NOTES Page 1.-Francis Bacon (1561-1626), statesman and author, was the first to write in English literary prose on inductive philosophy and the right method of advancing science. He introduced into our literature a new form of prose-the essay. He held high offices in the State, culminating in that of Lord Chancellor, 1618-1621. The essay on Plantations first appeared in the third edition of the Essays, published in 1625. Page 1.-Plantations. Literally the place planted, land brought under cultivation. In sixteenth and seventeenth-century English it meant a planting with people or settlers, hence a colony. Page 2.-Certain. Fixed. Page 3.-As it hath fared with tobacco in Virginia. Tobacco was found to be the most profitable crop in Virginia, and complaints were made that it was cultivated to the exclusion of other products. Page 3.—Bay-salt. Salt obtained from sea-water by evaporation in shallow pits or basins by the heat of the sun. Page 3.-Growing. Vegetable. Page 3-Soap-ashes. Ashes containing lye or potash, and hence useful in making soap. Page 3.-Useth to make. Usually makes. Page 3.-Present. Immediate. Cf. "A very present help in time of trouble." Page 4.—Gingles. Jingles, rattles. Page 4.-Destitute. Abandon. Page 4.-Commiserable persons. Persons to be commiserated or pitied. Page 5.-Captain John Smith (1580–1631), after serving as a soldier in France and Hungary, and going through various strange adventures, joined in 1605 an expedition to colonize Virginia. He was elected President of the colony in 1608. He died in London. His works (reprinted by Arber, 1884) give a full account of his travels and adventures. His English style, it will be noted, compares favourably with that of any of the prose writers of his time. Page 6.—Columbus (1447-1506), the discoverer of the New World, was born at Genoa. He conceived the design of reaching India by sailing westward, and in 1492, under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, reached the islands since known as the West Indies. In a third voyage (1498) he reached the mainland of South America. Page 6.—Terra Incognita. Literally the Unknown Land; now Australasia. Page 9.-Overlain. Too fully occupied, over-populated. Page 10.-Sir George Peckham (d. 1608), merchant adventurer, took part in the colonization schemes of Sir Humphry Gilbert, and published in 1583 "A true Report of the late Discoveries and Possessions taken of the Newfoundlands." Page 12.-Husbandry. A term applied to the various branches of agriculture. Page 14.-Edward Winslow (1595-1655), Governor of the colony of New England, was one of the pilgrims who sailed in the Mayflower, and in 1624 was appointed Governor of the settlers at Plymouth. Page 15.-His Majesty. James I. Page 16.-Cathay. China or Tartary. Page 16.-Sir Humphry Gilbert (1439-1583), navigator. His "Discourse on a North-West Passage to India" was published in 1576. His first expedition (1578-1579) was not a success, but he undertook a second in 1583, when he reached the shores of America, and annexed Newfoundland. His ship went down on the homeward voyage. Page 16.-North-West Passage. A route for ships going from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the way of the north of America. The ice-bound seas of the high northern latitudes are too difficult to navigate to allow of such a route ever becoming of permanent or practical use. Page 17.-Alexander the Great conquered India in 326 B.C. Page 17.-Quintus Curtius wrote a history of the deeds of Alexander the Great about 41-54 A.D. The text is imperfect, and the work has little value as history. Page 18.-Staple. A settled market or emporium. Page 18.-Sierra Nevada. The name of mountain ranges both in North and South America. The words mean 66 snowy range." Page 18.-Esther, Ahasuerus. Cf. the Book of Esther, i. 1-7. Page 18.-Hamborough. Hamburg, on the Elbe, the largest of the three free Hanseatic cities in Germany, and the fourth most important commercial centre in Europe. Page 18.—Emden, a commercial town in the German province of Hanover, was from 1595 to 1744 a free Imperial town under the protection of Holland. Page 19.-Cosmographer. One who describes the universe, including the heavens and the earth. Page 20.-Plat out. Plan. Page 20.-Sea-card. A paper on which the points of the compass are marked, or, more probably here, a chart of the sea. Page 20.-Guiana. The region lying between the Orinoco and the Amazon in South America. 66 Page 20.—Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) took a leading part in the Spanish wars, and was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. On the accession of James I. he was arrested for treason, and condemned to death. He was reprieved, however, and kept a prisoner in the Tower for twelve years. During that time he wrote his History of the World." He asked to be allowed to proceed to South America in quest of a gold mine he knew of. His desire was granted, on his promise not to attack the Spaniards. He was not able to keep his word, and was beheaded in 1618, on the old charge of treason. The voyage to Guiana took place in 1595, and he published his account of it the next year. Page 20.