aide 5000. foote and 1000. horse at her owne charge to be by them after repayed the first yeares charges in the first yeare of peace the rest in the foure following Flushing and the Ramekins and Brill to remaine â—ers in caution c. Her Maiestie set forth a Booke also for her iustification by the ancient leagues with the Belgian Prouinces for mutuall defence the Spanish crueltie on the poore Belgians and their nefarious deuises against her neither had she any intent in administring these aides but that the Low-Countries might enioy their ancient liberty she and her subiects their securitie and both Nations peaceable commerce And to the end that warre might not first be brought home to her owne doores she set forth a Fleete to finde the Spaniard worke abroad Hereupon Anâ—o 1585. Sir Francis Drake with a Fleete of fiue and twenty saile and 2300. Souldiers and Sailers was set forth from Plimmouth Sep. 12. Christopher Carlile his Lieutenent Generall Anthonie Powell Sergeant Maior Captaine Matthew Morgan and Iohn Samson Corporall of the field Land Captaines Anthonie Plat Edward Winter Iohn Goring Robert Pen George Barton Iohn Merchant William Ceuill Walter Bigs Iohn Haman Richard Stanton Captaine Martin Frobisher Viceadmirall in the Primrose Captaine Francis Knolles Rereadmirall in the Gallion Leicester Captaine Thomas Vennâ—r in the Eliz. Bonaduenture vnder the Generall Captaine Edward Winter in the Aide Christopher Carlile in the Tigre Henry White Captain of the Sea Dragon Thomas Drake Captaine of the Thomas Thomas Seely Captaine of the Minion Captaine Bayly of the Barke Talbot Robert Crosse of the Barke Bond George Fortescue of the Barke Boner Edward Carelesse of the Hope Iames Erizo of the White Lyon Thomas Moone of the Fancis Iohn Riuers of the Vantage Iohn Vaughan of the Drake Iohn Varney of the George Iohn Martin of the Beniamin Richard Gilman of the Scout Richard Hawkins of the Ducke Captaine Bitfield of the Swallow They tooke a Shippe of Saint Sebastians laden with fish entred the Iles of Bayon and sent to the Citie to know whether there were warres betwixt England and Spaine and why the English Merchants and their goods in Spaine were embarged or arrested The Gouernour professed his ignorance in both and that this later was the Kings pleasure After some spoiles done about Vigo they fell with Hierro but the Iland being poore departed without harme Thence they went to the Iles of Cape Verde and at Saint Iago entred betwixt the Towne called Playa or Praya and Saint Iago landed 1000. men and the men being fled entred the Towne and shot off all their Ordnance being 50. peeces answered from the Ships to honour the Queenes day the 17. of Nouember No Treasure was found but Wine Oyle Meale c. They possessed it foureteene dayes Nouember the foure and twentieth they marched to Saint Domingo twelue miles within land and found the people fled After foureteene dayes they departed hauing burned the Towne of Playa none of the inhabitants hauing offered to intercede which seemed to happen from their guiltinesse towards old Master William Hawkins whose men perfidiously they had murthered foure or fiue yeares before against their promise putting off to the West Indies they could not put off the effects of the aire of that Iland which by a Calentura killed two or three hundred of their men The first Iland which they fell with was Dominica the next Saint Christophers and hauing there spent their Christmas they resolued for Hispaniola and hauing receiued intelligence by a Frigot which they tooke in the way they landed nine or ten miles to the Westward of Saint Domingo on New yeares day About noone they approached the Towne vnder the conduct of Master Carlile and 150. horsemen presenting themselues from the Citie being retired they diuided their forces to assault both the Westerne gates at once The Ordnance being discharged on them they ran in to preuent a second charge and entred with them pell mell into the Gates the enemy altering their fight into flight which they made by the North gate Both troopes met in the Market-place and there barricadoed themselues The Castle was abandoned the next night They held the Towne a whole moneth They burned many houses before they could bring the Spaniards to a price for the ransome of the rest for which at last they paid after much spoile 25000. Duckets The pray was not much In the Towne-house were the Kings armes and in the lower part of the scutchion was painted a globe of the Sea and Land a horse standing thereon with his hinder legges the forepart without the globe with this motto ascribed to his mouth Non sufficit Orbis From Saint Domingo they set saile for Carthagena on the Continent landing some Companies with Captaine Carlile fiue miles of which were led on by night the Generall with this Fleete presenting themselues before the chained Port and hauing gotten the Citie held the same six weekes They tooke Alonso Brauo the Gouernour After many houses burned 11000. Duckets were paid for ransome of the rest from burning The Calentura continued killing some being a pestilent spotted Feuer and spoyling others of their strength and memory for a long time The Serena or Euening ayre is said to cause it to them which are then abroad if not of that Countrey so that by holding their watch the English were thus infected This forced them to giue ouer their intended voyage to Nombre de Dios and Panama sailing therefore alongst the coast of Florida they tooke and fired two garrison Townes of the Spaniards Saint Anthonie and Saint Helena and the Fort of Saint Iohn Then passing alongst the Virginian shore they tooke home the English Colonie there remaining with Master Lane their Gouernour sent by Sir Walter Raleigh These are said by Master Camden to haue beene the first bringers in of the vse of Tobacco since so frequently abused by our Nation They arriued at Portsmouth the 28. of Iuly 1586. They got Ordnance of Brasse aboue 200. peeces and about 40. of Iron They prey was valued at 60000. li. English There dyed most of the Calentura 700. persons The industry of the Generall in all places is remakeable whose vigilance and bodily presence and labour in all businesse was much that had he beene in the meanest he had merited the highest place To this is fittest in next place to adde his Cadiz exploit Anno 1587. and the taking of the rich Caracke called Saint Philip. HEr Maiestie being informed of that inuincible Armadas preparing in Spaine which did come and was ouercome the yeare after sent a fleete of 30. saile vnder the command of Sir Francis Drake the Bonaduenture the Lyon the Dread-naught and the Rainbow were out of her Nauy Royall chosen to this seruice The 16. of Aprill two Shippes of Midleborough which came from Cadiz with whom we met in 40. degrees gaue him to vnderstand that there was great
for discouering and peopling of vnknowne parts not actually possessed by any Christian Prince dated March 25. A. Reg. 26. The 27. of Aprill 1584. he set forth two Barkes vnder the command of Master Phillip Amadas and Master Arthur Barlow which arriued on that part of America which that Virgin Queene stiled Virginia and thereof in her Maiesties name tooke possession Iuly 13. and hauing taken view and liking of the Countrey and had conference and trade with the Sauages obseruing aboue foureteene seuerall sweete smelling timber trees and many other commodities they returned with two of the Sauages Wanchese and Manteo and arriued in England in September Aprill 9. 1585. Sir Richard Greeneuile was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh with a fleete of seuen saile which landed in the I le of Saint Iohn Port Ricco May 12. and there fortified themselues and built a Pinnace The Spaniard promised to furnish them with victuals but did not whereupon they tooke two Frigates In Hispaniola they had friendly greetings and trade Iune 26. they anchored at Wocokon where by the vnskilfulnesse of Fernando the Master their Admirall strooke on ground and sunke In the 25. of Iuly the Generall returned for England and tooke a Spanish Ship of three hundred tunne richly Iaden by the way boording her with a Boate made of the boords of Chests which as soone as hee had boorded her fell in sunder and sunke at the Ships side In the Countrie was a Colonie left vnder the gouernment of Master Ralph Lane viz Master Phillip Amadas Master Hariot Master Acton Master Edward Stafford Master Prideox Captaine Vaughan and aboue a hundred others Master Lane writ from his new Fort in Virginia that if Uirginia had Kine and Horses in reasonable proportion no Countrie in Christendome were comparable to it They discouered from Roanoak to the Chesepians aboue one hundred and thirty miles to Chawanock North-West as farre The Sauages conspired against the English the principall was Pemisapan who lost his head in the quarrell in the beginning of Iune 1586. and Sir Francis Drake comming thither from the sacke of diuers Spanish Townes to visite the Colony on the nineteenth tooke the Colony with him in his victorious Fleete and brought them into Englaâ—d The same yeere had Sir Walter Raleigh prepared a ship of a hundred tun fraught with prouision for the Colonie which setting forth late arriued at Hartoraske immediatly after the departure of the Colonie which hauing sought in vaine she returned with her prouisions for England About a fortnight after her departure Sir Richard Greeneuile Generall of Virginia accompanied with three Ships arriued there and neither hearing of the Ship nor of the Colonie which he had left there the yeare before after long and vaine search he left fifteene men to hold possession of the Countrie in the I le of Roanoak furnished for two yeares and returned by the way making spoyle on the Townes of the Azores and there taking diuers Spaniards Master Thomas Hariot writ a large History of the Men Beasts Fishes Fowles Plants and Commodities of Virginia subscribed also by Master Ralph Lane extant in Master Hackluit his third Tome In the yeare 1587. Sir Walter Raleigh continuing his purpose of Plantation sent another Colonie of one hundred and fiftie persons vnder the gouernment of Master Iohn White to him he appointed twelue Assistants vnto whom he gaue a Charter and incorporated them by the name of Gouernour and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh in Virginia These arriued on Iuly 22. at Hatoraske where they went on shore to seeke the fifteene men left there the yeare before with intent after to plant at the Bay of Chesepiok according to Sir Walter Raleigh his directions there to make their feate and Fort. By Manteo they learned how the Sauages had secretly assalted the fifteene English and slaine some the other being forced to flee it was not knowne whither Manteo was Christened and by Sir Walter Raleighs direction made Lord of Roanoak Mistris Dare the Gouernours daughter was deliuered of a daughter which was baptised by the name of Uirginia The Company were very important with the Gouernour to returne for England to supply their defects to which with much vnwillingnesse he yeelded Aug. 27. and Octob. 16. arriued in Ireland and after in England Anno 1590. the said Master Iohn White put to Sea with Ships and two Pinnaces with purpose for Virginia where they anchored at Hatorask in 36. 20. Aug. 15. They found some of the goods such as the Sauages could not make vse of and tokens as if they were at Croatoan but the winds violence permitted no further search and they returned to the Azores and after to England arriuing at Plimmouth Octob. 24. Master BARTHOLOMEVV GOSNOLDS Letter to his Father touching his first Voyage to Virginia 1602. MY duetie remembred c. Sir I was in good hope that my occasions would haue allowed mee so much libertie as to haue come vnto you before this time otherwise I would haue written more at large concerning the Countrie from whence we lately came then I did but not well remembring what I haue already written though I am assured that there is nothing set downe disagreeing with the truth I thought it fittest not to goe about to adde any thing in writing but rather to leaue the report of the rest till I come my selfe which now I hope shall be shortly and so soone as with conueniency I may In the meane time notwithstanding whereas you seeme not to be satisfied by that which I haue already written concerning some especiall matters I haue here briefely and as well as I can added these few lines for your further satisfaction and first as touching that place where we were most resident it is in the Latitude of 41. degrees and one third part which albeit it be so much to the Southward yet is it more cold then those parts of Europe which are scituated vnder the same paralell but one thing is worth the noting that notwithstanding the place is not so much subiect to cold as England is yet did we finde the Spring to be later there then it is with vs here by almost a moneth this whether it hapned accidentally this last Spring to be so or whether it be so of course I am not very certaine the latter seemes most likely whereof also there may be giuen some sufficient reason which now I omit as for the Acornes we saw gathered on heapes they were of the last yeare but doubtlesse their Summer continues longer then ours We cannot gather by any thing we could obserue in the people or by any triall we had thereof our selues but that it is as healthfull a Climate as any can be The Inhabitants there as I wrote before being of tall stature comely proportion strong actiue and some of good yeares and as it should seeme very healthfull are sufficient proofe of the
so sawcy with my Tobacco which words without any further repetition he suddenly spake so plaine and distinctly as if hee had beene a long Scholer in the Language Many other such trials wee had which are here needlesse to repeat Their women such as wee saw which were but three in all were but lowe of stature their eye-browes haire apparell and manner of wearing like to the men fat and very well-fauoured and much delighted in our companie the men are very dutifull towards them And truly the wholsomnesse and temperature of this Climate doth not onely argue this people to be answerable to this description but also of a perfect constitution of body actiue strong healthfull and very witty as the sundry toyes of theirs cunningly wrought may easily witnesse For the agreeing of this Climate with vs I speake of my selfe and so I may iustly doe for the rest of our companie that we found our health and strength all the while we remayned there so to renew and encrease as notwithstanding our diet and lodging was none of the best yet not one of our companie God be thanked felt the least grudging or inclination to any disease or sicknesse but were much fatter and in better health than when we went out of England but after our Barke had taken in so much Sassafras Cedar Furres Skinnes and other commodities as were thought conuenient some of our companie that had promised Captaine Gosnold to stay hauing nothing but a sauing voyage in their mindes made our companie of Inhabitants which was small enough before much smaller so as Captaine Gosnold seeing his whole strength to consist but of twelue men and they but meanly prouided determined to returne for England leauing this Iland which he called Elizabeths Iland with as many true sorrowfull eyes as were before desirous to see it So the eighteenth of Iune being Friday we weighed and with indifferent faire winde and weather came to anchor the three and twentieth of Iuly being also Friday in all bare fiue weekes before Exmouth Your Lordships to command IOHN BRERETON A briefe Note of such commodities as we saw in the Countrie notwithstanding our small time of stay TRees Sassafras trees the roots whereof at three shillings the pound are three hundred thirty sixe pound the tunne Cedars tall and straight in great abundance Cypres trees Oakes Wal-nut trees great store Elmes Beech Hollie Hasle-nut trees Cherrie trees Cotton trees and other fruit-trees to vs vnknowne The finder of our Sassafras in these parts was one Master Robert Meriton Fowles Eagles Hernshawes Cranes Bitters Mallards Teales Geese Pengwins Ospreis and Hawkes Crowes Rauens Mewes Doues Sea-pies Black-birds with carnation wings Beasts Deere in great store very great and large Beares Luzernes blacke Foxes Beauers Otters Wilde-cats very large and great Dogs like Foxes blacke and sharpe nosed Conies Fruits Plants and Herbes Tabacco excellent sweet and strong Vines more plenty than in France Ground-nuts good meate and also medicinable Strawberries Rasp-berries Gooseberries Hurtleberries Pease growing naturally Flaxe Iris Florentina whereof Apothecaries make sweet balls Sorrell and many other herbes where with they made Sallets Fishes Whales Tortoises both on Land and Sea Seales Cods Mackerell Breames Herrings Thornbacke Hakes Rock-fish Dog-fish Lobsters Crabbes Mussels Wilkes Cockles Scallops Oysters Snakes foure foot in length and sixe inches about which the Indians eate for dainty meate the skinnes whereof they vse for girdles Colours to die with red white and blacke Mettals and Stones Copper in great abundance Emerie stones for Glasiers and Cutlers Alabaster very white Stones glittering and shining like Minerall stones Stones of a blue mettalline colour which we take to bee Steele oare Stones of all sorts for buildings Clay red and white which may proue good Terra Sigillata A briefe Note of the sending another Barque this present yeere 1602. by Sir WALTER RALEIGH for the searching out of his Colonie in Virginia SAmuel Mace of Weimouth a very sufficient Mariner an honest sober man who had beene at Uirginia twice before was employed thither by Sir Walter Raleigh to finde those people which were left there in the yeere 1587. To whose succour he hath sent fiue seuerall times at his owne charges The parties by him set forth performed nothing some of them following their owne profit elsewhere others returning with friuolous allegations At this last time to auoide all excuse hee bought a Barke and hired all the companie for wages by the moneth who departing from Weimouth in March last 1602. fell fortie leagues to the South-westward of Hataraske in 34. degrees or thereabout and hauing there spent a moneth when they came along the coast to seeke the people they did it not pretending that the extremitie of weather and losse of some principall ground-tackle forced and feared them from searching the Port of Hataraske to which they were sent From that place where they abode they brought Sassafras Radix Chinae or the China Root Beniamin Cassia lignea and a rind of a tree more strong than any Spice as yet vnknowne with diuers other commodities which hereafter in a larger discourse may come to light CHAP. XII A Voyage set out from the Citie of Bristoll at the charge of the chiefest Merchants and Inhabitants of the said Citie with a small Ship and a Barke for the discouerie of the North part of Virginia in the yeere 1603. vnder the command of me MARTIN PRINGE VPon many probable and reasonable inducements vsed vnto sundry of the chiefest Merchants of Bristoll by Master Richard Hakluyt Prebendary of Saint Augustines the Cathedrall Church of the said Citie after diuers meetings and due consultation they resolued to set forth a Voyage for the farther Discouerie of the North part of Uirginia And first they sent the said Master Hakluyt accompanied with one Master Iohn Angell and Master Robert Saltern which had beene in the said Discouerie the yeere before with Captaine Bar tholomew Gosnold to obtaine permission of Sir Walter Raleigh which had a most ample Patent of all those parts from Queene Elizabeth to entermeddle and deale in that action Leaue being obtained of him vnder his hand and Seale they speedily prepared a small ship called the Speed-well in burthen about fiftie tunnes manning the same with some thirtie men and Boyes wherein went for Master and chiefe Commander in the Voyage one Martin Pring a man very sufficient for his place and Edmund Iones his Mate and Robert Salterne aboue mentioned as their chiefe Agent with a Barke called the Discouerer of six and twentie tunnes or thereabout wherein went for Master William Browne and Samuell Kirkland his Mate both good and skilfull Mariners being thirteene men and a Boy in all in that Barke The aforesaid ship and Barke were plentifully victualied for eight monethes and furnished with slight Merchandizes thought fit to trade with the people of the Countrey as Hats of diuers colours greene blue and yellow apparell of coarse Kersie and Canuasse readie made Stockings
any of his traine should haue cause to be ashamed of vs for vndertaking that in the face of our Enemies which we durst not follow and performe And therefore told those Captaines that hee would first attempt to win a landing and then after if they could but second him ashoare with two hundred men more hee would vndertake to lodge them that night in the Towne and the next night after in the Forts These Captaines were all glad of the newes and promised to come after vs if we would send our Boates for them for most of their Ships had lost their Boates with foule weather This order and direction being giuen we hasted as fast as our Oares could ply without the company of any Low Countrie Souldiers being as I said two hundred and sixty strong and the enemy more then the double as many to the landing place which was first guarded with a mighty ledge of Rockes some forty paces long into the Sea and afterwards trenched and flanked with earth and stone and onely a narrow lane betweene two wals left for our Entrance But withall we caused some of our Pinnaces that carried Ordnance to lye as close to the shoare as they could to flanke and beate vpon them in their trenches a little before and iust as wee made our approach which we found to good purpose and as well performed especially by one Captaine Banker in a fine Flee Boate of the Flemmish Squadron But if there had bin but one hundred Low Countrie Spaniards at that defence it had cost many of our liues yet perhaps haue missed our purpose too For a small company with any resolution might haue made good that place against a farre greater force then ours were at that time But as we made onwards with our Boats the shot plaied so thicke vpon vs as that in truth the Mariners would scarce come forwards hauing the lesser liking to the businesse the neerer they came to it And in like sort did I see some there stagger and stand blanke that before made great shewes and would gladly be taken for valiant Leaders and some of these our Reare Admirall did not spare to call vpon openly and rebuke aloud with disgracefull words seeing their basenesse And withall finding a generall amazement amongst the Mariners and as it were a stay amongst all the Boates well p 〈…〉 ceiuing that this manner of houering was both more disgracefull and also more vnsafe lying so open to the enemies shot which through feare and amazement the Mariners and Rowers neither obserued nor vnderstood with a loud voice commanded his Watermen to rowe in full vpon the Rockes and bad as many as were not afraid to follow him Hereupon some Boates ran in with vs and out of them there landed Master Garret a Pentioner now Earle of Kildare a Noble and valiant Gentleman Sir William Brooke Sir William Haruey Sir Iohn Scot Master Duke Brooke Captaine Henry Thinne Captaine White Master Thomas Rugeway Master Walter Chute Captaine Arthur Radford Master Henry Allen. Captaine William Morgan Master Charles Mackart and diuers other Gentlemen whose names I would not omit if I could call them all to minde And so clambring ouer the rockes and wading through the water we passed pell mell with Swords Shot and Pikes vpon the narrow Entrance Whereupon those that were at the defence after some little resistance began to shrinke and then seeing vs to come faster on vpon them suddenly retiring cast away their weapons turned their backes and fled and the like did the rest in the higher Trenches and quickly recouered the hils and the woods being a people very swift and nimble of foote for we could take none of them but such as after yeelded vnto vs. And as for their Auncients we could not recouer one for the Horsemen that they had carried them cleane away And in this sort we gained both our landing and our Enemies Trenches In which attempt some few men were drowned and slaine diuers hurt and two long Boates bulged and lost And after that we saw all things cleare we assembled our Troopes together and refreshed ourselues with such comfort as we had there which done we sent backe our Boates for those Low Countrie Captaines afterward who vpon their arriuall congratulated our good successe in taking so strong a peece of ground fortified and guarded with so many men When these Captaines were come vnto vs we then tooke our selues to be a prettie Armie being then in strength to the number of foure hundred and sixtie well armed and appointed whereof there were of Captaines and Gentlemen of good sort thirty or forty which gaue great life to the businesse And hauing done so much already we then thought it the best way to goe through with the matter and to prepare the Towne in a readinesse for our Generall and to make our selues Burgesses thereof in the meane season and therefore our Reare Admirall appointed Captaine Bret to vse the Office of Sergeant Maior and gaue direction to the other Captaines to aduance their Colours and to call their Companies together in a readinesse and so putting our Troopes in order we marched directly toward the Towne where by the way diuers of these same very Spaniards and Portugals that a little before so braued vs came and rendred themselues in great humility with white Napkins on the end of stickes all whom wee receiued and well intreated vsing some for Guides and some for our Carriages and others to fetch vs in fresh Victuals and Fruites And it is worth the noting to see the farre differing humors vpon the change of Fortunes in these Spaniards and Portugals For where they conquer or command no people are so proud and insolent and when they are once mastered and subdued no Nation of the world so base or fuller of seruile crouching and obseruance as though on a sodaine Nature had framed them in a new mould so soone in an instant will they fall from soueraigntie to slauery And surely at home they are in generall but a baggage people tamorous and very vnwarlike As we haue well experienced by seuerall inuasions whereof one Army was conducted by Sir Iohn Norris and Sir Francis Drake to Lisbona and the other by the Earle of Essex and the Lord Admirall Howard to Cadis without any resistance encounter in the field or show of assayling our forces by battaile all the while we stated there But afterwards with a little hardening and hartening in the Warres wee see them proue very braue and valiant Souldiers This Towne was some foure miles from this landing place and all the Country in which wee marched very champion with pretty little rising hils and all the fields ouer full of Mellons Potatoes and other Fruites Betweene vs and the Towne was this high Fort whereof I spake before and that other Fort at the end of the Towne By these two we were resolued to passe the better thereby to discouer
afterwards they put safe in hold the Chirurgeon Carpenter and Cooper for the publike dependance on them and made fast the hatches that others should not seeke refuge But the Spanish Admirall making a brauado and seeing them readie to receiue them tacked about and went in for Lisbone without any further leaue-taking The Ascension continued on the Coast till they had but fourteene dayes victuals left and then returned with hurts to themselues and losse also to his Lordship AN. 1597. the vndanted Earle hauing furnished and victualled his owne ship the Malice-Scourge vndertooke a voyage in person Vnder him in it commanded Captaine Iohn Wats outward and Captaine Iames Langton homewards The Merchant Royall was Vice-admirall commanded by Sir Iohn Barkley Captaine Robert Flicke commanded in the Ascension Reare-admirall Captaine Henrie Clifford commanded the Samson after whose death at Porto Rico Christopher Colthurst was her Captaine Master Iohn Ley and homewards Thomas Cotch Captaines of the Alcedo Francis Slingsby Captaine of the Consent Captaine Iames Langton of the Prosperous and homewards Captaine Iohn Wats Captaine Henrie Palmer in the Centurion and homewards after his death his sonne William Palmer Hercules Folyambe Captaine of the Gallion-Constance Captaine Flemming in the Affection Captaine Christopher Colthurst in the Guiana homeward Gerard Middleton Captaine Henrie Iolliffe in the Scout Captaine Robert Careles and after his death Andrew Andrewes in the Antonie Captaine Edward Goodwin in the Pegasus Captaine Henrie Bromley in the Royall Defence Captaine Iohn Dixon in the Margaret and Iohn Master Iohn Lea Captaine of the Barkley Bay William Harper Captaine of the old Frigot To make vp the score we may reckon two Barges vsed for landing of men as occasion required For the land Souldiers Sir Iohn Barkley was Coronell Generall Captaine William Mesey Lieutenant Colonell Captaine Hercules Folyambe Sergeant Major Captaine Arthur Powell Lieutenant Colonell of the Earles Regiment Captaines Lewis Orrell Thomas Roberts Henrie Gyll Thomas Coche Hugh Starkie Ralph Rookesby Roger Tirwhit Captaine Andrew Andrewes Leader of the Earles Companie Captaine Iames Tothill Leader of Sir Iohn Barkleys Companie Captaines Iames Euans and George Orrell Corporals of the field Captaine Iohn Man Prouost Marshall Captaine Arthur Milles Master of the Artillerie and Prouant Master The noble Earle thus attended and furnished chiefly at his owne charges set saile with this Fleet from Portsmouth the sixt of March But you shall haue a better Relator His Lordship hauing had the spoile of all things at his pleasure prepared for the sending aboard the Ordnance Munitions Bels Ginger Sugar c. of brasse Ordnance hee tooke aboue sixtie peeces setting saile for England Iuly 16. In which returne his Lordship lost a Barge by his commandement sunke in the Hauen to the prejudice of the Enemie Another Barge cast away in a storme at the Bermudas The Pegasus wracked vpon Goodwin Sands and the old Frigot vpon Vshent with the losse of about seuen hundred men whereof fix hundred dyed of the bloudie flix and Calenture at Porto Rico sixtie slaine in fight and fortie drowned in the wracks of the old Frigot and Pegasus CHAP. II. The Voyage to Saint Iohn de Porto Rico by the Right Honorable GEORGE Earle of Cumberland written by himselfe WOrthiest of your Sexe my chiefe Commandresse to giue content to your wish in bare plainnesse I haue set downe the courses and fortunes of my late performed iourney The sixth day of March with my whole Fleet I set saile out of the Sound of Plimouth the winde being prosperous though much Wee kept altogether till the when the faire passage put mee in hope that God had prepared this an vnlooked for fortune if it were well handled in getting vpon the Coast of Spaine sure intelligence whether the Carricks were gone and how neere they were readie if not gone The doing of which vndiscouered though I knew was hard yet not impossible for him that could well worke And considering the mightie importance I tooke the course to doe it my selfe taking with me the Guiana and the Skout which two I meant should onely be seene vpon the Coast and left the rest of the fleet appointing them where to lye till I came vnto them But God whose will is beyond mans resolutions forced mee to alter this for my Masts not made so sufficiently as I expected both now began to shew their weaknesse especially my mayne Mast which I continually looked would haue gone ouer board My Mariners were at their wits end and I protest I would haue giuen fiue thousand pounds for a new one the greatest part of my strength both by Sea and Land hauing beene lost if that ship had returned in this extremitie Hearing all that would I heard many opinions to little purpose and at length resolued though many thought it dangerous lest the winde should with a storme come vp at West North-west to goe to the Burlings and there ride till my Masts were fished my selfe knowing the Roade though not any else in my ship the windes they spake of I feared not my onely doubt was that I should be discouered being within three leagues of Penechia Caruels comming off euery day to fish but this extremitie forced deuice how to hide what I was For goe thither I must hopelesse otherwise to repaire those desperate ruines My ship was black which well furthered my deuice and though shee were great yet shewed not so afarre off Wherefore I came in about eight of the clocke at night vpon Thursday when I was sure all the Fisher-men were gone to sell their fish at Lisbone and from the mayne they could not make moe this was the sixteenth of March. Before the morning I had downe my top-masts my mayne yard vnrigged and all things readie for my Carpenters to worke The small ships with mee I made stand off to Sea all day that not hauing any in my companie I should be the lesse suspected And thus with a strange Flagge and Ancient vpon my poope I rid without giuing chase to any as though I had beene some Merchant euery day diuers ships comming by me that were both good prize and had beene worth the taking Vpon Sunday night the Fisher-men returne to the Burlings wherefore to goe away vndiscouered of them and also soone to meet with my fleet which I had appointed to tarry for mee in that heigth betwixt twentie and thirtie leagues off and that they should keepe with them what ships soeuer they met that were outward bowne I ceased not working day nor night and by Saturday at night was readie to set saile when within night I heard the Ordnance goe off betwixt me and the shoare and well knew it was a small ship of Hampton and my little Pinnace the Skout that were in fight with a ship which they chased to windward of mee before might and fearing their match too hard as in truth it proued I for losing time let slip mine anchor and soone came to
they staid it made the intelligence of the Mexico fleet more probable And therefore if this were the cause of their stay our hope to make some purchace of it made vs more willing to haue their neighbourhood Mary it might bee they were sent to looke for our comming home which they might thinke would be straggling and weake and yet on the other side the vncertaintie of our comming either at this time or certainly this way made this something vnlikely His Lordship therefore commandeo Captaine Slingsby a fine Gentleman to goe ashoare and to learne more certaintie what was become of the Kings fleet and why they came This relation was from the men of Santa Cruz but the intelligence which Captaine Slingsby brought the same night late was from Uilla de la punta Delgada another Towne of the Ilands The summe of his report for I was by when he made it was that his Excellencie should haue any thing where withall they could doe him seruice and if it would please him to come ashoare they would take it as a great fauour For the Kings men of Warre they said that they iudged them certainly to bee gone home for they were gone hence vpon a fortnight before The cause of their comming was to waft the Caracks which all foure were gone by before the Kings fleet came hither with purpose indeed to stay till the end of this moneth for them But since the Caracks were come home there had beene sent a Caruell of Aduise to recall them As for the Mexico fleet there was not at the Ilands any newes of their comming this yeere This report made by Captaine Slingsby ouer-night was confirmed early the next morning by the Gouernour himselfe of the place a poore Gouernour scarce so good as an English Constable But this Captaine Iuan de Fraga de Mandoça came himselfe and made the same offer to his Lordship and withall brought both Hennes and Muttons with him which hee knew hee should not giue for nothing though hee would seeme vnwilling to receiue any thing He hauing beene sometime with my Lord and told all the newes hee remembred was licensed hauing first asked and obtayned a Passe for himselfe and a Protection for the Ilanders to keepe them from spoile by ours His Lordship granted his suit and which hee farther desired that they might bee conceiued in the same forme as those were which the Earle of Essex had giuen him within two dayes of the same day twelue moneth and which himselfe had carefully kept euer since When this fellow was gone the flagge of Counsell was hanged out c. The returne of this fleet vpon consultation after the newes aforesaid I forbeare to mention in regard of the length of this discourse They set forth from Flores Septemb. 16. 1598. On Michaelmas day they sounded and the ground on the fallow did still more assure vs of being in the sleeue and the Scollop shells confirmed their opinion which held vs rather on the Coast of France by the Master and others iudged otherwise whose iudgement if his Lordship out of his iudgement and authoritie had not contradicted and caused them to take a more Northerly course all had perished in all likelihood on the Vshent and Rocks For the next morning we saw the land of Normandie CHAP. IIII. The first Voyages made to diuers parts of America by Englishmen Sir SEBASTIAN CABOT Sir THO. PERT also of Sir IOHN HAWKINS and Sir FRANCIS DRAKE and many others collected briefly out of Master CAMDEN Master HAKLVYT and other Writers SIr Sebastian Cabota wee haue alreadie mentioned in the former Booke as a great Discouerer of that which most iustly should haue beene called Columbina and a great deale better might haue beene stiled Cabotiana then America neither Uesputius nor Columbus hauing discouered halfe so much of the Continent of the new World North and South as be yea the Continent was discouered by him when Columbus had yet but viewed the Ilands this Herrera for the South part hath mentioned in his Relation of the Riuer of Plate before naming him an Englishman and for the North is by vs in the fourth Booke deliuered A second time Sir Thomas Pert and the said Cabota were set forth with a fleet to America by King Henrie the eighth in the eight yeere of his reigne the same perhaps which Herrera hath also mentioned of an English ship at Hispaniola and other American Ilands in the yeere 1517. Master Hakluyt hath published the Voyages of many English into those parts as namely of Master Robert Tomson Merchant and Iohn Field which together with Ralph Sarre and Leonard Chilton in a ship of Iohn Sweeting dwelling at Cadiz all Englishmen An. 1555. sayled to Hispaniola and thence to Mexico in New Spaine where they found Thomas Blake a Scottishman who had dwelt there twentie yeeres At Mexico Robert Tomson and Augustine Boatio an Italian were imprisoned many moneths by the Inquisition and then brought out in a Saint Benito or fooles coat to doe penance a thing neuer seene there before which caused much concourse of people giuen to vnderstand of I know not what enemies of God and expecting to see some Monsters of vncouâ—â— shape They were much pitied by the people seeing such personable men but sentenced by the Archbishop to be sent back to Spaine where Tomson did his three yeeres enioyned penance at Siuil Boatio found the meanes to escape and dyed after in London Tomson after his libertie married with a rich Spanish heire The historie at large and his description of Mexico with the cause of his imprisonment about speaking freely of Images his Master had made an Image of our Ladie of aboue 7000. pezos price each pezo being foure shillings and eight pence of our money the Reader may see in Master Hakluyt Where also is deliuered the voyage of Roger Bodenham Englishman 1564. to Mexico also of Iohn Chilton 1568. thither and from thence to Nueua Biscaâ—a and to the Port of Naâ—idad on the South Sea to Sansonate in Guatimala to Tecoantepec to Sâ—conusco to Nicaragua to Nombre de Dios to Potossi Cusco Paita to Vera Paz Chiapa three hundred leagues from Mexico From Chiapa he trauelled thorow Hills till he came to Ecatepec that is The Hill of winde in the end of that Prouince supposed the highest Hill that euer was discouered from the top whereof are seene both the North and South Seas deemed nine leagues high They which trauell vp it lye at the foot ouer-night and about midnight begin their iourney that they may trauell to the top before the Sunne rise the next day because the winde bloweth with such force afterwards that it is impossible for any man to goe vp From the foot of this Hill to Tecoantepec the first Towne of New Spaine are fifteene leagues From Mexico he trauelled againe to Panuco and there fell sick which sicknesse in his returne benefited him for he fell amongst Caniball Indian which
