SIR JOHN HAWKINS, SEAMAN AND ADMINISTRATOR
This famous sea-captain was the grandson of John Hawkins of
Tavistock, who was a merchant in the service of Henry VIII. John was
born at Plymouth in the year 1520, and drank in the love of the salt
seas from his earliest years. His father, William Hawkins, was known
to be one of the most experienced sea-captains in the west of
England: he had fitted out a "tall and goodly ship," the _Paul_ of
Plymouth, and made in her three voyages to Brazil and to Guinea. He
treated the savage people so well that they became very friendly, and
in 1531 he brought one of their chiefs to England, leaving a Plymouth
man behind as hostage. This chief was presented to King Henry and
became the lion of society. On his way home to Brazil he died of
sea-sickness; but Hakluyt tells us that the savages, being fully
persuaded of the honest dealing of William Hawkins with their king,
believed his report and restored the hostage, without harm to any of
his company.
William Hawkins married Joan Trelawny and had two sons, John and
William, both of whom made their way as seamen and merchants.
John made some voyages to the Canary Islands when quite a youth, and
with his quick eye for gain soon learnt that negroes might be cheaply
gotten in Guinea and profitably sold in Hispaniola. John Hawkins was
not the first to make and sell slaves, but he was the first
Englishman to take part in this cruel and inhuman barter. The
Spaniards and Portuguese had used slaves, both Moors and negroes, and
Hawkins no doubt had seen plenty of cases of slave-holding along the
west coast of Africa, where savage warfare was carried on between
native tribes, and such of the conquered as were not eaten were
retained as slaves. He may have thought therefore that he was only
carrying them to a less barbarous captivity; and we should remember
that slavery was defended even by some religious people until quite
recent times: but we must deplore the fact that this daring sea-dog,
who certainly was not without religious feelings, found in this
traffic a source of gain.
No doubt John, on his return to England, discussed the matter openly
with men of influence, for in October 1562, being now more than forty
years old, he led an expedition of a hundred men in three ships, the
_Solomon_ of 120 tons, the _Swallow_ of 100 tons, and the _Jones_ of
40 tons burden, and sailed direct for the coast of Sierra Leone, in
West Africa, just north of Guinea. Hakluyt draws a veil over the
exact methods by which John Hawkins got possessed of 300 fine
negroes, besides other merchandise; but he probably took sides in
some local quarrel and carried off his share of the prisoners. These
poor wretches were carried across the Atlantic in the stuffy holds of
small ships, and landed at San Domingo, one of the largest of the
Spanish islands in the West Indies.
John made due apologies for entering the Spanish port: they could see
he was really in want of food and water. The Spaniards too were
polite, and as they peeped into his hold they saw the very thing they
wanted--negroes. A bargain was quickly made, and John Hawkins took
off in return for his captives quite a goodly store of pearls, hides,
sugar, and other innocent materials.
Hawkins himself arrived safely in England with his three ships, but
his partner, Thomas Hampton, who took what was left over in two
Spanish ships to Cadiz, did not fare so well. For when it became
known at Cadiz that English merchants had been trading with Spain's
colonies, Philip II. confiscated the cargo, and Hampton narrowly
escaped the prisons of the Inquisition. Queen Elizabeth was warned
by her ambassador at Madrid that further voyages of this nature might
lead to war.
For it seems that Philip had been an admirer of the Maiden Queen, and
had been rebuffed as a suitor; whereby his love had changed to hate,
and he lost no opportunity of showing his resentment.
But Queen Bess had her father's spirit in her, and answered the
Spanish threat by permitting one of her largest ships, the _Jesus of
Lübeck_, to be chartered for a new voyage. The Earls of Leicester
and Pembroke joined in raising money for the expedition--this time it
was a Court affair; there sailed a hundred and seventy men in five
vessels, and they were to meet another Queen's ship, the _Minion_,
before they got out of the Channel.
Again Hawkins raided the West African coast, "going every day on
shore to take the inhabitants, with burning and spoiling of their
towns."
