further loss, and to have carried on the remainder of the
action with guns, " encouraging his men afresh with the
whole noise of trumpets ". After an action of five or six
hours, the Spaniards being " in danger of sinking by reason
of the great shot, some of which were under water, set out
a flag of truce, and parleyed for mercy, requesting the
English commander to spare their lives and take their
goods ".

Then, in the characteristic words of one of the fortunate
adventurers, " our general of his goodness promised them
mercy, and willed them to strike their sails, and to hoyse out
their boat, and to come aboard ; which news they were full
glad to hear of, and presently one of their chief merchants
came aboard ; and, falling down upon his knees, offered to
have kissed our general's feet, and craved mercy. Our
general most graciously pardoned both him and the rest,
upon promise of their true dealing with him and his company
concerning such riches as were in the ship ; and he sent for
the captain and the pilot, who, at their coming aboard, used
the like duty and reverence that the former did. The
general, of his great mercy and humanity, promised their
lives and good usage. The said captain and pilot presently

* Yet Christoval Suraz de Figueroa represents the ship as unprepared
for, and taken without, resistance : " Hallavase (por ser aquel mar
pacifico) sin una espada, y bien segura de semejante novedad. Candi
abordando, la entro y robo" (p. 211). He says also that Cavendish hung
a priest who was on board.



THOMAS CAVENDISH 385

certified the general what goods they had within board, to
wit, 122,000 pesos of gold : the rest of the riches that the
ship was laden with was in rich silks, satins, and damasks,
with musk, and divers other merchandise, and great store of
all manner of victuals, with choice of many conserves of all
sorts for to eat, and of sundry sorts of very good wines."

On the second day after the action Cavendish brought
his prize into the bay, then called Aguada Segura, but now
Bahia de San Bernabe', on the east side of Cape San Lucas,
and there he set " the whole company of the Spaniards, both
of men and women, to the number of 1.90, on shore ". It was
not his intention to keep the Santa Anna, with which, indeed,
it would have been unwise to encumber himself ; nevertheless,
he would not, " of his great mercy and humanity," after he
had despoiled the ship, give it to these poor people.* His
journalist, who seems to have had about as much humanity as
himself, complacently relates that they had a fair river of
fresh water, with great store of fresh fish, fowl, and wood,
and that there were many hares and conies upon the main-
land. How they were to reach the mainland, he neither
knew nor cared ; and he did not know that a colony which
Cortes had sent to that part of California had abandoned it,
because they could not find means of subsistence there.
" Our general also gave them great store of victuals, of gar-
vanzos, pease, and some wine. Also they had all the sails of
their ship to make them tents on shore, with licence to take
such store of planks as should be sufficient to make them a

* Fuller says : " Mr. Cavendish's mercy after, equalled his valour in the
fight, landing the Spaniards on the shore, and leaving them plentiful
provisions". Mercy, indeed! But this is not the only reprehensible
passage in his brief and very inaccurate account of this commander .
Speaking of the Spaniards' design to fortify the straits, he says : " But
God, the promoter of the public good, destroyed their intended monopoly,
sending such a mortality among their men, that scarce five of five hundred
did survive ".

25



386 ENGLISH SEAMEN

bark. Then," says Pretty, " we fell to hauling in of our goods,
sharing of the treasure, and allotting to every man his portion ;
in division whereof many of the company fell into a mutiny
against our general, especially those in the Content, which,
nevertheless, were after a sort pacified for the time." The
discontents of the Content were soon, after another sort, put
to rest for ever !

To stow their booty was a work of some time. It was on
the 6th of November that they anchored in the bay. On
the 17th, the day of Queen Elizabeth's "happy coronation,"
salutes were fired from both ships with all their guns and
small shot ; and at night they " had many fireworks and
more ordnance discharged, to the great admiration of the
Spaniards, for the most part of them had never seen the like
before ". This ended, he discharged the captain, and gave
him, in Pretty's words, "a royal reward, with provision for
his defence against the Indians, and his company, both of
swords, targets, pieces, shot, and powder, to his contentment".
But he took into his own ship three Philippine boys, and
two Japanese youths, who could read and write their own
language, and were both of very good capacity. He like-
wise detained one Nicolas Rodriguez, a Portuguese, who
had " not only been in Canton and other parts of China, but
also in the Islands of Japan, being a country most rich in
silver mines, and also in the Philippines " ; and a Spaniard,
Tomas de Ersola by name, " which was a very good pilot from
Acapulco and the coast of New Spain to the Ladrones, where
the Spaniards, sailing between Acapulco and the Philippines,
put in, and find fresh water, plantains, and potato roots ".
All having been done, on the 19th, about three in the after-
noon, he set fire to the Santa Anna, which had still goods in
her to the quantity of 500 tons, waited till he saw her burned,
as he believed, to the water's edge, then fired a piece of
ordnance ; and, with this triumphant mark of barbarous ani-
mosity against the Spaniards, set sail "joyfully homewards



