The uartoI S U E D Q UARTERLY FOR T H E CLE M ENT S LIBRARY ASSOCIATES , NUMBER 96 , MAR . 19 72

How to F ish

f15H ING SEASO N WILL open soon, and enthusiastsma y be interested in our recently acquired TheA merican A ngler's Guide (New Yqrk 1845) whichwe added to our spor ts coll ection. The authorwas John J. Brown , but he publi shed it anony­mously. It is a rarity.

He compiled what English au thors had wr i ttenon the subject and added "opinions and practicesof the best American an glers ." In reality i t is ama n ual, wi th chapters on rods, hooks, lines,bait s, sinkers, artificial flies, etc., followed bychap ters on a variety of fish, th eir locations andhabit s, and ho w best to ca tch them-wh ich hecalls the " ar t of an gling." Would any fishermand isagree? There are the u sual fish stori es, oranecdotes of success.

The reason for an onymity appears at the end:a five-page adver tisem en t for fishing supplies ofall kinds-from John J. Brown & Co.!

Captain Joh n Sm ith

CONTRIBUTION S R ECEIV ED from Fellows th is yearprompted th e executive committee of the Boardof Governors to plunge into a London auctionbefore Christmas. Offered was a rare descriptiveaccoun t of Virginia by the m an who knew thearea best and had saved the Jamestown colony.Capt. John Smith arrived here with the firstsett lers, serve d on the council, and explored theregion. He ob tained corn from the Indians andkept the few colon ists alive. H e also wrote threeaccounts of Virginia and two of New England.The only on e we lacked was his A M app of Vir­ginia, with a Description of th e Countrey (Ox­ford 1612)-now up for sale. T he last copy hadsold for $55\l1l. It was the tenth known.

Well , the eleventh copy fell in to our laps for$38501 A bargain, and a highly desirable sourcebook by a famous au thor. It runs to 110 pages,has a folding m ap, and is bound in full morocco.

Smce tu e executive committee figured it mightha ve to go to $6000, it would never have actedwithout the cushion of th e Fellows' monies. Thatis wh at extra funds can do for th e Library. \Veare delighted and grateful.

T h e book is still good reading. Cap t. Smithrefers to the native Indians as Virginians an dshows real re spect for Chief Powhatan. " He is ofpersonage a tall well proportioned m an, wi th asour look, his head somewhat gray, his beard sothin th at it seemeth none at all, his age near 60.About hi s pe rson ordinarily attendeth a guardof 40 or 50 of th e tallest m en his coun try dothafford. Every night upon the 4 quarter s of h ishouse are 4 sen tinels." A mile away in th e woodshe ha d another house in wh ich he kpet his "treas­ure-skins, copper, pearl, and beads," and hisstore of "red paint for ointment, an d bows andarrows." Two wom en guarde d him whil e he sleptand waited on him at me al time. Q uite a gu y!

T he W ar of Jenkins' Ear

IN T HE SPRING OF 1738, ship's Ca p tain R obertJ enkins appeared before a Parliamentary com­mittee to open a handkerchief an d display hissevered ear. He claimed it h ad been cu t off bythe Spanish whe n they found sm uggled store s onboard his ship bound for the West Indies. Nomatter th at the incident was said to ha ve takenplace in 1731, seven years before. A war feverswept the countryside over th is supposed ou trage,an d England declared war on Spain . T he motiva­tion for what was essentially a con tr ived warcom bined traditional an im osi ty for CatholicSpain wi th greed for th e wea lth she still possessedin th e American colonies, and a trade she wouldnot open to the English.

As soon as ne ws 01 the declaration reachedAme rica, Ge neral Oglethorpe gathere d toget hersome colon ia l troop s and Indians and launchedan abor tive attack on th e Spanish fort at St.Augu stine. Meanwhile Admiral Vernon sailed

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of The University of Michigan

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

(Appointed by the Regents of the University)

Carl W . Bonbright, FlintRoscoe O . Bonisteel, Ann ArborEdward W . Bowen, Bay CityRobert P. Briggs, Elk RapidsJohn R. Dykema, DetroitWilliam C. Finkenstaedt, DetroitDavid W. Kendall, DetroitJames S. Schoff, New Yark, CHAIRMAN

Morrison Shafroth, DenverJames Shearer, Chi cagoGeorge H. Tweney, SeattleMrs. David F. Upton, St. JosephLee D . van Antwerp, Northbrook, Ill.Howard H . Peckham, Director of the

Library, SECRETARY

the English fleet into the harbor of Portobello.Panama, and sacked that seaport. Then he turnedon the Spanish seacoast fortress of Cartagena,Colombia, with a joint Anglo-American army forthe land operation. The assault was belatedlylaunched with poor coordination and with in­ferior British army officers in command. Only 600of the 4,000 Americans survived to tell the tale.Eventually all European powers were drawn intothis struggle which in later stages became knownas the War of the Austrian Succession.