the blades in their pottage and vse them in other meates of pleasing taste and good for appetite When they came in the height of Bermuda they discouered a Monster in the Sea who shewed himselfe three times vnto them from the middle vpwards in which parts he was proportioned like a man of the complexion of a Mâ—llato or tawny Indian The Generall commanded one of his Clerkes to put it in writing to certifie the King thereof Presently after for the space of sixteene dayes the weather proued very foule Offering to make an escape they were descried and seuerely stocked and imprisoned a yeere in the Contractation house in Siuill and breaking prison were taken and by the Inquisition were sentenced Robert Barret and Iohn Gilbert to bee burnt Iob Hortop and Iohn Bone to the Gallies for tenne yeeres and after that to perpetuall prison Others were adiudged to the Gallies some eight some fiue yeeres Hortop serued twelue yeeres in hunger thirst cold and stripes and after foure yeeres imprisonment in his Fooles coat was redeemed to the seruice of Hernando de Sâ—ria from whom after three yeeres seruice more he stole away and landed at Portsmouth in December 1590. after three and twentie yeeres miserable bondage As for Dauid Ingrams perambulation to the North parts Master Hakluyt in his first Edition published the same but it seemeth some incredibilities of his reports caused him to leaue him out in the next Impression the reward oâ— lying being not to be beleeued in truths And for Sir Iohn Hawkins himselfe he had made one Voyage with three ships and three hundred Negros gotten on the Coast of Guinea to Hispaniola 1562. and other Ports and returned with a rich gaine This encouraged him to a second Voyage with the Iesus Salomon Tigre and Swallow 1564. And hauing visited diuers Ports be returned by Florida Anno 1567. their vnfortunate Voyage before mentioned was set forth in which his vniustice to Sauages was chastised by vniustice of Christians in manner as you haue heard Himselfe with his remayning company were first endangered with an extreame storme after that with famine his men dying continually so that the rest being not able to manage the ship and the winds crossing seeking to releeue themselues at Ponte Vedra with fresh meate they grew diseased and many of them died and thereby were also in danger of a second Spanish betraying which they hardly escaping arriued in England Ianuary the twentieth 1568. The Spanish indignities and treacheries were deeply lodged in the wronged minds both of Sir Iohn Hawkins and of Captayne Drake men borne for the honour of the English name and Nation in Marine affaires Sir Iohn Hawkins was sonne to Master William Hawkins of Plimmouth a man much esteemed by King Henry the Eighth as a principall Sea-captaine Hee had long before armed a ship of his owne of two hundred and fifty tunnes called the Paul of Plimmouth wherewith he made two Voyages to Brasill one in the yeere 1530. and the other 1532. in the first of which he brought a Brasilian King as they tearmed him to present him in his wilde accouâ—rements to King Henry It seemed that Sea affaires and arts remayned an Inheritance from the Father to the Sonne and from him also to the Nephew as shall after be seene neither did the West of England yeeld such an Indian Neptuniâ—â— paire as were these two Ocean Peeres Hawkins and Drake A briefe Historie of Sir FRANCIS DRAKES Voyages OF Sir Francis Drake Master Camden reports that he hath heard him say of himselfe that he was borne in the County of Deuon of meane condition his God father was Francis Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who gaue him his name Francis Whiles he was young his father being called in question for Religion by reason of the sixe Articles set forth by King Henry against the Protestants was driuen to shift and withdrew himselfe into Kent After King Henries death he obtayned a place in the Nauâ—e Royall to reade Seruice and soone after was ordayned Deacon and made Vicar of the Church of Vpnor on the Riuer of Medway where by reason of his pouertie he put this his sonne to serue a Neighbour Mariner which traded with a small Barke into France and Zeland who brought him vp in the Mariners art and tooke such liking of him that at his death he bequeathed being a Bâ—chelour vnto him his Barke This Barke vpon the report of Sir Iohn Hawkins his preparations for that disastrous Voyage 1567. hee sold and ioyned to him in societie aforesaid and at Saint Iohn de Vllua lost all and hardly brought himselfe backe Hereupon seeking by his Mariners practice to repaire his losses and thereby and as a man of warre hauing gotten store of money together he made a second Voyage to recouer in the Spanish Indies what there he had lost quod licere Theologus classiarius facilè persuaserat and with a ship of warre called the Dragon and another ship and a Pinnasse none knowing it but his owne consorts Anno 1572. sayled to Nombre de Dios which Towne he suddenly surprised and lost For hauing landed one hundred and fiftie men and leauing seuentie of them in a Fort with the rest he went to the Market place and there discharged his Calieuers and sounded a Trumpet answered in like manner from the Fort. The Townesmen hereby terrified fled into the Mountaynes But fourteene or fifteene would backe with their Harquebuses to see what the matter was and discouering the Englishmen shot and by hap killed the Trumpeter Hereupon they in the Fort not seeing their Trumpet answered after they had heard the Calieuers supposed all those which had entred were slaine and fled to their Pinnasses The Captayne comming and seeing his men all gone was surprized with a new feare and leauing their furniture they swamme and waded to their Pinnasses and departed the Port. In the Sound of Dariene heehad intelligence by certayne fugitiue Negros of Mules comming Ioden with treasure from Panamâ— to Nombre de Dios and guided by them intercepted two companies of Mules and carried away the Gold only for they were not able to carrie the Siluer thorow the Mountaynes Two dayes after he came to the house of Crosses and burnt aboue 200000. Duckets in Merchandize and so departed When he trauelled ouer those Mountaynes hee beheld thence the South Sea and thereby inflamed with desire of glory and wealth was so rapt with desire of sayling therein that he fell there on his knees and begged of God and besought the fauour of God to assist him in that exploit and made a solemne vow to that purpose one day to sayle on that Sea which euery day and night lay next his heart pricking him forwards to the performance Whiles hee was musing and hatching these haughtie Designes Iohn Oxenham who in the former Nauigations had serued vnder Captayne Drake both Souldier Mariner and Cooke became
to forgiue and true of word Sir Francis hâ—rd in reconciliation and constancie in friendship he was withall seuere and courteous magnaâ—imious and liberall They were both faultie in ambition but more the one then the other For in Sir Francis was an in sâ—tiable desire of honor indeed beyond reason He was infinite in promises and more temperate in aduersity then in better Fortune He had also other imperfections as aptnesse to anger and bitternesse in disgracing and too much pleased with open flattery Sir Iohn Hawkins had in him malice with dissimulation rudenesse in behauiour and passing sparing indeed miserable They were both happy alike in being Great Commanders but not of equall successe and grew great and famous by one meanes rising through their owne Vertues and the Fortune of the Sea Their was no comparison to bee made betweene their wel-deseruing and good parts for therein Sir Francis Drake did farre exceede This is all I haue obserued in the Uoyages wherein I haue serued with them R. M. A briefe recitall or nomination of Souldiers other Englishmens Voyages related at large in the printed Works of Master HAKLVYT OTher Voyages might here be inserted made by Englishmen into the Bay of Mexico as that by Captayne W. Michelson and William Mace of Ratcliffe in the Dogge 1589. which there tooke three shippes They held fight with a Spanish man of Warre who by fraud sought perfidiously to obtayne that which they could not by vnspotted Fortitude They put out a flagge of Truce and after kinde entertaynment aboord the English inuited them to their shippe where they assaulted them stabbing Roger Kingsâ—old the Pilot to the Heart staying others and forcing the rest to trust God and the Sea rather then the Deuill and the Spaniards thus swimming to their ship The valiant fight of the Content a small ship of Sir George Câ—reys Lord Hundsdon Lord Chamberlaine 1591. Iune 13. with three great Spanish ships each of six or seuen hundred and one small shippe and two Gallies farre more beeing slaine of the enemies then the English had to fight I leaue to Master Hakluyts report as also Captayne Christopher Newport his Voyage with three ships and a Pinnasse the same yeere which tooke and spoyled Yaguana and Ocoa in Hispaniâ—la and Truxillo besides other Prizes and in the way homeward were at the taking of the Madre de Dios. The next yeere Captayne Lane Gen. of Master Wats his fleete Captayne Roberts in the Exchange of Bristâ—ll and Captayne Beniamin Wood with foure shippes set forth by the Lord Thomas Howard Captayne Kenell of Lime-house and Captayne King of Ratcliffe Road with thirteene sayles before Hauana wayting for purchase Anno 1594. the Honourable Sir Robert Dudley set forth with two ships and two Pinnasses and made his Voyage to Trinidada and the Coast of Paria returning by the Iles of Granata Santa Cruez Santa Iuan de Puerto Rico Mona Zacheo and Bermuda In which Voyage he and his company tooke or sunke nine Spanish ships of which one was a man of Warre of sixe hundred tuns The particulars are related by himselfe in Master Hakluyt In him also the Reader may find the victorious Voyage of Captayne Amias Presten and Captayne George Summers both since Knights Anno 1595. in which the Iles of Puerto Santo and of Coche neere Margarita the Fort and Towne of Coro the Citie of Saint Iago de Leon were sacked and burnt the Towne of Cumana ransomed and Iamaica entred Sir Antonie Sherley Anno 1596. set forth from Hampton with nine ships and a Galley to Saint Iago Dominica Margarita Iamaica Bay of Honduras and homewards by New foundland This and Captayne Parkers Voyage 1596. to the same parts and Ports with his taking of Campeche the chiefe Towne of Iacatan and bringing thence a Frigat laden with the Kings Tribute Also the Voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh to Guiana and other intelligences of that Nation likewise Master William Hawkins his Voyages to Brasill and those of Reâ—iger and Borey Pudsâ—y Stephen Hare Sir Iames Lancasters taking of Fernambuc Fenton and Ward and Iohn Drakes Voyage after his departure from Fenton vp the Riuer of Plate and liuing fifteene moneths with the Sauages Anno 1582. All these I referre to the painfull labours of Master Hakluyt who hath well deserued of the English Nation and of these Neptunian Heroes that I mention not the many Voyages of others in those times of difference betwixt England and Spaine which here and there you shall finde mention of in these Relations Also Anno 1589. three ships were set forth by Master Chidlie and others for the Magellan Straites one of which arriued there and tooke there a Spaniard one of the foure hundred which had beene sent thither to inhabit which had long liued there alone the rest being famished They spent sixe weekes there with contrary winds and sixe only of their company teturned they also being racked on the Coast of Normandie as W. Magoths one of the sixe hath related These I doe but summarily mention as an Index rather to Master Hakluytâ— labours then with any intent to giue the discourse thereof But the strange fortunes of Peter Carder not hitherto published compell me to take speciall notice thereof which himselfe hath thus related CHAP. V. The Relation of PETER CARDER of Saint Verian in Cornwall within seuen miles of Falmouth which went with Sir FRANCIS in his Voyage about the World begun 1577. who with seuen others in an open Pinnasse or Shallop of fiue tuns with eight Oares was separated from his Generall by foule weather in the South Sea in October An. 1578. who returning by the Straites of Magellan toward Brasill were all cast away saue this one only afore named who came into England nine yeeres after miraculously hauing escaped many strange dangers aswell among diuers Sauages as Christians AFter Sir Francis Drake had passed the Straites of Magellan the sixt of September 1578. and was driuen downe to the Southwards in the South Sea vnto the latitude of fiftie fiue degrees and a terse with such accidents as are mentioned in his Voyage and returning backe toward the Straite againe The eight of October we lost sight of the Elizabeth one of our Consorts wherein Master Iohn Winter was who returned by the Straites againe as wee vnderstood afterward at our comming home into England according to his Voyage extant in print Shortly after his separation from our company our Generall commanded eight men to furnish our small Pinnasse or Shallop with eight men whose names were these my selfe Peter Carder aforesaid Richard Burnish of London Iohn Cottle and another both seruants to Master Iohn Hawkins Artyur a Dutch Trumpetor Richard Ioyner seruant to Vincent Scoble of Plimmouth Pasche Gidie of Salt Ashe and William Pitcher of London This company was commanded to waite vpon the ship for all necessary vses but hauing not passed one dayes victuals in vs nor any Card nor Compasse sauing only the
and seuen English men set on land out of a Ship of Sir Oliph Leagh bound for Guiana in Santa Lucia an Iland of the West Indie the three and twentieth of August written by IOHN NICOL SIr Oliph Leagh a worshipfull Knight of Kent sending a supply of good numbers of men in a Ship called the Oliph blossome to his brother Master Charles Leigh which was planted in the Riuer of Wiapogo within three degrees and an halfe Northward of the Equinoctiall line in the West Indies which departed from Wolwich the foureteenth of Aprill 1605. vnder the conduct of Captaine Cataline and Captaine Nicholas Sainct Iohn I being desirous to see the world consorted my selfe with that coâ—pany But by contrary windes and vnknowne currents of the Sea and the vnskilfulnesse of our Master Richard Chambers wee were put to leeward of our port without any hope of recouering the same in any due time And being not victualled as it seemed for aboue foure or fiue moneths after consultation had we were faine to touch first at the Isle of Barbudos and then at Santa Luzia in the West Indies Where fearing to perish at Sea for hunger before we should be able being so many aboord to reach England Captaine Nicolas Saint Iohn with the rest of the passengers which purposed to haue staied with Master Charles Leagh at Wiopogo in Guiana resolued to stay and take their fortune in the aforesaid fruitfull Iland Thus sixtie seuen of vs at our owne seeking were left on shore in the aforesaid Iland of Santa Luzia the three and twentieth of August 1605. with our Swords Muskets and Powder and one Falcon and one barill of Biscuit onely for all our food The next day our Ship departed from vs with some discontentment because we had seased vpon her Boate to serue our turnes After our Shippe was departed from vs we liued very peaceably daily trading with the Indians for victuals which were Cassaui Potatos Plantans Pinas Popayes Pompions Calabassus Tobacco Pappies Mammeyes all very pleasant to eate Also they brought vnto vs Hens and Guls and some Pelicanes Woodcocks and Snipes we our selues did kill with our Peeces many of them likewise And euery night we sent out sixe vpon the sands to seeke for Tortoyses whereof we neuer missed night without one or two and many times three which was the greatest sustenance we found for they are very large and great I haue often taken out of one of them to the number of seuen hundred egges Also the Indians had great store of Roan linnen cloathes Serges and other Stuffes and Spanish wollen cloath and iarres of Oyle which they tooke and saued at Sea with their Periagnas For three Spanish Shippes had beene there cast away a little before our arriuall if we had had a Pinnesse there we could haue laden her with many good commodities which they had hid in their houses in the woods All which we could haue bought for Hatchets Kniues Beades Thimbles Fishhookes and other such trifles Thus for the space of fiue or sixe weekes wee went not much abroad till our Captaine seeing certaine foure square Plates which the Indians ware on the small of their armes asked Browne a Gold finer his opinion what he thought of them who told him that three parts thereof was Gold And asking the Indians where they got them they pointed vnto an high Mountaine on the North-west part of the Iland This caused Captaine Nicholas Saint Iohn and Iohn Rogers who was our interpreter for the Spanish tongue with as many of our chiefe men as could well goe in the Boate vpon a Munday to goe thither promising his Brother Alexander Sainct Iohn Master Garret and Master Tench whom he left to gouerne the rest at home to returne the next Saturday The Indians for three dayes after did not come vnto vs with victuals for they perceiued when the Boate went and as we thinke they were then at the slaughter of our men at the Mountayne Vpon Thursday morning we killed two Tortoyses on the sands where wee found a great company of the Indians gathered together for what purpose we knew not And lest wee should suspect them of any bad intent towards vs they willingly offered themselues to bring home our Tortoyses which they tooke into their Periaguas and brought them to our Houses All that forenoone wee kept good watch for there were very many that came both by Sea and Land to the number of two or three hundred and diuers of them were very merrie with vs drinking of Tabacco and Aquauitae vntill ten of the clocke and then they departed all saue one which was a Captaine of the I le of Saint Vincent called Augramert and an old man which was his Father who promised vs if wee would goe to their houses that wee should haue any thing that they had For the day before I had beene at their houses with other two of my fellowes to haue bought victuals yet they would not part with any no not for any commoditie that wee had and yet they had more store of victuals then euer I saw them haue before But wee perceiued afterwad that it was prouided for them that came to take their parts against vs whom they kept secret in the Woods So we three returned and trauelled farre into the Iland and passed through sixe or seuen Gardens very full of Cassabe Potatoes and many other rootes and fruits and by the way saw many tall trees of so huge bignesse that wee three could not at twice fathome one of them about and they were so hard that wee could not cut them with our Kniues and the Barke of them was white like Ash. Then we returned to our Sconce againe Vpon Thursday after dinner Master Alexander Saint Iohns Master Francis Kettleby the elder Master William Tench my selfe and diuers others to the number of eighteene went with Augramert and his father hauing neither Bowe nor Arrow onely his father had a Brasill sword They went thus meanly armed lest wee should suspect them Augramert also promised Master Alexander Saint Iohn that he should see his wife and we should haue Hamaccos which are Indian beds of net-worke made of cotton yarne to lye in So we trauelled along the Sands very securely young Saint Iohn going a little space before playing and jesting with the Indian Captain till they came within sight of their houses where in the woods they had placed an ambush of three hundred Caribes when suddenly Augramert tooke hold of his Rapier with the one hand and of his Poniard with the other and the old man his father with his Brasill sword strooke him downe to the ground Then out of the woods came the Arrowes so thicke about our eares that wee had not the time to put our matches in our cocks And many of our companie had their match to light which gaue a great encouragement vnto the enemie insomuch that we discharged not sixe peeces against
and parting In the warres of France in the time of Queene Marie and in other warres as I haue heard of many ancient Captaines the Companie had but the fourth part and euery man bound to bring with him the Armes with which he would fightâ— which in our time I haue knowne also vsed in France and if the Companie victualed themselues they had then the one halfe and the Owners the other halfe for the ship powder shot and munition If any Prize were taken it was sold by the tunne ship and goods so as the loading permitted it that the Merchant hauing bought the goods hee might presently transport them whither soeuer he would By this manner of proceeding all rested contented all being truly payd for this was iust dealing if any deserued reward he was recompenced out of the generall stocke If any one had filched or stolne or committed offence he had likewise his desert and who once was knowne to be a disordered person or a thiefe no man would receiue him into his ship whereas now a dayes many vaâ—â—t themselues of their thefts and disorders yea I haue seene the common sort of Mariners vnder the name of pillage maintaine and iustifie their robberies most iâ—solently before the Queens Maiesties Commissioners with arrogant and vnseemly termes Opinion hath hold such for tall fellowes when in truth they neuer proue the best men in difficult occasions For their mindes are all set on spoyle and can be well contented to suffer their associates to beare the brunt whilest they are prolling after pillage the better to gaine and maintaine the aforesaid attributes in Tauernes and disorderly places For the orderly and quiet men I haue euer found in all occasions to be of best vse most valiant and of greatest sufficiency Yet I coâ—demne none but those who will be reputed valiant and are not examine the accusation All whatsoeuer is found vpon the Decke going for Merchandise is exempted out of the censure of pillage Silkes Linnen or Woollen cloth in whole pieces Apparell that goeth to be sold or other goods whatsoeuer though they be in remnants manifestly knowne to bee carried for that end or being comprehended in the Register or Bills of lading are not to be contayned vnder the name of Pillage But as I haue said of the consort so can I not but complaine of many Captaines and Gouernours who ouercome with like greedy desire of gaine condiscend to the smothering and suppressing of this ancient discipline the cleanlier to smother their owne disloyalties in suffering these breake-bulkes to escape and absent themselues till the heate be past and partition made Some of these cause the Bills of lading to be cast into the Sea or so to be hidden that they neuer appeare Others send away their prisoners who sometimes are more worth then the ship and her lading because they should not discouer their secret stolne treasure for many times that which is left out of the Register or Bills of lading with purpose to defraud the Prince of his Customes in their conceits held to be excessiue is of much more value then that which the ship and lading is worth Yea I haue knowne ships worth two hundred thousand pounds and better cleane swept of their principall riches nothing but the bare bulke being left vnsacked The like may be spoken of that which the disorderly Mariner and the Souldier termeth Pillage My Father Sir Iohn Hawkins in his instructions in actions vnder his charge had this particular Article That whosoeuer rendred or tooke any ship should be bound to exhibite the Bills of lading to keepe the Captaine Master Merchants and persons of account and to bring them to him to be examined or into England If they should bee by any accident separated from him whatsoeuer was found wanting the prisoners being examined was to be made good by the Captaine and Companie which tooke the ship and this vpon great punishments Running alongst the coast till wee came within few leagues of Arica nothing happened vnto vs of extraordinarie noueltie or moment for wee had the Breze fauourable which seldome happeneth in this climate finding our selues in 19. degrees wee haled the shoare close aboord purposing to see if there were any shippiâ—g in the Road of Arica It standeth in a great large Bay in 18. degrees and before you come to it a league to the Southwards of the Road and Towne is a great round Hill higher then the rest of the land of the Bay neere about the Towne which we hauing discouered had â—ight presently of a small Barque close aboord the shoare becalmed manning our Boat wee toke her being loden with fish from Moormereno which is a goodly head-land very high and lieth betwixt 24. and 25. degrees and whether ordinarily some Baâ—ques vse to goe a fishing euery yeere In her was a Spaniard and sixe Indians The Spaniard for that he was neere the shoare swam vnto the Rockes and though we offered to returne him his barke and fish as was our meaning yet he refused to accept it and made vs answere that he durst not for feare lest the Iustice should punish him In so great subiection are the poore vnto those who haue the administration of Iustice in those parts and in most parts of the Kingdomes and Countries subiect to Spaine Insomuch that to heare the Iustice to enter in at their doores is to them destruction and desolation for this cause wee carried her alongst with vs. In this meane while wee had sight of another tall ship comming out of the Sea which wee gaue chase vnto but could not fetch vp being too good of sayle for vs. Our small Prize and Boate standing off vnto vs descried another shippe which they chased and tooke also loden with fish comming from the Ilands of Iuan Fernandes After we opened the Bay and Port of Arica but seeing it cleane without shipping wee haled the coast alongst and going aboord to visite the bigger Prize my Companie saluted mee with a vollie of small shot Amongst them one Musket brake and carried away the hand of him that shot it through his owne default which for that I haue seene to happen many times I thinke it necessary to note in this place that others may take warning by his harme The cause of the Muskets breaking was the charging with two bullets the powder being ordayned to carrie but the weight of one and the Musket not to suffer two charges of powder or shot By this ouersight the fire is restrained with the ouerplus of the weight of shot and not being able to force both of them out breaketh all to pieces so to finde a way to its owne Centre And I am of opinion that it is a great errour to proue great Ordnance or small shot with double charges of powder or shot my reason is for that ordinarily the mettall is proportioned to the waight of the shot which the Peece is to beare and the
of Iune 1594. This place is in one degree to the Northward of the Line There is from thence some eight leagues a Bay called The Bay of Saint Matthew From thence wee were carried vnto Panama which is in nine degrees to the Northward of the Line where wee were held Prisoners From Panama wee were returned to Payta and so to Lima. Lima is neere as bigge as London within the walls the houses are of Lome baked for want of Stone There are neere twentie thousand Negros in Lima. There are in it of Horsemen an hundred Launces and an hundred Carbiners at a thousand Ducats a man by the yeere From Lima I went to Gnamanga which is a good Citie sixtie leagues from Lima to the South-east Twelue leagues from Lima Eastward it raineth but neuer at Lima. Twentie leagues more Southerly towards Gnamanga at Paricacco which is a Mountaine it is as cold as in England in our Winter But none will dwell there because of the cold Then is the Valley of Choosa hauing Hills on both sides and a Riuer in the middest The Valley is eighteene leagues long and well peopled and hath diuers Townes it is fortie leagues from Lima and so through that I trauelled to Gnamanga From Gnamanga wee passed towards Cusco on hard wayes cut out of the Rockes by Gnamacapo with great difficultie by the wayes there are Tamboes or houses to lodge people and some Villages Then wee came to Cusco which is a Citie about the bignesse of Bristow without a wall hauing a Castle halfe a mile off on the side of an Hill builded with stones of twentie tuns weight strangely ioyned without morter From Lima they trade to Cusco all that comes out of Spaine They of Quito trade to Cusco with wollen Cloth and Cottons for Quito hath abundance of sheepe about it and is a great Citie They driue sheepe to Lima twentie thousand in a Flocke and be halfe a yeere in the Passage Betweene Cusco and Potosi there is continuall trade and the Lords or Caciquoes of the Naturals will entertaine you in the way feed you in Siluer vessell and giue you very good lodging and if they like you they will guide you with three or foure hundred Indians In Potosi there are at worke neere an hundred thousand Indians which the Caciquoes bring in for so many dayes to worke the Mynes and then other Caciquoes bring in as many more I haue also two Letters written by Thomas Sanders seruant to Sir Richard Hawkins written to Sir Ioâ—n Hawkins out of the prison of Saint Lucar in one of which hee maketh a large relation of their Voyage and taking which is here needlesse to reiterate with mention of one Master Lucas condemned by the Holy House to the Gallies and sent to Nombre de Dios in which Voyage hee died out of the other I haue hither added this transcript touching the vsage and respect which Sir Richard Hawkins found in Peru. I wrote in like sort of my Masters health and of his entertaynment in his taking and in the Citie of Lima by the Vice-king of the Countrey and how hee was beloued for his valour by all braue men in those parts the which I learned by many which came from thence as well rich as poore and many Negroes seruants to Merchants which came from thence and were there when hee came Hee was receiued by all the best in the Countrie carried by the 〈◊〉 a Princely house all richly hanged the which hee had to himselfe with a great allowance from the King besides many presents from the Queene but within sixe or seuen dayes hee was carried by the Fathers to the Holy House not as a man to be executed but to rest there vnâ—â—ll they heard from the King what should be done with them c. Hauing occasion here to mention Sir Iohn Hawkins I thought good in memorie of his name to expresse a Pardon from the Spanish King Philip the second to him and to the Master George Fitzwilliams and the rest of their companie both for the forme thereof being here printed from the Originall superscribed and subscribed with the Kings owne hand and to shew the strict prohibition of Trade in the Indies EL REY POr quanto por parte de Iuan Aquins y Iorge Fitzwilliams Ingleses por si yen noÌ„bre de todos los demas Ingleses que han ydo y estado ensu compania enlo que de yuso sedira nos hasido hecha relaceon que noenbar gante lo que por nos esta prohibido yordenado paraque ningun estrangero yque no sea natural destos nostros Reynos naueque trâ—te ni contrate enla carrera de las Indias ni enlos puertos y lugares dellas Los susudicbos han entrado y nauegado tratado y contratado enla dicha carrera y puertos y lugares della y porque su intencion no ha sido deruirnos ni offender ni damnificar a nostros Vasallos y por que como sabiamos su dessâ—o yuo luntad auia sido de nos seruir end tiempo que est unimos enel Reyne de Inglaterra nos haâ— pedido y supplicado que vsando de clemencia y de benignidad conellos hiziesemos merced de perdonalles la culpa y penas en que auian incurrido y nos por iust as causas y confirationes que aello nos mueuen y por les bazer merced lo auemos tenido por bien Y por la presente les pardonamos y remitimos todos y qualesquier penas en que por razon de auer entrado y nauegado enla dicha carrera de las Indias y tractado y coÌ„tractado enlos puertos y lugares dellas hasta agora ayaâ— incurrido y queremos que en la dicha razon no puedanser acusados ni molestados ni por esta razon ni causa puedan contra ellos proceder los del nuestro conceso de las Indias ni los iuezes de la casa dela contratation ni otros algunos Porque nostra merced y voluntad es de les remitir como les remitimos todas las dichas penas y de les librar como les libramos y damos por libres y quitos dellas bien assi comâ— fienellas no huâ—ieran caydo ni incurrido no embargantes qualesquiera leyes ordenanças prouisiones y cedulas que en razon delo suso dicho ayamos hecho y dado con quales quiere clausulas que enellas aya o hauer pueda las quales todas paraen quanto alo suso dicho las abrogamos y derogamos auiendolas aque por expressadas insertas de Verbo ad verbum quedando en sufuerça y vigor quanto alodemas El qual dicho perdon gracia y remission quiremos que se entienda y estienda no solo alos dhos Iuan Aquins y lorge Fitzwilliams pero a todos los demas â—ngleses queens 〈…〉 compania sauydo conque esto sea y se entienda ser enrespecto delo passado pero
