Ubc Ibaklu^t Society,

ADDRESS

BV

SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B.
ON lllK
FIFTIETH .\NNIVERSARV 1-1 f
THE FOUNDATION OF THli SOCIETY,
DECEMBER ijth, iSc/6.

REVISED ON THE OrCASION OF
THE .SIXTY-FIFTH AX XI\'ER.S.\RY, 19II.

LOXDOX :
PRINTED .\T THE BEDFORD PRESS, 20 i: 21, BEDFORDBL'RY, W.C.
191 1.

tTbe Daklu^t Society.

ADDRESS

BY

SIR CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B.
ON THy-.
FIFTIETH ANNIVER.SARY OF
THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY,
DECEMBER i^th, 1896.

REVISED ON THE OCCASION OF
THE .SIXTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, 1911.

LOXDf)X:
PRINTED AT THE BEDFORD PRE.SS, 20 .V' 21, BEDFORDBURY, \\'.C,
1911.

Eio

'^'*-> J -¦-, I -

THE Hakluyt Society is an institution which has
been doing steady work for sixty-five years, with
out much stir, without attracting any large share of
attention ; but diligently, usefully, and successfully.
During these years the Society has issued volumes —
bearing on their sides that famous ship Victoria, which
was the first to circumnavigate the globe — and usually
containing the texts, the very words of travellers and
voyagers in all parts of the world, which were previously
inedited, untranslated, or unknown. The Society is called
the Hakluyt Society, because it continues the work and
strives to fulfil the aspirations of Richard Hakluyt. That
great man, like the Society which bears his honoured
name, is not so well known to the present generation,
which owes so much to his labours, as he ought to be.
Yet his life-story is worth the telling. Born in 1553, as
a young lad from Herefordshire, we first hear of him at
Westminster School, "that fruitfule nursery", as he called
it, where he was for about six years: from 1564 to 1570.
It vvas in the days ofthe good dean. Dr. Gabriel Goodman,
who used to take walks to Chiswick with the boys, and,
like his successor, Lancelot Andrewes, took his share of
teaching them. In those days learning was assuredly not
neglected ; and, considering who were Hakluyt's school
fellows, he might well call Westminster " a fruitful nursery".
Among them were boys who became great scholars and
divines, lawyers, bishops, and translators of the Bible, as
well as others who distinguished themselves as comedians,
poets, and celebrated wits. One boy, named Eades, was
not only the greatest punster of his time when he grew
up, but could repeat upwards of two hundred puns of his
friend. Dr. Toby Mathew, as well. So they must have

had a lively time at Westminster, if there were more boys
like him. The young years of another of Hakluyt's school
fellows were passed in poetical fancies and the composing
of tragedies.
But with all these attractions, and though he was a
diligent scholar, Richard Hakluyt seems to have loved to
pay visits which must have been quite out of bounds.
One such visit decided the bent of his mind for the rest of
his life. It was his hap, he tells us, to visit his cousin and
namesake, who was a gentleman of the Middle Temple.
He there found, lying open on his cousin's table, some
books on cosmography and a map of the world. The
curiosity and interest of the intelligent boy were aroused.
His cousin began by giving explanatory answers to his
eager questions, and ended with a regular lecture on the
divisions of the earth, pointing out the rivers, capes and
bays, and the territorial divisions, with a disquisition on
the commodities and requirements of each country. From
the map his cousin took him to the Bible, and made him
read the 23rd and 24th verses of the 107th Psalm, about
" they which go down to the sea in ships, and occupy
their business in the great waters."
This geographical discourse made so deep an impression
on the boy that he never forgot it. He says that he vvas
then told "things that were of high and rare delight to his
young nature" ; and he m.ade a resolution, from which he
never swerved, that he would continue to study that
subject of geography, the doors of which had been so
happily opened before him. Such was the result of this
Westminster boy's visit to the Middle Temple. In 1570
he left school and became a student at Christ Church,
Oxford, where the learned and kindly Dr. John Piers, the
future Archbishop of York, was Dean. The study of
geography had completely fascinated him. He did not
neglect his regular work, and took his degree in due
course ; but as soon as his time was his own he devoured

