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INTRODUCTION
The Advertisements, in addition to being a continuation of the last eight
chapters of the True Travels, is also a summation of all Smith had to say
about the colonization of Virginia and New England. This theme should be
no surprise, for everything Smith wrote centered around the subject of colonization,
barring his brief excursions into nautical terminology and autobiography.
What is a surprise, perhaps, is that we find in the Advertisements a freer
hand in writing. At the same time, although he had been publishing books
in a steady stream for twenty-two years, his mind seems still to gallop ahead
of his pen. Even in this, his last publication, paragraphs of uncommon
literary strength and skill alternate with passages of exasperating obscurity
for lack of literary finish. Some of the latter may be due to the absence of
formal education in his Lincolnshire youth, for he was trained by experience
rather than by schooling. Yet the bulk of these unpolished interruptions in
lucidity can be attributed primarily to carelessness, a shortcoming that remained
with him to the end.
By and large, however, the editor must agree with Everett Emerson, an
uncommonly perceptive critic of Smith as a litterateur, that the Advertise-
ments is Smith's most attractive work. Despite all, it does read easily. It also
has more semblance of organization than his previous works, and the sincerity
of his broad aims shines through it. Smith here is a wounded warrior,
but a less petulant one; the braggart is less in evidence and we see instead
pride of accomplishment. In short, this little book, taken by itself, is convincing.
It is possible, as Emerson appears to suggest, that this change in Smith
was a result of an alleged greater interest in religion, as shown in chapter 14
(pp. 32–34) and in the dedication to the archbishops of Canterbury and
York. Smith's attitude toward religion is not at all clear, however. Despite
his strongly egalitarian tendencies when he was in confrontation with peers,
knights, and merchant princes, he was basically a conservative, and he
clearly believed in the monarchy with its church connection. On the other
hand, his puritanical way of life must have inclined him away from some of
the ostentation of the Anglican church, at the same time that he was repelled
by separatists of any color whatever (especially the Pilgrims of Plymouth,
Massachusetts). He admired the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, but he does not seem to have considered them "Puritans".
In fine, it seems to the editor that Smith's dedication of the Advertise-
ments was less a matter of religion than it was the consequence of one of two
trains of thought. George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, had befriended
Samuel Purchas, and Purchas had helped Smith. In 1627 Abbot had incurred
King Charles's displeasure and had been deprived of his functions as
primate (though not of his position as archbishop). Thus he had suffered for
his views, much as Smith had. So it would have been a dedication out of
sympathy, with Archbishop Samuel Harsnett included out of a sense of
propriety. Still, we must also consider a more complicated incentive that
may be more to the purpose.
Smith was already at work on another book when he took the Advertise-
ments in hand: "my history of the Sea, if God be pleased I live to finish it."
He had dedicated his Generall Historie to Frances Howard, the duchess of
Richmond and Lennox, the Accidence and the Sea Grammar to the Privy
Council et al., and the True Travels to three earls. Unless he approached the
king himself, whom he perhaps reserved mentally for the book he had just
begun, it was time to address the archbishops — fellow authors with John
Smith! Thus, although the matter is one of opinion only, the editor sees little
if any more "religion" in the Advertisements than elsewhere. Smith's theological
luggage was limited almost entirely to piety and the fear of God; he
became intolerant in religion only toward those whose beliefs might endanger
the state. (Note Smith's dispassion as regards the "divine Powers" of the
Indians.)
While these matters have immediate bearing on the Advertisements, the
genesis of the work is at least equally worthy of discussion. Three individuals
emerge as directly involved, even though their priority in action cannot be
determined. As we know, John Haviland (fl. 1613–1638) was one of the two
printers who sped the Generall Historie through the press. It was also he who
had quite recently printed Smith's True Travels. Haviland was one of the
best workmen in the printing trade in London at the time
embarking on a completely independent career. All of this points to
Haviland having been at least one of the friends who requested Smith "to
print this discourse."
Meanwhile, the True Travels, it would seem, did not come off the press
before March 25, 1630 (the first day of the legal year), but within six months
or so (in October) we find John Smith happily housed with Sir Humphrey
Mildmay (previously unmentioned) and at work on his new book.
wide circle of friends, "with much visiting, festivity, and feasting,"
and therefore hardly the type John Smith would ordinarily have found congenial,
especially at the age of fifty (Sir Humphrey celebrated his thirty-eighth
birthday October 28, 1630). But the factor that brought them together
is easily found. Sir Humphrey's first cousin, Sir Henry Capel, married Theodosia
Montagu, the sister-in-law of Robert Bertie, earl of Lindsey since 1626
and Smith's friend and landlord as far back as either could remember.
Furthermore, Sir Humphrey had a large manor house in Danbury, near
Chelmsford, Essex, and only a day's ride from London. His diary, which
unfortunately begins only in 1633, shows that he spent a great deal of time
in London, but entertained both there and in Danbury. There would have
been plenty of room for John Smith, with whose opinions about the Puritans
Sir Humphrey heartily concurred.
Between Haviland the printer and the social and family (and royalistic)
ties that bound Bertie and Mildmay, we may soundly account for the sudden
appearance of the Advertisements as Smith's last work. The book itself, apart
from what has already been said, needs no further introduction. It is a fitting
close to Smith's literary career. In that career, Smith succeeded with somewhat
surprising grace, whereas he had repined his failure in the colonial
field far too long.
One technical editorial matter needs to be mentioned here. The original
publication of Smith's Advertisements included a reprinting of the map of New
England (in the seventh state) that Smith had used in the Description of New
England (1616) and also in the Generall Historie (1624). Since the editor has
reprinted in this edition both the first state of the map of New England (see
Volume I) and the eighth state (see Volume II), we are omitting the map
Here.
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