 | THE TRUE
TRAVELS,
ADVENTURES,
AND OBSERVATIONS
Of Captaine John Smith,
in Europe, Asia, Africke, and America:
beginning about the yeere 1593, and
continued to this present 1629. |  |
[There is some disagreement about the respective contributions of the two artists involved with this
illustration. In the lower left of compartment eight, the legend clearly reads: "Marten Dr[oeshout] sculptor"
(engraver). In compartment two, the title reads: "Part of the Travels of Capt. John Smith a mongst Turkes,
Tartars, and others extracted out of the History by John Payn." Wilberforce Eames comments: "The plate
of Smith's adventures was drawn by John Payne, and engraved by Martin Droeshout" (Joseph Sabin et al.
eds., A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, XX [New York, 1927–1928], 260). Arthur M. Hind notes,
however, "The plate is signed by Martin Droeshout ..., and Payne's task must have been confined to
choosing the subjects to be illustrated" (Engraving in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: A
Descriptive Catalogue with Introductions [Cambridge, 1952–1964], III, 25).
Martin Droeshout was baptized in 1601 and is chiefly known today for his famous portrait of Shakespeare
(done seven years after Shakespeare's death). John Payne, a near contemporary, had been associated
with Simon and Willem van de Passein his youth and "enjoyed a contemporary reputation" (ibid., 6–7).
The nine compartments may well have been intended to be cut up and pasted on inserts in the text
(see the British Library copy, Grenville 7195). Two deserve special mention. Compartment one: the map
that was copied is reversed in the engraving, so that Algiers and Toulon appear east of Tunis and Nice,
respectively, though they lie to the west, cartographically. Compartment four: the first line of the heading
was altered in a later state to read, "His three single Combats before Regall in Transilvania" (Sabin,
Dictionary, 260).
Note that James Reeve, the printer, also printed the altered state of Smith's map of New England that
accompanied the Generall Historie in 1624 (see note to map in Description of New England).]
1. Chap. 1 seems to have been prepared hastily, perhaps from random notes, after
chaps. 2–20 were ready for the press (see p. 3n, below), and possibly even after Aug. 29,
1629, when the book was entered for publication. The chapter consists of one long paragraph
that suffers from obviously faulty chronology. To correct this, the editor has
divided it into paragraphs and indicated their proper chronological sequence by means
of editorial reconstruction in the footnotes.
3. The parish register of St. Helen's Church, Willoughby by Alford, contains the
following entry: "Iōhes smith filius Georgie smith baptizatus fuit ixth die Ianuarie Anno
supradicto [1580 (Old Style, 1579)]."
4. In the absence of surviving official records, it can be said only that "it is ...
claimed that Captain John Smith ... attended Alford Grammar School" (A[lan] S.
Hackett, comp., The Story of Queen Elizabeth I's Grammar School, Alford, Lincolnshire, 1566–
1966 [Alford, 1966]), and that it has long been believed that Smith attended the King
Edward VI Grammar School, Louth (see, inter alia, Elsie Gooding, From Virginia to
Willoughby to Remember the Great Capt. John Smith [Alford, 1960]).
5. See note to the illustration of Smith's coat of arms, following the facsimile title
page, above.
6. This paragraph should probably read as follows: "When he was about thirteene
yeeres of age [in 1593], his minde being even then set upon brave adventures, [he] sould
his Satchell, bookes, and all he had, intending secretly to get to Sea, but that his father
stayed him. About the age of fifteene yeeres [1595] hee was bound an Apprentice to
Master Thomas Sendall of Linne [King's Lynn], the greatest Merchant of all those parts,
but because hee would not presently send him to Sea, he never saw his master in eight
yeeres after. His parents [father's] dying [1596] left him a competent meanes, which hee
not being capable to manage, little regarded. But now the Guardians of his estate more
regarding it than him, he had libertie enough, though no meanes, to get beyond the Sea."
7. George Smith was buried Apr. 3, 1596. In due course his estate was inventoried,
and on Feb. 19, 1597, it was appraised. By that time, John Smith's mother was remarried
to one Martin Johnson (see the supporting documents in the Lincolnshire Archives,
Lincoln, INV/87/250).
8. This probably refers to the "supervisor" or executor of George Smith's will,
George Metham (see the Biographical Directory), who was connected by marriage with
the Bertie family (see n, below).
10. The paragraph beginning "At last he found meanes ..." suffers principally
from Smith's eagerness to introduce the Bertie family, with some resultant confusion
about the sequence of events. It may be reconstructed as follows: "Who [his guardians]
when he came from [for?] London they liberally gave him (but out of his owne estate)
ten shillings to be rid of him. Arriving at Roane [Rouen], seeing his money neere spent,
downe the River he went to Haver de grace [Le Havre], where he first began to learne
the life of a souldier: he went with Captaine Joseph Duxbury into the Low-countries,
under whose Colours having served three or foure yeeres, peace being concluded in
France, [he returned to England.] At last he found meanes to attend Master Perigrine
Barty [Bertie] into France [1599], second sonne to the Right Honourable Perigrine, that
generous and famous Souldier, Lord Willoughby, where comming to his brother Robert,
then at Orleans, now Earle of Lin[d]sey, and Lord great Chamberlaine of England;
being then but little youths under Tutorage: his service being needlesse, within a moneths
or six weekes they sent him backe againe to his friends. But those two Honourable
Brethren gave him sufficient to returne for England. But it was the least thought of his
determination, for now being freely at libertie in Paris, growing acquainted with one
Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends
in Scotland to preferre [introduce] him to King James. He [then] tooke his journey for
Scotland, to deliver his Letters."
1. Usually spelled "Bertie," though locally pronounced "Barty." Peregrine the
younger left London sometime after June 26, 1599, when a license was granted to him to
travel for three years. See the Biographical Directory, s.v. "Bertie, Robert."
2. David Hume was a distant cousin of a well-to-do Scottish nobleman who was a
friend of the Berties (see the Biographical Directory, and Philip L. Barbour, The Three
Worlds of Captain John Smith [Boston, 1964], 12). King James, of course, was not yet king
of England.
3. Peace was concluded in France in 1598. Captain Duxbury's identity has not yet
been determined.
4. Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, whence many fishing fleets sailed for Scotland (and
still do); presumably Smith had found some sort of coastal vessel to convey him to the
Netherlands from Le Havre. Leith is the port of Edinburgh, only an hour's hike from
Holyrood Palace.
5. Berwick, the northernmost fort on England's E coast before the Scottish border.
Robert Bertie's father was governor there (though he may have been away at the time),
and Robert had charged Smith with reporting to him "tout au long l'état de nous et de
nos affaires" (from an undated letter to Lord Willoughby, Ancaster MSS, Lincolnshire
Archives). Since there is no mention of Robert's charge in Smith's writings, the wreck
and his sickness at the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne may have put it out of his mind.
6. Ripweth, or Rippeth (now Redpath) is the name of some five places in the neighborhood,
one of which is but 9 mi. from Berwick. Broxmouth is 2 mi. from Dunbar.
9. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Arte of Warre ..., trans. Peter Whitehorne (London,
1560). On the basis of sundry entries in Lord Willoughby's various account books, it is
fair to surmise that books of this type were available in his library (based on a letter to the
editor from Mrs. Joan Varley, Feb. 5, 1959, Lincolnshire Archives Office, Lincoln).
10. The so-called "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius were first translated directly
into English from the original Greek by Méric Casaubon (son of a Huguenot émigré)
and published in London in 1634. The "Marcus Aurelius" to which Smith refers must
have been Thomas North's translation of Antonio de Guevara's The Diall of Princes ...
(London, 1557). (See Aurelius Antoninus, Marcus, in the Biographical Directory.)
Worthy of note here is the comment in George Long's translation of The Thoughts of the
Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, rev. ed. (London, 1887 [orig. publ. 1862]), 26–27: "The
little book of Antoninus has been the companion of some great men. Machiavelli's Art
of War and Marcus Antoninus were the two books which were used when he was a young
man by Captain John Smith, and he could not have found two writers better fitted to
form the character of a soldier and a man."
1. Cf. the common phrase "a gentleman and his man"; here "the man" was undoubtedly
just some local youth enthralled by Smith's tales.
3. Theodore Paleologue appears to have been a collateral descendant of Constantine
XI, last Roman emperor of the East. Paleologue became riding master to Henry
Clinton, earl of Lincoln, in 1598 or 1599, but left Tattershall briefly to marry Mary Balls
at Cottingham, near Hull, Yorkshire, on May 1, 1600 (see nn, below).
4. Reports, tales, anecdotes. It may well have been Smith's legal guardian who
urged Paleologue to ingratiate himself with the "hermit."
5. The keep of Tattershall Castle still stands awesomely in a great plain, not 20 mi.
SW of Willoughby.
6. The combination of Paleologue's brief absence and the news of the great battle
of Nieuport in the Netherlands on June 22, 1600, probably was the immediate cause of
Smith's departure (cf. the beginning of chap. 2, below).
7. Basically, chaps. 2–20 are a reprint of "The Travels and Adventures of Captaine
John Smith in divers parts of the world, begun about the yeere 1596." This work forms
chap. 11 of pt. I, bk. viii, of Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes
... (London, 1625), II, 1361–1370, which was fairly certainly in print by 1624.
Whether Purchas had cut a number of passages (mostly brief sentences) that Smith
restored, or whether Smith added the passages in 1629, cannot be known. Significant
differences will be noted below. The entire Purchas version is reprinted as Fragment J
at the end of this volume.
8. Smith's urge to fight the Turks could well have been born of Paleologue's tales;
Tattershall Castle itself antedated the fall of Constantinople.
9. The final piously alliterative clause does not appear in the Purchas version.
Attention will not be called to expansions of this sort hereafter.
1. The name of the "lord," Depreau, appears in a marginal note in the Purchas
version. See Barbour, Three Worlds, 17–27, for an expanded narrative of what probably
took place in the period covered by Smith's chaps. 2–3. As for the names of the Frenchmen
(see the next paragraph), Curzianvere (or Currianver) may possibly be derived
from a mishearing of the village name Clécy (-sur-Orne), 36 air km. (22–23 mi.) NE of
Vire. The other names specifically occur in French sources, though the individuals
cannot be identified.
2. The duke "of Mercury" was Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine, duke of Mercoeur,
who was a brother-in-law of Henry III of France, a second cousin of Mary Queen
of Scots, and a cousin by marriage of Rudolph II of the Holy Roman Empire, who made
Mercoeur a general in the imperial army. His name appears often in the following pages
(see the Biographical Directory). The duchess was then living in or near Paris, probably
at Anet, on the Eure River, N of Chartres.
