THE ISLE OF PINES

By Henry Neville

1668

An Essay in Bibliography

by WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD

Boston

The Club of Odd Volumes 1920

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE CLUB OF ODD VOLUMES




TO

Charles Lemuel Nichols

lover of books

colleague

FRIEND



ETEXT TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Numbers enclosed in double curly brackets are
the page numbers of the original 1668 edition.

The long S in the text files have been changed to the ordinary small S,
however the accompanying html file uses the unicode character for the
long S as in the original printed document. DW




Contents:

THE ISLE OF PINES

THE DOWSE COPIES

THE EUROPEAN EDITIONS

DUTCH EDITIONS

FRENCH EDITIONS

ITALIAN EDITION

GERMAN EDITIONS

THE S.G. NOT A CAMBRIDGE IMPRINT

THE COMBINED PARTS

THE PUBLISHERS

NOT AN AMERICAN ITEM

THE AUTHOR

THE STORY

INTERPRETATIONS

DEFOE AND THE "ISLE OF PINES"

THE ISLE OF PINES, The combined Parts as issued in 1668




PREFATORY NOTE

My curiosity on the "Isle of Pines" was aroused by the sale of a copy in
London and New York in 1917, and was increased by the discovery of two
distinct issues in the Dowse Library, in the Massachusetts Historical
Society. As my material grew in bulk and the history of this hoax
perpetrated in the seventeenth century developed, I thought it of
sufficient interest to communicate an outline of the story to the
Club of Odd Volumes, of Boston, October 23, 1918. The results of my
investigations are more fully given in the present volume. I acknowledge
my indebtedness to the essay of Max Hippe, "Eine vor-De-foesche
Englische Robinsonade," published in Eugen Kölbing's "Englische Studien"
xix. 66. WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD

Boston, February, 1920




THE ISLE OF PINES

OR,

A late Discovery of a fourth ISLAND in Terra Australis, Incognita.

BEING

A True Relation of certain English persons, Who in the dayes of Queen
Elizabeth making a Voyage to the East India, were cast-away, and wracked
on the Island near to the Coast of Australis, and all drowned, except
one Man and four Women, whereof one was a Negro. And now lately Ann Dom.
1667, A Dutch Ship driven by foul weather there, by chance have found
their Posterity (speaking good English) to amount to ten or twelve
thousand persons, as they suppose. The whole Relation follows, written,
and left by the Man himself a little before his death, and declared to
the Dutch by His Grandchild.




THE ISLE OF PINES

[3]The scene opens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the year 1668, where
in one of the college buildings a contest between two rival printers had
been waged for some years. Marmaduke Johnson, a trained and experienced
printer, to whose ability the Indian Bible is largely due, had ceased to
be the printer of the corporation, or Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in New England, but still had a press and, what was better, a
fresh outfit of type, sent over by the corporation and entrusted to the
keeping of John Eliot, the Apostle. Samuel Green had become a printer,
though without previous training, and was at this time printer to the
college, a position of vantage against a rival, because it must have
carried with it countenance from the authorities in Boston, and public
printing then as now constituted an item to a press of some income
and some perquisites. By seeking to marry Green's daughter before his
English wife had ceased to be, Johnson had created a prejudice, public
as well as private, against himself.{1}

     1 Mass. Hist Soc. Proceedings, xx. 265.

Each wished to set up a press in Boston itself, but the General Court,
probably for police reasons, had ordered that there should be no
printing but at Cambridge, and that what was printed there should be
approved by any two of four gentlemen appointed by the Court. It thus
appeared that each printer possessed a certain superiority over his
rival. In the matter of types Johnson was favored, as he had new
types and was a trained printer; but these advantages were partially
[4]neutralized by indolence and by Green's better standing before the
magistrates.{1}

In England the excesses of the printing-press during the civil war
and commonwealth led to a somewhat strict though erratically applied
censorship under the restoration. A publication must be licensed,
and the Company of Stationers still sought, for reasons of profit, to
control printers by regulating their production. The licensing agent in
chief was a character of picturesque uncertainty and spasmodic action,
Roger L'Estrange, half fanatic, half politician, half hack writer,
in fact half in many respects and whole only in the resulting
contradictions of purpose and performance. On one point he was strong--a
desire to suppress unlicensed printing. So when in 1668 warrant was
given to him to make search for unauthorized printing, he entered into
the hunt with the zeal of a Loyola and the wishes of a Torquemada,
harrying and rushing his prey and breathing threats of extreme rigor
of fine, prison, pillory, and stake against the unfortunates who had
neglected, in most cases because of the cost, to obtain the stamp of the
licenser.{2}

New England was at this time England in little, with troubles of its
own; but, having imitated the mother country in introducing supervision
of the press, it also started in to investigate the printers of the
colony, two in number, seeking to win a smile of approval from the
foolish man on the throne. With due solemnity the inquisition was
[5]made. Green could show that all then passing through his press had
been properly licensed.

     1  See the chapters on Green and Johnson in Littlefield,
     The Early Massachusetts Press, 197, 209.

     2  L'Estrange was called the "Devil's blood hound." Col. S.
     P., Dom. 1663-1664, 616.

Johnson, less fortunate, was caught with one unlicensed piece--"The Isle
of Pines." A fine of five pounds was imposed upon him, as effectual in
suppressing him as though it had been one of five thousand pounds. He
could now turn with relish to two books then on his press, "Meditations
on Death and Eternity" and the "Righteous Man's Evidence for Heaven;"
for Massachusetts Bay, with its then powerful rule of divinity without
religion, or religion without mercy, held out small hope of his meeting
such a fine within the expedition of his natural life. But he made his
submission, petitioned the General Court in properly repentant language,
acknowledged his fault, his crime, and promised amendment{1} The fine
was not collected, and the principal result of the incident was to
further the very natural union of Johnson and Green, but with Johnson as
the lesser member in importance.

No copy of Marmaduke Johnson's issue of the "Isle of Pines" has come
to light in a period of 248 years. It might well be supposed that
the authorities caught him before the tract had gone to press, and so
snuffed it out completely. Our sapient bibliographers have dismissed the
matter in rounded phrase: "'The Isle of Pines' was a small pamphlet
of the Baron Munchausen order, which in its day passed through several
editions in England and on the Continent,"{2} a description which would
fit a hundred titles of the period. In July, 1917, Sotheby announced the
sale of a portion of the Americana collected by [6]"Bishop White Kennett
(1660-1728) and given by him to the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts."

     1  The petition it in Littlefield, i. 248.

     2  Mats. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, xi. 247.

Lot No. 113 was described as follows:

[Neville (Henry)] The Isle of Pines, or a late Discovery of a fourth
Island in Terra Australis, Incognita, being a True Relation of certain
English persons who in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth, making a Voyage to
the East Indies, were cast away and wracked upon the Island, wanting the
frontispiece, head-line of title and some pagination cut into, Bishop
Kenneths signature on title. sm. 4to S. G. for Allen Banks, 1668.

The pamphlet was sold, I am told, for fourteen shillings,{1} and resold
shortly after to a New York bookseller for fifty-five dollars. He was
attracted by the imprint, which read in full, "London, by S. G. for
Allen Banks and Charles Harper at the Flower-Deluice near Cripplegate
Church." The general appearance of the pamphlet was unlike even the
moderately good issues of the English press, and the "by S. G." not only
did not answer to any London printer of the day, except Sarah Griffin,
"a printer in the Old Bailey,"{2} but was in form and usage exactly what
could be found on a number of the issues of the press of Samuel Green,
of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

     1 The sale took place July 30, 1917.

     2  Only once does her name occur in the Term Catalogues,
     when in February, 1673, the prints George Buchanan'
     Psalmorum Davidis Paraphrasis Poetica, which told for two
     shillings a copy. Samuel Gellibrand was not a printer but a
     bookseller, with a shop "at the Ball in St. Paul's
     Churchyard."

On comparing the first page of the text of his purchase with the same
page of an acknowledged London issue of the "Isle of Pines" [7]in the
John Carter Brown Library,{1} the bookseller concluded that the two were
entirely different publications.

An expert cataloguer connected with one of the large auction firms of
New York then took up the subject. After a study of the tract he
became assured that it could only have been printed by Samuel Green,
of Cambridge, and he brought forward facts and comparisons which seemed
conclusive and for which he deserves much credit. It was a clever bit of
bibliographical work. With such an endorsement as to rarity and
quality the pamphlet was again put to the test of the auction room. The
cataloguer stated his case in sufficient fulness of detail and the
first page of the text was reproduced.{2} Naturally the discovery sent
a little thrill through the mad-house of bibliography. The tract was
knocked down for $400 to a bookseller from Hartford, Connecticut,
presumably for some local collection. The incident would have passed
from memory had it not been for one of those accidents to which even the
amateur bibliographer is liable.

     1  No. 5 in the Bibliography, page 93, infra.

     2  Nuggets of American History, American Art Association,
     November 19, 1917. The Isle of Pines was lot 142, and was
     introduced by the words, "Cambridge Press in New England."
     The catalogue was prepared by Mr. F. W. Coar.

In the bitter days of the winter of 1917-18 the working force of the
Massachusetts Historical Society was contracted into one room--the
Dowse Library--where was at least a semblance [8]of warmth in the open
fireplace.




THE DOWSE COPIES

One afternoon, when I had finished my work and the others had left, I
picked up the catalogue of the Dowse Library and began idly to turn over
its leaves. Incidentally, that catalogue is characteristic of the older
methods of the Society. As is known to the elect, no book in the Dowse
Library can ever leave the room in which it now rests, and of the
catalogue twenty-five copies were printed and never circulated. If the
library had been left in the Dowse house in Cambridgeport, its existence
and contents could not have been more successfully hidden from the
world. While reading the titles in a very casual way, my eye was caught
by one which gave me a start. It read:

Sloetten (Cornelius van). The Isle of Pines; or a Late Discovery of a
Fourth Island in Terra Australis Incognita. London, printed by G. S.
for Allen Banks, 1668. With a New and Further Discovery of the Isle of
Pines, 1668; and a duplicate of the Isle of Pines. 1 vol. small 4to,
calf supr., gilt leaves. A most interesting, rare, and valuable work.

Even against the Editor of the Society the Dowse books are kept behind
lock and key, though he is not under more than ordinary suspicion. So
I was obliged to wait till the next day before my curiosity could be
satisfied. I then found a thin volume, less than one-third of an inch
in thickness, containing two copies of this very tract which the auction
expert had identified as an issue of the "Isle of Pines" by Green, and
a London issue of a second part of the "Isle of Pines," with the name of
Cornelius Van Sloetten, as author. For more than fifty years this little
volume had reposed in this well-known yet almost forgotten [9]library,
and no one had suspected or questioned the nature of its contents.

For full fifty years it had been in the care and at the call of Dr.
Samuel A. Green, who claimed to be an expert on New England imprints of
the seventeenth century, and one of the great wishes of whose life had
been to establish his descent from this very printer, Samuel Green. Two
copies within the same covers, of a tract long sought and of which only
a single example had come to light in two centuries and a half--was not
that alone something of a bibliographical coup?

I read two of the pieces--one of the Green issues and the second part as
printed in England--making a few notes for future use. On returning to
the matter some weeks later I found to my annoyance that every reference
to the Green tract but one was wrong as to the page. Cold, haste, or
weariness will account for a single or possibly two errors of reference,
but to have a whole series--except one--go wrong pointed to failing eyes
or mind. Very much put out, I read the tract a second time and corrected
the page references, carefully checking up the result. Some days after I
again took up the matter, and in verifying my first quotation found that
I had again put down the wrong page number, and was surprised to find
that the correct page was the one I had first given. This proved to
be the case in all the references--except one. A book which could thus
change its page numbering from week to week was bewitched--or I was
careless. It occurred to me to compare the two copies of the tract as
published by Green. The title-pages were exactly alike--not differing by
so much as a fly speck, but one copy contained ten pages of text and the
other only nine.

More [10]than that, the general style and the types were quite different
One was printed in a well-known broad but somewhat used type, such as
could be seen in Green's printing, and the other in a finer font with
much italic. There was no possibility of confusing the two issues. Only
one conclusion was possible. I had in this volume the publication by
Green, and the original issue by Marmaduke Johnson, but with Green's
title-page. So for we seem to rest upon solid ground. It may be surmised
that Green set up his "Isle of Pines" in rivalry to Johnson, but did not
incur the discipline of the authorities; or that he had set it up and
also took over Johnson's edition, using his own title-page; and in
either case it is possible that a simple subterfuge, the imprint, "by
S. G. for Allen Banks and Charles Harper," a London combination of
publishers, caused the tract to escape the attention of the examining
local censors. Here was another step in developing the history of
this tract--the discovery of one of Johnson's issues, except for the
title-page. So far as the American connection is concerned, it only
remains to discover a Johnson issue with a Johnson title-page, for in
his apology and submission to the General Court he states that he had
"affixed" his name to the pamphlet.




THE EUROPEAN EDITIONS

The European connection is also not without interest, for the skit--the
first part of the "Isle of Pines," published without name of author--had
an extraordinary run.

In 1493 a little [11]four-leaved translation into Latin of a Columbus
letter announcing the discovery of islands in the west--De insulis nuper
inventis--ran over Europe, startling the age by a simple relation which
proved a marvellous tale as taken up by Vespuccius, Cortes, and a host
of successors.{1} For a century the darkness of a new found continent
slowly lifted and the record was collected in Ramusio, in De Bry, in
Hulsius, and in Hakluyt, never felling treasuries of the wonderful,
veritable schools for the adventurous. Another century had shown that,
so fer from decreasing in greatness and in opportunities, the field of
discovery had not begun to be tested, and in the summer of 1668 a new
island--the Isle of Pines--was flashed before the London crowd, and
proved that the flame of quest with danger was still burning. A new
island! The interest was international, for nations had already long
fought over the old discovered lands.

