Part 3 (1/2)
LETTER OF THOMAS HARIOT TO MR. SECRETARY
SIR ROBERT CECIL.
_From the original holograph in the Cecil Papers at Hatfield, vol. xliii, At first printed in Edward Edward's Life of Raleigh, vol. ii, page 420._
Right Honourable Sir,
These are to let you understand that whereas, according to your Honor's direction, I have been framing of a Charte out of some such of Sir Walter's notes and writings, which he hath left behind him,-his princ.i.p.al Charte being carried with him, -if it may please you, I do thinke most fit that the discovery of Captain Kemish be added, in his due place, before I finish it. It is of importance, and all Chartes which had that coast before be very imperfecte, as in many thinges elce.
And that of Sir Walter's, although it were better in that parte then any other, yet it was don but by intelligence from the Indians, and this voyadge was specially for the discovery of the same; which is, as I find, well and sufficiently performed. And because the secrecy of these matters doth much importe her Majesty and this State, I pray let me be so bould as to crave that the dispatch of the plotting and describing be don only by me for you, according to the order of trust that Sir Walter left with me, before his departure, in that behalf, and as he hath usually don heretofore. If your Honor have any notes from Sir Thomas Baskerville, if it may please you to make me acquaynted with them, that which they will manifest of other particularytyes then that before Sir Walter hath described shall also be set downe.
Although Captain Kemish be not come home rich, yet he hath don the speciall thing which he was injoined to do, as the discovery of the coast betwixt the river of Amasones and Orinico, where are many goodly harbors for the greatest s.h.i.+ps her Majesty hath and any nomber; wher there are great rivers, and more then probability of great good to be don by them for Guiana, as by any other way or to other rich contryes borderinge upon it. As also, the discovery of the mouth of Orinico it self,-a good harbor and free pa.s.sage for ingresse and egresse of most of the ordinary s.h.i.+ps of England, above 3 hundred miles into the contry.
Insomuch that Berreo wondred much of our mens comming up so far; so that it seemeth they know not of that pa.s.sage. Nether could they, or can possibly, find it from Trinidado; from whence usually they have made their discoveryes. But if it be don by them the shortest way, it must be done out of Spayne. Now, if it shall please her Majesty to undertake the enterprise, or permitte it in her subjectes, by her order, countenance, and authority, for the supplanting of those that are now gotten thither, I thinke it of great importance to keepe that which is don as secretly as we may, lest the Spaniardes learne to know those harbors and entrances, and worke to prevent us.
And because I understand that the master of the s.h.i.+p with Captain Kemish is somewhat carelesse of this, by geving and selling copyes of his travelles and plottes of discoveryes, I thought it my dutye to remember it unto your wisdome, that some order might be taken for the prevention of such inconveniences as may thereby follow : by geving authority to some Justice, or the Mayor, to call him before them, and to take all his writinges and chartes or papers that concerne this discovery, or any elce, in other mens handes, that he hath sold or conveyed them into ; and to send them sealed to your Honor, as also to take bond for his further secrecy on that behalf. And the like order to be taken by those others, as we shall further informe your Honor of, that have any such plots, which yet, for myne owne parte, I know not of; or any other order, by sending for him up or otherwise, as to your wisdome shall seeme best.
Concerning the Eldorado which hath been shewed your Honor out of the Spanish booke of Acosta, which you had from Wright, and I have scene, when I shall have that favour as but to speake with you I shall shew you that it is not ours-that we meane-there being three. Nether doth he say, or meane, that Amazones river and Orinoco is all one,-as some, I feare, do averre to your Honor ; as by good profe out of that booke alone I can make manifest; and by other meanes besides then this discovery, I can put it out of all dout.
To be breef, I am at your Honor's comandement in love and duty farther than I can sodeynly expresse for haste. I will wayte upon you at Court, or here at London, about any of these matters or any others, at any time, if I might have but that favour as to heare so much. I dare not presume of my selfe, for some former respectes. My fidelity hath never been impeached, and I take that order that it never shall. I make no application. And I beseech your Honor to pardon my boldness, because of haste. My meaning is allwayes good. And so I most humbly take my leave.
This Sunday, 11th of July 1596.
Your Honor's most ready at commandement in all services I may,
THO. HARRIOTE.
addressed:
To the right honorable Sir ROBERT CICILL, Knight Princ.i.p.all Secretary to Her Majesty, these.
Endorsed: 11 July, 1596. Mr Harriott to my Master.
The vigilant Secretary lost no time in acting upon Hariot's suggestions.
On the 31st of July Sir George Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey wrote to Cecil from Dorchester in reply to his instructions, that they had seized the charts and books of the ' India Voyage' [to Guiana] from one Samuel Mace and William Downe, which they would send up to the Secretary if desired. They were desired, and accordingly sent them by post on the 10th of August. A few days later Raleigh returned to Plymouth with the first glorious news of the success of the English fleet at Cadiz ; which news completely turned the heads of the people of England one way, and those of the Queen and the hungry politicians the other. Poor Mace, to whom Raleigh was much attached, was restored to his confidence. To Raleigh more than to any one man this triumph over Spain was justly due, but in the pitiful squabbles that followed in the apportionment of the honors and the spoils Sir Walter used to aver that his sole gain in this great national enterprise from beginning to end was but a lame leg. He might have added that the business had gained for him the envy, malice and all uncharitableness of those in high places. In worldly wealth he was now comparatively poor, and his fortunes were broken, though the Queen at times, only at times, smiled on him.
