English Voyages Research Articles

The great South Sea: English voyages and encounters, 1570-1750

The great South Sea: English voyages and encounters, 1570-1750

:English Seamen and Traders in Guinea 1553-1565: The New Evidence of Their Wills

The first English voyages solely to Guinea were previously known mainly through accounts in Eden and Hakluyt. They can be seen here through the wills of 90 men who died on the voyages. These wills depict in detail the shipboard life of Tudor sailors, and provide the earliest records of any English long-distance seafaring. Of the 1,000 or so men serving on these voyages, some 400 are named in the wills. The wills are printed in full, with extensive annotation. An introduction deals with the Guinea voyages, 16th-century will-making, and the shipboard life of seamen - terms of service, manning, provenances, possessions aboard (especially clothing), indebtedness and the shipboard economy, and evidences of social networks. Apart from throwing further light on the earliest contacts between England and Black Africa, the volume contributes to both the marine and social history of Tudor England.

:American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega

'There is nothing else quite like it, and there is room, and a need, for quality books on this area in this era' - Colin G. Calloway, author of The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration and the Survival of an Indian People. This illustrated collection of essays examines early Native American contact with European explorers, fishermen, and traders in 'Norumbega', the sixteenth-century name of the Atlantic coast of New England near the Penobscot River in Maine. This coast was the focus of several French and English voyagers seeking a northwest passage and other avenues to riches and treasure. A tacit division gradually emerged: the French concentrated on the region north of the Penobscot and the English on the lands to the south.The 100 illustrations in this book come largely from the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine and include many rare early maps (1500-1800). Ten are reproduced in full color. Emerson W. Baker is an assistant professor of history at Salem State College. Edwin A. Churchill is the chief curator, Maine State Museum. Richard S. D'Abate is the associate director of the Maine Humanities Council. Kristine L.Jones is an independent scholar. Victor A. Konrad is director of the Fulbright Canada Program. Harald E. L. Prins is an associate professor of anthropology, Kansas State University.

England and the Columbian Discoveries: The Attempt to Legitimize English Voyages to the New World

In the century-and-a-half following the opening of the New World by Christopher Columbus, the non-Iberian nations of Europe watched with emotions of astonishment and desire tinged with more than a little envy as gold and silver riches poured into Spain and Portugal. Not content to allow these nations to monopolize the booty from the new-found lands, non-Iberian countries such as England quickly mounted campaigns to obtain their own share of this wealth. In England, propagandists such as the well-known Richard Hakluyt the Younger used a variety of arguments to both popularize and legitimize English voyages of exploration and colonization in areas that, legally at least, were strictly Spanish. These arguments ranged from those based upon religious obligations to the benighted Indians of the new lands, to the potentially beneficial aspects of the New World as a drain for the undesirable elements of English society. Likewise, the economic benefits of New World explorations and colonies were widely touted, both as sources for new products, and as potential markets for traditional ones. Popular political views propagandized the necessity for the English to develop an Impirel rivalling those of its Iberian competitors. Another significant political ramification of New WorId colonization would be the annoyance these would prove to the Spaniards. In a period of rising nationalism, all of these arguments found a number of supporters.

England and the Columbian Discoveries: The Attempt to Legitimize English Voyages to the New World

England and the Columbian Discoveries: The Attempt to Legitimize English Voyages to the New World

Early charts of the Falklands

This paper, presented in two parts, is a review of early charts of exploration and claims of possession by French, Spanish, English and Argentinian settlers prior to the mid-nineteenth century. Part 7 suggests that Portuguese knowledge of a south-west passage to the Pacific existed prior to the “discovery” of a strait by Magellan. The Spanish did not capitalize on this knowledge but after Drake's circumnavigation, several English, Dutch and French voyages produced cartographic record of contact with the Falklands.

