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At London printed the 18. of June, in
the yeere of our Lord 1616.
To his worthy Captaine,
the Author.
In bloodie wars, where thousands have bin slaine.
Then give mee leave, in this some part to beare;
And as thy servant, heere to read my name.
Tis true, long time thou hast my Captaine beene
In the fierce wars of Transilvania:
Long ere that thou America hadst seene,
Or led wast captived in Virginia;
Thou that to passe the worlds foure parts dost deeme
No more, then t'were to goe to bed, or drinke,
And all thou yet hast done, thou dost esteeme
As nothing. This doth cause mee thinke
That thou I'ave seene so oft approv'd in dangers
(And thrice captiv'd, thy valor still hath freed)
Art yet preserved, to convert those strangers:
By God thy guide, I trust it is decreed.
For mee: I not commend, but much admire
Thy England yet unknowne to passers by-her.
For it will praise it selfe in spight of me;
Thou it, it thou, to all posteritie.
Your true friend, and souldier,
Ed. Robinson.
1. New Englands Trials (1622), sig. B2r, supplies the names: Capt. Marmaduke
Roydon (see the Biographical Directory, s.v. "Rawdon"), Capt. George Langam, Master
John Buley, and William Skelton. A relevant passage in a document presented to James I
during the week following Easter Sunday, Apr. 13, 1623, on behalf of part of the Virginia
Company is worth quoting here: "The grownd" of the employment of 42 sail of
ships to Virginia "was in great parte holpen by the Discoveriye of the fishinge in newe
England found out dureinge Sir Thomas Smiths government at the Charge of the
Company by Sir Samuell Argall, Capteyne John Smith and others" (Susan Myra Kingsbury,
ed., The Records of the Virginia Company of London [Washington, D.C., 1906-1935],
IV, 150). While Argall may have reported on New England fishing anytime between
autumn 1609 and spring 1615 (or later), there seems to be no record of it. Smith certainly
was not financed by the Virginia Company. Robert Johnson, deputy treasurer
and member of the council of the Virginia Company, is said to have drawn up the draft
of this "Declaration," and Sir Nathaniel Rich perhaps revised it, but much is still unexplained.
2. Modern Monhegan Island, 43° 46' N lat. (69° 19' W long.); 20 mi. (32 km.) SW
of the entrance to Penobscot Bay.
4. Apparently the first appearance of the name in print in English. It was applied
to a species of rorqual.
2. Salt fish, as opposed to dry fish or stockfish -- literally "basket-fish," from corf,
a kind of basket.
3. A radius of 20 leagues (60 mi.) would include Nusket, modern Naskeag, on the
E, and Sowocatuck, near Portland, on the W.
4. Sir Francis was the only son of Lord Chief Justice Popham, promoter of the
Sagadahoc colony, who died June 10, 1607. Sir Francis was treasurer of the "Plymouth
Company," and when the colony was abandoned the following spring, he and his mother
tried to keep the project alive by sending ships to the site and along the nearby coast (cf.
the Generall Historie, 204). The colony's St. George's Fort was on the right bank of the
Kennebec River, at the SE extremity of the town of Phipsburg, on the S shore of Atkins
Bay (see Henry O. Thayer, ed., The Sagadahoc Colony: Comprising the Relation of a Voyage
into New England [Gorges Society (Portland, Me., 1892)], 167-187). Curiously, most of
this passage is missing from the reprint in the Generall Historie, 204.
6. "I ... arived safe with my company the latter end of August" (New Englands
Trials [1622], sig. B2r). In the last sentence of this paragraph, note the absence of reference
to Hunt, master of the "other ship," whose activities are mentioned on p. 47, below.
9. Nueva Granada was the name given to modern Colombia in the 1530s; Nueva
España was Mexico, somewhat enlarged; and Nueva Andalucía was northern Chile,
expanded eastwards, by virtue of a capitulación dated May 21, 1534, but previously part
of Colombia. What Smith meant by the names is uncertain, except for what is now
Mexico.
10. King James's Great Britain plus France was twice the size of modern Florida,
Georgia, and South Carolina combined. But of course nobody knew how big King
Philip's "Florida" was.
