Joyce Lorimer - English and Irish Settlement on the River Amazon, 1550–1646

WORKS ISSUED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY

ENGLISH AND IRISH SETTLEMENT ON THE RIVER AMAZON 1550-1646

SECOND SERIES NO. 171

HAKLUYT SOCIETY

COUNCIL AND OFFICERS, 1988-89

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Edited by
JOYCE LORIMER

First published 1989 by the Hakluyt Society
c/o The Map Library
British Library Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG

Published 2018 by Routledge for The Hakluyt Society
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Copyright The Hakluyt Society 1989

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ISBN 13: 978-0-904180-27-5 (hbk)

ISSN 0072-9396

OUTLINE MAPS

CONTEMPORARY MAPS

The survival of the wilderness of Amazonia and its remaining aboriginal inhabitants hangs in the balance. The last Indian tribes in the interior are facing extinction and a great part of the rich plant and animal resources of the region are threatened with obliteration by the demands of material progress. As concerned people in Brazil and throughout the world struggle to avert this human and environmental tragedy it is instructive to be reminded that the river Amazon was, even during the century after Orellana first explored it, a focus of strong economic interest and fierce colonial rivalry. I have attempted here to document the part played by English and Irish settlers and projectors in the struggle to control and exploit the resources of the Lower Amazon.

The record of their activities is not contained in any one coherent body of material, but rather has to be pieced together from miscellaneous manuscript and printed references preserved in Dutch, English, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish archives. In editing these sources I have followed the editorial practices established by the Hakluyt Society. In the case of the English materials the spelling, punctuation, capitalization and italicization of the originals has been retained with the following exceptions. Contractions have been expanded with the interpolated letters printed in italics. Ye and yt have been silently changed to the and that. The modern usage of u and v and i and j has been adopted. Italicized proper names have been converted to roman. Where the Julian calendar was used both Old and New Style dates have been supplied. In the case of the translations, modern punctuation has been inserted where necessary in order to make the sense clear. The spelling of proper names has been preserved, with the one exception of the numerous versions of the name of the Amazon, all of which have been translated as the river Amazon. I have attempted in all the translations to achieve clarity while at the same time respecting sixteenth and seventeenth century usage and the varying literary styles of the documents in question. Marginal notations, whether in the English or foreign materials, have been placed in square brackets and inserted into the text at the place where they occur, as indicated by a footnote. Blanks, doubtful transcriptions and words or figures supplied editorially are also marked by square brackets.

In the course of preparing this volume I have received help from a great many institutions and individuals. Financial assistance from the Trustees of the Twenty-Seven Foundation and from Wilfrid Laurier University made it possible for me to undertake research trips to England and Portugal. During the course of my research I have received expert guidance and assistance from many archivists and librarians. I am particularly indebted to those working in the Institute of Historical Research, the British Library Manuscript and Map departments and the Public Record Office in London. The staffs of the Bodleian, Oxford, the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, the Archivo General de Simancas, and the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, and of the Arquivo Histrico Ultramarino, the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, the Biblioteca de Ajuda and the Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon, were also very helpful and cooperative. The Duke of Northumberland has graciously furnished me with a copy of the Gabriel Tatton chart of 1615 and allowed me to print it here. The copy of the Thomas King chart appears by the kind permission of the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris. I would like to thank the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro for allowing me to reprint the third map of the