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NOTES AND QUERIES.

Contributions on all subjects, Literary or Historical, are invited for this department of the BIBLIOPOLIST. Thanks are due to such men as Henry C. Murphy, Benson J. Lossing F. S. Hoffman, and T. Baily Myers, who have already contributed to its columns. With more of such native pith Notes and Queries will grow into a vast and vigorous tree, to which the wise and gentle shall resort, from near and far; the one, to enjoy ! its delicious truits, and the other, its refre.hing shade.

1586, would be established beyond all doubt.,

Was Raleigh in Virginia ?-(Conclud- | presence in England in the beginning of July, ed.) In a letter from Burleigh to Leicester, dated 20th of June, 1586, occurs the following:

"In Irland all thynges are quiet, and a nombre of gentilmen of Somersett, Devon, Dorcet, Cheshyre, and Lancashyre, are making themselves to go to Monster, to plant two or three thousand people, mere English, there this year."

In a note to this, Mr. Bruce, the editor, states, that Stowe records the names of the honourable and worshipful gentlemen who made the attempt to colonise Munster, and names, amongst others, Sir Walter Raleigh. It was on this occasion that the poet Spenser got his grant of 3,028 acres in the county of Cork, which is said to be dated June 27, 1586." So the Rev. Mr. Mitford, in his lite of Spenser, prefixed to the Aldine edition of his poems (1839), and although he seems uncertain as to the date, there can be no doubt but that it is correct. Now I think that most people will agree with me in thinking that the whole of this, Raleigh's movements so far as they can be traced, his position at court, and the busy and stirring nature of the time, make it altogether improbable that Raleigh was absent in the month of June, 1586, on a voyage to Virginia. Hakluyt's not mentioning that he was in the vessel, would of itself be convincing to my mind, knowing the extent of his information on all subjects connected with Raleigh, and his minute and painstaking accuracy. Knowing, however, that this was the voyage in which Raleigh was stated to have visited Virginia, I have thought it worth while to search for more positive evidence. How far I have succeeded may be seen, but it is open to others to fix the fact of Raleigh's having been in England within the time I have limited. As a hint to go upon, I may mention that Babington's conspiracy was known to the English ministry on the 9th of July, although the conspirators were not apprehended until a month after; if Raleigh could be shown to have had any share in the discovery of the plot, his

I have already been more than sufficiently tedious on the subject of the voyage of this little bark; what I have brought forward however bears more or less upon the question as to Raleigh having visited Virginia: I am clearly of opinion that on this occasion. he did not, I cannot refrain, however,, from adding a word or two of purely spec-. ulative conjecture. There is something. rather suspicious in Drake visiting Virginia with the whole of his armament, and losing time in doing so, when the whole nation, from the queen downwards, was on the very tenter-hooks of anxiety for intelligence of him and of his success. The question arises, was it a rendezvous! and did the "bark of aviso" bear other and more important despatches than those addressed to Master Ralph Lane Might not its arrival a day or two carlier have directed Drake to strike a blow at some defenceless but important part of the Spanish empire, deadly in proportion to its being unexpected? These are questions which I can in no wise answer, but they have arisen in my mind; and if it were so, we might be fain to believe, in spite of everything that I have been able to bring forward, that Raleigh was indeed on board his gallant little bark, but that, the mark not having been hit, the attempt was kept secret. It must not be forgotten that at that time, with the exception of this little colony, England had not a rood of land in the New World. However, I must remember that history ought not to deal in conjecture.

About fourteen or fifteen days after the departure of the bark, Grenvill made his with the other three vessels. appearance After making every search he returned home, leaving fifteen men on the Island of Roanoke. Subsequent expeditions found no traces of these men excepting the bones of one of them. No one has ever asserted that Raleigh was on board of this fleet.

Nothing daunted by these failures

"In the yeere of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, intending to persevere in the planting of his countrey of Virginia, prepared a newe colonie of one hundred and fiftie men to be sent thither, under the charge of John White, whom hee appointed Governour, and also appointed unto him twelve assistants, unto whom he gave a charter, and incorporated them by the name of the Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Raleigh in Virginia.”—Hak. vol. iii. p. 280.

This colony, owing to contentions with the natives and other causes, did not thrive; and in August of the same year White was, much against his wish, induced to teturn to England for assistance. He failed in his first attempt to go back with aid. In 1593 he gives, at Hakluyt's request, an account of a voyage he made thither in 1590, but which quite failed in its object. The men with whom he embarked shewed a greater disposition toward buccaneering, than to assist him in his search for the unfortunate colonists. He found traces of their having gone to the Island of Croatan; but his associates would not prosecute the search, and poor White, with a sad heart, was obliged to leave them, if they even then survived, to their fate. From that day to this no intelligence has ever been got as to what became of them. This voyage was made, if not under Raleigh's auspices, at all events with his assistance. It has deen supposed by some that this voyage of White in 1590 was the last attempt made by Raleigh to succour his colonists-he has even been reproached with it. This, however, was not At p. 1653. vol. iv. of Purchas,

the case.

a very brief account is given of a ship having been purchased by Raleigh and sent out under the command of

"Samuell Mace (a sufficient marriner who had been twice before at Virginia), to fond out those people which he had sent last thither by Captain White in 1587."

