Joachim's Magic, page 17
Craftsmen ne’er perfected such an art
to sculpt the benchmark of a beating heart.
(As written by Reis Courtney, who ne’er considred himselfe a poete, by any manner thereof, in the yeare of Our Lord, 1601, ‘pon fond remembrance of Joachim Gans, master metallurgist and mentore.)
EPILOGUE
AFTER SIR RICHARD Grenville sailed back to England in August, 1585, most likely taking some of the men with him, Ralph Lane and the remaining colonists set about gathering supplies for the approaching winter. But Ralph Lane lacked the diplomatic skills of negotiation. He angered the Indians to the point where Wingina, now known as Pemisapan, tried to gather support from the neighboring tribes in order to kill the explorers. However, he was not successful. Dependent for food and supplies on the alternating hostility and friendship of the natives, a desperate Lane and his men lasted through until the following spring.
Interestingly enough, by the time Sir Francis Drake’s expedition landed at Roanoke in the spring, Lane and his followers had made a decision to stay. Becauseof this, Drake gave them a small ship which could negotiate the shallow channel; however, this ship disappeared in a hurricane.
Drake offered them another ship, larger than the first, which would have had to be anchored out in the Atlantic. Lane and his men became discouraged and, with the approach of yet another storm, quickly changed their minds and decided to leave with Drake. One week after they left so abruptly, a supply ship from England landed on Roanoke. The supply ship and Drake’s fleet had crossed paths without sighting each other. Two weeks after that, Grenville’s own fleet sailed up the Roanoke Sound to find a deserted camp.
The death of Pemisapan eased the threat to Lane’s colony only on a temporary basis. Historians agree that most likely Lane’s hostilities against the native tribes made it difficult for the 1587 Roanoke Island colony (known as the Lost Colony) to succeed, contributing to its ultimate failure. No trace of them was ever found. Both the 1585 Lane expedition and the 1587 Colony were declared unsuccessful.
The search for copper, which remained their focus, was in vain. The natives used copper for ornaments, for trade and for fashioning weapons and utensils. It appears that they were reluctant to tell where it could be found.
LETTERS PATENTS
Letters Patents,
Graunted by the Queenes Maiestie to Master Walter Ralegh
25 March 1584*
Elizabeth by the grace of God&c - To all people to whome these presentes shall come greting. Know yee that of our especiall grace certeyne science and mere mocyon We haue gyuen and graunted and by these presentes for vs our heyres and successors doe geve and grante to our trusty and welbeloved servaunte Walter Raleighe Esquier and to his heyres and ssignes for ever free liberty and license from tyme to tyme and at all tymes for ever hereafter to discover seach fynde out and viewe such remote heathen and barbarous landes Contries and territories not actually possessed of any Christian Prynce and inhabited by Christian people… Reseruing always to vs our heyres and successors for all seruives dueties and demaundes the fifte parte of all the owre of Gold and silver than from tyme to tyme and at all tymes after such discovery subduying and possessing shal be there gotten or obteyned… (In which Elizabeth grants patents to Sir Walter Raleigh and asks for one fifth of all gold and silver he discovers)
*From: Quinn, David Beers, Ed.
The Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590. Vol. I
JOACHIM’S TALMUD*
The Talmud is a huge collection of doctrine and law, consisting of the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a great many varied subjects, including Halakha(law), ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and a number of other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is much quoted in rabbinic literature. These writings are as important to Jewish religious tradition as is the Bible’s Old Testament, encompassing every subject explored in Jewish history.
Some of the basic areas covered are as follows:
a. agricultural laws and rules for foods and blessings
b. the rituals of the Sabbath and other holidays
c. the issues between men and women, such as marriage and divorce
d. issues of civil and criminal law
e. laws of the temple
f. laws of spiritual purity and impurity
Most orthodox Jews, such as Joachim Gans, found their wisdom in the Talmud. Joachim, no doubt, quoted freely from it. Being a deeply religious man, it is likely that he drew upon this intimate knowledge to govern his life and that of his young apprentice.
*”International Standard Bible Encyclopedia”. 1915. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about “Talmud”
NORTH CAROLINA’S COASTAL INDIANS*
“In some respects the best-known Carolina Algonkian group, at least the one with which the Roanoke colonists had the most numerous contacts, was the so-called Secotan. This tribe’s domain extended from Albemarle Sound to lower Pamlico River and from Roanoke Island to the west-central region of present Beaufort County…. The northeastern section of the peninsula between the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers was also a part of Secotan territory. Secotan distribution thus included the present counties of Washington, Tyrrell, Dare, and Hyde, the greater part of Beaufort, and the northern part of Pamlico…. The native inhabitants of the off-shore islands were geographically, and perhaps also culturally and politically, closer to the Secotan than to any other Algonkian group.
“Because of proximity to Roanoke the English colonists had closer contacts with the Secotan Indians than with any other tribe of the Carolina coast. Barlow’s Wingandacoa is usually identified with Secotan, and most of the Indians whom he mentioned by name - Wingina, the chief, Granganimo, his brother, Wanchese and Manteo, the natives whom he took to England with him - were inhabitants of this area…. Hariot stated that most of his ethnological information pertained particularly to the coastal area in the vicinity of Roanoke, and White’s pictures of Indian scenes and subjects dealt largely with the towns of the Secotan tribe.”
“ALGONKIAN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE CAROLINA SOUND” by Maurice A. Mook, Part 3 Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 6 (June 15, 1944), pp. 181-196, pp. 213-228.
“Algonquian Ethnohistory of the Carolina Sound” by Maurice A. Mook, Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 34 (6–7), 1944.
