The Isle of Pines | Page 4

of
reference, but to have a whole series--except one--go wrong pointed to
failing eyes or mind. Very much put out, I read the tract a second time
and corrected the page references, carefully checking up the result.
Some days after I again took up the matter, and in verifying my first
quotation found that I had again put down the wrong page number, and
was surprised to find that the correct page was the one I had first given.
This proved to be the case in all the references--except one. A book
which could thus change its page numbering from week to week was
bewitched--or I was careless. It occurred to me to compare the two
copies of the tract as published by Green. The title-pages were exactly
alike--not differing by so much as a fly speck, but one copy contained
ten pages of text and the other only nine.
[ 9 ]More than that, the general style and the types were quite different
One was printed in a well-known broad but somewhat used type, such
as could be seen in Green's printing, and the other in a finer font with
much italic. There was no possibility of confusing the two issues. Only
one conclusion was possible. I had in this volume the publication by
Green, and the original issue by Marmaduke Johnson, but with Green's
title-page. So for we seem to rest upon solid ground. It may be
surmised that Green set up his "Isle of Pines" in rivalry to Johnson, but
did not incur the discipline of the authorities; or that he had set it up
and also took over Johnson's edition, using his own title-page; and in
either case it is possible that a simple subterfuge, the imprint, "by S. G.
for Allen Banks and Charles Harper," a London combination of

publishers, caused the tract to escape the attention of the examining
local censors. Here was another step in developing the history of this
tract--the discovery of one of Johnson's issues, except for the title-page.
So far as the American connection is concerned, it only remains to
discover a Johnson issue with a Johnson title-page, for in his apology
and submission to the General Court he states that he had "affixed" his
name to the pamphlet.

THE EUROPEAN EDITIONS
The European connection is also not without interest, for the skit--the
first part of the "Isle of Pines," published without name of author--had
an extraordinary run.
[ 10 ]In 1493 a little four-leaved translation into Latin of a Columbus
letter announcing the discovery of islands in the west--De insulis nuper
inventis--ran over Europe, startling the age by a simple relation which
proved a marvellous tale as taken up by Vespuccius, Cortes, and a host
of successors.{1} For a century the darkness of a new found continent
slowly lifted and the record was collected in Ramusio, in De Bry, in
Hulsius, and in Hakluyt, never felling treasuries of the wonderful,
veritable schools for the adventurous. Another century had shown that,
so fer from decreasing in greatness and in opportunities, the field of
discovery had not begun to be tested, and in the summer of 1668 a new
island--the Isle of Pines--was flashed before the London crowd, and
proved that the flame of quest with danger was still burning. A new
island! The interest was international, for nations had already long
fought over the old discovered lands.
1 The intelligent industry of Mr. Wilberforce Eames has identified
eleven issues of the letter of Columbus, printed in 1493, in Barcelona,
Rome, Basle, Paris, and Antwerp; and twelve issues of the Novus
Mundus of Vespucci us, printed in 1504, in Augsburg, Paris,
Nuremberg, Cologne, Antwerp, and Venice. An earlier and even more
extraordinary distribution of a letter of news is that of the letter
purporting to be addressed by Prester John to the Emperor Manuel,

which circulated through Europe about 1165. "How great was the
popularity and diffusion of this letter," writes Sir Henry Yule, "may be
judged in some degree from the fad that Zarncke in his treatise on
Prester John gives a list of close on 100 mss. of it Of these there are
eight in the British Museum, ten at Vienna, thirteen in the great Paris
Library, and fifteen at Munich. There are also several renderings in old
German verse." The cause of this popularity was the hope offered by
the reported exploits of Prester John of a counterpoise to the
Mohammedan power. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., xxii. 305.
An even greater contest was being waged for commerce, and with the
experience of Spain in gathering the precious metals from new found
lands, every discovery of hitherto uncharted territory opened the
possibility of wealth and an exchange of commodities, if rapine and
piracy could not be practised. The merchant was