THOMAS CAVENDISH 387

toward England with a fair wind ". Night was closing when
they sailed out of the road, leaving the Content astern ; when
morning came that ship was not in sight, and she was never
heard of afterwards. *

Cavendish had delayed his departure till evening, that he
might see the Santa Anna destroyed ; nevertheless, that
malicious purpose was defeated. Down to the water's edge
he saw her burned, but the fire then freed her from her
anchor, and the hull drifted ashore, for the salvation of the
Spaniards, t They lightened it by throwing out the ballast,
fitted it with jury masts, and were thus enabled to reach
Acapulco, instead of perishing, as in all likelihood they
otherwise must, upon that dreary peninsula. J

The Desire (now the only remaining ship of Cavendish's
fleet) pursued her course across the Pacific, with a fair wind
for five and forty days, when they came in sight of Guahan,
one of the Ladrones. Some sixty or seventy boats came off
to them with fruits, potatoes, and fish, which they exchanged

* Hakluyt, 817. It was supposed that the captain, Stephen Hare,
" was gone for the north-west passage ". The people in that ship were
discontented with Cavendish, and probably had got their share of the
booty on board.

Fuller says : " The ship called the Content did not answer her name,
whose men took all occasions to be mutinous" (Worthies, ii., 339).

t Yet these Spaniards, though thus providentially delivered them-
selves, acted tyrannically and wickedly toward the natives, carrying away
a man and woman by force, and in bonds. Fifteen years afterwards,
when a Spanish squadron was sent from Acapulco to survey those parts,
the loss of these two Indians was still lamented by their countrymen ;
and they would hold no communication with the ships. " This is
related," says Torquemada, " that care may be taken to do no injury to
such people, because it may prevent them from ever peaceably submitting
to the Spaniards, or believing them when they preach the Gospel. The
devil desires nothing more than that any handle should be given them
for refusing to be converted."

\ Torquemada, t. i., p. 699. Burney, 89.



388 ENGLISH SEAMEN

for little pieces of old iron : but when the English were
sufficiently supplied, and would have closed the market, these
pertinacious traders were for forcing their commodities upon
them ; and swarmed so thick about the ship, that it stemmed
and broke one or two of their canoes. Nor could Cavendish
be rid of them till he ordered some half dozen harquebusses
to be made ready, and struck one of them himself; the others
then fired; but these islanders were "so yare and nimble,
that it could not be seen whether they were killed or not, so
ready were they at falling backward into the sea and diving".
On the 14th they made the Philippines at Cape del Espiritu
Santo, and passing on the morrow through the strait of San
Bernardino anchored at the isl e of Capul. A cacique, " whose
skin was carved with sundry strokes and devices all over his
body," came off to trade with them, taking them for Spaniards :
under this notion a friendly intercourse was established ; and
the English refreshed themselves " marvellously well with
hens, hogs, cocoas, and camotes".* This was an unfortunate
tarriance for the Spaniard Tomas de Ersola : he prepared a
letter to the governor of Manilla, intending to send it by one
of these natives. Rodriguez the Portuguese betrayed him :
the letter was found in his chest ; and Cavendish " willed that
he should be hanged, which was accordingly performed ".

Here Cavendish remained nine days, demanding and receiv-
ing tribute, as if he had been a Spanish commander, from that
and the adjacent islands. It was paid in pigs, poultry, cocoa
nuts, and camotes. The day before his departure he caused
the chief of this island, " and of a hundred more," says Pretty,
" to appear before him, and then made himself and his company

* The English took these for potatoes. But in the description of these
islands, prefixed by F. Juan Francisco de S. Antonio to his Chronicles of
the barefoot Franciscans in the Philippines, China, and Japan (a most
rare work, printed in a convent at Manilla), the camote is mentioned
with several other wild roots, que equivalen a las batatas en el gusto,
(p. 28).



