HARCOURT (Robert).
The Relation of a Voyage to Guiana. Describing the Climate, Situation, Fertilitie, & Commodities of that Country. Together with the Manner and Customes of the people...
There were two editions of this tract, both equally rare, events in the proto-colony had moved somewhat since the publication of the first edition (1613) and Harcourt in this second edition is clearly attempting to keep his fledgling outpost in the public eye and to consolidate his interests there. In the preface he asks the King to combine his charter with that granted to Roger North’s Company, successfully for the combined charter was issued in 1627.
Harcourt, with his brother, Michael, had arrived with a party of 60 settlers in 1609, they set up headquarters at the mouth of the river Wiapoco, and during subsequent exploration Robert Harcourt sailed 150 miles up the Amazon. He and his bother returned to England but the settlers remained. Robert returned to Guiana in 1629, dying there in 1631, the colony disappeared, and it was not until the 1650s that a permanent English foothold was established in the north of South America. STC 12755; Alden-Landis 626/62; Sabin 30297.