every narrative of adventure that he could get hold of,
whether printed or in manuscript, and mastered six
languages, besides his own, in order to be able to read
them. He soon began to see two great needs of his country,
and he set himself to work with patriotic zeal to remedy
the evils. The first was caused by the ignorance of our
seamen as regards the scientific branch of their profession.
The second was the absence of records, and the way in
which important voyages and travels were allowed to fall
into oblivion. He strove, during a long life, with great n
ability and untiring perseverance to remedy these evils ;
and the measure of success he attained justly places his
name among those of worthies who have deserved well
of their country.
His first public service was the delivery of lectures on
the construction and use of maps, spheres, and nautical
instruments, as he tells us — "to the singular pleasure and
general contentment of his auditory." It has been assumed
that these public lectures were delivered at Oxford, but
this is exceedingly improbable. Of course the lectures
were given to those who, in Hakluyt's opinion, were in
urgent need of them, and to whom they would give
"singular pleasure and general contentment": to the
merchants and sailors of the port of London. He never
lost sight of the importance of establishing a permanent
lectureship "as a means of breeding up skilful seamen and
mariners in this realm"; and he constantly urged it on the
attention of those in authority, describing the excellent
system of instruction established at Seville by the Spanish
Government under Zamorano, Chaves, and other eminent
cosmographers. But all to little effect. There were some
lectures given in Sir Thomas Smith's house by Hood and
others, but there was no permanent lectureship in prac
tical astronomy. So things went on in a haphazard way
for centuries, and when the present Sir Roger Golds-

worthy wanted to learn nautical astronomy thirty-five
years ago, I could only refer him to an old lady in the
Minories, who vvas an excellent teacher, but who then
stood almost alone. Now all has been changed by the
Royal Geographical Society ; there is a regular system
of instruction under Mr. Reeves, and most of the best-
known travellers and explorers of the last twenty-five
years were trained by him and his predecessor, Mr. Coles.
The ideal of Richard Hakluyt has thus at length been
realised, and Mr. Coles and Mr. Reeves are men after
Hakluyt's own heart.
The other evil which Hakluyt set himself to alleviate
was the absence of records of voyages and travels. It is
true that his predecessor, Richard Eden, had made a
collection, the second edition of which appeared at about
the time that Hakluyt left Westminster and went to
O.xford. But of all the English voyages that had been
undertaken for a century previous to that time, most had
been utterly forgotten. Even of the memorable voyages
of John Cabot to America there was neither a map nor
a scrap of writing. Of the achievements of Columbus, at
the same time, there are his letters, his journal, and
many other documents ; but of Cabot's voyages there
is nothing. Hakluyt looked upon this as a great national
calamity, as indeed it was. He devoted his life to the
application of a remedy.
Hakluyt felt that the preservation of such records was
not only a means of keeping in remembrance brave and
noble deeds for the emulation of posterity — though this in
itself was a good and sufficient reason for his labours — he
saw also the great importance of the information thus
preserved, to the sailor, the merchant and the colonist.
He set vigorously to work at the preparation of his first
book, entitled Divers Voyages touching the Discoverie of
America, when he was quite a young man, and published
it in 1582. Ft became so excessively rare that, until

