Preceding this class of literature and closely allied to it, owing to the spirit of adventure and the geographical knowledge which it diffused, are the numerous accounts of voyages made for the purposes of trade, exploration, or discovery in this part of the world. Some of these I will here notice; though in truth many of them relate as much to other sections of my work as to Central America, or even more.
GALVANO AND HAKLUYT.
Complete as is the Raccolta of Ramusio and like collections, in reproducing the leading voyages up to its time, a large number of minor narratives remained unnoticed, while others stood briefly recorded upon mere hearsay in the writing of others. This deficiency had been observed by Antonio Galvano in earlier collections, and his effort to repair it gave rise to the first comprehensive history of voyages. Born at Lisbon in 1503, Galvano left at the age of twenty-four for the Indies, where he was intrusted with the conquest and government of the Moluccas. Of this he remained in charge for six or seven years, distinguishing himself both as a just and benevolent ruler, and as a zealous proselytizer. His unselfish conduct served only to attract calumny and to reduce him to poverty, so much so that he had to seek refuge in the royal hospital at Lisbon, where he died in 1557. His undoubted talent had been fostered by extensive reading, particularly of narratives of voyages. While so employed he kept notes with a view to form an outline of the progress of navigation and discovery, which should serve as introductory to a collection. During the latter part of his life, while suffering under the ban of royal displeasure, he found ample time to perfect these researches, and at his death a friend, Francisco de Sousa Tavares, was intrusted with the papers. Among these appears to have been a history of the discovery and resources of the Moluccas, a manuscript in ten books, according to Faria, of which Pinelo says: "Por no haverle visto, duda, si permanece." Epitome, ii. 636. De Sousa caused the treatise under consideration to be published at Lisbon in 1563, under the title of Tratado que compōs o nobre e notauel capitão Antonio Galuão de todos os descobrimentos antigos e modernos que são feitos á era de mil e quinhentos e cincoenta, with a dedication to the duke of Aveiro, wherein he records Galvano's many services, and comments on their poor recognition. Mention has been made of a duodecimo edition of 1555, but this must be a mistake, to judge by Sousa's preface to the edition of 1563. Of this only three copies are known to exist, one owned by Mr John Carter Brown, of Providence, from whom the Hakluyt Society obtained a copy, printed as a running foot-note to their reissue of Hakluyt's version, under the editorship of Admiral Bethune. The latter is called The Discoveries of the World from their first originall vnto the yeere 1555, by Antonie Galvano, Londini, 1601, to be found also in the reprint of Hakluyt's Voyages, and in Churchill's Collection, while Purchas gives it in reduced form. The Portuguese copy was reprinted at Lisbon in 1731. Hakluyt explains in the dedication to Sir Robert Cecil that his publication thereof was intended as an introductory to his own work, and was made from an old manuscript translated by an English merchant. In order to modify the "manifold errours" therein, Hakluyt took pains to consult Spanish works for the corrections and additions which are to be noticed in this version. The treatise goes back to the discovery voyages related by Chinese, Greek, and Latin writers, and brings the concise record for every region of the globe, in chronologic order, down to 1550. The East India voyages are partly from his own notes, while other contemporary expeditions are derived from the chroniclers. The pre-Columbian period occupies only a little over one fourth of the text, and shows the want of access to material revealed by subsequent investigations in different countries. The later period is pretty complete for Spanish and Portuguese voyages, considering the tardiness with which occurrences were published. Hakluyt, while regretting that English voyages are "scarce fower times mentioned," admits that at the time "there was little extant of our men's trauailes." Muñoz speaks slightingly of Galvano, saying "compendia infelizmente" what others have done more fully. Whatever its defects, the treatise was certainly a most valuable contribution to the subject, and is still highly important as one of the first essays toward a history of voyages.
Among those who followed Ramusio's example of collecting and publishing narratives of voyages and travels stands pre-eminent Richard Hakluyt, whose work was remarkable not only as the first but as the most valuable in English for the originality and rarity of its narratives, particularly those relating to America. When Hakluyt began his studies Eden's Historie of Travayle, containing translations from Martyr and Oviedo, was the only English book extant on maritime discovery. Nor was much known abroad of English voyages, partly because the traders preferred to keep their own counsel. Hakluyt's perusal of foreign collections, and his private researches, showed him, however, that the English had performed deeds worthy of being recorded, and he was fired with ambition to make them public.
