A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare'sThe Tempest (35 page)

Argall brought news of the loss of the
Sea Venture
to England by November 9, 1609:
FIR
, 2:285-86. “Were dashed”:
FIR
, 2:278. Ships lost off France, “they tell me”:
FIR
, 2:286, 289. “Unruly youths,” “vile and scandalous,” “color their own,” “cheer themselves,” “these devices infused,” “lascivious sons”: Virginia Company,
Publication
(
GEN
, 1:354-55).
TRU
registered for publication December 14, 1609: Barbour,
Three
, 284.
Sea Venture
wreck widely discussed in London: Bristol,
Shakespeare
, 63. “Ignorant rumor,” “we will call,” “is he fit,” “so small a root,” “blessed and unexpected,” “perhaps bound in,” “the loss of him,” “against some doubt”:
TRU
, 2, 5, 14, 15, 17 (
NAR
, 358-59, 365-67). “Some say that”:
FIR
, 2:288. “Loose, lewd,” “the very excrements,” “such fellows,” “let no wise man”: Crashaw,
Sermon
[38], [44]-[45]. Delaware’s voyage preparations: Quinn, “Pious,” 554. Departure date, number of ships and passengers:
NAR
, 465.

“Savages and men”: 2.2.57,
ARD
, 210. Date of Delaware’s arrival in Jamestown, his entry into the palisade, newly appointed officers, “his lordship landing fell”:
PIL
, 4:1752, 1754 (
NAR
, 427, 432-33). The rank Strachey attributes to Scot, “ancient” (i.e., bearer of the ancient colors), is “ensign”:
Oxford English Dictionary
. Weynman is Delaware’s first cousin: Barbour,
Pocahontas
, 76. “I delivered some”:
NAR
, 458-59. Delaware’s report home:
NAR
, 454-64. Strachey calls recipient of his letter “Excellent Lady”:
PIL
, 4:1734, 1742, 1756 (
NAR
, 383, 402, 438). Recipient was likely Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford: Wilkinson,
Adventurers
, plate facing 47; Tucker,
Bermuda Today and Yesterday
, 35 (see full analysis above in notes to chapter eight).

“I set the sailors”:
NAR
, 466. Virginia Company thought colony had livestock:
PIL
, 4:1754 (
NAR
, 433). “I dispatched Sir”:
NAR
, 466-67. Somers’s departure date:
NAR
, 459-60. Silvester Jourdain in
DIS
, 23 (
VOY
, 116), gives the same date. “Now we are”:
NAR
, 446. Sheltering from a rainstorm, to sea June 23:
NEW
, 303. Butler’s contention in
BER
, 15, that Somers had a secret pact with the men left behind to return to Bermuda is not credible. Refurbishing of Jamestown:
NAR
, 466. “Pretty chapel,” “shall have a chancel”:
PIL
, 4:1752-53 (
NAR
, 429). Delaware brought four preachers:
FIR
, 2:279. Church schedule, “every Sunday when” (Strachey meant that the total number of gentlemen and halberdiers was fifty rather than that there were fifty halberdiers):
PIL
, 4:1753 (
NAR
, 429). Jamestown artifact cache probably dates to Delaware’s cleanup: Kelso,
Buried
, 101, 103.

