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Fragment J versus the True Travels
This account of John Smith's early life evidently grew out of personal contacts
with Samuel Purchas that can conjecturally be assigned to c. 1622–
1623. These years saw the beginnings of Purchas's Pilgrimes
inactivity between the publication of New Englands Trials (1622) and work
on the prospectus for the Generall Historie (1623). Smith seems to have given
Purchas what he had available, partly raw, partly prepared. Only in 1629
did Smith rework this material for his True Travels, with a number of alterations,
both great and small. For convenience' sake, we have called this
prototype of the True Travels "the Purchas version."
The reprinting here of material that has already been presented in
Smith's True Travels is warranted by the historical significance of the Purchas
version on its own merits. But in addition, the editor has seized this opportunity
to deal at greater length with the numerous perplexities linked to
Smith's story. These difficulties will be listed below. For the moment it is
necessary only to state that it is the editor's intention to discuss theories and
hypotheses regarding Smith's career in this introduction and in the notes to
the Purchas version, while reserving the usual factual information for the
notes to the True Travels. The one major exception to this plan is the discussion
of Smith's "Patent," or grant of arms, by Zsigmond Bá thory, which
is taken up in the editor's Introduction to the True Travels because the patent
is no more than mentioned in the Purchas version.
In detail, in addition to many minor alterations, the following significant
sections of the True Travels do not appear in the Purchas version.
1. Chapter 1, in entirety (Purchas or Smith perhaps considered this
material too personal for Purchas's work).
2. Chapter 3; 15 folio lines on Rome, including Smith's meeting with
the Jesuit, Father Parsons.
3. End of Chapter 5 and pp. 9–10 of Chapter 6 (the account in the
True Travels is much expanded from the Purchas version, apparently with
the help of Richard Knolles's Generall Historie).
4. Chapter 7, bottom of p. 11 (where Smith adds questionable information
on Meldritch) and p. 12 (which contains a good deal of new
material).
5. Chapter 8, including the complete description in Latin and English
of the bestowal of Smith's coat of arms. The Purchas version has only the
first two sentences of this chapter (II, 1366).
badly, as shown by the mistaken attribution of the sacking of Varatzo, and
so on, to Meldritch. After the mention of Smith's arms, the True Travels has
the complete details in Latin and in English (pp. 15–18).
6. Chapters 9–11. These pages apparently comprehended the restored
text of Smith's "the Historie at large," to which the Purchas version refers
(II, 1366).
on these pages, which in literary quality ranks with Smith's superb
description in the Accidence and the Sea Grammar of the preparation for a sea
battle. It is improbable that anything other than the events themselves was
Smith's source in such passages.
7. Chapters 14–16. The side information was probably introduced by
Smith to fill out his book and was largely derived from Purchas, Pilgrimes
(see pertinent footnotes in the True Travels).
8. Chapters 18–20. The Purchas version has it that Smith "was animated
by some friends" to look into "the Warres ... in Barbarie" (II,
1370),
"the warres being ended" he tried "some other conclusions at Sea" (ibid.,
39). It might not be unfair to Purchas to suggest that he may have omitted
the Moroccan adventure for fear of being "tedious."
9. Chapters 21–28 do not concern us here, since they are not part of
Smith's "Travels and Adventures."
We have taken up the intractability of chapter 1 of the True Travels in
the Introduction to that work. The Purchas version opens in medias res with
France and Transylvania engraved by Jodocus Hondius, but lacking the
important detail of Smith's visit to Parsons in Rome, as mentioned. More
important was a shift in emphasis in the text of the True Travels whereby
Smith omitted at this point an acknowledgment stressed by Purchas, and
only inconspicuously noted by Smith later (in the marginalia on p. 22). In
the Purchas version, after the clause "this insuing Discourse will declare,"
this acknowledgment reads, "as it is written in a Booke intituled, The Warres
of Transilvania, Wallachi[a], and Moldavia, written by Francisco Ferneza
a Learned Italian, Secretarie to Sigismundus Bathor the Prince" (II, 1363),
to which the True Travels adds, "and translated by Master Purchas."
Furthermore, as if to emphasize Ferneza's authorship, Purchas added
a subtitle to his text: "Extracts of Captaine Smiths Transylvanian Acts, out
of Fr. Fer. his Storie," and printed the extracted text, long as it was, in
italics. Then, at the end, he reverted to roman type with the comment, "as
the Historie at large will plainly shew, the times, place, chiefe Commanders,
with the manner and order of their battels, and fights, to which I referre
you."
Purchas's Pilgrimes is a huge work that has not yet been thoroughly
studied in all respects. Nevertheless, a preliminary scrutiny has not revealed
a single invented name for a quoted author or source (though at least one
mistaken attribution of a source has been noted). Careful scanning of the
entire corpus also reveals that material extracted from other works was customarily
italicized. Subject to further investigation, these two preliminary
conclusions are of considerable pertinence.
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