Oroonoko, or, The royal slave: A True History
By
Aphra Behn
Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students of The University of Virginia, Malcolm Bare, Ankita Chakrabarti, Neal Curtis, Alison Glassie, Robert Hoile, Rebeccca Rosenblatt, Simon Sarkodie, Kristian Smith, Michael Van Hoose, Alissa Winn
n002Precedents. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n003Not
only one who has observed something firsthand, but in a legal sense, one who is
"able to describe or testify to it." Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n004A
colony neighbored by Brazil to the south and Guiana to the West. At the time of
the action of the story, the colony was in British control, but it was lost to the
Dutch shortly thereafter - [UVAstudstaff]n005A particularly tiny species of monkey that is,
indeed, about the size of a mouse. Notably adorable. - [UVAstudstaff]n006It
is not clear what kind of animal Behn is referring to here, but it probably a
species of feline. - [UVAstudstaff]n007An "antiquary" was
a collection of unusual and exotic items. Janet Todd suggests that this could be a
reference to the museum of the Royal Society in London. The singular form
"antiquary" could describe a collector of antiques or rare objects. - [UVAstudstaff]n008Here is an image of
Anne Bracegirdle, performing in John Dryden's play The Indian Queen,
wearing the feathered headress referred to in this passage. Whether this headdress
was the same one that Behn brought back to England from Surinam in the 1660s is
impossible to know at this point. (Folger Shakespeare Library) - [UVAstudstaff]n009Behn is describing the process of piercing ears and other parts of the
body - [UVAstudstaff]n010Coramantien was the name both of
slave-trading castle, depicted here, and of the coastal area of what is now the
nation of Ghana where several such fortified trading posts were located. In the
1660s, when this story is set, both English and Dutch slave traders used the fort
at Coramantien. By the late seventeenth century, it was controlled by the Dutch,
who renamed it Fort Amsterdam. Its ruins can still be visited today.
- [UVAstudstaff]n011The English Civil Wars of 1642 1649 between the supporters of the Stuart monarchy
and the supporters of Parliament, which led to the execution of Charles I in
1649. - [UVAstudstaff]n012Behn's emphasis on Oroonoko's knowledge of French
and English associates him with civilized Europeans; eloquent Africans in European
literature were often imagined as here, as more European than African. - [UVAstudstaff]n014An
artist who makes statues, a sculptor of statues. Source: Oxford English
Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n015awe-inspiring - [UVAstudstaff]n016excepting - [UVAstudstaff]n017prudent, shrewd, sagacious. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n018a
protective cloak or garment; a loose, sleeveless cloak. Source: Oxford English
Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n019A
veil delivered by the king as an invitation to his harem. - [UVAstudstaff]n020That is, the King is impotent. It's notable that the narrator thinks first of the
potential cost to Oroonoko rather than the cost to Imoinda. - [UVAstudstaff]n021"Otan" seems to be derived from the Turkish word "odan," referring to a room or
small enclosure in a harem. This is one of the moments when this part of the
story, though set in Africa, feels more like an "Oriental" tale. - [UVAstudstaff]n022Oroonoko is actually his grandson. - [UVAstudstaff]n023Discarded, former mistresses - [UVAstudstaff]n024Here Behn seems to be informed by knowledge of African religious traditions, as
such references to a sky deity appear there, but we do not know her source for
this term. - [UVAstudstaff]n025In spite of - [UVAstudstaff]n026Chagrin; that is, disappointment
or vexation - [UVAstudstaff]n027The commander of the ship - [UVAstudstaff]n028Pledge, oath - [UVAstudstaff]n029Dark-skinned