3. Apparently a mishearing or misprint for "cardecu" ("cardakew" in Thomas
Coryate's Coryats Crudities; Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells ... [London, 1611],
69), the usual English spelling of French quart d'écu, then valued at one shilling and sixpence,
but evidently considered almost worthless by John Smith. In any case, it is unclear
why he had to "pay for his passage" under such circumstances.
4. This seems to be Mortain (Manche) rather than Mortagne (Orne). Though
Mortain is in Normandy, it is near the Breton border, while Mortagne is much farther E.
5. The places mentioned are Dieppe, Caudebec, Honfleur, and Pont-Audemer.
Caen was often anglicized as Cane.
7. Colombiers, Larchamp, and Chasseguey are identifiable surnames; no individual
identities have been established.
9. The reference is to Amaury II Gouyon, count of Plouër, and below, to his
younger brothers, Charles, viscount of Pommerit, and Jacques, baron of Marcé (see
Barbour, Three Worlds, 21, and the Biographical Directory).
10. Saint-Brieuc. Lannion is easily recognizable, and among the place-names that
follow perhaps only "Tuncadeck" (Tonquédec), "Gingan" (Guingamp), and "Raynes"
(Rennes) need be clarified (there is an interesting old picture of the castle at Tonquédec
in La Grande Encyclopédie ... [Paris, 1886–1902], VII, 1159).
1. The Purchas version adds "Poundegale" after Nimes. This must be the famous
Roman aqueduct called Pont du Gard, some 14 mi. (20-odd km.) NE of Nîmes.
"Marcellos" is probably a misprint for "Marseilles."
2. "The little Isle of S. Mary" appears to have been the Isle de Maire, an uninhabited
island c. 6 mi. (9 km.) S of Marseilles that produced nothing beyond scant
pasturage as reported for 1639–1640 (Adolphe Crémieux, Marseille et la royauté pendant la
minorité de Louis XIV (1643–1660) [Paris, 1917], 83–84n). "Against" here means merely
"toward or en route to" (cf. "ad Urbem Regalem," pp. 15, 17n, below). On the behavior
of "the inhumane Provincialls," cf. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean
World in the Age of Philip II, trans. Siân Reynolds (New York, 1972 [rev. ed. orig.
publ. Paris, 1966]), I, 104–105.
4. "Cape Rosata" was undoubtedly Cape Ras et Tin, just E of Derna, Libya, and
not Rosetta in the Nile Delta, where the key to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs was found.
Below, "Scandaroone" was subsequently known as Alexandretta and is now called
Iskenderun, "the best harbor between Istanbul and Alexandria." In the days when
"Captaine la Roche" was viewing "what ships was in the Roade," Iskenderun was
unhealthy and later had to be temporarily abandoned because of what may have been
malarial fever (Braudel, Mediterranean World, I, 65, 65n).
5. Perhaps read: "They lay to there, and againe for a few dayes." The "Archipellagans"
obviously refers to the islands of the Archipelago, in the Aegean Sea between
Greece and Turkey (Smith seems to have been familiar with a French adjective derived
from early 17th-century French archipelague). "Candia" was an old name for Crete, and
"Zaffalonia" was an early English form for Cephalonia, modern Greek Kefallinia.
6. An argosy was a kind of carrack, or any large merchant vessel. The name
"argosy" comes from the republic of Ragusa (called Arragosa or Arragourse in English),
which was the rival of Venice for a short while and is now known as Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia.
7. The Breton captain, La Roche, and sometimes the entire ship and crew. For
pertinent background, see Braudel, Mediterranean World, I, 103–108, ending with a highly
germane comment: "Everyday coastal shipping has untiringly spun threads ... which
may pass unnoticed in the great movements of history." See ibid., 125–133, for relevant
material on the Adriatic Sea, with maps on pp. 112–114.
8. Though the "exchange rate" of various currencies was chaotic at the time, it can
be said that piaster was the Italian name for the Spanish peso duro (piece of eight, dollar);
Venetian zecchini were gold coins worth seven to nine shillings; and sultanies, or sultanons,
were Turkish gold pieces valued at eight shillings or better (see Barbour, Three Worlds,
404, n. 3). Note that the ship's tonnage, as estimated by Smith below, seems relatively
small for an argosy.
9. Galleys with their oarsmen and powerful armament could prove dangerous to a
ship dependent on sails for propulsion. These galleys were undoubtedly Spanish, hence
enemies. For galleys in general, consult John Francis Guilmartin, Jr., Gunpowder and
Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century
(London, 1974), 32, 98. On Messina, see Barbour, Three Worlds, 133–134.
1. Antibes, in Piedmont, was in the territory of the dukes of Savoy in Smith's day
and was called Antibo.
2. Leghorn (Italian, Livorno) had just begun to buzz with commercial activity
when Smith was there, not later than early 1601. A detailed census taken in 160: shows
a total population of nearly 5,000, including 762 soldiers and 76 "young prostitutes"
(Fernand Braudel and Ruggiero Romano, Navires et marchandises à l'entrée du port de
Livourne (1547–1611) [Paris, 1951], 21).
3. Investigation in the various archives in Siena has so far failed to reveal any
pertinent documentation of this incident, and nothing has yet appeared in the Ancaster
papers in the Lincolnshire Archives. Nevertheless, such a fray would not have been unlikely,
considering the times and the known prickliness of young Peregrine Bertie.
4. The Purchas version is somewhat shorter here, and there is no mention of Father
Parsons. Yet Parsons seems to have been the man who put young Smith in touch with the
Irish Jesuit in Graz, Austria (see below). The simplest explanation of Smith's moves
would be to assume that his theological luggage rested lightly on his shoulders, despite
his puritanical habits and his obvious inclination to conform with the Church of England.
Smith's career, which begins at this point, may be profitably compared with that of
Thomas Arundell, 20 years his senior, who was created count of the Holy Roman Empire
by Rudolph II in 1595 for valor in the field; similarly, Smith was granted the right to
bear arms by Zsigmond Báthory in 1603 for defeating three Turkish captains in as many
duels.
6. The circuitousness of Smith's route from Venice to Capodistria, just across the
northern tip of the Adriatic Sea, was most likely caused by an outbreak of maritime
guerrilla warfare between Slavic Christians, who were refugees from the Turks, and the
Venetian republic (see Barbour, Three Worlds, 25–26). The place-names are, more correctly:
Slovenia, Ljubljana, Graz, and Styria. Almania is an old name for Germany,
though the Purchas version's "Almaine" is a more common spelling.
7. A good deal has been made of this statement by at least one sound modern
scholar. For a discussion of the points at issue, see Fragment J, 1363n, where an attempt
has been made to identify persons and places.
8. In the Purchas version, chaps. 4–11 are attributed to one Francisco Ferneza (see
the editor's Introduction to and pp. 1363–1364nn of Fragment J). Here the attribution
is made only in a marginal note on p. 22. In the Purchas version Ferneza's "Storie" is
printed in italics and the end is indicated by a return to roman type. Here the account
ends on p. 22 with a colon, followed by an expostulation worthy of John Smith at his best.
9. The location of Smith's "Olumpagh" (Purchas version, "Olimpach") has been
established by the editor's on-the-spot surveys, coupled by recorded evidence in local
archives (see Fragment J for details). The town is now known as Lendava and is not over
2 mi. (3 km.) from the present Yugoslav-Hungarian frontier. This was the Alsölendva
(Lower Limbach) of contemporary maps. Felsölendva (Upper Limbach), nearly 25 mi.
(40 km.) NW, is ruled out by orographical as well as other reasons.
2. Nagykanizsa (English, Great Kanizsa) was an important fortress nearly 30 mi.
(48 km.) E by S of Lendava in what is now Hungary. It had been lost to the Turks late
in Oct. 1600.
3. Procedure, code. Lord Ebersbaught, mentioned at the end of chap. 3, was the
governor and friend.
5. Smith's immediate source for this system seems to have been Peter Whithorne
(or Whitehorne), who added to his translation of Machiavelli's Arte of Warre an appendix,
"Certain waies ...," chap. 41 of which explains the whole system. (Some investigators
have suggested instead William Bourne's Inventions or Devises ... [London, 1578], 61.)
For further details, see Barbour, Three Worlds, 27, 407, n. 6. Below the alphabets, note
that a link was a torch of tow and pitch then much used for lighting the way along dark
streets.
7. The river was evidently the Krka (formerly Kerka), a tributary of the Mur
(Mura) c. 6 mi. (10 km.) E of Lendava.
8. Undoubtedly Eisenburg is meant ("Eysnaburge" in the Purchas version, p. 1364),
the German name for Vasvar, a fort on the Raab (Rába) River, below Körmend, and
40 mi. (65 km.) NE of Lendava. There had been Christian troop movements in this area
for some time, especially after mid-Sept. 1600.
1. Assuming that this was translated from Italian, the original probably read "alla
rinfusa," which would be "pell-mell" in English.
2. On "Knousbruck," see "Konbrucke" in the Purchas version (Fragment J, 1364,
1364n). In Smith's day few Englishmen knew how to swim, and even a Turkish soldier
was lost if heavily armored (cf. Michael West, "Spenser, Everard Digby, and the
Renaissance Art of Swimming," Renaissance Quarterly, XXVI [1973], 11–22).
4. The Purchas version has only "Colonell Meldrich" (1364). Smith's "Volda/
Voldo" may have been an invention.
5. Stuhlweissenburg is the German name for Hungarian Szekesfehervar (Latin,
Alba Regia), the coronation and burial place of the kings of Hungary. Having escaped
the Mongol invaders in the 13th century, it fell into the hands of the Ottomans in 1543.
6. This was Hermann Christof, Graf von Russworm. For an account of the siege
and its aftermath, see Barbour, Three Worlds, 33–36.
8. "Gonzago" was Ferrante II Gonzaga, count of Guastalla (duke after 1621),
second cousin of Vincenzo Gonzaga, the duke of Mantua referred to just above (see the
Biographical Directory).
2. The figures seem high. Note that Mercoeur led his troops from Komarom at
least 60 km. (nearly 40 mi.) to Szekesfehervar unseen and unreported in Budapest, which
was only 80 km. (50 mi.) away and at the time was occupied by the Turks.
4. The detail about Colonel Grandvile is not in the Purchas version; it was added
here, perhaps gratuitously, perhaps a real recollection.
