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 The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India.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 (published in 1855) is devoted to an account of Sir Henry Middleton's voyage to the Molucca Islands in 1604-1606 on behalf of the East India Company. The appendices contain transcriptions of various documents relating to the voyage, including James I's commission authorising the expedition, the king's letters to the various rulers Middleton was likely to encounter, and letters from these rulers which Middleton conveyed back to London.