     1  The intelligent industry of Mr. Wilberforce Eames has
     identified eleven issues of the letter of Columbus, printed
     in 1493, in Barcelona, Rome, Basle, Paris, and Antwerp; and
     twelve issues of the Novus Mundus of Vespucci us, printed
     in 1504, in Augsburg, Paris, Nuremberg, Cologne, Antwerp,
     and Venice. An earlier and even more extraordinary
     distribution of a letter of news is that of the letter
     purporting to be addressed by Prester John to the Emperor
     Manuel, which circulated through Europe about 1165. "How
     great was the popularity and diffusion of this letter,"
     writes Sir Henry Yule, "may be judged in some degree from
     the fad that Zarncke in his treatise on Prester John gives a
     list of close on 100 mss. of it Of these there are eight in
     the British Museum, ten at Vienna, thirteen in the great
     Paris Library, and fifteen at Munich. There are also several
     renderings in old German verse." The cause of this
     popularity was the hope offered by the reported exploits of
     Prester John of a counterpoise to the Mohammedan power.
     Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., xxii. 305.

An even greater contest was being waged for commerce, and with the
experience of Spain in gathering the precious metals [12]from new
found lands, every discovery of hitherto uncharted territory opened
the possibility of wealth and an exchange of commodities, if rapine
and piracy could not be practised. The merchant was an adventurer, and
politics, quite as much as trade, controlled his movements; for the line
between trader, buccaneer, and pirate faded away before conditions which
made treaties of no importance and peaceful relations dependent upon an
absence of the hope of gain. A state of war was not necessary to prepare
the way for attack and plunder in those far distant oceans, and the
merchantman sailed armed and ready to inflict as well as to repel
aggression, only too willing to descend upon a weaker vessel or a
helpless settlement of a power which had come to be regarded as a
"natural enemy." So in Holland and in Germany the leaflets containing
the story of the Isle of Pines were received with mingled feelings,
exciting a desire to share in the possible benefits to be gained or
extorted from natives of the new lands, or from those who had the first
opportunity to exploit a virgin territory. On the first receipt of those
leaflets merchants held back their vessels about to sail, to await
more definite information on this fourth island of the Terra Australis
incognita.

[13]An examination of the known issues of the tract proves this interest
and offers an almost unique study in bibliography; for I doubt if any
publication made in the second half of the seventeenth century--even
a state paper of importance, as a treaty--attained such speedy and
widespread recognition. A list of the various issues will be found in
an appendix: it only remains to call attention to a few of the many
novelties and variant characteristics of the editions.




DUTCH EDITIONS

In June and July, 1668, four tracts on the Isle of Pines from the same
pen were licensed and published in London, which may for convenience
be designated the first and second parts of the narrative, and the two
parts in continuation. From London the tract soon passed to Holland,
which had ever been a greedy consumer of voyages of discovery, for the
greatness of that nation depended upon the sea, at once its most potent
enemy and friend.{1} Three Dutch editions have been found, the earliest
in point of time being that made by Jacob Vinckel, [14]of Amsterdam.

     1 Holland was the centre of map publication as the twenty
     yean before 1668 saw the issue of atlases by Jansson, Blaeu,
     Mercator, Doncker, Cellarius, Loon, Visscher, and Goos, all
     published at Amsterdam. Phillips' list for this period gives
     atlases published elsewhere--those of Boissevin (Paris,
     1653), Lubin (Paris, 1659), Nicolosi (Rome, 1660), Dudley
     (Florence, 1661), Du Val (Paris, 1662), Jollain (Paris
     1667), Cluver (Wolfen-bûttel, 1667?) and Ortelius (Venice,
     1667).

His second title is an exact translation of the second title of the
London first part. This version, however, omitted an essential part of
the relation. The London second title is also that of the issue made at
Amsterdam by Jacob Stichter, being the Vinckel version, word for word,
and almost line for line, but the type used is the gothic, and the
spelling of words is not the same. Further, Stichter was possessed of
some imagination and decorated his title-page with a map of a part of
the island, showing ranges of hills, a harbor or mouth of a river, with
conventional soundings, and two towns or settlements. As each of these
issues contains only eight pages of text, the first London part only was
known to the publishers. The third Dutch edition was put out by Joannes
Naeranus, at Rotterdam, and in a foreword he gives the following reason
for issuing the tract:

To the Reader A part of the present relation is also printed by Jacob
Vinckel at Amsterdam, being defective in omitting one of the
principal things, so do we give here a true copy which was sent to us
authoritatively out of England, but in that language, in order that the
curious reader may not be deceived by the poor translation, and for
that reason this very astonishing history fall under suspicion. Lastly,
admire God's wondrous guidance, and farewell.

His publication contains twenty pages of text, and is not an accurate
translation of the English tract in parts, but rather a paraphrase of
the text. To make the confusion the greater, he [15]expressly states on
the title-page that he used a copy received from London, and gives the
London imprint which will fit only the first London part. For "by S. G."
appears only on the title-page of that part.




FRENCH EDITIONS

From Amsterdam and under date July 19, 1668, a summary of the earlier
Dutch issue with two paragraphs of introduction was sent to Paris, and
was printed in a four-page pamphlet by Sébastien Marbre Cramoisy, the
king's printer, whose name is so honorably connected with the Jesuit
Relations--stories as remarkable as any offered in the "Isle of Pines"
and of immeasurable value on the earliest years of recorded history
in our New England. Even this summary, thus definitely dated, offers
problems. The location of the island is given in general terms in
the half-title as "below the equinoctial line," and in the text as in
"xxviii or xxix degrees of Antartique latitude." Nowhere in the first
London part is either location used, and in the second London part,
which bears nearly the same date as the Cramoisy summary--July
22--twenty degrees of latitude is given. The writer of the summary thus
allowed himself some freedom.

A second French edition, without imprint, contains eleven pages and is
a translation of the first London part, paraphrased in sentences, but
on the whole a close rendering of the English text There never was
a title-page to this issue--the first page having the signature-mark
A--yet with eleven pages only, it [16]would seem fit that a title-page
should round out the twelve for the convenience of printing.




ITALIAN EDITION

The Italian issue, made by Giacomo Didini, in Bologna and Venice, is a
literal translation of Cramoisy's publication, and bears the same date,
at Amsterdam, July 19, 1668. The original probably came from Paris,
though it is possible that some Dutch merchant in Amsterdam sent a
circular letter on the discovered Isle to his correspondents in Paris
and Venice. It is unsafe to conjecture in such matters, for an Amsterdam
issue may yet be found which will give, word for word, the French and
Italian versions. Our ignorance on the press of the continent of those
times, and especially the want of files of "corantos," or news sheets,
close a wide field of research to the American inquirer. The catalogue
of the British Museum gives 1669 as the probable year of issue. I see no
good reason for rejecting 1668 as the more probable year. If the tract
could go from London to Cambridge, in New England, in three months, it
could pass from Amsterdam to Italy, by land or by sea, in an equal time.




GERMAN EDITIONS

From Holland the relation also penetrated the German states, finding
ready welcome and arousing eager curiosity. Hippe regards the tract
issued by Wilhelm Serlin, at Frankfort on the Main, as the first of the
German publications, and, being translated [17]from the Dutch, he
shows that the translator used both the Amsterdam and the Rotterdam
publications.{1} The Hamburg version claimed to be derived from the
English original, but it followed closely the Serlin translation from
the Dutch with modifications which might have been drawn from the
London tract. An edition not mentioned by Hippe or identified by any
bibliographer is in the John Carter Brown Library, and opens with the
statement that it is translated from the English and not from the Dutch.
It closely follows the text of the London first part. Very likely it is
the edition found at Copenhagen, if the similarity of titles offers an
indication of the contents. South Germany obtained its information from
France, and while neither of the two issues avowedly translated from the
French gives the place of publication, the fact that one is in Munich
and the other in Strassburg offers some reason to conjecture that they
came from the presses of those cities. The Munich issue is for the most
part a summary of what was in the first London issue, and, if translated
directly from a French version, must have been from one not now located,
for it is different from those in the list in this volume. Of the
Strassburg text, Hippe states that it follows the Rotterdam pamphlet
Finally, at Breslau is what calls itself a complete publication of the
combined parts from a copy obtained from London, but it is more probably
based upon the Dutch translations printed in Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
with additions drawn from the English.{2}

     1  Hippe, 11.

     2  On these German issues Hippe is full, but I have given
     only what is needed to identify them.

[18]One of the strangest uses made of the narrative of Pine is to be
found in Schoeben's translation into German of Jan Mocquet's "Voyages en
Africque," etc., a work of some estimation which had already twice been
published in France and once in a Dutch translation before Schoeben
printed his edition in 1688. As pages inserted quite arbitrarily
in Mocquets compilation, Schoeben gave Pine's story in full, with a
paragraph of introduction which not a little abuses the truth while
giving an additional color of truth. He asserted that while kept at
Lisbon by the Dutch blockade, he was thrown much in the company of an
Englishman, one of the Pine family, who were all regarded as notable
seamen. From this man, then awaiting an opportunity to sail for the
West Indies, our author heard a very strange story of the origin of the
Pines, a story then quite notorious at Lisbon. Then follows, with some
embroidery, a version of the Neville pamphlet, which is not like any
German translation seen by me, but so full as to extend over ten pages
of the volume. It ends with a reiteration of the wholly false manner
in which this story had been obtained. So bold an appropriation of the
narrative, with a provenience entirely new and as fictitious as the
story itself, and its bodily inclusion by an editor in a work of
recognized merit, where it is between two true recitals, cannot be
defended.{1}

     1 Mocquet's work originally appeared in Rouen in 1645, and a
     Dutch translation was published at Dordrecht in 1656. A
     second French issue, apparently unchanged in text, was put
     out at Rouen in 1665, and in 1618 Schoeben's edition,
     printed at Lûneberg by Johann Georg Lippers, preceded by
     eight years an English translation made by Nathaniel Pullen.
     The Pine tract appears, of course, only in Schoeben's
     volume.

The tract passed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, before or early in
September, and it would indeed be interesting to know [19]how and
through whose hands it passed before reaching Marmaduke Johnson--to his
undoing. Hezekiah Usher was the only bookseller in Boston at the time,
and possibly his son, John, may have been associated with him. They
ordered what they desired from London booksellers and publishers, and
may have received voluntary consignments of publications from London.
That would be a somewhat precarious venture, for nothing could be more
different than the reading markets in Boston and in London, especially
in the lighter products of the press. Had it come through the Ushers,
the title-page might state that it had been printed "by M. J. for
Hezekiah Usher," but in that event Usher would have suffered for not
obtaining the needed license. The probability is that Johnson was alone
responsible and was tempted by the hope of gain.

These were all contemporary issues, coming from the press within six
months of the first appearance of the tract in London. So startling a
popularity, so widely shown, was a tribute to the opportunity rather
than to the contents of the piece. And the European interest continued
for a full century. In Germany it was included in a number of
collections of voyages, in Denmark it was printed in 1710 and 1789,
and in France Abbé Prévost took it for his compilation of 1767 on
discoveries. The English republication of 1778 has peculiar interest,
for it was due to no other than Thomas Hollis, the benefactor of the
library of Harvard College, who saw more in the tract than can now be
recognized, and induced Cadell to reprint it.



[20]

THE S.G. NOT A CAMBRIDGE IMPRINT

In the absence of any positive objection, the conclusion of the auction
expert--that the S. G. imprint was one of Samuel Green of Cambridge,
Massachusetts--remained unquestioned. But a study of editions and of the
chronological sequence of the English issues offers a decided negative
to such a conclusion. The first part was licensed June 27, 1668. Van
Sloetten dated the second part July 22, 1668, and the issue of the
combined parts was licensed five days later, July 27. In the space
of just four weeks all three trads were licensed, and the actual
publication must have occurred within the same period of time. Such had
been the start obtained by the first part that on the continent it was
used for reprint and translation, almost to the neglect of the second
part, and, as we have seen, most of these translations appeared before
the end of 1668. Now the tract was not known in Massachusetts until
discovered by the inquest on printers in September, and a S. G. or
Samuel Green edition could hardly have come from the press before
October, even if not delayed by the proceedings against Johnson. Yet on
die title-page of the Dutch translation issued at Rotterdam in 1668, the
printer states at length that it is from a copy from London, by S. G.
for Allen Banks and Charles Harper, in the Lily near Cripplegate Church,
and in his note "To the Reader" he expressly repeats that he obtained
a copy of the work from London, in order to correct a faulty issue by
another Dutch printer.

If S. G. was Samuel Green, we must suppose that one of his Cambridge
issues was shipped to Rotterdam in time to [21]be translated and
reprinted before the end of the year. In point of time the thing could
be done, but in point of probability it was impossible. Apart from his
own statement, there were a thousand to one chances in favor of the
Dutch printer obtaining the pamphlet from London; there were ten
thousand chances to one against his getting it from Massachusetts. I
reject the supposition that this was a Cambridge imprint for that reason
alone.

Additional evidence hostile to the claim may be adduced. The copy of the
first tract in the British Museum is the S. G. for Banks and Harper.{1}

     1  It is erroneously described as "an abridgment."

No other London imprint is to be found there or in the larger libraries
of England. Of the three other copies located, that sold at audion (the
White Kennett copy) and that in the Massachusetts Historical Society
came direct from England, and the actual provenance of the copy in the
New York Historical Society is not known. It belonged to Rufus King,
long United States minister near the court of St James's, and is bound
with other tracts under a general title of "Topographical Collection,
Vol. I." The binding, Mr. Kelby tells me, is American. There is no mark
to show when or where King obtained the pamphlet, and the Society
did not receive it until 1906. That Rufus King belongs as much to
Massachusetts as to New York is too slight a foundation on which to
erect a claim that this particular tract was of Massachusetts origin.

In no case, therefore, can an American setting to any one of the four
known copies of the S. G. "Isle of Pines" be [22]established.{1} The
probabilities are all against Samuel Green. The incident is a good
example of the danger of giving play to the imagination on an appearance
of a combination of fads cemented by interest.

Thus disappears from our memory the certain identification of the S. G.
pamphlet as an early issue of the press in Cambridge, and with it goes
my identification of the Johnson pamphlet with the S. G. title-page--a
veritable pipe dream. It might be urged that as White Kennett was
collecting on America, it would be more than probable that he would
have had an American issue; but his own catalogue of 1713 describes the
nine-page tract, and that is our London edition. I might claim still
that my Johnson was a Johnson, with a London title-page; but the
typographical adornment on the first page of its text is just the same
as the adornment on the first page of the London issue--three rows
of fleur-de-lys, thirty-seven in each row, and the same kind of type
characters.{2}

     1 Lowndes indexes it under George Pine, and describes a
     nine-page trait--probably the one now in the British Museum.
     He quotes a sale of a copy in it 60 (Puttkk) for £4.10s. He
     indexes the combined parts under Sloetten, and notes a copy,
     with the plate, sold in the White Knights sale for 1s..