It is strange how men engaged in such ruthless work could yet believe
that they were specially preserved by Providence. For on New Year's
Day 1565 they were well-nigh surprised by natives as they were
seeking water. But a pious seaman wrote thus in his journal: "God,
who worketh all things for the best, would not have it so, and by Him
we escaped without danger--His name be praised for it!" Then they
set sail for the West Indies with a goodly cargo of miserable slaves;
but for eighteen days they were becalmed--"as idle as a painted ship,
upon a painted ocean." "And this happened to us very ill, being but
reasonably watered for so great a company of negroes and ourselves.
This pinched us all: and, that which was worst, put us in such fear
that many never thought to have reached the Indies without great
dearth of negroes and of themselves; but the Almighty God, which
never suffereth His elect to perish, sent us the ordinary breeze."
Let us hope that they felt some pity for the poor negroes too, who
must have suffered agonies of thirst on that hideous journey.
But King Philip had ordered his Christian subjects to have no
dealings with heretics; and for some time they could sell no negroes
in Dominica.
But some heathen Indians presented cakes of maize, hens, and
potatoes, which the English crews bought for beads, pewter whistles,
knives, and other trifles. "These potatoes be the most delicate
roots that may be eaten, and do far exceed our parsnips and carrots."
We need to remind ourselves occasionally of some of the luxuries
which our ancestors never knew till these old seadogs brought them
home--tobacco and potatoes! and later on, tea and coffee! It is
difficult to imagine what the want of such things would mean to us
now.
But not all the Indians were so kind as these they first met; for on
the American mainland they fell in with a tribe whom the devilries of
Spain had turned to "ferocious bloodsuckers," and whom they only
narrowly avoided. Hawkins, according to his instructions from the
Queen's Council, kept away from the larger dependencies and islands,
and tried to sell his cargo in out-of-the-way places which Philip's
orders might not have reached. At Barbarotta he was refused
permission to trade. But Hawkins sent in a message: "I have with me
one of Queen Elizabeth's own ships. I need refreshment and without
it I cannot depart; if you do not allow me to have my way, I shall
have to displease you."
Thereat he ran out a few of his guns to mark the form which his
displeasure might assume: the Spaniards improved in politeness. At
Curacoa they feasted on roast lamb to their heart's content: near
Darien they again had to use threats of violence in order to get
licence to trade; but the price offered by the Spaniards for the
negroes so disgusted the equitable mind of John Hawkins that he wrote
the Governor a letter saying that they dealt too rigorously with him,
to go about to cut his throat in the price of his commodities ... but
seeing they had sent him this to his supper, he would in the morning
bring them as good a breakfast.
When that breakfast was served--and served hot--it proved to be
garnished with a handsome volley of ordnance, with ships' boats
landing at full speed a hundred armed Englishmen: the Spaniards fled.
"After that we made our traffic full quietly, and sold all our
negroes." Hawkins then sailed for Hispaniola, but being misled by
his pilot he found himself at Jamaica and then at Cuba, and so along
the coast of Florida, meeting many Indians whenever they landed who
were of so fierce a character that of five hundred Spaniards who had
recently set foot in the country only a very few returned; and a
certain friar who essayed to preach to them "was by them taken and
his skin cruelly pulled over his ears and his flesh eaten." "These
Indians as they fight will clasp a tree in their arms and yet shoot
their arrows: this is their way of taking cover."
In coasting along Florida they found a Huguenot colony that had been
founded there at the advice of Admiral Coligny. They had been
reduced by fighting the Indians from two hundred to forty, and were
glad to accept a passage home in the _Tiger_. On the 28th of July
the English ships started for home, but, owing to contrary winds,
their provisions fell so short they "were in despair of ever coming
home, had not God of His goodness better provided for us than our
deserving." On the 20th September they landed at Padstow in
Cornwall, having lost twenty persons in all the voyage, and with
great profit in gold, silver, pearls, "and other jewels great store."
The Queen was delighted with the bold way in which Hawkins had traded
in defiance of the Spanish king, and by patent she conferred on him a
crest and coat of arms.
