THE GENESIS OF THE UNITED STATES.*
THE absurd notion that learning and scholarship cannot flourish in a democratic State, and that either the favour of Princes, or else the aid of a Government resting solely on the educated classes, is necessary for the production of works of a historical and critical kind, is abundantly confuted by the books which are produced every year in America. The volumes which are the subject of the present review, neces- sarily appeal only to persons of education, and to persons of education who have also a taste for antiquarian investigation. Yet, in spite of the comparatively narrow audience to which it is addressed, Mr. Brown's book has been compiled with as much care and diligence, and with as great a sumptuousness of print, paper, and illustration, as any work dedicated to a Pope or Emperor, and subscribed for by Dukes, Cardinals, and Bishops. As has been shown before in England, the good-will of the public encourages the publication of such splendid monumenta historiea as The Genesis of the United States quite as successfully as the patronage of Courts and Princes. The object of the work before us is to give a complete view of all the documentary evidence now in existence which relates to the founding of that other England which holds the American Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore. Documents which have been reprinted before are given in abstract, but rare tracts and manuscripts in tote. Mr. Brown's work thus forms a sort of Calendar in extenso of books and papers re-
• The Genesis of the United States. A Narrative of the Movement in England, 1605-1816, which resulted in the Plantation of North America by Englishmen, disclosing the Contest between England and Spain for the Possession of the Soil now occupied by the United States of America; set forth through a Series of Historical Manuscripts now first printed, together with a Reissue of Rare Con- temporaneous Tracts, accompanied by Bibliographical Memoranda, Notes, and Brief Biographies. Collected, arranged, and edited by Alexand ir Brown. Member of the Virginia Historical Society and of the American Historical Association, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of England. With 100 Portraits, Maps,
and Plana, 2 vols. London ; William Heinemann. 1890,
lating to the planting of North America by English- men during the period between 1605 and 1616. The matter in Mr. Brown's book is arranged chronologically, and thus we see unrolled before us a vivid picture of one of the most momentous events in the history of the world. We find in his pages the relations of the men who sailed to the lands be- yond the sea, either to colonise them for themselves, or to assist those of their countrymen who had gone before them. We hear of the manifold difficulties and perils of the settlers, their battles with the Indians, their shipwrecks, their sufferings from famine and disease, and their quarrels among them- selves. Again, we see the excitement that reigned in England in regard to the plantation of the English stock in a new soil, the eager interest of all classes and professions in the great adventure, and the spirit of enterprise and patriotism evoked thereby. One set of papers shows us the public enthusiasm awakened by Virginia, another exhibits the lawyers and statesmen busy to shape well and truly the out- lines of the infant Commonwealth. While the mariners are fitting their ships for the voyage, the Lords of the Council are naming the Magistrates for the new Colonies, and setting forth ordinances " agreeable to the laws of England," by which they are to be governed. Lastly, the copious extracts from the State records of Spain furnished by Mr. Brown, enable us to see how closely and how jealously the King of Spain watched the expansion of England. Not a ship can set out for or return from the New World, not a broadside calling attention to the prospects of the plantation in Virginia can be issued, or a lottery to raise funds for the adventurers can be set on foot, but his Most Christian Majesty's Ambassador hastens to apprise his Royal master of the fact, never forgetting, however, to add that the whole scheme must sooner or later end in a fiasco, or degenerate into a mere affair of pirates.
As an example of " the relations" of the actual voyagers, we cannot do better than quote from the " Observations gathered out of a Discourse of the Plantation of the Southerne Colonie in Virginia by the English, 1606, written by that Hon.
Gentleman, Master George Percy." After describing how on their first landing in Virginia he found "faire meddowes and goodly tall trees, with much fresh waters running through the woods as I was almost ravished at the sight thereof,"
Percy wanders on with his adventures in an Odyssean fashion truly delightful. Take, for example, the following:— "The nineteenth day, myselfe and three or foure more walking into the Woods by chance wee espied a path-way like to an Irish pace ; wee were desirous to knowe whither it would bring us ; wee traced along some fours miles, all the way as wee went, having the pleasantest Suckles, the ground all flowing over with faire flowers of sundry colours and kinder, as though it had beene in any Garden or Orchard in England. There be many Strawberries, and other fruits unknowne : wee saw the Woods full of Cedar and Cypresse trees, with other trees, which issues out sweet Grammes like to Balsam : wee kept on our way in this Paradise, at length wee came to a Savage Towne, where wee found but few people, they told us the rest were gone a hunting with the Werowance of Paspiha : We stayed there a while, and had of them Strawberries, and other things ; in the meane time one of the Savages came running out of his house with a Bowe and Arrowes and ranne mainly through the Woods : then I beganne to mistrust some villanie, that he went to call some companie, and so betray us, wee made all the haste away wee could : One of the Savages brought us on the way to the Woodside, where there was a Garden of Tobacco, and other fruits and herbes, he gathered Tobacco, and distributed it to every one of us, so wee departed. The twentieth day the Werowance of Paspiha sent fortie of his men with a Deere, to our quarter : but they came more in villanie than any love they bare us ; they faine would have layne in our Fort all night, but wee would not suffer them for feare of their treachery. One of our Gentlemen having a Target which hee trusted in, thinking it would bears out a flight shot, hee set it up against a tree, willing one of the Savages to shoot ; who tooke from his backe an Arrow of an elle long, drew it strongly in his Bowe, shoots the Target a foote thorow, or better : which was strange, being that a Pistoll could not pierce it. Wee seeing the force of his Bowe, afterwards set him up a steele Target; he shot again, and burst his arrow all to pieces, he presently pulled out another Arrow, and bit it in his teeth, and seemed to bee in a great rage, so hee went away in great anger. Their Bowes are made of tough Hasell, their strings of Leather, their Arrowes of Canes or Hasell, headed with very sharpe stones, and are made artificially like a broad Arrow ; other some of their Arrowes are headed with the ends of Deeres homes, and are feathered very artificially. Pasphia was as good as his word; for hee sent Venison, but the Sawse came within a few dayes after."