     2  To attempt to reason from types or rule of thumb
     measurements, however suggestive, leads to indefinite
     conclusions. For example, the width of the type page of the
     S. G. issue of the first part is exactly that of the English
     issue of the second part, but the former has 33 tines to the
     page and the latter a a. The width of the page in the
     variant S. G. issue is narrower and there are 38 and 39
     lines to the page. But in the London second part the width
     of page varies by a quarter of an inch. We have Marmaduke
     Johnson's issue of Paine's Daily Meditations y issued in
     1670 in connection with S. G. The ornamental border of
     fleur-de-lys is entirely different from those in the S. G.
     Isle of Pines. A copy of Johnson's issue of Scottow's
     translation of Bretz on the Anabaptists, printed in 1668,
     the very year of the Isle of Pines, shows a different foot
     of italics from that used in the Isle of Pines variant,
     yet the roman characters in the two pieces seem identical,
     and the width of page is exactly the same.

So I bid farewell to my theory, [23]and can only congratulate myself on
having cleared one point--the London issue--and on having introduced
a new confusion by the discovery of a second London issue with an
identical title-page, a problem for the future to solve. I much doubt if
a true Johnson issue will ever be found, for I believe the action of the
authorities prevented its birth.

In the library of Mr. Henry E. Huntington is a London issue of which
I do not find another example. It contains sixteen pages, and the
title-page gives neither printer's name nor place of publication. It may
be the first issue, or it may be a later re-issue of the tract, for the
type, especially the italic, is better than that in the S. G. issue.
The punctuation also is more carefully looked after, and the whole
appearance suggests an eighteenth century print. As the original was
duly licensed, there was no reason to suppress the names of printer or
booksellers. Nor could the contents of the piece call out controversy
or hostility from any political faction or religious following. It
was proper for the author to omit his name from the publication, if he
desired to remain unknown; but the publisher, having the support of the
licenser, had every reason to advertise his connexion with the tract,
although he could not have anticipated so ready an acceptance by the
public. While I place the Huntington pamphlet first in the bibliography,
I am more inclined to regard it as a publication made at a later time.



[24]

THE COMBINED PARTS

The English edition of thirty-one pages in the John Carter Brown
Library, with an engraved frontispiece,{1} offers still further proof
that the S. G. issue was made in London. In place of being entirely
different from the S. G. tract, it is precisely the same so far as text
is concerned. For it is nothing more than the two parts combined, but
combined in a peculiar manner. The second part was opened at page 6
and the first part inserted, entire and without change of text{2} This
insertion runs into page 16, where a sentence is inserted to carry on
the relation: "After the reading and delivering unto us a Coppy of this
Relation, then proceeded he on in his discourse." The rest of the text
of the second part follows, and pages 27-31 of the combined parts seem
to be the very type pages of pages 20-24 of the second part{3} In this
sandwich form one must read six pages before coming to the text of the
first part, and a careless reader, comparing only the respective first
pages, would conclude that a pamphlet of thirty-one pages could have no
likeness [25]to one of nine.

     1  The plate in the copy in the John Carter Brown Library
     does not belong to that issue, but is inserted in so clumsy
     a manner as to prevent reproduction. The same plate is found
     in a copy of the ten-page S.G. issue in the library of Mr.
     Henry E. Huntington, and to all appearances belongs to that
     issue.

     2   The last sentence on page 6 of the second part read:
     "Then proceeded he on in his discourse saying," and there
     are no pages numbered 7 and 8, although there is no break in
     the text, the catch-word on page 6 being the first word on
     page 9. In the combined parts, the last words on page 6
     constitute a phrase: "which Copy hereafter followeth."

     3 The only change made is in the heading of the Post-script,
     which was wrongly printed in the second part as "Post-
     script." On page 26 of the combined parts the words "except
     burning" were inserted, not appearing in the second part.

On typographical evidence it is safe to assume that the three pieces
came from the same press, and to assert that the second part and the
combined parts certainly did. The initials S. G. are found only on the
first part.




THE PUBLISHERS

The imprints of the three parts agree that the booksellers or publishers
handling the editions were Allen Banks and Charles Harper. The first
part gives their shop as the "Flower-De-luice near Cripplegate Church,"
the second part as the "Flower-de-luce" as before, and the combined
parts as "next door to the three Squerrills in Fleet-street, over
against St. Dunstans Church." The church is still there, with more than
two centuries of dirt and soot marking its walls since Neville wrote,
and Chancery and Fettar Lanes enable one to place quite accurately the
location of the booksellers' shop. Only three times do the names of
Banks and Harper appear as partners on the Stationers' Registers,{1} and
they separated about 1671, Banks going to the "St Peter at the West End
of St Pauls." If any judgment may be drawn from their publications after
ceasing to be partners, Banks leaned to light literature and may have
been responsible for taking up the "Isle of Pines." Yet Harper was
Neville's publisher in 1674 and in 1681, a fact which may indicate a
personal relation.{2}

     1 Eyre and Rivington, ii. 386, 388, and 410.

     2 Sec page 34, infra.



[26]

NOT AN AMERICAN ITEM

By some curious chance this little pamphlet has come to be classed as
Americana. Bishop Kenneth's Catalogue may have been the source of this
error, leading collectors to believe that the item was a true relation
of an actual voyage, and possibly touching upon some phase of American
history or geography. The rarity of the pamphlet would not permit such a
belief to be readily corrected. The existence also of two Isles of Pines
in American waters may have aided the belief.

One of these islands is off the southwestern end of Cuba. On his second
voyage, Columbus had sailed along the south coast of Cuba, and June
13,1494, reached an island, which he named Evangelista. Here he
encountered such difficulties among the shoals that he determined to
retrace his course to the eastward. But for that experience, he might
have reached the mainland of America on that voyage. The conquest of the
island of Cuba by Diego Velasquez in 1511 led to its exploration; but
geographers could only slowly appreciate what the islands really meant,
for they were as much misled by the reports of navigators as Columbus
had been by his prejudice in favor of Cathay.

Toscanelli's map of the Atlantic Ocean (1474) gives many islands between
Cape Verde and the "coast of spices," of which "Cippangu" is the largest
and most important.{1}

     1  This map, as reconstructed from Martin Behaim's globe, is
     in Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1893.

On Juan de laCosa's sea chart, 1500, Cuba is fairly drawn, with the sea
to the south dotted with islands without names. In a few years the mist
surrounding [27]the new world had so far been dispelled as to disclose a
quite accurate detail of the larger West Indian islands{1} and to offer
a continent to the west, one that placed Cipangu still far too much
to the east of the coast of Asia.{2} An island of some size off the
southwest of Cuba seems to have been intended at first for Jamaica, but
certainly as early as 1536 that island had passed to its true position
on the maps, and the island to the west is without a name. Nor can it
be confused with Yucatan, which for forty years was often drawn as an
island. On the so-called Wolfenbuttel-Spanish map of 1525-30 occurs the
name "J. de Pinos," probably the first occurrence of the name upon any
map in the sixteenth century. Two other maps of that time--Colon's and
Ribero's, dated respectively 1527 and 1529--call it "Y de Pinos," and on
the globe of Ulpius, to which the year 1542 is assigned, "de Pinos"
is clearly marked. Bellero's map, 1550, has an island "de pinolas."
Naturally, map-makers were slow to adopt new names, and in the numerous
editions of Ptolemy the label St Iago was retained almost to the end of
the century.{3} On the Agnese map there are two islands, one named "S.
Tiago," the other "pinos," which introduced a new confusion, though he
was not followed by most geographers until Wytfliet, 1597, gave both
names to the same island--"S. Iago siue Y de Pinas"--in which he is
followed by Hondius, 1633.{4} Ortelius, 1579, [28]adopts "I Pinnorum,"
while Linschoten, 1598, has "Pinas," and Herrera, 1601, "Pinos."

     1  The Agnese Atlas of 1529 may be cited as an example.

     2   See, for example, the so-called Stobnicza [Joannes,
     Stobnicensis] map of 151a, and the Ptolemy of 1513
     (Strassburg).

     3  Muenster, 1540. Cabot, 1544, and Desceller, 1546, give "Y
     de Pinos."

     4  Mr. P. Lee Phillips, to whom I am indebted for references
     to atlases of the time, also supplies the following:
     Lafreri, 1575 (?) "S. Tiagoj" Percacchi, 1576, "S. Tiago;"
     Santa Cruz, 1541, "Ya de Pinosj" and Dudley, 1647, "I de
     Pinos." Hakloyt (iii. 617) prints a "Ruttier" for the
     West Indies, without date, but probably of the end of the
     sixteenth century, which contains the following; "The
     markes of Isla de Pinos. The Island of Pinos stretcheth it
     selfe East and West, and is full of homocks, and if you
     chance to see it at full sea, it will shew like 3 Islands,
     as though there were divers soundes betweene them, and that
     in the midst is the greatest; and in rowing with them, it
     will make all a firme lande: and upon the East side of these
     three homocks it will shewe all ragged; and on the West
     side of them will appeare unto you a lowe point even with
     the sea, and oftentimes you shall see the trees before you
     shall discerne the point."

When the name given by Columbus was dropped and by whom the island was
named "de Pinos" cannot be determined.

Our colleague, Mr. Francis R. Hart, has called my attention to a second
Isle of Pines in American waters, being near Golden Island, which was
situated in the harbor or bay on which the Scot Darien expedition made
its settlement of New Edinburgh. The bay is still known as Caledonia
Bay, and the harbor as Porto Escoces, but the Isla de Pinas as well as a
river of the same name do not appear on maps of the region. The curious
may find references to the island in the printed accounts of the
unfortunate Darien colony.

The Isle of Pines could thus be found on the map as an actual island in
the West Indies; but the "Isle of Pines" of our tract existed only
in the imagination of the writer. The mere fact of its having been
printed--but not published--in Cambridge, Massachusetts, does not
entitle it to be classed even indirectly as Americana, any more than
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or [29]Thomas à Kempis could be so marked on
the strength of their having a Massachusetts imprint Curiosities of the
American press they may be, but they serve only as crude measures of the
existing taste for literature since become recognized as classic.

The dignified Calendar of State Papers in the Public Record Office,
London, gravely indexes a casual reference to the tract under West
Indies, and the impression that the author wrote of the Cuban island
probably accounts for the different editions in the John Carter Brown
Library, as well as for the price obtained for the White Kennett copy.
No possible reason can be found, however, for regarding the "Isle of
Pines" in any of its forms as Americana.




THE AUTHOR

Thus far I have been concerned with externals, and before turning to the
contents of the tract itself in an endeavor to explain the extraordinary
popularity it enjoyed, something must be said of the author--Henry
Neville. Like most of the characters engaged in the politics of England
in the middle of the seventeenth century, he has suffered at the hands
of his biographer, Anthony à Wood,{1} merely because he belonged to
the opposite party--the crudest possible measure of merit For the odium
politicum and the odium theologicum are twin agents of detraction, and
the writing of history would be dull indeed were it not for the joy of
digging out an approximation to the truth from opposing opinions. Where
the material is so scanty it will be safer [30]to summarize what is
known, without attempting to pass finally upon Neville's position among
his contemporaries.

     1 Athenæ Oxoniemses (Bliss), iv. 413.

The second son of Sir Henry Neville, and grandson of Sir Henry Neville
(1564?-1615), courtier and diplomatist under Elizabeth and James I,
Henry Neville was born in Billing-bear, Berkshire, in 1620. He became
a commoner of Merton College in 1635, and soon after migrated to
University College, where he passed some years but took no degree. He
travelled on the continent, becoming familiar with modern languages and
men, and returned to England in 1645, to recruit for Abingdon for the
parliament Wood states that Neville "was very great with Harry
Marten, Tho. Chaloner, Tho. Scot, Jam. Harrington and other zealous
commonwealths men." His association with them probably arose from his
membership of the council of state (1651), and also from his agreement
with them in their suspicions of Cromwell, who, in his opinion, "gaped
after the government by a single person." In consequence he was banished
from London in 1654, and on Oliver's death was returned to parliament
December 30,1658, as burgess for Reading. An attempt to exclude him on
charges of atheism and blasphemy failed.

He was undoubtedly somewhat closely associated with James Harrington,
the author of "Oceana," and was regarded as a "strong doctrinaire
republican." He was a member of the club--the Rota--formed by Harrington
for discussing and disseminating his political views, a club which
continued in existence only a few months, from November, 1659, to
February, 1660; but its name is embalmed in one of Harrington's
essays--"The Rota"--published in 1660, and extracted from his "Art of
Law-giving," [31]which was itself an abridgment of the "Oceana."

At this time, says Wood, Neville was "esteemed to be a man of good
parts, yet of a factious and turbulent spirit." On the restoration he
"sculk'd for a time," and, arrested for a supposed connection in the
Yorkshire rising of 1663, he was released for want of evidence against
him, retiring from all participation in politics. For twenty years
before his death he lived in lodgings in Silver Street, near Bloomsbury
market, and dying on September 20, 1694, he was buried in the parish
church of Warfield, Berkshire. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of
Richard Staverton of Warfield, he had no issue.{2} In his retirement he
found occupation in political theory. He translated some of the writings
of Machiavelli, which he had obtained in Italy in 1645, and published
some verses of little merit.

     {1} Wood.

     {2}  Dictionary of National Biography, XL. 259.

