EXTRACT FROM OLDYS’S LIBRARIAN, 1738. (Article Hakluyt’s Voyages.) p. 137.

Oldys (having given a list of the contents of the three volumes of Hakluyt) concludes,

This summary may sufficiently intimate what a treasury of maritime knowledge it is, wherefore we shall here take our leave of it, with referring only to a needful observation or two:

And first, As it has been so useful to many of our authors, not only in Cosmography, and Navigation, but in History, especially that of the glorious reign in which so many brave exploits were atchievcd; As it has been such a LEADING STAR TO THE NAVAL HISTORIES since compiled; and saved from the wreck of oblivion many exemplary incidents in the lives of our most renowned navigators; it has therefore been unworthily omitted in the English historical library. And lastly, though the first volume of this collection, does frequently appear, by the date, in the title page, to be printed in 1599, the reader is not thence to conclude the said volume was then reprinted, but only the title page, as upon collating the books we have observed, and further, that in the said last printed title page, there is no mention made of the Cadiz Voyage; to omit which, might be one reason of reprinting that page; for it being one of the most prosperous and honourable enterprizes that ever the Earl of Essex was ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen’s unpardonable displeasure at this time, our author, Mr. Hakluyt, might probably receive command or direction, even from one of the patrons to whom these Voyages are dedicated, who was of the contrary faction not only to suppress all memorial of that action in the front of this book, but even cancel the whole narrative thereof at the end of it, in all the copies (far the greatest part of the impression) which remained unpublished. And in that castrated manner the volume has descended to posterity; not but if the castration was intended to have been concealed from us, the last leaf of the preface would have been reprinted also, with the like omission of what is there mentioned concerning the insertion of this Voyage. But at last, about the middle of the late King’s reign, an uncastrated copy did arise, and the said Voyage was reprinted from it, whereby many imperfect books have been made complete.