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AmericanaAn exhibition of printed books and manuscripts from Glasgow University Library17th Century |
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BRY, Theodor de. Historia Americae
sive Novi Orbis. Frankfurt: Matth. Merian, 1634. K.2.3 Theodor de Bry (1528-1598), map-engraver and publisher, was born in Liége and worked in Frankfurt. He published a series of illustrated travel-descriptions with maps known as "Les Grands Voyages" (to the West) and "Les Petits Voyages" (to the East). John Waite, who went with Raleigh's expedition to Virginia in 1585, was the first to make drawings of the American scene; his watercolours were engraved by de Bry and issued in this volume. Volume one of "Les Grands Voyages" contains the first separate map of Virginia. It shows the coast from Chesapeake to Cape Lookout, with Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, "Roanoc" Island and the Roanoke River flowing down from the mountains, all now part of North Carolina. The map is a good delineation of this area of the coast and is decorated with ships sailing into the Chesapeake and Indians in canoes on Pamlico Sound. |
| FOX, Luke. North-west Fox. London: B. Alsop and Tho. Fawcet, 1635. in K.7.1 This is an account of the author's attempt to find the Northwest Passage, in which he explored the western part of Hudson Bay. He left England on 5th May, 1631 and returned on 31st October of the same year, having concluded that no such transit was possible. Fox prefaces the narrative of his own voyage, which occupies the latter portion of the volume with an account of previous voyages undertaken to discover the Northwest Passage, and closes his volume with Sir Humphrey Gilbert's attempt to prove its existence. The narrative is written in a quaint style, but is full of much valuable information on ice, tides, compass, northern lights. It is one of the most interesting and important documents in the history of Arctic explorations. Of the map the author says: "I have also placed a polar map or card, that this discovery may be the better understood, and for that I did desire to give satisfaction by demonstration of all treated of in the booke, for otherwise, another projection could not have contained it but at unreasonable diversity...I have .. tracted my owne way and discovery foorth and home, in small prickes." This circumpolar map is found in only one or two copies of the book. |
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NICHOLL, John. An houre glasse of
Indian newes. London: Nathaniell Butter, 1607. Em. 2.1(b) John Nicholl was one of a band of sixty-seven Englishmen who set sail in April 1605 to join the colony which had been planted by Captain Charles Leigh on the river "Wiapica" [oyapoc] in Guiana. They missed their course, and, after seventeen weeks at sea, put in at Saint Lucia, one of the Caribbee Islands in the West Indies. Here they decided to remain for a time and let the vessel go home. Unfortunately the natives, at first friendly, attacked the settlers. The nineteen survivors managed to leave the island, but were wrecked on a barren island about a league from the mainland where they suffered agonies of hunger and thirst for fifteen days before being rescued by Spaniards. There followed several months of imprisonment as spies before Nicholl was able to begin his journey home; he finally reached England in 1601, where he published this sad account of his adventures and the sufferings of his companions. |
| JOURDAIN, Silvester. A plaine
description of the Barmudas. London: W. Stansby for W. Welby, 1613. El.3.5(j) In 1609 Jourdain accompanied Sir George Somers, Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Newport, deputy governors of Virginia, on their voyage to America. They were wrecked at Bermuda, then uninhabited, and took possession of it for the Crown of England. On his return to England Jourdain described their adventure in his Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called The Ile of Divils (1610); this copy is the reprint which appeared three years later, without acknowledgment to Jourdain, and edited by W.C. The work contains a vivid description of the shipwreck of Sir George Somers and his men on the Bermudas; Shakespeare certainly knew the Discovery and it probably gave him the idea for The Tempest. |
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LIGON, Richard. A true and exact history