11. In Smith's day there was still a persistent tradition that NE North America was
an island. Indeed, this had been confirmed as recently as 1599 in the "Edward Wright
world map" (see reproduction in David Beers Quinn, ed., The Hakluyt Handbook [Hakluyt
Society, 2d Ser., CXLIV (London, 1974)], 62-63), and in the Velasco map of 1611
(colored reproduction in W. P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton, and D. B. Quinn, eds., The
Discovery of North America [New York, 1972], 264, 326). Despite Smith and Champlain,
the "tradition" flourished as late as 1672 (Douglas R. McManis, European Impressions of
the New England Coast, 1497-1620 [Chicago, 1972], 37-40; see also p. 5n, below).
1. The correct limits stated in the "letters patents" were from 34° to 45° N latitude.
Smith (or his printer) was persistently careless about these details.
4. John Brereton, A Briefe and true Relation of the Discoverie of the North part of Virginia
... (London, 1602); and James Rosier, A True Relation of the most prosperous voyage
made this present yeere 1605, by Captaine George Waymouth ... (London, 1605), respectively.
6. According to Samuel Eliot Morison, Smith's map "was not the best map of New
England that had been made, but by far the most accurate that had yet been published,
and made available" (The Builders of the Bay Colony [Boston and New York, 1930], 11).
This assertion seems unsupported by any evidence at hand, although there are less
detailed maps that cover greater areas -- by Champlain (1612), Adriaen Block (MS of
1614), and the unidentified cartographer of the so-called Velasco map (early 1611). For
a sound assessment of Smith's map by a historical geographer, see McManis, European
Impressions of the New England Coast, 110-115. The editor is grateful to Dr. David Woodward,
The Newberry Library, Chicago, for calling this monograph to his attention
(personal communications of Aug. 2 and Sept. 5, 1975).
7. Before 1609 almost nothing was known about the coast from Chesapeake Bay to
Cape Cod, despite such a well-known voyager as Giovanni da Verrazzano. Henry
Hudson started the new trend and was followed by Samuel Argall in 1610 and by the
Dutchmen Hendrick Christiaensen and Adriaen Block in 1610 or 1611 (Simon Hart,
Prehistory of the New Netherland Company [Amsterdam, 1959], 18-21). But 1614 seems to
mark the beginning of effectual exploration.
8. Perhaps a reminiscence of an ancient biblical phrase, such as the "ruler of the
halfe quarter of Bethzur" (Miles Coverdale's version of Nehemiah 3:16), now translated
in the New English Bible as "half the district." The meaning is "very little."
3. On the English (and perhaps general European) conception of, and attitude
toward, black Africans, see P.E.H. Hair, "Guinea," in Quinn, ed., Hakluyt Handbook,
197-207. Among recent and more extensive studies, see Gary B. Nash, Red, White, and
Black: The Peoples of Early America (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1974), 156-182, for a general
study; and Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial
Virginia (New York, 1975), for Virginia only. Smith, who had not been in black Africa
at all, here obviously uses the descriptive epithets he heard all around him.
5. I.e., "to answer those questions -- and there is no doubt that they are questions --
that keep us back. ..."
6. By modern measurement, the distance by air is about 180 mi. (288 km.). Smith's
75 leagues (225 mi.) seems strangely excessive, especially considering the 65 leagues
(195 mi.) shown on his map.
1. This spot has been identified, with minimal likelihood of error, as the Castine
peninsula (Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, Indian Place-Names of the Penobscot Valley and the
Maine Coast [Orono, Me., 1941], 198-199). William Bradford supplies the detail that
one Edward Ashley, a "profane young man," landed at Penobscot, "some fourscore
leagues" from Plymouth (Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, 219, 219n). This was in 1631,
and it is surprising that the Pilgrims would not have measured the distance better.
2. More correctly, "Musconcus"; probably the crossroads today called Muscongus,
2 mi. (3 km.) N of Round Pond on Muscongus Sound, but not shown on Smith's map.
3. These 11 tribes are listed (with minor changes in spelling) in the Generall Historie,
208, and the Advertisements, 14. Little or nothing is known about them, but see Dean R.
