Descriptions of Maryland
From Preface: "From the time when Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon sailed to America and entered the Chesapeake Bay, many travellers have entered the territory now embraced in the State of Maryland and have written accounts of what they found there. Other descriptions of the State or of parts of it have been written to serve as guidebooks to strangers. Still other descriptions, more or less imaginary in character, are found in the pages of works of fiction. It seemed a task worthy of performance to gather together the references to the State found in works in the classes above named and to prepare a chronological bibliography of the descriptions of Maryland. No claim for completeness is made for the list of books; but, at the least, it forms a good working basis for the student. To several classes of investigators the list should prove of use: the man interested in the State's history, the chronicler of local conditions, the student of the manners and customs of the people at any given epoch, a
...nd the biographer who may find references to the man whose life he is studying. Most of the books included in the list are contained in the valuable collections of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the preparation of the monograph has been possible only because of the cordial co-operation and painstaking care of Miss Anna M. Doerksen, Superintendent of Circulation in that institution. It is probable that Ayllon's voyage (1) was followed by others made by Spaniards in the latter part of the sixteenth century (2), but the first great explorer of Maryland was Capt. John Smith (3), who sailed up the Chesapeake from Jamestown in 1608, drawing a wonderfully accurate map of the Bay and partially exploring the Patapsco, Bush, Susquehanna, North East, Elk, and Sassafras Rivers. After his, the next important narrative is that of the first Maryland expedition, sent out by Lord Baltimore in the Ark and the Dove and landing in the Province on March 25, 1634. This narrative by the good Jesuit, Father Andrew White, has 6 come down to us in three forms, all of which have been printed (4). In the Calvert Papers (5), and in the Provincial Archives of Maryland (6), are found scattered here and there many references to geographical conditions, and the civil war between the Proprietary Party at St. Mary's and the Puritans at Providence in Anne Arundel county (1654), caused the publication of a number of tracts (7), describing the events of that time." --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.
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