{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_5171/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_5171","id":"gutenberg_5171","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5171","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: History - British","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Physics","Harriot, Thomas, 1560-1621","Hercules Club"],"text":"Thomas Hariot\n\nby Henry Stevens\n\n\n\n\n[Redactor\u2019s note: Very little is known of Thomas Hariot; his only\npublished works are the \u2018Briefe and true report\u2019 (PG#4247) and the\nposthumous \u2018Praxis\u2019, a handbook of algebra. He anticipated the law of\nrefraction, corresponded with Kepler, observed comets, and may have\nbeen the first to recognize that the straight line paths of comets\nmight be segments of elongated ellipses. The lost \u2018ephemera\u2019 referred\nto in the text have since been found (since 1876) and a conference was\nheld in 1970 at the University of Delaware on the current state of\nHariot research, the proceedings of which have been published by the\nOxford University Press, where one may find a fairly current view of\nthe historical record. Due to the large number of quotations and early\nenglish typography, the casual reader may find the \u2018html\u2019 version\neasier to follow than the text version.]\n\n\nTHOMAS HARIOT\nTHE MATHEMATICIAN\nTHE PHILOSOPHER AND\nTHE SCHOLAR\nDEVELOPED\nCHIEFLY\nFROM\nDORMANT MATERIALS\nWITH NOTICES OF HIS ASSOCIATES\nINCLUDING BIOGRAPHICAL AND\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL DISQUISITIONS\nUPON THE MATERIALS OF THE\nHISTORY OF \u2018OULD\nVIRGINIA\u2019\n\nBY HENRY STEVENS OF VERMONT\n\n\nPREMONITION\n\nWHEN I YEARS AGO undertook among other enterprises to compile a sketch\nof the life of THOMAS HARIOT the first historian of the new found land\nof Virginia; and to trace the gradual geographical development of that\ncountry out of the unlimited \u2018Terra Florida\u2019 of Juan Ponce de Leon,\nthrough the French planting and the Spanish rooting out of the Huguenot\ncolony down to the successful foothold of the English in Wingandacoa\nunder Raleigh\u2019s patent, I little suspected either the extent of the\nresearch I was drifting into, or the success that awaited my\ninvestigations.\n\nThe results however are contained in this little volume, which has\nexpanded day by day from the original limit of fifty to above two\nhundred pages. From a concise bibliographical essay the work has grown\ninto a biography of a philosopher and man of science with extraordinary\nsurroundings, wherein the patient reader may trace the gradual\ndevelopment of Virginia from the earliest time to 1585 ; I especially,\u2019\nsays Strachey, I that which hath bene published by that true lover of\nvertue and great learned professor of all arts and knowledges, Mr\nHariots, who lyved there in the tyme of the first colony, spake the\nIndian language, searcht the country,\u2019 etc ; Hariot\u2019s nearly forty\nyears\u2019 intimate connection with Sir Walter Raleigh; his long close\ncompanionship with Henry Percy ; his correspondence with Kepler; his\nparticipation in Raleigh\u2019s `History of the World;\u2019 his invention of the\ntelescope and his consequent astronomical discoveries ; his scientific\ndisciples ; his many friendships and no foeships ; his blameless life ;\nhis beautiful epitaph in St Christopher\u2019s church, and his long slumber\nin the \u2018garden\u2019 of the Bank of England.\n\nThe little book is now submitted with considerable diffidence, for in\nendeavouring to extricate Hariot from the confusion of historical\n\u2018facts\u2019 into which he had fallen, and to place him in the position to\nwhich he is entitled by his great merits, it is desirable to be clear,\nexplicit and logical. A decision of mankind of two centuries\u2019 standing,\nas expressed in many dictionaries and encyclopaedias, cannot be easily\nreversed without good contemporary evidence. This I have endeavoured to\nproduce.\n\nReferring to pages 191 and 192 the writer still craves the reader\u2019s\nindulgence for the apparently irrelevant matter introduced, as well as\nfor the inartistic grouping of the many detached materials, for reasons\nthere given.\n\nIt ought perhaps to be stated here that the book necessarily includes\nnotices, more or less elaborate, of very many of Hariot\u2019s friends,\nassociates and contemporaries, while others, for want of space, are\nmentioned little more than by name.\n\nThe lives of Raleigh, and Henry Percy of Northumberland, Prisoners in\nthe Tower, seem to be inseparable from that of their Fidus Achates, but\nI have endeavoured to eliminate that of Hariot as far as possible\nwithout derogation to his patrons. All the new documents mentioned have\ntheir special value, but too much importance cannot be attached to the\nrecovery of Hariot\u2019s Will, for it at once dispels a great deal of the\ninference and conjecture that have so long beclouded his memory. It\nthrows the bright electric light of to-day over his eminently\nscholarly, scientific and philosophical Life. By this and the other\nauthorities given it is hoped to add a new star to the joint\nconstellation of the honored Worthies of England and America.\n\n      HENRY STEVENS of Vermont\n\nVermont House, xiii Upper Avenue Road,\n          London, N.W. April 10 1885\n\n\nTHOMAS HARIOT\nAND HIS\nASSOCIATES\n\n\u2018chusing always rather to doe some thinge worth\nnothing than nothing att all.\u2019 _Sir William Lower\nto Hariot_ July 19 1611 (see p. 99)\n\n\n\nTo\n\n\nFRANCIS PARKMAN\n\n\nTHE\n\n\nHISTORIAN and TRUSTIE FRIEND\n\n\nWho Forty Years ago\nWhen we were young Students of History together\nGave me a hand of his over the Sea\nNOW\nGive I him this right hand of mine\nwith\nEver grateful Tribute to\nour life-long\n\nFRIENDSHIP\n\n\nMORIN\n\n\nCustos juris reimprimendi\nCaveat homo trium literarum\n\n\n[The touching Dedication on the opposite page was penned by my father a\nfew months before his death on February 18, 1886. I have thought it\nbest to leave it exactly as he had planned it, although now, alas! Mr.\nParkman is no longer with us. Let us hope the old friends may have\nagain joined hands beyond the unknown sea.-H. N. S.]\n\n\nEXPLANATORY\n\nIN the year 1877 the late Mr. Henry Stevens of Vermont, under the\npseudonym of \u2018Mr. Secretary Outis,\u2019 projected and initiated a literary\nAssociation entitled THE HERCULES CLUB. The following extracts from the\noriginal prospectus of that year explain this platform:\n\nThe objects of this Association are literary, social, antiquarian,\nfestive and historical ; and its aims are thoroughly independent\nresearch into the materials of early Anglo-American history and\nliterature. The Association is known as THE HERCULES CLUB, whose\nEurystheus is Historic Truth and whose appointed labours are to clear\nthis field for the historian of the future.\n\n\u201cSinking the individual in the Association the Hercules Club proposes\nto scour the plain and endeavour to rid it of some of the many\nliterary, historical, chronological, geographical and other monstrous\nerrors, hydras and public nuisances that infest it . . . . Very many\nbooks, maps, manuscripts and other materials relating alike to England\nand to America are well known to exist in various public and private\nrepositories on both sides of the Atlantic. Some unique are of the\nhighest rarity, are of great historic value, while others are difficult\nof access, if not wholly inaccessible, to the general student. It \u00eds\none of the purposes therefore of the Hercules Club to ferret out these\nmaterials, collate, edit and reproduce them with extreme accuracy, but\nnot in facsimile. The printing is to be in the best style of the\nChiswick Press. The paper with the Club\u2019s monogram in each leaf is made\nexpressly for the purpose\u201d.\n\nThe following ten works were selected as the first field of the Club\u2019s\ninvestigations, and to form the first series of its publications.\n\n1. Waymouth (Capt. George) Voyage to North Virginia in 1605. By James\nRosier. London, 1605, 4\u00b0\n\n2. Sil. Jourdan\u2019s Description of Barmuda. London, 1610, 4\u00b0\n\n3. Lochinvar. Encouragements for such as shall have intention to bee\nVndertakers in the new plantation of Cape Breton, now New Galloway.\nEdinburgh, 1625, 4\u00b0\n\n4. Voyage into New England in 1623-24.. By Christopher Levett. London,\n1628, 4\u00b0\n\n5. Capt. John Smith\u2019s True Relation of such occurrences of Noate as\nhath hapned in Virginia. London, 1608, 4\u00b0\n\n6. Gosnold\u2019s Voyage to the North part of Virginia in 1602. By John\nBrereton. London, 1602, 4\u00b0\n\n7. A Plain Description of the Barmudas, now called Sommer Islands.\nLondon, 1613, 4\u00b0\n\n8. For the Colony in Virginia Brittania, Lavves Divine Morall and\nMartiall, &c. London, 1612, 4\u00b0\n\n9. Capt. John Smith\u2019s Description of NewEngland, 16l4-15, map. London,\n1616, 4\u00b0\n\n10. Hariot (Thomas) Briefe and true report of the new foundland of\nVirginia. London, 1588, 4\u00b0\n\n\u2018Mr. Secretary Outis\u2019 undertook the task of seeing the reprints of the\noriginal texts of these ten volumes through the Press, and almost the\nwhole of this work he actually accomplished.\n\nThe co-operative objects of the Association, however, appear never to\nhave been fully inaugurated, although a large number of literary men,\ncollectors, societies and libraries entered their names as Members of\nthe Club. All were willing to give their pecuniary support as\nsubscribers to the Club\u2019s publications, but few offered the more\nvaluable aid of their literary assistance; hence practically the whole\nof the editing also devolved upon Mr. Henry Stevens.\n\nHe first took up No. 10 on the above list, Hariot\u2019s Virginia. His long\nand diligent study for the introduction thereto, resulted in the\ndiscovery of so much new and important matter relative to Hariot and\nRaleigh, that it became necessary to embody it in the present separate\nvolume, as the maximum dimensions contemplated for the introduction to\neach work had been exceeded tenfold or more.\n\nOwing to Mr. Stevens\u2019s failing health, the cares of his business, and\nthe continual discovery of fresh material, it was not till 1885 that\nhis investigations were completed, although many sheets of the book had\nbeen printed off from time to time as he progressed. The whole of the\ntext was actually printed off during his lifetime, but unfortunately he\ndid not live to witness the publication of his work, perhaps the most\nhistorically important of any of his writings. Publication has since\nbeen delayed for reasons explained hereinafter.\n\nOn the death of my father, on February 28, 1886, I found myself\nappointed his literary executor, and I have since devoted much time to\nthe arrangement, completion, and publication of his various unfinished\nworks, seeking the help of competent editors where necessary.\n\nImmediately after his decease I published his\n\n_Recollections of Mr. James Lenox of New York, and the formation of his\nLibrary,_ a little volume which was most favourably received and ran\nthrough several impressions.\n\nIn the same year I published _The Dawn of British Trade to the East\nIndies as recorded in the Court Minutes of the East India Company._\nThis volume contained an account of the formation of the Company and of\nCaptain Waymouth\u2019s voyage to America in search of the North-west\npassage to the East Indies. The work was printed for the first time\nfrom the original manuscript preserved in the India Office, and the\nintroduction was written by Sir George Birdwood.\n\nIn 1888 I issued _Johann Sch\u00f6ner, Professor of Mathematics at\nNuremberg. A reproduction of his Globe of 1523 long lost, his\ndedicatory letter to Reymer von Streytperck, and the `De Moluccis\u2019 of\nMaximilianus Transylvanus, with new translations and notes on the Globe\nby Henry Stevens of Vermont, edited, with an introduction and\nbibliography, by C. H. Coote, of the British Museum._ This Globe of\n1523_,_ now generally known as Sch\u00f6ner\u2019s Third Globe, is marked by a\nline representing the route of Magellan\u2019s expedition in the first\ncircumnavigation of the earth; and the facsimile of Maximilianus\u2019s\ninteresting account of that voyage, with an English translation, was\nconsequently added to the volume. Mr. Coote, in his introduction, gives\na graphic account of many other early globes, several of which are also\nreproduced in facsimile. The whole volume was most carefully prepared,\nand exhibits considerable originality both in the printing and binding,\nMr. Henry Stevens\u2019s own ideas having been faithfully carried out.\n\nIn 1893 I issued to the subscribers that elegant folio volume which my\nfather always considered as his _magnum opus._ It was entitled _The New\nLaws of the Indies for the good treatment and preservation of the\nIndians, promulgated by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, 1542-1543. A\nfacsimile reprint of the original Spanish edition, together with a\nliteral translation into the English language, to which is prefixed an\nhistorical introduction._ Of the long introduction _of_ ninety-four\npages, the first thirty-eight are from the pen of Mr. Henry Stevens,\nthe remainder from that of Mr. Fred. W. Lucas, whose diligent\nresearches into American history are amply exemplified in his former\nwork, _Appendiculae Historicae, or shreds of history hung on a horn,_\nand in his recent work, _The Annals of the Voyages of the Brothers\nZeno._\n\nEver since 1886 I have from time to time unsuccessfully endeavoured to\nenlist the services of various editors competent to complete the\nprojected eleven volumes of the Hercules Club publications, but after a\nlapse of nearly fourteen years I have awakened to the fact that no\nactual progress has been made, and that I have secured nothing beyond\nthe vague promise of future assistance. The field of editors capable of\nthis class of work being necessarily very limited, and death having\nrecently robbed me in the most promising case of even the slender hope\nof future help, I determined to ascertain for myself the exact position\nof the work already done, with the hope of bringing at least some of\nthe volumes to a completion separately, instead of waiting longer in\nthe hope of finishing and issuing them all _en bloc_ as originally\nproposed and intended. On collating the printed stock I found that the\ntwo volumes, _Hariot\u2019s Virginia_ and the _Life of Hariot,_ were\npractically complete, the text of both all printed off, and the titles\nand preliminary leaves and the Index to _Hariot\u2019s Virginia_ actually\nstanding in type at the Chiswick Press just as my father left them\nfourteen years ago! (Many thanks to Messrs Charles Whittingham and Co.\nfor their patience.) The proofs of these I have corrected and passed\nfor press, and I have added the Index to the present volume. My great\nregret is that I did not sooner discover the practical completeness of\nthese two volumes, as owing to the nature of the contents of the _Life\nof Hariot_ it is not just to Hariot\u2019s memory, or to that of my father,\nthat such important truths should so long have been withheld from\nposterity.\n\nThese two volumes being thus completed, \u00edt remained to be decided in\nwhat manner they should be published. I did not feel myself competent\nto pick up the fallen reins of the HERCULES CLUB, which, as I have said\nbefore, appears never to have been fully inaugurated on the intended\nco-operative basis.\n\nThere being now no constituted association (such having entirely lapsed\non the death of Mr. \u2018Secretary Outis\u2019), and many of the original\nsubscribers, who were ipso facto members, being also no longer with us,\nit appeared impossible to put forth the volumes as the publications of\nthe HERCULES CLUB. Consequently I resolved to issue them myself (and\nany future volumes I may be able to bring to completion) simply as\nprivately printed books, and I feel perfectly justified in so doing, as\nno one but Mr. Henry Stevens had any hand in their design or production\neither editorially or financially. No money whatever was received from\nthe members, whose subscriptions were only to become payable when the\npublications were ready for delivery. The surviving members have been\noffered the first chance of subscribing to these two Hariot volumes and\nI am grateful for the support received. They and the new subscribers\nwill also be offered the option of taking any subsequent volumes of the\nseries which I may be enabled to complete.\n\nHENRY N. STEVENS,\n\n_Literary Executor of the late\nHenry Stevens of Vermont.\n     39, Great Russell Street,\n_     London, W.C.\n_     10th February, 1900._\n\n\nTHOMAS HARIOT\n\n\nAND HIS\n\n\nASSOCIATES\n\n\nCOLLECTORS OF RARE English books always speak reverently and even\nmysteriously of the \u2018quarto Hariot\u2019 as they do of the \u2018first folio.\u2019 It\nis given to but few of them ever to touch or to see it, for not more\nthan seven copies are at present known to exist. Even four of these are\nlocked up in public libraries, whence they are never likely to pass\ninto private hands.\n\nOne copy is in the Grenville Library; another is in the Bodleian; a\nthird slumbers in the University of Leyden; a fourth is in the Lenox\nLibrary; a fifth in Lord Taunton\u2019s; a sixth in the late Henry Huth\u2019s;\nand a seventh produced \u00a3300 in 1883 in the Drake sale.\n\nThe little quarto volume of Hariot\u2019s Virginia is as important as it is\nrare, and as beautiful as it is important. Few English books of its\ntime, 1588, surpass it either in typographic execution or literary\nmerit. It was not probably thrown into the usual channels of commerce,\nas it bears the imprint of a privately-printed book, without the name\nor address of a publisher, and is not found entered in the registers of\nStationers\u2019 Hall. It bears the arms of Sir Walter Raleigh on the\nreverse of the title, and is highly commended by Ralfe Lane, the late\nGovernor of the Colony, who testifies, \u2018I dare boldly auouch It may\nvery well pass with the credit of truth even amongst the most true\nrelations of this age.\u2019 It was manifestly put forth somewhat hurriedly\nto counteract, in influential quarters, certain slanders and aspersions\nspread abroad in England by some ignorant persons returned from\nVirginia, who \u2018woulde seeme to knowe so much as no men more,\u2019 and who\n\u2018had little vnderstanding, lesse discretion, and more tongue then was\nneedful or requisite.\u2019 Hariot\u2019s book is dated at the end, February\n1588, that is 1589 by present reckoning. Raleigh\u2019s assignment is dated\nthe 7th of March following. It is probable therefore that the\n\u2018influential quarters\u2019 above referred to meant the Assignment of\nRaleigh\u2019s Charter which would have expired by the limitation of six\nyears on the 24th of March, 1590, if no colonists had been shipped or\nplantation attempted. It is possible also that Theodore De Bry\u2019s\npresence in London, as mentioned below, may have hastened the printing\nof the volume.\n\nIndeed, the little book professes to be only an epitome of what might\nbe expected, for near the end the author says, \u2018this is all the fruits\nof our labours, that I haue thought necessary to aduertise you of at\npresent;\u2019 and, further on, \u2018I haue ready in a discourse by it self in\nmaner of a Chronicle according to the course of times, and when time\nshall bee thought conuenicnt, shall also be published.\u2019 Hariot\u2019s\n\u2018Chronicle of Virginia\u2019 among things long lost upon earth ! It is to be\nhoped that some day the historic trumpet of Fame will sound loud enough\nto awaken it, together with Cabot\u2019s lost bundle of maps and journals\ndeposited with William Worthington ; Ferdinand Columbus\u2019 lost life of\nhis father in the original Spanish; and Peter Martyr\u2019s book on the\nfirst circumnavigation of the globe by the fleet of Magalhaens, which\nhe so fussily sent to Pope Adrian to be read and printed, also lost!\nHakluyt, in his volume of 1589, dated in his preface the 19th of\nNovember, gives something of a chronicle of Virginian events,\n1584-1589, with a reprint of this book. But there are reasons for\nbelieving that this is not the chronicle which Hariot refers to. As\nWhite\u2019s original drawings have recently turned up after nearly three\ncenturies, may we not still hope to see also Hariot\u2019s Chronicle?\n\nHowever, till these lost jewels are found let us appreciate what is\nstill left to us. Hariot\u2019s \u2018True Report\u2019 is usually considered the\nfirst original authority in our language relating to that part of\nEnglish North America now called the United States, and is indeed so\nfull and trustworthy that almost everything of a primeval character\nthat we know of \u2018Ould Virginia\u2019 may be traced back to it as to a first\nparent. It is an integral portion of English history, for England\nsupplied the enterprise and the men. It is equally an integral portion\nof American history, for America supplied the scene and the material.\n\nWithout any preliminary flourish or subsequent reflections, the learned\nauthor simply and truthfully portrays in 1585-6 the land and the people\nof Virginia, the condition and commodities of the one, with the habits\nand character of the other, of that narrow strip of coast lying between\nCape Fear and the Chesapeake, chiefly in the present State of North\nCarolina. This land, called by the natives Wingandacoa, was named in\nEngland in 1584 Virginia, in compliment to Queen Elizabeth. This name\nat first covered only a small district, but afterwards it possessed\nvarying limits, extending at one time over North Virginia even to 45\ndegrees north.\n\nRaleigh\u2019s Virginia soon faded, but her portrait to the life is to be\nfound in Hariot\u2019s book, especially when taken with the pictures by\nCaptain John White, so often referred to in the text. This precious\nlittle work is perhaps the most truthful, trustworthy, fresh, and\nimportant representation of primitive American human life, animals and\nvegetables for food, natural productions and commercial commodities\nthat has come down to us. Though the \u2018first colonie\u2019 of Raleigh, like\nall his subsequent efforts in this direction, was a present failure,\nHariot and White have left us some, if not ample, compensation in their\npicturesque account of the savage life and lavish nature of\npre-Anglo-Virginia, the like of which we look for in vain elsewhere,\neither in Spanish, French, or English colonization.\n\nIndeed, nearly all we know of the uncontaminated American aborigines,\ntheir mode of life and domestic economy, is derived from this book, and\ntherefore its influence and results as an original authority cannot\nwell be over-estimated. We have many Spanish and French books of a\nkindred character, but none so lively and lifelike as this by Hariot,\nespecially as afterwards illustrated by De Bry\u2019s engravings from\nWhite\u2019s drawings described below.\n\nThe first breath of European enterprise in the New World, combined with\nits commercial Christianity, seems in all quarters, particularly the\nSpanish and English, to have at once taken off the bloom and freshness\nof the Indian. His natural simplicity and grandeur of character\nimmediately quailed before the dictatorial owner of property and\ncivilization. The Christian greed for gold and the civilized cruelty\npractised without scruple in plundering the unregenerate and unbaptized\nof their possessions of all kinds, soon taught the Indian cunning and\nthe necessity of resorting to all manner of savage and untutored\ndevices to enable him to cope with his relentless enemies for even\nrestrained liberty and self-preservation; nay, even for very existence,\nand this too on his own soil that generously gave him bread and meat.\nAll these by a self-asserted authority the coming European civilizer,\nwith Bible in hand, taxed with tribute of gold, labour, liberty, life.\nThis has been the common lot of the western races.\n\nIt is therefore refreshing to catch this mirrored glimpse of Virginia,\nher inhabitants, and her resources of primitive nature, before she was\ncontaminated by the residence and monopoly of the white man. It may\nhave been best in the long run that the European races should displace\nthe aborigines of the New World, but it is a melancholy reflection upon\n\u2018go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature,\u2019\nthat no tribe of American Indians has yet been absorbed into the body\npolitic. Many a white man has let himself down into savage life and\nhabits, but no tribe of aborigines has yet come up to the requirements,\nthe honours, and the delights of European civilization. Like the tall\nwild grass before the prairie-fire, the aboriginal races are gradually\nbut surely being swept away by the progress of civilization. Now that\nthey are gone or going the desire to gather real and visible memorials\nof them is increasing, but fate seems to have swept these also from the\ngrasp of the greedy conqueror. Cortes gathered the golden art treasures\nof Montezuma and sent them to Charles the Fifth, but the spoiler was\nspoiled on the high seas, and not a drinking-cup or ringer-ring of that\nwestern barbaric monarch remains to tell us of his island splendour.\n\nA historical word upon the events that led up to Raleigh\u2019s Virginia\npatent may not be out of place in a bibliographical Life of Hariot. The\npatent was no sudden freak of fortune but was the natural outgrowth of\nstirring events. Had it not been allotted to Raleigh it would doubtless\nsoon after have fallen to some other promoter. But Raleigh was the\nDevonshire war-horse that first snuffed the breeze from afar. He\nfathered and took upon himself the burden of this newborn English\nenterprise of Western Planting.\n\nThough unsuccessful himself, Raleigh lifted his country into success\nmore than any other one man of his time. To this day he is honoured\nalike in the old country that gave him birth, and in the new country to\nwhich he gave new life. His energy, enterprise, and fame are now a part\nof England\u2019s history and pride, while his disgrace and death belong to\nhis king. Thomas Hariot was for nearly forty years his confidential\nlieutenant throughout his varied career.\n\nFrom his youth Raleigh had sympathized, like many intelligent\nEnglishmen, with the Huguenot cause in France. As early as 1569, at the\nage of seventeen, he had been one of a hundred volunteers whom\nElizabeth sent over to assist and countenance Coligni. He thus probably\nbecame better acquainted with the great but unsuccessful scheme of\ncolonizing Florida. At all events the history of that disastrous French\nHuguenot colonization was first published under his auspices, and a\nchief survivor, Jacques Le Moyne, became attached to his service and\ninterests. The story is in brief as follows.\n\nGaspar de Coligni, Admiral of France, often in our day called the\nFrench Raleigh, was a Protestant, and firm friend of England. One of\nhis captains, Jean Ribault, of Dieppe, also a Protestant, had written\nan important paper on the policy of preserving peace with Protestant\nEngland. That paper, transmitted by the Admiral to England, is still\npreserved in the national archives. Ribault became the leader of\nColigni\u2019s preliminary expedition in 1562 into Florida to seek out a\nsuitable place, somewhere between 30\u00b0 north latitude and Cape Breton,\nfor the discomfited Huguenots to retire to and found a Protestant\ncolony. The previous Brazilian project had already been abandoned as\nimpracticable and unsuccessful.\n\nHitherto the Spanish Roman Catholic maritime doctrine had been that to\nsee or sail by any undiscovered country gave possession. But the French\nProtestants, now firmly rejecting the Pope\u2019s gift, required occupation\nin addition to discovery to secure title. Hence Florida at that time,\nnot being occupied by the Spanish, was considered open to the French.\nRibault sailed from Havre the 18th of February 1562, taking a course\nacross the Atlantic direct, and, as he thought, new, making his land\nfall on the 30th of April at 29\u00bd degrees; but Verrazano had in 1524\nsailed also direct for Florida, taking a similar course, with the\ndifference that he started from Madeira. Thence coasting northward,\nseeking for a harbour, touching at the river of May, and proceeding up\nthe coast to 32\u00bd degrees, Ribault found a good harbour into which he\nentered on the 27th of May, and named it Port Royal. He was so well\npleased with the country that, perhaps contrary to instructions, he\nleft a colony of thirty volunteers, under Capt. Albert de la Pierria,\nand returned home with the news, arriving in France, after a quick\nvoyage, on the 20th of July, 1562.\n\nRibault, on leaving Port Royal, intended to explore up the coast to\n40\u00b0, that is, to the present site of New York, but gives various\nreasons for not doing so, one of which was \u2018the declaration made vnto\nvs of our pilots and some others that had before been at some of those\nplaces where we purposed to sayle and have been already found by some\nof the king\u2019s subjects.\u2019 This little colony of Port Royal, after nearly\na year of danger and privation, built a ship and put to sea, hoping to\nreach France. After incredible sufferings, they were relieved by an\nEnglish ship, which, after putting the feeble on shore, carried the\nrest to England, having on board a French sailor who had come home the\nprevious year with Ribault. These surviving colonists were all\npresented to Queen Elizabeth, and attracted much attention and great\nsympathy in England. Some found their way back to France, while others\nentered the English service. Thus England became acquainted with the\naim, object, success, and failure of the first Florida (now South\nCarolina) Protestant French colony. Thomas Hacket published in London\nthe 30th of May 1563, Ribault\u2019s \u2018True and last Discouerie of Florida,\u2019\npurporting to be a translation from the French; but no printed French\noriginal is now known to exist.\n\nThe year of bigotry, 1563, in France having passed, a second expedition\nof three vessels under R\u00e9n\u00e9 de Laudonni\u00e8re, who had been an officer\nunder Ribault in 1562, sailed for Florida from Havre, April 22, 1564,\nand arrived at the river of May the 25th of June. There were men of\ncourage and consequence in this company of adventurers, among whom was\nLe Moyne, the painter and mathematician. The story of the sufferings of\nthis second colony has often been told, and need not be repeated here.\nSuffice it to say that it was greatly relieved in July 1565, by Captain\nJohn Hawkins on his return voyage from his second famous slave\nexpedition to Africa and the West Indies. Hawkins, after generously\nrelieving the French with food, general supplies, and friendly counsel,\nreturned to Devonshire, sailing up the coast to Newfoundland, and\nthence home, bringing stores of gold, silver, pearls, and the usual\nvaluable merchandize of the Indies, but the store of information\nrespecting Florida and our Protestant friends, and especially the\ngeography of the American coast, was worth more to England than all his\nvast store of merchandize.