and in wages". The Spaniards, who wanted slaves, and
hoped to get them cheap, did not like to hear of his departure :
they " put him in comfort to sell better there than in any
other place " ; and went so far as to say that, if licence were
refused, he should not lose his labour in tarrying, for they
would buy without it.*

The details are curious, because this voyage led the way
to those hostilities in the New World, which made the
English name so formidable there, and so odious, and which

* Hakluyt, 509.



182 ENGLISH SEAMEN

first called forth the character of the English seaman in
its whole strength ; and because with these transactions at
Borburata that illicit trade commenced, which continued as
long as Spain retained its colonies upon the American main.
That Hawkins might be induced to stay, the Spaniards
bought some of his lean negroes ; but when the purchasers
paid the duty, and required from the officers of the customs
the customary discharge, the officers refused to give it, and,
instead of carrying the money to the king's account, dis-
tributed it to the poor " for the love of God ". He could not
have acted more wisely with a view to his own exculpation ;
but this caution put a stop to the sale, the purchasers fearing
that they might be called upon for payment of the duties a
second time. So trade was suspended till the fourteenth day,
when the governor arrived. To him Hawkins repeated his
petition : he had come thither in a ship of the queen's
majesty of England bound to Guinea ; but, driven here by
wind and weather, he had great need not of necessaries alone,
but money for the payment of his soldiers to whom he had
promised it ; and, indeed, they would not depart without it,
though he were willing to do so. Further, he represented
that, notwithstanding the prohibition, it would be well taken
at the governor's hands if he granted a licence in this case,
seeing that there was a great amity between their princes,
and that the thing pertained to our queen's highness. This
petition was taken into consideration by the governor in
council, and the licence was granted ; but any abatement of
the king's custom, being thirty ducats upon every slave,
was refused.*

But as Hawkins had little scruple how he obtained his
negroes, or what papers he exhibited, or what story he told,
so he was determined that the king's duties should not stand
in his way, and that if he could not obtain his price by fair

* Hakluyt, 510.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 183

means, he would extort it from his customers by fear. With
this resolution, he landed 100 men, well armed with bows and
arrows, harquebusses and pikes, and marched toward the
town. Speedy messengers came out to know his demands.
"So our captain," says his honest chronicler, "declaring how un-
reasonable a thing the king's custom was, requested to have
the same abated, and to pay 74 per cent., which is the ordinary
custom for wares through his dominions there ; and unto this
if they could not grant, he would displease them." Answer
was returned, that all things should be to his content : the
soldiers and mariners, however, insisted upon having hostages ;
when these had been given, the traffic was begun, and went on
without disturbance ; and Hawkins, it seems, found no further
difficulty in obtaining what he thought a fair price. By mere
accident, however, his presence, unwelcome as it must have
been to the persons in authority, proved to be of singular
benefit to the town. A party of Caribs having obtained a
guide, came in their canoes by night to burn the place and
massacre the inhabitants ; and their purpose was likely to
have succeeded, if the Spaniards had not been upon their guard
against the English.* Before they left this place, a French
vessel from Havre arrived from the coast of Guinea, having
been beaten off from St. Jorge da Mina by the Portuguese
galleys, and bringing to Hawkins tidings " most sorrowful
for him to understand," that the captain of his consort the
Minion, with a merchant and twelve mariners, had been
betrayed by the negroes on their first arrival there, and were
detained prisoners by the Portuguese ; so that there was
great doubt of bringing home the ship.

Having ended their dealings at Borburata, they proceeded
to the Island of Curaqoa, where they had "traffic for hides,
and found great refreshing both of beef, mutton, and lambs ;
whereof there was such plenty that, saving for skins, they

* Hakluyt, 510, 511.



