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England and the discovery of America, 1481–1620
REVIEWS
93
D. B. QUINN, England and the Discovery of America, 1481-1620 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1974. Pp. xxiv+497. g6.50) It might be thought that any book on the English r61e in the discovery of America which begins with a reprint of an article some thirteen years old would be simply a tedious further presentation of things already known (or thought to be known). In David Quinn’s latest work, this is certainly not the case. The author, one of the foremost scholars of the history of Atlantic exploration, has provided an exciting and provocative consolidation of both the conclusions that have been drawn from well-nigh incontrovertible documentary evidence and the tentative and speculative inferences made from sketchier and more controversial historical data. Quinn admits at the outset that there is a great deal more to be learned about English exploration prior to the Plymouth settlement. By presenting sound and rational arguments based either on new evidence or on new interpretations of old data, he urges scholars to make the attempt to fill in those gaps which still exist in the historical record. He castigates (and rightly so) the universities of the eastern United States in particular for their failure to include a geographical emphasis in their history curricula and suggests that if American historians would adopt a more geographic perspective, progress in understanding European discovery would be more rapid. In addition, he makes a plea for ethnohistory, claiming that too much written about the European discovery is no more than two-dimensional because scholars have failed to deal with the character of the native peoples encountered by the Europeans. Throughout the book hypothesis and speculation dominate. But unlike much hypothesis and speculation on the discovery of America, Quinn’s is not meaningless or fantastic but is based on solid documentation and logical argument. Speculation is a valid approach in historical inquiry if critical standards in interpretation of the evidence and in argument are maintained. That Quinn maintains such standards becomes apparent in the very first chapter where he deals with the possible discovery of the “Isle of Brasil” by Bristolmen in the decade before the first Columbian voyage. Unlike other authorities (such as Samuel Eliot Morison), Quinn maintains that there may be something to the inferences that can be drawn from a few isolated documents such as the letter of John Day. It must be noted, however, that those who would write speculative history are sometimes caught short. A considerable part of the second chapter, which deals with the European perspective on the Atlantic during the fifteenth century, is based on the Vinland Map which has recently been proven fraudulent. But in Quinn’s case careful conclusions win out, and the force of his conjectures on European lore about lands to the west is not diminished by the dubious nature of the Vinland Map. The whole first part of the book, including the chapters alluded to above, is speculative history and deals superbly with the relative importance of legend, experience and science in the shaping of European geographical images. In the second part the author deals with the first critical period of English discovery from 1496 to 1505 and with the subsequent period up to the middle of the sixteenth century when English interest in the west was primarily intellectual. Several familiar names appear-John and Sebastian Cabot, John Rut and Richard Hore, for example. Their voyages and the theories from which the English interpretation of the Northwest Passage emerged form a central theme. Many questions are answered about England and America during this period; but as elsewhere in the book, it is to the author’s credit that he raises other questions for future scholars to debate. Part 3 deals with the history of Elizabethan sailors such as Gilbert, Raleigh and Grenville. It also covers the first English colonial ventures, the first great English visual impressions of the New World by John White and the first important natural history of America by Thomas Harriot. Following his discussion of this period of experiment and inquiry, Quinn treats, in part 4, the economic and religious discontents who were, eventually, to become the successful English colonists of North America. The narrative ranges from the curious story of the Protestant Separatists who attempted to compete with Basque sailors for the walrus grounds of the Gulf of St Lawrence, to the plight of the
94
REVIEWS
English Catholics in their efforts to settle what later became Maryland. Part 5 provides data on the immediate preludes to permanent English colonisation-the growing knowledge of Virginia and New England and the voyages that led ultimately to Jamestown and Plymouth. Quinn has produced an excellent book which makes for compelling reading, a compilation of his own research and that of others. The volume is handsomely illustrated both with line-drawings and with photographic reproductions. Above all, the scholarship is honest and the speculation is without the flights of fancy all too common in works on this topic. It is a good story-that of English seamen and merchants and religious malcontents who began the westering trend that continued for centuries. The reader of that story can smell the salt spray and the green land breezes from a New World and can hear aloft, amidst the rigging, the winds of a great adventure with massive historical consequences. University of Connecticut