the Hakluyt Society reprinted it in 1852, there were
only five copies in existence. Like all his other works,
his Divers Voyages had a direct and practical object.
Hakluyt was an ardent advocate of colonization. But
the first step must necessarily be the enlightenment of
his countrymen by the supply of information. Collecting
it from all available sources, he brought together various
accounts showing the history of the discovery of the
whole of the east coast of North America. He thus
gave his readers the fullest particulars then known, so
that his Divers Voyages was the first impetus to coloniza
tion. Virtually, Raleigh and Hakluyt were the founders
of those colonies which eventually formed the United
States. Americans revere the name of Walter Raleigh :
they should give an equal place to that of Richard
Hakluyt. Hakluyt took orders, and went to Paris for five years
as Chaplain to the English Embassy from 1583 to 1588.
During all that time he worked assiduously at the object
of his life ; printing some French accounts of Florida,
and the letters of Peter Martyr Anghiera. Returning
home in 1590, he was appointed to the rectory of
Wetheringsett in Suffolk, and married in 1594. He had
already prepared his Principal Navigations, a folio volume
published in 1589, as soon as he returned from Paris.
But it was not until 1 598 that the first volume of his
more complete work appeared, two others following in
the two succeeding years. Then several other most
valuable books were brought out under his auspices : —
the "Africa" of Leo Africanus, translated by Pory; the
"Nova Francia" of Lescarbot ; the history of discovery
by Galvano ; " Virginia richly Valued ", being the dis
covery of Florida by Fernando de Soto ; and Mendoza s
history of China.
But the great work of Hakluyt is the Principal
N.WIGATIONS, in three folio volumes, a monument of

useful labour. Nothing could stop or daunt him when
there was a chance of obtaining new information. He
rode 200 miles to have an interview with the last survivor
of Master Hore's expedition to America in 1536. He
saved numerous journals and narratives from destruction,
and the deeds they record from oblivion. His work gave
a stimulus to colonial and to maritime enterprise, and
it inspired our literature. Shakespeare owed much to
Hakluyt's Principal Navigations: Milton owed much
more. As the years passed on, Richard Hakluyt, in
his own quaint language, continued " to wade still further
and further in the sweet studie of the historie of cosmo
grapbie " : and he achieved his great task, which was,
in his own words, " to incorporate into one body the
torn and scattered limbs of our ancient and late naviga
tions by sea". He declared " geography and chronology
to be the sun and moon, the right eye and the left, of
all history."
When Richard Hakluyt died, on the 23rd of November,
1616, he was Archdeacon of Westminster, and a Canon of
Bristol, and had reached his sixty-fourth year. By his will
he left legacies to many relations, accompanied by kindly
words ; and it is interesting to be able to believe, from his
bequests to Dr. Wilson, the Head Master of Westminster,
and to his predecessor Dr. Ireland, that his love for his old
school, " that fruitful nursery" as he called it, continued
through life. Excepting, of course, Shakespeare and the
Dii Majores, there is no man of the age of Elizabeth
to whom posterity owes a deeper debt of gratitude than to
Richard Hakluyt, the saviour of the records of our
explorers and discoverers by land and sea. Last year a
mural monument to his memory was placed in Bristol
Cathedral, where he had been a Canon for so many years,
in the presence of the representatives of the various
institutions which have cause to revere his name.
Hakluyt left a large collection of materials which came

into the hands of the Revd. Samuel Purchas, who in
due course published Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas
his Pilgrimes: an invaluable work, though injured by
injudicious curtailment and omissions. Afterwards, during
the last century, the work of Hakluyt was not altogether
neglected. There were the collections of voyages and
travels made by Harris (1705), Churchill, Astley and
Pinkerton (1808-14), and the labours of Dalrymple and
Burney. Still the work which Hakluyt considered to
be — and which most assuredly is — of the greatest import
ance to a maritime country, was more and more neglected
as time went on. After the death of Hakluyt there
was no great English geographer until the time of Major
Rennell, and when he died it became a necessity to found
the Royal Geographical Society. This provided for
existing needs, but there was the same danger as in
Hakluyt's time that the glorious deeds of our explorers by
sea and land would pass into oblivion unless his views
were adopted and his example followed. With the record
of their deeds would also disappear, into what Carlyle calls
" the shoreless chaos", all the precious information they
collected for the use of posterity.
These thoughts occupied the minds of men with various
occupations and callings, but united on the duty of
continuing the work of Hakluyt. It was in 1846 that
several distinguished persons, so minded, began to consult
together and to exchange ideas. So it came about that on
the 15th of December of that year, a meeting assembled at
the London Library (12, St. James's Square), with Sir
Roderick Murchison in the chair. Literature was repre
sented by the Rev. H. H. Milman (afterwards Dean of St.
Paul's), by Sir Henry Ellis ofthe Briti.sh Museum, and by
Mr. John Forster ; science by Mr. Charles Darwin and
Sir Roderick Murchison ; geography by Mr. W. R. Hamil
ton, twice President of the Royal Geographical Society,
Sir George Staunton, Dr. Beke, and Dr. Hodgkin ;

