The Muse of History is capricious. She has printed large and often A Description of New England, written by Captain John Smith ten years after he himself had been told about this northern part of "Virginia" by Bartholomew Gosnold, Gabriel Archer, and others of his intimates in the Jamestown colony. Yet quite inexcusably, this mythical custodian of ancient documents has premitted a prior work on the same subject to fade from men's memories.
The prior work, called A Treatise, written by Captain Edward Hayes, is a succient and reasonably accurate account of the flora and fauna of the coast between the forieth and forty-fourth degrees of latitude, the region afterwards named "New England" by Captain John Smith. It was not, like Captain Smith's Description, a report of a voyage to these parts, but a compilation of the known and assumed facts which had been collected by Richard Hakluyt for the use of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's proposed expedition to the region -- known at the time as Norembega. Hayes had, therefore, no information about the geographical aspects of the coast or its inhabitants, but was solely concerned with its resources or "commodities:, with particular reference to the economic needs of England, and the desirability of the land as a place where English colonies might be planted.
The significance of Hayes' Treatise derives from the fact that it was used as a prospectus, or plan, of the voyage undertaken by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, although it was not printed until three months after Gosnold's return to England, and then as an appendix to the work called, in short, John Brereton's A Brief and True Relation of the Discoverie of the North part of Virginia. The Treatise was obviously intended to be an introduction or explination of Gosnold's objectives on the voyage which Brereton describes in his narrative.
Captain Hayes is best remembered as captain of the Golden Hind -- one of the ships in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition of 1583 -- and as the chronicler of that expedition. the Golden Hind was the only ship to return safely to England of the three that made the disastrous attempt to coast southward to Norumbega from Newfoundland. The loss of his largest ship, with most of the supplies for the expedition on board, had compelled Gilbert to abandon his project, somewhere off the coast of Nova Scotia.
On a fair September day, when Gilbert's small frigate and Hayes' Golden Hind lay not far apart, before starting their return voyage, Gilbert was able to board the Golden Hind to confer with Hayes. His words were in the nature of a last will and testament, for as has already been related, his little ship, the Squirrle, with all on board, was bound to eternity.
Gilbert's final word to Captain Hayes was that he "assigned the Captaine & Master of the Golden Hind, unto the South discovery, and reserved unto himselfe the North, affirming that this voyage had wonne his heart from the South, and that he was now become a Northerne man altogether." He announced that he planned to undertake another voyage to Newfoundland in the following spring. This directive laid upon Hayes the sponsibility for finding the lands in Norumbega that Gilbert, with the assurance of a land-speculator selling sight unseen, had assigned to his supporters,. Long after the original assignees had lost their rights, Hayes turned over to Bartholomew Gosnold the privilege of making the "South discovery."
Immediately upon his return to England in 1583, Hayes reported to Sir George Peckham, chief assignee of land in Norumbega by indenture from Sir Humphrey Gilbert,. Peckham and his son had been given "fifteen hundred thousand acres of ground" -- twice the area of the modern state of Rhode Island. This was to be located at Peckham's discretion on the west side of "that river or port called by Master John Dee, Dee River, which river by the directions of John Verrazanus, a Florentine, lyeth in latitude 42º and hath his mouth lying open to the south half a league broad, or thereabout, and entering within the said bay between the east and the north increaseth his breadth and continueth twelve leagues or thereabouts, a containeth in itself five small islands newly named the Cinque Isles." This was the heart of the supposed "gold country" described by Verrazzano, which became Gosnold's "purposed place", at 41º 40' N. on the American coast.
Sir George Peckham had in hand the draft of the tract mentioned in the first chapter of this study. It was a verbose document, replete with citations from the classics and arguments setting forth the desirability of English colonization in Norumbega. Peckham hastily reorganized his material, adding as his first chapter a report on Gilbert's expedition obtained from a "right honest and discreet gentleman:, Master Edward hayes. Within a matter of weeks, Peckham's manuscript was in the hands of a printer, to be published under the title A True Report.
The need of haste was evident, because Gilbert's rights under his patent, passed on to his assignee, where to lapse in June, 1584, if no settlement had been made by that time. This gave Peckham only a few months to organize an expedition, to start early in the spring following the publication of his book. Nothing came of the efforts to promote such an expedition, and Captain Hayes could not perform the task laid upon him by Sir Humphrey.
Peckham, for some obscure reason -- perhaps Spain -- was somewhat coy in his True Reporte about revealing the location of the vast acreage assigned to him. He remarked that he did not make the latitude of it public "because I do certainly understand that some of those which have the managing of this matter know it as well or better than I myself, and do mean to reveal the same when cause shall require to such persons whom it shall concern and to no other." Eventually, as one of those managing the matter, Captain Edward Hayes, quite probably passed the required information on to Bartholomew Gosnold, as the latter sailed directly for Peckham's assigned lands in the latitude given by Verrazzano.
