"Nova Britania: Offering Most Excellent Fruites By Planting In Virginia"

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browsemod?id=J1051

The account I chose to analyse is one by an early settler whom we know only as R.I. and was printed in 1609 as a pamphlet for investors in the Virginia Company, and is addressed to Sir Thomas Smith, treasurer of the Virginia Company.

The main weakness of this source is that we know very little of it's provenance; we do not even know the name of the person who wrote it, simply his initials, let alone whether he went to America or not and how much of his account is based on hearsay. However I chose it nonetheless because it is essentially trying to promote investment and settlement in America, much like De Bry's engravings.

N.B. The version of the text I chose was the modern spelling one, the original spelling is available on the site as well.

Much of the text talks about the history of settlement and discovery in America by the Christian Kingdoms of Europe,I cannot say in perfect honesty that I understand it, even in modern English.

These paragraphs however provides a good insight into Jamestown and the surrounding area:

"The country itself is large and great assuredly, though as yet, no exact discovery can be made of all. It is also commendable and hopeful every way, the air and climate most sweet and wholesome , much warmer then England, and very agreeable to our Natures: It is inhabited with wild and savage people, that live and lie up and down in troops like herd of Deer in a Forest : they have no law but nature, their skins of beasts, but most go naked: the better sort have houses, but poor ones, they have no Arts nor Science, yet they live under superior command such as it is, they are generally very loving and gentle, and do entertain and relieve our people with great kindness : they are easy to be brought to good, and would fain embrace a better condition: the land yields naturally for the sustentation of man, abundance of fish, both scale and shell: of land and water fowls , infinite store: of Deer , Kaine and Fallow, Stags , Coneys, and Hares, with many fruits and roots good for meat .

There are valleys and plains streaming with sweet Springs, like veins in a natural body : there are hills and mountains making a sensible proffer of hidden treasure, never yet searched: the land is full of minerals , plenty of woods (the wants of England) there are growing goodly Oaks and Elms , Beech and Birch, Spruce, Walnut, Cedar and Fir trees, in great abundance , the soil is strong and lusty of its own nature, and sends out naturally fruitful Vines running upon trees, and shrubs : it yields also Rosin, Turpentine, Pitch and Tar , Sassafras, Mulberry -trees and Silk-worms , many Skins and rich furs , many sweet woods , and Dyers woods , and other costly dyes: plenty of Sturgeon , Timber for Shipping, Mast, Plank and Deal , Soap ashes, Caviar , and what else we know not yet, because our days are young. But of this that I have said, if bare nature be so amiable in its naked kind, what may we hope, when Art and Nature both shall join , and strive together, to give best content to man and beast? as now in handling the several parts propounded, I shall show in order as they lie."

The two main points this extract tells us and the intended audience is A, the land's inhabitants are primitive and uncivilised, yet friendly and easy to control, and B, the land is very suitable for settlement and is full of wild animals and fishes to be eaten.

The latter's allure to a potential settler or investor is clear, this new world is plentiful in resources and will yield a good lifestyle/good profit for people who settle or invest there, in the second it further details the resources that are available as well as the untapped ones ("there are hills and mountains making a sensible proffer of hidden treasure, never yet searched"), all of which can be harvested and sold back in Europe for profit. Of course the account neglects to mention the close proximity of the settlement to a swamp and the fact that it is surrounded by woodland.

The former point also has a allure to settlers, which is that the native people are weak and therefore the likelihood of being driven out by them is unlikely, and, more to the point, when the area of settlement is full settling the lands of the natives via conquest will be easy. Indeed earlier in the account R.I. states:

"their (the Indians) strength and means far inferior to their aspires ... their best and chiefest residences were scattered with so poor and slender troups, that with handfuls of men (at sundry times) we ran through all, surprising and sacking their strongest forts and towns in those parts, and might long since with ease, following and seconding our forces, have set them to their stint."

It is clear therefore from this account that the interference of natives should prove to be no problem for the settlers, at least according to the account. The reality of course was different.

#will finish later#