The Isle Of Pines (1668) Part 4

2 As in Macrobius, In Sommium Scipionis Expositio, Brescia, 1483. 3 See the map of Oronce Fine, 1522, and Ortelius, Orbis Terrarum 1592. 4 The "Quiri Regio" was long marked on maps as a continent lying to the south of the Solomon Islands.

3 This was first republished at Augsburg in 1611; in a Latin translation in Henry Hudson's Descriptio ac Delimeatis, Amsterdam, 1612, in Dutch, Verhael van seher Memorial, Amsterdam, 1612; in Bry, 1613, and shortly after in Hulsius; in French, Paris, 1617; and in English, London, 1617. I give this list because even so interesting an announcement of a genuine voyage did not have so quick an acceptance as Neville's tract with almost the same t.i.tle.

Such an expanse of undiscovered land, believed to be rich in gold, awakened the resolution of Pedro Fernandez de Queiros, who had been a pilot in the Mendafia voyage of 1606. By chance he failed in his object, and deceived by the apparent continuous coast line presented to his view by the islands of the New Hebrides group, he gave it the resounding name of Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, because of the King's t.i.tle of Austria. On the publication of his "Relation" at Seville in 1610, the name was altered, and he claimed to have discovered the "fourth part of the world, called Terra Australis incognita." Seven years later, [45]in 1617, it was published in London under the t.i.tle, "Terra Australia incognita, or A new Southerne Discoverie, containing a fifth part of the World." It is obvious that geographers and their source of information--the adventurous sea captains--were not agreed upon the proper number to be a.s.signed to the Terra Australis in the world scheme.

Even in 1663 the Church seemed in doubt, for a father writes "Memoires touchant l'etabliss.e.m.e.nt d'une Mission Chrestienne dans la troisieme Monde, autrement apelle la Terre Australe, Meridionale, Antartique, & I connue."{1} That Neville even drew his t.i.tle from any of these publications cannot be a.s.serted, nor do they explain his designation of the Isle of Pines as the fourth island in this southern land; but they show the common meaning attached to Terra Australis incognita, and his use of the words was a clever, even if not an intentional appeal to the curiosity then so active on continents yet to be discovered.

1 Printed at Paris by Claude Cramoisy, 1663. A copy is in the John Carter Brown Library. In 1756 Charles de Brosse published his Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes from Vespuccius to his own day, which was largely used by John Callender in compiling his Terra Australis Cogmta, 1766-68.

Another volume, however, written by one who afterwards became Bishop of Norwich, may have been responsible for the conception of Neville's pamphlet. This was Joseph Hall's "Mundus Alter et Idem sive Terra Australis ante hac semper incognita longis itineribus peregrini Academici nuperrime l.u.s.trata." The t.i.tle says it was printed at Frankfort, and the statement has been too readily accepted as the fact, for the tract was entered at [46]Stationers' Hall by John Porter, June 2, 1605, and again on August 1, 1608.{1} The biographer of Bishop Hall states that it was published at Frankfort by a friend, in 1605, and republished at Hanau in 1607, and in a translated form in London about 1608. It is more than probable that all three issues were made in London, and that the so-called Hanau edition was that entered in 1608.

On January 18, 1608-09, Thomas Thorpe entered the translation, with the address to the reader signed John Healey, who was the translator.{2} This carried the t.i.tle: "The Discovery of a New World, or a Description of the South Indies. .h.i.therto unknown."{3} It is a satirical work with no pretense of touching upon realities. Hallam wrote of it: "I can only produce two books by English authors in this first part of the seventeenth century which fall properly under the cla.s.s of novels or romances; and of these one is written in Latin. This is the Mundus Alter and Idem of Bishop Hall, an imitation of the later and weaker volumes of Rabelais. A country in Terra Australis is divided into four regions, c.r.a.pulia, Virginia, Moronea, and Lavernia. Maps of the whole land and of particular regions are given; and the nature of the satire, not much of which has any especial reference to England, may easily be collected. It is not a very successful effort."{4}

1 Stationers' Registers (Arber), in. 291, 386.

2 Ib. 400. Healey made an "exceptionally bad" translation of St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei, which remained the only English translation of that work until 1871.

