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This account of the first attempt to plant an English colony in America is also the first published book illustrated from drawings executed in what is now the United States. It features the work of artist John White, whose sketches represent the earliest authentic pictorial record of life in the New World. It is, in the words of one savant, the "most delectable of Americana." Shown opposite is the celebrated "Adam and Eve plate," considered one of the finest copper-plate engravings ever published and emblematic of Europe's hope that the western hemisphere would prove a new Eden of peace and plenty. The author, a mathematician and scientist, had been dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh as a surveyor with expeditions in 1584 and 1585. The second expedition lasted nearly a year, allowing Hariot and his companions ample opportunity to explore from Ocracoke Island to Hampton Roads. This surviving record of his investigations was written more to promote the Virginia Company than as a scientific report. Virginia is presented not so much as a place to make a home, but rather as a source of riches to be harvested and sent back to Europe. Only after recounting all of the commercial possibilities did he proceed to a description of the lives and manners of the inhabitants. Hariot's work first appeared as a pamphlet in 1588 but did not reach a wide audience until it was issued in 1590 by Theodore de Bry, accompanied by White's drawings. Published in four language editions, of which the English one is now by far the rarest, the book was a great success and launched the publication of de Bry's exhaustive Grands and Petits Voyages. More importantly, Hariot's account stirred public interest in the New World and probably was a key factor in generating renewed enthusiasm for the Virginia colony.
Image rights owned by the Virginia Historical Society. |
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