The Spanish ambassador at once wrote off to his master, saying he had
met Hawkins in the Queen's palace, who gave him a full account of his
trading with full permission of the governors of towns (he did not
say by what means he had obtained such licence); "The vast profit
made by the voyage has excited other merchants to undertake similar
expeditions. Hawkins himself is going out again next May, and the
thing needs immediate attention." The result of this letter was that
Hawkins was strictly forbidden by Sir William Cecil from "repairing
armed, for the purpose of traffic, to places privileged by the King
of Spain." So the ships went, but Hawkins stayed at home; his ships
returned next summer laden with gold and silver. The crews did not
publish any account of how they had obtained their cargoes, and as
the Queen had recently been assisting the Netherlands in their
struggle for liberty against Spain, she made no indiscreet inquiries,
and proceeded to lend the _Jesus of Lübeck_ and the _Minion_ for
another expedition. One of the volunteers was young Francis Drake,
now twenty-two years of age, whom Hawkins made captain of one of his
six vessels.
As they left Plymouth they fell in with a Spanish galley en route for
Cadiz with a cargo of prisoners from the Netherlands. Hawkins fired
upon the Spanish flag, and in the confusion many of the captives
escaped to the _Jesus_, whence they were sent back to Holland.
The Spanish ambassador wrote strongly to the Queen, and the Queen
wrote strongly to Hawkins; but Hawkins had sailed away and was
encountering storms off Cape Finisterre, so that he had a mind to
return for repairs. But the weather moderating he went on to the
Canaries and Cape Verde. Here he landed 150 men in search of
negroes, but eight of his men died of lockjaw from being shot by
poisoned arrows. "I myself," writes Hawkins, "had one of the
greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped."
In Sierra Leone they joined a negro king in his war against his
enemies, attacked a strongly paled fort, and put the natives to
flight. "We took 250 persons, men, women, and children, and our
friend the king took 600 prisoners," which by agreement were to go to
the English, but the wily negro decamped with them in the night, and
Hawkins had to be content with his own few. They were at sea from
February 3rd until March 27th, when they sighted Dominica, but found
it difficult to trade, until after a show of force the Spaniards gave
in and eagerly bought the slaves. At Vera Cruz the inhabitants
mistook our ships for the Spanish fleet. There is a rocky island at
the mouth of the harbour which Hawkins seized. The next morning the
Spanish fleet arrived in reality, but Hawkins would not admit them
until they had promised him security for his ships. Now there was no
good anchorage outside, and if the north wind blew "there had been
present shipwreck of all the fleet, in value of our money some
£1,800,000." So he let them in under conditions, for even Hawkins
thought that he ought not to risk incurring his Queen's indignation.
On Thursday Hawkins had entered the port, on Friday he saw the
Spanish fleet, and on Monday at night the Spaniards entered the port
with salutes, after swearing by King and Crown that Hawkins might
barter and go in peace.
For two days both sides laboured, placing the English ships apart
from the Spanish, with mutual amity and kindness. But Hawkins began
to notice suspicious changes in guns and men, and sent to the Viceroy
to ask what it meant. The answer was a trumpet-blast and a sudden
attack. Meanwhile a Spaniard sitting at table with Hawkins had a
dagger in his sleeve, but was disarmed before he could use it. The
Spaniards landed on the island and slew all our men without mercy.
The _Jesus of Lübeck_ had five shots through her mainmast, the
_Angel_ and _Swallow_ were sunk, and the _Jesus_ was so battered that
she served only to lie beside the _Minion_, and take all the battery
from the land guns.
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[Illustration: ATTEMPT ON SIR JOHN HAWKINS' LIFE]
As the Spanish and English fleets were anchored at Vera Cruz apparent
amity and goodwill existed between the two, but as Hawkins was
sitting at dinner one day a Spaniard sitting at table with him was
discovered with a dagger up his sleeve, but fortunately was disarmed
before he could use it.
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Hawkins cheered his soldiers and gunners, called his page to serve
him a cup of beer, whereat he stood up and drank to their good luck.