5. Something seems to be missing in the original account of the "fiery Dragons"
(see Fragment J, 1364n). The name was apparently coined by Smith.
6. Judging by this, it would seem that Smith spent the winter of 1600–1601 in
Komarom (at the junction of the Danube with the Vah [German, Waag], now Komarno,
Czechoslovakia); see ibid. This important fort was about 160 km. (100 mi.) down the
Raab from Körmend (see p. 7n, above).
7. The Buda (or Pest) Gate was on the E of the city. Mercoeur's camp was on dry
ground to the N. The attack planned by Russworm (see p. 9) was through the marshes
W of the city. By setting fire to the suburbs by the Buda Gate, Mercoeur would distract
the attention of the defenders.
8. The rest of this chapter, excepting the last clause, is not in the Purchas version.
It is possible that Purchas deleted the passage as too "tedious." Smith seems to have
refreshed his memory here by referring to Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the
Turkes ... (London, 1603), 1135–1136. The phrasing, however, is clearly his own.
"Segeth" is the suburb of Sziget ("Island"); below, bavins were bundles of lightweight
brushwood.
9. The correct Turkish form is paşa, the stress falling on the last syllable; most
commonly in English, "pasha."
2. Hasan Pasha (called Yemişçi, "the Fruiterer") was promoted from deputy to
grand vizier and commander in chief in Hungary, July 21, 1601. He set out from Istanbul
19 days later and by forced marches reached Zemun (Belgrade) about Sept. 5. He had
led an army 1,000 km. (over 600 mi.) across mountains and rivers only to be led astray
by mistaken intelligence to Budapest instead of Szekesfehervar. From there, he turned
back to remedy the error, but he was too late (see Joseph von Hammer, Geschichte des
Osmanischen Reiches ... [Pest, 1827–1835], IV, 314). The name of the "viceroy" of Pest
was Mankirkuschi Mohammed Efendi (ibid.; the spelling is Hammer's), who had replaced
Murad Pasha (Smith's "Amaroz"), apparently unbeknown to many Turks, as
well as to the Christian forces.
3. The name "Girke," not mentioned in the Purchas version, is an excellent illustration
of Smith's attempts to refresh his memory. Recalling the battle fought near
Szekesfehervar three weeks after the fall of that city, he found on a map the homophonic
name of a place 6o-odd km. (c. 40 mi.) S, now called Györköny. Historically this was
impossible, but it was all he could find. The battle is recorded, however, as taking place
on Oct. 15, 1601, in Charka Bogazi, which means merely "Skirmish Gorge" — it is not
on any map available up to the time of writing. A sketch of the battle was found by the
editor some years ago, which confirms a large part of Smith's romanticized account (see
Barbour, Three Worlds, 35–36, 408, n. 2, and prints following p. 268).
4. Properly speaking, a sanjak (Turkish, sancak, with the c pronounced as an English
j) was a military cavalry district, governed by a sanjak bey. Here Smith is undoubtedly
referring to a cavalry officer. His identity is unknown.
5. The basic facts are found in the Purchas version, 1365. The details are in Knolles,
Historie of the Turkes, 1136. The question arises, who borrowed from whom? The editor
suspects that there was a common source for both, not mentioned by either.
6. Smith's account of the aftermath of the battle is confused and largely mistaken.
Several detailed accounts, none of which was available to Smith, agree that Hasan Pasha
first retired to Palota, 20 km. (12 mi.) W of Szekesfehervar, where his army dug in for
the winter, then betook himself to Nagykanizsa, where Russworm was soon sent (see a
few lines below). Note that Smith's "Zigetum" was most likely modern Szigetvar, c. 110
km. (70 mi.) SE of Nagykanizsa by modern roads.
7. This paragraph, dedicated to the duke of Mercoeur, reads almost as if it had
been written by Michel Baudier, historiographer of Louis XIII of France (see his
Inventaire de l'histoire généralle des Turcs [Paris, 1617], 693–611). For an account from the
Turkish point of view, see Hammer, Geschicnte des Osmanischen Reiches, IV, 315–319;
Knolles provides a less glamorous story in Historie of the Turkes, 1137–1138.
8. Hungarian Esztergom, German Gran; taken by the Ottoman army in 1543, it
was liberated in 1595 only to be recaptured in 1604.
9. Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), voivode of Walachia, joined forces with
General Basta to defeat Zsigmond Bathory, prince of Transylvania, Aug. 13, 1601, only
to be assassinated by order of Basta six days later, on trumped-up charges of plotting with
the sultan against the Holy Roman emperor (see Ştefan Olteanu, Les Pays roumains à
l'époque de Michel le Brave (l'union de 1600) [Bucharest, 1975], 139). Zsigmond had turned
up in Brasov, Transylvania, and received a certain recognition from Istanbul (early Oct.
1601), and Mercoeur had fled from the winter's cold in the swampy environs of Nagykanizsa.
Basta was made commander in chief of the imperial forces on Jan. 20, 1602.
Zsigmond backtracked a little. Mercoeur died suddenly on Feb. 17 in Nuremberg, on
his way to France to enlist additional troops. Shortly thereafter Zsigmond had another
change of heart. With that, we may leave the story to John Smith (see Barbour, Three
Worlds, 41–44, and the Purchas version [Fragment J, 1363–1365nn], for a few minor
revisions of the editor's earlier studies).
3. Veltus is mentioned again on pp. 19–22, but does not appear in the much condensed
Purchas version. A village called Völcz (Hungarian) or Wöltz[en] (German) is
recorded c. 9 km. (6 mi.) NW of Medias, then and now an important highway junction
in central Transylvania. "Colonell Veltus" may have come from Völcz. For a conjecture
regarding the events narrated on pp. 12–13, see Barbour, Three Worlds, 44–49. A summary
of the latest research is given in the notes to the Purchas version (Fragment J,
1365–1366).
6. Mózes Székely had been a captain under Zsigmond Báthory's uncle, King István
Báthory of Poland (1533–1586). As indicated by his name, transcribed by Smith last
name first, according to Hungarian custom, he was a Szekler, one of the three "nations"
of Transylvania (the others being the Hungarians and the Saxons, since the Rumanian
peasants did not count).
7. The Purchas version (p. 1365) has "foure thousand Foote"; there are further
numerical discrepancies below.
8. The meaning of "fear" here is almost certainly "frighten"; the Purchas version
(p. 1365) has "they did more feare [frighten] then hurt them."
9. This clause is not in the Purchas version. Smith's meaning apparently is that the
Turks' artillery was a pledge of battle, and no battle was forthcoming.
1. This name could be merely Smith's misunderstanding: a başt was a Turkish
officer; some such phrase as türk başt could have meant "a Turkish captain."
2. This phrase, found also in the Purchas version, is a clear hint that Ferneza's book
was used as a source.
5. The Janissaries (Turkish yeni çeri, new militia) were the crack infantry troops of
the Ottoman army.
7. Such names as "Grualgo," "Bonny Mulgro," and others below have led some
Rumanian and Turkish scholars to label this work of Smith's fantaisiste — fanciful. It is
true that the names are Smith's invention — he had undoubtedly forgotten the actual
names, if he ever knew them, but no event referred to here is without historical basis.
9. Broadly, a piece of armor; a breastplate or backplate, or an additional plate
worn over the cuirass.
1. Despite general Turkish scorn of such "false conceptions of valour" (Clarence
Dana Rouillard, The Turk in French History, Thought, and Literature (1520–1660) [Paris,
(1941)], 296–297), duels of this type were far from unknown in Transylvania and
Hungary in those years. A subsection of István Szamosközy's Történeti Maradványai
(Historico-literary remains) entitled "Memorabilis inter Turcam et Ungarum in duellum
provocatio" (Memorable provocation to dueling between Turk and Hungarian) lists
three types of duels, the most ferocious of which set the pattern for Smith (Sándor
Szilágyi, ed., Monumenta Hungariae Historica, 2d Ser., XXI [Budapest, 1876], I, 237–239).
Smith could hardly have read about this sort of thing.
5. In Smith's day a sergeant major ranked just below a lieutenant colonel; i.e.,
Smith was made a major, though he never used that title.
7. This passage and the Purchas version both imply that Meldritch's father had
been killed in a melee with Turkish troops or during a Turkish cavalry raid. Information
of this sort reaching Smith's ears may have been the source of his belief that Meldritch
was "a Transylvanian borne" or even that he was born in this neighborhood. See n,
below.
8. The account of Mózes Székely's activities and later razzia down the Mures (Hungarian,
Maros) valley is at odds with the account in the Purchas version (Fragment J,
1366, 1366n). There, the antecedent of "he sacked Varatzo," etc. is clearly "the Earle
[Meldritch]." It is the editor's belief that Purchas, in making extensive cuts, neglected
to supply "Moyses" as the antecedent. This, then, was corrected here.
1. This document, along with its variant copy, translation, and recording in London,
is discussed in the editor's Introduction, above. While it is likely that both Purchas and
Sir Robert Cotton had a hand in procuring the registering of the patent, Purchas's
Pilgrimes was in print (1624-early 1625) before Aug. 19, 1625, when Sir William Segar
"subscribed and recorded" the document (p. 18, below). There are a few minor variants
in the unofficial copy in the "Collectanea" of Augustine Vincent, Windsor Herald until
his death, Jan. 11, 1626. Only the variant discussed in n. 4, below, is of any substantive
significance (see p. 18, below, and the Purchas version [Fragment J, 1366n]).
4. "Augusti 8vo" in the "Collectanea." The date of this specific battle or skirmish
has not been recorded. For a discussion of the details, see the editor's Introduction to
Fragment J, as well as the Introduction to the True Travels, above.
5. Zsigmond Báthory's uncle István Báthory first used a coat of arms consisting of
three tusks (of a dragon or a wolf) encircled by a dragon biting its own tail. This remained
the Báthory family device, but after 1590 Zsigmond began using more elaborate shields.
Since the seal on the patent he gave to John Smith was evidently damaged over nearly
22 years (Dec. 9, 1603, to Aug. 19, 1625), it can only be surmised that the "open crown"
was genuine, as were the tusks, that the NONONONONONON replaced an undecipherable
dragon, and that the title should read "Sigismundus Bathori D. G. Prin[ceps] Transsilvaniae
Walachiae," or something very similar. See J. B. v. S., Die Wappen und Siegel
der Fürsten van Siebenbürgen und der einzelnen ständischen Nationen dieses Landes (Hermannstadt,
1838) for details.