Physical seasoning of colonists fresh from England: Kupperman, “Climates,” 215, 220, 232. Delaware’s illnesses, “presently after my,” “I was upon”:
NEW
, 263. Alleged fate of Ravens’s expedition, diplomatic emissaries, “Powhatan returned no”:
PIL
, 4:1748, 1755-56 (
NAR
, 418, 435-37). Negotiations with the Powhatans:
REL
, 253. Strawberries outside the palisade:
FIR
, 1:161. Colonists killed gathering strawberries, “certain Indians,” “now being startled”:
PIL
, 4:1755 (
NAR
, 434-35, 437). Strachey at Kecoughtan attack (I have presumed him to be at Jamestown unless explicit evidence places him outside the palisade):
PIL
, 4:1755 (
NAR
, 435). “Being landed he,” “fell in upon”:
REL
, 252. Kecoughtan attack, construction of English fort:
ANC
, 30; Fausz, “Blood,” 6, 32. Kecoughtan description, “many pretty copses,” “maracock apple” (editor Major identifies the maracock apple as the passionflower):
HIS
, 60 (
NAR
, 626-27). French vintners sent to Jamestown:
EST
, 58-59 (
NEW
, 260). “We proposed to set”:
PIL
, 4:1755 (
NAR
, 435). “Behold the goodly”:
HIS
, 120 (
NAR
, 678-79). Hostage’s hand severed:
PIL
, 4:1756 (
NAR
, 437);
REL
, 255.

Gates’s return to England:
SMI
, 1:277, 2:236. Returning ships are
Blessing
and
Hercules
:
GEN
, 1:455. Delaware’s report home:
NAR
, 454-64. Capture of Tackonekintaco and Tangoit, “the Indians of Warraskoyack”:
PIL
, 4:1756 (
NAR
, 437- 38);
HIS
, 58-59 (
NAR
, 624-25). Analysis of Strachey’s conflicting accounts of the incident: Townsend,
Pocahontas
, 98-99, 196; Vaughan,
Transatlantic
, 51, 278. Percy’s attack on Paspahegh, participation of “Master Stacy”:
SMI
, 2:236. “Master Stacy” is Strachey: Culliford,
Strachey
, 121. “We fell in upon,” “my soldiers did,” “marching about fourteen,” “I replied that,” “although Captain Davis”:
REL
, 253-54.

“To see a dead”: 2.2.32,
ARD
, 208. Argall’s Sagadahoc expedition:
NEW
, 302-7. Argall’s return to Jamestown:
REL
, 252. Argall names Delaware Bay: Fausz, “Argall,” 588; Barbour,
Pocahontas
, 83. “Fell upon two”:
HIS
, 59 (
NAR
, 625). Warraskoyack raid description:
REL
, 254-55. Arrival of the
Dainty
:
ANC
, 30.
Dainty
left England soon after arrival of
Swallow
: GEN, 1:393; Brown,
Republic
, 125. “The Indians hold,” “thus it looks”:
GEN
, 1:392. Return of the
Swallow
, “these are that scum”:
EST
, 36-38 (
NEW
, 255-56). “My lord for an,” “the party being thrown”:
REL
, 255. Expedition upriver, conflict at Appomattox:
HIS
, 56 (
NAR
, 622);
NAR
, 521;
ANC
, 30;
REL
, 255-56;
NEW
, 301.

Argall’s Patawomeck expedition:
NEW
, 264-65;
HIS
, 38-39 (
NAR
, 606). Spelman biography:
NAR
, 62; Fausz, “Middlemen,” 45. “With this King”:
NAR
, 485-86. “About Christmas,” “sitting (the weather),” “we have five,” “a man and,” “after they are dead,” “they find their forefathers” (asides identifying Iopassus as the speaker have been silently removed):
HIS
, 98-100 (
NAR
, 658-61). Death of Wowinchopunck: Rountree,
Pocahontas, Powhatan
, 153-54. Attack on the blockhouse:
REL
, 256. Blockhouse attack, “overthrew him”:
HIS
, 59-60 (
NAR
, 625-26). Expedition upriver:
NEW
, 264;
HIS
, 131-32 (
NAR
, 687-88);
ANC
, 30. Death of Kemps:
HIS
, 53 (
NAR
, 619). Death of Weynman, “death was much”:
REL
, 252. Weynman biography:
GEN
, 2:1049. Delaware’s departure and voyage home:
NEW
, 263-64;
SMI
, 1:277, 2:237;
REL
, 257; Stow,
Annales
(1632), 1018. “At his going”:
ANC
, 30-31. “Showing more valor,” “where being five,” “Paspahegh, Paspahegh”:
REL
, 257-58. Second blockhouse battle: Fausz, “Blood,” 6, 36-37.

