Travel in Jamaica - Exploring the National Library in Downtown Kingston, in the year 2012
- By Thibault Ehrengardt
The title page of Thomas Gage's book.
PART I : meeting Thomas Gage, the villain in a religious suit.
Jamaica, home of Bob Marley and Usain Bolt, is a dream for many American tourists. It is also a nightmare for some of its inhabitants. Far from the north coast, the polluted capital of Kingston is a urban labyrinth, haunted by squalor and loose criminals. A third-world country, Jamaica remains focused on immediate matters and can not afford to linger too long on a remote past. An unfriendly ground for old books ? Not necessarily. The National Library of Jamaica (JNL) stands, amongst other institutions, as an oasis of hope and knowledge in the heart of downtown Kingston. Located at 12 East King Street it offers a huge selection of newspapers, maps and photographs... It also shelters 47 000 books, most of them contemporary but a few dating from way back. I recently had the privilege to set my eyes upon a handful of them. The fact that I had already seen most of these books somewhere else could never spoil my pleasure. For, tell me - what sounds best ? Watching a lion in a zoo, or roaming the wild plains of Africa ? Let us learn to know Jamaica by the book(s)...
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BOOK 1 : THOMAS GAGE, New Survey of the West Indias : OR, The English American his Travail by Sea and Land: containing A Journal of Three Thousand and Three Hundred Miles within the main Land of America.
London, 1655.
Jamaica was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494, during his second travel. He even wrecked his ships on the north coast during his last travel, spending almost a full year in great uncertainty. But it was not until 1507 that the son of the Admiral, Diego Columbus, sent Juan de Esquivel to conquer the island. It then remained a Spanish possession until 1655, when the English captured it. This was a turning point in the history of Jamaica, partly due to a particular man, Thomas Gage. Indeed, his book published in 1648 in London played a crucial part in the conquest - no wonder the NLJ has at least 6 copies of it. When I held their 1655 copy (the second and the best edition, according to the writing on the front endpaper), I fell in love at once. The full leather binding of this small in-4° book is worn all over, the head and foot caps are both missing and the front hinge is badly rubbed. But the magnificent golden lettres on the front cover just made it for me : Public Library Jamaica. An endemic copy, deeply rooted in history.
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Gage's book might pretend to the title of “ the book with the longest title ever ”. Mexico, the City of Angels, Guatemala, Chiapa, Guaxaca, Vera Paz... The title page mentions almost every town Gage visited. It also advertises a New and Exact Discovery of the Spanish Navigation as well as a Grammar (...) of the Indian Tongue... amongst other things ! Gage’s travel, it is true, was remarkable and unique. Moreri’s Dictionary states that Gage was the first non-Spanish witness to give an account from the inside of the Spanish empire in America. Another traveller, Father Labat, wrote : “we can not deny the fact that he gave us some very good insights of Mexico and its surroundings (...). Those who had written about it before had seen nothing but the shores of these countries (...) He described with great accuracy quantity of things we hitherto had no knowledge of.” Hence his nickname, the English American. From a Catholic family of England, Gage was 28 years old when he decided to embark with some missionary friends for America, in 1625. He wished to escape the wrath of his father who reproached him his parting company with the Jesuits to join the Dominicans. Hiding himself inside a tub on board of a Spanish ship, Gage eventually reached New Spain (Mexico) a few weeks later. His adventures have little in common with the bold exploits of the conquistadores. Riding a donkey, Gage preached some skeptical natives in the wilderness, visiting some convents that the monks, he wrote, had turned into harems. Moreri states that his book was “full of fancy stories about the monks of New Spain” and the dictionary of Chaudon (1804) explains that some “fictious facts and unnecessary stylistic devices irritated people of good taste against the author and the book itself.” People of good taste were also irritated at his behavior. Indeed, back to England in 1637, he put his whole dignified family to shame through his strange and wonderful conversion to the Anglican Church, as the title page of our edition reads. Gage was an opportunist and, indeed, a traitor. He was ready to do anything to make a name for himself, including sending his former Catholic friends to the gallows of Tyburn. An irritated - and Catholic - Father Labat described him as a “lying tongue”, a “heart full of ungratefulness, covetousness and wickedness”, in a few words “a villain in a religious suit.”
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Travel in Jamaica - Exploring the National Library in Downtown Kingston, in the year 2012
- By Thibault Ehrengardt
The Jamaican National Library's copy of Gage's Survey.
