gold and silver ; all which being in my possession, with the
king's island, as also the passengers before in my way thither-
ward stayed, I set at liberty, without the taking from them
the weight of a groat." He had good reason for being upon
his good behaviour at this juncture ; and, detaining two
persons of estimation for his own security, he sent post to
Mexico, representing to the viceroy that he had put in here
by stress of weather, in want of victuals, and his ships in
* Hakluyt, 522.
t " Fue tanto el recato de Juan de Aquines, que nunca los oficiales cono-
cieron los navios, hasta que los tomaron, y se los llevaron " (Herrera, 719).
J Herrera says six, with a great quantity of silver on board.
13
194 ENGLISH SEAMEN
great need of repair : these wants the English, as friends to
King Philip, requested they might be supplied with for their
money ; they requested, also, that, with all convenient speed,
order might be taken for preventing any cause of quarrel on
the arrival of the Spanish fleet. This message left the port
on the night after their entrance : " on the morrow," says
Hawkins, "we saw open of the haven thirteen great ships.
I sent immediately to advertise the general of the fleet of
my being there, giving him to understand, that, before I
would suffer them to enter the port, there should some order
of conditions pass between us for our safe-being there and
maintenance of peace.
" Now it is to be understood that this port is made by a
little island of stones, not three foot above the water in the
highest place, and but a bowshot of length any way : this
island standeth from the mainland two bowshots or more.
Also it is to be understood that there is not in all this coast
any other place for ships to arrive in safety, because the north
wind hath there such violence, that, unless the ships be
very safely moored, with their anchors fastened upon this
island, there is no remedy for these north winds but death.
Also the place of the haven was so little, that of necessity
the ships must ride one aboard the other, so that we could
not give place to them, nor they to us. And here 1 began
to bewail that which after followed : ' For now/ said I, ' I am in
two dangers, and forced to receive the one of them '. That
was, either I must have kept out the fleet, the which, with
God's help, I was very well able to do ; or else suffer them
to enter in with their accustomed treason, which they never
fail to execute, when they may have opportunity to compass
it by any means. If I had kept them out, then had there
been present shipwreck of all the fleet, which amounted in
value to six millions, which was in value of our money
1,800,000/. ; which I considered I was not able to answer,
fearing the queen's majesty's indignation in so weighty a
HAWKINS AND DRAKE 195
matter. Thus with myself revolving the doubts, I thought
rather better to abide the jutt of the uncertainty than the
certainty : the uncertain doubt, I account, was their treason,
which, by good policy, I hoped might be prevented ; and,
therefore, as choosing the least mischief, I proceeded to con-
ditions." *
The fleet, which was commanded by Francisco de Luxan,
brought out a new viceroy, Don Martin Henriquez ; and his
presence rendered it unnecessary to wait for instructions
from Mexico.! Indeed the circumstances admitted of no
delay ; for the fleet, being advised from Vera Cruz that the
English were in the port, kept off at a distance of some three
leagues, and were in danger of the north winds, which are
as frequent on that coast as they are perilous. Upon re-
ceiving Hawkins's overtures, the viceroy, therefore, desired
him to propose his conditions, promising that, for the better
maintenance of amity between the two crowns, they should
on his part be favourably granted and faithfully performed :
he added "many fair words, how, passing the coast of the Indies,
he had understood of our honest behaviour towards the in-
habitants where we had to do ; the which," says Hawkins,
" I let pass. We required victuals for our money, and
licence to sell as much ware as might furnish our wants ; and
that there might be of either part twelve gentlemen as
hostages ; and that the island, for our better safety, might
be in our own possession during our abode there, and such ord-
nance as was planted on the same island, which were eleven
pieces of brass ; and that no Spaniard might land on the island
with any kind of weapon." These conditions the viceroy
" somewhat disliked " at first ; as well he might, coming from
one whom he could regard as nothing better than an armed
* Hakluyt, 523.
t According to Herrera, the English had been some days in the port,
and the permission for which they had applied had arrived from Mexico
But these are points upon which Hawkins must be the best authority.
