The Principall | Navigations, Voia- | ges, And Discoveries Of The | Engliſh nation, made by Sea or ouer Land, | [Twenty-seven lines] By Richard Hakluyt Maſter of Artes, and Student ſometime | of Chriſt-church in Oxford. | [Printer's ornament] Imprinted at London by George Bishop | and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to | christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes moſt excellent Maieſtie. | 1589.
The book presents a handsome appearance in the matter of type and ornament: the archer head-band appears, and there are two large pictorial initials at the beginning signed
. It contains also "one of the beſt generall mappes of the world onely, untill the comming out of a very large and most exact terreſtrial Globe, collected and reformed according to the neweſt, ſecretest, and lateſt diſcoueries ... compoſed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profeſſion...." This map was a close copy of one engraved by Francis Hogenberg for Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published first in Antwerp in 1570. Like the original it is called Typus Orbis Terrarum, but Hogenberg's name is erased, and no other appears in its stead.
This volume is usually called the first edition of the amplified work in three volumes, here facsimiled, which Hakluyt began to issue nine years later. The British Librarian of William Oldys, that "oddest mortal that ever wrote," gives a full synopsis of the contents of the latter work, "this elaborate and excellent Collection, which redounds as much to the Glory of the Engliſh Nation, as any Book that ever was publiſhed in it." He says:
"Tho' the firſt Volume of this Collection does frequently appear, by the Date, in the Title Page to be printed in 1599. the Reader is not thence to conclude the ſaid Volume was then reprinted, but only the Title Page, as upon collating the Books we have obſerved; and further, that in the ſaid last printed Title Page, there is no mention made of the Cadiz Voyage; to omit which, might be one Reaſon of reprinting that Page: for it being one of the moſt proſperous and honorable Enterprizes that ever the Earl of Eſſex was ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen's unpardonable Displeaſure at this time, our Author, Mr. Hakluyt, might probably receive Command or Direction, even from one of the Patrons to whom theſe Voyages are dedicated, who was of the contrary Faction, not only to ſupreſs all Memorial of that Action in the Front of this Book, but even cancel the whole Narrative thereof at the End of it, in all the Copies (far the greateſt Part of the Impreſſion) which remained unpubliſhed. And in that caſtrated Manner the Volume has deſcended to Poſterity; not but if the Caſtration was intended to have been concealed from us, the laſt Leaf of the Preface would have been reprinted alſo, with the like Omiſſion of what is there mentioned concerning the Inſertion of this Voyage. But at laſt, about the middle of the late King's Reign, an uncaſtrated copy did ariſe, and the said Voyage, was reprinted from it; whereby many imperfect Books have been made complete."
The cancellation "in the Front" refers to the title-page. In the new page of the castrated edition the clause "And laſtly, the memorable defeate of the Spaniſh huge Armada, Anno 1588. and the famous victorie acheiued at the citie of Cadiz, 1596." is made to read: "As alſo the memorable defeat of the Spaniſh huge Armada, Anno 1588."; and the date is changed to 1599. But, as Oldys remarks, through oversight or indifference the reference in the preface still remains to show that the edition is doctored, and not a new one. It reads: "An excellent diſcourſe whereof, as likewiſe of the honourable expedition vnder two of the moſt noble and valiant peeres of this Realme, I meane, the renoumed Erle of Eſſex, and the right honorable the lord Charles Howard, lord high Admirall of England, made 1596, vnto the ſtrong citie of Cadiz, I haue set downe a double epiphonema to conclude this my firſt volume withall...." The reference also remains in "A Catalogue of the Voyages," "39 The honourable voyage to Cadiz, Anno 1596. [p.] 607." and at page 606 the catchword "A briefe" still bears witness to the curtailment of "A briefe and true report of the Honourable voyage vnto Cadiz, 1596." The original leaves ended on page 619, with a large woodcut representing two winged figures supporting a crown and rose. They have been twice reprinted, but both reprints are easily distinguishable from the early work.
The second volume was issued by the same printers in 1599, and the third in 1600. Hakluyt is characterized on the title-page of the first volume, as on that of the first edition, as "Master of Artes, and sometime Student of Christ-Church in Oxford," but in the second and third volumes he is called "Preacher, and sometime student of Christ-Church in Oxford." He had been made rector of Wetheringsett in Suffolk in 1590.
In its general make-up, the new work resembles the old one. The archer head-bands have not been used, and only one of the pictorial initials signed