THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



centre of the stage, and a new purpose declares itself. 

 There is confused fighting of Saracen with Christian, the 

 decoruhi of place and time is no longer observed, alarums 

 and excursions and the breathless tales of messengers 

 disturb the even development of the story, until, as on 

 the stage which vexed the soul of Sir Philip Sidney, 

 ' you shall have Asia of the one side, and Affrick of the 

 other, and so many other under-kingdoms, that the Player, 

 when he cometh in, must ever begin with telling where 

 he is ; or else the tale will not be conceived.' When 

 the Island race makes its late appearance among the 

 heroes of this romantic drama, the tale it has to tell is 

 the diffused and exciting tale embodied in these Principal 

 Navigations^ Voyages^ Traffiqties^ and Discoveries of the 

 English Nation, compiled by Richard Hakluyt. 



Like the drama to which it belongs, the compilation 

 of Hakluyt has seemed to some critics to be lacking in 



The Quest of form and unity. Here are voyas^es and travels to all 

 the Far East. ^ , \, j i i j 



parts or the world, prosecuted through many ages, under- 

 taken by all kinds of adventurers, and animated by the 

 most divers purposes. Men have travelled, as they have 

 lived, for religion, for wealth, for knowledge, for pleasure, 

 for power and the overthrow of rivals. Yet no very 

 profound acquaintance with Hakluyt's book is needed 

 to discern, as he clearly discerned, the single thread of 

 interest running through all these pilgrimages. The 

 discovery of the new Western World followed, as an 

 incidental consequence, from the long struggle of the 

 nations of Europe for commercial supremacy and the 

 control of the traffic with the East. In all the dreams 

 of the politicians and merchants, sailors and geographers, 

 who pushed back the limits of the unknown world, there 



