_Recollections of Mr. James Lenox of New York, and the formation of his
Library,_ a little volume which was most favourably received and ran
through several impressions.
In the same year I published _The Dawn of British Trade to the East
Indies as recorded in the Court Minutes of the East India Company._
This volume contained an account of the formation of the Company and of
Captain Waymouth’s voyage to America in search of the North-west
passage to the East Indies. The work was printed for the first time
from the original manuscript preserved in the India Office, and the
introduction was written by Sir George Birdwood.
In 1888 I issued _Johann Schöner, Professor of Mathematics at
Nuremberg. A reproduction of his Globe of 1523 long lost, his
dedicatory letter to Reymer von Streytperck, and the `De Moluccis’ of
Maximilianus Transylvanus, with new translations and notes on the Globe
by Henry Stevens of Vermont, edited, with an introduction and
bibliography, by C. H. Coote, of the British Museum._ This Globe of
1523_,_ now generally known as Schöner’s Third Globe, is marked by a
line representing the route of Magellan’s expedition in the first
circumnavigation of the earth; and the facsimile of Maximilianus’s
interesting account of that voyage, with an English translation, was
consequently added to the volume. Mr. Coote, in his introduction, gives
a graphic account of many other early globes, several of which are also
reproduced in facsimile. The whole volume was most carefully prepared,
and exhibits considerable originality both in the printing and binding,
Mr. Henry Stevens’s own ideas having been faithfully carried out.
In 1893 I issued to the subscribers that elegant folio volume which my
father always considered as his _magnum opus._ It was entitled _The New
Laws of the Indies for the good treatment and preservation of the
Indians, promulgated by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, 1542-1543. A
facsimile reprint of the original Spanish edition, together with a
literal translation into the English language, to which is prefixed an
historical introduction._ Of the long introduction _of_ ninety-four
pages, the first thirty-eight are from the pen of Mr. Henry Stevens,
the remainder from that of Mr. Fred. W. Lucas, whose diligent
researches into American history are amply exemplified in his former
work, _Appendiculae Historicae, or shreds of history hung on a horn,_
and in his recent work, _The Annals of the Voyages of the Brothers
Zeno._
Ever since 1886 I have from time to time unsuccessfully endeavoured to
enlist the services of various editors competent to complete the
projected eleven volumes of the Hercules Club publications, but after a
lapse of nearly fourteen years I have awakened to the fact that no
actual progress has been made, and that I have secured nothing beyond
the vague promise of future assistance. The field of editors capable of
this class of work being necessarily very limited, and death having
recently robbed me in the most promising case of even the slender hope
of future help, I determined to ascertain for myself the exact position
of the work already done, with the hope of bringing at least some of
the volumes to a completion separately, instead of waiting longer in
the hope of finishing and issuing them all _en bloc_ as originally
proposed and intended. On collating the printed stock I found that the
two volumes, _Hariot’s Virginia_ and the _Life of Hariot,_ were
practically complete, the text of both all printed off, and the titles
and preliminary leaves and the Index to _Hariot’s Virginia_ actually
standing in type at the Chiswick Press just as my father left them
fourteen years ago! (Many thanks to Messrs Charles Whittingham and Co.
for their patience.) The proofs of these I have corrected and passed
for press, and I have added the Index to the present volume. My great
regret is that I did not sooner discover the practical completeness of
these two volumes, as owing to the nature of the contents of the _Life
of Hariot_ it is not just to Hariot’s memory, or to that of my father,
that such important truths should so long have been withheld from
posterity.
These two volumes being thus completed, ít remained to be decided in
what manner they should be published. I did not feel myself competent
to pick up the fallen reins of the HERCULES CLUB, which, as I have said
before, appears never to have been fully inaugurated on the intended
co-operative basis.
There being now no constituted association (such having entirely lapsed
on the death of Mr. ‘Secretary Outis’), and many of the original
subscribers, who were ipso facto members, being also no longer with us,
it appeared impossible to put forth the volumes as the publications of
the HERCULES CLUB. Consequently I resolved to issue them myself (and
any future volumes I may be able to bring to completion) simply as
privately printed books, and I feel perfectly justified in so doing, as
no one but Mr. Henry Stevens had any hand in their design or production
either editorially or financially. No money whatever was received from
the members, whose subscriptions were only to become payable when the
publications were ready for delivery. The surviving members have been
offered the first chance of subscribing to these two Hariot volumes and
I am grateful for the support received. They and the new subscribers
will also be offered the option of taking any subsequent volumes of the
series which I may be enabled to complete.