Pierre Bergeron: A Forgotten Editor of French Travel Literature

One effect of overseas expansion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the immediate popularity of travel literature. The French, though not among the initial leaders in voyages of colonization, had always shown a great interest in the writings of travelers returning from the Middle East and East Indies.! It was not surprising therefore, that the Columbus letter appeared in French in 1493 or that the translations of works of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and English voyages commanded an eager audience. In spite of the continued publication within of travel accounts of foreigners and of those few Frenchmen who participated in overseas expeditions, one still could not find any Frenchmen's names included among the list of the well known editors of travel materials, i.e., Gian Battista Ramusio, Richard Eden, Richard Hakluyt, Samuel Purchas, and Theodor de Bry.2 Traditionally, the seventeenth-century savant and librarian, Melchisedech Thevenot, claims the honor of being France's first editor of travel narratives. As the author of the Relations de divers Voyages Curieux (1663), Thevenot announced his intention of giving France the English voyages of Hakluyt and Purchas ... .3 Though Thevenot produced a poor imitation of the Principal Navigations and the Hakluytus Posthumus, his assertion and its general acceptance by scholars have meant that others before his time have not been seriously considered as editors of French travel literature. Actually, Pierre Bergeron, who lived more than fifty years earlier than Thevenot, had the same plans and, in fact, was responsible for the publication of numerous travel sources. Yet, Bergeron has remained a neglected figure in the history of French geographical literature. Occasionally, one can find a brief mention of his name, but even then the infonnation is frequently misleading and generally incorrect.5 Bergeron became convinced

English Voyages to the Caribbean, 1596 to 1604: An Annotated List

N the course of the war between Spain and England from I585 to i604 the Caribbean was one of the main areas of English privateering. Some account of the extent and character of this phenomenon down to the year I596 is already available, and the point of the list of voyages given below is to present a digest of what is now known, on the basis of recent research, about such activity in the later years of the war. The list has been compiled by piecing together scraps of information from Spanish, English, and other sources, notably the High Court of Admiralty records in the Public Record Office in London and the various series in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville. Anyone acquainted with the variety of sources bearing upon this subject will recognize that an exhaustive account of the evidence cannot be expected at the present time, if ever, and that such a list as this can only be provisional. Furthermore, the records themselves are certainly deficient, so that even a complete collection of the relevant material could never constitute a comprehensive history of the events. Privateers, prizes, promoters, personnel, and even whole expeditions are bound to be missing from any list, however carefully compiled. There is, nevertheless, enough information of the right kind to justify certain conclusions of general interest. One such conclusion is that the scale of English Caribbean activity did not significantly diminish in the later years of the war. It has sometimes been alleged, on the basis of very little evidence, that the defeat of Sir Francis Drake's West Indies expedition of I595-I596 so strengthened the Spaniards and deterred the English that the latter increasingly desisted from this increasingly hazardous pursuit. That judgment is now shown to be mistaken, for in the eight years before Drake's voyage identifiable English privateers in the West Indies numbered seventy-eight, and in the eight years following it, seventy-two (the ships of Drake's own fleet being omitted from

Rude and Barbarous Kingdom: Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyagers. Edited by Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey. Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. xxiii, 391 pp. $7.50.

Rude and Barbarous Kingdom: Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyagers. Edited by Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey. Madison, Milwaukee, and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. xxiii, 391 pp. $7.50. - Volume 29 Issue 2

I The Accounts of John Balsall, Purser of the Trinity of Bristol, 1480–1

A set of shipping accounts kept by the purser of an English ship, the Trinity of Bristol, on a voyage to the ports of Andalusia and North Africa in 1480–1 was discovered recently in the Mercers' Hall in London. It is a very early example of this type of record, for accounts of privately-owned merchant vessels are rarely found in English archives before the files of the High Court of Admiralty begin in the reign of Henry VIII. Its value is enhanced still further, however, by the fact that the ship in question was a vessel of outstanding importance in the early history of English exploration overseas. The Trinity of Bristol was one of the first English ships known to have set out in search of land across the Atlantic more than a decade before Columbus made his first landfall in the New World. This document shows the Bristol men aboard the Trinity in personal contact with the Franciscan friary of Santa Maria de la Rábida, near Huelva, where Columbus found his earliest and most devoted supporters in Spain for his own projected expedition across the western ocean. New lines of speculation are opened up on links between the earliest English and Iberian voyages of discovery, making this a document of great interest to historians of trans-atlantic exploration.