\n\nIn 1565 a third French expedition was fitted out, again under Ribault,\nto supply, reinforce, and support Laudonni\u00e8re. After many disappointing\nand vexatious delays, Ribault, late in the season, put to sea, but by\nstress of weather was forced into Portsmouth, where he remained a\nfortnight. This gave England still more information respecting the\nFrench Protestant projects of southern colonization, as well as of\nFlorida, which at that time extended very far north of its present\nlimits. At length on the 14th of June Ribault left the hospitable\nshores of England with a fair north east wind to waft his seven ships,\nfreighted with above three hundred colonists including sailors and\nsoldiers, and taking the new \u2018French route\u2019 north of the Azores and\nsouth of Bermuda, entered the river of May on the 27th of August, just\none month after the departure of Hawkins, and just one day before the\narrival of the Spaniards at the river of St John, a few miles south.\n\nWe find no hint of any opposition in England to these French colonizing\nschemes, but on the contrary they were looked upon as an advantageous\nbarrier to Spanish greed of territorial extension northward under the\nvicegerent\u2019s gift. There are still existing hints of English projects\nof western voyages at this time, about the year 1565, to the American\ncoast. Elizabeth, however, was friendly to the Huguenots, and evinced\ngreat sympathy with their Florida colonial scheme. England\u2019s claim to\nNewfoundland and Labrador, through discovery by the Cabots, had been\nallowed to lapse chiefly from the Protestant doctrine of\nnon-occupation. The French occupation of Canada was not disputed. There\nwas some doubt, however, about the intermediate country between the New\nFrance of Canada and the New France of Florida, and hence we find that\nprivate plans of English occupation were hatching at this early period,\nbut they were not encouraged. This delicate question between France and\nSpain was, however, soon settled by the well known course of events\nwith which England had nothing to do but to stand aside till the\ncontest was over, and then in due course of time, like an independent\npowerful neutral, step in and reap the rewards.\n\nIt is well known that Laudonni\u00e8re\u2019s followers were not altogether\nharmonious. Some restless spirits seceded, and seizing one of the\ncolony\u2019s ships, entered successfully in the autumn and winter of\n1564-65 into piracy on the rich commerce of Spain in the West Indies.\nThese French spoliations had been a sore point with the owners of West\nIndia commerce since the days of Verrazano, so much so that the Spanish\nGovernment had instituted a fleet of coastguards among the islands to\nintercept and destroy the pirates. This fleet for some time had been\nunder the charge of an experienced, trusted, and efficient officer\nnamed Pedro Menendez de Avil\u00e9s. No doubt the provocation was great, and\nthe new piracy was not to be endured. The home government of Spain had\nbeen kept informed of the Huguenot encroachments in Florida, a country\nwhich had long ago been granted to Ponce de Leon, Ayllon and others,\nand had been coasted by Estevan Gomez, but these encroachments had\nhitherto been so long winked at that the French colonists began to feel\nthemselves to be in tolerable security.\n\nFrench piracy and Calvinism, however, coming together were two\nprovocations too much for the patriotism and piety of the zealous Roman\nCatholic Spanish commander in the West Indies. Besides, there was a\nsorrow which roused his Spanish bigotry and induced him more than ever\nto serve God and his king by exterminating heresy. Don Pedro, with his\nnew honors and high hopes, had left Cadiz on the 31st of May 1564, as\nCaptain-General of the West India, the Terra Firma, the Peruvian, and\nthe New-Spain fleets, his son under him commanding the ships to Vera\nCruz. This son on the homeward voyage in the autumn had been lost on\nthe rocks of Bermuda. This circumstance, with the Florida pirates, the\nheretic French and his Spanish love of barbaric gold, fired his zeal.\n\nThe General rushed home to Spain for new powers. Early in 1565 he stood\nagain before Philip petition in hand. Besides his present dignities he\nwould be Adelantado of Florida. Florida in Spanish eyes extended not\nonly to St. Mary\u2019s or the Bay of Chesapeake, but even to Newfoundland,\nso as to embrace the whole northern continent west of the line of\ndemarcation. Philip had heard not only of Laudonni\u00e8re and the French\nHuguenots the last year, but was informed of Ribault\u2019s new reinforcing\nexpedition from Dieppe. He at once not only granted the General\u2019s\nrequest, but enlarged his powers from time to time as additional news\ncame in of the French. Don Pedro became indeed a royal favourite. He\nwas now a veteran of forty-seven, who had done Philip and his father\npersonal service. He had cruised against blockaders and corsairs in\nearly youth, had convoyed richly-laden plate fleets from the Indies;\nhad turned the scale of victory at StQuintin in 1557 by suddenly\nthrowing Spanish troops into Flanders greatly to the advantage of\nPhilip; was the commanding general of the armada in which the king\nreturned in 1559 from Flanders to Spain; had been made in 1560\ncaptain-general of the convoy or protecting fleets between Spain and\nthe West Indies, in which there was much active business in guarding\nSpanish commerce from corsairs. In spoiling these spoilers the general\namassed much wealth, and was acknowledged the protector of the islands\nand their commerce. In 1561 he had fallen into some difficulty which\ncaused his arrest by the Council of the Indies, but the king came to\nhis rescue, restored his appointments, and promoted him in 1562 and\n1563, and still more, as we have seen, in 1564. In 1565 Philip gave him\nalmost unlimited power over Florida, with directions to conquer,\ncolonize, Christianize, explore and survey, and all these too at his\nown expense. Such is the fascination of royal grants. He was given\nthree years to perform these wonders, in which so many others had\nfailed. He was to survey the coasts up to Chesapeake Bay, explore\ninlets and find out the hidden straits to Cathay. Thus armed and\ninstructed this Spanish pioneer of Virginia history and geography\nreturned to his native Asturias, raised an army, manned and fitted out\na fleet with many soldiers and sailors, and 500 negro slaves. He\nembarked at Cadiz with eleven ships on the 29th of June 1565, a\nfortnight after Ribault with his seven ships had left Portsmouth. From\nPorto Rico the Adelantado, in his hot haste to forestall the French,\ntook a new route north of StDomingo, through the Lucayan islands and\nthe Bahamas, to the coast of Florida at the River of StJohn, on the\n28th of August, the day after the arrival of the French a few miles\nnorth. Here Menendez entered the inlet, landed his five hundred African\nnegro slaves, founded a town, the first in what is now the United\nStates, and named it StAugustine, because he made his land-fall on the\nsaint\u2019s-day of the great African bishop. Thus StAugustine became the\npatron saint of this first town in the United States. Here slavery\nstruck root, and here the Spanish Papist and the French Huguenot,\nbrought out of civilized and Christianized Europe were set down\nblindfolded on the wild and inhospitable shores of Florida, like two\ngame-cocks, to fight out their religious and implacable hatred. It was\nhere that these \u2018children of the sun\u2019 showed the red men of the\nAmerican forests that they too were human and mortal. Here, a few days\nlater, the Spaniards began that merciless cut-throat religious butchery\nof Huguenots, to the astonishment of the savages of the primeval\nforests of America which finds a parallel on the pages of history only\nin the lesson which it taught in refined Paris just seven years later\non St Bartholomew\u2019s day.\n\nAll the world knows how the swift vengeance of Pedro Menendez de Aviles\ndescended upon the unfortunate colonists of Laudonni\u00e8re and Ribault and\ndestroyed them, with very few exceptions, in September 1565. On the\nother hand, every one has heard how the Spaniards, almost all except\nthe absent leader, expiated their murderous cruelty in April 1568,\nunder the retributive justice of De Gourgues. The Spanish settlers of\nFlorida were thus as completely exterminated by the French as the\nFrench three years before had been exterminated by the Spaniards.\n\nAfter this till 1574, the Spaniards maintained possession of Florida,\nas far north as the Chesapeake Bay, under Menendez, who had been\nappointed at first Adelantado of Florida, and subsequently also\nGovernor of Cuba. He caused an elaborate and official survey of the\nwhole coast to be made and recorded, both in writing and in charts.\nBarcia tells the whole interesting story, but the charts seem to have\nbeen lost, though the description, or parts of it, remains. Menendez\nreturned to Spain and died in 1574, just as he had been invested with\nthe command of an \u2018invincible\u2019 armada of three hundred ships, and\ntwenty thousand men to act against England and Flanders. All his North\nAmerican acquisitions and surveys seem to have at once fallen into\nneglect. Not a Spanish town had been founded north of StAugustine. His\nSpanish missionaries sent among the Indians had gained no solid foot\nhold. Spain however still claimed possession, on paper, of the whole\ncoast up to Newfoundland, though she could not boast of a single place\nof actual occupation.\n\nEngland at this time began to see the coast clear for the spread of her\nprotestant principles in America, and for her occupation of some of\nthose vast countries she now professed to have been the first to\ndiscover by the Cabots. No friendly power any longer stood in her way.\nHer relations with Spain had settled into patriotic hatred and open\nwar. The voyages of Hawkins and Drake into the West Indies had revealed\nto Englishmen the enormous wealth of the Spanish trade thither, as well\nas the weakness of the Spanish Government in those plundered papal\npossessions. Frobisher had matured his plans, secured his grant, and in\n1576 made his first voyage to find the north west passage. The same\nyear the half-brother of Raleigh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, published his\n\u2018discourse for a discouerieof a new passage to Catai,\u2019 with a map\nshowing the coast of North America, and the passage to China. This was\nthe result of years of study, and though the elaborate work was written\nout hastily at last, we know that while others were advocating the\nnorth east passage, Sir Humphrey always persisted in the north western.\nFrobisher\u2019s expedition is said to have been an outgrowth of Gilbert\u2019s\nefforts and petitions. These projects were long in hand, but Gilbert,\nin June 1578, obtained his famous patent from Elizabeth for two hundred\nleagues of any American coast not occupied by a Christian prince. This\ngrant was limited to six years, to expire the eleventh of June 1584 in\ncase no settlement was made or colony founded. The story of Gilbert\u2019s\nefforts, expenditures of himself and friends, his unparalleled\nmisfortunes and death, need not be retold here. Part of his rights and\nprivileges fell to his half-brother Walter Raleigh who had participated\nsomewhat in the enterprise. After Gilbert\u2019s death and before the\nexpiration of the patent, Raleigh succeeded in obtaining from Elizabeth\nanother patent, with similar rights, privileges, and limitations, dated\nthe 25th of March 1584, leaving the whole unoccupied coast open to his\nselection. On the 27th of April, only a month later, he despatched two\nbarks under the command of Captains Amadas and Barlow, to reconnoitre\nthe coast, as Ribault had done, for a suitable place to plant a colony,\nsomewhere between Florida and Newfoundland. This patent also, like\nGilbert\u2019s, in case of negligence or non-success, was limited to six\nyears. But it required the confirmation of Parliament. Though there\nwere many rival interests, some of which had perhaps to be conciliated,\nthe patent was confirmed.\n\nIt ought perhaps to be mentioned here that five of Gilbert\u2019s six years\nhaving already expired without his obtaining success or possession,\nseveral others, anticipating a forfeiture of the patent, began\nagitation for rival patents in 1583. Carleil, Walsingham, Sidney,\nPeckham, Raleigh, and perhaps others were eager in the strife. Mostof\nthe papers are given in Hakluyt\u2019s 1589 edition. The \u2018Golden Hinde\u2019\nreturned in September 1583 with the news of the utter failure of the\nexpedition and the death of Sir Humphrey. Raleigh succeeded in\nobtaining the royal grant, and then all the rest joined him in getting\nthe patent confirmed by Parliament.\n\nRaleigh was now thirty-three, a man of position, of large heart and\nlarge income, a popular courtier high in royal favor, a man of foreign\ntravel, great experience and extensive acquirements. He had served\nunder Coligni with his protestant friends in France; subsequently\nserved under William of Orange in Flanders; had served his Queen in\nIreland; under Gilbert\u2019s patent, contemplated a voyage to Newfoundland\nin 1578; and in 1583 was ready to embark himself again, but by some\nhappy accident did not go, though he fitted out and sent a large ship\nat his own cost bearing his own name, which ship however put back on\naccount of the outbreak of some contagion. Fully alive to the wants,\nplans, and desires of the Huguenots, he had not only informed himself\nof their Florida schemes, but had promoted the publication of their\nhistory, and secured the interest and active co-operation of the most\nimportant survivor of them all, Jaques LeMoyne, the painter, who having\nescaped landed destitute in Wales, and subsequently entered the service\nof Raleigh who had him safely lodged in the Blackfriars. He had also,\nhow or when precisely is not known, secured the active aid and facile\npen of the geographical Richard Hakluyt, who wrote for him, as no man\nelse could write, in 1584, a treatise on Western Planting, a work\nintended probably to prime the ministry and the Parliament, to enable\nRaleigh first to secure the confirmation of his patent, and afterwards\nthe co-operation and active interest of the nobility and gentry in his\nenterprise. This important hitherto unpublished volume of sixty-three\nlarge folio pages in the hand writing of Hakluyt, after having probably\nserved its purpose and lain dormant for nearly three centuries, was\nbought at Earl Mountnorris\u2019s sale at Arley Castle in December 1852, by\nMr Henry Stevens of Vermont, who, as he himself informs us, after\npartly copying it, and endeavouring in vain to place it in some public\nor private library in England or the United States, threw it into\nauction, where it was sold by Messrs Puttick and Simpson in May 1854,\nfor \u00a344, as lot 474, Sir Thomas Phillipps being the purchaser. The\nmanuscript still adorns the Phillipps library at Cheltenham. In 1868 a\ncopy of this most suggestive volume was obtained by the late Dr Leonard\nWoods for the Maine Historical Society, and has since been edited with\nvaluable notes by Mr Charles Deane of Cambridge and with an\nIntroduction by Dr Woods. It appeared in 1877 as the second volume of\nthe second series of the Society\u2019s Collections.\n\nThis Treatise of Hakluyt under Raleigh\u2019s inspiration may be regarded as\nthe harbinger of Virginia history. Though intended for a special\npurpose, it is of the highest importance in developing the history of\nEnglish maritime policy at that time, and defining the growth of the\nEnglish arguments, advantages and reasons for western planting. The\nbook is full of personal hints, and is immensely suggestive, showing us\nmore than anything else the master hand of Master Hakluyt in moulding\nEngland\u2019s \u2018sea policie\u2019 and colonial navigation. No mere geographical\nstudy by Hakluyt could alone have produced this remarkable volume. It\nis the combination of many materials, and the result of compromising\ndivers interests. Hakluyt had already, though still a young man under\nthirty, entered deeply into the study of commercial geography, and had\nin 1582 published his _Divers Voyages_ dedicated to his friend Sir\nPhilip Sidney, son-in-law to the chief Secretary Walsingham. In the\nSpring of 1583 the Secretary sent Hakluyt down to Bristol with a letter\nto the principal merchants there to enlist their co-operation in a\nproject of discovery and planting in America somewhere between the\npossessions of the French in Canada and the Spaniards in Florida, which\nhis son-in-law Master Christopher Carleil was developing under the\nauspices of the Muscovie Company, and for which they were about to ask\nthe Queen for a patent independent of Sir Humphrey Gilbert\u2019s.\n\nIn the summer of 1583 Hakluyt thought to go to Newfoundland with\nGilbert\u2019s expedition, according to the letter of Parmenius, but\nfortunately did not go. But in the autumn of the same year Walsingham\nsent him to Paris nominally as chaplain to the English Ambassador at\nthe French court, Sir Edward Stafford, but really to pursue his\ngeographical investigations into the west and learn what the French and\nSpanish were doing in these remote regions, and what were their\nparticular claims, resources and trade.\n\nBefore his departure for Paris, the \u2018Golden Hinde\u2019 had returned to\nFalmouth with the heavy news of the fate of Gilbert and the consequent\ncertain forfeiture of his patent, notwithstanding it had still some\nnine months to run. Though Sir Humphrey had taken formal possession of\nNewfoundland, as no colony was left there, his rights and privileges\nwould lapse as a matter of course.\n\nWestern planting now became the talk and fashion. Many projects were\nhatching for new patents. Raleigh alone succeeded. Hakluyt\u2019s position\nand circumstances in Paris seem made for the occasion, and he soon\nfound all these western eggs put into his basket. The materials of the\nseveral previous writers and of the rival claimants were all apparently\nthrust upon him. He thus became in 1583-4, though perhaps\nunconsciously, the mouthpiece of a snug family party all playing into\nthe hands of Raleigh. There were Walsingham, and Sidney, and Carleil,\nand Leicester, all connected with each other and with Raleigh. Then\nthere were the papers of Sir George Peckham, Edward Hayes, Richard\nClarke master of the Delight, and Steven Par-menius, rich alike in\nhints and facts. The interests of these distinguished persons were by\nfamily ties or other influence suddenly merged into a single patent and\nthat Raleigh\u2019s. The papers mostly passed through Raleigh\u2019s hands into\nHakluyt\u2019s, who acknowledges himself indebted to him for his chiefest\nlight.\n\nRaleigh, besides being the half-brother and representative of Sir\nHumphrey Gilbert, held also a large share in that venture. Gilbert\u2019s\nreal aim, policy and plan, in this last yearof his patent, to prospect\nfor a suitable place in which to take possession and found a colony,\nwas to begin at the south and work northward as the French had done,\nbut his previous failures since 1578, the inevitable impediments and\ndelays, the advanced season of this his last year 1583, and the\nnecessity of making a final strike for success, in behalf of himself\nand his assignees, compelled him at the last hour to go direct to\nNewfoundland, take possession, and then, if thought best, work\nsouthward. He was however unquestionably influenced or professed to be\nby rumours of metals or gold mines in Newfoundland. This northern\npassage was his fatal mistake. Had he taken a middle or southern course\nsay between 37\u00b0 and 42\u00b0 he might perhaps have succeeded.\n\nUnder these circumstances Hakluyt\u2019s Discourse of Western Planting was\nwritten, and may be considered as a digest of many plans without much\noriginality and a consolidation of many interests. Hakluyt and Raleigh\nwere at Oxford together, but we find no particular evidence of their\nintimacy before the Spring of 1584, when Hakluyt had returned to London\nfrom Paris with his Discourse, or perhaps it was partly written in\nEngland. It is pretty certain that it was not shown to the Queen before\nthe date of the Patent, the 25th of March, as Hakluyt speaks of her\nseeing it in the summer. It was probably intended principally for the\npromotion of the interests of the Patent in Parliament.\n\nAt all events with his investigations in France Hakluyt\u2019s Discourse\nbecame thoroughly English in its tone and tenor, and from this time he\nlabored zealously in the interests of Raleigh. A main point of inquiry\nin Paris was to avail himself of the many opportunities at the Spanish\nand Portuguese embassies, and with the French merchants and sailors of\nParis, Rouen, Havre and Dieppe, to pick up the particulars of the West\nIndia trade of the Spaniards, and the nature of the French dealings in\nCape Breton and Canada. This led him to set forth the advantages of\ndirect English western trade independent of France and Spain, and of\nFrench and Spanish routes.\n\nThe fisheries of Newfoundland and the Banks were extensive, and by\nrepeated treaties neutral, but gave no exclusive rights on the\nadjoining territory to any one of the fishing nations; though in all\ncases the English by common consent exercised leadership in the\nNewfoundland harbors among the fishing ships, of which there were now\nsome six or eight hundred a year, notwithstanding the English still\nfished also at Iceland.\n\nIt was necessary however in the interests of England for Hakluyt in\nthis Discourse to revive and substantiate the English rights in America\nby putting forward the prior discovery by the Cabots in 1497-1498.\nThough he presents this direct claim modestly, yet like Sir Humphrey\nGilbert he founds it upon insufficient evidence. In a loose manner he\nspeaks of Cabot and not the Cabots, and attributes to Sebastian the son\nwhat properly belongs to John the father. He reposes full confidence in\nthe loose and gossiping statements of Peter Martyr that Sebastian\nCabot, a quarter of a century after the discovery, told him that at the\ntime, 1497 or 98,he had explored the coast to the latitude of\nGibraltar, that is to Chesapeake Bay and the longitude of Cuba or the\ncity of Cincinnati, a thing not probable, in as much as the active old\npilot mayor was never able to declare, down to the time of Gomez, that\nhe had been on that coast before. It would have been foolish in him to\nfit out in 1524 Gomez to \u2018discover\u2019 what the pilot mayor had already\nexplored in 1497.\n\nHakluyt\u2019s arguments and historical statements in this Discourse of 1584\nto the present time have always been presented by English diplomatists\nwith confidence, especially against the French. Yet the French\ncontinued to maintain their occupation of Cape Breton, the Gulf of St\nLawrence and Canada, which together they called New France. It is now\nhowever made apparent from contemporary historical documents that have\nrecently been brought to light from the archives of Spain and Venice\nthat John Cabot, accompanied by his son Sebastian, then a youth of some\nnineteen or twenty years, in 1497 took possession of Cape Breton in the\nnames of Venice and England conjointly, and raised the flags of St Mark\nand St George. There is not yet any trustworthy evidence that they went\nsouth of Cape Breton either in that or the voyage of 1498.\n\nHakluyt in his Divers Voyages in 1582 did not venture to make this\nCabot claim so strong as in this Discourse. In his dedication to Sir\nPhilip Sidney he quaintly says that he \u2018put downe the title which we\nhaue to this part of America which is from Florida to 67 degrees\nnorthwarde by the letters patentes graunted to John Cabote and his\nthree sonnes,\u2019 simply meaning that he had printed the first patent of\n5th May 1496. In his title page he speaks of the Discoverie of\nAmerica,\u2019 made first of all by our Englishmen and afterwards by the\nFrenchmen and Bretons.\u2019 He does not question the rights and privileges\nof Frenchmen to the Gulf of St Lawrence and Canada, because they were\nin the occupation of a Christian prince.\n\nThis Discourse of Western Planting therefore, and the voyage of Amadas\nand Barlow, in 1584, at the instigation and expense of Raleigh, based\non a thorough knowledge of the Huguenot and Spanish expeditions to\nFlorida in 1562-1568, are all parts of Virginia history, and therefore\nare preliminary to Hariot\u2019s Report. It should be borne in mind that\nthese terms Florida and Virginia as used by the Spaniards, French, and\nEnglish, included the whole country from the point of Florida through\nthe Carolinas and Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay, or perhaps even to\nBacalaos.\n\nRaleigh\u2019s patent, in which all interests were thus consolidated, came\nbefore Parliament in the Autumn of 1584 well fortified in its\nhistorical and geographical bearings by Hakluyt\u2019s learned Discourse. In\nthe House of Commons the matter was adroitly referred to a Commitee of\nwhich Walsingham and Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir\nFrancis Drake were members. The bill having passed the House was sent\nup to the Lords, and there read the first time on Sunday the 19th of\nDecember 1584, as appears by the following entry in the Lords\u2019 Journal,\nvolume ii, page 76. \u2018Hodie allatae sicut a Dome Communi 4 Billae;\n_Prima,_ For the Confirmation of the Queen\u2019s Majesty\u2019s Letters Patents,\ngranted to Walter Raughlieghe, Esquire, touching the Discovery and\nInhabiting of certain Foreign Lands and Countries, quae ia _vice_ lecta\nest.\u2019 It does not appear precisely at what date the Bill received the\nQueen\u2019s signature, but probably as early as Christmas or New Year.\n\nHaving now early in 1585 secured the Confirmation of this much coveted\npatent which liberally permitted him in the name and under the aegis of\nEngland to plant a \u2018colonie\u2019 and found an English empire in the New\nWorld at his own expense of money, men, and enterprise; having pocketed\nthe geographical results and valuable experience of the French in\nFlorida and Canada; having vainly attempted a visit to Newfoundland in\n1578, and having succeeded to the rights and privileges of his noble\nhalf-brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert; having received by the return in\nSeptember of his two reconnoitring barks favorable reports as to the\nproperest place to begin his Western Planting in Wingandacoa ; and\nbeing thoroughly supported by the good wishes and hearty co-operation\nof the Queen and many of her prominent and influential subjects,\nRaleigh rose superior to all jealousies and opposition.\n\nThis lasted as usual just so long as he was successful and no longer.\nBut he was blessed in his household, or at his table, or in his\nconfidence, with four sterling adherents who stuck to him through thick\nand thin, through prosperity and adversity. These were Richard Hakluyt,\nJaques Le Moyne, John White and Thomas Hariot. When Wingandacoa makes\nup her jewels she will not forget these Four, whom it is just to call\nRaleigh\u2019s Magi.\n\nWith marvellous energy, enterprise, and skill Raleigh collected and\nfitted out in an incredibly short time a fleet of seven ships well\nstocked and well manned to transport his \u2018first colonie\u2019 into the wilds\nof America. It was under the command of his valiant cousin, Admiral Sir\nRichard Grenville, and sailed from Plymouth on the 19th of May 1585.\nNever before did a finer fleet leave the shores of England, and never\nsince was one more honestly or hopefully dispatched. There were the\n\u2018Tyger\u2019 and the \u2018Roe Buck\u2019 of 140 tons each, the \u2018Lyon\u2019 of 100 tons,\nthe \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 of 50 tons, the \u2018Dorothea\u2019, a small bark, and two\npinnaces, hardly big enough to bear distinct names, yet small enough to\ncross dangerous bars and enter unknown bays and rivers. In this\nsplendid outfit were nearly two hundred souls, among whom were Master\nRalfe Lane as governor of the colony. Thomas Candish or Cavendish\nafterwards the circumnavigator, Captain Philip Amadas of the Council,\nJohn White the painter as delineator and draughtsman, Master Thomas\nHariot the mathematician as historiographer, surveyor and scientific\ndiscoverer or explorer, and many others whose names are preserved in\nHakluyt.\n\nThe fleet had a prosperous voyage by the then usual route of the West\nIndies and fell in with the main of Florida on the 20th of June, made\nand named Cape Fear on the 23d, and a first landing the next day, and\non the 26th came to Wococa where Amadas and Barlow had been the year\nbefore. They disembarked and at first mistook the country for Paradise.\nJuly was spent in surveying and exploring the country, making the\nacquaintance of the natives, chiefly by means of two Indians that had\nbeen taken to England and brought back able to speak English. On the\n5th of August Master John Arundel, captain of one of the vessels, was\nsent back to England, and on the 25th of August Admiral Grenville,\nafter a sojourn of two months in Virginia, took his leave and returned,\narriving at Plymouth on the 18th of October. There were left in\nVirginia as Raleigh\u2019s \u2018First Colonie,\u2019 one hundred and nine men. They\nremained there one whole year and then, discontented, returned to\nEngland in July 1586 in Sir Francis Drake\u2019s fleet coming home\nvictorious from the West Indies.\n\nOne of these 109 men was Thomas Hariot the Author of the Report of\nVirginia. Another was John White the painter. To these two earnest and\ntrue men we owe, as has been said, nearly all we know of \u2018Ould\nVirginia.\u2019 Their story is briefly told by Hakluyt.\n\nSir Francis Drake in the true spirit of friendship went out of his way\nto make this call on the Colony of his friend Raleigh. He found them\nanything but contented and prosperous. They had long been expecting\nsupplies and reinforcements from home, which not arriving, on the\ndeparture of Drake\u2019s fleet becoming dejected and homesick, they\npetitioned the Governor for permission to return. Immediately after\ntheir departure a ship arrived from Raleigh, and fourteen days later\nSir Richard Grenville himself returned with his fleet of three ships,\nnew planters and stores of supplies, only to find the Colony deserted\nand no tidings to be had. Leaving twenty men to hold possession the\nAdmiral made his way back to England.\n\nIt has already been stated how and under what circumstances the epitome\nof the labours and surveys of Hariot came to be printed, but it may be\nwell to show how it came to be united with John White\u2019s drawings and\nrepublished a year or two later as the first part of De Bry\u2019s\ncelebrated collections of voyages. Hakluyt returned to Paris at the end\nof 1584. and remained there, perhaps with an occasional visit to\nLondon, till 1588, always working in the interests of Raleigh. In April\n1585, a month before the departure of the Virginia fleet, he wrote to\nWalsingham that he \u2018was careful to advertise Sir Walter Raleigh from\ntyme to tyme and send him discourses both in print and in written hand\nconcerning his voyage.