Willoughbyland
Subtitle: England's lost colony
By: Matthew Parker
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 294
ISBN-13: 9781250112835
Subjects: Colonies; History; Colonization
Description: "At the beginning of the 1650s, wrecked by plague and civil war, England was in ruins. Yet shimmering on the horizon was a vision of paradise called Willoughbyland. When Sir Walter Raleigh set out to South America to find the legendary city of El Dorado, he paved the way for an endless series of adventurers who would struggle against the harsh reality of South America's wild jungles. Six decades later, when a group of English gentlemen expelled from England chose to establish a new colony there, they named the settlement in honor of its founder--Sir Francis Willoughby. Located in the lush landscape between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, in what is now Suriname, Willougbyland experienced one of colonialism's most spectacular rises. But as planters and traders followed explorers, and mercenaries and soldiers followed political dissidents, the one-time paradise became a place of terror and cruelty, of sugar and slavery. A microcosm of the history of empire, this is the hitherto untold story of that fateful colony"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: "First published in Great Britain by Hutchinson, a Penguin Random House company"--Title page verso.

"April 2017"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-285) and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword : Suriname River, 2014; title: 'Every man's longing'; title: El Dorado; title: Ralegh and the 'beautiful empire of Guiana'; title: The heirs of Ralegh; title: Ralegh's last voyage; title: Francis Lord Willoughby; title: 'A brave land'; title: 'A peculiar form of government'; title: The restoration : 'a tumbling and rolling world'; title: Repression and revolt; title: Aphra Behn, Agent 160; title: Sugar, slavery and Oroonoko; title: The return of Willoughby; title: War and ruin; title: Astrea and Celadon; title: The fall of Fort Willoughby; title: Victory and anguish; title: Postscript.