New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-13
Richard Hakluyt

In the course of this month-on the -ou'
to be exact-England will remember
though perhaps it will not widely observe
the day-the death Of still another one
Of her great Elizabethans, Richard hak-
luyt, the author of the principal Navi-
gationes, Voyages. Trafiiques and DiscoV-
cries Of the English Nation and one OF
the greatest of her early imperialists.
We have been told of late that the Brit
ish Empire grew haphazardly, without
design; that the imperial idea was not the
mother, but the daughter, of that empire
and this may be true so far as the mass
Of the nation is concerned.
But the fact remains that Hakluyt saw
with prophetic eyes, as did other leaders
of his age, the greatness that was to be
of England beyond the seas. No doubt,
while writing "the beginnings and pro-
ccedng of the two English colonies plant
ed in Virginia" Hakluyt echoed his friend
Raleigh's words 81 shall yet live to see 1t
an English nation
A chronicler, perhaps the greatest of
his nations historians of the sea, and GER
tainly one Of the most influential, this
seventeenth century clergyman was at
heart one of the band Of adventures and
patriots who ventured east and west and
north and south His pen glowed with
the romance of their danger and daring.
Fair-minded, too, he was. He may not
b;,rb1,, Of ssp1iIb lnbt-
some, temperate and warm Atlantic Ocean
over which the Spaniards and Portugals
have made so many pleasant. prosperous
and golden voyages" but he honored the
Dutch for their ventures into the frozen
North. with this proviso; that our Eng
fish nation led them the dance, brake the
yce before them, and gave them good leave
to light their candle at our torch
Halluyt counted all the great English
navigators among his friends, but even
the simple sailor was hero in his eyes,
nor did he disdan what he could learn
from his lips. He tingled with the gran
deur of his period, with the epic poetry Of
its achievements at sea. Withal a prac
teal enthusiast, who advocated the es-
adjustment of school of navigation in
London and foreshadowed tropical medi-
cine in his preoccupation with "the curing
of hot diseases" And TO the "salvages"
of the Indies he sought to bring the
blessings of religion by planting colonies
of our nation where they may remain in
safety and first learn the language of the
people (the gift of tongues being now
taken away, and by little and little ac-
quaint themselves with their manners, and
so with discretion and mildness instill
into their purged minds the sweet and
lively liquor Of the Gospel With sweet
ness and mildness.
America can claim its share of this
Elizabethan author, as truly voice of
the genius of his race as Shakespeare
himself. His first book, the divers Voy-
ages Touching the Dscoverie of America
and the Islands Adjacent Unto the Same,
Made First of All by Englishmen," is
part Of our literary heritage, part of our
historical literature, part of its romance.
He gave his aid in soliciting patent for
the colonization of Virginia and risked
his substance in the London or South Vir-
gina Company.
Finally, in observing the day of his
death we may we'll remember also his
cousin and namesake, Richard Hakluyt
"of the Middle Temple" who, too, had the
imperial vision and exerted his great in
luence in awakening English interest in
the settlement of the New World