7. Note that Segar himself has corrected "Vandalorum" in the Latin text to
"Moldavia" here. This is more appropriate to Báthory.
9. Segar's translation is not precisely faithful to the original, which must mean "on
the way to the royal city" (see the editor's Introduction to Fragment J).
2. Zsigmond was in Litomerice (German, Leitmeritz) on Dec. 16, 1602, and in
Prague on Mar. 7, 1604 (but see the Purchas version). Litomerice is c. 66 km. (40 mi.)
N of Prague, and less than 200 km. (125 mi.) SE of Leipzig. John Smith's wanderings
late in 1603 led him through E Czechoslovakia to Prague, whence he went to Leipzig to
find Zsigmond. After this meeting he went to Dresden, Magdeburg, and Brunswick
(Braunschweig), as is narrated on p. 33, below.
3. Segar's English at times is absurd. The original "Salutem" (p. 16, above) means
merely "Greetings!"
6. With this chapter, Smith returns to the Purchas version, but with considerable
expansion. What his specific source was is difficult to establish, although the first half of
the paragraph reads as if it was based on vivid personal recollections. The rest is confirmed
in some measure in Knolles's Historie of the Turkes, 1139–1143 (with occasional bits
borrowed?) and also in Ciro Spontoni's Historia della Transilvania (Venice, 1638), 194–
200.
1. "Poles"; Zsigmond's wife Maria Christina was a sister of Anna, wife of Sigismund
III, king of Poland. Both of these ladies were first cousins of Emperor Rudolph II.
In addition, Jan Zamoyski, great chancellor of Poland, was Zsigmond Báthory's brother-in-law.
It is no great wonder that Zsigmond at last gave up the struggle.
2. Spontoni says 50,000 "Toleri" (dollars), but it is not clear what coin he meant
(Historia della Transilvania, 204). In the same passage he states that Zsigmond retired to
live at "Libocovitio" (Libochovice, 28 mi. NW of Prague). Smith's (Austrian) Silesia
would be to the E.
3. The Purchas version (p. 1366) has "sixe or seven thousand" — perhaps an echo
of the "sixe or seven houres."
4. The account in the editor's Three Worlds should be revised here and there in the
light of recent studies. In this case, Székely, a Unitarian, had served under Michael the
Brave (see p. IIn, above). When Michael was murdered by Basta's orders, Székely fled
to the Turks in Timisoara (Hungarian, Temesvár), passing Zsigmond Báthory on the
way. Zsigmond, to separate himself from both the action and the defeat, promptly sent
off a messenger to Basta avouching his innocence and six days later was welcomed by the
general in Alba-Iulia. Székely went on to meet Yemişçi Hasan, the grand vizier, who
gave him some encouragement but was determined to retake Szekesfehervar first. This
he did, on Aug. 29. For the sequel, see Carl Max Kortepeter, Ottoman Imperialism during
the Reformation: Europe and the Caucasus (New York, 1972), 194–195. So far as John Smith's
affairs were concerned, "the chronology is rather confused from ... July 2, 1602, until
... November 20, 1604" (ibid., 194).
5. "Voivode" is a better spelling. For Michael the Brave, voivode of Walachia and
one of the founders of modern Rumania, see the Biographical Directory, s.v. "Mihai
Viteazul." Michael's dependence on the Ottoman sultan has been brought within
factual bounds by modern studies (see Olteanu, Les Pays roumains, 139).
6. Radul Şerban was a Bessarabian (from the region between the Prut and the
Dniester rivers, Ukrainian S.S.R.), who was ready to accept the sovereignty of Rudolph
II in preference to that of Mehmet III. "Jeremy" was Jeremia Movila, who was the joint
choice of the Poles and the Turks for voivode of Moldavia.
8. Most of these names, not elsewhere recorded, seem to be derived from town
names (Barbour, Three Worlds, 51).
9. Modern Ramnicu-Valcea, 50-odd km. (30–35 mi.) S of the Transylvanian-Walachian
border, at the end of the pass. The Altus River is now called the Olt, but Raza
cannot be identified with certainty (cf. Edward Arber, ed., Captain John Smith ... Works,
1608–1631, The English Scholars Library Edition, No. 16 [Birmingham, 1884], xxvii).
1. Modern Curtea-de-Arges (the Court at Arges). "The oldest capital-city [of
Walachia] was undoubtedly Argeş," but Campulung (see p. 21n) was also a capital;
indeed, the voivodeship of Walachia was created after the retreat of the Mongol-Tatar
"cataclysm" of 1241–1242 by Rumanians from Transylvania, who began to fill the void
left to the S of the Carpathians by slow migration (see Ion Donat, "The Romanians
South of the Carpathians and the Migratory Peoples in the Tenth-Thirteenth Centuries,"
in Miron Constantinescu et al., eds., Relations between the Autochthonous Population
and the Migratory Populations on the Territory of Romania ... [Bucharest, 1975], 286–287).
5. All of this chapter and half of chap. 11 have been expanded from half a folio page
of the Ferneza account in the Purchas version (p. 1366). The personal names listed need
not be taken seriously, as has been mentioned before. Smith's account makes vivid, however,
an encounter the bare facts of which occupy only a few lines of history. Mehmet III
had ordered the khan, Gazi Giray, to reinforce the Ottoman troops involved in the "Long
War." By the time he set out, the Transylvanian frontier was fixed as his goal, since he
saw an opportunity actually to place the brother of Jeremia Movila in power in Walachia.
The imperial appointee, Radul Şerban, was credited with little military strength and
could easily be overthrown. When Gazi Giray arrived, he found that the imperial general,
Basta, had spared crack troops to stop him. John Smith was a captain in these crack
troops. After severe fighting, the khan was forced to retire, suffering heavy losses (Kortepeter,
Ottoman Imperialism, 177).
6. The haiduks were freebooters, irregulars, who within a year or two became important
elements in István Bocskai's struggle to free Hungary of Austrian tyranny.
7. For an attempt at analyzing the account, see Barbour, Three Worlds, 52–56,
which can now be read in the light of Kortepeter's more recent work. Obviously there
was more than one wave in the overall attack.
9. Modern Campulung, nestled in a narrow valley 30-odd km. (20 mi.) ENE of
Curtea-de-Arges, was probably older than Arges, and is attested c. 1300. Voivode
Basarab I of Walachia (c. 1300-c. 1340) died there. For "Rottenton," see n, below.
3. Nine mi. (14 km.); the pass is exceptionally rugged at this point, and such a
large body of Tatars seems improbable.
4. "Entrenched Walloons and four well-placed cannon" stopped the khan and his
troops (Kortepeter, Ottoman Imperialism, 177).
5. "Red Tower Fort," called Rotenturm, Vorostorony (or Verestorony; Hungarian
scholars acquainted with the region state that this is the preferred local pronunciation
and spelling), Turnu Roşu, and Turris Rubra, in German, Hungarian,
Rumanian, and Latin, respectively, is about 20 km. (12 mi.) S of Sibiu (Smith's Hermannstadt).
7. The end of the extract from Ferneza is greatly expanded from the Purchas
version, 1366 (see p. 2on, above).
8. Ens. Thomas Carlton and Sgt. Edward Robinson contributed poems in honor of
Smith that were appended to the Description of N.E., [62], [63], and reprinted in the
Generall Historie, 202.
9. Axiopolis was on the Danube near modern Cernavoda (Constantin C. Giurescu,
Contributions to the History of Romanian Science and Technique from the 15th to the Early 19th
Century, trans. Maria Farca [Bucharest, 1974], 85), where the modern railway Bucharest-Constanta
crosses the river. Since we know the Tatars retired to Silistra, however, it is
possible that Smith confused the two towns. About 70 km. (45 mi.) upstream, Silistra has
been a flourishing city since Roman days. For an early description of the slave traffic, see
Luigi Bassano, Costumi et i modi particolari della vita de' Turchi (1545), ed. Franz Babinger
(Monaco di Bavicra, 1963), fols. 41–42r.
1. "Bashaw Bogall" possibly stands for Basi Bakkal (Captain Grocer). Such a name
is attested in England in the 1300s; cf. grand vizier Yemişçi Hasan (Fruiterer Hasan).
"Adrinopolis" is modern Edirne, then not much less than 400 km. (250 mi.) by winding
roads through and over mountains from Axiopolis. From Edirne to Istanbul is about
230 km. (145 mi.) by the modern highway.
2. "Charatza Tragabigzanda" (better, "Trabigzanda") is a distortion of a Greek
phrase meaning "girl from Trebizond" (see Barbour, Three Worlds, 58–59). William
Biddulph, preacher to the Company of English Merchants in Aleppo, wrote c. 1605:
"Some few amongst them [the Turks] have the Italian tongue: and many (especially in
and about Constantinople) speake the vulgar Greeke. ... For in Constantinople there
are as many Grecians and Hebrues as Turkes" (Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 1340).
3. The "Dissabacca Sea," now the Sea of Azov, was a distortion of a Genoese name
based on the Tatar word for a kind of carp, chabak (see Philip L. Barbour, "Captain John
Smith's Route through Turkey and Russia," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., XIV
[1957], 363).
4. Smith has added these bits of local color by borrowing from William Biddulph's
"Travels" as quoted in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 1334–1353 (the passage used here is from
p. 1340). "Banians" is an error for "Banias" (see the Purchas version, 1367), which in
turn is distorted from Turkish banyo (borrowed from Italian bagno, bath).
5. Regarding "Cambia" ("Cambria" in the Purchas version), the editor has not
found any new information to justify a change in his earlier suggestion that Robert
Vaughan, the Welsh engraver, had something to do with this name (see Barbour, Three
Worlds, 364). It is evident from what follows that Smith was only vaguely aware of where
he was sent and that he puzzled out a conjectural route with the help of maps and documents
back in London, probably supplied by Samuel Purchas 10 or more years after the
event. For discussion, see the Purchas version (Fragment J, 1367n). Nevertheless, there
is no reason to doubt that Charatza's brother was in charge of a timar, a small government
fief usually granted for military service and operated by an army officer.
7. Gerardus Mercator's Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati
figura (Duisburg, 1595), map of Walachia, etc., shows "Romania" as corresponding
roughly to modern Turkey in Europe, southern Bulgaria, and Greek Thrace. The name
was not applied to modern Rumania until Sept. 1857, when the principalities of Walachia
and Moldavia were united to form the present country.
