This is the only extended original prose work in English of Richard Hakluyt, the younger (1522-1616) and is an elaborate prospectus for English colonization of North America written in the sixteenth century. It was a confidential and important state paper presented to Queen Elizabeth I on October 3, 1854, and this text is the only one of very few copies made in 1585 to have survived. It was made known to Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's Principal Secretary of State, and to not more than two or three other persons in the royal administration. This may be the copy presented to Walsingham in May 1585, although it does not bear his name.
Content: Title page title: "A particuler discourse concerninge the greate necessitie and manifolde commodyties that are like to growe to this realme of Englande by the westerne discoueries lately attempted, written in the yere 1584." Spine title: "Discourse on Western Discoveries." Title as published by the Hakluyt Society in 1993: "A particuler discourse concerninge the greate necessitie and manifolde commodyties that are like to growe to this realme of Englande by the westerne discoueries lately attempted : Known as Discourse of Western Planting." A copy of this 1993 publication, edited by David B. Quinn and Alison M. Quinn, is available for use.