As an example of the broadsides, or, as we should now say, public notices and advertisements, put forth to attract colonists to Virginia, we may quote one sent to the Xing of Spain by Zulliga, his Ambassador:— "Concerning the Plantation of Virginia New Britain.—In as much as it may please God, for the better strengthening of the Colony of Virginia, it has been determined by many noble persons, Counts, Barons, Knights, Merchants and others, to make a voyage there very speedily as is necessary, and in order that so honourable a voyage and a work so pleasing to God, and of such great useful- ness for this Commonwealth in many respects, may find support and be prospered by all necessary ways and means, in which voyage many noble and generous persons have resolved to go themselves, and are already preparing and making ready to that effect.— Therefore, for the same purpose this paper has been made public, so that it may be generally known to all workmen of whatever craft they may be, blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, shipwrights, turners and such as know how to plant vineyards, hunters, fisher- men, and all who work in any kind of metal, men who make bricks, architects, bakers, weavers, shoemakers, sawyers and those who spin wool and all others, men as well as women, who have any occupation, who wish to go out in this voyage for colonising the country with people. And if they wish to do so, will come to Fitpot len ' [Filpot Lane] street, to the house of Sir Thomas Smith, who is Treasurer of this Colony, and there they will be enlisted by their names and there will be pointed out to such persons what they will receive for this voyage, viz., five hunfirod reales ' for each one, and they will be entered as Adventurers in this aforesaid voyage to Virginia, where they will have houses to live in, vegetable-gardens and orchards, and also food and clothing at the expense of the Company of that Island, and besides this, they will have a share of all the products and the profits that may result from their labour, each in proportion, and they will also secure a share in the division of the land for themselves and their heirs forever more."
Though not of any special historical importance, we cannot forbear to quote a passage from the relation of a French priest called Biard, whose ship was taken by an English ship. It shows how the national characteristics which we ascribe to the French at the present day were applicable three hundred years ago. This is the Frenchman's description of the sea- fight. His evident annoyance and sense of injury that the English did not call out, " 0 ! 0 !" but grimly and inconti- nently poured shot and shell on their antagonists, and also charged at sea "as well as soldiers do on land," is specially delightful. The gunner, too, who "in his whole life never felt fear," and made so gallant but ineffectual a din with his gun, is excellent :-
" As it is usual when vessels approach each other, to summon them to say who they are, our people cried out sailor-fashion 0. 0 ! But the English did not reply in the same manner, but far more furiously, with loud discharges of muskets and guns. They had 14 pieces of artillery and 60 musketeers, trained to serve on board ship, who came and charged on deck, on the bow- sprit and wherever it was necessary, quite as well as soldiers do on land. The first fire of the English was terrible ; the whole vessel was on fire and full of smoke. From outside came a cool reply ; the artillery was silent. Captain Flory cried in vain : Fire ! Fire the gun ! the gunner was not there. But Gilbert de Thet, who in his whole life had never felt fear nor shown himself a coward, when he heard the order and saw that nobody obeyed, took the match and caused us to speak as loud as the enemy ; the misfortune was, that he did not take aim, and if he had done so, perhaps something worse might have happened, than the mere noise."
The value and importance of Mr. Brown's book is greatly increased by his excellent plan of adding a sort of biographical dictionary to his work, wherein are to be found appropriate notices of the various persons mentioned in his pages. These little biographies show a large amount of pains and learning, and will prove a perfect godsend to students not only of the early Colonial period, but of Elizabethan times generally. Special circumstances have made the present writer conversant in detail with the subject of one of these bio- graphies, and if, as we believe, the notice in question is a fair sample, the work must be pronounced to be more than ordinarily full and correct. The biography to which we allude is that of William Strachey, Secretary to the Colony of Virginia, and the most important writer in regard to its earliest years. Mr. Brown is quite right in assuming that he is William Strachey, of Saffron Walden. He was also the author of " the rugged sonnet" on Ben Jonson's Elejanus, published among the commendatory verses written for that play. Mr. Brown, as he seems specially curious about Strachey, will doubtless be interested to know that the Secretary's son, another William Strachey, married a niece of Sir Robert Crosse, who is also a subject of his biographical research. This Sir Robert Crosse commanded a ship called the ' Bona- venture,' was knighted at the siege of Cadiz, and sailed on his last voyage with Sir Richard Grenville.
With so much of notice, we must take leave of a work which does its author the very greatest credit. Like almost all historians and lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr.
Brown shows a just and full appreciation of the oneness of the English kin. He is a thorough American and yet thoroughly an Englishman, for the nature of his studies shows how impossible it is to separate the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. His work will, we trust, be widely read both in England and in America, for besides its historical importance, it has a very large share of human interest. The map and plans are beautifully executed, as also are the por- traits. The latter form, in fact, a perfect gallery of Eliza- bethan worthies.
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