by West The eight wee kept the same course The ninth we kept still the same course The winde beganne to vere some thing to the Southward which had beene constant still from the Ilands of the Canaries vnto the Ilands of the West Indies And now began the winde to draw towards the West and then is it as constant there The reason I deferre to longer consideration The current setteth out of the Gulfe of Mexico and from the mayne shore Sunday the tenth we kept still the same course and had now but a small gale almost becalmed The eleuenth we continued the same course with the same small gale we went North. Tuesday the twelfth we kept the same course if any at all for for the most part we were becalmed Wednesday the thirteenth the calme continued the Sunne being extremely hot in the calme Thursday the fourteenth the calme continued as hot as before These dayes we ayred our Newland fish called Poore Iohn which proued ill done For after it was ayred it rotted the sooner being burnt in the same On Friday the fifteenth God sent vs a reasonable gale The sixteenth and seuenteenth the calme came againe Munday we had a good gale and went North and by West and North North-west The nineteenth twentieth and one and twentieth we had an excellent gale and ranne North North-west Then we cast out the Lead and looked out for land but found no ground nor saw no land and therefore we much doubted that the current had set vs very farre to the leeward of the place which wee were bound for being the Chesepian Bay but that could not be knowne till it pleased God to bring vs to land In the afternoone about sixe of the clocke we cast out the Lead againe and had ground in thirtie fathomes whereof we were glad and thanked God knowing we could not be farre from land Saturday the three and twentieth in the morning about eight of the clocke wee saw land in the height of 40. degrees and odde minutes very fine low land appearing farre off to bee full of tall Trees and a fine sandie shoare but a great siege we saw no Harbour and therefore coasted along to seeke one to the Northward the wind being at West Sunday the foure and twentieth the wind being about the North-east we beat hard to fetch an Head-land where we thought we saw an Harbour but when we came vp with it wee perceiued it was none and all our labour lost And therefore the wind beeing now more full in our teeth at the North-east wee considered it were better to put roome so that if the winde should stand then we should fetch the Bay of Chesepian which Master Gilbert so much thirsted after to seeke out the people for Sir Walter Raleigh left neere those parts in the yeere 1587. if not perhaps we might find some Road or Harbour in the way to take in some fresh water for now wee had none aboord On Munday the fiue and twentieth of Iuly at night wee came neere the mouth of the Bay but the wind blew so sore and the Sea was so high that the Master durst not put in that night into the Sea and so continued next day On Wednesday the seuen and twentieth at night the winde came faire againe and wee bare againe for it all night and the wind presently turned againe Thursday the eight and twentieth considering our extremitie for water and wood victuals and beere likewise consuming very fast we could no longer beate for it and therefore ran roomer determining for this time to seeke it no more Friday the nine and twentieth being not farre from the shoare which appeared vnto vs exceeding pleasant and full of goodly Trees and with some shew of the entrance of a Riuer our Captaine Baxtholomew Gilbert accompanied with Master Thomas Canner a Gentleman of Bernards Inne Richard Harison the Masters Mate Henry Kenton our Chirurgion and one Derricke a Dutchman went on shore in the Boate from the ship which lay aboue a mile from the land and with their weapons marched vp into the Countrey leauing two youths to keepe the Boate but shortly after the Indians set vpon them and one or two of them fell downe wounded in sight of our yong men that kept the Boat which had much a doe to saue themselues and it For some of the Indians roming downe to them would haue haled it on shore which notwithstanding they saued and with heauie hearts gat vnto the ship with the losse of their Captain and foure of their principall men Thus being but eleuen men and Boyes in all in the ship though our want of water and wood were great yet wee durst not aduenture the losse of any more of our small company in this place Therefore our Master Henry Sute tooke his course home for England by the Iâ—es of the Açores and fell first with the Pike and afterward entring into our Chanell had first sight of Portland and thence came vp the Riuer of Thames vnto Rateliffe about the end of September 1603. finding the Citie most grieuously infected with a terrible plague CHAP. XIII Extracts of a Virginian Voyage made An. 1605. by Captaine GEORGE WAYMOVTH in the Arch-angell Set forth by the Right Honorable HENRY Earle of South-hampton and the Lord TMOMAS ARVNDEL written by IAMES ROSIER VPon Easter day the last of March the winde comming at North North-east about fiue of the clocke after noone we weighed anchor and put to Sea from the Downes in the Name of God being very well victualled and furnished with Munition and all necessaries our whole companie being nine and twenty persons of whom I dare boldly say few Voyages haue beene manned forth with better Sea-men generally in respect of our small number Munday the thirteenth of May about eleuen of the clocke in the fore-noone our Captaine iudging we were not farre from Land sounded and we had soft oze in an hundred and sixty fathome at foure of the clocke after noone wee sounded againe and had the like oze in an hundred fathome From ten a clocke that night till three a clocke in the morning our Captain tooke in all Sayles and lay at hull being desirous to fall with the Land in the day time because it was an vnknown Coast which it pleased God in his mercy to grant vs otherwise surely we had runne our Shippe vpon the hidden Rockes and perished all for when we set sayle we sounded in an hundred fathom and by eight a clocke hauing not made aboue fiue or sixe leagues our Captaine vpon a sudden change of water supposing verily he saw the sand presently sounded and had but fiue fathome much maruelling because we saw no Land he sent one to the top who descried a whitish sandy Clisse which bare West North-west about sixe leagues off but comming neerer within three or foure leagues we saw many breaches still neerer the Land At last we espied a great
very Ordnance and Houses might they haue preuailed but to haue beene but idle for those Sauage fruites they would haue imparted all to the Sauages especially for one basket of Corne they heard of to bee at Powhatans fiftie miles from our Fort though hee brought neere halfe of it to satisfie their humours yet to haue had the other halfe they would haue sold their soules though not sufficient to haue kept them a Weeke thousands were their exclamations suggestions and deuises to force him to those base Inuentions to haue made it an occasion to abandon the Countrey Want perforce constrayned him to indure their exclayming follies till hee found out the Author one Dyer a most craftie Knaue and his ancient maligner whome hee worthily punished and with the rest hee argued the case in this manner Fellow Souldiers I did little thinke any so false to report or so many so simple to bee perswaded that I either intend to starue you or that Powhatan at this present hath Corne for himselfe much lesse for you or that I would not haue it if I knew where it were to be had Neither did I thinke any so malicious as now I see a great many yet it shall not so much passionate mee but I will doe my best for my worst maligner But dreame no longer of this vaine hope from Powhatan nor that I will longer forbeare to force you from your idlenesse and punish you if you raile you cannot denie but that by the hazard of my life many a time I haue saued yours when might your owne wills haue preuailed you would haue starued and will doe still whether I will or no. But I protest by that God that made me since necessitie hath not power to force you to gather for your selues those fruits the Earth doth yeeld you shall not only gather for your selues but for those that are sicke as yet I neuer had more from the store then the worst of you and all my English extraordinary prouision that I haue you shall see me deuide among the sicke And this Sauage trash you so scornfully repine at being put in your mouthes your stomacks can digest it and therefore I will take a course you shall prouide it The sicke shall not starue but equally share of all our labours and euery one that gathereth not euery day as much I doe the next day shall be set beyond the Riuer and for euer be banished from the Fort and liue there or starue This order many murmured was very cruell but it caused the most part so well bestirre themselues that of two hundred men except they were drowned there died not past seuen or eight As for Captaine Winne and Master Ley they died ere this want happened and the rest died not for want of such as preserued the rest Many were billitted among the Sauages whereby we knew all their passages fields and habitations how to gather and vse their fruits as well as themselues So well those poore Sauages vsed vs that were thus Billited as diuers of the Souldiers ranne away to search Kemps our old prisoner Glad was this Sauage to haue such an occasion to testifie his loue for insteed of entertayning them and such things as they had stolne with all the great offers and promises they made them to reuenge their iniuries vpon Captaine Smith First hee made himselfe sport in shewing his Countrimen by them how hee was vsed feeding them with this Law Who would not worke must not eate till they were neere starued continually threatning to beate them to death neither could they get from him till perforce he brought them to our Captaine that so we contented him and punished them as many others that intended also to haue followed them were rather contented to labour at home then aduenture to liue idle among the Sauages of whom there was more hope to make better Christians and good subiects then the one halfe of those that counterfeited themselues both For so affraid were all those Kings and the better sort of their people to displease vs that some of the baser sort that wee haue extreamely hurt and punished for their villanies would hire vs that wee should not tell it to their Kings or Countrimen who would also repunish them and yet returne them to Iames Towne to content the President by that testimonie of their loues Master Sicklemore well returned from Chawonock but found little hope and lesse certaintie of them which had beene left by Sir Walter Rawley So that Nathaniell Powell and Anas Todkill were also by the Quiyough quohanocks conducted to the Mangoages to search them there But nothing could we learne but they were all dead This honest proper good promise-keeping King of all the rest did euer best affect vs and though to his false Gods hee was yet very zealous yet he would confesst our God as much exceeded his as our Guns did his Bow and Arrowes often sending our President many Presents to pray to his God for rain or his corn would perish for his Gods were angrie all this time To reclaime the Dutchmen and one Bentley another Fugitiue we imployed one William Volda a Switzer by birth with pardons and promises to regain them Little we then suspected this double villanie of any villany who plainly taught vs in the most trust was the greatest Treason For this wicked Hypocrite by the seeming hate hee bore to the lewd condition of his cursed Countrimen hauing this opportunitie by his imployment to regaine them conueighed them euery thing they desired to effect their proiect to destroy the Colonie With much deuotion they expected the Spaniard to whom they intended to haue done good seruice But to begin with the first opportunitie they seeing necessitie thus inforced vs to disperse our selues importuned Powhatan to lend them but his forces and they would not only destroy our Hogges fire our Towne and betray our Pinnasse but bring to his seruice and subiection the most part of our companies With this plot they had acquainted many discontents and many were agreed to their deuillish practise But one Thomas Douese and Thomas Mallard whose Christian hearts much relenting at such an vnchristian act voluntarily reuealed it to Captaine Smith who did his best it might be concealed perswading Douese and Mallard to proceed in the confederacie only to bring the irreclamable Dutchmen and inconstant Sauages in such a manner amongst his Ambuscadoes as hee had prepared as not many of them should euer haue returned from out our Peninsula But this brute comming to the eares of the impatient multitude they so importuned the President to cut off those Dutchmen as amongst many that offered to cut their throats before the face of Powhatan Master Wiffin and Iefra Abbot were sent to stabbe or shoote them but these Dutchmen made such excuses accusing Uolday whom they supposed had reuealed their proiect as Abbot would not yet Wiffin would perceiuing it but deceit The King vnderstanding
waited on to his house in the same manner And thus inclosed as I said round with a Pallizado of Planckes and strong Posts foure foote deepe in the ground of yong Oakes Walnuts c. The Fort is called in honour of his Maiesties name Iames Towne the principall Gate from the Towne through the Pallizado opens to the Riuer as at each Bulwarke there is a Gate likewise to goe forth and at euery Gate a Demi-Culuerin and so in the Market Place The houses first raised were all burnt by a casualty of fire the beginning of the second yeare of their seate and in the second Voyage of Captain Newport which since haue bin better rebuilded though as yet in no great vniformity either for the fashion or beauty of the streete A delicate wrought fine kinde of Mat the Indians make with which as they can be trucked for or snatched vp our people do dresse their chambers and inward roomes which make their houses so much the more handsome The houses haue wide and large Country Chimnies in the which is to be supposed in such plenty of wood what fires are maintained and they haue found the way to couer their houses now as the Indians with barkes of Trees as durable and as good proofe against stormes and winter weather as the best Tyle defending likewise the piercing Sunbeames of Summer and keeping the inner lodgings coole enough which before in sultry weather would be like Stoues whilest they were as at first pargetted and plaistered with Bitumen or tough Clay and thus armed for the iniury of changing times and seasons of the yeare we hold our selues well apaid though wanting Arras Hangings Tapistry and guilded Venetian Cordouan or more spruse houshold garniture and wanton City ornaments remembring the old Epigraph We dwell not here to build vs Bowers And Hals for pleasure and good cheere But Hals we build for vs and ours To dwell in them whilst we liue here True it is I may not excuse this our Fort or Iames Towne as yet seated in somewhat an vnwholesome and sickly ayre by reason it is in a marish ground low flat to the Riuer and hath no fresh water Springs seruing the Towne but what wee drew from a Well sixe or seuen fathom deepe fed by the brackish Riuer owzing into it from whence I verily beleeue the chiefe causes haue proceeded of many diseases and sicknesses which haue happened to our people who are indeede strangely afflicted with Fluxes and Agues and euery particular season by the relation of the old inhabitants hath his particular infirmity too all which if it had bin our fortunes to haue seated vpon some hill accommodated with fresh Springs and cleere ayre as doe the Natiues of the Country we might haue I beleeue well escaped and some experience we haue to perswade our selues that it may be so for of foure hundred and odde men which were seated at the Fals the last yeere when the Fleete came in with fresh and yong able spirits vnder the gouernment of Captain Francis West and of one hundred to the Seawards on the South side of our Riuer in the Country of the Nansamundes vnder the charge of Captaine Iohn Martin there did not so much as one man miscarry and but very few or none fall sicke whereas at Iames Towne the same time and the same moneths one hundred sickned halfe the number died howbeit as we condemne not Kent in England for a small Towne called Plumsted continually assaulting the dwellers there especially new commers with Agues and Feuers no more let vs lay scandall and imputation vpon the Country of Virginia because the little Quarter wherein we are set dowee vnaduisedly so chosed appeares to be vnwholesome and subiect to many ill ayres which accompany the like marish places §. IIII. The Lord La WARRES beginnings and proceedings in Iames Towne Sir THOMAS GATES sent into England his and the Companies testimony of Virginia and cause of the late miseries VPon his Lordships landing at the South gate of the Pallizado which lookes into the Riuer our Gouernour caused his Company in armes to stand in order and make a Guard It pleased him that I should beare his Colours for that time his Lordship landing fell vpon his knees and before vs all made a long and silent Prayer to himselfe and after marched vp into the Towne where at the Gate I bowed with the Colours and let them fall at his Lordships feete who passed on into the Chappell where he heard a Sermon by Master Bucke our Gouernours Preacher and after that caused a Gentleman one of his owne followers Master Anthony Scot his Ancient to reade his Commission which intituled him Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall during his life of the Colony and Plantation in Uirginia Sir Thomas Gates our Gouernour hitherto being now stiled therein Lieutenant Generall After the reading of his Lordships Commission Sir Thomas Gates rendred vp vnto his Lordship his owne Commission both Patents and the Counsell Seale after which the Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall deliuered some few words vnto the Company laying many blames vpon them for many vanities and their Idlenesse earnestly wishing that he might no more finde it so least he should be compelled to draw the sword of Iustice to cut off such delinquents which he had much rather he protested draw in their defence to protect them from iniuries hartening them with the knowledge of what store of prouisions he had brought for them viz. sufficient to serue foure hundred men for one whole yeare The twelfth of Iune being Tuesday the Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall did constitute and giue places of Office and charge to diuers Captaines and Gentlemen and elected vnto him a Counsell vnto whom he did administer an Oath mixed with the oath of Allegiance and Supremacy to his Maiestie which oath likewise he caused to be administred the next day after to euery particular member of the Colony of Faith Assistance and Secrecy The Counsaile which he elected were Sir Thomas Gates Kinght Lieutenant Generall Sir George Summers Knight Admirall Captaine George Percy Eâ—quire and in the Fort Captaine of fifty Sir Ferdinando Weinman Knight Master of the Ordnance Captaine Christopher Newport Vice-admirall William Strachei Esquire Secretary and Recorder As likewise the Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall nominated Captaine Iohn Martin Master of the Battery workes for Steele and Iron and Captaine George Webb Sergeant Maior of the Fort and especiall Captaines ouer Companies were these appointed Captaine Edward Bruster who hath the command of his Honours owne Company Captaine Thomas Lawson Captain Thomas Holecroft Captaine Samuell Argoll Captaine George Yardley who commandeth the Lieutenant Generals Company Diuers other Officers were likewise made as Master Ralph Hamor and Master Browne Clarkes of the Counsell and Master Daniell Tucker and Master Robert Wilde Clarkes of the Store c. The first businesse which the Lord Gouernour and Captaine Generall after the
name of a person who had the yeere before sent for the vse of the Colledge at Henrico diuers Bookes and an exact Map of America the Giuer is not knowne but the Bookes are valued at tenne pound Giuen by Master Thomas Bargraue Preacher in Virginia deceassed for the vse of the Colledge a Library valued at a hundred Markes And there is a contribution made by the Inhabitants in Virginia for the building of an house of entertainment for new commers at Iames Citie amounting to the value of fifteene hundred pounds Patents granted this yeere 1 To the Ladie Dale 2 To Sir Dudly Digges 3 To Sir Iohn Bourchier 4 To Captaine Ralph Hamer 5 To Master Arthur Swayne c. 6 To Master Rowland Trueloue c. 7 To Master Iohn Crowe 8 To Master Edward Rider 9 To Captaine Simon Leeke 10 To Master Daniell Gookin 11 To Master Edward Bennet 12 To Master Ioseph Leming 13 To Sir Charles North. 14 To Sir George Yeardly 15 To Master Thomas Leneson 16 To Captaine William Wildon 17 To Master Henry Southey 18 To Martins Hundred 19 To Master Robert Moston 20 To Master Edmund Wynne 21 To Captaine Henry Pelham c. 22 To Captaine Daniell Tucker 23 To Sir Bowyer Worsly 24 To Master Thomas Buckley 25 To Master Francis Harwell 26 To Sir Iohn Brooke Who together with their Associates haue vndertaken to transport great multitudes of people and cattle to Virginia §. II. Newes from Virginia in Letters sent thence 1621. partly published by the Company partly transcribed from the Originals with Letters of his Maiestie and of the Company touching Silke-workes IN the three last yeeres of 1619. 1620. and 1621. there hath beene prouided and sent for Virginia two and fortie Saile of ships three thousand fiue hundred and seuentie men and women for Plantation with requisite prouisions besides store of Cattle and in those ships haue beene aboue twelue hundred Mariners imployed There hath also beene sent in those yeeres nine shâ—ps to the Summer Ilands with about nine hundred people to inhabit there in which ships two hundred and fortie Mariners were imployed In which space haue beene granted fifty Patents to particular persons for Plantation in Virginia who with their Associates haue vndertaken therein to transport great multitudes of people and cattell thither which for the most part is since performed and the residue now in preparing as by the seuerall Declarations of each yeere in their particulars manifested and approoued in our generall and publike Quarter-Courts and for the fuller satisfaction of all desirous to vnderstand the particularities of such proceedings hath beene by printing commended to the vnderstanding of all Sir Francis Wiat was sent Gouernour into Virginia who arriued there in Nouember 1621. with Master George Sandys Treasurer Master Dauison Secretarie c. In the nine ships sent in that Fleet died but one Passenger of seuen hundred in whose roome there was another also borne at Sea Their prouisions were not found so well conditioned as was expected The Sailers are still blamed for imbezelling the goods sent to priuate persons for killing of Swine inordinate trucking c. It was ordained that for euery head they should plant but a thousand plants of Tobacco and for the better strength not to suffer aboue nine leaues to grow on each plant which will make about a hundred weight Master Gookin arriued also out of Ireland with fiftie men of his owne and thirtie Passengers well furnished The present gaine by Tobacco had made the planting of Corne to be neglected and some thinke that if Corne might there be valued not at two shillings sixe pence the bushell as deere as that which is brought from hence there would be lesse feare of famine or dependance on Tobacco The Letters written from the Gouernour and Treasurer in Virginia in the beginning of March last which came hither in Aprill gaue assurance of ouercomming and bringing to perfection in this yeere the Iron-workes Glasse-workes Salt-workes the plentifull sowing of all lorts of English graine with the Plough hauing now cleered good quantitie of ground setting of store of Indian Corne or Maiz sufficient for our selues and for trucke with the Natiues restraint of the quantitie of Tobacco and amendment of it in the qualitie learned by time and experience The planting of Vines and Mulberie trees neere to their Houses Figge-trees Pomegranates Potatoes and Cotton-wooll Seeds Pocoon Indico Sugar Canes Madder Woade Hempe Flaxe and Silke-grasse and for the erecting of a faire Inne in Iames Citie for the better entertainment of new commers whereto and to other publike workes euery old Planter there offered freely and liberally to contribute I write the words of their Letters And how in a late Discouerie made a few moneths before by some of them to the Southward they had past thorow great Forrests of Pines fifteene or sixteene miles broad and aboue threescore miles long very fit for Masts for shipping and for Pitch and Tarre and of other sorts of woods fit for Pot-ashes and Sope-ashes and came vnto a most fruitfull Countrey blessed with abundance of Corne reaped twice a yeere within the limits of Virginia where also they vnderstand of a Copper Myne an essay whereof was sent and vpon triall here found to be very rich and met with a great deale of Silke-grasse there growing which monethly may be cut of which kinds and Cotton-wooll all the Cambaya and Bengala Stuffes are made in the East Indies and of which kindes of Silke-grasse was heretofore made a piece of Grogeram giuen to Queene Elizabeth And how that in December last they had planted and cultiuated in Uirginia Vines of all as well those naturally growing as those other Plants sent them from these parts of Europe Orenge and Lemon-trees Fig-trees Sugar Canes Cotton-wooll Cassaui Roots that make very good bread Plantanes Potatoes and sundry other Indian fruits and Plants not formerly seene in Virginia which at the time of their said Letters began to prosper very well as also their Indico Seed for the true cure whereof there is lately caused a Treatise to be written Furthermore they write that in a Voyage made by Lieutenant Marmaduke Parkinson and other English Gentlemen vp the Riuer of Patomacke they saw a China Boxe at one of the Kings Houses where they were This Boxe or Casket was made of braided Palmito painted without and lined in the inside with blue Taffata after the China or East India fashion They enquiring whence it came the King of Patomecke said it was presented him by a certaine people of the Mountaines toward the South-west who got it from another Nation beyond them some thirtie dayes iournie from Patomacke called Acana Echinac beeing of small stature who had Houses Apparell and Houshold stuffe like vs and liuing within foure dayes iourney of the Sea had ships come into their Riuer and he his Brother along with them to that King which offer the Gouernour purposed not to refuse and the
we will forbeare to take the most holy name of God in vaine in ordinary swearing by it or any other thing or by scoffing or vaine abusing of his most holy Word or to vse cursing or filthy speeches or any other thing forbidden in Gods most holy Word as also to liue together without stealing one from another or quarrelling one with another or slandering one of another And to auoide all things that stand not with the good estate of a Christian Church and well gouerned Common-wealth as also to embrace the contrary as Iustice and Peace Loue and all other things that stand with the good and comfort of Societie Fourthly Whereas we are here together farre remote from our natiue soile of England and yet are indeed the naturall Subiects of our most Royall and gracious King IAMES of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. Wee doe therefore in the presence aforesaid solemnly promise euermore to continue the loyall Subiects of our said Soueraigne King his Heires and Successors and neuer to reuolt from him or them vnto any other whatsoeuer but euermore to acknowledge his Supreme Gouernment Fiftly Whereas wee were sent hither by diuers Aduenturers of the Citie of London and other parts of the Realme of England wee doe here in the presence aforesaid promise to vse all diligence for the good of the Plantation and not to purloyne or imbesell any of the prohibited commodities out of the generall estate but to vse all faithfulnesse as it becommeth Christians to doe as also to bee obedient to all such Gouernour or Gouernours or their Deputie or Deputies as are or shall be by them sent to gouerne vs As also to yeeld all reuerence towardes the Ministery or Ministers of the Gospel sent or to be sent Sixtly and lastly Wee doe here in presence aforesaid promise the Lord assisting vs that if at any time hereafter any forrain power shall attempt to put vs out of this our lawful possession not cowardly to yeeld vp the same but manfully to fight as true English men for the defence of the Common-wealth we liue in and Gospel wee professe and that whiles we haue breath wee will not yeeld to any that shall inuade vs vpon any conditions whatsoeuer I had thought hitherto to haue added a Letter of M. Hughes written from thence Dec. 21. 1614. and printed But our latter intelligence being more ample hath caused mee to omit him and others Yea all things in some and some things in all M. Norwood hath beene a diligent Surueyor of the place and accidents and hath giuen a Map of the one common to be sold and a briefe relation of the other But because his History of the Creatures is briefe I haue borrowed out of Captaine Smith what he had borrowed of Capt. Butler and others to giue the Reader more full satisfaction in that kind CHAP. XVII Relations of Summer Ilands taken out of M. RICHARD NORWOOD his Map and Notes added thereto printed 1622. The History of the Creatures growing or liuing therein being inlarged out of Capt. SMITHS written Relations SIr Thomas Gates and Sir George Summers hauing staied in Bermuda nine moneths with helpe of such things as they saued with the Sea-ven'ure and of such as they found in the Countrey had built of Cedar and rigged fit for the Sea two Vessels a Ship and a Pinnace and vpon the tenth of May 1610. departed toward Uirginia leauing onely two men behind them and carrying them store of prouision for the reliefe of the people there Vpon the foure and twentieth of May they arriued safely there and shortly after some of them returned to the Sommer Ilands againe for a further supply in the same Ship which they had formerly built there where Sir George Sommers dying his men did not according to his last charge giuen vnto them returne to Virginia but framed their course for England leauing behind them three men that staied voluntarily who shortly after found in Sommerset Iland which is a part of Sandys Tribe a verie great treasure in Ambergreece to the valew of nine or ten thousand pound sterling there hath also been found since diuers times of the best sort This new discouery of the Sommer Ilands being thus made knowne in England to the Virginian Company by these men which returned they sold it to some hundred and twentie persons of the same Company who obtained a Charter from his Maiestie and so hold it And toward the latter end of Aprill 1612. sent thither a Ship called the Plough with some sixtie persons to inhabite appointing Gouernour one Master Richard Moore a man ingenuous and carefull who since dyed in Sir Walter Rawlyes last voyage to Guiana a place as appeareth by our Moderne Geographers very rich and spatious But as I say he arriued there about the beginning of Iuly and found the foresaid three men that staied voluntarily very well Master Moore spent the three yeeres of his gouernment for the most part in fortifying the Countrey and trayning the people in Martiall exercises which custome hath beene continued by his successours hee built some nine or tenne Forts placing Oâ—dnance and Munition in them In his time the Lord sent vpon the Countrey a very grieuous scourge and punishment threatning the vtter ruine and desolation of it That it came from God I need not striue to proue especially considering it was generally so acknowledged by vs at that time The causes and occasions of it I need not name being very well knowne to vs all that then liued there which were about sixe hundred persons thought shortly after much diminished I will onely shew the thing it selfe which was a wonderfull annoyance by silly Rats These Rats comming at the first out of a Ship few in number increased in the space of two yeeres or lesse so exceedingly that they filled not onely those places where they were first landed But swimming from place to place spread themselues into all parts of the Countrey Insomuch that there was no Iland though seuered by the Sea from all other Lands and many miles distant from the Iles where the Rats had their originall but was pestered with them They had their Nests almost in euery Tree and in all places their Burrowes in the ground like Conies to harbour in They spared not the fruits of Plants and Trees neither the Plants themselues but eate them vp When wee had set our Corne they would commonly come by troupes the night following or so soone as it began to grow and digge it vp againe If by diligent watching any of it were preserued till it came to earing it should then very hardly scape them Yea it was a difficult matter after wee had it in our houses to saue it from them for they became noysome euen to the persons of men Wee vsed all diligence for the destroying of them nourishing many Cats wilde and tame for that purpose wee vsed Rats-bane and many times set fire
and great riches confessed that they had taken three Portugall prizes The Spaniards at first receiued them on good conditions but some villaines seeing their wealth murthered them for which this Auditor had sentenced Roderigo de Fuentes with others as his Letter to the King of Spaine importeth Now had there then beene a Virginian or Bermudan Plantation how easily might they haue attained thither the Boat at least and escaped that butchery I could hither adde instructions from the English Indian Ships 1604. and 1608. from Captaine Fenton 1582. from the Earle of Cumberlands Voyages before related in the yeares 86. 89. 91. 93. 96. 97. and from Master Candish Master Dauis and others But we haue made too long a Virginian Voyage hauing no better freight then Arguments which the Times doe now promise if not worthy wise mens approbation yet good mens indulgence where in a weake body and manifold weighty imployments the willingnesse of a heart truely English sincerely Christian may seeme tolerable if not commendable pardonable if not plausible Another labour remaines to set downe rules and proiects of best fecibility and accomplishing this noble worke but I am onely a Freeman no Councellour of that Plantation and haue neither Lands there nor other aduenture therein but this of my loue and credit which with the allegiance to my Soueraigne and desire of the publike good of this Kingdome is more to me then all the treasures of America I seeke the good and not the goods of England and Virginia I follow the hand of God which haue giuen England so many rights in Virginia right naturall right nationall right by first discouery by accepted trade by possession surrendred voluntarily continued constantly right by gift by birth by bargaine and sale by cession by forfeiture in that late damnable trechery and massacre and the fatal possession taken by so many murthered English Gods bounty before his iustice now hath giuen vs Virginia that we should so in iudgement remember mercy as to giue Virginia againe to God in Christian acknowledgement of his goodnesse and mercy of his word and workes and in our owne more serious conuersion to prepare that of Virginia God goeth before vs in making this designe honorable to Religion to Humanity to our Ancestors to our King to our Kingdome God goeth before vs and hath giuen Virginia so rich a portion to allure and assure our loues in multiplying our people and thereby our necessities enforcing a vent in endowing Virginia with so large a iointure so temperate so commodious for the climate compared with other Countries beyond other Countries in her own diuersified Lands Seas Riuers in so fertile a soyle in so strong sweete stately delicate Woods and Timbers in her naturall hopes of Wines of Silkes of the bodies of Natiues seruile and seruiceable in Drugges Irons and probability also of other Mines in all materials for Shipping and other buildings God goeth before vs in offering that meane to saue that which wee seeke and spend in other perhaps enemies Countries to breede vp Marriners to train vp Souldiers to exercise labourers by transportation of English and Europaean creatures to plant another England in America enriched with the best things of Europe to giue vs Fish Tobacco and other present improuements as earnest of future better hopes and that in these times which haue so manifold necessities thereof in regard of monies men and trades decayed in regard of neighbour plantations in the probabilities of a South-Sea glory and in the case of obtruded warre obtruding on vs absolute necessity and including and concluding euery way so manifold vse God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost which goe before vs in these things if not in miraculous fire and cloudy pillars as when Israel went to Canaan yet in the light of reason and right consequence of arguments come into vs and fillvs with the spirit of wisedome and vnderstanding the spirit of counsell and of fortitude the spirit of knowledge and the feare of the Lord I may adde the spirit of vnity and counsell that he may vouchsafe to goe with vs and we with him and after him to Uirginia Amen O Amen Be thou the Alpha and Omega of Englands Plantation in Virginia O GOD. The end of the ninth Booke ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND PLANTATIONS IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW-FOVND-LAND WITH THE PATENT AND VOYAGES TO NEW-SCOTLAND Relations also of the Fleets set forth by Queene Elizabeth against the Spaniards THE TENTH BOOKE CHAP. I. A briefe Relation of the Discouerie and Plantation of New-England and of sundry Accidents therein occurring from the yeere of our Lord 1607. to this present 1622. Published by the President and Councell and dedicated to the Princes Highnesse here abbreuiated WHen this Designe was first attempted some of the present Company were therein chiefly interessed who being carefull to haue the same accomplished did send to the discouery of those Northern parts a braue Gentleman Cap. Henry Challons with two of the Natiues of that Territorie the one called Maneday the other Assecomet But his misfortunes did expose him to the power of certaine strangers enemies to his proceedings so that by them his Company were seized the ships and goods confiscated and that Voyage wholly ouerthrowne This losse and vnfortunate beginning did much abate the rising courage of the first Aduenturers but immediately vpon his departure it pleased the Noble Lord Chiefe Iustice Sir Iohn Popham Knight to send out another shippe wherein Captayne Thomas Hanam went Commander and Martine Prinne of Bristow Master with all necessary supplyes for the seconding of Captayne Challons and his people who arriuing at the place appointed and not finding that Captayne there after they had made some Discouerie and found the Coasts Hauens and Harbours answerable to our desires they returned Vpon whose Relation the Lord Chiefe Iustice and we all waxed so confident of the businesse that the yeere following euery man of any worth formerly interessed in it was willing to ioyne in the charge for the sending ouer a competent number of people to lay the ground of a hopefull Plantation Hereupon Captaine Popham Captaine Rawley Gilbert and others were sent away with two ships and an hundred Landmen Ordnance and other prouisions necessary for their sustentation and defence vntill other supply might be sent In the meane-while before they could returne it pleased God to take vs from this worthy member the Lord Chiefe Iustice whose sudden death did so astonish the hearts of the most part of the Aduenturers as some grew cold and some did wholly abandon the businesse Yet Sir Francis Popham his Sonne certaine of his priuate friends and other of vs omitted not the next yeere holding on our first resolution to ioyne in sending forth a new supply which was accordingly performed But the ships arriuing there did not only bring vncomfortable newes of the death of the Lord Chiefe Iustice together with the death of Sir Iohn Gilbert the elder
