An Epistle Dedicatorie to sir Walter Ralegh, prefixed by master Richard Hakluyt before the history of Florida , which he translated out of French 1587
To the right honourable Sir Walter Ralegh Knight,
Captaine of her Majesties Gard
, Lord Warden of the
Stanneries, and her Highnesse Lieutenant generall of
the County of Cornewall, R. H. wisheth true felicite.
SIR, after that this historie, which had bene concealed
many yeeres, was lately committed to print and published
in France under your Name by my learned friend M.
Martine Basanier of Paris, I was easily enduced to turne
it into English, understanding that the same was no lesse
gratefull to you here, then I know it to be acceptable to
many great and worthie persons there. And no marvaile
though it were very welcome unto you, and that you liked
of the translation thereof, since no history hitherto set
forth hath more affinitie, resemblance or conformitie with
yours of Virginia
, then this of Florida
. But calling to
minde that you had spent more yeeres in France then I,
and understand the French better then my selfe, I forthwith perceived that you approoved mine endevour, not
for any private ease or commoditie that thereby might
redound unto you, but that it argued a singular and
especiall care you had of those which are to be employed
in your owne like enterprise, whom, by the reading of
this my translation, you would have forewarned and
admonished aswell to beware of the gross negligence in
providing of sufficiency of victuals, the securitie, disorders, and mutinies that fell out among the French, with
the great inconveniences that thereupon ensued, that by
others mishaps they might learne to prevent and avoyde
the like, as also might be put in minde, by the reading of
the manifolde commodities and great fertilitie of the places
herein at large described and so neere neighbours unto
our Colonies, that they might generally bee awaked and
stirred up unto the diligent observation of every thing that
might turne to the advancement of the action, wherinto
they are so cheerefully entred. Many speciall poynts
concerning the commodities of these partes, the accidents
of the French mens government therein, the causes of
their good or bad successe, with the occasions of the
abandoning one of their forts, and the surprise of the other
by the enemie are herein truely and faithfully recorded:
Which because they be quoted by me in the margents,
and reduced into a large alphabeticall table, which I have
annexed to the ende of the worke, it shall be needlesse to
recken up againe. And that the rather, because the
same with divers other things of chiefest importance are
lively drawne in colours at your no smal charges by the
skillfull painter James Morgues, sometime living in the
Black-fryers in London (whom Monsieur Chastillion then
Admirall of France sent thither with Laudonniere for that
purpose) which was an eye-witnesse of the goodnesse and
fertility of those regions, and hath put downe in writing
many singularities which are not mentioned in this
treatise: which since he hath published together with the
purtraitures. These foure voyages I knew not to whom
I might better offer then to your selfe, and that for divers
just considerations. First, for that as I have sayd before,
they were dedicated unto you in French: secondly because
now foure times also you have attempted the like upon the
selfe same coast neere adjoyning: thirdly in that you have
persed as farre up into the maine and discovered no lesse
secrets in the partes of your aboad, then the French did
in the places of their inhabiting lastly considering you are
now also ready (upon the late returne of Captaine Stafford
and good newes which he brought you of the safe arrival
of your last Colony in their wished haven) to prosecute
this action more throughly then ever. And here to speake
somewhat of this your enterprise, I affirme, that if the
same may speedily and effectually be pursued, it will
proove farre more beneficiall in divers respects unto this
our realme, then the world, yea many of the wiser sort,
have hitherto imagined. The particular commodities
whereof are wel knowen unto your selfe and some few
others, and are faithfully and with great judgement committed to writing, as you are not ignorant, by one of your
followers, which remained there about a twelvemonth
with your worshipful Lieutenant M. Ralph Lane, in the
diligent search of the secrets of those Countreys. Touching the speedy and effectual pursuing of your action,
though I wote well it would demaund a princes purse to
have it throughly followed without lingring, yet am I of
opinion, that you shall drawe the same before it be long to
be profitable and gainful aswel to those of our nation there
remaining, as to the merchants of England
that shall
trade hereafter thither, partly by certaine secret commodities already discovered by your servants, & partly by
breeding of divers sorts of beasts in those large and ample
