ABSTRACT
The chronological sequence of English commercial expansion into the south-west Atlantic was from trade with Portugal and Spain, to trade with the nearer Atlantic islands, particularly the Canaries; to trade with Atlantic Barbary, that is, modern Morocco; and, finally, to trade with Guinea. Richard Hakluyt even failed to include Nichols' printed account of the Canaries, published anonymously in 1583. Apart from Nichols' account, none of the material specifically relating to Morocco, the Saharan coast, or the Atlantic islands, had been printed before; and none of the manuscripts used by Hakluyt appears to be extant. Unlike the Guinea trade, the trade to Morocco was soon operated on a permanent basis, that is, 'it ceased to be organised in those separate, self-contained annual voyages which Hakluyt clearly preferred to recount'. The internal history of Morocco is of course extensively documented from sources in other European languages and in Arabic, and the material in Hakluyt is of slight value.
