The Boy's Hakluyt: English Voyages of Adventure and DiscoveryHakluyt, Richard
History
The Boy's Hakluyt: English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English -- Juvenile literature; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile literature
Professor Walter Raleigh, in his essay on the _English Voyages_ which
accompanies the modern reprint of the _Navigations_ (Glasgow, 1903),
recalls the belief of Shaksperian authorities, among whom he is counted,
that this is the map alluded to in _Twelfth Night_ in the passage (Act
III, Scene II), “He does smile his face into more lines than is in the
new map with the augmentation of the Indies.”
The titles of the three-volumed second edition set forth the contents of
each book with the same minute detail as that of the initial volume of
1589.
IV
THE EARLY VOYAGES
The English voyages begin with the adventures by the Britons northward
in the sixth century for conquest. So Hakluyt places in the forefront of
the _Principal Navigations_ legendary accounts of the travels of British
and Saxon kings. First are reproduced from ancient chronicles records of
“the noble actes of Arthur and Malgo,” in the years 517 and 580,
respectively, Arthur, after having “subdued all parts of Ireland,”
sailing to “Island” (Iceland) and “the most northeast parts of Europe”;
and Malgo into the North seas, recovering to his empire the “six islands
of the Ocean sea, which before had been made tributaries by King Arthur,
namely, Ireland, Island, Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmark.”
Next follow fragmentary narratives of seventh-century voyages. Two
“testimonies” are given of the exploits of the Saxon king, Edwin, with
his conquest of the Isles of Man and Anglesey and the other northwestern
islands of the Britons lying between Britain and Ireland, in the year
624. The second of these “testimonies” related how Edwin also subdued to
the crown of England the Hebrides, “commonly called the Western
Islands.” Then is reproduced the story of the voyage of Bertus, “general
of an army sent into Ireland by Ecfridus [Ecgfrith] king of
Northumberland” in the year 684. This warrior, the chronicler relates,
“miserably wasted that innocent nation being always most friendly unto
the people of England,” sparing neither churches nor monasteries, while
the Islanders “repelled arms with arms and craving God’s aid from heaven
with continual imprecations and curses they pleaded for revenge.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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