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The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India, over a period from the middle ages to the late eighteenth century. The 100-volume paperback set includes all the books in the first series. Volumes are also available separately and as part of smaller sets.

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100 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Hakluyt First Series

Page 1 of 5

Danish Arctic Expeditions, 1605 to 1620
  • In Two Books
  • Volume 2, The Expedition of Captain Jens Munk to Hudson’s Bay in Search of a North-West Passage in 1619–20
  • Edited by C. C. A. Gosch
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1897
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1897 volume contains the first English translation of Jens Munk's Navigatio Septentrionalis, his account of the Danish expedition of 1619–1620 in search of a North-West Passage to Asia. They reached Hudson's Bay and explored it, producing the first map to show the whole area. However, they were poorly prepared for the conditions there, and almost all the crew died from cold, hunger or disease. They returned to Denmark the following year, and although another expedition was planned, it did not take place.

Diary of William Hedges, Esq. (Afterwards Sir William Hedges), During his Agency in Bengal, as well as on His Voyage Out and Return Overland (1681–1687)
  • Volume 1, Diary
  • William Hedges
  • Edited by R. Barlow, Henry Yule
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1887
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Three volumes, published in 1887, are devoted to the diary of William Hedges (1632–1701) who in 1681 became the first Agent of the East India Company at its new base in Bengal. The first volume contains a transcription of the diary itself; Volume 2 contains a collection of documents relevant to Hedges' time in India; and Volume 3 is a documentary history of Thomas Pitt, grandfather of Pitt the Elder and Governor of Fort St George, who appears frequently in Hedges' diary.

The Voyages of Captain Luke Foxe, of Hull, and Captain Thomas James, of Bristol, in Search of a North-West Passage, in 1631–32
  • With Narratives of the Earlier North-West Voyages of Frobisher, Davis and Others
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Miller Christy
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1894
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 88–89 (1884) contain accounts of two captains' searches for a North-West Passage to Asia in 1631. Their explorations were beset by bad weather. Foxe circumnavigated Hudson's Bay before retreating, while James became ice-bound for the winter, losing several members of his crew before retuning to England a year after Foxe. No new attempts were made for another century, as their accounts of the harrowing conditions they endured discouraged further voyages of exploration for the desired trade route.

Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies
  • The First Book, Containing his Description of the East
  • Volume 2
  • John Huyghen van Linschoten
  • Edited by P. A. Tiele
  • Translated by William Phillip
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1885
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This account of the East Indian travels of John Huyghen van Linschoten, originally published in the Netherlands in 1596 and translated into English in 1598, was published by the society in 1885 using an edited version of the early translation, supplemented with explanatory notes. It provides a rich source of information about Portuguese trade with the East Indies, as well as descriptions of the fauna, flora and indigenous peoples of the regions he visited, from the Azores and St Helena to Java and Sumatra.

The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopa, A.D. 1503 to 1508
  • Translated from the Original Italian Edition of 1510
  • Lodovico de Varthema
  • Translated by John Winter Jones
  • Edited by George Percy Badger
  • Published online:
    05 June 2013
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1863
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1863 volume contains a Victorian translation of Ludovico di Varthema's account of his travels, originally published in 1510, and translated into many European languages within a few years. Ludovico set off from Italy in 1502 (determined, he says, 'to investigate some small portion of this our terrestrial globe') and travelled first to Egypt and Syria; he then journeyed through the Arabian peninsula (where he was imprisoned as a spy), Persia and India, and reached the Molucca islands before returning to Europe in 1508.

Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies
  • The First Book, Containing his Description of the East
  • Volume 1
  • John Huyghen van Linschoten
  • Edited by Arthur Coke Burnell
  • Translated by William Phillip
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1885
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This account of the East Indian travels of John Huyghen van Linschoten, originally published in the Netherlands in 1596 and translated into English in 1598, was published by the society in 1885 using an edited version of the early translation, supplemented with explanatory notes. It provides a rich source of information about Portuguese trade with the East Indies, as well as descriptions of the fauna, flora and indigenous peoples of the regions he visited, from the Azores and St Helena to Java and Sumatra.