children, usually of African descent. The term is likely a pidgin form of the
Portuguese word pequenino. - [UVAstudstaff]n030Lord Willoughby was
the governor of Surinam and the owner of the Parham plantation. Trefy was there to
oversee the plantation in Willoughby's absence. - [UVAstudstaff]n031clothing - [UVAstudstaff]n032An altered from of
bakra, buckra, or buccra, a word used in Surinam for master. - [UVAstudstaff]n033The
Suriname River - [UVAstudstaff]n034A
kind of coarse linen used for hard-wearing clothing that was produced in
Osnabruck, Germany. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n035Slaves were often
given the names of powerful Romans, which was often a way of mocking their
profound lack of power. Here, too, as Janet Todd notes, Behn sometimes referred to
James II as Caesar, so this forms another link between Oroonoko and the Stuart
monarchy. - [UVAstudstaff]n036Surinam was turned over to the Dutch in the Treaty of Breda in 1667, just after
the action of this story takes place. - [UVAstudstaff]n037The main house on
the Parham plantation. - [UVAstudstaff]n038A Spanish or Portugese nobleman of the highest
rank. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n039In the first edition, there is a page number skip
from page 112 to page 129. One possible explanation for this as that a sheet,
which would have had exactly sixteen pages in the original octavo format of this
book, was removed for corrections. When he returned the sheet with the corrected
type, the printed continued with the original pagination of the preceding sheet,
perhaps forgetting that sixteen page numbers would then be missing. No text is
missing; it's simply an error in pagination. - [UVAstudstaff]n040To Behn and her readers, the word "novel" would
have been associated with short romantic stories set among the aristocracy; the
story of Oroonoko and Imoinda that Trefry has just heard fits that definition.
"Novel" only gained its modern sense decades later. - [UVAstudstaff]n041To
cut or slash (a shoe, item of clothing) for decorative purposes. Source: Oxford
English Dictionary, “race”) - [UVAstudstaff]n042Lacquered, or covered with a glossy material; in
this period, highly-lacquered glossy black surfaces were associated with Japan,
which exported such goods to Europe. - [UVAstudstaff]n043The Picts were an ancient tribe in the northern
part of Britain who were known to paint and tattoo their bodies. The engravings of
Picts in Thomas Hariot’s A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
(1588) are accompanied by the comment that "the markings of the Picts were similar
to those of the Native Americans in Virginia.” Source: Wikipedia - [UVAstudstaff]n044The reference here is to Alexander the Great, who
by legend met Thallestris, the Queen of the Amazons, a race of female warriors,
whose home was near the river Jaxartes, which reportedly had brightly-colored
poisonous snakes. There is no historical evidence for this, but the stories were
told over and over again in historical romances from antiquity onwards, which is
the context that Behn is invoking here. - [UVAstudstaff]n045Fragrant bouquets - [UVAstudstaff]n046Pall
Mall, one of the straightest avenues in London, well known in Behn's era as a
place for the socially ambitious to promenade. - [UVAstudstaff]n047There are, of course, no tigers in Surinam, so
either Behn is thinking of some other kind of large carnivore such a jaguar (which
does exist in Surinam), or is fancifully adding this detail. - [UVAstudstaff]n048Mothers - [UVAstudstaff]n049Follower of Oliver
Cromwell, the leader of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War and head of the
Commonwealth government that ruled England in the 1650s. - [UVAstudstaff]n050An electric eel - [UVAstudstaff]n051An ell is a unit of
measurement; it varied from place to place and at different times, but an English
