if they tooke vs in thofe partes, they would vfe vs as their mortall enemies, with great threats and menaces. But by God and good proui- dence wee efcaped their handes.
From this Hand (haping our courfe for England, we were feuen or eight weekes before we could reach the coafl of England. The firft port wee entered into was the hauen of Plimmouth, from whence within (hort time wee came into the Tliames, and landett our merchandife at London, about the ende of the moneth of October l<,<^z. —Hakluyt, Voyages, Vol, II., Part II., //. 7-9, Ed. 1599.
13. All these English Voyages, therefore, had been planned and carried out before either of the two following Works, trans- lated &c. by Eden, had come from the press. As he has given no account of them ; it has been all the more necessary to say thus much here, in order to shew that in these very early days of oceanic discovery, our forefathers were not altogether idle.
III.
Unique, imperfect, copy of A nnt> interlude and a mery of the nature of the . iiif. elementes, dr'C, written in the reign of Henry VIII., and probably printed [ ? by John Rastel] about 1 5 19, is in the Garrick Collection of Plays, in the British Museum (Press mark, C. 39, b. 17). This interlude contains [at C /'.] the following reference
to the New World, in a dialogue between Experyence and
Study ous desire: —
Ex. C Syr this ys ynglande lyenge here
And this is skotlande yat loyneth him nere
Compassyd a boute euery where
With the occian see rownde
C And next from them westwardly
Here by hym selfe alone doth ly.
Irelande that holsome grounde
C Here than is the narowe seey
To Calyce and Boleyne the next wey
And flaunders in this parte
Here lyeth fraunce next hym ioynynge
And spayn southwarde from thens standynge
And portyngale in this quart
This contrey is called Italye
Beholde where Rome in ye myddes doth ly
And Naples here be yonde
And this lytell See that here is
Is callyd the Gulfe of Venys
And here venys doth stande
C As for almayne lyeth this way
Here lyeth denmarke and norway
And northwarde on this syde
There lyeth Iselonde when men do fyshe
But be yonde that so colde it is
No man may there abyde
C This See is called the great Occyan
So great it is that never man
Coude tell it sith the worlde began
Tyll nowe within this. xx. yere
Westwarde be founde new landes
That we neuer harde tell of before this
By wrytynge nor other meanys
Yet many nowe haue ben there
C And that contrey is so large of rome
Muche lenger than all cristendome
Without fable or gyle
For dyuers maryners haue it tryed
And sayled streyght by the coste syde
Aboue. v. thousand myle
C But what commodytes be within
No man can tell nor well Imagin
But yet not longe a go
Some men of this contrey went
By the kynges noble consent
It for to serche to that entent
And coude not be brought therto
C But they that were the ventere[r]s
Preface,
XXI
Haue cause to curse their niaryners
Fals of promys and dissemblers
That falsly them betrayed
Which wold take no paine to saile farther
Than their owne lyst and pleasure
Wherfore that vyage and dyuers other
Suche kaytyffes haue distroyed
C O what thynge a had be than
Yf that they that be englyshe men
Myght haue ben the furst of all
That there shulde haue take possessyon
And made furst buyldynge and habytacion
A memory perpetuall
And also what an honorable thynge
Bothe to the realme and to the kynge
To haue had his domynyon extendynge
There into so farre a grounde
Whiche the noble kynge of late memory
The most wyse prynce the. vij. He[n]rry
Causyd furst for to be founde
C And what a great meritoryouse dede
It were to haue the people instructed
To lyue more verluously
And to lerne to knowe of men the maner
And also to knowe god theyr maker
Whiche as yet lyue all be[a]stly
For they nother knowe god nor the deuell
Nor neuer harde tell of heuyn nor hell
Wrytynge nor other scripture
But yet in the stede of god almyght
The[y] honour the sone for his great ly^[h]t
For that doth them great pleasure
C Buyldynge nor house they haue non[e] at all
But wodes / cotes / and cauys small
No merueyle though it be so
For they vse no maner of yron
Nother in to[o]le nor other wepon
That shulde helpe them therto
C Copper they haue which is founde
In dyuers places aboue the grounde
Yet they dyg not therfore
For as I sayd they haue non[e] yryn
Wherby they shuld in the yerth myne
To serche for any wore
C Great haboundaunce of woddes ther be
Moste parte vyr and pyne aple tre
Great ryches myght come therby
Both py[t]che and tarre and sope asshys
As they make in the eest landes
By brynnyng therof only
C Fyshe they haue so great plente
That in hauyns take and slayne they be
With stauys withouten fayle
Nowe frenchemen and other haue founden the trade
That yerely of fyshe there they lade
A boue an. C. \^hundyeif\ sayle
C But in the south parte of that contrey
The people there go nakyd alway
The lande is of so great hete
And in the north parte all the clothes
That they were / is but be[a]stes skynnes
They haue no nother fete [feat]
But howe the people furst began
In that contrey or whens they cam
For clerkes it is a questyon[.]
Other thynges mo I haue in store
That I coude tel therof but now no more
Tyll a nother season
Siu. C Than at your pleasure shew some other thinge Yt lyketh me so wel your commyninge Ye can not talke a mys
£x. C Than wyl I tome a gayne to my matter Of Cosmogryfy where I was err [ere] Beholde take hede to this C Loo estwarde beyonde ye great occyan Here entereth the see callyd mediterran |
Of. ii. M. [two thousand] myle of lengthe The Soudans contrey lyeth here by The great Turke on ye north syde doth ly A man of merueylous strengthe C This sayde north parte is callyd europa And this south parte callyd affrica This eest parte is callyd ynde But this newe landes founde lately Ben callyd america by cause only Americus dyd furst them fynde C Loo Iherusalem lyeth in this contrey And this be yonde is the red see That moyses maketh of mencyon This quarter is India minor And this quarter India maior The lande of prester lohn C But northwarde this way as ye see. Many other straunge regions ther be And people that we not knowe But estwarde on the see syde A prynce there is that ruleth wyde Called the Cane of catowe ^ C And this is called the great eest see Which goth all a longe this wey Towardes the new landis agayne But whether that see go thyther dyrectly Or if any wyldernes bytwene them do ly No man knoweth for certeyne But these newe landes by all cosmografye Frome the cane of catous lande can not lye Lytell paste a thousand myle But from those new landes men may sayle playne Estwarde and cum to englande againe Where we began ere whyle C Lo all this parte of the yerth which I Haue here discryuyd openly The north parte we do it call But the south parte on the other syde Ys as large as this full and as wyde Whiche we knowe nothynge at all C Nor whether ye most parte be lande or see Nor whetlier the people that there be Be be[a]styall or connynge Nor whether they knowe good or no Nor howe they beleue nor what they do Of this we knowe nothynge
The Voyage referred to, clearly took place in Henry VIII.'s reign. It was probably the Bristol expedition sent out by N. Thome's father and Hugh Eliot, which discovered Newfound- land ; of which Thome tells us, at/, xvi, " There is no doubt, as now plainly appeareth, if the marriners would then haue been ruled and folowed their pilots mind, the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the gold commeth, had beene ours."
1 Khan oj Cathay.
C 2
XXI 1
Preface.
IV.
HE special purpose of this Preface has now been carried out. It has been to shew what our forefathers actually accomplished, ere Eden set about the following Trans- lations, or during the time he was actually engaged upon them : and so to supplement the other accounts of Oceanic Discovery contained in the volume.
We have, in conclusion, only space briefly to touch upon one other point, and that is but a simple act of justice.
Most notable is Eden's position as a Man of Science in the Tudor Age. He had the true modest scientific spirit; as when he wrote in 1562, to Sir W. Cecil, "Syth only the respecte of suche vertues as it hathe pleased you to thinke commendable in me, hath moved your Honour not only in maner to seeme carefull for me howe I maye hereafter with quietnesse spende my tyme in studie (as is my most desire)," /. xliii.; and likewise when, in 1574, he thus dwelt at large upon what he did not know, a list of disqualifications that must not be pressed too literally, " For yf there be any thing in me, wherein I maye by good reason please my selfe, it is cheefely this, that I haue euer loued and honoured men of
singular vertue or qnalitie, in what so euer laudable Art or Science, euen of those whereof mee selfe have litle know- ledge, as are Geometric, Astronomic, Architecture, Musicke, Payntyng, feates of Armes, inuentions of Ingens, and suche lyke," p. xlvi.
But whatever may have been his knowledge or his ignorance, actual or relative; Eden had already grasped the Inductive Method. His life overlapped that of Lord Bacon. May he not be regarded as a near Herald and Forerunner of the Father of Scientific Enquiry, when he uses such language as this ; of which his whole life was but the fuller expression ?
"Experience, the teacher and mestres of all sciences, for lacke of whose ayde (experience I meane) lyke as many greate wittes haue fallen into great errours, so by her ayde, many base and common wittes haue attayned to the knowledge and practise of such wonderfuU effectes, as could hardely be comprehended by the discourse of reason
" Nought els to say, but that experience to be most certayn which is ioyned with reason or speculacion, and that reason to be most sure which is confirmed with experience." /. 9.
And thus, from henceforth will the reputation of Richard Eden continue to increase, both as a Scholar and a Scientist.
xxU
[The First English book on America.
C i©£ the miot lanXft^ mitf ol jje projpXt
(©£ p0pe Koftn Jinlr fti-s Xacntrt^ antr of tfte co^trtg feegtjS anlr toonlr^re molo irgtg that in that ImxXft i^J
XXV
[A Note on Jan van Doesborch,
a printer at Antwerp, between 1 508-1 530 a.d.
jjNything that concerns the printer of the first English Work relating to America, must henceforth be of increasing interest. There does not appear to be in exist- ence, any typographical history of Ant- werp for the period during which the first Text in this volume was produced. The learned and most courteous Librarian of the Royal Library at the Hague, Dr M. F. A. G. Campbell, the author of the well-known Annaks de la Typographie nkrlandaise au XVe Steele, La Haye, 1874-8, 8vo, thus writes, on the 21st April 1885.
How glad should I have been if I had been able to give you full information aliout Jan van Doesborch, the Antwerp printer in the first half of the sixteenth century. But, alas, the History of Printing in that century has been, without any sound reason, neglected to that point that even sixteenth-century books are now-a-days more rare than their predecessors of the fifteenth. If Jan van Doesborch had had only one foot in the fifteenth century, I should have been able to give you matter enough to compose his history : because I, and my predecessor as Librarian of this Liljrary (Mr Holtrop), have devoted the better part of our lives to the study of the typography and typographers before the year 1500. Now John of Doesborch did not print till after 1508, because in that year, he entered the Guild of St Lucas at Antwerp, as vcrlichlcre, "miniature painter."
When such an authority as Dr Campbell writes thus, the present Editor may be excused of his ignorance on this subject. Nevertheless the following is offered as a mere beginning of this study.
2. Doesburg is a Dutch town, about ten miles to the east of Amheim.
Jan van Doesborch, Doesborcke, Doesburgh, or as he styles himself in (/) \h.e.xw. tokens, lohan fro doesborch, may have succeeded to the printing business of Roeland van der Dorpe, at Antwerp. He was contemporary with our Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson : and occupies a similar position in Antwerp typography, to that filled by those two English printers at Westminster and London.
He seems to have printed in three different houses. His earliest books were printed at the sign of Aen dijsere wage, "the Iron balance." Those produced about 1518, are printed " besides the Canter parte." His latest books, finished about 1530, are at die Lombaerde veste, "the Lom- bard fortress."
It is very remarkable that Doesborch should, at such an early date, have printed the English books that he did ;
especially such an important work as Arnold's Chronicle. He was probably employed in this work by some of the merchants of the English House at Antwerp. He stands in the same relation to our Literature at this time, that Hans Luft of Marburg did fifteen or twenty years later. No books are so scarce as the early English books printed by foreign printers on the Continent ; of which the following Text is one of the earliest.
3. The first book attributed to this printer, by P. C. van der Meersch, in his Recherches sur la vie et les iravatix des tmprimeurs Beiges et Neerlandais etablls (t Vetranger, i. 131, Gand 1856, is —
(a) Die dcstructU van Troyen, "the destruction of Troy." Antwerp, folio, no date.
The late eminent bookseller of Amsterdam, Mr Frederick Muller, issued, in 1872, a Catalogue of Books, Maps, Plates on America; and of a remarkable Collection of Early Voy- ages, offered by him for sale. At /. 6, he states that he acquired, in 1871, at the sale of an insignificant library at Antwerp, a volume containing four pieces, " all printed there in the first ten years of the i6th century."
One of these was —
(i) Va7i der nienwcr werelt oft landtscap nieuwtlur ghenoden vaden doorluch tighen conn, van Porlugael door den alderbeste pyloet ofte zeeken- edr d'werelt, " Of the new world or landscape, newly found for the illustrious King of Portugal by the best pilot or mariner in the world." This is a translation from the Italian (through the Latin) into Dutch, of the Third Letter of Amerigo Vespucci. The colophon runs, Gheprent T/ianiwerpen aen Dyseren waghe. Bi Jan van Doesborch, " Printed at Antwerp, at the ironbalance, by Jan van Doesborch."