196 ENGLISH SEAMEN
contrabandist. Chiefly he objected to the demand that the
English should have the island in their own keeping : this,
however, Hawkins justly regarded as an indispensable con-
dition, seeing that " if they had had it, we should soon have
known our fare ; for with the first north wind they had cut
our cables, and our ships had gone ashore ". The negotia-
tions, not being expedited by any dangerous weather, con-
tinued three days. At last, the viceroy consented to all that
was required, reducing only the number of hostages to ten :
these, with all speed on either part, were exchanged ; the
viceroy gave a writing, " signed with his hand, and sealed
with his seal, of all the conditions ; and forthwith command-
ment was made, by sound of trumpet, that none should
violate the peace on pain of death. The two generals met
and pledged their faith each to the other ; and all having
been, as it seemed, concluded, the Spaniards entered the
port, the fleets saluting one another as the manner of the sea
doth require. Thus, Thursday, we entered the port, Friday
we saw the Spanish fleet, and on Monday, at night, they
entered. Then we laboured two days placing the English
ships by themselves, and the Spanish ships by themselves ;
the captains of each part, and inferior men of their parts,
promising great amity ; which even as with all fidelity it was
meant on our part, so the Spaniards meant nothing less on
theirs." *
Hawkins soon had reason to suspect that the Spaniards
were secretly furnishing their ships with men from the shore :
indeed, on the very night after the Spaniards had entered,
120 soldiers had been conveyed on board. The viceroy, who,
by permitting this, clearly consented to the intended treason,
left things in this state, and departed for Mexico. On the
morning of Thursday there were manifest indications of some
intended treason ; such as " shifting of weapons from ship to
* Hakluyt, 523, 524.
HAWKINS AND DRAKE 197
ship ; planting and landing of ordnance from the ships to the
island ; passing to and fro of companies of men, more than
required for their necessary business, and many other ill
likelihoods, which caused him and his people to have a
vehement suspicion. Therewithal he sent to the general
to inquire what was meant. The answer was, that he would
be their defence against all villainies ; * and commandment
was given, accordingly, to unplant all things suspicious."
Hawkins's apprehensions were not removed by these fair
words and fair appearances : he had reason to believe that
not less than 300 men had been secretly conveyed on board a
ship of 900 tons, which was moored next the Minion ; and,
as the master of the Jesus spoke Spanish, he sent him to the
viceroy, and required to be satisfied if any such thing were or
not. "The viceroy now seeing that the treason must be
discovered, forthwith stayed our master, blew the trumpet,
and of all sides set upon us. Our men which warded ashore,
being stricken with sudden fear, gave place, fled, and sought
to recover succour of the ships. The Spaniards, being pro-
vided for the purpose, landed in all places in multitudes from
their ships, which they might easily do without boats, and
slew all our men ashore without mercy ; a few only escaping
on board the Jesus. The great ship immediately fell aboard
the Minion ; but, by God's appointment, in the time of the
suspicion we had, which was only one half-hour, the Minion
was made ready to avoid ; and so leesing her head-fasts, and
* On the faith of a viceroy, Hawkins says : but it was the general,
Luxan, who was now acting on his own authority, and on the avowed
principle that faith was not to be kept with freebooters : Qne aqucllos
Inglcses tran cossarios y que no se les devia guardar la fc dada. Indeed
the story, as told by the Spanish historian, has a blacker character than
in Hawkins's relation. Herrera says, that Luxan sent a good number
of Spaniards on shore, armed only with daggers, who feigning good
fellowship with the English, invited them to drink, and when they had
drank enough, and the signal was given, suddenly Attacked them, the
ships at the same time opening their fire.
