TEXT: Richard Hakluyt's own statements bearing on the Virginia colonies, from the prefatory matter of the Principall Navigations (1589) and Principal Navigations (1598-1600): (i) 'Richard Hakluyt to the favourable Reader' (1589 preface), extract; (ii) Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cecil in the second volume (dated London, 24 Oct. 1599), complete; (iii) Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cecil in the third volume (dated 1 Sept. 1600), complete. SOURCE EDITION: The Principal Navigations..., Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1903, vol. I (which reprints all the prefatory matter of both editions), pp. xvii-lxxviii. Uncorrected OCR. URL FETCHED: https://archive.org/download/principalnavigat01hakl/principalnavigat01hakl_djvu.txt DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14 ============================================================================== ----- (i) 1589 'To the favourable Reader' (extract) ----- Touching the westerne Navigations, and travailes of ours, they succeede naturallie in the third and last roome, forasmuch as in order and course those coastes, and quarters came last of all to our knowledge and experience. Herein thou shalt reade the attempt by Sea of the sonne of one of the Princes of Northwales, in sayling and searching towards the west more then 400. yeeres since : the offer made by Christopher Columbus that renowned Fabian. TO THE FAVOURABLE READER Genouoys to the most sage Prince of noble memorle King Henrie the 7. with his prompt and cheerefull acceptation thereof, and the occasion whereupon it became fruitlesse, and at that time of no great effect to this king- dome : then followe the letters Patentes of the foresaid noble Prince given to John Cabot a Venetian and his 3. sonnes, to discover & conquer in his name, and under his Banners unknowen Regions : who with that royall incouragement & contribution of the king himselfe, and some assistance in charges of English Marchants departed II with 5. sailes from the Port of Bristoll accompained with Robert 300. Englishmen, and first of any Christians found out that mightie and large tract of lande and Sea, from the circle Arcticke as farre as Florida, as appeareth in the dis- course thereof. The triumphant raigne of King Henry the 8. yelded some prosecution of this discoverie : for the 3. voyages performed, and the 4. intended for all Asia by his Majesties selfe, do approove and confirme the same. Then in processe of yeeres ariseth the first English trade to Brasill, the first passing of some of our nation in the ordinarie Spanish fleetes to the west Indies, and the huge Citie of Mexico in Nova Hispania. Then im- mediatlye ensue 3. voyages made by M. John Hawkins now Knight, then Esquire, to Hispaniola, and the gulfe of Mexico : upon which depende sixe verie excellent discourses of our men, whereof some for 15. or 16. whole yeeres inhabited in New Spaine, and ranged the whole Countrie, wherein are disclosed the cheefest secretes of the west India, which may in time turne to our no smal advantage. The next leaves thou turnest, do yeelde thee the first valiant enterprise of Sir Francis Drake upon Nombre de Dios, the mules laden with treasure which he surprised, and the house called the Cruzes, which his fire consumed : and therewith is joyned an action more venterous then happie of John Oxnam of Plimmouth written, and confessed by a Span- yard, which with his companie passed over the streight Istme of Darien, and building certaine pinnesses on the RICHARD HAKLUYT west shoare, was the first Englishman that entered the South sea. To passe over Master Frobisher and his actions, which 1 have also newly though briefely printed, and as it were revived, whatsoever Master John Davis hath performed in continuing that discovery, which Master Frobisher began for the northwest passage, I have faithfully at large communicated it with thee, that so the great good hope, & singular probabilities & almost cer- taintie therof, which by his industry have risen, may be knowen generally of all men, that some may yet still prosecute so noble an action. Sir Humfrey Gilbert, that couragious Knight, and very expert in the mysteries of Navigation amongst the rest is not forgotten : his learned reasons & arguments for the proofe of the passage before named, together with his last more commendable resolu- tion then fortunate successe, are here both to be read. The continuance of the historic, produceth the beginnings, and proceedings of the two English Colonies planted in Virginia at the charges of sir Walter Raleigh, whose entrance upon those newe inhabitations had bene happie, if it had ben as seruiously followed, as it was cheerefully un- dertaken. I could not omit in this parte the two voyages made not long since to the