of the Island of Barbados. London: For Humphrey Moseley, 1657. K. 3. 3 Richard Ligon arrived at Barbados via Cape Verde in 1647. On his arrival, which was only twenty years after the first settlement on the island, he noted 'that the great work of sugar-making was but newly practised by the inhabitants there.' By the time he departed, in 1650, he could report that 'this commodity, Sugar, hath gotten so much the start of all the rest of those, that were held the staple Commodities of the Island, and so much over-top't them, as they are for the most part slighted and neglected.' Ligon's map of Barbados which he included in this work is on the whole an accurate representation of the outline of the island, though he could give little of the inland detail (in fact much of the island was still covered in primaeval forest which made surveying of the hinterland almost impossible). The map shows the settlers' plantations which were strung along the west and south coasts. Land leased by Carlisle to a group of London merchants is indicated by the words 'the tenn Thousande Acres of Lande which Belongeth to the Merchants of London.' Dotted about the inland are figures of various animals, settlers (in full armour on horseback), servants (criminals and others, often sold for seven-year terms) and negro slaves. It is noteworthy that camels had been brought to the island to be used as beasts of burden. |
| EXQUEMELIN, Alexandre Olivier. Bucaniers
of America. London: William Crooke, 1684. BD4-e.15 The first three parts of this work were originally written in Dutch by Exquemelin and published in Amsterdam in 1678 under the title De americaensche Zeerovers. A Spanish translation appeared in 1681 and translations into other European languages followed each magnifying the deeds of its own national hero, sometimes at the expense of Exquemelin's text. It was from the Spanish translation and not the original Dutch that the English version was made. The author, a servant of the West India Company of France, was sold into slavery on Tortuga, the island on which the buccaneers had established themselves in the 1620's. He eventually managed to buy his freedom, but then found himself penniless: "... destitute, of all human necessaries, not knowing how to get my living, I determined to enter into the wicked order of the pirates, or robbers at sea". His intention in writing, this book is to "describe the famous actions and exploits, of the greatest pirates, of my time, during my residence in those parts... only those enterprises, unto which I was myself an eye witness." A large part of the narrative is taken up with the exploits of Henry Morgan, the Welsh buccaneer whose daring and ruthless raids on Spanish towns and garrisons in the Caribbean gave England a substantial amount of booty. In 1674 he was knighted and appointed Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. |
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NEANDER, Johann. Tabacologia. Leyden: Isaac Elzevir, 1626. Ag-b.18 The Tabacologia of Neander, a celebrated physician, consolidated much of the information (some of it inaccurate) provided by Liébault, Monardes, Gohory, De l'Escluse, Everard, and others. It is an intensive study of the subject but Neander frequently presents quotations from ancient writers as scientific evidence. As was common at the time Neander was opposed to the use of tobacco except medicinally. There is little that is new and original in this treatise, its value is rather in the accurate illustrations. Among these are the earliest representations known to us of American natives engaged in cultivating and curing tobacco. |
| WAFER, Lionel. A new voyage and
description of the isthmus of America. London: James Knapton, 1699. Spencer 48 The author was surgeon to various buccaneering voyages in Darien (a territory in south-east Panama), the West Indies, and the Pacific, from 1680 to 1688. This book is largely a record of a brief stay of some four months among the Darien Indians in 1681. Wafer returned to England in 1690. The last years of that decade saw the attempts to found a Scots colony in Darien for purposes of trade. Efforts to secure Wafer's participation in this venture proved unsuccessful. This volume is from a collection of contemporary pamphlets and manuscripts relating to the Darien Scheme which were presented to Glasgow University Library in 1931 by Mr J.J. Spencer. |
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TURNBULL, Robert. Autograph letter,
signed, to Colonel John Erskin. Dated 'America Fort St Andrew in Caledonia 11th Apryll 1699. Ms Gen 1685/6 Lieutenant Robert Turnbull arrived in Central America in November 1698 as a member of the original Scottish expedition to Darien. This letter, written to Colonel John Erskin, Governor of Stirling Castle, gives a glowing account of the resources of Darien. The letter is one of seventeen manuscripts from the Spencer Collection. It was published by Spencer with other Darien material in the Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 110 pp. 405, 406. |
| BRERETON, John. A briefe and true