Hakluyt belonged to a good Herefordshire family, settled at Yatton, which had for centuries held a leading position in the county. After passing through Westminster school as a queen's scholar, he was in 1570, at the age of 17, elected to Christ Church college, Oxford, and took the degree of B. A. four years later; that of M. A. being obtained after three years' further study. While yet a boy he had been directed by a cousin to the study of geography and navigation, which henceforth became his favorite pursuit. So well did he use his opportunity at Oxford, where he also mastered several languages for his studies, that he appears to have been appointed lecturer on cosmography. In the dedication to Walsingham of the first edition of his collection he says: "I in my publike lectures was the first that produced and shewed both the olde and imperfectly composed and the new lately reformed mappes, globes," etc. Between 1584 and 1589 he held the post of chaplain to the embassy at Paris, and while there pursued actively his researches, besides publishing narratives of voyages in French and English. In 1590 he obtained a rectory in Suffolk County, on the strength of which he married four years later, and in 1605 he succeeded Dr Webster as prebendary of Westminster abbey. Dying November 23, 1616, he was buried in St Peter's of this abbey, leaving to his son a fair estate which was soon squandered. Although interested in Raleigh's patent for making discoveries, and forming one of the chief adventurers in the company for the colonization of Virginia, he took no other share in maritime projects than to promote them by his writings. His devotion to researches was so great that he once rode two hundred miles to meet the only survivor of Hare's disastrous voyage. He corresponded with Ortelius and Mercator, and received the friendly encouragement of Walsingham, Cecil, Admiral Howard, Drake, and others. His first publication was Divers Voyages touching the Discoverie of America and the Islands adiacent, London, 1582, dedicated to Philip Sydney. Of the original only five copies are supposed to exist, from one of which the Hakluyt Society issued a reprint in 1850, under the editorship of John Winter Jones, of the British Museum, who prefaces it with a valuable review of Hakluyt's life and writings. The several narratives refer to the north-east and north-west passages, the East Indies, and the east coast of North America. A curious map herein of conic projection shows the North American continent extending to about latitude 46°, where the California peninsula connects with a range called Sierra Neuada, running latitudinally. Above 46° all is open ocean, bordered on the east, however, by a strip of land connected with Florida by a narrow isthmus, and extending to Cape Labrador. The northern part of California bears the name Quiviri, the southern (Cape) California, and the central part S. Croce (Santa Cruz). On the mappemonde the Tierra del Fuego forms part of a great antarctic continent. While at Paris, Hakluyt caused to be published in French an account of Florida, from a manuscript found by him, and this was issued the following year, 1587, in English, as A notable historie containing foure voyages unto Florida, both versions dedicated to Raleigh, with an exhortation to prosecute the colonization of Virginia. The same year he published at Paris an improved edition of Martyr's De orbe novo which some years later was translated into English by M. Lock. In 1589 appeared the first instalment of the great work The principall navigations, voiages and discoveries of the English nation made by sea or over land, a folio, dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham. It is divided into three parts, relating respectively to Asia and Africa, to the north and north-east of Europe and Asia, and to America, including Drake's voyage. Nine years later he published the first volume of a new edition of his collection, followed in 1599 and 1600 by two more volumes, in none of which reference is made to the first issue. They are fine specimens of black-letter type, with marginals and headpieces, but with the prefaced Latin text, headings, and names in roman type and italics. The first volume is dedicated to Lord Howard as a tribute to the patriotic services of the family, and in recognition of the favors received by Hakluyt and his brother; the others to Sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state. They are properly a rearranged enlargement of the first issue, volume i. containing voyages toward the north and north-east of England; volume ii. to the Mediterranean and Africa; and volume iii. to America, including several voyages by foreigners to parts not visited by the English. The narratives are generally in the language of the narrator, and in the first two volumes their order is chronologic; but in the American section they are grouped under different geographic headings. This opens with the dubious voyage of Madoc in 1170, and continues with expeditions to the extreme northern parts of the continent, chiefly with reference to the north-west passage. The region between Canada and Florida comes next, followed by explorations toward New Mexico and California, and in Mexico; then the Antilles and Central America, succeeded by a series of groups for South America, the whole concluding with circumnavigations and voyages