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[This is a slightly reduced reproduction of a print from the original plate, or first state, of William Hole's
map of Virginia, based on sketches supplied by John Smith (the original dimensions were 32.2 x 40.6 cm.).
Bibliographers have detected at least ten states of this map, three of which concern the Map of Va. as a
book. For the tenth state, see the Generall Historie. The original plate lacks Smith's coat of arms and the dates
1607 (under Powhatan) and 1606 (under the scale). The second state had the two dates, and the third state,
Smith's coat of arms.
For the Indian figures, Hole availed himself of the engravings made for Thomas Hariot's A briefe and
true report of the new found land of Virginia ... in Theodore de Bry's edition (Frankfurt am Main, 1590). The
"Gyantlike" Sasquesahanough is all but a copy of de Bry's engraving No. III, "A weroan or great Lorde
of Virginia," with changes in the coiffure, clothing, and armament, probably suggested by Smith. The inset
of Powhatan in state, on the other hand, is a composite picture in which Hole mingled de Bry's No. XVII,
"Their manner of pra[y]inge with Rattels abowt t[h]e fyer," with No. XXI, "The[ijr Idol Kiwasa," and
No. XXII, "The Tombe of their Werowans or Cheiff Lordes" (see the reprint, with an introduction by
Paul Hulton [New York, 1972]).
The compass card at the lower left shows that the map is oriented with N to the right -- purely a matter
of convenience. Note that the value of magnetic declination in lower Chesapeake Bay was approximately
4° 2' W in 1608 (letter to the editor, Aug. 31, 1962, from the Chief of the Geophysics Division, Coast and
Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C.). In 1961 it was 6° 45' W (see Coast and Geodetic Survey charts for
that year).
In the scale of leagues, Hole used nautical leagues, at 20 to a degree of latitude (see the latitudinal
markings just below). This gave 60 nautical miles to one degree of latitude, as opposed to the 69 statute miles
(plus 14 rods) measured by Smith's friend Richard Norwood (see E. G. R. Taylor, The Haven-finding Art:
A History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook [New York, 1956], 230; and the Generall Historie, 169n).
Although this antique system still gives rise to occasional confusion involving knots and miles per hour, it
need not concern readers unduly. Smith was too careless about figures for the difference between a statute
mile of 5,280 feet and a nautical mile of c. 6,076 feet to matter.
Attention is called in the footnotes to significant variations between the Smith/Hole map and Smith's
text, as well as the other sources that have survived. Additional information about the Indian names can
be found in Philip L. Barbour, "The Earliest Reconnaissance of the Chesapeake Bay Area: Captain John
Smith's Map and Indian Vocabulary," Pt. I, VMHB, LXXIX (1971), 280 -- 302.
In the textual apparatus following this edition of the Map of Va., the reader will find three schedules
designed to help scholars and laymen alike. Schedule A lists the geographical limits of Smith's explorations,
as indicated by the Maltese crosses, showing approximate modern locations. What lay beyond the
crosses, as the legend to the map says, was "by relation" of the Indians. Schedule B lists the "Kings howses"
(where the chiefs resided) and the "ordinary howses" (villages in all cases) as shown on the map. Schedule C
gives the names and locations of peripheral nations or tribes conspicuously shown on the map, but barely
known to Smith. In addition, following these three schedules, the editor has added a short specialized
bibliography pertinent to the Smith/Hole map.
The editor is grateful to the British Library for permission to reproduce this map.]
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