relation of the discoverie of the north part of Virginia. London: Geor. Bishop, 1602. El.3.5(d) John Brereton was one of a group of thirty-two men who left Falmouth in March 1603 to make the first English attempt to settle in the land since called New England. The voyage was sanctioned by Sir Walter Raleigh who had an exclusive crown grant of the whole coast. The travellers reached Cape Cod in May. Here Brereton, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and three others went ashore, "being a white sandie and very bolde shore", the first spot in New England ever trodden by English feet. They set sail again and eventually reached the island of Cuttyhunk, which they named Elizabeth's Island and where they determined to settle; in nineteen days they built a fort and storehouse in an islet in the centre of a lake and began to trade with the natives in furs, skins and the sassafras plant. They sowed wheat, barley and peas, and in fourteen days the young plants had grown nine inches. The country was extremely fruitful, the climate pleasant, the natives friendly. Half of the company had intended to stay and settle, while the others returned home with the produce of the land and of their trading with the natives, but it was decided that twelve would be too small a number for colonisation, and the whole company sailed for England, leaving the island "with as many true sorrowfull eies, as were before desirous to see it." |
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ROSIER, James. A true relation of the
most prosperous voyage made this present yeere 1605, by Captaine George
Waymouth, in the discovery of the land of Virginia. London: Geor. Bishop, 1605. Cp.3.16(ii) Rosier sailed with Bartholomew Gosnold to New England in 1602, and again with George Weymouth in 1605. Brereton's Brief and true relation and this work have been termed "the verie two eyes of New-England historie". This is an account of Weymouth's voyage to the coast of Maine and the beginning of England's interest in that colony. The Virginia Company was formed in the following year. In his address to the reader Rosier tells of "some honourable gentlemen of good woorth and qualities and merchants of good sufficiency and judgement" who have undertaken to set up a colony in that part of the country. They have gained the approval of the King, but because matters are not definitely settled Rosier has omitted accurate geographical details "because some forrein nation (being fully assured of the fruitfulnesse of the countrie) have hoped hereby to gaine some knowledge of the place". |
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JOHNSON, Robert. Nova Britannia: offering
most excellent fruites by planting in Virginia. London: Samuel Macham, 1609. El.3.5(l) JOHNSON, Robert. The new life of Virginea... being the second part of Nova Britannia. London: Felix Kyngston for William Welby, 1612. El.3.5(k) Johnson's Nova Britannia is an appeal on behalf of the Virginia Company, written in the form of a discourse by one of a party of adventurers returned from Virginia and assembled in London. Its sequel, The new life of Virginia, published anonymously by the Council of Virginia three years later, is generally attributed to Johnson too. It was written with the object of stimulating immigration to Virginia. The arrival in 1610 of the first governor of the colony, Sir Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, had saved the colony from being abandoned as a hopeless venture. Thanks largely to his efforts, by 1612 when The new life of Virginia was published, the colony was beginning to flourish. It had grown to seven hundred inhabitants and had moved up river from Jamestown to a much more favourable site. |
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| HAMOR, Ralph. A true discourse of the
present estate of Virginia. London: John Beale for William Welby, 1615. El.3.5(p) Hamor’s Discourse brings the story of the Virginia Colony down to 18th June, 1614, and contains an account of the christening of Pocahontas and her marriage to John Rolfe. A letter by Rolfe at the end gives his reasons for marrying Pocahontas: "for the good of this plantation, for the honour of our countries for the glory of God, for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, an unbeleeving creature, namely Pokahuntas." According to Collier in his Rarest books, Hamor's object in writing this Discourse was "to give such an account of the condition of the colony of Virginia as should induce adventurers to embark their money, their persons, or both, in the undertaking." Certainly the colony was flourishing in the summer of 1614 and, especially by Rolfe's marriage, seemed likely to continue at peace with the Indians. |
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WATERHOUSE, Edward. A declaration of the
state of the colony and affaires in Virginia. With a relation of the
barbarous massacre … treacherously executed by the native infidels upon
the English. London: G. Eld for Robert Mylbourne, 1622. El.3.5(b) This Declaration was collected from "the relation of some of those that were beholders of that tragedy," and from the letters sent to the Virginia Company by Waterhouse, who was Secretary of the Virginia Company in 1621. It was written to correct wrong impressions and to encourage the enterprise, and gives an account of the massacre of 22nd March, 1622. The broadside inserted before the text is a list of requirements published by the Company before the massacre, in making preparations for the coming year. It gives a list of apparrell, victuall, armes, tooles and household implements, … which with cost of passage and frieght amounts to £20. As inducements to settlers it is stated that "Whosoever transports himselfe or any other at his owne charge unto Virginia, shall for each person so transported before Midsummer 1625 have to him and his heires forever fifty acres of land upon a first, and fifty acres upon a second division." |
