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Fragment F. December 1616.
A SPANISH SUMMARY
of Correspondence Involving "Juan Smith"
[Source: Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Area de noé. Libro sexto de las disquisiciones
náuticas (Madrid, 1881).]
This fragment is in a sense complementary to Fragment E, since both throw
light on John Smith's career without being products of his pen. Both belong
to the last few months of 1616. Neither is complete, for the Brawnde letter is
damaged by fire and we now have only a summary of the diplomatic dispatches
described below. Nevertheless, taken together they constitute valid
testimony of Smith's eager search for further opportunity in the rapidly
expanding area of exploration, trade, and colonization.
To get down to the subject, in 1881 the noted Spanish maritime historian
Cesáreo Fernández Duro published, in volume VI of a major work,
a summary of letters written by the Spanish ambassador in London regarding
a proposal of "Juan Smith" to "accompany" a whale-fishing expedition.
When the editor undertook this edition of Smith's works the letter in question
was one of the first investigations that came to mind. Regrettably, however,
a personal search in Spain in 1973 brought only the knowledge that the
letter is not now to be found in such collections as the National Archives in
Simancas (Valladolid) or in either the Naval Museum or the Library of the
Royal Academy of History in Madrid. In Simancas a search was suggested
in half a dozen other "likely" repositories, including the Royal Archives in
Copenhagen (for reasons that will appear below). The result over a four-year
period has been courteously and sincerely negative.
In view of this, both the original summary in Spanish and an English
translation are here presented. Time may still bring forth the letter itself.
Sarmiento de Acuña, embajador de España en Londres, noticiando
que el Rey de Dinamarca ha concedido licencia para que los navios
guipuzcoanos peudan pescar la ballena en la region del Norte, y que
el ingles Juan Smith propone acompañar con dos ó tres navíos suyos
á los de Guipúzcoa para el reconocimiento de aquallos parajes, y
que envia un libro dispuesto por él para facilitar las operaciones de
dicho reconocimiento. — Colecc[ión] Vargas Ponce, leg[ajo] v, núm[ero]
25.
Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Spanish ambassador in London, giving
notice that the king of Denmark has granted license to Guipúzcoan
ships to fish for whale in the North, and that the Englishman John
Smith offers to join two or three ships of his own with those of
Guipúzcoa for the purpose of surveying those parts, and that he is
sending a book he has published so as to facilitate the carrying out of
the said survey. Vargas Ponce Collection, file v, number 25.
In view of the fact that the stated purpose of Smith's 1614 voyage to
New England was "to take Whales" (Description of New England, 1), and that
his book was published in 1616, there can be no doubt that the "Juan
Smith" of the Spanish summary was Captain John. In this connection, it
should be remembered that King Christian IV of Denmark was King
James's brother-in-law, that Smith's friend Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby,
had been lord general of the English forces in Denmark in 1612, that Christian
was also king of Norway, and that Smith's friend Henry Hudson had
started out for Norway in 1609 and landed in New York Bay instead (be it
explained with excessive simplification). Thus it is apparent that Smith was
not changing his allegiance to Spain in offering to join the Basque ships (San
Sebastián was the capital of the province of Guipúzcoa).
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