It consists of eight unnumbered leaves, [with] 6 woodcuts. The verso of the last leaf is filled up by a wood engraving. On the recto of the first leaf [is the identical cornerwise engraving that is described here- after at p. xxix., col. 2] ; on the verso of leaf i, Jonas thrown into the mouth of the whale ; recto of leaf 3, four female aborigines [see p. xxviii.] ; verso of leaf 4, fighting Indians [see p. xxix.] ; verso of leaf 6, repeated from the recto of leaf I ; and verso of the last leaf, repeated from the recto of leaf 3.
Mr Muller states —
The book bears no date, but it is out of question, that it has been printed in the period 1506-9, the time when all the separate editions of Vcspuccius were published. It is one of the first productions of the famous printer, Jan van Doesborgh, at Antwerp ; whose publications (principally romances of chivalry with woodcuts, curious popular books, &c.) rank among the rarest of the Antwerp printers. Just the kind of publications that makes it easy to understand that they have dis- appeared, as it were, under the hands of the reading public.
xxvi [^ Note on ycin van Doesborch, a printey at Antioerp, between 1508- 1530 a.d.]
Another text in this precious volume is thus described, at /. 277, by Mr Muller —
(f) Van tie luonjerluhetie m costelUhen van Pape lans landendes, " Of the wonders and precious things of Pope John's lands. "
The remainder of the first page tilled with four curious woodcuts, representing 1°, a wild man with a beast's head bearing a fish [see /. XXXV.]; 2°, an elephant [see/, xxxii.]; 3°, a griffon with a man in his paws [see f. xxxiv.]; and 4°, three men fighting against three birds [see/, xxxiii.]
Recto of the last leaf, Ghiprint Tlianhverpen. Aen dijsere wage by my Jan. van Doesborch. " Printed at Antwerp at the iron balance by me, Jan van Doesborch."
Eleven different woodcuts in the text, four of them repeated from the recto of leaf I. On the 5th leaf, a woodcut of the bird Phoenix in flames [see^ xxxiv.] The verso ol the last leaf filled with two wood engravings, one representing the Virgin with the Child, the other the printer's mark of Roeland van der Dorpe, used in 1497, &c. [a herald with his attributes, holding a trumpet].
It is therefore perfectly clear that the First English book on America is mainly a translated compilation from these two early Dutch tracts ; and that most of the woodcuts of the English text had already appeared in its Dutch originals.
We therefore place next —
[d) Of the new landes, &'e.
Clearly, the latest date that can be assigned to this tract is 1511. Had it been written later, the information con- tained in it would not have been so crude. See the pro- gress of knowledge as shewn in the English Interlude of 1519, quoted at /. xx. It would seem to have been translated by a priest in the Low Countries, who had but an imperfect acquaintance with English ; for he uses /lem/s for heavens ; drycantyche, for three-cornered, ferswy?imygnes, ketters, &c.
The Catalogue of the Grenville Collection, in describing the unique copy here reprinted (Press mark, G. 7106), states —
"From mentioning Emanuel, King of Portugal, and exclaiming against Luther, the present tract may be about 1521 or 1 522, when Kng Emmanuel died, and Luther was burned in effigy."
There is not a word about Luther in the tract ; and it is typographically evident from the above, that the tract can hardly be later than 15 11.
4. It is quite impossible, at present, to give a chrono- logical list of books produced by Jan van Doesborch. A few only can be cited.
(«) [The compilation by R. Arnold, known as AntoWs Chronicle.^ In this booke is conteyned the names of ye bayliffo of the cite of Lon- don from the tyme of king richard the furst, and also th[e] artycles of the Chartur and libarties of the same Cyte, 5:c. No date or place of printing. British Museum (Press mark, zi, a. 10).
This is attributed to Doesborch's press, and was a very large work to be undertaken by him, in what was probably a foreign language to him. It contains the original text of the poem of The Nut-brown Maid.
In the British Museum (Press mark, C. 25, e. 29) there is an imperfect copy of a tract on the Fifteen tokens of the Day of Doom. It wants the title page. The colophon is as follows : —
(/) "A lytill treatyse that whiche is called //<« jrz". tokens which been ate translated out of frenshe in to Englishe.
* Emprinted by me lohan fro doesborch dwellinge at Anwerpe by the Iron ballaunce, &c.
These six texts are probablyamong the earliest productions of Doesborch's press.
5. We now come to the middle period of his life's work.
In the British Museum (Press mark, 1073, b. 32) there is a Dutch life of the fabulous necromancer of the Middle Ages, Virgilius.
( g ) Virgilius f[ Van zijn leuen doot / ende vauten, &c. No date or place of printing.
This tract is probably the original of the rare English Virgilius among the Douce books at the Bodleian, which has been reprinted by Mr Utterson, and also by Mr Thorns, in Jiis Early English Prose Romaiues, Vol. 2, Ed. 1858.
(//) The title runs thus :
The lyfe of Virgilius and of his deth and many marvayles that he dyd in his lyfe tyme by whychcrafte and nygramancye thorowgh the helpe of the devyls of hell.
The colophon is
Thus endcthe the lyfe of Virgilius with many dyuers con- saytes that he dyd. Emprynted in the cytie of Anwarpe By me lohnn Doesborcke dwellynge at the camer porte.
Mr W. C. Hazlitt, in his Handbook of Popular Lite- rature, &'c.,p. 381, Ed. 1867, quotes the following title of a Work apparently at present in an English private library.
(«■) Here begynneth a lytell story that was of a trewthe done in the land of Gelders, of a mayde that was named Mary of Nemegen that was the dyuils paramoure by the space of vij yere longe.
Imi)rinted at Anwarpe by me lohn Duisbrowghe dwellynge besyde the camer porte.
Dr Campbell states that in the Royal Library at the Hague, is a copy of the following Work, printed by Doesborch.
(/) Den oostpronck oiiser Solic/ieyt. Printed at Antwerp on 31 May 1517. With woodcuts and printer's mark.
Also, a Work, sometimes erroneouslyattributed to Jan van Naeldwyck, (k) Die alder excellenlste Cronyke va Brabant 1518. With woodcuts and printer's mark.
Of this work, there is a copy of an earlier edition printed in October 1512 in the British Museum (Press mark, G. 405, f.) This may also have been printed by Doesborch.
The next Work that we can quote is, for the time it was produced, a wonderful book. It is a pictorial representa- tion of all the birds, beasts, and fishes, real and imaginary, of the time. It is in three Parts.
{/) Der dieren palleys en die vgaileringe vanden beesten. The colo- phon is Ghcprent bi my Jan van doesborch Thantiuerpen Lit iaer ons heeren M.CCCCC. ende. XX. den vijfsten dach in Meye. [5 May 1520.]
Copies are in the British Museum, the Royal Library at the Hague, and elsewhere.
Mr Hazlitt, Handbook, &c., /. 8, gives the following account of Lawrence Andrewe's translation of this work.
(/«) The noble lyfe and natures of man, of beestes, serpentys, fowles, and fysshes, that be made known.
Andwarpe by John of Doesborowe, n.d. fol.
In the prologue, Andrewe, the translator, says, " In the name of oure Saviour criste lesu maker and redemour of al mankynd, I Laurens andrewe of the towne of Calis haue translated for lohnes doesborrowe book prenter in the cite of Andwarpe this present volume dcuyded in thre partes which was neuer before in no matcrnall langage preutyd till now. "
6. One other Work will complete our present provisional list of this printer's productions.
(«) Van Brabant die excellente Cronike. Of which the colophon runs, Cheprent tot Antwerpen op die Lombaerde veste, bimijan van Doesborch, int iaer ons heren M.CCCCC.XXX, in luino.
Copies of this work are in the British Museum, the Royal Library at the Hague, and elsewhere.
7. This is all we have been able to learn, so far, of the printer of the First English book on America. Much more, no doubt, remains to reward the researches of tiie bibliographer.]
XXVI 1
C ©£ the netoe Xanlress mxXf ol ge people fottnlrt 6j) the me^sJenaerss of tfte Rjin ge 0£ portyngcile nametr <!tnmnitel*
©£ tite* V* I'atterg nacgonss cijjiSteiTelr^
#£ pope Kohn atnlr Jti^ lanlres? anlr of tfte cosJteXg Itegess antr tooitlfer^ molo aye^ that iix that lanlre (6.
AN'^^vAN^AVAV^V V/W>'
re aforetymes in the yere of our Lorde god. M.CCCC.xcvi. [1496] and fo be/ we with fhyppes of Lufleboene fayled oute of Portyngale thorough the commaunde- nient of the Kynge Emanuel So haue we had our vyage/ For by fortune ylandes ouer the great fee with great charge and daunger fo haue we at the lafle founde oon lordfliyp where we fayled well. ix. C. [900] mylee[s] by the coofle of Selandes there we at ye lafle went a lande but that lande is not nowe knowen for there haue no maflers wryten therof nor it knowethe and it is named Armenica/ there we fawe meny wonders of beefles and fowles yat we haue neuer feen before/ the people of this lande haue no kynge nor lorde nor theyr god But all thinges is comune/ this people goeth all naked But the men and women haue on theyr heed/ necke/ Annes/ Knees/ and fete all with feders bounden for there bewtynes and fayrenes. Thefe folke lyuen lyke beft.es without any refon- ablenes and the wymen be alfo as comon. And the men hath conuerfacyon with the wymen/ who that they ben or who they fyrft. mete/ is Ihe his fyfter/ his mother/ his daughter/ or any other kyndred. And the wymen be very hoote and dypofed to lecherdnes. And they etealfo on[e] a nother The man etethe his wyfe his chylderne/ as we alfo haue feen and they hange alfo the bodyes or perfons fleeftie in the fmoke/ as men do with vs fwynes flefhe. And that lande is ryght full of folke/ for they lyue commonly, iii. C. [300] yere and more as with fykeneffe they dye nat/ they take much fyfflie for they can goen vnder the water and fe[t]che fo the fyfflies out of the water, and they werre alfo on[e] vpon a nother/ for the olde men brynge the yonge men therto/ that they gather a great company therto of towe partyes/ and come the o;:[e] ayene the other to the felde or bateyll/ and flee on[e] the other with great hepes. And nowe holdeth the fylde/ they take the other pryfoners And they brynge them to deth and ete them/ and as the deed is eten then fley they the reft. And they been than eten alfo/ or otherwyfe lyue they longer tymes and many yeres more than other people for they haue coftely fpyces and rotes/ where they them felle recyuer with/ and hele them as they be feke.
xxviii \ThefirJl Englijh book containing the word America {Armenica), &c?^
[{Here follows a woodcut of the Natives of) GENNEA]
Of the blacke Mores.
T the fyrfle cam we in the lande of Canarien/ whyche is. C. and. 1. [150] myles from Lyfle- bone. And ther betwyn been. ij. ylandes. In yat one is well made people and men make there moche cheefe of great wylde gootes. alfo is ther fifflie and suykere good cheep. That other yland is not enhabite I tlier be lytell people therin/ and they be all a frayde and wylde/ alfo ther ayeen lyeth the lande of Barbera/ and is from them in to ye Gennea. CC.l. [250] myles. and that is the blackes mores land, and ayen ye begynnyng of this lande is oon aforemontayen and booth caput viride/ and thereby is ye towne Bitfagitfch. v. C. [500] myles from Luffebonen there by be many w[h]alefyfflies and flyinge fyfflies on the on fyde of Bifagitfche. ij. C. and 1. [250] myles fayle men vnder yat fone fo ferre/ that men the northe fayle flerre or pollumarticum/ or the waghen called/ no more may be feen/ but poUum ante articum or yat fowth layd flerre fawe we fourth with[.] the forfayde Morelande is M. iiij. €.[1400] myles great/ there ye people goeth all naked with golden rynges on handes and fete.
[(Here comes a woodcut of Natives) IN " ALLAGO]
ilHat lande of AUago is. v. C. [500] myles greater And gothe ayenfle the begynnynge of Arabien and there is that kyngdom Safale[.] in this lande Allago is the people clothed as aboue is marked/ the[y] were and bere for there clothes fkynnes of wylde belles. The men bere clokes made of barkes of trees and ledder to kyuer theyr members with. And the women kyuer theym with (kynnes of belles, and take vpon there heddes for kerchers Ikynnes of oxen or other be(les[.] alfo py[t]che the[y] theyr mennes forhed lyke as men pytche the fhyppes/ and there dwellynge is vnder the erthe. There is many cowes. oxen/ great fhepe and other fayre belles. This is on fayre and lufly lande of good water and fwete herbes. This people bathe a fwyfte hafly fpeche. There is no money but of yrou [? />'<?«] and that euery body take it for there ware they bere whyte (laues there wepyns is lange pykes and Hones ther they cafte myghtly with. That I>ande is fo full of fande yat they mufle goo vpon brode trenchers that they falle not and fynke. After that cometh men into the lande of arabyen.