| BONOEIL, John. His Majesties gracious
letter to the Earle of South-hampton ... commanding the present setting up
of silke works, and planting of vines in Virginia. London: Felix Kyngston, 1622. El.3.5(n) Efforts were early made in the Virginia Company to encourage the cultivation of silkworms. So great was the interest taken in the subject by the Virginia Company at home that in November, 1621, the Court recommended the translation and printing of the treatise on making silk written by Bonoeil, the French master of the king's silk-works at Oatland, that it might be sent to the governor, council, and colonists in Virginia. This is one of the earliest publications relating to that subject. The body of the work, which is taken up with Bonoeil's treatise on the art of making silk, is prefaced with the king's letter and that of the Earl of Southampton. Bonoeil says that several of his countrymen were then in Virginia, having been sent there by the Virginia Company, "to make silke and dresse vines". |
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| WILLIAMS, Edward. Virginia: more
especially the south part thereof, richly and truly valued. London: T.H. for John Stephenson, 1650. Cp.3.25 This is the second edition of Williams’s Virginia with the addition of his Discovery of silkworms. It shows the continued interest in the culture of silk. The woodcuts have been copied from Bonoeil's treatise. It is doubtful whether Williams ever visited the country he extols so highly. In the address to the reader in the first edition he acknowledges that "the whole substance of it ... was communicated to me by a gentleman of merit and quality ... Mr John Farrer of Geding Huntingdonshire." Certainly Williams appears ignorant of the geography of Virginia's coastline and this led him to formulate many schemes of advancement of which there was slight promise of fulfilment. The map of Virginia, drawn by John Farrer, does not belong with this copy. It was not engraved until the following year, and then for the third edition. |
| BULLOCK, William. Virginia impartially
examined. London: John Hammond, 1649. El.3.5(c) This was issued as a guide for prospective settlers and is a well-written prospectus, notwithstanding the fact that it was written in a week's time. Though a compilation, it is filled with valuable information. In his introduction Bullock admits that he was never in Virginia, and that his book was partly compiled from the works of Hariot, Lane, and Smith, and from discourses with sea-captains. Speaking of the brief time taken in its composition, he declares: "Had you given me more time, I should have been larger in your satisfaction, but this is what six nights could produce, which time you know is all I had; and of this, the recollecting and reading my ancient studies took up much: but what is done (upon examination) you'll find is clear and true." As it is, the work abounds with details of the colony of the highest value and interest; indeed, in this respect it is not surpassed by any other contemporary work. |
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SMITH, John. A description of New
England. London: Humfrey Lownes for Robert Clerke, 1616. Em.2.1(k) Smith returned to England in 1604 after eight years as a soldier of fortune on the continent. He invested in the Virginia Company and energetically promoted its plans to plant a colony in America. In 1606 as one of a party of 144 colonists he sailed to Virginia where he was named a member of the governing council. He immediately began to explore the region. In 1614 Smith sailed along the New England coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod in search of whales and mines of gold; the voyage yielded a valuable cargo of fish and furs. On a second voyage in 1615 Smith was captured by pirates, and then by the French. To employ his mind while at sea he wrote his Description of New England. The tract is significant because it coined the name of the region: "New England is that part of America in the Ocean Sea opposite to Nova Albyon [i.e. California] in the South Sea; discovered by the most memorable Sir Francis Drake in his voyage about the worlde." It was the first book to give the English public a favourable picture of the resources lying about the "countrie of the Massachusets, which is the paradise of all those parts." The last twenty years of his life were devoted largely to promoting the colonisation of New England. |
| A TRUE declaration of the estate of the
colonie in Virginia. London: William Barret, 1610. El.3.5(o) The first settlers to Virginia had arrived in the spring of 1607. The early years were hard ones - torn by strife within the Company and the colony, plagued by disease, hunger, lack of adequate shelter and clothing, polluted water, a climate to which they were unaccustomed, hostile Indians, homesickness and lack of experience in primitive surroundings, the colonists lived from one unfortunate experience to another. This tract was published by the Council of Virginia. It was written at a time when many were advocating the abandonment of the Virginia Colony, and is an earnest plea for its continuance. |
