The Isle of Pines | Page 5

an adventurer, and
politics, quite as much as trade, controlled his movements; for the line
between trader, buccaneer, and pirate faded away before conditions
which made treaties of no importance and peaceful relations dependent
upon an absence of the hope of gain. A state of war was not necessary
to prepare the way for attack and plunder in those far distant oceans,
and the merchantman sailed armed and ready to inflict as well as to
repel aggression, only too willing to descend upon a weaker vessel or a
helpless settlement of a power which had come to be regarded as a
"natural enemy." So in Holland and in Germany the leaflets containing
the story of the Isle of Pines were received with mingled feelings,
exciting a desire to share in the possible benefits to be gained or
extorted from natives of the new lands, or from those who had the first
opportunity to exploit a virgin territory. On the first receipt of those
leaflets merchants held back their vessels about to sail, to await more
definite information on this fourth island of the Terra Australis
incognita.
An examination of the known issues of the tract proves this interest and
offers an almost unique study in bibliography; for I doubt if any
publication made in the second half of the seventeenth century--even a
state paper of importance, as a treaty--attained such speedy and
widespread recognition. A list of the various issues will be found in an

appendix: it only remains to call attention to a few of the many
novelties and variant characteristics of the editions.

DUTCH EDITIONS
In June and July, 1668, four tracts on the Isle of Pines from the same
pen were licensed and published in London, which may for
convenience be designated the first and second parts of the narrative,
and the two parts in continuation. From London the tract soon passed to
Holland, which had ever been a greedy consumer of voyages of
discovery, for the greatness of that nation depended upon the sea, at
once its most potent enemy and friend.{1} Three Dutch editions have
been found, the earliest in point of time being that made by Jacob
Vinckel, of Amsterdam.
1 Holland was the centre of map publication as the twenty yean before
1668 saw the issue of atlases by Jansson, Blaeu, Mercator, Doncker,
Cellarius, Loon, Visscher, and Goos, all published at Amsterdam.
Phillips' list for this period gives atlases published elsewhere--those of
Boissevin (Paris, 1653), Lubin (Paris, 1659), Nicolosi (Rome, 1660),
Dudley (Florence, 1661), Du Val (Paris, 1662), Jollain (Paris 1667),
Cluver (Wolfen-bûttel, 1667?) and Ortelius (Venice, 1667).
[ 13 ]His second title is an exact translation of the second title of the
London first part. This version, however, omitted an essential part of
the relation. The London second title is also that of the issue made at
Amsterdam by Jacob Stichter, being the Vinckel version, word for
word, and almost line for line, but the type used is the gothic, and the
spelling of words is not the same. Further, Stichter was possessed of
some imagination and decorated his title-page with a map of a part of
the island, showing ranges of hills, a harbor or mouth of a river, with
conventional soundings, and two towns or settlements. As each of these
issues contains only eight pages of text, the first London part only was
known to the publishers. The third Dutch edition was put out by
Joannes Naeranus, at Rotterdam, and in a foreword he gives the
following reason for issuing the tract:

To the Reader A part of the present relation is also printed by Jacob
Vinckel at Amsterdam, being defective in omitting one of the principal
things, so do we give here a true copy which was sent to us
authoritatively out of England, but in that language, in order that the
curious reader may not be deceived by the poor translation, and for that
reason this very astonishing history fall under suspicion. Lastly, admire
God's wondrous guidance, and farewell.
[ 14 ]His publication contains twenty pages of text, and is not an
accurate translation of the English tract in parts, but rather a paraphrase
of the text. To make the confusion the greater, he expressly states on
the title-page that he used a copy received from London, and gives the
London imprint which will fit only the first London part. For "by S. G."
appears only on the title-page of that part.

FRENCH EDITIONS
From Amsterdam and under date July 19, 1668, a summary of the
earlier Dutch issue with two paragraphs of introduction was sent to
Paris, and was printed in a four-page pamphlet by Sébastien Marbre
Cramoisy, the king's printer, whose name is so honorably connected
with the Jesuit Relations--stories as remarkable as any offered in