CONCERNING HENRY STEVENS OF VERMONT
IN THE MATTER OF HIS LIFE OF
THOMAS HARIOT
AND OTHER THINGS RETROSPECTIVE
AND PROSPECTIVE
N the year 1877 the late
Mr. Henry Stevens of
Vermont, under the pseu-
donym of4 Mr. Secretary
Outis,' projeSed and
initiated a literary Asso-
ciation entitled THE
Hercules Club.
The following extraSs from the original pro-
spectus of that year explain his * platform ':
"The objefis of this Association are
"literary, social, antiquarian, festive and
"historical; and its aims are thoroughly
\i Henry Stevens and his
"independent research into the materials of
"early Anglo-American history and litera-
"ture. The Association is known as THE
"Hercules Club, whose Eurystheus is
"Historic Truth and whose appointed la-
"bours are to clear this field for the historian
"of the future.
"Sinking the individual in the Associa-
"tion the Hercules Club proposes to scour
"the plain and endeavour to rid it of some
"of the many literary, historical, chronolo-
"gical, geographical and other monstrous
"errors, hydras and public nuisances that
"infest it. . . . Very many books, maps,
"manuscripts and other materials relating
u alike to England and to America are well
"known to exist in various public and private
"repositories on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Some unique or of the highest rarity, are
"of great historic value, while others are
"difficult of access, if not wholly inaccessible,
i6 to the general student. It is one of the
"purposes therefore of the Hercules Club to
"ferret out these materials, collate, edit and
"reproduce them with extreme accuracy, but
"not in facsimile. The printing is to be in
Life of Thomas Hariot, etc.
"the best style of the Chiswick Press. The
"paper with the Clubs monogram in each leaf
"is made expressly for the purpose."
The following ten works were seleSed as
the first field of the Club's investigations, and
to form the first series of its publications.
I. Waymouth (Capt. George) Voyage to North Virginia in
1605. By James Rosier. London, 1605, 40
3. Lochinvar. Encouragements for such as shall have inten-
tion to bee Vndertakers in the new plantation of Cape
Breton, now New Galloway. Edinburgh, 1625, 40
4. Voyage into New England in 1623-24. By Christopher
Levett. London, 1628, 40
5. Capt. John Smith's True Relation of such occurrences of
Noate as hath hapned in Virginia. London, 1608, 40
6. Gosnold's Voyage to the North part of Virginia in 1602.
By John Brereton. London, 1602, 40
7. A Plain Description of the Barmudas, now called Sommer
Islands. London, 1613, 40
8. For the Colony in Virginia Brittania, Lavves Divine Mo-
rail and Martiall, &c. London, 1612, 40
9. Capt. John Smith's Description of NewEngland, 1614-15,
map. London, 1616, 40
10. Hariot (Thomas) Briefe and true report of the new found-
land of Virginia. London, 1588, 40
* Mr. Secretary Outis * undertook the task
of seeing the reprints of the original texts of
these ten volumes through the Press, and
almost the whole of this work he aSually
accomplished.

viii Henry Stevens and his
The co-operative objects of the Association,
however, appear never to have been fully inau-
gurated, although a large number of literary
men, collectors, societies and libraries entered
their names as Members of the Club. All
were willing to give their pecuniary support as
subscribers to the Club's publications, but few
offered the more valuable aid of their literary
assistance; hence practically the whole of the
editing also devolved upon Mr. Henry Stevens.
He first took up No. 10 on the above list,
Hariofs Virginia. His long and diligent
study for the introduction thereto, resulted in
the discovery of so much new and important
matter relative to Hariot and Raleigh, that it
became necessary to embody it in a separate
volume, as the maximum dimensions contem-
plated for the introduction to each work had
been exceeded tenfold or more.
Owing to Mr. Stevens's failing health, the
cares of his business, and the continual dis-
covery of fresh material, it was not till 1885
that his investigations were completed, although
many sheets of the book had been printed off
from time to time as he progressed. The
whole of the text was actually printed off
Life of Thomas Hariot, etc. ix
during his lifetime, but unfortunately he did
not live to witness the publication of his
work, perhaps the most historically important
of any of his writings. Publication has been
delayed till now for reasons explained herein-
after.