[(Here is another woodcut representing Natives) IN: ARABIA]
Arabia.
Omyng in Arabia fawe we ye people clothed lyke as here is figured (lande. and out [of] this kyngdome hath be oon of the three holy kyngys. Item ther bynde they ther oxe fon with Arable gold about ther homes/ and erys. And alfo goldyn rynges aboute th[e]yr legges. And for gold take they of mar- chaundes fylkyng kerchers and lynen clothe. Item ther after fe we now. v. ylandes. the fyrR yland named Momfabith. fixty myles from Safalen. is leeid ye towne Quiola that was founde of the kynges folke of portyngal And they flewe there moche people and robbed the towne. And there without had there kynge edyfyed on caftell that is named feynt lacobis caRell there in lyeth a, C. [100] bolde and hardy men that lyeth and kepeth it
[Here is a striking woodcut representing, with great life and action, a spirited attack on the gate of some European town ; which has evi- dently been borrowed by John of Desborough from some other printed book, chronicle, or other work, printed by himself or other printer.]
He[n] feuente myles from Quiola lyeth the towne Bombaffa that they alfo bymed and robbed that alfo there they gatte moche goodes. From thens nowe. xxiiij. myle[s] lyeth the great towne Meli[n]da and they be frendes/ and there be many floueynes and fell people out of Geneen From Melinda it is. iiij. fcore and. x. myles to on Perfia there gowe they ouer the fee. For by the towne Megha into the ylande. Auxendia There is alfo one that hath be of ye three holy kynges of the eefl. C. [100] myles into the Kyngdome of Canenor and there begyn the fpyces to growe and from thens fare they forthe in to the great lande of great Indyen.
C Of great Indyen.
[(Here follows a woodcut of the Inhabitants of) M A I O R : INDIA]
Hey gowe from Cananor into great Indyen there the people goo all naked but yat the[y] kyuer there members with lynen cloth and they be brounde blacke/ with longe here and of tho women is not wryten but on kaute the fee fawe men manye mer- ueloufe people of manereren the women i bere there chyldren and theyr houfeholde fluffe. Here fynde I men gynger/ peper/ comeyn/ and all manere of fpyces/ and
{A JJiort defcription of Africa and India: written after 1509 A.D.] xxix
collely flones for lytell moneye. There be alfo many maner of frute fygges of good fauyour. vij. ynches longe and. iij. ynches brode. There be bulfeldes and coyes but the coyes flepe they not/ there groweth good wyne/ muche honeye/ ryfe/ coflely come whyte as wete mele/ Ther by flandeth the towne of Banderana and it is. vij myles into Callienten from thens is. xl. myles there men goo for all maner of fpyces that men were wonte to caray and conuey ouer the redde fee thorowgh Alexander but nowe is there one newe way founden ouer the the fee[.] in Calacuten is many folke out of feynt thomas lande yat alfo be cryftened/ and folke of other landes and nacyons they goo ouer into that kyngdome Kyng- rjche Gutfchyn as hereafter Ilandes wry ten.
C Of Gut f chin that Kyngedome.
[Here is a woodcut representing two Natives fighting, see/, xxv.]
ilNd than cam we in the kyngdome of Gut- fchyn and ther hath the kynge of portyngale do make. ij. CaReyles from here was the thre holy kynges. there groeth much peper and the propereft (lapell therof That kyngdom Colen is. xxiiij. myles from there/ and there been many kryftened men/ we fynde alfo great Olyfantes and many dyuers maner and wonders befles and other thynges that men cannot wryghte all. gardeynes frutes is there muche gretter than in our landes of Europa. That ylande Melaqua is from thens. viij. C. [800] myles/ There alfo is moche coflely fpyces. There is nowe. ij. ylandes the on is Bandan and therin groweth the cloues. That other Tanagora or Narnaria and there groeth not no other wodde than whyte and red fandelen wodde/ This is fortuned that for a bell of a glaffe men may haue one handfull of peerles. In Gutfchin bere fome tymes there kynge but that do the people of his courte and holde obedyance vnder theyni one with a nother They doo all there thynges all fleyghtly For as as they be affembled in one gatherynge/ than cryeth the capitayne I will fowe/ and as the fubiectes here theyr capitayne cr)'e fowe than take they parte of/ the fede and no man fayth the contrary and letteth the other lye and that takethe the lorde with out any body contrary fayngc/ and fo do they in all merchaundyfe. Forthe by that kyngdome Gutfliyn/ Colum/ Bandan/ and Nagaria. xxx. [thirty] niyles[.] in Arlinia there hath the kynge. xij. kynges vnder hyni/ and there lyetli buryed feynt Thomas apoitell.
[Here is a woodcut of a tree apparently intended to represent a fig-tree. It might do equally well for many other kinds of trees.]
N fome of thefe aforfayde wrytten landes ben great and fayre frutes and they be greater than in thefe our landes of Europa In Ifla mandra be great hygh trees for the people of yat contrey hewe great lleppes aboute to clyme vp in to the tree to gather the frutes that groweth there on for whan they be a thrufl. to take there of. In Arfmia is great brode fygge Trees with great fygges well. vij. ynches longe and. iij. ynches brode and the Fygge tre is fo brode of braunche and leues that. xl. [forty] men may be hydde vnder the forefayd braunches and leues for the hete of the fonne/ and there for to refle all to gather at theyr one pleafure.
[Here are two woodcuts comerwise, one representing two Indians, the other two men and a woman of Europe, see/, xxv.]
E haue in this vyage fayled aboute the forth parte of the worlde for to reken from Luf- fyngboren whiche is ferre equinoccyall fcher linien. xxxix. [thirty-nine]grades and on halfe fo haue we fayled ouer ye linie equinocciall. 1. [fifty] grades that maketh xc. [ninety] grades therfore they of Luffbone is vnder yat forfayde linie. xxxix. grade and one halfe in the hygh hed of the hemels is the breyde of weftes/ fo is them of Luffbone to thefe folke to fene the. 1. [fifty] grades is ouer the felfe lyne foth cornerwyfe. v. grades in perpendiculer linia whiche linie as we flande ryght of yat poynt the hemls hange vpon our hed and thefe folke in theyr fydes or rybbes and woort fet in the maner of on tryanghel or on drycantyche cornard. therfore it muftnedes be yat the fowth landes be tempered with fwete erthe for the northe wyndes can nat there blowe.
[Here, across the middle leaf of the tract, is an excellent representation o. the King of Cochin seated on a kind of tressel, carried by four men, sur- rounded with armed attendants : and with an umbrella borne by one man, and not a canopy borne by four men, as stated below in the text. The woodcut extends across about two-thirds of the folio, in the margin of which occurs the following note.]
Fter this maner of fourme is the Kynge of Gutfchym borne with the noblefle of his lande/ And before hym is borne many inflrumentes of mufyke as trompettes and other and. iiij. of the noblefle bereth the canapie ouer his hed left, that the foon fluild bume hym/ and this kynge is beloued of all his eft.ates and common people.
XXX STJiefiyJl EngliJJt book containing the word America {Armenica), &c?^
[This fresh tract is headed by a woodcut representing angels bearing the pyx.]
€[ Of the. X. DYVERCE CRISTENED NACIONS.
T is to knowe that y e people of cry (l- indomisdeuided and ben in. x. Nacyons. That is to vnder- flandtheLatyne/ Grekes/ Indien/ lacobites/neflor- ijnes/moronites/ Aimenes/ georg- ianes/ Surianes/ mororabes/wher- ofyemoofldeyle is kettersand kyt of/ of the holy Romes chyrche.
C The fyrjle nacyon.
[Two woodcuts, evidently talcen from some Martyrology, come in here. One represents an angel standing by the cross, the other a female saint with a sword sticking in her breast.]
nirde nacyon is the T,atynes and they haue to tlieyr lorde the Emperour of Almayne and many Kynges/ as the kynge of cadyly an of Aragon/ of portyngale/ of nauaryen/ and thefe kynges is for fpaynnes nacyon. In yat nacion of the frenche lande is one kynge of Fraunce and many dukes and Erles. In the nacion of Italian is the kynge of Cicylian/ the kynge of Naples and many dukes and Erles and there is alfo many lord- (hyppes as Veneyfe Florence feuen lenuen \} Siaitia, Genoa].
N the nacyon of Gemnanien is nowe many kynges with out the emperoure/ as the Kynge of Englande/ of Scotlande/ of Vngerien/ of Bohemen/of Polen/of Denmarke/ of fweden/ of Northvvegen/ of Dalmacyen/ and there is many Dukes and Erles &c. In that ylande of Sypers [? Cyprus] is the kynge of Sypers/
All thcfe a fore wryten is vnder the obeyifaunce or \) of] the
chyrche of Rome.
C The feconde nacyon.
He Grekes haue fpyrytually the Patriarcke of Conflantynnoplen/andmanyArchebyllliops/ byffhops/ and abbottes. And in ye tem- peralte haue they one Emperour and many dukes and erles/ and there is but fewe of them that be cryRened/ For the Agarenen and Turkes hath nowe the mood parte of Grekes/ and is not obedient to the chyrch of Rome. And they haue a great erre for they faye that the holy ghofl cam not of the fone but alone of the fader. And they fay alfo that there is no purgatory/ that is all a yenfle our belefe.
C The thyrde nacyon.
[Here follows a woodcut representing St. Thomas kneeling to our Saviour.]
Hey of Indyen hath one prynce and that is pope lohn whofemyghtynes and rychedome amounteth aboue all prynces of the world for he hath vnder hym. Ixxij. [feuenty-two] kynges and as pope lohn dayely rydeth he bere a fore hym one croflfe of wode for to thynke on at all tymes and remember vpon the paffion of I[es]hu and to the batayle doth he bere. xij. croffes of golde made and fet with precyoufe flones for his baners/ in this lande is the body of feynt Thomas.
C The fourth nacyon.
Acobyten named alfo of on ketter lacob and was be one dyflyple of the Patryarche of Alexandryne/ and this helde the one great land in Oryenten and Afyen and is named that lande of Mambrone and it is by Egyp- ten and gothe to Ethyopen and into Indien to/ and hathe vnder hym well. xl. [forty] kynges rychedom/ thefe be kytte and chryRened with a byrn- ynge yren for they branne the token of the holy croffe in theyr forehed/ vpon the breRe/ vpon the arme/ they confeife them to God alone and none preRes/ and they fay that in chriRo is alone the godhed without the manhod/ and fome of them fpeketh Caldefche fome Arabier/ fome other fpe[e]ches after theyr lang- age of the lande/ and thefe been condemned of the holy chyrche in that counfayll of Ceden.
[0/ the ten divers chrijlian nations?)^
XXXI
C Thefyth nacyon.
Here be alfo NeRorijnen named of the ketter Neflorinus that was one byffliope of the byffhops of Conflantynenoplen and they fett ij. perfones in chriflo that is the Godhed and ye perfones/ and they forfake that maria is the moder of god/ but they beleue well of I[es]hu. and theyr wrytynge is in caldenfflier fpeche and they make the facrament in broune brede and there be great multytude of theym and they dwell in Tartarien and in great Indyen/ and theyr lande is as great as a thoufande of Italy/ and thefe ketters be condamned in that thyrde counfayll of Ephefyn and is departed of the holy Romes chyrche and abyde in theyr opynion.
C The fyxfe nacyon.
Y the ketter Moren they be named Moroniten they fay alone in chriflo is one vnderflande and one wyll and thofe dwell by Lybien in the lande of Phenicen and there be great multitude and they be bolde and hardey men. and great warryars with the bowe/ And they haue theyr byflhops clothed as the Latynes with the biffhops myter on his had/ and with the croyfers flaffe and rynges/ Thefe hath ben fome tyme vnder the obeyiffaunce of the chyrche of Rome whan Innocentius was pope/ but afterwarde came they ayen in theyr opynion and there abyde in theyr opynyon.
C The feuenth nacyon.
pRmennyten is alfo named for that they dwell in the lande of Armeneten nere vnto Anthi- ochyen and there is whrythyn feruyce of the mafles. and theyr other tydes is all in theyr one comon fpeche fo that they all mey vnderflande it what they fynge or rede/ and they haue theyr hed or fader to whome they do reuerence as we do the pope. And they fade the lenton with greatter deuocyon than we doo/ for they ete in the lenton no fyfflie/ nor they drynke no wyne/ but they ete flefflie vpon frydays.
[Here is a woodcut representing a squadron of English knights, with St. George's flag, armed cap cL pie, and galloping in battle. It has nothing whatever to do with the text.]
C The eyght nacyon.