10. The name "Nalbrits" appears on contemporary maps (see Barbour, Three
Worlds, 60–61). See the Purchas version (Fragment J, 1368n) for a discussion of the location
of the timar. The holder of such a fief was called the timar sipahisi, "man-at-arms
holding a timar" (New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary [Istanbul, 1968]), for which
the Italians invented the term timariotto, whence English "timariot."
11. Smith clearly knew some Italian, but obviously he did not understand enough
to know what was apparently going on. Judging by this paragraph, it would seem that
Charatza's brother had no objection to what she proposed and was putting Smith through
the almost sadistic disciplining required by Turkish custom to make a Turkish official of
him. For an explanation of this, see the editor's Introduction to Fragment J.
1. "Drub-man" is an error for Purchas's anglicization ("drugman"; see the Purchas
version, p. 1367) of the Turkish word dragoman. Note that "drub-man" is a "ghost" in
the OED due to failure to refer to the Purchas version.
2. "Ulgrie" is likely a distortion of a local name for "argali," big-horned sheep
(Philip L. Barbour, "Captain John Smith's Observations on Life in Tartary," VMHB,
LXVIII [1960], 276–279).
4. Much of the material in chaps. 13–16 has been borrowed or adapted from other
sources, printed or manuscript.
5. "Garnances" was evidently a misprint for "garuances," or "garvances," Spanish
garbanzos, that persisted in Smith. This passage appears to be based on Biddulph's
"Travels," in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 1340. "Buckones" is probably taken from Italian
boccone, a mouthful.
6. "Sambouses and Muclebites" in Biddulph's "Travels," in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II,
1340; see Barbour, "Smith's Observations on Life in Tartary," VMHB, LXVIII (1960),
275–276, 275–276nn.
7. "Sherbet" in Biddulph's "Travels," in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 1340; şerbet in
Turkish, from Arabic shariba, to drink. In the homes of the grandees, sherbet was served
with snow; whence, probably, the English use of the word for water ice.
8. Smith's erroneous assumption is in a way justified by Ottaviano Bon, "Descrizione
del serraglio del gransignore," in Nicolò Barozzi and Guglielmo Berchet, eds.,
Relazioni degli stati europei lette al senato dagli Ambasciatori Veneti nel secolo decimosettimo, Ser. V,
Turchia (Venice, 1866), 96, here translated by the editor: "Several kinds of bread are
made: very white for the mouth of the king, the sultanas, and the other grandees;
moderately good for average people and others; black quality for the acemi oglans."
This passage is somewhat elaborated in the contemporary English version translated by
Robert Withers in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 1600.
9. Couscous is a North African dish made of flour or millet seed. Here, Smith seems
to be helping out his memory with John Pory's translation of John Leo's A Geographical
Historie of Africa ... (1600) as reprinted by Samuel Purchas (Pilgrimes, II, 793). John
Pory had been Smith's source for a portion of the Generall Historie (pp. 141–143).
1. Smith supplies a connective passage of uncertain source, then relies on the well-known
"Voyage" of Anthony Jenkinson, one of the first Englishmen to travel in central
Asia, who died at a ripe old age in 1611 (see Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations,
Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation [London, 1598–1600], I, 324–335,
and Purchas, Pilgrimes, III, 231).
3. This is another hint that Smith may have visited Ireland (cf. the Map of Va., 2on;
and the Proceedings, 18n).
5. This is from Jenkinson's "Voyage," in Purchas, Pilgrimes, III, 232. "Hordia" is
an unusual variant of "horde."
9. Kazan-Tatar Idyl (Max Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Heidelberg,
1950–1958], I, 216–217).
1. Apparently a miscopy of Jenkinson's "Perovolog," from a Russian word for
"portage." Jenkinson's map, Russiae tabula (London, 1562), shows the site at the narrowest
strip between the Volga and Don rivers, where the Turks began digging a canal
in 1569 (see Purchas, Pilgrimes, III, 233; W. E. D. Allen, Problems of Turkish Power in the
Sixteenth Century [London, 1963], 27; and E. G. R. Taylor, Tudor Geography, 1485–1583
[London, 1930], 176).
2. Chaps. 14–16 are not in the Purchas version, for reasons suggested in the editor's
Introduction to Fragment J. Be it said here only that Smith availed himself generously
of the Itinerarium (Purchas's "Peregrinations") of Friar William de Rubruquis (c. 1215–
1270), which had been published by Hakluyt in Latin and English (Principal Navigations,
I, 71–117) from a defective text, and in an edited translation in English by Samuel
Purchas, who found "the whole worke" in "Benet College" (now Corpus Christi), Cambridge
(Pilgrimes, III, 1–52). That John Smith, who presumably saw something of the
Tatars in 1603, relied on a work 350 years old for support and background is neither
inept nor unfitting. Time stands still, here and there.
3. The first dozen or so lines are adjusted to fit Smith's story and contain geographical
details not found in Purchas, Pilgrimes, III, 3.
4. Moldavia was the principality that now forms NE Rumania, between Transylvania
and modern Bessarabia, U.S.S.R.; Podolia was to the N and formed part of the
Polish-Lithuanian state; Lithuania then extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea; and
"Russia" here refers to Rassia (or Rascia), the former see of the bishop of Ras, modern
Novi Pazar, c. 175 km. (110 mi.) NNW of Skoplje by road. These districts were "more
regular" in that they were better organized.
5. A variant of "champaign" — level, open country. Smith follows Rubruquis (in
Purchas, Pilgrimes, III, 1–52) only roughly, but chap. 2 of the latter begins about here.
7. "Cossmos" was an early form of "kumiss" (Tatar kumyz) — fermented mare's or
camel's milk. This is not brought up in Rubruquis until chap. 6 (ibid., 5).
9. This paragraph broadly corresponds with chap. 4 of Rubruquis (ibid., 4–5), but
Smith has added a number of details, either from personal experience or from other
sources (see n. 3, below).
2. Although the rest of this page to the top of p. 28 is partly based on chap. 5 of
Rubruquis (ibid., 5), a few details are added, as noted below.
3. The "hony-wine" is surely mead (modern Russian myod). This passage appears
to have been adapted from a new source, Martin Broniovius (Marcin Broniowski),
ambassador from King István Báthory of Poland (uncle of Zsigmond) to the Crimean
khan, 1578–1579, whose "Description of Tartaria" was printed in Purchas, Pilgrimes,
III, 632–643. There we read, "Yet the Gentlemen have bread, flesh, ... and Metheglin
[a kind of mead]" (ibid., 639). After this snippet Smith returns to Rubruquis (ibid., 5),
oblivious to the 330-year chronological imbalance.
4. The punctuation is faulty; it should read: "the common sort [drink] stamped
[pounded] millit ... [which] they call Cassa. ..." This is another snippet from Broniovius's
"Description of Tartaria" (ibid., 639).
6. Here Smith appears to turn to Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria" in earnest,
though he continues to pick scraps and shreds at random. Since specific references to all
of Smith's borrowings would be tedious and largely profitless for the purposes of this
edition, the editor leaves it to those especially interested in early 17th-century plagiarism
to locate each borrowed morsel (see ibid., 632–643). Only broad guidelines will be
provided.
7. "Ulusi" is a case of misunderstanding on the part of Broniovius and may serve to
indicate that Smith was not personally familiar with the word. "Ulus" means "camp"
in Russian but "people" in the Turkic languages (cf. Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria,"
ibid., 633, with Vasmer, Wörterbuch, II, 182–183; and see Barbour, "Smith's
Observations on Life in Tartary," VMHB, LXVIII [1960], 282).
8. This is partly based on Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria" (Purchas, Pil-
grimes, III, 633). Perecopia was another name for Eupatoria, on the Crimean W coast;
Taurica was an ancient name of Crimea itself; Osow was a variant of Russian Azov
(Turkish Azak, slavicized by Broniovius or Purchas[?] as Azaph [ibid.]); and Tanaīs
was the classic name of the Don River. Azov, at the mouth of that river, was held by the
Turks in Smith's day, but the hinterland was controlled by roaming Tatars, who had not
yet yielded to Poland, Lithuania, or Muscovy.
1. Bakhchisarai (Turkish Bağçe̊saray, garden palace) and the other Crimean towns
are listed, with extended comments, in Broniovius (ibid., 634–636); Smith shows minor
variations.
2. "Bezoar" was the original Persian name for any anti-poison. The calculus, or
stone, found in the stomach or intestines of some ruminant animals in Asia Minor, particularly
wild goats, was highly prized as a medicine and thus was called a bezoar-stone.
The word "bezer" was apparently inserted by Smith, as were most of the comments (cf.
ibid., 640).
5. These titles are from Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria" and need not be
taken as necessarily Tatar. According to his account, the sultans were (younger) sons of
the khan; the tuians (by implication only) were lesser "nobles"; the ulans were "anciently
descended of the Chans bloud" (ibid., 637; from Turkish oğlan [young men, youth]
through Polish or 15th-century Russian, though at least two Turkic dialects have the
form ulan [Martti Räsänen, Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen (Helsinki,
1969), 358]); and "marhies" must be an error for "marzies [mirzas]," who were
princes' sons.
7. The bulk of chap. 16 is derived from Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria"
(ibid., 640–643), but considerably condensed and otherwise altered. Smith's style of
writing breaks through, but on the whole he has condensed Broniovius's account faithfully.
Sir Robert Cotton had asked Smith to write a book about his life (see sig. A2r,
above), and he had already written all that he really remembered.
3. Broniovius puts it more clearly: "the rest of the Armie ... is extended in longitude
more then ten miles, and in latitude as much" (ibid.).
5. Broniovius's "Description of Tartaria" has "but the Agent who wel knowes,"
which is clearer (ibid., 642).
6. Broniovius's version of these names (ibid.) is generally better, but the editor
cannot know how faithful Purchas was in his translation, since the original, published as
"Opisanie Kryma" (Tartariae Descriptio) in Zapiski Odesskago obshchestva istorii i drevnostey,
VI (Odessa, 1867), has not been available; see Kortepeter, Ottoman Imperialism, 257.
In modern terms the list should read: The Nogay horde and the Tatars of Perecopia,
Crimea, and Azov, and the Circassians ...; but those of Petigoren (Colchis, at the E end
of the Black Sea), Ochakov (in the delta of the Bug River), Byelgorod (better known as
Akkerman, in Bessarabia), and Dobrogea (lower Danube, in Rumania)....
1. Italian chiaverina, a sort of javelin; unrecorded in English until long after Smith.
Note that it was misprinted by Arber as "cavatine" (Arber, Smith, Works, 864); see
Barbour, "Smith's Observations on Life in Tartary," VMHB, LXVIII (1960), 282.