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SMITH, John. A sea grammar. London: John Haviland, 1627. Bk8-i.19 "This tract was a new departure in our literature being the first printed book on seamanship, naval gunnery, and of nautical terms; and was besides written by an army captain." (Arber in his reprint of Smith's works). Smith describes himself as a "miserable practitioner in this schoole of warre by sea and land more than thirty yeeres", he admits that many are better qualified than he to produce such a book, but "since I found none endeavourd it, I have adventured, encouraged by the good entertainment of my late printed Accidence." Smith's Sea grammar is in fact an enlarged edition of his Accidence … necessary for all young sea-men, published the year before. |
| MORTON, George. A relation or journall of
the beginning and proceedings of the English plantation setled at Plimoth
in new England. London: John Bellamie, 1622. Em.2.1(l) WINSLOW, Edward. Good newes from New England, London: I.D. for William Bladen and John Bellamie, 1624. Em.2.1(m) Morton's Relation is the first book published in Great Britain that gives an account of the planting of the Plymouth Colony, and the only contemporary account of the famous crossing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It is written in the form of a journal, beginning on 20th September, 1620, when the Pilgrims embarked from Plymouth in the Mayflower, and narrates the events of the first months of settlement. These first months were grim ones; the winter was mild, but the inexperienced settlers found it difficult to adjust to their new life and by April forty-four of the original hundred had died. Those that survived did so only because friendly Indians taught them to catch fish and plant corn. This book is generally known as Mourt's Relation from the name subscribed to the preface. Morton was not one of the Pilgrims, but a sympathizer of their venture. The information came to him in letters sent on the returning Mayflower by William Bradford and Edward Winslow, and was probably not intended for publication. Edward Winslow's Good newes was published two years later and continues the story to 23rd September, 1623 when Winslow sailed for England where he served briefly as agent for the colony before returning to take a leading part in the colony's affairs. Winslow refers the reader to Morton's book which he says was "gathered by the inhabitants of this present plantation at Plimouth in New-England". |
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| WOOD, William. New Englands prospect. London: Tho. Cotes for John Bellamie, 1634. Cp.3.4 Wood had been living in New England for four years when he wrote his Prospect as a reply to the "many scandalous and false reports past upon the country". It is the first detailed account of Massachusetts with a topographical description of the colony and notes on its flora and fauna. The map is fuller and more correct than any previous one. The second part of the narrative deals with the customs of the Indians. It is written "in a more light and facetious stile, than the former; because their carriage and behaviour hath afforded more matter of mirth, and laughter, than gravity and wisedome". An Indian vocabulary or "nomenclature" of about 265 words is placed at the end. This vocabulary is earlier than the works on Indian languages by Roger Williams and John Eliot, although it is possible that Wood had help from both these men. |
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MORTON, Thomas. New English Canaan. Amsterdam: Jacob Frederick Stam, 1637. Cp.3.9 Thomas Morton was a British trader and adventurer who first came to New England in 1622. He returned in 1625 with Captain Wallaston to help found Mount Wallaston (now Quincy) in Massachusetts. Morton was no puritan, and his uninhibited practices shocked the neighbouring colonists. When he violated the frontier code by conducting a rum-and-gun-running house to attract the Indian fur trade, they took action. Plymouth was the nearest settlement, so in 1623 Ilyles Standish assumed the community task of arresting Horton. After a comic opera skirmish Morton was packed off to England. He returned a year later and again was forced to go back to England where he was jailed. His diverting New English Canaan (which had to be published in Amsterdam) tells his side of the story and satirizes Myles Standish as "Captain Shrimp". The side-light which he throws on the Pilgrim and Puritan colonies is an amusing one, but his book is more than a satire on the Plymouth and Massachusetts people; his description of the natural features of the country, and his account of the native inhabitants are of considerable interest and value. |
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CASTELL, William. A petition Of W.C. ...