Southwest, whereof I thinke the Spanyard hath had some knowledge, and felt some blowes : the one of Master Edward Fenton, and his consort Master Luke Warde : the other of Master Robert Withrington, and his hardie consort Master Christopher Lister as farre as 44. degrees of southerly latitude, set out at the direction and charge of the right honorable the Earle of Cumber- land, both which in divers respectes may yelde both profite and pleasure to the reader, being carefully perused. For the conclusion of all, the memorable voyage of Master Thomas Candish into the South sea, and from thence about the globe of the earth doth satisfie mee, and I doubt not but will fully content thee : which as in time it is later then that of Sir Frauncis Drake, so in relation of the Philippinaes, Japan, China, and the Isle of S. Helena it is more particular, and exact : and therfore the want of xxviii TO THE FAVOURABLE READER ----- (ii) 1599 Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cecil (complete) ----- THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE IN THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE SECOND EDITION, 1599. To the Right Honorable Sir Robert Cecil Knight, principall Secretarie to her Majestie, master of the Court of Wardes and Liveries, and one of her Majesties most honourable privie Counsell. Ight honorable, having newly finished a Treatise of the long Voyages of our Nation made into the Levant within the Streight of Gibraltar, & from thence over- land to the South and Southeast parts of the world, all circumstances considered, I found none to whom I thought it fitter to bee presented then to your selfe : wherein having begun at the highest Antiquities of this realme under the government of the Romans ; next under the Saxons ; and thirdly since the conquest under the Normans, I have continued the histories unto these our dayes. The time of the Romans affoordeth small matter. But after that they were called hence by forren invasions of their Empire, and the Saxons by degrees became lords in this Hand, and shortly after received the Christian faith, they did not onely travell to Rome, but passed further unto Jerusalem, and therewith not contented, Sigelmus bishop of Shireburne in Dorcetshire caried the almes of king Alfred even to the Sepulcher of S. Thomas in India, (which place at this day is called Maliapor) and brought from thence most fragrant spices, and rich jewels into England : which jewels, as William of Malmesburie in two sundry treatises writeth, were remaining in the afore- Ixiii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE sayd Cathedrall Church to be seene even in his time. And this most memorable voyage into India is net onely mentioned by the aforesayd Malmesburie, but also by Florentius Wigorniensis, a grave and woorthy Author which lived before him, and by many others since, and even by M. Foxe in his first volume of his Acts and Monuments in the life of king Alfred. To omit divers other of the Saxon nation, the travels of Alured bishop of Worcester through Hungarie to Constantinople, and so by Asia the lesse into Phoenicia and Syria, and the like course of Ingulphus, not long afterward Abbot of Croiland, set downe particularly by himselfe, are things in mine opinion right worthy of memorie. After the com- ming in of the Normans, in the yeere 1096, in the reigne of William Rufus, and so downward for the space of above 300 yeeres, such was the ardent desire of our nation to visite the Holy land, and to expell the Saracens and Mahumetans, that not only great numbers of Erles, Bishops, Barons, and Knights, but even Kings, Princes, and Peeres of the blood Roiall, with incredible devotion, courage and alacritie intruded themselves into this glorious expedition. A sufficient proofe hereof are the voiages of prince Edgar the nephew of Edmund Ironside, of Robert Curtois brother of William Rufus, the great benevolence of king Henry the 2. and his vowe to have gone in person to the succour of Jerusalem, the personall going into Palaestina of his sonne king Richard the first, with the chivalrie, wealth, and shipping of this realme ; the large contribution of king John, and the travels of Oliver Fitz-Roy his sonne, as is supposed, with Ranulph Glanvile Erie of Chester to the siege of Damiata in JEgypt : the prosperous voyage of Richard Erie of Cornwall, elected afterward king of the Romans, and brother to Henry the 3, the famous expedition of prince Edward, the first king of the Norman race of that name ; the journey of Henry Erie of Derbie, duke of Hereford, and afterward king of this realme, by the name of Henry the 4. against the citie of Tunis in Africa, and his Ixiv > ^ "^iil X H COND THE PR ATIONS, V and Difcoueiiesofi orcuer-Iandjto the So World,at any rime wjthin tl Diuidcdintot 