\u2019 Rene Goulaine de Laudonni\u00e8re\u2019s Journal had\nfallen into Hakluyt\u2019s hand, and he induced his friend Basanier the\nmathematician to edit and publish it. This was done and the work was\ndedicated to Raleigh and probably paid for by him. Le Moyne the painter\nand mathematician who had accompanied the expedition, one of the few\nwho escaped into the woods and swamps with Laudonni\u00e8re the dreadful\nmorning of the massacre, was named by Basanier. He also mentions a lad\nnamed De Bry who was lucky enough to find his way out of the clutches\nof the Spanish butchers into the hands of the more merciful American\nSavages. This young man was found\nby De Gourgues nearly three years later among the Indians that joined\nhim in his mission of retribution against the Spaniards, and was\nrestored to his friends well instructed in the ways, manners and\ncustoms of the Florida Aborigines.\n\nThis journal of Laudonni\u00e8re carefully edited by Basanier was completed\nin time to be published in Paris in 1586, in French, in octavo. It was\ndedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. Hakluyt translated it into English,\nand printed it in small quarto in London the next year and it\nreappeared again in his folio voyages of 1589. The French edition fell\nunder the eye of Theodore De Bry the afterwards celebrated engraver of\nFrankfort, formerly of Liege. Whether or not this engraver was a\nrelative of young De Bry of Florida is not known, but we are told that\nhe soon sought out Le Moyne whom he found in Raleigh\u2019s service living\nin the Blackfriars in London, acting as painter, engraver on wood, a\nteacher and art publisher or bookseller.\n\nDe Bry first came to London in 1587 to see Le Moyne and arrange with\nhim about illustrating Laudonni\u00e8re\u2019s Journal with the artist\u2019s maps and\npaintings, and remained here some time, but did not succeed in\nobtaining what he wanted, probably because Le Moyne was meditating a\nsimilar work of his own, and being still attached to the household of\nRaleigh was not free to negotiate for that peculiar local and special\ninformation which he had already placed at Raleigh\u2019s disposal for his\ncolony planted a little north of the French settlement in Florida, then\nsupposed to be in successful operation, but of which nothing had yet\nbeen published to give either the world at large or the Spaniards in\nthe peninsula a premature clue to his enterprise.\n\nThere is still preserved a good memorial of De Bry\u2019s visit to London in\nthe celebrated funeral pageant at the obsequies of Sir Philip Sidney in\nthe month of February 1587, drawn and invented by T. Lant and engraved\non copper by Theodore de Bry in the city of London, 1587. A complete\ncopy is in the British Museum, and another is said to be at the old\nfamily seat of the Sidneys at Penshurst in Kent, now Lord de L\u2019lsle\u2019s;\nwhile a third copy not quite perfect adorns the famous London\ncollectionof Mr Gardner of St John\u2019s Wood Park.\n\nLeMoyne died in 1588, and De Bry soon after came to London a second\ntime and succeeded in purchasing of the widow of Le Moyne a portion of\nthe artist\u2019s drawings or paintings together with his version of the\nFrench Florida Expeditions. While here this time De Bry fell in with\nRichard Hakluyt, who had returned from Paris in November 1588,\nescorting Lady Sheffield.\n\nHakluyt at the end of this year, or the beginning of 1589, was engaged\nin seeing through the press his first folio collection of the voyages\nof the English, finished, according to the date in the preface, the\n17th of November, though entered at Stationers\u2019 Hall on the strength of\na note from Walsingham the first of September previous. Hakluyt with\nhis mind full of voyages and travels was abundantly competent to\nappreciate De Bry\u2019s project of publishing a luxurious edition of\nLaudonni\u00e8re\u2019s Florida illustrated with the exquisite drawings of Le\nMoyne. Ever ready to make a good thing better, Hakluyt suggested the\naddition of Le Moyne\u2019s and other Florida papers; and introduced De Bry\nto John White, Governor of Virginia, then in London.\n\nWhite, an English painter of eminence and merit, was as an artist to\nVirginia what Le Moyne his master had been to Florida. Le Moyne had\ntwenty years before mapped and pictured everything in Florida from the\nRiver of May to Cape Fear, and White had done the same for Raleigh\u2019s\nColony in Virginia (now North Carolina) from Cape Fear to the\nChesapeake Bay. Le Moyne had spent a year with Laudonni\u00e8re at Fort\nCaroline in 1564-65, and White had been a whole year in and about\nRoanoke and the wilderness of Virginia in 1585-86 as the right hand man\nof Hariot.\n\nTogether Hariot and White surveyed, mapped, pictured and described the\ncountry, the Indians, men and women; the animals, birds, fishes, trees,\nplants, fruits and vegetables. Hariot\u2019s Report or epitome of his\nChronicle, reproduced by the Hercules Club, was privately printed in\nFebruary 1589. A volume containing seventy-six of White\u2019s original\ndrawings in water colours is now preserved in the Grenville library in\nthe British Museum, purchased by the Trustees in March 1866 of Mr Henry\nStevens at the instigation of Mr Panizzi, and placed there as an\nappropriate pendant to the world-renowned Grenville De Bry. This is the\nvery volume that White painted for Raleigh, and which served De Bry for\nhis Virginia. Only 23 out of the 76 drawings were engraved, the rest\nnever yet having been published. Thus Hariot\u2019s text and map with\nWhite\u2019s drawings are necessary complements to each other and should be\nmentioned together.\n\nKnowing all these men and taking an active part in all these important\nevents, Hakluyt acted wisely in inducing De Bry to modify his plan of a\nseparate publication and make a Collection of illustrated Voyages. He\nsuggested first that the separate work of Florida should be suspended,\nand enlarged with Le Moyne\u2019s papers, outside of Laudonni\u00e8re. Then\nreprint, as a basis of the Collection, Hariot\u2019s privately printed\nReport on Virginia just coming out in February 1589, and illustrate it\nwith the map and White\u2019s drawings. Hakluyt engaged to write\ndescriptions of the plates, and his geographical touches are easily\nrecognizable in the maps of both Virginia and Florida.\n\nIn this way De Bry was induced to make Hariot\u2019s Virginia the First Part\nof his celebrated PEREGRINATIONS, with a dedication to Sir Walter\nRaleigh. Florida then became the Second Part. The first was illustrated\nfrom the portfolio of John White, and the second from that of Jaques Le\nMoyne. Both parts are therefore perfectly authentic and trustworthy.\nThus the famous Collections of De Bry may be said to be of English\norigin, for to Raleigh and his magi De Bry owed everything in the start\nof his great work. Being thus supplied and instructed, De Bry returned\nto Frankfort, and with incredible energy and enterprise, engraved,\nprinted, and issued his VIRGINIA in four languages, English, French,\nLatin and German, in 1590, and his Florida in Latin and German, in\n1591. The bibliographical history of these books, the intimacy and\ndependence of the several persons engaged; and the geographical\ndevelopment of Florida-Virginia are all so intertwined and blended,\nthat the whole seems to lead up to Thomas Hariot, the clearing up of\nwhose biography thus becomes an appropriate labor of the Hercules Club.\n\nLittle more remains to be said of Raleigh\u2019s Magi who have been thus\nshown to be hand and glove in working out these interesting episodes of\nFrench and English colonial history. To Hakluyt, Le Moyne, White, De\nBry and Hariot, Raleigh owes an undivided and indivisible debt of\ngratitude for the prominent niche which he achieved in the world\u2019s\nhistory, especially in that of England and America ; while to Raleigh\u2019s\nliberal heart and boundless enterprise must be ascribed a generous\nshare of the reputation achieved by his Magi in both hemispheres.\n\nOf Hakluyt and De Bry little more need be said here. They both hewed\nout their own fortunes and recorded them on the pages of history, the\none with his pen, the other with his graver. If at times ill informed\nbibliographers who have got beyond their depth fail to discern its\nmerits, and endeavour to deny or depreciate De Bry\u2019s Collection,\ncharging it with a want of authenticity and historic truth, it is hoped\nthat enough has been said here to vindicate at least the first two\nparts, Virginia and Florida. The remaining parts, it is believed, can\nbe shown to be of equal authority.\n\nWhoever compares the original drawings of Le Moyne and White with the\nengravings of De Bry, as one may now do in the British Museum, must be\nconvinced that, beautiful as De Bry\u2019s work is, it seems tame in the\npresence of the original water-colour drawings. There is no\nexaggeration in the engravings.\n\nLe Moyne\u2019s name has not found its way into modern dictionaries of art\nor biography, but he was manifestly an artist of great merit and a man\nof good position. In addition to what is given above it may be added\nthat a considerable number of his works is still in existence, and it\nis hoped will hereafter be duly appreciated. In the print-room of the\nBritish Museum are two of his drawings, highly finished in\nwater-colours, being unquestionably the originals of plates eight and\nforty-one of De Bry\u2019s Florida. They are about double the size of the\nengravings. They came in with the Sloane Collection. There is also in\nthe Manuscript Department of the British Museum a volume of original\ndrawings relating chiefly to Florida and Virginia (Sloane N\u00b0 5270)\nmanifestly a mixture of Le Moyne\u2019s and White\u2019s sketches. They are very\nvaluable. There is also in the Museum library a printed and manuscript\nbook by Le Moyne, which speaks for itself and tells its own interesting\nstory. It is in small oblong quarto and is entitled \u2018La/ Clef des\nChamps,/ pour trouuer plusieurs Ani-/maux, tant Bestes qu\u2019Oyseaux,\nauec/ plusieurs Fleurs & Fruitz. . . / Anno. I586./ \u00b6 Imprim\u00e9 aux\nBlackfriers, pour Jaques/ le Moyne, dit de Morgues Paintre/\u2019. The book\nconsists of fifty leaves, of which two are preliminary containing the\ntitle and on the reverse and third page a neat dedication in French \u2018A\nMa-dame Madame/ De Sidney.\u2019/ Signed\u2019 Voftre tres-affectionne,/ JAQVES\nLE MOINE dit\n\nde/ MORGVES Paintre.\u2019/ This dedication is dated \u2018Londres/ ce xxvi. de\nMars.\u2019/ On the reverse of the second leaf, also in French, is \u2018\u00b6 A Elle\nMesme,/ Sonet\u2019 with the initials I.L.M.\n\nThen follow forty-eight leaves with two woodcuts coloured by hand on\nthe recto of each leaf, reverse blank. These ninety-six cuts sum up\ntwenty-four each of beasts, birds, fruits and flowers, with names\nprinted under each in English, French, German and Latin. Although the\nbook is dated the 26th of March 1586, it was not entered at Stationers\u2019\nHall until the 31st of July 1587. It there stands under the name of\nJames Le Moyne alias Morgan. Madame Sidney is given as Mary Sidney. She\nwas sister of Sir Philip, countess of Pembroke, \u2018Sidney\u2019s sister,\nPembroke\u2019s mother.\u2019 There is no allusion to Sir Philip in the\ndedication, and therefore we may infer that it was penned before the\nbattle of Zut-phen. Both the dedication and the sonnet show the\nartist\u2019s intimacy and friendship with that distinguished family.\n\nThere are two copies of this exceedingly rare book in the British\nMuseum, both slightly imperfect, but will together make a complete one,\nbut the more interesting copy is that in 727 c/2 31, in the Sloane\nCollection. It has bound up with it thirty-seven leaves on which are\nbeautifully drawn and painted flowers, fruits, birds &c. There can be\nlittle doubt that these are Le Moyne\u2019s own paintings. It is curious to\nfind that all these scattered works in the different departments came\nin with the Sloane Collection which formed the nucleus of the British\nMuseum. It is to be hoped that other samples of Le Moyne\u2019s art may be\nfound or identified, and that all of them may be brought together or be\ndescribed as the \u2018Le Moyne Collection.\u2019 How Sir Hans Sloane became\npossessed of them does not yet appear.\n\nCapt. John White\u2019s name in the annals of English art is destined to\nrank high, though it has hitherto failed to be recorded in the art\nhistories and dictionaries. Yet his seventy-six original paintings in\nwater-colours done probably in Virginia in 1585-1586 while he was there\nwith Hariot as the official draughtsman or painter of Raleigh\u2019s \u2018First\nColonie\u2019 entitle him to prominence among English artists in Elizabeth\u2019s\nreign. There are some other works of his in the Manuscript department\nmingled with those of his friend and master Le Moyne.\n\nAs Raleigh\u2019s friend and agent White\u2019s name deserves honorable mention\nin the history of \u2018Ould Virginia.\u2019 He was an original adventurer in the\n\u2018First Colonie\u2019 and was one of the hundred and nine who spent a whole\nyear at and about Roanoke and returned with Drake in 1586. He went\nagain to Virginia in April 1587 as Governor of Raleigh\u2019s\u2019 Second\nColonie,\u2019 consisting of one hundred and fifty persons in three ships,\nbeing the fourth expedition. Raleigh appointed to him twelve assistants\n\u2018to whome he gave a Charter, and incorporated them by the name of\nGovernour and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh in Virginia,\u2019 intended\nto be founded on the Chesapeake Bay. It never became more than a \u2018paper\ncity.\u2019\n\nThis Second Colony landed at Roanoke the 20th of July, but finding\nthemselves disappointed and defeated in all points, the colonists\njoined in urging the Governor to return to England for supplies and\ninstructions. He reluctantly departed the 27th of August from Roanoke,\nleaving there his daughter, who was the mother of the first child of\nEnglish parents born in English North America, Virginia Dare. He\nintended immediately to return to Virginia with relief, but the\nembarrassments of Raleigh, the\nstirring times, and the \u2018Spanish Armada\u2019 defeated Sir Walter and\nfrustrated all his plans.\n\nOn the 20th of November 1587 Governor White having reached home\napprised Raleigh of the circumstances and requirements of the Colony.\nSir Walter at once \u2018appointed a pinnesse to be sent thither with all\nsuch necessaries as he vnderstood they stood in neede of,\u2019 and also\n\u2018wrote his letters vnto them, wherein among other matters he comforted\nthem with promise, that with all conuenient speede he would prepare a\ngood supply of shipping and men with sufficience of all thinges\nneedefull, which he intended, God willing, should be with them the\nSommer following.\u2019 This promised fleet was got ready in the harbor of\nBideford under the personal care and supervision of Sir Richard\nGrenville, and waited only for a fair wind to put to sea. Then came\nnews of the proposed invasion of England by Philip King of Spain with\nhis \u2018invincible armada,\u2019 so wide spread and alarming that it was deemed\nprudent by the Government to stay all ships fit for war in any ports of\nEngland to be in readiness for service at home ; and even Sir Richard\nGrenville was commanded not to leave Cornwall.\n\nGovernor White however having left about one hundred and twenty men,\nwomen and children in Virginia, among whom were his own daughter and\ngranddaughter, left no stone unturned for their relief. He labored so\nearnestly and successfully that he obtained two small \u2018pinneses\u2019 named\nthe \u2018Brave\u2019 and the \u2018Roe,\u2019 one of thirty and the other of twenty-five\ntons, \u2018wherein fifteen planters and all their provision, with certain\nreliefe for those that wintered in the Countrie was to be transported.\u2019\n\nThe\u2019 Brave\u2019 and the \u2018Roe\u2019 with this slender equipment passed the bar of\nBideford the 22nd of April, just six months after the return of the\nGovernor, a small fleet with small hope. Had it been larger its going\nforth would not have been permitted. The Governor remained behind,\nthinking he could serve the Colony better in England. But the sailors\nof the little \u2018Brave\u2019 and \u2018Roe\u2019 had caught the fighting mania before\nthey sailed, and instead of going with all speed to the relief of\nVirginia, scoured the seas for rich prizes, and like two little\nfighting cocks let loose attacked every sail they caught sight of,\nfriend or foe. The natural consequence was that before they reached\nMadeira (they took the southern course for the sake of plunder) they\nhad been several times thoroughly whipped, and \u2018all thinges spilled\u2019 in\ntheir fights. \u2018By this occasion, God iustly punishing the theeuerie of\nour euil disposed mariners, we were of force constrained to break of\nour voyage intended for the reliefe of our Colony left the yere before\nin Virginia, and the same night to set our course for England.\u2019 In a\nmonth from their departure they recrossed the bar of Bideford, their\nvoyage having been a disgraceful failure, yet the doings of these two\nminiature corsairs are recorded in Hakluyt manifestly only as specimens\nof English pluck, a British quality always admired, however much\nmisdirected. Meanwhile no tidings of the \u2018Second colonie\u2019 and worse\nstill, no tidings or help had the Second Colony received all this long\ntime from England. And even to this day the echo is \u2018no tidings\u2019 and no\nhelp from home. This then may be called the first and great human\nsacrifice that savage America required of civilized England before\nyielding to her inevitable destiny.\n\nAnd so it was that Virginia and the Armada Year shook the fortunes of\nRaleigh and compelled him to assign a portion of his Patent and\nprivileges under it to divers gentlemen and merchants of London. This\ndocument, in which are included and protected the charter rights of\nWhite and others in the \u2018City of Raleigh,\u2019 bears date the 7th of March\n1589. Matters being thus settled, with more capital and new life a\n\u2018Fifth Expedition\u2019 was fitted out in 1590 in which Governor White went\nout to carry aid, and to reinforce his long neglected colony of 1587.\nNot one survivor was found, and White returned the same year in every\nway unsuccessful. He soon after retired to Raleigh\u2019s estates in\nIreland, and the last heard of him is a long letter to his friend\nHakluyt \u2018from my house at Newtowne in Kylmore the 4th of February\n1593.\u2019\n\nRaleigh\u2019s Patent, like that of Gilbert, would have expired by the\nlimitation of six years on the 24th of March 1590 if he had not\nsucceeded in leading out a colony and taking possession. His first\ncolony of 1585 was voluntarily abandoned, but not his discoveries. His\nsecond colony of 1587 was surrounded with so much obscurity that though\nin fact he maintained no real and permanent settlement, yet it was\nnever denied that he lawfully took possession and inhabited Virginia\nwithin the six years and also for a time in the seventh year, and\ntherefore was entitled to privileges extending two hundred leagues from\nRoanoke. As long as Elizabeth lived no one disputed Raleigh\u2019s\nprivileges under his patent, though partly assigned, but none of the\nAssignees cared to adventure further. The patent had become practically\na dead letter. As late however as 1603 the compliment was paid Raleigh\nof asking his permission to make a voyage to North Virginia. As no\nEnglish plantation between the Spanish and the French possessions in\nNorth America at the time of the accession of James was maintained the\npatent was allowed nominally to remain in force. But no one claimed any\nrights under it. It has been stated by several recent historians that\nthe attainder of Raleigh took away his patent privileges, but evidence\nof this is not forthcoming. It is manifest that James the First, who\nhad little regard for his own or others\u2019 royal grants or chartered\nrights in America, considered the coast clear and as open to his own\nroyal bounty as it had been long before to Pope Alexander the Sixth. It\nwas easier and safer to obtain new charters than to revive any\nquestionable old ones.\n\nBut to all intents and purposes the interesting history of Virginia\nbegins with Raleigh. Whence he drew his inspiration, how he profited by\nthe experience of others, how he patronized his Magi and bound them to\nhimself with cords of friendship and liberality; how by his very\nblunders and misfortunes he transmitted to posterity some of the most\nprecious historical memorials found on the pages of English or American\nhistory, we have, perhaps at unnecessary length, endeavoured to show in\nthis long essay on the brief and true Report of Thomas Hariot, his\nsurveyor and topographer in Virginia, which must ever serve as the\ncorner-stone of English American History, by a man who, though long\nneglected and half forgotten, must eventually shine as the morning star\nof the mathematical sciences in England, as well as that of the history\nof her Empire in the West.\n\nIt remains now to give some personal account of Thomas Hariot, whose\nfirst book as the first of the labors of the hercules club has been\nreproduced. Every incident in the life of a man of eminent genius and\noriginality in any country is a lesson to the world\u2019s posterity\ndeserving careful record. Hitherto dear quaint old positive\nantiquarianly slippery Anthony \u00e0 Wood in his _Athenes Oxoniensis_\nembodies nearly all of our accepted notions of this great English\nmathematician and philosopher. Anthony was indefatigable in his\nresearches into the biography of Hariot who was both an Oxford man and\nan Oxford scholar. He happily succeeded in mousing out a goodly number\nof recondite and particular occurrences of Hariot\u2019s life. He managed,\nhowever, to state very many of them erroneously ; and he drew hence\nsome important inferences, the reverse, as it now appears, of\nhistorical truth. This naturally leads one to inquire into his\nauthorities. Wood\u2019s account of Hariot appeared in his first edition of\n1691, and has not been improved in the two subsequent editions. For\nmost of his facts he appears to have been indebted to Dr John Wallis\u2019s\nAlgebra, first published in 1685, though ready for the printer in 1676\n; and for his fictions to poor old gossiping Aubrey; while his\ninferences, in respect to Hariot\u2019s deism and disbelief in the\nScriptures, are probably his own, as we find no sufficient trace of\nthem prior to the appearance of his Athen\u00e6, unless it be in Chief\nJustice Popham\u2019s unjust charge at Winchester in 1603, when he is said\nto have twitted Raleigh from the bench with having been \u2018bedeviled\u2019 by\nHariot. Dr Wallis appears to have obtained part of his facts from John\nCollins, who had been in his usual indefatigable manner looking up\nHariot and his papers as early as 1649, and wrote to the doctor of his\nsuccess several letters between 1667 and 1673, which maybe seen in\nProfessor Rigaud\u2019s Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth\nCentury, 2 vols, Oxford, 1841, 8\u00b0.\n\nSince 1784, from time to time, several other writers have partly\nrepeated Wood\u2019s estimate and added several new facts, as will be shown\nfurther on. But it has been reserved for the Hercules Club, now just\nthree hundred years after Hariot left the University, to bring to light\nnew and important contemporary evidence, sufficient, it is believed, to\nconsiderably modify our general estimate of Hariot\u2019s life and\ncharacter, and to raise him from the second rank of mathematicians to\nwhich Montucla coolly relegated him nearly a century ago to the\npre-eminence of being one of the foremost scholars of his age, not\nalone of England but of the world. Had he been walled around by church\nbigotry like his friend and contemporary Galileo he would\nunquestionably by the originality and brilliancy of his observations\nand discoveries have rivalled, or perhaps have shared that\nphilosopher\u2019s victories in science. At all events it is believed that\nthe new matter is sufficient to reopen the courts of criticism and\nrevision in which some of the decisions respecting the use of\nperspective glasses, the invention of the telescope, the discoveries of\nthe spots on the sun, the satellites of Jupiter and the horns of Venus\nmay be reconsidered and perhaps reversed. It is believed that in\nlogical analysis, in philosophy, and in many other departments of\nscience few in his day were his equals, while in pure mathematics none\nwas his superior.\n\nThomas Hariot was born at Oxford, or as Anthony \u00e0 Wood with more than\nhis usual quaint-ness expresses it, \u2018tumbled out of his mother\u2019s womb\ninto the lap of the Oxonian muses in 1560.\u2019 He was a \u2018bateler or\ncommoner of St Mary\u2019s hall.\u2019 He \u2018took the degree of bachelor of arts in\n1579, and in the latter end of that year did compleat it by\ndetermination in Schoolstreet.\u2019 Nothing of his boyhood, or of his\nfamily, except a few hints in his will, has come to light.\n\nIt is not known precisely at what time Hariot joined Walter Raleigh,\nwho was only eight years his senior. From what their friend Hakluyt\nsays of them both, their intimate friendship and mutually serviceable\nconnection were already an old story as early as 1587. On the eighth\ncalends of March 1587, that is on the 22d of February 1588, present\nreckoning, Hakluyt wrote from Paris to Raleigh in London,\n\n\u2018To you therefore I have freely desired to give and dedicate these my\nlabors. For to whom could I present these Decades of the New World [of\nPeter Martyr] more appropriately than to yourself, who, at the expense\nof nearly one hundred thousand ducats, with new fleets, are showing to\nus of modern times new regions, leading forth a third colony [to\nVirginia], giving us news of the unknown, and opening up for us\npathways through the inaccessible ; and whose every care, and thought,\nand effort tend towards this end, hinge upon and adhere to it ? To whom\nhave been present and still are present the same ideas, desires, &\nincentives as with that most illustrious Charles Howard, the Second\nNeptune of the Ocean, and Edward Stafford our most prudent Ambassador\nat the Court of France, in order to accomplish great deeds by sea and\nland. But since by your skill in the art of navigation you clearly saw\nthat the chief glory of an insular kingdom would obtain its greatest\nsplendor among us by the firm support of the mathematical sciences, you\nhave trained up and supported now a long time, with a most liberal\nsalary, Thomas Hariot, a young man well versed in those studies, in\norder that you might acquire in your spare hours by his instruction a\nknowledge of these noble sciences ; and your own numerous Sea Captains\nmight unite profitably theory with practice. What is to be the result\nshortly of this your wise and learned school, they who possess even\nmoderate judgment can have no difficulty in guessing. This one thing I\nknow, the one and only consideration to place before you, that first\nthe Portuguese and afterwards the Spaniards formerly made great\nendeavours with no small loss, but at length succeeded through\ndetermination of mind. Hasten on then to adorn the Sparta[Vir-ginia]\nyou have discovered; hasten on that ship more than Argonautic, of\nnearly a thousand tons burthen which you have at last built and\nfinished with truly regal expenditure, to join with the rest of the\nfleet you have fitted out.\u2019\n\nFrom this extract one might perhaps reasonably infer that Hariot went\ndirectly from the University in 1580 at the age of twenty into\nRaleigh\u2019s service, or at latest in 1582 when Raleigh returned from\nFlanders. As our translation of this important passage is rather a free\none the old geographer\u2019s words are here added, in his own peculiar\nLatin. Hakluyt in his edition of Peter Martyr\u2019s Eight Decades, printed\nat Paris in 1587, 8\u00b0, writes of his young friend Hariot in his\ndedication to his older friend Sir Walter Raleigh, as follows :\u2014\n\nTibi igitur has meas vigilias condonatas & confecratas efle volui. Cui\nenim potius, qu\u00e0m tibi has noui Orbis Decades offerem, qui centum fer\u00e8\nmillium ducatoru impenfa, nouis tuis clafsibus regiones nouas, nouam\niam terti\u00f2 ducendo coloniam, notas ex ignotis, ex inaccefsis peruias,\nnouifsimis hifce teporibus nobis exhibes ? Cuius omnes curse,\ncogitationes, conatus, hue fpeflant, haec verfant, in his inhaerent.\nCui cum Illuftrifsimo illo her\u00f4e, Carolo Hovvardo, altcro Oceani maris\nNeptuno, Edoardi Staffbrdij, noftri apud regem Chriftianifsimum\noratoris prudentifsimi fororio, eadem ftudia, eaedem voluntates, iidem\nad res magnas terra mar\u00edque aggrediendas funt & fuerunt ani-morum\nftimuli. C\u00f9m vero artis nauigatori\u00e6 peritia, pr\u00e6cipuum regni infularis\nornamentum, Mathematicarii fcientiaru adminiculis adhibitis, fuu apud\nnos fplendore poffe cofequi facile per-fpiceres, Thomas Hariotum,\niuuenem in illis difciplinis excellente, honeftifsimo falario iamdiu\ndonatum apud te aluifti, cuius fubndio horis fuccefsiuis nobililsimas\nfcientias illas addifcercs, tuique familiarcs duces maritimi, quos\nhabes non paucos, cum praii theoria non fine fructu incredibili\ncoiungeret. Ex quo pulcherrimo & fapientifsimo inftitutotuo, quid breui\neuentutum fit, qui vel mediocri iudicio volent, facil\u00e8 proculdubio\ndiuinare poterunt. Vnum hoc fcio, vnam & vnicam rationem te inire, qua\u00e6\nprim\u00f2 Lufitani, deinde Caftellani, quod antea toties cum no exigua\niactura funt conati, tandem ex animoru votis perficerut. Perge ergo\nSpartam quam nactus es ornare, perge nauem illam plufquam Argonauticam,\nmille cuparum fere capace, quam fumptibus plane regiis fabricatam iam\ntadem foelicitcr abfoluifti, reliquae tuae clafsi, quam babes egregi\u00e8\ninftructam, adiungere.\n\nFrom this early time for nearly forty years, till the morning of the\n29th of October 1618, when Raleigh was beheaded, these two friends are\nfound inseparable. Whether in prosperity or in adversity, in the Tower\nor on the scaffold, Sir Walter always had his Fidus Achates to look\nafter him and watch his interests. With a sharp wit, close mouth, and\nready pen Hariot was of inestimable service to his liberal patron. With\nrare attainments in the Greek and Latin Classics, and all branches of\nthe abstract sciences, he combined that perfect fidelity and honesty of\ncharacter which placed him always above suspicion even of the enemies\nof Sir Walter. He was neither a politician nor statesman, and therefore\ncould be even in those times a faithful guide, philosopher, and friend\nto Raleigh.