3 In the Bodleian Library is a copy of the translation with the t.i.tle, The Discovery of a New World, Tenterbelly, Sheeland, and Fooliana, London, n.d.

4 Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 2d ed., II.

167.

While a later critic, Canon [47]Perry, says of it: "This strange composition, sometimes erroneously described as a 'political romance,'

to which it bears no resemblance whatever, is a moral satire in prose, with a strong undercurrent of bitter jibes at the Romish church, and its eccentricities, which sufficiently betray the author's main purpose in writing it. It shows considerable imagination, wit, and skill in latinity, but it has not enough of verisimilitude to make it an effective satire, and does not always avoid scurrility."{1} Like Neville's production, the satire was misinterpreted.

The t.i.tle of Neville's tract also recalls the lost play of Thomas Nash--"The Isle of Dogs"--for which he was imprisoned on its appearance in 1597, and suffered, as he a.s.serted, for the indiscretion of others.

"As Actaeon was worried by his own hounds," wrote Francis Meres in his "Palladis Tamia," "so is Tom Nash of his Isle of Dogs." And three years later, in 1600, Nash referred in his "Summers Last Will" to the excitement raised by his suppressed play. "Here's a coil about dogs without wit! If I had thought the ship of fools would have stay'd to take in fresh water at the Isle of Dogs, I would have furnish'd it with a whole kennel of collections to the purpose." The incident was long remembered. Nine years after Nash's experience John Day published his "Isle of Gulls," drawn from Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia."{2}

1 Dictionary of National Biography, xxiv. 76.

2 I take these facts from Sir Sidney Lee's sketch of Nash in the Dictionary of National Biography, XL. 107.

[48]

DEFOE AND THE "ISLE OF PINES"

I would apologize for taking so much time on a nine-page hoax did it not offer something positive in the history of English literature. It has long been recognized as one of the more than possible sources of Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." It is truly said that the elements of a masterpiece exist for years before they become embodied, that they are floating in the air, as it were, awaiting the master workman who can make that use which gives to them permanent interest Life on an island, entirely separated from the rest of mankind, had formed an incident in many tales, but Neville's is believed to have been the first employment by an English author of island life for the whole story. And while Defoe excludes the most important feature of Neville's tract--woman--from his "Robinson Crusoe," issued in April, 1719, he too, four months after, published the "Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," in which woman has a share. It would be wearisome to undertake a comparison of incident; suffice it to say that the "Isle of Pines" has been accepted as a pre-Defoe romance, to which the far greater Englishman may have been indebted. [49]

[51]

THE ISLE OF PINES, The combined Parts as issued in 1668

The Isle of Pines

OR,

[53] A late Discovery of a fourth ISLAND near Terra Australis, Incognita

BY

Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten.

Wherein is contained.

A True Relation of certain English persons, who in Queen Elizabeths time, making a Voyage to the East Indies were cast away, and wracked near to the Coast of Terra Australis, Incognita, and all drowned, except one Man and four Women. And now lately Anno Dom. 1667. a Dutch Ship making a Voyage to the East Indies, driven by foul weather there, by chance have found their Posterity, (speaking good English) to amount (as they suppose) to ten or twelve thousand persons. The whole Relation (written and left by the Man himself a little before his death, and delivered to the Dutch by his Grandchild) Is here annexed with the Longitude and Lat.i.tude of the Island, the situation and felicity thereof, with other matter observable.

Licensed July 27. 1668.

London, Printed for Allen Banks and Charles Harper next door to the three Squerrills in Fleet-Street, over against St Dunstans Church, 1668.

Two Letters concerning the Island of Pines to a Credible person in Covent Garden.