41-^' i- 'i^iT IfllMlJlflJ 2 ^sS-stJJ'i-^ iHii ^ -sill's^ ill -G Ji ,§ -5 X"-! TO SIR ROBERT CECIL preparation of ships and gallies to go himselfe into the Holy land, if he had not on the sudden bene prevented by- death ; the travel of John of Holland brother by the mothers side to king Richard the 2 into those parts. All these, either Kings, Kings sonnes, or Kings brothers, exposed themselves with invincible courages to the manifest hazard of their persons, lives, and livings, leaving their ease, their countries, wives and children, induced with a Zelous devotion and ardent desire to protect and dilate the Christian faith. These memorable enterprises in part concealed, in part scattered, and for the most part unlooked after, I have brought together in the best Method and brevitie that I could devise. Where- unto I have annexed the losse of Rhodes, which although it were originally written in French, yet maketh it as honourable and often mention of the English nation, as of any other Christians that served in that most violent siege. After which ensueth the princely promise of the bountifull aide of king Henry the 8 to Ferdinando newly elected king of Hungarie, against Solyman the mortall enemie of Christendome. These and the like Heroicall intents and attempts of our Princes, our Nobilitie, our Clergie, & our Chivalry, I have in the first place exposed and set foorth to the view of this age, with the same intention that the old Romans set up in wax in their palaces the Statuas or images of their worthy ancestors ; whereof Salust in his treatise of the warre of Jugurtha, writeth in this maner : Saepe audivi ego Quintum maxi- mum, Publium Scipionem, praeterea civitatis nostras praeclaros viros solitos ita dicere, cum majorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissime animum sibi ad virtutem ac- cendi. Scilicet non ceram illam, neque figuram, tantam vim in sese habere, sed memoria rerum gestarum flammam eam egregiis viris in pectore crescere, neque prius sedari, quam virtus eorum famam & gloriam adasquaverit. I have often heard (quoth he) how Quintus maximus, Publius Scipio, and many other worthy men of our citie were woont to say, when they beheld the images and I Ixv e THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE portraitures of their ancestors, that they were most vehemently inflamed unto vertue. Not that the sayd wax or portraiture had any such force at all in it selfe, but that by the remembring of their woorthy actes, that flame was kindled in their noble breasts, and could never be quenched, untill such time as their owne valure had equalled the fame and glory of their progenitors. So, though not in wax, yet in record of writing have I presented to the noble courages of this English Monarchie, the like images of their famous predecessors, with hope of like efl^ect in their posteritie. And here by the way if any man shall think, that an universall peace with our Christian neighbours will cut off the emploiment of the couragious increasing youth of this realme, he is much deceived. For there are other most convenient emploiments for all the superfluitie of every profession in this realme. For, not to meddle with the state of Ireland, nor that of Guiana, there is under our noses the great & ample countrey of Virginia; the In-land whereof is found of late to bee so sweete and holesome a climate, so rich and abundant in silver mines, so apt and capable of all commodities, which Italy, Spaine, and France can affoord, that the Spaniards themselves in their owne writings printed in Madrid 1586, and within few moneths after- ward reprinted by me in Paris, and in a secret mappe of those partes made in Mexico the yeere before for the king of Spaine, (which originall with many others is in the custodie of the excellent Mathematician M. Thomas Hariot) as also in their intercepted letters come unto my hand, bearing date 1595. they acknowledge the In-land to be a better and richer countrey then Mexico and Nueva Spania it selfe. And on the other side their chiefest writers, as Peter Martyr ab Angleria, and Francis Lopez de Gomara, the most learned Venetian John Baptista Ramusius, and the French Geographers, as namely, Popiliniere and the rest, acknowledge with one consent, that all that mightie tract of land from 67. degrees North- ward to the latitude almost of Florida was first discovered Ixvi TO SIR ROBERT CECIL out of England, by the commaundement of king Henry the seventh, and the South part thereof before any other Christian people of late hath bene planted with divers English Colonies by the royal consent of her sacred Majestie under the broad scale of England, whereof one as yet remaineth, for ought we know, alive in the countrey. Which action, if upon a good & godly peace obtained, it shal please the