\n\nIn the year 1585, as has already been stated above, Hariot, at the age\nof twenty-five, went out to Virginia in Raleigh\u2019s \u00ab first Colonie\u2019 as\nsurveyor and historiographer with Sir Richard Grenville, and remained\nthere one year under Governor Ralph Lane, returning in July 1586, in\nSir Francis Drake\u2019s home-bound fleet from the West Indies. During the\nabsence of this expedition Raleigh had received triple favors from\nFortune. He had entered Parliament, been knighted, and had been\npresented by the Queen with twelve thousand broad acres in Ireland.\nThese Irish acres were partly the Queen\u2019s perquisite from the Babington\n\u2018conspiracy.\u2019 Other royal windfalls had considerably increased Sir\nWalter\u2019s expectations, and aroused his ambition. Hariot is known to\nhave spent some time in Ireland on Raleigh\u2019s estates there during the\nreign of Elizabeth, but it is uncertain when. It may have been between\nthe autumn of 1586 and the autumn of 1588. He was in London in the\nwinter of 1588-89 in time to get out hurriedly his report in February\n1589. It is possible, however, that he went to Ireland after his book\nwas out. He was probably the manager of one of the estates there as\nGovernor John White was of another in 1591-93.\n\nThe next early author whom we find speaking of Hariot is his lifelong\nfriend and companion Robert Hues or Hughes in his \u2018Tractatus de /\nGlobis et eo-\n/ rvm vsv, / Accommo-datus iis qui Lon-/dini editi funt Anno I593,/\n/ fumptibus\nGulielmi Sanderfoni / Ciuis Londinienfis/Confcriptus a Ro-/bertoHues./\nLondini/ In ardibus Thomae Dawfon. / 1594.\u2019 / 8\u00b0\n\nIn his dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh the author says :\n\nBorealiora Europae noftrates diligentimme luftrarunt. Primo Hugo\nWilloughby eques Anglus & Richardus Chanceler has oras apperuerunt.\nSuccedit eis Stephanus Borough, vlterius pro-grefsi funt Artunis Pet &\nCarol. Iackman. Sufcept\u00e6 funt hae nauigationes, inftigante Sebaftiano\nCaboto, vt, fiqu\u00e2 pofset fieri traiectum in regiones Synanum & Cathayac\nbreuimmum confequeremur, at irreto haec omnia conatu, nifi quod his\nmedijs firmatum eft commercium cum Mofchouitis. H\u00e2c cum non fuccederet,\ninftitutx funt nauigationes ad Borealiora Americ\u00e6;, quas primo fuscepit\nMartinus Frobifher, fecutus eft poftca Ioannes Dauis. Ex his omnibus\nnauigationibus multi antiquiorum errores,magna eorum ignorantia\ndetectacft. Atque his conatibus minus fuccedentibus, gens noftra\nnauibus abundans otij impatiens, in alias paries fuas nauigationes\ninftituerunt. Humphredus Gilbert Eques, Americ\u00e6 oras Hifpanis\nincognitas, magno animo & viribus, fucceffu non aequali noftris aperire\nconatus eft. Id quod tuis poftea aufpicijs (vir honoratifsime) felicius\nfufceptum eft quibus Virginia nobis patefacta eft, pr\u00e6efecto clafsis\nRichardo Grinuil nobili equite, quam diligentifsime luftrauit &\ndefcripfit Thom\u00e6 Hariotus.\n\nIn the English edition of Robert Hues\u2019 work, London, 1638, this very\ninteresting but somewhat irrelevant passage appears as follows:\n\nAmong whom, the first that adventured on the discovery of these parts,\nwere, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and Richard Chanceler: after them, Stephen\nBorough. And farther yet then either of these, did Arthur Pet, and\nCharles Lackman discover these parts. And these voyages were all\nundertaken by the instigation of Sebastian Cabot: that so, if it were\npossible, there might bee found out a nearer pafsage to Cathay and\nChina : yet all in vane ; fave only that by this meanes a course of\ntrafficke was confirmed betwixt us and the Mofcovite.\n\nWhen their attempts fucceeded not this way ; their next designe was\nthen to try, what might bee done in the Northern Coasts of America :\nand the first undertaker of these voyages was Mr. Martin Frobisher: who\nwas afterward feconded by Mr. Iohn Davis. By meanes of all which\nNavigations, many errours of the Ancients, and their great ignorance\nwas discovered.\n\nBut now that all these their endeavours fucceeded not, our Kingdome at\nthat time being well furnished in fhips, and impatient of idlenefse :\nthey resolved at length to adventure upon other parts. And first Sir\nHumphrey Gilbert with great courage and Forces attempted to make a\ndiscovery of those parts of America, which were yet unknowne to the\nSpaniard : but the successe was not answerable. Which attempt of his,\nwas afterward more prosperously prosecuted by that honourable Gentleman\nSir Walter Rawleigh: to whose meanes Virginia was first discovered unto\nus, the Generall of his Forces being Sir Richard Greenville : which\nCountrey was afterwards very exactly furveighed and described by Mr.\nThomas Harriot.\n\nThis William Sanderson, the patron of Mollineux, Hood, and Hues, was a\nrich and liberal London merchant, who had married a niece of Raleigh.\nHe contributed largely to Sir Walter\u2019s first reconnoitring expedition\nin 1584 under Amidas and Barlow, and was afterwards a liberal\nadventurer and supporter of Raleigh in all his colonial schemes. He was\nfond of the science of geography, and contributed largely to the\npreparation and publication of the globes of Mollineux, and the\nDescriptions of them by Hood and Hues in 1592 and 1594. He was also a\ngood friend of all Raleigh\u2019s friends, and acted as Sir Walter\u2019s fiscal\nagent in regard to the Wine monopoly. On being called upon for a\nsettlement of the large amount due, as Raleigh supposed, after his\nimprisonment in the Tower, Sanderson denied his indebtedness, was sued,\ncast into the debtors\u2019 jail, and died in poverty. His son published\nsevere comments against Raleigh.\n\nRobert Hues, who was an intimate friend and associate of Hariot, was\nborn at Hertford in 1554. He became a poor scholar at Brazen nose, and\nwas afterwards at St Mary\u2019s Hall with Hariot. He took his degree of\nA.B.in 1579. He is said to have been a good Greek scholar, and after\nleaving the University travelled and became an eminent geographer and\nmathematician. He attracted the attention, probably through Raleigh, of\nthat noble patron of learning Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland,\nwho took him into his service, made him one of his scientific\ncompanions while in the Tower, supported him partly at Sion, intrusted\nhim to instruct his children, and finally sent him to Oxford as tutor\nat Christ Church of his eldest surviving son, Algernon Percy, who on\nthe death of his father on gunpowder treason day 1632, became the 10th\nEarl of Northumberland. Hues died at Oxford the 24th of May, 1632, and\nwas buried in the cathedral of Christ Church, according to the\ninscription on his monument. He is mentioned by Chapman in his\ntranslation of Homer\u2019s Works [ 1616 ] as \u2018another right learned,\nhonest, and entirely loved friend of mine.\u2019 See infra, p. 183.\n\nIn 1595 Hariot was mentioned as a distinguished man of science in his\nSeaman\u2019s Secrets by Captain John Davis the navigator, a friend and\npartner of Raleigh.\n\nOn the eleventh of July 1596 Hariot under peculiar circumstances wrote\na long and confidential letter to Sir Robert Cecil, Chief Secretary of\nState, in the interests of Raleigh\u2019s Guiana projects. The letter is\nhere given in full, as it shows better than anything else the close and\nconfidential relations existing between Sir Walter and Hariot at that\ntime. Raleigh had returned from Guiana, his first El Dorado expedition,\nin August 1595, and had in the mean time employed such energy and\nenterprise that within about five months he had fitted out and\ndispatched his second El Dorado fleet under his friend Captain Keymis.\nThis second expedition returned to Plymouth in June 1596, a few days\nafter Raleigh had gone with Essex and Howard of Effingham on that\nworld-renowned expedition against Cadiz. Sir Walter appears to have\nleft his affairs in the hands of his ever faithful Hariot, and hence\nthis sensible and timely letter in the absence of his patron. There\nappears to have been no complaint against Keymis; but the master of his\nship, Samuel Mace, seems to have been less discreet. The letter tells\nits own story, and gives a vivid picture of the intelligent earnestness\nof Sir Walter respecting Guiana, and at the same time the earnest\nintelligence of Hariot during Raleigh\u2019s absence in Spain.\n\nIt has been denied that Raleigh really expected to find the El Dorado\nin either his first expedition of 1595 or last in 1617, but this letter\ngoes to show that both he and Hariot had firm faith in the scheme.\nIndeed in a German book of travels just published, entitled \u2018Aus den\nLlanos. Schildenung einer naturwisscn-schaftlichen Reise nach\nVenezuela, Von Carl Sachs, Leipzig, 1879,\u2019 the writer states that the\nexport of gold from Spanish Guiana in 1875 was 79,496 ounces. He says\nthat the richest mine, that of Callao, has of late years returned as\nmuch as 500 per centum. After briefly narrating the expeditions of\nRaleigh, which had been preceded by various Spanish expeditions, he\nadds: \u2018Now at this day, after nearly three centuries, the riches sought\nfor have been actually found In the very country where these\nunfortunate efforts were made.\u2019 Hariot\u2019s letter is as follows:\n\nLETTER OF THOMAS HARIOT TO MR. SECRETARY\n\n\nSIR ROBERT CECIL.\n\n\n_From the original holograph in the Cecil Papers at Hatfield, vol.\nxliii,\nAt first printed in Edward Edward\u2019s Life of\nRaleigh, vol. ii, page 420._\n\n\nRight Honourable Sir,\n\nThese are to let you understand that whereas, according to your Honor\u2019s\ndirection, I have been framing of a Charte out of some such of Sir\nWalter\u2019s notes and writings, which he hath left behind him,\u2014his\nprincipal Charte being carried with him, \u2014if it may please you, I do\nthinke most fit that the discovery of Captain Kemish be added, in his\ndue place, before I finish it. It is of importance, and all Chartes\nwhich had that coast before be very imperfecte, as in many thinges\nelce. And that of Sir Walter\u2019s, although it were better in that parte\nthen any other, yet it was don but by intelligence from the Indians,\nand this voyadge was specially for the discovery of the same; which is,\nas I find, well and sufficiently performed. And because the secrecy of\nthese matters doth much importe her Majesty and this State, I pray let\nme be so bould as to crave that the dispatch of the plotting and\ndescribing be don only by me for you, according to the order of trust\nthat Sir Walter left with me, before his departure, in that behalf, and\nas he hath usually don heretofore. If your Honor have any notes from\nSir Thomas Baskerville, if it may please you to make me acquaynted with\nthem, that which they will manifest of other particularytyes then that\nbefore Sir Walter hath described shall also be set downe.\n\nAlthough Captain Kemish be not come home rich, yet he hath don the\nspeciall thing which he was injoined to do, as the discovery of the\ncoast betwixt the river of Amasones and Orinico, where are many goodly\nharbors for the greatest ships her Majesty hath and any nomber; wher\nthere are great rivers, and more then probability of great good to be\ndon by them for Guiana, as by any other way or to other rich contryes\nborderinge upon it. As also, the discovery of the mouth of Orinico it\nself,\u2014a good harbor and free passage for ingresse and egresse of most\nof the ordinary ships of England, above 3 hundred miles into the\ncontry. Insomuch that Berreo wondred much of our mens comming up so\nfar; so that it seemeth they know not of that passage. Nether could\nthey, or can possibly, find it from Trinidado; from whence usually they\nhave made their discoveryes. But if it be don by them the shortest way,\nit must be done out of Spayne. Now, if it shall please her Majesty to\nundertake the enterprise, or permitte it in her subjectes, by her\norder, countenance, and authority, for the supplanting of those that\nare now gotten thither, I thinke it of great importance to keepe that\nwhich is don as secretly as we may, lest the Spaniardes learne to know\nthose harbors and entrances, and worke to prevent us.\n\nAnd because I understand that the master of the ship with Captain\nKemish is somewhat carelesse of this, by geving and selling copyes of\nhis travelles and plottes of discoveryes, I thought it my dutye to\nremember it unto your wisdome, that some order might be taken for the\nprevention of such inconveniences as may thereby follow : by geving\nauthority to some Justice, or the Mayor, to call him before them, and\nto take all his writinges and chartes or papers that concerne this\ndiscovery, or any elce, in other mens handes, that he hath sold or\nconveyed them into ; and to send them sealed to your Honor, as also to\ntake bond for his further secrecy on that behalf. And the like order to\nbe taken by those others, as we shall further informe your Honor of,\nthat have any such plots, which yet, for myne owne parte, I know not\nof; or any other order, by sending for him up or otherwise, as to your\nwisdome shall seeme best.\n\nConcerning the Eldorado which hath been shewed your Honor out of the\nSpanish booke of Acosta, which you had from Wright, and I have scene,\nwhen I shall have that favour as but to speake with you I shall shew\nyou that it is not ours\u2014that we meane\u2014there being three. Nether doth he\nsay, or meane, that Amazones river and Orinoco is all one,\u2014as some, I\nfeare, do averre to your Honor ; as by good profe out of that booke\nalone I can make manifest; and by other meanes besides then this\ndiscovery, I can put it out of all dout.\n\nTo be breef, I am at your Honor\u2019s comandement in love and duty farther\nthan I can sodeynly expresse for haste. I will wayte upon you at Court,\nor here at London, about any of these matters or any others, at any\ntime, if I might have but that favour as to heare so much. I dare not\npresume of my selfe, for some former respectes. My fidelity hath never\nbeen impeached, and I take that order that it never shall. I make no\napplication. And I beseech your Honor to pardon my boldness, because of\nhaste. My meaning is allwayes good. And so I most humbly take my leave.\nThis Sunday, 11th of July 1596.\n\nYour Honor\u2019s most ready at commandement in all services I may,\n\n\n   THO. HARRIOTE.\n\n\n  addressed:\n\nTo the right honorable Sir ROBERT CICILL, Knight\n  Principall Secretary to Her Majesty, these.\n\n  Endorsed: 11 July, 1596. Mr Harriott to my Master.\n\nThe vigilant Secretary lost no time in acting upon Hariot\u2019s\nsuggestions. On the 31st of July Sir George Trenchard and Sir Ralph\nHorsey wrote to Cecil from Dorchester in reply to his instructions,\nthat they had seized the charts and books of the \u2018India Voyage\u2019 [to\nGuiana] from one Samuel Mace and William Downe, which they would send\nup to the Secretary if desired. They were desired, and accordingly sent\nthem by post on the 10th of August. A few days later Raleigh returned\nto Plymouth with the first glorious news of the success of the English\nfleet at Cadiz ; which news completely turned the heads of the people\nof England one way, and those of the Queen and the hungry politicians\nthe other. Poor Mace, to whom Raleigh was much attached, was restored\nto his confidence. To Raleigh more than to any one man this triumph\nover Spain was justly due, but in the pitiful squabbles that followed\nin the apportionment of the honors and the spoils Sir Walter used to\naver that his sole gain in this great national enterprise from\nbeginning to end was but a lame leg. He might have added that the\nbusiness had gained for him the envy, malice and all uncharitableness\nof those in high places. In worldly wealth he was now comparatively\npoor, and his fortunes were broken, though the Queen at times, only at\ntimes, smiled on him.\n\nAt what precise time Hariot, who never deserted Raleigh, became\nacquainted with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, with whose honored\nname, next to that of Sir Walter\u2019s, his must ever be associated, does\nnot as yet appear. It is known, however, that there was an intimacy\nbetween Raleigh and Percy as early as 1586, when Sir Walter presented\nPercy with a coat of mail on his going over to Flanders, and soon after\na bedstead made of cedar from Virginia ; while the Earl about the same\ntime gave to Sir Walter a \u2018stroe coloured velvet saddle.\u2019 From this\ntime to the day of Raleigh\u2019s triumph on the scaffold there exists\nplenty of evidence of their continued intimacy.\n\nWhen therefore the Earl and Raleigh were finally caged together in the\nTower for life in 1606 their friendship was of more than twenty years\u2019\nstanding. From this we infer that Hariot also knew Percy almost from\nthe time of his joining Raleigh; but the earliest mention of his name\nin connection with that of the Earl which we have met with is this of\n1596, in the Earl\u2019s pay-rolls, still preserved at Sion, and described\nin the Sixth Report of the Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts,\npage 227, \u2018To Mr. Herytt for a book of the Turk\u2019s pictures, 7s.\u2019 It\nappears from the same rolls that from Michaelmas 1597 to 1610, if not\nearlier and later, an annual pension of \u00a380 (not \u00a3 120, or \u00a3 150, \u00a3300,\nas variously stated) was paid to Hariot by the Earl. This pension was\nprobably continued as long as Hariot lived; and besides there are not\nwanting many marks of the Earl\u2019s liberality, friendship, and love for\nhis companion and pensioner, who was long known as \u2018Hariot of Sion on\nThames,\u2019 as expressed on his monument. In the Earl\u2019s accounts for 1608\nthere is this entry, \u2018Payment for repairing and finishing Mr Heriotts\nhouse at Sion.\u2019\n\nAt what time exactly Hariot took up his residence at Sion the Earl\u2019s\nnew seat (purchased of James in 1604) is not known, but probably soon\nafter the Earl was sent to the Tower in 1606. There is preserved a\nLetter from Sir William Lower addressed to Hariot at Sion dated the\n3Oth of September 1607, and other letters or papers exist showing his\ncontinued residence there until near the time of his death in 1621.\nWood and many subsequent writers to the present time have confused Sion\nnear Isleworth with Sion College in London. They are totally distinct.\nHariot had nothing to do with Sion College, which was not founded until\n1630, nine years after his death. The error arose out of the\ncoincidence of Torporley\u2019s taking chambers at Sion College on retiring\nfrom his clerical profession, and dying there in April 1632, leaving\nhis mathematical books and manuscripts to the College Library. He had\nbeen appointed by Hariot to look over, arrange, and \u2018pen out the\ndoctrine\u2019 of his mathematical writings. Torporley\u2019s abstracts of\nHariot\u2019s papers are still preserved in Sion College Library.\n\nWhat the Earl of Northumberland did for Hariot is, as the world goes,\nascribed to patronage ; what Hariot did for the Earl cannot be measured\nby money or houses, but may be summed up in four words, alike honorable\nto both, \u2018they were long friends.\u2019 To this day the debt of gratitude\nfrom the philosopher to the nobleman is fairly balanced by the similar\ndebt of the nobleman to the philosopher. Hariot\u2019s Will, given on pages\n193-203, tells the rest of the story of this noble friendship.\n\nIt is manifest, however, from many considerations that the noble Earl\ntook a lively and almost officious interest in the public honor and\ncharacter of his friend, for Hariot appears to have been as careless of\nhis own scientific reputation as his contemporary Shakspeare is said to\nhave been of his literary eminence.\n\nOn the other hand, Hariot\u2019s interest in the Earl\u2019s affairs and family\nat Sion redound greatly to his credit. He was both an eminent scholar\nand a remarkable teacher. Earnest students flocked to him for higher\neducation from all parts of the country. Besides the private scientific\nand professional instruction that from the first he gave to Raleigh,\nhis captains and sea officers, he seems to have had under his\nscientific tuition and mathematical guidance many young men who\nafterwards became celebrated; among whom may be mentioned Robert\nSidney, the brother of Sir Philip, afterwards Lord Lisle of Penshurst;\nThomas Aylesburyof Windsor, afterwards Sir Thomas, the\ngreat-grandfather of two queens of England; the late Lord Harrington;\nSir William Protheroe and Sir William Lower of South Wales; Nathaniel\nTorporley of Shropshire; Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Devonshire; Captain\nKeymis; Captain Whiddon, and many others. Cordial and affectionate\nletters of most of these men to their venerated master are still\npreserved.\n\nAt Sion were the groves of Hariot\u2019s academy.\n\nYet he with Warner and Hues was constantly passing by the Thames\nbetween Sion and the Tower, some three or four hours by oar and tide.\nThey were all three pensioners, or in the pay, of the Earl, though the\nlast two were on a very different footing from that of Hariot as to\nemoluments and responsible position. They were, however, companions of\nboth the Earl and Sir Walter, and, if tradition is to be believed, they\nwere sometimes joined by Ben Jonson, Dr Burrill, Rev. Gilbert\nHawthorne, Hugh Broughton, the poet Hoskins and perhaps others.\n\nThe Earl had a large family to be educated, and there is reason to\nbelieve that in his absence from Sion Hariot was intrusted for many\nyears with the confidential supervision of some of the Earl\u2019s personal\naffairs at Sion, including the education of his children. How he\nidentified himself with the noble family of his patron may be inferred\nfrom these extracts from a letter to Hariot, dated July 19, 1611, of\nWilliam Lower, one of his loving disciples. Cecil had been fishing out\nsome new evidence of Percy\u2019s treason from a discharged servant, and was\npressing cruelly upon the prisoner. Lower writes :\n\n\nI have here [in South Wales] much otium and therefore I may cast awaye\nsome of it in vaine pursuites, chusing always rather to doe some thinge\nworth nothing then nothing att all. How farre I had proceeded in this,\nI ment now to have given you an account, but that the reporte of the\nunfortunate Erles relapse into calamitie makes me beleeve that you are\nenough troubled both with his misfortunes and my ladys troubles; and so\na discourse of this nature would be unseasonable. [And concludes the\nletter with] But at this time this much is to much. I am sorrie to\nheare of the new troubles ther, and pray for a good issue of them\nespeciallie for my ladys sake and her five litle ones. [The Countess of\nNorthumberland here referred to was the mother of Sir William Lower\u2019s\nwife, who was Penelope Perrot, daughter of Sir John Perrot, who married\nLady Dorothy Devereux, sister of Essex, and for her second husband\nHenry Percy the gth Earl of Northumberland. Lower died in 1615.]\n\n\nThis responsible trust gave Hariot a good house and home of his own at\nSion, with independence and an observatory. He had a library in his own\nhouse, and seems to have been the Earl\u2019s librarian and book selector or\npurchaser for the library of Sion House, as well as for the use of the\nEarl in the Tower. The Earl was a great book-collector, as appears by\nhis payrolls. Books were carried from Sion to the Tower and back again,\nprobably not only for the Earl\u2019s own use, but for Raleigh\u2019s in his\nHistory of the World. Many of these books, it is understood, are still\npreserved at Petworth, then and subsequently one of the Earl\u2019s seats,\nbut now occupied by the Earl of Leconsfield.\n\nTo look back a little. Before either Raleigh or Henry Percy was shut up\nin the Tower, we find one of Hariot\u2019s earliest and ablest mathematical\ndisciples, Nathaniel Torporley, a learned clergyman, writing in high\npraise of him in his now rare mathematical book in Latin, entitled,\u2019\nDiclides Coelometricx,\u2019 or Universal Gates of Astronomy, containing all\nthe materials for calculation of the whole art in the moderate space of\ntwo tables, on a new general and very easy system. By Nathaniel\nTorporley, of Shropshire, in his philosophical retreat, printed in\n1602. The exact title is as follows:\n\nDiclides Coelometric\u00e6 / Seu / Valv\u00e6 Astronomic\u00e6 / vniversales / Omnia\nartis totius numera Psephophoretica in sat modicis / finibus duarum\nTabularum Methodo noua, generali,/ & facilima continentes./ Authore\nNathale Torporlaeo Salopiensi / in secessu Philotheoro. / Londini /\nExcudebat Felix Kingston. 1602. / 4\u00b0.\n\nIn the long preface Torporley, who had entered St Mary\u2019s Hall the year\nHariot graduated, and who during his travels abroad had served two\nyears as private secretary or amanuensis to Francis Vieta, the great\nFrench Mathematician, but who had since become a disciple of the\ngreater English Mathematician, thus admiringly speaks of his new\nmaster, Thomas Hariot:\n\n\nNeque enim, per Authorum cunctationem & affectatam ob-scuritatem, fieri\npotuit, vt in prima huius Artis promulgatione, eidem alicui &\ninventionis laudem, te erudiendi mercedem deferremus; sed dimicamibus\nillis, neque de minoribus pr\u00e6mijs quam de imperio Mathematico\ncertantibus; mussantibus vero alijs, & arrectis animis expectantibus,\n\n\nQuis pecori imperitet, quern tot armenta sequantur; non defuit Angl\u00e6 &\nsuus Agonista (ornatifimum dico, et in omni eruditionis varietate\nprincipemvirum Thomam Hariotum, homine natu ad Artes illustrandas, &,\nquod illi palmariu erit pr\u00e6stantissimu, ad nubes philofophicas, in\nquibus multa iam secula caligauit mundus, indubitata; veritatis\nsplendore difcutiendas) qui vetaret, tarn folidz laudis spolia ad\nexteros Integra deuolui. Ille enim (etiamdum in pharetra conclufa, qu\u00e6\npupilla viuacis auicular terebraret, sagitta) ipsam totius Artiseius\nmetam egregia methodo collimauit; expedita vero facilitate patefactam,\ninter alios amicorum, & mihi quoque tradidit; multisq vitro citroq,\niaftatis Qu\u00e6stionibus, ingenia nostra in abysso huius Artis exercendi\ncausam pr\u00e6buit.\n\n\nOf Mr Torporley we shall have more to say further on, as he is\nparticularly mentioned in Hariot\u2019s will. Meanwhile here is an attempt\nat a translation of his peculiar Latin in the above extract:\n\n\nFor indeed by the delays and affected obscurity of authors, it was\nimpossible, that in the first promulgation of the art, we should give\nthe praise of invention and the credit of teaching, to the same\nindividual ; but while they were quarrelling & contending for no less a\nprize than the empire of Mathematics, whilst others were muttering, and\nwaiting with excited minds to see\n\n\n    Who should rule the flock, whom so many herds should follow,\n\n\nour own champion has not been wanting to England. I mean Thomas Hariot,\na most distinguished man, and one excelling in all branches of learning\n: a man born to illustrate Science, and, what was his principal\ndistinction, to clear away by the splendour of undoubted truth those\nphilosophical clouds in which the world had been involved for so many\ncenturies : who did not allow the trophies of substantial praise to be\nwholly carried abroad toother nations. For he (while the arrow, which\nwas to hit the bull\u2019s-eye, was yet in the quiver) defined by an\nadmirable method the limits of all that science ; and showed it to me,\namongst others of his friends, explained in an expeditious and simple\nmanner ; and by proposing various problems to us, enabled us to\nexercise our ingenuity in the profundities of this science.\n\n\nBut time and space beckon. On the 24th of March 1603, set \u2018that bright\noccidental Star,\u2019 and \u2018that mock Sun\u2019 fr\u00e6 the north took by succession\nits place. To Raleigh the change was the setting of a great hope, for\nto Queen Elizabeth he owed his fortunes, and was proud of the debt. To\nRaleigh more than to any other one man, notwithstanding his many\nfaults, the Queen owed the brilliancy of her Court, the efficacy and\nterror of her navy, the enterprise and intelligent energy of her\npeople, to say nothing of the adventurous spirit of colonization which\nhe awoke in his efforts in Western Planting. The glory of his\nachievements today is the glory alike of England and English America.\nKing James let no man down so far as he did Raleigh. Perhaps it was\nbecause there was no one left of Elizabeth\u2019s Court who could fall so\nfar.\n\nOn three trumped up charges which never were, and never could be\nsustained with due form of law, Raleigh was with small delay thrown\ninto the Tower. Several other noblemen and less eminent persons were\nsent there also. The Asiatic plague was raging in the City. A moral\npestilence of equal virulence at the same time infested the Court. The\nState prisoners must be tried openly, though already secretly\ncondemned. The Judges of his \u2018dread Majesty\u2019 dared not venture to the\nTower as usual for the trials, forgetting apparently that its precincts\nwere just as unhealthy for the great prisoners of State as for them,\nwho were liable any day on the miffs of majesty to change places.\n\nSo it was determined that the\u2019 traitors\u2019 should be carted down to\nWinchester for trial. A cold wet November seven-days\u2019 journey through\nmud and slush was the miserable dodge to carry out this scheme of\ndarkness which neither Coke nor Popham would have dared to perpetrate\nin the broad light of London. It was, as all the world knows, a mock\ntrial. The prisoners Raleigh, Cobham, Gray, and Markham were condemned\nand sentenced to death as traitors, and Raleigh, for the grim sport of\nthe royal Nimrod, was made to witness a mock execution of his\nfellow-convicts, but being in due course all respited by a warrant\nwhich the Governorof Winchester Castle had carried three days in his\npocket, were carted back to the Tower, where, not pardoned, their\nsentences not commuted, but simply deferred, they were tortured with a\nliving death hanging over them, like the sword of Damocles depending on\nroyal caprice.\n\nHere Raleigh dragged out his long imprisonment, and (as tersely & truly\nexpressed by his son) was, after thirteen years, beheaded for opposing\nthe very thing he was condemned and sentenced for favouring. The whole\nstory is a bundle of inconsistencies, like that of Henry Percy, the 9th\nEarl of Northumberland, committed to the Tower in 1606, and his fifteen\nyears\u2019 imprisonment. The stories of these two celebrated men are\ninseparably connected with that of Hariot. But it is not our purpose to\ntrace either Raleigh\u2019s or Percy\u2019s progress through these long and\ndreary years any further than is necessary to illustrate the life of\nHariot, who was the light of the outer world to them both. Incarcerated\nand watched as they were, Hariot was the ears, the eyes, and the hands\nof these two noble captives.