HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer Excerpt from Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590) 1

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Excerpt from Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of

Virginia (1590) 1

When the first colony of Roanoke was established in 1585 two of the colonists, Thomas Harriot and John White,

set out to explore the surrounding area. A Briefe and True Report is Harriot’s account of his travels; it was

published at a time when Sir Walter Raleigh was trying to drum up interest in establishing a second colony at

Roanoke. At the end of the book, Harriot included a number of drawings that John White made of the people

and places they had seen on their travels.

Harriot seems to have picked up some of the local Algonquin dialect spoken around Roanoke during his

time in North America, but it is unclear whether (or to what degree) Harriot and the Native Americans he

encountered would have been able to make themselves understood to each other. Therefore we must critically

evaluate Harriot’s statements when he asserts that Native Americans communicated a certain piece of

information to him or when he states that Native Americans thought a particular way.

Sixteenth-century English differs quite a bit from the English that we use today. There was no

standardized spelling in the sixteenth century. For example, in Harriot’s day the letters “u” and “v” were used

interchangeably. Harriot’s Briefe and True Report is therefore a challenging source to read. There is a silver

lining to starting off the summer session with a difficult source: once you have successfully tackled Harriot (and

together we will successfully work out what he is saying), most of the other assigned sources will be a piece of

cake!

Harriot’s purposes for writing his Briefe and True Report:

First that some of you which are yet ignorant or doubtfull of the state thereof, may see that there is sufficient

cause why the cheefe enterpriser with the favour of her Maiestie, notwithstanding suche reportes; hath not

onelie since continued the action by sending into the countrey againe, and replanting this last yeere a new

Colony; but is also readie, according as the times and meanes will affoorde, to follow and prosecute the same.

Secondly, that you seeing and knowing the continuance of the action by the view hereof you may generally

know & learne what the countrey is, & ther upon consider how your dealing therein if it proceede, may returne

you profit and gaine, bee it either by inhabitting & planting or otherwise in furthering thereof.

Harriot’s response to Roanoke colonists who were unhappy with their experiences:

… many …. were never out of the Iland where wee were seated, or not farre, or at the leastwise in few places

els, during the time of our aboade in the countrey; or of that many that after golde and silver was not so soone

found, as it was by them looked for, had little or no care of any other thing but to pamper their bellies; or of that

many which had little understanding, lesse discretion, and more tongue then was needfull or requisite.

1 The Briefe and True Report was first published in 1588; a new edition, with pictures drawn by John White, was issued in 1590. For

background on the English colonies at Roanoke see Out of Many, pp. 2021 and 3537.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Some also were of a nice bringing up, only in cities or townes, or such as never (as I may say) had seene

the world before. Because there were not to bee found any English cities, nor such faire houses, nor at their

owne wish any of their olde accustomed daintie food, nor any soft beds of downe or fethers: the countrey was to

them miserable, & their reports thereof according.

Because my purpose was but in briefe to open the cause of the varietie of such speeches; the particularities

of them, and of many envious, malicious, and slanderous reports and devises els, by our owne countrey men

besides; as trifles that are not worthy of wise men to bee thought upon, I meane not to trouble you withall: but

will passe to the commodities, the substance of that which I have to make relation of unto you.

Commodities to be found in Virginia:

Pitch, Tarre, Rozen, and Turpentine.

There are those kindes of trees which yeelde them abundantly and great store. In the very same Iland

where wee were seated, being fifteene miles of length, and five or fixe miles in breadth, there are fewe trees els

but of the same kind; the whole Iland being full.

Copper.

A hundred and fiftie miles into the maine in two townes wee founde with the inhabitants diverse small

plates of copper, that had beene made as wee understood, by the inhabitantes that dwell farther into the

countrey: where as they say are mountaines and Rivers that yeelde also whyte graynes of Mettall, which is to

bee deemed Siluer. For confirmation whereof at the time of our first arrivall in the Countrey, I sawe with some

others with mee, two small peeces of silver grosly beaten about the weight of a Testrone, 2 hangyng in the eares

of a Wiroans 3 or chiefe Lorde that dwelt about fourescore myles from vs; of whom thorowe enquiry, by the

number of dayes and the way, I learned that it had come to his handes from the same place or neere, where I

after understood the copper was made and the white graynes of mettall founde. The aforesaide copper wee also

founde by triall to holde silver.