ell of this period would have been about 45 inches - [UVAstudstaff]n052Behn’s description of Native American gentleness and fascination with European
dress and trinkets is an exploitive theme common throughout early colonial
American literature. In most of the colonial writings regarding Native Americans,
the tribes encountered are often depicted as subservient and attracted to lustrous
items rather than those things which might possess monetary value. Writers of the
period employed instances of civil exchange, fascination, and amity between white
Europeans and Native Americans to engender merchants to settle the New World as
well as convince wealthy aristocrats and merchants to patron campaigns to
westernize and impose dominion by means of Christian conversion. - [UVAstudstaff]n053Janet Todd notes that the phrase
"Amora tiguamy" appears in Antione Biet’s Voyage de la France
équixonale en l’isle de Cayenne (1654, pp. 395-7). Todd argues that Behn
records a traditional greeting and provides the translation herself; however, it
should be noted that the term Amora has connection with the Latin Amore,
suggesting that Behn plays with contemporary accounts and phonetics to further
depict the indigenous characters as loving and peaceful. The phrase likely
developed out of interactions between the natives and the Spanish. - [UVAstudstaff]n054Todd notes that Behn borrowed the word sarumbo from Biet as well;
Biet observes that these large leaves were used as napkins.n055A serving of food; a course; or a meal. Source: Oxford English
Dictionaryn056A lens, by which the rays of
the sun may be concentrated on an object, so as to burn it if combustible. Source:
Oxford English Dictionaryn057Juggling or
conjuring tricks. Deception, from the French leger de main, literally "light of
hand."n058Behn describes the tribe as
passing down its highest artistic and scientific knowledge to a select member who
undergoes rigorous training from youth. This pattern relates to ideal models of
aristocratic education in European society. - [UVAstudstaff]n059Todd
notes that Behn may have borrowed from Biet yet again. Biet claims Indians wore a
small piece of clothing called a camison. - [UVAstudstaff]n060Jealousy, resentment, or
discontent; grudges. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n061Months - [UVAstudstaff]n062Europeans still believed that a golden city, or El
Dorado, existed in the South American mountains - [UVAstudstaff]n063Todd
explains that this is a geographic blunder. The mouth of the Amazon is in Brazil,
but cartographers had drawn it as the south-eastern border of “Guiana” throughout
the seventeenth century. - [UVAstudstaff]n064A tirade. The term first appears
c1450, but only in Scottish writings. It was not used in England until c1600. It
derives from medieval Latin harenga, which shares the current definition, and the
Italian aringo, a place of declamation, arena. - [UVAstudstaff]n065The Day of Judgment. - [UVAstudstaff]n066Oroonoko here is expressing what was known as
the "just war" doctrine of slavery, that those who lost a war could rightly be
enslaved. It is on this basis that Oroonoko himself owns slaves. The
distinction he is making here is that, according to this doctrine, slaves
gained through conquest are justified while slaves acquired through trickery or
commerce are not. - [UVAstudstaff]n067Renegades - [UVAstudstaff]n068Tuscan’s name derives from the late Latin Tuscānus
meaning “of or belonging to the Tuscī or Thuscī, a people of ancient Italy (called
also Etruscī Etruscans).” Source: Oxford English Dictionary The Etruscans
inhabited ancient Etruria, so Tuscan’s name implies nobility and European
origins. - [UVAstudstaff]n069According to the
Roman historian Plutarch, the Carthaginian general Hannibal used vinegar and fire
to burn his way through the Alps to attack the Roman army. - [UVAstudstaff]n070Of
high social standing; the upper class - [UVAstudstaff]n071Poorly treated - [UVAstudstaff]n072Subjected to public disgrace.
Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n074William Byam is a
real historical personage, noted both in Antione Biet’s Voyage de la France
équixonale en l’isle de Cayenne (1654) and Henry Adis’s A Letter Sent from
Syrrinam (1664). As deputy governor of Surinam, Byam ruled the colony in the
absence of Lord Willoughby. According to Flannigan’s Antigua and the Antiguans. A
Full Account of the Colony and its Inhabitants, after the Dutch takeover of
Surinam, Byam led many of the British colonists to Antigua, where became governor
and lived until c. 1670. Todd notes that both Biet and Adis, otherwise critical of
the colony in Surinam, praise Byam: Adis refers to him as “that worthy person,
whom your Lordship hath lately honoured with the Title and Power of your
Lieutenant General of this Continent of Guinah”; while Biet describes him as
brave, honorable, and civil (pp. 263, 279). Behn’s decision to portray him as
cowardly and deceitful appears to have been her own. On the other hand, Byam did
face accusations of unnecessary cruelty in his governance from an opposition group
led by John Allin. Byam wrote a tract An Exact Relation of the Most Execrable
Attempts of John Allin (1665) defending the need for harsh measures to govern the
unruly colonists and accusing Allin of insurrection. - [UVAstudstaff]n075More commonly known as a cat-o'-nine-tails, a whip
with nine knotted lashes, often used for corporal punishment in the British
military until 1881. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n076Defensive hilts on the handle of a sword
consisting of narrow plates of steel curved into the shape of a basket - [UVAstudstaff]n077Followed his own judgment - [UVAstudstaff]n078Unpremeditated - [UVAstudstaff]n079Draw near to - [UVAstudstaff]n080Tiresome,
exhausting - [UVAstudstaff]n081An allusion to the
Furies, three mythical Greek goddesses of vengeance and punishment, best known for
punishing those who swear false oaths and, especially, those who kill their own
kin. - [UVAstudstaff]n082Todd notes that a Colonel Marten of the Surinam
militia appears in multiple historical accounts of the colony, although the
authority under which he was styled colonel is dubious. In contrast to Behn’s
positive portrayal, Robert Sanford depicts Marten in Surinam Justice (1662) with
many of the negative traits assigned to Byam and other colonists by Behn: he is
eager to commit violent acts, cruel, ill-tempered, profane, and “so famous in
nothing as his variety of councels: and it seems the whole bulk of Government must
dance to the changes of his brain."Colonel Martin indeed appears as a character in
Behn's play The Younger Brother, Or, The Amorous Jilt. Behn's self-promotion is
premature, however, since the play was not produced until 1696, seven years after
her death - [UVAstudstaff]n083Surgeon - [UVAstudstaff]n084A room in a house designed for
the use of a particular person - [UVAstudstaff]n085Threats - [UVAstudstaff]n086To mockingly imitate, deride, or
amuse. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n087The
central prison in London - [UVAstudstaff]n088Throughout this period, many criminals found
guilty of crimes against property in Britain were sentenced by being "transported"
or exiled for a period of years to the colonies. - [UVAstudstaff]n089With no one speaking to the contrary. - [UVAstudstaff]n090Offices of government in Whitehall, London.
Trefry's implication is that Byam, although governor of Surinam, remains as
subordinate to the King as any civil servant back in Great Britain. - [UVAstudstaff]n091The mob, the rabble; the common
people, the populace. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n092Capable of delicate or tender feeling. Source: Oxford English Dictionary - [UVAstudstaff]n093Coverlet, blanket - [UVAstudstaff]n094Ghastly - [UVAstudstaff]n095Major James Bannister was
responsible for negotiating with the Dutch when England ceded Surinam in 1667.
According to Todd, in 1671, he led “about a hundred families to Jamaica where he
joined forces with governor Sir Thomas Lynch who was trying to suppress a rival,
backed by other ex-Surinam settlers” (Saunders Webb, 97). Bannister then became
major-general of Jamaica. Bannister was killed in 1673 by Mr. Burford, a
surveyor-general, who was then hanged. - [UVAstudstaff]
[TP]
OROONOKO:
OR, THE
Royal Slave.
A TRUE
HISTORY.
By Mrs. A. BEHN.
LONDON, Printed for Will. Canning, at his Shop in
the Temple-Cloysters. 1688.
OR, THE
Royal Slave.
A TRUE
HISTORY.
By Mrs. A. BEHN.
LONDON, Printed for Will. Canning, at his Shop in
the Temple-Cloysters. 1688.