On the death of my father, on February 28,
1886, I found myself appointed his literary
executor, and I have since devoted much time
to the arrangement, completion, and publication
of his various unfinished works, seeking the
help of competent editors where necessary.
Immediately after his decease I published his
Recolledions of Mr. fames Lenox of New Tork^
and the formation of his Library^ a little volume
which was most favourably received and ran
through several impressions.
In the same year I published The Dawn of
British Trade to the East Indies as recorded in
the Court Minutes of the East India Company.
This volume contained an account of the
formation of the Company and of Captain
Waymouth's voyage to America in search of
the North-west passage to the East Indies.
The work was printed for the first time from
the original manuscript preserved in the India
X
Henry Stevens and his
Office, and the introduction was written by Sir
George Birdwood.
In 1888 I issued Jobann Schoner, Professor
of Mathematics at Nuremberg. A reproduction
of his Globe of 1523 long lost, his dedicatory
letter to Reymer von Streytperck, and the c De
Moluccis'1 of Maximilianus Transylvanus, with
new translations and notes on the Globe by Henry
Stevens of Vermont, edited, with an introduction
and bibliography, by C. H. Coote, of the British
Museum. This Globe of 1523, now generally
known as Schemer's Third Globe, is marked
by a line representing the route of Magellan's
expedition in the first circumnavigation of the
earth; and the facsimile of Maximilianus's
interesting account of that voyage, with an
English translation, was consequently added to
the volume. Mr. Coote, in his introduction,
gives a graphic account of many other early
globes, several of which are also reproduced
in facsimile. The whole volume was most
carefully prepared, and exhibits considerable
originality both in the printing and binding,
Mr. Henry Stevens's own ideas having been
faithfully carried out.
In 18931 issued to the subscribers that elegant
Life of Thomas Hariot, etc. xi
folio volume which my father always considered
as his magnum opus. It was entitled The New
Laws of the Indies for the good treatment and
preservation of the Indians^ promulgated by the
Emperor Charles the Fifth, 1542-1543. A
facsimile reprint of the original Spanish edition^
together with a literal translation into the English
language^ to which is prefixed an historical intro-
duStion. Of the long introduction of ninety-
four pages, the first thirty-eight are from the
pen of Mr. Henry Stevens, the remainder from
that of Mr. Fred. W. Lucas, whose diligent
researches into American history are amply
exemplified in his former work, Appendiculae
Historicae7 or shreds of history hung on a horny
and in his recent work, The Annals of the
Voyages of the Brothers Zeno.
Ever since 1886 I have from time to time
unsuccessfully endeavoured to enlist the services
of various editors competent to complete the
projected eleven volumes of the Hercules Club
publications, but after a lapse of nearly fourteen
years I have awakened to the faS that no
actual progress has been made, and that I
have secured nothing beyond the vague promise
of future assistance. The field of editors
xii Henry Stevens and bis
capable of this class of work being necessarily
very limited, and death having recently robbed
me in the most promising case of even the
slender hope of future help, I determined to
ascertain for myself the exafl position of the
work already done, with the hope of bringing
at least some of the volumes to a completion
separately, instead of waiting longer in the
hope of finishing and issuing them all en bloc
as originally proposed and intended. On
collating the printed stock I found that the
two volumes, Hariofs Virginia and the Life
of Hariot, were praclically complete, the text
of both all printed off, and the titles and
preliminary leaves and the Index to Hariofs
Virginia aSually standing in type at the
Chiswick Press just as my father left them
fourteen years ago! (Many thanks to Messrs.
Charles Whittingham and Co. for their
patience.) The proofs of these I have corrected
and passed for press, and I have added the
Index to the Life of Hariot. My great
regret is that I did not sooner discover the
practical completeness of these two volumes,
as owing to the nature of the contents of
the Life of Hariot it is not just to Hariofs
Life of Thomas Hariot, etc. xiii
memory, or to that of my father, that such
important truths should so long have been
withheld from posterity.
These two volumes being thus completed, it
remained to be decided in what manner they
should be published. I did not feel myself
competent to pick up the fallen reins of the
Hercules Club, which, as I have said
before, appears never to have been fully in-
augurated on the intended co-operative basis.