The ill success of the previous attempts to communicate with the colony seems to have been ascribed to the practice which prevailed in that day of engaging seamen for the voyage with a share in the profits; this Raleigh attempted to remedy by hiring "all the cumpanye for wages by the month."

I quote from Strachey's Virginia, printed by the Hakluyt Society from an original MS., whose statement bears undoubted marks of being the original from which Purchas took his account, and somewhat abridged it. In spite of Raleigh's precautions as to the hiring, the people behaved ill, and

"They returned, and brought no comfort or new accesse of hope concerning the lives and safety of the unfortunate English people, for which only they were sett forth, and the charg of this employment was undertaken."

Here ends the history of Sir Walter Raleigh's connexion with Virginian discovery and colonisation. A new company was at the moment in contemplation, and it even despatched its first pioneer vessel in the same month of 1602 as Raleigh did. Raleigh may have had, to a certain extent, a selfish object in view. His patent of 1584 was conditional, as regarded its continuance, on his planting a colony within six years; and had he been able to have discovered any remains, however small, of the colony of '87, he could have prevented interlopers. The nature of his position also in England in March, 1602, may perhaps afford a clue to his designs. At that moment his royal mistress lay on the bed of sickness, dying by inches. The clouds were beginning to His star, gather around Raleigh's head. which had been in the ascendant for more than twenty years, was getting nigh its setting. Raleigh, a man of wisdom and foresight, as well as conduct and action, knew all this. He knew what he had to expect, and what he aftetwards in fact experienced, from the new king to whom all eyes were turned. Is it not most likely that he looked to Virginia as his haven of refuge, where, if he could maintain his patent rights, he his enemies at defiance? might have set Had this dream, if he entertained it, been realised, the twelve years' imprisenment and the bloody scaffold on which his head fell, might have been averted. This, however, was not to be;-the search, as already mentioned, was fruitless, and the new company went on; and, finally, under a fresh charter from James I., Virginia was again colonised in 1606, since which time its history and existence have been uninterrupted. On Raleigh's return from his last expedition to Guiana in 1618, only a few months before his murder, he touched at Newfoundland, being, as I verily believe, the only occasion on which he set his foot in North America.

It may cause your readers to smile, and perhaps be a surprise to some of them, when I conclude this long paper, written on the subject of Raleigh's connexion with Virginia, by asserting that he never had any connexion, direct or indirect, with it! All the colonies with which he had to do were

planted in North Carolina and the islands thereto belonging. To have laid any stress upon this, or to have mentioned it earlier than now, would have amounted to nothing but a play upon names. The country called Virginia in Queen Elizabeth's reign, embraced not only the state now so called, but also Maryland and the Carolinas. Virginia Proper was in reality first planted by the company of 1606, who fixed their settlement on the Chesapeake. T. N.

Demerary, Oct. 1851.

Play of "The Spaniards in Peru." John Heywood.-Who was the author of The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expresst by Instrumentall and Vocall Musick, and by Art of Perspective in Scenes. &c., said to have been represented in the Cock Pit in Drury Lane, at three in the afternoon punctually, 1658? Thus it stands in Jacob, but is not mentioned by Langbaine. The author of the British Theatre, however, mentions a remarkable circumstance in regard to it, which is, that Oliver Cromwell, who had prohibited all theatrical representations, not only allowed this piece to be performed, but even himself actually read and approved of it.

JAMES F. HASKINS..

[Sir William Davenant was the author of The Spaniards in Peru, which was subsequently incorporated in his piece, Playhouse to be Let. See his Works, fol. 1673, p. 103; also Genest's Account of the English Stage, vol. i. p. 38.]

Plant in Texas.-I shall be glad to learn the scientific name of the plant to which the following extract from the Athenaeum (1847, p. 210) refers :

"It is a well-known fact that in the vast prairies of Texas a little plant is always to be found which, under all circumstances of climate, changes of weather, rain, frost, or sunshine, invariably turns its leaves and flower, to the north," &c.

Indians Discovering the Bodies of the Drowned (Vol. iv., p. 148.).—It is curious that a similar practice to that of discovering the bodies of the drowned by loading a loaf with mercury, and putting it afloat on the stream, extracted from the Gent. Mag., seems to exist among the North American Indians. Sir James Alexander, in his account of Canada (L'Acadie, 2 vols., 1849,) says, p. 26.:—

"The Indians imagine that in the case of a

drowned body, its place may be discovered by floating a chip of cedar wood, which will stop and turn round over the exact spot: an instance occurred within my own knowledge, in the case of Mr. Lavery of Kingston mill,, whose boat overset, and the person was drowned near Cedar Island; nor could the body be discovered until this experiment was resorted to." S. W.