Footnotes
a002Precedents. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a003Not
only one who has observed something firsthand, but in a legal sense, one who is
"able to describe or testify to it." Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a004A
colony neighbored by Brazil to the south and Guiana to the West. At the time of
the action of the story, the colony was in British control, but it was lost to the
Dutch shortly thereafter
a005A particularly tiny species of monkey that is,
indeed, about the size of a mouse. Notably adorable.
a006It
is not clear what kind of animal Behn is referring to here, but it probably a
species of feline.
a007An "antiquary" was
a collection of unusual and exotic items. Janet Todd suggests that this could be a
reference to the museum of the Royal Society in London. The singular form
"antiquary" could describe a collector of antiques or rare objects.
a008Here is an image of
Anne Bracegirdle, performing in John Dryden's play The Indian Queen,
wearing the feathered headress referred to in this passage. Whether this headdress
was the same one that Behn brought back to England from Surinam in the 1660s is
impossible to know at this point. (Folger Shakespeare Library)
a009Behn is describing the process of piercing ears and other parts of the
body
a010Coramantien was the name both of
slave-trading castle, depicted here, and of the coastal area of what is now the
nation of Ghana where several such fortified trading posts were located. In the
1660s, when this story is set, both English and Dutch slave traders used the fort
at Coramantien. By the late seventeenth century, it was controlled by the Dutch,
who renamed it Fort Amsterdam. Its ruins can still be visited today.
a011The English Civil Wars of 1642 1649 between the supporters of the Stuart monarchy
and the supporters of Parliament, which led to the execution of Charles I in
1649.
a012 a013Behn's emphasis on Oroonoko's knowledge of French
and English associates him with civilized Europeans; eloquent Africans in European
literature were often imagined as here, as more European than African.
a014An
artist who makes statues, a sculptor of statues. Source: Oxford English
Dictionary
a015awe-inspiring
a016excepting
a017prudent, shrewd, sagacious. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a018a
protective cloak or garment; a loose, sleeveless cloak. Source: Oxford English
Dictionary
a019A
veil delivered by the king as an invitation to his harem.
a020That is, the King is impotent. It's notable that the narrator thinks first of the
potential cost to Oroonoko rather than the cost to Imoinda.
a021"Otan" seems to be derived from the Turkish word "odan," referring to a room or
small enclosure in a harem. This is one of the moments when this part of the
story, though set in Africa, feels more like an "Oriental" tale.
a022Oroonoko is actually his grandson.
a023Discarded, former mistresses
a024Here Behn seems to be informed by knowledge of African religious traditions, as
such references to a sky deity appear there, but we do not know her source for
this term.
a025In spite of
a026Chagrin; that is, disappointment
or vexation
a027The commander of the ship
a028Pledge, oath
a029Dark-skinned
children, usually of African descent. The term is likely a pidgin form of the
Portuguese word pequenino.
a030Lord Willoughby was
the governor of Surinam and the owner of the Parham plantation. Trefy was there to
oversee the plantation in Willoughby's absence.
a031clothing
a032An altered from of
bakra, buckra, or buccra, a word used in Surinam for master.
a033The
Suriname River
a034A
kind of coarse linen used for hard-wearing clothing that was produced in
Osnabruck, Germany. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a035Slaves were often
given the names of powerful Romans, which was often a way of mocking their
profound lack of power. Here, too, as Janet Todd notes, Behn sometimes referred to
James II as Caesar, so this forms another link between Oroonoko and the Stuart
monarchy.
a036Surinam was turned over to the Dutch in the Treaty of Breda in 1667, just after
the action of this story takes place.
a037The main house on
the Parham plantation.
a038A Spanish or Portugese nobleman of the highest
rank. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a039In the first edition, there is a page number skip
from page 112 to page 129. One possible explanation for this as that a sheet,
which would have had exactly sixteen pages in the original octavo format of this
book, was removed for corrections. When he returned the sheet with the corrected
type, the printed continued with the original pagination of the preceding sheet,
perhaps forgetting that sixteen page numbers would then be missing. No text is
missing; it's simply an error in pagination.
a040To Behn and her readers, the word "novel" would
have been associated with short romantic stories set among the aristocracy; the
story of Oroonoko and Imoinda that Trefry has just heard fits that definition.
