SOUND EFFECTS:  Canoe paddle in water; forest sounds (bird calls, frogs).

FADE IN:

EXTERIOR.   COASTAL STREAM UNDER DEEP FOREST CANOPY – DAY

POV is that of paddler in canoe. River and banks slide by as camera moves forward. Brilliantly colored leaves float by on stream.

 

Paddling sounds cease, as camera follows leaves. We see a slight reflection of paddler in canoe.

                    MARK CATESBY (VOICE OVER, filtered)

The early inclination I had, to search after plants and other productions in nature, was suppressed by my residing too remote from London, the center of all science.

Loud call of bird in tree. Camera sweeps out to the tree line.

              MARK CATESBY (VOICE OVER, filtered)

Yet my curiosity was such, that I soon imbibed a passionate desire of viewing the productions of countries which were strangers to England.

Call of bird, now closer. We pan across trees and zoom in to see a flock of large, brilliantly colored birds.

CU of birds looking down into camera.

                    MARK CATESBY (VOICE OVER, filtered)

Virginia was the place suited most with my convenience to go to -- where I arrived the twenty-third of April, seventeen hundred and twelve.

Loud flurry of wings and cries as birds soar into the air. We follow them up and lose them in brilliant sun, then:

EXTERIOR.   OVER THE CANOPY – DAY

POV becomes that of birds: Helicopter shot, low over the tops of forest trees.

MUSIC:   Up. Grand and swelling theme.

TITLE OVER:

         The Curious Mister Catesby

OPENING CREDITS OVER

Helicopter shot continues, gradually pulling back to show more and more of countryside.

DISSOLVE TO:  MAP OF LANDSCAPE

DISSOLVE TO:

INT.   RECEIVING ROOM OF MIDDLEBURG PLANTATION – DAY

CU of antique map of the New World. We pan across and pull back to show table covered with antique globe, books and historical maps. NARRATOR stands at the table, his hand resting on the first map viewed.

                    NARRATOR

America. The New World. Three centuries ago, it was a place of dreams. A world of endless fascination -- and endless possibilities.

Narrator looks up from the table and into camera.

                    NARRATOR

Who would own it? Live in it? Claim its incredible wealth? What strange creatures -- what new terrors -- waited there?

Hand-held camera follows Narrator over to fireplace.

                    NARRATOR

All of Europe wanted to know. One man was determined to find out.

His name was Mark Catesby.

TABLE IN ROOM

 Title page of the Natural History of Carolina. Most of the page is overlaid by an antique map, so we see little other than the name ‘Mark Catesby,’ then pan to the cover of the book’s second volume, closed on the table.

                    NARRATOR (VOICE OVER)

It is, very likely, a name you’ve never heard. Even scholars know almost nothing of his early life, and much about him remains a mystery. We don’t even know what he looked like -– no one, it seems, ever bothered to paint his portrait.

Pan across to 18^th-century paint brushes and watercolors; dried leaves, cones, bottles, journal books, other tools of Catesby’s trade as a naturalist.

                    NARRATOR (VOICE OVER)

But that is a trick of history. In his own day he was famous, even a sensation. He was respected as both a man and a scientist -- in a day when science had begun to conquer the world.