he further emphasizes this point with the quaintly fashioned statement
that in bringing these “antiquities smothered and buried in dark
silence” to light, he has incorporated “into one body the torn and
scattered limbs of our ancient and late navigations by sea, our voyages
by land, and traffic of merchandise by both,” and restored “each
particular member being before displaced, to their true joints and
ligaments.” In other words, by the help of geography and chronology,
which he terms “the Sun and the Moon, the right eye and the left of all
history,” he has “referred each particular relation to the due time and
space.” He narrates again in this Preface the toils that have been
involved in bringing his work into this “homely and rough-hewn shape.”
“What restless nights,” he exclaims, “what painful days, what heat, what
cold I have endured; how many long and chargeable journeys I travelled:
how many famous libraries I have searched into; what variety of ancient
and modern writers I have perused; what a number of old records,
patents, privileges, letters, etc., I have redeemed from obscurity and
perishing; into how manifold acquaintance I have entered; what expenses
I have not spared; and yet what fair opportunities of private gain,
preferment, and ease I have neglected!” Yet, “howbeit, the honour and
benefit of this commonweal wherein I live and breathe, hath made all
difficulties seem easy, all pains and industry pleasant, and all
expenses of light value and moment unto me.”
Here speaks the true scholar and the genuine patriot.
In 1585, while he was yet in France, ecclesiastical preferment came to
Hakluyt, the reversion of the next prebendal stall that should become
vacant being that year secured to him by Queen Elizabeth’s mandate; and
the following year, upon the death of its incumbent, he took possession
of the first stall in the cathedral of Bristol, although he did not give
up his chaplaincy at the British embassy and finally return to England
till 1588. In the spring of 1590 he was instituted to the rectory of
Wetteringsett cum Blochford, in the county of Suffolk. In 1602 he became
prebendary of Westminster. In 1612 he obtained the rectory of Gedney in
Lincolnshire. He married about the year 1594, when occupying the
Wetteringsett rectory.
These various clerical duties were apparently not exacting. At all
events they did not interrupt the steady prosecution of his work of
historical research and publication, nor abate a jot of his ardour for
the advancement of American colonization. In his latter years he
gathered around him a group of young men whom he inspired further to
pursue or continue the work to which he had practically devoted his
life. At his suggestion and through his friendly encouragement
translations by various hands of standard works on Africa, China, and
other little known parts, were then brought out. His own final
publications were dated from Westminster.
He died presumably in his apartment at Westminster, on the twenty-third
day of November, 1616, seven months after Shakspere. His burial place
was in St. Peter’s Church, Westminster Abbey, but no inscription marks
his grave.
He left a fair estate, comprising “the manor house of Bridge Place” and
several houses in Westminster. This estate passed to his only son,
Edmund Hakluyt, a Trinity College man, who, we are told, had not the
prudence to keep it, but dispersed it through usurers’ and sheriffs’
hands.
Like Raleigh, Hakluyt never came to America, although more than once
planning to make the voyage. With the permanent colonization of Virginia
at last achieved, he was offered the living of Jamestown; but in place
of himself he supplied it with a curate.
Equally with Raleigh he shares, and is awarded, the title of virtual
founder of the English colonies in North America.
III
“THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS”
In Hakluyt’s monumental work of _The Principal Navigations_ we have the
whole brave story of English adventure through the centuries from the
dim old days of the Saxon kings—when the known world was a little thing,
only a spot on the map of to-day—to the Tudors’ times, with the
discoveries of the New World, advancement into remote quarters of the
Old World, the expansion of commerce, and the planting of colonies in
America. It is truly, as aptly termed by James Anthony Froude, the prose
epic of the modern English nation.
The first issue of 1589, the single volume in three parts, comprehended
the main features of this story; the three-volumed second edition,
1598–1600, amplified it with a wealth of added incident and richness of
color. The three parts of the portly volume of 1589, covering eight
hundred and twenty-five foolscap pages, comprised successively the
narratives of English voyages that had been performed to the South and
Southeastern regions of the Old World; the North and Northeastern
travels; and the Western, or New World, navigations. The contents were
elaborately detailed in the full title-page.