184 ENGLISH SEAMEN

had the flesh given them for nothing ; and the worst in
the ship thought scorn, not only of mutton, but also of
sodden lamb, which they disdained to eat unroasted ".
But, notwithstanding this sweet meat, the narrator says,
" they had sour sauce there ; and after nine days' tarriance,
were rejoiced when they departed : for by reason of riding
so open at sea, what with blasts, whereby their anchors
being aground there, three at once came home, and also with
contrary winds blowing, whereby, for fear of the shore, they
were fain to haul off to have anchor-hold, sometimes a whole
day and night they turned up and down ; and this happened
not once, but half a dozen times in the space of their being
there ". Hawkins made next for Rio de la Hacha : there he
spoke with the king's treasurer of the Indies, resident there ;
told him of his quiet traffic in Borburata ; produced a certificate
from the governor in confirmation of this statement ; requested
licence to trade here also in like manner ; and when he was
told that this could not be granted, the viceroy having sent
express commission from St. Domingo to resist him with all
the force they could, he repeated his story of having been
forced by contrary winds to come into these parts. " But
seeing they would, contrary to all reason, go about to with-
stand his traffic, he would not it should be said by him, that,
having the force he had, he was driven from his traffic per-
force, but would rather put it in adventure whether he or
they should have the better ; and, therefore, he called upon
them to determine, either to give him licence to trade, or
else stand to their own defence." In reply to this, they gave
him the licence which he asked, but offered a price less by
one-half than what he had obtained at Borburata. ' ' Where-
upon the captain, weighing their unconscionable request,
wrote to them a letter, saying, that they dealt too rigorously
with him, to go about to cut his throat in the price of his
commodities, which were so reasonably rated, as they could
not by a great deal have the like at any other man's hands ;



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 185

but seeing they had sent him this to his supper, he would in
the morning bring them as good a breakfast." *

Having given this hint that he intended to settle the price
of his commodities in his own way, Hawkins accordingly
fired a culverin, in the morning, " to summon the town," and
prepared to land with 100 men, having two brass falcons in
his great boat, " and in the other boats double bases in their
noses ". The townsmen, " incontinent, in battle array,"
marched from the town, making semblance as if they would
resolutely have opposed the landing ; and he, " perceiving
them so to brag, commanded the two falcons to be discharged
at them ; which put them in no small fear to see, as they
afterwards declared, such great pieces in a boat". At every
shot they fell flat to the ground ; and at last, for fear of
these guns, they broke their array, and dispersed. Still their
horsemen, being about thirty, made a brave show, coursing
up and down, their white leather targets in one hand, and
their javelins in the other : but as soon as Hawkins marched
towards them, they sent a flag of truce ; and the treasurer,
in a cautious interview with this ugly merchant, acceded to
all that he asked. Hostages were demanded, as before, on
the alleged determination of the men ; and these having been
given, " we made our traffic quietly ". Nevertheless, as the
Spaniards seemed to be collecting, Hawkins thought a second
display of his strength necessary ; and when the final settle-
ment was to be made, he went with his three boats, as before,
"with bases in their noses, and his men with weapons ac-
cordingly ". All, however, passed off peaceably ; and though
some displeasure had arisen concerning money due by the
Governor of Borburata, which was to have been paid by the
treasurer here, and of which the treasurer refused payment,
Hawkins " would not molest him " for a debt which was not
his own, but was content to remit it until another time.

* Hakluyt, 512,



186 ENGLISH SEAMEN

They parted with a show of friendship : the captain demanded
a testimonial of his good behaviour : it was not given till he
was under sail,, ready to depart : then having received it, he
very courteously took his leave, shooting off the bases of his
boat for his farewell ; and the townsmen returned this parting
salute with four falcons and thirty harquebusses, glad to be
sped of such traders.*

He now made for Hispaniola ; but was driven so far to
leeward, that he fell in with the " middle of Jamaica, though
the clouds, which lay upon the land two days together, made
it appear like a headland. There was a Spanish merchant in
Hawkins' ship, who, trading in Guinea, and being by treason
taken of the negroes, and afterwards bought by the Tango-
mangos, was by our captain brought from thence, and had his
passage to go into his own country." Poor man ! he was
little benefited by this act of humanity. Deceived by the
appearance of the land, he pointed to the objects which, as
his hopes and imagination shaped them, seemed to him w r ell
known. This was such a place ; yonder was such a man's
ground ; behind that point was the harbour. Before he went
into the pinnace to go ashore, " he put on his new clothes,
and for joy flung away his old. But in the end," says the
angry narrator, "he pointed so from one point to another,
that we were a-leeboard of all places, and found ourselves at
the west end of Jamaica before we were aware of it ; and
being once to leeward, there was no getting up again: so
that, by trusting of this Spaniard's knowledge, our captain
sought not to speak with any of the inhabitants, which, if he
had not made himself sure of, he would have done as his cus-
tom was in other places." But this man was a plague not only
to our captain, whom he made lose, by overshooting the place,
2000/. by hides, which he might have gotten, but also to him-
self; for having been three years out of his country, and in

