Principall Navigations was the result. Here is the beginning of Francis Drake’s 1577 voyage, in which he became the second person to circumnavigate the world in a single expedition. Drake (c.1540-1596) was a sea captain, privateer, navigator, and slaver; hero to the English, but a pirate in the eyes of the Spaniards.]]> Richard Hakluyt]]> Books]]> Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582), in which, as an enthusiast of English overseas expansion, he advanced England’s claim to North America on the basis of priority of discovery. Hakluyt also included two maps in this work. This one was by Robert Thorne, produced in 1527 for the Muscovy Company. Note North America, and the fact that there is no passage to the Indies depicted.]]> Richard Hakluyt]]> Books]]> The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knt in his Voyage into the South Sea in the Year 1593 (1847). Initially there were two other contenders for publication: a new edition of Hakluyt’s own Divers Voyages, and the 1606 voyage of Sir Henry Middleton. Although the Hawkins was a reprint (it first appeared in 1622), it contains the beginnings of all the scholarly apparatus that would feature in later Society publications: rigorous editing, footnotes, citations, bibliography, maps, and indexes.]]> [Richard Hawkins]]]> Books]]> The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, a folio of over 800 pages. Between 1598 and 1600, he expanded it to a three-volume folio edition, running to over 1.7 million words in about 2000 pages. Principall Navigations was based on original sources and records of explorers and travellers. Indeed, Hakluyt was scrupulous as a compiler, and it is said that he knew every mapmaker, traveller, merchant-adventurer, explorer, and court official from whom he acquired the most up-to-date information. Embedded in this work is a copy of Abraham Ortelius’ famed Typus Orbis Terrarum, a map first published in 1564. A translation of the quote by Cicero reads: ‘Who can consider human affairs to be great, when he comprehends the eternity and vastness of the entire world?’]]> Richard Hakluyt]]> Books]]> Principall Navigations.]]> Richard Hakluyt]]> Books]]> Charles Earner Kempe]]> Photograph]]> Terra Australis captured the imagination of many, another mystery existed: the great ‘inland sea’, supposedly situated in the middle of the Australian continent. The British explorer Charles Sturt (1795–1869) was determined to solve this mystery. Loaded with provisions and scientific equipment, he and 16 others left Adelaide in August 1844. They headed north towards the Simpson Desert. Conditions were inhospitable: there was little water; temperatures were extreme; scurvy was rampant; and one man lost his life. Reluctantly, Sturt made the decision to turn back, abandoning the idea of finding the ‘inland sea’. He arrived back in Adelaide on 19th January 1846. It is no wonder he would write: ‘I returned to the Camp disheartened at the aspect of the Country…’ (September 9th).]]> Edited by Richard C. Davis]]> Books]]> Richard C. Davis]]> Books]]> Terra Australis, the mythical ‘great south land’, was an on-going dream for many early mariners. Supported by Pope Clement III and King Philip III of Spain, the Portuguese navigator Fernández de Quirós (c.1565-1615) left Peru (El Callao) in December 1605 with 300 crew and soldiers; all in the name of Christianity and Science. Sailing west across the Pacific, he made landfall in May 1606 on what he named Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. He believed that it was the promontory of some great southern continent. On Espiritu Santo (actually the largest island in Vanuatu), he established a colony called Nova Jerusalem, which did not last. This Hakluyt publication contains Martin de Munilla’s daily record of Quirós’s voyage, and ‘The Islands and their Peoples’, a paper by Dunedin’s own Dr Gordon Parsonson. Here is a copy of the only known map drawn by Quirós, dated 1598.]]> Translated and edited by Celsus Kelly]]> Books]]> Columbus volume depicts Magellan’s ship ‘Victoria’, chosen by William Desborough Cooley, founder of the Society, because it was ‘a monument to the most remarkable voyage ever performed’ – the first circumnavigation of the world. Adopted by the Society, this logo is still used.]]> [Christopher Columbus]]]> Book covers]]> Annual Reports, like this one, provide information on new members, changes (obituaries), financial matters, and often carry the text of a talk recently given.]]> The Hakluyt Society]]> Pamphlets]]> Edited by R. C. Bridges and P.E.H. Hair]]> Books]]> Esmeraldo, shows the west coast of Africa, including Morocco, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and the Gabon. It shows Pacheco’s bearings and distances; his measurements were generally accurate ‘averaging little more than forty minutes out’. The tip of Spain is visible at the top of the map while the Equator is the bottom line.]]> Duarte Pacheco Pereira]]> Books]]> Translated and edited by Malcolm Letts]]> Books]]> Esmeraldo (c. 1505) is a ‘rutter’ (roteiro – Portuguese), a ‘mariner’s handbook of written sailing instructions’. It describes routes, hazards, soundings, tides, and much more, and it is the ‘only detailed contemporary eye witness’s description of the coasts of Africa’. However, in Pereira’s time, the Portuguese government were keen to maintain secrecy and protect their monopoly of trade in the region so they suppressed the work; as they did with other ‘maps, nautical instructions, and pilots’ observations’. Their eagerness to maintain secrecy hindered the development of nautical science.]]> Duarte Pacheco Pereira]]> Books]]> Travels tells the story of his journey to the ‘Kingdoms of Arracan’ (modern day Myanmar or Burma). Although his writing style is described by the Hakluyt translators as ‘atrocious’ and ‘cumbersome’, his account still provides invaluable information about the people, food, and environs. Travelling was treacherous and Manrique tells of a tiger attack on one of his party – the man was ‘almost disembowelled’. Manrique offered the man salvation by immediate baptism; the man accepted and promptly died.]]> Translated, with notes, by Lieutenant Colonel C. Eckford Luard]]> Books]]> Edited by Sir William Foster]]> Books]]> Edited by Vincent Todd Harlow]]> Books]]> New Voyage describes his experiences with them. Travel writer, Lillian Joyce, in her introduction to this volume, states that Wafer’s book ‘remains the most authoritative source of information concerning the native folk of south-east Panama’.]]> Lionel Wafer]]> Books]]> The Hakluyt Society]]> Pamphlets]]> Trinidad (the flagship); San Antonio; Concepción; Santiago; and Victoria. On 6 September 1522, only the last arrived back, carrying 18 of the 270 original crew. Perhaps Magellan’s greatest feat was negotiating the Straits that now bear his name, and inching his way into the ‘peaceful sea’ – the Pacific Ocean. This work, translated by Lord Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley (1827-1903), also includes a biography on Magellan, and log-book details of Francisco Alvaro, the pilot.]]> Translated, with notes, by Lord Stanley of Alderley]]> Books]]> Dolphin, Carteret, in command of the Swallow, went on to discover Pitcairn Island, to re-discover Mendaña’s Santa Cruz, and to name Gower Island, part of the Solomon Island Archipelago. The original of Edward Leigh’s map of the Strait, and Carteret’s journal are in the Dixson Collection, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.]]> Edited by Helen Wallis]]> Books]]> Translated, with notes, by Lieutenant Colonel C. Eckford Luard]]> Books]]> Edited by Eva Germaine Rimington Taylor]]> Books]]> Arte da Lingoa de Iapam, a Portuguese grammar of the Japanese language, a seminal work in its field. And because of his familiarity with language and custom, he was often employed as an interpreter between the Jesuits and the Japanese authorities. His original account – Historia da Igreja do Japāo – is no longer extant, and this publication, which describes the country, its people, customs and etiquette, was based on a copy made in Macao during the 1740s.]]> Edited by Michael Cooper]]> Books]]>