directed to the South Sea. In the dedication to the third volume Hakluyt says: "Now because long since I did foresee, that my profession of diuinitie, the care of my family, and other occasions might call and diuert me from these kinde of endeauors, I have for these 3 yeeres last past encouraged and furthered in these studies of Cosmographic and forren histories, my very honest, industrious, and learned friend Mr Iohn Pory." Profiting by this training, Pory in 1600 issued a translation of Leo's History of Africa. Others were similarly directed to geographical research, among them Parke who issued a translation of a history of China, and Erondelle who published a part of Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle France. Hakluyt himself continued to devote to his favorite subject the little leisure remaining, and left enough manuscript to have added a fourth volume to his collection; but coming into Purchas' hands they were abridged for his Pilgrimes. Some of them were evidently prepared for the guidance of the East India Company, which had not failed to consult the renowned cosmographer, without whose advice few maritime enterprises were then undertaken. In 1601 he issued a translation of Galvano's Discoveries of the World, and in 1609 his last book, a translation of Soto's Discoveries in Florida, with the main object of encouraging the Virginia colony. Virginia is greatly indebted to Hakluyt, and the maritime enterprise of England in general was much promoted by his personal application and writings. Robertson adds that to him "England is more indebted for its American possessions than to any man of that age." A reprint of all Hakluyt's works was issued in five volumes quarto in 1809-12, by R. Evans, only 325 copies being printed. The fifth volume, issued in a larger edition, is entitled A Selection of Curious, Rare, and Early Voyages, and Histories of Interesting Discoveries, Chiefly Published by Hakluyt, but not included in his Compilation; London, 1812, 807 pp., and is really a supplement to Hakluyt and Purchas, offering reprints of documents touching different parts of the globe, as Galvano's Discoveries, The Historie of the West Indies by Martyr, from Lock's translation of Hakluyt's version, and several others, chiefly relating to Asia. Hakluyt's works stand an enduring monument to well earned fame, and his spirit, after influencing contemporary enterprise, continued to animate the nation, and to assume embodiment in the Hakluyt Society, which has for its aim to continue the labors that have done so much for literature and science.
DE BRY, ENS, GOTTFRIEDT, PURCHAS.
Among foreign writers influenced by Hakluyt's exhortation and example may be mentioned Theodore De Bry, the engraver of Frankfort. The opportunity afforded him in his profession to become acquainted with and to collect works relating to voyages and conquests, had not failed to awaken an interest for the subject. But a visit to Hakluyt, then engaged upon his collection, gave a decided impulse to his ideas, and being a man of enterprise he forthwith engaged editors, and in 1590 began publishing, simultaneously in Latin, German, and French, the famous Collection des Grands et Petits Voyages, referring respectively to the new and old worlds, the larger size of the volumes for America giving rise to the title. Under the supervision of his sons and other members of the family, the collection was continued after his death, in 1598, till completed in its fortieth year. The numerous reprints of volumes and sets during this interval, with more or less changes, have given no little trouble to collectors in search of the complete issue. Formed without critique, it is remarkable rather as a convenient set and as a bibliographic curiosity, wherein the engravings constitute the main attraction, then for geographic value, since most of the narratives had already been published in better form, and have been reproduced in later works.
De Bry's set proved a fertile source in text and engravings for compilers, and among them Gaspar L. Ens, the author of several individual European travels, and one of the editors employed by De Bry, who issued the Indiæ Occidentalis Historia, Coloniæ, 1612. On the same plan as Ens', but on a larger scale, and partly based upon it, is the Newe Welt Vnd Americanische Historien, Franckfurt, 1631, reprinted 1655, folio. The author, Johann Ludwig Gottfriedt, whose proper name appears to be Jean Philippe Abelin, was also an editor of De Bry, and wrote several works, one of them being the "Archontologia Cosmica, que es Farrago de diversos Autores, sin distinguir lo cierto de lo dudoso." Pinelo, Epitome, tom. iii. pp. 1288. It is also called a translation of D'Avity's Les etats. Gottfriedt naturally sets up a claim for his Newe Welt to be compiled from leading writers, without referring to De Bry, who no doubt supplied the material for the text as well as the plates. De Bry, says Brunet, Manuel, tom. ii. p. 1674, "a abrégé des douze premières parties de la collection." The plates, which are perhaps the most interesting part of the volume, have been selected chiefly from the nude and the curious, such as Indians driving whales, playing with mermaids, or hunting semi-human beasts. The arrangement of the text shows no improvement upon Ens, but the third section differs in being more of a supplement to both the preceding parts.