198 ENGLISH SEAMEN
hauling away by the stem-fasts, she was gotten out : thus,
with God's help, she defended the violence of the first brunt
of these 300 men. The Minion being passed out, they came
aboard the Jesus; which, also, with very much ado, and
the loss of many of our men, kept them out. Then were there
also two other ships that assaulted the Jesus at the same
instant, so that she had hard getting loose ; but yet, with
some time, we had cut our head-fasts, and gotten out by the
stern-fasts. Now, when the Jesus and the Minion were
gotten about two ships' length from the Spanish fleet, the
fight began so hot on all sides, that, within one hour the
admiral of the Spaniards was supposed to be sunk, their
vice-admiral burnt, and one other of their principal ships
supposed to be sunk ; so that the ships were little able to
annoy us." *
Had the English maintained the island long enough after
the first manifestation of hostility, to have spiked the. guns
there, the whole action would have been as glorious to them
as it was dishonourable to the Spaniards ; but they had made
no preparation against an attack, and when it was made
the men who were ashore lost all courage and with it all
presence of mind. Their ordnance being thus in the Spaniards'
hands, " did us," says Hawkins, " so great annoyance, that
it cut all the masts and yards of the Jesus, in such sort that
there was no hope to carry her away ; also it sunk our small
* Hakluyt, 524. The Spanish account differs from this : it says that
Hawkins, having fought all day, and seeing twelve of his men killed by
the fall of a mast, and that his other vessels were in bad plight, went on
board the Almeranta, and ordered his own ship to be set on fire, and so
put to sea. The ship, however, was not burnt ; and the Spanish hostages
who were left in it said that he had always treated them well. The
Spaniards say that they sunk one vessel, and that another with sixty men
got out, but afterwards was driven on the coast of Panuco, where the
people were made prisoners by the inhabitants of S. Luis de Tampico
and sent to Mexico, and there, by the viceroy's orders, treated well
(p. 720).
HAWKINS AND DRAKE 199
ships (the Judith only, a small barque of fifty tons, excepted) :
whereupon we determined to place the Jesus on that side of
the Minion, that she might abide all the battery from the
land, and so be a defence for the Minion till night ; and then
to take such relief of victuals and other necessaries from the
Jesus as the time would suffer us, and to leave her. As we
were thus determining, and had placed the Minion from the
shot of the land, suddenly the Spaniards fired two great ships
which were coming directly with us ; and having no means
to avoid the fire, it bred among the men a marvellous fear, so
that some said, ' Let us depart with the Minion ' ; others said,
' Let us see whether the wind will carry the fire from us '.
But to be short, the Minion's men, who had always their
sails in readiness, thought to make sure work ; and so, without
either consent of the captain or master, cut their sail."
Hawkins himself was " very hardly " received on board. Most
of the men who were left alive in the Jesus made shift and
followed the Minion in their boat ; the rest, whom the boat
could not hold, were enforced to abide the mercy of the
Spaniards, " which," he says, " I doubt, was very little ".*
Thus only the Minion and the Judith escaped ; and Haw-
kins complains that the latter that same night forsook him
in his great misery. Having removed about two bowshots
from the Spanish ships, the Minion rode until morning, and
then gained the Isla de Sacrificios, about a mile off: there a
north wind took them ; and being left only with two anchors
and as many cables, for in the conflict they had lost three
* Hakluyt, 425. Little, indeed; "for it is a certain truth," says Miles
Philips, " that whereas they had taken certain of our men ashore, they
hung them up by the arms upon high posts, until the blood burst out of
their fingers' ends : of which men so used there is one Copstowe, and
certain others yet alive, who, by the merciful providence of the Almighty,
arrived here at home in England, carrying still about with them (and shall
to their graves) the marks and tokens of those their inhuman and more
than barbarous cruel dealings " (Hakluyt, 473).
200 ENGLISH SEAMEN
cables and two anchors they thought always upon death, which
ever was present ; " but God," says the commander, " pre-
served us to a longer life. [That north wind prevented the
Spaniards, according to their own account, from pursuing him :
but they might have done this when the wind changed, and,
doubtless, would have done so, had they not been so roughly
handled in the action.] The weather waxed seasonable, and the
Saturday we set sail ; and having a great number of men and
little victuals, our hope of life waxed less and less." Some
were for yielding to the Spaniards ; some rather desired to
reach a place where they might give themselves to the in-
fidels ; and some had rather abide, with a little pittance, the
mercy of God at sea. "So, thus, with sorrowful hearts, we
wandered in an unknown sea by the space of fourteen days,
till hunger enforced us to seek the land ; for hides were
thought very good meat : rats, cats, mice, and dogs, none
escaped that might be gotten ; parrots and monkeys, that
were had in great price, were thought then very profitable if
they served the turn one dinner. Thus on the 8th of October
we came to land in the bottom of the same Bay of Mexico,
in 23, where we hoped to have found inhabitants of the
Spaniards, relief of victuals, and place for the repair of our
ship, which was so sore beaten with shot from our enemies,
and bruised with shooting off our own ordnance, that our
weary and weak arms were scarce able to keep out water.