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia
  • A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of that Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century
  • Edited by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1859
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This compilation by R. H. Major of the British Museum (published in 1859) brings together various manuscript and published sources, some of them anonymous, which provide a picture of European exploration in the Southern Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It includes passages from the writings of William Dampier, who not only surveyed part of the coast of Australia ('New Holland'), but also made detailed notes of the fauna and flora he encountered there.

Sir Francis Drake His Voyage, 1595
  • Thomas Maynard
  • Edited by William Desborough Cooley
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1849
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volume 4 was edited by William Desborough Cooley, one of the founders of the Society, who stressed the importance of historical accounts to modern exploration. First published in 1849, it contains the eye-witness account by Thomas Maynard of Sir Francis Drake's last voyage across the Atlantic (1595-1596) and his failed attack on San Juan in Puerto Rico, together with a Spanish account of the attack, and an English translation. The text is accompanied by explanatory notes.

Notes upon Russia
  • A Translation of the Earliest Account of that Country, Entitled Rerum moscoviticarum commentarii, by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein
  • Volume 2
  • Sigismund von Herberstein
  • Edited and translated by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1852
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1852, contains an English translation of the second part of the account by Sigismund von Herberstein (1486–1566) of his visits to Russia in 1517 and 1526 as Ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor. He published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in Latin in 1549, and it is the earliest detailed Western description of the land and people of Russia. Here Herberstein describes the geography and history of the country, with more fascinating details about the people and their customs.

Notes upon Russia
  • A Translation of the Earliest Account of that Country, Entitled Rerum moscoviticarum commentarii, by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein
  • Volume 1
  • Sigismund von Herberstein
  • Edited and translated by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1851
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume contains the first part of the account by Sigismund von Herberstein (1486–1566) of his visits to Russia in 1517 and 1526 as Ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor. He published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in Latin in 1549, and it is the earliest detailed Western description of the land and people of Russia. It is preceded in this 1851 translation by a set of letter-poems written to his friends by George Turberville, who visited Russia in 1568.

Tractatus de Globis et Eorum Usu
  • A Treatise Descriptive of the Globes Constructed by Emery Molyneux and Published in 1592
  • Robert Hues
  • Edited by Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1889
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Robert Hues (1553–1632) was an English mathematician and geographer who published this work in 1594 to explain the use of the new terrestrial and celestial globes devised by Emery Molyneux in 1592. These were the first English manufactured globes and were popular with both navigators and students. The five parts of this book describe these globes and explain their use in calculating fundamental navigational points, providing valuable insights into their appearance and practical application in early sixteenth-century navigation.

India in the Fifteenth Century
  • Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India in the Century Preceding the Portuguese Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian Sources
  • Edited by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 November 2010
    First published in:
    1857
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This 1857 volume is a compilation, edited by R. H. Major of the British Museum, of narratives of journeys to India 'in the century preceding the Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian sources'. India was regarded as a fabled source of riches even before the time of Alexander the Great, and Major's introduction surveys the surviving accounts of overland journeys there before the fifteenth century, assessing their validity and where possible matching ancient to modern place names.

The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake: Being his Next Voyage to that to Nombre de Dios
  • Collated with an Unpublished Manuscript of Francis Fletcher, Chaplain to the Expedition
  • Francis Drake, Francis Fletcher
  • Edited by William Sandys Wright Vaux
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1854
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This account of Drake's circumnavigation of the world in 1577–1580 was first published by his nephew in 1628 and appears to derive from notes made by Francis Fletcher, the chaplain to the expedition, although a surviving manuscript account by Fletcher is not identical. The introduction to this edition (published in 1854) discusses textual problems, and also puts the narrative into the context of Drake's career as one of the privateers who carried on England's unacknowledged war with Spain in the decades before the Armada.