him thriee discouered called in the Latitude of 43. derees 20. minutes were imployed for a farther discouery of these Coasts And if any good occasion were offered to leaue as many men as wee could spare in the Country Being victualled for eleuen or twelue moneths at the charges of the Honourable Sir Iohn Popham Knight Lord chiefe Iustice of England Sir Fardinando Gorges Knight Captaine of the Fort of Plimouth together with diuers other worshipfull Knights Gentlemen and Merchants of the West Countrye Iohn Stoneman of Plimouth being Pilot who had beene in the foresaid parts of Virginia the yeere before with George Waymouth The Masters name was Nicholas Hine of Cockington neere Dartmouth The last day of August wee fell with the I le of Madera where we watered and refreshed our selues and stayed three dayes being very kindly vsed by the Inhabitants The third day of September wee departed from thence passing betweene Gomora and Palma two of the Canary Iles and from thence were driuen by contrary winds to take a more Southerly course then we intended and so spent more then sixe weekes before wee could recouer any of the Ant-Iles The first that wee could recouer was the I le of Saint Lucia in the Latitude of 14. degrees 20. minutes where we refreshed our selues with Wood and Water And saw certaine of the Sauages there about fortie or fiftie came vnto vs at our Ship in one of their Cannoas bringing vnto vs Tobacco Potatos Plantins and Cassaui Bread the which Sauages had slaine more then fortie of our Nation the yeere before 1605. as after wee vnderstood by Philip Glasco and Miles Pett being two of Captaine Nicholas Saint Iohns company which was there treacherously slaine among the rest Hauing stayed heare three dayes about the two and twentieth of October we departed thence to the Northward And in passing by the I le of Dominica wee chanced to see a white Flag put forth on the shoare whereat maruelling wee supposed that some Christians had sustained shipwrack their And forthwith a Cannoa came off from the shoare towards vs which when they came neere being very little wind we layed our Ship by the lee and stayed for them a little and when they were come within a little distance of the Ship wee perceiued in the Cannoa a Friar who cried aloud in the Latine tongue saying I beseech as you are Christians for Christ his sake to shew some mercy and compassion on mee I am a Preacher of the Word of God a Friar of the Order of Franciscus in Siuill by name Friar Blasius And that hee had beene there sixteene moneths a Slaue vnto those Sauages and that other two Friars which were of his company they had murthered and throwne into the Sea We demanded of him then how he got so much fauour to preserue his life his Brethren being murthered Hee answered because hee did shew the Sauages how to fit them Sayles for their Cannoas and so to ease them of much labour often in rowing which greatly pleased the Sauages as appeared for wee saw them to vse sayles in their Cannoas which hath not beene seene before Then we demanded of him where they had this Linnen Cloth to make those Sayles hee answered That about two yeeres before that three Gallions comming to the West Indies were cast away on the I le of Gwadalopa where abundance of Linnen Cloth and other Merchandise was cast on shoare We demanded farther what was the cause of his being in this place and how he came thither he answered That the King of Spaine did euery yeere send out of euery great Monastery certaine Friars into the remote parts of the Indies both to seeke to conuert the Sauages as also to seeke out what benefits or commodities might be had in those parts and also of what force the Sauages were of and what number of them were in the seuen Ant-Iles viz. Saint Vincent Granado Saint Lucia Mattalina Dominica Gwadalopa Aisey The which the said Friar Blaseus said he had diligently noted and obserued and did hope to make perfect relation of such great benefits and riches as was to be drawne from thence as he doubted not but would bee greatly accepted of his King if hee might liue to returne to declare it For said hee I haue seene in one Riuer discending from the Mountaines in the I le of Dominica the Sand to glitter like Gold or find Copper whereupon I tooke some of it and chewed it betweene my teeth and found it perfect Mettall the Sauages noting me began to haue some iealousie of me so as I durst not take any farther notice of it neither would they suffer him forward to come neere to that place And farther hee said That if the great plentie of diuers Fruits and Roots fit for mans sustenance were perfectly knowne together with the Sugar-canes that they haue in those Iles and the fertilitie of the soyle he thought it would be very shortly inhabited and as for the number of Sauages there as neere as we could vnderstand was scarce one thousand of all sorts of men women and children in all the said seuen Iles. Now being moued with pittie at the lamentable complaint and humble suit of this distressed Friar wee tooke him into our Ship and sent away the Sauages much discontented And from thence wee sayled to the I le of Saint Iohn De-port-rico where on the nine and twentieth of October wee arriued on the Southside and forthwith sent the Friar on shoare and deliuered him to two Heardsmen which most thankfully receiued him and of their courtesie brought vs a fat Cow and proferred vs more with Hogs Calues or any thing else that they could procure vs in recompence of the good deed done to the Friar Wee departed from thence and sayled out betweene the Iles of Saint Iohn De-portrico and Hispaniola standing away to the Northward And leauing the great shoalds called Abrioio on our Larboord side being in the Latitude of 21. and 22. degrees from thence Westward our course North North-west and North-west and by North vntill wee were in the Latitude of 27. degrees or better and about one hundred and eightie leagues from Saint Iohn de Port Rico. In this place hauing had a very great storme of Wind and Raine continuing fiftie sixe houres and more before on the tenth day of Nouember about ten of the clocke in the morning suddenly we found our selues in the middest of a Fleet of eight Sayle of ships in a very thicke fogge of mist and raine so as we could not see them before they were very neere and within shot of them wherein three of them were on the wind-ward of vs on a third and fourth more to lee-ward those at the wind-ward came to me vnto vs and shot at vs requiring vs to speake with their Admirall When we saw that by no meanes we could auoid them but that they would speake with vs we put
seuen miles in circuit at the foot fashioned it is vpward like an Hiue and the top therof most commonly to be discerned within and aboue the clouds This Mountaine hath in it by report many great hollow Caues and deepe Vaults and it is credibly reported that oftentimes it breathes out flames and sparkes of fire as doth the Mountaine Aetna Also at the bottome of this Mountain towards the East there is a great Spring of Fresh-water which is seen many times to issue out flakes and stones of fire with great violence and of the number and bignesse of the stones that are throwne out by the force and source of this Spring and what huge workes they make of the multitudes of them they confidently doe tell strange wonders which I will neither affirme nor deny but leaue indifferent to credit as men list Fayall is so called of Faya which in the Portugues signifieth a Beech Tree wherewith that Iland is said to abound But yet I saw there more store of Iuniper and Cedar then of any other Wood or Timber For Aire and Soyle it is as pleasant and fruitfull as any of the other Ilands and in it are some fiue Townes with many pretie Villages and in this Iland there are yet remaining certaine families of the Flemish race Gratiosa is so called of the exceeding fruitfulnesse of the Soyle and pleasant temper of the Ayre Flores of the abundance of Flowers that grow in it Cueruo of the multitude of Rauens and Crowes breeding therein And that Iland doth also breed Horses Saint Maries Saint Georges and Saint Michaels were so called of those Saints names vpon whose dayes they were first discouered for such is the custome of many Nauigators and especially of the Spaniards and Portugues so to call those Landes that they first make by the Saints day and name wherein they are discouered And these three Ilands for temper and fruitfulnesse are suteable with the others But Saint Michael is the greatest of them all Tercera the strongest and Saint Maries the neerest to the Coast of Spaine But now as wee come neerer to our intended purpose for the better vnderstanding thereof I thinke it very necessary and pertinent somewhat to speake of the chiefe Commanders as well by Sea as by Land and also of the number of our Ships and Souldiers together with the proiect and designe of that iourney then vndertaken for the seruice of her late Maiestie and the Honour of our Nation It is therefore to be vnderstood that Robert Deuereux late Earle of Essex Master of the Horse and Ordnance and Knight of the Garter First commanded in chiefe as well Admirall of the Nauie by Sea as Generall of the Armie by Land His Vice-Admirall was the Lord Thomas Howard Knight of the same Order and second Sonne to the last Thomas Duke of Norfolke a Nobleman much honoured and beloued and of great experience in Sea seruice His Reare-Admirall was Sir Walter Raleigh Knight Captaine of her Maiesties Guard Lord Warden of the Stanneries and Lieftenant of Cornwall For the Land seruice his Leiftenant Generall was Sir Charles Blunt Lord Mountioy Knight of the Garter Gouernour of Portsmouth and a man in high fauour with her late Maiestie His Marshall of the Field was Sir Frauncis Vere Knight a great Souldier and Coronell Generall of the English Forces in the Low-Countries The Master of the Ordnance Sir George Carew Knight Leiftenant of the Ordnance of the Kingdome of England His Sergeant Maior Sir Ferdinando Gorges Knight Gouernour of the Forts of Plimouth The Coronell Generall of the Foot Sir Christopher Blunt Knight The Treasurer of the Armie Sir Hugh Biston Knight one of her Maiesties Receiuers Generall in the Principalities of Walles with all other Officers designed to places requisite that were needful by Land or Sea now too long to rehearse And yet of all the Noblemen I will as neere as I can record their names particularly but craue pardon if I faile in the precedencie of their places The Earles of Essex Rutland and Southampton the Lord Howard the Lord Audley the Lord Gray the Lord Mountioy the Lord Rich and the Lord Cromwell But the particular names of all the Land Captains that had charge I could neuer come to the knowledge of much lesse can I marshall them orderly in this discourse And therefore I will passe to the number of the Ships in generall and therein name some particulars of the chiefe and principall Vessells of the Royall Nauie with their Captaines The whole Nauie which was diuided into three Squadrons viz. The Admirall his Squadron The Vice-Admirall his Squadron and the Reare-Admirall his Squadron consisted of 120. sayle or thereabout whereof sixtie were good men of Warre and gallant Ships the rest Victuallers and Ships of Transportation Of her Maiesties owne Ships the number was eighteene or nineteene and these were their names The Merhoneur Admirall whereof Sir Robert Mansfield was Captaine The Due Repulse Vice-Admirall whereof Master Middleton was Captaine The Wast Spite Reare-Admirall whereof my selfe was Captaine The Garland the Earle of Southampton commanded The Defiance wherein the Lord Mountioy was shipped had for Captaine Sir Amias Preston The Saint Mathew to Sir George Carew Master of the Ordnance The Mary Rose to Sir Francis Vere Marshall whose Captaine was M. Iohn Winter The Dread-nought Sir William Brooke was Captaine of The Nonparellia Sir Richard Luson was Captaine of The Bonouenture Sir William Haruey was Captaine of The Antelope Sir Thomas Vauisâ—r was Captain of The Rainbow Sir William Mounson was Captaine of The Swiftsure Sir Gilly Mericke was Captain of The Golden Lion was sent after for a supply The Hope whereof was Captain The Foresight whereof Sir Carew Reignall was Captaine The Saint Andrew whereof Master Marcellus Throckmorton was Captain The Tramontana whereof young Master Fenner was Captain The Moone whereof Sir Edward Michelboorne was Captaine Besides that there were some other of her Maiesties small Pinnaces that attended the Fleet. The residue or the Fleet aforenamed consisted of the best shipping of London and other Port-Townes of the Kingdome with sundry stout Vestells belonging to some Lords and Gentlemen that were Aduenturers in this Voyage There were also added to this Nauie tenne sayle of good men of Warre sent from the States of the Low-Countries to attend her Maiesties Fleet in this seruice vnder the conduct of one Mounsier de Duneincorde well manned and furnished The Land Army besides Saylers that might be afforded and spared vpon occasion of landing consisted of six thousand able men well appointed with ten Peeces of Artillery for the Field and Battery with all necessary Vtensils fit for them The proportion of victuals was for four months at large allowance double apparell both for Souldier's and Mariners In this Armie there went Knights Captaines and Gentlemen voluntaries fiue hundred at the least as gallant parsonages and as brauely furnished as euer the
and breaking off againe 1647 et seq Gosnols hope 1648 Gotierez his conuerting the Indians after the Spanish fashion 1449 Gouernment necessary by Land or Sea 1156 Gouernours-Iland a little Iland neere Port Ricco abounding with store of Pigeons 1172 Cap. Gourgues a Frenchmans nauigation into Florida his reuenge on the Spaniards for the wrongs his Countrimen sustained by them 1604 1605 Grampus a Bay in New England so called by reason of the multitude of Grampuses sound in that place all kind of hearber roots and trees and a very fertile soile 1846 1847 Granada a new Kingdome of the Spaniards in America the plenty of gold chiefe City and seuerall Prouinces therof 1419. Extream desolation and losse of inhabitants by the sauage torâ—ures and cruelties of the Spaniards 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 Granata Iles 1186 Grande a riuer in Florida 1603 Grand Bay a Harbour on the north of the New-found Land 1882 Grapes good against the flux 1172 Grapes in New France 1622 Grasse wanting in a blacke champion country of the Indies 1214 Gratiosa one of the Iles of the Azores 1671. It submitteth it selfe to the English Admirall 1960 Gregory 13. his rage against Q. Elizabeth 1893 Greedinesse a dangerous enemy 1152 1393. Greedinesse loseth his prey 1964. Greedinesse of Mariners a maine preiudice to the Virginian Colony 1751 Sir Richard Greenuile Generall of Virginia his voyage and acts 1645 his desperatenesse against the Spanish Armadoes 1961 Sir Râ—chard Greenuiles fight with the too vnequall Spanish Fleet his stout resistance and great preiudice the Spaniards sustained by him his taking and death with his Encomium 1678 Guamimbique strange small birds in Brasile of admired colour hatched as some thinke of bubbles of water 1305 Guacapo drinke made of the coorsest Sugar called Molasses and hot spices in the Indies 1174 Guacoya a towne in Florida neere the riuer Rio grand the inhabitants and commodities thereof 1552 Guadalcanal one of the Iles of Salomon 1447 Guadalupa-Ile wherein is a Bathe so hot that meat may bee seethed in it 1685 Guiahate a towne in Florida well peopled and plentifull with Maiz 1550 Guaiacatu Sauages of Brasile 1299 Guaiacones-Indians 1519 Gualua a strange Spring in Terceâ—a 1670 Guaniguanico 1501 Guarionix a Realme in Hispaniola the King pittifully abi 〈…〉 ed by Spaniards 1751 Guanos a fruit in S. Lucia which eaten ripe sets a man a scouring but greene stayes from scouring 1265 Guatatlan a prouince in New Spain 1559 Guayanaguacu caue-inhabiting Sauages 1299 Guayo Brasilias Indians 1299 Guâ—yayaquill a riuer with 〈◊〉 Ilands in the â—oâ—th 〈◊〉 1446 Guasco a Prouince in Florida 1554 Guatimala a Prouince in America dispeopled by Spanish cruelty 1579 1580 Guaracayo inhabitants of part of Brasile 1298 Guaitaca-Indians 1300 Guatalca a principall Port Towne 1446 Guadianilla a riuer in Port-Ricco 1170 Guaire Brasile Indians 1300 Guirapanga a bird that makes a sound as hard as a Bell 1306 Gulgaifi Indians neere the riuer of Plate their description 1350 Gumms of rare operation for sundâ—y diseases in Guyana 1276 A Gunners carelesnesse 1402 Gunpowder sowne by Sauages 1709 Guacouelica a place rich with siluer Mynes 1421 Gusts on the West Indian shoares 1157 Iohn Guy his Letter from the New found Land 18â—6 Guyanâ—o a great mountaine in Poâ—t Ricco 1169 Guyauas a little excellent fruit as big as a Peach with little seeds in them like Goosberies 1172 It is good against the flux 1172 Guyana a riuer in America not that of Sir Walte Raleighs the store of Cattell Sugar-mills commodities and inhabitants thereof 1238 Guyrig Brasilians 1300 Guansa Tomasongano a riuer in Affrica 1220 Guyana 1247 seq The riuers and countries adioyning 1249. The bounds and limits 1270. Riuers and Prouinces 1271 1272. the gouernment thereof iustice iealousie mariages ibid. Their diuers languages ancient inhabitants Caribes 1272. Artillerie order in the warres 1272 1273. Policy seasons accompts of time by the Moone religion rites at burying Captaines 1273 1274. Their drunkennesse opinion of the dead Priests and conference with the Deuill 1274. The quality of the Climat 1274. their prouision bread drinke honey possibility of vines beasts fish fowle fruits 1274 1275. Its commodities of Merchandise as Sugar-canes cotton-wooll wood for dyers of cloth 1275. Sweet gums very precious in Physicke and Chirurgery drugs medicinall plants strange wood Tobacco 1276 1277. the things these Indians most desire to trade for ibid. 1277. hopes of gold ibid. Guyaxule-Prouince 1539 Guyraupiaguara a great land-snake that goeth as fast on tops of trees as a man on the ground 1303 Guyranhe eng era an excellent speaking Bird in Brasile 1305 A Giants Anatomy sent from China to the King of Spaine of wondrous greatnesse 1178 Gyants at Port-Desire their length bignesse slinging-stones 1232 Gyants at Brasile 1243. of twelue foot height ibid. Gyants in Peru of whom one eates as much as fifty men 1481 H. HAbetebin a Plaine in the West Indies betweene Marwin and Coorepan 1285 Harbours in Virginia verie safe and admirable 1664 Harbour of Pentecost its description and commendation preferred before the riuer Orenoco and others 1664. It s seuerall beneficiall matters of worth largely 1665 1666 Harbour of Frenchmen called by the Indians Aiurema Piasaue in Brasile its passage for nauigators 1239 Capt. Mich. Harcourt his taking possession of Arrawary 1278 Capt. Harcourts voyage 1267 seq His company and departing from Dartmouth 1267. His ariuall at the Canaries and from thence to Wiapoco and Guiana 1267 1268. commeth to Caripo conuerseth with the Indians 1268 1269. agreeth and resideth with them 1270. taketh possession of the mountaine Gomerigo 1278 The losse of his voyage 1279. leaueth Guiana 1281. Returneth home his small losses of men by the voyage ibid. 1282 Harris one that blew off his nose in frosty weather at the Straits of Magellane 1204 Hadarinner a town of Suppay-Sauages in the Indies 1286 Haile as big as Oranges 1561 Haire as big as a mans finger 1560 Halo the circle seen about the Moon very strange and large in the Barmudas Ilands 1738 Hamaca-beds 1256 Hamburgers ships surprised by the English 1929 Han a Language of the Indians in Florida 1519 Hanamob a towne of the Arwac-Sauages in the Indies 1286 Haps hill in Uirginia 3649 Hapaluia a great Floridan towne and its commodities 1534 Harbouring in enemies ports is verie dangerous 1378 Hardoo an Arwacca towne in the West Indies 1285 Hatuncolla Pancarcolla Indians that haue diuers fables of their Originall they worship a Ramme and sacrifice vnto him 1461 Hawkins Mayden-land 1384 Sir Iohn Hawkins his courtesie to the French 1604. Sr. Ioh. Hawkins voyage 1177. His courtesie to the Spaniards repayd with trechery ibid. seq his misfortune 1179. Death 1183. A comparing of him with Sr. Fran. Drake 1185 1186 Master Will. Hawkins men perfidiously slaine at Playa 1181 Sir Richard Hawkins his voyage 1367 seq His comming to the Canaries Ilands of Cape Verde the West Indies and accidents there by the way ibid. at large the ouerthrow of his
or fiue Friars one an Irishman Their Bookes Beades and Pictures cost aboue 1000. Duckets The Bishop of Tuccaman had sent for them to take possession of a Monasterie They learned of Master Iohn Drake who went in consort with Captaine Fenton cast away neere the Riuer of Plate his companie taken or slaine by the Saluages of which Iohn Drake and Richard Fairweather escaped with two or three others in a Canoa to the Spaniards and liued in those parts Here also they tooke Miles Philips left in the Countrey by Sir Iohn Hawkins After counsell taken they fell Aprill 3. with the Land of Brasil in 16. degrees and a Terse and watered in the Road of Camana They proceeded and anchored before the Towne of Baya and found in the Harbour eight Ships and one Caruell The next day they forced the Portugals to abandon foure of the best of those ships and towed them forth in despight of infinite store of great and small shot from the shoare and ships one Hulke hauing in her foure and twentie pieces of Ordnance The least of these prizes was 130. Tunnes After this they haled the Hulke and commanded the Master to follow them which he did together with a Caruell with fiftie Butts of wine They fetched reliefe from the shoare also in despite of innumerable Indians and all the enemies forces May 24. they tooke a ship of 120. Tunnes laden with Meale and Sugar But the voyage to the South Sea was defeated by some mens desire to returne in which Captaine Delamour tooke a small Pinnace The Fleâ—â—â—sish Hulke taken into the Fleet in stead of the George cast off furnished with her men suddenly tooke fire and perished Ship Men and Goods Septemb. 29. the residue reached the Coast of England after an vnprofitable and vnfortunate voyage IN the yeare 1587. when the Towne of Slewse was beseeged by the Duke of Parma Sir Roger Williams being Gouernour there the Earle put himselfe in person to make proofe of his valour in that seruice but at his arriuall found the Towne surrendred vnto the Duke the said Sir Roger being not able to hold out longer Anno 1588. amongst many of the Nobility which distributed themselues into diuers of her Maiesties Shippes vpon the approach of the Spanish Armada the Earle put himselfe aboord the Bonaduenture commanded by Captaine George Raymond when they wanne that honour that no Sea can drowne no age can weare out The Queene so accepted this Noble Earles resolution that she gaue him leaue the same yeare to goe as Generall and for his greater honour and ability was pleased to lend him the Golden Lion one of the Shippes Royall to be the Admirall which he victualled and furnished at his owne charge and aduenture hauing Commission to pursue his intended voyage towards the Spanish coasts vnder the broad Seale of England bearing date the fourth of October 1588. Attended with many braue Gentlemen he set forth about the end of October and in the Narrow Seas met with a Shippe of Dunkerke called the Hare laden with Merchandise for Spaine which after some fight he tooke and sent home But contrary windes first suspended and after that a storme which forced them to cut the maine Maste ouerboord depriued him of further hopes and ability to prosecute his true designes HIs spirit remaining neuerthelesse higher then the windes and more resolutely by stormes compact vnited in it selfe he procured a new of her Maiestie the Victory one of the Royal Nauie accompanied with the Meg and Margaret two small Ships and one Caruell which were set forth at his charges and manned with 400. Mariners and Souldiers the Admirall commanded by his Lordship and vnder him Captaine Christopher Lyster the Meg by Captaine William Mounson Viceadmirall the Margaret by Captaine Edward Careles alias Write Rereadmirall the Caruell by Captaine Pigeon The eighteenth of Iune they set forth from Plimmouth and within three dayes met with three French Ships Leaguers of New Hauen and Saint Maloes laden with New-found land fish two of them with the Margaret not able to endure the Sea were sent for England The thirteenth of Iuly his Lordship met with eleuen Dutch Ships which at first made shew to abide a fight and after a few shot yeelded and sent their Masters aboord shewing their Pasports from Hamborough Lubecke Bream Pomerland and Callice who confessed that they had goods aboord to the value of foure thousand fiue hundred pounds of a Iew of Lisbone which being deliuered and distributed his Lordship set saile for the Asores The first of August he had sight of Saint Michael and to disguise himselfe put forth a Spanish Flagge Espying foure Shippes in the Roade he resolued that night to cut their Cables and to bring them away which he accordingly performed before he was descried The Spaniards in three of them leaping into the Sea with much noise and outcry gaue the alarme to the Town which made many vaine shots at his Boate in the darke The fourth was the Falcon of London vnder the name of a Scottish Ship hauing a Scottish Pilot. The three Spaniards were laden from Siuill with Wine and Sallet Oyle The Pinnace tooke a small Shippe wherein was thirty tunnes of Madera wines same Wollen Cloath Silke and Taffata The Carracks were departed from Tercera eight dayes before He manned his Boates and obtained refreshing at Flores professing himselfe a friend to their King Don Antonio From thence rowing a shipboord the Boate was pursued two miles together by a monstrous Fish whose Finnes many times appeared about the gils aboue water foure or fiue yards a sunder and his iawes gaping a yard and a halfe wide not without great danger of ouerturning the Pinnace and deuouring some of the company but at the last they all escaped Here his Lordshippe met and accepted into consort Captaine Dauies with his Shippe and Pinnace a Shippe of Sir Walter Raleighs commanded by Captaine Markesbury and the Barke Lime Hauing intelligence that the Carracks were at Tercera he came vp to the road of Fyall the seuen and twentieth of August and descrying certaine Shippes at anchor close aboord the shoare he sent his Boates which boorded a Ship of 250. tunne armed with foureteene cast Peeces and continued fight till a supply of Boates came from the Fleete to second them and then recouered the prize The Spaniards except Iohn de Palma leapt all ouer-boord to swimme to the shoare which was so neere that the Ship was moored to the Castle from whence the great Ordinance plaied all the time of the fight onely it was not a play to the Master of the Caruell whose calfe of his legge was shot away This Shippe came laden from Port-Racco with Sugar Ginger and Hides The Ship-boates fetched also out of the Roade some other small Ships laden from Guinâ—ee with Elephants teeth Graines Coca nuts and Goate Skinnes most of which prizes he sent for England The
afraid to eate him for feare he had the pox let him goe Hee went to R. de las Palmas and to the Mynes of Sacatecas the richest in all the Indies After his returne to Mexico he trauelled to other parts spending seuenteene yeeres in his American peregrinations Henrie Hawkes liued fiue yeeres in those parts and his obseruations are recorded by Master Hakluyt AN. 1567. Master Iohn Hawkins Generall in the Iesus departed from Plimouth with fiue other ships the Minion of which Master Iohn Hampton was Captaine the William and Iohn Thomas Bolton Captaine the Iudith of which Master Francis Drake was Captaine the Angel also and the Swallow Hauing on the Coast of Guinea taken some fiue hundred Negroes they sayled with them to the Ilands of the West Indies to sell them to the Spaniards By tempest they were driuen to the Port of Saint Iohn de Vllua where the Spanish ships with 200000. pounds in treasure were at his mercy but hee dismissed them which they repayed him with treacherous dealing the Spaniards perfidiously setting on the English contrarie to the Couenants betwixt them concluded For after that when as the whole fleet with their new Vice-roy comming thither had perished if Master Hawkins had not permitted them to enter the Hauen out of which he could easily haue kept them they practised secretly and against agreement to certaine Articles assaulted the English perfidiously and treacherously vsing both fraud and scorne in which fight two ships of the Spaniards were sunke and one burnt Some of ours were slaine others taken and dispiteously tortured all distressed all their ships also sunke and burnt sauing the Minion and Iudith which were by a storme ensuing be trayed to famine at Sea which forced the Generall to set 114. men on shoare to the cruell mercies of the Sauages and Spaniards Yea one Boat not being able to get to shoare two were drowned the rest getting a mile thorow the Sea thither as they could as Miles Philips one of that forlorne companie hath recorded Some were dead in seeming two houres space with abundant drinking of fresh water others swolne exceedingly with salt water and fruits they found a shower also leauing them not one drie thread as if Heauen had pursued the Seas challenge without and partly hunger and partly the water and fruits of the Earth within their bowels had conspired against this poore crue The Chichemici Indian Sauages added their inhumanitie killing eight of their companie in the first onset but they yeelding hauing neither weapons nor hearts to resist the Sauages perceiuing them not to be their Spanish enemies pointed them to Tampice saying Tampice Christiano which they vnderstood not but diuided themselues into two companies one going Westward of which Philips was one the other Northward and with them Dauid Ingram which recouered his Countrie After the stingings of flies deaths by Indians and manifold miseries this Westerne companie got to Panuco where the Gouernor stripped them of the little which they had and of their libertie calling them English Dogs and Lutheran heretikes and when they demanded helpe of their Surgeons for such as the Indians by the way had wounded hee said they should haue none other Surgeon but the Hangman and after foure dayes sent for them out of the Prison and with many new Halters wherewith they expected hanging bound and sent them to Mexico ninetie leagues distant West and by South with a great guard of Indians At Mèstitlan they receiued kind vsage One of their keepers vsed them kindly the other would strike them to the ground and bid them March march English Dogges Lutherans enemies of God Thus marching they came within two leagues of Mexico where was our Ladies Church and therein her Image of Siluer guilt as large as a tall woman and before it as many Siluer Lampes as are dayes in the yeere which on high dayes are all lighted Neither Horseman nor Footman will passe by this Church without entring and praying After their comming to Mexico many dyed the rest had kind vsage in the Hospitall Thence they were carried to Tescuco to be vsed as slaues but by one Robert Sweeting sonne of an Englishman by a Spanish woman were holpen much from the Indians or else had all perished After this they were put to Spaniards as seruants and had meanes to get somewhat for themselues till they became a prey to the Inquisition which seised their goods and persons shutting them asunder in dungeons a yeere and halfe By frequent examinations they would haue pumped somewhat out of them in matters of faith and not being able they yeelding to their Assertions in that kind crauing mercie as men which came into that Countrey by distresse of foule weather they neuerthelesse racked them to extort confession that way which made some to say that which cost their liues After solemne Proclamation that all might come to this sight they were brought in fooles Coats with ropes about their neckes and candles in their hands to the Scaffold George Râ—nely Peter Moâ—â—frie and Cornelius an Irishman were burnt others condemned to 200. or 300. blowes on Horseback with long whips and to serue in the Gallies sixe eight or ten yeeres others to serue in Monasteries in the S. Benito fooles-coates diuers yeeres of which Philips was one The whipping was cruelly executed on Good Friday two Cryers going before proclaiming behold these English Lutherans Dogs enemies of God the Inquisitors themselues and their Familiars crying Strike lay on those English Hereticks Lutherans Gods enemies All bloudie and swolne they returned to prison to bee sent into Spaine to performe the rest of their Martyrdome Philips and the rest hauing serued their times in which hee learned the Mexican tongue they had their fooles-coats hung vp in the chiefe Church The rest married there Philips escaped a second imprisonment and after many trauels in the Countrey and dangers in Spaine returned to England 1582. Iob Hortop another of this company hath related like aduentures He saith that he and some others were sent Prisoners into Spaine by the Vice-roy with Don Iuan de Uelasco de Uarre Admirall and Generall of the Spanish fleet who carried with him in his ship to bee presented to the King of Spaine the Anatomie of a Giant sent from China to Mexico to the Vice-roy Don Martin Henriques The skull of his head was neere as big as halfe a bushell his neck-bones shoulder-plates arme-bones and all other lineaments huge and monstrous the shanke of his skull from the ankle to the knee was as long as from any mans ankle vp to his waste and of bignesse accordingly At this time were also sent to the King two chists ful of earth with Ginger growing in them The Ginger runneth in the ground like to Liccoras the blades grow out of it in length proportion like to the blades of wild Garlick which they cut euery fifteen daies and water them twice a day They put