The Dee River mentioned in Peckham's indenture appears on Dr. Dee's may, but without the name. On it is situated the town of Norumbega, supposedly the Indian captial of a large province. The river is drawn as a mighty one, formed by the confluence of two large streams flowing down from nountains. Although it is shown as imptying into the west side of the head of Narragansett Bay, it is doubtless the Taunton River, which is navigable some thirty miles up from Fall River, on the northeastern branch of the Bay, and which has a tributary more or less like the one shown on Dr. Dee's map. John Winthorp, Jr., of Connecticut, wrote of this river to his father in 1636, saying, "A ship of 500 tons may go up to about ten or twelve miles." In a smaller vessel he had sailed far beyond that point to the head of navigation, at a place called by the Indians "Titicut". But where Dr. Dee got his knowledge of this river is a mystery.
About this time, late in 1583 or realy in 1584, Hayes wrote a long and satisfying, account of Gilbert's expedition at the request of Richard Hakluyt, who published it in his Principall Navigations of 1589.
In the wild years after the destruction of the Spanish Armada -- in 1589 and 1590 -- when English ships unhindered were sweeping the Atlantic in search of enemies to plunder, Captain Hayes was haled before the High Court of Admiralty to answer three counts of piracy on the high seas, an English, a Dutch, and an Irish ship being involved. We do not know either Hayes' defense or the issue of the cases; but in 1596, and after, Hayes enjoyed the confidence of Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State, of the Early of Essex, of high officials in Ireland, and finally of King James himself. Obviously Hayes had not blemished his record.
In a letter from Edward hayes to Sir Robert Cecil, dated May 15, 1596, Hayes showed interest in a project which other letters indicate was a proposal of copper coinage for Ireland. Anticipating a rejection of his plan, it seems Hayes wrote of himself as "now an olde professed Sea man and zealous towards the voyage of Guiana. Whearyn . . . I am veary willyng to follow Sir Walter Raulegh with the best meanes I can procure." But Hayes made no voyage to Guiana. From 1599 on, to the end of his life, he was actively engaged in Irish affairs. In this interval, therefore, between his vague dream of a Giana project in 1596 and the beginning of his employment in Ireland in 1599, must be placed his revival of interest in a voyage to the "northern part of Virginia", and the writing of his Treatise.
A passage in the Treatise sharply criticizing Sir Walter Ralegh for his failures in the "southern part of Virginia" lends some support to this dating. The words are found in Hayes' argument for his own plan, which reads in part as follows:
[Upon the] coasts of Newfound-land is the greatest fishing of the world; whither doe yeerely repaire about 400 sailes of ships, for no other commodite than Fish and Waleoiles.
[But once we have transported some few people, there will also be profit by trading with the Savages and our merchants will be encouraged to invest. Then] the supply shall easily and continually be sent by ships, which yearly goe from hence unto the Newfound-land and [back to] us; and the intercourse & exchange we shall have with all nations repairing thither, shall store us with aboundance of all things for our necessities and delights. Which reasons if they had been foreseene of them that planted in the South part of Virginia (which is a place destitute of good harbours, and farre from all trade) no doubt but if they had settled neerer unto this frequented trade in the Newfound-land, they had by this time been a flourishing State, and plentifull in all things.
These words obviously were written more than a few years after Ralegh's unsuccessful efforts, begun in 1585, to bring about the colonization of "the South part of Virginia."
The first paragraph of Hayes' Treatise deserves to be quoted in full, not only for its expressed intention to start a colony in the temperate zone, but also for its quaint meterological concepts:
The voyage which we intend, is to plant Christian people and religion upon the Northwest countries of America [i.e. northwest of the Atlantic', in places temperat and well agreeing with our constitution, which though the same doe lie between 40. and 44. degrees of latitude, under the Paralels of Italy and France, yet are not they so hot; by reason that the suns heat is qualified in his course over the Ocean, before he arriveth upon the coasts of America, attracting much vapour from the sea: which mitigation of his heat, we take for a benefit to us that intend to inhabit there; because under the Climate of 40 degrees, the same would be too vehement els for our bodies to endure.
Elsewhere, Hayes wrote of "those lands which we intend to inhabit, mentions those who will be "trading with us at our intended place", and throughout, by the use of the first person plural, indicated plainly that he himself was to be the leader -- or at least a member -- of the colony. It appears, however, from the evidence of Brereton's Relation, that the leadership of the expedition passed to Bartholomew Gosnold, perhaps because there was insufficient financial support in sight before the Earl of Southhampton came to Gosnold's aid. Meanwhile, Hayes had entered (1599) upon permanent employment in Ireland, obviously preferring an assured position to the chances and dangers of an attempted settlement in America at his advanced age.
