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TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL
The Maister, the Wardens, and the Companie
of the Fish-mongers.
To the consideration of your favourable constructions I present
these sixe yeares continued trials from New England: if you please
to peruse them, and make use of them, I am richly rewarded. The
subject deserveth a farre better habit, but it is as good as the father
can give it. Let not therefore a souldiers plainnesse cause you refuse
to accept it, how ever you please to dispose of him, that humbly
sacreth himselfe and best abilities to his Countries good, and the exquisite
judgement of your renowned perfections.
Yours to command,
John Smith.
1. In this slim volume the first signature consists of only two leaves. The first leaf
contains the title page, the second a dedication. Since but four copies of the book are
known to survive and the dedications vary, specific analysis is clearly called for. There
are two different dedicatory texts, each of which has two heads. One of the two texts is
considered here, the other in n. 2, below. Following the revised STC, the "other" will be
considered a cancel, or substitute dedication.
The dedication here reprinted is to the Company of Fishmongers (B. L. copy, shelf
mark C.33.c.15). A second dedication with identical wording (Bodleian Library copy) is
to the just-authorized company of the Adventurers of the Northern Colonie of Virginia
(in Smith's words, "the Right honorable and worthy adventers to all discoveries and
plantations, espetially to New England"). No reference to Smith's gifts has been found
in the records of either of these companies (Terence H. O'Brien, "The London Livery
Companies and the Virginia Company," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXVIII [1960], 137-155).
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