Books

A spectacular and hitherto unrecorded journal kept by John Narbrough on his voyage to Valdivia, Chile, via the Strait of Magellan. It can be confidently asserted that this is the original journal that Narbrough kept onboard and showed the King on his return; thus, it is the primary source for his account of the voyage. The journal contains matter at both beginning and end not found in any other source. It is twice as long as the condensed version Narbrough wrote afterwards into his "Booke" detailing his naval career (BL Add 88980A). This journal is demonstrably the original from which the clerical copy now in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson MS A. 318) was made, and it contains matter at the beginning of the voyage missing from that copy. The 1694 printed version, probably edited without Narbrough's involvement and published posthumously, is an abridgement to something like a fifth of the length of this original. The journal is written throughout in Narbrough's own hand, save for a few pages dictated to an amanuensis, and finished by him with sidenotes and pen and watercolour sketches throughout. Unlike the Rawlinson manuscript, which has been regularized by an educated clerk, "the engaging, erratic, phonetic spelling of his journal allows the reader to pick up his regional pronunciation, to appreciate his garbled attempts at Spanish, and enjoying his blistering assessments of his 'distracted' passenger, Don Carlos, and of the 'could, vile base' or 'vile, and filthy fowel' weather encountered in the Strait" (Campbell, Bradley, & Lorimer, p. 6). Remarkably, the journal contains an original manuscript note signed by Thomas Armiger, one of Narbrough's four doomed crew members kidnapped by the Spanish governor of Valdivia, dated 20 December [1670]. THE VOYAGE On 15 May 1669 John Narbrough (1640-1688) was commissioned captain of the Sweepstakes, intended for a voyage to establish English trading links in South America and the Pacific. Narbrough sailed to the Strait of Magellan, which he charted as he passed through, before heading north along the Chilean coastline to Valdivia in the viceroyalty of Peru. Narbrough sailed back to England via the Strait, coming to anchor off the Downs on 13 June 1671. Narbrough was the first Englishman to navigate the Strait of Magellan since Elizabethan times, when Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and Richard Hawkins had achieved the feat. Since then, English endeavours in the Americas had mostly been directed in the Caribbean and the rivers of the Atlantic coastline of South America. Narbrough's chart of the Strait of Magellan was published by John Thornton in 1673 and remained in use for many years as the "foundation of all subsequent Charts". Numerous seamen relied on Narbrough's published work for circumnavigation voyages via the Strait, and it was still being quoted as late as Fitz-Roy's account of his surveying voyage in 1831-6 in the Beagle. Narbrough's mission was difficult and ambiguous. He was directed to explore the Patagonian coastline and investigate the practicalities of peaceful trade with the indigenous peoples. But implicitly he was also expected to ascertain Spanish strength in the area and the potential for the incursion of the English into the Spanish gold trade there. His task was further complicated by the presence in the expedition of the mysterious Don Carlos, who in 1669 had submitted two proposals to Charles II for a voyage to found an English colony in South America and, by implication, to incite the local indigenous people to rebel against the Spanish. Don Carlos accompanied Narbrough's expedition but proved totally ignorant of the coast of Patagonia and Chile. He jumped ship near Valdivia and was not seen again by Narbrough. The identity and motives of this extraordinary confidence trickster are still being debated, and Narbrough's testimony from his journal is primary evidence in that debate. More seriously, at Valdivia, the Spanish governor detained four of Narbrough's men and refused to release them. Under strict instruction not to take any offensive action against the Spanish, Narbrough had no other option than to leave the men behind. England and Spain were not at war, and Narbrough justifiably expected the detainees would be sent to Spain and then returned to England. In the event they were never seen again, and Narbrough was subsequently criticised for the loss. No doubt he would have been keen to display Armiger's manuscript note to show he had done all in his power to retrieve the detainees. THE CAPTAIN'S LOG On 28 June 1671, Narbrough carried ashore his draughts (charts) and journal to meet Matthew Wren, secretary to James, Duke of York, who viewed them and took him to see the King and Duke of York. The present manuscript is most likely to be the journal Narbrough showed them that day, substantively complete to 9 January 1671. As captain of a commissioned ship, Narbrough was required to maintain a daily manuscript journal recording the course and position of the vessel, the weather encountered, and the activities of the ship's company during each day of the voyage. The routine details were likely noted by the ship's master in a daily log, from which the captain copied out his journal, adding comments on his own actions and other matters he considered pertinent. The present journal is carefully written, with no erasures or substantial corrections, usually to the bottom of the page. No doubt Narbrough wrote at intervals, composing his sometimes very lengthy entries in times of relative leisure. Between coming to anchor on 13 June and his summons to see the King and Duke of York on 28 June, Narbrough had two clear weeks in which to update his journal and complete his draughts. His only social duties were two meetings with George Digby, Earl of Bristol, first ashore at Deal Castle, then back aboard. The cessation of his journal on 9 January 1671 implies that the royal summons came before he had time to bring his journal fully up to date. On the first page of this journal, Narbrough made his first