we haled ouer to the Coast of Tierra firma and arriued first at the I le of Margarita and comming to the Rancheria or fishing of Pearles in the small Iland of Cubagua we found the Gouernour of Cumana there with a company of Souldiers neuerthelesse we made bold to land and in our landing we receiued a great fight wherein diuers of our men on both sides were wounded but in the end I tooke the place with diuers of the stoutest of our Enemies Prisoners and thirteene Periaguaes and Canoes which are Barkes and Boats of the Countrey for ransome of all which I receiued fiue hundred pounds in Pearle This done I proceeded on my iourney sayling directly for Cape dela Vela and there meeting with a Portugall shippe of two hundred and fiftie tuns laden with three hundred and seuentie Negros brought from Congo or Angola and going to Cantagena with little resistance I tooke the same And sayling along with my prize Westward not able to double the Iles called Las Cabeças I was driuen farre downe to the Southward into the Gulfe of Acle in Spanish called Eusenada de Acle where we landed all our Portugals and Negros keeping only the Captaine which afterward paid â—â—e fiue hundred pounds for his owne and their ranâ—omes Within a while after we stood Westward with our shippes and went into the Iles called the Cabeças where I embarked an hundred and fiftie of my men in two small Pinnasses and two fine shallops and went for the Iles de Bastimentos and landing there vpon the said Ilands which are peopled and very fruitfull I tooke sixe or seuen Negroes for guides and so presently with our Pinnasses and Boates entred the mouth of the Riuer of Porto bello the seuenth of Februarie about two of the clocke after midnight the Moone shining very brightly At our first entrance into the Hauen which is aboue twelue score ouer and very deepe at the mouth and farre vpward we were halled by the strong and stately Castle of Saint Philip hauing thirtie fiue great pieces of Brazen Ordnance and fiftie Souldiers in the same to know whence we were wee hauing aboord vs such as could speake Spanish excellent well answered that we were of Cartagena then they commanded vs to anchor which we did accordingly About one houre afterwards with my two shallops which lay close by my Pinnasses and some thirtie of my principall men I went vp the Riuer hauing some of the smaller Fort called the Fort of Saint Iago which is directly ouer against the great Castle of Saint Philip running still on the shoare and crying out on me to stay but neglecting their out-cryes I landed at the first Towne called Triana where the alarme was presently giuen which neuerthelesse I set on fire and marched ouer a little Brooke into the great rich Towne of Porto bello and comming directly vp to the Kings Treasure-house which is very faire and large we found a squadron of souldiers whereof there are two hundred and fiftie alwayes belonging to the Towne and another company of the Inhabitants with two brasse Pieces of field Ordnance well mounted on their carriages which we presently possessed and fiercely set vpon the Souldiers At which alarme Captaine Antonie Fugars and Captaine George Lawriman of Ratcliffe came vp with my two Pinnasses with an hundred and twentie men to my rescue which was very hardly laid vnto At this house at our first comming into the Towne my Lieutenant Samuel Barnet was shot on the side of his head and through his eare and Captaine Giles comming to second him was likewise shot ouer the brest and through his arme In this meane space Pedro Melendes the Gouernour of the Towne had gathered sixtie Souldiers together and was comming toward a certaine bridge to encounter me I hauing not then aboue eight or nine men with mee to withstand them but God did prosper our proceedings mightily For the first two shot that went from vs shot Melendes through his Target and went through both his armes and the other shot hurt the Corporall of the field Whereupon they all retired to the house which they made good vntill it was almost day Against whom I sent Captaine Ward with some Souldiers who entred the house killing diuers of them and wounded Melendes in eight places more himselfe being shot through both his thighes in entring and some of his men hurt but in the end he tooke Melendes Prisoner and became Master of the house My selfe with others went to the Kings house wherein were many of the Souldiers who would not come to any composition but stoutly defended the same against Captaine Giles and our Lieutenant Samuel Barnet who in the end flue diuers of them and hurt many others taking the Kings Scriuano prisoner This fight endured for the space of foure or fiue houres The fight being ended and we being Masters of the Kings Treasure-house and all the Towne and hauing the Gouernour Melendes and the Scriuano with many others of the chiefest my Prisoners except the Alcalde which fled out of the Towne with a chaine of Gold about his necke Such Treasure as was found in the Kings house to the value of some nine or ten thousand Duckets I reserued to my selfe which was nothing to that which wee did expect that being the receite at one time of the yeere of all the Treasure that commeth from Peru and Chile amounting at least to fiue or sixe Millions of Duckets and had I come but seuen dayes sooner I had taken heere an hundred and twentie thousand Duckets which were newly laden in two Frigats for Cartagena The rest of the spoile of the Towne which came to no small value in Money Plate and Merchandize I gaue wholy to my Souldiers which being done I disposed my Corpses du guard in diuers places for keeping the Towne all that day and at the end of the streete leading toward Panama on the South Sea being full of all Artificers we made a barricado where Captaine Giles stood with another Corps du guard being diuers times assaulted by the enemy whom still hee valiantly repulsed and put to the worse Pedro Melendes the chiefe Gouernour of the Towne being my Prisoner in regard that he had valiantly carried himselfe in making resistance vntill he had tenne or eleuen wounds vpon him I did not only at length dismisse without any peny for his ransome but also caused my Chirurgion very carefully to dresse and trimme his wounds vsing him and his farre otherwise then Pedro Melendes his great Vncle vsed Iohn Ribault Landoniere and the French Nation in Florida whom they most cruelly murdered and massacred as many as they could lay any hands vpon Thus being Master for one whole day of the stately and new builded Towne of Porto bello which had two goodly Churches in it fully finished and sixe or seuen faire streets whereof two were full of all necessarie Artificers and of Merchants with three small
seethe the same iuice with their red Pepper whereby it becommeth holesome and if they will haue it sweete they will seethe it but ordinary if they will haue it sowre they will seethe it extraordinarily and vse it in manner of sawce and when they be sicke they eat the same and bread only The women also make drinke of this Cassaua bread which in their Language they call Arepapa by baking of it blacke dry and thinne then chewing it in their mouthes they put it into earthen pots narrow in the bottome and broad aboue contayning some a Firkin some a Kilderkin some a Barrell set in a small hole in the ground with fire about them Being well sod they put it out into great Iarres of Earth with narrow neckes and there it will woâ—ke a day and a night and keepe it foure or fiue dayes till it be stale and then gathering together an hundred and more they giue themselues to piping dancing and drinking They make drinke also of Cassaua vnchewed which is small and ordinary in their houses They vse also to make drinke of Potatos which they paire and stampe in a Morter being sod then putting water to it drinke it Before and after the sicknesse of our Captaine many of our men fell sicke some of Agues some of Floxes some of giddinesse in their heads whereby they would often fall downe which grew chiefly of the excessiue heate of the Sunne in the day and of the extreame dampe of the earth which would so moysten our Hamackas or Cotton beds wherein wee lay a yard from the ground that we were faine to imitate the Indians in making fires on both sides vnder them And for all that we could doe some nine of our company were dead before our ships arriuall Besides we were mightily vexed with a kinde of Worme which at first was like to a Flea and would creepe into the feet especially and vnder the nayles and would exceedingly torment vs the time it was in and more in the pulling out with a Pinne or needle if they were few But one of our men hauing his feete ouer-growne with them for want of hose and shooes was faine to submit himselfe to the Indians cure who tying one of his legges first with his feete vpward powred hot melted Waxe which is blacke vpon it and letting it lye vpon it till it was throughly cold they forcibly pulled it off and therewithall the Wormes came out sticking in the same seuen or eight hundred in number This man was named Iohn Nettleton a Dier of London which afterward was drowned In the middest of all these extremities our Captaines Interpretor which hee had threatned for his false demeanour in his Voyage to the Marraios before mentioned gaue counsell to his Master named Anaccauri an ancient Captaine among them to make a motion among the Indians at their next meeting to say it is the best way for vs now to make an end of them while they are sicke either by staruing or otherwise For when the ship commeth hee will kill vs for keeping him without victuals now This motion being made at their meeting which was in Carisaua his house and among his and Martins kinred which then remayned pledges for our mens safetie in England their wiues hearing the Interpretors Master Anaccauri broaching this matter ranne furiously vpon him and tare his clothes such as hee wore from him and mightily beate him the other of their kindred keeping those Indians off from the women which would haue taken his part Some of our owne men lying at the next house where this was done inquired of an Indian which owed this Anaccauri a grudge what the cause was of the said tumult who imparted the whole truth vnto them Our men comming suddenly to the Captaine acquainted him with the whole matter who suddenly bethought himselfe and sent for all his men that were neere him and for Eperiago and Pluainma an Indian that had beene in England which were two of the chiefest and caused him to send for his trayterous Interpretor which came bringing Hens drinke and bread Assoone as he came shewing what hee had heard requiring them to declare what wrong he had done them Who answered none Then said he this fellow meaning the Interpretor hath sought my life and therewith commanded his men to bind him hand and foot which done he dismissed them desiring them to returne the next morning In the meane time he caused his Prisoner to send for a Canowe to fetch three of his men which were vp in the Riuer who immediately did so Now hauing all his men together hee caused them to haue all their Furniture readie appointing one William Blake to see the same diligently fulfilled the watch carefully to be kept in the night and two to ward at the doores all day with their Furniture to take the Indians weapons out of their hands at their comming in at the doore This being ordayned the Indians came the next day to whome the Captaine said In regard that I haue beene so carefull to punish the wrongs done vnto you I would haue you readie to reuenge the wrongs done vnto mee who seemed very vnwilling to doe any farther Iustice esteeming his binding a sufficient punishment At the which the Captaine beeing very much vexed commanded the two foresaid Indian Captaines to depart charging them to send him in fish and other victuals for his company In the meane time he and the chiefe of his men consulting what course to take with the Malefactor they thought it best that hee should lye so bound vntill the next day being the third of his bondage and to send for the chiefe of the Indians and vpon confession of his fault and crauing pardon thereof to be dismissed before them Captaine Charles Leighs Letter to Sir Olaue Leigh his Brother MOst louing Brother I did write vnto you from Muggador where I stayed vntill the ninetâ—enth of Aprill and on the fourteenth of May I had first sight of Guiana in the mouth of the Riuer Amazones The two and twentieth I arriued praysed be God in safetie in the Riuer Caroleigh heretofore called Wyapoco and the same day I tooke possession of the Countrey in sight of the Indians The Indians which doe inhabit this Riuer are about one thousand fiue hundred men women and children and they are of three Nations viz. Yaioas Arwarkas and Sapayoas which beeing chased from other Riuers by the Caribes haue combined themselues together in this place for their better defence and are now at deadly warres with the Caribes After that I had stored my selfe with Bread and Roots sufficient vntill the Earth with Gods prouidence might yeeld me supply I did then send for the chiefe Captaine of the Yayoas aboord whom with gifts and good vsage I easily entreated to stay aboord my ship vntill such time as by his meanes I was prouided with all kind of Plants which their Gardens doe affoord yet all this while he
them which caused diuers of our companie to flie into the Sea vp to their necks and some along the sands as amazed seeing such a huge companie against so small a number vntill young Saint Iohn recouering againe encouraged vs to make a stand at a point of Land which went corner wise into the Sea But all was in vaine for before wee could make our peeces readie there came another companie on the back of vs and filled our bodies full with arrowes and then wee betooke vs to our swords and so runne through them but still they encreased out of the woods shooting their arrowes in great abundance not daring to come neere vs vntill they saw vs fall and then with their great Brasill swords they strooke out our mens braines I my selfe being all this time running with young Saint Iohn and Master Kettleby who behaued themselues most gallantly hauing at the least one hundred arrowes a piece before they fell came at the last into the entrance of a narrow path where fiue of my fellowes were gotten before I came and thinking to haue passed through there was another ambush who killed them all I onely with three arrowes in me by running into the wood and swimming ouer a standing Lake escaped home giuing them warning before they came to assault them and vpon my comming they all came in sight vpon the Sands whom we soone sent away by shooting off our great Peece so they came not in three dayes after Vpon Monday there came to the number of thirteene or fourteene hundreth both by Sea and Land and there beset vs round wee hauing nothing but our Chists to defend vs from their arrowes thus for the space of seuen or eight dayes we fought with them and of nineteene men which were left of all our companie twelue were sore wounded with their arrowes And the first day at twelue a clocke they shot fire in their arrowes and burned our houses thinking then to haue entred in vpon vs but with our Falcon wee droue them backe with most horrible cryes After that our houses were burned and all our Chists which before were our Fort wee fortified our selues with the remnants of the stakes and thatch which we had saued from burning setting them in the ground slopewise couering it with sand and earth which saued vs euer after from their arrowes The next day after they all departed in their Periaguas And the Lord seeing what need wee had of food contrarie to our expectation mooued the hearts of our very enemies to bring vs food For when all the rest were out of sight one returned very well prouided of victuall and three or foure comming out of their Piragua with asmuch as they were able to carry of Cassaui Potatoes and Plantans cryed vnto vs to exchange with them first holding vp their bowes and arrowes and after laying them on the ground againe in signe of peace Which wee perceiuing sent out three likewise to bargaine without weapons with Kniues and Beades and other trifles which traffick being done they departed and we returned giuing praise to God for this miraculous feeding of vs. For we had no meanes of our selues to get any food for they had bereft vs of our Net with which we had wont to catch as much fish of many sorts as would suffice vs for a whole day Thus they continued daily for the space of seuen dayes and then our victuals began to faile againe which caused vs to hold out a flagge of truce which they perceiuing came in peaceable manner vnto vs. Then one Francis Brace which could speake French made them vnderstand that our desire was to giue them all that we had if they would let vs haue a Piragua to carry vs away Which one Captaine Antonie willingly consented vnto contrarie to the will of his brother Augramert Captaine of Saint Vincent and the next day brought it drawing it on shoare within the compasse of our Fort for which we gaue them Hatchets Kniues and Beades vntill they were contented and to please them the more we gaue them euery one a Shouell or a Spade wherewith they were fully contented and so departed Then with all speede we went all to worke some vpon the Saile which we made of very good Roan-cloth and some to make the Mast and euery one did labour all he could to be readie against night For Captaine Antonie which was Captaine of Santa Lucia told vs that his brother Augramert would come the next day from Saint Vincent with twelue Periaguas all laden with arrowes whose words we alwayes found true Thus on a thursday the sixe and twentieth of September at one of the clocke after midnight hauing amongst vs all but one Barrico of fresh water to drinke and one small Firkin of Rice we embarked our selues being nineteene in the whole number not one hauing skill in the Mariners art and without Carde or Compasse to direct vs wee sayled by the Sunne in the day-time and by the Starres in the night going alwayes betwixt South-west and by West The victuals that wee had were not sufficient to serue that companie for three dayes For wee had not aboue twentie Biscuits three Cassaui cakes a dosen Plantans and some thirtie Potatoes and some foure or fiue gallons of water and a little barrell halfe full of Rice And as it pleased the Lord he had saued it vntill this our great necessitie for the preseruation of our liues for all our other victuall was gone in two dayes and our water in three dayes And then Master Garret gaue to euery two of vs a pottage dish of his Rice twice a day which wee washed in salt water and so eate it raw Thus we continued at Sea seeking for Land for the space of ten dayes where wee endured one great tempest although to our great perill looking alwayes when wee should be drenched The raine which then fell was vnto vs in the middest of our danger a great comfort for we saued it with great ioy and dranke it thanking God for that good refreshing who likewise did send the very Fowles of the aire to feed vs. For being wearie of their flight they would rest them vpon the side of our Boat so that we tooke them and dryed them in the Sunne with a little gun-powder and eate them Our Boats brimme was so neere the water that euery waue came ouer it readie to sinke vs but that foure of vs continually did lade the water forth by courses Now on the tenth day one Thomas Morgan dyed not being able to liue of that small allowance and at noone we threw him ouer board Within an houre after it pleased God to glad vs who were likewise readie to follow our fellow with a ioyfull sight of Land vnto the neerest part whereof we made as fast as we could But the winde being calme we were benighted before we could come to it And so wanting the light of the day we were vpon the shoare before
paces broad one hundred persons keepe together in one of those houses they are most artificially builded and thetched so that no raine commeth into them although in Aprill May and Iune and most of Iuly very extreame raine doth fall there Also they make Pots of earth which shew as if they were guilded and some of them will hold thirtie or fortie gallons of liquor they are very faire to behold and very sweete to keepe any thing in They make Baskets of diuers sorts most artificially and their beds which they call Hamakes they are some of them made of Cotten wooll and some of barkes of trees they vse to lye in them hanging They haue a great delight to paint themselues both men and women and especially when they goe to any Feast The women against their day of trauell in childe bearth make for that time a roome apart in the house whereunto they goe all alone and are deliuered without any helpe at all and presently after the childe is borne she calleth for her husband and deliuereth him the childe who presently washeth it in a pot of water and painteth it with sundry colours which seemed very strange vnto me that I did not heare the women once so much as to groane or to make any moane at all in all her time of her trauell if any one of them dieth they doe vse to make great moane for them some ten or twelue daies together after his death or longer according as the partie was beloued in his life time And touching such kinde of Beasts as are in the woods as well about Wiapoco as in other places of the Countrie There are great store of Deere Hares and Conies Hogges and many Monkies great and small blacke and greene which sorts are called Marmosites and great red ones as bigge as Baboones those the Indians doe kill and eate and there are Leopards and Porcupines and Lyons for in one place we did see a Lyon which the Indians had killed they brought all their boyes they had and did lay them on the Lyons backe and with a whip did giue euery of them three lashes wherefore they did so we could not learne but imagined it was because they should remember the place where the Lyon was killed also there are great store of Otters and a beast which is called an Aligator he hath a cod that smelleth like the Muske cod Of Foules I haue seene Cockes Hennes Duckes and Geese Partridges Wood-doues Herneshaws Shouellers and a foule of a crimson colour called Passeray Fiemingo great store of white foules which the Indians call Wakcrouses great store of Parrats and Parrakeits which flye there in sholes like Starlings here in England also there is a Parrat there as bigge as a great Hen blew and red very beautifull to behold and multitudes of foules of other sorts and Hawkes of diuers sorts in the woods and Riuers And of fish there are great abundance of all sorts both of fresh water fish and Sea fish and Crabbes great store and the Indians take their fish with a kinde of wood which they beate against some stone or other tree vntill one end thereof be all bruised and putting that into the Riuer presently the fish become drunke and run themselues on the shoare and swim aboue water as our Haddockes doe in England There are store of good Rootes and Plants with Fruites as the Pina and Plantine Potatoes Nappoyes and a fruite called of the Indians Poppoyes it is bigger then an Apple and very pleasant to eate and sundry sorts of Plums and other sorts of fruites whereof they make drinke very pleasant to be drunke There are these commodities at Wiapocco and in other places of the Countrie where I haue trauelled Woods of blacke red and yellow colours Tobacco Guinie pepper Cotten wooll Carow of vs called Flaxe Anoto Berrieâ— which dye a very faire Stammell colour Spignard whereof a precious Oyle may be made Gummes of diuers sorts Bee-waxe Feathers of the best sorts such as Ladies doe weare in their hats and other Feathers abundance There grow naturally in many places Sugar Canes and great abundance of Carow of it selfe called of vs Flaxe and of the Spaniard Pero Also they make Oyle which they paint themselues with of a kinde of Nut bigger then a Chestnut whereof are great abundance growing and the Manety stone is to be had in the Aracores Countrie and in no other place of the Indies that I haue heard of These things I noted but if so we had expected certainely for to haue had a Ship of our owne Nation to haue come vnto vs I my selfe and the rest of vs should haue beene encouraged to haue obserued more then I haue done Neither had we any store of commodities to trade vp in the Maine as the two Hollanders hath which are there and were left there at our comming from thence by Iohn Sims Master of a Ship called the Hope of Amsterdam of the burthen of one hundred tuns Fraughted by the Merchants of Amsterdam and by their Charter partie was bound to lye in the Riuer of Wiapoco and of Caliane six moneths time which he did for he lay with vs at Wyapoco from the twentieth of December vnto the twentieth of May following trading with the Indians and sought most after the Manitâ— stone and Carow which we call Flaxe They furnished there two Factors very well with Commodities which they left at Wyapoco They dealt very kindely with vs for he shipped all our whole company which were nine of vs. Taking our leaues of the Indians who were as vnwilling to part from our companies as we were willing to goe into our owne Countrie saying vnto vs that if any of vs euer came to them againe to trade with them No other Nation should trade there but we And after they knew of our departure whilest we remained amongst them they brought their children vnto vs for to name after our great mens names of England which we did They had often speech of Sir Walter Rawleigh and one came farre out of the Maine from Orenogâ—e to enquire of vs of him saying he promised to haue returned to them before that time After we had prouided our necessaries and such commodities as we had and had giuen the Indians great charge of the Hollanders Factors we shipped our selues and departed from Wiapoco on the last of May 1606. And from thence we went into the Riuer of Caliane where our Master Iohn Sims traded some thirtie dayes with the Caribes and other of the Indians This Sims was Masters mate of the Holland Shippe which Captaine Lee found in the Riuer of Wiapoco at his first arriuall there also he was Master of the Ship which the Indians aduertised vs was in the Riuer of Amazons and according to their saying God be thanked he came to vs to our Comforts After his departure out of the Riuer of Caliane he sailed vnto Trinidado
merchandise There is no Vines in that Country but the Soyle being rich and fertile and the climate hot if they were planted there they would prosper exceedingly and yeelde good Sackes and Canary wines which in those parts we finde to be very wholesome Many other necessary prouisions sufficient for the sustenance of man doe there abound in plenty Namely Deere of all sorts wilde Swine in great numbers whereof there are two kindes the one small by the Indians called Pockiero which hath the nanile in the backe the other is called Paingo and is as faire and large as any we haue in England There be store of Hares and Conies but of a kinde far differing from ours There be Tigers Leopards Ounces Armadils Maipuries which are in taste like Beefe wil take falt Baremoes or Ant-Beares which taste like Mutton other small beasts of the same taste coloured like a Fawne Elkes Monkies and Marmosites of diuers sorts both great and small of these beasts there bee innumerable and by experience we haue found them all good meate Many other kindes of beasts there are of sundry and strange shapes which hereafter shall be figured in their true proportion according to the life with their names annexed Of Fowles there bee diuers kindes namely Wild-ducks Widgins Teales Wild-geese Herons of diuers colours Cranes Storkes Pheasants Patridges Doues Stock-doues Black-birds Curlewes Godwits Woodcokes Snites Parrots of sundry sorts many other kindes of great and small Birds of rare colours besides great rauenous Fowles and Hawkes of euery kinde Of fish the varietie is great first of Sea fish there is Sea-breame Mullet Soale Scate Thornebacke the Sword-fish Sturgeon Seale a fish like vnto a Salmon but as the Salmon is red this is yellow Shrimps Lobsters and Oysters which hang vpon the branches of Trees There is a rare fish called Cassoorwa which hath in each eye two sights and as it swimmeth it beareth the lower sights within the water and the other aboue the ribs and back of this fish resemble those parts of a man hauing the ribs round and the back flat with a dent therein as a man hath it is somewhat bigger then a Smelt but farre exceeding it for daintie meate and many other sorts there be most excellent Of fresh-water fish many kindes vnknowne in these parts but all exceeding good and daintie And I dare be bold to say that this Countrie may compare with any other of the world for the great varietie of excellent fish both of the Sea and fresh Waters There is also a Sea-fish which vsually commeth into the fresh waters especially in the winter and wet season it is of great esteeme amongst vs and we account it halfe flesh for the bloud of it is warme it commeth vp into the shallow waters in the drowned lands and feedeth vpon grasse and weedes the Indians name it Coiumero and the Spaniards Manati but wee call it the Sea-cow in taste it is like beefe will take salt and serue to victuall ships as in our knowledge hath beene proued by our Countrimen Of this fish may bee made an excellent oile for many purposes the fat of it is good to frie either fish or flesh the hide as I haue heard will make good buffe and being dried in the Sunne and kept from wet will serue for Targets and Armour against the Indian arrowes In the wet season the store of them are infinite some of these hides were heretofore brought into England by Sir Walter Rawleigh The seuerall kindes of fruits are many the Pina Platana Potato Medler Plums of diuers forts the Nuts of strange kindes The excellency of the Pina I cannot expresse for I dare boldly affirme that the world affoordeth not a more delicate fruit In taste it is like Straw-berries Claret-wine and Sugar The Platana is also a very good fruit and tasteth like an old Pippin The Potato is well knowne The Medler exceedeth in greatnesse The Plums I cannot commend for to eate much of them doth cause fluxes which in those Countries are dangerous The Nuts are good being moderately eaten HAuing thus most excellent Prince declared the seuerall sorts of prouisions for victuals and necessarie foodes it remayneth that I now make mention of the varietie of commodities found in the Countrie for the trade of merchandise which in few yeeres by our paines and industrie may be brought to perfection and so setled in those parts that not onely the vndertakers may receiue reward for their indeuours but our Countrie also may grow rich by trading for the fruits of our labours The first and principall commoditie of estimation are the Sugar-canes whereof in those parts there is great plentie the soile is as fertill for them as in any other part of the world They doe there grow to great bignesse in a short time by orderly and fit planting of them and by erecting conuenient workes for the boyling and making of Sugars which at the first will require some charge and expence may be yeerly returned great benefit and wealth the long experience of the Portugals and Spaniards in Brasil and the Iland of the Canaries and of the Moores in Barbarie may giue vs certaine assurance and full satisfaction thereof The Cotton wooll is a generall commoditie beneficiall to our Merchants and profitable to our Countrie by making of Fustians and seruing for Bumbaste and other vses for making of Hamaccas which are the Indian beds most necessarie in those parts and also of a fine cotton cloth for clothing of the people There is a naturall Hempe or Flax of great vse almost as fine cloth it is most excellent There bee many rare and singular commodities for Dyers of which sort there is a red berrie called Annoto which being rightly prepared by the Indians dyeth a perfect and sure Orange-tawnie in silke it hath beene sold in Holland for twelue shillings starling the pound and is yet of a good price There is another berrie that dyeth blue There is also a gumme of a tree whereof I haue seene experience that in cloth dyeth a sure and perfect yellow in graine There bee leaues of certaine Trees which being rightly prepared doe die a deepe red There is also a wood which dyeth a purple and is of a good price and another that dyeth yellow There is yet another wood which dyeth a purple when the liquor is hot and a crimson when the liquor is cold Many other notable things there are no doubt not yet knowne vnto vs which by our diligent labour and obseruation in time will be discouered and found The sweet Gummes of inestimable value and strange operation in physicke and chirurgerie are innumerable there is yellow Amber Gumma Lemnia Colliman or Carriman Barratta and many more which I omit The Collman hath beene proued by Master Walter Cary of Wictham in Buckinghamshice a Gentleman of great iudgement and practice in physicke to be of speciall regard
yet rich of Gold The nineteenth of Aprill being Easter-euen we anchored vnder the Iland Mocha It lyeth in thirty nine degrees it may bee some foure leagues ouer and is a high mountaynous Hill but round about the foot thereof some halfe league from the Sea-shore it is Champaine ground wel inhabited and manured From the Straits to this Iland we found that either the Coast is set out more Westerâ—y then it is or that we had a great current which put vs to the Westwards for wee had not sight of Land in three dayes after our reckoning was to see it but for that wee coasted not the Land I cannot determine whether it was caused by the current or lying of the Land But Spaniards which haue sayled alongst it haue told me that it is a bold and safe Coast and reasonable sounding of it In this Iland of Mocha we had communication and contractation with the Inhabitants but with great vigilancie and care for they and all the people of Chily are mortall enemies to the Spaniards and held vs to bee of them and so esteemed Sir Francis Drake when hee was in this Iland whâ—ch was the first Land also that hee touched on this Coast. They vsed him with so fine a treachery that they possessed themselues of all the Oares in his Boat sauing two and in striuing to get them also they slue and hurt all his men himselfe who had fewest wounds had three and two of them in the head Two of his company which liued long after had the one seuenteene his name was Iohn Bruer who afterward was Pilot with Master Candish and the other aboue twentie a Negro Seruant to Sir Francis Drake And with me they vsed a policie which amongst barbarous people was not to be imagined although I wrought sure for I suffered none to treate with me nor with my people with Armes Wee were armed and met vpon a Rocke compassed with water whether they came to parley and negotiate Beeing in communication with the Casiques and others many of the Indians came to the heads of our Boates and some went into them Certaine of my people standing to defend the Boats with their Oares for that there went a bad sege were forced to lay downe their Muskets which the Indians perceiuing endeauoured to fill the barrels with water taking it out of the Sea in the hollow of their hands By chance casting mine eye aside I discouered their flynesse and with a Truncheon which I had in mine hand gaue the Indians three or foure good Lambeskinnes The sheepe of this Iland are great good and fat I haue not tasted better Mutton any where They were as ours and doubtlesse of the breed of those which the Spaniards brought into the Countrey Of the sheepe of the Countrey wee could by no meanes procure any one although we saw of them and vsed meanes to haue had of them This Iland is situate in the Prouince of Arawea and is held to bee peopled with the most valiant Nation in all Chily though generally the Inhabitants of that Kingdome are very couragious They are clothed after the manner of antiquitie all of woollen their Cassockes made like a Sacke square with two holes for the two armes and one for the head all open below without lining or other art but of them some are most curiously wouen and in colours and on both sides alike Their houses are made round in fashion like vnto our Pidgeon houses with a louer in the top to euacuate the smoake when they make fire They brought vs a strange kinde of Tobacco made into little cakes like Pitch of a bad smell with holes through the middle and so laced many vpon a string The people of this Iland as of all Chily are of good stature and well made and of better countenance then those Indians which I haue seene in many parts They are of good vnderstanding and agilitie and of great strength Their weapons are Bowes and Arrowes and Macanas their Bowes short and strong and their Arrowes of a small Reed or Cane three quarters of a yard long with two Feathers and headed with a flint-stone which is loose and hurting the head remaineth in the wound some are headed with bone and some with hard wood halfe burnt in the fire We came betwixt the Iland and the Mayne On the South-west part of the Iland lieth a great ledge of Rockes which are dangerous and it is good to be carefull how to come too neere the Iland on all parts Immediatly when they discouered vs both vpon the Iland and the Mayne wee might see them make sundry great fires which were to giue aduice to the rest of the people to bee in a readinesse for they haue continuall and mortall warre with the Spaniards and the shippes they see they beleeue to be their Enemies The Citie Imperiall lyeth ouer against this Iland but eight or ten leagues into the Countrey for all the Sea-coast from Baldiuia till thirtie sixe Degrees the Indians haue now in a manner in their hands free from any Spaniards Hauing refreshed our selues well in this Iland for that little time we stayed which was some three dayes we set sayle with great ioy and with a faire winde sayled alongst the Coast and some eight leagues to the North-wards wee anchored againe in a goodly Bay and sent our Boats ashoare with desire to speake with some of the Indians of Arawca and to see if they would be content to entertaine amitie or to chop and change with vs. But all that night and the next morning appeared not one person and so we set saile againe and towards the Euening the wind began to change and to blow contrary and that so much and the Sea to rise so suddenly that wee could not take in our Boats without spoyling of them This storme continued with vs tenne dayes beyond expectation for that wee thought our selues out of the Climate of fowle weather but truely it was one of the sharpest stormes that euer I felt to endure so long The storme tooke end and we shaped our course for the Iland of Saint Maries which lyeth in thirtie seuen degrees and fortie minutes and before you come vnto the Iland some two leagues in the Trade way lieth a Rocke which afarre off seemeth to be a ship vnder sayle This Iland is little and low but fertill and well peopled with Indians and some few Spaniards in it Some ten leagues to the Northwards of this Iland lieth the Citie Conception with a good Port from this wee coasted alongst till wee came in thirtie three degrees and forty minutes In which height lay the Ilands of Iuan Fernandes betwixt threescore and fourescore leagues from the shoare plentifull of fiâ—h and good for refreshing I purposed for many reasons not to discouer my selfe vpon this Coast till we were past Lyma otherwise called Ciuidad de los Reyes for that it
