Storms, Shipwrecks and South America: from Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's Voyages to Shakespeare's The Tempest

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements The author thanks E.R. for comments on an early version of this paper, and two anonymous referees and the editor of CLAR for suggestions on improving the text. Notes 1. Vaughan and Vaughan (2003) provide an accessible version of William Strachey's letter. 2. Kermode (1958, 141) provides an accessible version of the relevant passages of Jourdain's account. 3. Force (1844 Force , Peter 1844 . Tracts and other papers relating principally to the origin, settlement, and progress of the colonies in North America, from the discovery of the country to the year 1776 . Vol. 3 . Washington . [Google Scholar]) includes the Council of Virginia report. 4. Stritmatter and Kositsky (2007) present an overview of the influence of Malone's ideas in the critical literature. 5. As recorded in the Revels accounts, in which The Tempest is listed as being played at Whitehall on this date. 6. The Colony in Virginea. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, reproduced in Force (1844). 7. Cedars are mentioned by Prospero in his speech rejecting magic in Act 5, Scene 1, but not in the context of a passage describing the island's attributes. 8. According to the Chambers Dictionary (10th edition, 2006) a scamel is ‘alleged to be a Norfolk name for the bar-tailed godwit’; Vaughan and Vaughan (2003, 217) suggested scamels were shellfish and perhaps mussels; as Caliban promises Stephano ‘young scamels from the rock,’ the shellfish meaning is considered to be most likely. 9. St Elmo's fire is the glow of ions produced by an electrical discharge that forms around pointed extremities such as the mast of a ship, often during thunderstorms. 10. Strachey uses the latinised form of the name of the Spanish author Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés. 11. See above, and notes 2 and 3. 12. Kathman (1996) listed parallels. 13. The first part of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés's monumental work was published as Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y terra-firma de mar oceano in 1535. English translations of extracts were published by Eden (1577). The complete version appeared in 1851 (Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés 1851 Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés , Gonzalo . 1851 . Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y terra-firma de mar oceano . José Amador de los Ríos . Madrid : Real Academia de la Historia . [Google Scholar]). 14. Vaughan (2008), quoting a source from the 1620s, points out that the name ‘Bermudoes’ applied to a residence in Millford Lane, London (present-day Milford Lane, near the Strand) used by the ex-Governor of the island of Bermuda after his return in 1615. This may be so, but the use of this name for a house in Millford Lane does not exclude the use of the name Bermoothes for a district elsewhere. 15. All four quotes are from Kermode (1958, xxvi and xxvii). 16. Although he argued strongly for the correctness of Malone's (1808) and Luce's (1901) analyses, Vaughan (2008) also commented that, ‘a thorough rummaging through English and Continental literature might uncover earlier possible sources for many, if not most, of The Tempest's similarities to “True Reportory.” 17. Bobb (1948 Bobb, Bernard. 1948. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa and the Strait of Magellan. Pacific Historical Review, 17: 269–82. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) provides a succinct summary of Sarmiento's South American voyages. 18. For printed versions see documents of the Colección Muńoz (1866 Colección Muñoz. 1866 . In Colección de documentos inéditos of Luis Torres de Mendoza , 5 : 286 – 420 . Madrid : Frías y compañía . [Google Scholar]) and Rosenblat (1950); quotes are from the translation by Markham (1895). 19. The larger broadleaved trees are likely to have been southern beeches of the Nothofagus genus, some of which are evergreen. The cypress and fir were probably podocarps of the Libocedrus genus. 20. Markham (1895, 319) noted that the large bivalve, the Magellan mussel, is the staple food of the Fuegians for most of the year. 21. Rosenblat (1950 Rosenblat , Angel 1950 . Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, viajes al Estrecho de Magallanes (1579–1584) . 2 vols. Buenos Aires : Emece . [Google Scholar]) gives the latitude as 39°. 22. In Rosenblat (1950) the original Spanish word used by Sarmiento is ‘atronados’ which translates as ‘deafened,’ not ‘amazed.’ 23. Sir Walter Ralegh, in his History of the World, records a seafaring anecdote exchanged with Sarmiento on this occasion. 24. Markham (1895, 229); in his journals Sarmiento de Gamboa had the habit of referring to himself as ‘Sarmiento’ rather than in the first person.