Hakluyt

Hakluyt, or HACKLUYT, RICHARD, an English writer on geography, belonged to a Herefordshire family, and was born in 1553. While at Westminster School he eagerly perused narratives of voyages and travels, and continued this course at Christ Church, Oxford, whither he proceeded in 1570. Being appointed lecturer on geography or cosmography in that university, he introduced the use of globes and other geographical appliances into English schools. The publication of Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America (1582) seems to have been mainly instrumental in procuring for him two years later the appointment of chaplain to the English embassy to Paris. There he wrote Discourse concerning Western Discoveries (1584), and had Laudonnière's manuscript narrative of the discovery of Florida printed, first in French and afterwards in English, at his own expense. On his return to England in 1588, with the assistance of Sir Walter Raleigh, he began to collect materials for the history of the discoveries made by his countrymen. He published the fruits of his researches, in notices of more than 200 voyages, under the title Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (3 vols. 1598–1600; new ed. 5 vols. 1809–12). Government rewarded him by bestowing upon him a prebend in Westminster Abbey. A Selection of Curious, Rare, and Early Voyages and Histories of Interesting Discoveries, &c., chiefly published by Hakluyt, or at his suggestion, but not included in his compilation, forms (1812) a supplement to the above work. He also edited English translations of Galvano's Discoveries of the World (1601) and Fernando de Soto's Virginia richly Valued (1609). He died in 1616, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Hakluyt's unpublished manuscripts were made use of by Purchas in his Pilgrims (1625–26). The Hakluyt Society was instituted in 1846 for the purpose of publishing all the histories of the earlier voyages and travels.