enthusiastic biblio-fiend. The only difference is that the latter
is sure of his eventual reward. Not a day passes that some man or
woman does not appear in my library, either in Philadelphia or in New
York, to offer me some curious and interesting book, tract, or letter
relating to the history of this country. Very often I have to pay
heavily for certain desirable documents. But, like my uncle Moses, I
don’t give a tinker’s dam about the money value. I hope I am a cheerful
giver when, as a result of my purchase, I discover material hitherto
unknown to the historians of our country.
[Illustration: TANKARD PRESENTED TO GEORGE WASHINGTON ON HIS
THIRTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY BY THE REV. DR. GREEN, FEBRUARY 22, 1763, AT
TRURO, VIRGINIA]
When my brother Philip was in Spain last year he spent several weeks
touring through the picturesque towns and villages of Granada. Can you
imagine his surprise and joy, when one day he stopped at an ancient
monastery and bought a bundle of old papers which contained a most
valuable and interesting document--the original manuscript signed
by the Emperor Charles V, wherein Hernando Cortés, Adelantado of
the Indies, was appointed Knight of the Order of Santiago. As this
order was an honor considered at that time the most distinguished and
aristocratic in all Castile, it naturally showed Cortés in a light
hitherto unnoted by historians. To-day this magnificent document is
in the collection of my dear friend, Mr. H. V. Jones, in Minneapolis.
Mr. Jones in a surprisingly short time has formed one of the finest
libraries of books relating to this country.
From the very day that Christopher Columbus discussed his great project
with Queen Isabella, the stream of American history has at all times
flowed tumultuously, and never without color and romance.
When Columbus returned to Spain from the New World, he stopped on
February 14, 1493, at Santa Maria, one of the islands of the Azores,
probably to take water. Four days before this he had encountered the
most terrific storm of his great voyage, and was convinced that he,
his men, and his vessels must perish. Now Columbus realized in his
heart that he was going back to Spain with news of a discovery second
in importance to no other. And when it seemed that his ship might
sink at any moment, he set to work to make a record of his mighty
adventure, hoping that by some will of the Fates it would not be lost
to posterity. So, on February fourteenth, he carefully prepared as
complete an account of his marvelous voyage as was possible under the
circumstances. He wrote the details of his journey on a stout piece of
parchment, wrapped it carefully in a piece of waterproof cloth, then
placed it in an iron-bound barrel and threw it into the raging ocean.
But the Fates were kinder to Columbus than to this account made in a
time of stress.
Certainly this, the first record of America, written by the brave hand
of Columbus, would be the most precious relic in all the chronicles of
our country. Alas, that it never has been found! And if I thought there
were one chance in a million of finding it I would take my power boat,
the First Folio, and cruise in the neighborhood of the Azores forever!
It is also curious that another letter, which Columbus wrote the day
after he arrived at Santa Maria to his friend Luis de Santangel,
has never been found. Nor has another and more concise account of
his experiences, which he wrote in an exultant vein to the _Reyes
Catolicos_, Ferdinand and Isabella, immediately upon landing in Lisbon,
ever seen the light of day.
Every school child is taught the date of Columbus’s arrival at Palos,
March 15, 1493. On that very same day he dispatched two letters to the
Court, then sitting at Barcelona. Another, much briefer and more to
the point, he sent to another friend, Gabriel Sanchez, then the royal
treasurer.
About one month after Columbus returned to Spain, a second letter which
he indited to Luis de Santangel was printed on two leaves, folio size.
Evidently these were sent out in all directions and must have been in
great demand. You can well realize that the excitement created by the
publication of his stupendous discovery was tremendous. And yet it
is very strange that but one copy of the entire edition has survived.
These two leaves are the actual cornerstone of American history. They
are worth not only their weight in radium many times over, but, to the
book lover, his very chances of Paradise! They are now, I am proud
to state, not in some musty old castle of Spain, but in the Lenox
Foundation, a part of the New York Public Library, in the heart of New
York City. There, if you show the appropriate desire, you may see it
any day. Some authorities think this letter was printed by Rosenbach,
one of the earliest Spanish printers, and probably one of my forbears.