But all things happened to the contrary ; we found neither
people, victuals, nor haven of relief; only a place where,
having fair weather, with some peril we might land a boat." *
This was on the coast of Tabasco.
Here some of his people desired to be set ashore, making
their choice rather to submit themselves to the mercy of
savages than longer to hazard themselves at sea, where they
very well saw that should they remain together, if they per-
* Hakluyt, 524, 525.
HAWKINS AND DRAKE 201
ished not by drowning, hunger must enforce them in the end
to eat one another. Desperate as the request was, he could
not but consent to it. About a hundred took this resolution,
and about as many more resolved, at all risks, to take the
chance of reaching their own country.* The former were
* Thus Hawkins relates the story : a very different one is told by
Miles Philips: he says that to this request "our general did very willingly
agree, considering with himself that it was necessary for him to lessen
his number, both for the safety of himself and the rest ; and thereupon
being resolved to set half his people ashore that he had then left alive, it
was a world to see how suddenly men's minds were altered ; for they which
a little before desired to be set on land were now of a different mind, and
requested rather to stay. By means whereof our general was enforced,
for the more contentation of all men's minds, and to take away all occasions
of offence, to take this order. First, he made choice of such persons of
service and account as were needful to stay ; and that being done, of
those which were willing to go, he appointed such as he thought might
be best spared, and presently appointed that by the boat they should be
set on shore ; our general promising us that, the next year, he would either
come himself, or else send to fetch us home. Here, again, it would have
caused any stony heart to have relented to hear the pitiful moan that
many did make, and how loth they were to depart. The weather was
then somewhat stormy and tempestuous, and, therefore, we were to pass
with great danger ; yet, notwithstanding, there was no remedy, but we
that were appointed to go must of necessity do so : howbeit, those that
went in the first boat were safely set on shore ; but of those which went
in the second, of which I myself was one, the seas wrought so high, that
we could not attain to the shore, and, therefore, we were constrained,
through the cruel dealing of John Hampton, captain of the Minion, and
John Sanders, boatswain of the Jesus, and Thomas Pollard his mate, to
leap out of the boat into the main sea, having more than a mile to shore,
and so to shift for ourselves, and either to sink or swim ; and of those
that so were (as it were) thrown out, and compelled to leap into the sea,
there were two drowned" (pp. 473, 474). Those who were landed, he
says, had only one caliver, and two old swords among them.
The relation of Job Hortop, another of the party, is more in conformity
with Hawkins. "Our general," he says, "was forced to divide his
company into two parts, for there was mutiny among them for want of
victuals ; and some said that they would rather be on the shore, to
shift for themselves amongst the enemies, than to starve on shipboard.
202 ENGLISH SEAMEN
landed ; Hawkins determined to water there, and then with
his "little remain of victuals to take the sea". He was on
shore with fifty of his remaining crew expediting this work,
when there arose an extreme storm ; during three days they
could not regain the ship, and the ship was in such peril that
eveiy hour they expected to see it wrecked. But " God again
had mercy on them," and with fair weather they got clear of
the coast of the Indies and the Gulf of Bahama. After this,
his men, oppressed with famine, began to sink and die, till
the few survivors grew into such weakness that they were
scarce able to manage the ship. The wind " being always ill
for them to recover England," they made for the coast of
Galicia, and on the last day of December put into Pontevedra.
There, " by excess of fresh meat, the men grew into miserable
diseases ". Most of them died ; and Hawkins perceiving
that, notwithstanding all endeavours to conceal his weak-
ness, the Spaniards had discovered it, and were planning
some treachery, removed with all speed possible to Vigo.