Almighty to stirre up her Majesties heart to continue with her favourable coun- tenance (as upon the ceasing of the warres of Granada, hee stirred up the spirite of Isabella Queene of Castile, to advaunce the enterprise of Columbus) with transporting of one or two thousand of her people, and such others as upon mine owne knowledge will most willingly at their owne charges become Adventurers in good numbers with their bodies and goods ; she shall by Gods assistance, in short space, worke many great and unlooked for effects, increase her dominions, enrich her cofers, and reduce many Pagans to the faith of Christ. The neglecting hitherto of which last point our adversaries daily in many of their bookes full bitterly lay unto the charge of the professors of the Gospell. No sooner should we set footing in that pleasant and good land, and erect one or two convenient Fortes in the Continent, or in some Hand neere the maine, but every step we tread would yeeld us new occasion of action, which I wish the Gentrie of our nation rather to regard, then to follow those soft unprofit- able pleasures wherein they now too much consume their time and patrimonie, and hereafter will doe much more, when as our neighbour warres being appeased, they are like to have lesse emploiment then nowe they have, unlesse they bee occupied in this or some other the like expedition. And to this ende and purpose give me leave (I beseech you) to impart this occurrent to your honour- able and provident consideration : that in the yere one thousand five hundred eighty and seven, when I had caused the foure voyages of Ribault, Laudonniere, and Gourges to Florida, at mine owne charges to bee printed Ixvii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE in Paris, which by the malice of some too much afFectioned to the Spanish faction, had bene above twentie yeeres suppressed, assoone as that booke came to the view of that reverend and prudent Counseller Monsieur Harlac the lord chiefe Justice of France, and certaine other of the wisest Judges, in great choler they asked, who had done such intollerable wrong to their whole kingdome, as to have concealed that woorthie worke so long ? Protesting further, that if their Kings and the Estate had throughly followed that action, France had bene freed of their long civill warres, and the variable humours of all sortes of people might have had very ample and manifold occasions of good and honest emploiment abroad in that large and fruitfull Continent of the West Indies. The application of which sentence unto our selves I here omit, hastening unto the summarie recapitulation of other matters con- tained in this worke. It may please your Honour there- fore to understand, that the second part of this first Treatise containeth our auncient trade and traffique with English shipping to the Hands of Sicilie, Candie, and Sio, which by good warrant herein alleaged, I find to have bene begun in the yeere 1 5 1 1 . and to have continued untill the yeere 1552. and somewhat longer. But shortly after (as it seemeth) it was intermitted, or rather given over (as is noted in master Caspar Campions discreet letters to master Michael Lock and master William Winter inserted in this booke) first by occasion of the Turkes expelling of the foure and twentie Mauneses or governours of the Genouois out of the He of Sio, and by taking of the sayd Hand wholie into his owne hand in Aprill, 1566. sending thither Piali Basha with fourescore gallies for that purpose ; and afterward by his growing over mightie and troublesome in those Seas, by the cruell invasion of Nicosia and Famagusta, and the whole He of Cyprus by his lieutenant Generall Mustapha Basha. Which lamentable Tragedie I have here againe revived, that the posteritie may never forget what trust may bee given to the oath of a Ixviii TO SIR ROBERT CECIL Mahumetan, when hee hath advauntage and is in his choler. Lastly, I have here put downe at large the happie renuing and much increasing of our interrupted trade in all the Levant, accomplished by the great charges and speciall industrie of the worshipfull and worthy Citizens, Sir Edward Osborne Knight, M. Richard Staper, and M. William Hareborne, together with the league for traffike onely betweene her Majestie and the Grand Signior, with the great privileges, immunities, and favours obteyned of his imperiall Highnesse in that behalfe, the admissions and residencies of our Ambassadours in his stately Porch, and the great good and Christian offices which her Sacred Majestie by her extraordinary favour in that Court hath done for the king and kingdome of Poland, and other Christian Princes : the traffike of our Nation in all the chiefe Havens of Africa and Egypt : the searching and haunting the very bottome of the Mediterran Sea to the ports of