2. The original is clearer: "In the Chans Regiment a very great white Mares tayle,
and a piece of Greene and Red Silke of the Turkish Emperour is carryed before on a great
Pike for a Standard" (Broniovius, "Description of Tartaria," in Purchas, Pilgrimes, III,
643).
3. This paragraph is a mixture of Smith and the last paragraph of Broniovius's
"Description of Tartaria" (ibid.).
5. Jenkinson also has it thus, though Media had disappeared as a political unit many
centuries before. Perhaps it was a matter of biblical influence.
6. Siberia was a vast, little-known expanse then; the Yaik is the Ural River, which
flows into the Caspian Sea, E of the Volga; and the "Yem" was probably the Yema,
better known as the Ob, which flows into the Arctic Ocean.
7. Again it would hardly be worthwhile to attempt to locate Smith's specific source
or sources. There are several extracts included by Purchas in vol. III of his Pilgrimes that
might have inspired Smith, but none of those inspected by the editor tallies with Smith's
narrative in its several aspects.
8. Here Smith at length picks up his account in the Purchas version (p. 1368),
neglected since the bottom of p. 25, above.
9. A bat was a simple stick or small club; a flail was a technological invention, albeit
a simple one, having a secondary rod attached so that it swung freely. It was a more
effective weapon if so used. Below, "estate" means merely "condition."
1. Smith evidently thought he heard the name of the road, apparently from some
Muscovite. All he remembered, however, was that it was k Astrakhani, "[the road] to
Astrakhan." See the Purchas version for notes on Smith's travel route (Fragment J,
1368n).
2. Signposts of the general nature described by Smith have been preserved in
Rumania, where the editor inspected two that have been reerected in the Village
Museum, Bucharest. A recent book review by Karl H. Menges mentions a Turkic word
perhaps meaning "a slight elevation with a road-mark," indicating the existence of such
signs (Journal of the American Oriental Society, XCIV [1974], 243).
5. The editor has postulated the identification of Aecopolis as Valuiki (Barbour,
"Smith's Route through Turkey and Russia," WMQ, 3d Ser., XIV [1957], 366), but
see the Purchas version (Fragment J, 1368n) for further suggestions.
6. In a recent study, E. M. Dvoychenko-Markova has pointed out that Salamata
is a common Don Cossack name and that "the good Lady Callamata" was probably the
wife of the Cossack ataman, or chieftain ("Dzhon Smit v Rossii" [John Smith in Russia],
Novaya i noveyshaya istoriya, Akademiya Nauk [Academy of Sciences], No. 3 [1976], 158–
160).
7. The name "Bruapo" ("Bruago" in the Purchas version, 1367) may also have
been suggested by Vaughan (see Fragment J, 1367n; and 23n, above). The "mountaines
of Innagachi" and the "Poole Kerkas" on the other hand, may have been found in
roughly this spelling on some map mentioning the Nogai Tatars and the Circassians
("Cherkesy," in Russian). Both peoples roamed in the great steppe E and NE of the
Black Sea.
8. Maeotis and Tanaïs were the classical names for the Sea of Azov and the Don
River. For information on a few of the other names, see Fragment J, 1368–1369nn.
1. "Coragnaw" ("Caragnaw") and "Zumalacke," below, are analyzed in Barbour,
"Smith's Route through Turkey and Russia," WMQ, 3d Ser., XIV (1957), 366. They
are most likely Chernava, 20 mi. (30-odd km.) SW of Yelets (see n, below) and the
Izyumskii Shlyakh, the track that served as a road in that region.
2. Surely Yelets and Dankov, on the Don River. The next half dozen names stand
for the region of Chernigov, the towns of Bryansk and Novgorod, the region of Severski,
the town of Rechitsa, and the Dnieper.
3. Lithuania was then the eastern half of the Polish-Lithuanian "republic," ruled
by King Sigismund III from 1587 to 1632. Suggested identifications of place-names
follow: Coroski — Korosten, 200 km. (125 mi.) SW of Rechitsa; Duberesko — Barashi,
nearly halfway between Korosten and Novograd-Volynski; Drohobus — either Dorogobuzh
or Drogobyck; Ostroge — Ostrog, 40 km. (25 mi.) SE of Rovno; Volonia —
Volhynia, the name of a district in NW Ukrainian S.S.R.; Saslaw — Izyaslav, SE of
Ostrog; Lasco — Olesko, 135 km. (85 mi.) to the W; Podolia — a former district S of
Volhynia (see p. 26n, above); Halico — Galich (Halich in Ukrainian), some 95 km. (60
mi.) to the S; Collonia — Kolomyya, now U.S.S.R. (no longer an important road junction);
Hermonstat — Hermannstadt (Sibiu in Rumanian), Transylvania, whence Smith
had set out for Red Tower Pass.
4. These were true log cabins, such as were not known in North America before the
Swedes brought the idea to the Delaware River area in 1638 (Harold R. Shurtleff, The
Log Cabin Myth: A Study of the Early Dwellings of the English Colonists in North America [Cambridge,
Mass., 1939], 186–208).
6. The caliver seems to have been the lightest kind of firearm except the pistol; a
light musket (see the Sea Grammar, 69, "colivers").
7. Remembering that "two dayes travell" may well mean 50–60 km. (30–40 mi.),
the editor can vouch for the truth of the latter part of the sentence for some places in that
area, which he visited in the mid-1960s; for the earlier part of the sentence, see Barbour,
Three Worlds, 414, n. 5, which vouches for its truth in 1945.
8. Beautifully wrought — not odd or strange. The observation that follows is a good
example of Smith's insight.
9. In Sibiu, Smith could have learned that Mózes Székely had been finally defeated
and expelled and that Zsigmond's "final abdication" (he had abdicated more than once
before) had this time really been final. Young Gábor Bethlen (born in 1580, like John
Smith) had emerged from obscurity to set in motion a Transylvanian risorgimento.
Basta, who had brought the peace of the grave to the country, would soon retire. John
Smith saw nothing for himself to do but find Zsigmond, get his pension confirmed, and
return to England.
1. For Smith, High Hungary seems to have meant that part of the kingdom, mostly
N of the Danube, that had not been conquered by the Ottoman army, a good portion of
which is now Czechoslovakia. A brief list of correspondences may make the geography
clearer: Fileck — Filakovo, Slovakia; Tocka — Tokaj, N Hungary; Cassovia — Kosice,
Slovakia; Underoroway — Oravsky Podzamok, Moravia-Silesia; Ulmicht — Olomouc,
Moravia; Lipswick — Leipzig; Misenland — Meissen (Misnia), a former margraviate
that included both Leipzig and Dresden.
2. This travel route includes only one city that may not be easily recognized, perhaps
two (see n, below).
4. Smith's list of Spanish place-names may be worth clarifying here and there:
Valiadolid — Valladolid, then the residence of King Philip III; Madrill — Madrid;
Cordua — Córdoba; Civill — Seville; Cheryes — Jerez; Cales — Cádiz; Saint Lucas —
Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
5. Barbary, so called from the Berbers who lived there, comprised North Africa from
Morocco E to the Egyptian border. The Purchas version has: "Then understanding that
the Warres of Mully Shash and Mully Sedan, the two Brothers in Barbarie of Fez and
Moroco (to which hee was animated by some friends) were concluded in peace, he imbarked
himselfe for England ..." (p. 1370). The fact of the case is, however, that the
"Warres" did not break out until the death of the old king on Aug. 24, 1603, when three
of his sons began to dispute the succession. It was five years before one of them, Mūlāi
Zīdān, won out.
6. "Guta" is an error for Ceuta; "Tánger" is the Spanish form of "Tangier"; and
"Saffee" is Safi, the leading port in the Marrakesh region of Morocco.
7. Here Smith begins to borrow at random from Leo's Geographical Historie of Africa,
trans. and amplified by Smith's friend (or at least acquaintance) John Pory, and reprinted
with modification in Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 749–851. Smith begins with p. 774 of Purchas.
9. Both this detail and the following legend are missing from this passage in Purchas
(ibid., 749–851).
1. Customhouse; Smith was one of the first (of few) English writers to borrow the
word from Arabic al-fondoq, more literally, "the inn" (cf. the famous fondachi in Venice).
2. Fine workmanship, elegance. Though the "Universities," below, are an addition
by Smith, the rest of the paragraph follows Leo (ibid., 776) in basic content.
3. Sources in Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, and Purchas, Pilgrimes, show that
"Larbes," or "Larbies," were Berbers.
4. Here Smith turned to one of several more up-to-date sources, either in Purchas's
Pilgrimes or independently printed. "Mully Hamet" was Mūlāi Ahmed IV, "El-Mansur"
or "Ed-Dhahabi." Three of his sons enter Smith's account: Mūlāi "Es-Sheikh" (crown
prince); Mūlāi Zīdān (spelling modernized, but see Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 853); and
Mūlāi 'Abd-el-'Aziz, "Abu Fāris."
5. The poisoning is the figment of somebody's imagination, but Mūlāi Zidān did
attempt to seize the throne as soon as the old king died, probably of the plague (see ibid.,
855).
6. "Mulatto." Smith could have gotten this information in Morocco or could
merely have expanded what was available in Purchas (ibid., 853).
1. Since the Clockmakers' Company was not formed until 1631, it is doubtful if any
specific information will be forthcoming about Henry Archer, the watchmaker.
2. A variant of "santon," from Spanish and Italian santo, saint; a European name
for a kind of Moslem monk or hermit.
3. Not certainly identified. The best suggestion seems to be the "Chauz" shown on
Hondius's map of the kingdom of Fez (ibid., following p. 984).
4. In Smith's day Morocco was considered to be an empire composed of at least two
kingdoms: Morocco and Fez (Arabic, Fas). Here Smith returns to Leo's Geographical
Historie of Africa for basic material, condensing and picking out bits at random. The
references to the city of Fez begin with Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 784, though it is not clear
from where Smith obtained his demographic statistics.
5. Smith's "Carucen" is probably an error for "Carueen," an attempt to transcribe
Arabic al-Qarawiyyin, the name of the great mosque and attached schools. Purchas copied
John Leo's "Caruven," which possibly should be "Caruuen" (ibid., 786). Smith's
statistics do not seem to be taken from Leo.
6. An alcázar was a castle. The Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases
(Cambridge, 1892) explains Smith's confusion: "alcazar, ... fortress; also (rarely) a
bourse, exchange, bazaar, by confusion with alcaiceria" (44–45). The passage on the
"Burse" is from Leo's Geographical Historie of Africa (Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 790).
