EXTRACT FROM ZOUCH’S LIFE OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, page 317.

Every reader conversant in the annals of oar Naval transactions will cheerfully acknowledge the merit of Richard Hakluyt, who devoted his studies to the investigation of those periods of the English history, which regard the improvement of navigation and commerce. He had the advantage of an academical education. He was elected Student of Christ–Church in Oxford in 1570, and was therefore contemporary with Sidney at the University. To him we are principally indebted for a clear and comprehensive description of those noble discoveries of the English nation made by sea or over land to the most distant quarter of the earth. His incomparable industry was remunerated with every possible encouragement by Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Philip Sidney. To the latter, as to a most generous promoter of all ingenious and useful knowledge, he inscribed his first collection of voyages and discoveries, printed in 1582. Thus animated and encouraged, he was enabled to leave to posterity the fruits of his unwearied labours—an invaluable treasure of nautical information, preserved in volumes, which even at this day, affix to his name a brilliancy of reputation, which a series of ages can never efface or obscure.