[Illustration:
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF THE THIRD, OR AMERICAN, VOLUME OF
HAKLUYT’S "VOYAGES," EDITION OF 1598–1600.
From a copy of the original edition in the New York Public Library
(Lenox Building).
]
The prefatory address “to the Favourable Reader” discloses the
thoroughness of the compiler’s work. He has been careful in every
possible case to present exact copies of the original narratives.
Wherever he has copied from an historian, or “authour of authoritie,”
either “stranger or naturall”—foreigner or native—he has “recorded the
same word for word with his particular name and page of booke” where the
“testimonie” is extant. “If the same were not reduced into our common
language,” he has given it in the original followed by a translation.
And “to the ende that those men which were the paynefull and personall
travellers might reape that good opinion and iust [just] commendation
which they haue deserued, and further, that euery man might answere for
himselfe, iustifie [justify] his reports, and stand accountable for his
own doings,” he has “referred euery voyage to his Author which both in
person hath performed, and in writing hath left the same.” He adds that
while he “meddles” in this work with the navigations only of the English
nation he quotes in a few places “some strangers as witnesses of the
things done”; yet these foreigners are only such as “either faythfully
remember, or sufficiently confirme” the Englishmen’s travels.
A map of the world inserted in this volume was taken by Hakluyt from the
atlas of Abraham Ortelius, a celebrated Flemish geographer, published at
Antwerp in 1570. It was substituted temporarily for one in preparation
for the book, but not completed by the engraver in time. Hakluyt alludes
to this, in the address “to the Favourable Reader,” as “a very large and
most exact terrestriall Globe collected and reformed according to the
newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugall, and
English, composed by M[aster] Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare
gentleman in his profession, being therein for divers yeares, greatly
supported by the purse and liberalitie of the worshipfull marchant
M[aster] William Sanderson.” What is supposed to be the Mollineux map
has been found in rare copies of this volume and of the second edition.
A map bound in a treasured copy of the 1589 edition in the Boston Public
Library contains this memorandum written on the back: "This map is a
facsimile of the map of the world found in _some_ of the first editions
of this book. By Sabin and others it is attributed to Emmerie Mollineux
of Lambeth, by Capt. Markham and others, to Edward Wright, the
mathematician who perfected and rendered practicable what we know to-day
as Mercator’s projection. Hallam describes this as ‘the best map of the
16th century and one of uncommon rarity.’ Only nine copies are known to
exist."
Professor Walter Raleigh, in his essay on the _English Voyages_ which
accompanies the modern reprint of the _Navigations_ (Glasgow, 1903),
recalls the belief of Shaksperian authorities, among whom he is counted,
that this is the map alluded to in _Twelfth Night_ in the passage (Act
III, Scene II), “He does smile his face into more lines than is in the
new map with the augmentation of the Indies.”
The titles of the three-volumed second edition set forth the contents of
each book with the same minute detail as that of the initial volume of
1589.
IV
THE EARLY VOYAGES
The English voyages begin with the adventures by the Britons northward
in the sixth century for conquest. So Hakluyt places in the forefront of
the _Principal Navigations_ legendary accounts of the travels of British
and Saxon kings. First are reproduced from ancient chronicles records of
“the noble actes of Arthur and Malgo,” in the years 517 and 580,
respectively, Arthur, after having “subdued all parts of Ireland,”
sailing to “Island” (Iceland) and “the most northeast parts of Europe”;
and Malgo into the North seas, recovering to his empire the “six islands
of the Ocean sea, which before had been made tributaries by King Arthur,
namely, Ireland, Island, Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmark.”
Next follow fragmentary narratives of seventh-century voyages. Two
“testimonies” are given of the exploits of the Saxon king, Edwin, with
his conquest of the Isles of Man and Anglesey and the other northwestern
islands of the Britons lying between Britain and Ireland, in the year
624. The second of these “testimonies” related how Edwin also subdued to
the crown of England the Hebrides, “commonly called the Western
Islands.” Then is reproduced the story of the voyage of Bertus, “general
of an army sent into Ireland by Ecfridus [Ecgfrith] king of
Northumberland” in the year 684. This warrior, the chronicler relates,
“miserably wasted that innocent nation being always most friendly unto
the people of England,” sparing neither churches nor monasteries, while
the Islanders “repelled arms with arms and craving God’s aid from heaven
with continual imprecations and curses they pleaded for revenge.”