The old fool! Why didn’t he save at least one copy for his descendants?
Of the second edition of this letter, with the Fates still pursuing,
there is likewise but one remaining copy. To-day it reposes in a very
safe place, the Ambrosian Library in Milan. The present Pope, Pius XI,
who should be the patron saint of all modern book collectors, was first
the assistant in this library, and finally the librarian. In bygone
years his knowledge of books and his infectious enthusiasm inspired
many a bookman. How it must have delighted him to have this great
letter of Columbus in his care!
Edition after edition of the first Columbus letter soon appeared.
The news was so astounding that all who could read wanted to see for
themselves the discoverer’s own description of this amazing new land.
Four editions appeared in Rome, two in Basle, three in Paris, and one
in Antwerp. These were all published in Latin or Italian. Florence
printed the news four separate times; strange to relate, the first
edition in German did not appear until 1497. But the Germans enhanced
their edition with one of the most amusing woodcuts I have ever seen.
It is a picture of the King of Spain and Columbus, who seem to be
explaining their great achievement (doubtless as an offering) to Jesus
Christ. There were six copies of it known until recently, three of
which are in this country: one in the Lenox Library, one in the John
Carter Brown collection at Providence, Rhode Island, and one in the
safekeeping of the Huntington Library. But only last year, when I
visited an old library in the west of England, the private collection
of a friend of mine, I had a curious experience.
It was at that hour which is neither day nor night, and the dressing
gong for dinner had sounded. I put my hand out in the half light to
steady myself after “tea,” and touched--not the _fille de chambre_, as
Sterne relates in his _Sentimental Journey_, but the edges of something
projecting from a shelf of an old bookcase. I had the strange feeling
of an omen about to be realized, one of those peculiar premonitions
women are always boasting of. I loosened the books on either side, drew
out the object, and went soberly to the nearest window, to find that
I had not one but two copies of this German Columbus letter! That was
enough to stagger anyone. One is now in the collection of that great
lover and connoisseur of books, Mr. Grenville Kane, of Tuxedo Park,
New York, who is now the _doyen_ of American collectors; the other is
cherished by my old friend Mr. H. V. Jones.
The story of this country unfolds itself like some gorgeous panorama
as you look through the books which chronicle the stirring times of
the early adventurers. Who wouldn’t choose to hear tales from actual
eyewitnesses, rather than read them rehashed in a fusty history
book? The principal performers in the great historical dramas have
themselves told us stories of daring, of bravery, of great disasters
and victories. Such men were Amerigo Vespucci; Waldseemüller, the
famous geographer, whose _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, published at
St. Dié in 1507, was the first book which gave the name, America, to
the New World; Peter Martyr, the first historian of the Indies, who
described the voyages of his friends and contemporaries, Columbus,
Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Cabot, and Vespucci. Martyr’s _Decades of the
New World_ should quicken the pulse of every lover of American history,
for it contains most of the knowledge we have of the very earliest
“inventions,” as they were called.
Elsewhere I have told of my purchase of the Ellsworth copy of the
Gutenberg Bible. Included in the lot with it was one of the earliest
charts showing the east coast of America. It dates around 1501-02. I
was present at the sale of this famous map, known as the King-Hamy
chart, when it brought $17,600, and was one of the unhappy underbidders
thereon. I thought it was lost to me and my heirs forevermore.
However, when the Ellsworth collection was sold, I radioed my bid from
mid-Atlantic and secured it.
Early portolano charts, as these first navigators’ maps are called,
are extremely interesting. They indicate, step by step, the latest
discoveries as they were made. You can see for yourself, if you follow
the development from the first faint coast lines on the earliest
charts to the recognizable later outlines, the wonderful progress made
by various explorers in less than a century. Every year new ports,
new bays, new islands, new harbors of refuge are seen. The first
mariners in the waters of the New Islands, as they were called, sent
their original and very rough working charts, made from the actual
observations of pilots, to the great cartographers in Spain and
Italy. Those men were really artists. Baptista Agnesi was one of the
most famous of the chart makers. He and his colleagues all produced
beautiful, illuminated atlases containing elaborately decorated maps,
gorgeously bound, which they sold to the great princes and merchants of
the day. The maps were much in demand as table books for the libraries
of wealthy men.