It cannot be said that a reading of Neville's productions before 1681
raises him in our estimation, it certainly does not give the impression
of a man of letters, a student of government, or even a politician of
the day. There is always the possibility in these casual writings of
a purpose deeper than appears to the reader of the present day, of a
meaning which escapes him because the special combination of events
creating the occasion cannot be reconstructed. The "Parliament of
Ladies," which was published in two parts in 1647, has little meaning
to the reader, though they appeared in the year when the Parliament took
notice of the "many Seditious, False and Scandalous Papers and Pamphlets
daily printed and published in and about the cities of London and
Westminster, and thence dispersed [32]into all parts of this Realm, and
other parts beyond the Seas, to the great abuse and prejudice of the
People, and insufferable reproach of the proceedings of the Parliament
and their Army."{1}

To write, print, or sell any unlicensed matter whatsoever would be
liable to fine or imprisonment, and to whet the zeal of discovery
one-half of the fine was to go to the informer. Every publication,
from a book to a broadsheet, must bear the name of author, printer,
and licenser. Neither of Neville's pamphlets of 1647 conformed to the
requirements of this act, which is not, however, positive evidence that
they did not appear after the promulgation of the law. Suppression of
printing has proved a difficult task to rulers, even when supported
by public opinion or an army. The Stationers' Registers show that the
"Parliament of Ladies" and its sequel were not properly entered; nor do
they contain any reference to Neville's "News from the New Exchange,"
issued in 1650.{2}

Nine years passed before he printed a pamphlet which marked his
break with Cromwell--"Shuffling, Cutting, and Dealing in a Game of
Picquet."{3}

     1  Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, i. 1021. Though
     dated September 30, the act was entered at Stationers' Hall
     September 19. Eyre and Rivington, i. 276.

     2  It was reprinted in 1731.

     3  It is in the Harleian Miscellany, v. 298, and a copy of
     the meanly printed original is in the Ticknor Collection,
     Boston Public Library.

This little pamphlet was put out in the poorest dress possible,
bespeaking a press of meagre equipment, and a printer without an idea
of the form which even the leaflet can assume in skilful hands. Without
imprint, author's name, or any mark of identification, it indicates a
secret impression and [33]issue--one of the many occasional pamphlets
which appeared at the time from "underground" shops which least of all
wanted to be known as the agent of publication. Neville either avowed
the authorship or it was traced to him, and the displeasure of Cromwell
and banishment from London followed.

In 1681 he printed "Discourses concerning Government," which was much
admired by Hobbes, and even Wood admits that it was "very much bought up
by the members [of parliament], and admired: But soon after, when they
understood who the author was (for his name was not set to the book),
many of the honest party rejected, and had no opinion of it" A later
writer describes it as an "un-Platonic dialogue developing a scheme
for the exercise of the royal prerogative through councils of state
responsible to Parliament, and of which a third part should retire every
year."{1} Reissued at the time under its better known title--"Plato
Redivivus"{2}--it was reprinted in 1742,{3} and again by Thomas Hollis
in 1763.

     1  Dictionary of National Biography, XL. 259.

     2  Plato Redivivus, or A Dialogue concerning Government:
     wherein, by Observations drawn from other Kingdoms and
     States both ancient and modern, an Endeavour is used to
     discover the politick Distemper of our own; with the Causes
     and Remedies. The Second Edition, with Additions. In Octavo.
     Price 2s. 6d. Printed for S. I. and sold by R. Dew. The Term
     Catalogues (Arber), 1.443--the issue for May, 1681. The
     initials S. I. do not again occur in the Catalogues, and R.
     Dew is credited with only two issues, both in May, 1681,
     neither giving the location of his shop. The tract called
     out several replies, such as the anonymous Antidotum
     Brittanicum and Goddard's Plato's Demon, or the State
     Physician Unmasked ( 1684).

     3  A copy is in the Library Company, Philadelphia.

His translations from Machiavelli are not so easily traced, nor is any
explanation possible for his having delayed for nearly [34]thirty years
publication of evidence of his admiration for the Florentine politician.
He was not alone in desiring to make the Italian political moralist
better known, for translations of the "Discourses" and "The Prince,"
with "some marginal animadversions noting and taxing his [Machiavelli's]
errors," by E. D.{1} was published in a second edition in November,
1673, but I do not connect Neville with that issue. In the following
year the connection of Charles Harper's name with the "Florentine
History" suggests Neville, as does a more ambitious undertaking of the
"Works," first fathered by another London bookseller, but with which
Harper was concerned in 1681:

The Florentine History, in Eight Books. Written by Nicholas Machiavel,
Citizen and Secretary of Florence: now exactly translated from the
Italian. In Octavo. Price, bound, 6s. Printed for Charles Harper, and J.
Amery, at the Flower de luce, and Peacock, in Fleet street.{2}

The Works of the Famous Nicholas Machiavel, Citizen and Secretary of
Florence. Containing, 1. The History of Florence. 2. The Prince. 3. The
Original of the Guelf and Ghibilin Factions. 4. The life of Castrucio
Castraceni. 5. The murther of Vitelli, etc., by Duke Valentine. 6. The
State of France. 7. The State of Germany. 8. The Discourses of Titus
Livius. 9. The Art of War. 10. The Marriage of Belphegery a Novel.{3}

     1  Edward Dacres.

     2  The Term Catalogues (Arber i. 18--the issue for November
     25,1674.) It was entered at Stationers' Hall, June 20,
     1674, "under the hands of Master Roger L'Estrange and Master
     Warden Mean" with the statement that the translation was
     made by "J. D. Gent."

     3  This novel wa added by Starker to a translation of novels
     by Gomez deQueverdoy Villegas published in November, 1670.
     The name of the printer suggests a connection with Neville.

[35]11. Nicholas Machiavel's Letter in Vindication of himself and his
Writings. All written originally in Italian; and from thence newly and
faithfully Translated in English. In Folio. Price, bound, 18s. Printed
for J. Starkey at the Mitre in Flret street near Temple Bar.

[Same Title.] The Second Edition. Printed for J. Starkey, C. Harper, and
J. Amery, at the Miter, the Flower de luce, and the Peacock, in Flret
street. Folio. Price, bound, 16s.{1}

     1  The Term Catalogues (Arber) i.199--the issue for
     February, 1675. Entered at Stationers' Hall, February 4,
     1674-75, "under the hands of Master Roger L'Estrange and
     Master Warden Roycroft," with the statement that the
     translation was made by "J.B. Salvo iure cuilibet." The
     resort to L'Estrange in both instances is suggestive. 2  Ib
     453--the issue for June, 1681. "The Works of that famous
     Nicholas Machiavel" is announced in the Catalogues, June,
     1675, for publication by R. Boulter, in Cornhill, and at the
     same price of 18s., but I doubt if Neville had anything to
     do with that translation.

It may be admitted that questions of government were eagerly discussed
in the seventeenth century. It was only needed to live under the Stuarts
and to pass through the Civil War and Protectorate to realize that
a transition from the divinely anointed ruler to a self-constituted
governor resting upon an army, and again to a trial of the legitimate
holder of royal prerogative, offered an education in matters of
political rule which naturally led to a constitutional monarchy, and
which could not be equalled in degree or lasting importance until the
American colonies of Great Britain questioned the policy of the mother
country toward her all too energetic children. Hobbes' "Leviathan, or
the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil,"
appeared in 1651, a powerful argument for absolutism, but cast in such
a form as to make the [36]writer an unwelcome adherent to royalty in
exile.

In 1652 Filmer published his "Observations concerning the Original of
Government," one of a series of tracts, completed by his "Patriarcha,"
printed after his death, which has made him a prophet of the extreme
supporters of the divine origin of kingship. These are only examples
of the political discussion of the day, and to them may be added
Harrington, whose "Oceanan" appeared in 1656.{1} It satisfied no party
or faction, and a second edition was not called for until 1700, when
other writings of the author were added. This compilation was, in 1737,
pirated by a Dublin printer, R. Reilly, who added Neville's "Plato
Redivivus;"{2} but the third English edition (1747), issued by the same
printer who made the second edition, omitted Neville's tract.

     1  Entered at Stationers' Hall by Livewell Chapman,
     September 19,1656. Eyre and Rivington, ii. 86.

     2  Bibliotheca Liudeusianat ii. 4228.




THE STORY

"The Isle of Pines" was Neville's fifth publication, issued nine years
after his fourth, a political tract: "Shuffling, Cutting and Dealing
in a Game of Picquet" Like most titles of the day, that of "The Isle of
Pines" did not fail in quantity. It was repeated word for word, except
the imprint, on the first page of the text. Briefly, the relation
purports to have been written by an Englishman, George Pine, who at the
age of twenty shipped as book-keeper in the India Merchant, which sailed
for the East Indies in 1569.

Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope and [37]being almost within sight
of St. Lawrence's Island, now Madagascar,{1} they encountered a great
storm of wind, which separated the ship from her consorts, blew many
days, and finally wrecked the vessel on a rocky island. The entire
company was drowned except Pine, the daughter of his master, two
maid-servants, and one negro female slave. They gathered what they could
of the wreckage, and Pine and his companions lived there in community
life, a free-love settlement By the four women he had forty-seven
children, and in his sixtieth year he claimed to have 565 children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. It was from one of his
grandchildren that the Dutch ship received the relation. Apart from the
title-page, the entire tract is occupied by the story of George Pine,
from whom the island took its name. In 1667, or ninety-eight years after
Pine was wrecked, the Dutch captain estimated that the population of the
island amounted to ten or twelve thousand persons. Methuselah, with his
years to plead for him, might boast of such breeding, but in ordinary
man it is too near the verminous, the rat, the guinea-pig, and the
rabbit, to be pleasant.

     1 It was the Island of St. Laurence of James Lancaster's
     Voyage, 1593. Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, vi. 401.

The publication must have attracted attention at once, for before
the end of July Neville put forth a second part, "A New and further
Discovery of The Isle of Pines," which purported to be the relation of
the Dutch captain to whom the history of Pines had been confided. It is
an unadorned story such as might have been gathered from a dozen tales
in Hakluyt or Purchas, and is interesting only in giving the name of
the [38]Dutch captain--Cornelius Van Sloetton--and the location of
the supposed island--longitude 76° and latitude 20°, under the third
climate--which places it to the northeast of Madagascar. Almost
immediately after the publication of the second part it was combined
with the first part, as already described, and published late in July
or early in August Cornelius Van Sloetton, as he signed himself in the
second part, became Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten in the combined issue.




INTERPRETATIONS

It was Pine's relation which received the greatest attention on the
continent, and that was chiefly concerned in describing his performances
in populating the island. It was therefore with only a mild surprise
that I read in one of those repulsively thorough studies which only a
German can make, a study made in 1668 of this very tract, "The Isle
of Pines," the assertion that Pines, masquerading as the name of the
discoverer and patriarch of the island, and accepted as the name of
the island itself, was only an anagram on the male organ of
generation--penis. On one of the German issues in the John Carter Brown
[39]Library this has also been noted by a contemporary hand.{1} Such an
interpretation reduces our tract to a screaming farce, but it closely
suits the general tone of other of Neville's writings, which are
redolent of the sensual license of the restoration. To this I would add
an emendation of my own. The name adopted by Neville was Henry Cornelius
van Sloetten. It suggests a somewhat forcible English word--slut--of
doubtful origin, although forms having some resemblance in sound and
sense occur in the Scandinavian languages.

     1   Christian Weise, Prof. Polit, in augusteo in A. 1685.

Such interpretations seem to fit the work better than that of a German
critic, who sees in the book a sort of Utopia, a model community, or
an exhibition in the development of law and order. Free love led
to license, maids were ravished, and the complete promiscuity of
intercourse disgusted Pine, who sought to suppress it by force and, in
killing the leader of a revolt, a man with negro blood in his veins, to
impose punishments for acts which he had himself done. The ground for
believing that Neville had any such purpose when he wrote the book is
too slight to be accepted. In 1668 the author had no call to convey a
lesson in government to his countrymen by any means so frankly vulgar
and pointless as the "Isle of Pines." If Neville had intended such a
political object, a phrase would have sufficed to indicate it. No
such key can be found in the text, and there is nothing to show that,
politician as he was, he realized that such an intimation could be drawn
from his paragraphs.

To assume, therefore, that so carefully hidden a suggestion of a model
republic could have aided the circulation [40]of the pamphlet at the
time, or at any later period, is to introduce an element unnecessary
to explain the vogue of the relation. It passed simply as a story
of adventure, and as such it fell upon a time when a wide public was
receptive to the point of being easily duped. Wood asserts that the
"Isle of Pines," when first published, "was look'd upon as a mere sham
or piece of drollery; "{1} and there are few contemporary references to
the relation of either Pine or Van Sloetten, and those few are of little
moment If the seamen, who were in a position to point out discrepancies
of fad in the story, made any comment or criticism, I have failed to
discover them.

     1  Athenæ Oxomiensis (Bliss), iv. 410.

Neville himself freely played with the subject, and it is strange that
he did not excite some suspicion of his veracity among his readers.
He had told in his first part of a Dutch ship which was driven by foul
weather to the island and of the giving to the Dutch the story of
Pine. His second part is the story of the Dutch captain, sailing from
Amsterdam, re-discovering the Isle of Pines, and returning home--that
is, to Holland. Yet Neville for the combined issue, and presumably only
a few days after giving out the first part, composed two letters from
a merchant of Amsterdam--Abraham Keek--dated June 29 and July 6, saying
that the last post from Rochelle brought intelligence of a French vessel
which had just arrived and reported the discovery of this very island,
but placing it some two or three hundred leagues "Northwest from Cape
Finis Terre," though, he added with reasonable caution, "it may be that
there may be some mistake in the number of the Leagues, as also of the
exact [41]point of the compass from Cape Finis Terre."

Keek offered an additional piece of geographical information, that "some
English here suppose it maybe the Island of Brasile which have been so
oft sought for, Southwest from Ireland."{1} The first letter of Keek is
dated five days after the licensing of the first part of the "Isle
of Pines," and the second sixteen days before the date of Sloetten's
narrative. It is hardly possible that Neville could have been forgetful
of his having made a Dutch vessel responsible for the discovery and
history of Pine, and it is more than probable that he took this means of
giving greater verisimilitude to the Isle of Pines, by bringing forward
an independent discovery by a French vessel. However intended, the ruse
did not contribute to such a purpose, as the combined parts did not
enjoy as wide a circulation as the first part.

     1  See page 53, infra.

On the continent a German, who knew the tract only as translated into
German through a Dutch version of the English text, and therefore
imperfectly, gave it serious consideration, and had little difficulty in
finding inconsistencies and contradictions. Some of his questions went
to the root of the matter. It was a Dutch ship which first found the
Isle of Pines and its colony; why was not the discovery first announced
by the Dutch? Piece by piece the critic takes down the somewhat clumsily
fashioned structure of Neville's fiction, and in the end little remains
untouched by suspicion. No such examination, dull and labored in form,
and offering no trace of imagination which wisely permits itself to be
deceived in details in order to be free to accept a whole, could pass
beyond the narrow circle of a university.