He had no sooner set down the silver cup than a demi-culverin shot
struck it away. "Fear nothing," shouted Hawkins, "for God, who hath
preserved me from this shot, will also deliver us from these traitors
and villains."
Francis Drake was bidden to come in with the _Judith_, a barque of 50
tons, and take in men from the sinking ships: at night the English in
the _Minion_ and _Judith_ sailed out and anchored under the island.
The English taken by the Spaniards received no mercy. "They took our
men and hung them up by the arms upon high posts until the blood
burst out of their fingers' ends."
The _Judith_ under Drake sailed for England and reached Plymouth in
January 1569; the _Minion_, with 200 men, suffered hunger and had to
eat rats and mice and dogs. One hundred men elected to be landed and
left behind to the mercies of Indians and Spaniards. "When we were
landed," said a survivor, "Master Hawkins 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." Thus writes Job Hartop. So we see
that John Hawkins, the slave-dealer, sincerely tried after his
fashion to serve God as well as his Queen. His men loved him and
spoke well of him when he failed; a good test of a man's worth when
men will speak well of you though all your plans be broken and your
credit gone. But alas! for the poor hundred men left ashore on the
Mexican coast! They wandered for fourteen days through marshes and
brambles, some poisoned by bad water, others shot by Indians or
plagued by mosquitoes, until they came to the Spanish town of
Panluco, where the Governor thrust them into a little hog-stye and
fed them on pigs' food. After three days of this they were manacled
two and two and driven over ninety leagues of road to the city of
Mexico. One of their officers used them very spitefully and would
strike his javelin into neck or shoulders, if from faintness any
lagged behind, crying, "March on, English dogs, Lutherans, enemies to
God." After four months in gaol they were sent out as servants to
the Spanish colonists. For six years they fared passing well, but in
1575 the Inquisition was introduced into Mexico, and then their
"sorrows began afresh." On the eve of Good Friday all were dressed
for an _auto-da-fé_ and paraded through the streets. Some were then
burnt, others sent to the galleys, the more favoured ones got three
hundred lashes apiece. One who had escaped had spent twenty-three
years in various galleys, prisons, and farms.
Meanwhile Hawkins was taking his other hundred men back to England,
meeting violent storms, but "God again had mercy on them." Then food
became scarce and many died of starvation: the rest were so weak they
could hardly manage the sails. At last they sighted the coast of
Spain and put in at Vigo for supplies; here more died from eating
excess of fresh meat after their famine. At length, with the help of
twelve English sailors they reached Mount's Bay in Cornwall, in
January 1569.
Here was a miserable ending of an ambitious expedition: no profits,
no gold, no silver for the rich merchants and courtiers who had
subscribed for the fitting out of the ships; no jewels for the lady
who graced the throne. Sadly John Hawkins wrote to Sir William
Cecil: "All our business hath had infelicity, misfortune, and an
unhappy end: if I should write of all our calamities, I am sure a
volume as great as the Bible will scarcely suffice."
Thus our hero, ruined but not broken, bided his time for revenge. As
the years wore on England and Spain grew more embittered. Private
warfare had existed for some time, and Philip had wished to declare
open war in 1568; but the Duke of Alva cautioned him against making
more enemies, while they still found it hard to subdue the Low
Countries. So, for a while, the King contented himself with
underhand efforts to stir up rebellion in Ireland and England.
In the year 1578 John Hawkins was summoned by the Queen from Devon
and appointed Comptroller of the Navy. His business was to see to
the building of new ships, the repairing of old ones, and the
victualling and manning of all about to take the sea. Hawkins is
said to have invented "false netting" for ships to fight in,
chain-pumps and other devices. Acting with Drake he founded the
"Chest" at Chatham, a fund made up by voluntary subscriptions from
seamen on behalf of their poorer brethren. In fact he entered upon
his work with the same zeal which he had shown in the West Indies.
Lucky was it for him that he had a mistress like Elizabeth; for under
the craven James he would certainly have been handed over to the
Inquisition, or put to death by Spanish order, like Raleigh. In 1572
Hawkins and George Winter were commissioned to do their utmost to
clear the British seas of pirates and freebooters, for of late the
coasts of Norfolk and the East had been much troubled by sea-robbers.
