In 1881, the Royal Geographical Society published a brief history of its formation and work to mark its fiftieth anniversary.

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 The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volume 1 of this 1869 English translation contains Books 1-4 of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas by Garcilaso de la Vega (1539 1616), the son of a Spanish soldier and an Inca...