Snow, The Archaeology of New England (New York, 1980).
4. These five "countries" can be identified with greater or less probability as follows:
Aucocisco, "muddy bay" (Eckstorm, Indian Place-Names, 169), more likely in the neighborhood
of Freeport than at Portland; Accominticus, near Ogunquit (see n. to inserted
leaf following sig. A4v); Passataquack, probably a misprint for Pascataquack, near the
mouth of the modern Piscataqua River, the southern boundary between Maine and
New Hampshire; Aggawom, at or near Ipswich, Massachusetts; and Naemkeck, at or
near Salem, Massachusetts.
5. Bashabes (Bessabés, in French) was the most renowned sachem (or sagamore) in
Maine. The name was not a title.
7. The Massachuset tribe lived along the coast of Massachusetts Bay, at least as far
N as Salem. The name means "at the great little hill" and refers to the Blue Hills S of
Boston.
8. These were the lakes of modern Maine. The Great Lakes, in the modern sense
of the name, were first explored by a European in 1615 (a year after Smith's trip), when
Champlain reached the shores of Lake Huron by way of the Ottawa River.
9. This is surely based on a mixture of hope and hearsay, although Pierre Erondelle's
translation of Marc Lescarbot's Nova Francia (London, 1609) states that the
French "found quantitie of Steele among the Rockes" on the coast of New Brunswick
(repr. in Purchas, Pilgrimes, IV, 1639). Smith's confidence grows as he continues.
11. I.e., "the prevailing atmospheric conditions." A few lines below, "accidentall
diet" means "living off the land."
1. Eastern or Baltic coast Germans, especially those living in the towns of the
Hanseatic League.
2. The Republic of Venice had an area of over 50,000 sq. km. (19,300 sq. mi.); the
Low Countries had considerably less than 33,000 sq. km. (13,000 sq. mi.) at the time of
the 1609 truce with Spain.
3. Smith seems to have drawn here on some such source as John Keymor's Observa-
tion made upon the Dutch fishing, about the year 1601 (then in MS, published in London,
1664). Busses were two- or three-masted herring boats; flat-bottoms were a kind of
barge; sword-pinks were pinks provided with leeboards (Dutch zwaard); and tode-boats
were small fishing vessels (origin unknown).
7. Cape Blanco is on the W coast of Africa, in 20° N lat. (The statement in Frank T.
Siebert, Jr., "The Identity of the Tarrantines, with an Etymology," Studies in Linguistics,
XXIII [1973], 73, 73n, that "the Portuguese, Basques, and Spaniards fished off Cape
Cod that year [1614]," is untenable.)
8. A very non-specific name for spiny fishes; here most likely to be the eastern
Atlantic sea bream.
10. A name for hake or cod salted and dried for food (OED), "poor fare." A term
of opprobrium suggesting "desiccated" when applied to a man (Shakespeare, Romeo and
Juliet, I, i, 37, "thou hadst been poor John").
1. Sir Francis Drake's Nova Albion was "within thirtie eight degrees towardes the
[equatorial] line" (Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the
English Nation [London, 1598-1600], III, 440); apparently the vicinity of San Francisco
Bay in modern California, which is roughly the latitude of Córdoba in southern Spain,
and therefore considerably farther S than most of the cities and provinces named below.
3. Note that Provence was the prototype of French provinces, and that Piedmont
and Turin were dominions of the house of Savoy, which became Italian rather than
French during the 50-year reign of Charles Emmanuel I (d. 1630).
5. This would seem to refer to the Albania of Skanderbeg, who died in 1467, after
which the region joined the "Kingdome" of Macedonia, etc., under Turkish suzerainty.
To supplement Smith's comment, it can be pointed out that the Black Sea lies roughly
between the same parallels of latitude (41°-45°) as Smith's New England.
6. Smith has confused the land of Chile with the name of its conquistador, Pedro
de Valdivia, who founded Santiago (33° 24' S lat.). He may have obtained his information
from the account by Lopez Vaz (of Elvas, Portugal) in Hakluyt, Principal Navigations,
III, 778-802.