But through all his multifarious duties the old sea-rover was ever
most bent on paying off old scores against King Philip. So many of
his friends, beside himself, had lost their all or endured sharp
punishment in Spanish dungeons, that he grimly chuckled when he heard
of Drake having "singed King Philip's beard"; and when the news came
that the invasion of England was only put off, and Pope Sixtus V. had
spurred his Spanish Majesty to quick action by the oft-quoted taunt,
"The Queen of England's distaff is worth more than Philip's sword,"
then John Hawkins rubbed his hands gleefully, and lost no time in
getting all the Queen's ships taut and in order, well victualled and
well manned. But Hawkins did not mince matters when he saw anything
amiss; any hesitation or signs of parsimony met with his blunt
disapproval. He writes in February 1588 to urge that peace could
only be won by resolute fighting: "We might have peace, but not with
God. Rather than serve Baal, let us die a thousand deaths. Let us
have open war with these Jesuits, and every man will contribute,
fight, devise or do, for the liberty of our country."
Hawkins also wrote to ask for the use of six large and six small
ships for four months, with 1800 mariners and soldiers, which he
would employ in another raid upon the Spanish coast, so as to hinder
Philip's grand Armada. "I promise I will distress anything that
goeth through the seas: and in addition to the injury done to Spain,
I shall acquire booty enough to pay four times over the cost of the
expedition."
But Burghley, like his mistress, kept a tight hand over slender
resources, and he rejected Hawkins' offer. Macaulay says that even
Burghley's jests were only neatly expressed reasons for keeping money
carefully. Lord Howard bitterly complained to Walsingham that "her
Majesty was keeping her ships to protect Chatham Church withal, when
they should be serving their turn abroad"; and again, when Drake was
being prevented from getting his Plymouth squadron in order for
sea-service, he writes: "I pray God her Majesty do not repent her
slack dealing.... I fear ere long her Majesty will be sorry she hath
believed some so much as she hath done." Lord Burghley's task was to
defeat the Armada with an almost empty exchequer. We find
calculations of his as to whether it will not be cheaper to feed the
sailors of the fleet on fish three days a week and bacon once,
instead of the usual ration of four pennyworth of beef each day. And
naturally these attempts to cut down expenses were misconstrued into
parsimony. But with all her rigid economy, Elizabeth could show a
brave front when the crisis came; as in the camp at Tilbury, when she
addressed the little army that was expecting every hour to be called
to meet the fierce onset of the invaders: "I have placed my chiefest
strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my
subjects; and therefore am I come amongst you, as ye see, at this
time, resolved in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die
amongst you all; to lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my
people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the
body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king,
and of a King of England too, and think it foul scorn that Parma, or
Spain, or any Prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of
my realm; to which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I
myself will take up arms, I myself will be your General, Judge, and
Rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field."
The Great Armada had left the Tagus on the 20th of May 1588. It
consisted of one hundred and thirty-two ships under the command of
the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Besides 8766 sailors, there were on
board 2088 galley slaves, 21,855 officers and soldiers ready for
action as soon as they should land; 300 monks and friars were pacing
the decks, sent to take spiritual charge _in partibus infidelium_.
Against this force Queen Elizabeth had only thirty-four of her own
ships, but all the seaports from Bristol to Hull sent small armed
vessels, while noblemen and merchants contributed to swell the total,
which came to nearly two hundred in all.
John Hawkins was there as Rear-Admiral under Howard, making with
Drake and Frobisher his headquarters at Plymouth. "For the love of
God," he writes to Walsingham, on the 19th of June, "let her Majesty
care not now for charges," and in the same vein he wrote also to the
Queen.