-There appeared some ten or twelve overfalls . . . for a smoke that had risen over some great town. Cf. Livingstone's description of the Zambesi Falls, p. 156. Page 21.-Trinidad. One of the British West India Islands. It was discovered by Columbus in 1498, and belonged successively to the Spaniards, Dutch, and French. It fell into the hands of the British in 1797, and they were confirmed in its possession in 1802. Page 21.—Carácas. The capital of Venezuela, a province situated in the north of South America. Page 22.-Bristol diamond. Brilliant crystals of colourless quartz found in St. Vincent's Rock, Clifton, near Bristol. Page 22.-Her Majesty. Queen Elizabeth. Page 22.-As good cheap, as cheap. Formerly, the longer expression was always used. Page 23.-The Lake of Manoa was in the fabulous region of El P Dorado (the Golden Land) imagined to exist in America by its Spanish conquerors. Page 25.-Cortez (1485-1547), the conqueror of Mexico, in the reign of its last Emperor, Montezuma, was a Spaniard. The conquest took from 1518 to 1522, in which year Cortez was appointed Governor and Captain-General of New Spain, as the Spaniards called Mexico. Page 25.-Pizarro (1478-1541), the conqueror of Peru, was also a native of Spain. His chief expedition lasted from 1531-1533. He was murdered at Lima by conspirators. Page 25.-The West Indies .. by Columbus. Columbus (cf. note to p. 6) applied to Henry VII., Elizabeth's grandfather, to patronise his expedition to reach India by sailing westward. Page 25.-Contratation House. An office where contracts could be made. Page 25.-Inga or Inca. The title of the native sovereigns of Peru. Page 26.-Inglatierra. England. Page 27.-Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). His fame as a poet rests on his great allegorical poem, the "Faery Queen," published 1590-1596. In the poem "Colin Clout's come Home again," which has been well called "an exquisite diary," Spenser gives a delightful account of his visit to England (he was living in Ireland) in 1591, and seizes the opportunity to praise Elizabeth and sing the glories of her empire. Page 27.-Bold men... leading down to hell. A reference to the discoverers and explorers of the time. Page 27.—Thorough. Through. Cf. “Thoroughfare.” Page 28.-Regiment. Realm or rule. Page 28.-Hight. Was called. Page 28.-Cynthia. A fanciful name for the queen. Page 28.-Triton. Properly the son of Neptune, represented as a fish with a human head. It is he who is supposed to make the roaring of the ocean by blowing through his shell. Here the name stands for Lord Howard of Effingham, the Lord High Admiral of England. Page 28.—William Harrison (1534-1593) was one of the Elizabethan historians. His "Description of England" was printed as a preface to the first edition of Holinshed's "Chronicle,” 1577. Page 29.-Burden. Freight. Page 29.-Cunning. Cleverness. Page 29.-Queen's Majesty of England. Elizabeth. Page 29.-Let. Hesitate. Page 30.-Robert Cushman (1580-1625), one of the Plymouth pilgrims, published in 1621 a pamphlet on "Emigration to America." He was chiefly employed in managing the business of the colonists in Europe. Page 34.—Pocahontas (1595-1617) was the daughter of the Indian Chief Powhatan. In 1613 she was brought a prisoner to Jamestown, where she embraced Christianity, and in 1614 married an Englishman, Master John Rolfe. She accompanied her husband to England in 1616, but died the next year just as they started on the return voyage to Virginia. She left one son, and several Virginian families claim descent from her. Page 35.-Rarowcun. The raccoon, an animal peculiar to the United States. Its fur resembles that of the beaver. Page 36.—Michael Drayton (1563-1631) belonged to a group of Elizabethan poets known as the "patriotic" poets, who gloried in England's greatness and in her queen. They wrote poems in praise of their country or related the history of their land in verse. Drayton's most considerable poem is "Polyolbion," a poetical description of England, published between 1612 and 1622. His stirring "Ballad of Agincourt" takes rank among the finest of our war-songs. Page 36.-Hinds. Peasants, agricultural labourers. (A.-S. hina, a farmer.) Page 36.—Eolus. The god of the winds in Roman mythology. Page 37.-Sassafras. A tree or shrub of the natural order of the Lauraceæ, found in North America from Canada to Florida. The bark of the root is used for medicinal purposes. The wood or bark infused makes an agreeable beverage once sold in the streets of London under the name of Saloop. Page 37.-Kenning of. Recognizing. Page 38.-Hackluit (generally written Hakluyt) (1552-1616), geographer, collected materials for describing the voyages of English discoverers and explorers. His book first appeared in |