6 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN 
1611. He died in 1616. His manuscript remains fell 
into the hands of Purchas, who had already published, 
in 1613, a summary of general information, nautical, 
geographical, and historical, with the title “ Purchas 
his Pilgrimage; ” and now commenced his ponderous 
work, called “ Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his 
Pilgrimes,” made up of his predecessor’s materials, 
printed and unprinted, of documents derived from 
navigators themselves, combined with translations of 
narratives written in foreign tongues, and embracing 
the whole field of commercial and maritime history. 3 
Purchas died in 1628. The narratives of Hakluyt do 
not reach to the active period of polar fisheries. Those 
of Purchas extend to the time when, so far as England 
was concerned, the interest in them began to decline. 
It is wonderful how much these diligent collectors 
contrived to gather, not only from ancient and obscure 
chronicles, but more especially from the oral statements 
and private papers of seamen and their employers, with 
whom they had personal intercourse. It might be 
expected that accounts so procured, would, many of 
them, be crude in form, and often incorrect in details 
of fact; and that such a mass of materials would fail to 
be satisfactorily digested and systematized; while the 
prolixity of style and numerous affectations, common 
3 “ Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes; containing a History of the 
World in Sea Voyages and Land Travels, by Englishmen and others: wherein God’s 
Wonders in Nature and Providence, the Acts, Arts* Varieties, and Vanities of Man, 
with a World of the World’s Rarities, are, by a World of Eye-witnesse Authors, related 
to the World. Some left written by Mr. Hakluit at his death; more since added; his 
also perused and perfected: all examined, abbreviated, illustrated with Notes, enlarged 
with Discourses, adorned with Pictures, and expressed in Maps. In Four Parts, each 
containing Five Books. By Samuel Purchas, D.D.” 