[42]As an antidote to the attractions of Neville's tract it was
powerless, and to-day it remains as much of a curiosity as it was in
1668, when it was written. Indeed, a question might be raised as to
which tract was less intentionally a joke--Neville's "Isle of Pines," or
our German's ponderous essay upon it? At least the scientific
ignorance of the Englishman, perfectly evident from the start, is more
entertaining than the pseudo-science of the German critic, who boldly
asserts as impossible what has come to be a commonplace.{1}

     1   Das verdachtige Pineser-Eylandd, No. 29 in the
     Bibliography. It it dedicated to Anthonio Goldbeck,
     Burgomaster of Altona, and the letter of dedication b dated
     at Hamburg, October 26, 1668.

Hippe calls attention to the geography of the relation as not the least
interesting of its features, for the neighborhood of the Island of
Madagascar was used in other sea stories as a place of storm and
catastrophe. "The ship on which Simplicissimus wished to return
to Portugal, suffered shipwreck likewise near Madagascar, and the
paradisiac island on which Grimmelshausen permits his hero finally to
land in company with a carpenter, is also to be sought in this region.
In precisely the same way the shipwreck of Sadeur,{1} the hero of a
French Robinson Crusoe story, [43]happens on the coast of Madagascar,
and from this was he driven in a southerly direction to the coast of the
southern land."

     1  La Terre Australe commue, a romance written by Gabriel de
     Foigny (pseud. J. Sadeur), describing the stay of Sadeur on
     the southern continent for more than thirty-five years, The
     original edition, made in Geneva in 1676, is said to contain
     "many impious and licentious passages which were omitted in
     the later editions." Sabin (xviii. 220) gives a list of
     editions, the first English translation appearing in 1693.
     It is possible that the author owed the idea of his work to
     Neville's pamphlet.

In most of the older surveys of the known world America counts as the
fourth part, naturally coming after Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even that
arrangement was not generally accepted. Joannes Leo (Hasan Ibn Muhammad,
al-Wazzan), writing in 1556, properly called Africa "la tierce Partie du
Monde;" but the Seigneur de la Popellinière, in his "Les Trois Mondes,"
published in 1582, divided the globe into three parts--1. Europe, Asia,
and Africa; 2. America, and 3. Australia. A half century later,
Pierre d'Avitz, of Toumon (Ardèche), entitled one of his compositions
"Description Générale de l'Amérique troisiesme partie du Monde," first
published in 1637.{2} The expedition under Alvaro de Mendana de Nevra,
setting sail from Callao, November 19, 1567, and steering westward,
sought to clear doubt concerning a continent which report had pictured
as being somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The Solomon Islands rewarded
the enterprise, and with New Guinea and the Philippines completed
a connection between Peru and the continent of Asia. There had long
existed, however, a settled belief in the existence of a great continent
in the southern hemisphere, which should serve as a counterpoise to the
known lands in the northern.

     1  A copy is in the Boston Athenaeum.

The geographical ideas of the times required such a continent, [44]and
even before the circumnavigation of Africa, the world-maps indicated
to the southward "terra incognita secundum Ptolemeum,"{1} or a land of
extreme temperature and wholly unknown.{2} The sailing of ships round
the Cape of Good Hope dissipated in some degree this belief but it
merely placed some distance between that cape and the supposed Terra
Australia which was now extended to the south of America, separated on
the maps from that continent only by the narrow Straits of Magellan, and
stretching to the westward, almost approaching New Guinea.{3}

     1  As on the Ptolemy, Ulm, 1482.

     2  As in Macrobius, In Sommium Scipionis Expositio, Brescia,
     1483. 3  See the map of Oronce Fine, 1522, and Ortelius,
     Orbis Terrarum 1592. 4  The "Quiri Regio" was long marked on
     maps as a continent lying to the south of the Solomon
     Islands.

     3  This was first republished at Augsburg in 1611; in a
     Latin translation in Henry Hudson's Descriptio ac
     Delimeatis, Amsterdam, 1612, in Dutch, Verhael van seher
     Memorial, Amsterdam, 1612; in Bry, 1613, and shortly after
     in Hulsius; in French, Paris, 1617; and in English, London,
     1617. I give this list because even so interesting an
     announcement of a genuine voyage did not have so quick an
     acceptance as Neville's tract with almost the same title.

Such an expanse of undiscovered land, believed to be rich in gold,
awakened the resolution of Pedro Fernandez de Queiros, who had been a
pilot in the Mendafia voyage of 1606. By chance he failed in his object,
and deceived by the apparent continuous coast line presented to his view
by the islands of the New Hebrides group, he gave it the resounding
name of Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, because of the King's title of
Austria. On the publication of his "Relation" at Seville in 1610, the
name was altered, and he claimed to have discovered the "fourth part of
the world, called Terra Australis incognita." Seven years later, [45]in
1617, it was published in London under the title, "Terra Australia
incognita, or A new Southerne Discoverie, containing a fifth part of
the World." It is obvious that geographers and their source of
information--the adventurous sea captains--were not agreed upon the
proper number to be assigned to the Terra Australis in the world scheme.
Even in 1663 the Church seemed in doubt, for a father writes "Mémoires
touchant l'établissement d'une Mission Chrestienne dans la troisième
Monde, autrement apellé la Terre Australe, Méridionale, Antartique, &
I connue."{1} That Neville even drew his title from any of these
publications cannot be asserted, nor do they explain his designation of
the Isle of Pines as the fourth island in this southern land; but they
show the common meaning attached to Terra Australis incognita, and his
use of the words was a clever, even if not an intentional appeal to the
curiosity then so active on continents yet to be discovered.

     1  Printed at Paris by Claude Cramoisy, 1663. A copy is in
     the John Carter Brown Library. In 1756 Charles de Brosse
     published his Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes
     from Vespuccius to his own day, which was largely used by
     John Callender in compiling his Terra Australis Cogmta,
     1766-68.

Another volume, however, written by one who afterwards became Bishop
of Norwich, may have been responsible for the conception of Neville's
pamphlet. This was Joseph Hall's "Mundus Alter et Idem sive Terra
Australis ante hac semper incognita longis itineribus peregrini
Academici nuperrime lustrata." The title says it was printed at
Frankfort, and the statement has been too readily accepted as the fact,
for the tract was entered at [46]Stationers' Hall by John Porter, June
2, 1605, and again on August 1, 1608.{1} The biographer of Bishop Hall
states that it was published at Frankfort by a friend, in 1605, and
republished at Hanau in 1607, and in a translated form in London about
1608. It is more than probable that all three issues were made in
London, and that the so-called Hanau edition was that entered in 1608.
On January 18, 1608-09, Thomas Thorpe entered the translation, with the
address to the reader signed John Healey, who was the translator.{2}
This carried the title: "The Discovery of a New World, or a Description
of the South Indies hitherto unknown."{3} It is a satirical work with
no pretense of touching upon realities. Hallam wrote of it: "I can
only produce two books by English authors in this first part of the
seventeenth century which fall properly under the class of novels or
romances; and of these one is written in Latin. This is the Mundus Alter
and Idem of Bishop Hall, an imitation of the later and weaker volumes
of Rabelais. A country in Terra Australis is divided into four regions,
Crapulia, Virginia, Moronea, and Lavernia. Maps of the whole land and of
particular regions are given; and the nature of the satire, not much of
which has any especial reference to England, may easily be collected. It
is not a very successful effort."{4}

     1  Stationers' Registers (Arber), in. 291, 386.

     2  Ib. 400. Healey made an "exceptionally bad" translation
     of St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei, which remained the only
     English translation of that work until 1871.

     3  In the Bodleian Library is a copy of the translation with
     the title, The Discovery of a New World, Tenterbelly,
     Sheeland, and Fooliana, London, n.d.

     4  Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 2d éd., II.
     167.

While a later critic, Canon [47]Perry, says of it: "This strange
composition, sometimes erroneously described as a 'political romance,'
to which it bears no resemblance whatever, is a moral satire in prose,
with a strong undercurrent of bitter jibes at the Romish church, and its
eccentricities, which sufficiently betray the author's main purpose
in writing it. It shows considerable imagination, wit, and skill
in latinity, but it has not enough of verisimilitude to make it an
effective satire, and does not always avoid scurrility."{1} Like
Neville's production, the satire was misinterpreted.

The title of Neville's tract also recalls the lost play of Thomas
Nash--"The Isle of Dogs"--for which he was imprisoned on its appearance
in 1597, and suffered, as he asserted, for the indiscretion of others.
"As Actaeon was worried by his own hounds," wrote Francis Meres in his
"Palladis Tamia," "so is Tom Nash of his Isle of Dogs." And three
years later, in 1600, Nash referred in his "Summers Last Will" to the
excitement raised by his suppressed play. "Here's a coil about dogs
without wit! If I had thought the ship of fools would have stay'd to
take in fresh water at the Isle of Dogs, I would have furnish'd it with
a whole kennel of collections to the purpose." The incident was long
remembered. Nine years after Nash's experience John Day published his
"Isle of Gulls," drawn from Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia."{2}

     1  Dictionary of National Biography, xxiv. 76.

     2  I take these facts from Sir Sidney Lee's sketch of Nash in
     the Dictionary of National Biography, XL. 107.



[48]

DEFOE AND THE "ISLE OF PINES"

I would apologize for taking so much time on a nine-page hoax did it not
offer something positive in the history of English literature. It has
long been recognized as one of the more than possible sources of Defoe's
"Robinson Crusoe." It is truly said that the elements of a masterpiece
exist for years before they become embodied, that they are floating in
the air, as it were, awaiting the master workman who can make that
use which gives to them permanent interest Life on an island, entirely
separated from the rest of mankind, had formed an incident in many
tales, but Neville's is believed to have been the first employment by
an English author of island life for the whole story. And while Defoe
excludes the most important feature of Neville's tract--woman--from his
"Robinson Crusoe," issued in April, 1719, he too, four months after,
published the "Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," in which
woman has a share. It would be wearisome to undertake a comparison of
incident; suffice it to say that the "Isle of Pines" has been accepted
as a pre-Defoe romance, to which the far greater Englishman may have
been indebted. [49]

[51]

THE ISLE OF PINES, The combined Parts as issued in 1668

The Isle of Pines

OR,

[53] A late Discovery of a fourth ISLAND near Terra Australis, Incognita

BY

Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten.

Wherein is contained.


A True Relation of certain English persons, who in Queen Elizabeths
time, making a Voyage to the East Indies were cast away, and wracked
near to the Coast of Terra Australis, Incognita, and all drowned, except
one Man and four Women. And now lately Anno Dom. 1667. a Dutch Ship
making a Voyage to the East Indies, driven by foul weather there, by
chance have found their Posterity, (speaking good English) to amount
(as they suppose) to ten or twelve thousand persons. The whole Relation
(written and left by the Man himself a little before his death, and
delivered to the Dutch by his Grandchild) Is here annexed with the
Longitude and Latitude of the Island, the situation and felicity
thereof, with other matter observable.

Licensed July 27. 1668.

London, Printed for Allen Banks and Charles Harper next door to the
three Squerrills in Fleet-Street, over against St Dunstans Church, 1668.

Two Letters concerning the Island of Pines to a Credible person in
Covent Garden.

IT is written by the last Post from Rochel, to a Merchant in this City,
that there was a French ship arrived, the Mailer and Company of which
reports, that about 2 or 300 Leagues Northwest from Cape Finis Terre,
they fell in with an Island, where they went on shore, and found about
2000 English people without cloathes, only some small coverings about
their middle, and that they related to them, that at their first coming
to this Island (which was in Queen Elizabeths time) they were but five
in number men and women, being cast on shore by distress or otherwise,
and had there remained ever since, without having any correspondence
with any other people, or any ship coming to them. This story seems very
fabulous, yet the Letter is come to a known Merchant, and from a good
hand in France, so that I thought fit to mention it, it may be that
there may be some mistake in the number of the Leagues, as also of the
exact point of the Compass, from Cape Finis Terre; I shall enquire more
particularly about it. Some English here suppose it may be the Island
of Brasile which have been so oft sought for, Southwest from Ireland, if
true, we shall hear further about it; your friend and Brother, Abraham
Keek.

Amsterdam, July the 6th 1668.

IT is said that the Ship that discovered the Island, of which I hinted
to you in my last, is departed from Rochel, on her way to Zealand,
several persons here have writ thither to enquire for the said Vessel,
to know the truth of this business. I was promised a Copy of the Letter
[54]Amsterdam, June the 29th 1668, that came from France, advising the
discovery of the Island above-said, but its not yet come to my hand;
when it cometh, or any further news about this Island, I shall acquaint
you with it,

Your Friend and Brother,

A. Keck.

{{1 }} [55]Discovered Near to the Coast of Terra Australis Incognita,
by Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten, in a Letter to a friend in London,
declaring the truth of his Voyage to the East Indies.

SIR,

I Received your Letter of this second instant, wherein you desire me
to give you a further account concerning the Land of Pines, on which we
were driven by distress of Weather the last Summer, I also perused the
Printed Book thereof you sent me, the Copy of which was surreptiously
taken out of my hands, else should I have given you a more fuller
account upon what occasion we came thither, how we were entertained,
with some other circumstances {{2 }}of note wherein that relation is
defective. To satisfie therefore your desires, I shall briefly yet sully
give you a particular account thereof, with a true Copy of the Relation
itself; desiring you to bear with my blunt Phrases, as being more a
Seaman then a Scholler.

April the 26th 1667. We set sail from Amsterdam, intending for the
East-Indies; our ship had to name the place from whence we came, the
Amsterdam burthen 350. Tun, and having a fair gale of Wind, on the 27 of
May following we had a sight of the high Peak Tenriffe belonging to the
Canaries, we have touched at the Island Palma, but having endeavoured it
twice, and finding the winds contrary, we steered on our course by the
Isles of Cape Ferd, or Insula Capitis Viridis, where at St. James's we
[56]took in fresh water, with some few Goats, and Hens, wherewith that
Island doth plentifully abound.