8. The "Countries of Ginny and Binne [Guinea and Benin]" in Smith's day meant
the coast of Africa (and a certain amount of the interior) from the modern republic of
Senegal to the federation of Nigeria, first explored by the English in 1553 (Hakluyt,
Principal Navigations, II, 9–10). For a recent study of Benin, see R. E. Bradbury, Benin
Studies, ed. Peter Morton-Williams (London, 1973).
1. This English effort seems to be missing from Purchas, who printed instead
copious extracts from a Dutch account (Pilgrimes, II, 926–970). The traders who went
to the Senegal River have not been identified by the editor.
2. For Capt. Richard Jobson's account of a previous voyage, see ibid., 921–926
(there is an error in the date at the beginning; possibly read: "Saturday, the ninth of
October, 1619"). The significant detail is that a "Master William Grent" accompanied
Captain Jobson in 1626. This would seem almost certainly to be the William Grent who
contributed commendatory verses to Smith's Generall Historie (sig. A2v); see the Biographical
Directory. "Gago" and "Tumbatu" are Gao (or Gao-Gao) and Timbuktu,
640 km. (400 mi.) apart, on the Niger River.
4. Chap. 19 is highly condensed from Purchas, Pilgrimes, II, 986–1026, as far as the
top of p. 39, below. Purchas in turn had condensed the material from Duarte Lopes, A
Reporte of the Kingdome of Congo, a Region of Africa ..., gathered by Filippo Pigafetta, trans.
Abraham Hartwell (London, 1597). Since it is not certain whether Smith used Hartwell's
translation or Purchas's abbreviation thereof, it seems idle here to do more than
call attention to a few points of at least minor significance.
7. São Salvador is by air 225 km. (141 mi.) from the mouth of the Congo in northern
Angola. A tribe of anthropophagi raided the place about 1588, and it is highly doubtful
that the town had 100,000 inhabitants in Smith's day.
2. The two paragraphs on the Anzichi are based on Purchas (ibid., 992–993).
Purchas has "Anzigues," but the original Italian source has "Anzichi."
3. Apparently a misprint for lamache, snails. The erroneous definition is Hartwell's,
not Smith's or Purchas's, and does not appear in the original Italian. A modern Portuguese
translation calls them búzios (conchs, whelks) and supplies the native name zimbo
(Duarte Lopes and Filippo Pigafetta, Relação do reino de Congo e das terra circunvizinhas,
trans. Rosa Capeans [Lisbon, 1951], 32). The creatures are probably sea snails.
4. Here "meat market, bench or table on which meat was sold"; the usual modern
meaning, "carnage," developed about Smith's day.
5. This is Smith's summary of several passages dealing with religion. Note that
"Azichi," a few lines below, is a mistake for "Anzichi" (n. 2, above).
8. Chap. 20 gives an account of a naval engagement for which there is no other
evidence, beyond a hint or two in the text itself. These hints of Smith's presence and
participation are pointed out below.
1. From Safi to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands was less than 600 km. (375 mi.);
a sailing vessel might easily be driven that far by a storm. If Smith was "in the calmes"
near the Canaries on this occasion, his "pretended mutiny" near there hinted at in the
1607 accounts would be partially explained; that is, his attitude of "I've been here before
and I know what I'm doing" would have irritated such colonists as Edward Maria
Wingfield.
3. Smith has omitted the detail given in the Purchas version that he had "one
thousand Duckets in his Purse" (p. 1370).
4. Smith's title page shows he was aware that he did not have the makings of "a
book by it selfe" even at the outset. The borrowings, expansions, and paddings from
which the True Travels suffers are explained by this.
6. As Edward Arber has pointed out, "With the exception of the Eye-witness description
of Nevis [True Travels, 56–57, below], this latter part is simply a compilation
by our Author, out of such Relations as came to his hands" (Smith, Works, 882). References
to sources in the following notes will be limited to such as have been identified with
reasonable certainty. The editor will make no attempt to "ravel out" each thread of
Smith's "weaved up" summary.
7. While Smith's figures may be too high (and they were raised still higher in the
Advertisements, 3), there can be no doubt that he was on firm ground (see the modern
summary of developments in Wesley Frank Craven, Dissolution of the Virginia Company:
The Failure of a Colonial Experiment [New York, 1932], 312–313, 322–328). "Complement"
here means "compliments, fine behavior."
1. It must be remembered that a "voyage to Virginia" involved at least eight weeks
in a small, malodorous sailing ship.
3. For Nathaniel Causey, see the Biographical Directory. George Yeardley was
appointed governor for life by Charles I on Mar. 4, 1626, and arrived in Virginia toward
the end of June. He died in office and was buried on Nov. 13, 1627. For Francis West,
see the Biographical Directory. Dr. John Pott, sent to Virginia by the Virginia Council
as physician-general, had a "taste for politics," was elected temporary governor (1629–
1630), and remained in Virginia until he died, ante-1642 (see Wyndham B. Blanton,
Medicine in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century [Richmond, Va., 1930], 16–25). Capt. Roger
Smith, a veteran of the Netherlands wars and member of the council in Virginia, was
still alive in 1629. He was married to Jane Pierce Rolfe, widow of John Rolfe, whose first
wife had been Pocahontas. Capt. Samuel Matthews was a member of the council in
Virginia. Capt. William Tucker was a merchant and trader in Virginia from at least
1617 to 1633. William Claiborne (c. 1587–c. 1677), originally appointed surveyor in
Virginia in 1621, was long active both there and in Maryland (see the Dictionary of
American Biography). Smith's reference is probably to John Ferrar (see the Dictionary of
National Biography, s.v. "Ferrar, Nicholas," his brother).
4. Modern research indicates that a total of 27 communities existed in 1625, all of
them along the James River excepting two on the Eastern Shore (Charles E. Hatch, Jr.,
The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607–1624, Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical
Booklets, No. 6 [Williamsburg, Va., 1957], 32–35).
6. Abraham Piersey (Peirse, etc.), cape merchant, amassed huge acreage in nearly
20 years of residence and became one of the most prominent colonists.
2. See p. 42n, above, for these names. Smith has apparently drawn on another
source for this paragraph.
3. Apparently the Robert Hutchins who received a patent for 100 acres below Blunt
Point (between Newport News and Mulberry Island) in May 1625.
4. Master Floud may be the John Flood (Fludd) who arrived in 1610 and appears
in the 1624 muster roll. The other two may be the John Davies (arrived on the George in
1617) and the William Emerson (arrived on the Sampson in 1618) who are listed as
partners in the same muster roll.
5. Most likely, this is Mistress Jane Pierce, who arrived on the Blessing (1609? or
1610?), wife of Capt. William Pierce, who had sailed with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir
George Somers in 1609. The Muster of the Inhabitants of James Cittie, Jan. 24, 1624/5,
includes the couple (see John Camden Hotten, ed., The Original Lists of Persons of Quality
... and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600–1700 ...
[London, 1874], 224).
9. That is, from London. Sir John Harvey sailed during the winter of 1629–1630,
arriving in Virginia before Mar. 24, 1630. Captain Perse was possibly William (see n,
above), and Captain Prine may have been John Prynne, a London merchant who was
also shipowner and master.
1. Master Barnet and Master Cooper have not been identified; the others have
been mentioned in the notes immediately above.
2. Although a "Jno [John] Ireland" is mentioned in connection with the investigation
of a Spanish wreck off Bermuda in 1622 (J. H. Lefroy, comp., Memorials of the
Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515–1685, I [London, 1877],
254), there is no way of knowing if he is the same as Smith's "Master Ireland." The
whole of chap. 22 is reprinted by Lefroy (ibid., 493–495), with some errors in transcription.
3. The reference is largely correct, but Capt. Henry Woodhouse is not mentioned
until p. 201 of the Generall Historie.
4. Wine (if that is what is meant here) was imported and was considered expensive
(see "A Proclamacion against the exceedinge price of strong liquor, 6 February 1622/3,"
in Lefroy, comp., Memorials of the Bermudas, I, 285).
1. Roger Wood is frequently referred to in Lefroy, comp., Memorials of the Bermudas;
see the index.
4. Lefroy has a note on this bit of piracy (Memorials of the Bermudas, I, 723). The
Peter Bonaventure had apparently arrived in Bermuda on Mar. 22, 1627. Dunkirk, France,
on the English Channel, was then a nest of pirates. Tor Bay is on the SE coast of Devon.
6. Robert Kesteven was not one of the early colonists, but he later became a local
councillor. He is mentioned in Lefroy, comp., Memorials of the Bermudas, I, 575, 610, 617.
9. This passage refers, of course, to the Pilgrims, whose story was told more fully in
the Generall Historie, 230–241, but Smith's keen disappointment at not having been asked
to go with the group is revealed here and is repeated in the Advertisements, 17, 21.
1. It is fairly clear that the 20 patentees, under the aegis of Sir William Alexander,
who "divided my [Smith's] map [of New England] into twenty parts," based the division
on a map by Samuel de Champlain. Champlain's published map of 1632 confirms this,
though chronologically it is impossible for it to have been copied. Whatever the immediate
source of Sir William's map (or its ultimate debt to Smith's), Smith's protest is
in some measure justified. He, in any event, had not seen any other possible source (see
the expansion of this theme in the Advertisements, 22–23). Cf. Richard Arthur Preston,
Gorges of Plymouth Fort: A Life of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Captain of Plymouth Fort, Governor of
New England, and Lord of the Province of Maine (Toronto, 1953), 224, 278, 422, n. 68.
3. The Massachusetts Bay Company. Any discussion of this movement is far beyond
the scope of this edition of Capt. John Smith's works.
5. Smith has once more lost himself in a highly "conditional" sentence. He obviously
means that the newborn Dutch colony at New York Bay would not have come into
being if the two English colonies of Virginia and New England had been developed "as
it was intended."
6. Here Smith returns to his conception of himself as parent of the colonies (see the
Generall Historie, 241).
9. This paragraph is obviously derived from chap. 11 of Purchas's Pilgrimes (IV,
1247–1250), which in turn was taken from MSS previously in Hakluyt's possession (see
mark "H" in Purchas's table of contents).
5. Capt. Charles Leigh sailed for "Guiana" (the area between the Orinoco and the
Amazon) on Mar. 21, 1604, and died on shipboard a year later. He was the brother of
Sir Oliph (Olyph) Leigh (see the Biographical Directory; the Dictionary of Canadian
Biography; and Purchas, Pilgrimes, IV, 1250–1255). Below, the "Weapoco" is modern
Oyapock River.
