ABSTRACT
Edward Terry (1590-1660), an Oxford MA, was chaplain on the East India Company voyage that left England in February 1616. On 12 June they anchored in the Bay of Soldania, near the Cape of Good Hope, and Terry went ashore. The extract records his observations and opinions of the local inhabitants, the Khoikhoi. The kind of disparaging remarks Terry makes about these people were common among English visitors to Soldania in the seventeenth century, which suggests how striking an image of alterity the Khoikhoi presented to whites. How biased their accounts are, or whether the authors were predisposed by reading previous descriptions to see the Khoikhoi in a certain way, are moot points. On his arrival in India, Terry was appointed chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe (see 6: 1), with whom he stayed until Roe's embassy returned to England in 1619. Back in Oxford, in 1622 Terry wrote a short account of his travels, which he presented to Prince Charles. It was also included by Purchas in his collection of travel writings. In 1655 a much fuller version appeared; Terry tells how he was revising and enlarging even while the printers were at work. In his preface he says his book is 'for instruction and use, as well as for ... novelty', and that he has scattered 'divine truths' throughout.