IT is written by the last Post from Rochel, to a Merchant in this City, that there was a French ship arrived, the Mailer and Company of which reports, that about 2 or 300 Leagues Northwest from Cape Finis Terre, they fell in with an Island, where they went on sh.o.r.e, and found about 2000 English people without cloathes, only some small coverings about their middle, and that they related to them, that at their first coming to this Island (which was in Queen Elizabeths time) they were but five in number men and women, being cast on sh.o.r.e by distress or otherwise, and had there remained ever since, without having any correspondence with any other people, or any ship coming to them. This story seems very fabulous, yet the Letter is come to a known Merchant, and from a good hand in France, so that I thought fit to mention it, it may be that there may be some mistake in the number of the Leagues, as also of the exact point of the Compa.s.s, from Cape Finis Terre; I shall enquire more particularly about it. Some English here suppose it may be the Island of Brasile which have been so oft sought for, Southwest from Ireland, if true, we shall hear further about it; your friend and Brother, Abraham Keek.

Amsterdam, July the 6th 1668.

IT is said that the Ship that discovered the Island, of which I hinted to you in my last, is departed from Rochel, on her way to Zealand, several persons here have writ thither to enquire for the said Vessel, to know the truth of this business. I was promised a Copy of the Letter [54]Amsterdam, June the 29th 1668, that came from France, advising the discovery of the Island above-said, but its not yet come to my hand; when it cometh, or any further news about this Island, I shall acquaint you with it,

Your Friend and Brother,

A. Keck.

{{1 }} [55]Discovered Near to the Coast of Terra Australis Incognita, by Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten, in a Letter to a friend in London, declaring the truth of his Voyage to the East Indies.

SIR,

I Received your Letter of this second instant, wherein you desire me to give you a further account concerning the Land of Pines, on which we were driven by distress of Weather the last Summer, I also perused the Printed Book thereof you sent me, the Copy of which was surreptiously taken out of my hands, else should I have given you a more fuller account upon what occasion we came thither, how we were entertained, with some other circ.u.mstances {{2 }}of note wherein that relation is defective. To satisfie therefore your desires, I shall briefly yet sully give you a particular account thereof, with a true Copy of the Relation itself; desiring you to bear with my blunt Phrases, as being more a Seaman then a Scholler.

April the 26th 1667. We set sail from Amsterdam, intending for the East-Indies; our ship had to name the place from whence we came, the Amsterdam burthen 350. Tun, and having a fair gale of Wind, on the 27 of May following we had a sight of the high Peak Tenriffe belonging to the Canaries, we have touched at the Island Palma, but having endeavoured it twice, and finding the winds contrary, we steered on our course by the Isles of Cape Ferd, or Insula Capitis Viridis, where at St. James's we [56]took in fresh water, with some few Goats, and Hens, wherewith that Island doth plentifully abound.

June the 14. we had a sight of Madagascar, or the Island of St Laurence, an Island of 4000 miles in compa.s.s, and scituate under the Southern Tropick; thither we steered our course, and trafficked with the inhabitants for Knives, Beads, Gla.s.ses and the like, having in exchange thereof Cloves and Silver. Departing from thence we were incountred with a violent storm, and the winds holding contrary, for the s.p.a.ce of a fortnight, brought us back almost as far as the Isle Del Principe; during which time many of our men fell sick, and some dyed, but at the end of that time it pleased G.o.d the wind favoured us again, and we steered on our course merrily, for the s.p.a.ce of ten days: when on a sudden we were encountered with such a violent storm, as if all the four winds together had conspired for our destruction, so that the stoutest spirit of us all quailed, expecting every hour to be devoured by that merciless element of water, sixteen dayes together {{3 }} did this storm continue, though not with such violence as at the first, the Weather being so dark all the while, and the Sea so rough, that we knew not in what place we were, at length all on a sudden the Wind ceased, and the Air cleared, the Clouds were all dispersed, and a very serene Sky followed, for which we gave hearty thanks to the Almighty, it being beyond our expectation that we should have escaped the violence of that storm.

At length one of our men mounting the Main-mast espyed fire, an evident sign of some Countrey near adjoyning, which presently after we apparently discovered, and steering our course [57]more nigher, we saw several persons promiscuously running about the sh.o.r.e, as it were wondering and admiring at what they saw: Being now near to the Land, we manned out our long Boat with ten persons, who approaching the sh.o.r.e, asked them in our Dutch Tongue What Eyland is dit? to which they returned this Answer in English, "that they knew not what we said." One of our Company named Jeremiah Hanzen who understood English very well, hearing their words discourst to them in their own Language; so that in fine we were very kindly invited on sh.o.r.e, great numbers of them flocking about us, admiring at our Cloaths which we did wear, as we on the other side did to find in such a strange place, so many that could speak English and yet to go naked.

