and forms an appendix to the first
volume of Clarke's Progress of Maritime Discovery; and from these sources
the present edition has been carefully prepared. Of Richard Hakluyt, the
original translator, the following notice is worthy of being preserved.
"The _great_ Richard Hakluyt was descended from an ancient family at
Yetton in Herefordshire, and was educated at Westminster School, from
whence he was elected a student of Christ Church, in the University of
Oxford, where he took the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts.
Entering into holy orders, he was first made a prebendary of Bristol, and
afterwards of Westminster, and rector of Witheringset in Suffolk. Besides
this translation, he illustrated the eight decades of Peter Martyr
Angelericus _de Novo Orbe_ with curious notes. He also translated from
the Portuguese, _Virginia_, richly valued by the description of Florida,
her next neighbour; and wrote notes of certain commodities, in good
request in the East Indies, Molucca, and China; but what has most
deservedly perpetuated his name, is his great pains, and judgment, in
collecting _English Voyages, Navigations, Trafficks, and Discoveries_[2]."

Both from the nature of this treatise on the origin and progress of
maritime discovery, and from respect to the memory of Hakluyt, the father
of our English collections of voyages and travels, it has been selected
for insertion in this place, as an appropriate introduction to the
_Second Part_ of our arrangement; because its author may be considered as
almost an original authority for the early discoveries of the Portuguese
and Spaniards. Although it may be considered in some measure as not
precisely conformable with our plan, yet one portion of this summary is
directly in point; and, the whole being curious, and in no respect
tedious, it is here given entire; changing the antiquated English of
Hakluyt into modern language. Although said in its title to extend to the
year 1555, the chronological series of Galvano properly ends in 1545; and
the only subsequent incident, is a very slight notice of the voyage of
Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, towards the White Sea, in
1553. In the original translation, and in the Oxford collection, this
treatise is preceded by a dedication from Hakluyt to _Sir Robert Cecil_;
and another dedication from the Portuguese editor, Francis de Sousa
Tavares, to Don John, Duke of Aveira; both of which are here omitted, as
having no directly