The first recorded English voyage having discovery with expansion of
trade for its object was that of one Octher to the northward, at the
close of the ninth century, about the year 890. Octher was a prosperous
whale-hunter, of Heligoland in the North Sea. The special purpose of his
venture was to “increase the knowledge” of the northern coasts and
countries “for the more commodity of fishing of horse-whales which have
in their teeth bones of great price and excellence.” He found what he
sought, and brought home some specimens of big whalebones, which he
presented to the English king. The skins of the horse-whales he reported
were “very good to make cables for ships, and so used” by the hardy
dwellers on these coasts. A few years earlier Sighelmus, Bishop of
Sheburne, as messenger of King “Alphred” (Ælfrid), bearing alms and
gifts to the king of Rome, had penetrated into India, and returned to
England with costly spices and divers strange and precious stones, many
of which stones long after remained in the monuments of the church.
Following Octher one Wolstan made a navigation into the sound of
Denmark, of which brief account is given.
With these narrations of voyages for conquest and trade are interwoven
tales of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, “for devotion’s sake,” and
imagined relief from the penalties of sin, forerunners of the Crusades
of succeeding centuries. Earliest of all chronicled is the legend of the
“Travaile of Helena,” in the fourth century, before 337. She was Helena
Flavia Augusta, afterward the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine “the
Great,” emperor and king of Britain. She became a Christian when
Constantine was converted. By reason of her “singular beauty, faith,
religion, goodness, and godly majesty,” she was “famous in all the
world.” She was “skilful in divinity,” and wrote and composed “divers
books and certain Greek verses.” She made the perilous journey to
Jerusalem toward the close of a long life, being “warned by some
visions,” and piously visited “all the places that Christ had
frequented.” She is said to have discovered “the holy sepulchre and the
true cross.” Then follows a note on Constantine’s travels to Greece,
Egypt, and Persia, in about 339. He “overthrew the false gods of the
heathen, and by many laws, often revived, he abrogated the worshipping
of images in all the countries of Greece, Egypt, Persia, Asia, and the
whole Roman empire, commanding Christ only to be worshipped.”
In the tenth century English ships began to be found in far distant
seas. Fragments are recorded concerning the beginnings and growth of the
“classical and warlike” shipping of England in that period. We have the
spectacle of the grand navy of the Saxon Eadgar, “the Peaceful,” who
succeeded to the whole realm in 959, comprising “four thousand sail at
the least.” With this fleet it was his annual pastime to make “summer
progresses” round almost the whole of his then large monarchy, thus
demonstrating “to the world” that “as he wisely knew the ancient bounds
and limits of the British empire” so he “could and would royally,
justly, and triumphantly enjoy the same spite the devil and maugre the
force of any foreign potentate.” By the twelfth century London, as
described in extracts from a foreign writer, had become a “noble Citie,”
frequented with the “traffique of Marchants resorting thither out of all
nations,” and having “outlandish wares ... conveighed” into it from the
“famous river of the Thames.” At the same time, and by the same writer,
the “famous Towne of Bristow” (Bristol) is represented “with an Haven
belonging thereunto which is a commodious and safe receptacle for all
ships directing their course for the same from Ireland, Norway, and
other outlandish and foren [foreign] countreys.”
To this century, in 1170, is credited the “most ancient” discovery of
the West Indies by Madoc, the Welshman, and his subsequent attempt at
colonization on one of the islands. Hakluyt takes the tale “out of the
history of Wales lately published by M[aster] David Powel, Doctor of
Divinity.” Madoc was a son of Owen Guyneth, prince of North Wales. Upon
Guyneth’s death his sons “fell at debate who should inherit after him.”
