II RICHARD HAKLUYT, the recorder of all these Richard Hakluyt. matters, desired no memorial save his book. His relics lie buried under the 'star-ypointing pyramid' which, by his own incessant labour, he erected to the honour of his country. 'Master of Arts,' he calls himself, and sometime Student of Christ Church in Oxford.' Except to show that he is not unqualified for his task, and to express his gratitude to the learned foundations where he had his training, he does not speak of himself. He is a Scholar, Bibliographer, and Editor, and so has a threefold title to modesty and self-renunciation. On the title-page of his first book, the Divers Voyages of 1582, his name does not appear; in the second and third volumes of the Voyages he pays his tribute to the Church of which he was a minister by describing himself as 'Richard His modesty. His friends. Hakluyt, Preacher.' He was less of a preacher than was his disciple, Samuel Purchas, and his book is the gainer by it. No biography of him, in any full sense of that word, is possible. Except for a few bare facts and dates, all that we know of him is told us by himself, in his Prefaces and his few extant letters. No portrait of him has been recovered. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but no inscription marks his grave, nor is it known in what part of the Church he lies. There can be no doubt that this obscurity was of his own choosing; and belonged, as of right, to his character and temper. He had many famous and influential friends, and was constantly in traffic with them for the enrichment of his book. They answered his questions, gave him their help, were led to think on the topics he had broached, and thought nothing further of the questioner. He acknowledges his obligations to many virtuous gentlemen,” who, partly from their private affection to himself, but chiefly from their devotion to the furtherance of his work, had lent him their assistance. Sir John Hawkins and Sir Walter character. |