little to the Southwards of the Iland of Pearle betwixt seuen and eight degrees is the great Riuer of Saint Buena Ventura It falleth into the South Sea with three mouthes the head of which is but a little distant from the North Sea In the yeere 1575. or 1576. one Iohn Oxnam of Plimouth going into the West Indies ioyned with the Symarons These are fugitiue Negroes and for the bad intreatie which their Masters had giuen them were then retired into the Mountaines and liued vpon the spoyle of such Spaniards as they could master and could neuer bee brought into obedience till by composition they had a place limited them for their freedome where they should liue quietly by themselues At this day they haue a great habitation neere Panama called Saint Iago de los Negros well peopled with all their Officers and Commanders of their owne saue onely a Spanish Gouernour By the assistance of these Symarons hee brought to the head of this Riuer by piecemeale and in many Iourneyes a small Pinnace hee fitted it by time in warlike manner and with the choice of his Companie put himselfe into the South Sea where his good happe was to meete with a couple of shippes of trade and in the one of them a great quantitie of Gold And amongst other things two pieces of speciall estimation the one a Table of massy Gold with Emralds sent for a present to the King the other a Lady of singular beautie married and a mother of children The latter grew to bee his perdition for hee had capitulated with these Symarons that their part of the bootie should be onely the prisoners to the end to execute their malice vpon them such was the rancour they had conceiued against them for that they had beene the Tyrants of their libertie But the Spaniards not contented to haue them their slaues who lately had beene their Lords added to their seruitude cruell intreaties And they againe to feede their insatiable reuenges accustomed to roast and eate the hearts of all those Spaniards whom at any time they could lay hand vpon Iohn Oxnam I say was taken with the loue of this Lady and to winne her good will what through her teares and perswasions and what through feare and detestation of their barbarous inclinations breaking promise with the Symarons yeelded to her request which was to giue the prisoners libertie with their shippes for that they were not vsefull for him notwithstanding Oxnam kept the Lady who had in one of the restored shippes either a Sonne or a Nephew This Nephew with the rest of the Spaniards made all the haste they could to Pamana and they vsed such diligence as within few houres some were dispatched to seeke those who little thought so quickly to bee ouertaken The pursuers approaching the Riuer were doubtfull by which of the afore-remembred three mouthes they should take their way In this wauering one of the Souldiers espied certaine feathers c. Comming in sight of the Ilands of Pearles the winde beganne to fresh in with vs and wee profited our selues of it but comming thwart of a small Iland which they call La Pacheta that lieth within the Pearle Ilands close aboord the Mayne and some eight or tenne leagues South and by West from Panama the winde calmed againe This Iland belongeth to a priuate man it is a round humocke contayning not a league of ground but most fertile Insomuch that by the owners industrie and the labour of some few slaues who occupie themselues in maâ—uring it and two Barkes which he employeth in bringing the fruit it giueth to Panama it is said to be worth him euery weeke one with another a barre of siluer valued betwixt two hundreth and fiftie or three hundreth Pezos which in English money may amount to fiftie or threescore pound and for that which I saw at my being in Panama touching this I hold to be true In our course to fetch the Port of Panama we put our selues betwixt the Ilands and the Main which is a goodly Channell of three foure and fiue leagues broad and without danger except a man come too neere the shoare on any side and that is thought the better course then to goe a Sea-boord of the Ilands because of the swift running of the tides and the aduantage to stop the ebbe As also for succour if a man should happen to be becalmed at any time beyond expectation which happeneth sometimes The seuenth of Iuly wee had sight of Perico they are two little Ilands which cause the Port of Panama where all the shippes vse to ride It is some two Leagues West North-west of the Citie which hath also a Pere in it selfe for small Barkes at full Sea it may haue some sixe or seuen foot water but at lowe water it is drie The ninth of Iuly wee anchored vnder Perico and the Generall presently aduised the Audienoia of that which had succeeded in his Iourney which vnderstood by them caused Bonfires to be made and euery man to put Luminaries in their houses the fashion is much vsed amongst the Spaniards in their feasts of ioy or for glad tidings placing many lights in their Churches in their windowes and Galleries and corners of their houses which being in the beginning of the night and the Citie close by the Sea shoare shewed to vs being farre off as though the Citie had beene on a light fire About eight of the clocke all the Artilerie of the Citie was shot off which wee might discerne by the flash of fire but could not heare the report yet the Armado being aduised thereof and in a readinesse answered them likewise with all their Artilerie which taking end as all the vanities of this earth doe The Generall setled himselfe to dispatch aduice for the King for the Vice-roy of Peru and the Vice-roy of Noua Spana for hee also had beene certified of our being in that Sea and had fitted an Armado to seeke vs and to guard his coast But now for a farewell and note it Let mee relate vnto you this Secret How Don Beltran shewed mee a Letter from the King his Master directed to the Vice-roy wherein hee gaue him particular relation of my pretended Voyage of the shippes their burden their munition their number of men which I had in them as perfectly as if hee had seene all with his owne eyes Saying vnto mee Hereby you may discerne whether the King my Master haue friends in England and good and speedy aduice of all that passeth Whereunto I replyed It was no wonder for that hee had plenty of Gold and Siluer which worketh this and more strange effects for my Iourney was publique and notorious to all the Kingdome whereunto he replyed that if I thought it so conuenient leaue should be giuen me to write into England to the Queens Maiestie my Mistresse to my Father and to other personages as I thought good and leauing the Letters open that
more then Rockie Spaniards which massacred him and all his companie This butcherie was reuenged in a fourth Floridan Voyage made from France by Captaine Gaurgues Anna 1567. who borrowed and sold to set forth three ships and entring the Riuer Tacaâ—acourn which the French called Seine he made league with eight Sauage Kings which had beene much dispighted by the Spaniards and were growne as dispightfull to them The Spaniards were accounted foure hundred strong and had diuided themselues into three Forts vpon the Riuer of May the greatest begun by the French two smaller neerer the Riuers mouth to fortifie each thereof with twelue hundred Souldiers in them well prouided for Munition In Aprill 1568. he tooke these two Forts and slue all the Spaniards the vindicatiue Sauages giuing him vehement and eager assistance especially Olotocara Nephew to Saturioua As they went to the Fort he said that he should die there and therefore desired Gourgues to giue that to his wife which he would haue giuen himselfe that it might bee buried with him for his better welcome to the Village of the Soules departed This Fort was taken the Spaniards some slaine others taken and hanged on the same trees on which the French hung fiue of which on of these Spaniards confessed he had hanged and now acknowledged the Diuine Iustice. In steed of the Writings which Melendes had hanged ouer them I doe not this as to Frenchmen but as to Lutherans Gourgues set vp another I doe not this as to Spaniards or Mariners but as to Traitors Robbers and Murtherers The Forts he razed not hauing men to keepe them and in Iune following arriued in Rochel Comming to the King with expectation of reward the Spanish King had so possessed him that he was faine to hide himselfe This Dominicke de Gourgues had beene an old Souldier once imprisoned and of a Captaine made a Gally-slaue by the Spaniards and grew for his seruice in reputation with the Queene of England he died Anno 1582. And thus much of the French Voyages in Florida for Virginias sake worthy to be knowne of the English Now for their more Northerne Voyages and Plantations Master Hakluyt hath published the Voyages of Iaques Cartier who in Aprill 1534. departed from Saint Malo with two ships and in May arriued at Newfoundland On the one and twentieth of May they came to the Iland of Birds a league about so full of Birds as if they were sowed there and a hundred times as many houering about it some as bigge as Iayes blacke and white with beakes like Crowes lying alway on the Sea their wings not bigger then halfe ones hand which makes that they cannot flie high In lesse then halfe an houre they filled two Boat with them These they named Aporatz another lesse Port which put themselues vnder the wings of others greater they called Godetz a third bigger and white byting like Dogges they called Margaulx Though the Iland be fourteene leagues from the Continent Beares come thither to feed on those Birds One white one as bigge as a Kow they killed in her swimming and found her good meate Three such Bird Ilands they also discouered the fiue and twentieth of Iune which they called the Ilands of Margaulx There also they found Morses Beares and Wolues But these Northerne Coasts are better knowne to our Countrymen then that I should mention his French names which from Cabots time almost forty yeeres before had beene knowne to the English The next yeere Cartier set forth with three ships to Saint Lawrence his Bay and so to the Riuer of Hochelaga They went to Canada and to the Towne of Hochelaga They saw the great and swift fall of the Riuer and were told of three more therein The Scorbute that Winter killed fiue and twentie of their men in their Fort the rest recouered by the vse the sap and leaues of a tree called Hameda which was thought to be Sassafras These reports of Canada Saguenay and Hochelaga caused King Francis to send him againe Anno 1540. purposing also to send Iohn Francis de la Roche Lord of Robewall to be his Lieutenant in the Countries of Canada Saguenay and Hochelaga Hee went Anno 1542. his chiefe Pilot was Iohn Alphouso of Xantoigne whose Notes as also the Relation of that Voyage with three shippes and two hundred persons men women and children Master Hakluyt hath recorded He built a Fort and wintered there and then returned These were the French beginnings who haue continued their Trading in those parts by yeerly Voyages to that Coast to these times for fishing and sometimes for Beauers skinnes and other Commodities One Saualet is said to haue made two and forty Voyages to those parts Marke Lescarbot hath published a large Booke called Noua Francia and additions thereto part of which we haue here for better intelligence of those parts added with Champleins Discoueries CHAP. VI. The Voyage of SAMVEL CHAMPLAINE of Brouage made vnto Canada in the yeere 1603. dedicated to CHARLES de Montmorencie c. High Admirall of France WE departed from Houfleur the fifteenth day of March 1603. This day we put into the Roade of New Hauen because the winde was contrary The Sunday following being the sixteenth of the said moneth we set saile to proceed on our Voyage The seuenteenth day following we had sight of Iersey and Yarnsey which are Iles betweene the Coast of Normandie and England The eighteenth of the said moneth wee discryed the Coast of Britaine The nineteenth at seuen of the clocke at night we made account that we were thwart of Ushent The one and twentieth at seuen of clocke in the morning we met with seuen ships of Hollanders which to our iudgement came from the Indies On Easter day the thirtieth of the said moneth wee were encountred with a great storme which seemed rather to be thunder then winde which lasted the space of seuenteene dayes but not so great as it was the two first dayes and during the said time we rather lost way then gained The sixteenth day of Aprill the storme began to cease and the Sea became more calme then before to the contentment of all the Company in such sort as continuing our said course vntill the eighteenth of the said moneth we met with a very high Mountaine of Ice The morrow after we discried a banke of Ice which continued aboue eight leagues in length with an infinite number of other smaller peeces of Ice which hindred our passage And by the iudgement of our Pilot the said flakes or Ice were one hundred or one hundred twenty leagues from the Country of Canada and we were in 45. degrees and two third parts we found passage in 44. deg The second of May at eleuen of clocke of the day we came vpon The Banke in 44. degrees one third part The sixt of the said moneth we came so neere the land that we heard the Sea beate against the shore
and Shooes Sawes Pick-axes Spades and Shouels Axes Hatchets Hookes Kniues Sizzers Hammers Nailes Chissels Fish-hookes Bels Beades Bugles Looking-glasses Thimbles Pinnes Needles Threed and such like They set saile from Kingrode the twentieth day of March. We set saile from Milford Hauen where the winds had stayed vs a fortnight in which space we heard of Queene Elizabeths death the tenth of Aprill 1603. In our course we passed by the Iles of the Açores had first sight of the Pike and afterward of the Iland of Cueruo and Flores and after we had runne some fiue hundred leagues we fell with a multitude of small Ilands on the North Coast of Virginia in the latitude of 43. degrees the 〈◊〉 of Iune which Ilands wee found very pleasant to behold adorned with goodly grasse and sundry sorts of Trees as Cedars Spruce Pines and Firre-trees Heere wee found an excellent fishing for Cods which are better then those of New-found-land and withall we saw good and Rockie ground fit to drie them vpon also we see no reason to the contrary but that Salt may bee made in these parts a matter of no small importance We sayled to the South-west end of these Ilands and there rode with our ships vnder one of the greatest One of them we named Foxe Iland because we found those kind of beasts thereon So passing through the rest with our Boates to the mayne Land which lieth for a good space North-east and South-west we found very safe riding among them in sixe seuen eight ten and twelue fathomes At length comming to the Mayne in the latitude of 43. degrees and an halfe we ranged the same to the South-west In which course we found foure Inlets the most Easterly whereof was barred at the mouth but hauing passed ouer the barre wee ranne vp into it fiue miles and for a certaine space found very good depth and comming out againe as we sailed South-westward wee lighted vpon two other Inlets which vpon our search we found to pierce not farre into the Land the fourth and most Westerly was the best which we rowed vp ten or twelue miles In all these places we found no people but signes of fires where they had beene Howbeit we beheld very goodly Groues and Woods replenished with tall Okes Beeches Pine-trees Firre-trees Hasels Wich-hasels and Maples We saw here also sundry sorts of Beasts as Stags Deere Beares Wolues Foxes Lusernes and Dogges with sharpe noses But meeting with no Sassafras we left these places with all the foresaid Ilands shaping our course for Sauage Rocke discouered the yeere before by Captaine Gosnold where going vpon the Mayne we found people with whom we had no long conuersation because here also we could find no Sassfras Departing hence we bare into that great Gulfe which Captaine Gosnold ouer-shot the yeere before coasting and finding people on the North side thereof Not yet satisfied in our expectation we left them and sailed ouer and came to an Anchor on the South side in the latitude of 41. degrees and odde minutes where we went on Land in a certaine Bay which we called Whitson Bay by the name of the Worshipfull Master Iohn Whitson then Maior of the Citie of Bristoll and one of the chiefe Aduenturers and finding a pleasant Hill thereunto adioyning wee called it Mount Aldworth for Master Robert Aldworths sake a chiefe furtherer of the Voyage aswell with his Purse as with his trauell Here we had sufficient quantitie of Sassafras At our going on shore vpon view of the people and sight of the place wee thought it conuenient to make a small baricado to keepe diligent watch and ward in for the aduertizement and succour of our men while they should worke in the Woods During our abode on shore the people of the Countrey came to our men sometimes ten twentie fortie or threescore and at one time one hundred and twentie at once We vsed them kindly and gaue them diuers sorts of our meanest Merchandize They did eat Pease and Beanes with our men Their owne victuals were most of fish We had a youth in our company that could play vpon a Gitterne in whose homely Musicke they tooke great delight and would giue him many things as Tobacco Tobacco-pipes Snakes skinnes of sixe foot long which they vse for Girdles Fawnes skinnes and such like and danced twentie in a Ring and the Gitterne in the middest of them vsing many Sauage gestures singing Io Ia Io Ia Ia Io him that first brake the ring the rest would knocke and cry out vpon Some few of them had plates of Brasse a foot long and halfe a foote broad before their breasts Their weapons are Bowes of fiue or sixe foot long of Wich-hasell painted blacke and yellow the strings of three twists of sinewes bigger then our Bow-strings Their Arrowes are of a yard and an handfull long not made of Reeds but of a fine light wood very smooth and round with three long and deepe blacke feathers of some Eagle Vulture or Kite as closely fastened with some binding matter as any Fletcher of ours can glue them on Their Quiuers are full a yard long made of long dried Rushes wrought about two handfuls broad aboue and one handfull beneath with prettie workes and compartiments Diamant wise of red and other colours We carried with vs from Bristoll two excellent Mastiues of whom the Indians were more afraid then of twentie of our men One of these Mastiues would carrie a halfe Pike in his mouth And one Master Thomas Bridges a Gentleman of our company accompanied only with one of these Dogs and passed sixe miles alone in the Countrey hauing lost his fellowes and returned safely And when we would be rid of the Sauages company wee would let loose the Mastiues and saddenly with out-cryes they would flee away These people in colour are inclined to a swart tawnie or Chestnut colour not by nature but accidentally and doe weare their haire brayded in foure parts and trussed vp about their heads with a small knot behind in which haire of theirs they sticke many feathers and toyes for brauerie and pleasure They couer their priuities only with a piece of leather drawne betwixt their twists and fastened to their Girdles behind and before whereunto they hang their bags of Tobacco They seeme to bee somewhat iealous of their women for we saw not past two of them who weare Aprons of Leather skins before them downe to the knees and a Beares skinne like an Irish Mantle ouer one shoulder The men are of stature somewhat taller then our ordinary people strong swift well proportioned and giuen to treacherie as in the end we perceiued Their Boats whereof we brought one to Bristoll were in proportion like a Wherrie of the Riuer of Thames seuenteene foot long and foure foot broad made of the Barke of a Birch-tree farre exceeding in bignesse those of England it was sowed together with strong and tough
man and he sometimes my Master One hundred and twentie were landed in the last supply Thomas Studly Anas Todkill THe prodigalitie of the Presidents state went so deepe in the store that Smith and Scriuener had a while tyed both Martin and him to the Rules of Proportion but now Smith being to depart the Presidents authority so ouerswayed Master Scriueners discretion as our store our time our strength and labours were idlely consumed to fulfill his phantasies The second of Iune 1608. Smith left the Fort to performe his Discouery with this company Walter Russell Doctor of Physicke Ralph Morton Thomas Momford William Cantrill Richard Fetherstone Iames Bourne Michael Sicklemore Anas Todkill Robert Small Iames Watkins Iohn Powell Iames Read black Smith Richard Keale Fishmonger Ionas Profit fisher These being in an open Barge of two tunnes burthen leauing the Phoenix at Cape Henrie we crossed the Bay to the Easterne shoare and fell with the Iles called Smiths Iles the first people we saw there were two grimme and stout Sauages vpon Cape Charles with long Poles like Iauelings headed with bone they boldly demanded what we were and what we would but after many circumstances they in time seemed very kind and directed vs to Acawmacke the habitation of the Weroans where we were kindly intreated this King was the comeliest proper ciuill Sauage we incountred his Country is a pleasant fertile clay soyle He told vs of a strange accident lately happened him and it was Two dead children by the extreme passions of their Parents or some dreaming Visions Phantasie or affection mooued them againe to reuisit their dead carkasses whose benummed bodies reflected to the eyes of the beholders such pleasant delightfull countenances as though they had regained their vitall spirts This is a Miracle drew many to behold them all which being a great part of his people not long after died and not any one escaped They spake the Language of Powhatan wherein they made such descriptions of the Bay Iles and Riuers that often did vs exceeding pleasure Passing alongst the Coast searching euery Inlet and Bay fit for Harbours and Habitations seeing many Iles in the midst of the Bay we bore vp for them but ere we could attaine them such an extreame gust of Winde Raine Thunder and Lightning happened that with great danger wee escaped the vnmercifull raging of that Ocean-like water The next day searching those inhabitable Iles which wee called Russells Iles to prouide fresh water the defect whereof forced vs to follow the next Easterne Channell which brought vs to the Riuer Wighcocomoco the people at first with great furie seemed to assault vs yet at last with Songs Dances and much mâ—rth became very tractable but searching their habitations for water we could fill but three and that such puddle that neuer till then we knew the want of good water We digged and searched many places but ere the end of two dayes wee would haue refused two Barricoes of Gold for one of that puddle water of Wighcocomoco Being past these Iles falling with a high Land vpon the Mayne we found a great pond of fresh water but so exceeding hot that we supposed it some Bath that place we called Point-ployer in honour of that Honourable House of Mousaye that in an extreame extremitie once robbed our Captaine Beeing thus refreshed in crossing ouer from the Mayne to other Iles the winde and waters so much increased with Thunder Lightning and Raine that our fore-mast blew ouer-boord and such mightie waues ouer-wrought vs in that small Barge that with great labour wee kept her from siâ—king by freeing out the water two dayes wee were inforced to inhabit these vninhabited Iles which for the extremitie of Gusts Thunder Raine Stormes and ill weather we called Limbo Repairing our fore-sayle with our shirts we set sayle for the Mayne and fell with a faire Riuer on the East called Kuskaranaocke The people ran as amazed in troupes from place to place and diuers got into the tops of Trees they were not sparing of their Arrowes nor the greatest passion they could expresse of anger long they shot we still riding at an Anchor out of their reach making all the signes of friendship wee could The next day they came vnarmed with euery one a Bisket dancing in a ring to draw vs on shore but seeing there was nothing in them but villanie we discharged a volley of Muskets charged with Pestoll shot whereat they all lay tumbling on the ground creeping some on way some another into a great cluster of Reeds hard by where there companions lay in Ambuscado Towards the Euening wee weighed and approached the shore discharging fiue or sixe shot amongst the Reeds we landed where they laid a many of baskets but saw not a Sauage a smoke appearing on the other side the Riuer we went thither where wee found two or three little Houses in each a fire there we left some pieces of Copper Beads Bels and Looking-glasses and then went into the Bay When it was darke we came to an Anchor againe Earely in the morning foure Sauages came to vs in their Canoa whom we vsed with such courtesie nor knew what we were nor had done hauing beene in the Bay a fishing â—ad vs stay and ere long they would returne which they did and some twentie more with them with whom after a little conference two or three hundred men women and children came clustering about vs euery one presenting vs somewhat which a little Bead would so well requite we became such friends they would contend who should fetch vs water stay with vs for hostage conduct our men any whether and giue vs the best content By it inhabit the people of Soraphanigh Nause Arsek and Nautaquake that much extolled a great Nation called Massawomekes in search of whom wee returned by Limbo but finding this Easterne shore shallow broken Iles and the Mayne for most part without fresh water we passed by the Straits of Limbo for the Westerne shore So broad is the Bay here that we could scarce perceiue the great high Cliffes on the other side by them wee anchored that night and called them Richards Cliffes Thirtie leagues we sayled more Northwards not finding any Inhabitants yet the Coast well watered the Mountaines very barren the Valleyes very fertile but the Woods extreme thicke full of Wolues Beares Deere and other wild Beasts The first Inlet we found we called Bolus for that the clay in many places was like if not Bole-Armoniacke when we first set saile some of our Gallants doubted nothing but that our Captaine would make too much hast home but hauing lien not aboue twelue dayes in this small Barge oft tyred at their Oares their Bread spoyled with wet so much that it was rotten yet so good were their stomackes that they could digest it did it with continuall complaints so importune him now to returne as caused him be speake them in this manner Gentlemen if
and so Captaine Smith returned with this answer Vpon this Captaine Newport sent his presents by water which is neere one hundred miles with fifty of the best shot himselfe went by land which is but twelue miles where he met with our three Barges to transport him ouer All things being fit for the day of his Coronation the presents were brought his Bason Ewer Bed and Furniture set vp his Scarlet Cloake and Apparell with much adoe put on him being perswaded by Namontacke they would doe him no hurt But a foule trouble there was to make him kneele to receiue his Crowne he neither knowing the Maiesty nor meaning of a Crowne nor bending of the knee indured so many perswasions examples and instructions as tired them all At last by leaning hard on his shoulders he a little stooped so they put the Crowne on his head When by the warning of a Pistoll the Boates were prepared with such a Volly of shot that the King start vp in a horrible feare till he see all was well then remembring himselfe to congratulate their kindenesse he gaue his old Shooes and his Mantle to Captaine Newport But perceiuing his purpose was to discouer the Monacans he laboured to diuert his resolution refusing to lend him either men or guides more then Namontacke and so after some complementall kindenesse on both sides in requitall of his presents he presented Newport with a heape of Wheate eares that might containe some seuen or eight bushels and as much more we bought ready dressed in the Towne wherewith we returned to the Fort. The Ship hauing disburdened her selfe of seuenty persons with the first Gentlewoman and woman seruant that arriued in our Colony Captaine Newport with all the Counsell and one hundred and twenty chosen men set forward for the discouery of Monacan leauing the President at the Fort with eighty such as they were to relade the Ship Arriuing at the fals wee marched by land some forty miles in two dayes and a halfe and so returned downe to the same path we went Two Townes we discouered of the Monacans the people neither vsing vs well nor ill yet for our security we tooke one of their petty Werowances and led him bound to conduct vs the way And in our returne searched many places we supposed Mines about which we spent some time in refining hauing one William Callicut a refiner fitted for that purpose from that crust of earth which we digged hâ— perswaded vs to beleeue hee extracted some small quantity of Siluer and not vnlikely some better stuffe might be had for the digging with this poore triall being contented to leaue this faire fertill well watered Country Comming to the Fals the Sauages fained there were diuers Ships come into the Bay to kill them at Iames Towne Trade they would not and finde their Corne we could not for they had hid it in the woods and being thus deluded we arriued at Iames Towne halfe sicke all complaining and tired with toile famine and discontent to haue onely but discouered our gilded hopes and fruitlesse certainties as the President foretold vs. No sooner were we landed but the President dispersed as many as were able some for Glasse others for Pitch Tarre and Sope-ashes leauing them with the Fort to the Councels ouersight But thirtie of vs he conducted fiue miles from the Fort to learne to make clap-boord cut downe Trees and lie in Woods amongst the rest he had chosen Gabriell Beadell and Iohn Russell the only two Gallants of this last supply and both proper Gentlemen strange were these pleasures to to their conditions yet lodging eating drinking working or playing they doing but as the President all these things were carried so pleasantly as within a weeke they became Masters making it their delight to heare the Trees thunder as they fell but the Axes so oft blistered there tender fingers that commonly euery third blow had a lowd Oath to drowne the Eccho for remedie of which sinne the President deuised how to haue euery mans Oathes numbred and at night for euery Oath to haue a Kan of water powred downe his sleeue with which euery Offender was so washed himselfe and all that a man should scarce heare an Oath in a Weeke By this let no man thinke that the President or these Gentlemens spent their times as common Wood-hackers at felling of Trees or such like other labours or that they were pressed to any thing as hirelings or common slaues for what they did beeing but once a little inured it seemed and they conceited it only as a pleasure and a recreation Yet thirtie or fortie of such voluntarie Gentlemen would doe more in a day then one hundred of the rest that must be prest to it by compulsion Master Scriuener Captaine Waldo and Captaine Winne at the Fort euery one in like manner carefully regarded their charge The President returning from amongst the Woods seeing the time consumed and no prouision gotten and the ship lay idle and would do nothing presently imbarked himselfe in the Discouery Barge giuing order to the Councell to send Master Percie after him with the next Barge that arriued at the Fort two Barges he had himselfe and twentie men but arriuing at Chickahamina that dogged Nation was too well acquainted with our wants refusing to trade with as much scorne and insolencie as they could expresse The President perceiuing it was Powhatans policie to starue vs told them hee came not so much for their Corne as to reuenge his imprisonment and the death of his men murdered by them and so landing his men and readie to charge them they immediatly fled but then they sent their Ambassadors with corne fish fowle or what they had to make their peace their corne being that yeere bad they complained extremely of their owne wants yet fraughted our Boates with one hundred bushels of Corne and in like manner Master Percies that not long after vs arriued they hauing done the best they could to content vs within foure or fiue dayes wee returned to Iames Towne All this time our old Tauerne made as much of all them that had either Money or Ware as could be desired and by this time they were become so perfect on all sides I meane Souldiers Saylers and Sauages as there was ten times more care to maintayne their damnable and priuate Trade then to prouide for the Colonie things that were necessarie neither was it a small policie in the Mariners to report in England wee had such plentie and bring vs so many men without victuall when they had so many priuate Factors in the Fort that within sixe or seuen weekes after the ships returne of two or three hundred Hatchets Chissels Mattockes and Pick-axes scarce twentie could bee found and for Pike-heads Kniues Shot Powder or any thing they could steale from their fellowes was vendible They knew as well and as secretly how to conuay them to trade with the Sauages for Furres Baskets
rather by reason of the continuall constant relations of all those Sauages in Virginia of a Sea and the way to it West they affirming that the heads of all those seuen goodly Riuers the least whereof is greater then the Riuer of Thames and Nauigable aboue an hundred and fiftie miles and not aboue sixe or eight miles one from another which fall all into one great Bay haue their rising out of a ridge of Hils that runnes all along South and North whereby they doubt not but to find a safe easie and good passage to the South Sea part by water and part by Land esteeming it not aboue an hundred and fiftie miles from the head of the Falls where we are now planted the Discouerie whereof will bring forth a most rich Trade to Cathay China Iapan and those other of the East Indies to the inestimable benefit of this Kingdome Moreouer the Letters of Master Iohn Berkley sometimes of Beuerstone Castle in the Countie of Glocester a Gentleman of an Honourable Family likewise certifie that a more fit place for Iron-workes whereof he was made Master and Ouer-seer then in Virginia both for Wood Water Mynes and Stone was not to be found And that by Whitsontide the Company might relye vpon good quantities of Iron made by him which also by Letters from Master George Sandys the third of March last was confirmed with this farther description of the place called The falling Creeke to be so fitting for that purpose as if Nature had applyed her selfe to the wish and direction of the Workman where also were great stones hardly seene else-where in Uirginia laying on the place as though they had beene brought thither to aduance the erection of those Workes The Letters of the French Vignerous or Vine-men procured out of France and sent ouer into Uirginia did likewise assertaine that no Countrey in the World was more proper for Vines Silke Rice O liues and other fruits then Virginia is and that it far excelled their owne Countrie of Languedocke the Vines of diuers sorts being in abundance naturally ouer all the Countrey They scarsly beleeued those fruits to be Grapes till they had opened them and seene their kernels such was their bignesse They are in loue with the Countrey and hauing planted some cuttings of Vines at Michaelmas last in their Letters affirme that these bare Grapes alreadie this Spring to their great wonder as being a thing they suppose not heard off in any other Countrie A taste of Wine made of the wilde Grape they last yeere sent with hope to send a good quantitie this next Vintage and that the Mulbery trees where they abode were in wonderfull abundance and much excelling both in goodnesse and greatnesse those of their owne Countrey of Languedocke and that those Silke-wormes they haue prosper exceeding well and some Silke they hope to send this yeere there wanting nothing to set vp that rich Commoditie but store of hands wherewith England doth abound Of the fruit of which Mulbery trees as of a Plumme there plentifully growing they would make wholsome Drinkes for the Colonie and people there Opachankanough doted on a house which the English had built for him of our fashion hee dwelled therein shewed it to his owne people and strangers with pride keeping his Keyes charily and busying himselfe with locking and vnlocking the doores sometimes a hundred times in a day admiring the strangenesse of that Engine a Locke and Key Hee gaue the English leaue to seate themselues any where on his Riuers where the Natiues are not actually seated and entred into further couenants of amity for reciprocall defence mutuall transportation discouery of mines c. They report also of Copper Peeces presented to Opachank which Copper is gathered at the foote of the Mountaines where they digge a hole in the ground in which they put the oare and make thereon a great fire which causeth it to runne into a masse and become malleable neither haue they any tooles but smooth stones for that purpose This seemed strange to ours which heard the English Copper passeth eleuen fires His Maiesties gracious Letter to the Earle of South-hampton Treasurer and to the Counsell and Company of Virginia here commanding the present setting vp of Silke workes and planting of Vines in Virginia RIght trusty and welbeloued We greete you well whereas We vnderstand that the Soyle in Virginia naturally yreldeth store of excellent Mulberry trees We haue taken into Our Princely consideration the great benefit that maâ— grow to the Aduenturers and Planters by the breede of Silkewormes and setting vp of Silkeworkes in those parts And therefore of Our gracious Inclination to a designe of so much honour and aduantage to the publike We haue thought good as at sundry other times so now more particularly to recommend it to your speciallcare hereby charging and requiring you to take speedy order that our people there vse all possible diligence in breeding Silkewormes and erecting Silke-workes and that they rather bestow their trauell in compassing this rich and solid Commodity then in that of Tobacco which besides much vnnecessary expence brings with it many disorders and inconueniences And for as much as Our seruant Iohn Bonoell hath taken paines in setting downe the true vse of the Silkeworme together with the Art of Silkemaking and of planting Vines and that his experience and abilities may much conduce to the aduancement of this businesse We doe hereby likewise require you to cause his directions both for the said Silkeworkes and Vineyards to be carefully put in practice thorowout our Plantations there that so the worke may goe on cheerefully and receiue no more interruptions nor delayes Giuen vnder Our Signet at our Pallace of Westminster the ninth day of Iuly in the twentieth yeare of our Raigne of England France and Ireland and of Scotland the fiue and fiftieth WINDEBANK To Our right trusty and right welbeloued Cousin and Councellour HENRY Earle of South-hampton Treasurer of our Plantation in Virginia and to Our trusty and welbeloued the Deputy and others of Our said Plantation Virginia The Treasurour Counsell and Company of Virginia to the Gouernour and Counsell of State in Virginia residing AFter our very harty commendations His Sacred Maiesty out of his high wisedome and care of the noble Plantation of Virginia hath beene graciously pleased to direct his Letters to vs here in England thereby commanding vs to aduance the setting vp of Silkworkes and planting of Vineyards as by the Copy herewith sent you may perceiue The intimation of his Maiesties pleasure we conceiue to be a motiue sufficient to induce you to imploy all your indeuors to the setting forward those two Staple Commodities of Silke and Wine which brought to their perfection will infinitely redound to the honour benefit and comfort of the Colony and of this whole Kingdome yet we in discharge of our duties doe againe renew our often and iterated Instructions and inuite you cheerefully to fall vpon
