The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. This volume, first published in 1866, is the second of two compilations edited by Colonel Henry Yule on contacts with China before the discovery of sea routes to the east. It contains extracts from the work of Rashiduddin (1247-1318) describing China during the Mongol rule, Ibn Batuta's account of travel in Bengal and China in the fourteenth century, and a record of the journey of the Portuguese Jesuit Benedict Goës from Agra to Cathay (1602-1607).
