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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE,
William Earle of Pembroke,
Lord Steward of his Majesties
most Honourable Houshold.
Robert Earle of Lindsey,
Great Chamberlaine of England.
Henrie Lord Hunsdon, Vicount Rochford,
Earle of Dover.
And all your Honourable Friends
and Well-willers.
My Lords:
Sir Robert Cotton,
that most learned Treasurer of Antiquitie,having by perusall of my Generall Historie, and others, found that
I had likewise undergone divers other as hard hazards in the other
parts of the world, requested me to fix the whole course of my passages
in a booke by it selfe, whose noble desire I could not but in part
satisfie; the rather, because ∥ they have acted my fatall Tragedies
upon the Stage, and racked my Relations at their pleasure. To prevent
therefore all future misprisions, I have compiled this true discourse.
Envie hathtaxed me to have writ too much, and done too
little; but that such should know, how little I esteeme them, I have
writ this, more for the satisfaction of my friends, and all generous and
well disposed Readers: To speake only of my selfe were intolerable
ingratitude; because, having had so many co-partners with me; I
cannot make a Monument for my selfe, and leave them unburied in
the fields, whose lives begot me the title of a Souldier; for as they
with me in this Tombe.
For my Sea Grammar (caused to bee printed by my worthy
friend, Sir Samuel Saltonstall
abroad, that I have beene importuned by many noble persons, to let
this also passe the Presse. Many of the most eminent Warriers, and
others, what their swords did, their penns writ: Though I bee never
so much their inferiour, yet I hold it no great errour, to follow good
examples; nor repine at them, will doe the like.
And now my most Honourable good Lords, I know not to
whom I may better present it, than to your Lordships, whose friendships,
as I conceive, are as much to each others, as my duty is to you
all; and because you are acquainted both with my endevours, and
writings, I doubt not, but your honours will as well accept of this, as
of the rest, and Patronize it under the shadow of your most noble
vertues, which I am ever bound in all duty to reverence, and under
which I hope to have shelter, against all stormes that dare threaten.
Your Honours to be commanded,
John Smith.
1. For the three earls to whom the book is dedicated, see the Biographical Directory.
William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, was reputed to be the richest nobleman in England.
Robert Bertie, earl of Lindsey, was an old friend (see pp. 2 and 5, below). Henry Cary,
earl of Dover, may have shown himself a "well-willer" in some way or other. Pembroke
was a relatively ancient title; the other two dated from 1626. (Perhaps the names were
suggested to Smith by Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Samuel Saltonstall.)
3. It seems that a play based on Smith's adventures in eastern Europe was performed
at Richard Gunnell's Fortune Theatre sometime between 1616 and c. 1629 (see
Gunnell's commendatory verse in the Description of N.E., sig. A2v, A2vn; Richard James's
verse, sig. A5r, below; and Philip L. Barbour, "Captain John Smith and the London
Theatre," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXIII [1975], 277–279).
4. "Misprisions" is a vague word here, meaning something between "mistakes" and
"misunderstandings."
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