A Voyage to Virginia in 1609: Two Narratives: Strachey's "True Reportory" and Jourdain's Discovery of the Bermudas

Preface

PREFACE ;Jl€•••HHE two works reprinted here, inaugurat- ..~e~u:~~. ing a projected series of contemporary ..~ T .. narratives relating to the settlement of !~~L'; Virginia, have been much discussed as :Jt1VVV ~ sources of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Both William Strachey and Silvester Jourdain were passengers on the ill-fated "Sea Venture," which wrecked in 1609 within sight of one of the Bermuda Islands when this vessel, with eight others in the expedition led by Sir Thomas Gates, was on its way to Jamestown. Aside from their Virginian and Shakespearean interest, the narratives that Strachey and Jourdain wrote are both intrinsically fascinating documents and have a significant place in the voyage literature of their day. To make for easier reading, they are reprinted here for the first time with the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization modernized. Obvious printing errors have been silently corrected but all obsolete words have xv XVI PREFACE been retained. The text, except for these changes, is faithful to the first printed editions. The editor is indebted to Miss Virginia LaMar, coeditor of the Folger Library General Reader's Shakespeare , for invaluable assistance with both text and notes and to Mrs. John D. Hendrickson for help in the preparation of the manuscript. L. B.W. ...