* Hakluyt, 513,



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 187

great misery in Guinea, and now in hope to come to his wife
and friends, as he made sure account, he could not find any
habitation neither there nor in Cuba, which we sailed all
along ; but it fell out ever, by one occasion or other, that we
were put beside the same, so that he was fain to be brought
to England ; and it happened to him as to that Duke of
Samaria, when the Israelites were besieged ; "for not ever
thinking to have seen his own country, he did see the same,
and went upon it ; and yet it was not his fortune to come to
it, nor to any habitation, whereby to remain with his friends
according to his desire ".*

This unfortunate Spaniard, as he had at first been mistaken
in the part of the coast, fell into a greater mistake concerning
the island itself, and concluded that it was Hispaniola ; in
which erroneous opinion Hawkins concurred, because, being
ignorant of the force of the current, he could not believe
that he had been so far driven to leeward. He set his course,
therefore, for Jamaica, as he supposed ; and this further error
" came to as ill a pass " as the first ; " for by this did he also
overpass a place in Cuba called Santa Cruz, where, as he was
informed, was great store of hides to be had " ; and missing,
thus, two of the ports "where he thought to have raised great
profit by his traffic, and also to have found refreshing of
victuals and water for his men, he w r as now disappointed
greatly ". The latter necessary he found upon the Isle of
Pinas ; and " although it were neither so toothsome as running
water, by the means it is standing, and but the water of rain,
and, moreover, being near the sea, was brackish, yet did not
they refuse it, but were more glad thereof, as the time then
required, than they should have been another time with fine
conduit water". After wandering in these seas three weeks
longer, they overshot the Havannah, " which," says Sparke,
" is an harbour whereunto all the fleets of the Spaniards come,

* Hakluyt, 514.



188 ENGLISH SEAMEN

and do there tarry to have one the company of another '.
Hawkins meant to have watered there, if he had hit the port.
He seems not to have entertained any apprehension that, if
he had fallen in there with any ships of greater strength,
they might have been disposed to put a stop to his trading by
just such cogent means as he had employed in carrying it on.
At length, in great want of water, he made for the coast of
Florida, and there ranged along, anchoring every night,
because he would miss no place where this want could be
supplied, and entering every creek in search for the Huguenot
colony which Admiral de Coligni had sent thither under
Rene de Laudonniere. He found them not where he ex-
pected, but on the river May ; where Laudonniere had erected
a fort about two leagues from the sea, which he named La
Caroline. They had been reduced, by war, desertion, and
mutiny, from 200 to about 40 ; and Hawkins heard from
them the sad history of their misfortunes and their mis-
conduct. Little as was the sense of religion that either party
manifested in their general dealings, on this occasion it
became a bond of sympathy and a security for good faith.
No precautions were thought necessary in their intercourse.
Hawkins supplied them out of his ship with such stores as he
could spare ; and, to help them the better homeward, spared
thenTalso one of his barques of fifty tons ; * when Laudonniere
could not be persuaded to accept of a passage to Europe for
himself and his people, though he had determined upon
returning thither without delay, after destroying the fort, lest
the Spaniards or English should occupy it.f

* Hakluyt, 516-518.

t " Fort honnete homme," Charlevoix calls Hawkins on this occasion ;
" et que, bien loin," he adds, " d'abuser du triste etat ou il trouva les
Frangois, fit au contraire 'Jtout ce 'qu'il put pour les soulager. Surtout
quand il cut reconnu qu'ils etoient Protestans." Of this, however,
Hawkins could not have been ignorant. " II vint seul et sans armes lui
rendre visite." And for the stores which he spared them, Charlevoix