The eldest, Edward, or Jorweth Drwydion, was counted “unmeet to govern
because of the maim on his face,” and Howell took up the rule. But
Howell was born out of matrimony. So the second legitimate son, David,
rose against him, and “fighting with him slew him.” Thereafter David
enjoyed quietly the whole land of North Wales till Edward’s son came of
age. Meanwhile Madoc had left the land in contention betwixt his
brothers, and had sought adventures by sea. At this point the story of
discovery begins. Having prepared “certain ships with men and munitions”
he sailed westward; and leaving the coast of Ireland far north he at
length came “unto a land unknown, where he saw many strange things.”
This land, the Welsh historian declared, “must needs be some part of
that country of which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first
finders since Hanno’s time; whereupon it is manifest that that country
was by Britaines [Britons] discovered long before Columbus led any
Spaniards thither.” The historian admitted that “there be many fables”
regarding Madoc’s discovery, but, notwithstanding, the fact remained;
“sure it is there he was.” Next follows the entertaining legend of
Madoc’s attempted settlement:
“And after he had returned home and declared the pleasant and fruitfull
countreys that he had seene without inhabitants, and, upon the contrary
part, for what barren & wild ground his brethren and nephewes did
murther one another, he prepared a number of ships, and got him such men
and women as were desirous to live in quietnesse: and taking leave of
his friends, tooke his journey thitherward againe. Therefore it is to be
supposed that he and his people inhabited part of those countreys: for
it appeareth by Francis Lopez de Gomara, that in Acuzamil and other
places the people honoured the crosse. Whereby it may be gathered that
Christians had bene there before the comming of the Spanyards. But
because this people were not many they followed the maners of the land
which they came unto, & used the language they found there. This Madoc
arriving in the Westerne country, unto the which he came in the yere
1170, left most of his people there, and returning backe for more of his
owne nation, acquaintance & friends to inhabit that faire & large
countrey, went thither againe with ten saile, as I find noted by Gutyn
Owen.” Hakluyt rounds off this engaging chapter with this swelling verse
“of Meredith sonne of Rhesus,” singing Madoc’s praises:
“Madoc I am the sonne of Owen Guynedd
With stature large, and comely grace adorned:
No lands at home nor store of wealth me please,
My minde was whole to search the Ocean seas.”
With the opening of the twelfth century the fiery Crusades from the
Christian nations for the rescue of Jerusalem from the infidel were well
under way. Preliminary to the pitiful and bloody record, this account of
a peaceful voyage, in the year 1064, in which Englishmen had part, with
an artless touch of autobiography by the narrator, Ingulphus, afterward
abbot of Croiland, is reproduced:
"I, Ingulphus, an humble servant of reverend Guthlac and of his
monastery of Croiland, borne in England, and of English parents, at the
beautifull citie of London, was in my youth, for the attaining of good
letters, placed first at Westminster, and afterward sent to the
Universitie of Oxford. And having excelled divers of mine equals in
learning of Aristotle, I inured my selfe somewhat unto the first &
second Rhethorique of Tullie. And as I grew in age, disdayning my
parents meane estate, and forsaking mine owne native soyle, I affected
the Courts of kings and princes, and was desirous to be clad in silke,
and to weare brave and costly attire. And loe, at the same time William
our sovereigne king now, but then Erle of Normandie, with a great troup
of followers and attendants, came unto London, to conferre with king
Edward, the Confessour, his kinsman. Into whose company intruding my
selfe, and proffering my service for the performance of any speedy or
weightie affayres, in short time, after I had done many things with good
successe, I was knowen and most entirely beloved by the victorious Erie
himselfe, and with him I sayled into Normandie. And there being made his
secretarie, I governed the Erles Court (albeit with the envie of some)
as my selfe pleased, yea, whom I would I abased and preferred whom I
thought good.