regions, and planting of such things in that warme climat
as wil best prosper there, and our realme standeth most in
need of. And this I find to have bin the course that both
the Spaniards and Portugals tooke in the beginnings of
their discoveries & conquests. For the Spaniards at their
first entrance into Hispaniola found neither suger-canes
nor ginger growing there, nor any kind of our cattel: But
finding the place fit for pasture they sent kine & buls and
sundry sorts of other profitable beasts thither, & transported the plants of suger-canes, and set the rootes of
ginger: the hides of which oxen, with suger and ginger,
are now the chiefe merchandise of that Island. The Portugals also at their first footing in Madera, as John
Barros writes in his first Decade, found nothing there
but mighty woods for timber, whereupon they called the
Island by that name. Howbeit the climate being favourable, they inriched it by their own industry with the best
wines and sugers in the world. The like maner of proceeding they used in the Isles of the Acores by sowing
therin great quantity of Woad. So dealt they in S.
Thomas under the Equinoctial, and in Brasil
, and sundry
other places. And if our men will follow their steps, by
your wise direction I doubt not but in due time they shall
reape no lesse commoditie and benefit. Moreover there
is none other likelihood but that her Majesty, which hath
Christned, and given the name to your Virginia
, if need
require, will deale after the maner of honorable godmothers, which, seeing their gossips not fully able to
bring up their children themselves, are wont to contribute
to their honest education, the rather if they find any
towardlines or reasonable hope of goodnesse in them.
And if Elizabeth Queene of Castile and Aragon
, after her
husband Ferdinando and she had emptied their cofers and
exhausted their treasures in subduing the kingdome of
Granada
and rooting the Mores, a wicked weed, out of
Spayne, was neverthelesse so zealous of Gods honour,
that (as Fernandus Columbus the sonne of Christopher
Columbus recordeth in the history of the deedes of his
father) she layd part of her owne jewels, which she had in
great account, to gage, to furnish his father foorth upon
his first voyage, before any foot of land of all the West
Indies was discovered; what may we expect of our most
magnificent and gracious prince ELIZABETH of England
,
into whose lappe the Lord hath most plentifully throwne
his treasures, what may wee, I say, hope of her forwardnesse and bounty in advancing of this your most honourable enterprise, being farre more certaine then that of
Columbus
, at that time especially, and tending no lesse to
the glorie of God then that action of the Spanyardes?
For as you may read in the very last wordes of the
relation of Newe Mexico extant nowe in English, the
maine land, where your last Colonie meane to seate themselves, is replenished with many thousands of Indians,
Which are of better wittes then those of Mexico
and
Peru
, as hath bene found by those that have had some
triall of them : whereby it may bee gathered that they
will easily embrace the Gospell, forsaking their idolatrie,
wherein at this present for the most part they are wrapped
and intangled. A wise Philosopher noting the sundry
desires of divers men, writeth, that if an oxe bee put into
a medowe hee will seeke to fill his bellie with grasse, if a
Storke bee cast in shee will seeke for Snakes, if you turne
in a Hound he will seeke to start an Hare: So sundry
men entring into these discoveries propose unto themselves severall endes. Some seeke authoritie and places
of commandement, others experience by seeing of the
worlde, the most part worldly and transitorie gaine, and
that often times by dishonest and unlawfull meanes, the
fewest number the glorie of God and the saving of the
soules of the poore and blinded infidels. Yet because
divers honest and well disposed persons are entred already
into this your businesse, and that I know you meane
hereafter to sende some such good Churchmen thither,
as may truely say with the Apostle to the Savages, Wee
seeke not yours but you: I conceive great comfort of the
successe of this your action, hoping that the Lorde, whose
power is wont to bee perfected in weakenesse, will blesse
the feeble foundations of your building. Onely bee you
of a valiant courage and faint not, as the Lorde sayd unto
Josue, exhorting him to proceede on forward in the conquest of the land of promise, and remember that private
men have happily wielded and waded through as great
enterprises as this, with lesser meanes then those which
God in his mercie hath bountifully bestowed upon you,
to the singuler good, as I assure my selfe, of this our
Common wealth wherein you live. Hereof we have
examples domesticall and forreine. Remember I pray
you, what you find in the beginning of the Chronicle of
the conquest of Ireland
newly dedicated unto your selfe.
