“This unpublished manuscript of Hakluyt’s is extremely curious.
“I procured it from the family of Sir Peter Thomson.(35)
“The editors of the last edition would have given any money for it, had it been known to have existed.”(36)
After fruitless endeavours “to find for it a resting place in some public or private library in America, and subsequently in the British Museum,”(37) Mr. Stevens sent it to Puttick & Simpson’s Auction Rooms, where it was knocked down to Sir Henry Phillipps for £44. (May, 1854.)
In the library, then, of Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, did our manuscript lie till 1867, when Dr. Leonard Woods, late President of Bowdoin College, was commissioned by the Governor of Maine, in pursuance of the Resolves of the Legislature in aid of the Maine Historical Society, to procure, during his travels in England, materials for the early History of the State. An application made by Dr. Woods to Sir Thomas Phillipps revealed the existence of Hakluyt’s Discourse. Dr. Woods set to work to edit this valuable document, but a fire destroyed most of his materials, and was followed by physical infirmity which forbade literary labour. Dr. Charles Deane’s familiarity with the topics suggested by the matter in hand, and his position as a “Collaborateur” of Dr. Woods for some months, at once pointed him out as the right man to do the work to the Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society. Dr. Deane undertook the task, and an excellent octavo edition of Hakluyt’s Discourse appeared in due course, entitled:—
“Documentary History of the State of Maine. Vol II., containing A Discourse on Western Planting, written in the year 1584, by Richard Hakluyt. Published by the Maine Historical Society, aided by appropriation from the State. Cambridge (Mass.): Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.”
The text of the MS. has been preserved in every essential particular, but, following Dr. Deane’s example, some capital letters have had liberties taken with them, and some few abbreviated words have been printed in full. A few corrections have also been made in the quotations from English and foreign writers, where a comparison with the originals has shown such corrections to be necessary. Dr. Deane’s notes have been necessarily much shortened, and are distinguished from my own by the initials C.D.