master-peece of workes their conuersion And by this meanes that fatall Friday morning there fell vnder the bloudy and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhumane people contrary to all lawes of God and Men of Nature and Nations three hundred and forty seuen men women and children most by their owne weapons and not being content with taking away life alone they fell after againe vpon the dead making as well as they could a fresh murder defacing dragging and mangling the dead carkasses into many peeces and carrying some parts away in derision with base and bruitish triumph Neither yet did these Beasts spare those amongst the rest well knowne vnto them from whom they had daily receiued many benefits and fauours but spitefully also massacred them One instance of it amongst too many shall serue for all That worthy religious Gentleman Master George Thorpe Esquire Deputie of the Colledge lands sometimes one of his Maiesties Pensioners and in one of the principall places of command in Uirginia did so truely and earnestly affect their conuersion and was so tender ouer them that whosoeuer vnder his authority had giuen them but the least displeasure or discontent hee punished them seuerely He thought nothing too deare for them and as being desirous to binde them vnto him by his many courtesies he neuer denied them any thing that they asked him insomuch that when these Sauages complained vnto him of the fiercenesse of our Mastiues most implacable and terrible vnto them knowing them by instinct it seemes to be but treacherous and false-hearted friends to vs better then our selues he to gratifie them in all things for the winning of them by degrees caused some of them to be killed in their presence to the great displeasure of the owners and would haue all the rest guelt had he not beene hindered to make them the gentler and the milder to them Hee was not onely too kinde and beneficiall to the common sort but also to their King to whom he oft resorted and gaue many presents which he knew to be highly pleasing to him And whereas this King before dwelt onely in a Cottage or rather a denne or Hog-stye made with a few poles and stickes and couered with Mats after their wilde manner to ciuilize him he first built him a faire House according to the English fashion in which as before is said he tooke such ioy especially in his Locke and Key which hee so admired as locking and vnlocking his doore an hundred times a day he thought no deuice in all the world was comparable to it Thus insinuating himselfe to this King for his Religious purposes he conferred after with him oft and intimated to him matters of our Religion and thus farre the Pagan confessed moued by naturall Principles that our God was a good God and better much then theirs in that hee had with so many good things aboue them endowed vs. He told him if he would serue our God he should be partaker of all those good things we had and of farre greater then sence or reason euer could imagine He won vpon him as he thought in many things so as hee gaue him faire hearing and good answer and seemed to be much pleased with his discourse and in his companie And both he and his people for the daily courtesies this good Gentleman did to one or other of them did professe such outward loue and respect vnto him as nothing could seeme more but all was little regarded after by this Viperous brood as the sequell shewed for they not onely wilfully murdered him but cruelly and felly out of a diuellish malice did so many barbarous despights and foule scornes after to his dead corps as are vnbefitting to be heard by any ciuill eare One thing I cannot omit that when this good Gentleman vpon his fatall houre was warned by his man who perceiued some treachery intended to them by these hell-hounds to looke to himselfe and withall ran away for feare of the mischiefe he strongly apprehended and so saued his owne life yet his Master out of the conscience of his owne good meaning and faire deserts euer towards them was so voide of all suspition and so full of confidence that they had sooner killed him then he could or would beleeue they meant any ill against him At the time of this Massacre there were three or foure of our Ships in Iames Riuer and one in the next Riuer and daily more to come in as three did within foureteene daies after one of which they endeuoured to haue surprised but in vaine as had also beene their whole attempt had any the least fore-knowledge beene in those places where the Massacre was committed yet were the hearts of the English euer stupid and auerted from beleeuing any thing that might weaken their hopes of speedy winning the Sauages to Ciuilitie and Religion by kinde vsage and faire conuersing amongst them Hee and the whole Counsell writ further That Almighty God they doubt not hath his great worke to doe in this Tragedy and will thereout draw honour and glory to his great Name safety and a more flourishing estate to themselues and the whole Plantation there and the more speedy conuersion of the Children of those Sauages to himselfe since he so miraculously preserued so many of the English whose desire to draw those people to Religion by the carelesse neglect of their owne safeties seemes to haue beene the greatest cause of their owne ensuing destruction Yet it pleased God to vse some of them as instruments to saue many of their liues whose soules they had formerly saued as at Iames Citie and other places and the Pinnace trading in Pamounkey Riuer all whose liues were saued by a conuerted Indian disclosing the plot in the instant These wilde naked Natiues liue not in great numbers together but dispersed and in small companies and where most together not aboue two hundred and that very rare in other places fifty or forty or thereabouts and many miles distant from one another in such places among the Woods where they either found or might easeliest make some cleared plots of ground which they imploy wholly in setting of Corne whereby to sustaine their liues These small and scattered Companies as I haue said had warning giuen from one another in all their habitations to meete at the day and houre appointed for our destruction at all our seuerall Townes and places seated vpon the Riuer some were directed to goe to one place some to another all to be done at the same day and time which they did accordingly some entring their Houses vnder colour of trucking and so taking aduantage others drawing our men abroad vpon faire pretences and the rest suddenly falling vpon those that were at their labours By Letters and those that returned it is certified that besides Master George Thorpe before mentioned Master Iohn Berkeley Captaine Nathaniel Powel and his wife daughter of Master William Tracy and great with childe and
to finde the Azores in which way from thence it is easie for English Ships not far from their owne home or Ports to disperse themselues in expectation of a surprisall The want of such helpes in Queene Elizabeths glorious times enforced our men of Warre still to awaite both for the Indian Carrickes and all American Ships houering about the Azores Ilands subiect to the Spanish Crowne where they neither had harbour in stormes nor could in any wants refresh themselues with water victuals or other prouisions but by force where a greater and stronger Armada of the enemy waited to wafte home their Ships returning where it often hapned that the Ships could not so soone be descried but they gat either into some Port and vnder some Fort which secured them or else there ran themselues aground and sauing what they could with their persons fired the rest so to sacrifice it to Neptune or Uulcan rather then permit it to English hands Neither had the English any neere Port where to supply themselues in any distresse or exhaustion of prouisions but must necessarily returne home for England if not as sometimes perishing in the way with little or perhaps no prize attained Likewise in long Voyages as to the East Indies and to the South Sea hauing no harbour to friend euery disease proued mortall to their Voyage and forced at lest a returne that is a miscarrying of the designe if not of themselues whereas such a refuge as Virginia and Summer Ilands might either haue recouered the Voyage intended or refreshed and inabled them to make as good a purchase vpon the enemy making him to pay their charges perhaps with more gaine then the first intents could haue produced Examples will make this more euident And first to begin with the first of our great Discouerers Sir Sebast ian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert were set forth by King Henry the eight as before is mentioned in a Voyage of American Discouery a Ship of which Fleete comming from the coast of Brasil to Domingo Ouiedo mentions it in the Spanish stile branding them with Piracy yet laieth nothing to their charge but discouery and offer of trade paying with Pewter dishes for what they tooke was thence repelled Anno 1517. and obtained some prouisions at Saint Iohn from whence in their returne to England Ouiedo thinkes they perished at least the Voyage miscarried as appeareth by Master Thornes and Master Edens testimony thereof for want of prouisions The like happened to Master Hores Voyage described in Master Hakluit Anno 1536. when want of victuals made them eate one another and at last to steale a French Ship in which they returned Anno 1564. Sir Iohn Hawkins hauing made a profitable Voyage by sale of Negros on the coast Townes of America was driuen to seeke reliefe of the French then planted in Florida rooted thence not long after by Spanish butchery And in another Voyage 1567. incurred by perfidious treachery of the Spaniards a most lamentable disaster He then sailed in the Iesus of Lubecke hauing to his consorts the Minion the William and Iohn the Iudith the Angell and the Swallow Hauing gotten Negros in Guinnee and made his market in the Spanish Indies he put in for reliefe at Saint Iohn de Vlhua Whiles his Fleete was there the Spanish Fleete came thither with their new Viceroy which he could easily haue kept out of the harbour but there being then no Warres betwixt England and Spaine certaine Articles were concluded betwixt them from which the Vâ—ceroy perfidiously resulting with close trechery contrary to his faith plighted assaulted the English with a strong power on the sudden the issue whereof was the firing drowning taking many of the English whom they put also to execrable tortures Onely the Minion and Iudith of that whole Fleete escaped if it be an escaping to auoide Scylla and rush on Charibdis For they were so shaken in fight first after with stormes lastly and worst of all with famine that they were forced to expose a hundred and foureteene men to the mercy of cruell elements crueller Sauages cruellest Spaniards who exercised in the Inquisition with bondage rackes whips fires famishments plurima mortis imago what the other had spared so that of a hundred and foureteene not aboue the odde foure and those foure after Odysses of wandrings and Iliades of miseries returned home from the foure corners of the World Had Sir Iohn Hawkins had a Uirginian opportunity of refreshing the first danger should not haue needed and the last had not proued worse then the first that exposing being not farre from the Uirginian shoare and the current fitting to carry him thither Sir Francis Drake was then Captaine of the Iudith and repaied that courtesie to the Spaniards after who to shew the fesibility of such refreshing Anno 1585. hauing sacked Saint Iago Domingo Carthagena and Saint Augustine returned by Uirginia to relieue the Colony there planted by Sir W. Raleigh Anno 1591. Captaine George Raymund in the Penelope Captaine Foxcroft in the Merchant Royall and Captaine Lancaster in the Edward Bonaduenture set forth a Voyage intended for the East Indies Their Company were so weakened with sicknesse that the Viceadmirall was sent backe from Soldanha with sicke men The Admirall was lost the Rereadmirall returned and for want of prouisions put ouer from Saint Helena to Trinidad in hope of reliefe Yet being there disappointed they intended to get to Newfoundland but being crossed with stormes in the way and forced backe to Port Ricco the Ship was driuen away and lost not far from Mona whiles the famished Company were seeking refreshing which how easily had a Bermuda or Virginia supplied had an English plantation flourished there Sir Iames Lancaster and the rest being forced to return after much misery in French Ships for France and thence home Anno 1596. the Beare the Beares Whelpe and the Beniamin were set forth for China vnder the command of Captaine Beniamin Wood. Frier Ioaon dos Santos mentions both the two former of Raymund and Lancaster and two also of these seene on the coast of Mozambique Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola in his Booke printed at Madrid 1609 hath published the Letter of the Chinese Visitor of Chincheo in which he writeth to Don Pedro de Acnnaa Gouernour of the Philippinas that the King of China had done two Sangleys to death for shewing the hauen to these two English Ships and Acunna rescribes that the English were Pyrates c. after the Spanish wont These Ships were vnheard of in England vntill a Letter of Alcasar de Villa sennor Auditor of Domingo writ to the King his Master being by an English Ship intercepted gaue intelligence of one of those two Ships which distressed for want of necessaries by mortality had foure men only left aliue in her which seeking reliefe put themselues into their Boate and comming on shoare in the Iland Vtias not farre from Domingo with Iewels
Brother vnto Captaine Rawley Gilbert who at that time was President of that Councell But found that the old Captaine Popham was also dead who was the onely man indeed that died there that Winter wherein they indured the greater extremities for that in the depth thereof their Lodgings and stores were burnt and they thereby wondrously distressed This calamitie and euill newes together with the resolution that Captaine Gilbert was forced to take for his owne returne in thaâ— he was to succeed his Brother in the Inheritance of his Lands in England made the whole Company to resolue vpon nothing but their returne with the ships and for that present to leaue that Countrey againe hauing in the time of their abode there notwithstanding the coldnesse of the season and the small helpe they had built a prettie Barke of their owne which serued them to good purpose as easing them in their returning The arriuall of these people here in England was a wonderfull discouragement to all the first vndertakers in so much as there was no more speech of setling any other Plantation in those parts for a long time after only Sir Francis Popham hauing the ships and prouision which remayned of th Company and supplying what was necessary for his purpose sent diuers times to the Coasts for Trade and fishing of whose losse or gaines himselfe is best able to giue account Our people abandoning the Plantation in this sort as you haue heard the Frenchmen immediately tooke the opportunitie to settle themselues within our limits which beeing heard of by those of Virginia that discreetly tooke to their consideration the inconueniences that might arise by suffering them to harbour there they dispatched Sir Samuel Argall with Commission to displace them which he performed with much discretion iudgement valour and dexteritie For hauing seized their Forts which they had built at Mount Mansell Saint Croix and Port Reall he carried away their Ordnance he also surprised their Ship Cattle and other Prouisions which he transported to the Colonie in Virginia to their great benefit And hereby hee hath made a way for the present hopefull Plantation to be made in Noua Scotia which we heare his Maiestie hath lately granted to Sir William Alexander Knight one of his Maiesties most Honorable Councell of the Kingdome of Scotland to be held of the said Crowne and that not without some of our priuities as by approbation vnder writing may and doth appeare Whereby it is manifest that wee are so farre from making a Monopoly of all those Lands belonging to that Coast as hath beene scandalously by some obiected That wee wish that many would vndertake the like In this Interim there were of vs who apprehended better hopes of good that might ensue by this attempt being thereunto perswaded both by the Relations of our people that had indured the many difficulties whereunto such actions are subiected chiefly in the Winter Season and likewise by the informations giuen them by certaine of the Natiues that had beene kept a long time in their hands wherefore we resolued once more to trie the veritie thereof and to see if possibly we might finde some thing that might induce a fresh resolution to prosecute a Worke so pious and so honourable And thereupon they dispatched Captayne Hobson of the I le of Wight together with Captayne Herley Master Iohn Matthew Master Sturton with two Sauages the one called Epenow the other Manawet with Commission and directions fit for them to obserue and follow the better to bring to passe what was expected But as in all humane affaires there is nothing more certaine then the vncertaintie thereof so fell it out in this for a little before such time as they arriued vpon the Coast with the foresaid Sauages who were Naturals of those parts it happened there had beene one Hunt a worthlesse fellow of our Nation set out by certaine Merchants for loue of gaine who not content with the commoditie he had by the fish and peaceable Trade he found among the Sauages after he had made his dispatch and was ready to set sayle more Sauage-like then they seized vpon the poore innocent creatures that in confidence of his honestie had put themselues into his hands And stowing them vnder Hatches to the number of twentie foure carried them into the Straits where he sought to sell them for slaues and sold as many as he could get mony for But when it was vnderstood from whence they were brought the Friers of those parts took the rest from them and kept them to be instructed in the Christian Faith and so disappointed this vnworthy fellow of the hopes of gaine he conceiued to make by this new and Deuillish proiect This being knowne by our two Sauages formerly spoken of they presently contracted such an hatred against our whole Nation as they immediately studied how to be reuenged and contriued with their friends the best meanes to bring it to passe but Manawet dying in a short time after the shippes arriuall there and the other obseruing the good order and strong guard our people kept studied only how to free himselfe out of our hands and thereupon laid the plot very orderly and indeed effected his purpose although with so great hazard to himselfe and friends that laboured his rescue that Captayne Hobson and his whole Company imagined hee had beene slaine And though in the recouery of his bodie they wounded the Master of our ship and diuers other of our Company yet was not their Designe without the slaughter of some of their people and the hurts of other compassed as appeared afterward Hereupon Captaine Hobson and his Company conceiuing the end of their attempt to bee frustrate resolued without more adoe to returne and so those hopes that charge and Voyage was lost also for they brought home nothing but the newes of their euill successe of the vnfortunate cause thereof and of a Warre now new begun betweene the Inhabitants of those parts and vs. A miserable comfort for so weake meanes as were now left to pursue the conclusion of so tedious an Enterprise While this was a working we found the meanes to send out Captaine Iohn Smith from Plimmouth in a ship together with Master Dermer and diuers others with him to lay the foundation of a new Plantation and to try the fishing of that Coast and to seeke to settle a Trade with the Natiues But such was his misfortune as being scarce free of our owne Coast he had his Masts shaken ouer-boord by stormes and tempests his ship wonderfully distressed and in that extremitie forced to come backe againe so as the season of the yeere being almost spent wee were of necessitie enforced to furnish him with another ship and taking out the prouision of the first dispatched him away againe who comming to the height of the Westerne Ilands was chased by a French Pirate and by him made Prisoner although his ship
abroad our Colours and went toward the Admirall before wee came vnto him he likewise strooke downe our Sayle and came vnder his lee demanding his pleasure the other ship which first shot vs all our Sayles being downe and shot our mayne Sayle in pieces lying on the Decke And forthwith the Admirall came on boord of vs with two and twentie men in their ships Boate with Rapiers Swords and halfe-pikes We being all in peace stood readie to entertayne them in peace But assoone as they were entred on boord of vs they did most cruelly beate vs all and wounded two of our Company in the heads with their Swords not sparing our Captayne nor any Also they wounded Assacomoit one of the Sauages aforesaid most cruelly in seuerall places in the bodie and thrust quite through the arme the poore creature creeping vnder a Cabbin for feare of their rigour and as they thrust at him wounding him he cried still King Iames King Iames King Iames his ship King Iames his ship Thus hauing beaten vs all downe vnder the Deckes presently they beat vs vp againe and thrust vs ouer-boord into their Boate and so sent vs on boord of the Admirall ship Neither would they suffer any of vs to speake a word to shew the cause of our passing the Seas in these parts Neyther regarded they any thing our Commission which the Captayne held forth vnto them in his hand vntill that the Admirall with the Company of foure other of the ships had rifled spoyled and deliuered all the Merchandize and goods of the ship among them which beeing done they also diuided vs beeing thirtie persons in all into the said fiue ships by seuen six fiue and foure to a ship Three of the former eight Sayle made Sayle away and neuer came neere vs neither were partakers of our spoyle Then they also repayred our Maine Sayle which was torne with the shot aforesaid and put their men into her And after because they could not make her to sayle well they tooke two of our men and put into her to helpe them the other fiue ships and our ship kept company two or three dayes together After this they separated themselues either from other not through any tempest or storme but through wilfull negligence or simple Ignorance by shaping contrary courses the one from the other So as not two of them kept company together My selfe and sixe more of our company in the Vice-Admirall of the burthen of one hundred and eightie tunnes called the Peter of Siuill the Captaynes name was Andreas Barbear beeing alone and hauing lost the company of the Fleet continued our course vntill the middle of December at which time being about twentie leagues off from the I le of Santa Maria one of the Iles of the Azores the Vice-Admiral and the whole company disliking the great Ignorance of the Pilot because he had told them ten dayes before that he was very neere the Ilands and had waited all this time and could find any of them entreated me very earnestly to shew my skill And the Pilot himselfe brought mee his Instruments and be sought mee most earnestly to assist him and to appease the company Whereunto by there much importunitie I yeelded And by Gods assistance on Christmasse Eeue after our English account I brought them safe to the Barre of Saint Lucas being the first ship of the whole Fleet that arriued there One of the ships of this Fleet by the great Ignorance of the Spanish Masters Pilots and Mariners was driuen beyond all the Coast of Spaine into Burdeaux in Gascayne In which shippe the Officers of the Admiraltie of France finding foure of our Englishmen prisoners vnder the Deckes in hold to wit Master Daniell Tucker who was our Cape Merchant Pierce Gliddon and two others did very friendly set them at libertie and the said Daniel Tucker presently arrested the Spanish ship and goods beeing of great value which of long time remayneth vnder arrest The good Duke of Medina hearing of the arriuall of certaine English prisoners taken here the Coast of the West Indies sent command to the Captaynes of the Spanish ships to bring foure of the chiefest to be brought before him Whereupon my selfe Master Thomas Saint Iohn Iohn Walrond our Steward and William Stone our Carpenter were brought before him The ship wherein Master Challous was was not yet come Master Dauid Neuill an Englishman dwelling in Saint Lucas was appointed our Interpretor And then the Duke required me vpon my oath to yeeld a true and faithfull answere according to the whole state and manner of our Voyage and proceedings which I did according to the former Relation afore written wherevpon his Excellencie replyed vnto the Spanish Captaynes which had brought vs saying it this bee true which this Englishman affirmeth you haue greatly wronged these men And so commanded them to prouide meate drinke and fit lodging for vs and to bring vs againe the next day before him They sent vs neuerthelesse to Siuill where wee were brought to a Dutchmans house called Signior Petro where we were reasonably lodged and entertayned that night The next morning being New yeeres day we were brought before the President of Siuill at the Contractation who hearing of our comming and not vouchsafing to speake with vs sent foure O 〈…〉 ers to vs and cast vs into Prison Where for the space of fiue dayes wee had publike allowance but such as poore men which were there Prisoners also did of their mereie bestow on vs. At length after many humble Sutes and earnest Petitions exhibited to the President we had a Riall of Plate allowed to each man a day which is sixe pence English whâ—ch by reason of the dearth of all sorts of victuall in those parts will not goe so far as three pence in England And so at seuerall times within one moneth after eleuen more of our Company were commi 〈…〉 to Prison as they came home whereof our Captaine was one Notwithstanding that the good Duke of Medina had discharged both him and all those of his Company which came into Spaine with him and willed him to goe home to the Court of England or to the Court of Spaine where he thought to haue best reliefe for his poore imprisoned Company Whereupon Nicholas Hine our Master and two more of our men wisely foreseeing what was like to bee the Issue made haste away out of the Citie and so got passage and escaped into England Before the comming of our Captaine to Siuill my selfe and eleuen more of my Company were examined before the President of the Contractation who finding no iust cause of offence in vs did often earnestly examine me of the manner and situation of the Countrie of Virginia together with the Commodities and benefit thereof And after the comming of our Captaine they likewise examined him to the same purpose We answered both to one purpose according to our Commission in writing which the Spaniards at our taking at
Sea had preserued and deliuered vp vnto the hands of the President Within few dayes after they gaue our Captaine and Master Thomas Saint Iohn libertie of mayne Prison vpon the securitie of two English Merchants which were Master William Rapier and Master Iohn Peckeford whereof the later is dwelling and maried in Siuill The rest of the Company being one and twentie in Prison continued still in miserable estate And about two moneths after Robert Cooke of London one of our Company fell sick of a Fluxe whereof he languished three moneths and more and by no meanes that wee could make could get him forth to bee cured although wee spent more then sixtie Rials in Supplicaues and Sutes to get him out At length being dead they caused his bodie to bee drawne vp and downe the Prison by the heeles naked in most contemptible manner crying Behold the Lutheran as fiue others of our Company beeing then in Prison beheld and so laid him vnder the Conduit and powred water into his dead bodie This done they cut off his Eares Nose and Members as the Spaniards themselues confessed vnto vs and so conueyed his bodie wee could neuer learne whether although we proffered them money to haue his dead corps to burie it Shortly after Nathaniel Humfrie our Boatswaine was stabbed into the belly with a Knife by a Spaniard which was a slaue in the Prison and fourteene dayes after dyed who beeing dead I went vnto the Keeper of the Prison desiring to buy his dead bodie to burie it and so for twenty Rials I bought his bodie and buried it in the field Then we be sought the President for Iustice on this slaue which had slaine our Boatswaine he demanded what we would haue of the slaue And we requested that as he had slaine an honest and worthy man of ours cause lesse that hee might die for it according to the Law The President answered no but if we would haue him condemned for two or three yeares more to the Gallies he should For said hee The King of Spaine will not giue the life of the worst Slaue that he hath for the best Subiect the King of England hath and so sent vs away with this answere Whereupon being out of all hope of Iustice with the President we repaired vnto the Regent being an Ecclesiasticall man one of the chiefest Iudges of the Citie desiring likwise Iustice on the Murtherer aforesaid who in kind tearmes promised vs Iustice and so willed vs to retaine counsell and Atturnies to prosecute our Sute which wee did accordingly and so after two moneths Sute and the cost of more then two hundred Rials on Lawyers Scribes and other Officers at length we had him hanged by the fauour of the Regent which otherwise we had neuer obtained And now I may not omit to shew how I got the libertie to haue the scope of the Citie for my Race to come and go Hauing beene three moneths in close Prison with our poore company as aforesaid At length I got the fauour of two Englishmen inhabiting in Siuill named Constantine Collins and Henry Roberts who did ingage themselues for me The Spaniards were very desirous to haue me to serue their State and proffered me great wages which I refused to doe affirming that this imployment which I had in hand was not yet ended vntill which time I would not determine any Then the Alcadie maior of the Contractation House and diuers others Merchants perswaded me to make them some descriptions and Maps of the Coast and parts of Virginia which I also refused to doe They being discontent with me sent mee againe to Prison where I continued two and twentie dayes and then I making meanes vnto my good friends borrowed money and so gaue diuers bribes vnto the keepers of the Prison whereupon they gaue mee libertie to goe abroad againe into the Citie at my pleasure And wayting euery day for some order from the Court of Spaine of our discharge there came none but delayes and prolonging of our troubles and miseries So as we began almost to despaire of libertie At length an honest Dutch Merchant dwelling in Siuill named Hanse Eloyse sent vnto mee to speake with me which when I came vnto him signified vnto me what he had learned of one of the Iudges of the Contractation who told him as he reported vnto me that the Spaniards had a great hate vnto me aboue all others because they vnderstood that I had beene a former Discouerer in Virginia at the bringing into England of those Sauages and that they thought it was by my instigation to perswade our State to inhabit those parts And because they had receiued so small knowledge of those parts by my confession and that they could not perswade mee to serue that State neither would make them any note draught or descriptions of the Countrie They resolued to bring to the Racke and torment me whereby to draw some further knowledge by confession from me before any discharge might come for vs. The which this honest Merchant considering and the Innocencie of our case gaue me to vnderstand And wished mee rather to flie and preserue my selfe then to stand to their mercie on the Racke I hearing this the next morning being the three and twentieth of October suddenly fled from Siuill and with me Master Thomas Saint Iohn aforesaid and one other of our Company named Iames Stoneman my Brother whom through great cost and charges bestowed on the Keepers of the Prison a little before I had got forth to bee cured of a Callenture Thus wee fled from Siuill leauing Master Henry Challons our Captaine at libertie vpon sureties and sixteene more of our Company in close Prison From thence on the fiue and twentieth of October wee came to a Mount in the Câ—ndado where finding no passage by any shipping into England France or Flanders Wee trauelled through Algaruie to the Port of Setunall and finding no passage there wee trauelled to Lasbone in Portugall Where wee arriued the one and thirtieth of October and there found ships readie bound to goe to England but the wind was contrary for fourteene dayes At the time of our abode at Lisbone wee vnderstood that three Carrickes were come from the East Indies whereof one was arriued safely at Lisbone tenne dayes before our comming thither Another was driuen to leeward and put in Veego as wee heard The third Carracke beeing at the I le of Tercera was so leake that they could not bring her home into Portugall but vnloaded her into three of the King of Spaines great Armadoes to bring the goods more safely to Lisbone Which Ships at there comming before the mouth of the Riuer of Lisbone in the night within three dayes after my comming thither were all cast away on certaine shoaldes there called Oscacâ—opos or as wee commonly call them the Catchops where of nine hundred men as the Portugalls reported but only thirtie seuen were saued and of the goods