June the 14. we had a sight of Madagascar, or the Island of St Laurence,
an Island of 4000 miles in compass, and scituate under the Southern
Tropick; thither we steered our course, and trafficked with the
inhabitants for Knives, Beads, Glasses and the like, having in exchange
thereof Cloves and Silver. Departing from thence we were incountred
with a violent storm, and the winds holding contrary, for the space of
a fortnight, brought us back almost as far as the Isle Del Principe;
during which time many of our men fell sick, and some dyed, but at
the end of that time it pleased God the wind favoured us again, and
we steered on our course merrily, for the space of ten days: when on a
sudden we were encountered with such a violent storm, as if all the four
winds together had conspired for our destruction, so that the stoutest
spirit of us all quailed, expecting every hour to be devoured by that
merciless element of water, sixteen dayes together {{3 }} did this storm
continue, though not with such violence as at the first, the Weather
being so dark all the while, and the Sea so rough, that we knew not in
what place we were, at length all on a sudden the Wind ceased, and
the Air cleared, the Clouds were all dispersed, and a very serene Sky
followed, for which we gave hearty thanks to the Almighty, it being
beyond our expectation that we should have escaped the violence of that
storm.

At length one of our men mounting the Main-mast espyed fire, an
evident sign of some Countrey near adjoyning, which presently after we
apparently discovered, and steering our course [57]more nigher, we
saw several persons promiscuously running about the shore, as it were
wondering and admiring at what they saw: Being now near to the Land, we
manned out our long Boat with ten persons, who approaching the shore,
asked them in our Dutch Tongue What Eyland is dit? to which they
returned this Answer in English, "that they knew not what we said." One
of our Company named Jeremiah Hanzen who understood English very well,
hearing their words discourst to them in their own Language; so that
in fine we were very kindly invited on shore, great numbers of them
flocking about us, admiring at our Cloaths which we did wear, as we on
the other side did to find in such a strange place, so many that could
speak English and yet to go naked.

Four of our men returning back in the long Boat to our Ships company,
could hardly make them believe the truth of what they had seen and
heard, but when we had brought our ship into harbour, you would have
blest your self to see how the naked Islanders flocked unto us, so
wondering at our ship, as if it had been the greatest miracle of Nature
in whole World. {{4 }}

We were very courteously entertained by them, presenting us with such
food as that Countrey afforded, which indeed was not to be despised;
we eat of the Flesh both of Beasts, and Fowls, which they had cleanly
drest, though with no great curiosity, as wanting materials, wherewithal
to do it; and for bread we had the inside or Kernel of a great Nut as
big as an Apple, which was very wholsome, and found for the body, and
tasted to the Pallat very delicious.

Having refreshed our selves, they invited us to the Pallace [58]of their
Prince or chief Ruler, some two miles distant off from the place where
we landed; which we found to be about the bigness of one of our ordinary
village houses, it was supported with rough unhewn pieces of Timber,
and covered very artificially with boughs, so that it would keep out the
greatest showers of Rain, the sides thereof were adorned with several
forts of Flowers, which the fragrant fields there do yield in great
variety. The Prince himself (whose name was William Pine the Grandchild
of George Pine that was first on shore in this Island) came to his
Pallace door and saluted us very courteously, for though he had nothing
of Majesty in him, yet had he a courteous noble and deboneyre spirit,
wherewith your English Nation (especially those of the Gentry) are very
much indued.

Scarce had he done saluting us when his Lady or Wife, came likewise
forth of their House or Pallace, attended on by two Maid-servants, the
was a woman of an exquisite beauty, and had on her head as it were
a Chaplet of Flowers, which being intermixt with several variety of
colours became her admirably. Her privities were hid with some pieces
of old Garments, the Relicts of those Cloaths (I suppose) of them which
first came hither, and yet being adorned with Flowers those very rags
seemeth beautiful; and {{5 }} indeed modesty so far prevaileth over all
the Female Sex of that Island, that with grass and flowers interwoven
and made strong by the peelings of young Elms (which grow there in great
plenty) they do plant together so many of them as serve to cover those
parts which nature would have hidden.

We carried him as a present some few Knives, of which we [59]thought
they had great need, an Ax or Hatchet to fell Wood, which was very
acceptable unto him, the Old one which was cast on shore at the first,
and the only one that they ever had, being now so quite blunt and
dulled, that it would not cut at all, some few other things we also gave
him, which he very thankfully accepted, inviting us into his House or
Pallace, and causing us to sit down with him, where we refreshed our
selves again, with some more Countrey viands which were no other then
such we tasted of before; Prince and peasant here faring alike, nor is
there any difference betwixt their drink, being only fresh sweet water,
which the rivers yield them in great abundance.

After some little pause, our Companion (who could speak English) by our
request desired to know of him something concerning their Original and
how that people speaking the Language of such a remote Countrey, should
come to inhabit there, having not, as we could see, any ships or Boats
amongst them the means to bring them thither, and which was more,
altogether ignorant and meer strangers to ships, or shipping, the main
thing conducible to that means, to which request of ours, the courteous
Prince thus replyed.

Friends (for so your actions declare you to be, and shall by ours
find no less) know that we are inhabitants of this Island of no great
standing, my Grandfather being the first that ever set foot on this
shore, whose native Countrey was {{6 }} a place called England, far
distant from this our Land, as he let us to understand; He came from
that place upon the Waters, in a thing called a Ship, of which no
question but you may have heard; several other persons were in his
company, not intending to have come [60]hither (as he said) but to a
place called India, when tempestuous weather brought him and his company
upon this Coast, where falling among the Rocks his ship split all in
pieces; the whole company perishing in the Waters, saving only him and
four women, which by means of a broken piece of that Ship, by Divine
assistance got on Land.

What after passed (said he) during my Grandfathers life, I shall show
you in a Relation thereof written by his own hand, which he delivered
to my Father being his eldest Son, charging him to have a special care
thereof, and ashuring him that time would bring some people or other
thither to whom he would have him to impart it, that the truth of our
first planting here might not be quite lost, which his commands my
Father dutifully obeyed; but no one coming, he at his death delivered
the same with the like charge to me, and you being the first people,
which (besides our selves) ever set footing in this Island, I shall
therefore in obedience to my Grandfathers and Fathers commands,
willingly impart the same unto you.

Then stepping into a kind of inner room, which as we conceived was his
lodging Chamber, he brought forth two sheets of paper fairly written
in Englishy (being the same Relation which you had Printed with you
at London) and very distinctly read the same over unto us, which we
hearkened unto with great delight and admiration, freely proffering us
a Copy of the same, which we afterward took and brought away along with
us; which Copy hereafter followeth.{1}

     1  Here begins the first part of the tract.

[61]A Way to the East India's being lately discovered by Sea, to the
{{7}} South of Affrich by certain Portugals, far more safe and profitable
then had been heretofore; certain English Merchants encouraged by the
great advantages arising from the Eastern Commodities, to settle a
Factory there for the advantage of Trade. And having to that purpose
obtained the Queens Royal Licence Anno Dom. 1569. 11. or 12. Eliz.
furnisht out for those parts four ships, my Master being sent as Factor
to deal and Negotiate for them, and to settle there, took with him his
whole Family, (that is to say) his Wife, and one Son of about
twelve years of age, and one Daughter of about fourteen years, two
Maidservants, one Negro female slave, and my Self, who went under him
as his Book-keeper, with this company on Monday the third of April next
following, (having all necessaries for Housekeeping when we should
come there), we Embarqued our selves in the good ship called the India
Merchant, of about four hundred and fifty Tuns burthen, and having a
good wind, we on the fourteenth day of May had sight of the Canaries,
and not long after of the Isles of Cafe Vert or Verd, where taking in
such things as were necessary for our Voyage, and some fresh Provisions,
we stearing our course South, and a point East, about the first of
August came within sight of the Island of St Hellen, where we took in
some fresh water, we then set our faces for the Cape of Good Hope, where
by Gods blessing after some sickness, whereof some of our company died,
though none of our family; and hitherto we had met with none but calm
weather, yet so it pleased God, when we were almost in fight of St.
Laurence, an Island so called, one of the greatest in the world, as
[62]Marriners say, we were overtaken and dispersed by a great storm of
Wind, which continued with luch violence {{8 }} many days, that losing
all hope of safety, being out of our own knowledge, and whether we
should fall on Flats or Rocks, uncertain in the nights, not having the
least benefit of the light, we feared most, alwayes wishing for day, and
then for Land, but it came too soon for our good; for about the first
of October, our fears having made us forget how the time passed to a
certainty; we about the break of day discerned Land (but what we knew
not) the Land seemed high and Rockey, and the Sea continued still very
stormy and tempestuous, insomuch as there seemed no hope of safety, but
looked suddenly to perish. As we grew near Land, perceiving no safety in
the ship, which we looked would suddenly be beat in pieces: The Captain,
my Master, and some others got into the long Boat, thinking by that
means to save their lives, and presently after all the Seamen cast
themselves overboard, thinking to save their lives by swimming, onely
myself my Masters Daughters, the two Maids, and the Negro were left on
board, for we could not swim; but those that left us, might as well have
tarried with us, for we saw them, or most of them perish, our selves now
ready after to follow their fortune, but God was pleased to spare our
lives, as it were by miracle, though to further sorrow; for when we came
against the Rocks, our ship having endured two or three blows against
the Rocks, (being now broken and quite foundred in the Waters), we
having with much ado gotten our selves on the Bowspright, which being
broken off, was driven by the Waves into a small Creek, wherein fell
a little River, which being encompassed by the Rocks [63]was sheltered
from the Wind, so that we had opportunity to land our selves, (though
almost drowned) in all four persons, besides the Negro: when we were
got upon the Rock, we could perceive the miserable Wrack to our great
terrour, I had in my {{9 }} pocket a little Tinder-box, and Steel, and
Flint to strike fire at any time upon occasion, which served now to good
Purpose, for its being so close, preserved the Tinder dry, with this,
and the help of some old rotten Wood which we got together, we kindled
a fire and dryed our selves, which done, I left my female company,
and went to see, if I could find any of our Ships company, that were
escaped, but could hear of none, though I hooted, and made all the noise
I could; neither could I perceive the foot-steps of any living Creature
(save a few Birds, and other Fowls). At length it drawing towards the
Evening, I went back to my company, who were very much troubled for want
of me. I being now all their stay in this lost condition, we were at
first afraid that the wild people of the Countrey might find us out,
although we saw no footsteps of any, not so much as a Path; the Woods
round about being full of Briers and Brambles, we also stood in fear of
wild Beasts, of such also we saw none, nor sign of any: But above all,
and that we had greatest reason to fear, was to be starved to death for
want of Food, but God had otherwise provided for us, as you shall know
hereafter; this done, we spent our time in getting some broken pieces
of Boards, and Planks, and some of the Sails and Rigging on shore for
shelter; I set up two or three Poles, and drew two or three of the Cords
and Lines from Tree to Tree, over which throwing some Sail-cloathes, and
having gotten Wood by us, and three [64]or four Sea-gowns, which we had
dryed, we took up our Lodging for that night altogether (the Blackmoor
being left sensible then the rest we made our Centry) we slept soundly
that night, as having not slept in three or four nights before (our
fears of what happened preventing us) neither could our hard lodging,
fear, and danger hinder us we were so over wacht. {{10 }}

On the morrow, being well refresht with sleep, the winde ceased, and the
weather was very warm; we went down the Rocks on the sands at low water,
where we found great part of our lading, either on shore or floating
near it. I by the help of my company, dragged most of it on shore; what
was too heavy for us broke, and we unbound the Casks and Cherts, and,
taking out the goods, secured all; so that we wanted no clothes, nor any
other provision necessary for Housekeeping, to furnish a better house
than any we were like to have; but no victuals (the last water having
spoiled all) only one Cask of bisket, being lighter than the rest was
dry; this served for bread a while, and we found on Land a sort of fowl
about the bigness of a Swan, very heavie and fat, that by reason of
their weight could not fly, of these we found little difficulty to kill,
so that was our present food; we carried out of England certain Hens and
Cocks to eat by the way, some of these when the ship was broken, by some
means got to land, & bred exceedingly, so that in the future they were
a great help unto us; we found also, by a little River, in the flags,
store of eggs, of a sort of foul much like our Ducks, which were very
good meat, so that we wanted nothing to keep us alive.

On the morrow, which was the third day, as soon as it was morning,
seeing nothing to disturb us, I lookt out a convenient [65]place to
dwell in, that we might build us a Hut to shelter us from the weather,
and from any other danger of annoyance, from wild beasts (if any should
finde us out: So close by a large spring which rose out of a high hill
over-looking the Sea, on the side of a wood, having a prospect towards
the Sea) by the help of an Ax and some other implements (for we had all
necessaries, the working of the Sea, having cast up most of our goods)
I cut down all the straightest poles I could find, and which were enough
{{11 }} for my purpose, by the help of my company (necessity being
our Master) I digged holes in the earth setting my poles at an equl
distance, and nailing the broken boards of the Caskes, Cherts, and
Cabins, and such like to them, making my door to the Seaward, and having
covered the top, with sail-clothes strain'd and nail'd, I in the space
of a week had made a large Cabbin big enough to hold all our goods and
our selves in it, I also placed our Hamocks for lodging, purposing (if
it pleased God to send any Ship that way) we might be transported home,
but it never came to pass, the place, wherein we were (as I conceived)
being much out of the way.

We having now lived in this manner full four months, and not so much as
seeing or hearing of any wild people, or of any of our own company, more
then our selves (they being found now by experience to be all drowned)
and the place, as we after found, being a large Island, and disjoyned,
and out of fight of any other Land, was wholly uninhabited by any
people, neither was there any hurtful beast to annoy us: But on the
contrary the countrey so very pleasant, being always clothed with green,
and full of pleasant fruits, and variety of birds, ever warm, and never
[66]colder then in England in September: So that this place (had it the
culture, that skilful people might bestow on it) would prove a Paradise.

The Woods afforded us a sort of Nuts, as big as a large Apple, whose
kernel being pleasant and dry, we made use of instead of bread, that
fowl before mentioned, and a sort of water-fowl like Ducks, and their
eggs, and a beast about the size of a Goat, and almost such a like
creature, which brought two young ones at a time, and that twice a year,
of which the Low Lands and Woods were very full, being a very harmless
creature and tame, so that we could easily {{12 }} take and kill them:
Fish, also, especially Shell-fish (which we could best come by) we had
great store of, so that in effect as to Food we wanted nothing; and
thus, and by such like helps, we continued six moneths without any
disturbance or want.