"Novel" only gained its modern sense decades later.
a041To
cut or slash (a shoe, item of clothing) for decorative purposes. Source: Oxford
English Dictionary, “race”)
a042Lacquered, or covered with a glossy material; in
this period, highly-lacquered glossy black surfaces were associated with Japan,
which exported such goods to Europe.
a043The Picts were an ancient tribe in the northern
part of Britain who were known to paint and tattoo their bodies. The engravings of
Picts in Thomas Hariot’s A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
(1588) are accompanied by the comment that "the markings of the Picts were similar
to those of the Native Americans in Virginia.” Source: Wikipedia
a044The reference here is to Alexander the Great, who
by legend met Thallestris, the Queen of the Amazons, a race of female warriors,
whose home was near the river Jaxartes, which reportedly had brightly-colored
poisonous snakes. There is no historical evidence for this, but the stories were
told over and over again in historical romances from antiquity onwards, which is
the context that Behn is invoking here.
a045Fragrant bouquets
a046Pall
Mall, one of the straightest avenues in London, well known in Behn's era as a
place for the socially ambitious to promenade.
a047There are, of course, no tigers in Surinam, so
either Behn is thinking of some other kind of large carnivore such a jaguar (which
does exist in Surinam), or is fancifully adding this detail.
a048Mothers
a049Follower of Oliver
Cromwell, the leader of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War and head of the
Commonwealth government that ruled England in the 1650s.
a050An electric eel
a051An ell is a unit of
measurement; it varied from place to place and at different times, but an English
ell of this period would have been about 45 inches
a052Behn’s description of Native American gentleness and fascination with European
dress and trinkets is an exploitive theme common throughout early colonial
American literature. In most of the colonial writings regarding Native Americans,
the tribes encountered are often depicted as subservient and attracted to lustrous
items rather than those things which might possess monetary value. Writers of the
period employed instances of civil exchange, fascination, and amity between white
Europeans and Native Americans to engender merchants to settle the New World as
well as convince wealthy aristocrats and merchants to patron campaigns to
westernize and impose dominion by means of Christian conversion.
a053Janet Todd notes that the phrase
"Amora tiguamy" appears in Antione Biet’s Voyage de la France
équixonale en l’isle de Cayenne (1654, pp. 395-7). Todd argues that Behn
records a traditional greeting and provides the translation herself; however, it
should be noted that the term Amora has connection with the Latin Amore,
suggesting that Behn plays with contemporary accounts and phonetics to further
depict the indigenous characters as loving and peaceful. The phrase likely
developed out of interactions between the natives and the Spanish.
a058Behn describes the tribe as
passing down its highest artistic and scientific knowledge to a select member who
undergoes rigorous training from youth. This pattern relates to ideal models of
aristocratic education in European society.
a059Todd
notes that Behn may have borrowed from Biet yet again. Biet claims Indians wore a
small piece of clothing called a camison.
a060Jealousy, resentment, or
discontent; grudges. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a061Months
a062Europeans still believed that a golden city, or El
Dorado, existed in the South American mountains
a063Todd
explains that this is a geographic blunder. The mouth of the Amazon is in Brazil,
but cartographers had drawn it as the south-eastern border of “Guiana” throughout
the seventeenth century.
a064A tirade. The term first appears
c1450, but only in Scottish writings. It was not used in England until c1600. It
derives from medieval Latin harenga, which shares the current definition, and the
Italian aringo, a place of declamation, arena.
a065The Day of Judgment.
a066Oroonoko here is expressing what was known as
the "just war" doctrine of slavery, that those who lost a war could rightly be
enslaved. It is on this basis that Oroonoko himself owns slaves. The
distinction he is making here is that, according to this doctrine, slaves
gained through conquest are justified while slaves acquired through trickery or
commerce are not.
a067Renegades
a068Tuscan’s name derives from the late Latin Tuscānus
meaning “of or belonging to the Tuscī or Thuscī, a people of ancient Italy (called
also Etruscī Etruscans).” Source: Oxford English Dictionary The Etruscans
inhabited ancient Etruria, so Tuscan’s name implies nobility and European
origins.
a069According to the
Roman historian Plutarch, the Carthaginian general Hannibal used vinegar and fire
to burn his way through the Alps to attack the Roman army.
a070Of
high social standing; the upper class
a071Poorly treated
a072Subjected to public disgrace.
Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a074William Byam is a
real historical personage, noted both in Antione Biet’s Voyage de la France
équixonale en l’isle de Cayenne (1654) and Henry Adis’s A Letter Sent from
Syrrinam (1664). As deputy governor of Surinam, Byam ruled the colony in the
absence of Lord Willoughby. According to Flannigan’s Antigua and the Antiguans. A
Full Account of the Colony and its Inhabitants, after the Dutch takeover of
Surinam, Byam led many of the British colonists to Antigua, where became governor
and lived until c. 1670. Todd notes that both Biet and Adis, otherwise critical of
the colony in Surinam, praise Byam: Adis refers to him as “that worthy person,
whom your Lordship hath lately honoured with the Title and Power of your
Lieutenant General of this Continent of Guinah”; while Biet describes him as
brave, honorable, and civil (pp. 263, 279). Behn’s decision to portray him as
cowardly and deceitful appears to have been her own. On the other hand, Byam did
face accusations of unnecessary cruelty in his governance from an opposition group
led by John Allin. Byam wrote a tract An Exact Relation of the Most Execrable
Attempts of John Allin (1665) defending the need for harsh measures to govern the
unruly colonists and accusing Allin of insurrection.
a075More commonly known as a cat-o'-nine-tails, a whip
with nine knotted lashes, often used for corporal punishment in the British
military until 1881. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a076Defensive hilts on the handle of a sword
consisting of narrow plates of steel curved into the shape of a basket
a077Followed his own judgment
a078Unpremeditated
a079Draw near to
a080Tiresome,
exhausting
a081An allusion to the
Furies, three mythical Greek goddesses of vengeance and punishment, best known for
punishing those who swear false oaths and, especially, those who kill their own
kin.
a082Todd notes that a Colonel Marten of the Surinam
militia appears in multiple historical accounts of the colony, although the
authority under which he was styled colonel is dubious. In contrast to Behn’s
positive portrayal, Robert Sanford depicts Marten in Surinam Justice (1662) with
many of the negative traits assigned to Byam and other colonists by Behn: he is
eager to commit violent acts, cruel, ill-tempered, profane, and “so famous in
nothing as his variety of councels: and it seems the whole bulk of Government must
dance to the changes of his brain."Colonel Martin indeed appears as a character in
Behn's play The Younger Brother, Or, The Amorous Jilt. Behn's self-promotion is
premature, however, since the play was not produced until 1696, seven years after
her death
a083Surgeon
a084A room in a house designed for
the use of a particular person
a085Threats
a086To mockingly imitate, deride, or
amuse. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a087The
central prison in London
a088Throughout this period, many criminals found
guilty of crimes against property in Britain were sentenced by being "transported"
or exiled for a period of years to the colonies.
a089With no one speaking to the contrary.
a090Offices of government in Whitehall, London.
Trefry's implication is that Byam, although governor of Surinam, remains as
subordinate to the King as any civil servant back in Great Britain.
a091The mob, the rabble; the common
people, the populace. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a092Capable of delicate or tender feeling. Source: Oxford English Dictionary
a093Coverlet, blanket
a094Ghastly
a095Major James Bannister was
responsible for negotiating with the Dutch when England ceded Surinam in 1667.
According to Todd, in 1671, he led “about a hundred families to Jamaica where he
joined forces with governor Sir Thomas Lynch who was trying to suppress a rival,
backed by other ex-Surinam settlers” (Saunders Webb, 97). Bannister then became
major-general of Jamaica. Bannister was killed in 1673 by Mr. Burford, a
surveyor-general, who was then hanged.