As he kept watch the Spanish fleet came slowly on, intending to
surprise Plymouth; but Hawkins and his vessels were already awaiting
the foe outside, so they anchored for the night off Looe. The next
day was Sunday, the 21st of July, and Medina Sidonia seems to have
made up his mind to go on to the Isle of Wight. All that day the
little English ships were barking round the unwieldy galleys of
Spain. "We had some small fight with them that Sunday afternoon,"
said Hawkins. By three o'clock the Spanish fleet was in a pretty
confusion, hasting to get away from their tormentors. On Monday and
Tuesday the fight continued, the details of which may be reserved for
a later chapter; but every day more reinforcements came to Howard, as
courtiers and merchants hurried down from London to serve in pinnace
or frigate. By Wednesday morning the English ships had spent nearly
all their ammunition, and were begging for powder and shot at every
village they passed. On Friday Lord Howard knighted Frobisher and
Hawkins for their valiant conduct; he then allowed the Armada to sail
along the Sussex coast and cross the Straits of Dover towards Calais.
There through Saturday and Sunday vast crowds of Flemings and
Frenchmen gathered to gaze at the two great fleets, which were
waiting, the Spaniards for the Prince of Parma to join them from
Dunkirk, the English to carry out a little device which Sir William
Winter had suggested.
Six of the oldest vessels were filled with combustibles and guns
loaded to the mouth with old iron, and at midnight were conducted in
the pitchy darkness of a rising storm within bow-shot of the Armada.
A train was fired, and the fierce south-west wind bore the fire-ships
into the crescent of the Spaniards. The blaze, the explosions, the
cannon-shot, struck a panic into the Armada. "The fire of Antwerp!"
they cried. "Cut cable, up anchor!" In a few minutes they were all
colliding together in their hurry to get away from the flames, and
all that night they sped away past Dunkirk and Parma even to the
mouth of the Scheldt.
"God hath given us so good a day in forcing the enemy so far to
leeward," wrote Drake, "as I hope in God, the Prince of Parma and the
Duke of Sidonia will not shake hands these few days.... I assure
your honour, this day's service hath much appalled the enemy."
Then on the Monday Hawkins in the Victory, Drake in the _Revenge_,
and Frobisher in the _Triumph_, led the English to the attack upon a
fleet disorganised and cowed, fearing alike the sands, the storm, and
the foe. Every ship in the Spanish fleet had received damage, some
had been taken and others sunk, while a score or so went on shore and
were lost.
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[Illustration: FIRE-SHIPS]
The Spanish fleet lay safely moored in Calais Harbour, huge
impregnable castles of timber, but Howard's fire-ships caused them to
scurry away before the wind like frightened fowls.
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"We pluck their feathers by little and little," wrote Lord Howard,
and if Burghley had only given them powder enough, the victory would
have been complete. The English had no more ammunition left, but
still, as the Spaniards forged ahead to the north, they grimly
followed: "We set on a brag countenance and gave them chase."
It was not until Friday the 2nd of August that Howard abandoned the
pursuit. He made for the Firth of Forth, took in victuals, powder,
and shot, and sailed southwards to be ready for Parma, should he
cross from Dunkirk. As they sailed, a storm burst upon them,
scattering them so that they did not assemble again in Margate Roads
until the 9th of August. A note from Lord Burghley suggests that as
the danger is over, the ships shall be at once discharged; but there
was no money to pay the men who had saved England in her hour of
danger. Towards the end of August, Sir John wrote urgently to
Burghley for money to pay the seamen--£19,000 were already due to
them before the fight off Gravelines--and Lord Howard added a
postscript: "Hawkins cannot make a better return. God knows how the
lieutenants and corporals will be paid." Howard and Hawkins could
not pay them off. The men were kept hanging on, ill-fed, ill-clad,
housed like hogs and dying as by a pestilence. "'Tis a most pitiful
sight to see how the men here at Margate, having no place where they
can be received, die in the streets. The best lodging I can get is
barns and such outhouses, and the relief is small that I can provide
for them here. It would grieve any man's heart to see men that have
served so valiantly die so miserably." So Howard writes to Burghley.
Burghley, at his wits' end, writes to Hawkins a melancholy letter:
"Why do you ask for money when you know the exchequer is so empty?"
Howard tells the Queen how the men sicken one day and die the next;
and as woman she pitied them, but could not find means to help her
sailors. "Alas! these things must be--after a famous victory!" Her
minister may have suggested some such reflection.