Four of our men returning back in the long Boat to our Ships company, could hardly make them believe the truth of what they had seen and heard, but when we had brought our ship into harbour, you would have blest your self to see how the naked Islanders flocked unto us, so wondering at our ship, as if it had been the greatest miracle of Nature in whole World. {{4 }}

We were very courteously entertained by them, presenting us with such food as that Countrey afforded, which indeed was not to be despised; we eat of the Flesh both of Beasts, and Fowls, which they had cleanly drest, though with no great curiosity, as wanting materials, wherewithal to do it; and for bread we had the inside or Kernel of a great Nut as big as an Apple, which was very wholsome, and found for the body, and tasted to the Pallat very delicious.

Having refreshed our selves, they invited us to the Pallace [58]of their Prince or chief Ruler, some two miles distant off from the place where we landed; which we found to be about the bigness of one of our ordinary village houses, it was supported with rough unhewn pieces of Timber, and covered very artificially with boughs, so that it would keep out the greatest showers of Rain, the sides thereof were adorned with several forts of Flowers, which the fragrant fields there do yield in great variety. The Prince himself (whose name was William Pine the Grandchild of George Pine that was first on sh.o.r.e in this Island) came to his Pallace door and saluted us very courteously, for though he had nothing of Majesty in him, yet had he a courteous n.o.ble and deboneyre spirit, wherewith your English Nation (especially those of the Gentry) are very much indued.

Scarce had he done saluting us when his Lady or Wife, came likewise forth of their House or Pallace, attended on by two Maid-servants, the was a woman of an exquisite beauty, and had on her head as it were a Chaplet of Flowers, which being intermixt with several variety of colours became her admirably. Her privities were hid with some pieces of old Garments, the Relicts of those Cloaths (I suppose) of them which first came hither, and yet being adorned with Flowers those very rags seemeth beautiful; and {{5 }} indeed modesty so far prevaileth over all the Female s.e.x of that Island, that with gra.s.s and flowers interwoven and made strong by the peelings of young Elms (which grow there in great plenty) they do plant together so many of them as serve to cover those parts which nature would have hidden.

We carried him as a present some few Knives, of which we [59]thought they had great need, an Ax or Hatchet to fell Wood, which was very acceptable unto him, the Old one which was cast on sh.o.r.e at the first, and the only one that they ever had, being now so quite blunt and dulled, that it would not cut at all, some few other things we also gave him, which he very thankfully accepted, inviting us into his House or Pallace, and causing us to sit down with him, where we refreshed our selves again, with some more Countrey viands which were no other then such we tasted of before; Prince and peasant here faring alike, nor is there any difference betwixt their drink, being only fresh sweet water, which the rivers yield them in great abundance.

After some little pause, our Companion (who could speak English) by our request desired to know of him something concerning their Original and how that people speaking the Language of such a remote Countrey, should come to inhabit there, having not, as we could see, any ships or Boats amongst them the means to bring them thither, and which was more, altogether ignorant and meer strangers to ships, or shipping, the main thing conducible to that means, to which request of ours, the courteous Prince thus replyed.

Friends (for so your actions declare you to be, and shall by ours find no less) know that we are inhabitants of this Island of no great standing, my Grandfather being the first that ever set foot on this sh.o.r.e, whose native Countrey was {{6 }} a place called England, far distant from this our Land, as he let us to understand; He came from that place upon the Waters, in a thing called a Ship, of which no question but you may have heard; several other persons were in his company, not intending to have come [60]hither (as he said) but to a place called India, when tempestuous weather brought him and his company upon this Coast, where falling among the Rocks his ship split all in pieces; the whole company perishing in the Waters, saving only him and four women, which by means of a broken piece of that Ship, by Divine a.s.sistance got on Land.