Tripoli and Alexandretta, of the Archipelagus, by the Turkes now called The white sea, even to the walles of Constantinople : the voyages over land and by river through Aleppo, Birrha, Babylon and Balsara, and downe the Persian gulfe to Ormuz, and thence by the Ocean sea to Goa, and againe over-land to Bisnagar, Cambaia, Orixa, Bengala, Aracan, Pegu, Malacca, Siam, the langomes, Quicheu, and even to the Frontiers of the Empire of China : the former performed diverse times by sundry of our nation, and the last great voyage by M. Ralph Fitch, who with M. John Newbery and two other consorts departed from London with her Majesties letters written effectually in their favour to the kings of Cambaia and China in the yere 1583, who in the yeere 1591. like another Paulus Venetus returned home to the place of his departure, with ample relation of his wonderfull travailes, which he presented in writing to my Lord your father of honourable memorie. Now here if any man shall take exception against this our new trade with Turkes and misbeleevers, he shall Ixix THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE shew himselfe a man of small experience in old and new Histories, or wilfully lead with partialitie, or some worse * I. Kifig. humour. * For who knoweth not, that king Salomon ca/>. 5. Qf qI^^ entred into league upon necessitie with Hiram the ^ . ^^"' king of Tyrus, a gentile ? Or who is ignorant that the French, the Genouois, Florentines, Raguseans, Venetians, and Polonians are at this day in league with the Grand Signior, and have beene these many yeeres, and have used trade and traffike in his dominions ? Who can deny that the Emperor of Christendome hath had league with the Turke, and payd him a long while a pension for a part of Hungarie ? And who doth not acknowledge, that either hath travailed the remote parts of the world, or read the Histories of this later age, that the Spaniards and Portugales in Barbaric, in the Indies, and elsewhere, have ordinarie confederacie and traffike with the Moores, and many kindes of Gentiles and Pagans, and that which is more, doe pay them pensions, and use them in their service and warres ? Why then should that be blamed in us, which is usuall and common to the most part of other Christian nations ? Therefore let our neighbours, which have found most fault with this new league and traffike, thanke themselves and their owne foolish pride, whereby we were urged to seeke further to provide vent for our naturall commodities. And herein the old Greeke pro- verbe was most truely verified. That evill counsaile proveth worst to the author and deviser of the same. Having thus farre intreated of the chiefe contents of the first part of this second Volume, it remayneth that I briefly acquaint your Honor with the chiefe contents of the second part. It may therefore please you to under- stand, that herein I have likewise preserved, disposed, and set in order such Voyages, Navigations, Traffikes, and Discoveries, as our Nation, and especially the worthy inhabitants of this citie of London, have painefully performed to the South and Southeast parts of the world, without the Streight of Gibraltar, upon the coasts of Africa, about the Cape of Buona Speran^a, to and Ixx TO SIR ROBERT CECIL beyonde the East India. To come more neere unto particulars, I have here set downe the very originals and infancie of our trades to the Canarian Hands, to the kingdomes of Barbaric, to the mightie rivers of Senega and Gambra, to those of Madrabumba, and Sierra Leona, and the Isles of Cape Verde, with twelve sundry voyages to the sultry kingdomes of Guinea and Benin, to the Isle of San Thome, with a late and true report of the weake estate of the Portugales in Angola, as also the whole course of the Portugale Caracks from Lisbon to the barre of Goa in India, with the disposition and qualitie of the climate neere and under the Equinoctiall line, the sundry infallible markes and tokens of approching unto, and doubling of The Cape of good Hope, the great variation of the compasse for three or foure pointes towards the East betweene the Meridian of S. Michael one of the Islands of the Azores, and the aforesaid Cape, with the returne of the needle againe due North at the Cape Das Agulias, and that place being passed outward bound, the swarving backe againe thereof towards the West, proportionally as it did before, the two wayes, the one within and the other without the Isle of S. Laurence, the dangers of privie rockes and quicksands, the running seas, and the perils thereof, with the certaine and undoubted signes of land. All these and other particularities are plainly and truely here delivered by. one Thomas Stevens a learned Englishman, who in the yeere 1579 going as a passenger in the Portugale Rleete from Lisbon into