10. Monhegan Island is in that latitude (see p. 1, above), and is very nearly 4
leagues (12 mi.) S from modern Port Clyde.
4. Aveiro is a seaport 88 km. (55 mi.) S of Oporto, birthplace of João Affonso, one
of the earliest mariners to use the fishing grounds off Newfoundland; "Porta port" was
a popular form of Port Oporto, itself a magnificent example of tautology. Below,
"Ilanders" are Newfoundlanders.
5. A docking stage along the side of which boats drew up and unloaded their catch.
It contained the cutting table. The cookhouse (for rendering train) and the flake (for
drying cod) were separate structures.
7. Ipswich, Tobias Gentleman wrote in 1614, is "most convenient for the erecting
of Salt-pans, for the making of Salt upon Salt, for that the Harbour is so good that at all
times Ships may come unto them with Salt for Mayo [Maio I., Cape Verdes], or Spanish
salt to make the brine" (Englands way to win wealth ... [London, 1614], 24). Smith meant
that salt brought over could be mixed with seawater to produce more salt.
8. At first the ships will come out with a salt lading. Later, when salt is made in New
England, they will come out not in ballast but laden with colonists or goods for them
and "by whose arrivall" (by means of whose arrival thus freighted) a lading of fish can
be provided without them having to fish for it.
9. Kermes are the dried bodies of crimson insects (female only) found mainly on
oaks and thought to be berries until the 18th century. A famous cordial was made from
them. But Smith may have had in mind the bloodroot or partridgeberry, Mitchella repens.
6. "Train" in Smith's time referred to fish oil generally, but here cod-liver oil was
intended. The "oyle" could be from seals, walruses, or even whales. In later usage,
"train" referred specifically to oil extracted from whale blubber by boiling.
8. The disinclination of English gentlemen "of quality" to do any sort of work is
stressed time and again in the literature of the period.
9. I.e., "given in a grudging way"; the language was "broken" in that the Indian
languages of New England differed somewhat from those of Virginia, so that Smith
cannot have understood all he heard.
2. Penobscot Bay measures more than 30 mi. (c. 50 km.) from Naskeag W to Rockland,
and about the same from the mouth of the Penobscot River S to the open sea off
Vinalhaven Island.
4. The sense is that the Tarrantines are the mortal enemies of the Penobscot, and
the French live in the Tarrantine territory. There were no Frenchmen left in the neighborhood
after Samuel Argall's raid on Port Royal and Sainte-Croix, July to Nov. 1613
(see the Generall Historie, 115; and Philip L. Barbour, Pocahontas and Her World [Boston,
1970], 119-124, 146-147). But Charles de Biencourt struggled through the winter in
Port Royal (modern Annapolis, Nova Scotia), over 150 mi. (c. 250 km.) up the Bay of
Fundy from Naskeag (see the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, s.v. "Biencourt de Saint-Just,
Charles de"). In the spring, Biencourt's father brought supplies and reinforcements,
but Port Royal was too far away to concern John Smith.
5. Smith's description of the coast from here to the bottom of the page follows the
map but gives the Indian names, not the English.
8. This is the first unmistakable evidence of the connection of Smith's coat of arms, or device, with his first protectress, his Turkish mistress, Charatza Trabigzanda (see the
True Travels, 12-18, 23).
9. Read: "the French ... left nothing for us but to take occasion" to inform ourselves
about the country and the people. The identity of the French is uncertain.
1. Since the name Accomack seems to mean "land or place on the other side," since
Patuxet is the name given by Bradford to the Indian town at Plymouth, and since
Champlain's 1605 map of Plymouth Bay shows Indian houses and fields on both sides
of the little river at Plymouth, it may be suggested that there were two (if not more)
villages on the bay at or near Plymouth. It must be remembered that when the Pilgrims
arrived the site was deserted, due to a disastrous epidemic among the Indians.
3. "Hurtleberries"; huckleberries, or, more formally, the whortleberry, here referring
to several species of Vaccinium.
