ABSTRACT

There is no record of an Englishman setting foot in India between the Bishop of Sherborne's visit in 883 and the arrival at Goa of the Jesuit Father, Thomas Stevens, in 1579. Richard Hakluyt therefore had a relatively easy task in presenting a picture of purely English achievement which was his aim in the first edition of the Principall navigations. If the first edition of the Principall navigations is inevitably short of hard facts, it is rich in propaganda and hopeful speculation. Alison Quinn's splendid index to the 1965 reprint of the first edition of the Principall navigations has helped to bring this scattered information to light. The appearance of the second edition of the Principal navigations coincided with the birth of the East India Company and the real start of English enterprise in India. Hakluyt played an important role as advisor to the new Company.