His nacyon is named Georgidni of feynt George for they haue hym in theyr batelles for theyr patrone/ and they dwell in the lande of Oryenten/ and they be fayer/ lufly/ and Rronge pepyll/ and they be fore a drad of the Medon perflen Affiryen there they aboute dwelle And they haue theyr fcryp-
|
^^ |
\t/5r^-' |
|
M |
|
|
& |
^.v.'-^- |
ture in ye Greekes fpeche and they haue theyr facramentes as the Grekes/ and the clarkes haue rounde crownes/ and they leke the holy graue to Iherufalem with open or fpred baners. And they gyue the farafons no trybute for the farafons fereth thofe folke very fore/ there women bere harneyfe lyke the men and they haue alfo beardes as ye men and they bere vpon theyr heddes and vpon hye cubettes hye hattes and as the[y] wryte to the Sodan than gyueth he them that they dyflyre.
C The Nynthe nacion.
He Surianen is named after theyr to^^'ne Surie that is the grettefl. in all Suryen or Affyryen theyr fcrypture and feruyce of god in ye Grekes fpeche but they fpeke farafons fpeche and they holde the manere of ye grekes/ and haue byfflioppes that in all thynges be obedyent and they make theym facrament of browne brede and they haue the opynyon of the Grekes ayen the Latynes there be fome cryRened that in the holy lande is namyd Samerytanes that were conuerted in the tyme that the apoflels preched but they vnderRande them not well in the cryRen beleue.
C The tenthe nacyon.
Ororaben fo called affter the laten for they holde and vfe the maner of the cryRen of Ar[a]bien/ and of thefe were wonte to be manye people in Afrijken and in Spaengnien but nowe is there lytell in the tellyng/ They haue in theyr feruyce of god lateyne as we do/ And they be vnder the obeyifaunce of the chyrche of Rome. And the latynes prelates but in many thynges ben they dyuerfe departed for alfo the day hath xxiiij. houres/ Alfo many tymes hymnes and pfalmes and other orafouns haue they and very longe/ And that that ye Latyns rede in the begyn- nyng of theyr feruice that rede they in the mydle or in the laRe ende. And that facrament of the auter breketh fome of them in. vij. partes and fome in. x. partyes/ and thefe people be very deuoute and they mareye but ones in tlieyr lyfe and as the women hath loRe theyr fyrR hufbond fo dothe they meddle no more with no man/ but abyde fro thenffourth in chaRyte.
Or. ij. caufes cometh the departynge of ye cryRen nacyons. The fyrRe caufe is that men in olde tyme myght the cryRen haue only haue generall confilium/ Therfore as the ketters Rode vp ayen the cryRen belefe fo was there no body turned nor faught counfayll there ayen. The other caufe was the ferfwynmyngnes of ye oppreR pope of ye fchole of Rome that no meffengere nor lerned Riulde to the kryRen thow that were come in feche lodyng/ for had they do that they Riulde haue be conuerted to the ryght belefe. ThorowRh whiche ryght belefe brynge vs to the hygheR glorye the fader the fone the holy ghoRe thre perfones and one god. Amen.
h
xxxii. \7'he fiyjl Englijh book containing the ivord America {^Armenica), &c.\
[An Abridgment of the Medieval Legend of Prester John].
[This third Tract has a very large initial letter I, containing what appears to be a representation of Prester John, and of a Roman Catholic monk or
pilgrim kneeling beneath him.]
Pope lohn by ye grace of god the moofle myghtylle kynge a boue all kyngys of ye worlde gyue lal- uyte the Emperour of Rome, and alfo thekingeofFrance. Oure wel be- louyd frynde We late you vnder- flande and knowe of our lande And the maner of oure lyuinge and of our people beefles and fowles. C And you faye that we beleue not in god and praye not to hym as you do. So late we you vnderftande that we be- leue in god the father, in god the fonne. and in god the holy goofle. The whyche be vnpartyble and one very god. and is all thynge myghty.
And alfo certefye yow with oure lettres fealed and doo you knowelege of oure folke or people and of our lande. And yf there be ony thynge yat we kan doo for you. fende vs worde and we fhall it doo with good herte and wyll. And yf it pleafe ony of you to come in oure lande we fhall gyue theym gold and fyluer to th[e]yr neceffitie/ and make them great lordis. and gyue to them alfo lande and good[s] to lyue on. and do to [t]hem worfhyp and honor. For the goodnes that we haue herde fay of you. And we do you knowledge that we haue the richefle crowne of the worlde as of golde and syluer and of precyous Hones in great multitude And we haue alfo vnder vs mighty, xlij. kingdomes and al good criflen people, and we kepe alfo the poure people with our almes alle that cometh be it flrenger or of oure owne people thorough the loue of almyghty god oure lorde Ihefu Crifle.
fj Item Oure lande is parted in. iiij. For the landes of Indien/ there be two. and in that grettefl Indien is the body of feynt Thomas. And this fame Indien is partiner of ye code
of orient for it lyeth befyde a toure ye whych is caalled babel/ and it id [? is\ not ferre fro Babilonyen. And alfo that other parte of Indien is aboute Septentryon. and there is great plenty of wyne/ bredde and all maner of vytayle.
<[ Item alfo in our lande be gryffbns/ and it is a great byrde and a myghty. for he wyll well cary in his nefle an oxe/ or an horfe for his yonge byrdes to ete. Alfo in Saxen is a townc whych is called Grounzwyk ther is one of the clawes yat which is well as great as an horn of an oxe.
[Here comes, in the original, at the side of the page, a woodcut of an elephant with a castle on its back.]
fl In our lande be olyphantes/ dromedaries/ wylde oxes the whyche haue. vij. homes, alfo Beeres and Lyons of dyuers colours/ as ye redd/ grene/ blacke/ and whitte
^ Item and also be wylde affes the whych haue longe eeres/ and haue twoo fmale homes. &c.
N our lande be alfo fowles ye whyche that haue the mayflery of all birdes of the worlde/ and haue a colour lyke ye fyer/ and his wingis kyt ^cuf\ lyke a rafour. and this byrdes ben called Ilerion. and in alle the worlde is no more than two. and they lyuen. iij. fkore yere and thenne they laye eggis and fytte vpon theym. xl. dayes and as fone as they haue yonges they flee awaye/ fader and moder to the zee and ther they drowne theym felf. and alle tho byrdes yat come ayenft them do them company to the zee. and as fone as the[y] be drowned all the other byrdes tourne ayen to the nefle there they yonge byrdes ben lefte/ and gyue them mete and drinke to the tyme that the[y] can flee and nurter them felfe. &c.
f[ Yet ben there other byrdes the whyche ben called Tygris/ and they be fo flronge that they wyll here or cary in theyr nefle a man fytting vpon an horfe all armyd fro the hede to ye fote.
\The Mediceval Legend of Prejler yohn?[
XXXlll
[Here, at the side of the page, is the representation of a naked man with one eye in his forehead, and bearing a club. ]
C Item In our lande is alfo a grete deferte or forefl. theiin dweleth people bothe men andwymmenthewhychehauenomore than one eye afore, and behinde they haue. iij. or. iiij. eyen
C Yet is in oure lande an other maner of people the whiche ete none other than rawe flefhe. and they care not yf it were of man or woman or of beeflis and alfo the[y] care not of ther owne deth. and as fone as there one of them dyeth the[y] ete theym all rawe/ both there one [? owri\ fader or moeder. And they faye yat mans fleyfhe is good and natur[a]ly to ete rawe/ for they faye that they doe it for parte of penaunce for there fynnes. And they be alfo curfed of god/ and they be called Gog and Magog And of them be no more than one maner of people of this worlde and they (hall be dyflributed or parted thorough all the world whan Antechryfl fliall come, and thefe fame were the people or folke the whych they hadde put in pryfone or in holde the great kynge Alexander of Macedonien. But for all that he wente his way And of this people fhalbe no iugement at the dredefuU day of dome lyke the prophete fayeth. |[ Nefcio qtiis. &'C.
But neuertheles thonder and lytenynge (hall come fro heuen and bourne theym all in po[w]der And whan that we haue ony enemyes thanne gyue we theym lycence to put theym downe and ete them that be ayenffe vs and then make we them to toume ageyne into there owne lande. For if they fliolde abyde longe with vs they fliuld vndo vs all and ete vs lyke as they do there owne propre folke.
[Here, also at the side, is the pictorial representation of the creature descriljed in the next paragraph.]
C And yet is there another manere of people/ the whyche hath rownde fete lyke an horfe/ and alfo they haue. iiij. fharpe clawes behynde/ at there Heles. Wherewith they (Irongely fyght that there is no manere thyng can flonde ayenfte them/ nether harnayfe/ yrone/ nor flele they pafle all thorowth/ and this people gyue vnto vs great trybute. and they be alfo with- out dowte great labourers.
fl Yet is there a nother fmale lande in a parte of that fame foreft. aforefayde/ and it is. xlij. [forty-two] dayes lourneyes longe. And it is called Feminie the great And in that fame lande there be thre Quenes without all other landes/ thowe that holden there been of thefe quenes forcfayde And whan thefe quenes ihall goo to felde/ then eche of them hath. iij. hondered. M. [300,000] wynien and all in harneyfe/ with out all the other women the whych that caray vytayle with carte horfe and alfo with olyfauntes. And thefe women be very manly in fytynge and hardy. C And in this fame lande may come
Edeh. 1
no men but. ix. dayes in the yere and no lenger/ and than they haue conuerfacion and felyflhyp with the men and nomore of the hole yere. For if the men there wolde abyde the women fhulde them flee all.
C And this fame lande is clofed all aboute with a water called Cyphon comynge out of paradyfe And in this fame lande may come no man without a great (hyp or a great barke.
C Of the people named Pygnies.
[Here is a woodcut representing the battle of the Pigmies and the storks.]
Nd yet is there a nother fmale lande and alfo another Ryuer called Pyconye that is. x. dayes ioumeye longe/ and. vij. brode and this people of this forfayde lande be not great/ but they be lyke chyldren of. vij. yere of age and they haue horfeys as great as a great dogge and they be good cryRened folke and they haue no warre ayenfle noman/ But they haue warre ayenftt the fowles euery yere/ whan they fhall haue in there frute and come And than the kynge putteth on his harneyfe. and than they fyght ayenfle the byrdes. And than there be flayn on bothe partyes many on/ and alfo they be great labourers/ and whan the fylde is don than the byrdes flee a waye fro them.
[Here, at the side, is a circular woodcut of Sagittarius, evidently one of the signs of the Zodiac taken from some illustrated almanac]
C Alfo in our lande been ye Sagittary. the whyche ben fro the myddel vpward lyke men/ and fro ye myddell donwarde ben they lyke the halfe neder parte of an horfe. and they bere bowes and arowes. And the[y] (hute (Ironger than ony other nacyon of people.
C And in our lande be alfo vnicomes and they been of the tnanere with blacke and grene/ and thefe vnicomes (lee many Lyons, and the Lyon fleeth the vnicome with fubtylnes. Whan the Vnicome hath put hym to red at a tree/ and than Cometh the Lyon and ronnyth aboute the tree and after hym than ronnyth the vnycome and wolde fayne (ley hym/ and than he ronnyth hym felfe into the tree with his home fo harde that he cannot pull it out a geyne. than commeth the Lyon and hath the maftery vpon the vnicome.
C Item there is a nother parte of a forell therin dwelleth another maner of folke and this people ben. xx. Cubettes of heythe. But they were in tyme pafte to be of the heytli of. xl. Cubettes. And they haue nat the pore to come out of that deferte or forefte and all i; thorowe the niyghte of almyghty god. For if they (holde come out by there (Irength and hardyneflfe lhe[y] wolde conquere all the worlde.
XXXI V \The firjl EngUJJt book containing the word Ameyica\Armenicd), &c^
[Here, at the side, is a curious cut representing the Phoenix burning.] C Here begynnith of ye birde the whyche is called Fenix.
C In oure lande is alfo a byrde ye whyche is called Phenix and is ye fayrefl byrde of all ye world and there is nomore than one in all ye cours of nature, and he lyueth C. [loo] yere. and thenne flyeth he fo hyghe that the fonne fett the fyre in his wynges/ and thenne cometh he don ayen to his nefl and there he burneth to p[o]udre and of the affhes comyth a worme/and within. C [loo] dayes after growyth there out another byrde as fayre as euer that other was.
C Item Alfo in our lande is plenty of wyne bredde/ flelhe. All that is neceflary for mannys body
f[ Item In our lande maye come none venyn beetle on that one fyde
C Item Betwene oure lande and the Turkes lande is a ryuer ronnynge and is called Sydon it commeth out of paradyfe of the erthe/ and is full of precyous flones.
fl And alfo in oure lande ben ronnynge many fmale riuers the whyche that come out of this forfayde riuer. and they alfo ben fulle of precyous flones. As Yfmaraddus lafpis Saphyrus Scobaffus Dyamant Topafius/ Carbonkel. Rubin, and yet more other they whyche I not all can reherce.
f[ Alfo in oure lande groweth on herbe and is called Par- manabel/ and that fame herbe is fo myghty euer foo who that fame herbe beryth a boute hym he may coniure the deuyll of helle and do hym faye what fo euer he wyl axe of hym and therfore the deuyll dare not come in to our lande.
