Chapter V: Virginia, 1606-1689 (3)

In Smith’s _Map of Virginia, with a Description of the Country_, etc., Oxford, 1612, W. S., or William Strachey, eked out the little tract with an appendix of others’ contributions. Strachey afterwards adopted a considerable part in his _Historie of Travaile_. Mr. Deane, in his edition of the _True Relation_, p. xxi, has given a full account of this tract. Smith reprinted it in his _Generall Historie_ with some changes and additions and small omissions. Purchas reprinted it in his _Pilgrimes_, but not without changes and omissions of small extent, and with some additions, which he credits on the margin to Smith; and he had earlier given an abstract of it in his _Pilgrimage_. There is a copy of the original in the Lenox Library. Tyler, _American Literature_, i. 30, notices it.

The map accompanying this tract, engraved by W. Hole, appeared in three impressions (Stevens’s _Bibliotheca Historica_, 1870, no. 1,903). It was altered somewhat, and the words, “Page 41, Smith,” were put in the lower right-hand corner, when it was next used in the _Generall Historie_, 1624 and later; and in 1625 it was again inserted at pp. 1836-37 of Purchas’s _Pilgrimes_, vol. iv. De Bry next re-engraved it in part xiii. of his _Great Voyages_, printed in German, 1627, and in Latin 1634; and in part xiv. in German in 1630 (_Carter-Brown Catalogue_, i. 370-71). It was also re-engraved for Gottfriedt’s _Newe Welt_, published at Frankfort, and marked “Erforshet und beschriben durch Capitain Iohan Schmidt.” The compiler of this last book was J. Ph. Abelin, who had been one of De Bry’s co-workers, and he made this work in some sort an abridgment of De Bry’s, use being made of his plates, often inserting them in the text, the book being first issued in 1631, and again in 1655. (Muller’s _Books on America_, 1872, no. 636, and (1877) no. 1,269.)

The map was next used in two English editions of Hondy’s _Mercator_, “Englished by W. S.” 1635, etc., but with some fanciful additions, as Mr. Deane says (Bohn’s _Lowndes_, p. 1103). The map of the coast in De Laet, 1633 and 1640, was, it would seem, founded upon it for the Chesapeake region; cf. also the map of Virginia and Florida called “par Mercator,” of date 1633, and the maps by Blaeu, of 1655 and 1696.

Once more Smith’s plot adorned, in 1671, Ogilby’s large folio on _America_, p. 193, as it had also found place in the prototype of Ogilby, the Amsterdam Montanus of 1671 and 1673. In these two books (1671-73) also appeared the map “Virginiæ, partis australis et Floridæ, partis orientalis, nova descriptio,” which shows the coast from the Chesapeake down to the 30th degree of north latitude.

Smith’s was finally substantially copied as late as 1735, as the best available source, in _A Short Account of the First Settlement of the Provinces_, etc., London, 1735,—a contribution to the literature of the boundary dispute, and was doubtless the basis of the map in Keith’s _Virginia_ in 1738; but it finally gave place to Fry and Jefferson’s map of the region in 1750.

A phototype fac-simile, reduced about one quarter, of the earliest state of the original map in the Harvard College copy of the Oxford tract of 1612 is given herewith. A similar fac-simile, full size, is given in Mr. Deane’s reprint of the _True Relation_, though it was not published in that tract. A lithographic fac-simile, full size, but without the pictures in the upper corners, is given in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of Strachey, p. 23. Other reproductions will be found in Scharf’s _Maryland_, i. 6, Scharf’s _Baltimore City and County_, 1881, p. 38, and in Cassell’s _United States_, p. 27. That in the Richmond (1819) reprint of the _Generall Historie_ is well done, full size, on copper. This copperplate was rescued in 1867 from the brazier’s pot by the late Thomas H. Wynne, and at the sale of his library in 1875 was purchased for the State Library of Virginia.

Neill, in his _Virginia Company_, p. 191, mentions “A mapp of Virginia, discovered to y^e Hills and its latt. from 35 deg. and ½ neer Florida to 41 deg. bounds of New England. Domina Virginia Ferrar collegit, 1651,” and identifies this compiler of the map as a daughter of John Ferrar. The map we suppose to be the one engraved by Goddard. This map is associated with a London publication of 1650, called _Virgo triumphans, or Virginia richly and truly valued_, which is usually ascribed to Edward Williams, but is held nevertheless to be in substance the work of John Ferrar of Geding. There were two editions of this year (1650): _Brinley Catalogue_ no. 3,816; Quaritch, _General Catalogue_, no. 12,535, held at £36 John Ferrar’s copy of the first edition, with his notes, and the original drawing of the map, inserted by Ferrar to make up a deficiency in the first edition, of which he complains. Quaritch prices a good copy without such annotations at £25. The second edition (1650) had additions, as shown in the title, _Virginia, more especially the South part thereof, second edition, with addition of the discovery of silkworms, etc._ In this the same map appeared engraved as above, and the Huth copy of it has it in two states, one without, and the other with an oval portrait of Sir Francis Drake. (_Huth Catalogue_, v. 1594.) The Harvard College copy lacks the map, which is described by Quaritch (no. 12,536, who prices this edition at £32) in a copy from the Bathurst Library, as a folding sheet exhibiting New Albion as well as Virginia, with the purpose of showing an easy northern passage to the Pacific, the text representing the Mississippi as dividing the two countries, and flowing into the South Sea; see also _Menzies’ Catalogue_, no. 2,143, and the note in Major’s edition of Strachey, p. 34, on a map published in 1651 in London. This second edition was the one which Force followed in reprinting it in his _Tracts_, vol. iii. no. 11. The _Huth Catalogue_ notes a third edition, _Virginia in America richly valued_, 1651. The map is given on a later page.

=B.= THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.—From 1818 to 1828 the eleven volumes of the _Evangelical and Literary Magazine_, edited at Richmond by John Holt Rice, D.D., had contained some papers on the early history of the State, but no organized effort was made to work in this direction before the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society was formed, in December, 1831, with Chief Justice Marshall as president, and under its auspices a small volume of _Collections_ was issued in 1833; but from February, 1838, to 1847 the Society failed to be of any influence. Meanwhile, from 1834 to 1864 the _Southern Literary Messenger_ afforded some means for the local antiquaries and historical students to communicate with one another and the public.

In December, 1847, a revival of interest resulted in a reorganization of the old Association as the Virginia Historical Society, with the Hon. William C. Rives as president. Promptly ensuing, Maxwell’s _Virginia Historical Register_ was started as an organ of the Society, and was published from 1848 to 1853,—six volumes. The Society laid a plan of publishing the annals of the State, and, as preliminary, intrusted to Conway Robinson, Esq., the preparation of a volume which was published in 1848 as _An Account of the Discoveries in the West until 1529, and of Voyages to and along the Atlantic Coast of North America from 1520 to 1573_. This was an admirable summary, and deserves wider recognition than it has had. It subsequently published, besides various addresses, _The Virginia Historical Reporter_, 1854-1860, which contained accounts of the Society’s meetings. The Civil War interrupted its work, but in 1867 the Society was again resuscitated, and it has been under active management since. There is a bibliography of its publications in the _Historical Magazine_, xvii. 340. Its historical students have contributed to the files of the _Richmond Standard_ since Sept. 7, 1878, much early reprinted and later original matter relating to Virginia.

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NOTE.—Since this chapter was completed has appeared Mr. George W. Williams’s _Negro Race in America_, which has a chapter on the history of Slavery in the colony of Virginia; and also Mr. J. A. Doyle’s _The English in America, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas_, London, 1882.