JOHN L. ALLEN
93
D. B. QUINN, England and the Discovery of America, 1481-1620 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1974. Pp. xxiv+497. g6.50) It might be thought that any book on the English r61e in the discovery of America which begins with a reprint of an article some thirteen years old would be simply a tedious further presentation of things already known (or thought to be known). In David Quinn’s latest work, this is certainly not the case. The author, one of the foremost scholars of the history of Atlantic exploration, has provided an exciting and provocative consolidation of both the conclusions that have been drawn from well-nigh incontrovertible documentary evidence and the tentative and speculative inferences made from sketchier and more controversial historical data. Quinn admits at the outset that there is a great deal more to be learned about English exploration prior to the Plymouth settlement. By presenting sound and rational arguments based either on new evidence or on new interpretations of old data, he urges scholars to make the attempt to fill in those gaps which still exist in the historical record. He castigates (and rightly so) the universities of the eastern United States in particular for their failure to include a geographical emphasis in their history curricula and suggests that if American historians would adopt a more geographic perspective, progress in understanding European discovery would be more rapid. In addition, he makes a plea for ethnohistory, claiming that too much written about the European discovery is no more than two-dimensional because scholars have failed to deal with the character of the native peoples encountered by the Europeans. Throughout the book hypothesis and speculation dominate. But unlike much hypothesis and speculation on the discovery of America, Quinn’s is not meaningless or fantastic but is based on solid documentation and logical argument. Speculation is a valid approach in historical inquiry if critical standards in interpretation of the evidence and in argument are maintained. That Quinn maintains such standards becomes apparent in the very first chapter where he deals with the possible discovery of the “Isle of Brasil” by Bristolmen in the decade before the first Columbian voyage. Unlike other authorities (such as Samuel Eliot Morison), Quinn maintains that there may be something to the inferences that can be drawn from a few isolated documents such as the letter of John Day. It must be noted, however, that those who would write speculative history are sometimes caught short. A considerable part of the second chapter, which deals with the European perspective on the Atlantic during the fifteenth century, is based on the Vinland Map which has recently been proven fraudulent. But in Quinn’s case careful conclusions win out, and the force of his conjectures on European lore about lands to the west is not diminished by the dubious nature of the Vinland Map. The whole first part of the book, including the chapters alluded to above, is speculative history and deals superbly with the relative importance of legend, experience and science in the shaping of European geographical images. In the second part the author deals with the first critical period of English discovery from 1496 to 1505 and with the subsequent period up to the middle of the sixteenth century when English interest in the west was primarily intellectual. Several familiar names appear-John and Sebastian Cabot, John Rut and Richard Hore, for example. Their voyages and the theories from which the English interpretation of the Northwest Passage emerged form a central theme. Many questions are answered about England and America during this period; but as elsewhere in the book, it is to the author’s credit that he raises other questions for future scholars to debate. Part 3 deals with the history of Elizabethan sailors such as Gilbert, Raleigh and Grenville. It also covers the first English colonial ventures, the first great English visual impressions of the New World by John White and the first important natural history of America by Thomas Harriot. Following his discussion of this period of experiment and inquiry, Quinn treats, in part 4, the economic and religious discontents who were, eventually, to become the successful English colonists of North America. The narrative ranges from the curious story of the Protestant Separatists who attempted to compete with Basque sailors for the walrus grounds of the Gulf of St Lawrence, to the plight of the
94
REVIEWS
English Catholics in their efforts to settle what later became Maryland. Part 5 provides data on the immediate preludes to permanent English colonisation-the growing knowledge of Virginia and New England and the voyages that led ultimately to Jamestown and Plymouth. Quinn has produced an excellent book which makes for compelling reading, a compilation of his own research and that of others. The volume is handsomely illustrated both with line-drawings and with photographic reproductions. Above all, the scholarship is honest and the speculation is without the flights of fancy all too common in works on this topic. It is a good story-that of English seamen and merchants and religious malcontents who began the westering trend that continued for centuries. The reader of that story can smell the salt spray and the green land breezes from a New World and can hear aloft, amidst the rigging, the winds of a great adventure with massive historical consequences. University of Connecticut
JOHN L. ALLEN