Item alfo in our lande growith pepper in forellis full of fnakes and other venym beefles. and whan it is rype than fende we for our folke and they put that fyre ther in/ and than they venym beeflys flee awaye. than we gadder it and carj-ed to oure houfes and waffhed in two or. iij. waters/ and than we drey it ayen/ and alfo it waxed black and good
f[ Item aboute this paflage is a fonteyne or a conduyte/ fo who of this watere drinked. iij. tymes he fhall waxe yonge/ and alfo yf a man haue had a fykenes. xxx. yere and drynked of thys fame water he fhall therof be hole and fonde. And alfo as a man therof drinked hym femeth that he had occu- pyed the belle mete and drinke of the worlde. and this fame fonteyne is full of the grace of the holy goofl. and who fo we in this fame water wafflied his body he fhall become yonge of. XXX. yere.
And ye (hall knowe that I am haloweth in my moder wombe/ and I am old. v. C.lxij. [562] yere. and I haue me wefllied. vi. tymes in that fame water.
[Here, at the side, is a woodcut of a flying griffon carrying a man.]
C Item In our lande is alfo a zee very peruulyous/ and there can we haue noo paffage with noo maner of fliyppyng and than do we vs cary there ouer with our gryffons.
C Item at that one fyde of this zee ronnyth a fmale r}'uere and therin be many precyous flones. and alfo ther growyth a certen herbe that is good to all maner of medycyne.
C Alfo ye fliall vnderflande that betwene vs and the lewes ronnyth a great ryuer that is full of precyous flones and it is fo flronge in here ronnyng yat noman ther ouer can paffe/ excepte ye faterdaye/ and than parted fhehere and toke with here all that fhe fyndeth in here waye. And this fame lande mofle we flrongely kepe for oure ennemyes. an[d] vp thefe cofles haue we. xlij. [42] flronge caflels none flronger in ye world, and ben well kepte of people. To vndeRande. x. M. [10,000] knyghtes on horfbacke. vi. M. [6000] CrofTe bowes. XV. M. [15,000] longe bowes. and. xl. M. [40,000] othere men on horfbacke well armed, ye whyche thefe Caflels haue in kyping by caufe that the great kynge of Ifrahel fhall not ther- paffe with his people. For he is twyes as flronge as I am. And his lande is twyes as grete as all Cryflente and turkey. For he hath in his kepynge the feconde parte of the worlde. And the great kynge of Ifrahel hath vnder hym iij.C [300] kynges. iiij.M. [4000] princes, duces, erles. barons knyghtes/ fquyers without nombre. and all thefe be fubgette to the great kynge of Ifrahel. But yf he myght paffe ouer this forfayde ryuer with his people they fholde flee both cryflen and turkes. And ye fhall knowe that we all faterdaye late paffe. viij. C. or. M. [800 or a 1000] men for beye fuche manere good[s] or mar- chaundyfe as they wyll haue. but we late them not come with in ye wallis of thys caflels. for they bye it without ye walles of thys fortreffes. and they paye ther marchaundyfes with platis of fyluer or of gold for they haue none other money, and whan they haue don ther befynes they tourne home ayen in theyr owne lande. and thefe forfayde caflels be fete to gyder within a bowe fhotte. And ye fhall vnderflande that within a myle of thefe caflels is a great Cite and a fayre and it is the flrongefl of all the worlde. the whyche cite is in our kepyng of one of our kyngis. and he receyueth tribute of the great kyng of Ifrahel. And alfo gyueth vs euery yere. ij. C. [200] horfes laden with golde/ fyluer/ and precyous flones. Except alle charges and cofles that men doth in the cyte and in thyfe forefayde caflels. And whan that we haue warre ayenfl them/ than flee we them alle and late noman alyue. and therfore they wyll kepe no warre ayenRe vs. and the wymmen of the lewes be very fayre none fayrer in erth nowe a dayes lyuinge. And by this foriayJe ryuer is a zee ther noman may paffe/ but
[ The Mediceval Legend of Prejier yohni\
XXXV
M-han the wynde blowythe fro benethe flrongely than parted fhe here/ and tlianne the[y] paffe with great hail, and than they take with hym all maner of precious flones. but they may felle none therof [be]for[e] that wee haue taken therof our chofe.
C In a parte of our lande is an hylle there noman may dwelle for hete of the fonne/ and there bee wormes many on without fyre can not lyue. And by this fame hylle we kepe. xl. M. [40,000] people that no thyngeells but make fyre/ and whan this wormes feele the fyre than thei come oute of the erthe and goo in too that fyre. and there they fpynne lyke the wormes yat the fylke fpynneth And of that fame fpynnyng we make our clot[h]ynge that we were on fefte dayes. and whan they be foule/ than they be cafl in to ye fyer and they becom as fayre as euer they were afore
And ye fhall vnderflande that faint Thomas doeth more myracles/ than ony feynt in heuen For he comyth bod[i]ly euery yere in his chirche and doth a fermon/ and alfo in a palays there ye here after of hym fhall here.
[Here, at the side, is the representation of the creature described in the next paragraph.]
£ And ye fhall alfo knowe that there be dyuers of people of fafon in our lande/ alfo there be people that haue the body of a man and the hede lyke a dogge and they be good takers of fyffhe. and they be good to vnderflande of theyre fpeeche. and they wyll goo in to the zee a hole daye longe to the tyme that they haue taken fuche as they wolde haue/ and than ye \t/icy] come ayen charged with fyffhe. and bere them in to ye houfes for they haue there dwellinge places vnder erthe. and thenne take we part of there fyffhes that vs befle lyketh. and they do great harme among our bee thow yat be wylde. and they fyghte alfo ayenfle our archers. &c.
C In oure londe is alfo one manere of byrdes and laye ther eggis in the zee. xxi. and ther out growen yonge byrdes. and than the[y] flee away and we take fomtyme of theym for they bee good for to ete whan they be yonge For yf theyr were ony man that hathe loft his nature and ete of this fame byrde he fholl it gete ayen and becom as llronge as euer he was afore.
[Here is a woodcut of a tree dropping oil, guarded by a dragon, as described in the next paragraph.
C Alfo In our lande is that fame tree/ ther yat holy creften- dom or olye [? oyle] out ronnith. and this tree is dreye/ and ther is a great ferpent which yat tree hath in kepynge all the hole yere nyght and daye but alone vp[on] feynt lohns daye and night and than flepyth the ferpent or dragon, and than goo we to the tree and take yat crifma. and of this fame is nomore than iij. po[u]nd. and than toume we ayen fecretely
with great drede and fere yat he vs not fee/ for ells he wyll flee vs. and this fame tree is a dayes iourney fro ye paradys of ye erthe. but whan this ferpent is a waked than maked he great mone and forow. and this dragon hath. ix. hedes and. ij. wynges. and is as great as twoo horfes. But for all yat it followeth vs ftylle tyl we ben come to the zee ayen. and than tourned it ayen. and thenne bere we that crifma. to ye patriarch of feynt thomas and he haloweth it/ and ther with they make vs al cryften. and ye remenaunt fende we to ye patriarche of Iherufalem. and he fende it forth to the Pope of rome. and he puth therto olye tof lyfe [? oyle of lyfe\ and than halowyth it/ and then he fendeth all cryftente through
f[ Alfo ye (hall vnderftande whan we fhall goo towarre than doo we afore vs bere with, xiiij. [14] kynges. xiiij. [14] cofers with golde and fyluer really wroght with precious Hones, and the other kynges come after vs with grete ftremers and baners of fylke and fyndale very rychely wrought. Ye (hall knowe alfo that afore vs gone. xl. M [40,000] clerkis and alfo many knyghtis. and men afote there be ij. C. M. [200,000] without cariers and cariers that go with the oljrphantes and cary our barneys and vitales.
<[ Ye (hall vnderftande alfo as we goo to fylde than put we oure lande in the kepyng of the Patriarche of feynt thomas. And whan we pecefably ryde than do we bere afore vs a crofle of wodde in worfhyp of oure lorde Ihefu Cryfte. Alfo in the incomynge of euery cyte ftande. iij. croffes made of wodde/ for to remembre ye paffion of oure lord Ihefu cryfte. And whan we ryde pecefably than do we alfo bere afor vs a bafyn full of erthe to remembre yat we be come of erthe and that we fliall waxe erth ayen. and we do alfo bere for vs another bafyn full of fyne gold to a token that we be the noblefte and myghtyeft kyngis of all the worlde.
f[ There is alfo in our lande noman fo hardy that dare breke his wedloke. but yf he dyde he fholde be incontynent be burnyd. For our lorde hym felfe hath ordeyned wedlok ther- fore it fhold be kept by reafon yf that we louyd oure lorde Ihefu Cryfte. For it is one of the facramentes of the holy chyrche.
f[ Alfo there dare noman make a lye in oure lande. for of he dyde he fliolde incontynent bee fleyn and we be feythful in oure faying and doying.
f[ Alfo ye fhall vnderftand that we euery yere goo vyfite the holy body of the prophete danyel in oure foreft/ and we take with vs. x M. [10,000] clerkis and as many knyghtys. and. CC. [200] caftels. made vpon Olyphantes fore to kepe vs from ye dragons ye whyche haue. vij. hedes. the whych that haue theyr dwellynge in that foreft.
C And there bee alfo in that fame place dates ye winter and fomer hange on the trees fayr and grene. And ye forefte is great a. C. and xxx. [130] dayes journey, and ye. ij.
xxxvi \The firjt Englijh book containing the word America {Armenica), &c?^
patriarches ben before vs at table for they haue the myght of the pope of rome. And we haue twyes as many abbotes in cure lande as there be dayes in the yere. [and] xv. more And euerich one of them cometh ones in ye yere and faythe maffe vpon faint Thomas auter. And I my felf feye alfo maffe in the grete feflis of ye yere. and ther for I am called pope lohn. For I [am] prifle after the outfhewyng of facrificie of the auters. and kinge after oiitfhewing of luflice. f[ And I pope lohn was halowid afore T was borne, for oure lorde fende his angell to my fader and fayde to hym make a pallays the whyche (hall be of the grace of god and a chamber of that paradyfe for your fonne comynge For hi fhall be the grettefl. kynge of the worlde. and he Ihalle a longe tyme lyue. So who that in this pallays comyth he fhall haue no hongre or thryfle. and he fhall not deye and as fone as my fader was a wakyd he was very mery/ and incontynent he began to make thys pallays lyke ye fhall here. At fyrfl of ye incomynge of thys pallays is made of criflall and the couerynge of it is of precious flones and with in realy wrought with flerres lyke yf it were ye heuen. and that pauing is alfo of criflall and within this fame pallays be none wyndowes. and within this fame pallays be. xxiiij. [24] pyllers of fyne gold and of precyous flones of all maner fortes, and ther am I at great fefle dayes of the yere and feynt Thomas prechyth in middell of this pallays to the
people. And whithin this fame pallays is a conduyte or a fon- teyne is lyke wyne in drynkynge/ fo who thereof drincketh he defyred none other mete nor drinke and noman can telle fro whens it cometh or whyther it gothe. Alfo ther is another great merueyll in this fame pallays whan we fhall goo to our dyner/ fo is there no maner of mete made redy for vs/ nor there is no manner of inflrumentes to make mete redy with all. but there comith before vs all maner of delycious mete that comyth there thoroughe the holy goofL And it is not wel pofTyble to wrytte all maner of goodnes they [haue] whiche yat be in oure lande. And ye fhall vnderflande that we wntte nothinge to you but trewe is. For if we fholde wryte lyes to you/ god and feynt thomas fholde punyfihe vs/ for we fholde lefe all our dignyte and oure worfhyp. And we praye you that ye wyl writte vs ayen with the berer of this lettre. and fende to vs ayen a good knyght of ye genera- cyon of fraunce. ~"
And we praye the kynge of Fraunce that he wyll vs recom- maunde to the myghty kyng of Englande. and alfo to all other kynges the whyche yat dwelle be yonde the zee thow that ben cryflened and we praye god that he you wyl gyue the grace of the holy goofl Amen.
Written in oure holy pallays in the byrth of my felfe. v. [five] hondred. and feuen.
ffimprentEtJb 6fi mc Iol)n of Botsborotot:
XXXV 11
The
Life and Labours
of
Richard Eden,
Scholar, and Man of Science.
p 1521]— 1576.
• Probable or approximate dates. The best Life of our Author hitherto, is in Cooper's Alhetice Cantabrig'unses, ii., 2, Ed. i86t.
1526*-1534.'
15C9. Apr. 22. |l|cnrB Viii. tomes to tjc tf)vonc.
1521. * The year of our Author's birth has not yet been ascer-
tained, but it cannot be much later than 1521. He would therefore be of nearly the same age as Sir William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who was bom on 13th September 1520. He stated in 1573 {see under thai year) that 'he was of a respectable family in Hertfordshire ; where he, in that year, had a sister still living.' He is well educated as a boy. ' When I was a yonge scoler, I haue read in the Poet Hesiodus.'^p. xli. col. 2. Pietro Martire of Anghiera dies. The printing of the Sumario de la natural y general istoria de las Indias, written by Gonyalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, is finished at Toledo.
