Hakluyt's instructions: The Principal Navigations and sixteenth-century travel advice
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13645140902891496
ISSN1755-7550
Autores Tópico(s)Historical Influence and Diplomacy
ResumoAbstract The range of information sought in travel instructions printed by Richard Hakluyt was impressive, geared around the interests of trading companies, merchants, exploration and colonial settlement. They constitute a third genre of travel advice in the sixteenth century, together with Humanist contributions to the art of travel (the ars apodemica) and the Spanish questionnaires developed in the 1570s to administer their empire. This article investigates Hakluyt's instructions (especially those of Sebastian Cabot and his elder cousin, Richard Hakluyt) and draws comparisons with Humanist and Spanish practice. In common with his Humanist contemporaries, Hakluyt sought to direct the course of travel, to make it useful and reputable, and serve the national interest, but he did not engage in elaborate justifications or citation of classical precedents. His documents are less systematic than the Spanish productions, but they share a need to assess territory in terms of its commercial potential and viability for settlement. The instructions and directions published in The Principal Navigations may represent a relatively small proportion of the vast textual corpus, but they should not be ignored or underestimated in their significance. Keywords: Hakluyttravel adviceHumanismCabotChinadyeing Notes Notes 1. For studies of this genre, see Justin Stagl, A History of Curiosity: The Theory of Travel 1550–1800 (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic, 1995), revised as Eine Geschichte der Neugier: Die Kunst des Reisens 1550–1800 (Vienna: Böhlau, 2002); Joan-Pau Rubiés, 'Instructions for Travellers: Teaching the Eye to See', History and Anthropology 9 (1996): 139–90, reprinted in Rubiés, Travellers and Cosmographers: Studies in the History of Early Modern Travel and Ethnology (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007); Sara Warneke, Images of the Educational Traveller in Early Modern England (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995); Normand Doiron, L'art de voyager: le déplacement à l'époque classique (Sainte-Foy, Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval/Paris: Klincksieck, 1995); George B. Parks, 'Travel as Education', in The Seventeenth Century (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1951), 264–90; Clare Howard, English Travellers of the Renaissance (London: J. Lane, 1914); Daniel Carey, 'Identity and Its Transformation in the Context of Travel', in Sozio-kulturelle Metamorphesen, ed. Justin Stagl (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2007), 65–77. For bibliographies, see Justin Stagl, Apodemiken: Eine räsonnierte Bibliographie der reisetheoretischen Literatur des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1983); Luigi Monga, 'A Taxonomy of Renaissance Hodoeporics: A Bibliography of Theoretical Texts on Methodus Apodemica (1500–1700)', Annali d'italianistica 14 (1996): 645–61; and references in Warneke and Doiron. The National University of Ireland, Galway, is launching an online database of Renaissance travel advice expanding on these resources. 2. Francisco de Solano, ed., Cuestionarios para la formación de la Relaciones Geograficas de Indias siglos XVI/XIX (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1988) reprints the major documents together with interpretive essays. For additional critical studies, see Raquel Álvarez Peláez, La conquista de la naturaleza americana (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investgaciones Científicas, 1993), 141–231; Jesús Bustamante, 'El conocimiento como necesidad de Estado: las encuestas oficiales sobre Nueva España durante el reinado de Carlos V', Revista de Indias, 60, no. 218 (2000): 33–57; Sylvia Vilar, 'La trajectoire des curiosités espagnoles sur les Indes: trois siècles d' "Interrogatorios" et "Relaciones"', Mélanges de la Casa de Velásquez, VI (1970): 247–308; Marcelo Figueroa, '"Cosas" del Río de la Plata: historia natural y administración colonial a fines del siglo XVIII español', PhD dissertation, University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, 2007, ch. 2. In English, see Howard F. Cline, 'The Relaciones Geográficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577–1586', The Hispanic American Historical Review, 44, no. 3 (1964): 341–74. 3. For two welcome exceptions, see Peter Mancall, Hakluyt's Promise: An Elizabethan's Obsession for an English America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 63–4, 82–6; Eric H. Ash, '"A Note and a Caveat for the Merchant": Mercantile Advisors in Elizabethan England', Sixteenth Century Journal, 33, no. 1 (2002): 1–31. 