RICHARD HAKLUYT 



1602 he was made prebendary, and in 1603 archdeacon, 

 of Westminster. He was also chaplain of the Savoy ; 

 and in 1612 obtained the rectory of Gedney in Lincoln- 

 shire. He died, seven months after Shakespeare, on the His death. 

 23rd of November 1616. He left a fair estate to an 

 unthrifty son, who is said to have squandered it. His 

 unpublished papers fell into the hands of Samuel Purchas, 

 who scattered them about the four volumes of his 

 Pilgrims^ 'after his irregular and curtailed or contracted 

 manner,' interspersed with remarks ' often silly, and 

 always little to the purpose.' But the inestimable value 

 of his materials has given Purchas a secure place beside 

 his greater predecessor. 



Besides the Voyages^ Hakluyt was responsible for the Lesser works. 

 publication of several other works. He translated and 

 published, in 1587, Laudonniere's account of Florida; 

 in the same year he set forth an edition of the Decades of 

 Peter Martyr. In 1601 he published The Discoveries of 

 the World^ a translation of a treatise by Antonio Galvano, 

 the Portuguese governor of Ternate. His last work, 

 Virginia richly valued by the description of the maine land of 

 Florida her next neighbour^ appeared in 1 609 ; it is trans- 

 lated from a Portuguese account of Soto's expedition to 

 Florida. Moreover Hakluyt took pains for the con- 

 tinuance of the work he had begun, and endeavoured to 

 gather round him a school of younger men. English 

 translations of accepted standard v^orks on Africa, China, 

 and Nova Francia were undertaken and completed at 

 his suggestion and by his encouragement. 



The quality of Hakluyt which most impressed his The apotheosis 

 contemporaries was his enormous industry. He often ^^'^ ^^^^^' 

 speaks of this himself, and confesses that only an ardent 



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