6. Roe was in Guiana c. 1610. He was ambassador to the Great Mogul Jahangir
from 1613 to 1619 and ambassador to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul from 1621 to 1628;
see the Biographical Directory.
1. Smith's chronology is not entirely sound. Leigh was the first Englishman to explore
the coast; Robert Harcourt, the second. Harcourt reached the "Weapoco"
(Oyapock) May 17, 1609; Roe arrived in the Amazon c. Apr. 30, 1610. For the details
of Harcourt's voyage, see C. Alexander Harris, ed., A Relation of a Voyage to Guiana by
Robert Harcourt, 1613 (Hakluyt Soc., 2d Ser., LX [London, 1928]), which includes the
additions made in 1626 in the 2d ed. Although Smith undoubtedly used the version in
Purchas, Pilgrimes, IV, 1267–1273, he may well have had access to the 2d ed. of the
original.
2. This is summed up in V. T. Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions to the West Indies
and Guiana, 1623–1667 (Hakluyt Soc., 2d Ser., LVI [London, 1925]), lxxv–lxxxvii. Here
Smith's account is occasionally used as a historical source, with exception taken to only
two passages: the 50 or 60 men left "in the River Weapoco" (at the beginning of the paragraph)
is termed a probable exaggeration, and Smith's statement that Capt. Roger
North formed his company "not knowing of the Interest of Captaine Harcote" (at the
end of the paragraph) is said to be erroneous (ibid., lxxii, lxxvi).
4. Harris has a brief mention of the Dutch in this region (ibid., 30–32), and there
are references in James A. Williamson, English Colonies in Guiana and on the Amazon, 1604–
1668 (Oxford, 1923), which remains a basic reference work. "Reduced" in the next
phrase means merely "caused to join."
5. Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar, surely must be included
among the most meddlesome ambassadors at any court in Smith's day. From the point
of view of Philip III of Spain, however, he was a vital protector of Spanish claims in
northern South America (see the editor's Introduction to New Englands Trials [1620]).
7. For Capt. Thomas Warner and the story of the settlement of Saint Christopher
(now Saint Kitts), Nevis, and Barbados, see Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, 1–17.
8. The description of the Amazon is roughly accurate. Its main stream lies between
2 and 3 degrees S latitude, and its delta lies athwart the equator.
9. A rush of fresh water. Some have said that the Amazon's flood is noticeable 100
mi. out to sea.
1. This would seem to refer to the junction of the Rio Negro with the Amazon,
about 12 mi. below modern Manaus and 900-odd mi. from the Atlantic.
2. The name does not import "giant-like women," but women ready to fight.
Francisco Orellana, friend and companion of Pizarro, descended the river from Peru in
1541 and named it "Amazonas" because of an affray in which the Tapuya women fought
alongside the men.
3. Here Smith is almost, though briefly, taking the place of Hakluyt and Purchas.
For Ralph Merrifield, see Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, xv, xvi.
6. Apparently a local name only. The editor has not succeeded in finding Smith's
source for this word, but suggests that it may be equivalent to the "mobby" of Barbados
in use about 1650, which was made of potatoes, then boiled and strained through a bag
with water added — "it will not last above one day" (Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions,
46). Elsewhere it is stated that "the potatos makes good drink ..." (ibid., 93).
7. This was Pierre Belain, sieur d'Esnambuc, who first attempted colonization of
the French Antilles between 1627 and 1636.
9. Sir Thomas Warner's colony did not really get on its feet for several years. Frequently
short of food, it was beset by the Caribs and by the French (see Harlow, ed.,
Colonising Expeditions, xviii — xix). Smith is one of the chief English sources for the history
of this period.
2. On July 2, 1627, James Hay, earl of Carlisle (fl. 1603–1636), was made lord proprietor
of all the Caribbean islands, under letters patent granted by Charles I, despite
the prior claims of Captain Warner.
3. The tail of a stingray is dangerous but not poisonous. The misconception was
Smith's (cf. the Proceedings, 34).
4. Sir Samuel, it will be remembered, was a loyal friend and backer of Smith's (see
sig. A2V, above).
5. For a fuller account of Sir William Tufton's appointment and other developments
in Barbados, see Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, xxiv, 75.
6. Identities uncertain; Prinne cannot have been Capt. Martin Pring (see the
Generall Historie, 18; and the Advertisement, 38), since Pring died in 1626 in Bristol.
7. Smith seems to be confused here. Tegreeman was the name of the king, who was
indeed killed, early in 1624 (Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, xv–xvi, 1–2).
9. Saint Kitts is 17° 20' N lat. and 23 mi. (37 km.) in length, but only 6 mi. (9 km.)
wide. Below, the number of islands in the West Indies should be stated as "uncounted."
2. "Deceado" is apparently Désirade, just E of Guadeloupe. "Mevis" is the usual
mistake for Nevis. "Bernardo" is Barbuda, NE of Nevis; Saint Martin and Saint-Barthélemy,
NW.
3. Smith seems to be tapping a new source here. His account reads very much like
that in the introduction to Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, xv–xvii. For one contemporary
source, see John Featly, A Sermon Preached to ... Sir Thomas Warner: And the rest of
his Companie: Bound to the West-Indies ... (London, 1629).
6. The passeriform order, typified by the genus Passer (sparrow), includes more than
half of existing birds.
9. Apparently a Carib word; a small tree bearing a waxy pulp from which an
orange-red dye is made.
2. This does not seem to have been identified, although "pengromes" is faintly
reminiscent of "pomegranates." Smith has possibly garbled his source.
6. Whether the error was in Smith's source or in the copying, Barbados is rather
SSE of Saint Kitts, at a direct distance of over 350 mi. (560 km.), NE of Trinidad by 210
mi. (335 km.), and only a little farther from Cabo de Salinas, modern Venezuela, just
across Dragon's Mouth (Bocas del Dragón) from Trinidad.
7. The Essequibo (or Dissequibe) River in modern Guyana. For a modern study of
Henry Powell's venture, with documents, see Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, xxix–
xxxi, 36–42.
8. Punctuate: "neere the middest of the I[s]le, of Bitume[n], which is. ..." The
substance was later locally known as manjak (see the OED).
9. The fuller form "crab apple" does not appear until the 18th century. "Mancinell"
is a variant of "manchineel."
5. Depositions pertinent to the three Powells and to Barbados are printed in Harlow,
ed., Colonising Expeditions, 36–42.
7. "Nevis." Smith barely mentioned this island in the Proceedings, 3, or in the
Generall Historie, 42. For George Percy's fuller account of the colonists' visit of Mar. 27 to
Apr. 3, 1607, see Philip L. Barbour, ed., The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter,
1606–1609 (Hakluyt Soc., 2d Ser., CXXXVI–CXXXVII [Cambridge, 1669]), I, 131–132.
8. The poisonous plant was probably manchineel (see Barbour, Three Worlds, 117,
429, n. 3). It seems odd that George Percy did not mention the matter.
9. Thomas Littleton was a merchant who had a commission from the earl of Carlisle
(see Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions, 5, 14–17, 85n).
1. Smith or his source may have confused Barbados with Barbuda, which is c. 70
mi. (110 km.) ENE. Neither island is "a barren rocke," Barbados (much the larger) being
166 sq. mi. (430 sq. km.) in area. The coral reefs, however, could have deterred the first
explorers.
3. This is apparently the same man as Anthony Hilton, who sailed for Virginia in
1623 (Susan Myra Kingsbury, ed., The Records of the Virginia Company of London [Washington,
D.C., 1906–1935], IV, 164–167), returned to England, and sailed once again, to
become one of the earliest planters in Saint Kitts (Harlow, ed., Colonising Expeditions,
4–8). Edward Tompson may have been the same as, or related to, Morice Thompson of
Saint Kitts (ibid., 26n).
7. See p. 52n, above. The rest of this sentence should probably read: "how he drove
Powhatan out of his country, took the kings of Pamaunke and Paspahegh prisoners,
forced thirty-nine of those kings to pay him tribute, and subjected all the savages...."
8. Smith has at last "corrected" his spelling of the Ile de Ré, off La Rochelle (see
the Description of N.E., 56n).
9. Several small books and pamphlets about pirates were printed during Smith's
lifetime. Reference is made below only to the most significant, along with modern works.
1. See E[dward] Roland Williams, Some Studies of Elizabethan Wales (Newtown,
Montgomeryshire, 1924), chap. 9 of which is devoted to John Callice. This colorful
pirate, who took up piracy about 1574, was a cousin of Henry Herbert, second earl of
Pembroke.
2. See Clinton, Purser and Arnold, to Their Countreymen wheresoever (London, [1583?]),
reprinted in J. P. Collier, ed., Illustrations of Early English Popular Literature (London,
1863–1864), II.
3. For Capt. Thomas Flemyng, see M[ichael] Oppenheim, ed., The Naval Tracts of
Sir William Monson (Navy Records Society, Publications, XXII, XXIII, XLIII, XLV,
XLVII [London, 1902–1914]), I, 154.
4. The ancient town of Sallee (modern Salé) stands just across the Bou Regreg from
Rabat, Morocco. It was a famous pirates' nest.
5. Mers-el-Kebir, four miles W of Oran, Algeria, another famous pirates' nest.
Below, "Cuta" is of course Ceuta.
7. Jack Ward made a name for himself (see [John Ward], Newes from Sea, of Two
Notorious Pyrats, Ward the Englishman and Danseker the Dutchman [London, (1609)]; and
Andrew Barker, A True and Certaine Report of the Beginning, Proceedings, Overthrowes, and now
Present Estate of Captaine Ward and Danseker, the Two Late Famous Pirates ... [London,
1609]; note the word "late").
8. For Bishop, see [James Harris], The Lives, Apprehensions, Arraignments, and Executions,
of the Nineteen Late Pyrates ... (London, [1609]).
9. For Peter Easton, see Sir Godfrey Fisher, Barbary Legend: War, Trade, and Piracy
in North Africa, 1415–1830 (Oxford, 1957), 138–139: he "settled down as a wealthy
Catholic and marquis in Savoy."
1. Jennings was the best known of the following list (see [Harris], Lives, Apprehensions,
Arraignments).
| THE TRUE
TRAVELS,
ADVENTURES,
AND OBSERVATIONS
Of Captaine John Smith,
in Europe, Asia, Africke, and America:
beginning about the yeere 1593, and
continued to this present 1629. | |