We recently purchased two important mapsrelating to this War of Jenkins' Ear. Both areEnglish, both portray the American continent,and both have elaborate engravings on th eir sideborders.

The larger and earlier map was printed by'Thomas Bakewell in 1740. Its decorative bordersdepict such curiosities as beavers constructing a

dam at Niagara "Falls "in order to form a GTt::11Lake" (1), as well as Indian scenes from the earlie:John White drawings and a view of the fish .dustry at Newfoundland. The bottom bordergives instructions on how to make firearms, ax:::­plete with sample hand grenades, mortars,fireships. One of the reasons English priutera idulged in these extravagant decorations is beca\.b.e.. u.au.a.'-\..\)) ().~ '£.."CI..-'b'-\..""~ Q.."t-\.().'Y-G.--.y~~ 'NG.-%. <:A •

in this period. Most of their maps were blatanplagiarized from French and Dutch sources, aIIifthese ornamental engravings were used to fill ~

credibility gap. This map also contains the earli­est example of national coloring known to us:English colonial interests are shown in yelland Spanish in red.

The second map is only slightly smaller u.­the first and was printed by Henry Overton .1745. The side panels portray ten American toplans and views. Both this map and the earlierBakewell have the dubious distinction of beine­two of the last to show California as an island,error disproved at the beginning of the century,Yet the peculiarities make these two maps inter­esting. Because they were never included withatlas, but printed and sold separately, they analso quite rare. Both are valuable contributito the unfolding story of America .

Vol unteers?

IF THERE Is A woman resident of Ann Ar boramong our readers who has time on her handsand would like to drop into th e Library once <r

twice a week, we can promise her unpaid work,This would not be glamorous tasks, but su .housekeeping duties as repairing, counting, Pasl.­ing, recording, and similar odd jobs that geeahead of us. If she can type, so much the better.Museums sometimes recruit volunteer aides, whomeet the public and conduct tours, but a librarsdoes not have that kind of patronage. Our jobswould be with materials-books, maps, manu­scripts and newspapers. All we can promise bway of reward is afternoon tea with the staff .

Tracking General Greene

FOUR SIGNIFICANT ITEMS have recently been addedto our extensive Nathanael Greene collection inthe Division of Manuscripts. They are of particu­lar interest in that they come from a hithertounknown source.

Greene, placed in command of the southernarmy in December, 1780, gradually forced til,

Bri tish to ret reat to the Char leston area in themurse of the summer, 1781. The Battle of Guil­lord Courthouse (March 15, 178 1), technically a

irish victo ry, was a very costly one for the red­coa ts. A n ewly added memorandum of Britishlosses by Greene's aide, Lewis Morr-i s, descri besthe punishmen t inflicted upon th e en em y. Corn­"-allis ha d a hor se shot from under h im, Lt. Col.Tarleton lost several finger s, an d many of the

nest officer s a nd soldiers were killed .The British were for ced to retreat to \Vilmin g.

to n, N . C., (ro m which place Cornwall is init ia tedthe disastr ous Yorktown cam Qai'6U' Oeeeoe wlsh ­\U.\\1 ~'l.:Q1?b.'t'&,"'t.~ \ -0. \.'ne. '\U~\. ac,,\u\'re.{\ \ e\.t eT o\.Sep tember 17, 1781 to M orris th at " our prospects

Mark Tuesday, Apri l 1, on your calendarfor our Founder's Day tea. It is an af ternoonpr ogr am , not evening. Invitations win besent out later. April I was Mr. Clem ents'birthda y, bu t it falls on a Saturday and th eday before Easter this year. T he Board ofGovernors will meet a t noon .

are flattering in Virginia, and I ho pe the cam­paign will close gloriously for America ."

