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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 The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India,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 2 of 5

Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knt in His Voyage into the South Sea in the Year 1593
  • Reprinted from the Edition of 1622
  • Richard Hawkins
  • Edited by Charles Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune
  • Published online:
    05 February 2012
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1847
  • 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 The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India.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 1, published in 1847, contains Sir Richard Hawkins's account of the voyage by which in 1593 he planned to sail to 'the Ilands of Japan, of the Phillippinas, and Molucas, the kingdomes of China, and the East Indies, by the way of the Straites of Magelan, and the South Sea'. The version of the book printed in 1622 was edited for the Hakluyt Society by Captain C .R. Drinkwater Bethune of the Royal Navy, and includes an editorial preface, explanatory footnotes and an index.

Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia During the Years 1520–1527
  • Francisco Alvarez
  • Translated by Henry Edward John Stanley
  • Published online:
    05 January 2012
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1881
  • 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 an English translation of a description of Ethiopia written by Francisco Alvarez (c.1465–c.1540) during the six years he spent as a missionary with the Portuguese embassy to the Emperor of Ethiopia. Alverez describes Orthodox Christian monasteries and churches, compares the Orthodox and Catholic rites, and provides the first known descriptions of the ancient city of Axum in this, the earliest surviving Western description of Ethiopia, first published in English in 1881.

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 3, Containing Documentary Contributions to a Biography of Thomas Pitt, Governor of Fort St. George
  • William Hedges
  • Edited by Henry Yule
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    22 April 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.

Danish Arctic Expeditions, 1605 to 1620
  • In Two Books
  • Volume 1, The Danish Expeditions to Greenland in 1605, 1606, and 1607
  • Edited by C. C. A. Gosch
  • Published online:
    05 December 2011
    Print publication:
    31 August 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 accounts of early seventeenth-century expeditions to Greenland, two Danish (but piloted by the Englishman John Hall), and one led by Hall himself, with William Baffin as pilot. This is the first publication of Hall's report to the Danish king, illustrated with four maps from the 1605 expedition, which had only recently been rediscovered. The object of the expeditions was to re-establish communication with, and commercial exploitation of, what had formerly been a fertile region colonised by the Danes.

The Voyage of François Leguat of Bresse to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Java, and the Cape of Good Hope
  • Transcribed from the First English Edition
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Samuel Pasfield Oliver
  • François Leguat
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    30 September 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. François Leguat (1637–1735) was a French Huguenot who became the leader of a group of seven Huguenot refugees forced to colonise the island of Rodriguez in 1693, after the French claimed their intended destination, the Ile de Réunion. He remained on the island for two years, before escaping via the neighbouring island of Mauritius; after imprisonment in Jakarta, he returned to Europe in 1698. Volume 1 describes his journey to Rodriguez and provides descriptions of the island's now extinct flightless birds and giant turtles.

Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant
  • Edited by J. Theodore Bent
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    30 November 2010
    First published in:
    1893
  • 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. Thomas Dallam, an organ-builder, was sent by Queen Elizabeth to the sultan of Turkey at Constantinople. His diary reveals a lively curiosity towards the sights, but a dislike of foreigners. Dr John Covel, later vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, went to Constantinople as chaplain to the ambassador Sir Daniel Harvey in 1670. While there, he travelled widely, and collected books, manuscripts and other items. He was one of the first Western visitors to write about Mount Athos, and studied the Orthodox Church.

The Expedition of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre in Search of El Dorado and Omagua in 1560–1
  • Translated from Fray Pedro Simon's Sixth Historical Notice of the Conquest of Tierra Firme by William Bollaert
  • Pedro Simón
  • Translated by William Bollaert
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    08 April 2010
    First published in:
    1861
  • 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 1861 volume contains a translation, preceded by an introductory essay, of a narrative by Pedro Simón (b. 1565) describing perhaps the most notorious of the many sixteenth-century expeditions of European soldiers of fortune into the unexplored areas of South America. A band of quarrelling and murderous booty-hunters, motivated by reports of the fabulous wealth of the Inca empire and legends of the golden land of El Dorado, was led by Lope de Aguirre, whose cruelty and treachery themselves became legendary.