At what precise time Hariot, who never deserted Raleigh, became acquainted with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, with whose honored name, next to that of Sir Walter's, his must ever be a.s.sociated, does not as yet appear. It is known, however, that there was an intimacy between Raleigh and Percy as early as 1586, when Sir Walter presented Percy with a coat of mail on his going over to Flanders, and soon after a bedstead made of cedar from Virginia ; while the Earl about the same time gave to Sir Walter a ' stroe coloured velvet saddle.' From this time to the day of Raleigh's triumph on the scaffold there exists plenty of evidence of their continued intimacy.
When therefore the Earl and Raleigh were finally caged together in the Tower for life in 1606 their friends.h.i.+p was of more than twenty years'
standing. From this we infer that Hariot also knew Percy almost from the time of his joining Raleigh; but the earliest mention of his name in connection with that of the Earl which we have met with is this of 1596, in the Earl's pay-rolls, still preserved at Sion, and described in the Sixth Report of the Royal Commission of Historical Ma.n.u.scripts, page 227, 'To Mr. Herytt for a book of the Turk's pictures, 7s.' It appears from the same rolls that from Michaelmas 1597 to 1610, if not earlier and later, an annual pension of 80 (not 120, or 150, 300, as variously stated) was paid to Hariot by the Earl. This pension was probably continued as long as Hariot lived; and besides there are not wanting many marks of the Earl's liberality, friends.h.i.+p, and love for his companion and pensioner, who was long known as ' Hariot of Sion on Thames,' as expressed on his monument. In the Earl's accounts for 1608 there is this entry, ' Payment for repairing and finis.h.i.+ng Mr Heriotts house at Sion.'
At what time exactly Hariot took up his residence at Sion the Earl's new seat (purchased of James in 1604) is not known, but probably soon after the Earl was sent to the Tower in 1606. There is preserved a Letter from Sir William Lower addressed to Hariot at Sion dated the 3Oth of September 1607, and other letters or papers exist showing his continued residence there until near the time of his death in 1621. Wood and many subsequent writers to the present time have confused Sion near Isleworth with Sion College in London. They are totally distinct. Hariot had nothing to do with Sion College, which was not founded until 1630, nine years after his death. The error arose out of the coincidence of Torporley's taking chambers at Sion College on retiring from his clerical profession, and dying there in April 1632, leaving his mathematical books and ma.n.u.scripts to the College Library. He had been appointed by Hariot to look over, arrange, and ' pen out the doctrine '
of his mathematical writings. Torporley's abstracts of Hariot's papers are still preserved in Sion College Library.
What the Earl of Northumberland did for Hariot is, as the world goes, ascribed to patronage ; what Hariot did for the Earl cannot be measured by money or houses, but may be summed up in four words, alike honorable to both, ' they were long friends.' To this day the debt of grat.i.tude from the philosopher to the n.o.bleman is fairly balanced by the similar debt of the n.o.bleman to the philosopher. Hariot's Will, given on pages 193-203, tells the rest of the story of this n.o.ble friends.h.i.+p.
It is manifest, however, from many considerations that the n.o.ble Earl took a lively and almost officious interest in the public honor and character of his friend, for Hariot appears to have been as careless of his own scientific reputation as his contemporary Shakspeare is said to have been of his literary eminence.
On the other hand, Hariot's interest in the Earl's affairs and family at Sion redound greatly to his credit. He was both an eminent scholar and a remarkable teacher. Earnest students flocked to him for higher education from all parts of the country. Besides the private scientific and professional instruction that from the first he gave to Raleigh, his captains and sea officers, he seems to have had under his scientific tuition and mathematical guidance many young men who afterwards became celebrated; among whom may be mentioned Robert Sidney, the brother of Sir Philip, afterwards Lord Lisle of Penshurst; Thomas Aylesburyof Windsor, afterwards Sir Thomas, the great-grandfather of two queens of England; the late Lord Harrington; Sir William Protheroe and Sir William Lower of South Wales; Nathaniel Torporley of Shrops.h.i.+re; Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Devons.h.i.+re; Captain Keymis; Captain Whiddon, and many others.
Cordial and affectionate letters of most of these men to their venerated master are still preserved.
At Sion were the groves of Hariot's academy.
Yet he with Warner and Hues was constantly pa.s.sing by the Thames between Sion and the Tower, some three or four hours by oar and tide. They were all three pensioners, or in the pay, of the Earl, though the last two were on a very different footing from that of Hariot as to emoluments and responsible position. They were, however, companions of both the Earl and Sir Walter, and, if tradition is to be believed, they were sometimes joined by Ben Jonson, Dr Burrill, Rev. Gilbert Hawthorne, Hugh Broughton, the poet Hoskins and perhaps others.