10
poetry and belles lettres by Mr. Monckton Milnes (after
wards Lord Houghton) ; politics by Mr. J. E. Gray and
Mr. Mackinnon ; bibliography by Mr. Bolton Corney ;
the navy by Sir Charles Malcolm and Captain Bullock ;
the army by Major-General Sir J. F. Briggs, Sir Roderick
Murchison, and Sir James McGrigor. It was then
resolved " that a Society, to be called the Hakluyt
Society, should be formed for the purpose of printing
and distributing among its members the most rare and
valuable voyages, travels, and geographical records, from
an early period of exploratory enterprise to the circum
navigation of Dampier." The eighteen men who passed
this resolution were the founders of the Society. Three
of them became editors of its volumes. Sir Roderick
Murchison was elected President, and he held the office
for twenty-four years: from 1847 to his death in 1871.
He was a geologist and a physical geographer, but he
was impressed with the value of the information to be
derived from the narratives of the early explorers, and
with the national importance of recording their gallant
deeds, and of placing the history of them within reach
of the people. For the Principal Navigations of Hakluyt
costs ;£'20, and £^0 is a price fetched for Purchas his
Pilgrimes. Sir Roderick was the mainstay of the Society
during the first half of its career.
Next to Sir Roderick, the Society owes most to Mr.
R. H. Major, the Keeper of Maps in the British Museum,
who, in succession to Mr. Desborough Cooley, was
Secretary from 1848 to 1858, and was also for many
years Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.
Under his able management the Society became a great
success, which was due to his unequalled knowledge
of the subject, to his wide acquaintance with fellow-
labourers in the same field of research, to his readiness
to impart his own store of knowledge to others, to his
generous sympathy in the work of the editors, and to

II
the charm of his manners and conversation. Although
Mr. Major retired from the office of Secretary in 1858,
he continued to be a most valuable member of the
Council for the next thirty years.
When we lost our steadfast old friend. Sir Roderick
Murchison, the Presidency of the Hakluyt Society was
accepted by Sir David Dundas, an eminent lawyer, one
of the most popular men and one of the best raconteurs
in London of his day, a good classical scholar, and
a sound comparative geographer. Like Hakluyt's cousin.
Sir David had a very fine library of books of travel at
the Temple ; and, to compare very small things with
great, as Hakluyt's mind was turned to geography by
his visits to his cousin at the Middle Temple, so was
the bent of my own mind permanently turned to that
fascinating science by my visits to the library of Sir
David Dundas, and its charming owner, in King's Bench
Walk. We lost Sir David Dundas in 1877, but fifteen years
previously I had made the acquaintance of the late Sir
Henry Yule, obtained from him his manuscript transla
tion of Friar Jordanus, and secured him as a zealous
supporter of this Society. Sir Henry was like Hakluyt
in his minute and conscientious research, like Hakluyt in
his imaginative faculty and his poetic instincts, like
Hakluyt in his patriotic aspirations, and like Hakluyt
he died in harness, working to the last, and presiding
over this Society. One of the most touching incidents
in the history of literature is the election of Yule to be a
Corresponding Member of the "Academic des Inscriptions
et Belles Lettres " two days before his death, and his reply
to the telegram announcing it : —
" Reddo gratias, illustrissimi domini, ob honores tanto nimios
quanto immeritos. Mihi robora deficiunt, vita coUabitur, acci-
piatis voluntatem pro facto. Cum corde pleno et gratissimo,
moriturus vos, illustrissimi domini, saluto."