4. The Traveiler of Jerome Turler (London, 1575), 16–17, 24–6. 5. Ibid., 50–8. 6. Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica (Basel, 1577), 4, 6, 40, 83, 86, 93, 126. 7. Ibid., 126. 8. See The Traveiler of Jerome Turler, 31–2, 110; Zwinger, 6, 22, 33, 81. On Zwinger's text, see Paola Molino, 'Alle origini della Methodus Apodemica di Theodor Zwinger: la collaborazione di Hugo Blotius, fra empirismo ed universalismo', Codices Manuscripti, 56–7 (October 2006): 43–67. 9. 'Memorial of instructions by William Cecil to the Earl of Rutland' (dated 20 January 1571), National Archives SP 12/77/10 et seq., printed as an appendix in Warneke, Images of the Educational Traveller, 296, 298. 10. Sir Philip Sidney, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 286. 11. On this text, see below. 12. This is due in no small part to the scholarship of Justin Stagl, Joan-Pau Rubiés, Sara Warneke, among others. More recently, see also Alison Games, The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in the Age of Expansion 1560–1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), ch. 1. 13. See Álvarez Peláez, 162–70; Bustamante, 'El conocimiento como necesidad de Estado'. 14. Reprinted in Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 11–15. 15. 'Ordenanzas para la formation del libro de las descriptiones de Indias' (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 3 July 1573), reprinted in Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 16–74. 16. The Instrucción is reprinted in Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 79–87. For an English translation, see appendix 1 in Cline, 'The Relaciones Geográficas', 363–71; an alternative translation (by Clinton R. Edwards) appears as an appendix in Howard F. Cline, 'The Relaciones geográficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577–1648', in Handbook of Middle American Indians, ed. Robert Wauchope, vol. 12: Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources Part One, ed. Howard F. Cline (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), 233–7. 17. A second edition of the questionnaire appeared in 1584. In 1604, the Council issued an expanded version with 355 questions, the work of López de Velasco's successor as Cosmógrafo, Andrés García de Céspedes: 'Interrogatorio para todas las ciudades, villas y lugares de Españoles, y pueblos de naturales de la Indias Occidentales, islas y tierra firme; al cual se ha de satisfacer, conforme a las preguntas siguientes, habiendolas averiguado en cada pueblo, con puntualidad y cuidado', reprinted in Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 97–111. 18. The questions themselves were communicated through the structures of political authority in the Spanish New World, starting with the viceroys who directed them to governors; the administrative and judicial bodies known as Audiencias; mayors (alcades mayors), and corregidors (local officials); they in turn would ensure that they made their way to towns and villages. On these offices and political-administrative structures, see J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492–1830 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), ch. 5. 19. Question 21 and question 49 (Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 84, 86). 20. Question 27 (Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 84). 21. See Daniel Carey, 'Inquiries, Heads, and Directions: Natural History and Early Modern Travel', forthcoming in Expanding Worlds: Travel Narratives, the New Science and Literary Discourse, ed. Judy Hayden. 22. Question 5 (Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 82). 23. See H.R. Harvey, 'The Relaciones Geográficas, 1579–1586: Native Languages', in Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol 12: Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources Part One, 279–323. 24. Question 14 (Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 83). 25. Cuestionarios, ed. Solano, 85. 26. Vilar, 255. 27. The expedition set off in May 1553. Willoughy and his crew perished in the journey while Chancellor made his way to the White Sea and landed at the Dvina River, eventually reaching Moscow after a long overland journey. The privileges awarded by Tsar Ivan IV led to the creation of a charter for what was later named the Muscovy Company. 28. Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation [1598–1600], 12 vols (Glasgow: MacLehose and Sons, 1903-5), 2: 195 (hereafter abbreviated as PN). For a discussion of the document, see Alison Sandman and Eric H. Ash, 'Trading Expertise: Sebastian Cabot between Spain and England', Renaissance Quarterly, 57, no. 3 (2004): 833–7. Cabot's advice here may relate specifically to his contentious experience during his Spanish voyage of exploration 1526–30. 