India, wrote the same from Goa to his father in England : Whereunto I have added the memorable voyage of M. James Lancaster, who doth not onely recount and confirme most of the things above mentioned, but also doth acquaint us with the state of the voyage beyond Cape Comori, and the Isle of Ceilon, with the Isles of Nicubar and Gomes Polo lying within two leagues of the rich Island Samatra, and those of Pulo Pinaon, with the maine land of Jun9alaon and the streight of Malacca. I have likewise added a late intercepted letter of a Ixxi THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE Portugall revealing the secret and most gainefuU trade of Pegu, which is also confirmed by Caesar Fredericke a Venetian, and M. Ralph Fitch now living here in London. And because our chiefe desire is to find out ample vent of our wollen cloth, the naturall commoditie of this our Realme, the fittest places, which in al my readings and observations I find for that purpose, are the manifold Islands of Japan, & the Northern parts of China, & the regions of the Tartars next adjoyning (whereof I read, that the countrey in winter is Assi fria como Flandes, that is to say, as cold as Flanders, & that the rivers be strongly overfrozen) and therefore I have here inserted two speciall Treatises of the sayd Countries, the one beginning pag. 68, the other, pag. 88 : which last dis- course 1 hold to be the most exact of those parts that is yet come to light, which was printed in Latine in Macao a citie of China, in China-paper, in the yeere a thousand HvG hundred and ninetie, and was intercepted in the great Carack called Madre de Dios two yeeres after, inclosed in a case of sweete Cedar wood, and lapped up almost an hundred fold in fine calicut-cloth, as though it had beene some incomparable Jewell. But leaving abruptly this discourse, I thinke it not impertinent, before I make an end, to deliver some of the reasons, that moved me to present this part of my travailes unto your Honour. The reverend antiquitie in the dedication of their workes made choyse of such patrons, as eyther with their reputation and credite were able to countenance the same, or by their wisedome and understanding were able to censure and approove them, or with their abilitie were likely to stand them or theirs in steade in the ordinarie necessities and accidents of their life. Touching the first, your descent from a father, that was accounted Pater patriae, your owne place and credite in execution of her Majesties inward counsailes and pub- like services, added to your well discharging your forren imployment (when the greatest cause in Christendome was handled) have not onely drawen mens eyes upon you, Ixxii TO SIR ROBERT CECIL but also forcibly have moved many, and my selfe among the rest to have our labours protected by your authoritie. For the second point, when it pleased your Honour in sommer was two yeeres to have some conference with me, and to demaund mine opinion touching the state of the Country of Guiana, and whether it were fit to be planted by the English : I then (to my no small joy) did admire the exact knowledge which you had gotten of those matters of Indian Navigations : and how carefull you were, not to be overtaken with any partiall affection to the Action, appeared also, by the sound arguments which you made pro & contra, of the likelihood and reason of good or ill successe of the same, before the State and common wealth (wherein you have an extraordinarie voyce) should be farther engaged. In consideration whereof I thinke my selfe thrise happie to have these my travailes censured by your Honours so well approved judgement. Touch- ing the third and last motive I cannot but acknowledge my selfe much indebted for your favourable letters here- tofore written in my behalfe in mine honest causes. Whereunto I may adde, that when this worke was to passe unto the presse, your Honour did not onely intreate a worthy knight, a person of speciall experience, as in many others so in marine causes, to oversee and peruse the same, but also upon his good report with your most favourable letters did warrant, and with extra- ordinarie commendation did approve and allow my labours, and desire to publish the same. Wherefore to conclude, seeing they take their life and light from the most cheerefull and benigne aspect of your favour, I thinke it my bounden dutie in all humilitie and with much bashfulnesse to recommend my selfe and them unto your right Honorable and favourable protection, and your Honour to the mercifull tuition of the most High. From London this 24. of October. 