Hakluyt, hak'loot, RICHARD (about 1552-1616), an English geographer and historian. He graduated at Oxford and remained at the institution as lecturer upon his chosen subjects. In 1582 he published Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America, and within the next few years he wrote supplementary works upon the same subject, the most famous being The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation. This work had great vogue and was consulted by all the mariners of the time. He was influential in furthering the colonization of America and was a stockholder in the London Company, which settled Virginia.