29. PN, 2: 200–1. For a French example of instructions on ship discipline, see François Pyrard de Laval, 'Bref avertissement & avis pour ceux qui voudront entreprendre le voyage des Indes orientales' (1611), in Voyage de Pyrard de Laval aux Indes orientales (1601–1611), ed. Xavier de Castro, 2 vols (Paris: Chandeigne, 1998), 2: 887–903. For a translation, see The Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil, trans. Albert Gray, 2 vols (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1890), vol 2, pt. 2, 387–403. 30. PN, 2: 200–1. 31. PN, 2: 203. 32. PN, 2: 202. 33. PN, 2: 202. 34. PN, 2: 202. 35. See John Michael Archer, Sovereignty and Intelligence: Spying and Court Culture in the English Renaissance (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993). 36. PN, 2: 203. 37. PN, 2: 202, 203. 38. For example, PN, 6: 408–11; PN, 6: 253–4. 39. See Sandman and Ash, 'Trading Expertise', 818. The plan for the expedition occurred in the midst of disputes with Portugal over the demarcation of rights to territories allocated by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), focusing on the Moluccas. 40. Printed in José Toribio Medina, El Veneciano Sebastián Caboto al servicio de España, y especialmente de su proyectado viaje á las Molucas …, 2 vols (Santiago de Chile: Imprenta y Encuadernación Universitaria, 1908), 2: 29–40. 41. Medina, 2: 36, 32. See also 35. 42. Medina, 2: 32, 33, 39. 43. Medina, 2: 37. 44. Medina, 2: 33, 38. 45. Medina, 2: 34, 36. 46. See La Australia del Espíritu Santo, 2 vols, trans. and ed. Celsus Kelly (Cambridge: The Hakluyt Society, 1966), 1: 140–50. As Cabot's instructions appeared in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1589; 1598), the printed version might have offered a model for Quirós, but this seems very unlikely. 47. Mariano Cuesta Domingo, Alonso de Santa Cruz y su obra cosmográfica, 2 vols (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1983–4), 1: 39, 45–9. 48. Printed in Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, Relaciones geográficas de Indias.–Perú, 3 vols (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1965), 1: 274–7. 49. Álvarez Peláez, 183. 50. Álvarez Peláez, 183. She also emphsises Santa Cruz's Humanist outlook (180). 51. Turler, 21; Fynes Moryson, An Itinerary Containing his Ten Yeeres Travell [1617], 4 vols (Glasgow: MacLehose & Sons, 1907–8), 3: 372. 52. PN, 1: xvii. 53. On the elder Hakluyt, see George Bruner Parks, Richard Hakluyt and the English Voyages, 2nd edn, ed. James A. Williamson (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1961), ch. 3, 4, and appendix 1. 54. PN, 7: 244. 55. PN, 7: 244, 245. 56. PN, 7: 247–8. 57. PN, 7: 246. 58. PN, 7: 247. 59. Pet and Jackman were the first English mariners to enter the Kara Sea but made little further progress. Pet returned to England in late 1580 but Jackman was lost at sea. Hakluyt prints an account by Hugh Smith, PN, 3: 282–303. For other instructional documents relating to the mission, see PN, 3: 251–8, 259–61. 60. PN, 3: 264. 61. PN, 3: 266. 62. PN, 3: 267. 63. See also the instructions for Edward Fenton's mission to the East Indies and China of 1582, PN, 11: 168. 64. PN, 3: 268. 65. PN, 3: 269. 66. PN, 3: 274, 275, 271. 67. PN, 3: 271. 68. The elder Hakluyt may have had in mind François Deserps, Recueil de la diversité des habits qui sont de present en usaige tant es pays d'Europe, Asie, Affrique, et Illes sauvages (Paris, 1562), or the version presented by the engraver Abraham de Bruyn as Omnium pœne gentium imaginse, ubi oris totius corporis & vestium habitus (Cologne, 1577). Mancall, 84, suggests Hans Weigel's costume book, Habitus praecipuorum popularum (Nuremberg, 1577). 69. Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1570). Matteo Ricci presented a copy to the Chinese emperor in 1601. Nicolas Standaert, 'The Transmission of Renaissance Culture in Seventeenth-Century China', in Asian Travel in the Renaissance, ed. Daniel Carey (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 48. 70. PN, 3: 273. 71. PN, 3: 263. On Dee's geographical interests, see William H. Sherman, John Dee: The Politics of Reading and Writing in the Renaissance (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995), ch. 7. 72. PN, 3: 275–82 (printed in Latin and in translation). 73. Hubblethorne's mission was ordered by the Privy Council and he travelled at the expense of the City of London. See Ash, '"A Note and a Caveat"', 12–13. On his itinerary see 12n. 74. PN, 3: 249. 