entry: "A Journall Keept By Captaine John Narbrough, on Board his Majesties Shipp Sweepstakes in her voyage through the Straits of Magellan into the South Sea, and Along the Coast of Chile, to Baldavia, and, of her Returne through the Straits into the North Sea". Here, Narbrough later added a comma and completed the entry, presumably on his return: "and from thence to England: where she Arrived in the Downes: the yeare 1671: on Tuesday the thirtenth day of June". The naval historian and author J. D. Davies judges from the condensed British Library copy that Narbrough's "journal for the voyage bears witness to his high degree of technical competence, his concern for his crew's welfare, and his genuine interest in the lands and peoples he saw" (ODNB). THE DRAWINGS Narbrough drew 28 substantial illustrations in the main body of the text, with smaller sketches in the margins. With very few exceptions (three small side sketches on one page presumably overlooked), all are heightened with watercolour, whereas the coastal profiles in Narbrough's "Booke" (BL Add 88980A) are left uncoloured. The charts are of Funchal harbour, Praia Roads at São Tiago in the Cape Verde Islands (half-page), Punta Mercedes, the bay SW of Punta Medanosa called by Narbrough "Seales Bay", soundings off the coast of Puerto Deseado, the entrance to the Strait of Magellan between Cape Gallery and Cape Pillar, and a full-page chart of "Batchellour's river", in the Strait of Magellan, now Canal Jerónimo, Chile. The coastal profiles depict Porto Santo, Madeira (3), the islands of Sal, Boa Vista, and Maio, in the Cape Verde Islands, the Cabo Blanco islets off Puerto Deseado (Port Desire), Punta de Lobos, and Cabo Santa Lucía, Chile. The humans shown are four indigenous people of Patagonia; three panel sketches of the people of Valdivia, the first showing indigenous people (five adults and a child) with a dog, the second, two of their boats, made of bark sewn with hide, the third, three of their houses, with two indigenous women; an English sailor carrying a musket, offering a string of beads to indigenous people (three adults and a child), with a dog; three indigenous people at Valdivia; and four variously sized boats and canoes at Valdivia. Narbrough's animal sketches comprise seabirds (three in flight, three on water) and seaweed, two English sailors killing seals with clubs, a hare and two rheas killed by Narbrough's greyhound, two guanacos and (presumably for scale) a greyhound, and two English sailors killing penguins, with detail showing "a company of penguins" and "the shap and couler of penguins". His marginal sketches frequently depict birds and other fauna. There are also two small sketches representing the Southern Cross and a semicircular diagram showing compass variation. The sketches include several features (indigenous people, their boats, dwellings, South American animals) also depicted by Narbrough in his "Royal Map" of the Strait (BL Maps K Top 124.84) and his chart of Puerto San Julián (BL, Add MS 88980C). As he omitted them, we cannot be certain that the clerk who copied the present journal for the Rawlinson manuscript saw it complete with all these illustrations, but his copying of the captions and the care he took to leave blank spaces in the relevant places suggests they were already present at that stage. As spirited and characterful as Narbrough's drawings are, Pepys complained of their "rudeness" and noted that John Evelyn saw them as proof of the need for the mathematical students at Christ's Hospital to be taught drawing skills (Tanner, Samuel Pepys's Naval Minutes, p. 391). This is in keeping with Katherine Parker's observation that the Fellows of the newly formed Royal Society did not approve of a naval commander editing his own journals for publication, let alone supplying the illustrations for it. This was the case with Narbrough's journal, which was thoroughly edited and published posthumously in a compilation volume overseen by three prominent Fellows: Tancred Robinson, John Ray, and Hans Sloane. The first edition of 1694 (six years after Narbrough's death) is illustrated, but only the large folding map of the Strait of Magellan and an in-text woodcut of Narbrough's sketch of the Southern Cross relate to Narbrough's voyage. THE CONTINUATION The continuation of the narrative in the present journal for nearly one month past the entry of 9 January 1671 is unique to this copy. The equivalent material in the BL manuscript ((BL Add 88980A) is edited and abridged to about half the length. The journal in Narbrough's familiar hand concludes with the same last sentence as the Rawlinson manuscript: "Many Indians or Natives of the Countrey frequents this Bay". In the present journal the entry for that day continues without a break but the hand is that of another scribe. The orthography is contemporary with Narbrough's but exhibits different letter forms and a distinctive slight forward slant. The following 15 journal pages are frame-ruled as before (save one page deliberately left blank) and the journal continues in the same vein until Friday, 3 February 1671, when the narrative ends abruptly in mid-sentence, with a catchword for the next page which is, however, blank except for the frame-rules. After the last page in Narbrough's hand, the running headlines are all in the hand of the second scribe. (One distinctive feature is the scribal spelling "Magalan", whereas Narbrough typically has "Magellan".) However, the margins of these continuation pages are filled with the usual sidenotes and small coloured sketches in Narbrough's hand, suggesting that Narbrough dictated the continuation to an amanuensis, adding his own sketches and sidenotes afterwards. The fact that the Rawlinson copy omits all after 9 January 1671 suggests that the copyist had sight of the present journal before the continuation pages were added. There is no appearance of any leaves lacking at the end of the journal. It seems that Narbrough simply ceased work on this journal, perhaps setting it aside in favour of writing the condensed version of the whole