The decades leading up to England's first permanent American colony saw not only territorial and commercial expansion but also the emergence of a vast and heterogeneous literature. In the multiple relations of writing to discovery over these decades, these texts played a role more powerful than that of simple recording. They needed to establish certain realities against a background of scepticism - the possibility of discovery, the lands discovered, the intentions and experiences of the discoverers - and they also had to find ways of theorizing their enterprise. Yet conceiving of the American enterprise positively or even survivably proved surprisingly difficult; the voyage narratives evolved almost from the outset as a genre concerned with recuperating failure - as noble, strategic, even as a form of success. Reception of these texts from the Victorian era on has often accepted their claims of heroism and mastery; through a careful re-reading, Mary Fuller argues for a more complicated
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. In this 1872 volume, Clements R. Markham, Honorary Secretary of the Society from 1858 to 1887, and then its President for twenty years, translated and edited four accounts of the Spanish conquest of Peru, written by eye-witnesses including Francisco Pizarro's secretary and his brother Hernando. The narratives include the events surrounding the downfall of the Inca empire; the final document is a notary's account of the distribution of the gold and silver which the Incas paid to the Spaniards as ransom for their ruler.
'Virtual Voyages' is a fascinating account of the European discovery of the elusive 'great south land' told through the literature of 'imaginary voyages'. Written at the height of the era of European
This second set brings together voyages in the southern hemisphere and towards the Pole by James Cook as well as accounts of voyages of discovery in the southern oceans by other important figures. The
'Virtual Voyages' is a fascinating account of the European discovery of the elusive 'great south land' told through the literature of 'imaginary voyages'. Written at the height of the era of European
The volume contains the following accounts, edited, with an introduction: Narrative of the voyage of Abd-er-Razzak, Ambassador from Shah Rukh, A.H. 845, A.D. 1442.; The travels of NicolA2 Conti in the
Five hundred years after he set sail, Columbus is still a controversial figure in history. Debates portray him either as the hero in the great drama of discovery or as an avaricious glory hunter and r
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1410–1474) was a Portuguese writer appointed to chronicle the life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) and the expeditions he sponsored. Zurara's chronicle of the discovery of Guinea appeared in this two-volume English translation in 1896–1899. The editors' preface includes an account of the voyages of exploration along the African coast sponsored by Prince Henry until 1448, together with biographical information about the author. Volume 1 contains chapters 1–40 of the Chronicle.
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1410–1474) was a Portuguese writer appointed to chronicle the life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) and the expeditions he sponsored. Zurara's chronicle of the discovery of Guinea appeared in this two-volume English translation in 1896–1899. The editors' preface includes an account of the voyages of exploration along the African coast sponsored by Prince Henry until 1448, together with biographical information about the author. Volume 2 contains chapters 41–97 of the Chronicle.
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, edited by Robert Schomburgk and first published in 1848, presents documents written by Sir Walter Raleigh following his expeditions to Guyana in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The title text recounts the events of Raleigh's first voyage, including his encounters with the Spanish and the quest for the legendary city of Manoa, and is accompanied by two documents that had not previously been published. The book also includes a detailed introduction and extensive explanatory notes, providing key biographical and historical information.
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c.1410–1474) was a Portuguese writer appointed to chronicle the life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) and the expeditions he sponsored. Zurara's chronicle of the discovery of Guinea appeared in this two-volume English translation in 1896–1899. The editors' preface includes an account of the voyages of exploration along the African coast sponsored by Prince Henry until 1448, together with biographical information about the author.
The "South Seas," as this region used to be called, evokes images of adventure, belles and savages, romance, and fabulous fortunes, but the long voyages of discovery and exploration of the vast Pacif
Day (library and information studies, Manchester Metropolitan U.) cites people, places, events, and other features related to the voyages of discovery and the inland explorations that were instrumenta
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume is an eye-witness account by an anonymous Portuguese 'Gentleman of Elvas', describing Ferdinand de Soto's four-year expedition to Florida which landed in Tampa Bay in 1539 and marched hundreds of miles north-west through present-day Florida, Georgia and Alabama. De Soto died of fever in May 1542, and the survivors made their way back to Mexico in 1543. The text of this translation, by Richard Hakluyt himself, was published in 1611, and first appeared in this annotated edition in 1851.
Polymath Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), a self-described 'scientific traveller', was one of the most respected scientists of his time. Humboldt's wanderlust led him across Europe and to South America, Mexico, the U.S., and Russia, and his voyages and observations resulted in the discovery of many species previously unknown to Europeans. Originating as lectures delivered in Berlin and Paris (1827–1828), his multi-volume Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1845–1860) represented the culmination of his lifelong interest in understanding the physical world. As Humboldt writes, 'I ever desired to discern physical phenomena in their widest mutual connection, and to comprehend Nature as a whole, animated and moved by inward forces.' Volume 1 (1846) investigates celestial and terrestrial phenomena, from nebulae to the temperature of the earth, as well as 'organic life'. Throughout, he stresses the method of, and limits to, describing the universe's physical nature.
Polymath Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), a self-described 'scientific traveller', was one of the most respected scientists of his time. Humboldt's wanderlust led him across Europe and to South America, Mexico, the U.S. and Russia, and his voyages and observations resulted in the discovery of many species previously unknown to Europeans. Originating as lectures delivered in Berlin and Paris (1827–1828), his two-volume Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1845–1860) represented the culmination of his lifelong interest in understanding the physical world. As Humboldt writes, 'I ever desired to discern physical phenomena in their widest mutual connection, and to comprehend Nature as a whole, animated and moved by inward forces'. Volume 2 (1848) reviews poetic descriptions of nature as well as landscape painting from antiquity through to modernity, before using the same time-span to examine a 'History of the Physical Contemplation of the Universe'.