Three Voyages of William Barents to the Arctic Regions (1594, 1595, and 1596)
  • Gerrit de Veer
  • Edited by Koolemans Beynen, Charles T. Beke
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    24 June 2010
    First published in:
    1876
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This book contains three accounts of Dutch voyages in search of a north-eastern passage to China, undertaken in the 1590s. The original Hakluyt edition was published in 1853, but a new edition was prepared in 1876, in light of recent expeditions to the region, of which accounts are given. The Dutch were not successful in establishing a north-east passage; but the stories of the expeditions and of the courage and endurance of the men who took part in them make for fascinating reading.

Select Letters of Christopher Columbus
  • With Other Original Documents, Relating to his Four Voyages to the New World
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Edited by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    24 June 2010
    First published in:
    1870
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1847 and revised in 1870, consists of letters of Christopher Columbus to the Treasurer of the King and Queen of Spain, describing his first, third and fourth voyages, and a letter from Diego Alvarez Chanca, a royal physician who went on the second voyage and reported his experiences to the town council of Seville. In this edition by R. H. Major, the letters are given in the original languages with an English translation, editor's preface, explanatory notes and index.

Reports on the Discovery of Peru
  • Edited and translated by Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1872
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. In this 1872 volume, Clements R. Markham, Honorary Secretary of the Society from 1858 to 1887, and then its President for twenty years, translated and edited four accounts of the Spanish conquest of Peru, written by eye-witnesses including Francisco Pizarro's secretary and his brother Hernando. The narratives include the events surrounding the downfall of the Inca empire; the final document is a notary's account of the distribution of the gold and silver which the Incas paid to the Spaniards as ransom for their ruler.

The Voyages of Captain Luke Foxe, of Hull, and Captain Thomas James, of Bristol, in Search of a North-West Passage, in 1631–32
  • With Narratives of the Earlier North-West Voyages of Frobisher, Davis and Others
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Miller Christy
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1894
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 88–89 (1884) contain accounts of two captains' searches for a North-West Passage to Asia in 1631. Their explorations were beset by bad weather. Foxe circumnavigated Hudson's Bay before retreating, while James became ice-bound for the winter, losing several members of his crew before retuning to England a year after Foxe. No new attempts were made for another century, as their accounts of the harrowing conditions they endured discouraged further voyages of exploration for the desired trade route.

Letters of Amerigo Vespucci, and Other Documents Illustrative of his Career
  • Translated by Clements R. Markham
  • Amerigo Vespucci
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1894
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) was an Italian explorer who became a controversial figure. He made several voyages to South America between 1499 and 1502, and wrote accounts of these voyages to his patron. However the publication of two letters with outrageous claims attributed to him in 1502 and 1504 brought accusations that Vespucci was attempting to undermine Christopher Columbus' fame. These letters, together with other contemporary documents, are published in this volume to allow an independent judgement to be made on these claims.

Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century
  • Comprising the Treatise Of the Russe Common Wealth by Giles Fletcher, and the Travels of Sir Jerome Horsey; Now for the First Time Printed Entire from His Own Manuscript
  • Giles Fletcher, Jerome Horsey
  • Edited by Edward Augustus Bond
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1856
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume contains two narratives about Russia: Of the Russe Common Wealth by Giles Fletcher, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to the Russian court in 1588, and a transcription of the manuscript account of the travels of Sir Jerome Horsey, who lived in Russia from 1575 to 1591, firstly as an agent of the English Russia Company, and later as a diplomat. Appendices include Horsey's description of the coronation of Tsar Fyodor I in 1584.

The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India
  • Translated from the Portuguese Edition of 1774
  • Volume 1
  • Afonso de Albuquerque
  • Translated by Walter de Gray Birch
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1875
  • The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 53, 55, 62 and 69 of the series contain the English translation of The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, translated and edited by Walter de Grey Birch. Afonso de Albuquerque (1453–1515) was a Portuguese naval officer and nobleman whose successful military campaigns helped establish Portugal's colonies in India. Volume 1, published in 1875, contains an account of de Albuquerque's expeditions to India from 1503 to 1509 and his first conquest of Ormuz (modern Hormuz Island, Iran).

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