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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
Sir Edward Semer Knight,
Baron Beauchamp, and Earle of Hartford,
Lieutenant to his most excellent Majestie,
in the Countries of Somerset and
Wiltshire, my Honourable good
Lord and Maister.
My Honourable Lord:
If Vertue be the soule of true Nobilitie
as wise men say, thenblessed is your Lordship, that is every way noble, as well in vertue,
as birth, and riches. Though riches now, be the chiefest greatnes of
the great: when great and little are born, and dye, there is no difference:
Vertue onely makes men more then men: Vice, worse then
brutes. And those are distinguished by deedes, not words; though
both be good, deedes are best, and of all evils, ingratitude the worst.
Therfore I beseech you, that not to seeme ungratefull, I may present
your Honour with this rude discourse, of a new old subject. It is the
best gift I can give to the best friend I have. It is the best service I
ever did to serve so good a worke: Wherin having beene discouraged
for doing any more, I have writ this little: yet my hands hath been
my lands this fifteene yeares in Europ, Asia, Afric, or America.
In the harbour of your Lordships favour, I hope I ever shall rest
secure, notwithstanding all weathers; lamenting others, that they
fall into such miseries, as I foreseeing have foretold, but could not
prevent. No more: but dedicating my best abilities to the honour and
service of your renowned Vertues, I ever rest.
Your Lordships true and faithfull Servant,
John Smith
1. This printed dedication has been found in two surviving copies of the Map of
Va., one of them the earl's own copy, now in the New York Public Library (Joseph Sabin
et al., eds., A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, XX [New York, 1927-1928], 246-247).
It is the only firm evidence we have that John Smith was befriended by the earl, whose
wife Frances Howard upon the death of the earl married Ludovick Stuart, duke of Richmond
and Lennox. John Smith listed the earl as an adventurer for Virginia in the 1620
roll, but this does not seem to be substantiated elsewhere (Generall Historie, 136; and see
the Biographical Directory, s.v. "Seymour, Edward").
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