\n\nThe depth and variety of Hariot\u2019s intellectual and scientific\nresources, his honesty of purpose, his fidelity of character, his\neminent scholarship, his unswerving integrity, and his command of\ntongue, rendered him alike invulnerable to politicians and to royal\nminions. He was with Raleigh at Winchester and in the Tower, off and\non, as required, from 1604 to 1618, except during the last voyage to\nGuiana. He was at the same time a pensioner, a companion, and\nconfidential factotum of his old friend the Earl of Northumberland both\nin the Tower and at Sion for fifteen years. Watched as these two\nprisoners were, ensnared, entrapped, and entangled for new evidence\nagainst them, it was necessary for Hariot to pursue a delicate and\ncautious course, to eschew politics, statecraft and treason, and to\ndevote himself to pure science (almost the only pure commodity that was\nthen a safeguard) metaphysics, natural philosophy, mathematics,\nhistory, and literature. He was their jackal, their book of reference,\ntheir guide, their teacher, and their friend.\n\nRaleigh found himself in December 1603, lodged in the Tower, innocent,\nas is now generally admitted, of the charges against him, but legally\nattainted of high treason. All his worldly effects therefore escheated\nto the Crown. The King out of pure cowardice (for he dared not carry\nout the sentence of the Court) waived the horrid parts of the\nsentence\u2014too horrid even to be quoted here\u2014and commuted it to execution\nby the block. He also waived the immediate forfeitureof property\nacquired under Elizabeth\u2019s reign, and even allowed Raleigh to complete\nthe entail of certain estates to his wife and son.\n\nThe Governor of the Tower and his Lieutenant were at first officially\nkind and friendly, extending many privileges to win his confidence. If\nthere had been any treason in Sir Walter they would most certainly have\nwormed it out of him, for his eyes at first were not fully open. He\nstill believed in the honour and fidelity of his mock friends at Court.\n\nWhen no more satisfactory evidence of his guilt could be smuggled out\nof him, or his companions, in support of the unjust verdict, they\nbegan, in 1605, to abridge his privileges and darken his lights. At\nfirst his friends and visitors were cut down to a fixed number. There\nis a list among the Burleigh papers in the British Museum by which it\nappears that Lady Raleigh, her maid, and her son might visit Sir\nWalter. For this they took a house on Tower Hill near the old\nfortress, where they lived six years, or as long as this privilege\nlasted.\n\nThen Sir Walter was to be allowed two men servants and a boy, who were\nto remain within the Tower. Besides these he was permitted to see on\noccasion, Mr Hawthorne, a clergyman ; Dr Turner, his physician } Mr\nJohns, his surgeon ; Mr Sherbery, his solicitor ; his bailiff at\nSherburne ; and his old friend, Thomas Hariot, with no official\ndesignation.\n\nIt needs no ears under the walls of the Tower to tell us what were the\nduties of this learned and trusted friend, who had been Sir Walter\u2019s\nconfidential factor for a quarter of a century in all his most\nimportant enterprises. Hariot, it will be perceived, was the only one\nnamed, in this house-list, without an assigned profession. Fortunately\nthere is still preserved a \u2018hoggeshead of papers\u2019 in Hariot\u2019s\nhandwriting, ill-assorted and hitherto unsifted, which partially reveal\nthe secrets of this prison-house, and show Hariot here, there, and\neverywhere, mixed up with all the studies, toils, experiments, books,\nand literary ventures of our honored traitor.\n\nSo passed, with tantalizing uncertainty, the year 1605, with many fears\nfor the future and some hopes; but 1606 brought into the Tower Sir\nWalter\u2019s old friend Henry Percy, another \u2018traitor.\u2019 With him, at first,\nthere was considerable liberality on the part of the officials (all\npaid for), and both Raleigh and Percy had each a garden to cultivate\nand walk in, and a still-room or laboratory in which to study and\nperform their \u2018magic.\u2019 Hariot was the master of both in these occult\nsciences. The \u2018furnace\u2019 and the \u2018still\u2019 were at first Raleigh\u2019s chief\namusement and study. Assaying and transfusing metals, distilling\nsimples and compounds, concocting medicines, and testing antidotes,\nwith exercises in chemistry and alchemy, were the studies of both\nRaleigh and the Earl. But soon the policy of the Court changed. The\nprisoners had less liberty and saw less of each other, and so the\nstills were pulled down, and the gardens given up. Raleigh was more\nclosely watched, and entrapped. Then there was fencing and defencing,\nfor nothing could stand against the King\u2019s persistent rancor, and\nCecil\u2019s dissimulation. From time to time Sir Walter\u2019s titles, his\noffices, his Elizabethan monopolies and his appointments were all taken\nfrom him. All his emoluments were wanted for hungry favourites ; and\nfinally the Sherburne estate which he had been permitted to entail on\nhis son went by no higher law than the king\u2019s, \u2018I mon hae it for Carr.\u2019\n\nDuring all these anxious months Hariot was Sir Walter\u2019s close-mouthed\nand trusted Mercury, a silent messenger who floated frequently by the\ntide on the Thames between the Tower and his residence at Sion, a\npensioner of, and one of Percy\u2019s staff of wise men, but really\nRaleigh\u2019s strong right hand. He adroitly and faithfully served two\nmasters, preserving his own independence and self reliance, and not\nlosing the confidence of either.\n\nFrom the trial at Winchester to the final transfer of Sherburne, a\nperiod of some five years, every step against Raleigh was taken through\nthe high Courts of Justice. That the cannie monarch was capable of all\nthis moral wrong and legal crookedness need not surprise any one who\nhas investigated his antecedents and proclivities, but that he on\ncoming to England should have developed that masterly power of warping\ngreat minds and bending the English Courts of Justice to his purposes,\nand even crunching its strong old oaken Bench and Bar into his own\nroyal privy pocket, does surprise one. The secret of this unenglish\nstrength, however, has been attributed partly to his Bur-leigh help.\n\nWhen Raleigh found the cords thus tightening round him, he offered\nsundry concessions and services for life and liberty. He would carry\nout his schemes for enriching the king and the kingdom by conquering\nand exploring Guiana; he would accept exile in Holland; or emigrate to\nVirginia, and help to build up a new English empire in the West; but\nall in vain. It was feared that his unexpired and dormant patent might\ninterfere with the King\u2019s own Virginia charter. So Raleigh and Hariot\nworked on, but relieved the tedium by ever changing study. Every year\nor two, as long as he could command through himself or friends the\nresources, Raleigh sent privately a reconnoitring and intelligence ship\nto Guiana, to keep that pet enterprise alive. In this delicate matter\nHariot was Sir Walter\u2019s geographer and assayer, while Hariot\u2019s old\ncollege friend, Keymis, was his factor or shipping agent.\n\nThen come Raleigh\u2019s Essays and smaller writing with his hopeful\ncorrespondence with the Queen and Prince Henry. Lady Raleigh\u2019s\nprivileges, after six years, ceased in 1611; probably about the time\nthat Cecil was for some unaccountable reason prospecting actively for\nnew evidence against both Sir Walter and Percy. The years 1610 and 1611\nwere anxious times for them both; but they were bright days for Hariot,\nwith his invention of the telescope and his discoveries. Whether in the\nTower, administering new scientific delicacies and delights to the\nprisoners; or at Sion, unlocking the secrets of the starry firmament by\nnight, in his observatory; or floating between Sion and the Tower by\nday on the broad bosom of the Thames, prying into the optical secrets\nof lenses, and inventing his perspective trunks by which he could bring\ndistant objects near, Hariot in foggy England of the north was working\nout almost the same brilliant series of discoveries that Galileo was\nmaking in Italy. To this day, with our undated and indefinite material,\neven with the new and much more precise evidence now for the first time\nherewith produced, it is difficult to decide which of them first\ninvented the telescope, or first by actual observation with that\nmarvellous instrument confirmed the truth of the Copernican System by\nrevealing the spots on the Sun, the orbit of Mars, the horns of Venus,\nthe satellites of Jupiter, the mountains in the Moon, the elliptical\norbits of comets, _etc._ It is manifest, however, that they were both\nworking in the same groove and at the same time.\n\nHariot was undoubtedly as great a mathematician and astronomer as\nGalileo. In 1607 at Ilfracombe and in South Wales, he had taken by hand\nand Jacob\u2019s staff, the old patriarchal method, valuable observations of\nthe comet of that year, and compared notes with his astronomical pupil\nWilliam Lower, and afterwards with Kepler. This comet, now known as\nHalley\u2019s, ought perhaps to have been named Hariot\u2019s, for it confirmed\nhis notions that the motions of the planets were not perfect circles\nand afforded probably the germ of his reasoning out the elliptical\norbits of comets, especially afterhis friend and correspondent [see\ninfra, pages 178-180] Kepler\u2019s book _de Motibus Stella Atartis_ came\nout in 1609, and he had invented and improved his telescope or\nperspective \u2018truncke\u2019 or cylinder in 1609-10.\n\nIt is not positively stated that Hariot held direct correspondence with\nGalileo in 1609 and 1610 or even later, but the evidence is strong that\nhe was promptly kept informedof what was going on in Italy in\nastronomical and mathematical discovery, as well as in Germany and\nelsewhere. That he was using a \u2018perspective truncke\u2019 or telescope as\nearly as the winter of 1609-10, and that his \u2018servaunte\u2019 Christopher\nTooke (or as Lower in 1611 familiarly called him\u2019 Kitt\u2019) made lenses\nfor him and fitted them into his \u2018trunckcs\u2019 for sale by himself, is\nknown. From this circumstance,and from the fact that he disposed of\nmany \u2018trunckes\u2019 by his will, and left a considerable stock of them to\nTooke, it is manifest that he manufactured and traded in telescopes\nfrom 1609 to 1621. With his invention of the telescope then it required\nno correspondence with Galileo to induce him to rake the heavens and\nsweep our planetary system for new astronomical discoveries. To an\nastronomer of his activity and mathematical acumen these discoveries\nfollowed as a matter of course. Like Galileo he may have borrowed from\nthe Dutch (or quite as likely they of him) the idea that by a\ncombination of lenses it was possible to bring distant objects near,\nbut that he worked out the idea independently of Galileo admits hardly\nof a doubt. But he seems to have been less ambitious than Galileo to\nclaim priority in either the invention or the discoveries that\nimmediately followed. In this connection the following hitherto\nunpublished letter will be read with interest:\n\nLETTER OF SIR WILLIAM LOWER _in South Wales to_\n\n\nTHOMAS HARIOT _at Sion_ 21 _June_ 1610.\n\n\n_Printed from the holograph original in the British Museum_\n\n\nI gaue your letter a double welcome, both because it came from you and\ncontained newes of that strange nature ; although that wch I craued,\nyou haue deserved till another time. Me thinkes my diligent Galileus\nhath done more in his three fold discouerie then Magellane in openinge\nthe streightes to the South sea or the dutch men that weare eaten by\nbeares in Noua Zembla. I am sure with more ease and saftie to him selfe\nand more pleasure to mee. I am so affected with this newes as I wish\nsommer were past that I mighte obserue these phenomenes also, in the\nmoone I had formerlie observed a strange spotted-nesse al ouer, but had\nno conceite that anie parte therof mighte be shadowes; since I haue\nobserued three degrees in the darke partes, of wch the lighter sorte\nhath some resemblance of shadinesse but that they grow shorter or\nlonger I cannot yet pceaue. ther are three starres in Orion below the\nthree in his girdle so neere togeather as they appeared vnto me alwayes\nlike a longe starre, insomuch as aboute 4 yeares since I was a writing\nyou newes out of Cornwall of a view a strange phenomenon but asking\nsome that had better eyes then my selfe they told me, they were three\nstarres lying close togeather in a right line, thes starres with my\ncylinder this last winter I often observed, and it was longe er I\nbeleued that I saw them, they appearinge through the Cylinder so farre\nand distinctlie asunder that without I can not yet disseuer. the\ndiscouerie of thes made me then obserue the 7 starres also in, ###\n[Taurus], wch before I alwayes rather beleued to be, 7. then euer could\nnomber them, through my Cylinder I saw thes also plainelie and far\nasunder, and more then, 7. to, but because I was prejugd with that\nnumber, I beleved not myne eyes nor was carefull to obserue how manie;\nthe next winter now that you have opened mine eyes you shall heare much\nfr\u00f6 me of this argument, of the third and greatest (that I confesse\npleased me most) I have least to say, sauing that just at the instance\nthat I receaved your letters wee Traventane Philosophers were a\nconsideringe of Kepler\u2019s* reasons [*pag. 106. Noua Stella Serpentarii]\nby wch he indeauors to ouerthrow Nolanus and Gilberts opinions\nconcerninge the immensitie of the Spheare of the starres and. that\nopinion particularlie of Nolanus by wch he affirmed that the eye beinge\nplaced in anie parte of the Univers the apparence would be still all\none as vnto us here. When I was a sayinge that although Kepler had sayd\nsomethinge to moste that mighte be vrged for that opinion of Nolanus,\nyet of one principall thinge hee had not thought; for although it may\nbe true that to the ey placed in anie starre of, ### [Cancer], the\nstarres in Capricorne will vanish, yet he hath not therfore so soundlie\nconcluded (as he thinkes) that therfore towards that parte of the world\nther wilbe a voidnesse or thin scattering of little starres wheras els\nround about ther will appeare huge starres close thruste togeather: for\nsayd I (hauinge heard you say often as much) what is in that huge space\nbetweene the starres and Saturne, ther remaine euer fixed infinite\nnombers wch may supplie the apparence to the eye that shalbe placed in\n### [Cancer], wch by reason of ther lesser magnitudes doe flie our\nsighte what is aboute ### [Saturn], ### [Jupiter], ### [Mars], etc.\nther moue other planets also wch appeare not. just as I was a saying\nthis comes your letter, wch when I had redd, loe, qd I, what I spoke\nprobablie experience hath made good ; so that we both with wonder and\ndelighte fell a consideringe your letter, we are here so on fire with\nthes thinges that I must renew my request and your promise to send mee\nof all sortes of thes Cylinders. my man shal deliuer you monie for anie\ncharge requisite, and contente your man for his paines and skill. Send\nme so manie as you thinke needfull vnto thes obseruations, and in\nrequitall, I will send you store of observations. Send me also one of\nGalileus bookes if anie yet be come ouer and you can get them.\nConcerning my doubte in Kepler, you see what it is to bee so far fro\nyou. What troubled me a month you satisfyed in a minute. I have\nsupplied verie fitlie my wante of a spheare, in the desolution of a\nhogshead, for the hopes therof haue framed me a verie fine one. I pray\nalso at your leasure answere the other pointes of my last letter\nconcerning Vieta, Kepler and your selfe. I have nothinge to presence\nyou in counter, but gratitude with a will in act to be vsefull vnto you\nand a power in proxima potentia ; wch I will not leaue also till I haue\nbroughte ad actum. If you in the meane time can further it, tell wher\nin I may doe you seruice, and see how wholie you shall dispose of me.\n\nYour most assured and louing friend\nTra\u2019uenti the longest day of, 1610. Willm Lower.\n~ _Addressed:_ To his espesial good frind\nMr. Thomas Hariot\n\nSeal of Arms, _(B. M. Add._ 6789.) at Sion neere London.\n\n\n[Tra\u2019venti or Trafenty, near Lower Court, is eight or nine miles\nsouth-west of Caermarthen, near the confluence of the rivers Taf and\nCywyn.]\n\nThe writer is fortunately able to throw some light upon these letters\nof Lower to Hariot. In _the Monatlicbe Correspondenz Vol._ 8, 1803,\npublished by F. X. von Zach at Gotha, pages 47-56, is a most\ninteresting fragment of an original letter inEnglish toHariot. Dr Zach\nsays that he found this letter at Petworth in 1784, and it being\nwithout date or signature he confidently assigned its authorship to the\nEarl of Northumberland, and guessed the date to have been prior to\n1619. In his many notes he is in raptures over his discovery, and\ndeplores the misfortune of its breaking off in the most interesting\nplace just as the Earl was about to announce the discovery of the\nelliptical orbit of the comet of 1607, as reasoned out of Hariot\u2019s\nobservations and the writings of Kepler. This famous letter has been\nused or copied in many places, particularly in Ersch and Gru-ber\u2019s\nAlgemeine Encyklopadie under Hariot.\n\nThe mystery is now solved by giving here the letter in full. It is even\nmore important than Dr Zach with all his enthusiasm supposed. It is\nnot, however, from the pen of Northumberland, though none the less\ninteresting on that account. The letter is in the well-known\nhandwriting of Lower, of Tra\u2019venti, on Mount Martin, near Llanfihangel,\nin South Wales, to his dearly loved friend and master Hariot at Sion,\nand is dated the 6th of February, 1610. The letter fills two sheets of\nfoolscap paper. The first sheet of four pages Dr Zach found at\nPetworth, and it is to be hoped that it still exists there. The other\nsheet of four pages is preserved in the British Museum (Add. 6789). How\nlong these two sheets have been separated it is difficult to tell, but\nprobably from Hariot\u2019s day, that is, for more than two centuries and a\nhalf. The two fragments are now brought together and printed for the\nfirst time complete, the first half from Dr Zach\u2019s text, and the latter\nhalf copied verbatim direct from the original autograph manuscript,\nBrit. Mus. Add. 6789.\n\n\nLETTER FROM SIR WILLIAM LOWER MATHEMATICIAN\n\n\nAND ASTRONOMER TO THOMAS HARIOT AT SION\n\n\nFEBRUARY 6, 1610.\n\n\nI have receeved the perspective Cylinder that you promised me and am\nsorrie that my man gave you not more warning, that I might have had\nalso the 2 or 3 more that you mentioned to chuse for me. Hence forward\nhe shall have order to attend you better and to defray the charge of\nthis and others, that he forgot to pay the worke man. According as you\nwished I have observed the Mone in all his changes. In the new I\ndiscover manifestlie the earthshine, a little before the Dichotomic,\nthat spot which reprefents unto me the Man in the Moone (but without a\nhead) is first to be feene. a little after neare the brimme of the\ngibbous parts towards the upper corner appeare luminous parts like\nstarres much brighter then the rest and the whole brimme along, lookes\nlike unto the Description of Coasts in the dutch bookes of voyages, in\nthe full she appeares like a tarte that my Cooke made me the last\nWeeke. here a vaine of bright stuffe, and there of darke, and so\nconsufedlie al over. I muft confesse I can see none of this without my\ncylinder. Yet an ingenious younge man that accompanies me here often,\nand loves you, and these studies much, sees manie of these things even\nwithout the helpe of the instrument, but with it sees them most\nplainielie. I meane the younge Mr. Protherbe.\n\nKepler I read diligentlie. but therein I find what it is to be so far\nfrom you. For as himfelf, he hath almoft put me out of my wits, his\nAequanes, his sections of excentricities, librations in the diameters\nof Epicycles, revolutions in ellipses, have fo thoroughlie seased upon\nmy imagination as I do not onlie ever dreame of them, but oftentimes\nawake lose my selfe, and power of thinkinge with to much wantinge to\nit. not of his caufes for I cannot phansie those magnetical natures,\nbut aboute his theorie which me thinks (although I cannot yet\novermafter manie of his particulars) he eftablifheth soundlie and as\nyou say overthrowes the circular Aftronomie.\n\nDo you not here startle, to see every day some of your inventions taken\nfrom you ; for I remember long since you told me as much, that the\nmotions of the planets were not perfect circles. So you taught me the\ncurious way to observe weight in Water, and within a while after\nGhetaldi comes out with it in print, a little before Vieta prevented\n[anticipated] you of the gharland of the greate Invention of Algebra,\nal these were your deues and manie others that I could mention ; and\nyet to great reservednesse had robd you of these glories, but although\nthe inventions be greate, the first and last I meane, yet when I survei\nyour storehouse, I see they are the smallest things and such as in\ncomparison of manie others are of smal or no value. Onlie let this\nremember you, that it is possible by to much procrastination to be\nprevented in the honor of some of your rarest inventions and\nspeculations. Let your Countrie and frinds injoye the comforts they\nwould have in the true and greate honor you would purchase your selfe\nby publishing some of your choise workes, but you know best what you\nhave to doe. Onlie I, because I wish you all good, with this, and\nsometimes the more longinglie, because in one of your letters you gave\nme some kind of hope therof.\n\nBut againe to Kepler I have read him twice over cursoridlie. I read him\nnow with Calculation. Some times I find a difference of minutes,\nsometimes false prints, and sometimes an utter confufion in his\naccounts, these difficulties are so manie, and often as here againe I\nwant your conference, for I know an hower with you, would advance my\nstudies more than a yeare heare, to give you a taft of some of thes\ndifficulties that you may judge of my capacitie, I will send you onlie\nthis one [upon the _Locum Martis_ out of Kepler\u2019s Astronomy, de motibus\nStella: Martis, etc. Prag\u00e6, 1609, folio Ch. xxvi, page 137.] For this\ntheorie I am much in love with these particulars;\n\n1\u00b0 his permutation of the medial to the apparent motions, for it is\nmore rational that all dimensions as of Eccentricities, apogacies,\netc.. . . should depend rather of the habitude to the sun, then to the\nimaginarie circle of orbis annuus.\n\n2\u00b0 His elliptical iter planetarum. for me thinks it shiews a Way to the\nfolving of the unknown walks of comets. For ai his Ellipfis in the\nEarths motion is more a circle _[here endeth Dr Zacb\u2019s fragment, and\nhere beginneth the continuation from tie original in the Britith\nMuseum]_ and in Mars is more longe and in some of the other planets may\nbe longer againe so in thos commets that are appeard fixed the ellipsis\nmay be neere a right line.\n\n3. His phansie of ecliptica media or his via regia of the sun, vnto wch\nthe walke of al the other planets is obliqj more or lesse; even the\necliptica uera under wch the earth walkes his yeares journie; by wch he\nsolues handsomelie the mutation of the starres latitudes. Indeed I am\nmuch delighted with his booke, but he is so tough in rnanie places as I\ncannot bite him. I pray write me some instructions in your next, how I\nmay deale with him to ouermaster him for I am readie to take paines, te\nmodo jura dantem indigeo, dictatorem exposco. But in his booke I am\nmuch out of loue with thes particulars. I. First his manie and\nintolerable atechnies, whence deriue thos manie and vncertaine assayes\nof calculation. 2. His finding fault with Vieta for mending the like\nthings in Ptol: Cop..... but se the justice Vieta speakes sleightlie of\nCopernicus a greater then Atlas. Kepler speakes as slightlie of Vieta,\na greater then Appollonius whom Kepler everie wher admires. For\nwhosoever can doe the things that Kepler cannot doe, shalbe to him\ngreat Appollonius. But enough of Kepler let me once againe intreate\nyour counsel how to read him with best profit, for I am wholie\npossessed with Astronomical speculations and desires. For your\ndeclaration of Vieta\u2019s appendicle it is so full and plaine, as you haue\naboundantlie satisfyed my desire, for wch I yield you the thankes I\nought, onlie in a word tell me whether by it he can solue Copernicus, 5\ncap: of his 5. booke. The last of Vieta\u2019s probleames you leaue to\nspeake of because (you say) I had a better of you, wch was more\nvniuersal and more easilie demonstrated, and findeth the point, E. as\nwel out of the plaine of the triangle giuen, as in the plaine. I pray\nhere helpe my memorie or vnderstand-inge, for although I haue bethought\nmy selfe vsq ad insaniam, I cannot remember or conceaue what\nproposition you meane. If I haue had such a one of you, tel me what one\nit is and by what tokens I may know it ; If I haue not had, then let me\nnow haue it, for you know how much I loue your things and of all wayes\nof teaching for richnesse and fullnesse for stuffe and forme, yours\nvnto me are incomparablie most satisfactorie. If your leasure giue you\nleaue imparte also unto me somewhat els of your riches in this\nargument.\n\nLet me intreate you to advise and direct this bearer Mr. Vaughan wher\nand how to prouide himselfe of a fit sphere ; that by the contemplation\nof that our imaginations here may be releued in manie speculations that\nperplexe our vnderstandings with diagrammed in plano. He hath monie to\nprouide doe you but tell him wher the are to be had and what manner of\nsphere (I meant with what and how manie circles) wilbe most vsefull for\nvs to thes studies. After all this I must needs tell you my sorrowes.\nGod that gaue him, hath taken from me my onlie sun, by continual and\nstrange fits of Epelepsie or Apoloxie, when in apparence, as he was\nmost pleasant and goodlie, he was most healthie, but amongst other\nthings, I haue learnt of you to setle and submit my desires to the will\nof god ; onlie my wife with more greife beares this affliction, yet now\nagaine she begins to be comforted. Let me heare fro you and according\nto your leasure and frindshippe haue directions in the course of studie\nI am in. Aboue al things take care of your health, keepe correspondence\nwith Kepler and wherinsoeuer you can haue vse of me, require it with\nall libertie. Soe I rest ever,\n\nYour assured and true friend to be vsed in\n\nall things that you please.\n\nWillm Low\u00ebr.\n\nTra\u2019vent on Mount Martin [in South Wales.] 6 February, 1610.\n\nLet me not make my selfe more able then ther is cause. I can not order\nthe calculation by the construction you sent me of Vieta\u2019s 3. probleme,\nto find the distances of C. & D. & B. from the Apegen or the proportion\nof ia. to ac. the eccentricitie. I tooke Copernicus, 3. observations in\nthe, 6. chap, of his, 5. booke, therfore helpe here once againe.\n\n_Addressed:_ To his especiall good friend\n\nMr. THO : HARRYOT at Sion neere London.\n\n\nAbout this time, it is understood, Raleigh took up seriously and\nearnestly the great literary work of his life, _The History of the\nWorld._ It must have been brewing in his mind for years, for in his\npreface he expressed the fears he had entertained \u2018that the darkness of\nage and death would have overtaken him long before the performance.\u2019\nThe work, according to Camden, was published in April 1614, just before\nthe meeting of Parliament. It appeared anonymously, and for obvious\nreasons was not entered at Stationers\u2019 Hall. James is said to have had\nhis conscience so pricked by certain passages which everywhere pervade\nthe work on the power, conduct and responsibility of princes, that\nstrenuous efforts were made in January 1615 to call in and suppress it,\nbut the king might as well have attempted to call back a departed\nspirit by Act of Parliament as to call in that \u2018History of the World\u2019\nby royal proclamation. The Book was in type and in the hands of the\npeople of England. It could therefore no more be suppressed at that day\nby princely power than could manifest destiny itself. The second\nedition of 1621 was the first with Raleigh\u2019s name.\n\nThis grand work, which in almost everychapter shows the masterly hand\nof Raleigh himself, needs no comment here. It is however no\ndisparagement of the book (but the contrary) to say that in the\ncollection, arrangement and condensation of its materials; that in\nunlocking the muniment room of antiquity and perusing the chief authors\nof the Greek and Latin classics from Heroditus to Livy and Eusebius,\ncovering a period of near four thousand years, he must have had at\ncheerful beck powerful and competent aid. To collect, read, collate,\nnote down, and digest these vast and scattered treasures into\nreasonable and presentable shape for the master mind, required not a\nbevy of poets and parsons, but one masterly scholar of scientific,\nanalytic, mathematical, philosophical and religious training. Such a\nman was Hariot.\n\nWe read of Gibbon\u2019s twenty years\u2019 fag and toil on the materials of the\nHistory of the Roman Empire alone, and at a time when there were many\naids not existing in Raleigh\u2019s day. Gibbon personally ransacked the\nlibraries of Europe. Raleigh had scarcely four years to cover the four\nmost ancient empires and a much longer period, and was himself confined\nto Tower Hill. But he had at command a Hariot, a sort of winged\nMercury, who was neither entowered nor hide-bound with conceit or\nignorance. He was a marvellously good Greek and Latin scholar, who\nwrote Latin with almost as much ease as English. One has but to read\nthe vast number of notes, citations and particular references in the\nHistory of the World to see the height, depth, and perfect modelling of\nthe structure.\n\nRaleigh was unquestionably the designer, the architect and the finisher\nof his History of the World. To him is due the honor and credit of the\nwork. But who was the builder ? The answer manifestly is Thomas Hariot\nof Sion on Thames, learned, patient, self-forgetting, painstaking,\nlong-waiting, devoted Hariot. Many writers have claimed to be, or have\nbeen named as, Sir Walter\u2019s assistants and polishers. Ben Jonson, Rev.\nDr Burhill, John Hoskins the poet, and others have each had their\nadvocates,but without sufficient evidence. It may well be questioned if\nany one of them possessed either the ability, the time, the access to\nthe Tower, or the opportunity to perform such herculean labors of love.\nThese claims are apparently all based on pure conjecture, or\nunrectified gossip, as shown by Mr Bolton Corney in his razorly reply\nto Mr Isaac D\u2019israeli. But Thomas Hariot, on the contrary, possessed\nabundantly what they all lacked, the necessary credentials. For proof\nof this assertion the doubter, as well as the lover of confirmed\nhistorical accuracy, is referred to the Hariot papers still preserved\npartly at Petworth and partly in the British Museum.