Besides
This Translation, He Illustrated The Eight Decades Of Peter Martyr
Angelericus _De Novo Orbe_ With Curious Notes.
He also translated from
the Portuguese, _Virginia_, richly valued by the description of Florida,
her next neighbour; and wrote
Notes of certain commodities, in good
request in the East Indies, Molucca, and China; but what has most
deservedly perpetuated his name, is his great pains, and judgment, in
collecting _English Voyages, Navigations, Trafficks, and Discoveries_[2]."
Both from the nature of this treatise on the origin and progress of
maritime discovery, and from respect to the memory of Hakluyt, the father
of our English collections of voyages and travels, it has been selected
for insertion in this place, as an appropriate introduction to the
_Second Part_ of our arrangement; because its author may be considered as
almost an original authority for the early discoveries of the Portuguese
and Spaniards. Although it may be considered in some measure as not
precisely conformable with our plan, yet one portion of this summary is
directly in point; and, the whole being curious, and in no respect
tedious, it is here given entire; changing the antiquated English of
Hakluyt into modern language. Although said in its title to extend to the
year 1555, the chronological series of Galvano properly ends in 1545; and
the only subsequent incident, is a very slight notice of the voyage of
Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, towards the White Sea, in
1553. In the original translation, and in the Oxford collection, this
treatise is preceded by a dedication from Hakluyt to _Sir Robert Cecil_;
and another dedication from the Portuguese editor, Francis de Sousa
Tavares, to Don John, Duke of Aveira; both of which are here omitted, as
having no directly useful tendency, except so much of the latter as
refers to the history of Galvano. Besides the present discourse, Galvano
composed a history of the Molucca Islands, of which he had been governor,
which work has unfortunately been lost, or at least is unknown in this
country. He is likewise said to have published at Lisbon in 1555, an
account of the different routes by which the merchandize of India had
been conveyed into Europe at different periods.
Antonio Galvano, the author of the following Summary of the Discoveries
of the World, was a Portuguese gentleman, who was several years governor
of the Molucca Islands, and performed signal service to his country in
that honourable station, by dissipating a formidable league, which had
been entered into by the native princes of these islands, for the
expulsion of the Portuguese; and, though possessing very inadequate
resources for the protection of so important a commercial establishment,
he confirmed and extended the dominion and influence of Portugal in these
islands. When first appointed to the command in the Moluccas, Galvano
carried with him a private fortune of 10,000 crusadoes, all of which he
expended in the public service. Though he added a clear revenue to the
crown of 500,000 crusadoes, in consequence of his successful, vigilant,
and pure administration, he was so zealous in patronizing the propagation
of the Christian religion among the islands belonging to his government,
that, on his return to Lisbon in 1540, he was reduced to such extreme
poverty, as to be under the necessity of taking refuge in the _hospital_,
where he died in 1557.
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