The next meeting of the CELL Early Modern Reading Group will convene on Thursday 1st July, from 4.00-6.00pm in the Norfolk Arms on Leigh Street, within easy reach of the British Library. All are welcome.

The reading is two passages from Hakluyt and Purchas' great compilations of early modern travel narratives. The first, from Hakluyt's 1599 'Principal Navigations', excerpts narratives of some early encounters with the Samoyeds of Arctic Russia, which occurred during the ill-fated search for a North-East Passage from 1553 to 1537. The second, from the 1625 edition of Purchas' 'Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes', is an account of the first East India Company factory established at Bantam on the island of Java in 1602, written by one of the few factors who survived the experience. It is not comfortable reading.

Both texts are attached here in OpenOffice format (apologies if this causes difficulty); should there be any copyright difficulties they'll be moved to the Tea Room.