\n\nThe Hariot manuscripts, of which there are thousands of folio pages all\nin his own handwriting, seem to be still in the same confused state in\nwhich he left them. He directed that the \u2018waste\u2019 should be weeded out\nof his mathematical papers and destroyed. But this duty seems,\nfortunately for us, to have been neglected by his executors, and hence\namong this \u2018waste\u2019 one has even now no great difficulty in recognizing\nin the well-known Latin handwriting of the\u2019 magician,\u2019 many jottings in\nchronology, geography and science, and many abstracts and citations of\nthe classics, that in their time must have played parts in the _History\nof the World._ The Will now first produced lets in a flood of light on\nthe history of these valued papers, and dispels a great deal of the\nheaps of foreign pretension, domestic assertion, and mixed charlatanism\nthat have since 1784 beclouded the memories of both Raleigh and Hariot.\nIt is true that on a hint in the previous century from Camden of a will\nby the great mathematician, many conjectures were afloat from the days\nof Pell, Collins, Wallis and Wood, but it has not been possible until\nnow for one, with due knowledge of the main events in the lives of\nthese two men, each equally great in his own sphere, to satisfactorily\nclear away any considerable portion of the misconception and\nmisstatements of biographers and historians concerning them and their\nachievements. The dawn however is coming, when these new materials now\nfirst printed by the Hercules Club, but not worked up, may attract the\nattention of some historian competent to give them a thorough\nscientific scrutiny and \u2018pen their doctrine.\u2019\n\nIt is not our purpose here to dwell upon Raleigh\u2019s masterpiece. From\nthe preface of the _History of the World,_ which opens with \u2018the\nboundless ambition of mortal man,\u2019 to the epilogue which closes up the\nwork with the glorious triumph of Death, the whole book is replete with\nlessons of wisdom and warning. No one can rise from its perusal without\nperceiving that the modern author has made himself by apt illustration\nan accomplished actor in ancient history, while the ancient characters\nare made in their vera effigies to strut on modern stages. His pictures\nof great actions and great men, noble deeds and nobler princes, are\ndrawn with such masterly perspective of truth, that they serve for all\ntime ; while his portraiture of tyrants, villains, and dishonorable\ncharacters are no less lifelike and human. One marvels not therefore\nthat King James, whose political creed was that the people are bound to\nprinces by iron, and princes to the people by cobwebs, should see in\nRaleigh\u2019s portraiture of the upright kings no likeness to himself, but\nhad no difficulty in recognizing in the deformed greatness and selfish\nvirtues of the old monarchs qualities suggestive of himself and his\nfavorites. This grand history, extending from the creation over the\nfour great monarchies of the world, near four thousand years, closes\nwith the final triumph of Emilius Paullus in these memorable and\noft-repeated words from the first edition of 1614.\n\nKings and Princes have alwayes laid before them, the actions, but not\nthe ends, of those great Ones which precededthem. They are alwayes\ntransported with the glorie of the one, but they never minde the\nmiserie of the other, till they finde the experience themselves. They\nneglect the advice of God, while they enioy life, or hope it; but they\nfollow the counsell of Death, upon his first approach. It is he that\nputs into man all the wisdome of the world, without speaking a word ;\nwhich God with all the words of His Law, promises, or threats, doth not\ninfuse. Death which hateth and destroyeth man, is beleeved ; God, which\nhath made him and loves him, is alwayes deferred. I have considered,\nsaith Solomon, all the workes that are under the Sunne, and behold, all\nis vanitie and vexation of spirit: but who beleeves it, till Death\ntells it us. It was Death, which opening the conscience of Charles the\nfift, made him enjoyne his sonne Philip to restore Navarre ; and King\nFrancis the First of France, to command that justice should be done\nupon the murderers of the Protestants in Merindol and Cabrieres, which\ntill then he neglected. It is therefore Death alone that can suddenly\nmake man know himselfe. He tells the proud and insolent, that they are\nbut Abjects, and humbles them at the instant ; makes them crie,\ncomplaine, and repent; yea, even to hate their forepassed happinesse.\nHe takes the account of the rich, and proves him a beggar, a naked\nbegger, which hath interest in nothing, but in the grauell that filles\nhis mouth. He holds a glasse before the eyes of the most beautifull,\nand makes them see therein their deformitie and rottennesse; and they\nacknowledge it.\n\nO eloquent, just and mightie Death ! whom none could advise, thou hast\nperswaded ; what none hath dared, thou hast done ; and whom all the\nworld hath flattered, thou onely hast cast out of the world and\ndespised : thou hast drawne together all the farre stretched\ngreatnesse, all the pride, crueltie, and ambition, of man, and covered\nit all over with those two narrow words : _Hic jacet._\n\nWith this outburst of true eloquence the historian of the world laid\ndown his pen in 1614. Four short years later the same historian\nhimself, wickedly sacrificed by his hispaniolized monarch, laid down\nhis life on the scaffold, with an apotheosis scarcely less eloquent. No\ndeath recorded in ancient or modern history is more grand or\ninstructive than that of Sir Walter Raleigh, in many respects the\ngreatest man of his age.\n\nOn the execution being granted in the King\u2019s Bench Court, on the\nafternoon of the 28th of October 1618, he asked for a little time for\npre- paration, but his request was refused, Bacon having already in his\npocket the death warrant duly signed by the King before the meeting of\nthe Court! Sir Walter then asked for paper, pen and ink; and when he\ncame to die that he might be permitted to speak at his farewell. To\nthese last requests he appears to have received no reply, but was with\nindecent haste hustled off to the Gate House for execution early the\nnext morning, the 29th of October, Lord Mayor\u2019s day, when it was\nexpected that the crowd would go cityward. However, there was a crowd,\nand probably in consequence he was not prohibited from speaking. He had\nprepared himself, and is said to have consulted a _\u2018Note of\nRemembrance\u2019_ which he held in his hand while speaking. It is possible,\nnay, probable that this very same _Note_ still survives in\n\u2018paper-saving\u2019 Hariot\u2019s \u2018waste,\u2019 for a precious little waif, all\ncrumpled and soiled, just such a \u2018Note of Remembrance,\u2019 it is believed,\nas Raleigh held in his hand and consulted during that ever memorable\nspeech, has comedown to us, and is now preserved among the Hariot\npapers in the British Museum. It has been recently recognized and\nidentified by Mr Stevens, who has placed it, with other newly\ndiscovered documents respecting our philosopher, at the disposition of\nthe Hercules Club. It is thought to possess internal evidence of having\nbeen drawn out _before_ the speech, and is not therefore Hariot\u2019s\njottings of remembrance _after_ it. But positive proof is wanting.\n\nIt is beyond all doubt, however, in the well-known handwriting of\nHariot, and is presumed to be the \u2018note of remembrance\u2019 _for_ the\nspeech, made in the Gate House, probably from dictation, during the\nnight before the execution. It appears as if hurriedly penned with a\nblunt quill, and is on a narrow strip of thin foolscap paper such as\nHariot used. It is about twelve inches long and nearly four inches\nwide, about one-third of the lower part of the paper being blank. There\nis no heading, date, or anything else on the paper. It is rather\ndifficult to read, but every word, letter and point have been made out,\nand the whole _Note_ is here given, line for line, and verbatim, the\nheading and press-mark only being added :\n\n\n[SIR WALTER RALEIGH\u2019S \u2018NOTE OR REMEMBRANCE\u2019\n\n_for his speech on the Scaffold_ Oct. 29 1618.]\n\nTwo fits of an agew.\n\nThankes to god.\n\nof calling god to witness.\n\nnote\n\nThat He Speake iustly & truely.\n\nI.) Concerning his loyalty to _ye_\n\nKing. French Agent,\n\n& Comission fro ye french King.\n\n2.) of Slanderous fpeeches touching\n\nhis majty. a french man.\n\nSr L. Stukely.\n\n3.) Sr L. Stukely. My lo: Carewe.\n\n4.) SrL. Stukely. My lo: of Danchaster.\n\n5.) Sr L. St: S\u2019 Edward Perham.\n\n6.) Sr L. St. A letter on london hyway l0000li.\n\n7.) Mine of Guiana.\n\n8.) Came back by constreynt.\n\n9.) My L. of Arundell.\n\n10.) Company ufed ill in ye Voyadge.\n\n11. Spotting of his face & counterfeiting sicknes.\n\n12 The _E. of_ Eflex.\n\nLastly, he deiired ye company to ioyne with him in prayer. &c.\n\n_[Brit. MM. Add._ MSS. 6789.]\n\n\nEvery paragraph of the speech is noted, but not quite in the order of\nthe speech as variously reported by those who witnessed the execution\nand heard it. Circumstances occurred after Sir Walter began to speak,\nwhich may have caused the slight change in the order as here set down.\nThis argues in favor of its being a note prepared beforehand. If so It\nmust have been written shortly before the speech, because the order for\nthe execution was not given in the King\u2019s Bench Court till the\nafternoon of the 28th, and the execution was fixed for early the next\nmorning.\n\nThere is a little confusion of the tenses, but this is not strange\nconsidering that the note was penned by a third person. The last two\nlines, below the number 12, may have been added by Hariot afterwards,\nas they are in the past tense and third person, and are separated from\nthe rest of the note by a dash. This point is not numbered. It is\npossible that thefirst five lines were also added subsequently, as they\nare not numbered, and are placed near the top of the paper, as if\ninterpolated, but they are in the same handwriting, and apparently were\nwritten with the same pen and ink.\n\nAt all events, whether written by Hariot before or after the deed, it\nis a precious contemporary document, and is another proof, if any more\nbe needed, of the genuineness of the reported dying speech, and,\nconsequently, that the famous \u2018Spanish papers\u2019 recently reproduced are\nforgeries and false. It requires no great stretch of the imagination\nwith this little messenger in hand to believe that the ingenious\nteacher and friend of his youth, and for nearly two score years the\nconstant companion of his manhood, passed that dreadful night with Sir\nWalter in the Gate House at Westminster, and after \u2018dear Bess\u2019 had\ntaken her leave at midnight, penned out this note of remembrance for\nhis friend\u2019s morning guidance, that nothing should be forgotten in case\nthe ague returned, which he feared even more than death.\n\nA little more than a month after the execution of his friend, Hariot is\nfound in his observatory at Sion taking observations of the comet of\nDecember 1618. His valuable observations are preserved among his\nmathematical papers. During the eleven years following his primitive\nobservations of the \u2018Hariot\u2019 comet of 1607, first at Ilfracombeand\nlater at Kidwely, great advances had been made in the science of\nastronomy, chiefly in consequence of the invention of the telescope,\nand the discoveries by means of it. No mathematician in Europe was\nprobably further advanced in this science than Hariot.\n\nWhat particular discoveries belonged to him and what to Galileo, Kepler\nand other contemporaries, it is very difficult to determine, since it\nis now positively known that from 1609 or 1610 Hariot was a\nmanufacturer and dealer in lenses, or perspective glasses, as well as\nin perspective trunks or telescopes; and that he was in correspondence\nwith Kepler, and probably with Galileo. He was easily the chief of\nastronomers in England, and is known to have possessed the earliest\nbooks of Galileo and to have sent them to his disciples, Lower and\nProtheroe, in Wales. Respecting this comet of 1618, he was in\ncorrespondence with Alien and Standish of Oxford and other scholars at\nhome and abroad.\n\nIn \u2018Certain Elegant Poems, Written By Dr. [Richard] Corbel, Bishop of\nNorwich. R. Cotes for Andrew Crooke, 1647, 16\u00b0- The mirth-loving\nBishop, in \u2018A Letter sent from Doclor Corbetto MaJler [Sir Thomas]\nAilebury, Decem. 9. 1618\u2019 [on the Comet of that year] is the following\nallusion to Hariot:\n\n\n_Burton_ to _Gunter_ Cants, and _Burton_ heares\nFrom _Gunter,_ and th\u2019 Exchange both tongue & eares\nBy carriage : thus doth mired _Guy_ complaine,\nHis Waggon on their letters beares _Charles_ Waine,\n_Charles_ Waine, to which they fay the tayle will reach\nAnd at this diftance they both heare, and teach.\nNow for the peace of God and men, advise\n(Thou that haft wherewithall to make us wise)\nThine owne rich ftudies, and deepe Harriots mine,\nIn which there is no drosse, but all refine,\nO tell us what to trust to, lest we wax\nAll stiffe and tupid with his paralex ;\nSay, shall the old Philofophy be true ?\nOr doth he ride above the Moone think you ? _etc._\n\n\nAfter the departure of the \u2018Blazing Starr\u2019 of December 1618, very\nlittle is known of Hariot, except that he lived at Sion while his\npatron the Earl was still in the Tower, where he was probably\nfrequently visited by his man of science. The following letter, dated\nthe 19th of January 1619, to him at Sion from Sir Thomas Aylesbury is\ninteresting as showing the great interest taken in his old master by\nhis \u2018loytering scholar.\u2019 Many other letters of this stamp, breathing\nlove and ardent friendship, are found among the Hariot papers, from Sir\nWilliam Lower, Sir John Protheroe, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Dr Turner,\nand Sir Thomas Aylesbury. Here is a sample:\n\n\nSr, Though I have bene yet soe little a while att New Mar-kett, that I\nhave not any thing of moment to ympart; yet I thinke it not amisse to\nwrite a bare salutacons, and let yo know, that in theise wearie\njourneys I am often times comforted wth the remembraunce of yor kind\nlove and paynes bestowed on yor loytering scholar, whose little credit\nin the way of learning is all-waits underpropped wt the name of soe\nworthie a Maister.\n\nThe Comet being spent, the talke of it still runnes current here; The\nKings ma before mycumming spake w\u2019 one of Cambridge called Olarentia,\n(a name able to beget beleefe of some extraordinarie qualities) but\nwhat satisfaction he gave, I cannot yet learne; here are papers out of\nSpayne about it, yea and fro Roome, wc I will endevor to gett, and\nmeane yt yo shall partake of the newes as tyme serves.\n\nCura ut valeas et me ames, who am ever trulie and unfaynedlyr\nyors att Commaund. THO: AYLESBURIE.\n\nNewmarkett. 19, Jan. 1618/1619\n\n_Addressed:_ To my right woorthie frend Mr. THOMAS HARRIOT\n\natt Syon, theise, fro Newmarkett.\n\n\nBetween 1615 and 1620 there are evidences of Hariot\u2019s failing health.\nHe was greatly troubled with a cancerous ulcer on the lip. How early\nthis began is not apparent. In 1610 his friend Lower cautions him to be\ncareful of his health. There is in the British Museum among the Hariot\npapers the drafts of three beautiful letters in Latin written from Sion\nin 1615 and 1616 to a friend of distinction, name not mentioned, who\nhad been recently appointed to some medical office at court, in which\nhe describes himself and his disease.\n\nThese letters show great resignation and Christian fortitude. He seemed\nto be getting better in 1616, and expressed himself as somewhat\nhopeful. The progress of the cancer and other troubles cannot now\nprobably be traced, but he is found in the summer of 1621 lodging with\nhis old friend Thomas Buckner, in Threadneedle Street, near the Royal\nExchange, in the parish of St Christopher. Buckner had been one of\nRaleigh\u2019s \u2018First Colonie\u2019 to Virginia in 1585 with Hariot, and Hariot,\nnow in 1621, had come up from Sion probably for medical advice near the\nhospital. On the 2gth of June he made or executed his Will, and died\nthree days after at Buckner\u2019s, on the and of July 1621. He was buried\nthe next day, according to the wish expressed in his will, in the old\nparish church of St Christopher in Threadneedle Street.\n\nSifte viator, leviter preme,\nIacet hic juxta, Quod mortale fuit,\nC. V.\nTHOM\u00c6 HARRIOTT.\nHic fuit Doftiffimus ille Harriotus\nde Syon ad Flumen Thamefin,\nPatria & educatione\nOxonienfis,\nQVM omnes fcientias Caluit,\nQui in omnibus excelluit,\nMathematicis, Philofophicis, Theologicis.\nVeritatis indagator ftudiofiffimus,\nDei Trini-uniui cultor piiffimus,\nSexagenarius, aut eo circiter,\nMortalitati valedixit, Non vit\u00e6,\nAnno Christi M.DC.XXI. Iulii 2.\n\n\nShortly after there was erected to his memory in the chancel, at the\nexpense, it is understood, of his noble friend the Earl of\nNorthumberland, a fine marble monument, bearing the above neat and\nappropriate inscription.\n\nSt Christopher\u2019s, a very old church, with its records (still preserved)\nextending back in an almost unbroken series to 1488, passed through\nmany vicissitudes before itwas finally swallowed up by the leviathan of\nthe world\u2019s commerce. The site of it is now occupied by the south-west\ncornerof the Bank of England on Princes Street, to the left of the\nentrance, nearly opposite the Mansion House. The church was restored\nand redecorated the year of Hariot\u2019s death, and again twelve years\nlater, but was burnt in the great fire of 1666. Hariot\u2019s monument\nperished with it, but the inscription had been preserved by Stow. The\nchurch was rebuilt on the same foundation by Sir Christopher Wren in\n1680.\n\nAbout a century ago the church, with the whole parish of St Christopher\n(called then St Christopher-le-stocks because near the stocks standing\nat the east end of Cheapside), together with a large portion of two\nother parishes, St Margaret\u2019s and St Bartholomew\u2019s, was purchased by\nthe Old Lady of Threadneedle Street for the site of the new Bank of\nEngland. Thus one great bank of this modern metropolis covers a large\npart of three parishes of old London.\n\nThe whole area of the Bank, however, was not given up to mammon, though\nstill here men most do congregate, and worshippers most do worship. One\nsmall consecrated spot, enough perhaps to leaven and memorize the whole\nsite, was respected, and not built over. It was the churchyard of St\nChristopher. This \u2018God\u2019s acre\u2019 the architect and the governors have\ndedicated to Beauty, Art, and Nature. The little \u2018Garden of the Bank of\nEngland,\u2019 the loveliest spot in all London at this day, measuring about\ntwenty-four by thirty-two yards, was just a hundred years ago the\nlittle churchyard of St Christopher, where still repose the bones of\nTHOMAS HARIOT.\n\nVirginia, which once comprehended the present United States from South\nto North, has been called the monument to Sir Walter Raleigh. So the\nBank of England, built round the churchyard of St Christopher, may be\ncalled the monument to Thomas Hariot.\n\nThe present year, 1879, is just three centuries since Hariot went\nforth, a youth of twenty, from the University of Oxford. We have\nbriefly told his story. England is all the richer for his life, and the\nworld itself acknowledges the wealth of his science and the worth of\nhis philosophy. The Bank of England is built round his bones, but it\ncannot cover his memory.\n\nStay, traveller, tread lightly ;\nNear this spot lies what was mortal\nof that most celebrated man\nTHOMAS HARRIOT.\nHe was the very learned Harriot\nof Sion on Thames ;\nby birth and education\nan Oxonian, Who cultivated all the sciences,\nand excelled in all,\nIn Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Theology.\nA most studious investigator of truth, A most pious\nworshipper of the Triune God,\nAt the age of sixty, or thereabouts,\nHe bade farewell to mortality, not to life,\nJuly 2d A.D. 1621.\n\n\nHe lived, died, and was forgotten in the parish of St Christopher.\nHenceforward, whenever Englishmen and Americans, merchants and\nscholars, rich and poor, men of genius and men of money, enter this\nlittle\u2019 Garden,\u2019 let them read there in English what Henry Percy\noriginally set up in Latin, the above inscription.\n\nAn impression has gone abroad, traceable chiefly to Aubrey and to\nAnthony \u00e0 Wood, that Hariot was unsound in religious principles and\nmatters of belief; that he was, in fact, not only a Deist himself, but\nthat he exerted a baleful influence over Raleigh and his History as\nwell as over the Earl of Northumberland. Not to misstate this utterly\nunfounded imputation, the very words of Wood, as first printed in his\nAthen\u00e6 in 1691, and never since modified, are here given in full: \u2018But\nnotwithstanding his great skill in mathematics, he had strange thoughts\nof the scripture, and always undervalued the old story of the creation\nof the world, and could never believe that trite position, _Ex nihilo\nnihil fit._ He made a _Philosophical Theology,_ wherein he cast off the\nOLD TESTAMENT, so that consequently the New would have no foundation.\nHe wasaDeist, and his doctrine he did impart to the said Count [the\nEarl] and to Sir Walt. Raleigh when he was compiling the _History of\nthe World,_ and would controvert the matter with eminent divines of\nthose times; who therefore having no good opinion of him, did look on\nthe manner of his death as a judgment upon him for those matters, and\nfor nullifying the scripture.\u2019\n\nIt is needless to say that in all our investigations into the life,\nactions, and character of this eminent philosopher and Christian, from\nthe time when, as a young man in 1585, he took delight in reading the\nBible to the Indians of Virginia, down to the time that he made his\nremarkable will in 1621, not one word has been found in cor-roboration\nof these statements; but, on the contrary, many passages have appeared\nto contradict and disprove them. Let any one notice the numerous\ncitations of the various books of the Bible in Raleigh\u2019s History, and\nhe will surely fail to discover any evidence of Raleigh\u2019s being a\nDeist, or that Hariot had taught him to undervalue the scripture.\n\nIt is not necessary here to say more in this connection than to quote\nthe following passage from one of the Latin letters in 1616 referred to\nabove by Hariot to the eminent physician who had just received a high\nmedical appointment at Court, describing himself and his terrible\naffliction [a cancer on the lip]. The passage is given in English, but\nthe original Latin may be seen in the British Museum (Add. 6789). It\nseems to have been written on purpose to refute such slanders. He\nwrites :\n\n\nThink of me as your sincere friend. Your interests are involved as well\nas mine. My recovery will be your triumph, but through the Almighty who\nis the Author of all good things. As I have now and then said, I\nbelieve these three points. I believe in God Almighty; I believe that\nMedicine was ordained by him ; I trust the Physician as his minister.\nMy faith is sure, my hope firm. I wait however with patience for\neverything in its own time according to His Providence. We must act\nearnestly, fight boldly, but in His name, and we shall conquer. Sic\ntransit gloria mundi, omnia transibunt, nos ibimus, ibitis, ibunt. So\npasses away the glory of this world, all things shall pass away, we\nshall pass away, you will pass away, they will pass away.\n\n\nThere is unfortunately no portrait known of Hariot, and we can form no\nidea of his personal appearance; but, fortunately, the drafts of the\nthree Latin letters to his eminent friend at Court, alluded to above,\nfully describe his terrible disease and other bodily infirmities in\n1615 and 1616, and give us some notion of himself and his personal\nhabits. His regular physician was Dr Turner, and his apothecary Mr\nMay-orne, both employed also by Sir Walter.\n\nDr Alexander Read, in his \u2018Chirurgicall Lectures of Tumors and Vlcers\nDelivered in the Chirurgeans Hall, 1632-34. London. 1638,\u2019 4\u00b0, says in\nTreatise 2, Lecture 26, page 307:\n\n\nCancerous ulcers also feize upon this part [lips]. This grief haftened\nthe end of that famous Mathematician, Mr. Hariot, with whom I was\nacquainted but a fhorttime before his death : whom at one time,\ntogether with Mr. Hughes, who wrote of the Globes, Mr. Warner, and Mr.\nTorperley, the Noble Earl of Northumberland, the favourer of all good\nlearning, and Mec\u00e6nas of learned men, maintained while he was in the\nTower for their worth and various literature\n\n\nA great deal of misconception has hitherto prevailed respecting\nHariot\u2019s great printed work on Algebra. His reputation as a\nmathematician has been permitted to hinge chiefly upon it, very much to\nhis disadvantage. A brief bibliographical statement of facts will\nprobably present the matter in a new light. But first let the book be\ndescribed as it lies before us and has been described by many others\nsince the days of Professor Wallis, nearly two hundred years ago. The\nTitle is as follows : \u2018Artis Analytic\u00e6 / Praxis / Ad \u00e6quationes\nAlgebraicas nou\u00e6, expedit\u00e6, & generali / methodo, resoluendas :\n/ Tractatus/ E posthumis THOM\u00c6 HARRIOTI Philosophi ac Mathematici ce- /\nleberrimi sche-diasmatis summ\u00e6 fide & diligentia / descriptus:/\nEt/Illvstrissimo Domino/Dom. HenricoPercio,/ Northvmbri\u00e6 Comiti,/Qui\nh\u00e6c prim\u00f2, sub Patronatus & Munificenti\u00e6 su\u00e6 auspicjss / ad proprios\nvsus elucubrata, in communem Mathematicorum / vtilitatem, denu\u00f2\nreuisenda, describenda, & publicanda / mandauit, meritissimi Honoris\nerg\u00f2 / Nuncupatus. / Londini / Apud Robertvm Barker, Typographum /\nRegium : Et H\u00e6red. Io. Billii. /Anno 1631. / _Title, reverse blank;_\nPrefatio 4 pages; Text 180 pages, and Errata 1 page (Bbb) followed by a\nblank page, folio. A very handsomely printed book. In the British\nMuseum, 529 m 8, is Charles the First\u2019s copy in old calf, gilt edges,\nwith the royal arms on the sides. In the Preface the editors (Aylesbury\nand Prothero aided by Warner)say:\n\n\nArtis Analytic\u00e6, cuius caufa h\u00eec agitur, port eruditum illud Gr\u00e6corum\nf\u00e6culum antiquitat\u00e6 iamdi\u00f9 & incult\u00e6 iacentis, rcftitutionem\n_Francifcus Viete,_ Gallus, vir clariflimus, & ob infignem in fcientijs\nMathematicis peritiam, Gallic\u00e6 gentis decus, primus fingulari confilio\n& intentato ante h\u00e2c conamine aggreffus eft; atque ingenuam hanc animi\nfui intentionem per varios tractatus, quos in argumenti huius\nelaboratione eleganter & acut\u00e8 confcripfit, pofteris teftatem rcliquit.\nD\u00f9m ver\u00f2 ille veteris Analytices reftitutionem, quam fibi propofuit,\nferi\u00f2 molitus eft, non t\u00e0m eam reftitutam, qu\u00e0m proprijs inuentionibus\nactam & exornatam, tanquam nouam & fuam, nobis tradidifle videtur. Quod\ngenerali conceptu enuntiatum paulo fufius explicandum eft; vt, oftenfo\neo quod prim\u00f9m \u00e0 _Vieta_ in inftituto fuo promouendo actum eft, quid\npofte\u00e0 ab authore noftro doctifiimo _Thom\u00e2 Harrioto,_ qui ilium\ncertamine ifto Analytico fequntus eft, praeftitum fit, meli\u00f9s\ninnotefcere possit. [Which done into English is substantially as\nfollows]\n\nFrancis Vieta, a Frenchman, a most distinguished man, and on account of\nhis remarkable skill in Mathematical Science the honour of the French\nnation, first of all with singular genius and with industry hitherto\nunattempted undertook the restoration of the analytic art, of which\nsubject we are here treating, which after the learned age of the Greeks\nfor a long time had become antiquated and remained uncultivated : and\nby various treatises which he eloquently and ingeniously wrote in the\nworking out of this line of argument, left a record to posterity of\nthis noble design of his mind. But while he seriously laboured at the\nrestoration of the old Analysis, which he had proposed to himself, he\nseems not so much to have transmitted to us a restoration of that\nscience, as a new and original method, worked out and illustrated by\nhis own discoveries. This, having been enunciated in general terms,\nmust be explained a little more at length ; so that having shown what\nwas first effected by Vieta in promoting his design, it may be more\nclear, what was afterwards performed by our very learned author Thomas\nHarriot, who followed him in these analytical investigations.\n\n\nAnd at the end of the volume, on page 180, is the following explanatory\nnote :\n\n\nAD MATHIMATICIS STUDIOSOS.\n\n\n  \u2018Ex omnibus _Thoma Harrioti_ fcriptis Mathematicis,qu\u00f2d opus hoc\n  Analyticum primum in publicum emiflum fit, haud inconfulto factum\n  eft. Nam, qu\u00f9m reliqua eius opera, multiplici inuentorum nouitate\n  excellentia, eodem omnino quo tractatus ifte (Logiftices fpeciofs\u00e6\n  exemplis omnimodis totus compofitus) ftilo Logiftico, hacten\u00f9s\n  inufitato, confcripta fint, e\u00e2 cert\u00e8 ratione fit, vt prodromus hic\n  tractatus, vltra proprium ipfius in\u00e6ftimabilem vfum, reliquis\n  _Harrioti_ fcriptis, de quorum editione iam ferio cogitatur, pro\n  neceffario preparamento fiue introductorio opportun\u00e8 inferuire\n  poffit. De qu\u00e2 quidem acceffori\u00e2 operis huius vtilitate rerum\n  Mathematicarum ftudiofos paucis his pr\u00e6monuiffe oper\u00e6precium efle\n  duximus.\u2019 [Which being interpreted reads as follows in English]\n\nTO STUDENTS OF MATHEMATICS.\n\n\nIt is not without good reason that, of all Thomas Harriot\u2019s\nMathematical writings, this on Analysis has been published first. For\nwhereas all his remaining works, remarkable for their manifold\nnovelties of discovery, are written precisely in the same, hitherto\nunusual, logical style as this treatise (which consists entirely of\nvaried specimens of beautiful reasoning); this was certainly done that\nthis preliminary treatise, besides its own inestimable utility, might\nsuitably serve as a necessary preparation or introduction to the study\nof Harriot\u2019s remaining works, the publication of which is now under\nserious consideration. Of this accessory use of this treatise we have\nthought it worth while to remind mathematical students in these brief\nremarks.\n\n\nFrom this it appears that Hariot\u2019s system of Analytics or Algebra was\nbased on that of his friend and correspondent Francois Vieta, as\nVieta\u2019s was avowedly based on that of the ancients. There appears to\nhave been no attempt whatever on the part of the Englishman to\nappropriate the honors of the Frenchman, as many foreign writers have\ncharged. Full credit was given by Hariot and his friends to the\ndistinguished French mathematician.\n\nBut Hariot\u2019s modifications, improvements, and simplifications were so\ndistinct and marked that from the first, and long before publication,\nthey were called among his students and correspondents \u2018Hariot\u2019s\nMethod,\u2019 meaning thereby only Hariot\u2019s peculiarities, without reference\nto the great merits of Vieta\u2019s restoration, modification, adaptation,\nand improvement of the old analyses from the times of the Greeks.\n\nVieta\u2019s\u2019 Canon Mathematicus\u2019 was published at Paris in 1579, and was\nreissued in London with a new title in 1589 as his \u2018Opera Mathematica.