4. I.e., "along." There would most likely have been soundings of 30 fathoms (150
to 180 ft., depending on which fathom Smith used) within 3 statute mi. of the shore at
Smith's Pawmet, the unnamed house on the map in the neighborhood of modern Nauset
Beach Light. Some 20 statute mi. S of there Smith would have encountered the maze of
currents and shoals between Monomy Point and Nantucket.
5. Capawack was the Indian name for Martha's Vineyard. There is nothing to
indicate that he dared try to navigate through or around Nantucket Shoals.
7. Despite Smith's assertion, which was based on brief experience, it would appear
that the Indians did not entirely shun the open sea. See Horace P. Beck, The American
Indian as a Sea-Fighter in Colonial Times (Mystic, Conn., 1959), 5-20.
8. Sorico has been identified as Isle au Haut, to the E of Vinalhaven (Eckstorm,
Indian Place-Names, 99-100; Eckstorm is puzzled by the name).
1. I.e., "appearing and disappearing in rapid succession." There is a high hill NW
of Casco Bay and some 10 mi. (16 km.) inland, and beyond are the White Mountains,
but the editor is not in a position to suggest that they "twinkle."
2. The highest of these "mountaines" is Massachusit, where today the Blue Hills
Observatory rises to 849 ft. above sea level. "Sasanou" is Agamenticus.
8. The passage "And in ... any place, but" was omitted in the Generall Historie,
216, apparently inadvertently.
7. I.e., "... or never consider what I have written." The capital "M" was possibly
intentional, though it is printed "mee" in the Generall Historie, 219. In the next sentence,
read: "reward ... that may sute."
5. The lengthy digression from here to the top of p. 45 was slightly reworked for
the Generall Historie, 220-221, but remains somewhat obscure in detail.
8. There are a few differences between this list and the reprint in the Generall
Historie, 222. "Robert Miter" and "Walter Chissick" are misprints for "Robert Miller"
and "Walter Chissel" (or "Chisell"). The names appear properly in the Generall Historie
and on p. 53, below. John Gosling is here a gentleman and in the Generall Historie is a
soldier. The "two boies" and Robert Miller are here soldiers and in the Generall Historie
"were to learne to be Sailers." And John Hall is omitted altogether from the reprint.
9. See the Biographical Directory, s.v. "Tahanedo." The name is also transcribed
as "Nahanada" (William Strachey, The Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania, ed. Louis
B. Wright and Virginia Freund [Hakluyt Soc., 2d Ser., CIII (London, 1953)], 164-172).
1. Seven years later, in 1621, William Bradford reported that the Massachusetts
Bay Indians "were much afraid of the Tarentines, a people to the eastward which used
to come in harvest time and take away their corn, and many times kill their persons"
(Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, 89; cf. p. 24, above).
5. The spelling "Gorge," the name "Gorgeana" for a settlement on the Agamenticus
River, and the Norman-French origin of the name (with silent "-s") seem to hint
strongly that the family name Gorges was then pronounced "gorge," not "gorges." See
p. 49n, below.
7. Cooper's expedition remains obscure, as does Smith's "promise" (mentioned at
the top of the next page). Basically, Smith's interest lay in establishing a fishing colony;
the backers he had so far found wanted little or nothing more than exploration and
profitable summer fishing voyages (see Preston, Gorges of Plymouth Fort, 157, though some
of his evidence seems shaky). See p. 49, below.
9. Sir Ferdinando was a leading backer of the colonization of New England from
the outset. Matthew Sutcliffe, the well-to-do dean of Exeter Cathedral, was promoter
and benefactor of Chelsea College, where Samuel Purchas retired on occasion to work
on his Pilgrimes, and backer of the colonial projects for Virginia and, more particularly,
for New England. See the Biographical Directory for both Gorges and Sutcliffe.
1. The ship under the command of the vice-admiral was lost from view and proceeded
on its way, not knowing of the problems on Smith's ship.
3. On Sir Lewis Stukely, see the Biographical Directory. No trace of the examination
related below has been found in the archives of Devonshire, but the records for 1616
are incomplete (personal letter to the editor from Mrs. Miriam Wood, Assistant Archivist,
Devon County Record Office, Exeter, dated Mar. 7, 1963).