The preface of this worthy work of this most worthy friend the author was written by Thomas Chaloner, one of the judges who put Charles I to death in 1649. A membre of Parliament, Chaloner was responsible for the publishing of Gage’s book that he intended to use as a political tool for his master, Oliver Cromwell. After several years of civil war, Cromwell had become the Protector of the Commonwealth in 1642. Surrounded by silenced but still powerful enemies, Cromwell needed to reinforce his position through martial conquests. Spain was the best target, in both the old and the new worlds. That’s where Gage’s book came into the picture. The “most worthy author” described the magnificent Spanish cities of the New World, their wealth and their weak defences. The Spaniards, said he, never bothered to fortify their cities, being too confident in the remoteness of their settlements. In Porto Bello, piles of silver bars were left unattended in the open. It was enough to excite the imagination of any English – and to justify a sudden military action against an allied country.
Giving away his former friends was a way for Gage to prove his loyalty to Cromwell. But his family could not stand such a disgrace. His brother, then Colonel in Flanders, eventually sent someone for him. “I almost got killed in Shoe Lane by a Captain of my brother’s company”, wrote Gage who escaped the plot.
His book became an instant success. Cromwell required a memoir from him in which the English American explained why England had the right to pretend to the Spanish territories of the New World, exclusively granted to Spain by an old and unjust papal bull. The naval expedition for the West Indies was baptized the Western Design –Thomas Gage was appointed chaplain. The Western Design was bound to fail. Cromwell did not trust his Admiral (William Penn, father of the founder of Penn-sylvania) nor his General (Venables) and adjoined them a board of commissioners who did nothing but to add confusion. The expedition shamefully failed to capture the island of Hispanola in March 1655. The defeat was humiliating. Fearing the wrath of Cromwell, Penn and Venables then decided to capture the nearby island of Jamaica – as a consolation prize.
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The NLF copy of Gage’s travels features an anonymous map of the Yslandes of the West Indies. The figures of Jamaica are quite correct for the time – yet, Thomas Gage had never been to Jamaica. The short passage of his book dedicated to the island is obviously compiled from other books; at least he was aware of its existence. But we will never know who suggested to capture it after the defeat of Santo Domingo. All we know is that on May the 10th, 1655, the 38 vessels of the Western Design entered the Caguay Bay (Kingston Bay) to disembark their 8000 soldiers. After a short resistance, the Spaniards agreed to discuss the terms of their surrender. Thomas Gage acted as an interpreter during the negociations. The Spaniards did their best to distract the English while evacuating their riches from the main town of Santiago de la Vega (Spanish Town), arguing that they could not discuss before the end of their religious ceremonies. Gage retorted that the Lord, surrounded as He was by angels and merry souls, would excuse them for this time. And when the Spanish Governor objected that Jamaica was the legal possession of his country, our “villain” answered that only weapons decide of possession, not laws.
The Western Design was a failure and a humiliating defeat. Still, Jamaica - that remained an English possession until its independence in 1962 – was to become the richest colony of the British empire of the 18th century, thanks to sugar - that is to say, thanks to the slave trade. We do not exactly know what happened to Thomas Gage during the year he spent on the island. But in July 1656, the Council of State organized the payment of some debts it had contracted towards him, to his wife Mary Gage. He must have died a few weeks ago, in Jamaica - from dysentery. No one knows where he was buried - if he ever was. Nothing remains in Jamaica to testify of the influence of this “villain” on the history of the island... apart from a rubbed book in the National Library.
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Travel in Jamaica - Exploring the National Library in Downtown Kingston, in the year 2012
- By Thibault Ehrengardt
Gage's map of the West Indies.
Some powerful English families have lived on the island of Jamaica ever since 1655. I had expected to find some prestigious coats of arms on some of these books. In vain. The most interesting things I’ve come across were some writings in the Gage copy, on the front end paper : This book belongs to me, Simpson Bickford, 1655 - the very year this second edition came out, as its author was reaching Jamaica (did the book came aboard a ship of the Western Design ?). Then : William Bickford, january 2, 1698. There was a very powerful Beckford family at the time in Jamaica – this book might have been theirs. As I was contemplating this copy for the last time, I came across another writing – a recent one, reading : valued 12£ - 1944. No matter its poor condition (as you would expect from a library book), that would still be a fair price... had these books any commercial value. But they are not for sale. They are strictly dedicated to the sharing of knowledge. Their value, because of that, is priceless – it is historical. This copy might not be a very nice one, it has something no other will ever have, the Public Library of Jamaica stamp. Though printed in England, this book is here in its natural environment – it is simply where it naturally belongs.
In the next episode, we will keep on exploring the history of Jamaica through some of the books found on the shelves of the National Library.
(c) Thibault Ehrengardt, 2012.
Thanks to the National Library of Jamaica and the kind assistance of Mrs Winsome Hudson and Mrs Phillips.
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