XXII.—On Richard Hakluyt and American Discoveries. In a Letter from J. Payne Collier, V.P. to the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Mahon, President

Extract

Considering the important services rendered by Richard Hakluyt to the history and progress of navigation, very little has been done to illustrate his life. I am not aware of the existence of any separate memoir of him, and the accounts in our ordinary biographical collections are meagre and unsatisfactory. The notice of him by Anthony Wood, in his Athenæ Oxonienses (II. 186, Edit. Bliss), is short, but, as usual with that industrious and able antiquary, correct as far as it goes; and such as have followed him have done little more than make a few trifling additions to the text he supplied. The most curious and authentic materials, regarding his early habits, studies, and employments, are furnished by Hakluyt himself, but extremely sparingly, and with a simplicity of narrative, and a modesty of spirit, that increases our admiration of the man, and inspires the fullest confidence in his statements. I allude particularly to the well-known dedications, and other prefatory matters, to his three volumes of “English Voyages, Navigations, Traffics, and Discoveries,” published between the years 1589 and 1600.