Arrival of the
Hercules
:
ANC
, 31;
NAR
, 521. Arrival of the same ship (mistakenly called the
Blessing
):
REL
, 258. “I am much grieved,” “I am going”: Scull,
Evelyns
, 63-65 (
GEN
, 1:441-42).
EST
registered for publication November 8, 1610: Stationers’ Company,
Registers
, 3:202. Virginia Company shifts focus with news of castaways’ survival: Sievers, “Evidence,” 143-44. Rich’s biography:
NAR
, 54, 372. “Soldier blunt”: Rich,
Newes
[1] (
NAR
, 373). “A
casicke
or son”: Parker,
Van Meteren’s
, 67. Machumps under suspicion in the disappearance of Namontack:
SMI
, 2:350. Machumps circulates freely in Jamestown after the Bermuda episode:
HIS
, 26, 54, 94 (
NAR
, 596, 619, 655); Whitaker,
NAR
, 550.

Elements seemingly transferred from Strachey’s letter to the “Excellent Lady” (later “True Reportory”) to
EST
include the description of passengers lamenting the pounding of the ship, the statement that two thousand tons of water was bailed and pumped during the storm, the exaggerated suggestion that the bailers nearly drowned as they labored, the phrasing of the description of the landing of the hundred and fifty voyagers, and the account of bellowing castaways attracting cahows and selecting the heaviest for killing:
PIL
, 4:1735-37, 1741 (
NAR
, 385, 387, 390, 399);
EST
, 21-22, 23, 24 (
NEW
, 252-53). Despite how it may appear to readers of
PIL
, however, Strachey does not quote
EST
in “True Reportory” (that would not be possible, since
EST
was written after “True Reportory” reached England). “True Reportory” ends in
PIL
at line 55 on 4:1756; the line beginning “after Sir Thomas Gates his arrival” (
NAR
, 438) is the voice of the editor of
PIL
introducing a reprint of
EST
. As Ashe notes in “Strachey,” 509, this misconception has prompted some commentators to exaggerate the echoes of “True Reportory” in
EST
. Nevertheless, the echoes between the two texts constitute compelling evidence that “True Reportory” was used in crafting
EST
.

List of fortuitous events of the Gates expedition:
EST
, 46-48, 68 (
NEW
, 257- 58, 262). Martin’s letter to Strachey: Culliford,
Strachey
, 123-25. Dale’s biography: Rutman, “Historian,” 285, 289-94.

“I fear a madness”: 5.1.116,
ARD
, 270. Dale’s arrival in Virginia:
GEN
, 1:442- 43;
ANC
, 31. “The twelfth of May”:
NAR
, 520-23. “Their daily and usual”: Hamor,
Discourse
, 26 (
NAR
, 821) (repeated in
SMI
, 2:239). “Sir Thomas Dale, at his”:
ANC
, 35. “Sir Thomas Dale immediately”:
ANC
, 31. Strachey,
For the Colony
, 1 (1612) (1969 edition, 9), says Delaware merely “exemplified and approved” the laws of Gates, thereby indicating that Gates and Dale were the only authors. The language shifts distinctly after the first eighteen laws, see Flaherty in Strachey,
For the Colony
(1969), xvi, xviii, xxiii. Therefore, I have attributed all but the first eighteen published laws to Dale. June 22 date, content of the laws, “to do the necessities,” “be whipped,” “outrage or injure”: Strachey,
For the Colony
(1612), 1, 10-12, 13, 16-17, 23, 27-28, 29, 44 (1969 edition, 15, 17-19, 22-23, 29, 32-34, 49-50). Passing the pikes defined: Dean, “Polearms,” 111.