Some English ships which were lying there assisted him, and
spared him twelve of their men, with which help he arrived
at last in Mount's Bay. He concludes his relation with these
He asked them who would go on shore, and who would tarry on ship-
board ? those that would go on shore, he willed to go on fore-mast, and
those that would tarry, on baft-mast. Fourscore and sixteen of us were
willing to depart. Our general gave unto every one of us six yards of
Roan cloth, and money to them that demanded it. When we were
landed he came unto us, where, friendly embracing every one of us, he
was greatly grieved that he was forced to leave us behind him ; he
counselled us to serve God and to love one another, and thus courteously
he gave us a sorrowful farewell, and promised if God sent him safe home,
he would do what he could, that so many of us as lived should by some
means be brought into England ; and so he did.
" Since my return into England, I have heard that many misliked
that he left us so behind him, and brought away negroes. But the
reason is this, for them he might have had victuals, or any other thing
needful, if by foul weather he had been driven upon the islands, which
for gold nor silver he could not have had " (Hakluyt, 491).
HAWKINS AND DRAKE 203
words : " If all the miseries and troublesome affairs of this
sorrowful voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written,
there should need a painful man with his pen, and as great a
time as he had that wrote the lives and deaths of the martyrs ".*
It is remarkable that the Spanish character, honourable as
it had formerly been, and as it afterwards again became,
should at this time have been stained by so many instances
of bad faith. The perfidy of some of their kings, especially
of Ferdinand, first brought upon the nation this disgrace.
He acted upon the Machiavellian principle, that in policy
whatever is expedient is right ; and the Romish Church con-
secrated that principle for his successors, when it pronounced
that no faith was to be kept with heretics, a principle which
no Church but that which styles itself infallible has ever
proclaimed, and which can be held by none but those whose
conscience is not in their own keeping. The treachery with
which Hawkins had been treated excited a strong feeling in
England, especially among military and seafaring men. They
exclaimed against the Spaniards for breach of treaty in this
case, inasmuch, they said, as it had been agreed between
Charles V. and Henry VIII. that there should be free com-
* Hakluyt, 526. Hawkins little knew, when he penned that sentence,
that some of his unhappy companions would be entitled in the strictest
sense to that appellation ! George Rively, Peter Momfrie, and Cornelius,
an Irishman, were burnt at Mexico ; Robert Barret and John Gilbert at
Seville. Many others, who saved their lives by renouncing the opinions
which they had been compelled by torture to avow, though they would
have professed anything to have escaped persecution, were flogged on
horseback through the streets of Mexico, and condemned there or in
Seville to the galleys, and to different terms of imprisonment. The
narratives which Miles Philips and Job Hortop published of their ad-
ventures and sufferings must have contributed greatly to that abhorrence
of the Spaniards which so long prevailed in this country. The first
effected his escape after sixteen years, the latter after three and twenty.
Both accounts bear every mark of veracity. It appears that the Spaniards
would have been disposed to treat them with great kindness, if it had
not been for the Inquisition.
204 ENGLISH SEAMEN
merce between the subjects of both princes, in all and singu-
lar their dominions and islands, not excepting America, which
already at that time belonged to Charles ; and on this ground
they wished that war might be declared against Spain.*
Both parties were in the wrong. An infraction of that treaty,
by closing the American ports, was a point for discussion
between the two Governments, and if the English Government
had thought fit, a ground of war, if any wrong in consequence
had been offered to one of the queen's subjects ; but it was
not for a subject to take the matter into his own hands, and
declare his determination of trading in those ports amicably
if the authorities pleased, but otherwise, arms in hand,
whether they would or not. After he had thus declared,
and acted up to that declaration, there could have been no
just cause of complaint on the part of England, if he and his
fleet had been fairly taken or destroyed. But by acting
basely the Spaniards gave the English the advantage of a
fair quarrel ; and though the queen, because she was at that
time perplexed with the troubled state of affairs in Scotland,
for that cause, and for other weighty considerations, gave no
ear to those who would at once have engaged the nation in a
war with Spain, there were adventurers who resolved to pro-
secute the quarrel at all risks.
The Judith, which made part of Hawkins's fleet, and was
the only vessel except the Minion that escaped, was com-
manded by Francis Drake, a name that soon became terrible
to the Spaniards. The cottage in which Drake was born, on
the beautiful banks of the Tavy, was demolished some thirty
years ago, till which time it; had remained unchanged ; a stall