1599. Your Honors most humble to be commanded, Richard Hakluyt preacher. ----- (iii) 1600 Epistle Dedicatorie to Sir Robert Cecil (complete) ----- THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE IN THE THIRD FOLUME OF THE SECOND EDITION, 1600. To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Cecil Knight, principall Secretary to her Majestic, master of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and one of her Majesties most honourable privie Councel. Ight honourable, your favourable accep- tance of my second volume of The English voyages offred unto you the last yere, your perusing of the same at your con- venient leasure, your good testimony of my selfe and of my travailes therein, together with the infallible signes of your earnest desire to doe mee good, which very lately, when I thought least thereof, brake forth into most bountiful and acceptable eifects: these considerations have throughly animated and encouraged me to present unto your pru- dent censure this my third and last volume also. The subject and matter herein contained is the fourth part of the world, which more commonly then properly is called America : but by the chiefest authors The new world. New, in regard of the new and late discovery thereof made by Christopher Colon, alias Columbus, a Genouois by nation, in the yere of grace 1492. And world, in respect of the huge extension thereof, which to this day is not throughly discovered, neither within the Inland nor on the coast, especially toward the North and Northwest, although on the hither side it be knowen unto us for the space of five thousand leagues at the least, compting and considering the trending of the land, and Ixxiv iM^ H « gof^ » t^ " s .0 c 3 o C3 2 s^. ."'.^ ^ = ^IIJ tJJI 8ng snot fthefe C « o 0^ ■>ko £ § 2 1; ^•J'^c g -a ^" ■£«.;! "5. £5 ^A^2^Z is TO SIR ROBERT CECIL for 3000. more on the backeside in the South Sea from the Streight of Magellan to Cape Mendo9ino and Nova Albion. So that it seemeth very fitly to be called A newe worlde. Howbeit it cannot be denied but that Antiquitie had some kinde of dimme glimse, and unperfect notice thereof Which may appeare by the relation of Plato in his two worthy dialogues of Timaeus and Critias under the discourse of that mighty large yland called by him Atlantis, lying in the Ocean sea without the Streight of Hercules, now called the Streight of Gibraltar, being (as he there reporteth) bigger then Africa & Asia : And by that of Aristotle in his booke De admirandis audition- ibus of the long navigation of certaine Carthaginians, who sayling forth of the aforesaid Streight of Gibraltar into the maine Ocean for the space of many dayes, in the ende found a mighty and fruitfull yland, which they would have inhabited, but were forbidden by their Senate and chiefe governours. Moreover, above 300. yeeres after these wee have the testimony of Diodorus Siculus lib. 5. cap. 7. of the like mighty yland discovered in the Westerne Ocean by the Tyrrheni, who were for- bidden for certaine causes to inhabite the same by the foresaid Carthaginians. And Seneca in his tragedie intituled Medea foretold above 1500. yeeres past, that in the later ages the Ocean would discover new worlds, and that the yle of Thule would no more be the uttermost limite of the earth. For whereas Virgile had said to Au- gustus Caesar, Tibi serviat ultima Thule, alluding there- unto he contradicteth the same, and saith, Nee sit terris ultima Thule. Yea Tertullian one of our most ancient and learned divines, in the beginning of his treatise de Pallio alludeth unto Plato his Westerne Atlantis, which there by another name he calleth Aeon, saying. Aeon in Atlantico nunc quaeritur. And in his 40. chapter de Apologetico he reporteth the same to be bigger then all Africa and Asia. Of this New world and every speciall part thereof in this my third volume I have brought to light the best & most perfect relations of such as were Ixxv THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE chiefe actours in the particular discoveries and serches of the same, giving unto every man his right, and leaving every one to mainteine his owne credit. The order observed in this worke is farre more exact, then here- tofore I could attaine unto : for whereas in my two former volumes I was enforced for lacke of sufficient store, in divers places to use the methode of time onely (which many worthy authors on the like occasion are enforced unto) being now more plentifully furnished with matter, I alwayes follow the double order of time and place. Wherefore proposing unto my selfe the right situation of this New world, I begin at the extreme Northerne limite, and put downe successively in one ranke or classis, according to the order aforesaide, all such voyages as have bene made to the said part : which comming all together, and following orderly one upon another, doe much more lighten the readers understanding, and con- firme his judgement, then if they had bene scattered in sundry corners of the