PURCHAS, SAMUEL, an English divine, famous for compiling a valuable collection of voyages, was born in 1577 at Thacksted in Essex. After studying at Cambridge, he obtained the vicarage of Eastwood in his native county; but leaving that cure to his brother, he settled in London, in order to carry on the great work on which he was engaged. He published the first volume in folio in 1613, and the last four twelve years afterwards, under the title of Purchas, his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, and the Religions observed in all Ages and Places. Meanwhile he was collated to the rectory of St Martin's, Ludgate, in London, and made chaplain to Dr Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury. His Pilgrimages, and the learned Hakluyt's Voyages, led the way to all the other collections of the same kind, which have been so justly valued and esteemed. (See HAKLUYT, Richard.) But unhappily, by publishing, he involved himself in debt, and died in embarrassed circumstances about the year 1628. He likewise wrote Microcosmos, or the History of Man, 8vo, 1619; The King's Tower and Triumphant Arch of London, 8vo, 1623; and a Funeral Sermon on Psalm xxxix. 5, 8vo, 1619. A foreign writer describes him as "an Englishman admirably skilled in languages and human and divine arts; a very great philosopher, historian, and theologian; a faithful priest of his own church; very widely known for his many excellent writings, and especially for his large volumes pertaining to the East and West Indies."