\u2019\nBut this work does not contain the Algebra. That was first published in\n1591 under the following title :\n\n\u2018Francisci Viet\u00e6/InArtem Analyticam/Isagoge/Seorfim excuffa ab Opere\nreftitut\u00e6 Mathematic\u00e6/Analyfeos, seu, Algebraic\u00e2 nou\u00e2. / Tvronis,/ Apud\nIametivm Mettayer Typographium Regium. / Anno 1591.\u2019 / folio. A\nSupplement appeared in 1593. Seven years later there came out under the\nauspices of Ghetaldi, a young Italian nobleman of mathematical tastes,\nwho had been studying in Paris, the following:\u2014\u2018De Nvmerosa Potestatvm\n/ Ad Exegefum / Resolvtione. / Ex Opere reftitut\u00e6 Mathematic\u00e6\nAnalyfeos, / feu, Algebr\u00e0 nou\u00e0 / Francisci Viet\u00e6. / Parisiis, /\nExcudebat David le Clerc. / 1600.\u2019 / folio. On the last page of this\nbook is an interesting letter from Marino Ghetaldi to his preceptor\nMichele Coignetto, dated at Paris the I5th of February 1600.\n\nThese three thin folio volumes of great rarity are models of\ntypographic beauty. They manifestly served as the model for printing\nHariot\u2019s Algebra in 1631. The set here described (the three bound in\none volume), Prince Henry\u2019s own copies, bearing his arms and the Prince\nof Wales\u2019 feathers, is preserved in the British Museum, press-marked\n530, m. 10.\n\nThus Vieta\u2019s method appears to have been given to the world in three\ninstalments between 1591 and 1600, while the author himself died in\n1603. It was probably in reference to one or both of these works that\nLower gently reproached Hariot for having allowed himself to be\nanticipated in the public announcement of his discoveries in Algebra by\nVieta. It has already been seen, on page 101 above, what Torperley, the\nfriend of Vieta, wrote of his two masters in 1602, and also, on page\n121, what Lower wrote to Hariot in 1610.\n\nOne is forced, therefore, to the conclusion that by 1600, if not some\ntime before, Hariot had completed his method in Algebra, and\ndistributed his well known problems to his admiring scholars. It has\nalso been seen how, from 1603 to the day of his death, he was occupied\nin many other absorbing matters connected with Raleigh and Percy. Yet\nhe may have felt, as Lower expressed it, that when he surveyed his\nstorehouse of inventions this one of Algebra might seem in \u2018comparison\nof manie others smal or of no value.\u2019 The matter is introduced here\nmainly because certain foreign writers,rebutting Wallis\u2019s patriotic\nclaims in behalf of Hariot, have not only accused Hariot of\nappropriating Vieta\u2019s rights, but they even describe the distinguished\nEnglish mathematician as working on the \u2018Cartesian Method.\u2019 While the\ntruth appears to be that Hariot\u2019s method in Algebra, though not\npublished for more than thirty years after its invention, must date\nfrom a time when Descartes was scarcely four years old.\n\nOn the other hand, on looking into Descartes\u2019 great and original work\non geometry, first published in 1637, six years after Hariot\u2019s Algebra\nfirst saw the light in print, one is not disposed to accuse the great\nphilosopher of plagiarism because in working out his problems of great\nnovelty in reference to geometrical curves he employed any systems of\nnotation and calculation in algebra (Hariot\u2019s among the others) that\nhappened to be before the world. The point or essence of Descartes\u2019\nwork was geometry and not algebra. Therefore, in climbing to his loft,\nhe was perfectly justified in using the ladder which Hariot had left,\nas it was then in general use, and was only an incidental aid in his\nindependent calculations, especially as the fame of his great\nmathematical brother was well established, and he had been already\nsixteen years in St Christopher\u2019s. Vieta therefore had manifestly no\njust reason to complain, and Descartes stands acquitted.\n\nThe history of Hariot\u2019s _Praxis_ has attracted a great deal of\nattention for more than two centuries and has long been obscured by\nmany misconceptions and erroneous statements. In the first place it has\nbeen always said from the days of Collins that it was edited by Walter\nWarner, and Wood adds that Warner was to have his pension continued by\nAlgernon Percy, for that scientific labor. There is evidence that\nWarner, though employed on the work by Sir Thomas Aylesbury, was not\nthe sole editor. See Aylesbury\u2019s Letter to the Earl on page 189.\n\nThe book led to a great deal of international or patriotic controversy,\nand with great injustice to Hariot was treated by the English advocates\nas his masterpiece in science. Wallis in 1685 in his History of\nAlgebra, after much correspondence with Collins and others on the\nsubject between 1667 and 1676, became Hariot\u2019s English champion. The\ncontroversy respecting the Methods of Hariot and of Descartes became as\nwarm as that respecting the discoveries of Leibnitz and of Newton.\n\nWallis ranked Oughtred\u2019s _Clavis_ and Hariot\u2019s _Praxis_ very high, and\nbecause both were first printed in 1631, treated them as productions or\ninventions of that year, whereas Hariot\u2019s method, as we have seen, had\nbeen long practically before his disciples; and was, ten years after\nthe author\u2019s death, given to the world avowedly as an\u2019 accessory\u2019 only,\nor preliminary treatise, that it \u2018might suitably serve as a necessary\npreparation or introduction to the study of Hariot\u2019s remaining works,\nthe publication of which is now under serious consideration.\u2019\nUnfortunately this excellent scheme fell through, probably in\nconsequence of the death of the Earl of Northumberland, and perhaps\npartly because of the death of Nathaniel Torporley who had long been\nengaged in \u2018penning the doctrine\u2019 of Hariot\u2019s mathematical papers. They\nboth died in 1632, shortly after the publication of the Praxis.\nWallis\u2019s charge had a basis of truth, but it was narrow and petty. As\nan Algebraist he seems to have lost sight of the main point, that\nDescartes\u2019 great work was on Geometry and not on Algebra, and that\nHariot\u2019s method, though first printed in 1631, was almost as old as\nDescartes himself. Montucla the French mathematician, near the close of\nthe last century, in his History of Mathematics, summed up the\ncontroversy raised by Wallis including the minor one raised by Dr Zach\nin 1785, clearing Descartes of Wallis\u2019s charges and relegating Hariot\nto the respectability of a second-rate mathematician. If Montucla\u2019s\nverdict be based on mathematical reasoning as loose and slipshod as is\nhis statement of the historical points of the case, to say nothing of\nhis utter ignorance of Hariot\u2019s biography and true position as an\nEnglish man of science, one feels justified in rejecting it as\nworthless : as one also is compelled to do the vapid conclusions drawn\nfrom Montucla which have since found their way into many recent\nbiographical dictionaries and into many pretentious articles in learned\nencyclop\u00e6dias respecting Hariot and his works. The truth seems to be\nthat Hariot was unlucky and fell into oblivion accidentally. He was a\nman of immense industry and great mental power, but perhaps careless of\nhis scientific and literary reputation. As has been seen, he always had\nmany irons in the fire, and was overtaken by death in the prime of\nlife, leaving, as his will shows, many things unfinished, and none of\nhis papers in a state ready for publication. He was surrounded by the\nbest of friends, but time and opportunity, as so often happens in the\naffairs of busy men, worked against him, and he was well nigh consigned\nto forgetfulness.\n\nHowever, after a half century\u2019s slumber, when the great fire of London\nhad destroyed his monument, and too late many scholars were minded to\nattempt the recovery and preservation of memorials of the past, John\nCollins the mathematician began soundings in the pool of oblivion for\nHariot and his papers. He and his correspondents fished up a great deal\nof truth and history, but so mixed with error and conjecture that the\nresults, though interesting, are misleading.\n\nIn the \u2018Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth Century,\nEdited by Professor S.J. Rigaud, 2 volumes, Oxford 1841,\u2019 8\u00b0, are found\nthe following instructive and amusing passages :\n\n\nAs for Geysius, he published an Algebra and Stereometria divers years\nbefore the first edition of the Clavis [of Oughtred, 1631] was extant\nin Mr. Harriot\u2019s method, out of which Alsted took what he published of\nalgebra in his Encylopasdia printed in 1630, the year before the Clavis\nwas first extant (see Christmannus and Raymarus). Mr. Harriot\u2019s method\nis now more used than Oughtred\u2019s, and himself in the esteem of Dr.\nWallis not beneath Des Cartes. Dr. Hakewill, in his Apology, tells you\nHarriot was the first that squared the area of a spherical triangle;\nand I can tell you, by the perusal of some papers of Torporley\u2019s it\nappears that Harriot could make the sign of any arch at demand, and the\nconverse, and apply a table of sines to solve all equations, and\ntreated largely of figurate arithmetic. His papers fell into the hands\nof Sir Thomas Aylesbury, father to the Lord Chancellor\u2019s lady, where I\nhope they still are, unless they had the hard fate to be lent out,\nbefore the fire, and be burned, as some have said.\n\n_Collins to Wallis, no date, circa_ 1670, _vol. ii, page_ 478.\n\nAs to Harriot, he was so learned, saith Dr. Pell, that had he published\nall he knew in algebra, he would have left little of the chief\nmysteries of that art unhandled. His papers fell into the hands of Sir\nThomas Aylesbury, who was father to the late Lord Chancellor\u2019s\n[Clarendon] Lady,by which means they fell into the Lord Chancellor\u2019s\nhands, to whom application was made by the members of the Royal Society\nto obtain them: his lordship (then in the height of his dignity and\nemployments) gave order for a search to be made, and in result the\nanswer was, they could not be found. I am afraid the search was but\nperfunctory, and that, if his lordship (now at leisure) were solicited\nfor them, he might write to his son the Lord Cornbury to make a\ndiligent search for them. One Mr. Protheroe, in Wales, was executor to\nMr. Harriot, and from him the Lord Vaughan, the Earl of Carbery\u2019s son,\nreceived more than a quire of Mr. Harriot\u2019s Analytics. The Lord\nBrounker has about two sheets of Harriot de Motu et Collisione\nCorporum, and more of his I know not of: there is nothing of Harriot\u2019s\nextant but that piece which Mons. Garibal hath.\n\n_Collint to Vernon, not dated but circa_ 1671, _vol. i, page_ 153.\n\n\nUpon this passage Professor Rigaud makes the following note, written at\nOxford in 1841:\n\n\nHarriot\u2019s will is not to be found, but Camden says that he left his\nproperty to Viscount Lisle and Sir Thomas Aylesbury. Lord Lisle\u2019s share\nof the papers appear to have been given up to his father-in-law, Henry\nearl of Northumberland, who had been Harriot\u2019s munificent patron, and\nthey descended with the family property to the E. of Egremont, by whom\na large portion has been given to the British Museum, and the remainder\nare still preserved at Petworth. Sir Thomas Aylesbury\u2019s share became\nthe property of his son-in-law Lord Chancellor Clarendon, to whom the\nRoyal Society applied, but, as it appears, without obtaining them. (See\nBirch, Hist. Royal Society, vol. ii, pp. 120, 116, 309.)\u2014_Vol. i, page_\n153.\n\n\nHere seems to be the germ of Professor Wallis\u2019s charge of plagiarism\nagainst Descartes, written to Collins twelve years before it appeared\nin thefirst editionof his History of Algebra in English in 1685. It\nsubsequently took a wider range, and was strenuously defended by Wallis\nwhen opposed:\n\n\nThat which I most valued in his [Des Cartes] method, and which pleased\nme best, was the way of bringing over the whole equations to one side,\nmaking it equal to nothing, and thereby forming his compound equations\nby the multiplication of simples, from thence also determining the\nnumber of roots, real or imaginary, in each. This artifice, on which\nall the rest of his doctrine is grounded, was that which most made me\nto set a value on him, presuming it had been properly his own; but\nafterwards I perceived that he had it from Hariot, whose Algebra was\npublished after his death in the year 1631, six years before Des\nCartes\u2019 Geometry in French in the year 1637 : and yet Des Cartes makes\nno mention at all of Harriot, whom he follows in designing his species\nby small letters, and the power: of them by the number of dimensions,\nwithout the characters of _j, c, qq, &c._\n\n_Walla to Collins, Oxford,_ 12 _April_ 1673, _vol, ii, page_ 573.\n\nAnd had I but known of any precedent, (as since in Harriot I find one,\nand I think but one \u221a_\u2014dddddd,)_ I should not have scrupled to follow\nit; but I was then too young an algebraist to innovate without example.\nSince that time I have been more venturous, and I find now that others\ndo not scruple to use it as well as I. [Just what Descartes did. He\n\u2018innovated\u2019 prior to 1637, when he took Hariot\u2019s well recognized\nnotation in algebra to work out his problems in geometry for which\nHariot himself would have thanked him.]\n\n_Wallis to Collins, May 6,_ 1673, _vol. ii, page_ 578.\n\nOne Torporley, long since, left a manuscript treatise in Latin in Sion\nCollege, wherein is a much more copious table of figurate numbers,\nwhich I have caused to be transcribed, with what he says de\ncombinationibus, to send to Mr. Strode.\n\n\nOn this passage, extracted from a letter from Collins to Baker, dated\nthe 19th of August, 1676, Professor Rigaud has the following note,\nwritten in 1841, vol. ii, page 5 :\n\nNath. Torporley left his manuscripts to Sion College, where he spent\nthe latter years of his life ; but the greater part of them was\ndestroyed by the fire of London. Reading, in his catalogue of the\nlibrary, mentions only one, \u201cCorrector Analyticus,\u201d which is an attack\non Warner for the manner in which he had edited Harriot\u2019s \u201cArtis\nAnalytic\u00e6 Praxis.\u201d This is a short tract, and incomplete. There is,\nhowever, another volume, A. 37-39, entitled, \u201cAlgebraica, Tabul\u00e6\nSinuum,&c.\u201d in which Torporley\u2019s hand may be certainly recognized.\nWood, in the list of his works, speaks of \"Congestor opus\nMathematicam,\u2014 imperfect.\" A perfect copy of this treatise is in Lord\nMaccles-field\u2019s possession, and probably once belonged to Collins.\n\nPerhaps the best comment that one can make on the wild and\nextraordinary statements contained in the above extracts is to ask the\nreader to read over Hariot\u2019s Will,given entire on pages 193-203, and\nespecially this _Item_ respecting his Mathematical and other Writings,\nand the Rev. Nathaniel Torporley, from which it will appear that all\nhis valued papers were bequeathed with great care to the Earl of\nNorthumberland, to be deposited in his library in a trunk with lock and\nkey, after they had been looked over and perused, by Mr Torporley, and\n(the waste papers having been weeded out) the whole arranged by him \u2018to\nthe end that _after hee doth vnderstand them_ he may make use in\npenning such doctrine that belongs unto them for publique use.\u2019 This,\nof course, was to be done under the supervision of the four Executors,\nwho were persons of no less distinction than Sir Robert Sidney Knight\nViscount Lisle, John Protheroe Esquire, Thomas Aylesbury Esquire, and\nThomas Buckner Mercer.\n\n\nITEM I ordayne and Constitute the aforesaid Nathaniel Thorperley first\nto be Overseer of my Mathematical Writings to be received of my\nExecutors to peruse and order and to separate the Chiefe of them from\nmy waste papers, to the end that after hee doth vnderstand them hee may\nmake use in penninge such doctrine that belongs vnto them for publique\nvses as it shall be thought Convenient by my Executors and him selfe.\nAnd if it happen that some manner of Notacions or writings of the said\npapers shall not be understood by him then my desire is that it will\nplease him to confer with Mr Warner or Mr Hughes Attendants on the\nafore said Earle Concerning the aforesaid double. And if hee be not\nresolued by either of them That then hee Conferre with ihe aforesaid\nJohn Protheroe Esquier or the aforesaid Thomas Alesbury Esquior. (I\nhopeing that some or other of the aforesaid fower last nominated can\nresolve him). And when hee hath had the use of the said papers soe\nlonge as my Executors and hee have agreed for the use afore said That\nthen he deliver them againe unto my Executors to be putt into a\nConvenient Truncke with a locke and key and to be placed in my Lord of\nNorthumberlandes Library and the key thereof to be delivered into his\nLordshipps hands. And if at anie tyme after my Executors or the afore\nsaid Nathaniell Thorperley shall agayne desire the use of some or all\nof the said Mathematicall papers That then it will please the said\nEarle to lett anie of the aforesaid to have them for theire use soe\nlong as shall be thought Convenient, and afterwards to be restored\nagayne unto the Truncke in the afore said Earles Library. Secondly my\nwill and desire is that the said Nathaniell Thorperley be alsoe\nOverseere of other written bookes and papers as my Executors and hee\nshall thincke Convenient.\n\n\nThis will, of extraordinary interest, has fallen to our lot to exhume,\nafter many antiquaries and scholars had long sought it in vain. It was\nrecently discovered in the Archdeaconry Court of London, just the place\nwhere one would least expect to find it. One has only to read the\ndocument to read the character of the man\u2014good, learned,affectionate,\ncharitable and just. He was carried off by a terrible disease, away\nfrom home, but among friends. He left his affairs and fame in loving\nhands. His will was proved on the 4th day after his death by two of the\nExecutors, Sir Thomas Aylesbury and Mr Buckner, with the right reserved\nto the other two to act subsequently. It is found by papers in the\nBritish Museum that Sir John Protheroe did act, for there is a very\nlong list of manuscripts, copied from Protheroe\u2019s list of papers\ndelivered to Mr Torporley, which served as a receipt for them, and\nwhich was returned with the papers.\n\nMr Torporley then, it is manifest, had in hand the papers and returned\nthem, but it is not apparent what amount of labor he bestowed upon\nthem. They do not appear to be properly arranged, nor have the waste\npapers been weeded out. From Protheroe\u2019s list and other circumstances\nit is likely that nothing has been destroyed, except perhaps the\nRaleigh accounts and the Irish papers in the \u2018canvas baggs.\u2019 The papers\nwere at Sion, and were placed in a trunk and delivered to the Earl, who\nleft the Tower only sixteen days after Hariot\u2019s death. They\nsubsequently found their way to Petworth, another seat of the Earl,\nwhere the trunk and half of the papers still remain, in the possession\nof the Earl of Leconsfield, a branch of the Northumberland family. They\nare briefly described in this manner by Mr Alfred J. Horwood in the\nSixth Report of the Historical Manuscript Commission for 1877, page\n319, folio.\n\n\nA black leather box containing several hundred leaves of figures and\ncalculations by Hariot.\n\n\nA large bundle of Hariot\u2019s papers. They are arranged in packets by\nProfessor Rigaud. Spots on the Sun. Comets of 1607 and 1618. The Moon.\nJupiter\u2019s Satellites. Projectiles, Centre of Gravity, Reflection of\nbodies. Triangles. Snell\u2019s Eratosthenes Batavus. Geometry. Calendar.\nConic Sections. De Stella Martis. Drawings of Constellations, papers on\nChemistry and Miscellaneous Calculations. Collections from Observations\nof Hannelius, Warner, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe. On the vernal and\nautumnal equinoxes, the solstices, orbit of the Earth, length of the\nyear, &c. Algebra.\n\n\nA similar collection, but not yet arranged, catalogued, numbered or\nbound, is carefully preserved in the Manuscript Department of the\nBritish Museum (Additional, 6782-6789), in eight thick Solander cases,\nprobably as much in bulk as the Petworth papers. They were presented to\nthe Museum by the Earl of Egremont in 1810. Why the two collections\nwere separated does not appear. The Museum papers contain much that is\nwaste, but much also that is of importance equal probably to those at\nPetworth. Mr Torporley was in effect appointed by Hariot his literary\nand scientific editor under the direction of the Executors. No papers\nwere left ready for publication. It must have required great study and\nlabor to master them sufficiently to pen for public use such doctrine\nor science as belonged to them. Torporley lived in Shropshire, but a\nfew years after Hariot\u2019s death he retired from his rectorship and\nremoved to London,taking rooms in 1630 at Sion College in London Wall,\nwhen that institution was first founded. It contained then as now a\nlibrary for the use of the Clergy, and a few suites of apartments for\nthose who desired to reside on the premises. It never was a College or\nplace of instruction, but a sort of guild or Clergyman\u2019s Club. At this\ntime Mr Torporley was about seventy years old. He died in his chambers\nat Sion College in April 1632, and was buried on the 17th of that month\nin the Church of St Alphage, close by. In a nuncupative will spoken the\n14th ofApril, a copy of which is before the writer, he left his books\nand manuscripts to the Sion Col ege Library. A complete list of about\n170 books and several manuscripts is preserved in the \u2018Donors\u2019 Book.\u2019 A\nfew of the books are said to have been destroyed by the fire of London,\nbut probably none of the manuscripts were lost.\n\nTorporley\u2019s manuscripts, as has been stated, have often been referred\nto, and sometimes copied, but their true history and character is\nexplained by Hariot\u2019sWill. There are really but two manuscripts\nrelating to Hariot. The more important one comprises 116\nclosely-written folio leaves, or 232 pages, all in Torporley\u2019s\nhandwriting. It bears no title or designation. Hence various writers\nwho have seen it, from Collins, Wood, and Dr Zach, have given it\ndifferent names, such as, _\u2018Ephemeris Chysometria,\u2019 \u2018Congestor opus\nMatbematicum,\u2019_ etc. but it appears to be nothing more nor less than\nTorporley\u2019s attempt to pen out such doctrine as he found in Hariot\u2019s\npapers. The leaves are numbered, 1 to 16 containing a Treatise on\nHariot\u2019s Theory of Numbers. Leaves 17 to 25 are tables of the divisors\nof odd numbers up to 20,300. On the verso of leaf 25 the Theory of\nNumbers is resumed, extending to the recto of 27. On the verso of leaf\n27 begins the treatise on the properties of Triangles and ends on leaf\n34. Leaves 35 to 55 comprise examples of Algebraical processes, and\nleaves 56 to 116 contain Tables (probably tabul\u00e6 sinuum ?) up to 180\u00b0.\nOn the second leaf the Author speaks of himself as working out, or\nworking on Hariot\u2019s principles, and also as making use of the writings\nof Vieta. He adds:\n\n\n\u2018And since it is our principal design to explain the improvement in\nthis science[the Properties of Numbers and Triangles] discovered by our\nfriend Thomas Hariot; but he neither completely reformed it (which\nindeed was not necessary) nor gave a full account of it, but only\nstrengthened it where it was defective, and by treating in his own way\nthe points of the science which were heretofore more difficult,\nrendered them clear and easy.\u2019\n\n\nThis manuscript was probably intended for another printed volume of\nHariot\u2019s mathematical works, but owing to the deaths about the same\ntime, 1632, of the venerable editor and the noble patron this work\nnever bore a definite name and never saw the light of the press.\n\n\nCORRECTOR ANALYTICUS\nArtis pofthumx THOM\u00c6 HARIOTI\nVt Mathematici eximij, perraro\nVt Philofophi Audentes, frequentius errantis\nVt Hominis evanidi, infigniter\nAd\nFidedigniorem refutationem Philopfeudofophi\u00e6\nAtomiftic\u00e6;, per cum Reducis, et pr\u00e6\nc\u00e6teris eius Portentis\nferi\u00f2\ncorripiend\u00e6, anathematyzand\u00e6q\nCompendiu Antimonitorfi, et Speciminale\nexanthorati ia Senioris\nNa: Torporley.\nVt\nNoverit Arbiter Caveat Emptor.\nnon bene Rip\u00e6\nCreditur, ipfe Aries etiam nunc Vellera ficcat.\n_Virgil, Ecl._ iii. 94,95,]\n\n\nThis Second Manuscript is a pretentious but small affair. It was\nmanifestly written at Sion College after the _Praxis_ appeared in 1631.\nIt is only the preface or the opening of a growl of envy or\ndisappointment. It shows clearly that Torporley himself was not the\neditor of the Algebra or Praxis. The above is the pedantic title-page,\ngiven line for line and verbatim.\n\nThe manuscript is in small quarto, and exclusive of the title (which,\nindeed, is the nub of the achievement) contains only nine pages,\nbreaking off abruptly in the middle of a sentence. He criticises the\neditors of Hariot\u2019s Algebra, the executors Aylesbury and Protheroe,\naided by Warner, who were all eminent mathematicians. He speaks of the\nadministrators or editors as if more than one, and does not mention\nWarner, or lead us to believe that he was sole editor. Only a small\nportion of this projected criticism seems ever to have been written. It\nappears to have been begun in senile peevishness, containing only a few\nprefatory remarks and discussing some algebraical questions with the\nfancied errors of the editors. No mention is made of the\u2019Atomic\nTheory,\u2019as promised on the title-page, which is here done into English,\nand is as follows:\u2014\n\nTHE ANALYTICAL CORRECTOR\nof the posthumous scientific writings\nof THOMAS HARRIOT.\nAs an excellent Mathematician one who very seldom\nerred\nAs a bold Philosopher one who occasionally erred,\nAs a frail Man one who notably erred\nFor\nthe more trustworthy refutation of the pseudo-philosophic\natomic theory, revived by him and, outside his\nother strange notions, deserving of\nreprehension and anathema.\nA Compendious Warning with specimens by the aged\nand retired-from-active-life\nNa: Torporley.\nSo that\nThe critic may know\nThe buyer may beware.\nIt is not safe to trust to the bank,\nThe bell-wether himself is drying his fleece.\n\n\nThe \u2018Corrector Analyticus\u2019 may be found printed in full (but without\nthe quaint titles) in \u2018The Historical Society of Science. A Collection\nof Letters illustrative of Science, edited by J. O. Halliwell,\u2019 London,\n1841, 8\u00b0, Appendix, pages 109-116. ForTorporley\u2019s curious paper\nentitled \u2018A Synopsis of the Controversie of Atoms,\u2019 see Brit. Mus. Mss,\nBirch 4458, 2.\n\nMr Torporley informs us, and the papers appear to bear him out in the\nstatement, that Hariot wrote memoranda, problems, etc. on loose pieces\nof paper, and then arranged them in sets fastened together according to\nthe subjects treated of. He adds, \u2018First then let me speak of Hariot\u2019s\nmethod, of which frequent mention will have to be made in the following\npages; so that the reader may understand why some things are stated and\nsome passed over: here I cannot but complain, that I find it a serious\ndefect that his Commentators have so completely transformed it [the\nPraxis] that they not only do not retain his orderbut not evenhis\nlanguage.\u2019 Again he writes, \u2018But not even those well-thought-out and\nnecessary to be known matters, which have been delivered to us, have\nbeen handed down to posterity by his administrators with the fidelity\nand accuracy promised.\u2019 The suspicion is raised that Torporley\u2019s age\nand dilatoriness compelled the accomplished executors to take the\neditorial matter in hand themselves and hinc iliae lacrym\u00e6.\n\nOn the back of the above title-page is another attempt of the same sort\nas follows, showing that this deed of pedantry was committed at Sion\nCollege:\n\nCORRECTOR\nsive\nNot\u00e6 in Analyticam\nNovam, Novatam, Posthuma\nquatenus\nFallacem, Defectivam, Extrariam\ncum\nApodictica refutatione Atomorum\nSomnij, pr\u00e6 c\u00e6teris Novatorum\nportentis corripiendi Ana-\nthematizandiq\nEx Collegio Sion Londinenfi\nperfuncti Senis Artemq reponentis\nNT\nExtremu hoc munus morientis\nhabetor :\n\u03a3\u0138\u03b7\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03bb \u03b1 \u03ba\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u03bb\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03af\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\n [Greek Text]\nnee bene Rip\u00e6\nCreditur ipse Aries etia nunc Vellera ficcat.\n\n\nThere are one or two unimportant papers among the Torperley manuscripts\nthat bear marks of having belonged to the Hariot papers, and there is a\nmanuscript by Warner, entitled, \u2018Certayne Definitions of the\nPlanisphere.\u2019 Any one curious in the history of Torperley may find in\nthe Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1636, page 364, how his\nproperty was purloined by Mr Spencer, the first Librarian of Sion\nCollege. He was sued by Mistress Payne the administratrix and was\ncompelled to disgorge _\u00a34.0_ in money, eleven diamond rings, eight gold\nrings, two bracelets, etc. Then Archbishop Laud took away Spencer\u2019s\nlibrarianship, and let him drop.\n\nMr William Spence of Greenock published in Nov. 1814, a work entitled,\n\u2018Outlines of a Theory of Algebraical Equations deduced from the\nPrinciples of Harriott, and extended to the Fluxional or differential\nCalculus. By William Spence. London, for the Author, by Davis and\nDickson, 1814, 8\u00b0, _iv and 80 pages._ Privately printed, intended\n\u2018exclusively for the perusal of those gentlemen to whom it is\naddressed.\u2019 He says in his prefatory note that\u2014\n\n\n\u2018As the principles are drawn from that theory of equations, by which\nHarriott has so far advanced the science of algebra.\u2019 The author says,\npage I,\u2019 Until the publication of Harriot\u2019s _Artis Analytica Praxis,_\nno extended theory of equations was given. Harriot considered\nalgebraical equations merely as analytical expressions, detached wholly\nfrom the operations by which they might be individually produced ; and,\ncarrying all the terms over to one side, he assumed the hypothesis,\nthat, as in that state the equation was equal to nothing, it could\nalways be reduced to as many simple factors as there were units in the\nindex of its highest power.\u2019\n\n\nBetween 1606 and 1609 a very interesting and historically instructive\ncorrespondence took place between Kepler and Hariot upon several\nimportant scientific subjects. Five of the letters are given in full in\n\u2018Joannis Keppleri Alio-rumque Epistol\u00e6 Mutu\u00e6. [Frankfort] 1718,\u2019 folio,\nto which the reader is referred, but a brief abstract of them may not\nbe out of place here. The letters are numbered from 222 to 226 and fill\npages 373 to 382. The correspondence was begun by Kepler:\n\n\n_Letter_ 122, _dated Prague,_ 11 _October,_ 1606, _from John Kepler_\n\n\n_to Thomas Hariot,_\n\n\nKepler had heard of Hariot\u2019s acquirements in Natural Philosophy from\nhis friend John Eriksen. Would be glad to know Hariot\u2019s views as to the\norigin and essential differences of colours; also on the question of\nrefraction of rays of light; and the causes of the Rainbow; and of\nhaloes round the sun.