The steps by which this leadership developed on Gosnold must remain a matter of conjecture. Captain Edward Hayes was well-known to the Judde-Winter family, into which Bartholomew had, so to speak, married in 1595, Hayes and Captain William Winter (first-cousin of Bartholomew's wife) had been fellow captains on the Gilbert expedition in 1583. Long before that, in 1567, when Hayes was a youth of perhaps seventeen, his father also Edward, a Liverpool merchant, was mentioned as the bearer of a letter of Captain William Winter's father and another naval man, both described as "Queen's officers of Admiralty in London." This points to early contacts between the Hayes and Winter families. But it is more interesting to find a letter written December 21, 1601, by Edward Hayes the younger and his "kinsman", Thomas Hayes, to Secretary Cecil from "Clerkenwell Close, at Lady Scott's house." So far as is known, Lady Scott can be none other than the wife of Sir John Scott -- his second wife, whom he married in or about 1599. She was sister of Sir Thomas Smythe, first-cousin of Bartholomew's wife, on the other side of the involved family-tree. These notes make it certain that Captain Hayes was qcquainted with Bartholomew Gosnold's "in-laws", and probably with Bartholomew himself.
There can be little doubt also that Richard Hakluyt, who may well have known Gosnold as well as he knew Hayes, had a hand in the arrangement by which Gosnold undertook in 1602 the voyage originally planned by Hayes. Prolonged study of all the pertinent circumstantial evidence will almost certainly lead to the conclusion that both the Gosnold voyage of 1602 and the Salterne-Pring voyage of 1603 were planned by the alert geographer to open up for settlement and trade the Norumbega that had intrigued him in his younger days. It is to be remembered that in his Discourse of Western Planting, presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1584, Hakluyt had much to say about the desirability of Norumbega as a place of English colonization. In 1602 and 1603 he had two young protegés, Gosnold and Salterne, at hand to make the initial voyages.
More or less by chance is Hakluyt's connection with the Salterene-Pring voyage of 1603 known: the narrative of that voyage, with its information about Hakluyt's share in it, came into the possession of the Rev. Samuel Purchase after Hakluyt's death and was published in Purchas His Pilgrimes. On the other hand, the publication of the documents connected with Gosnold's voyage was evidently in Hakluyt's own hands; there was one other to tell of Hakluyt's connection with the enterprise, and he did not choose to do so. Nevertheless, his guiding hand is seen behind Gosnold's voyage, as will become clearer.
It seems althogether probable, therefore, that it was Hakluyt who persuaded Bartholomew Gosnold to adopt as his own the plan for a voyage worked out by the old "professed Sea man", Captain Edward Hayes. The evidence that Gosnold did just this is found not only in the fact that the Treatise was united in publication with Brereton's Relation, but also in a comparison of some of the essential points made by Hayes with the reports made by Brereton and Archer. These may be most conveniently arranged in a series of numbered paragraphs,as follows:
1. Hayes wrote, "The course unto these countries is through the ocean . . . to be made; apt for most winds that blow, to be performed commonly in thirty or thirty five days." Gosnold's direct crossing actually took about seven weeks; but Brereton was careful to report, "We werre longer in our passage that we expected, which pappened that for our bark being weak, we were loath to press her with much sail."
2. Hayes wrote, "so as the only difficulty now is in our first preparation ot transport some few people at the beginning." The narratives of the voyage report that Gosnold intended to establish a settlement, perhaps more accurately a trading station, beginning with twenty men. The sincerity of Gosnold's effort has been questiioned,on the ground that this small number indicated a certain unwillingness to envisage realities in the planting of a colony. But the historians who make this criticism are obviously unaware that Gosnold was following what at the time seemed to be best of advice; and they certainly forgetful of the fact that Captain John Smith, after two and a half years' experience in Virginia, purposed in 1614 to effect a settlement in the same region ("Norumbega") with sixteen men and boys.
3. Hayes wrote, "The charges whereof shall be defrayed by our first return of fish and some commodities of sassafras, hides, skins and furs." The main item in Gosnold's return cargo was sassafras. At three shillings the pound, the long ton stowed below on the ship was reckoned to be worth £336 sterling. Some furs were obtained from the Indians, but probably not many, as it was not the reason for taking furs. The hold of the ship was filled with cedar logs, also mentioned by Hayes as a desirable and valuable commodity.
4. Hayes wrote, "Neither is it our intent to provoke, but to cherish and win [the savages] unto Christianity by fair means; yet not to trust them too far, but to provide against all accidents." It is evident from both Brereton and Archer that Gosnold's company treated the natives with courtesy and consideration; their petty theivery is mentioned as an excusable trait in untutored savages. At the same time it is obvious that Gosnold refrained from landing on shores thronged with Indians. The explorers found on a remote island a lake with plot of ground an acre in extent in the center of it. Here the prospective settlers built their "fort" in seclusion, with the lake forming a natural moat about it, maintaining guards lest they be caught unaware. They arrived and left, however, at peace with the local inhabitants.