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 189

He now sailed for England ; and contrary winds prolonged
the voyage " till victuals scanted, so that they were in despair
of ever reaching home, had not God," as they truly said,
" provided for them better than their deserving ". " In
which state of great misery," says Sparke, "we were provoked
to call upon Him by fervent prayer ; which moved Him to
hear us " : and they arrived, at length, at Padstow, in Corn-
wall, through His mercy, in safety, " with the loss of twenty
persons in all the voyage, and with great profit to the venturers,
as also to the whole realm, in bringing home gold, silver,
pearls, and other jewels great store. His name, therefore, be
praised for evermore. Amen ! " Thus piously the writer
of this narrative concludes his relation, as if utterly uncon-
scious that he had been engaged in anything iniquitous.
Contrariwise, it was considered that Hawkins had rendered
good service to his country by opening for it a new branch of
trade ; insomuch that, " by way of increase and augmentation
of honour, a coat of arms and crest were settled upon him and
his posterity, by a patent thus worded : He bears sable on
a point wavee, a lion passant gold, in chief three besants.
Upon his helm a wreath argent and azure, a demi-Moor, in
his proper colour, bound and captive, with annulets on his

says : " Non seulement Hawkins lui en avoit fait un bon prix, mais il y
avoit ajoute quantite de presens " (Hist, de la N. France, c. Ixxxix., xc.).

De Morgues confirms the account of this fair dealing, eequo admodum
pretio, and that some stores were given to the French (De Bry, 21).

Hawkins' historian thought there were means to reap a sufficient
profit in Florida and Virginia ; though it might seem unto some that,
because gold and silver were not so abundant as in other places, the cost
would not quit the charge. For breeding cattle, he thought no country
could be more favourable ; and the profit from hides was very great. But
as to forming a settlement there, " because," he says, " there is not the
thing we all seek, being rather desirous of present gains, I do, therefore,
affirm the attempt thereof to be more requisite for a prince, who is of
power able to go through with the same, than for any subject " (p. 520).

* Hakluyt, 521.



190 ENGLISH SEAMEN

arms and ears, or mantelled gules double argent." * "A
worthy symbol/' Campbell observes, f " of the infamous
traffic which he had opened to his country."

After an expedition in 1567, for the intended relief of the
Huguenots at Rochelle, he prepared for a second adventure
to Guinea and the Spanish Indies ; J and sailed from Plymouth,
in October, 1567, with his old ship the Jesus of Lubeck, the
Minion, and four other vessels. Arriving at Cape de Verd,
he landed 150 men, "hoping to obtain some negroes, where
he got but few, and those with great hurt and damage to his
own men ; chiefly, it was thought, proceeding from poisoned
arrows : for although, in the beginning, the hurts seemed to
be but small, there hardly escaped any that had blood drawn
of them, but died in strange sort, with their mouths shut
some ten days before they died, and after their wounds
were whole ". Thence they proceeded, " searching with
all diligence the rivers from Rio Grande to Sierra Leone " ;
when, having "gotten together" not so many as 150 slaves,
sickness and the lateness of the season, says Hawkins, " com-
manded us away, thus having nothing wherewith to seek the
coast of the West Indies ". While the commander was
holding counsel whether to make for St. Jorge da Mina, and
there obtain gold for their wares, so to defray their charges,
a negro king sent to desire their aid against his neighbours,
promising them for their pains all the prisoners who should

* Prince's Worthies of Devon. t Vol. i., 405.

j Herrera says, that two Portuguese offered to conduct this fleet to a
place where they might load themselves with gold and other riches :
that upon this allurement the queen supplied Hawkins with two ships,
he and his brother fitting out other four and a pinnace, that the force on
board amounted to 1500 soldiers and mariners, who were to be paid by
a third of the profits (que yuan al terclo de la ganancia) ; and that, when
the expedition was on the point of sailing, the Portuguese deserted from
Plymouth, and got to France : but as the cost of the outfit had been
incurred, it was thought proper to proceed (Historia General, 1. xix., c.
xviii., p. 718).