But there are very few of the first drafts of the early maps left. The
rolls of parchment which originated in the rough pilot house of an
early sailing vessel were often damaged by ocean spray and rats’ teeth;
under such conditions they could last but a short while. Probably not
five, altogether, survive. Yet lately I have had the unexampled good
fortune to obtain two actual pilots’ charts; the first one was used on
the voyage of Cortés, the other must have accompanied Pizarro on his
magnificent conquest of Peru. The former shows but the barest outline
of the coasts of the two Americas; the second, only fifteen years
later, presents a much more detailed diagram of the shores, indicating
the advance in geographical knowledge during this brief period.
Probably the two finest and most highly finished examples of the
map-maker’s art are two table books: the Spitzer chart in the John
Carter Brown Library at Providence and the famous Jacques Cartier atlas
in the collection of the late Henry E. Huntington. Another magnificent
collection of portolano charts is in the library of the Hispanic
Society in New York City, formed by the great student and collector,
Mr. Archer M. Huntington.
Now the young book enthusiast, if he has a limited amount of money,
must not feel out of the running when he sees that many of the rarer
examples of Americana are beyond his means. Indeed, the discriminating
collector seeks not only the great and costly pieces, such as Richard
Hakluyt’s _Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America_, 1582
(complete with both maps); Thomas Hariot’s _Briefe and True Report of
the New Found Land of Virginia_, 1588; Francis Drake’s _West Indian
Voyage_, 1589; or that wonderful collection, the most elaborate ever
compiled about America, known as De Bry’s _Voyages_. Of course,
everyone would like to secure these descriptions of the early
discoveries. Such fascinating accounts as those bequeathed to posterity
by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, the first real historian of the Spanish
conquest, and his successor, Cieza de Leon--these will always be
coveted, it goes without saying.
It is the little things, however, that I think most appealing.
For instance, within the past few months I found and purchased the
first tailor bill in the New World. It was the original invoice sent to
Hernando de Soto in 1536, several years before he made his momentous
discovery of the Mississippi River. The bill was dated from Lima, the
City of the Kings, which had only been founded in 1535. There were
forty items listed: bolts of the finest black velvets and satins,
yards and yards of scarlet taffeta for linings. Can you see the great
_conquistador_ flashing his way through some primeval jungle, clad like
the king’s courtier that he was, even in the wilderness? But to me the
most startling thing about this bill of $1400 for one month’s raiment
is that it was--receipted! How the tailors on Fifth Avenue would gloat
over this relic of their earliest predecessor! Perhaps some way will be
found to make a facsimile of the first receipted weapon of their trade.
It should be hung in every tailoring establishment along the Avenue
as a gentle reminder to tardy patrons. Although the clothes and the
tailor who made them, as well as the customer who wore them, have all
long since evaporated, Juan Ruiz, the tailor’s name, will live. It is
forever connected with the distinguished name of Hernando de Soto, the
discoverer of the Mississippi.
Virginia in the early days included practically all the English
possessions in America. Consequently New England was part of Virginia.
The first books relating to this English colony in the New World are
all of abounding interest. The history of settlements such as these,
of fierce and frequent fights with Indians, or the gentler tale of
Raleigh and his pipe of tobacco, reads like a dime novel. Of course
all these descriptions are entrancingly rare and the acquisition of
any one of them will make a dent in the most astute pocketbook. As
a rule, these tracts were ephemeral publications not unlike much of
the pamphlet literature that is issued to-day. They were small quarto
volumes, sometimes comprising only eight or ten leaves. After they were
read they doubtless were cast into the seventeenth-century equivalent
of the waste-paper basket, and that is why so few are in existence
to-day. The cherished survivors have been preserved because they were
bound together in volumes at the time they were issued.