for the propagating of the gospel in America, and the West Indies. [London] 1641. Bi4-h.14 CASTELL, William. A short discoverie of the coasts and continent of America. London, 1644. Em.2.1(c) Castell's Petition is an excessively rare tract; in it we find the embryo idea or suggestion that Parliament should recognize the benefits to be derived by the colonies from cultivating the friendship of the Indians, and converting them to Christianity, and by such means preserving them, together with the colonies, from the expected rapacity of the Spaniards, who were still claiming hereditary rights over the whole of America, by reason of the Pope's grant. There is no doubt that this petition caused widespread interest to be taken in the welfare of the plantations, so much so that shortly after the appearance of the tract New England's first fruits in 1643, an ordinance was issued by Parliament appointing Robert, Earl of Warwick Governour Chief of all the plantations in America, with "a committee of [Lords and Commons] to be assisting unto him, for the better governing, strengthning, and preservation of the said plantations; but chiefly for the advancement of the gospell of Christ amoung those that yet remaine there in great and miserable blindnesse and ignorance." The Petition and the Ordinance are reprinted in Castell's Short discoverie, printed in 1644. At the end of this work the author promises "another booke" with "the southerne description of America", which never appeared. |
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| JOHNSON, Edward. A history of
New-England. London: Nath. Brooke, 1654. Cp.3.10 Johnson emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and in 1642 became the founder of Woburn. His History better known from its running-title, Wonder-working Providence of Sion's saviour, in New England, is the earliest general history of the Bay colony. It is supposed to have been written two or three years before its publication, and contains many facts relative to the history of the colony, although its composition and arrangement are bad. His attitude to the history of the colony is coloured by his Puritan beliefs: the New England leaders were servants of Christ and the settlements had prospered because Christ's soldiers were advancing against the wilderness and its pagans. |
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GORGES, Sir Ferdinando. America painted
to the life. London: Nath. Brook 1659. K.7.7 When George Weymouth returned from his voyage to the north-west in 1605 he brought with him five North American natives. Gorges undertook the charge of three of these Indians, who, in time, as they learned English, described to him their country, its climate, its rivers and its harbours, with which they had an intelligent acquaintance. From their stories stemmed Gorges's desire to colonize the country of which he had heard so much, and during the following years he backed many expeditions for discovery or settlement though with little success. Despite this, the actual colonisation of New England owes much to his efforts. His America painted to the life is a series of pamphlets edited by his grandson, Ferdinando, and published after his death. One of these, A briefe narration, is Johnson's History of New-England, better known as Wonder-working Providence of Sion's saviour. with a new title page and introduction. Gorges has been blamed for passing Johnson's work off as his own, but in fact the fault lies with the publisher, Nathaniel Brooke, who some four years earlier had published Johnson's work. This had been slow in selling and he was left with a number of copies. When he came to publish Gorges's book he took the opportunity of working in and off his dead stock. When Ferdinando Gorges discovered this he inserted in the Mercurius Publicus of 13th September, 1660, the following advertisement: "I Ferdinando Gorges, the entituled author of a late book, called America painted to the life, am injured in that additional part, called Sion's saviour in New England, (as written by Sir Ferdinando Gorges;) that being none of his, and formerly printed in another name, the true owner." |
| MATHER, Increase. A brief history of the
war with the Indians in New-England. London: Richard Chiswell, 1676. Cp.3.6(2) This is a history of King Philip's War, the most devastating period of hostilities in the entire history of New England. It began when the Mohawk nation of the Iroquois Confederacy took action against the English settlements which had been established in the interior. It was in fact a war of survival, for the Indians, as well as the colonists. The Indians, who were by now skilled in the use of firearms, attacked frontier villages and destroyed crops and cattle with the intent of recovering a region they believed had originally only been "loaned" to the white man. But the Indians were not united, while the settlers had organized the New England Confederacy. Gradually the tough, disciplined militia, aided by Praying Indians, broke up the hostile Indian concentrations. King Philip was the English name of Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag. When he was betrayed and killed by another Indian in 1676, the power of the Indians in southern New England was permanently broken. Mather wrote this pamphlet in answer to Wharton's New England's present sufferings. Wharton, "a Quaker in Road-Island, who pretends to know the truth of things", had claimed that the Indian war was in divine retribution for the suffering which the Quakers had endured at the hands of the Puritans. |