1. For surviving French records of what follows, see Philip L. Barbour, "A French
Account of Captain John Smith's Adventures in the Azores, 1615," VMHB, LXXII
(1964), 293-303.
2. "Smal ledges of wood laid crosse one another like the grates of iron in a prisons
window, betwixt the maine mast, and the fore mast" (Sea Grammar, 58). More broadly,
Sir Henry Mainwaring explains, "generally any place wherein men may cover themselves
and yet use their arms" ("The Seaman's Dictionary," in G. E. Manwaring and
W. G. Perrin, eds., The Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring [Navy Records Society
(London, 1922)], II, 147).
3. This is borne out by the French account (see Barbour, "French Account,"
VMHB, LXXII [1964], 296).
5. From this passage to the end of the paragraph, the text is altered and largely cut
in the Generall Historie, 223-224.
7. The Newfoundland Banks, which stretch some 300 mi. (nearly 500 km.) SE into
the Atlantic and have depths of between 15 and 90 fathoms. Since about A.D. 1500 the
Banks have been famous for the multitude of fish to be obtained there.
8. The next two pages are substantiated in the French records (see Barbour,
"French Account," VMHB, LXXII [1964], 293-303).
1. Perhaps the same Captain Barrow mentioned in the True Travels, 59, who was
pardoned by James I.
5. Saint Michaels (São Miguel) is the largest of the Azores; "Bristow" was a frequent
spelling of "Bristol."
9. "Cochineal," a brilliant red dyestuff prepared from the dried body of the female
cochinilla, a Mexican insect.
2. There were eight reales in a peso, or "piece of eight" as it was often called. A
piece of eight was worth roughly 5 shillings when Smith was writing.
6. Capt. Samuel Argall (knighted, 1622) was the one commanded to wipe out the
French colony (see p. 24n, above).
7. Île de Ré (Latin, Ratis Insula). This English version of the name gave rise to
Robert Vaughan's little joke in the map of Ould Virginia (see the notes to this map in
the Generall Historie; and cf. Sir Henry Mainwaring, "Discourse on Pirates," in Manwaring
and Perrin, eds., Life and Works of Mainwaring, II, 40). The Latin ratis has nothing
to do with a rat or, in this case, with a raft, as some have suggested; it was derived
from a Celtic word meaning "fern," hence "Isle of Ferns" (René James and Louis Suire,
L'Île de Ré d'autrefois et d'aujourd'hui [La Rochelle, 1959 (orig. publ. 1952)], 26).
9. The ambassador, Sir Thomas Edmondes, attended the young king, Louis XIII,
to Bordeaux early in Oct. 1615 and apparently remained there at least until Nov. 21,
when Louis drove out to meet the Infanta Ana de Austria on her way to their royal
wedding ceremony.
1. The Generall Historie, 226, has "some three thousand six hundred crownes worth."
The smaller sum may be correct, considering the loss of the bulk of the "prize."
5. Placentia is on the protected bay of that name, in the W part of the Avalon
peninsula, which is to the SE of the main island.
To my honest Captaine,
the Author.
But shall be censur'd and traduc't by some!
This worthy Work, which thou hast bought so dear,
Ne thou, nor it, Detractors neede to fear.
Thy words by deedes so long thou hast approv'd,
Of thousands knowe thee not thou art belov'd.
And this great Plot will make thee ten times more
Knowne and belov'd, than ere thou wert before.
I never knew a Warryer yet, but thee,
From wine, Tobacco, debts, dice, oaths, so free.
I call thee Warrier: and I make the bolder;
For, many a Captaine now, was never Souldier
Some such may swell at this: but (to their praise)
When they have don like thee, my Muse shall raise
Their due deserts to Worthies yet to come,
To live like thine (admir'd) till day of Doome.
Your true friend, somtimes your soldier,
Tho. Carlton.
5. These words were all the more remarkable when the private lives of other captains
are considered. An example might be Sir Roger Williams, who served under Lord
Willoughby in the Low Countries and died of a fever that apparently was brought on
by overdrinking and overeating (see Roger Williams, The Actions of the Low Countries, ed.
D. W. Davies [Ithaca, N.Y., 1964], xl).
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