THOMAS CAVENDISH 389

known that they were Englishmen, and enemies to the Span-
iards ; and thereupon spread his ensign, and sounded up the
drums, which they much marvelled at. To conclude, they
promised, both for themselves and all the islands thereabout,
to aid him whensoever he should come again to overcome the
Spaniards. Also our general gave them money back again for
all the tribute which they had paid ; which they took mar-
vellous friendly, and rowed about our ships to show us pleasure,
marvellous swiftly. At the last he caused a saker to be shot
off, whereat they wondered, and with great contentment took
their leave of us."

Leaving this place on the 24th, they chased on the 28th a
vessel from Manilla, along the coast of Panamao, and came so
near that she stood in to shore close by a wind until she was
becalmed, and then struck her sail, and " banked up with her
oars ". Cavendish anchored, manned his boat with twelve men,
and sent them to pursue this vessel up the river into which she
had run. They were, luckily for themselves, not able to find
the opening ; but they took a Spaniard out of a balsa, though
fired at by a body of Spaniards from the shore, and pursued by
a frigate which was sent in chase of the only prisoner aboard.
He proved to be neither soldier nor sailor, but "a very simple
soul," and one who could answer to very little that he was
asked concerning the state of the country. Cavendish dis-
missed him with a message to the Spanish commander, whom
he desired to provide good gold against the next visit, which
he and his company meant to make him in a few years :
nothing, he said, but the want of a larger boat to have landed
his men had prevented him from seeing him now.

After passing the Moluccas, several of the men sickened,
" by reason of the extreme heat and untemperateness of the
climate," and Captain Havers died, to Cavendish's no small
grief. Three guns with a volley of small arms served for his
passing bell : the corpse was shrouded in a sheet ; and after
a prayer said was heaved overboard with great lamentation



390 ENGLISH SEAMEN

of all. They passed through one of the straits formed by
the islands east of Java, and anchored in a port on the south
side of that great island, where, by means of a negro, * taken
out of the St. Anna, they could communicate with the in-
habitants. But when the rajah of that district knew of their
arrival, he sent to visit them ; and an interpreter came, who,
being a mestizo, spoke Portuguese as his father tongue.
Cavendish had now been taught by experience to guard
against all surprise ; and when the rajah's minister passed a
night on board, he commanded every man in the ship to
provide his harquebuss and his shot, and so with shooting off
forty or fifty small shot and one saker, himself set the watch
with them. " This was no small marvel unto these heathen
people, which had not commonly seen any ship so furnished
with men and ordnance." Here they were plentifully
supplied by the rajah's orders ; and two Portuguese came on
board, " men of marvellous proper personage, each in a loose
jerkin and hose, which came down from the waist to the
ankle, because of the use of the country, and partly because
it was Lent, and a time for doing of their penance (for they
account it as a thing of great dislike among these heathen
to wear either hose or shoes on their feet) ; they had on
each of them a very fair and white lawn shirt with falling
bands on the same, very decently, only their bare legs ex-
cepted. These Portugals," says Pretty, " were no small joy
to our general, and all the rest of our company ; for we had
not seen any Christian that was our friend of a year and half
before. Our general entreated them singularly well with
banquets and music. They told us they were no less glad
to see us than we to see them, and enquired of the state of
their country, and what was become of Don Antonio their
king, and whether he were living or no, for they had not for
long time been in Portugal, and the Spaniards had always

* Pretty says he could speak the Morisco tongue. The Malay is
probably meant.