\n\n_Letter_ 223, _dated London,_ 11 _December, 1606,from_\n\n\n_Thomas Hariot to John Kepler,_\n\n\nHad received with pleasure Kepler\u2019s letter; but should not be able to\nanswer it at length, being in indifferent health, so that it was not\neasy to write or even carefully to reflect. Sends a table of the\nresults of experiments on equal bulks of various liquids and\ntransparent solids (thirteen in number, including spring, rain, and\nsalt water; Spanish and Rhenish wine; vinegar; spirits of wine; oils\nand glass). The angle of incidence is 30\u00b0 in each case; also the\nspecific gravity of each substance is given. Then he discusses the\nreason why refraction takes place. Promises to write on the Rainbow;\nbut will merely say at present that it is to be explained by the\nreflection on the concave superficies and the refraction at the convex\nsuperficies of each separate drop.\n\n_Letter_ 224 _is from John Kepler to Thomas Hariot, dated at Prague,_\n11 _August,_ 1607.\n\n\nThanks Hariot for his table, which supplies matter for serious\nconsideration. Asks questions as to how he defines the angles of\nincidence and refraction; and goes on to discuss the reasons of\nrefraction. Agrees with Hariot as to his views about the Rainbow; but\nwill be very glad to receive his treatises on Colours and the Rainbow.\n\n_Letter_ 225 _is from Thomas Hariot to John Kepler, dated at Syon,_\n\n\n_near London,_ 13 _July_ (o.s.), 1608.\n\nThe departure of Eriksen and other matters do not allow leisure to\nwrite at length. The turpentine (oleum terebinth inum) was not the same\nas that experimented on by Kepler but a purer and lighter article (Sp.\ngrav. \u201987). The angle of incidence is understood as defined by Alhazen\nand Vitellio [first published 1572]. Points out some errors in\nVitellio\u2019s second table of refractions. As to the causes of refraction,\nHariot believes in the theory of the vacuum; \u2018where we still stick in\nthe mud\u2019. Hopes God (Deum optimum maximum) will soon put an end to\nthis. Wishes for Kepler\u2019s meteorological records for the last two\nyears, and will send his own notes in return. Gilbert, author of a work\non the magnet, had recently died, leaving in his brother\u2019s hands a book\nentitled \u2018De Globo et Mundo nostro sub lunari Philosophia nova contra\nPeripateticos, lib. 5.\" [A treatise, in five books, on Natural\nPhilosophy, in answer to the Peripatetics.] The book is likely to be\npublished before the end of the year. Hariot had read some chapters;\nand saw that Gilbert defends the doctrine of a vacuum. Not to leave a\nvacuum on this page (says Hariot), it is remarkable that though gold is\nboth heavy and opaque, when beaten out into gold-leaf the light of a\ncandle can be seen through it, though it appears of a green colour.\n\n_Letter 226, from John Kepler to Thomas Hariot, it dated from_\n\n\n_Prague, September,_ 1609.\n\nExcuses himself for not having replied sooner; having been very busy;\nbut would not lose the present opportunity of writing. Discusses the\nquestions of refraction and the vacuum. Commentaries on Mars entitled\n\u2018Astronomia Nova [Greek Text] or Physica C\u00e6lestis,\u2019 have been published\nat Frankfort; has not a copy by him. Regrets to hear of the death of\nGilbert. Hopes his work on Magnetism will also be published; and that\nErikson will bring a copy with him. Promises to send a copy of his own\nmeteorological observations; and hopes to receive Hariot\u2019s.\n\n\nThese studies in optics and this correspondence with the learned Kepler\nindicate Hariot\u2019s great advancement in natural philosophy as early as\n1606 to 1609 and give an earnest of his inventive genius and scientific\nenterprise with his telescope in the astronomical discoveries which\nimmediately followed in 1609 to 1613. Before awarding all the prizes\nfor discoveries and inventions in mathematics, philosophy and natural\nscience to claimants throughout the wide Republic of Letters, let\nmodest Hariot be heard and examined. Let his papers and all his\ncredentials be laid out before the high court of science, not in the\nlight of today, but contemporaneously with those of Tycho, Kepler,\nGalileo, Snell, Vieta and Descartes. Hariot himself has claimed\nnothing, but Justice and Historical Truth are bound to assign him a\nniche appropriate to his merits.\n\nTo show that Hariot, like his friends Hakluyt and Purchas, was alive to\neverything geographical as well as mathematical going on, the following\nis given from the original manuscript among the Hariot papers in the\nBritish Museum (Add. 6789):\n\n\nThree reasons to prove that there is a passage from the North\u2019 west\ninto the South-sea.\n\n\n\n1. The tydes in Port Nelson (where Sr. Tho : Button did winter, were\nconstantly, 15, or, 18, foote ; wc is not found in any Bay Throughout\nthe world but in such seas as lie open att both ends to the mayne\nOcean.\n\n\n2. Every strong Westerne winde did bring into the Harbor where he\nwintered, soe much water, that the Neap-tydes were equall to the\nSpring-tydes, notwtstanding yt the harbor was open only to ye E.N.E.\n\n\n3. In comming out of the harbor, shaping his course directly North,\nabout, 60, degrees, he found a stronge race of a tyde, set-ting dueEast\nand West, wc in probabilitie could be noe other thing, than the tyde\ncomming from the West, and retourning from the East,\n\n\nAmong the manuscripts in the handwriting of Hariot in the British\nMuseum (Add. 6789) are these samples of ingenious trifling. No evidence\nis forthcoming that he was ever a married man, but that he occasionally\nlet himself down from pure mathematics and high philosophy and amused\nhimself with anagrams is plain enough. Here are a few specimens on his\nown name.\n\nANAGRAMS ON THOMAS HARIOTUS\n\n\n     Tu homo artis has     traho hosti mufa\n     Homo has vt artis     O trahit hos mufa\n     Homo hasta vtris      oh, os trahit mufa\n     vitus                 oho trahit mifas\n     rutis                 oho, trahis mutis\n     Humo astra hosti      oho, fum Charitas.\n\n\nIf the pertingent Reader still craves more evidence of the extent of\nHariot\u2019s friendships, and the universality of his acquirements, let him\nread the following pithy, quaint, and beautiful tribute paid to him by\nblind Old Homer\u2019s Chapman in 1616. It is found in the Preface to the\nReader in the first complete edition of Homer\u2019sworks translated by\nGeorge Chapman, London [1616], fo.\n\n\nNo coference had with any one liuing in al the noueltiet I prefume I\nhaue found. Only fome one or two places I haue fhewed to my worthy and\nmoft learned friend, M. Harriots, for his cenfure how much mine owne\nweighed: whofe iudgement and knowledge in all kinds, I know to be\nincomparable, and bottomlefle ; yea, to be admired as much, as his moft\nblameles life, and the right facred expence of his time, is to be\nhonoured and reuerenced. Which affirmation of his cleare vnmatchednefle\nin all manner of learning; I make in contempt of that naftie objection\noften thruft vpon me ; that he that will iudge, muft know more then he\nof whom he iudgeth ; for fo a man fhould know neither God nor himfelf.\nAnother right learned, honeft, and entirely loued friend of mine, M.\nRobert Hews, I muft needs put into my confest conference touching\nHomer, though very little more than that I had with M. Harriots. Which\ntwo, I proteft, are all, and preferred to all.\n\n\nIt remains to say two words more about Baron Zach\u2019s\u2019 discovery\u2019 of the\nHariot papers at Petworth in 1784. This remarkable story has been told\nmany times, in many books, and in many languages. It has found its way\ninto many modern dictionaries and grave encyclop\u00e6dias, but it always\nappears with an unsatisfactory and suspicious flavor. Dr Zach\u2019s\n\u2018discovery\u2019 is found cropping up all over the continent, and everywhere\nis made paramount to Hariot\u2019s papers, while Oxford is blamed for not\ngiving the young German his dues!\n\nIt seems that Dr Zach, a young man, was in England with Count Bruhl,\nwho had married the dowager Lady Egremont. He thus had easy access to\nthe old Percy Library at Petworth, in Sussex, where was stored, as we\nhave seen by Hariot\u2019s will, the black trunk containing his mathematical\nwritings as bequeathed to the 9th Earl of Northumberland. In 1785 Dr\nZach announced with a truly scholastic flourish in Bode\u2019s Berlin\nEphemeris for 1788 his remarkable \u2018discovery\u2019 of the papers of Thomas\nHariot previously known as an eminent Algebraist or Mathematician, but\nnow elevated to the rank also of a first-class English Astronomer. The\nnext year, 1786, is celebrated in the annals of English science from\nthe circumstance of Oxford\u2019s having accepted a proposition from Dr Zach\nto publish his account of Hariot and his writings. The Royal Academy of\nBrussels in 1788 printed in its Memoirs Dr Zach\u2019s paper on the planet\nUranus, with a long note relative to the discovery at Petworth.\n\nThe Berlin paper immediately upon publication was translated into\nEnglish and extensively circulated in this country, conducing, it is\nsuspected, more to the renown of Dr Zach than to that of Hariot. In\n1793 Bode\u2019s Jahrbuch gave from the pen of Dr Zach an account of the\nComets of 1607 and 1618, with Hariot\u2019s Observations thereon. But these\nobservations were given with so many errors and misreadings, as shown\nby Professor Rigaud, that they were soon pronounced worthless, to the\ndiscredit of Hariot rather than of his eminent editor. But matters came\nto a crisis in 1794, nine years after the grand flourish of the first\nannouncement at Berlin. Dr Zach sent to Oxford for publication his\nabstract of certain of the scientific papers, and the Earl of Egremont\nintrusted to the University Dr Zach\u2019s selection of the original papers.\nZach\u2019s abstracts were merely sufficient to identify himself with the\nworks of Hariot, but he had performed no real editorial labours, and\nhad not \u2018pen\u2019d the doctrine\u2019 contained in them. Here were years of\nuseful work to be done which the University dreamed not of, so the\nwhole matter was referred to Professors Robertson and Powell, who both\nreported adversely in 1798, or before. In 1799 all the Hariot papers\nwere returned to Petworth.\n\nIn the mean time the full translation of Dr Zach\u2019s account of his\n\u2018discovery,\u2019 with some curious additions, found its way into Dr\nHutton\u2019s Dictionary of Mathematics, under Hariot, 1796, 2 volumes in\nquarto. This publication gave an air of solemn record and history to\nthe transactions, insomuch that Oxford began to be blamed for\nwithholding from the press Dr Zach\u2019s great work. Oxford preserved a\nbecoming silence. In 1803 Dr Zach published at Gotha in his Monatliche\nCorrespondenz a fragment of that remarkable letter from the Earl of\nNorthumberland to Hariot (which letter we have shown to be Lower\u2019s, see\np. 120). This publication, together with the reprint of the original\nBerlin paper by Zach in the second edition of Hutton\u2019s Dictionary in\n1815 without alteration, seemed to bring the matter to a point. Oxford\nwas obliged to rise and explain.\n\nThe whole question was inquired into. Professor Robertson\u2019s original\nreport was brought out and sent to Dr David Brewster, who printed it in\nhis Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1822, volume vi, page 314, in\nan article on the Hariot papers. In the meanwhile, in 1810, that\nportion of the Hariot papers that did not go to Oxford was presented to\nthe British Museum by the Earl of Egremont. The division of the papers\n(on what principle it is difficult to guess) was unquestionably Dr\nZach\u2019s. The value is no doubt much depreciated by the separation. Under\nall these circumstances no one can wonder at the Oxford decision, or\nthat the papers were deemed not worthy of publication. Yet under other\ncircumstances it is almost certain that the two collections when worked\ntogether will yield valuable materials for the life of Hariot and the\nhistory and progress of English science, discovery, and invention. To\nProfessor S. F. Rigaud is due the credit for the most part of working\nout the crooked and entangled history of the Zachean fiasco, which has\napparently depreciated the real value of these papers. Professor\nRigaud\u2019s papers may be seen in the Royal Institution Journal, 1831,\nvolume ii, pages 267-271, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, iii,\n125, and in the Appx to Bradley\u2019s Works. Now to pick up a few dropped\nstitches. Notices of Hariot by Camden, Aubrey, Hakewill, and others are\nomitted from press of matter. Gabriel Harvey in 1593, in his\u2019 Pierces\nSupererogation,\u2019 page 190, exclaims \u2018and what profounde Mathematician\nlike Digges, Hariot, or Dee esteemeth not the pregnant Mechanician?\u2019\nMrJ.O.Halliwell\u2019s Collection of Letters referred to on page 174, though\nfalling late under our eye, is most acceptable and thankfully used.\nSeveral letters of Sir William Lower are printed from the originals in\nthe British Museum. And so is John Bulkley\u2019s dedication to Hariot of\nhis work on the Quadrature of the Circle, dated Kal. Martii, 1591, the\noriginal manuscript of which is in Sion College. There is also an\ninteresting letter from Hariot to the Earl dated Sion June 13, 1619,\nrespecting the doctrine of reflections as communicated to Warner and\nHues for the use of the Earl. But the most important letter is the\nfollowing on page 71 from Sir Thomas Aylesbury, one of Hariot\u2019s\nexecutors, to the Earl of Northumberland, respecting some remuneration\nfor the extra services of Warner in assisting him in passing Hariot\u2019s\n\u2018Artis Analytic\u00e6 Praxis\u2019 through the press :\n\n\nRt. Ho. May it plese your l\u00f6p. July 5, 1631.\n\nI presumed heretofore to moue your l\u00f6p on the behalf of Mr. W. for some\nconsideration to be had of his extraordinary expense in attending the\npublication of Mr. H. book after the copy was finished. The same humble\nrequest I am induced to renew by reson of his present wants occasioned\nby that attendance.\n\nFor his literary labour and paines taken in forming the work and\nfitting it for the publik view, he looks for no other reward then your\nl\u00f6ps acceptance therof as an honest discharge of his duty. But his long\nattendance through vnexpected difficulties in seeking to get the book\nfreely printed, and after that was vndertaken the friuolous delaies of\nthe printers and slow preceding of the presse, wch no intreties of his\nor myne could remedy, drew him to a gretter expence then his meanes\nwould here, including both your l\u00f6ps pencion and the arbitrary help of\nhis frends. It is this extraordinary expense, wch he cannot recouer wch\nmakes both him and me for him appele to your L\u00f6ps goodnei and bounty\nfor some tollerable mitigation thereof.\n\nI purpose God willing to set forth other peeces of Mr. H. wherein by\nreson of my owne incombrances I must of necessitie desire the help of\nMr. W. rather then of any other, whereto I find him redy enough because\nit tends to your l\u00f6ps service, and may the more freely trouble him, yf\nhe receive some little encouragement from your l\u00f6p towards the\nrepairing of the detrement that lies still vpon him by his last\nimploiment. But for the future my intention it to haue the impression\nat my owne charge, and not depend on the curtesy of those\nmechaniks,making account that wch may seeme to be saued by the other\nway will not countervaile the trouble and tedious prolongation of the\nbusines. But the copies being made perfect and faire written for the\npresse they shall be sufficiently bound to deliuer the books perfectly\nclen out of theire hands, and by this meanes the trouble and charge of\nattending the presse will be saued. Therfore my Lo. what you do now\nwill be but for this once, and in such proportion as shall best like\nyou to favour the humble motion of him who is\n\nAllway most redy at your L\u00f6ps commaund _ .\n\n_Endorsed in the handwriting of Warner,_\n\nSr Th. A. letters about my busines.\n\n[B. M. Birch, 4396, 87.]\n\n\nNotwithstanding the plain initials T. A. Mr Halliwell erroneously\nattributes this letter to Torporley, who had been in his grave three\nmonths. The handwriting is not Torporley\u2019s but Warner\u2019s. The Earl died\non the 5th of November following. T. A. unquestionably stands for Sir\nThomas Aylesbury, who, as executor and good friend, had the matter in\nhand. Indeed Warner\u2019s endorsement settles the question of authorship.\n\nSix shillings and eight pence were paid for Hariot\u2019s knell, and \u00a34 were\npaid as his legacy to the parish for the poor, according to memoranda\nsupplied by Mr Edwin Freshfleld from the Records of St Christopher\u2019s.\nSee Will, page 200.\n\nHariot had a lease from Raleigh of \u2018Pinford grounds,\u2019 at Sherburne, for\nfifty-eight years, but the King wanted it for Carr, so of course the\ntitle was found defective.\n\nIn conclusion, before laying down the pen with which has been exhumed\nand set up on a new pedestal one of England\u2019s worthiest of her many\nforgotten Worthies, let the holder crave the indulgence of the reader\nfor the illogical, wordy and mixed style of this essay. He is perfectly\naware of these shortcomings, but puts in the plea that while groping in\nthe past as if blindfolded he has been decoyed on step by step by the\nunexpected recovery of new materials after the others were in type, so\nthat as often as he had finished his labor of love new facts have\nturned up which he had not the heart to reject. So he has incorporated\nthem one after another as best he could. The results are more\ninartistic and crude than he could have wished, but he hesitates not on\nthat account to invite lovers of and believers in the Truth of History\nto the banquet he has prepared.\n\nA well-dined Reader is not likely, the writer thinks, to quarrel with\nhis dessert because he has to pick out, with some little patience, the\ndainty meats of the nuts he has to arrange and crack for himself.\nRepetition, and perhaps some contradiction, are acknowledged. But\nmeandering thoughts and ill-digested narratives, though tedious, are\nnot criminal. When these new materials have dried in the noon-day sun\nfor a year and a day, the writer then, or at the expiration of the\nHoratian period, may bring them back to his anvil to be re-hammered.\nMay they then prove as true as they now seem new, is the wish of the\nadmirer of Thomas Hariot, the first historian of Virginia, the friend\nof Sir Walter Raleigh, the companion of Henry Percy, and the Benefactor\nof Mankind.\n\n\nTHE WILL of THOMAS HARIOT\n\nRecorded in the Archdeaconry Court of London\n\nIN THE NAME OF\n\nGOD Amen ye nine and twentieth daie of june, in the yeare of or Lord\nGod 1621 And in ye yeares of the reigne of or Soueraigne Lord James by\nthe Grace of God of England Scotland Fraunce & Ireland Kinge Defender\nof the Faythe & (that is to saie) of England Fraunce & Ireland the\nnineteenth And of Scotland the fower & fiftieth I THOMAS HARRIOT of\nSyon in the County of Midd Gentleman being troubled in my bodie wth\ninfirmities. But of pfecte minde & memorie Laude & prayse be giuen to\nAlmightie God for the same doe make & ordayne this my last will and\ntestamt. In manner and forme following (viz) First & principally I\nComitte my Soule in to the hands of Almighty God my maker and of his\nsonne Jesus Christe my Redeemer of whose merritts by his grace wrought\nin mee by the holy Ghoste I doubte not but that I am made ptaker, to\nthend that I may enioye the Kingdome of heaven ppared for the electe.\nItem my will is that if I die in Londn that my bodie bee interred in\nthe same pishe Churche of the house where I lye the we\" I comitte to\nthe discrecon of my Executors hereafter named, Excepte taking the\nadvise and direccon of the right honorable my very good Lord the EARLE\nOF NORTHUMBERLAND if it bee his pleasure to haue me buryed at Ilseworth\nin ye County of Midd And if it be the pleasure of God that I die at\nSyon I doe ordayne that my buriall bee at ye said Churche of Ilseworth\nw\u2019out question Item I will & bequeath vnto the aforesaid Earle One\nwooden Boxe full or neere full of drawne Mappes standing nowe at the\nNortheast windowe of that Roome wch is Called the plor at my house in\nSyon, And if it pleaseth his Lorpp to haue anie other Mappes or Chartes\ndrawne by hand or printed Or anie Bookes or other thinges that I haue I\ndesire my Extors that hee may haue them according to his pleasure at\nreasonable rates excepte my Mathematicall papers in anie other sorte\nthen is here after menconed Excepting alsoe some other thinges giuen\naway in Legacies hereafter alsoe specified Item I bequeath vnto the\nright honorable Sr ROBERT SYDNEY KNIGHT VICOUNT LISLE, One Boxe of\npapers being nowe vppon the table in my Library at Syon, conteyning\nfiue quires of paper, more or lesse wch were written by the last Lord\nHarrington, and Coppyed out of some of my Mathematicall papers for his\ninstrucon Alsoe I doe acknowledge that I haue two newe greate globes\nwch haue Cous of Leather the wch I borrowed of the said LORD LISLE And\nmy will is that they bee restored vnto him againe Item I giue vnto JOHN\nPROTHEROE of Hawkesbrooke in the Countie of Carmarthen Esquier One\nfurnace wth his apputnnce out of the North Clossett of my Library at\nSyon. Item I giue vnto NATHANIELL THORPERLEYof Salwarpe in the Countie\nof Worcester Clarke One other furnace wth his apputnnce out of the same\nClossett. Item I glue vnto my servaunte CHRISTOPHER TOOKE one other\nfurnace wth his apputennce out of the same Clossett Alsoe I glue to him\nan other furnace out of the South Clossett of my said Lybrarie Item I\ngive and bequeath vnto Mris BUCKNER wife vnto THOMAS BUCKNER Mercer at\nwhose house being in St Christophers pishe I nowe lye, and hereafter\nnominated one of my Executors the some of fiffteene poundes towards the\nrepacons of some damages that I haue made, or for other vses as shee\nshall thincke Convenient\u2019 Item I giue vnto Mr JOHN BUCKNER theire\neldest sonne the some of fiue poundes Item I giue & bequeath vnto my\nCozen THOMAS YATES my sisters sonne fifty poundes towardes the paiemt.\nof his debte and not otherwise, But if his debt doe fall out to be\nlesse then fifty poundes then the residue to remayne to himselfe Item\nto JOHN HARRIOTT Late servaunte to Mr Doleman of Shawe neere Newbury \u00edn\nBarkeshire and being the sonne of my vnckle John Harriotte but nowe\nmarried and dwelling in Churche peene about a Myle westward from the\nsaid Shawe, I doe giue and bequeath fifty poundes Item I giue and\nbequeath vnto CHRISTOPHER TOOKE my foresaid servaunte one hundred\npoundes. Item I giue & bequeath vnto myservaunte JOHN SHELLER fiue\npoundes more then the forty shillinges wch I haue of his in\nCustodie,being money given vnto him at sevall tymes by my frends wch in\nall is seauen poundes to bee imployed for his vse according to the\ndiscrecon of my Executors for ye placing of him wth an other Master\nItem I giue and bequeath to JOANE my servaunte fiue poundes more then\nher wages. Item I giue and bequeath vnto my svaunte JANE wch serveth\nvnder the said JONE fortie shillinges more then her wages wch wages is\ntwenty shillinges by yeare Item I giue and bequeath to my auncient\nsvaunte CHRISTOPHER KELLETT a Lymning paynter dwelling neare\nPettyFraunce in Westminster fiue poundes Item to my aincient servaunte\nJOANE wife to Paule Chapman dwelling in Brayneford end I bequeath\nfortie shillinges. Item I giue vnto the aforesaid EARLE OF\nNORTHUMBERLAND my two pspectiue trunckes wherewth I vse espetially to\nsee Venus horned like the Moone and the Spout in the Sonne The glasses\nof wch trunckes I desire to haue remooved into two other of the fayrest\ntrunckes by my said servaunte CHRISTOPHER TOOKE Item I bequeath vnto\neuyone of my Executors hereafterwards to be named, One pspectiue\ntruncke a peece of the best glasses, and ye fayrest trunckes, as my\nsaid servaunte Can best fitt to theire liking Item I giue vnto my said\nservaunte CHRISTOPHER TOOKE the residue of my Cases of pspectiue\ntrunckes wth the other glasses of his owne making fitted for pspectiue\ntrunckes (excepting two great longe trunckes Consisting of many ptes\nwch I giue vnto the said EARLE OF NORTHUMBERLAND to remayne in his\nLibrary for such vses as they may be put vnto, Alsoe I bequeath the\ndishes of iron Called by the spectacle makers tooles to grinde\nspectacles, and other pspectiue glasses for trunckes vnto my foresaid\nservaunte CHRISTOPHER TOOKE, Item Concerninge my debts, I doe\nacknowledg that at this psente I doe owe moneyes to Monseir Mayornes a\nPotycarie More to Mr Wheately a Potticary dwelling neare the Stockes at\nthe East end of Cheapeside Item to my Brewer dwelling at Braynford end\nItem to Mr John Bill Staconer for Bookes The some of the debte to all\nfower before meneoned I thincke and Judge not to bee much more or lesse\nthen forty poundes. Item I doe acknowledge to owe vnto Mr Christopher\nIngram keeper of the house of Syon for the aforesaid EARLE OF\nNORTHUMBERLAND Three thousand sixe hundred of Billett wch I desire to\nbe repayed vnto him Item I doe acknowledge that I haue some written\nCoppies to the number of twelue or fowerteene (more or lesse) lent vnto\nme by Thomas Allen of Gloster Hall in Oxford M` of Artes vnto whome I\ndesire my Executors hereafter named to restore them safely according to\nthe noate that hee shall deliu of them (I doubting whether I haue anie\ntrue noate of them my selfe) Item I make Constitute and ordayne theise\nfowre following my Executors Namely the aforesaid Sr ROBERT SIDNEY\nKNIGHT VISCOUNT LYSLE (if his Lopp may take soe many paynes in my\nbehalfe) Also JOHN PROTHEROE of Hawkesbrooke in the County of\nCarmarthen Esquio` Alsoe THOMAS ALESBURY of Westminster Esquior Lastly\nTHOMAS BUCKNER Mercer dwelling in St Xpofers pishe in Lond not farre\nfrom ye Royall Exchainge vnto wch Executors I giue full power & aucty\nto vse theire owne discrecons in paying theire Charges in my behalfe\nout of the rest of my good And if my Bookes wth other goods doe in\nvalue Come to more then I haue afore supposed First I desire them to\nbestowe soe much vppon ye poore not exceeding twenty poundes as they\nshall thincke Convenient somee pte whereof I giue vnto the poore of the\nhospitall in Christes Churche in Lond, Some pte vnto the said pishe of\nSt Xpofors where I nowe lye, and some pte wch I would haue the greater)\nvnto the poore of the p\u00edshe of Isleworth neere Syon in the Countie of\nMidd Secondly out of the said residue of my good, my will is, That the\nsaid Executors take some pte thereof for theire owne vses according to\ntheire discretions Lastly my will and desire is that they bestowe the\nvalue of the rest vppon Sr Thomas Bodleyes Library in Oxford, or imploy\nit to such Charitable & pious vses as they shall thincke best Item my\nwill and desire is that Robert Hughes gentleman and nowe attendant\nvppon th\u2019afore said EARLE OF NORTHUMBERLAND for matters of Learning bee\nan ouseer at the prizing of my Bookes, and some other thinges as my\nExecutors and hee shall agree vnto Item I ordayne and Constitute the\naforesaid NATHANIELL THORPERLEY first to be Ouseer of my Mathematicall\nWritinges to be receiued of my Executors to pvse and order and to\nsepate the Cheife of them from my waste papers, to the end that after\nhee doth vnderstand them hee may make vse in penninge such doctrine\nthat belonges vnto them for publique vses as it shall be thought\nConvenient by my Executors and him selfe And if it happen that some\nmanner of Notacons or writinges of the said papers shall not be\nvnderstood by him then my desire is that it will please him to Conferre\nwth Mr Warner or Mr Hughes Attendants on the aforesaid Earle Concerning\nthe aforesaid doubte. And if hee be not resolued by either of them That\nthen hee Conferre wth the aforesaid JOHN PROTHEROE Esquior or the\naforesaid THOMAS ALESBURY Esquior. (I hoping that some or other of the\naforesaid fower last nominated can resolue him) And when hee hath had\nthe vse of the said papers see longe as my Executors and hee have\nagreed for the vse afore said That then he deliu them againe vnto my\nExecutors to be putt into a Convenient Truncke with a locke & key and\nto be placed in my Lord of Northumberlandes Library and the key thereof\nto be delifted into his Lordpps hands And if at anie tyme after my\nExecutors or the afore said NATHANIELL THORPERLEY shall agayne desire\nthe vse of some or all of the said Mathematicall paps That then it will\nplease the said Earle to lett anie of the aforesaid to haue them for\ntheire vse soe long as shall be thought Convenient, and afterwards to\nbe restored agayne vnto the Truncke in the afore said Earle\u2019s Library\nSecondly my will & desire is that the said NATHANIELL THORPERLEY be\nalsoe Ouseere of other written bookes & papers as my Executors and hee\nshall thincke Convenient. Item Whereas I haue diuers waste papers (of\nwch some are in a Canvas bagge) of my Accompte to Sr Walter Rawley for\nall wch I haue discharges or acquitances lying in some boxes or other\nmy desire is that they may bee all burnte. Alsoe there is an other\nCanvas bagge of papers concerning Irishe Accompt (the psons whome they\nConcerne are dead many yeares since in the raigne of queene Elizabeth\nwch I desire alsoe may be burnte as likewise many Idle paps and\nCancelled Deedes wch are good for noe vse Item I revoake all former\nwills by mee heretofore made saue onely this my pnte last will and\nTestament wch I will shalbe in all thinges effectually and truely\npformed according to the tenor and true meaning of the same In witnes\nwhereof I the afore said THOMAS HARRIOTT haue to this my psent last\nwill & Testament put my hand & scale yeouen the daie and yeare first\naboue written THO : HARRIOTTS.\n\nSealed a published and deliued by ye wthin named THOMAS HARRIOTT for\nand as his last will & Testamt the daie & yeares wthin written in the\npfice of vs IMMANUELL BOWRNE WILL: FUTTER, Scr: & THO : ALFORD Svte to\nthe said scr\n\nProbatum fuit hfnoi Testum sexto die mensis Julij Anno Dni 1621. Coram\nvenli viro RICHARDO CLARKE legum Dcore Surto Dni Offitis &c . jurio\nTHOME AILESBURIE et THOME BUCKNER duorum Extorum &c quibus &c de bene\n&c saluo jure &c Resrvata tamen ptate similem Comissionem faciendi Dno\nROBERTO SIDNEY militi et JOHANNI PROTHERO armigero alteris Extoribus &c\nCum venerint eandem in debita Juris forma petituri. Pro Inveno ANDREE\nprox &c. Concordat cum Originali fca exaicoe pnos HEN: DURHAM Norium\nPubcm RA: BYRDE\n\n[From the certified copy filed in the Probate Registry in Somerset\nHouse, which has been collated with the copy registered, Arch. Lond.\n1618-1626/7, Folio 71. The differences in spelling, punctuation etc.\nare numerous but unimportant.]\n\n        END","title":"Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the Scholar","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":41192}