Charleston was not evacua ted by the Britishar my until December of 1782, and Greene'sforces had the wearying task of .wa i ting ou t theiremba rka tion. T o obvia te the da ngers of ma larialfever, the gene ra l sen t hi s wi fe and several ailingsu bord inates to Kiawah Island on th e SouthCarolina coast. In the letter of September, 17B2,wh ich we have obta ined, Greene ref ers enviouslyto the healthful " Keewaw air," to lon g rides onth e beach, and to a gener al merrimen t whichcon trasted sharply with the ted iou s mili tary ef­fort. The refugee par ty h ad esta blish ed a "ruleof the house" req uiring each man to sing a d iffer­en t song dail y; it was a regu lation wh ich Greenehearti ly appro ved of {or everyone else, " , . , butwas I there, I m ust get a dispe nsa tion as musickdw ells no t in me."

T he four th it em is M or r is' parting letter to hi scom man der as h e sets ou t for his na tive NewYork at war's cnd .

T he Clem ents Library and the Rhode IslandH\'S>t (}'{.\.ca\ ~o<:.\.~\.1 a"\:~ c.~':>~'\\.~n. ~:>\ ,-n \: \m:\.n­(:(}min~ Quhl k at\<m.. (\( N'.\.\.\\.~'\'\.......~~ C...~~~~~ ~~~~"" .

t-..~~\.'\.'I..~.Y"\.'& '-Q OUT co))eC\10n are particularly wel­come. Unfortuna tel y, however, the mark et valu eof Greene lett ers h as r isen so sharply in th e last

few years, it is questionable whether we shall b ea ble to acq uire any more lett ers. ' Ve can not goon paying wh at we had to pay at auction for thefour le tters men tioned above.

Publishing Clem en ts Map Catalog

I N A DDITI ON to our well -known book and ma n u­scr ip t collect ions, the Clemen ts Library con ta insone of the eigh t best map arch ives in North Am er­ica. \ Ve are pleased to an nounce th a t we havecon tra cted to p ublish our map ca talog in bookform wi th G. K. H all an d Compan v of Boston.V~'N ~'1..."':>\.\.'\\.~ ~d\.d\~':> o'\.. o\.\\~ md~ \~'{),! '3.T\e'i) 'W\\\be able to compete with ours when it is printednext Ia ll. It will be devoted entirely to map s ofthe Ameri cas before IB60 and design ed to facil i­ta te advanced research in the fields of hi stori calcar tograp h y, th e history of prin t ing, d iscover yand ex ploration , Amer ican colon ial history,Am er ican military hi story, and westward expan­sion.

Ph ot ographing th e cards will begin in J ul y,and Douglas Marshall, H ead of the Map Divi­sion, is bus)' prep aring n ew cards to replace olderinad eq ua te ones. By th e time the photographerarr ives, all the flat maps in the map cases willha ve been re cataloged, as well as all of our Dutchatlases. When fin ished, th e printed ca talog prom­ises to become a sta ndard reference of map re­search . It will ta ke it s pl ace beside th e sevenvol um es that reprod uce our cards for prin tedbooks, publ ished in 1970.

The President as Villain

LI KE ALL P REVIO US Presiden tial admin istra tion s,the Nixon admin istra tion has taken its lumpsfrom enraged cr itics. But a public of short mem ­ory some times seems to th ink th at th e la testa t tac ks are the worst in hi story an d tha t anyprevious admin istra tion in spired mor e p ublicconfidence th an the presen t one.

A coun ter argume n t could be made that onthe con trary cr it icism of the Presiden t has gr ownmilder with the passing decad es, a nd tha t cr i ticsof Mr. Ni xon handle him more gen tly th an didcritics of past Presidents. Co nsider President J ohnT yler , who was still being vilified after he wasdefea ted in 1811 , He becam e Presiden t in 1841b y me accut eut 01 President H arrison's death,~'<::. ""'-""" , .....~~ -e,~""''C.';''''''~''i::X\..'-~....~ ~.....'C.~ '''' ~~\:.. '--'-'-

Virgin ia he had been a lu kewarm Democrat andan antislavery man , an d was placed on the \ Vhigticket in 18 4 0 to give it ba lance and national

appea'i. 5udden\y caiapauueo into the WhiteHouse, he was not the leader Of the Whig partynor accepted by the Democrats. This made himfair game for evcry critic.