Sir Thomas Smith lb. 28th March 1514 at Saffron Walden], being then B.A., is elected Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge.
The printing of the Third edition of Pietro Martire's Latin Decades is finished at Basle. It is undoubtedly the text from which Eden translated //. 63-200 of this present work. Sir T. Smith is resident at Cambridge. Vaunuccio Biringuccio's Pyroteclinia is first printed ; at Venice.
Eden studies at Cambridge for ten years {see under ' 573)- What he states there, he confirms elsewhere, see /. 1. col. I, ' that the ryght worfliypfull and of Angular
D
|
1526. |
|
|
1526. |
Feb. |
|
1530. |
Jan. 25. |
|
1533. |
Aug. 31. |
|
1533- |
1539. |
|
1540. |
|
|
1535- |
1544. |
leamynge in all fciences, Syr Thomas Smyth, in my tyme the floure of the Vniuerfitie of Cambridge, and sometyme my tutor.' He does not, how- ever, seem to have taken any degree, while up at the University. 1539-1541. Sir T. Smith is travelling abroad.
1542. A folio edition of Chaucer's works is published, re-
markable for being an early instance of joint enterprise amongEnglish printers, 'each having his own name alone as printer, in the colophon of so many copies as were his proper share.' — Herbert's Typographical Antiquities, p. 557, Ed. 1785-90. The joint partners in this edition were W. Bonham, F. Petit, R. Kele, and R. Toy. 1842-1547. Sir T. Smith is again resident at Cambridge. It
■was probably during this period, that he taught Eden : who had, for his fellow pupils under Sir T. Smith, Edward Vere, aftervvards the Earl of Oxford and a most exquisite poet; and John Ponet, afterwards Bishop of Winchester.
1544-1546. Eden comes to Court, and holds a position in thi
Treasury, for about two years ; which is his first appoint- ment in the Civil Service. 1545. Oct The First edition of Thomas Geminus' important
' Epitome of The Fabric of the Human Body, by A. Vesalius,' is published in Latin in London, in folio size; illustrated with remarkable engravings, 'all drawen out, and graven in braffe, and fo impriented by my own labour.' The dedication to Henry VIII. is dated London, 4 Kal. Oct. [28th September] 1545.
Geminus, in his next edition of 1553, states that King Henry very mnch wished that this anatomical work should be widely published abroad : and that he himself had subsequently heard that it had been ' notably well
XXXVlll
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden.
accepted, and hath doen muche good in Italye, Fraunce, Spaine, and Germaine, and other foren parties. '
1547. Eden is destined to the office of the Distillery ; when
the King dies : see p. xlv.
1547. Jan. 28. Etjbiav'b Mf. succcE'ba to tlje Crotam.
1547. The Lord Protector, however, gives the Distillery to one, who held it down to, at least, so late as 1573.
1547.* Eden marries; and has by his wife twelve children in
the next fourteen years : who all apparently grow up to manhood ; else the argument and appeal then used by him in 1573, would seem to be faulty.
1548. Sept. Master William Cecil, a;t. 28, is appointed Secretary
to the Lord Protector Somerset.
1549. Oct. 10. In the political revohition, occasioned by the advent
to power of the Earl of Warwick, afterwards the Duke of Northumberland — to whom Eden, in 1553, dedicated his Treatyfe of the newe /«rf/a^Master W. Cecil is Nov. confined to his house (Oct. lo) ; and in November is
sent to the Tower ; from whence he is set free on the 25th
1550. Jan. 25. January following.
The First edition of Girolamo Cardano's work, De Subtilitate, is printed at Nuremberg in folio. It was written in eight months ; but under constant correction for thiee years before it appeared. Eden thought very highly of it.
1550. May. The First edition, of the First Volume only, of Navi-
gationi e Via^gi [collected by J. B. Ramusio] is printed at Venice. It was probably this First impression ; and
not the Second edition of the same Volume printed in March 1554, that
Eden made use of in his Compilation.
Sept. 5. Master W. Cecil is appointed one of the Secretaries of State and a Privy Councillor.
1551. July 3. The sweating sickness, which had begun on isth
April at Shrewsbury, begins in London ; where 500 persons die in the first week. At this time, the first
English ship that ever went to Barbary, leaves Portsmouth ; under the
command of T. Windham (see /. xix).
Oct. 11. Sir W. Cecil is knighted.
1552. Spring. Eden writes thus, at p. 355, about the middle of 1555,
' And wheras as concemynge the knowleage of metals, I was once mynded to haue trandated into Englyfhe the hoole worke of Pyrotechnia, wherof I fynyfflied. xxii. chapitures now more then three yeares fence, and lefte the copie therof in the handes of one of whome I coulde neuer get it ageyne (omyttynge to fpeake of other ingratitudes) I was therby difcouraged to proceade any further in that woorke.' From this, it is evident that, by this time, Eden was a good Italian scholar. His translation of the first three chapters will be found at PP- 356-368.
1552. About this date, Eden was, I believe, acting as private
secretary to Sir W. Cecil. I have, however, lost the
reference to the authority for this.
1552. April 22. Sir W. Cecil is made Chancellor of the Order of the
Garter.
May 2 or 9. The second English voyage sets out for Barbary,
p. xix. June 3. Girolamo Cardano, on his way from Italy, reaches London ; and after a rest of three days, travels in twenty-three days to Edinburgh: where he somewhat successfully prescribes for Cardinal Beaton. After a stay of seventy-five days there ; he leaves Edinburgh on Sept. 12. 1 2th September, on his return towards Italy. See further respecting this famous Italian magician or physician — this considerable genius — this prolific author (he wrote in all 222 treatises, large and small) — this most impudent liar and profligate liver, in Professor Morley's Life of Jerome Cardan, 1856. It is quite possible that Eden saw Cardano — whose works, he quotes as of the highest authority — while he was staying in London.
1552. July 20. Geminus, in the Dedication prefixed to the Second edition of his "Epitome of Vesalius' Anatomy &'c."
(with the explanations to the plates, greatly augmented and in English), which is dated " At Windfore, the. xx. July 1552," (the engraved title is, however, dated 1553) goes on to state, after what we have already quoted above, under 1 545, as follows : — ' And now of late by the informa- cion of fundiye frendes and alfo of diuerfe furgeons, I haue ben borne in hande, that the fame worke beeyng fet foorth in the Englirti tounge might greatly auaile to ye knowledge of the vnlatined Surgeons, and by meane of them, fhould bee muche more beneficial!, then in latin it is to an infinite nombre of people in thys your Maiedies Royalme of Englande. Wherefore myndyng to rendre vnto this Countrey, in which by your graces proteccion and bounteous liberalitie I Hue, as muche fruite as my poore induftrie and continuall trauaile may pofiibly bee hable to yelde, I haue earneflly applyed my felfe to make common and familiar to all Englilhe people that which hath ben found profitable among fo many foren nacions. Whereunto forafmuch as I am not my felfe fo perfeict and experte in the Engliflie tonge that I dare warraunt or truft myne owne dooynges, I haue vfed the ftudious pcines of Nicholas Vdall [the author of Roister Doister, our earliest known English comedy] and certain other learned men whofe exercife in trandaccions and pennyng in this tounge hath ben (as I vnderflande) not without fome fruite to the common weale.' Eden edited the next edition in 1559.
1552. Dec. 2. The printing of the first edition of Francisco Lopez de
Gomaia's Istoria de las Indias y conquiila de Mexico, is finished at Saragossa.
1553. May 9. The date of the Ordinances &c. for the English fleet
going for the discovery of Cathay by the North-East ; given by Sebastian Cabot, as ' Gouernour of the myfterie and companie of the Marchants aduenturers for the difcouerie of Regions, Dominions, Hands, and places vnknown;' who were not, however, incor- porated by royal charter, until 6th February 1555 (i and 2 Philip and Mary). For these Ordinances, see Hakluyt's Voyages, &'(., p. 259, ed. 1589. 1553. May 20. The first English fleet, consisting of the Bona Espe- ranza, 120 tons. Captain Sir Hugh Willoughby, General of the whole fleet ; the Edward Bonaventure, 160 tons. Captain Richard Chancellor, Pilot Major, with Stephen Burrough (or as Eden calls him at p. xli. col. 2, Steuen a Burrough), for Master ; and the Bona Confidentia, 90 tons, Cornelius Deerfoorth, Master : leave RatclitT on their voyage, and get as far as Deptford.
May 21. About 2 p.m. they leave Deptford. Then occurred the scene thus vividly described to us by Clement Adams : of which it is almost certain that Eden was an eye-witness. ' The greater (hippes were towed downe with boates, and oares, and the mariners being all apparelled in watchet or flvie coloured clothe, rowed a maine, and made way with diligence. And being come neere to Greeneivich (where the Court then laye) prefently vpon the newes thereof the Courtiers came running out, and the common people flockt together, Handing very thicke vpon the flioare : the priuie Counfell, they lookt out at the windowes of the Court, and the reft ranne vp to the toppes of the towers : the fliippes hereupon difcharge the Ordinance, and flioote off their pieces after the maner of warre, and of the fea, infomuch that the tops of the hilles founded therewith, the valleys, and the waters gaue an Eccho, and the mariners they fliouted in fuch fort, that the flcie rang againe with the noyfe thereof. One ftoode in the poope of the fliippe, and by this gefture biddes farewell to his friends in the beft manner he coulde. Another walkes vpon the hatches, another climbes the nirow[d]es, another ftandes vpon the maine yarde, and another in the topjie of the fliippe. To bee ftiort, it was a very triumphe (after a fort) in all refpects to the beholders. But (alas) the good King Edwarde (in refpect of whome principally all this was prepared) hee only by reafon of his fickneflie was abfent from this fliewe, and not long after the departure of thefe fhips, the lamentable and moft forowfull accident of his death followed.' — Hakluyt, Voyages, p. 282, Ed. 1589.
May This voyage seems to have aroused a general interest
in cosmography. People began to think of the great unknown world outside and beyond England. Some one printed a tract or single sheet, entitled Of the new found lands, which Eden derides at/. 5- This publication stirred him up to a rapid trans- lation of a part of tlie Fifth book of Mucnster's colossal Cofmography.
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden.
XXXI X
June.* Thus appeared Richard Eden's first literary work,
(see title at /. 3), printed by Edward Sutton. He dedicates it to John Dudley, Duke of Northumber- land, the then all-powerful Protector. The Dedication is important in relation to the controverted life of Sebastian Cabot. It is to be noticed that in it Eden boasts of having already read the Decades. To this month and year is therefore also to be assigned the composition of his address 'To the Reader' at //. 7-1 1 ; in which he so manfully strives to uproot the general ignorance and timidity of his time.
1553. July 6. fSavp's rrign commtiutK.
1553. Aug. 12. The first English voyage to Guinea leaves Ports-
mouth, see p. 375. Aug. 20. The printing of the second edition of Lopez de
Gomara's Historia is finished at Medina del Campo. Aug. 22. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (to whom,
Eden had dedicated, within less than three months before,
his first work), is beheaded at the Tower ; with Sir T.
Gates, and Sir T. Palmer.
1554. Summer.* Richard Chancellor's ship, the Edward Bonaventure,
returns to England ; but is robl>ed on the way home, by some Flemings. The crews of the other two .ships, Spring.* under Sir Hugh Willoughby, to the number of seventy persons, are frozen to death ; while wintering at Arzina fiord, for ' want of experience to have made caues or stoues.' It appears from a will found in one of the ships, that Sir Hugh Willoughby and most of his company, were alive in January 1554.
1554. July 25. Queen Mary is married to Philip, Prince of Spain, at
Winchester. ' Shortly after King Philip and Queene
Mary remooued from Winchester to Basing, [and] from
Aug. 5. thence to Windsor, where, on the fifth of August, the
King was stalled in the noble order of the garter, where.he kept a great
feast, and at that time the Earle of Sussex was made knight of the garter.'
— Stcrw, p. 1057, Ed. 1600.
Aug. 17. ' The King and Quene remooued to Richmond, from
thence by water to Southwarke, accompanied with the
noble men and ladies, the King in one barge, the Queen
in another, and landed at the Bishop of Winchesters staires neere to S.
Maries Queries church, and so passed through that place and park into
Suffblke place, where they rested that night.' — Stmv, idem.
Aug. 18. 'And the next day, being the 18 of August, they rode through Southwarke ouer the bridge, and so through London, where they were with great prouision received of the citizens, pageants in places accustomed, tlie crosse in Cheape new gilt, &c., and passing througli Paules churchyard, a man came sliding, as it were (lying upon a rope, from Paules steeple down tothe deans wall.' — Stna, idem. As Eden tells us, at p. 46, intoxicated by the shows, the triumphs, and universal acclamations that greeted the gorgeous royal procession through the City, he was led first to debate within himself as to whether he could by any original publication perpetuate to future Ages, not so much the glorious reception, as its worthiness and significance : but thinking of nothing sufiiciently worthy, he was led to consider the marvellous discoveries, conquests, and empire of the Spanairds ; all of which bade fair to become (should the royal pair have issue) the joint heritage of England. Hence his great Compilation is distinctly the result of the Marriage Procession of this day.
