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If Champlain has often been called the "Maker" of the New France there is no doubt that Henry IV can be entitled to the name of "Creator." By continuous planning and improvisation during the last thirteen years of his reign, Henry brought what had been an amorphous French claim to a large part of eastern North Am~rica into a substantial presence on the map, even if, at the time of his premature death at the hands of an assassin, the reality of New France still remained tenuous, in that no population movement had taken place to pin down the area which France claimed and her outposts there were only nominal ones. It is true that Henry suffered many disabilities in putting New France on the map. Until 1589 he was powerless to effect anything, though his mind was already opened to the opportunities the overseas world presented for French trade and territory. Between 1589 and 1598 he was handicapped by the civil war, though he had some measure of freedom to experiment in this field after his crowning at Chartres had removed most, if far from all, of the obstacles to his exercise of authority. Throughout his active life he had hopes of weakening Spain and the Treaty of Vervins (1598) and, most of all, the Dutch Truce of 1609 had some effect in doing so. But he always lacked the naval power to challenge Spain in the Caribbean, even if French privateers (or pirates) remained active in that area both before and after 1598. He proved able to export French traders to the East Indies but not to maintain a French presence there, as the English contrived to do. The task of reconstruction and development in France absorbed his controller-general of finances, the duc de Sully, and led him to decry and resist overseas activities as a waste of effort in not being productive in the short run: to him France and France in Europe required all the resources that Henry could mobilize. There was too, in Paris and in the interior of France, little enthusiasm for colonial ventures. What there was resided in the ports, Rouen and its satellites in particular, St. Malo, St. Jean de Luz and, to a lesser extent, in La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Bayonne. But they too were more interested in short-term commercial results than in the long-term fatigue of creating a colonial French society, while French men and women showed more reluctance than Spanish

S o many aspects of the life and activities of Christopher Columbus have come under intensive scrutiny that it is a matter of some surprise that certain areas have never been completely clarified. This, in many cases, is due to conflicting interpretations of the evidence and, in some, to idiosyncrasies of the writers. In still other cases, the evidence remaining is too slight for a clear solution to be possible. In such instances, attempts to obtain a solution have provoked controversy because they are, of their nature, tentative and incomplete. This is especially true of the years between Columbus's departure from Genoa and his decisive voyage in 1492. Of his earlier life Paulo Emilio Taviani and Jacques Heers1 have written with some conclusiveness, but even they show a reluctance to define to what extent Columbus was a seaman before 1475 and how far a merchant. It is reasonable to assume that he was involved in both capacities. It is also reasonably clear that he was brought up as much a merchant as a seaman (in spite of his own and of Samuel Eliot Morison's assertions to the contrary).2 His role in his expedition to Chios in 1475, for example, is best seen as that of a supercargo, engaged in fostering his family's trade in wool and woolen articles in a venture sponsored by two major trading families, the Spinola and the Centurione di Negro (we should probably use the word "clan" to describe their widespread ramifications). This association continued into the 1480s and may be considered one of Columbus's principal links with commerce in Genoa, in Portugal, and in Madeira as well as, it will be suggested here, intermediately, in the year 1477 in England, Iceland, and Ireland. One question cannot, apparently, be answered at all-that is, when his interest in the written word began. Was he sufficiently educated in Genoa to launch him in the career of amateur scholarship which was to be the

The discovery of what proved to be a Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows, an isolated location on the north coast of Newfoundland, near the eastern opening of the Strait of Belle Isle, in i960 brought a new dimension to the history and archaeology of European contacts with North America, apart from the long-debated literary-historical authority of the Sagas. Helge Ingstad, lawyer, traveller and scholar, and his wife, the archaeologist, Anne Stine Ingstad, found it in i960, and presided over its excavation during seven seasons between 1962 and 1968. To their skill, scholarship and tenacity lasting credit is due. Helge provided the drive in getting resources for the project and searching for comparable materials with which to assist in its identification, while Anne Stine carefully worked over the ground, organizing the excavation professionally and commanding successive teams of helpers during a long and arduous dig. Initial scepticism gradually gave way to acceptance of the discovery as what the Ingstads claimed it to be, and by 1968 it had been almost universally accepted as the first authenticated indication of the Norse presence in North America in the early years of the eleventh century, and proving that something, at least, of the Sagas was history rather than fiction. At last Vinland had a presence and a name. Anne Stine Ingstad published a preliminary report on the excavations in 19701 and a

Oares, Oares, Oares, Oares!To London hay, to London hay,Hoist up Sayles and lets away,for the safest bayFor us to land is London shores,Thomas Dekker and John Webster, Westward Hoe (1607), sig. 12v (written 1603)

The act of the Irish parliament of 1494-5, known as Poynings’ Law, was of outstanding importance in the history of that parliament down to its virtual repeal in 1782, but, owing to the brevity of its text, the changing nature of the relations between the English government and the Anglo-Irish administration and the development of the organisation of the Irish parliament, it passed through various stages of interpretation and significance which require to be studied separately.

OMETIME about I603, Thomas Hariot (I56o-i62I)1 reflected on fame and reputation and on references and allusions that had been made to him personally by contemporary authors. On the back of the final folio of his nearly finished work 'The Doctrine of Nauticall Triangles Compendious,'2 Hariot jotted down a series of references to books which, on examination, seem surely to refer to Hariot or his beliefs. Such a list could have been compiled from curiosity or vanity or for use in conversations with his friends. But it may have had a more specific purpose, since Hariot was a controversial figure frequently called on to account for his ideas or his associations. The making of such a list could therefore have been to forearm himself against the kind of evidence which might be adduced against him from printed sources. Covering the years I587 to I602, this book list contributes a substantial amount of material for the biography of a man who left few personal memoranda, and, more significantly, the included items enable us to see how far he responded to oblique references to himself which may, or may not, have been previously remarked. The authors began reviewing this list and seeking identifications, many with scant clues, two decades ago. Most of these items have now been identified, and the present article is designed to shed the light contained therein on Hariot's contacts and reputation during the central period of his life from age twenty-seven to forty-two.