Liverpool, Sept. 1851.

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Andre.-General Officer implicated in Arnold's Treason. From Recollections of Gen. North, 1823.—I send for NOTES AND QUERIES the following paper, which "SERVIENS will perhaps like to read. It was written by my grandfather, Gen. Wm. North, who was Aide du Camp to Baron Steuben in the Revolution. I found it among my family papers.

"I was at Tappan when André was executed, but I did not attend his execution, nor, as I have always believed, did a great number of spectators witness the exit of that unfortunate gentleman. I remember that all mourned his fate, though fully convinced of its justice and propriety. When Baron Steuben came from the house in which the court was held, I remarked to him, that the trial had not taken as long as I had expected. 'No,' said the Baron, the unhappy prisoner gave us no trouble in calling witnesses-he confessed everything.' After the execution it was asked if the request of Major André to be shot could not have been complied with. 'No,' answered the Baron, he was a spy, and in no army was any other death than by the gibbet awarded to a spy.'

"There was a story told in Lee's History of the Southern War, in which it is said or hinted, that another general officer was suspected by the Commander-in-Chief. All I can say is, that I never heard the remotest suspicion attaching to any one of being concerned, or in any way implicated in Arnold's treason, It is true, it was a moment of fear, alarm, and doubt, how far the treason might have extended, but suspicion to have alighted on any one, much more a general officer, I cannot bring my mind to believe it. I remember the dark moment well, in which the defection of Arnold was announced in the camp. It was midnight; horses were saddling; officers going from tent to tent, ordering their men in suppressed voices to turn out and parade; no drum beat. The troops formed in silence and in darkness-I may well say in consternation-for who in such an hour, and called together in such a manner, and in total ignorance of the cause, but must have felt and feared the near approach of some tremendous shock."

N.

[We should be glad to have more of Gen. North's Recollections if they are all as interesting as the above. Many thanks to his grand-daughter for the present communication.]

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Dr. Todd's Library.-At the sale of the library of the late Rev. Dr. Todd, the books fetched prices far higher than was ever known in Dublin. His Irish MSS. realized 780l., and his interleaved copy of Ware, richly annotated by Dr. Todd, produced no less than 450. It was bought for the University Library. O'Conor's "Scriptores Hiberniæ" fetched 36/.; Fleming's "Collectanea Sacra," 70l.; the Ritual of St. Patrick's Cathedral," dated 1352, sold for 73. 10s.; the "Book of Lismore," 43. 10s.; and the "Book of Clonmacnoise," 31. 105. Many of the MSS. were copied for Dr. Todd from unique MSS. in the public libraries of England, Ireland, and Belgium.

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Major Andres Letter to Washington. About the year 1844 or '45, when Henry A. Washington (afterwards a professor in William and Mary College, Virginia, and subsequently the editor of the Writings of Jefferson, published by Congress), who died in Washington in 1860, was practising law in this city (Richmond), we called on him in company with the late John M. Daniel, and telling us he had just been engaged in looking over the contents of a trunk filled with papers formerly belonging to General Washington, and which had been put in his possession in connection with some legal business he added, and "I believe I have found the original of the letter written by André to General Washington." It was shown, and on a comparison with a published copy in Sparks' there was a difference only in one word, (not important and now forgotten), and from the appearance of the paper and all prima facia evidence, and in addition, the fact that no writer had ever mentioned the existence after the revolution of the letter, we were convinced that it was the identical letter which was written by André and received by General Washington. It was at once suggested that he should deposit it with the Virginia Historical Society, but he expressed the opinion that it would be more proper to send it to the surviving sister of Major André, and from the fact that the letter was never afterwards seen in his possession, nor found among his papers, there is every reason to believe that he carried out his intention.

[This reply to K. T. V.'s query in "N. & Q." for Dec. is kindly furnished by the editor of the (Richmond) Evening News.]

Washington's Watch.-Who has ever been in the United States and knows anything about Washington and Lafayette without having heard the mysterious story of the watch? For the benefit of those who have not learned to connect serious politics with trivial incidents here is the story. During the war of independence, a Swiss watchmaker of Philadelphia, named Weitzel, made a present of a gold watch to General Washington, on the condition that he should never part with it unless he could give it to some man who, had rendered greater services than himself to his country. After keeping the watch for some time, Washington thought he would fulfill the intentions of the giver by offering it to Lafayette. The gift was accepted as a high honour, and when, in 1825, Lafayette revisited America he was quite proud to wear Weitzel's watch. But at Nashville, while he was receiving the fe-licitations of the people of Tennessee, it was stolen from him. Everybody in the United States was indignant at this daring theft, which seemed an insult to the nation. The thief escaped, and no trace of the watch could be found. The other day, however, in a western town, an old gentleman, one of the officers who received Lafayette at Nashville in 1825, chanced to look into the window of a pawnbroker's shop, where to his unutterable surprise he recognized the watch. It seems that it had been pawned by a young girl, who, being questioned, said that the watch had been for a long time considered a family relic, her parents before their death having enjoined her never to part

with it.-EUROPEAN MAIL.