12
These are the men who have been our leaders. I
purposely, though reluctantly, refrain from any allusion
to those who are still living ; and I now turn to the work
that has been done under their auspices.
It was the original intention to begin the Hakluyt
Society's Series with a reprint of Hakluyt's very rare
Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America ; but
there were delays, and in point of fact it formed the
seventh volume, issued in 1852. Since those early days
one hundred and twenty-eight volumes (exclusive of
the Extra Series) have been completed, forming a goodly
array. The Society has done for the last sixty-five years
what Hakluyt did with such enthusiasm and diligence for
his Elizabethan contemporaries. The narratives of the
old heroic explorers are brought within the reach of the
people, often in their own words, if not, in those of a friend
or a companion. In our series Azurara relates the noble
life-story of Prince Henry the Navigator. There is
nothing at second hand. Columbus tells us of his
conceptions and aspirations, and of his momentous enter
prises, in his own letters and in his journal. John Cabot
and Gaspar Corte Real cannot speak to us in their own
words, for all they ever wrote is lost ; but we have printed
the contemporar}? news-letters and other documents re
lating to their expeditions. Amerigo Vespucci tells his
marvellous tales in his own way. The memorable voyage
of Magellan is fully described by Pigafetta ; and Fletcher,
the chaplain, tells the story of Sir Francis Drake's circum
navigation. Pedro de Sarmiento, whose voyages were
caused by the appearance of Drake in the Pacific, relates
the story of his explorations of Magellan's Straits, his
perseverance and endurance, of his anxieties and sufferings,
in his own words. So does Sir Richard Hawkins; and it
would be difficult to find a more charming narrative
from the day when Queen Elizabeth changed the name
ol his ship from the Repentance to the Dainty, to his

13
final capture by the Spanish fleet, in the whole range of
autobiographical literature. We have also reprinted the
extremely rare history of the discoveries of the world by
Antonio Galvano.
Readers who are interested in the discovery of any
particular region must needs seek for the gratification
of that interest in the Society's volumes. Our labours
connected with the Arctic Regions are almost complete.
The story of the Zeni voyages has been edited, and their
authenticity discussed. The three voyages of Frobisher,
and the documents in the State Paper Office relating
to them, form one of our volumes. De Veer's quaint
narrative of the voyages of Willem Barents, with its
curious illustrations, has received two editions from our
Society. John Davis, Hudson, Baffin, Fox and James,
Hall and Munk, have all been exhaustively treated in
our series.
Turning to the east, the Hakluyt Society presents its
members with the early voyages to India and the Eastern
Archipelago. The Lendas of Gaspar Correa are translated
to inform ns respecting the voyages of Vasco da Gama.
John Davis narrates the events of the first Dutch voyage
to the East Indies, and the story of the first Engli.sh
voyages under Sir James Lancaster are told by his mates.
Having reached India in the delightful company of these
worthies, the reader of our series can rove all over the
east under the guidance of the rarest companions. With
Clavijo he can visit the court of Timour, with Sir Thomas
Roe, that of the Great Mogul ; old Friar Jordanus in 1330
and John Fryer 350 years later will introduce him to the
marvels of India ; Mendoza, Adams, Saris and Cocks to
those of China and Japan ; Varthema will conduct him
on a pilgrimage to Mecca ; Sir Henry Yule's wandering
friends will show him Cathay and the way thither: in
short, there is scarcely a corner of the east that is not
described by one or other of the illustrious men who