Voyages of the Venetian Brothers, Nicolò and Antonio Zeno, to the Northern Seas, in the XIVth Century
  • Comprising the Latest Known Accounts of the Lost Colony of Greenland; and of the Northmen in America before Columbus
  • Edited by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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. Nicolò (c. 1326–1402) and Antonio Zeno (died c. 1403) were navigators from Venice. In 1558 a descendant of Nicolò Zeno published a series of letters between the brothers purporting to show voyages of exploration undertaken in the north Atlantic and North America between 1390 and 1400. These letters are controversial and considered to be forgeries, as contemporary records place Nicolò Zeno in Venice during this period. However R. H. Major provides a sympathetic analysis of this material, demonstrating the ingenuity of this fabricated account.

Select Letters of Christopher Columbus
  • With Other Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages to the New World
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Edited and translated by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1847
  • 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 2, published in 1847, 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 Latin and Spanish with an English translation, editor's preface, explanatory notes and index.

The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana
  • With a Relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa... Performed in the Year 1595, by Sir W. Ralegh, Knt
  • Walter Raleigh
  • Edited by Robert H. Schomburgk
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1848
  • 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, edited by Robert Schomburgk and first published in 1848, presents documents written by Sir Walter Raleigh following his expeditions to Guyana in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The title text recounts the events of Raleigh's first voyage, including his encounters with the Spanish and the quest for the legendary city of Manoa, and is accompanied by two documents that had not previously been published. The book also includes a detailed introduction and extensive explanatory notes, providing key biographical and historical information.

History of the Imâms and Seyyids of ‘Omân
  • From A.D. 661–1856
  • Salîl-Ibn-Razîk
  • Translated by George Percy Badger
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1871
  • 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. Salil Ibn Ruzayq was the author of a manuscript given to George Percy Badger (1815–88), a member of the Bombay Commission reporting on the secession of Zanzibar, by the ruler of Oman, Seyyid Thuwayni. The manuscript chronicles the history of Oman from the adoption of Islam c. 661 CE until 1856. This volume, first published in 1871, contains the English translation of the manuscript together with an analysis by Badger. The book provided the first indigenous account of the history of Oman in English.

Narratives of the Voyages of Pedro Sarmiento de Gambóa to the Straits of Magellan
  • Pedro Sarmiento de Gambóa
  • Edited and translated by Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    01 July 2010
    First published in:
    1895
  • 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 1895 volume contains the first English translation of the then recently discovered reports of Pedro Sarmiento de Gambóa, a sixteenth-century Spanish explorer, astronomer, historian and scientist. As commander of the Pacific naval station, he explored the west coast of South America, and founded Spanish settlements (which subsequently failed due to famine) along the Magellan Straits, which he was also the first to survey.

The Voyage of François Leguat of Bresse to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Java, and the Cape of Good Hope
  • Transcribed from the First English Edition
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Samuel Pasfield Oliver
  • François Leguat
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1891
  • 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. François Leguat (1637–1735) was a French Huguenot who became the leader of a group of seven Huguenot refugees forced to colonise the island of Rodriguez in 1693, after the French claimed their intended destination, the Ile de Réunion. He remained on the island for two years, before escaping via the neighbouring island of Mauritius. Volume 2 describes his imprisonment on Mauritius and in Jakarta before his return to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope in 1698.

Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, and his Viceroyalty
  • From the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa; accompanied by original documents
  • Gaspar Correa
  • Translated by Henry Edward John Stanley
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1869
  • 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. Vasco de Gama (c. 1460–1524) was a Portuguese explorer who commanded the first European expedition to sail directly to India. He was later appointed Viceroy of Portuguese India in 1524. This volume, first published in 1869, contains an account of his expeditions written by the Portuguese historian Gaspar Correa (c. 1496–c. 1563), taken from his book Lendas da India. His work is an important contemporary history of Portuguese colonialism in India, using contemporary sources not available to later Portuguese historians.

Travels to Tana and Persia, and A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries
  • Giosofat Barbaro
  • Edited by Henry Edward John Stanley, Charles Grey
  • Translated by William Thomas, Eugene Armand Roy
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    22 April 2010
    First published in:
    1873
  • 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 six narratives by Venetian diplomats of travel to Persia in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Barbaro's account is given in a sixteenth-century translation; the others were made for this edition. These stories of travel, by land and by sea, to distant destinations are full of engaging detail about the customs of the countries visited, and also about the negotiations by which the Venetian Signoria and Uzun Hassan, the ruler of Persia, tried to form an alliance against the Ottoman Turks.

The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands
  • Being the Second Voyage Set Forth by the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies
  • Edited by Bolton Corney
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1855
  • 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 (published in 1855) is devoted to an account of Sir Henry Middleton's voyage to the Molucca Islands in 1604–1606 on behalf of the East India Company. The appendices contain transcriptions of various documents relating to the voyage, including James I's commission authorising the expedition, the king's letters to the various rulers Middleton was likely to encounter, and letters from these rulers which Middleton conveyed back to London.

The Life and Acts of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman: A Knight of Seville, of the Order of Santiago, A.D. 1518 to 1543
  • Translated From an Original and Inedited Manuscript in the National Library at Madrid, With Notes and an Introduction
  • Translated by Clements R. Markham
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1862
  • 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 sixteenth-century autobiographical narrative, translated in 1862 from a manuscript in the National Library of Madrid and interspersed with contemporary letters, is a self-justificatory account of the adventures of an impecunious Spanish nobleman whose efforts to make a fortune took him all round Europe and eventually to Peru, where he witnessed the feud between Pizarro and Almagro which had lasting consequences for the future of South America. An introductory essay places this account in the context of other histories of the Spanish conquest.

Memorials of the Empire of Japon
  • In the XVI and XVII Centuries
  • Edited by Thomas Rundall
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1850
  • 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 8 (1850) consists of documents relating to the earliest European experience of Japan, including a description of the country, its rulers and political system, and some letters from William Adams (1564–1620), possibly the first Englishman to reach that country. Adams became an advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and played a crucial role in the establishment of the first Western trading posts in Japan. The book contains an introduction and explanatory notes.

History of the Great and Mighty Kingdome of China and the Situation Thereof
  • Compiled by the Padre Juan González de Mendoza and now reprinted from the early translation of R. Parke
  • Volume 1
  • Juan González de Mendoza
  • Translated by R. Parke
  • Edited by George Staunton, Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 August 2010
    First published in:
    1853
  • 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. The two-volume account by Juan González de Mendoza of the history and geography of China was translated into English in 1588. It was the first detailed description of China available in English, though the introduction to this 1853 edition reviews several earlier reports by western travellers. Mendoza did not himself visit China; his first volume is derived largely from the papers of Martin de Rada, an Augustinian friar who went to China on a missionary expedition in 1575.

Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia; Expressing the Cosmographie and Comodities of the Country, Together with the Manners and Customes of the People
  • As Collected by William Strachey, Gent., the First Secretary of the Colony
  • William Strachey
  • Edited by Richard Henry Major
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    04 March 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 6 (1849) is the first published edition of a collection of manuscript records gathered by William Strachey (1572?–1621), the first Secretary of the English colony of Virginia. It includes Strachey's own account of a shipwreck, which is believed by some scholars to have inspired passages in Shakespeare's The Tempest, and a list of words in Powhatan which is the only source of information about that language apart from the account of Captain John Smith.

Page 2 of 5