THOMAS CAVENDISH 391

brought them word that he was dead. Then our general
satisfied them in every demand, assuring them that their
king was alive and in England, and had honourable allow-
ance from our queen ; and that there was war between Spain
and England, and that we were come under the King of
Portugal into the South Sea, and had warred upon the Span-
iards there, and had fired, spoiled, and sunk all the ships along
the coast that we could meet withal, to the number of
eighteen or twenty sail. With this report they were suffi-
ciently satisfied. They told us that if their king Don Antonio
would come unto them, they would warrant him to have all
the Moluccas at command, besides China, Sangles (?), and
the Isles of the Philippines, and that he might be sure to
have all the Indians on his side. They took their leave
with promise of all good entertainment at our return." *

Cavendish sailed from Java on the l6th of March, passed
round the Cape of Good Hope on the 18th of May, and on the
9th of June anchored in the road of St. Helena. Landing
there they found "a fair and pleasant valley, wherein divers
handsome buildings and houses were set up, and a church tiled
and whited on the outside, very fair, and with a porch ". The
inside was hung with stained cloths, " having many devices
drawn on them. There were two houses adjoining the church,
one on each side, serving for kitchens to dress meat in, with
necessary rooms and houses of offices : the coverings of the
said houses were flat, whereon was planted a very fair vine, and
through both ran a good and wholesome stream of fresh
water." Opposite was a fair stone causeway leading to a
valley wherein a garden had been planted with great store of
pompions and melons. And upon this causeway was erected
a frame with two bells, wherewith they rang to mass ; and
hard by a weil-made stone cross, bearing date 1571, in which
year it had been erected. The Portuguese had stocked the

* Hakluyt, 821, 822.



392 ENGLISH SEAMEN

island with all sorts of fruits and esculent herbs, partridges,
pheasants, guinea-fowl, goats, and swine. They had thus colon-
ised it for the use of their ships homeward bound from India ;
" and when they come they have all things plentiful for their
relief, by reason that they suffer none to inhabit there who
might consume the fruit of the island, except some very few
sick persons which they stand in doubt will not live until they
come home : these they leave to refresh themselves, and take
away in the next year's fleet, if they live so long". Three
negroes were the only persons there when Cavendish arrived.
They told him that the fleet had left it twenty days before,
consisting of five sail, the least of which was in burden 800 or
900 tons, " laden with spice and calicut cloth, with store of
treasure, and very rich stores and pearls".

Having cleaned their ship, taken in wood and water, and
refreshed themselves during eleven days, they now sailed for
England, the wind and weather favouring them. On the 3rd
of September they were informed by a Flemish hulk coming
from Lisbon of the discomfiture of the armada, " to their
singular rejoicing and comfort ". And on the 9th, " after a
terrible tempest which carried away most part of their sails,
by the merciful favour of the Almighty they recovered their
long wished for port of Plymouth, two years and fifty days
after their departure from that place ". * As the third
circumnavigation of the globe, Cavendish's voyage deserved
to be thus fully related : the circumstances are creditable to

* " He who went forth with a fleet," says Fuller, " came home with a
ship. Thus having circumnavigated the whole earth, let his ship no
longer be termed the Desire, but the Performance. He was the third
man, and second Englishman, of such universal undertakings."

Suraz de Figueroa says, that he entered London with sails of green
damask, and his sailors all dressed in silk (p. 211).

It is remarkable that Lope de Vega, in the explanation prefixed to his
Dragontea, of " lo que se ha de advertir para la inteligencia deste libro,''
confounds Oxenham with Cavendish, and gives an account of him under
the name of Thomas Candir.



THOMAS CAVENDISH 393

his activity, and seamanship, and courage, but honourable in
no other way. Immediately on landing he wrote to the
lord chamberlain Hunsdon, to inform the queen of his
success ; " and as it hath pleased God," said he, " to give
her the victory over part of her enemies, so I trust ere long
to see her overcome them all : for the places of their wealth,
whereby they have maintained and made their wars, are now
perfectly discovered, and, if it please her majesty, with a very
small power she may take the spoil of them all. It hath
pleased the Almighty to suffer me to circompass the whole
globe of the world, entering in at the Straits of Magellan,
and returning by the Cape de Buena Esperanza. In which
voyage I have either discovered or brought certain intelligence
of all the rich places of the world that ever were known or
discovered by any Christian. I navigated along the coast of
Chili, Peru, and Nueva Espanna, where I made great spoils.
I burnt and sunk nineteen sail of ships, small and great.
All the villages and towns that ever I landed at, I burnt and
spoiled ; and had I not been discovered upon the coast, I
had taken great quantity of treasure. The matter of most
profit unto me was a great ship of the king's which I took
at California ; which ship came from the Philippinas, being
one of the richest of merchandise that ever passed those
seas, as the king's register and merchants' accounts did
show, for it did amount in value to in Mexico to be

sold ; which goods, for that my ships were not able to contain
the least part of them, I was enforced to set on fire. From
the Cape of California, being the uttermost part of all Nueva
Espanna, I navigated to the Islands of the Philippinas, hard
upon the coast of China ; of which country I have brought
such intelligence as hath not been heard of in these parts :
the stateliness and riches of which country I fear to make
report of, lest I should not be credited ; for if I had not
known sufficiently the incomparable wealth of that country,
I should have been as incredulous thereof, as others will be