Read you not that Richard Strangbow the decayed earle
of Chepstow
in Monmuthshire, being in no great favour
of his soveraigne, passed over into that Island in the yere
1171. and accompanied only with certain of his private
friends had in short space such prosperous successe, that
he opened the way for king Henry the second to the
speedy subjection of all that warlike nation to this crowne
of England
? The like conquest of Brasilia
, and annexing
the same to the kingdome of Portugall was first begun
by meane and private men, as Don Antonio de Castillio,
Ambassadour here for that realme, and by office keeper
of all the records and monuments of their discoveries,
assured me in this city in the yere 1581. Now if the
greatnes of the maine of Virginia
, and the large extension
therof, especially to the West, should make you thinke
that the subduing of it, were a matter of more difficulty
then the conquest of Ireland
, first I answere, that as the
late experience of that skilfull pilote and Captaine M. John
Davis to the Northwest (toward which his discovery your
selfe have thrise contributed with the forwardest) hath
shewed a great part to be maine sea, where before was
thought to be maine land, so for my part I am fully
perswaded by Ortelius late reformation of Culvacan and
the gulfe of California
, that the land on the backe part of
Virginia
extendeth nothing so far westward as is put
downe in the Maps of those parts. Moreover it is not to
be denied, but that one hundred men will do more now
among the naked and unarmed people in Virginia
, then
one thousand were able then to do in Ireland
against that
armed and warlike nation in those dales. I say further,
that these two yeres last experience hath plainly shewed,
that we may spare 10000. able men without any misse.
And these are as many as the kingdome of Portugal
had
ever in all their garrisons of the Acores
, Madera, Arguin,
Cape verde, Guinea, Brasill, Mozambique
, Melinde, Zocotora, Ormus, Diu, Goa, Malaca
, the Malucos, and Macao
upon the coast of China
. Yea this I say by the confession
of singuler expert men of their own nation (whose names I
suppresse for certaine causes) which have bene personally
in the East Indies, & have assured me that their kings
had never above ten thousand natural borne Portugals
(their slaves excepted) out of their kingdome remaining
in all the aforesaid territories. Which also this present
yeere I saw confirmed in a secrete extract of the particular
estate of that kingdome and of every governement and
office subject to the same, with the several pensions thereunto belonging. Seeing therefore we are so farre from
want of people, that retyring daily home out of the Lowe
Countreys they go idle up and downe in swarms for lack
of honest intertainment, I see no fitter place to employ
some part of the better sort of them trained up thus long
in service, then in the inward partes of the firme of
Virginia
against such stubborne Savages as shal refuse
obedience to her Majestie. And doubtlesse many of our
men will bee glad and faine to accept this condition, when
as by the reading of this present treatie they shal understand the fertilitie and riches of the regions confining so
neere upon yours, the great commodities and goodnesse
wherof you have bin contented to suffer to come to light.
In the meane season I humbly commend my selfe and
this my translation unto you, and your selfe, and all those
which under you have taken this enterprise in hand to the
grace and good blessing of the Almighty, which is able to
build farther, and to finish the good worke which in these
our dayes he hath begun by your most Christian and
charitable endevour. From London the 1. of May
1587.Your L. humble at commandement.
R. HAKLUYT.
R. HAKLUYT.