Rude and Barbarous Kingdom: Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyagers

Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey offer edited accounts of six English voyagers and their experiences in Muscovy Russia between 1553 and 1600. With modernised spelling and presentation, these accounts are accompanied by a glossary of Russian terms, introductions of their authors, and annotations that help put the travellers' narratives into perspective.

Rude & Barbarous Kingdom: Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyagers

Rude & Barbarous Kingdom: Russia in the Accounts of Sixteenth-Century English Voyagers

The Dusun Languages of Northern Borneo: The Rungus Dusun and Related Problems

of the Archipelago, mainly Bajau (Sama), used the term Ida'an (alternatively rendered Idahan or Idaan) to refer to similar, non-Muslim peoples but particularly to those in Sabah. This term appeared in the journals of early English voyagers to the Borneo coast (see Forrest, 1779:368), and it continued to occur with frequency in reports on northern Borneo into the late 1800's. However, the term Ida'an sometimes was not restricted to

John Day of Bristol and the English Voyages across the Atlantic before 1497

John Day of Bristol and the English Voyages across the Atlantic before 1497

English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies 1588-1595. Documents Relating to English Voyages to the West Indies from the Defeat of the Armada to the Last Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, Including Spanish Documents Contributed by Irene A. Wright

English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies 1588-1595. Documents Relating to English Voyages to the West Indies from the Defeat of the Armada to the Last Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, Including Spanish Documents Contributed by Irene A. Wright

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590. Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584. David Beers Quinn

<i>The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590. Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584</i>. David Beers Quinn

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584–1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584. Two volumes. Edited by David Beers Quinn, Professor of History in the University College of Swansea, University of Wales. [Second Series, No. CIV.] (New York: Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society. 1955. Pp. xxxiv, 496; 497–1004. $22.50.)

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584–1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584. Two volumes. Edited by David Beers Quinn, Professor of History in the University College of Swansea, University of Wales. [Second Series, No. CIV.] (New York: Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society. 1955. Pp. xxxiv, 496; 497–1004. $22.50.)

New Light on the 1497 Cabot Voyage to America

W HILE WE were both doing research in the Archivo de Simaneas last spring, Dr. Hayward Keniston, knowing that I was interested in the discovery of North America, mentioned that he had seen a document relating to English voyages in one of the first three legajos of Estado de Castilla. My first search through the three legajos yielded nothing, but a second attempt three weeks later established the fact that the document in question was folio 6, legajo 2. I immediately realized its importance. It is a letter from an English merchant named John Day to the Grand Admiral of Castile, Don Fadrique Enriquez, in answer to a request for further information concerning English voyages. Although it bears no date and does not mention John Cabot by name, there is no doubt that it refers to Cabot's 1497 voyage. Prior to the finding of this letter, documentary evidence relating to the 1497 voyage consisted of the four following letters: Lorenzo Pasqualigo to his brothers in Venice (August 23, 1497), Raimondo di Sancino to the Duke of Milan (August 24, and December 18, 1497), and Pedro de Ayala to the Catholic King (July 25, 1498).1 John Day's letter constitutes the fifth and most detailed report of the 1497 Cabot expedition. Day states that the expedition consisted of one ship carrying twenty men. According to him, they left England at the end of May and took thirty-five days to reach the tierra de primera vista. On the map made by Sebastian Cabot in 1544, an engraved copy of which is kept in Paris, the tierra de primera vista is indicated as having been sighted on June 24.2 Therefore the expedition must have left England on May 20 or 21. * The author is an American scholar who has been carrying on research in European archives on early voyages to America. ' These documents have been published by Henry Harrisse, Jean et Sebastian Cabot (Paris, 1882), and by Francesco Tarducci, Di Giovanni e Sebastiano Caboto (Venice, 1892). 2 Harrisse, The Discovery of North America (New York and Paris, 1892), p. 12.

The Roanoke Voyages. 1584-1590. Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America Under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584.

The Roanoke Voyages. 1584-1590. Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America Under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584.