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The Buccaneers of America, 1687 - Explore the Early Americas (Library of Congress) - Explore the Early Americas (Library of Congress)
The Buccaneers of America, 1687 - Explore the Early Americas (Library of Congress) - Explore the Early Americas (Library of Congress)
Buccaneers were a cross between genuine privateers, commissioned to defend a country’s colonies and trade, and outright pirates.
Typically English, French, and Dutch adventurers, the buccaneers plied the waters among the Caribbean islands, and along the coasts of Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia more than 300 years ago.
“The Buccaneers of America” is a remarkable eyewitness account by Alexander Exquemelin, first published in 1678.
Alexander Exquemelin, thought to be a French surgeon who enlisted with the buccaneers for a time, chronicles the bold feats of these raiders as they disrupted shipping on the high seas and terrorized Caribbean settlements.
Exquemelin provides fascinating details of the French presence in Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), describes the features of that country and its inhabitants, and comments at length on the origin of the buccaneers, vividly recounting their rules of conduct and way of life.
These bold plunderers come across as shrewd strategists, crack shots, fine navigators, wild debauchers, and greedy adventurers who frequently engaged in vicious acts of cruelty.
Waldseemuller Map, 1507 (Geography and Map Reading Room, Library of Congress)
Recognizing and Naming America
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Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map grew out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, near Strasbourg, France, during the first decade of the sixteenth century, to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries. Waldseemüller’s large world map was the most exciting product of that research effort, and included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501–1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands "America" in recognition of Vespucci ’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century. This is the only known surviving copy of the first printed edition of the map, which, it is believed, consisted of 1,000 copies.
Waldseemüller’s map supported Vespucci’s revolutionary concept by portraying the New World as a separate continent, which until then was unknown to the Europeans. It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as a separate ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever changing the European understanding of a world divided into only three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Martin Waldseemüller (1470–1521)
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Would You Like to See How Big Cities Looked Like Hundred Years Ago?
Would You Like to See How Big Cities Looked Like Hundred Years Ago?
Memphis Main Street, North from Gayoso Avenue 1910
Louisville and Nashville Railway Station,Florida 1910
Forsyth Street, West from Main Jacksonville,Florida 1910
Bathing in Front of the Big Hotels,Atlantic City 1915
Sutter Street up from Grant Avenue After the Earthquake,San Francisco 1906
The Columbus Letter
The Columbus Letter | |
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Christopher Columbus's letter announcing the success of his voyage to the "islands of the India sea" is one of the most remarkable documents ever published. It is a key document in the social and intellectual histories of both Europe and the Americas. The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine, is pleased to make this significant historical document -- in the form of the Basle 1494 edition -- available to the people.
De Insulis nuper inuentis
Epistola Christoferi Colom (cui etas nostra mul-tum debet: de Insulis in mari Indico nuper inuen-tis: ad quas perquirendas octauo antea mense: au-spiciis et ere inuictissimi Fernandi Hispaniarû Re-gis missus fuerat) ad Magnificû dominû Raphae-lem Sanxis: eiusdem serenissimi Regis Thesaurari=um missa: quam nobilis ac litteratus vir Aliander de Cosco: ab Hispano ideomate: in latinum con-uertit: tercio Kalendas Maii .M.cccc.xciij. Pontifi-catus Alexandri Sexti Anno primo.
Qvoniam suscepte prouinciæ rem perfectâ me consecutû fuisse: gratum tibi fore scio. has constitui exarare: quæ te vniuscuiusque rei in hoc nostro itinere geste inuêteque admoneât. Tricesimotercio die postquam Gadibus discessi: in ma=re Indicû perueni: vbi plurimas Iu[n]sulas innumeris habitatas hominibus reperi: quarû omnium pro foe-licissimo Rege nostro: præconio celebrato, et vexil=lis extensis: côtradicente nemine possessionê acce-pi. primeque earum: diui Saluatoris nomê imposui. cuius fretus auxilio: tam ad hanc quam ad ceteras alias peruenimus. Eam vero Indi Guanahanyn vocant. Aliarum etiam vnâquanque nouo nomine nûcupaui. Quippe aliam Insulam Sancte Marie Conceptio-nis. aliam Fernandinam. aliam Hysabellam. aliâ
Translation: Because my undertakings have attained success, I know that it will be pleasing to you: these I have determined to relate, so that you may be made acquainted with everything done and discovered in this our voyage. On the thirty-third day after I departed from Cadiz, I came to the Indian sea, where I found many islands inhabited by men without number, of all which I took possession for our most fortunate king, with proclaiming heralds and flying standards, no one objecting. To the first of these I gave the name of the blessed Saviour, on whose aid relying I had reached this as well as the other islands. But the Indians call it Guanahany. I also called each one of the others by a new name. For I ordered one island to be called Santa Maria of the Conception, another Fernandina, another Isabella, another Juana, and so on with the rest.
As soon as we had arrived at that island which I have just now said was called Juana, I proceeded along its coast towards the west for some distance; I found it so large and without perceptible end, that I believed it to be not an island, but the continental country of Cathay; seeing, however, no towns or cities situated on the sea-coast, but only some villages and rude farms, with whose inhabitants I was unable to converse, because as soon as they saw us they took flight.
I proceeded farther, thinking that I would discover some city or large residences. At length, perceiving that we had gone far enough, that nothing new appeared, and that this way was leading us to the north, which I wished to avoid, because it was winter on the land, and it was my intention to go to the south, moreover the winds were becoming violent, I therefore determined that no other plans were practicable, and so, going back, I returned to a certain bay that I had noticed, from which I sent two of our men to the land, that they might find out whether there was a king in this country, or any cities. These men traveled for three days, and they found people and houses without number, but they were small and without any government, therefore they returned.
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