A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica

“A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica”

Title Page

by Hans Sloane recounts the author’s encounters when he visited the Caribbean colonies in 1687. The book was written in the early 1700s in England, London, and published in 1707. The book targets the British nation in search of enlightening them with insights into indigenous instruments, songs, plants, people, and culture. Although previously owned by the Penn Museum, this book can now be found in the Kislak Center for Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania.

Background and Historical Context

Hans Sloane

About Hans Sloane

Hans Sloane, born in 1660 in Ulster, Ireland, was a renowned physician and botanist who collected over 70,000 items and built the foundation for the British Museum. Sloane made his fortune by traveling to the Caribbean islands, North America, and other regions and establishing the importance of encyclopedic collecting on a global scale. His legacy can be spotted throughout London. A restaurant called “The Botanist” contains engravings of specimens Sloane collected in his voyage to the Caribbean in the late 1600s. Some original plants and specimens can still be found today in the Sloane Herbarium. His comprehensive collection now forms significant institutions like the Natural History Museum and the British Library, which includes his library, letters, manuscripts, books, etc.

The Caribbean (and its Influence on England) at the Time

In the late 1680s, while Sloane contemplated going to the Caribbean, his colleagues advised otherwise. Due to the lack of knowledge by his British counterparts, the region, specifically Jamaica, was seen as an area with a high “risk of shipwreck, piracy, disease and slave rebellions,” making any voyage there a “highly dangerous prospect.” Crossing the Atlantic and confronting life in the tropics was seen as an ordeal. Although it was common for Naturalists to travel to the West Indies, they rarely went for such long periods and never to Jamaica. With the intent of expanding European knowledge on plants, new drugs, specific remedies, and indigenous extracts, Sloane made the trip at only 27 years old. “In just three days, Sloane had already gathered 57 specimens of fern, grass and fruit around Funchal on the coast.” By the time he went to Jamaica, Jamaica was undergoing a period of transformation, similar to the rest of the Caribbean. Jamaica had been attacked in 1655 by English forces after they failed to take over La Hispaniola. In 1660, the country became an English royal colony. Simultaneously, Jamaica’s rising planter class and merchants began occupying a crucial role. The English increased its subsistence crops, the production of sugar, and also that of slavery. The growing sugar was due to the increase of slaves; slaves quickly became the main drivers for Jamaica’s economic success. This created a hostile, unfair, and violent atmosphere, which was why the country was deemed “highly dangerous.” However, Jamaica’s plantations grew to 690, and in the 1680s, Jamaica supplied over 7,000 pounds per year to Britain. Soon after, as more slave owners began transporting African Americans to Jamaica for even more labor, the number of slaves in the country exceeded the number of whites. When Sloane arrived, he faced a country characterized by violence, slavery, and immense volatility.

Content

Overview

“A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica” includes substantial records of flora, fauna, instruments, and early African diasporic music, all of which Sloane found in his voyage during the late 1680s. Although Jamaica’s flora is a huge part of his book, music plays a vital role as well. Throughout the book, Sloane includes musical notations and images of banjos and other instruments. Descriptions of the instruments and musical world at the time were very rare; Sloane's insights offered a great understanding of the music during a time of intense slavery and a violent Jamaica. The Musical Passage, a website that includes audio interpretations based on Sloane's findings, gives readers an interactive and immersive experience. The music interpretations include background effects like ocean waves crashing on the shore and also a combination of diverse rhythms. The sounds seem complex and abstract, and a lot of different instruments can be heard as well. This interpretation gives Sloane's audience the opportunity to submerge themselves into the 1680s, allowing them to further understand the context of the book and imagine what he saw and heard during his voyage.

Use, Importance, and Historical Significance

Sloane's book has been and continues to be, extremely significant. It played a huge role in Jamaica and England’s history and served as a building block for our current world. As previously mentioned, it gave the British people a thorough understanding and view of the Caribbean and eventually offered the entire world Caribbean findings.

This allowed other Naturalists and Physicians to better understand the world, what was occurring in different regions, and, thus, know what countries were best for planting, the production of sugar, the execution of slavery, crops in general, etc. Sloane's findings, which now compose the British Museum and Library, bring together different cultures under one roof. This is extremely valuable as it shows how the entire world is interconnected and how findings from one region can be useful to the development of another. What Sloane found and saw in Jamaica, for example, its extensive plantations, helped develop Britain’s economy. Due to his findings, Jamaica began exporting thousands of pounds of crops and resources to Britain, helping them gain access to this newly founded world of plantations.

Physical Analysis

Substrate, Format, and Binding

Intaglio Engravings

Although the object does not have a printed notice, it was most likely licensed and recorded. Many have deduced that it was recorded in the Stationers' Register, a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. Essentially, it allowed publishers to document their rights for printing, constituting an early form of copyright law.

In terms of substrate, format, and technique, its images are intaglio engravings or printing. Images were printed onto paper from copper plates, which explains the book’s wide borders and margins. This was a commonly used technique by authors and writers at the time since it allowed for precise and detailed work. Moreover, its text is a product of letterpress, which is a system of relief printing by frequent direct impressions of an inked surface against the paper.

In regards to the book’s binding, its binding looks contemporary with the printing. Its deteriorated shape is not necessarily an indicator of its time, but it does reveal how the book has been through a lot.

Binding

Furthermore, there are small amounts of marginalia and annotations. The opening pages include annotations that reveal important biographical and publishing information, like who the previous owner was and when Penn obtained it.

Annotations-Reveal Past Ownership

Navigation

The book has two volumes. One volume consists of the information, including the title page, preface, dedication, introduction, body, and conclusion. The second volume consists of the plates. It is mere images with minimal context and captioning, further helping readers understand the main text. The images are mostly drawings of flora and fauna present in Jamaica, helping Sloane give his British audience insights into Jamaica's natural essence and beauty.

Circulation

Intended Audience

Sloane documents what he saw when he traveled to the Caribbean in 1687, mainly his findings in Jamaica. His intended audience is the British nation. He wants to teach them about indigenous instruments, songs, plants, and people. The book is one of the founding collections of the British Museum. Its introduction includes a timeline of the scenario and period, helping the British grasp an understanding of what is occurring in Jamaica. Sloane states, "It will be necessary for the better understanding of these things, to give a journal of the weather, observed by me in Jamaica." This tells us that the British had little to no access to information regarding the Caribbean and needed context to better engage with the book.

Readership

With a collection of over 70,000 items, Sloane's findings have reached millions of people all over the world. Despite being primarily intended for London and Britain citizens, his work has reached global heights. His collection forms the foundation of the British Museum and Library, which receive more than 6 million visitors per year. This specific book’s readership, as well as all of Sloane's works, has extensive circulation, distribution, and viewership.