5. Hayes wrote, "The cliffs upon the coast and mountains everywhere show great likelihood of minerals. A very rich mine of copper is fouond, whereof I have seen proof; and the place described." Both Archer and Brereton indicated plainly that they were on the lookout for minerals. Archer mentioned "many glittering stones, somewhat heavy," brought up on the lead while sounding off he coast of Maine; he also remarked at "Savage Rock", where but a brief stay was made, that the cliffs were all rocky "and of shinning stones which might have persuaded us to a longer stay there." Brereton reported of the island named Martha's Vineyard that the "seaside [is] all covered with stones, many of them glistering and shinning like mineral stones." Both narrators described fully the copper ornaments worn by the natives. Brereton told how he learned by sign language that the copper for these ornaments came from mines on the mainland.
6. Hayes remarked, "There be fair quarries of stone, of beautiful colors for buildings." Brereton reported "this island [Martha's Vineyard], as also all the rest of these islands, are full of all sorts of stones for building."
7. Hayes mentioned trees that would make masts for the greatest ships of the world. Brereton reported an island full of high timbered oaks and cedars "straight and tall".
8. Hayes wrote, "The soil is exceeding strong, by reason that it was never manured." Both narrators reported a successful experiment in planting, showing that English seed would sprout to a height of nine inches or more in two weeks.
9. Hayes wrote, "Fish, namely cods, which as we incline more unto the south, are more large and vendible . . . " Brereton and Archer confirm this by their reports on cod fishing at Cape Cod and at Martha's Vineyard. Hayes mentioned other sorts of fish, "more plentiful than in any parts of the known world." Brereton wrote that the schools of fish that they daily saw were "wonderful."
10. Hayes wrote, "The ground bringeth forth without industry, peas . . . grapes" Brereton wrote of a great "store" of peas "which grow in certain plots all the island over," and of vines "that we could not go for treading upon them."
Hayes concluded in his Treatise with a discussion of the widespread hope that there waas a river in the temperate zone which would afford passage through the continent to the South Sea -- still so called, although Magellan had long since named it the Pacific. When Gosnold explored the head of the bay now known as Buzzards Bay, he found the outlets of two small streams. Of these Archer wrote, "this land is beautified with two main rivers that (as we judge) may haply become good harbors, and conduct us to the hopes men so greedily do thirst after."
There are many other commodities mentioned in the narratives, too numerous to be listed here, which seem to have been selected for notice by way of direct report on the fulfilment of Hayes' expectations. This breif comparison leaves no reasonable doubt that Gosnold used Hayes' work -- a description of the regiion that Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed to "discover" -- as a guide-book to his own "purposed place." In this sense, Hayes undoubtedly bridged the gap between Gilbert and Bartholomew Gosnold, passing on to the latter the task of finding in the temperate zone the lands Gilbert had set apart for settlement.
An Edward Heyes of Liverpool, gentleman, left a will dated November 7, 1598, and proved October 12, 1602. This was the will of the father of Captain Edward Hayaes, to whom he left a gold signet-ring, and nothing else. The chief bequest in the will was a long gold chain, which the testator's "lord and master" gave him when he waited on him a Court. This chain was given to John Egerton of Egerton, about whose connection with Hayes nothing is known, while the residue, after other bequests, went to the testator's wife.
Edward Hayes, in addition to the project for copper coinage for Ireland in 1696 had a ascheme for copper coinage in England which unsuccessfully brought up with Lord Burghley for the better part of two decades, after which he pursued each successive Lord Treasurer until 1613 with no better luck. Other schemes he had, too, many of which fell through. Still, four years of intensive effort ended in his obtaining a handsome pension of £100 a year shortly after the accession of James I in 1603. This was his reward until the end of his life for help in carrying out the debasement of the English silver coinage. A "public service" it was called.
Apart from America, Hayes was full of schemes of various kinds up to his death. On June 20, 1610, a petition is recorded for reviving an old decayed forest in York, belonging to the Duchy of Lancaster, which Captains Thomas and Edward Hayes would lease.
No documents concerning Edward Hayes appear in the records after 1613, from which it is probably to be inferred that he died about 1614. He cannot have been much older than Ralegh, that greater but still unseuuessful coloniallist, so it may be reckoned that he was perhaps thiry-three when he made his memorable voyage with Ralegh's half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. That would have made him fifty-two or thereabouts when he turned over to Bartholomew Gosnold his plans for a "north Virginia" (New England ) settlement.
