the
"Isle of Pines" and of immeasurable value on the earliest years of
recorded history in our New England. Even this summary, thus
definitely dated, offers problems. The location of the island is given in
general terms in the half-title as "below the equinoctial line," and in the
text as in "xxviii or xxix degrees of Antartique latitude." Nowhere in
the first London part is either location used, and in the second London
part, which bears nearly the same date as the Cramoisy summary--July
22--twenty degrees of latitude is given. The writer of the summary thus
allowed himself some freedom.
A second French edition, without imprint, contains eleven pages and is
a translation of the first London part, paraphrased in sentences, but on
the whole a close rendering of the English text There never was a
title-page to this issue--the first page having the signature-mark A--yet
with eleven pages only, it would seem fit that a title-page should round
out the twelve for the convenience of printing.
ITALIAN EDITION
[ 15 ]The Italian issue, made by Giacomo Didini, in Bologna and
Venice, is a literal translation of Cramoisy's publication, and bears the
same date, at Amsterdam, July 19, 1668. The original probably came
from Paris, though it is possible that some Dutch merchant in
Amsterdam sent a circular letter on the discovered Isle to his
correspondents in Paris and Venice. It is unsafe to conjecture in such
matters, for an Amsterdam issue may yet be found which will give,
word for word, the French and Italian versions. Our ignorance on the
press of the continent of those times, and especially the want of files of
"corantos," or news sheets, close a wide field of research to the
American inquirer. The catalogue of the British Museum gives 1669 as
the probable year of issue. I see no good reason for rejecting 1668 as
the more probable year. If the tract could go from London to
Cambridge, in New England, in three months, it could pass from
Amsterdam to Italy, by land or by sea, in an equal time.
GERMAN EDITIONS
[ 16 ]From Holland the relation also penetrated the German states,
finding ready welcome and arousing eager curiosity. Hippe regards the
tract issued by Wilhelm Serlin, at Frankfort on the Main, as the first of
the German publications, and, being translated from the Dutch, he
shows that the translator used both the Amsterdam and the Rotterdam
publications.{1} The Hamburg version claimed to be derived from the
English original, but it followed closely the Serlin translation from the
Dutch with modifications which might have been drawn from the
London tract. An edition not mentioned by Hippe or identified by any
bibliographer is in the John Carter Brown Library, and opens with the
statement that it is translated from the English and not from the Dutch.
It closely follows the text of the London first part. Very likely it is the
edition found at Copenhagen, if the similarity of titles offers an
indication of the contents. South Germany obtained its information
from France, and while neither of the two issues avowedly translated
from the French gives the place of publication, the fact that one is in
Munich and the other in Strassburg offers some reason to conjecture
that they came from the presses of those cities. The Munich issue is for
the most part a summary of what was in the first London issue, and, if
translated directly from a French version, must have been from one not
now located, for it is different from those in the list in this volume. Of
the Strassburg text, Hippe states that it follows the Rotterdam pamphlet
Finally, at Breslau is what calls itself a complete publication of the
combined parts from a copy obtained from London, but it is more
probably based upon the Dutch translations printed in Amsterdam and
Rotterdam, with additions drawn from the English.{2}
1 Hippe, 11.
2 On these German issues Hippe is full, but I have given only what is
needed to identify them.
[ 17 ]One of the strangest uses made of the narrative of Pine is to be
found in Schoeben's translation into German of Jan Mocquet's
"Voyages en Africque," etc., a work of some estimation which had
already twice been published in France and once in a Dutch translation
before Schoeben printed his edition in 1688. As pages inserted quite
arbitrarily in Mocquets compilation, Schoeben gave Pine's story in full,
with a paragraph of introduction which not a little abuses the truth
while giving an additional color of truth. He asserted that while kept at
Lisbon by the Dutch blockade, he was thrown much in the company of
an Englishman, one of the Pine family, who were all regarded as
notable seamen. From this man, then awaiting
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