"When as therefor, being carried with a youthfull heat and lustie
humour, I began to be wearie even of this place, wherein I was advanced
so high above my parentage, and with an inconstant minde, and an
affection too too ambitious, most vehemently aspired at all occasions to
climbe higher: there went a report throughout all Normandie, that divers
Archbishops of the Empire, and secular princes were desirous for their
soules health, and for devotion sake, to goe on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Wherefore out of the family of our lorde the Earle, sundry of us, both
gentlemen and clerkes (principall of whom was my selfe) with the licence
and good will of our sayd lord the earle, sped us on that voiage, and
travailing thirtie horses of us into high Germanie, we joyned our selves
unto the Archbishop of Mentz. And being with the companies of the
Bishops seven thousand persons sufficiently provided for such an
expedition, we passed prosperously through many provinces, and at length
attained unto Constantinople. Where doing reverence unto the Emperour
Alexius, we sawe the Church of Sancta Sophia, and kissed divers sacred
reliques.
"Departing thence through Lycia, we fell into the hands of the Arabian
theeves: and after we had bene robbed of infinite summes of money, and
had lost many of our people, hardly escaping with extreame danger of our
lives, at length wee joyfully entered into the most wished citie of
Jerusalem. Where we were received by the most reverend, aged, and holy
patriarke Sophronius, with great melodie of cymbals and with
torch-light, and were accompanied unto the most divine Church of our
Saviour his sepulchre with a solemne procession aswell of Syrians as of
Latines. Here, how many prayers we uttered, what abundance of teares we
shed, what deepe sighs we breathed foorth, our Lord Jesus Christ onely
knoweth. Wherefore being conducted from the most glorious sepulchre of
Christ to visite other sacred monuments of the citie, we saw with
weeping eyes a great number of holy Churches and oratories, which Achim
the Souldan [sultan] of Egypt had lately destroyed. And so having
bewailed with sadde teares, and most sorowful and bleeding affections,
all the mines of that most holy city both within and without, and having
bestowed money for the reedifying of some, we desired with most ardent
devotion to go forth into the countrey, to wash our selves in the most
sacred river of Jordan, and to kisse all the steppes of Christ. Howbeit
the theevish Arabians lurking upon every way, would not suffer us to
travell farre from the city by reason of their huge and furious
multitudes.
“Wherefor about the spring there arrived at the port of Joppa a fleet of
ships from Genoa. In which fleet (when the Christian merchants had
exchanged all their wares at the coast townes, and had likewise visited
the holy places) wee all of us embarked, committing our selfes to the
seas: and being tossed with many stormes and tempests, at length wee
arrived at Brundusium: and so with a prosperous journey travelling
thorow Apulia towards Rome, we there visited the habitations of the holy
apostles Peter and Paul, and did reverence unto divers monuments of holy
martyrs in all places thorowout the citie. From thence the archbishops
and other princes of the empire travelling towards the right hand for
Alemain, and we declining towards the left hand for France, departed
asunder, taking our leaves with unspeakable thankes and courtesies. And
so at length, of thirty horsemen which went out of Normandie, fat,
lustie, and frolique, we returned thither skarse twenty poore pilgrims
of us, being all footmen, and consumed with leannesse to the bare
bones.”
The story of the voyages of Englishmen in the twelfth-century Crusades,
recorded in chronological order, opens with the chivalrous adventure of
Edgar, grandson of Edmund, surnamed “Ironsides,” accompanied by “valiant
Robert the son of Godwin,” in the year 1102, when, immediately upon
their arrival out, signal aid was rendered by them to Baldwin, the
second Latin king of Jerusalem, whom they found hard pressed by the
Turks at Rama. The “valiant Robert” sprang to the forefront, and going
before the king with his drawn sword, he cut a lane through the enemy’s
camp, “slaying the Turks on his right hand and his left.” So Baldwin
escaped. But the knight fared ill. “Upon this happy success, being more
eager and fierce, as he went forward too hastily, his sword fell out of
his hand. Which as he stooped to take up, being oppressed by the whole
multitude, he was there taken and bound.” His fate was tragic. “From
thence (as some say) being carried into Babylon, or Alcair, in Egypt,
when he would not renounce Christ, he was tied unto a stake in the midst
of the market-place, and being shot through with arrows, died a martyr.”
Edgar having lost his beloved knight, retired from crusading, and
returned to England honoured with “many rewards both by the Greekish and
the German Emperor.”