Recently, in the library of an old London house, I came across one
of these precious collections containing twenty-three of the rarest
pamphlets relating to America. Bound therein were such collectors’
darlings as Brereton’s _Brief and true Relation of the Discovery of the
Northern Part of Virginia_, 1602; James Rosier’s _A True Relation of
the most prosperous Voyage made this present year 1605 in the Discovery
of the Land of Virginia_, published in London in 1605. And embedded in
the centre of the volume, like a choice nugget, was the first work of
the redoubtable Captain John Smith, entitled _A True Relation of such
Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as hath hapned in Virginia_, London,
1608.
“Have you any other books or pamphlets relating to America?” I asked
the distinguished owner after I had purchased this volume, which
was worth many thousands of pounds. He thought for so long before
answering that I was afraid he had nothing. When I had almost given up
hope, he said suddenly, “Would you be interested in a presentation copy
of Captain Smith’s _Generall Historie of Virginia_, 1624?”
“What are you trying to do? Pull my leg?”
“No, really,” he replied. “Here it is.” He walked the length of the
great room to an enormous bookcase with glass doors, and tenderly
extracted a tall slim book. The arms of England were impressed in
gold upon the covers. To say I was astounded is to express it mildly.
And there, covering the whole flyleaf in front of the beautifully
engraved title page, was the only known specimen of handwriting of the
celebrated “Governour and Admirall of New England,” as Captain Smith
was dubbed thereon. Since this dedication is entirely unknown, I give
it here to be printed for the first time:--
TO THE WORSHIPFULL THE MASTER WARDENS & SOCIETIE OF THE CORDWAYNERS OF
YE CITTIE OF LONDON.
WORTHIE GENTLEMEN:--
Not only in regard of your Courtesie & Love, Butt also of ye
Continuall Use I have had of your Labours, & the hope you may make
some use of mine, I salute you with this cronologicall discourse,
whereof you may understand with what infinite Difficulties & Dangers
these Plantations first began, with their yearlie proceedings, &
the plaine description & Condition of those Countries; How many of
your Companie have bin Adventurers, whose Names are omitted or not
nominated in the Alphabett I know not, therefore I intreate you better
to informe me, that I may hereafter imprint you amongst the Rest,
Butt of this I am sure for want of shooes among the Oyster Bankes
wee tore our hatts & Clothes & those being worne, wee tied Barkes of
trees about our ffeete to keepe them from being Cutt by the shelles
amongst which wee must goe or starve, yett how many thousand of
shooes hath bin transported to these plantations, how many Soldiers,
Marriners & Saylers have bin & are likely to be encreased thereby,
what vent your Commodities have had & still have, & how many shipps
& men of all ffaculties have bin & are yearelie imployed I leave to
your owne Judgments, & yett by reason of ill manadging, the Returnes
have neither answered the generall Expectation, nor my desire; the
Causes thereof you may read at large in this Booke for your better
satisfaction, & I pray you take it not in ill part that I present
the same to you in this manuscript Epistle soe Late, for both it & I
myself have bin soe overtired by attendances that this Work of mine
doth seeme to be Superannuated before it’s Birth, notwithstanding Lett
me intreat you to give it Lodging in your Hall Freelie to be perused
for ever, in memorie of your Noblenesse towards mee, & my Love to God,
my Countrie, your Societie, & those Plantations, Ever resting
Your’s to use
JOHN SMITH
[Illustration:
THE
GENERALL HISTORIE
OF
Virginia, New-England, and the Summer
Isles with the names of the Adventurers,
Planters, and Governours from their
first beginning An. 1584 to this
present 1624.
_WITH THE PROCEDINGS OF THOSE SEVERALL COLONIES
and the Accidents that befell them in all their
Journyes and Discoveries._
Also the Maps and Descriptions of all those
Countryes, their Commodities, people,
Government, Customes, and Religion
yet knowne.
_DIVIDED INTO SIXE BOOKES
By Captaine JOHN SMITH sometymes Governour’
in those Countryes & Admirall
of_ New England.
LONDON
Printed by I.D. and
I.H. for _Michael
Sparkes_.
1624.