Idleness and Fulness of every thing begot in me a desire of enjoying
the women, beginning now to grow more familiar, I had perswaded the
two Maids to let me lie with them, which I did at first in private, but
after, custome taking away shame (there being none but us) we did
it more openly, as our Lusts gave us liberty; afterwards my Masters
Daughter was content also to do as we did; the truth is, they were all
handsome Women, when they had Cloathes, and well shaped, feeding well.
For we wanted no Food, and living idlely, and seeing us at Liberty to do
our wills, without hope of ever returning home made us thus bold: One of
the first of my Comforts with whom I first accompanined (the tallest
and handsomest) proved presently with child, the second was my Masters
Daughter, and the other also not long [67]after fell into the same
condition: none now remaining but my Negro, who seeing what we did,
longed also for her share; one Night, I being asleep, my Negro, (with
the consent of the others) got close to me, thinking it being dark, to
beguile me, but I awaking and feeling her, and perceiving who it was,
yet willing to try the difference, satissied my self with her, as well
as with one of the rest: that night, although the first time, she proved
also with child, so that in the year of our being here, all my women
were with child by me, and they all coming at different seasons, were a
great help to one another.

The first brought me a brave Boy, my Masters Daughter was the youngest,
she brought me a Girl, so did the other {{13 }} Maid, who being
something fat sped worse at her labour: the Negro had no pain at all,
brought me a fine white Girl, so I had one Boy and three Girls, the
Women were soon well again, and the two first with child again before
the two last were brought to bed, my custome being not to lie with any
of them after they were with child, till others were so likewise, and
not with the black at all after she was with child, which commonly was
at the first time I lay with her, which was in the night and not else,
my stomach would not serve me, although she was one of the handsomest
Blacks I had seen, and her children as comly as any of the rest; we had
no clothes for them, and therefore when they had suckt, we laid them in
Mosse to sleep, and took no further care of them, for we knew, when they
were gone more would come, the Women never failing once a year at least,
and none of the Children (for all the hardship we put them to) were ever
sick; so that wanting now nothing but Cloathes, nor them much neither,
other [68]than for decency, the warmth of the Countrey and Custome
supplying that Defect, we were now well satissied with our condition,
our Family beginning to grow large, there being nothing to hurt us, we
many times lay abroad on Mossey Banks, under the shelter of some Trees,
or such like (for having nothing else to do) I had made me several
Arbors to sleep in with my Women in the heat of the day, in these I and
my women passed the time away, they being never willing to be out of my
company.

And having now no thought of ever returning home, as having resolved and
sworn each to other, never to part or leave one another, or the place;
having by my several wives, forty seven Children, Boys and Girls, but
most Girls, and growing up apace, we were all of us very fleshly, the
Country so well agreeing with us, that we never ailed any thing; {{14 }}
my Negro having had twelve, was the first that left bearing, so I never
medled with her more: My Masters Daughter (by whom I had most children,
being the youngest and handsomest) was most fond of me, and I of her.
Thus we lived for sixteen years, till perceiving my eldest Boy to mind
the ordinary work of Nature, by seeing what we did, I gave him a Mate,
and so I did to all the rest, as fast as they grew up, and were capable:
My Wives having left bearing, my children began to breed apace, so we
were like to be a multitude; My first Wife brought me thirteen children,
my second seven, my Masters Daughter fifteen, and the Negro twelve, in
all forty seven.

After we had lived there twenty two years, my Negro died suddenly, but
I could not perceive any thing that ailed her; most [69]of my children
being grown, as fast as we married them, I sent them and placed them
over the River by themselves severally, because we would not pester one
another; and now they being all grown up, and gone, and married after
our manner (except some two or three of the youngest) for (growing my
self into years) I liked not the wanton annoyance of young company.

Thus having lived to the fiftieth year of my age, and the fortieth of
my coming thither, at which time I sent for all of them to bring their
children, and there were in number descended from me by these four
Women, of my Children, Grand-children, and great Grand-children, five
hundred sixty five of both sorts, I took off the Males of one Family,
and married them to the Females of another, not letting any to marry
their sisters, as we did formerly out of necessity, so blessing God for
his Providence and goodness, I dismist them, I having taught some of my
children to read formerly, for I had left still the Bible, I charged it
should be read once a moneth at {{15 }} a general meeting: At last one
of my Wives died being sixty eight years of age, which I buried in a
place, set out on purpose, and within a year after another, so I had
none now left but my Masters Daughter, and we lived together twelve
years longer, at length she died also, so I buried her also next the
place where I purposed to be buried my self, and the tall Maid my first
Wife next me on the other side, the Negro next without her, and the
other Maid next my Masters Daughter. I had now nothing to mind, but the
place whether I was to go, being very old, almost eighty years, I gave
my Cabin and Furniture that was left to my eldest son after my decease,
who had married my eldest Daughter by my beloved [70]Wife, whom I made
King and Governour of all the rest: I informed them of the Manners of
Europe, and charged them to remember the Christian Religion, after the
manner of them that spake the same Language, and to admit no other; if
hereafter any should come and find them out.

And now once for all, I summoned them to come to me, that I might number
them, which I did, and found the estimate to contain in or about the
eightieth year of my age, and the fifty ninth of my coming there; in
all, of all sorts, one thousand seven hundred eighty and nine. Thus
praying God to multiply them, and lend them the true light of the
Gospel, I last of all dismist them: For, being now very old, and my
sight decayed, I could not expect to live long. I gave this Narration
(written with my own hand) to my eldest Son, who now lived with me,
commanding him to keep it, and if any strangers should come hither by
chance, to let them see it, and take a Copy of it if they would, that
our name be not lost from off the earth. I gave this people (descended
from me) the name of the ENGLISH PINES, George Pine being my {{16 }}
name, and my Masters Daughters name Sarah English, my two other Wives
were Mary Sparkes, and Elizabeth Trevor, so their severall Defendants
are called the ENGLISH, the SPARKS, and the TREVORS, and the PHILLS,
from the Christian Name of the Negro, which was Philippa, she having no
surname: And the general name of the whole the ENGLISH PINES; vvhom God
bless vvith the dew of Heaven, and the fat of the Earth, AMEN.{1}

     1  Here ended the first part.

[71]After the reading and delivering unto us a Coppy of this Relation,
then proceeded he on in his discourse.

My Grandfather when he wrote this, was as you hear eighty yeares of age,
there proceeding from his Loyns one thousand seven hundred eighty nine
children, which he had by them four women aforesaid: My Father was his
eldest son, and was named Henry, begotten of his wife Mary Sparkes, whom
he apointed chief Governour and Ruler over the rest; and having given
him a charge not to exercise tyranny over them, seeing they were his
fellow brethren by Fathers side (of which there could be no doubt made
of double dealing therein) exhorting him to use justice and sincerity
amongst them, and not to let Religion die with him, but to observe and
keep those Precepts which he had taught them, he quietly surrendred up
his soul, and was buried with great lamentation of all his children.

My father coming to rule, and the people growing more populous, made
them to range further in the discovery of the Countrey, which they found
answerable to their desires, full both of Fowls and Beasts, and those
too not hurtful to mankinde, as if this Country (on which we were by
providence cast without arms or other weapons to defend our selves, or
offend others,) should by the same providence be so inhabited as not to
have any need of such like weapons of destruction wherewith to preserve
our lives. {{17 }}

But as it is impossible, but that in multitudes disorders will grow, the
stronger seeking to oppress the weaker; no tye of Religion being strong
enough to chain up the depraved nature of mankinde, even so amongst them
mischiefs began to rise, and they [72]soon fell from those good
orders prescribed them by my Grandfather. The source from whence those
mischiefs spring, was at first, I conceive, the neglect of hearing the
Bible read, which according to my Grandfathers proscription, was once a
moneth at a general meeting, but now many of them wandring far up into
the Country, they quite neglected the coming to it, with all other means
of Christian instruction, whereby the sence of sin being quite lost in
them, they fell to whoredoms, incests, and adulteries; so that what my
Grandfather was forced to do for necessity, they did for wantonness; nay
not confining themselves within the bound of any modesty, but brother
and sister lay openly together; those who would not yield to their lewd
embraces, were by force ravished, yea many times endangered of their
lives. To redress those enormities, my father assembled all the Company
near unto him, to whom he declared the wickedness of those their
brethren; who all with one consent agreed that they should be severely
punished; and so arming themselves with boughs, stones, and such like
weapons, they marched against them, who having notice of their coming,
and fearing their deserved punishment, some of them fled into woods,
others passed over a great River, which runneth through the heart of
our Countrey, hazarding drowning to escape punishment; But the grandest
offender of them all was taken, whole name was John Phill, the second
son of the Negro-woman that came with my Grandfather into this Island.

He being proved guilty of divers ravishings & tyrannies committed by
him, {{18 }} was adjudged guilty of death, and accordingly was thrown
down from a high Rock into the Sea, where he perished [73]in the waters.
Execution being done upon him, the rest were pardoned for what was past,
which being notified abroad, they returned from those Defait and Obscure
places, wherein they were hidden.

Now as Seed being cast into stinking Dung produceth good and wholesome
Corn for the Indentation of mans life, so bad manners produceth good
and wholesome Laws for the preservation of Humane Society. Soon after my
Father with the advice of some few others of his Counsel, ordained and
set forth these Laws to be observed by them.

1. That whosoever should blaspheme or talk irreverently of the name of
God should be put to death.

2. That who should be absent from the monethly assembly to hear the
Bible read, without sufficient cause shown to the contrary, should for
the first default be kept without any victuals or drink, for the space
of four days, and if he offend therein again, then to suffer death.

3. That who should force or ravish any Maid or Woman should be burnt to
death, the party so ravished putting fire to the wood that should burn
him.

4. Whosoever shall commit adultery, for the first crime the Male shall
lose his Privities, and the Woman have her right eye bored out, if after
that she was again taken in the act, she should die without mercy.

5. That who so injured his Neighbour, by laming of his {{19 }} Limbs, or
taking any thing away which he possesseth, shall suffer in the same kind
himself by loss of Limb; and for defrauding [74]his Neighbour, to become
servant to him, whilst he had made him double satisfaction.

6. That, who should defame or speak evil of the Governour, or refuse to
come before him upon Summons, should receive a punishment by whipping
with Rods, and afterwards be exploded from the society of the rest of
the inhabitants.

Having set forth these Laws, he chose four several persons under him
to see them put in Execution, whereof one was of the Englishes, the
Off-spring of Sarah English; another of his own Tribe, the Sparks; a
third of the Trevors, and the fourth of the Phills, appointing them
every year at a certain time to appear before him, and give an account
of what they had done in the prosecution of those Laws.

The Countrey being thus settled, my father lived quiet and peaceable
till he attained to the age of ninety and four years, when dying, I
succeeded in his place, in which I have continued peaceably and quietly
till this very present time.

He having ended his Speech, we gave him very heartily thanks for our
information, assuring him we should not be wanting to him in any thing
which lay in our powers, wherewith we could pleasure him in what he
should desire, and thereupon preferred to depart, but before our going
away, he would needs engage us to see him, the next day, when was to be
their great assembly or monethly meeting for the celebration of their
Religious Exercises.

Accordingly the next day we came thither again, and were courteously
entertained as before, In a short space there was gathered such a
multitude of people together as made us to {{20 }} admire; [75]and first
there were several Weddings celebrated, the manner whereof was thus. The
Bridegroom and Bride appeared before him who was their Priest or Reader
of the Bible, together with the Parents of each party, or if any of
their Parents were dead, then the next relation unto them, without whose
consent as well as the parties to be married, the Priest will not joyn
them together; but being satissied in those particulars, after some
short Oraizons, and joyning of hands together, he pronounces them to
be man and wife: and with exhortations to them to live lovingly towards
each other, and quietly towards their neighbors, he concludes with some
prayers, and so dismisses them.

The Weddings being finished, all the people took their places to hear
the Word read, the new married persons having the honour to be next unto
the Priest that day, after he had read three or four Chapters he fell
to expounding the most difficult places therein, the people being very
attentive all that while, this exercise continued for two or three
hours, which being done, with some few prayers he concluded, but all the
rest of that day was by the people kept very strictly, abstaining from
all manner of playing or pastimes, with which on other dayes they use to
pass their time away, as having need of nothing but victuals, and that
they have in such plenty as almost provided to their hands.

Their exercises of Religion being over, we returned again to our Ship,
and the next day, taking with us two or three Fowling-pieces leaving
half our Company to guard the Ship, the rest of us resolved to go up
higher into the Country for a further discovery: All the way as we
passed the first morning, we saw abundance of little Cabbins or Huts of
these inhabitants, made under [76]Trees, and fashioned up with boughs,
grass, {{21 }} and such like stuffe to defend them from the Sun and
Rain; and as we went along, they came out of them much wondering at our
Attire, and standing aloof off from us as if they were afraid, but our
companion that spake English, calling to them in their own Tongue, and
giving them good words, they drew nigher, some of them freely proffering
to go along with us, which we willingly accepted; but having passed
some few miles, one of our company espying a Beast like unto a Goat come
gazing on him, he discharged his Peece, sending a brace of Bullets into
his belly, which brought him dead upon the ground; these poor naked
unarmed people hearing the noise of the Peece, and seeing the Beast lie
tumbling in his gore, without speaking any words betook them to their
heels, running back again as fast as they could drive, nor could the
perswasions of our Company, assuring them they should have no hurt,
prevail anything at all with them, so that we were forced to pass along
without their company: all the way that we went we heard the delightful
harmony of singing Birds, the ground very fertile in Trees, Grass, and
such flowers, as grow by the production of Nature, without the help of
Art; many and several sorts of Beads we saw, who were not so much wild
as in other Countries; whether it were as having enough to satiate
themselves without ravening upon others, or that they never before saw
the sight of man, nor heard the report of murdering Guns, I leave it to
others to determine. Some Trees bearing wild Fruits we also saw, and
of those some whereof we tailed, which were neither unwholsome nor
distasteful to the Pallate, and no question had but Nature here the
benefit of Art added unto [77]it, it would equal, if not exceed many
of our European Countries; the Vallyes were every where intermixt with
running streams, and no question but the earth {{22 }} hath in it rich
veins of Minerals, enough to satisfie the desires of the most covetous.

