- 3260
R[oberts], H[enry] (fl. 1585-1617).
Description
- Lancaster his Allarums, honorable assaultes, and supprising of the Block-houses and Store-houses belonging to Fernand Bucke in Brasill. London: by A. J[effes] for W. Barley and are to be solde at his shop in Gratious-streat, [neer vnto Leadenhall gate], [1595]
Literature
STC 21083, 2 copies only: Henry E. Huntington Library, California (imperfect) and Brown University, Rhode Island (the Richard Heber copy); Alden 595/62; JCB i, 337; Borba de Moraes 739-740
Catalogue Note
first edition. exceedingly rare. Sir James Lancaster, who commanded a ship against the Spanish Armada in 1588, was brought up in Portugal. As a sea-captain and buccaneer he undertook several remarkable voyages, the first in the early 1590s to the East Indies from which he returned laden with booty but bereft of most of his original companions. Accounts of his voyages are given by Hakluyt and Purchas.
This very rare pamphlet, which has a few contemporary annotations, has verses to the reader which begin:
No tale of Robinhood I sing,
ne olde wives stories write:
Nor idle toyes to meruaile at,
vaine people to delight,
But woorkes of worth most rare & true,
to you I do present
...
As Lancaster his last attempt,
That hee in Brassill made:
May witnesse well unto his fame...
The text gives a very detailed account of all the stages of the voyage from the fitting out in September 1594 of three good ships, the Consent, the Salomon, and the Virgin, of various tonnages, with commanders James Lancaster, Mun Barker of London and John Awdley of "Poplaer neer London" (John Wat[t]s the son of an alderman and one Symon Boreman son of the owner of the Salomon also are mentioned as going on the voyage), to the various problems which caused delays, and all the problems of expeditions, the separation of the vessels etc. (on reaching the Canaries, the Consent was alone), and the various fights and encounters with Portuguese vessels, which they either raided or destroyed: at Tenerife they joined battle with a Portuguese ship, capturing it and its cargo - "this was laden with canarie wine which came not us before it was well, (and better welcome)".
"Some fifteen of Roberts's works survive, these include verses and pamphlets celebrating maritime expeditions and skirmishes (addressed to Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins), elegies, occasion pieces, and romances... This work, written in the first person, suggests that Roberts took part in the expedition to the Canary Islands and Brazil" (Helen Moore, ODNB).