[WATERHOUSE, Edward (fl. 1622)]. A declaration of the state of the colony and affairs in Virginia. With a relation of the barbarous massacre in the time of peace and league, treacherously executed by the natiue infidels vpon the English, the 22 of March last. Together with the names of those that were then massacred; that their lawfull heyres, by this notice giuen, may take order for the inheriting of their lands and estates in Virginia. And a treatise annexed, written by that learned mathematician Mr. Henry Briggs, of the northwest passage to the South Sea through the continent of Virginia, and by Fretum Hudson. Also a commemoration of such worthy benefactors as haue contributed their Christian charitie towards the aduancement of the colony. And a note of the charges of necessary prouisions fit for euery man that intends to goe to Virginia. Published by authoritie. London: G[eorge] Eld for Robert Mylbourne, 1622.
4° (179 x 132 mm). 54 pages. Woodcut showing the obverse and reverse of the seal of the Virginia Company on A1v (small repair at gutter), broadside bound in at end [see below]. (Internal paper flaw on D2 with loss of a few letters, lacking final blank.) Modern crimson crushed levant morocco, top edges gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.
DESCRIBING THE FIRST MAJOR CLASH BETWEEN THE VIRGINIANS AND POWHATANS, AND INCLUDING THE FIRST REFERENCE TO CALIFORNIA AS AN ISLAND
FIRST EDITION, collected from “the relation of some of those that were beholders of the tragedy,” and from letters sent to the Virginia Company by Waterhouse, who was secretary of the Virginia Company in 1621. It was written to dispel the false impressions circulating about the massacre that took place on 22 March 1622, and to encourage the perpetuation of the enterprise. The massacre was the first serious clash between the adventurers in Virginia and the native Indians. 347 settlers were killed, most likely as a result of tensions over land ownership. Braves of the Powhatan Confederacy broke into the settlers’ houses and grabbed any tools or weapons that were available and killed all of the English settlers they found, including men, women, and children. “What is usually referred to as the ‘Massacre of 1622,’ the native American attack that resulted in the death of 347 English settlers and almost wiped out Jamestown, gave the colonists the excuse they needed to take even more of what they wanted from the indigenous population of the Chesapeake. As far as the survivors of the Massacre of 1622 were concerned, by virtue of launching this unprovoked assault native Americans had forfeited any legal and moral rights they might previously have claimed to the ownership of the lands they occupied” (Betty Wood, Origins of American Slavery (1997), p. 72). On pages 35-43 are printed the 347 names of the victims of the massacre.
On pages 45-50 is printed the first appearance of Henry Briggs’ “A Treatise of the Northwest Passage to the South Sea, through the Continent of Virginia and by Fretum Hudson.” Briggs argues that the James River system flows to Hudson’s Bay and probably to the western sea. He mentions the sea where Hudson wintered as being called Fretum Hudson and stretching as far westward as the Cape of Florida and southward 49 degrees. The tract is notorious today as the origin of the cartographic myth of California as an island. Describing the voyage of Thomas Button to Hudson’s Bay in 1612-13, Briggs writes that this sea “doth extend it selfe very neere as farre towards the west as the Cape of California, which is now found to be an Iland stretching it selfe from 22. degrees to 42. and lying almost directly North & South; as may appeare in a Map of the Iland which I have seene here in London, brought our of Holland…” (p. 48). The map he refers to is most likely that of Michiel Colijn that appears on the engraved title-page of Antonio de Herrera’s Historia General, where the notion of California as an Island first appears (see lot 311). Briggs' tract was republished three years later (1625) in Purchas’s Pilgrimes (vol 3, p. 848) along with his own map showing California as an island.
VERY RARE: ESTC records only 12 copies, and according to online databases, only one other copy has appeared at auction in the last 100 years, sold 25 June 1987, lot 421. Alden & Landis 622/170; Church 396; Clark I:171; Cox II:51; ESTC S111598 (12 copies); JCB (1919) II, pp. 174-175; Sabin 99885; STC 25104 (broadside also separately as 24844); Winsor 3: 163.
[Bound at end:] The inconveniencies that have happened to some persons which have transported themselves from England to Virginia, without provisions necessary to sustaine themselves, hath greatly hindred the progress of that noble plantation: for prevention of the like disorders heereafter, that no man suffer, either through ignorance of misinformation; it is thought requisite to publish. London: Felix Kyngston, 1622. Broadside (350 x 247 mm).
The broadside provides a list of provisions that a prospective colonist would need to survive in Virginia. The inventory includes items of clothing and bedding for the ocean voyage; foodstuffs such as peas, oatmeal, and oil and vinegar; armor, weapons, and gunpowder; a variety of axes, saws, and other tools; household implements such as dishes, an iron pot, and a kettle; and sugar, spice, and fruit for the days at sea. The estimated cost of the provisions and the passage to Virginia for one man was twenty pounds, and, according to this document, "this is the equall proportion that the Virginia Company doe bestow upon their Tenants which they send." This precise listing was designed to prevent the "inconveniences" faced by earlier colonists who had arrived ill-prepared, a condition which "greatly hindered the Progresse of that noble Plantation” (see Encyclopedia Virginia).