Discourse Of Western Planting
_____RICHARD HAKLUYT___1584_____
A particular discourse concerning the great necessity and manifold commodities that are like to grow to this Realm of England by the Western discoveries lately attempted, Written in the year 1584 *
known as
DISCOURSE OF WESTERN PLANTING
[Excerpts]
1. That this western discovery will be greatly for the enlargement of the gospel of
Christ whereunto the princes of the reformed religion are chiefly bound among whom her Majesty is principal.
. . . Then it is necessary for the salvation of those poor people who have sat so long in darkness and in the shadow of death that preachers should be sent unto them: But by whom should these preachers be sent? By them no doubt who have taken upon them the protection and defense of the
Christian faith: now the Kings and Queens of
England have the name of defenders of the faith:
By which title I think they are not only charged to maintain and patronize the faith of Christ, but also to enlarge and advance the same. . . . Now the means to send such as shall labor effectually in this business is by planting one or two colonies of our nation upon that firm [land], where they may
2.
remain in safety, and first learn the language of the people near adjoining (the gift of tongues being now taken away) and by little and little acquaint themselves with their manner and so with discretion and mildness distill into their purged minds the sweet and lively lines of the gospel:
Otherwise for preachers to run unto them rashly without some such preparation for their safety, it were nothing else but to run to their apparent and certain destruction, as it happened to those
Spanish friars that before any planting without strength and company landed in Florida, where they were miserably massacred by the Savages . . .
.
That all other English trades are grown beggarly or dangerous especially in all the
king of Spain his dominions, where our men are driven to fling their Bibles and prayer books into the sea,
A particular discourse concerning the great necessity and manifold commodities that are like to grow to this Realm of England by the Western discoveries lately attempted, Written in the year 1584 *
known as
DISCOURSE OF WESTERN PLANTING
[Excerpts]
1. That this western discovery will be greatly for the enlargement of the gospel of
Christ whereunto the princes of the reformed religion are chiefly bound among whom her Majesty is principal.
. . . Then it is necessary for the salvation of those poor people who have sat so long in darkness and in the shadow of death that preachers should be sent unto them: But by whom should these preachers be sent? By them no doubt who have taken upon them the protection and defense of the
Christian faith: now the Kings and Queens of
England have the name of defenders of the faith:
By which title I think they are not only charged to maintain and patronize the faith of Christ, but also to enlarge and advance the same. . . . Now the means to send such as shall labor effectually in this business is by planting one or two colonies of our nation upon that firm [land], where they may
2.
remain in safety, and first learn the language of the people near adjoining (the gift of tongues being now taken away) and by little and little acquaint themselves with their manner and so with discretion and mildness distill into their purged minds the sweet and lively lines of the gospel:
Otherwise for preachers to run unto them rashly without some such preparation for their safety, it were nothing else but to run to their apparent and certain destruction, as it happened to those
Spanish friars that before any planting without strength and company landed in Florida, where they were miserably massacred by the Savages . . .
.
That all other English trades are grown beggarly or dangerous especially in all the
king of Spain his dominions, where our men are driven to fling their Bibles and prayer books into the sea,