14
have been saved from oblivion by the Hakluyt Society.
Herberstein, Giles Fletcher, and Jenkinson describe Russia
in the olden time ; while Africa is laid open to us by
Father Alvarez, who takes us to the court of the Negus
of Abyssinia ; by Barbosa ; and by that most garrulous
and informing of Moors, Leo Africanus. Our volumes
also tell of the discovery and planting of the Philippine
Isles, of Bermuda, and the Canary Isles ; enlighten us
respecting the strange birds of Rodriguez and Mauritius ;
and fully inform us touching the early voyages to
Australia. America, north and south, has received equal attention.
With Fernando de Soto we visit Florida, and with
Strachey we learn all details respecting the first planting
of Virginia ; while Champlain takes us to Me.xico, and
we can march through the dense forests, amidst which
the wonderful temples of the Mayas were concealed, in
company with the great conqueror Hernan Cortes himself,
and with that most charming soldier and chronicler
Bcrnal Diaz. In South America we learn all the wonders
of the Orinoco from Sir Walter Raleigh — of Guiana from
the grand old Dutch statesman Storm van's Gravesande ;
descend the Amazons with Gonzalo Pizarro, Oraldano and
the tyrant Aguirre ; live amongst the Brazilian savages
with Hans Stade ; pass up the Rio de la Plata to
Paraguay with Cabeza de Vaca ; and learn all the
wonders of the discovery and conquest of Peru, and
all the enthralling details of Inca civilisation from the
very Conquistadores themselves, or their priestly com
panions, and in their own words.
This represents the labour of sixty-five years — the full
tale may be seen in the accompanying prospectus ; and
when it is remembered that our editors work gratuitously,
and for mere love of their authors, and that every volume
has an introduction, and is annotated so as to give the
reader all the help he can require in his study of the

IS
text, I submit that it is good work with some confidence
of a favourable reply.
In conclusion, I wish to say something vvith reference
to the uses of the work of this Society. There can be
no question that a study of the heroic deeds of explorers,
the contemplation of their high qualities, and the acquisi
tion of all the valuable knowledge that their narratives
impart, arouses emulation, excites a feeling of sympathy
which is ennobling to those who are under its influence,
and is an important education in itself It is true that
we have only 440 members (paying 470 subscriptions),
and it may be thought that the influence of our work,
excellent though it must be admitted to be, cannot be
very widely diffused. But this is a great mistake. No
less than 215 of our subscribers are libraries, clubs, and
public offices, where the volumes are within the reach
of numerous readers. Besides, our influence is by no
means confined to the actual readers of the volumes. It
passes on, and is felt at second or third hand throughout
the length and breadth of the land, as well as in the
United States, whence we receive so much and such
generous support. There is no book of old voyages and
travels which is not indebted to the Hakluyt Society,
generally without acknowledgment, often without know
ledge of the fact, for compilers seldom seek the fountain
head. The fact, however, is certain, as all who are well
versed in this class of literature m.ust be aware. Old
blunders have been put aside, formerly accepted errors
have been exploded, fresh facts and fresh traits of character
have been generally adopted, which are all traceable to
our labours. Misconceptions have been cleared away,
much greater accuracy has been secured, and the most
attractive as well as most generally useful branch of
education has been elevated and purified.
Nor has the usefulness of our work stopped there. If
the hopes of the men of letters among our founders have

been realised, those of the men of science, of Charles
Darwin and Roderick Murchison, have assuredly not
been disappointed. The phenomena of natural science
have received elucidation, not once but frequently, from
evidence which can only have been derived from informa
tion first made known in our volumes.
From histories, narratives, and educational books we
may turn to poetry and works of fiction, and there again
we shall see the usefulness of the Hakluyt Society. But
I have only time to allude to one instance out of many.
Charles Kingsley, in his glowing descriptions of tropical
scenery in " Westward Ho ! " was much indebted to the
Society's edition of Raleigh's "Guiana", edited by Sir
Robert Schomburgk, and to others of our volumes, of
which he often spoke to me in terms of admiration.
Some account has now been given of the great man
after whom the Hakluyt Society is named, of the founda
tion of the Society, of the work it has done, and of its
usefulness. My last words in this brief account of the
Society's work must be to the effect that much remains
to be accomplished, and that our prosperity depends upon
an increase in the number of our members. I am ahnost
inclined to go so far as to say that, looking to the influence
of its work for good, the well-being of the Hakluyt Society
is one sign, and not an insignificant one, of healthy ten
dencies of thought, and of healthy aspirations among the
peoples who speak the English language.
C. R. M.
I.S December, igii.

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