PERSONNEL ASSOCIATED WITH THE 1585-86 VENTURE*
(Not all these people made the trip)
*names mentioned in the novel
*Sir Walter Ralegh
Sir Christopher Hatton
*Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Philip Sidney, MP
Sir William Courtnay, MP
Sir William Mohun, MP
*John White, painter
*Sir Richard Grenville, general
*Simon Fernandez, chief pilot
John Clarke, Captain of Roebuck
Captain George Raymond, Captain of Lion of Chichester
Thomas Cavendish, Captain of Elizabeth
*Arthur Barlowe
Captain Boniten
Captain Aubry
John Arundell
John Stukely
Edward Gorges
*Master Bremige
Master Vincent
Captain John Copeltope
Edward, Scrivener
*Granganimeo
*Manteo
Richard Hakluyt, elder
Alonzo Cornieles, Captain of the Santa Maria of San VicentEnrique Lopez, Portuguese merchant
Amyas Preston
Andrew Fulforde, Captain of Ralegh’s Job
Kendall, gentleman
*Wingina
Master Francis Brooke, treasurer
John Stubbe
Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby
Martin Laurentson, Danish mbr of Grenville’s expedition
Diego Menendez de Valdes
FURTHER READING
Donald, M. B.Elizabethan Copper: The History of The Company of Mines Royal, 1568-1605. London: Pergamon Press, Ltd. 1955.
Feuer, Lewis S. The Life and Works of Joachim Gaunse, Mining Technologist and First Recorded Jew in English-Speaking North America. Cincinnati: The American Jewish Archives, 1987.
Grassl, Gary.“Joachim Gans of Prague: The first Jew in English America.” American Jewish History: An American Jewish Historical Society Quarterly Publication. Johns Hopkins University Press, June 1998. Vol. 86, No. 2. pp. 195-217.
Hakluyt, Richard. Principall Navigations (1589), pp. 728-33 and (1600), III, p. 251, as quoted in Quinn, David, ed. The Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590, (The Hakluyt Society, London: 1955) Vo. I, pp. 115-116.
_____ Principall Navigations (1589) pp. 736-7, as quoted in Quinn, David, ed. The Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590, (The Hakluyt Society, London: 1955), Vol I, pp. 194-197.
Hoover, Herbert Clark. De Re Metallica, by Georgius Agricola. New York: & Lou, HenryDover Publications, 1950.
Humber, John L. Backgrounds and Preparations for the Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590. Raleigh: North Caroline Dept. Of Cultural Resources, 1986.
Hume, Ivor Noel. “Roanoke Island: America’s First Science Center.” Colonial Williamsburg: Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Spring, 1994.
Jones, G. Lloyd. The Discovery of Hebrew in Tudor England: a third Language. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983.
Kertzer, Rabbi Morris N. What Is A Jew? A Guide to the Beliefs, Traditions and Practices of Judaism. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1973.
Morrison, Samuel E. The European Discover of America: The Northern Voyages. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1971.
Mulholland, James A. A History of Metals in Colonial America. Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 1981.
Quinn, David Beers. Set Faire for Roanoke. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1985.
____ The Roanoke Voyages 1584-1590: Volumes I & II. New York: Dover Publications, 1991.
Roth, Cecil.The Jews in the Renaissance, New York: Harper & Row, 1959.
______ A History of the Jews in England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941.
Temple, John. Mining: An international History. London, 1972.
White, John. “John White’s Narrative of the 1587 Virginia Voyage (1587),” as quoted in
Wolf, Lucien. “Jews in Elizabethan England,” Presidential Address, Nov. 21, 1926, in The Jewish Historical Society of England Transactions, Sessions 1924-27, Vol. XI, 1928. London: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., 1941.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
M. L. Stainer is the well-known author of The Lyon Saga, a series of five books about The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, circa 1587. The LyonSaga has been endorsed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and has received highly acclaimed reviews, including School Library Journal. Joachim’s Magic is her newest novel for young adults and deals with the earlier Ralph Lane expedition of 1585. It concerns Queen Elizabeth I’s metallurgist, Joachim Gans, who was the first recorded Jew in the New World.
“When I write, I escape into a world all my own. It’s a great joy,” says the author. Ms. Stainer lives in the lower Hudson Valley area of beautiful New York State with her husband, Frank, and a menagerie of beloved dogs and cats. Born in London, she holds numerous degrees from Queens College, New Paltz and Fordham University. She’s a retired high school English teacher with many young adult novels to her credit. She writes under the pseudonym M. L. Stainer to honor her father.
www.chickensouppress.net
James Melvin, who did the cover design and illustrations for the book, lives in Nags Head, North Carolina, where he operates Melvin’s Studio and Gallery. He always dreamed of becoming an artist. He received his formal training from North Carolina’s A & T State University in 1970. For several years this degree was put to use while James served as a Peace Corps art instructor in Botswana, Africa.
He is well-known for his stunning portrayals of black culture and life. A versatile artist, he works in oils, acrylics and pastels, and has illustrated many children’s books. He was commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to paint Raleigh’s Venture, a celebration of 400 years since the founding of the Roanoke Colony. Melvin’s works are owned by collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad.
www.melvinsstudio.com
READ MORE ABOUT JOACHIM GANS IN
JOACHIM: THE HERETIC
When Joachim returns to England, he seeks an audience with Elizabeth I. Taking Reis Courtney with him as his apprentice, he finds himself in Bristol working on new ways to make saltpeter. Trouble begins when, at a local inn, he refuses to affirm Christ as the Son of God. He is tried first in Bristol but, not knowing what to do with him, the officials send him to London to be judged a blasphemer by the members of the Queen’s Privy Council. No conclusion is reached and the Council releases him. In the aftermath, Joachim decides to return to his native Bohemia. Reis, in the meantime, finds work as a horse trainer for one gentleman farmer, Robert Marchette, building a new life and future for himself.
M. L. Stainer, Joachim's Magic