voyage into his personal "Booke". The decision may have been prompted by the fact that he had run out of space in this volume. The narrative omitted by Narbrough's discontinuation includes a few days of bad weather before the Sweepstakes's final departure from the Strait on 14 February 1671 and journey home via Puerto Deseado and the Azores. Based on the evidence of the present journal, we can reconstruct the following chain of events. While still onboard the Sweepstakes, before his meeting with the King and the Duke of York on 28 June 1671, Narbrough had completed this journal to 9 January 1671 and drawn on paper the three smaller charts acquired by the British Library in 2018 (BL Add 88980 B, C, and D). If we are to believe the title Narbrough gave it, he had also drawn on three sheets of vellum the larger map of the Strait of Magellan, now known as the "Royal Map" (BL, Maps K Top 124.84). That map is titled in Narbrough's hand, "The Land of Patagona &c. the draught of Magellan Straits drawen by Captain Iohn Narbrough anno 1670. On board his Majestis Shipp Sweepstakes as I pased and repased the Straits". The Royal Map was later in the King's Topographical collection, the map collection of George III, the nucleus of which was assembled from 1660, coterminous with the founding of the Royal Society. Presumably Narbrough's map was presented to the King or more likely the Duke of York and his journal taken for copying; it was at this point that Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn, and other Fellows of the Royal Society could have examined it. After copying, Narbrough had his journal returned to him, to keep with his other smaller charts. With the journal back in his possession, Narbrough was free to continue his entries after 9 January 1671, before abandoning that in favour of writing an abridged narrative into his "Booke" of his entire naval career (BL Add 88980A). OTHER SURVIVING ACCOUNTS Until now, Narbrough's account has been known primarily from two near-contemporary manuscript journals, both conveniently published together in the Hakluyt Society edition of 2018. The first manuscript, Narbrough's "Booke", is now in the British Library (Add 88980A). It is written in Narbrough's own hand, like the present journal, and is similar in general appearance, but evidently written later. The narrative continues beyond the last dated entry given in the present manuscript, but it is an edited and abridged version. At one point, Narbrough gives coordinates, sourcing them as taken from "my day account which I Keept in my voaige", i.e., the present journal. Narbrough wrote his abridged account into the same volume as journals of his other voyages, together with notes and copies of his correspondence and documents relating to all his voyages. He inscribed the book, presumably on purchase, "John Narbrough his Booke Aprill the 7: 1666", and it appears he kept that "Booke" as a personal record of his naval career. The other manuscript version, the Bodleian Library copy already mentioned (Rawlinson MS A. 318), is a clerical copy, again written up after the event (there was no clerk among the crew of the Sweepstakes). The first entry is dated 13 October 1669, when Narbrough reached the Canary Islands, the last, 9 January 1671, is the same day as the last of Narbrough's autograph entries in the present journal. Close comparison of the two shows the Rawlinson manuscript to be copied directly from the present journal, with some regularization of spelling and punctuation and omitting the illustrations, though lacking the portion at the beginning covering the events of 15 May to 13 October 1669. The clerical copy was later abridged and published under the Royal Society's aegis. Perhaps having already lost its first leaves, it was then acquired either by the book and manuscript collector Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725), or more likely his younger brother Richard Rawlinson (1690-1755), also a collector with notable skill in locating papers thought to have been lost, including the Admiralty papers of Samuel Pepys. The long title of the first published edition of 1694 is An Account of Several Late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North Towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, and the vast Tracts of Lands beyond Hollandia Nova &c. Also Towards Nova Zembla, Greenland or Spitsberg, Groynland or Engrondland, &c. by Sir John Narborough [sic], Captain Jasmen Tasman, Captain John Wood and Frederick Marten of Hamburgh. To which are annexed a large introduction and supplement, giving an account of other navigations to those regions of the globe. The whole illustrated with charts and figures. The compilation was printed by Samuel Smith and Benjamin Walford, printers to the Royal Society. The printed version is interrupted after the entry for Sunday, 8 January 1671, with the explanation: "Here ends Sir John Narbrough's Manuscript Journal, which we shall continue home to England, from the MS Diary, taken by Sir John's ingenious Lieutenant, Nathaniel Pecket." The reason for the omission of Narbrough's entry for Monday, 9 January, which is found in both the present journal and the Rawlinson manuscript, is not clear. However, the juxtaposition of terminal dates is further evidence that the primary source for the printed text was the present journal. Of all the extant texts, the present journal is the longest at something near 140,000 words. The Rawlinson copy begins on 13 October 1669 and ends on 9 January 1671. It is written on 226 pages, perhaps as many as 130,000 words to judge from the Hakluyt Society edition. The Rawlinson manuscript omits the first 17 pages of the present journal, thus lacks approximately 7,500 words. The simplest explanation is that these pages were copied but lost before Rawlinson purchased the manuscript in the early 1700s. The British Library manuscript (Narbrough's own "Booke") begins on 15 May 1669 and ends on 1 August 1671, written on 235 pages, approximately 80,000 words, of which near one-third is the continuation after 9 January 1671.