75. G.D. Ramsay, 'Clothworkers, Merchants Adventurers and Richard Hakluyt', The English Historical Review, 92, no. 364 (1977): 513. See also Douglas R. Bisson, The Merchant Adventurers of England: The Company and the Crown 1474–1564 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1993); G.D. Ramsay, The City of London in International Politics at the Accession of Elizabeth Tudor (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1975). 76. Ramsay, 'Clothworkers, Merchants Adventurers and Richard Hakluyt', calls the younger Hakluyt a 'publicity agent' for the Clothworkers' Company (504), and sees The Principal Navigations as strongly supporting their interests and largely ignoring the Merchant Adventurers. Richard Staper, Hakluyt's patron, was a leading merchant elected as a warden of the Clothworkers' Company in 1576. However, Ramsay's valuable article does not discuss the important role of the elder Richard Hakluyt. 77. PN, 3: 249. 78. PN, 3: 249. 79. PN, 3: 249. 80. PN, 3: 250, 251. 81. See Daniel Carey, 'Compiling Nature's History: Travellers and Travel Narratives in the Early Royal Society', Annals of Science, 54 (1997): 269–92; Michael Hunter, 'Robert Boyle and the Early Royal Society: A Reciprocal Exchange in the Making of Baconian Science', British Journal for the History of Science, 40, no. 1 (2007): 1–23. 82. The first of his two 'Turkish' documents consisted of 14 points set out without much in the way of elaboration. PN, 5: 229–30. 83. PN, 5: 233. 84. PN, 5: 234. 85. PN, 5: 237. His source was the work of Matthias de l'Obel and Pierre Pena, Stirpium adversaria nova (London, [1571]), 395–6. 86. PN, 5: 239. 87. PN, 5: 241. 88. Clusius already owned tulips before arriving in Vienna as director of the imperial botanical garden of Maximilian II. Nonetheless when he came there in 1573 he did meet the ambassador Ogier de Busbecq who provided him with tulip seeds from Constantinople. See Anne Goldgar, Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 34–6. 89. Patrick Collinson, Archbishop Grindal 1519–1583: The Struggle for a Reformed Church (London: Jonathan Cape, 1979), 40, 82. 90. PN, 5: 242. 91. Turler, 37. 92. Turler also made the same point about importing commodities (34–6). 93. Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster (London, 1570), 26 (I2r); Richard Mulcaster, Positions Concerning the Training up of Children [1581], ed. William Barker (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 208–20. 94. Joseph Hall, Quo Vadis? A Just Censure of Travel (London, 1617), 3–4. 95. Hall, 4–5; Sir Thomas Palmer, An Essay of the Meanes how to make our Travailes, into forraine countries, the more profitable and honourable (London, 1606), 3–6. 96. PN, 2: 321. He referred to Argus, the giant with a hundred eyes, surnamed Panoptes. 97. The text listed 12 headings: cosmography, astronomy, geography, chorography, topography, husbandry, navigation, the political and ecclesiastical state, and finally literature, histories and chronicles. Each section was then broken down into further subtopics of observation. 98. 'I was motioned to remember your self [i.e. Drake] in the impression of this Method, by my very good and learned friend, M. Richard Hakluit, a man of incredible devotion towarde your selfe, and of speciall carefulnesse for the good of our Nation'. Certaine briefe, and speciall Instructions, trans. Philip Jones (London, 1589), A3r. Hakluyt may have been contributing to efforts to rehabilitate Drake's reputation following the debacle of the failed invasion of Portugal in the summer of 1589. David B. Quinn describes Walsingham's resistance to Hakluyt's inclusion of the 'Famous Voyage' in The Principall Navigations, 1589: 'Early Accounts of the Famous Voyage', in Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577–1580, ed. Norman J.W. Thrower (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 33–48; see also Christopher Hodgkins, Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 86–8. I owe this point to Claire Jowitt. 99. See Daniel Carey, Continental Travel and Journeys beyond Europe in the Early Modern Period: An Overlooked Connection. The Hakluyt Society Annual Lecture 2008 (London: The Hakluyt Society, 2009). 100. On Harriot's connection to Hakluyt's travel instructions, see also Ash, '"A Note and a Caveat for the Merchant"', 28. 101. See, for example, an important set of instructions for a voyage to North America c. 1582–3 printed in New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 1612, 5 vols, ed. David B. Quinn (New York: Arno Press and Hector Bye, 1979), 3: 240–4. 102. For example, 'Progress of questions and answers concerning Japon' included in a report by East India Company factors from Batavia (Jakarta), dated 18 July 1627, in Anthony Farrington, The English Factory in Japan 1613–1623, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1991), 2: 970–2.
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