Note 1 — INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Reading edition
Balak, who took much interest in voyages of discovery, and who seems to have appreciated the enterprising genius of Brunel, gave him a letter of recommendation to Mercator at Duisburg. From that letter, happily preserved by Hakluyt, we know the plans and intentions of Brunel.1 But Brunel desired that his native country, and not his Russian benefactors, should have the advantage of his researches. Acting upon this impulse, he, immediately after his arrival in Holland, tried to find acceptance for his favourite scheme.