ENGRAVED TITLE OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH’S “HISTORY OF VIRGINIA, 1624”]
Smith’s _Virginia_ is in many respects the standard example of
English Americana. The narrative is trippingly told, and if Captain
Smith exaggerates and invents, so much the better! He is the prime
storyteller among historians. Were he alive to-day he would probably
prove himself the greatest scenario writer of all time, especially if
he wrote colorful thrillers filled with action such as the Pocahontas
episode. Here it is in part:--
The Queene of Appomatuck was appointed to bring him [Smith] water
to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers,
instead of a Towell to dry them; having feasted him after their best
barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the
conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan; then
as many as could layd hand on him, dragged him to them, and thereon
laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his
braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could
prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to
save him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should live
to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper....
I myself like best his touching note about the first white child born
in British America:--
And the 18th [August, 1587] Ellinor the Governours daughter, and wife
to Ananias Dare, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoak; which, being
the first Christian there borne, was called Virginia.
The early history of the settlement of New England according to its
present bounds is perhaps more austere than the narrative of Ponce
de Leon in Florida or the exploits of Jacques Cartier in New France.
Nevertheless, the story contains many soul-stirring incidents. It is
as chock-full of romantic relations as the _Thousand and One Nights_.
No one realized this more clearly and beautifully than Nathaniel
Hawthorne. A dear friend of mine and one of the most discriminating and
earnest collectors in this country, whose judgment in any matter of
taste is final, owns the Hawthorne family copy of _William Hubbard’s
Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New England_, printed in
Boston by John Foster, 1677. It is in its original sheep binding. This
book had been the cherished property of the Hawthorne family of Salem
for two hundred and fifty years. The name of the first emigrant founder
of the family is at the top of the title page: “William Hawthorne,
Senior, his booke, 1677.” It is he who is described in the introduction
to _The Scarlet Letter_ as “grave, bearded, sable-cloaked ... with his
Bible and his sword....”
The second owner, his son, and not less famous as the notorious witch
judge of Salem, placed his autograph at the bottom of the title page:
“John Hathorne his booke.” The book next descended to his son, who
wrote on the flyleaf: “Joseph Hathorne His Book 1739-40.” And so it
went from father to son for many more generations, finally becoming
the possession of Nathaniel Hawthorne. After his name, in which he
reinserted the original _w_, he wrote, “given him by his Kinswoman,
Miss Susan Ingersoll, 1838.” Few old books of intrinsic value have
a record of ownership as direct and interesting as this. From Major
William Hawthorne, the founder of the family, who led more than one
expedition against the Indians, to Nathaniel Hawthorne, the gentlest of
men, is indeed a far cry.
New England is fortunate in possessing two interesting and authentic
manuscript narratives of its earliest history. Governor Winthrop’s
Journal or _Historie of New England_ is one, and William Bradford’s
_Historie of Plimouth Plantation_ the other. Both, although written
in a somewhat formal manner, contain the most realistic description
of life in the colonies. Probably the two most important printed
books of this period are George Mourt’s _A Relation or Journal of the
Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plimouth
in New England_, London, 1622, and the first published history of
Massachusetts, William Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, London, 1634.
The first work published in English about New York is entitled
_The Second Part of the Tragedy of Amboyna_, 1653. It is really a
controversial pamphlet in which the early Dutch colonists were accused
of trying to induce the Indians to murder the English settlers who had
come down from New England. But the first true history of New York
was Daniel Denton’s _A Brief Description of New York First Called New
Netherlands_, 1670. In those days it was the fashion to malign the
Dutch, and families such as the De Peysters and the Van Rensselaers
were not so prominent socially as their descendants are to-day.
The first account of Pennsylvania was written by none other than
William Penn himself, and published in London in 1681. Although Penn
had never seen this country at the time, he wrote a most glowing
account of it, proving that the press-agent bacillus was even then
alive. This wonderful Quaker wanted colonists to develop the grant
which was given him in settlement of the Crown’s debt to his father.
It is no wonder that in a virulent tract the better classes of
England showed their distaste for his business activities, which they
considered unbecoming to his religion and his position. That naughty
little pamphlet is entitled _William Penn’s Conversion from a
Gentleman to a Quaker_!
[Illustration: A Plan of the City of New York from an actual Survey
FIRST MAP OF NEW YORK CITY ENGRAVED IN AMERICA, PRINTED BY WILLIAM
BRADFORD, 1731]