M . ~Y own interest in the settlement of eastern North America is with origins. The establishment of San Augustin, of Jamestown, of Quebec, of Plymouth, of the Bay Colony are all, from this aspect, terminal points, when, one after another, groups of Europeans not only reach North America but stay there. The arrival of the Pilgrims of i620 is from this point of view the end of a story, rather a long story, one chapter of which is concerned with the First Pilgrims, those who came briefly to North America in I597, but who did not remain there. In the sixteenth century each of the "national" Protestant churches, after it had established itself, settled down to persecute other kinds of Protestants or Catholics: few Catholic powers ever ceased persecution. Always there were dissident groups in hiding or running to find refuge. The French Huguenots, then one of the most powerful dissident

The letter which John Day wrote to the 'Almirante Mayor' on John Cabot's American voyage of 1497 (Spanish, Vigneras, 1961, pp. 666-8, Almagia, 1960, PP2-3; English, Williamson, 1962, pp. 211-14) continues to provide material for comment and controversy. Much of the latter will be stifled by Dr. A. A. Ruddock's brilliant identification of John Day of Bristol with Hugh Say of London as two manifestations of the same individual (Ruddock, 1966, pp. 222-233). As she says, John Day emerges as a member of a cultivated London merchant family, the Says, so that the evident sophistication of his letter is more easy to understand and to evaluate, and his correspondence with a Spanish admiral no longer appears somewhat anomalous. Professor L. A. Vigneras, who found the Day letter in 1955, has already demonstrated that the 'Almirante Mayor* to whom the letter was addressed was, almost eertainly, Columbus (Vigneras, 1957, p. 226, 1961, pp. 663, 669), whose title of 'Almirante del Mar Oceano' was frequently generalized to 'El Almirante Mayor', while he often signed himself 'El Almirante*. The other territorial official with a similar title was the hereditary 'Almirante de Castilla', Fadrique Enriquez, who was also addressed as 'El Almirante Mayor', but who had no associations with overseas voyages and was probably in Italy, as Professor Vigneras has shown, when the Day letter was written. From the external evidence the letter makes better sense, indeed only makes sense, as part of the correspondence between an exceptionally well-informed Englishman and the now-famous discoverer, as he still regarded himself, of the offshore islands of Cathay. It may seem that, judged on internal evidence, the letter also fits into the Columbus picture. Why, we may ask, should Columbus have been so concerned with what the English were doing in 1497 as to be in contact by letter, and perhaps also in person, with John Day? The reason is that, most probably, he was engaged in a systematic re-evaluation of his ideas and discoveries for the first time since his departure on his first transAtlantic voyage in 1492. Returning to Spain from his second voyage on 11 June 1496, he did not leave on his third until 30 May 1498. In the meantime he had an opportunity to go over his books and notes and to search for fresh information. His new dis? coveries were puzzling. Though he had strenuously maintained on his second voyage that Cuba must be a peninsular extension of the mainland of Asia, he cannot have been too happy that in two expeditions he had gone well beyond his calculated limits of the ocean and had still not found any north-south coastline which would allow him to place his discoveries on the globe as he knew it. That he had re-thought his position is to be seen from his south-west course in 1498, which he had originally intended should bring him south of the Equator, since he expected the mainland of Asia to be within easier reach in these latitudes than from the Antilles. The evidence for his continued study of the older authorities is equally indirect but none the less convinc? ing. In the letter he wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella from Hispaniola in October 1498 (Columbus, 1892, II, 26-40, 1933, II, 1-47, 1961, pp. 219-39, 441-64, 1963

T g 8 HE seminal importance of the English voyages to North Carolina and Virginia which were made under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh between i584 and i59i has long been fully recognized despite their failure to found a lasting settlement on American soil. The reconnaissance voyage of Amadas and Barlow in i584 first revealed the Banks and Sounds of the North Carolina shore to English eyes. Sir Richard Grenville then led an important expedition there to establish the first colony in i585. Lane's colonists lived nearly a year at Roanoke before they left with Drake in June, i586, just before Grenville arrived with supplies and reinforcements. He left a mere fifteen men as a second colony which was soon wiped out by the Indians. Then, in i587, John White brought to Roanoke the third colony. Returning to England for supplies, his projected voyage in i588 failed, and it was not until i59i that he came back to Roanoke to find the settlers gone. Thus ended the first English colonial experiment in America and gave birth to one of the great mysteries of American history and folklore, the fate of the "Lost Colony." Such is the well-known outline. Richard Hakluyt in both the i589 and i6oo editions of his great collection of voyages did full justice to the narratives and reports of the American voyages, but he left many questions unanswered. Later discoveries of documents have filled some of the gaps: others remain. The present paper adds material which has recently come to light on the preparations for the i585 expedition. One important new document is discussed which illuminates the military preparations which preceded the establishment of the Roanoke colony in i585 and provides a rather novel perspective from which Lane's colony can be viewed. A second discovery is of a case in the high court of admiralty which, if it does not add greatly to our knowledge of the i585 voyage, tells us something about the personality of Philip Amadas, hitherto a somewhat shadowy figure, but long recognized as an important one. Finally, the finding of some new detail on the collection of stores and personnel for the