The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques And Discoveries of the English Nation

Edinburgh: E. & G.Goldsmid, 1885-90. Fourth Edition of this famous compilation, one of the great chronicles of Elizabethan maritime exploration by one of England’s most vigorous propagandists, a work referred to by Froude as “the prose epic of the modern English nation”. It was first published in 1589, with a second enlarged edition appearing in 1599-1600, and a third in 1809-10. The work relates English travels to the Middle East and Asia, the discoveries of the English towards the north and northeast and Russia, and voyages and travels to the northwestern arctic and North and South America from English and other sources. Related in American section, and arranged in a chronological and regional sequence, using the personal narratives of the explorers and merchants themselves, are the voyages and explorations of Frobisher and Davis to the Arctic, Cabot and Gilbert to Newfoundland, Hore to Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island, Cartier and Roberval to Canada, White to Virginia, Verrazzano, Ribault and Laudonnière to Florida, Ulloa and Drake to California, Hawkins, Hare and Lancaster to Brazil, &c. Many of the voyages recorded by Hakluyt are virtually unobtainable in their original editions, while for other great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, his compilation remains a unique source of reference. cfHill pp. 131-32. cfHowes H-26. cfTPL 12. 16 Volumes in 10. 4to. with half-titles. titles in red & black. illustrated with facsimile maps & portraits. An attractive set in contemporary half morocco, t.e.g., others uncut (light foxing to outer blanks)