very little at all because the said ships being cast away on the ebbe The goods were driuen off into the Sea the dead bodies of many that were drowned I my selfe saw â—ast on the shore with the sundry wrackes of the parts of the Ships Masts and Yards with other wracke of Caske Chists and such like in great abundance The fourteenth day of Nouember the winde being faire wee tooke passage from Lisbone in a small Barke belonging to Bidâ—ford called the Marget and on the foure and twentieth of the same we were landed at Saint Iues in Cornwall and from thence I hasted to Plimmouth where I shewed vnto Sir Ferdinando Gorges and diuers others the Aduenturers the whole Discourse of our vnhappie Voyage together with the miseries that wee had and did indure vnder the Spaniards hands And then hasted with all the speed I could toward the Court of England where I was assured to my great comfort that they either were alreadie or very shortly should bee deliuered Before my departure from Siuill I should haue remembred that about Whitsontide last there were brought into the Prison of the Contractation there two young men brought out of the West Indies in one of the Kings Gallions which were of Captaine Iohn Legats company of Plimmouth which departed out of England about the latter end of Iuly 1606. bound for the Riuer of Amazons as hee told me before his going forth where hee had beene two yeeres before And comming on the Coast of Brasill as those young men the name of one of them is William Adams borne in Plimpton neere Plimmouth reported vnto mee whether falling to the leeward of the Riuer of Amazons or deceiued by his Master they knew not And not being able to recouer the said Riuer were constrayned to refresh in the West Indies in which time there fell a great disorder betweene the said Captaine Legat and his company so as one of his company in a broyle within themselues aboard there ship slue the said Captaine Legat whether in his owne priuate quarrell or with the consent of the rest of the Company they could not tell mee But this is the more to bee suspected for that he alwayes in former Voyages dealt very straitly with his company After his death his company comming to the I le of Pinos on the Southside of Cuba to refresh themselues being eighteene persons were circumuented by the trecherie of the Spaniards and were there betrayed and taken Prisoners and within foure dayes after of eighteene persons fourteene were hanged the other foure being youths were saued to serue the Spaniards whereof two of them refusing to serue longer in there ships were put into the Prison at Siuill the other two remayne still as slaues to the Spaniards This I had the rather noted to the end that it may be the better considered what numbers of ships and men haue gone out of England since the conclusion of peace betweene England and Spaine in the way of honest Trade and Traffique and how many of them haue miserably miscarried Hauing beene slaine drowned hanged or pittifully captiued and thrust out of their ships and all their goods REader I had by me the Voyage of Captaine Thomas Hanham written by himselfe vnto Sagadahoc also the written Iournals of Master Raleigh Gilbert which stayed and fortified there in that vnseasonable Winter fit to freeze the heart of a Plantation of Iames Dauies Iohn Eliot c. but our voluminousnesse makes me afraid of offending nicer and queasier stomackes for which cause I haue omitted them euen after I had with great labour fâ—â—ted them to the Presse as I haue also done a written large Tractate of Mawaushen and the Uoyage of Master Edward Harlie one of the first Planters with Cap. Popham and Nicholas Hobson to those parts 1611. with diuers Letters from Cap. Popham and others You must obserue that it was in those times called by the name of Virginia and the Northerne Plantation or Colonie But Captaine Smith a man which hath so many Irons in our fire presented a Booke of the Countrie to Prince Charles his Highnesse with a Map of the Countrey who stiled it as our hopes are he will one day make it New England and altered the Sauage names of places to English Hee made one Voyage thither Anno 1614. and the next yeere beganne another which taken by Frenchmen he was not able to make vp but in testimonie of his loue to his Countrey here and of his hopes there hath written diuers Bookes One called A Description of New England in which his said Uoyages are described with the description of the Countrey and many Arguments to incite men to that vndertaking which I had also prepared for the Presse but for the former feares haue omitted the other called New Englands Trials twice or thrice printed out of which I haue added thus much that the World may see the benefit to bee made by fishing and may also be better acquainted with the successe and succession of New Englands Affaires CHAP. III. Extracts of a Booke of Captaine IOHN SMITH printed 1622. called New Englands tryalls and continuing the Storie thereof with Motiues to the businesse of fishing there The benefit of fishing as Master Dee reporteth in his Brittish Monarchie HE saith that it is more then foure and fortie yeeres agoe and it is more then fortie yeeres since he writ it that the Herring Busses out of the Low-countries vnder the King of Spaine were siue hundred besides one hundred Frenchmen and three or foure hundred Sayle of Flemmings The Coasts of Wales and Lancashire was vsed by three hundred Sayle of strangers Ireland and Baltemore fraugted yeerly three hundred Sayle of Spaniards where King Edward the Sixt intended to haue made a strong Castle because of the Strait to haue Tribute for fishing Blacke Rocke was yeerely fished by three or foure hundred Sayle of Spaniards Portugals and Biskiners Master Gentleman and many Fisher-men and Fish-mongers with whom I haue conferred report The Hollanders raise yeerely by Herring Cod and Ling 3000000. pounds English and French by Salt-fish Poore Iohn Salmons and Pilchards 300000. pounds Hamborough and the Sound for Sturgion Lobsters and Eeles 100000. pounds Cape Blacke for Tunny and Mullit by the Biskiners and Spaniards 30000. pounds But diuers other learned experienced Obseruers say though it may seeme incredible That the Duke of Medina receiueth yeerely tribute of the Fishers for Tunny Mullit and Purgos more then 10000. pounds Lubeck hath seuen hundred Ships Hamborough six hundred Embden lately a Fisher Towne one thousand foure hundred whose Customes by the profit of fishing hath made them so powerfull as they bee Holland and Zealand not much greater then Yorkeshire hath thirtie walled Townes foure hundred Villages 20000. saile of Ships and Hoyes thirtie sixe thousand are Fisher-men whereof one hundred are Doggers seuen hundred Pinkes and Wel-boates seuen hundred Frand Boates Britters and Tode-boats with one thousand three hundred Busses besides three hundred
but principally to increase the knowledge of the Omnipotent God and the propagation of Our Christian Faith haue graciously accepted of their said intention and suit And therefore doe of Our speciall grace certaine knowledge and meere motion for Vs Our Heires and Successors giue graunt and confirme by these Presents vnto Our right deere and right welbeloued Cousin and Counsellor Henry Earle of Northampton Keeper of Our Priuy Seale and to Our trustie and right welbeloued Sir Laurence Tanfield Knight chiefe Baron of Our Exchequer Sir Iohn Dodridge Knight one of Our Sergeants at Law Sir Francis Bacon Knight Our Sollicitor Generall Sir Daniel Dun Sir Walter Cope Sir Pierciuall Willoughby and Sir Iohn Constable Knights Iohn Weld Esquire William Freeman Ralph Freeman Iohn Slany Humfrey Slany William Turner Robert Kirkam Gentlemen Iohn Weld Gentleman Richard Fishburne Iohn Browne Humfrey Spencer Thomas Iuxon Iohn Stokely Ellis Crispe Thomas Alport Francis Needeham William Iones Thomas Langton Phillip Gifford Iohn Whittingam Edward Allen Richard Bowdler Thomas Iones Simon Stone Iohn Short Iohn Vigars Iohn Iuxon Richard Hobby Robert Alder Anthony Haueland Thomas Aldworth William Lewis Iohn Guy Richard Hallworthy Iohn Langton Humfrey Hooke Phillip Guy William Meredith Abram Ienings and Iohn Dowghtie their Heires and Assignes And to such and so many as they doe or shall hereafter admit to be ioyned with them in forme hereafter in these Presents expressed whether they goe in their persons to bee planted in the said Plantation or whether they goe not but doe aduenture their Monyes Goods and Chattels that they shall bee one Body or Comminaltie perpetuall and shall haue perpetuall succession and one common Seale to serue for the said Body and Comminaltie And that they and their successours shall be knowne called and incorporated by the name of the Treasurer and the Company of Aduenturers and Planters of the Citie of London and Bristoll for the Colony or Plantation in New-found-land and that they and their successours shall bee from henceforth for euer inabled to take require and purchase by the name aforesaid Licence for the same from Vs Our Heires and Successours first had and obtained any manner of Lands Tenements and Hereditaments Goods and Chattels within Our Realme of England and Dominion of Wales and that they and their successours shall bee like wise inabled by the name aforesaid to plead and be impleaded before any Our Iudges or Iustices in any of Our Courts and in any Actions and Suits whatsoeuer And Wee doe also of Our said speciall grace certaine knowledge and meere motion for Vs Our Heires and Successours giue grant and confirme vnto the said Tresurer and Company and their Successours vnder the reseruations limitations and declarations hereafter expressed all that part and portion of the said Countrie commonly called New found land which is situate lying and being to the Southward of the parallel line to be conceiued to passe by the Cape or hedland commonly called or knowne by the name of Bonewist Inclusiue which Cape or hedland is to be Northward of the Bay commonly called Trinity Bay and also which is situate lying and being to the Eastward of the Meridian line to be conceiued to passe by the Cape or headland commonly called or knowne by the name of Cape Sancta Maria or Cape Saint Maries Inclusiue which Cape or headland is to be Eastward of the Bay commonly called the Bay of Placentia together with the Seas and Ilands lying within ten leagues of any part of the Sea coast of the Countrie aforesaid and also all those Countries Lands and Ilands commonly called Newfound land which are situate betweene forty and six degrees of Northerly latitude and two and fifty degrees of the like latitude and also all the Lands Soyle Grounds Hauens Ports Riuers Mines as well royall Mines of Gold and Siluer as other Mines Minerals Pearles and precious stones Woods Quarries Marshes Waters Fishings Hunting Hawking Fowling Commodities and Hereditaments whatsoeuer together with all Prerogatiues Iurisdictions Royalties Priuiledges Franchises and Preheminencies within any the said Territories and the precincts there of whatsoeuer and thereto or there abouts both by Sea and Land being or in any sort belonging or appertaining and which wee by our Letters Patents may or can grant and in as ample manner and sort as We or any of Our Noble progenitors haue heretofore granted to any Company body politique or Corporate or to any Aduenturer or Aduenturers Vndertaker or Vndertakers of any Discouery Plantation or Trafficke of in or into any foraine parts whatsoeuer and in as large and ample manner as if the same were herein particularly mentioned and expressed Neuerthelesse Our will and pleasure is and We doe by these presents expresse and declare that there be saued and reserued vnto all manner of persons of what Nation soeuer and also to all and euery Our louing Subiects which doe at this present or hereafter shall trade or voyage to the parts aforesaid for Fishing c. April 27. A. Reg. 8. Master IOHN GVY his Letter to Master SLANY Treasurer and to the Counsell of the New-found-land Plantation RIght worshipfull it may please you to vnderstand that it was the tenth day of this moneth of May before the Barke of Northam called the Consent arriued here in New-found-land notwithstanding that a Ship of Bristoll called the Lionesse came to this Countrey the second of May in a moneths space and the Trial of Dartmouth arriued here before in sixteene dayes By reason of which stay of the aforesaid Barke nothing could be done to take any of the places desired all being possessed before So that the Ship that commeth whereof as yet there is no newes is to trust to the place here which is reserued for her which I hope will proue a good place Some yeeres as great a Uoyage hath bin made here as in any place in this Land God send her hither in safetie I haue not yet seene any of the Countrey to the Southward or Northward of this Bay of Conception since this spring because I expected daily the arriuall of the Barke and thought it not fit to be absent herehence vntill she were arriued and dispatched but presently vpon her departure no time God willing shall be lost The care that was taken to require generally the Fishermen to assist vs and to supply our wants if any should be was most ioyfull and comfortable to vs which was most willingly accomplished by the most part of those which I haue yet seene yet God be praised such was the state of all things with vs as we were in no want of victuals but had a great remainder as you shall after vnderstand The state of the Autumne and Winter was in these parts of New-found-land after this manner In both the moneths of October and Nouember there were scarce six dayes wherin it either freezed or snowed and that so little that presently it was thawed and melted with the strength of the Sunne All the residue
done by Master Whittington whereupon both the Sauages passed ouer a little water streame towards Master Whittington dancing leaping and singing and comming together the foremost of them presented vnto him a chaine of leather full of small Periwinckle shels a spitting knife and a Feather that stacke in his eare the other gaue him an Arrow without a head and the former was requited with a linnen Cap and a hand Towell who put presently the linnen Cap vpon his head and to the other he gaue a Knife and after hand in hand they all three did sing and dance vpon this one of our company called Francis Tipton went ashoare vnto whom one of the Sauages came running and gaue him a Chaine such as is before spoken of who was gratified by Francis Tipton with a Knife and a small peece of Brasse Then all foure together danced laughing and making signes of ioy and gladnesse sometimes striking the brests of our company and sometimes their owne When signes were made that they should be willing to suffer two of our Company more to come on shoare for two of theirs more to be landed and that Bread and Drinke should be brought ashoare they made likewise signes that they had in their Canoas meate also to eate vpon this the Shallop rowed aboord and brought Iohn Guy and Master Teage a shoare who presented them with a Shirt two table Napkins and a Hand-towell giuing them Bread Butter and Reasons of the Sunne to eate and Beere and Aquauitae to drinke and one of them blowing in the Aquauitae Bottle that made a sound which they fell all into a laughing at After Master Croote and Iohn Crouther came ashoare whom they went to salute giuing them shell Chaines who bestowed Gloues vpon them One of the Sauages that came last ashoare came walking with his Oare in his hand and seemed to haue some command ouer the rest and behaued himselfe ciuilly For when meate was offered him he drew off his Mitten from his hand before hee would receiue it and gaue an Arrow for a present without a head who was requited with a dozen of Points After they had all eaten and drunke one of them went to their Canoa and brought vs Deeres flesh dried in the smoake or winde and drawing his Knife from out of his necke hee cut euery man a peece and that fauoured very well At the first meeting when signes were made of meate to eate one of the Sauages presently ran to the banke side and pulled vp a roote and gaue it to Master Whittington which the other Sauage perceiuing to be durtie tooke it out of his hand and went to the water to wash it and after diuided it among the foure it tasted very well hee that came ashoare with the Oare in his hand went and tooke the white skin that they hailed vs with and gaue it to Master Whittington and presently after they did take our white Flagge with them in the Canoa and made signes vnto vs that we should repaire to our Barke and so they put off for it was almost night In the two Canoas there were eight men if none were women for commonly in euery Canoa there is one woman they are of a reasonable stature of an ordinary middle sise they goe bare-headed wearing their haire somewhat long but round they haue no Beards behinde they haue a great locke of haire platted with feathers like a Hawkes Lure with a feather in it standing vpright by the crowne of the head and a small locke platted before a short Gown made of Stags skins the Furre innermost that ranne downe to the middle of their legges with sleeues to the middle of their arme and a Beuer skin about their necke was all their apparell saue that one of them had shooes and Mittens so that all went bare-legged and most bare-foote They are full eyed of a blacke colour the colour of their haire was diuers some blacke some browne and some yellow and their faces something flat and broad red with Oker as all their apparell is and the rest of their body they are broad brested and bould and stand very vpright Their Canoa are about twenty foote long and foure foote and a halfe broad in the middle aloft and for their Keele and timbers they haue thin light peeces of dry Firre rended as it were lathes and instead of Boords they vse the outer Burch barke which is thin and hath many folds sowed together with a thred made of a small root quartered They will carry foure persons well and weigh not one hundred weight they are made in forme of a new Moone stem and sterne alike and equally distant from the greatest breadth from the stem and sterne here riseth a yard high a light thin staffe whipped about with small rootes which they take hold by to bring the Canoa ashoare that serueth instead of ropes and a harbour for euery place is to them a harborough where they can goe ashoare themselues they take a land with them their Canoa and will neuer put to Sea but in a calme or very faire weather in the middle the Canoa is higher a great deale then in the Bowe and quarter they be all bearing from the Keele to the portlesse not with any circular line but with a right line They had made a Tilt with a Saile that they got from some Christian and pitched a dozen poles in the ground ueere on which were hanged diuers Furs and chaines made of shels which at that instant we fell not in the reckoning to what intent it was done but after it came to our minde as hereafter you shall pereeiue The seuenth day we spent in washing and in beginning a house to shelter vs when we should come thither hereafter vpon a small Iland of about fiue acres of ground which is ioyned to the maine with a small Beech for any bartering with the Sauages there cannot be a fitter place The eighth day it began to freeze and there was thin Ice ouer the sound and because we heard nothing more of the Sauages we began to return out of the Sounds comming to the place which the Sauages had made two dayes before fire in wee found all things remaining there as it was when we parted viz. an old Boat saile three or foure shell chaines about twelue Furres of Beauers most a Fox skin a Sable skin a Bird skin and an old Mitten set euery one vpon a seuerall pole whereby we remained satisfied fully 〈◊〉 they were brought thither of purpose to barter with vs and that they would stand to our courtesie to leaue for it what wee should thinke good Because we were not furnished with fit things for to trucke we tooke onely a Beauer skin a Sable skin and a Bird skin leauing for them a Hatchet a Knife and foure Needles threaded Master Whittington had a paire of Cizzars which he left there for a small Beauers skin all the rest we left there vntouched and came that
are willing to entertaine such as will further his Maiesties said Plan 〈…〉 vpon fit conditions Diuers Worshipfull Citizens of the Citie of Bristoll haue vndertaken to plant a large Circuit of that Countrie they haue maintained a Colony of his Maiesties subiects there any time these fiue yeeres who haue builded there many faire Houses and done many other good seruices who liue there very pleasantly and they are well pleased to entertaine vpon fit conditions such as will be Aduenturers with them The Worshipfull William Vanghan of Tarratod in the Countie of Ca 〈…〉 Doctor of the Ciuill Law hath also vndertaken to plant a Circuit in the New-found-land and hath in two seuerall yeeres sent thither diuers men and women and hee is willing to entertaine such as will be Aduenturers with him vpon fit conditions And there are many other worthy persons Aduenturers in the said Plantation whose names are not herein mentioned And it is well hoped that diuers others will also put their helping hand to aduance the same when they are giuen to vnderstand what honour and benefit may accrue thereby And if his Maiesties subiects of this Kingdome may be willing to set forth from euerie seuerall Countrie but one good Ship yearely thither with people and prouisions fit for them it will be then not onely a great honour and benefit to his Maiestie but also a great increase of Shipping and Marriners and the imploying and inriching of many thousands of poore people which now liue chargeably to the Parishioners The whâ—ah may be easily performed by the able Subiects to set forth the charge at first and so euerie Parish to recouer yearely their equall parts of the benefit which may accrue by the said stocke and thereby not onely disburden yeerely themselues of some of those which lie chargeable vnto them within their seuerall Parishes but also yeerely yeelde a great benefit to euery seuerall Countie though it lie something remote from the Sea-coast if they imploy a discreete honest man there who may yearely be accomptable to euerie Parish of the charge and likewise the benefit The which will not be anie way burdensome or hurtfull vnto any as the following discourse which I haue written will plainly informe them Extracts of a Letter from Captaine EDWARD WINNE Gouernour of the Colony at Ferryland within the Prouince of Aualon in Newfound-Land vnto the Right Honourable Sir GEORGE CALVERT Knight his Maisties Principall Secretary Iuly 28. 1622. May it please your Honour VPon the seuenteenth day of May I receiued here yo 〈…〉 Letters of the nineteenth of February from the â—aâ—ds of Robert Stoning Vpon the six and twentieth of the same a Ship of Master Iennins with your people and prouision arriued here in safetie and from the hands of Captaine Powell I receiued then your Honours Letters of the fourteenth of March. And vpon the last of Iune Master Iames came hither from Renouse and the Saltamaker Master Iohn Hickson from whose hands I receiued two Letters more that by Master Iames being of the fourth of May and the other by Hickson of the tenth of the same c. It may please your Honour that as soone as I had deliuered my last Letters of the fifth of September I immediately addressed my selfe onely to our businesse Notwithstanding our diligent labour and extraordinary paines-taking it was Alhaâ—â—entide before our first range of building was fitted for an habitable being c. After Christâ—asse wee imployed our selues in the Woods especially in 〈◊〉 weather whence wee got home as many Boord-stockes as afforded vs 〈◊〉 hundred Boords and about two hundred Timber-trees besides Wee got home as much or as many Trees as serued vs to pâ—lizade into the Plantation about foure Acrâ—â— of ground for the keeping off of both man and â—east with Post and Rayle seuen foot high shaâ—pened in the â—â—p the Trees being pâ—â—ched vpright and fastened with Spikes and Nayles Wee get also together as much fire-wood as will serue vs yet these two months We also fâ—â—â—ed much Garden ground for Seed I meane Barley Oates Rease and Beanes For addition of building we haue at this present a Parlour of fourteene fâ—ot besides the Chinney and twelue foot brâ—â—d of 〈◊〉 bright and a lodging Chamber ouer it to each a Chimney of Stone-work with Staires and a S 〈…〉 besides a 〈◊〉 of two 〈◊〉 or a story and a halfe which serues for a Store-house till wee are otherwise prouided The Forge hath beene finished these fine weekes the Saltworke is now almost ready Notwithstanding this great tâ—â—ke for so fe◠〈…〉 ds we haue both Wheat Barley Oates Pease and Bâ—â—nes about the quantâ—tie of two Aâ—res Of Garden roome about halfe aâ— Acre Corne though late sowne is now in earings the Bâ—â—nes and the goodâ—â—st Pease that I euer saw haue flourished in their bloomes this twentie dayes Wee haue a plentifull Kitchin Garden of Leâ—ticâ— Raddish Carrets Coleworts Turneps and many other things Wee haue also at this present a flourishing Meadow c. For the Countrey and Clymate It is better and not so cold 〈◊〉 England hitherto My comfort is that the Lord is with your Honour and your designes for we haue prospered to the admiration of all the beholders in what is done And thus with my humble duty remembred I rest c. Another Letter to Master Secretary CALVERT from Captaine WINNE of the seuenteenth of August 1622. May it please your Honour VVE haue Wheat Barley Oates and Beanes both eared and codded and though the late sowing and setting of them might occasion the contrary yet it ripens now so fast that it carries the likelihood of an approaching Haruest Wee haue also a plentifull Kitchen-Garden of many things and so ranke that I haue not seene the like in England Our Beanes are exceeding good our Pease shall goe wothout compare for they are in some places as high as a man of an extraordinary stature Raddish as big as mine arme Lettice Cale or Cabbage Turneps Carrets and all the rest is of like goodnesse We haue a Meadow of about three Acres it flourished lately with many cockets of good Hay and now it is made vp for a Winter feeding Wee hope to bee well fitted with many Acres of Meadow against another yeere of Pasture-land wee baute already to serue at least three hundred heads of Cattell and to all this if it please God a good quantitie of Seed-ground shall be fitted and such buildings as wee shall be able to accomplish Now in the next place it may please your Honour to vnderstand That touching this Countrey the Summer time here is so faire so warme and of so good a temperature that it produceth many Hearbes and Plants very wholsome medicinable and delectable many fruit Trees of sundry kindes many sorts of Berries wholsome to eate and in measure most abundant insomuch as many sorts of Birds and Beasts are relieued with them in time of Winter and whereof with further experience I
water it was not able to bee held and therefore vpon the discouery of our Boates they of the high Towne should make a signall by fire from thence that all the low Towne might make their retreat thither but they whether troubled with the sudden terror we brought vpon them or forgetting their decree omitted the fire which made them guard that place till we were entred on euery side Then the Towne being entred in three seuerall places with an huge cry the Inhabitants betooke them to the high Towne which they might with lesse perill doe for that ours being strangers there knew not the way to cut them off The rest that were not put to the sword in fâ—rie fled to the Rocks in the Iland others hid themselues in Chambers and Sellers which were euery day found in great numbers Amongst those Don Iuun de Luna a man of very good commandement hauing hidden himselfe in a house did the next morning yeeld himselfe There was also taken that night a Commissarie of victuals called Iuan de Vera who confessed that there were in the Groine at our entrie fiue hundred Souldiers being in seuen Companies which returned very weake as appeareth by the small numbers of them from the iourney of England The rest falling into the hands of the common Souldiers bad their throats cut to the number of fiue hundred as I coniecture first and last after wee had entred the Towne and in the entry thereof there was found euerie Seller full of Wine whereon our men by inordinate drinking both grew themselues for the present senslesse of the danger of the shot of the Town which hurt many of them being drunk and tooke the first ground of their sicknesse for of such was our first and chiefest mortalitie There was also abundant store of Victualls Salt and all kind of prouision for shipping and the warre which was confessed by the said Commissary of Victualls taken there to be the beginning of a Magasin of all sorts of prouision for a new Voyage into England whereby you may coniecture what the spoile thereof hath aduantaged vs and preiudiced the King of Spaine The next morning about eight of the clocke the enemies abandoned their Ships And hauing ouercharched the Artillery of the Gallion left her on fire which burnt in terrible sort two daies together the fire and ouercharging of the Peeces being so great as of fiftie that were in her there were not aboue sixteene taken out whole the rest with ouercharge of the powder being broken and molten with heat of the fire were taken out in broken pieces into diuers Ships The same day was the Cloister of the South side of the Towne entred by vs which ioyned verie neere to the wall of the Town out of the chambers and other places whereof we beat into the same with our Musketiers The next day in the afternoone there came downe some two thousand men gathered together out of the Countrey euen to the gates of the Towne as resolutely led by what spirit I know not as though they would haue entred the same but at the first defence made by ours that had the guard there wherein were slaine about eighteene of theirs they tooke them to their heeles in the same disorder they made their approach and with greater speed then ours were able to follow notwithstanding wee followed after them more then a mile The second day Colonell Huntley was sent into the Countrey with three or foure hundred men who brought home very great store of Kine and Sheepe for our reliefe The third day in the night the Generall had in purpose to take a long Munition-house builded vpon their wall opening towardes vs which would haue giuen great aduantage against them but they knowing the commodity thereof for vs burnt it in the beginning of the euening which put him to a new councell for he had likewise brought some Artillery to that side of the Town During this time there happened a very great fire in the lower end of the Towne which had it not bin by the care of the Generals heedily seene vnto and the fury thereof preuented by pulling downe many houses which were most in danger as next vnto them had burnt all the prouisions we found there to our wonderfull hinderance The fourth day were planted vnder the guard of the Cloisters two Demy-canons and two Coluerings against the Towne defended or gabbioned with a crosse wall thorow which our battery lay the first and second tire whereof shooke all the wall down so as all the Ordnance lay open to the Enemy by reason wherof some of the Canoniers were shot and some slaine The Lieutenant also of the Ordnance M. Spencer was slaine fast by Sir Edward Norris Master thereof whose valour being accompanied with an honourable care of defending that trust committed vnto him neuer left that place till he receiued direction from the Generall his brother to cease the battery which he presently did leauing a guard vpon the same for that day and in the night following made so good defence for the place of the battery as after there were very few or none annoyed therein That day Captaine Goodwin had in commandement from the Generall that when the assault should be giuen to the Towne he should make a proffer of an Escalade on the other side where he held his guard but he mistaking the signall that would haue beene giuen attempted the same long before the assault and was shot in the mouth The same day the Generall hauing planted his Ordnance ready to batter caused the Towne to be summoned in which summons they of the Towne shot at our Drum immediately after that there was one hanged ouer the wall and a parle desired wherein they gaue vs to vnderstand that the man hanged was hee that shot at the Drum before wherein they all intreated to haue faire wars with promise of the same on their parts The rest of the parle was spent in talking of Don Iuan de Luna and some other prisoners and somewhat of the rendring of the Towne but not much for they listned not greatly thereunto Generall Norris hauing by his skilfull view of the Towne which is almost all seated vpon a Rocke found one place thereof mineable did presently set workemen in hand withall who after three daies labour and the seuenth after we were entred the base Towne had bedded their Powder but indeed not farre enough into the wall Against which time the breach made by the Canon being thought assaultable and Companies appointed as well to enter the same as that which was expected should be blowne vp by the Mine namely to that of the Canon Captaine Richard Wingfield and Captaine Philpot who led the Generalls Foot-company with whom also Captaine Yorke went whose principall commandement was ouer the Horse-men And to that of the Mine Captaine Iohn Sampson and Captaine Anthony Wingfield Lieutenant Colonell to the Master of the Ordnance with certaine selected
the Lions hath beene bitten by the Adder the Spanish Dominions being coasted braued spoiled of thousands of their people besides wealth and security by the basest of enemies the Algier Pirates Thus at home doth Great Britain enioy this Gem of Goodnes the best part of the Ring of the worlds Greatnes abroad we see that as Gods Steward to others also His Maiestie hath ballanced the neerer World by his prudence by iustice of commerce visited the remoter by truest fortitude without wrong to any man conquered the furthest North and by iustest temperance disposed the ouerflowing numbers of his Subiects not in Intrusions and Inuasions of weaker Neighbours but in the spacious American Regions some thinly others not all inhabited to breed New Britaines in another World We haue giuen Voyages thorow this Booke and being now returned home and fixed on so illustrious a Name I meane to trauell no more here I hang vp my Pilgrims weeds here I fixe my Tabernacle it is good to bee here wee haue brought all the World to England England it selfe to the greatest of her Soueraignes King IAMES But yet the mention of his Maiesties Plantations makes me gratefully to mention his gracious care of the same euen since the former Virginian Relations were printed I then left Virginia with some griefe and sorrow because of her distracted Children and Fathers the diuisions and mutuall distasts of the Company here and Planters there sighing to God for them who hath put in his Maiesties heart to compassionate these his Subiects and hauing appointed the Gouernment to be according to a Commission in that Case directed hath to further Virginias gaine beene content to suffer the losse of many thousands yeerly in his Royall Customes arising out of Tobacco so I haue heard deliuered in open Court that so only that of the New Plantations may bee vendible till the Colonie may recouer greater strength His Maiestie is also pleased to send a Running Armie of Souldiers to scoure the Countrey of the vnneighbourly malicious Naturalls and to secure the planters from their priuie ambushments For openly they dare not attempt but lurking in secret places attend aduantages I feare not but so bright a Sunshine will quickly produce blessed effects Of their vndertakers for three yeeres Tobacco I lust not to speake because I wish and euen from that vndertaking shortly expect better commodities from thence then Tobacco I cannot but magnifie His Maiesties care and manifest that also of the Honorable Lords of the Councel who after diligent search of Virginian Affaires the last yeere 1623. appointed Captaine Iohn Haruey Master Iohn Porey Master Abraham Persey Master Samuel Matihews to search further into the diseases and possible remedies of that plantation In Februarie and March last a generall Assembly was summoned and questions propounded to Sir Francis Wiat Gouernour and the said Assembly First what places in the Countrey were best and most proper to be fortified or maintayned both against Indians or other Enemies Secondly concerning the present state of the Colonie in reference to the Sauages Thirdly touching the hopes really to be conceiued of the Plantation and fourthly touching the Meanes thereunto c. Their answere I know not whether I may publish in other things In this one I presume for better confirmation of what hath beene said before to incite and confirme Mens affections to Virginia namely their answere to the third subscribed as the rest by about thirty chiefe mens hands We hold it to be one of the goodliest parts of the Earth abounding with Nauigable riuers full of varietie of Fish and Fowle falling from high and sleepe Mountaines which by generall relation of the Indians are rich with Mines of Gold Siluer and Copper another Sea lying within sixe dayes iourney beyond them into which other Riuers descend The soile fruitfull and apt to produce the best sorts of commodities replenished with many Trees for seuerall vses Gums Dyes Earths and Simples of admirable vertues Vines and Mulberry Trees growing wild in great quantities the Woods full of Deare Turkies and other Beasts and Birds Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dales reports to the Company concerning those praises were in no part hyperbolicall nor any Countrey more worthy of a Princes care and supportance Other reports concerning the healthfulnesse of the aire especially where the ground is cleered of woods and other needfull prouisions of the plantation in numbers of Men and Armes which some had hyperbolically disgraced and in all other necessaries seeing the late massacre hath not permitted it better I am glad reioyce that it is no worse and hope and pray for the fortunate increase thereof daily I reioyce also to heare by one lately returned thence Master Morell a Minister and man of credit that the affaires of New England are thriuing and hopefull which two Colonies of Virginia and New England with all their Neighbours God make as Rachel and Leah which two did build the house of Israel that they may multiply into thousands and there inlarge the Israel of God and the Churches Catholike confines doing worthily in America and being famous in Great Britaine These with the rest of his Maiesties Dominions and his neerest and deerest possession Prince Charles his Highnesse the Count Palatine the Lady Elizabeth more shining more pure in her fiery trialls and like the pressed palme and her Royall Godmother spreading her boughes the more by greater weight with the sweet and princely Fruits of her wombe still multiplied like the Israelites vnder the Crosse God preserue and prosper vnto the Maiesty of our Dread Soueraigne the mighty Defender of the True Faith KING IAMES Amen O AMEN The end of the tenth Booke FINIS AN ALPHABETICALL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL things contained in the fiue Bookes of the fourth Part of Purchas his Pilgrimes A AAys a Prouince in Florida 1553 Abayâ—a formozo a Harbour in Brasile where is found great store of Amber greice Coral Brasil-wood Fish c. 1240 Abausango Retambuero a great mountaine in Brasile 1240 Abausanga the name of a valiant Caniball 1228 Abermot a great Lord of Mawooshen 1874 Aborollas dangerous Sands clifts in the West-Indies betweene the Cape and Spirito Santo 1222 Abraham Cock an Englishman maried in America 1141 Abrioio great Shoalds in the Latitude of 21 and 22 Degrees from Hispaniola westward 1834 Acara a towne in Peru 1446 Acacoustomed a Riuer in Mawooshen 1874 Acapulea the situation and description thereof 1418. 1446. 1562 Acarewanas Indian Kings Lords so called 1247 Acari a Towne where is made the best and greatest store of wine in all Peru 1446 Accomack a Riuer in Virginia 1694 Acela a Towne in Florida 1531 Achese a Towne in Florida 1536 Achneres a certaine people so called their natures habitations fashions and commodities 1357 Acle a Gulph so called 1244 Acoma a Towne of 6000 Indians the passage to which is by stayres â—â—wen out of a rocke 1561 1562 Acuco a Prouince in America 1560 Acus a