It was very strange to us, to see that in such a fertile Countrey which
was as yet never inhabited, there should be notwithstanding such a free
and clear passage to us, without the hinderance of Bushes, Thorns, and
such like fluff, wherewith most Islands of the like nature are pestered:
the length of the Grass (which yet was very much intermixt with flowers)
being the only impediment that we found.

Six dayes together did we thus travel, setting several marks in our way
as we went for our better return, not knowing whether we should have the
benefit of the Stars for our guidance in our going back, which we made
use of in our passage: at last we came to the vast Ocean on the other
side of the Island, and by our coasting it, conceive it to be of an
oval form, only here and there shooting forth with some Promontories.
I conceive it hath but few good Harbours belonging to it, the Rocks in
most places making it inaccessible. The length of it may be about two
hundred, and the breadth one hundred miles, the whole in circumference
about five hundred miles.

It lyeth about seventy six degrees of Longitude, and twenty of Latitude,
being scituate under the third Climate, the longest day being about
thirteen hours and fourty five minutes. The weather, as in all Southern
Countries, is far more hot than with us in Europe; but what is by the
Sun parched in the day, the night again refreshes with cool pearly dews.
The Air is found to [78]be very healthful by the long lives {{23 }} of
the present inhabitants, few dying there till such time as they come to
good years of maturity, many of them arriving to the extremity of old
age.

And now speaking concerning the length of their Lives, I think it will
not be amisse in this place to speak something of their Burials, which
they used to do thus.

When the party was dead, they stuck his Carkass all over with flowers,
and after carried him to the place appointed for Burial, where setting
him down, (the Priest having given some godly Exhortations concerning
the frailty of life) then do they take stones (a heap being provided
there for that purpose) and the nearest of the kin begins to lay the
first stone upon him, afterwards the rest follows, they never leaving
till they have covered the body deep in stones, so that no Beast can
possibly come to him, and this first were they forced to make, having no
Spades or Shovels wherewith to dig them Graves; which want of theirs we
espying, bestowed a Pick-ax and two Shovels upon them.

Here might I add their way of Christening Children, but that being
little different from yours in ENGLAND, and taught them by GEORGE PINES
at first which they have since continued, I shall therefore forbear to
speak thereof.

After our return back from the discovery of the Countrey, the Wind not
being fit for our purpose, and our men also willing thereto, we got
all our cutting Instruments on Land, and {{24 }} fell to hewing down of
Trees, with which, in a little time,(many hands making light work) we
built up a Pallace for this William Pines the Lord of that Countrey;
which, though much inferiour to the houses of your Gentry in England.
Yet to them which [79]never had seen better, it appeared a very Lordly
Place. This deed of ours was beyond expression acceptable unto him,
load-ing us with thanks for so great a benefit, of which he said he
should never be able to make a requital.

And now acquainting him, that upon the first opportunity we were
resolved to leave the Island, as also how that we were near Neighbours
to the Countrey of England, from whence his Ancestors came; he seemed
upon the news to be much discontented that we would leave him, desiring,
if it might stand with our commodity to continue still with him, but
seeing he could not prevail, he invited us to dine with him the next
day, which we promised to do, against which time he provided, very
sumptuously (according to his estate) for us, and now was he attended
after a more Royal manner than ever we saw him before, both for number
of Servants, and multiplicity of Meat, on which we fed very heartily;
but he having no other Beverage for us to drink, then water, we fetched
from our Ship a Case of Brandy, presenting some of it to him to drink,
but when he had tasted of it, he would by no means be perswaded to touch
thereof again, preferring (as he said) his own Countrey Water before all
such Liquors whatsoever.

After we had Dined, we were invited out into the Fields to behold their
Country Dauncing, which they did with great agility of body; and though
they had no other then only {{25 }} Vocal Musick (several of them
singing all that while) yet did they trip it very neatly, giving
sufficient satisfaction to all that beheld them.

The next day we invited the Prince William Pines aboard our [80]Ship,
where was nothing wanting in what we could to entertain him, he had
about a dozen of Servants to attend on him he much admired at the
Tacklings of our Ship, but when we came to discharge a piece or two
of Ordnance, it struck him into a wonder and amazement to behold the
strange effects of Powder; he was very sparing in his Diet, neither
could he, or any of his followers be induced to drink any thing but
Water: We there presented him with several things, as much as we could
spare, which we thought would any wayes conduce to their benefit, all
which he very gratefully received, assuring us of his real love and good
will, whensoever we should come thither again.

And now we intended the next day to take our leaves, the Wind standing
fair, blowing with a gentle Gale South and by East, but as we were
hoisting of our Sails, and weighing Anchor, we were suddenly Allarm'd
with a noise from the shore, the Prince, W. Pines imploring our
assistance in an Insurection which had happened amongst them, of which
this was the cause.

Henry Phil, the chief Ruler of the Tribe or Family of the Phils, being
the Offspring of George Pines which he had by the Negro-woman; this
man had ravished the Wife of one of the principal of the Family of the
Trevors, which act being made known, the Trevors assembled themselves
all together to bring the offender unto Justice: But he knowing his
crime to be so great, as extended to the loss of life: fought to defend
that {{26 }} by force, which he had as unlawfully committed, whereupon
the whole Island was in a great hurly burly, they being too great Potent
Factions, the bandying of which against each other, threatned a general
ruin to the whole State.

[81]The Governour William Pines had interposed in the matter, but found
his Authority too weak to repress such Disorders; for where the Hedge
of Government is once broken down, the most vile bear the greatest rule,
whereupon he desired our assistance, to which we readily condescended,
and arming out twelve of us went on Shore, rather as to a surprize
than fight, for what could nakedness do to encounter with Arms. Being
conducted by him to the force of our Enemy, we first entered into
parley, seeking to gain them rather by fair means then force, but that
not prevailing, we were necesitated to use violence, for this Henry
Phill being of an undaunted resolution, and having armed his fellows
with Clubs and Stones, they sent such a Peal amongst us, as made us at
the first to give back, which encouraged them to follow us on with great
violence, but we discharging off three or four Guns, when they saw some
of themselves wounded, and heard the terrible reports which they gave,
they ran away with greater speed then they came. The Band of the Trevors
who were joyned with us, hotly pursued them, and having taken their
Captain, returned with great triumph to their Governour, who fitting in
Judgment upon him, he was adjudged to death, and thrown off a steep Rock
into the Sea, the only way they have of punishing any by death, except
burning.

And now at last we took our solemn leaves of the Governour, and departed
from thence, having been there in all, the space of three weeks and two
dayes, we took with us good store of the flesh of a Beast which they
call there Reval, being {{27 }} in taste different either from Beef
or Swines-flesh, yet very delightful to the Pallate, and exceeding
nutrimental. We took also with us alive, [82]divers Fowls which they
call Marde, about the bigness of a Pullet, and not different in taste,
they are very swift of flight, and yet so fearless of danger, that they
will stand still till such time as you catch them: We had also sent us
in by the Governour about two bushels of eggs, which as I conjecture
were the Mards eggs, very lusious in taste, and strenthening to the
body.

June 8. We had a sight of Cambaia, a part of the East Indies, but; under
the Government of the great Cham of Tartary here our Vessel springing a
leak, we were forced to put to Chore, receiving much dammage in some
of our Commodities; we were forced to ply the Pump for eighteen hours
together, which, had that miscarried, we had inevitably have perished;
here we stai'd five dayes mending our Ship, and drying some of our
Goodss and then hoisting Sail, in four days time more we came to
Calecute.

This Calecute is the chief Mart Town and Staple of all the Indian
Traffique, it is very populous, and frequented by Merchants of all
Nations. Here we unladed a great part of our Goods, and taking in
others, which caused us to stay there a full Moneth, during which space,
at leisure times I went abroad to take a survey of the City, which I
found to be large and populous, lying for three miles together upon
the Sea-shore. Here is a great many of those persons whom thy call
Brackmans, being their Priests or Teachers whom they much reverence. It
is a custome here for the King to give to some of those Brachmain, the
handelling of his Nuptial Bed; for which cause, not the Kings, but the
Kings sisters sons succeed in the Kingdom, as being more certainly known
to be of the true Royal blood: And these sisters of his choose what
Gentleman they {{28 }} please [83]on whom to bestow their Virginities;
and if they prove not in a certain time to be with child, they betake
themselves to these Brachman Stalions, who never fail of doing their
work.

The people are indifferently civil and ingenious, both men and women
imitate a Majesty in their Train and Apparel, which they sweeten, with
Oyles and Perfumes: adorning themselves with Jewels and other Ornaments
befitting each Rank and Quality of them.

They have many odd Customs amongst them which they observe very
strictly; as first, not knowing their Wives after they have born them
two children: Secondly, not accompanying them, if after five years
cohabition they can raise no issue by them, but taking others in their
rooms: Thirdly, never being rewarded for any Military exploit, unless
they bring with them an enemies Head in their Hand, but that which is
strangest, and indeed most barbarous, is that when any of their friends
falls sick, they will rather chuse to kill him, then that he should be
withered by sickness.

Thus you see there is little employment there for Doctors, when to be
sick, is the next wan for to be slain, or perhaps the people may be of
the mind rather to kill themselves, then to let the Doctors do it.

Having dispatched our business, and sraighted again our Ship, we left
Calecute, and put forth to Sea, and coasted along several of the Islands
belonging to India, at Camboia I met with our old friend Mr. David
Prire, who was overjoyed to see me, to whom I related our Discovery of
the Island of Pines, in the same manner as I have related it to you; he
was then but newly recovered [84]of a Feaver, the Air of that place not
being agreeable to him; here we took in good store of Aloes, and some
other Commodities, and victualled our Ship for our return home. {{29 }}

After four dayes failing we met with two Portugal Ships which came from
Lisbon, one whereof had in a storm lost its Top-mast, and was forced
in part to be towed by the other. We had no bad weather in eleven
dayes space, but then a sudden storm of Wind did us much harm in our
Tacklings, and swept away one of our Sailors off from the Fore Castle.
November the sixth had like to have been a fatal day unto us, our Ship
striking twice upon a Rock, and at night was in danger of being fired by
the negligence of a Boy, leaving a Candle carelesly in the Gun-room; the
next day we were chafed by a Pyrate Argiere, but by the swiftness of our
Sails we out ran him. December the first we came again to Madagascar,
where we put in for a fresh recruit of Victuals and Water.

During our abode here, there hapned a very great Earthquake, which
tumbled down many Houses; The people of themselves are very Unhospitable
and Treacherous, hardly to to be drawn to Traffique with any people;
and now, this calamitie happening upon them, so enraged them against the
Christians, imputing all luch calamities to the cause of them, that
they fell upon some Portugais and wounded them, and we seeing their
mischievous Actions, with all the speed we could put forth to Sea again,
and sailed to the Island of St. Hellens.

Here we stayed all the Chrismas Holy-dayes, which was vere much
celebrated by the Governour there under the King of Spain. Here we
furnished ourselves with all necessaries which [85]we wanted; but upon
our departure, our old acquaintance Mr. Petrus Ramazina, coming in a
Skiff out of the Isle del Principe, or the Princes Island, retarded our
going for the space of two dayes, for both my self and our Purser had
Emergent business with him, he being concerned in those Affairs of which
I wrote to you in April last: Indeed we cannot but {{30 }} acknowledge
his Courtesies unto us, of which you know he is never sparing. January
the first, we again hoisted Sail, having a fair and prosperous gail of
Wind, we touched at the Canaries, but made no tarriance, desirous now
to see our Native Countrey; but the Winds was very cross unto us for
the space of a week, at last we were savoured with a gentle Gale, which
brought us on merrily; though we were on a sudden stricken again into a
dump; a Sailor from the main Mast discovering five Ships, which put us
all in a great fear, we being Richly Laden, and not very well provided
for Defence; but they bearing up to us, we found them to be Zealanders
and our Friends; after many other passages concerning us, not so much
worthy of Note, we at last safele arrived at home, May 26. 1668.

Thus Sir, have I given you a brief, but true Relation of our Voyage,
Which I was the more willing to do, to prevent false Copies which might
be spread of this nature: As for the Island of Pines it self, which
caused me to Write this Relation, I suppose it is a thing so strange
as will hardly be credited by some, although perhaps knowing persons,
especially considering our last age being so full of Discoveries, that
this Place should lie Dormant for so long a space of time; Others I
know, such.

Nullifidians as will believe nothing but what they see, applying that
[86]Proverb unto us, That travelers may lye by authority. But Sir, in
writing to you, I question not but to give Credence, you knowing my
disposition so hateful to divulge Falsities; I shall request you to
impart this my Relation to Mr. W. W. and Mr. P. L. remembring me very
kindly unto them, not forgetting my old acquaintance, Mr. J. P. and
Mr. J. B. no more at present, but only my best respects to you and your
second self I rest,

Yours in the best of friendship,

Henry Cornelius Fan Sloetten.

July 22. 1668.{{31 }}

[87]

POST-SCRIPT:

ONE thing concerning the Isle of Pines, I had almost quite forgot, we
had with us an Irish man named Dermot Conelly who had formerly been
in England, and had learned there to play on the Bag-pipes, which he
carried to Sea with him; yet so un-Englished he was, that he had quite
forgotten your Language, but still retained his Art of Bagpipe-playing,
in which he took extraordinary delight; being one day on Land in the
Isle of Pines, he played on them, but to see the admiration of those
naked people concerning them, would have striken you into admiration;
long time it was before we could perswade them that it was not a living
creature, although they were permitted to touch and feel it, and yet are
the people very intelligible, retaining a great part of the Ingenuity
and Gallantry of the English Nation, though they have not that happy
means to express themselves; in this respect we may account them
fortunate, in that possessing little, they enjoy all things, as being
contented with what they have, wanting those alurements to mischief,
which our European Countries are enriched with. I shall not dilate any
further, no question but time will make this Island known better to the
world; all that I shall ever say of it is, that it is a place enriched
with Natures abundance, deficient in nothing conducible to the
sustentation of mans life, which were it Manured by Agriculture and
Gardening, as other of our European Countries are, no question but it
would equal, if not exceed many which now pass for praiseworthy.

FINIS.