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The House of Israel 89
until the arrival of the later incoming aggressors and can- dized for colonization in North America.” We, of course,
nibals. Even so after eight generations the returning ships recall that, when YEHOVAH God blessed the descen-
commanded by captains with Viking names found Taine’s dants of Israel, He promised: “Thy seed shall be as the dust
people. They had survived and even prospered. The ships of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west...”
eventually returned to Scotland with some of the young
men, descendants of Taine and his exiles. Some returned In 935 B.C., ten of the tribes of Israel rebelled
to New Zealand with wives they had taken in Scotland against the Throne of David over taxation and began the
(dates around 1283-92 A.D.). Some remained in Scotland northern Kingdom of Israel, separated from their
with the written records. These records still exist and are God-given Throne and Temple. This is the first com-
carefully preserved. The incoming aggressors and canni- mencement date of the Seven Times of Chastisement, of
bals seem to have eventually succeeded in driving just 2,520 years, decreed by YEHOVAH upon His people for
about all larger forms of life on the islands to extinction.” their disobedience. This period expired in 1586, a central
date in the Elizabethan Period which saw the beginning of
Remains of a Scottish/Celtic homestead along the overseas expansion of the British People, in which the
with hearthstone have been discovered that could be the writings of Richard Hakluyt played such an important
ruins of where Taine’s descendants may have lived. There part. Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith writes concerning
is much to be resolved, and much much more to be uncov- Hakluyt that he was: “the most influential of the select
ered in New Zealand. Where are the artifacts and ruins left band of literary Elizabethans who -- like Gilbert, Davies,
by the Moriori, Turehu, Patupaiarehe and Waitaha -- peo- Dee and Raleigh -- publicized their vision of a greater
ples that the Maoris of the 19th century admitted were in England beyond the seas.”
land before them or living alongside them after they ar-
rived? Hakluyt’s vision commenced in his school-days
at Westminster School, when he visited his cousin and
Hakluyt -- Prophet of Britain’s West- namesake who was a gentleman of the Middle Temple.
ward Expansion Lying on his cousin’s table were some books on
cosmography and a map of the world. In answering the
schoolboy’s questions on these, his cousin ended up by
Over four centuries ago, in 1582, Richard
giving him a lecture on the “divisions of the earth, pointing
Hakluyt’s first book: Diverse Voyages Touching the Dis-
out the rivers, capes and bays and the territorial divisions
covery of America, was published. Like his greater work:
with a disquisition on the commodities and requirements
The Principal Navigation, Voyages and Discoveries of
of each country.” Then, significantly, his cousin took him
the English Nations, published in 1589, the book had a
to the Bible and asked him to read out the 23rd and 24th
practical object -- to encourage his fellow countrymen to
verses of Psalms 107.
colonize, and to ensure that North America was planted by
Englishmen. Richard Hakluyt, known to historians as the
They that go down to the sea in ships,
“Apostle of Empire,” was a man with a vision -- a vision
that do business in great waters; these see the
which was to be realized fully in succeeding centuries in
works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.
the expansion of British People from their small island
Kingdom to develop a “company of nations” blossoming
Hakluyt writes concerning this incident that: “he
into the greatest Empire the world has known.
was then told things that were of high and rare delight to
his young nature.” Whilst studying for his degree at Ox-
Concerning Hakluyt’s first book, historian Lacey
ford, he spent as much time as he could reading every nar-
Baldwin Smith, Professor of English History at North-
rative of overseas exploration and adventure he could get a
western University, Illinois, writes (with greater signifi-
hold of -- and he mastered six languages in order to do this!
cance than he probably realizes) in his magazine series
He came to realize that there were two hindrances to future
The British Empire: “First, with a prophetic enthusiasm
colonization: the ignorance of most seamen regarding the
for the future direction of imperial expansion he propagan-
The Berean Voice July-August 2002