… and a new commodity:

There is an herbe which is sowed a part by it selfe & is called by the inhabitants Uppowoc: In the West Indies it

hath divers names, according to the severall places & countries where it groweth and is used: The Spaniardes

generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder: they use to take the fume or

smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of claie into their stomacke and heade; from whence it purgeth

superfluous fleame 4 & other grosse humors, openeth all the pores & passages of the body: by which meanes the

use thereof, not only preserveth the body from obstructions; but also if any be, so that they have not beene of

2 A unit of measurement.

3 Wiroans: a tribal chief.

4 Phlegm.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

too long continuance, in short time breaketh them: wherby their bodies are notably preserved in health, & know

not many greevous diseases where withall wee in England are oftentimes afflicted.

…We our selves during the time we were there used to suck it after their maner, as also since our

returne, & have found maine rare and wonderful experiments of the vertues thereof; of which the relation

woulde require a volume by it selfe: the use of it by so manie of late, men & women of great calling as else, and

some learned Phisitions 5 also, is sufficient witnes.

On the manners and customs of the Native Americans:

In some places of the countrey one onely towne belongeth to the government of a Wiróans or chiefe Lorde; in

other some two or three, in some sixe, eight, & more; the greatest Wiróans that yet we had dealing with had but

eighteene townes in his government, and able to make not above seven or eight hundred fighting men at the

most: The language of every government is different from any other, and the farther they are distant the greater

is the difference.

Their maner of warres amongst themselves is either by sudden surprising one an other most commonly

about the dawning of the day, or moone light; or els by ambushes, or some suttle devises: Set battels are very

rare, except it fall out where there are many trees, where eyther part may have some hope of defence, after the

deliverie of every arrow, in leaping behind some or other.

If there fall out any warres between us & them, what their fight is likely to bee, we having advantages

against them so many maner of waies, as by our discipline, our strange weapons and devises els; especially by

ordinance great and small, it may be easily imagined; by the experience we have had in some places, the turning

up of their heeles against us in running away was their best defence.

In respect of us they are a people poore, and for want of skill and iudgement in the knowledge and use of

our things, doe esteeme our trifles before thinges of greater value: Notwithstanding in their proper manner

considering the want of such meanes as we have, they seeme very ingenious; For although they have no such

tooles, nor any such craftes, sciences and artes as wee; yet in those thinges they doe, they shewe excellencie of

wit. And by howe much they upon due consideration shall finde our manner of knowledges and craftes to

exceede theirs in perfection, and speed for doing or execution, by so much the more is it probable that they

shoulde desire our friendships & love, and have the greater respect for pleasing and obeying us. Whereby may

bee hoped if meanes of good government bee used, that they may in short time be brought to civilitie, and the

imbracing of true religion.

On religion:

And this is the summe of their religion, which I learned by having special familiarity with some of their

priestes. Wherein they were not so sure grounded, nor gave such credite to their traditions and stories but

through conversing with us they were brought into great doubts of their owne, and no small admiration of ours,

5 Physicians.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

with earnest desire in many, to learne more than we had meanes for want of perfect utterance in their language

to expresse…

Manie times and in every towne where I came, according as I was able, I made declaration of the

contentes of the Bible; that therein was set foorth the true and onelie GOD, and his mightie woorkes, that

therein was contayned the true doctrine of salvation through Christ, with manie particularities of Miracles and

chiefe poyntes of religion, as I was able then to utter, and thought fitte for the time. And although I told them

the booke materially & of it self was not of anie such vertue, as I thought they did conceive, but onely the

doctrine therein contained; yet would many be glad to touch it, to embrace it, to kisse it, to hold it to their brests

and heades, and stroke over all their bodie with it; to shewe their hungrie desire of that knowledge which was

spoken of.

The Wiroans with whom we dwelt [was] called Wingina, and many of his people would be glad many

times to be with us at our praiers, and many times call upon us both in his owne towne, as also in others whither

he sometimes accompanied us, to pray and sing Psalmes; hoping thereby to bee partaker of the same effectes

which wee by that meanes also expected…

One other rare and strange accident, leaving others, will I mention before I ende, which mooved the

whole countrey that either knew or hearde of us, to have us in wonderfull admiration.

