3 Review(s)

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. The author of this volume, Samuel Champlain, is better known for his writings on Canada and for founding Quebec City. This account of his 1599 journey with his uncle to the West Indies and Mexico, originally intended for Henri IV of France and translated for the series in 1859, had never previously appeared in print. Champlain provides a valuable illustrated report on natural history and social, economic and political conditions of the region in the early colonial period.