Hakluyt's instructions: The Principal Navigations and sixteenth-century travel advice

Abstract

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.