39* ENGLISH SEAMEN

that have not had the like experience. I sailed along the
islands of the Malucos, where among some of the heathen
people I was well entreated, where our countrymen may have
trade as freely as the Portugals, if they will themselves.
From thence I passed by the Cape of Buena Esperanza, and
found out by the way homeward the Island of St. Helena,
where the Portugals use to relieve themselves, and from that
island God hath suffered me to return to England. All
which services, with myself, I humbly prostrate at her
majesty's feet, desiring the Almighty long to continue her
reign among us, for at this day she is the most famous and
victorious prince that liveth in the world." *

In what a different odour would the memory of Cavendish be
held, if he could have said, in this brief summary of his pro-
ceedings, that having found in the Straits of Magellan the
miserable remains of a Spanish colony, he had taken them on
board to save them from perishing by famine, and on the first
safe opportunity had landed them among their own country-
men !

The success of this voyage induced him to tempt his fortune
in a second with three tall ships and two barks : one of the
barks was the property of Mr. Adrian Gilbert, a great pro-
moter of the attempts for discovering a north-west passage.
The other four were fitted out by Cavendish : they were the
Leicester Galleon, in which he sailed himself, his old ship the
Desire, commanded by Master John Davis, one of the best sea-
men of those times ; the Roebuck, under Master Cocke ; and the
Black Pinnace. The number of men is supposed to have
been little short of 400 : among them were the two Japanese
youths whom he had taken out of the St. Anna. But the fleet
was ill-fitted for such an expedition : his means would probably
have been inadequate to the great expenditure that it required,
had they been strictly applied to it; but he advanced 1500/.

* Hakluyt, 837.



THOMAS CAVENDISH 395

to adventurers, who, instead of equipping themselves, abs-
conded with the money.* Having reached the coast of Brazil,
Coeke was sent forward with two ships to attack Santos, in
order to obtain provisions. He surprised the inhabitants at
mass ; but instead of bargaining with them for a supply, made
good cheer upon what he found, while they escaped and car-
ried away whatever was portable. Here Cavendish waited five
precious weeks, and departed worse furnished than he came :
then having burned St. Vincente by the way, proceeded to the
straits. The fleet was separated in a storrn : Gilbert took the
opportunity of returning to England, leaving his captain on
board one of the other ships " without any provision more than
the apparel he had on". Davis fell in with the Roebuck:
both proceeded to Port Desire, and there the Black Pinnace
and the admiral joined them.f Cavendish had lost his boats,
and quarrelled with his company : in consequence of this he
removed into the Desire.^

By this time it was the middle of March : " such/' says
Cavendish, " was the adverseness of our fortunes, that in coming
thither we spent the summer, and found the straits in the
beginning of a most extreme winter". They entered it on the
14th of April with favourable weather; but on the 21st were
stopped by a wind from the W.N.W., and put into a small

* " These varlets, whom the justice hs.d before sought with great dili-
gence, I saw, within a few days after his departure," says Sir Richard
Hawkins, "walking the streets of Plymouth without punishment"
(Observations, etc., 15).

f Mr. John Jane's remark, therefore, seems hardly to be warranted
when he says, that his " captain (Davis) could never get any direction
what course to take in any such extremities, though many times he had
entreated for it, as often I have heard him with grief report" (Hakluyt, 842).

Jane's narrative is written evidently with a malevolent feeling towards
Cavendish. And in this he is contradicted by Knyvet, who, though a
liar, could have no motive for lying in this case.

\ Hakluyt, 842, 843. Burney, 98, 100.



396 ENGLISH SEAMEN

cove on the south shore opposite to Cape Froward. There