Within the following twelve months (working incessantly, and for nothing), Eden translated or wrote all that is reprinled in this volume, between //. 43 and 398. Inasmuch as the work was one of great bulk (though, at the time, of national importance), several printers combined together for its risk of its publication : while the printing of it was wholly intrusted to William Powell. There are copies extant with the colophons of Robert Toy, Richard Jugge, Edward .Sutton, and also, as Herbert states at /. 738, William Seres, and perhaps others. These are the "parteners" to whom Eden refers at/. 330. — See 1542 above.
Leonhardus Gorecius, a Polish knight, writes a congratulatory Latin Oration to the people and nobles of England on the royal marriage, which was printed by William Powell, who was also, at the same time, busily engaged on Eden's Compilation. Eden refers to this Oration at/. 47.
1554. Oct. 2. 'There came to the Tower in twenty carts made for the show, accompanied with certain Spaniards of the King's Guard, ninety-seven little chests, of a yard long and four inches broad, of silver, which will make by estimation fifty thousand pounde' [equivalent to ^£^750,000 of the present day]: Harl. MS. 194 [which is a ' Pocket Diary of a resident in the Tower between July 1553 and October 1554'] reprinted by the Camden Society under the title of The Chronicle of Queen Jane, 1850. John Foxe, in his Actes and Motmmentes, iSfc., Ed. 1563, states that the silver was 'matted about with mats, and mayled in little handles, about two feet long and almoft half a foot thick, and in euery cart fixe of thofe bundles.' I presume this is what Eden refers to at /. 56, as the l8,ooo pounds ' weyght of fyluer which was coyned to the Kynges vfe in the towre of London where neuer fo much hath byn feene at once as fuche as haue byn owlde officers in the mynte doo affirme.' It was brought there from Peru and Rio de la Plata, by the celebrated Spanish historian Augustin de Zarate ; whose Historia del descuhrimiento y com/uista del Peru was published at Antwerp in the next year.
It was probably after the formation of this acquaintanceship with Zarate, and while his great Collection, here reprinted, (itself an honour to the Spanish rmtion) was in the press ; that by the favour of certain Spanish nobles, Eden obtained a place in the English Treasury of the Prince of Spain.
1554. Oct. 11. The second expedition to Guinea leaves the River Thames, see/. 379. Oct. 12. The third edition of Gomara's Historia is finished at Saragossa. 1554. Nov. 28. The Council of State announce by letter, at Dr. Ched- sey's sermon at Paul's Cross, that the Queen is enceinte.
1554. Nov. 11. \ Parliament sits at Westminster.
1555. Jan. 16. ) Among other Acts passed by it, was the following short one. now known as I & 2 Philip and Mary, c. 6 — entulcd An Acte for renueng of three Eftatutes made for the punijliement of Herefiei: — " For th[e]exchuing and avoiding of Errouvs and Herefies which of late haue ryfen growen and much encreafed within this Realme, for that th[e]ordinaries haue wanted aucthoritee to procede agaynfte thos that were infected therwithe : Be it therfore ordeined and enacted by th[e]aucthorite of this prefente Parliament, That the Statute made in the fifthe yere of the Reigne of King Richarde the Seconde, concerning th[e]arre(ling and apprehencion of erronious and hereticall Preachers, And one other Statute made in the feconde yere of the Reigne of King Henrye the Fourlhe concerning the reprefling of Herefies and punifliment of Heretikes, And alfo one other Eftatute made in the feconde yere of the Reigne of King Henrye the Fiflhe, concerning the fuppreffion of Herefie and Lollardye, and euery Article, Branche and Sentence contained in the fame three feuerall Actes and every of them, fliall from the xxth day of lanuarj'e next coming [1555] be revived and beiin full force ftrengthe and effecte to all Intentes conftruccions and purpofes for ever." — Statutes of the Realm, iv. 244, ed. 1819.
1555. Jan. 1. The date of John Elder's letter describing the mar-
riage of the King and Queen in the previous July ; which letter was immediately printed. Jan. 20. The burning of Protestants becomes lawful on and
after this day, by the above Act of Parliament. Feb. 4. John Rogers, the first of the Marian martyrs, is burnt
at Smithficld. Feb. 6. The Moscovy Company is incoriJorated by Royat Charter: having for its Executive ; Sebastian Cabot, Governor ; four Consuls ; and twenty-four Assistants. Eden mast have watched the proceedings of this Company with the deepest interest. Indeed, it is probable that the entire section, Of Moscovie and Cathay (which has nothing whatever to do with the title-page or original plan of his Compilation ; at which he must have been working hard, all through this winter) was suggested by the return of Richard Chancellor and the subsequent Incorporation of this Company ; and put forth by him, as a goodwill ofiering towards their success and information. 1555. Feb. 8. Laurence Saunders is burnt at Coventry; and so the legalized religious massacre goes on.
xl
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden.
May 21. Is the latest actual date in Eden's Compilation, and therefore in the three Works here reprinted. It will be found towards the bottom of /. 382. On this day the English ships, returning on their way home from Guinea, were in 39° 30' N. At their rate of progress they could hardly have reached England before the end
July.* ofjuly.
Aug.* Therefore Section VII. of Eden's Compilation was
written and printed in August ; and, at the earliest, his newly printed Compilation and the printing of the entire book could hardly have been finished before
Sept.* September.
Immediately after which ; Thomas Watson, Bishop of
Lincoln,— the fellow-student of Roger Aschxun ; by
whom his Latin play of Absalom [? if the MS. is
now at Wilton House] is exceedingly praised in his Schoolmaster, 1570
— accuses Eden before Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, for heresy ; of
which his newly printed Compilation would afford ample evidence.
Oct. 24. Bishop Gardiner, however, dies ; and Eden somehow escapes punishment, with simply the loss of his ofSce : and then seems, for the next three years to be living in retirement ; his family steadily increasing all the while.
1556. Jan. 10. The printing of Martin Cortes' Breve compendw de la
sphera y de la arte de nauegar is finished at Seville. Nov. 7. Richard Chancellor, in the wreck of his ship the Philip and Mary in Pettislego Bay, Scotland, is drowned — while endeavouring in a boat to save the Russian Ambas- sador's life ; in accomplishing which, he loses his own.
1557. Feb. 27-28. Eden probably witnessed the splendid reception
by the Moscovy Company, of Osep Gregorevitch Napea, the first Russian Ambassador, on his arrival in London, for the frods verbal of which, see Hakluyt, Voyages, &'c., p. 321, Ed. 1589. From the omission in this notarial document of all allusion to Sebastian Cabot ; it is evident that he was but recently dead. For Eden's account of his death — the only one extant — see/, xlvii., col. 2. It probably occurred about this date : for when Eden, about the Summer of 155s, wrote the heading at p. 283, ' that woorthy owlde man Sebaflian Cabote, yet liuynge in Englande,' was still 'Gouernour of the coompany of the marchantes of Cathay.'
1558. Nov. 17. iEli)a%ct!) Burcrrlis to tfjc tljvonf.
We now come to the two earliest printed notices of Eden. His reputa- tion had travelled over the Continent to the English Protestant exiles in Switzerland ; and two of them thus vaguely and incorrectly refer to his literary labours, but give him the wrong Christian name.
1558. Lawrence Humphrey (who died Dean of Winchester, on I Feb. 1590), in his three books of Interpretatio linguarum, the Dedication of which is dated, Basiliae,
Feb. 3, 1559, thus refers to our Editor-Author, at/. 520. ' Petrum quoque Martyrem Arglerienscm Joannes Eden, Cosmographus et Alchumista uertit De insulis nuper invent is. '
1558. Ep. Bale, at/. 1 10 of his Supplement (written in 1558), to his Scriptorium illustrium, &■(. the printing of which was finished in Feb. 1559, 's a little more explicit ; but
still follows Humphrey closely. "Johannes Eden, Cosmographus et alchumista ut k quibusdam [i.e. L. Humphrey] narratur, ingeniosus ac peritissimus, inter alia scripsit £>e nauigaiionibus Portugalensium, Lib. I. [This is evidently Eden's first publication. Of the newe Indta."] Transtulit Petrum Martyrem Angleriensem. De insulis nuper imunlis. Lib. I. [or rather the Decades'], Aliaque fecit multa. Clariut anno Domini. 1556."
1559. Sept. The printingof the Third editionofGeminus'^n<j/(;//y,
iSr'c., ' enlarged, amplified, and fo corrected and diligently
perufed, that it maye seeme a newe worke, and rather an
other than it was before,' is finished. Richard Eden is, this time, the English
reviser ; and the fresh Dedication to the new Queen Is evidently written by
him for Geminus, as its smooth connected style abundantly demonstrates.
1561. Eden's next literary work seems to have been the
translation (and probably also, in part, the devising of
the numerous, and, for that time, difficult woodcuts of
this work of Martin Cortes' Arte de Navigar, at the expense of certain members of the Moscovy Company : towards which, Eden appears, at this time, to have stood in the same relation as Hakluyt did, fifty years later, to our East India Company. This work is remarkable not only for the num- ber of the wood engravings (some of them moveable) of different mathe- matical instruments ; but also for a small outline map of The Ninue IVorlde, or more properly of the North Atlantic basin. This is probably the earliest printed map of America ever produced in England : and is evidently copied from the original in Cortes' Compendio.
To this translation, Eden prefixed the following excellent Preface : in respect to which, it is significant to notice that Sebastian Cabot's name is omitted from the inscription.
To the ryght worjhypfull fyr VVyllyam Garrerd Knyght, and Majltr Thomas Lodge, Aldermen of the Cilie of London, and Couernours of the honorable felmo/hyp or focietie, afwell ofcerteine of tlu Nobilitie, as of Marchauntes aduenturers,for the difcouery of La/tdes, Territories, Ilandes, and Seignories vnknowen, and not before their firfl aduenture or enterprife by Seas or Nauigalions commonly frequented :
And to the right -worfhypfuU the Confulles, Affflentes, and com- minaltie of the fame focietie, Richarde Edett wyf/heth health and profperitie.
Hat foeuer he was (ryght honorable and worfhypfuU) that fyrfte beleued that the frame and coaptacion of the bodye of man, with the functions, offices, and duities of the partes and members of the fame, knytte together in a certen vnitie to a common minlftration, dyd reprefent a lyuely Image and fimilitude of a ];erfecte common wealth : I thynke that he was a man of no vulgare iudgement or abiecte mynde, but rather of finguler wyfdome and prudence in the contemplacion of Diuine and humane thynges. For he fawe, that as in the fmall natiue feede of all growyng or lyuing thinges, is conteyned the fourme that bryngeth them to theyr perfection : fo in certeyne fmall and obfcure members of the common wealth, confifteth no fmall increafe to the perfection of the whole. He fawe lykewyfe that herein, as in the bodye of man reprefentyng the partes and members of the worlde (as I haue fayde) are dyuers partes of dyuers and fundrye actions and motions, greatly dyfferyng in fourme, number, and quantitie, yet all the fame to be fo knytte together, and fo to confent in one vniformitle to the common profyte of the whole, that a greater Concorde and harmonye can not be imagined, then is proportioned by the frendly vnitie of dyuers and contrarye. He fawe lyke- \vyfe in the fame, fuch a mutuall compaffion of parte to parte, and member to member, by one common fence exiftent in them all, that no one part or member can feele eyther ioye or payne, but that in maner all the other are parttakers therof more or leffe, yf they be lyuely members, and not wythered or otherwyfe vnfenfate by reafon of dead flefhe, which onely by cuttyng and burning ought to be deuyded from the founde and whole. But as in man (whom Plato calleth the leffe world) the vigour and agilitie of the immortall foule and mynde, neuer ceaffeth from continuall mouyng, but is euer exercyfed in excogitacions and inuen- tions of great thinges (herein refemblyng God, whofe caracte it beareth) by prouidence forefeing, and by intelligence vnderftandyng and deuyfyng what is to be done, and what to be efchewed, Joth immediatly moue and rayfe vp the faculties, powres, and members of the body to execute the fame : Euen fo in the greater worlde, the prouidence of God, and vniuerf- all counfayle and confent of men, hath elected and appoynted certen prin- cipall men, to beare lyke rule and auctorllie in the bodye of the common wealth, as hath the intellecliue foule in the members of our bodye to moue and commaunde the fame. To Princes therefore counfaylours, rulers, gouemours and maglftrates, as to the mod intellectiue and fenfitiue partes of the focietie of men, hath God and nature geuen preeminence and gouem- aunce of the common wealth, that by theyr prouidence, wyfdome, and ayde, it may vniuerfally florylh, not onely by iufte adminiftration of good lawes, with due correction of malefactours, but alfo by lyberall rewardyng of fuche as haue well deferued : and efpecially by maintenaunce of fuche artes and fciences, as the common wealth can not well be without. And to draw nearer to the applyinge of my fimilitude : I faye, that whatfoeuer vertue, whatfoeuer arte, or the ingenious induftry of men hath to this day I inuented, all the Came is to be imputed to the beneuolence and liberalitie
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden.
