In 1588 Hakluyt finally returned to England with Lady Stafford, after a residence in France of nearly five years. In 1589 he published the first edition of his chief work, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (fol., London, 1 vol.). In the preface to this we have the announcement of the intended publication of the first terrestrial globe made in England by Molyneux. In 1598-1600 appeared the final, reconstructed and greatly enlarged edition of The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (fol., 3 vols.). Some few copies contain an exceedingly rare map, the first on the Mercator projection made in England according to the true principles laid down by Edward Wright. Hakluyt’s great collection, though but little read, has been truly called the “prose epic of the modern English nation.” It is an invaluable treasure of material for the history of geographical discovery and colonization, which has secured for its editor a lasting reputation. In 1601 Hakluyt edited a translation from the Portuguese of Antonio Galvano, The Discoveries of the World (4to., London). In the same year his name occurs as an adviser to the East India Company, supplying them with maps, and informing them as to markets. Meantime in 1590 (April 20th) he had been instituted to the rectory of Withering-sett-cum-Brockford, Suffolk. In 1602, on the 4th of May, he was installed prebendary of Westminster, and in the following year he was elected archdeacon of Westminster. In the licence of his second marriage (30th of March 1604) he is also described as one of the chaplains of the Savoy, and his will contains a reference to chambers occupied by him there up to the time of his death; in another official document he is styled D.D. In 1605 he secured the prospective living of James Town, the intended capital of the intended colony of Virginia. This benefice he supplied, when the colony was at last established in 1607, by a curate, one Robert Hunt. In 1606 he appears as one of the chief promoters of the petition to the king for patents to colonize Virginia. He was also a leading adventurer in the London or South Virginia Company. His last publication was a translation of Fernando de Soto’s discoveries in Florida, entitled Virginia richly valued by the description of Florida her next neighbour (London, 1609, 4to). This work was intended to encourage the young colony of Virginia; to Hakluyt, it has been said, “England is more indebted for its American possession than to any man of that age.” We may notice that it was at Hakluyt’s suggestion that Robert Parke translated Mendoza’s History of China (London, 1588-1589) and John Pory made his version of Leo Africanus (A Geographical History of Africa, London, 1600). Hakluyt died in 1616 (November 23rd) and was buried in Westminster Abbey (November 26th); by an error in the abbey register his burial is recorded under the year 1626. Out of his various emoluments and preferments (of which the last was Gedney rectory, Lincolnshire, in 1612) he amassed a small fortune, which was squandered by a son. A number of his MSS., sufficient to form a fourth volume of his collections of 1598-1600, fell into the hands of Samuel Purchas, who inserted them in an abridged form in his Pilgrimes (1625-1626, fol.). Others are preserved at Oxford (Bib. Bod. MS. Seld. B. 8). which consist chiefly of notes gathered from contemporary authors.
Besides the MSS. or editions noticed in the text (Divers Voyages (1582); Particuler Discourse (1584); Laudonnière’s Florida (1587); Peter Martyr, Decades (1587); Principal Navigations (1589 and 1598-1600); Galvano’s Discoveries (1601); De Soto’s Florida record, the Virginia richly valued (1609, &c.), we may notice the Hakluyt Society’s London edition of the Divers Voyages in 1850, the edition of the Particuler Discourse, by Charles Deane in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society (Cambridge, Mass., 1870, with an introduction by Leonard Woods); also, among modern issues of the Principal Navigations, those of 1809 (5 vols., with much additional matter), and of 1903-1905 (Glasgow, 12 vols.). The new title-page issued for the first volume of the final edition of the Principal Navigations, in 1599, merely cancelled the former 1598 title with its reference to the Cadiz expedition of 1596; but from this has arisen the mistaken supposition that a new edition was then (1599) published. Hakluyt’s Galvano was edited for the Hakluyt Society by Admiral C. R. D. Bethune in 1862. This Society, which was founded in 1846 for printing rare and unpublished voyages and travels, includes the Glasgow edition of the Principal Navigations in its extra series, as well as C. R. Beazley’s edition of Carpini, Rubruquis, and other medieval texts from Hakluyt (Cambridge, 1903, 1 vol.). Reckoning in these and an issue of Purchas’s Pilgrimes by the Glasgow publisher of the Hakluyt of 1903-1905, the society has now published or “fathered” 150 vols. See also Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America, being Select Narratives from the Principal Navigations, by E. J. Payne (Oxford, 1880; 1893; new edition by C. R. Beazley, 1907).
For Hakluyt’s life the dedications of the 1589 and 1598 editions of the Principal Navigations should be especially consulted; also Winter Jones’s introduction to the Kakluyt Society edition of the Divers Voyages; Fuller’s Worthies of England, “Herefordshire”; Oxford Univ. Reg. (Oxford Hist. Soc), ii., iii. 39; Historical MSS. Commission, 4th report, appendix, p. 614, the last giving us the Towneley MSS. referring to payments (prizes?) awarded to Hakluyt when at Oxford, May 12th and June 4th, 1575.
(C. H. C; C. R. B.)
HAKODATE, a town on the south of the island of Yezo, Japan, for many years regarded as the capital of the island until Sapporo was officially raised to that rank. Pop. (1903) 84,746. Its position, as has been frequently remarked, is not unlike that of Gibraltar, as the town is built along the north-western base of a rocky promontory (1157 ft. in height) which forms the eastern boundary of a spacious bay, and is united to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus. The summit of the rock, called the Peak, is crowned by a fort. Hakodate is one of the ports originally opened to foreign trade. The Bay of Hakodate, an inlet of Tsugaru Strait, is completely land-locked, easy of access and spacious, with deep water almost up to the shore, and good holding-ground. The Russians formerly used Hakodate as a winter port. The staple exports are beans, pulse and peas, marine products, sulphur, furs and timber; the staple imports, comestibles (especially salted fish), kerosene and oil-cake. The town is not situated so as to profit largely by the development of the resources of Yezo, and as a port of foreign trade its outlook is indifferent. Frequent steamers connect Hakodate and Yokohama and other ports, and there is daily communication with Aomori, 56 m. distant, whence there is rail-connexion with Tokyo. Hakodate was opened to American commerce in 1854. In the civil war of 1868 the town was taken by the rebel fleet, but it was recovered by the mikado in 1869.
HAL, a town of Brabant, Belgium, about 9 m. S.W. of Brussels, situated on the river Senne and the Charleroi canal. Pop. (1904) 13,541. The place is interesting chiefly on account of its fine church of Notre Dame, formerly dedicated to St Martin. This church, a good example of pure Gothic, was begun in 1341 and finished in 1409. Its principal ornament is the alabaster altar, by J. Mone, completed in 1533. The bronze font dates from 1446. Among the monuments is one in black marble to the dauphin Joachim, son of Louis XI., who died in 1460. In the treasury of the church are many costly objects presented by illustrious personages, among others by the emperor Charles V., King Henry VIII. of England, Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and several popes. The church is chiefly celebrated, however, for its miraculous image of the Virgin. Legend says that during a siege the bullets fired into the town were caught by her in the folds of her dress. Some of these are still shown in a chest that stands in a side chapel. In consequence of this belief a great pilgrimage, attended by many thousands from all parts of Belgium, is paid annually to this church. The hôtel de ville dates from 1616 and has been restored with more than ordinary good taste.
HALA, or Halla (formerly known as Murtazabad), a town of British India in Hyderabad district, Sind. Pop. (1901) 4985. It has long been famous for its glazed pottery and tiles, made from a fine clay obtained from the Indus, mixed with powdered flints. The town has also a manufacture of susis or striped trouser-cloths.