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 191

be taken. Without regard to anything but the prospect of
gain, the offers were accepted, and 120 men sent to assist
this barbarian. They assaulted a town containing 8000 in-
habitants, strongly paled and fenced after their manner, and
so well defended, that the English, having had six slain and
forty wounded, sent to Hawkins for more help ; " whereupon,"
says he, " considering that the good success of this enterprise
might highly further the commodity of our voyage, I went
myself ; and, with the help of the king of our side, assaulted
the town both by land and sea ; and very hardly, with fire
(their houses being covered with dry palm leaves), obtained
the town, and put the inhabitants to flight ; where we took
250 persons, men, women, and children. And by our friend,
the king of our side, there were taken 600 prisoners, where-
of we hoped to have had our choice ; but the negro (in which
nation is seldom or never found truth) meant nothing less :
for that night he removed his camp and prisoners, so that we
were fain to content us with those few that we had gotten
ourselves." *

Having, however, now obtained between 400 and 500
negroes, he hoped, by carrying them to the West Indies, to
countervail the charges of this expedition with some gains.
Having made the Island of Dominica, he " coasted on from
place to place, making his traffic with the Spaniards as he
might ; somewhat hardly, because the king had straightly
commanded all his governors in those parts by no means to
suffer any trade to be made with them ". Notwithstanding,

* Hakluyt, 521, 522. " When they were about to land in the river Bambo,"
Herrera says, " a sea-horse (cavallo marino) gave the boat a blow, which
would have swamped it if it had not speedily got to shore : the creature,"
he adds, " sprang upon the prow at the same time, and with its tail and arm,
or paw, carried off a trumpeter " (p. 718). " Here, too," he says, " Haw-
kins took on board twelve Frenchmen, the miserable remains of fifty, who
had put off in their boat from a sinking ship, and remained at the mercy of
the waves, subsisting upon four figs a day till these alone survived."



192 ENGLISH SEAMEN

he had "reasonable trade and courteous entertainment"
from the Isle of Margarita unto Carthagena, except at Rio de
la Hacha, " from whence came all the pearls ". The trea-
surer, who had the charge, would by no means agree to any
trade, or suffer us to water ; he had fortified his town with
divers bulwarks in all places where it might be entered, and
furnished him with 100 harquebusiers ; so that he thought,
by famine, to have enforced us to put a-land our negroes ;
" of which purpose," says Hawkins, " he had not greatly
failed, unless we had by force entered the town : which,
after we could by no means obtain his favour, we were
enforced to do. So, with 200 men, we brake in upon their
bulwarks, and entered the town, with the loss only of two
men,* and no hurt done to the Spaniards, because, after their
volley discharged, they all fled. Thus having the town, with
some circumstances, as partly by the Spaniards' desire of
negroes, and partly by friendship of the treasurer, we ob-
tained a secret trade, whereupon the Spaniards resorted to us
by night, and bought of us to the number of 200 negroes.
In all other places where we traded, the Spaniard inhabit-
ants were glad of us, and traded willingly." f

Carthagena was the last town which they thought to have
seen on the coast. There the governor was so straight
that is, he observed his orders so properly that Hawkins
could have no dealings with any Spaniard ; and, because his
trade was nearly finished, he neither thought it prudent to
venture a landing, nor to " detract further time," but departed
in peace, hoping to escape the hurricanes, for "the time of
these storms " w T as approaching. But passing by the west
end of Cuba, towards Florida, there " happened to them " a
storm, which continued four days, and "so beat the Jesus
that they cut down all her higher buildings ; her rudder also

* Herrera says: "He lost his sargento mor here, and three others"
(p. 719).

t Hakluyt, 522.



HAWKINS AND DRAKE 193

was sore shaken, and withal the ship was in so extreme a
leak," that they were "rather on the point to leave her
than to keep her any longer". Yet, hoping to "bring all to
good pass/' they made for the coast of Florida, and there
found no place nor haven for their ships because of the shal-
lowness of the coast. "Thus being in greater despair, and
taken with a new storm, which continued other three days,"
Hawkins thought that his only resource was to take for his
succour " the port which serveth the city of Mexico, called
St. Juan de Ulloa ; in seeking of which port," he says, "we
took on our way three ships, which carried passengers to the
number of 100 ; which passengers we hoped should be a
mean to us the better to obtain victuals for our money, and a
quiet place for the repairing of our fleet ".*

That port they entered on the 16th of September. The
Spaniards of Vera Cruz mistook them for a fleet from Spain
which was daily expected ; and under that mistake the chief
officers came aboard to receive the dispatches, f and "being
deceived of their expectation," were greatly dismayed ; " but
when they saw our demand was nothing but victuals, they
were recomforted. I found in the same port," says Hawkins,
" twelve ships, J which had in them, by report, 200,000/. in