Hakluyt's unpublished papers, failing to attain their destined object, accomplished a wider result by giving rise to the larger collection of Samuel Purchas; for it was their possession that gave impulse to a work so much needed, both to fill the gaps of the former and to narrate the numerous expeditions which had taken place since its date. The precursor of the work was Pvrchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places, London, 1613, dedicated to the archbishop of Canterbury. It was reprinted in 1614, and soon reached several editions, the fourth, 1626, being dedicated to King Charles, who had deigned to inquire for it, and whose royal father had read it seven times, as the author proudly announces. This object of kingly delight claims to be a compilation from over thirteen hundred authors, which are decidedly well represented in the numerous marginals, and gives a review in nine books of the social condition and the institutions of the nations in Asia, Africa, and America, particularly the religious feature, with some reference to political history. Beginning with the Mosaic creation it takes up the nations of south-east Asia, of the East Indies and China, and reaches Africa in the sixth book. The last two are devoted to the New World, whose physical and natural features receive two chapters, followed by the general description of the region above Florida in five chapters, while the eighth is given to the country west of this, and the next six to New Spain. The fifteen chapters of book nine cover South America and the Antilles, the last being an attack on Spanish cruelty and maleconversion. Three parts similar to this volume were promised, the second to relate to Europe, and the others to continue the subject for the four divisions of the world; but the necessary aid was withheld, as Purchas hints in an address to the Pilgrimes, and wherein he attempts a pun upon his name by intimating that Europe cannot now be purchased. The project had evidently to yield to others, as Microcosmus, or the History of Man, 1619, and to the great collection which soon engrossed his whole attention. Purchas was like Hakluyt a preacher, but of the rival university of Cambridge, trained at St John College, as he states in the dedicatory to volume iii. He attained the degree of bachelor of divinity, conferred also by Oxford in 1615. In 1604 he assumed charge of a vicarage in his native county of Essex, but was soon called by his literary researches to London, where he fell into difficulties, and had recourse to lecturing and to friends. Finally Bishop King came to his aid with means to prosecute the publication of his work, and by conferring upon him the rectory of St Martins. Purchas expresses his gratitude for these favors in the opening address to volume i., wherein he speaks of "my decessed Patron Doctor King, ... to whose bountie vnder God, I willingly ascribe my life, deliuered from a sickly Habitation, and consequently (as also by opportunities of a London Benefice) whatsoeuer additions in my later Editions of my Pilgrimage; these present Pilgrimes also." In the dedication of the Pilgrimage to the archbishop, he signs himself his chaplain, which may be a figurative expression. He is generally supposed to have died in poverty, and even in prison; but the title-page portrait of 1625, at the age of forty-eight, presents him as a sleek, contented-looking preacher, with a full though not large beard; and the several editions of the Pilgrimage would indicate that he had prospered up to that time at least. According to Wood he died in his own house about 1628. In 1625 appeared Haklvytvs Posthumus or Pvrchas his Pilgrimes. Contayning a History of the World, in Sea voyages & lande-Trauells. Imprinted at London for Henry Fetherston. In four parts or volumes, folio, each dedicated to a different personage. The first title-page is filled with emblematic designs, and portraits of princes and great men, among them Purchas, at the foot, between two hemispheres, with his anagram of "Pars sva Celvm." The other title-pages are all headed Pvrchas his Pilgrimes, and this quaint name the author sustains to some extent by opening the dedication to Prince Charles with: "May a poore Pilgrime salute Your Highnesse in the words of a better Samvel." Directly afterward, however, he assumes another higher role in "hauing out of a Chaos of confused intelligences framed this Historicall World, by a New way of Eye-evidence;" and then he begins to lose himself in an attempt at magniloquent phraseology, with no great promise for his power to bring order out of chaos. Later he declares himself a mere laborer "howsoeuer here a Masterbuilder also," doing everything with his own hands, except where aided by his son. The manuscripts left by Hakluyt, although forming a very small proportion of the book, "encouraged me to vse my endeuours in and for the rest," he gratefully observes. The printing of the work began in 1621, although not with volume i. The first of the twenty books into which the set is divided, treats of ancient navigation, progress of discovery, and religious phases. The second begins with Portuguese and Columbian voyages, and continues with circumnavigations, after which come the regular narratives of voyages, chiefly by Englishmen, interspersed with extracts from notable journals and histories, with a view to cover subjects and periods not otherwise disposed of. Volumes i. and ii. relate almost wholly to Asia, Africa, and the Levant, and also the next two books, while books iii. and iv., following, deal partly with north-west voyages, beginning with Zeno. Book v. gives extracts from Herrera, Oviedo, Acosta, and Cortés, which chiefly concerns Mexico, and a part of vi. touches the Isthmus, but the main portion of this and the next book are occupied with South America. Book viii. is divided between Mexico and the country northward to Virginia, which latter takes up the whole of ix. The last book is shared among New England, Newfoundland, and the English expeditions against Spain. Altogether the arrangement is as confusing as the text, and in both respects far inferior to Hakluyt's; nor is the work as complete as might have been expected. In the attempt to introduce foreign narratives the limits of space were overstepped, to the prejudice of other accounts, which were often injudiciously condensed. Pinkerton remarks, somewhat too severely, I think, that Purchas directed his utmost attention to "selecting the most useless parts of the unhappy authors." Col. Voy., vol. i. p. iv.
THÉVENOT AND HARRIS.