xli
of fuche as haue honourablye maintayned and freelye rewarded the trauay- les, paynes, and charges of them that haue fpente theyr lyues, goodes, and wyttes (as many haue done) in the inuentions of neceffarye and profytable artes and fciences. For euen as holfome and temperate ayre with feafon- able wether and fauorable influence of the heauens and pianettes, caufeth fruitefulnes on the earth, and contrary wyfe, barenneffe by thecontrarye : Euen fo the fauour of Princes and Magiftrates norytheth, augmenteth, and amp- lyfyeth all artes and fciences by liberalitie, and extynguylheth the fame by miferable couetoufnes and parcimonie. And althoughe in fome men of rare and noljle nature, the defyre of honour and fame onely for vertues fake, and ftudy toward theyr countrye and common wealth, hath moued them in maner to theyr owne vndoyng through theyr greate loffe and hynderaunce, to fette foorth and inuent diuers thynges for the commoditie of the common wealth and other, rather then for theyr owne : yet vndoubt- edly, who fo wel confidereth and indifferently wayeth that I haue fayde, fhal fynde and fee by daylye experience, that in maner onely munificence, liberalitie, and rewarde, or the hope thereof, geueth fpurres to them that attempte great and vertuous enterprifes, as I coulde more largely proue by fo many teftimonies of Hyftories, both holy and prophane, that the rehear- fall therof fhoulde be but tedious and not greatelye necefiarye for my purpofe, efpecially wrytyng vnto your honoures and worihyps, of whofe munificence and li1)eralitie, I haue had great experience, bothe in my felfe and others, who by your ayde and mainteynaunce haue attempted and per- fourmed many goodly inuentions, viages, nauigations and difcoueries of landes and Seas heretofore vnknowen. Wherein, what great charges you haue fufleyned, and howe lyberall and conflant you haue ben in furtherynge the fame, doth well declare that hyther to you are rather lofers than gayners therby. The whiche thyng doubtelelTe is the more to your commendation, in that it maye hereby appeare that you haue attempted the fame rather for knowledge and vertues fake, then for couetoufnes of gaynes : as is furthermore well knowen by your fyrfle viages of difcouerye attempted to Cathaye by the Northeafl feas, vpon certen loffe and detriment, for vncer- teyne hope eyther of gaynes, or of any fuch way to be founde, otherwyfe then by certen lykely coniectures : not much vnlyke to the (hynyng flowres • of Marchafites, which outwardly appearyng in minerall mountaynes, are fignes and token wherby is coniectured what metal is conteyned therein, and whether the fame is to be folowed or not. And although it fometyme fo chaance that fuch fignes are fayleable, ihewyng more in appearaunce then they conteyne in fubflaunce : yet are not fuch fignes tokens, or (hewes to be contemned, but rather eameftly to be folowed, forafmuch as it hath ben often proued and founde by experience, that by folowyng the fame, haue ben founde great and riche mynes of metalles : as Ceorgius Agricola in his bookes De rebus melallicis, doth largely declare and proue by manye examples. But to wryte at large what greate thynges haue proccaded of fmall and obfcure begynninges, and in maner mere coniectures : it woulde fo farre exceade the meafure of an Epiftle or Preface, that it woulde rather increafe to the iuft quantitie of a booke. For in maner all the late dif- coueries both of the Spanyardes and Portugales, had theyr begynnyng of fuch fmall coniectures, with vncerteyne hope (as it were prefer fpem fub fpe) vntyll God and good happe, by the conflant trauayle and valiaunt mynde of fuch as fyrfl attempted the fame, gaue them to enioye that they hoped for. But whatfoeucr they haue obteyned and do enioy, this may I boldly fay in your behalf (right honorable and worfltipfull) that there hath not lacked in you eyther the lyke or greater promptnefle of mynde, forwardnes in attemptyng, magnificence in expences, and liberall in rewardes. For befyde the great charges and loffes that you haue ben at otherwyfe, what ihould I fpeake of the great gyftes that you haue fente to the Emperour of Ruflia? What of your laft chargeable vyage of difcouerye among the innumerable Rockes, Ilandes, and moueable mountaynes of Ice in the frofen fea, by innumerable landes and Ilandes vnknowen to the Antiques, euen vnder and farre within and beyonde the circle Artike, where they thought that no lyuynge creature coulde drawe breath or Hue for extreme colde : wheras neuerthelefle the fame hath ben by you difcouered euen vnto the myghtyc ryuer of Ob, that falleth into the Scithian Ocean, or Oceanus Hyperborcm, not farr from the mountaynes called Hyperborei, fo named becaufe they are fituate almofl vnder the North pole, and thought therfore to be inaccelfable. A vyage doubtlefle of fuch difficultie and in maner impoffibilitie, that confyderyng the infinite daungiours therof (as I haue learned by th[c]information of Steuen a Burrough, that was then the chiefe
Pilote of the fame vyage) it may feme impoffible that they (lioulde euer haue efcaped, excepte the myghtye hande of God, by the experte Ikylful- neffe of fo excellent a Pilot, had delyuered them from thofe daungers. And although in dede (as religion byndeth vs) it is conuenient in all thynges to geue all honour, glorye and thankes to God, yet are we not thereby reftrayned to be thankfuU to fuch men, as by theyr arte, ingeniouf- nes, trauayle, and diligence, haue deferued both iufte commendation and large rewarde. And therfore referryng the rewarde to you (ryght honorable and worlhypfull, to whom it apperteyneth) yf I Ihould not here geue hym at the leafte fuche commendation, as in my iudgement he hath well deferued, I myght feme both to defraude hym of his worthye defertes, and alfo to forgette the frendffiyp and good wyll I beare hym, onely for his vertues and excellencie in his profeffion. For certeynly when I confider how indigent and deftitute this Realm is of excellent and expert Pilottes, I can do no leffe of confcience, then in refpect of your owne commoditie, yea rather for the commoditie of the Queenes Maieftie and the whole Realme, to exhort you and put you in remembraunce (although I may herein feme to put the fpurres to a nmnyng horfe, as faith the Prouerbe) fo to regard hym and efleme hym and his faythfuU, true, and painefull feruice towarde you, that he maye thereby be further encouraged, and not difcouragefl, eyther for lacke of maintenaunce, or other wyfe by the iniurious affaultes of fuch his enemies, as onely his vertues and excellencie haue moued to beare hym difpleafure, as enuye doth euer folowe vertue, as faith the Latine Prouerbe, Virtuti comes inuidia. And howe true a fentence this is, is well verified by the faying of a certayne Philofopher (whofe name I do not remember) who hearynge one vaynely reioyce that he had no enemies, aunfwered that that was a token he hadde done lyttle good : Meanyng thereby (as dayly experience proueth) that yf he had excelled in any vertue, he coulde not haue lacked fome enemies. And hauyng here touched to fpeake of enuye, I remember that when I was a yonge fcoler, I haue read in the Poet Hefiodus of two kyndes of enuye, whereof the one is called Inuidia, and the other Aemulatio, which is more tollerable then the fyrfte, for that it is ioyned with fome vertue, and enuyeth that anye (houlde excell hym in any excellent qualitie that he profelTeth. But forafmuch as this enuy of emulation proceadeth of fome finguler vertue of them that are fo maliced, they maye herein reioyce, that they (hall euer haue a hundreth frendes for one enemie : yea and although they hadde none, yet is vertue a rewarde to it felfe, and to be embrafed for it felfe onelye, as the Philo- fophers affirme. What then (hall we fay to fuch, as forgettyng this rewarde of vertue, do not onely [not] fauour, but rather hynder the preferment and mayntenaunce of fuch experte men, more edemyng certayne Fydiermen that go a trawlyng for fy(he in Catches or mongers, and dradgies for Oyftere about the fandes, betwene the South furlande and Wyntcrton neflfe, and the fandes about Temmes mouth, then they do fuche excellent Pylotes as are able without any Rutter or Carde of Nauigation, not onlye to attempte longe and farre viages, but alfo to difcouer vnknowen landes and Ilandes, as haue doone of late yeares many excellent men, to the great honour and enrychyng of their Prynce and countrye. But as touching Steuen A Bur- rough, the chiefe Pylote of your viagies of difcouery, it may hereby well appeare yat he is neyther malicious nor enuious of his arte and fcience, in that he defireth ye fame for the common profite to be commen to al men : And for the fame intent was the fyrfl that moued certen worfliypfull of your company, as Syr William Garrerd, Maifter William Mericke, Maifter Blafe Sanders, and Maifter Edwarde Caftlen, to haue this worke trandated into the Englilh tongue. Who of their own good nature fauouryng al vertuous ftudies and the profefiburs of the fame, did fone incline to his honeft requeft herein : and therewith not only defired me, but alfo with liberall rewarde enterteined me, to take in hande the trandation. Whiche being nowe finiflied as well as my poore leamyng may perfourme, I defyre your honours and worlhyppes, to accepte in as good parte as I haue ment herein to gratifie you, and doe fuche feruice as my abilitie may fuffice. Nowe ther- fore this worke of the art of Nauigation, beyng publyfiied in our vulgar tongue, you may be affured to haue more ftore of (kylful Pilotes. Pilotes (I faie) not Pirottes, Rulers, not Rouers, but fuche as by their honeft behauour and conditions ioyned with arte and experience, may doe you honeft and true feruice : whiche is not to be looked for of fuche as beynge deftitute as well of the feare of God as of all moral vertues, fuperbounde in all notorious vyces, accoumpting defperatnelfe for boklneffe, raflinelTe for
hardinede, impudencie for ftoutnefie, and crueltie for nianhod. What other
xU
xlii
The Life and Labours of Richard Eden.
thyng (I faye) is to bee looked for of fuche, then of fuche trees fuch fruites, E,t mali corui malum ouum. But for as muche as thefe haue no place appointed them in the bodie of our common wealth, whiche we haue here before compared to the members of the bodie of man : therefore are they no otherwyfe to be eftemed then as excrementes of the bodye, to whom nature hath appointed no place in the fame, but laboureth continuallye to cad them forth dyuers wayes, leafte by theyr filthyneffe they (hould infecte the other members, euen as the pompe of the (hyppe if it be not auoyded, is noyous to the fhippe and all that are therein. But the wyfe and honed Pylot, fyrft hauyng before his eyes the feare of God, and puttynjj his chief truft in hym, (hall fecondarely truft to his arte and fcience, without any fuche vayne obferuations as the fuperftitious Horofcopers (Aftrologiers I meane, and not Aftronomers) are accuftomed to vfe in the elections of houres, tymes, and dayes, by conftellations and afpectes of the Starres and Planetes, as many fonde menne haue doone, thynkynge thereby to haue efcaped fuche daungers, as they haue thereby the rather fallen into, throughe contempte of arte and fcience by folyflie confidence in fuperftitious Aftro- logie : which for the vanitie and vncertaintie thereof, the ryght wordiyp- full and of fmgular leamynge in all fciences, Syr Thomas Smyth, in my tyme the floure of the Vniuerfitie of Cambridge, and fometyme my Tutor, was accuftomed to call In^enioJiJ/imam artem mentiendi. (That is) the mofte ingenious arte of lyinge. Omitting therefore the fuperftitious and phanta- fticall obferuations of the iudicials of Aftrologie, it (halbe better and more neceffary for all Pylotes that defyre to excelle in theyr profeflTion, to leame and obferue the principles of thys booke, whereby they may haue fuche knowledge of the Sphere, as may inftructe them the makynge and vfe of dyuers goodly Aftronomicall inftrumentes perteyninge to the arte of Naui- gation, by knowledge of the mouynges of the Sunne and Moone in their Spheres, and the other Planetes and fixte Starres : thereby to attayne to the true knowledge of houres, tymes and tydes, with the variation of the Compafle, and many other goodly naturall obferuations of weathers, tempeftes, and calmes, by certain infaileable fygnes and tokens of the fame, very neceffary to be obferued. And this by the true principles ofAftro- nomie and not of Aftrologie. And this is the true Aftronomie wherof the Diuine Philofopher Plato hathe wrytten fo diuine a fentcnce, that I haue thoughte the fame here worthy to be alleaged, that by the auctho- ritie of fo famous an aucthour, we maye knowe what is true Aftronomie, with the vfe and commoditie therof. Therfore in his booke intituled Timeus vel De Nutura, thefe are his wordes. Rerum autem optimarum cognitioncm, nobis oculi attiikiunt. Nam hac qua: de mundo difpuiantur, nuiujuam inucnta fuijfent, fi ueque fydira, ncque Sol, neque Calum fuffici potuijfct. Coipt'Uio vero did ac noctis, ab oculis orta, fecit vt dimenftone quadem, me7ifium annorumque ambitus metiremur, iempus cogitofcerepnus, ac vniuerftc natura: ordinan fcrutaremur. Quibus ex rebus,