Thomas Jefferson and the Spanish Ambassador's Wine.-When Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States, he received a present of Wine from the Spanish Embassador at Washington. There was nothing remarkable in this; but Jefferson bethought him that the Ambassador had introduced this Wine free of duty, as was his privilege, and that he (Jefferson) had nosuch privilege, and no right to drink imported Wine without paying duty thereon according to law. So he addressed to the Collector at Philadelphia a letter, which, by favor of a descendant of that Collector, now first meets the public eye through the columns of The Tribune. We print from the original, verbatim, as follows: WASHINGTON, Feb. 6. 1803. DEAR SIR: Monsr, d'Yrujo, the Spanish Minister

here, has been so kind as to spare me 200 bottles of Champagne, part of a larger parcel imported for his own use, and consequently privileged from duty, but it would be improper for me to take the benefit of that. I must therefore ask the favor of you to take the proper measures for paying the duty, for which purpose I inclose you a bank check for 22 dollars, the amount of it. If it could be done without mentioning my name, it would avoid ill-intended observations, as in some such way as this "by duty paid on a part of such a parcel of wines not entitled to privilege," or in any other way you please. The wine was imported into Philadelphia, probably about Midsummer last. Accept assurances of my great esteem and respect. TH. JEFFERSON.

Gen. Muhlenburg. Andre.—A man who saw Major André executed is still living at Hanover, Rock county, Wisconsin.

Historical Society-Discovery of Massachusetts Bay.-The Historical Society received on Tuesday evening an interesting souvenir of Marco Bozarris, in the shape of a silk tassel, detached from the sword which the celebrated Greek patriot wore on the night of his death, Aug. 19, 1823. It was forwarded to the Society by Mr. Tuckerman, United States Minister at Athens, who received it from Col. Demetrius Bozarris, the son and only surviving male descendant of the brave Suliotte leader, immortalized in Halleck's heroic verse. Reports were presented by various officers of the Society, and an interesting paper was read by the Rev. B. F. DeCosta on the "Discovery of Massachusetts Bay." The speaker held that the Northmen of the eleventh century must be viewed as the original discoverers of this Bay and of Cape Cod, if the Icelandic Sagas are to be taken as authority, and he displayed a rough copy of a map of the American coast, made by the Icelander Stephanius in 1570, and based beyond question on data afforded by those Sagas. He also dwelt on the extraordinary fact, demonstrated by careful historic and scientific research, that two islands, which once existed off the coast of Cape Cod, have gone down 30 fathoms of water during the last century, so that the Cape is now but a miserable wreck of what it once was. In truth it is still being worn away at an astonishing rate, and in time, we shall have no Cape Cod at all; a circumstance, however, which is not so surprising as the fact asserted by the speaker, that on the Pacific coast of the United States the ocean has worn away the land to the extent of three degrees of

longitude! As to the rediscovery of Massachusetts Bay, subsequent to the explorations of the Northmen, Palfrey, Bancroft, and the other leading New England historians have unanimously settled upon the English navigator, Bartholomew Gosnold, as the man who first actually visited Cape Cod. But the speaker proved from original documents that these writers were in error, and that Jean Alfonsce, a French pilot, anticipated Gosnold's discovery by no less than 60 years, having, as early as 1542, sailed down the coast from Canada to latitude 42o north, and entered a great bay, the end where of he did not reach. As Allfonsce was a veteran and accomplished mariner, perfectly acquainted with the use of the astrolabe, it seems certain that the bay he visited in this latitude must have been Massachusetts Bay. Allfonsce's manuscript narrative of this voyage still exists in Paris, but has never been printed in full, though a part of it was mistranslated by Hakluyt, in whose work the students of New England history might have found, at any time during the past two centuries, Allfonsce's reference to Massachusetts Bay. Allfonsce's voyage to the New England coast was probably made in the interest of Roberval, who, in 1541, was made "Lord of Norumbego" or Newfoundland. The speaker said that Mr. Palmer denied that Roberval had a grant of New England from the French king, and cited his commission to prove the assertion; but this is a mistake, as the patent and not the commission, is the place to look for it. found in full in the Lescarbot of 1616, and shows that Roberval was made "Lord of all New England" 80 years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.

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