There was no towne where we had any subtile devise practised against us, we leaving it unpunished or not

revenged (because wee sought by all meanes possible to win them by gentlenesse) but that within a few dayes

after our departure from everie such towne, the people began to die very fast, and many in short space; in some

townes about twentie, in some fourtie, in some sixtie, & in one sixe score, which in trueth was very manie in

respect of their numbers. This happened in no place that wee coulde learne but where wee had bene, where they

used some practise against us, and after such time; The disease also so strange, that they neither knew what it

was, nor how to cure it; the like by report of the oldest men in the countrey never happened before, time out of

minde. A thing specially observed by us as also by the naturall inhabitants themselves.

…Insomuch that when some of the inhabitants which were our friends & especially the Wiroans

Wingina had observed such effects in foure or five towns to follow their wicked practises, they were perswaded

that it was the worke of our God through our meanes, and that wee by him might kil and slai whom wee would

without weapons and not come neere them…

This marvelous accident in all the countrie wrought so strange opinions of us, that some people could

not tel whether to think us gods or men, and the rather because that all the space of their sicknesse, there was no

man of ours knowne to die, or that was specially sicke: they noted also that we had no women amongst us,

neither that we did care for any of theirs.

Some therefore were of opinion that wee were not borne of women, and therefore not mortall, but that wee

were men of an old generation many yeeres past then risen againe to immortalitie.

Some woulde likewise seeme to prophesie that there were more of our generation yet to come, to kill theirs

and take their places, as some thought the purpose was by that which was already done.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Samples of John White’s Drawings in Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report (1590)

“An ageed Manne in His Winter garment”

Note the palisaded village surrounded by cultivated fields: the people White depicted in this picture were largely

sedentary. Many Native American groups settled and farmed in one part of their territory and then moved to a different

part of their territory when the soil became exhausted. Note also the forests behind the village. Early European visitors

to North America were awed by the abundance of the forests here: these forests were park-like, with little underbrush and

trees that did not crowd each other. The forests were full of nut-bearing trees and wild game like turkey, deer and the

predators that ate them. Europeans believed that North American forests were naturally like this, but they were wrong.

Europeans also noted that Native Americans would sometimes burn the forests; what the Europeans (and until recently,

historians too) failed to realize was that Native Americans were managing the forests. Periodic fires cleared out the

underbrush and ensured that trees did not have to compete with each other for sunlight, leading to healthy trees that

produced large harvests of nuts. Fires also led to new undergrowth in spring which attracted wild game that Native

Americans hunted. This is what your textbook means by the term “forest efficiency” (Out of Many, p. 7.) In popular

imagination Native Americans of the past are assumed to have had little impact on their environment but, as we can see

here, the Native Americans of the Chesapeake (like the Cahokians before them) transformed and managed their

environments. Yet in the former case, this was so skillfully done that Europeans did not realize what was going on. A

sixteenth-century European observer would have looked at this picture and thought that this “ageed” (old) man’s people

were not fully exploiting their environment because of the large open spaces surrounding the village and fields. In reality,

the forests were well-exploited and much of the open, uncultivated open land was resting and would be cultivated again

once the soil gained back the nutrients that farming had sucked out of it.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

Fishing

Here Native Americans use fishing weirs to corral fish so that they can be easily caught. Note again how extensively and

skillfully the Native Americans that White saw managed their environment.

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

A Native American Chief

An Ancient Pict

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HIST 120 Dr. Schaffer

The Picts were one of the peoples of ancient Britain. 6 The Picts lived in what is now Scotland at the time that the Romans began to conquer Britain, in the last

decades BCE. 7 The Romans described the Picts as being painted, that is, tattooed. The Picts disappear from the historical record in about 900 CE,

8 during the

Middle Ages. In the Briefe and True Report, Harriot included several drawings of what White imagined the ancient Picts to have looked like.

Why were pictures of ancient Picts included in a book about the newly found land of Virginia? You can begin to answer that question by comparing the

picture of the Pict with that of the Native American chief: both are mostly naked; both have primitive weapons. If you look closely at the Native American chief,

especially at his shoulders, you can just make out his tattooing. With these pictures, White seems to be drawing a comparison between the Native Americans of his

time and the ancient Picts (that is, ancient Britons). Consider the implications of this comparison: White is suggesting that the Native Americans of his day were

about equal, in terms of their level of cultural and technological advancement, to the ancient peoples of Britain. This argument, made with pictures, complements

that made by Harriot in his written descriptions of the Native Americans of the Chesapeake.

6 Another of the ancient peoples of Britain were the Angles, from whom we get the word “English”.

7 BCE = Before Common Era, in other words, Before Christ (BC).

8 CE = Common Era, in other words, after Christ’s birth (or AD).