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HUBBARD, William, The Present State of
New England. Being a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians. London: Tho. Parkhurst, 1677. BD1-d.39 William Hubbard was born in England and went to America with his father in 1635. He was a member of the first class to graduate from Harvard in 1642, after which he settled as minister at Ipswich. He was distinguished in an age and country of bigots, for his liberality, moderation, and piety; and his narrative, an account of King Philip's war, has always been regarded as authoritative by historians. One of his contemporaries, Increase Mather, thought less well of it. His Brief history of the war was probably passing through the press of John Foster at Boston at the same time as Hubbard's treatise. In his preface Mather asserts: "This following relation was written neer upon a year ago; since which a reverend author has emitted a narrative of the troubles which happened by the Indian ... nevertheless ... most of the things here insisted on, are not so much as once taken notice of in that narrative." This is a reprint of the Boston edition of the same year. The map, which was specially cut for the work by the printer, John Foster, and is the earliest instance of such work done in the English colonies, was re-engraved for the English edition and Contains several errors in the names of places. The White Hills in new Hampshire, for example, are here called the Wine Hills. |
| A LETTER from New-England concerning
their customs, manners, and religion. Written upon occasion of a report
about a quo warranto brought against that government. London: Randolph Taylor, 1682. Em.2.1(u) Edward Randolph, a British commercial agent, was sent in 1676 by the Lords of Trade to Boston to investigate the colony's conformity with established laws. His denunciatory reports, though biased by his disapproval of Puritans in general, were based on fact, and they pointed the way to the annulment of the Massachusetts charter in 1684. This letter appears to be addressed to him and is signed J.W. There were several J.W.'s among his friends; it is not known which of these the writer of this pamphlet was. It is a most extraordinary letter, written in a free, flowing, gossiping style. Its tone is anything but complimentary to the Bostonians, especially those belonging to the independent church. The writer says of the people that "Messalina was chaste in comparison of their lewd and repeated fornications and adulteries. For lying and cheating, they outvie Judas, and all the false merchants in hell; and the worst of drunkards may here find pot-companions enough, for all their pretences to sobriety. In a word, no sect of men upon the face of the earth are so unmannerly, in their outward disclaiming against vices in particular, and more punctual in the practice of all in general." He then proceeds to relate in detail particular instances to substantiate his claims, giving in every case the initials of the people involved. |
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MATHER, Increase. A narrative of the
miseries of New England. [London: 1688]. Cp.3.6(10) This paper, written by Increase Mather, relates to the attempt to take away from the New England colonies by Quo warranto and other proceedings the "antient rights and priviledges" which they had enjoyed under their charters. Complaint is made of the arbitrary acts of Sir Edmund Andros, recently created vice-regent of the Dominion of New England. Although he took care not to interfere with the churches, schools and the college of the Puritan commonwealth, his exercise of his new authority made him unpopular. When the colonists learned in April, 1689, that William of Orange had succeeded James II they deposed and arrested Andros in a local "glorious revolution". Mather's paper contains a copy of the petition to the King (probably drawn up by Mather) of John Gibson, aged 87, and George Willow, aged about 86, on behalf of their neighbours, the inhabitants of Cambridge, asking for relief. |
| MATHER, Cotton. Memorable providences,
