Richard Hakluyt ~ Warrior With a Pen

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#666633" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="087005a2ddvuvs.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc.</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc."><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#999966" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Providential HisStory of Jamestown"><U><B>Providential HisStory of Jamestown</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Richard Hakluyt ~ Warrior With a Pen</I></div> <div> "Americans have revered the name of Walter Raleigh; they should give an equal place to that of Richard Hakluyt.  Virtually, Raleigh and Hakluyt were the founders of the those colonies which eventually formed the United States."  Hakluyt is considered founder of the colonies because he was the "saviour of the records of our explorers and discoverers by land and sea."  England owes no other man of the Elizabethan age a deeper debt of gratitude.  Hakluyt warred with a pen for the advancement of the Gospel.  He wrote to document HisStory with the purpose to stimulate, guide and encourage the undertaking of western voyages and plantings of colonies.</div> <bR> <div> In his <I><U>Discourse Concerning Western Planting</U></I> (1584) which listed reasons to persuade Queen Elizabeth, he very forcefully set forth the political and economic benefits and necessity for the state to back colonization.  As Christians, we should take particular note of reason #16 in Chapter XX; "We shall by planting there enlarge the glory of the Gospel, and from England plant sincere religion, and provide a safe and sure place to receive people from all parts of the world that are forced to flee for the truth of God's Word."  As I read this, I marvel at how true those words have come to pass.  Just a brief study of different denominations and immigrants to this country can substantiate his words.</div> <bR> <div> For eighteen months I researched primary documents and older writings in order to write a book and curriculum guide entitled <I><U>The Providential HisStory of Capt. John Smith & Pocahontas</U></I>.  My heart's desire is for people to see how God prepared each person, as He always does, for the events He staged in the forming of this nation--even before the foundations of the world.  Take special note of how God prepared Hakluyt to be a geographer, editor, translator, counselor to the queen and one of the key figures in a group of intellectual clerics.</div> <bR> <div> Hakluyt was born in 1553 of a Herefordshire family.  He was buried at Westminster Abbey in 1616 (seven months after William Shakespeare died and four months before Pocahontas died).  At age four, his father died and left him to the care of his cousin Richard Hakluyt of Middle Temple.  Providentially, this cousin was a lawyer with friends of prominent merchants, geographers, explorers and experts in overseas trade and economics.  His cousin Richard Hakluyt "was well placed to assist the young Hakluyt in his life work," no doubt by the hand of God.  The Lord used the tragedy of his father's death to bring Richard to a place where seeds would be planted into his heart that would lead him to his intended course.  He wrote:</div> <bR> <div>  <I>"I do remember that being a youth, and one of her Majestie's scholars at Westminster, that fruitful nursery, it was my hap to visit the chamber of M. Richard Hakluyt, my cousin, a gentleman of the Middle Temple, . . . at a time when I found lying open upon his board certain books of cosmography with an universal map: he seeing me somewhat curious in the view thereof, began to instruct my ignorance by sowing me the division of the earth into three parts.  He pointed with his want to all the known seas, gulfs, bays, straits, capes, rivers, empires, kingdoms, dukedoms, territories of each part; with declaration also of their special commodities and particular wants which by the benefit of traffic and intercourse of merchants are plentifully supplied.  From the map he brought me to the Bible, and turning to the 107th Psalm, directed me to the 23rd and 24th verses, where I read that they which go down to the sea in ships and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep, etc., which words of the Prophet, together with my cousin's discourse (things of rare and high delight to my young nature) took in me so deep an impression, that I constantly resolved if ever I were preferred to the university, where better time and more convenient place might be ministered for these studies, would, by God's assistance, prosecute the knowledge and kind of literature, the doors whereof (after a sort) were so happily opened for me."</I></div> <bR> <div> Hakluyt was a diligent scholar educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford earning his M.A. degree in 1577.  Later he held a professorship of divinity and was appointed by Queen Elizabeth as counselor on colonial affairs and economics.  However, he devoted every spare moment to the purpose formed as a boy.  </div> <bR> <div> <I>"I fell to my intended course, and by degrees read over whatever printed or written discoveries and voyages I found extant either in the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugal, French of English languages; and in my public lectures was the first that produced and showed both the old and imperfectly composed and the new lately reformed maps, globes, spheres, and other instruments of this art for the demonstration in the common schools, to the singular pleasure and general contentment of my auditory."</I></div> <bR> <div> Hakluyt saw to great needs for his country.  First, being that English seamen lacked knowledge concerning scientific geography.  Secondly, that all of the English voyages undertaken from the century previous to that time, had been utterly forgotten.  Even the voyages of John Cabot were of no account.  To Hakluyt, this was a national calamity and he believed that colonization was the means by which England was to improve her people.  Thus, he sought to acquire knowledge from all who could give him information to reinforce his efforts.</div> <bR> <div> To meet these needs, Hakluyt urged authorities to the important of establishing permanent lectureship "as a means of breeding up skillful seamen and mariners" and produced his greatest work, <I><U>The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation</U></I>, which first appeared in 1589.  At the close of the century his three-volume edition contained more than 200 voyages. </div> <bR> <div> Hakluyt left a vast collection of documents to Reverend Samuel Purchas who followed in his footsteps.  This led to Purchas publishing a huge document known to historians as <I><U>Pilgrimes</U></I> which included accounts of Pocahontas.  Purchas became friends with Captain John Smith and reprinted much of Smith's works.</div> <bR> <div> God used his writings to cause support for exploration and colonization of this nation which extended the Gospel.  Can you see how one individual member of the body of Christ (in this case the writing "hand") was used for His purpose of advancing His Kingdom?</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Copyright by Viola K. Moss, 1996, all rights reserved.  El Shaddai Ministries of Florida, Inc.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>