Yet because diuers honest and well disposed persons were entred already into this your businesse, and that I know you meane hereafter to send some such good Churchmen thither, as may truely say with the Apostle to the Sauages, wee seeke not yours but you: I conceiue [pg 406]
Iosue 1. 6.
great comfort of the successe of this your action, hoping that the Lorde, whose power is wont to bee perfected in weaknesse, will bless the feeble foundations of your building. Only bee you of a valiant courage and faint not, as the Lord sayd vnto Iosue, exhorting him to proceede on forward in the conquest of the land of promise, and remember that priuate men haue happily wielded and waded through as great enterprises as this, with lesser meanes then those which God in his mercie hath bountifully bestowed vpon you, to the singuler good, as I assure my selfe, of this our Common wealth wherein you liue. Hereof we haue examples both domesticall and forreigne.
The good successe in Ireland of Richard Strangbow earle of Chepstowe.
Remember I pray you, what you find in the beginning of the Chronicle of the conquest of Ireland newly dedicated vnto your selfe. Read you not that Richard Stranbow the decayed earle of Chepstow in Monmuthshire, being in no great fauour of his soueraigne, passed ouer into that Island in the yere 1171. and accompanied onely with certaine of his priuate friends had in short space such prosperous successe, that he opened the way for king Henry the second to the speedy subjection of all that warlike nation to this crowne of England? The like conquest of Brasilia, and annexing the same to the kingdome of Portugall was first begun by mean and priuate men, as Don Antonio de Castillio, Ambassadour here for that realme and by office keeper of all the records and monuments of their discoueries, assured me in this citie in the yere 1581.
The happy late discouery of the Northwest of Captaine Dauis.
Now if the greatnes of the maine of Virginia, and the large extension thereof, especially to the West, should make you thinke that the subduing of it were a matter of more difficulty then the conquest of Ireland, first I answere, that as the late experience of that skilfull pilote and Captaine M. Iohn Dauis to the Northwest (toward which his discovery your selfe haue thrise contributed, with the forwardest) hath shewed a great part to be maine sea, where before was thought to be maine land, so for my part I am fully perswaded by Ortelius late reformation of Culuacan and the gulfe of California, that the land on the backe part of Virginia extendeth nothing so far westward as is put downe in the maps of those parts. Moreouer it is not to be denied, but that one hundred men will do more now among the naked and vnarmed people in Virginia, then one thousand were able then to do in Ireland [pg 407] against that armed and warlike nation in those daies. I say further, that these two yeeres last experience hath plainly shewed, that we may spare 10000. able men without any misse. And these are as many as the kingdome of Portugal had euer in all their garrisons of the Açores, Madera, Arguin, Cape verde, Guinea, Brasill, Mozambique, Melinde, Zocotora, Ormus, Diu, Goa, Malaca, the Molucos, and Macao vpon the coast of China. Yea this I say by the confession of singuler expert men of their own nation (whose names I suppresse for certain causes) which haue bene personally in the East Indies, and haue assured me that their kings had neuer aboue ten thousand natural borne Portugals[115] (their slaues excepted) out of their kingdome remaining in all the aforesaid territories. Which also this present yeere I saw confirmed in a secrete extract of the particular estate of that kingdome and of euery gouernement and office subiect to the same with the seueral pensions thereunto belonging. Seeing therefore we are so farre from want of people, that retyring daily home out of the Lowe Countreyes they go idle vp and downe in swarms for lack of honest intertainment, I see no fitter place to employ some part of the better sort of them trained vp thus long in seruice, then in the inward partes of the firme of Virginia against such stubborne Sauages as shal refuse obedience to her Maiestie. And doubtlesse many of our men will bee glad and faine to accept this condition, when as by the reading of this present treatie they shall vnderstand the fertilitie and riches of the regions confining so neere vpon yours, the great commodities and goodnesse whereof you haue bin contented to suffer to come to light. In the meane season I humbly commend my selfe and this my translation vnto you, and your selfe, and all those which vnder you haue taken this enterprise in hand to the grace and good blessing of the Almighty, which is able to build farther, and to finish the good worke which in these our dayes he hath begun by your most Christian and charitable endeuour. From London the 1 of May 1587.
Your L. humble at commandement R. Hakluyt.
The Preface of M. Rene Laudonniere.
There are two things, which according to mine opinion haue [pg 408] bene the principall causes, in consideration whereof aswell they of ancient times, as those of our age haue bene induced to trauell into farre and remote regions. The first hath beene the naturall desire which wee haue to search out the commodities to liue happily, plentifully, and at ease: be it whither one abandon his naturall Countrey altogether to dwell in a better, or bee it that men make voyages thither, there to search out and bring from thence such things as are there to be found, and are in greatest estimation and in most request in our Countreys. The second cause hath bene the multitude of people too fruitefull in generation, which being no longer able to dwell in their natiue soyles, haue entred vpon their neighbours limites, and oftentimes passing further haue pearced euen vnto the vttermost regions. After this sort the North climate, a fruitfull father of so many nations hath oftentimes sent foorth this way and that way his valiant people, and by this meane hath peopled infinite Countreys: so that most of the nations of Europe drawe their originall from these parts. Contrariwise the more Southerne regions, because they bee too barren by reason of their insupportable heate which raineth in them, neede not any such sending forth of their inhabitants, and haue bene oftentimes constrained to receiue other people more often by force of armes then willingly. All Afrike, Spaine, and Italie can also testifie the same, which neuer so abounded with people that they had neede to send them abroad to inhabite elsewhere: as on the contrary Scythia, Norway, Gotland and France haue done. The posterity of which nations remaineth yet not only in Italy, Spaine and Afrike but also in fruitful and faire Asia.