worke. Which methode I observe from the highest North to the lowest South. Now where any country hath bene but seldome hanted, or any extraordinary and chiefe action occurreth, if I finde one voyage well written by two severall persons, sometimes I make no difficultie to set downe both those journals, as finding divers things of good moment observed in the one, which are quite omitted in the other. For commonly a souldier observeth one thing, and a mariner another, and as your honour knoweth. Plus vident oculi, quam oculus. But this course I take very seldome and sparingly. And albeit my worke do carry the title of The English voyages, aswell in regard that the greatest part are theirs, and that my travaile was chiefly undertaken for preservation of their memorable actions, yet where our owne mens experience is defective, there I have bene care- ful to supply the same with the best and chiefest relations of strangers. As in the discovery of the Grand Bay, of the mighty river of S. Laurence, of the countries of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay, of Florida, and the Inland Ixxvi TO SIR ROBERT CECIL of Cibola, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quivira, of The gulfe of California, & the Northwesterne sea-coast to Cabo Mendogino and Sierra Nevada : as also of the late & rich discovery of 15. provinces on the backside of Florida and Virginia, the chiefest wherof is called the kingdome of New Mexico, for the wealth, civil government, and popu- lousnesse of the same. Moreover, because since our warres with Spaine, by the taking of their ships, and sacking of their townes and cities, most of all their secrets of the West Indies, and every part thereof are fallen into our peoples hands (which in former time were for the most part unknowen unto us,) I have used the uttermost of my best endevour,' to get, and having gotten, to translate out of Spanish, and here in this present volume to publish such secrets of theirs, as may any way availe us or annoy them, if they drive and urge us by their sullen insolencies, to continue our courses of hostilitie against them, and shall cease to seeke a good and Christian peace upon indifferent and equal conditions. What these things be, and of how great importance your honour in part may understand, if it please you to vouchsafe to reade the Catalogues conteyning the 14. principal heads of this worke. Whereby your honor may farther perceive that there is no chiefe river, no port, no towne, no citie, no province of any reckoning in the West Indies, that hath not here some good description thereof, aswell for the inland as the seast-coast. And for the knowledge of the true breadth of the Sea betweene Nova Albion on the Northwest part of America, and the yle of Japan lying over against the kingdomes of Coray and China, which until these foure yeeres was never reveiled unto us, being a point of exceeding great consequence, I have here inserted the voyage of one Francis Gualle a Spaniard made from Acapulco an haven on the South sea on the coast of New Spaine, first to the Philippinas, and then to the citie of Macao in China, and homeward from Macao by the yles of Japan, and thence to the back of the West Indies in the Northerly latitude of 37. degrees |-. In Ixxvii THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE regions, which to good purpose may serve our peoples turnes, if they chance to prosecute the intermitted discovery by the Northwest, whereunto 1 finde divers worshipfull citizens at this present much incHned. Now because long since I did foresee, that my profession of divinitie, the care of my family, and other occasions might call and divert me from these kinde of endevours, 1 have for these 3. yeeres last past encouraged and furthered in these studies of Cosmographie and forren histories, my very honest, industrious, and learned friend M. John Pory, one of speciall skill and extraordinary hope to performe great matters in the same, and beneficial for the common wealth. Thus Sir I have portrayed out in rude lineaments my Westerne Atlantis or America : assuring you, that if I had bene able, I would have limned her and set her out with farre more lively and exquisite colours : yet, as she is, I humbly desire you to receive her with your wonted and accustomed favour at my handes, who alwayes wil remaine most ready and devoted to do your honour any poore service that I may ; and in the meane season will not faile unfainedly to beseech the Almighty to powre upon you the best of his temporall blessings in this world, and after this life ended with true and much honour, to make you partaker of his joyes eternall. From London the first of September, the yeere of our Lord God 1600. Your Honours most humble to be commanded, Richard Hakluyt, Preacher. f^ I ''iM M ..