One Hiram Cumming, a onetime Post Officeemployee and disappointed patronage dispenser,took after him early in 1845 with a pamphlet wejust acquired entitled Secret History of the Perfi­dies, Intrigues, and Corruptions of the TylerDynasty, with the Mysteries of Washington CityConnected with that Vile Administration) in aSeries ~f Letters to the Ex~Act;ng President.That was only the mild beginning. He accusedTyler of treachery and duplicity, avarice, awfulprofanity, calculated villainy, perfidy, cruelty andfiendishness, cowardice, vanity, drunkenness, andvarious other sins. He related incidents and pri­vate conversations. He reviewed Tyler's longpolitical career, seeing vice in every act of his.His climax of vituperation seemed rather weakwhen he called Tyler "one of the most recklessmonsters known in history," Obviously he hadexhausted his vocabulary of hate before hereached his peroration.

The author justified his attack by declaringthat "the wicked should never be permitted tooutlive their shame, nor bury with them theremembrance of their iniquities." Well, Mr.Tyler survives in history respected and evenadmired. Whoever heard of Mr. Cumming?

Northwest Passage

THE SEARCH FOR THE fabled northwest passagecontinued into the eighteenth century on thestrength of an argument which has becomeknown as the Middleton-Dobbs controversy. Asan influential landowner and entrepreneur, Ar­thur Dobbs was interested in the development ofthe region west of Hudson's Bay. He commis­sioned Captain Christopher Middleton to make.a reconnaissance of the area in expectation offinding the passage. Middleton set out in 1741and returned with the truth which Dobbs refusedto accept. This sparked a pamphlet war whichricocheted across fifteen pamphlets in seven years.The Clements Library now owns fourteen of thefifteen.

One overlooked aspect of this episode was amap controversy which included the fictitiousaccount of Joseph la France, a half-breed trapperwho reported to Dobbs on the existence of thepassage. With the conviction of a fanatic, Dobbssketched out a map of the area and published itwith a pamphlet which we came to own. Several

years ago we acquired an unidentified "",Ifl. _ ...mous map entitled, "A Polar Map of Part ofNorthern Hemisphere." It is now evident ~

Ibis map incorporates the information of JosepLla France and is therefore another part of r:8e'same argument. Now we have finally acquiresthe opposing views of Christopher Middlepublished in 1743. It is a far more scientific IWIp

than either of Dobbs' cartographic attempts,includes magnetic variations, tidal directions,depths in fathoms. It was Middleton's conten .that the pull oE tides in the bay was from theand the Atlantic Ocean and not the north, w .would have indicated another outlet. Middletcecartographic defense was vindicated by a pmentary inquiry in 1749. Dobbs devoted hito other subjects after 1750 and was later ap­pointed Governor of North Carolina. It isdistinct pleasure to add this finely engravMiddleton map to our collection on the c,...troversy.

MOTe Fellows

WF, \VELCOME additional new Fellows and re­newals for 1971-72 with warm appreciation andgratitude._ Their support is significant. Their"names appear below: .'

Mrs. Gertrude Bock, Ann ArborEdward W. Bowen, Bay CityDuane N. Diedrich, Muncie, Ind.Miss M. Elizabeth Dunlap, Oakfield, N . Y.Miss Allison Hale, Ann ArborMr. & Mrs. G. Lawton Johnson, Lyme, N.H.David W. Kendall, DetroitJames A. Kidston, ChicagoJames M. Klancnik, ChicagoMr. & Mrs. Stephen J. Kovacik, Jr., ColumbusMr. & Mrs. Sigmund Kunstadter, ChicagoH . W. McCobb, Southport, Conn.Edgar L. McCormick, Kent, O.Mr. & Mrs. William McPherson IV, HowellMr. & Mrs. Earle R . MacLaughlin, Tiburon,

Cal.Mr. & Mrs. Oliver D. Marcks, Grosse Pointe

ParkRowland A. Nadeau, Ambridge, Pa.Morrison Shafroth, DenverMr. & 1\;lrs. William A. Ternes, Grosse PointeDr. & Mrs. Harry A. Towsley, Ann ArborMr. & Mrs. David F . Upton, St. JosephMr. & Mrs. Arne Vennema, HoustonLester E. Waterbury, New YorkPeter L. Wolff, Washington, D .C.