There being now no constituted association
(such having entirely lapsed on the death of
Mr. i Secretary Outisand many of the
original subscribers, who were ipsofafto members,
being also no longer with us, it appeared
impossible to put forth the volumes as the
publications of the HERCULES CLUB. Con-
sequently I resolved to issue them myself (and
any future volumes I may be able to bring to
completion) simply as privately printed books,
and I feel perfectly justified in so doing, as no
one but Mr. Henry Stevens had any hand in
their design or production either editorially or
financially. No money whatever was received
from the members, whose subscriptions were
only to become payable when the publications
xiv Life of Thomas Harlot, etc,
were ready for delivery. The surviving mem-
bers are now offered the first chance of sub-
scribing to these two Hariot volumes, and the
remainder of the copies will be allotted to new
subscribers in the order of their application.
Both old and new subscribers will also be
offered the option of taking any subsequent
volumes of the series which I may be enabled
hereafter to complete.
The terms of subscription and particulars of
the impression will be found appended. The
following * Premonition' by Mr. Henry Stevens
gives a brief idea of the scope of the work.
Henry N. Stevens,
Literary Executor of the late
Henry Stevens of Vermont.
39, Great Russell Street,
London, W.C.,
\oth April, 1900.
Premonition

HEN I YEARS AGO
undertook among other
enterprises to compile a
sketch of the life of
Thomas Hariot the
first historian of the new
found land of Virginia;
and to trace the gradual geographical develop-
ment of that country out of the unlimited< Terra
Florida* of Juan Ponce de Leon, through the
French planting and the Spanish rooting out
of the Huguenot colony down to the successful
foothold of the English in Wingandacoa under
xvi Premonition to the
Raleigh's patent, I little suspected either the
extent of the research I was drifting into, or
the success that awaited my investigations.
The results however are contained in this
little volume, which has expanded day by day
from the original limit of fifty to above two
hundred pages. From a concise bibliographical
essay the work has grown into a biography
of a philosopher and man of science with
extraordinary surroundings, wherein the patient
reader may trace the gradual development of
Virginia from the earliest time to 1585;
* especially,' says Strachey, 4 that which hath
bene published by that true lover of vertue and
great learned professor of all arts and know-
ledges, Mr Hariots, who lyved there in the
tyme of the first colony, spake the Indian
language, searcht the country,' etc; Hariot's
nearly forty years' intimate connection with Sir
Walter Raleigh; his long close companionship
with Henry Percy; his correspflodence with
Kepler; his participation in Raleigh's * History
of the World;' his invention of the. telescope
Pertingent Reader xvii
and his consequent astronomical discoveries;
his scientific disciples; his many friendships and
no foeships; his blameless life; his beautiful
epitaph in St Christopher's church, and his long
slumber in the'garden' of the Bank of England.
The little book is now submitted with consider-
able diffidence, for in endeavouring to extricate
Hariot from the confusion of historical 4 facts'
into which he had fallen, and to place him in
the position to which he is entitled by his great
merits, it is desirable to be clear, explicit and
logical. A decision of mankind of two centuries'
standing, as expressed in many dictionaries and
encyclopaedias, cannot be easily reversed with-
out good contemporary evidence. This I have
endeavoured to produce.
Referring to pages 191 and 192 the writer
still craves the reader's indulgence for the
apparently irrelevant matter introduced, as
well as for the inartistic grouping of the many
detached materials, for reasons there given.
It ought perhaps to be stated here that the
book necessarily includes notices, more or less
xviii Premonition to the Pertingent Reader
elaborate, of very many of Hariot's fri
associates and contemporaries, while others,
want of space, are mentioned little more t'
by name.
The lives of Raleigh, and Henry Perc
Northumberland, Prisoners in the Tower, s
to be inseparable from that of their Fi
Achates, but I have endeavoured to elimi
that of Hariot as far as possible without d
gation to his patrons. All the new docum
mentioned have their special value, but
much importance cannot be attached to
recovery of Hariot's Will, for it at once dis
a great deal of the inference and conjecture
have so long beclouded his memory. It thr
the bright electric light of to-day over his e
ently scholarly, scientific and philosophical
By this and the other authorities given it is ho
to add a new star to the joint constellatio
the honored Worthies of England and Amer
Henry Stevens of Ver
Vermont House, xiii Upper Avenue Road,
London, nw, April 10 1885