Strachey on close terms with Dale (Strachey carries Dale’s laws and hawks to England): Strachey,
For the Colony
(1612) [v]-[vi] (1969 edition, 3-4);
HIS
, 125 (
NAR
, 682). Dale’s construction projects:
REL
, 258. Well found by Jamestown archaeologists may date to Dale’s construction period: Kelso,
Buried
, 116, 119, 123-24. “Severe and strict,” “with all severity”: Hamor,
Discourse
, 27 (
NAR
, 822). Strachey participation in upriver expedition:
HIS
, 124 (
NAR
, 682). Upriver expedition plans, Namontack’s fate a mystery to Wahunsenacawh: Hamor,
Discourse
, 26-27, 38 (
NAR
, 822, 831). “Comes to and fro,” “before their dinners” (with aside silently removed), “the people have houses,” “preserved seven”:
HIS
, 26, 54, 94 (
NAR
, 596, 619, 655). Roanoke colony background: Price,
Love
, 8-9.

“In these conflicts”:
REL
, 258-59. “As our men,” “otherwise he threatened,” “one night our men,” “thanks be to God”:
NAR
, 549-50. General use of poisons and drugs by Powhatans:
NAR
, 110, 121; Barbour,
Three
, 256; Fausz, “Middlemen,” 55. “A fantasy possessed” (despite Percy’s placement of the episode “in an Indian’s house,” it is clear he is describing the same event):
REL
, 259. Episode probably is jimsonweed poisoning: Noël Hume,
Adventure
, 301-5. New World use of jimsonweed as hallucinogen: Cichoke, “Herbal,” 85. “I found in an,” “they are assured”:
HIS
, 124 (
NAR
, 682).

Background on Spanish claims: Wright, “Spanish,” 452-55, 458, 470;
FIR
, 1:114-16. Details of Spanish ship episode, “Don Diego said”:
NAR
, 534-37. “One of the mariners”:
NAR
, 546. “Their intent was”:
REL
, 259-60. “Are here so few”:
NAR
, 558. Background on Gates’s arrival:
REL
, 260-61;
SMI
, 1:277, 2:241;
ANC
, 31;
NEW
, 264. War preparations, “it was an English”: Hamor,
Discourse
, 28-29 (
NAR
, 823-24). “The choicest persons,” “it is not intended”:
GEN
, 1:445, 463. Delaware’s stop in the Azores:
NAR
, 525-26. “I found help”: NAW, 264. Death of Gates’s wife, names of his daughters:
GEN
, 2:895. “His lady died”:
GEN
, 2:532. Dale’s departure upriver, Gates’s plans to develop Jamestown: Hamor,
Discourse
, 29-30 (
NAR
, 823-25).

Strachey probably returned to England on
Prosperous
: Culliford,
Strachey
, 126. Last record of Strachey in Virginia (interrogation of Spanish prisoners, June or July 1611):
REL
, 259-60; Wright, “Spanish,” 455, 473. First record of Strachey back in England (registering
For the Colony
for publication, December 13, 1611): Culliford,
Strachey
, 126. Only one ship known to have gone from Jamestown to England during period departed after August 17 date of Dale report to England (
NAR
, 552-58) and arrived before November 5 when Velasco reported it at port (
GEN
, 1:523-24, 527). Ship identified as
Prosperous
(
GEN
, 1:497; Brown,
Republic
, 161). Brown mistakenly places Strachey aboard a ship that left before the Spanish interrogation: Brown,
Republic
, 154-55, 160-61. Brown tacitly acknowledges error by stating elsewhere Strachey arrived home late October or early November 1611:
GEN
, 1:529, 2:1024. Letters dated August 9 and 17, 1611, likely carried home by Strachey:
NAR
, 548-59. Strachey carried the laws to England:
ANC
, 31. “I brought home,” Strachey finds cat’s claws:
HIS
, 124, 125 (
NAR
, 682).