Les Cotes de la Virginie, les Detroits de Frobisher et de Hudson.
This small map reminded me of how much depends on decisions made over 400 years ago – decisions that had a profound impact on America. This seemingly unimportant map was printed in three versions: French, English and Dutch, resulting in a mixture of languages on the map.
THE MAP: VIRGINIA. van der Aa. 1706.
Les Cotes de la Virginie, les Detroits de Frobisher et de Hudson. Upper right: To. 3. p. 397. 6″h x 9″w. Map by Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733). Title and place names in French. The map appeared on page 379 of volume 3 of one of Van der Aa’s atlases.
First, some words about the map. Near Cape Cod on this map is the entry “I Elizabeth of Gosnols hoop”. This refers to Elizabeth Island located near the end of the two tracks showing the course of Bartholomew Gosnold’s (or Gosnols’) 1602 voyage to America from England past the Azores to New England and return. The word “hoop” appears to relate to a sound he passed through en route from Cape Cod. The Dutch word “hoop” translates to “Hope” in English. Or, “hoop” may refer a circular item such as a child’s hoop, and in this case, the island “Terra Nova” (Newfoundland).
BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD Why bring up Bartholomew Gosnold? Wasn’t he just your ordinary English lawyer, explorer, and privateer? At first it might have seemed so. In 1602 he sailed from England intending to establish a colony in New England, then known as Northern Virginia. (At that time, Virginia stretched from Florida to Canada.) Gosnold charted a direct route due west from the Azores to New England, arriving in May at Cape Elizabeth, Maine (named such later by King Charles I). He sailed along the coastline for several days and anchored in what is now York Harbor, Maine, on May 14th. The next day, he sailed into what is now Provincetown Harbor at the extreme tip of Cape Cod, naming the cape for the waters teeming with fish. This was the first record of a European expedition visiting Cape Cod. Following the coastline for several more days, he discovered Martha’s Vineyard (“Marta’s Wyngaard” on this map) which he named for the abundance of wild grapes and his infant daughter Martha who had died a few years earlier. And he named Elizabeth Island in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Gosnold had a fort built on the island, but his would-be colonists refused to remain on the island because of lack of sufficient provisions. All returned to England.
Gosnold was the man who perhaps more than any other single individual was responsible for the establishment of British North America. Without his push to found the Virginia Company, exploration and settlement might have been delayed, especially in the aftermath of the disastrous efforts at Roanoke Island. The foreign policy of the new King James I was aimed primarily at achieving closer relations with Spain; Spain was crawling all over the New World, was well-ensconced in Florida (as France learned at Fort Caroline in 1565), and Spain once had a short-lived Jesuit mission along the James River which was destroyed by the Indians in 1571. Despite humiliating losses to her Armada in 1588, Spain had the most powerful navy in the world well into the next century. Some historians suggest that, but for Gosnold, it is almost certain the rest of Atlantic coast would have become Spanish territory. And without Gosnold’s recruitment of John Smith we would not have Smith’s important map of Virginia and his narratives of Virginia which whetted the appetites and marked the path for Britons to share in the discovery and potential riches of this part of the New World. Britain had only a tenuous claim to Virginia before the Virginia Company funded a new start in America; as a major impetus behind the establishment of the Virginia Company and the granting of its charter by the king, Gosnold solidified that claim. Just an ordinary man.
THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. The significant impact Gosnold had on our lives occurred after his return home from New England, for he was instrumental in founding the Virginia Company and the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. He spent the next years after his return to England promoting a more ambitious project than his New England venture – he secured from the recently-crowned King James I an exclusive charter for the Virginia Company to settle Virginia. He recruited his 2nd cousin Edward-Maria Wingfield, as well as John Smith, Bartholomew’s brother Anthony, a cousin also named Anthony Gosnold, and members of his 1602 expedition to form the nucleus of what would become the Virginia Colony.
CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT: Captain Christopher Newport was hired by the Virginia Company to lead its expedition. On December 20, 1606, Newport sailed from England with his flagship, the Susan Constant, and two smaller ships, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, with 105 men and boys as colonists plus 39 sailors. Gosnold captained the Godspeed and served as vice-admiral of the expedition. Both Newport and Gosnold were skilled mariners ready to meet the unknown challenges of this new venture. Although this was Newport’s first voyage to Virginia, he knew the West Indies and the South American coast. He had fought under Sir Francis Drake. Gosnold had explored for Sir Walter Raleigh, and as discussed above, had explored the coast of New England. And, for about a year he had engaged in privateering against the Spanish, making a small fortune.
JAMESTOWN: Upon arrival at what they named Cape Henry in April 1607 they opened a sealed set of instructions revealing which persons among them would be the seven leaders (councilors) of the new colony. The names were Christopher Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, John Ratcliffe (Captain of the Discovery), Edward-Maria Wingfield, John Martin, and George Kendall, with Gabriel Archer as recorder. Captain Wingfield was elected president of the governing council on April 25, and on May 14th he selected the site at Jamestown for settlement. Gosnold opposed the location of the colony at Jamestown due to what he perceived as its unhealthy location. His concern was well founded; in August he died from disease and was buried in Virginia at age 36. He was not alone; two thirds of the Jamestown settlers died that first summer. A few years later, Jamestown was essentially abandoned.
JOHN SMITH: While the ships were en route to Virginia, John Smith was accused of concealing an intended mutiny. When the ships stopped in the West Indies in March 1607 for food, Newport ordered a gallows built; but Smith was spared when Gosnold and the Reverend Robert Hunt interceded on his behalf. This decision was a good omen – Smith’s name was on the list of councilors. He went on to become their third president, serving between September 1608 and August 1609. His admirers credit Smith with almost singlehandedly preserving the first colonists from the ravages of their own sloth (“He who does not work, will not eat!”), as well as from the hostility of the Indians. His detractors are not so kind.
JOHN ROLFE; In May 1609 John Rolfe arrived and planted an inferior tobacco which did not sell well in Britain. But he made a decision to obtain and plant sweeter strains of tobacco then grown in Trinidad, and by 1613 began to successfully cultivate and export his new tobacco. Virginians finally had a cash crop which insured their survival.
Decisions by men such as Gosnold, Smith, Newport and Rolfe shaped our lives. It is due to them and the foundation they laid that we live in a self-governing, English-speaking nation.
References:
Map Collectors’ Circle, Map Collectors’ Series No. 68, plate VIII for the Dutch version.
Phillips Atlases lists a 1707 atlas (No. 5482) as a single volume containing the Dutch version of this map (No. [69])
Tales from the Rare Map Cabinet by Luke A Vavra
CQM043
Dutch version of Van der Aa’s Map
DUTCH VERSION OF THE MAP: The two-volume Atlas Nouveau et Curieux (c1707) contains the Dutch version of this map in vol. 2, no. [35]. Phillips shows a 1707 atlas (No. 5482) as a single volume containing the Dutch version of this map (No. [69]), re-engraved in the same size as this French version with the Dutch title: “t’ Noorder Gedeelte van Virginie, door Bartholomeus Gosnol en Martin Pringe uyt Engeland bevaaren”. Below neat line: “Uytgevoerd te Leyden door Pieter vander Aa met Privilegie. Bartholomeus Gosnol”. See plate VIII of Map Collectors’ Circle No. 68. Place names are in Dutch.
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