relating to witchcrafts and possessions. Edinburgh: Heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1697. Ag-f.33 Cotton Mather was the eldest son of Increase Mather and grandson of John Cotton. He entered Harvard College at the age of twelve and became a master of many languages, including Iroquois. He succeeded his father as minister at Boston and was a leading spirit in civil as well as ecclesiastical matters and probably the most prominent citizen in New England at that time. His literary output was prodigious - 383 publications of which this is perhaps the most interesting, although it does little credit either to his understanding or his charity. It is a remarkable account of the strange witchcrafts and possessions in New England and especially of the occurrences which befell the Goodwin children, who, when under the influence of the witches, could read Quaker books, but not the Bible. Mather's Memorable Providences first published at Boston in 1689, is rare in any condition, and the Edinburgh reprint, of which this is a copy, is less frequently met with. |
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WHITFIELD, Henry. The light appearing
more and more towards the perfect day. London: T.R. and E.M. for John Bartlet, 1651. in Cp.3.7 This is the fifth of John Eliot's Indian tracts, a series of eleven narratives, issued in small quarto form between 1643 and 1671 by John Eliot and others and printed at London. Eliot laid out his Indian town at Natick in 1650 and sent an account of it to England. The Reverend Henry Whitfield, pastor of the church at Guilford, Connecticut, who had returned to England in 1650, prepared it for publication under the above title. It contains five long letters written by Eliot during 1649 and 1650 and a letter from Thomas Mayhew in which he gives an account of the progress of the gospel among the Indians. In the epistle dedicatory Whitfield thanks Parliament for its support in passing in 1649 the act which created the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians in New England. By it the Commissioners of the United Colonies were made its agents as long as the union of the colonies lasted, and Contributions were soon raised and forwarded to them for the furtherance of the work among the natives whom Whitfield describes as "poor wild creatures, multitudes of them being under the power of Satan, and going up and downe with the chains of darknesse ratling at their heels." |
| LESCARBOT, Marc. Nova Francia. London: Andrew Hebb, [1609]. BD1-e.13 Lescarbot's Histoire de la nouvelle France, first published at Paris in 1608, is an important and reliable work on the early French settlements in Canada. Lescarbot sailed with Poutrincourt from Rochelle in May, and arrived at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in July, 1606. He spent a year with Sieur de Monts, and when the latter's privilege was revoked, re-embarked for France, where he arrived in October 1607. This is a translation of his Histoire, from the thirty-first chapter of the second book to the end of the third and last. It was undertaken at the suggestion of Hakluyt by Pierre Erondelle, a native of Normandy, who was a French schoolmaster in London and afterwards a stockholder in the Virginia Company. It contains much the best portion of Lescarbot's work, and is faithfully translated, even the very elaborate headings of the chanters being retained. Two issues of this work were printed in English in 1609, one published by George Bishop, the other by Andrew Hebb. Both are identical apart from the title pages. The map which is sometimes found in the two issues does not properly belong with them, but is inserted from the French edition. |
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PLANTAGENET, Beauchamp. A description of
the province of New Albion. [London] , 1648. El.3.5(f) New Albion, granted to Sir Edmund Plowden and his associates in 1634, comprised all that portion of territory now included in the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, embraced in a square, the east side of which, forty leagues in length, extended along the coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May, together with Long Island and all other "isles and islands in the sea within ten leagues of the shores of the said region". This grant was rendered ineffective by Charles II's grant to his brother, the Duke of York, in 1664. The third chapter is a reprint of Robert Evelyn's A direction for adventurers, printed in 1641. On the last page the printer has left a blank space between lines 12 and 13, to be filled in with the names of different places to which "adventurers" should report. In this copy the place named is : "Mr Foys against Newingate neere St Clemen London". |
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PENN, William. A
further account of the province of Pennsylvania. |
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HENNEPIN, Louis. A
new discovery of a vast country in America, extending above four thousand
miles, between New France and New Mexico. |
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THEVENOT,
Melchisédech. Recueil de voyages de Mr Thevenot. |
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