Meanwhile the great Armada, left to the judgment of God, was leaving
its wrecks on the coasts of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland. It was
not until October that fifty-three ships out of one hundred and
thirty-two came back wearily to a Spanish port.
Sir Francis Drake tells us that many Spanish seamen landed in
Scotland and Ireland, of whom a few remained to live amongst the
peasantry, but the most part were coupled in halters and sent from
village to village till they were shipped to England. "But her
Majesty, disdaining to put them to death, and scorning either to
retain or entertain them, they were all sent back again to their own
country to bear witness to the worthy achievement of their Invincible
Navy."
Sir John Hawkins in 1589 proposed to Lord Burghley a scheme for
capturing Cadiz and sinking all the Spanish galleys he could find
there. "It is not honourable for her Majesty to seem to be in any
fear of the King of Spain." But Burghley did not approve of any more
expenditure of money, and the scheme was dropped.
But every year English merchantmen were held up by Spanish galleys
and had to fight for their existence: so in 1590 we hear of Sir John
proposing another attack on Spain; and when this too was rejected, he
wrote to Burghley, saying that he was now out of hope that he should
be allowed to perform "any royal thing." So out of heart was he now
that he begged he might be relieved of his duties as Treasurer of the
Navy. "No man living hath so careful, so miserable, so unfortunate,
and so dangerous a life." This request too was declined. But in May
1590 Sir John was sent, with Sir Martin Frobisher as Vice-Admiral, in
command of fourteen ships to try and intercept a fleet of Portuguese
carracks coming from India. They ransacked nearly every port on the
Spanish coast for five months, so that all valuables were hastily
removed inland, and all the Spanish galleys were hidden behind rocky
promontories. But Philip had ordered the trading fleets to be kept
back, and therefore no prizes were captured, and the adventurers
returned empty-handed.
Queen Elizabeth was mightily incensed, though it was through no fault
of the admirals that the expedition had been a financial failure.
Hawkins wrote the Queen a lengthy epistle explaining why they had
failed, and he finished with a Biblical allusion: "Paul might plant,
and Apollos might water, but it was God only who gave the increase."
The Queen, stamping her foot, exclaimed hotly, "This fool went out a
soldier, and is come home a divine!"
So the poor seaman returned to his hated desk as Treasurer, though he
wrote to Burghley that he was fain to serve her Majesty in any other
calling. "This endless and unsavoury occupation in calling for money
is always unpleasant." He was now over seventy years of age, and his
son Richard had for some years been distinguishing himself on the
sea. But when that son had to surrender to the Spaniards and was
sent to a Spanish prison, the old sea-dog thirsted to go abroad again
and rescue his son, or at least take a great revenge.
His old friend Sir Francis Drake was to go with him, for the Queen
had assented; but rumours of a fresh Armada kept them in England, for
"all men," says Camden, "buckled themselves to war," and mothers only
bewailed that their sons had been killed in France instead of being
alive and well to defend hearth and home in England. But all the
Spaniards did was to cross from Brittany with four galleys and land
at Penzance. This town they sacked and burnt, but as the inhabitants
had fled inland, no lives were lost. This was the last hostile
landing made by the Spaniards on England's shore.
Next year, in August 1595, Drake and Hawkins left Plymouth with
twenty-seven ships and 2500 men, Drake sailing in the _Defiance_ as
Admiral, Hawkins in the _Garland_ as Vice-Admiral; Sir Thomas
Baskerville was the Commander by land. The plan was to sail to
Nombre de Dios and march across the isthmus to Panama, there to seize
what treasure they could. But just before they sailed letters came
from the Queen informing them that they were too late to intercept
the West Indian fleet; it had already arrived in Spain; but one
treasure-ship had lost a mast and put back to Puerto Rico; they were
to seek for this and take it. So they sailed on the 28th of August,
and in four weeks reached the Grand Canary. Drake and Baskerville
wished to land, victual the fleet, and take the island; Hawkins,
still smarting under Elizabeth's lash, was for strictly obeying the
Queen's instructions. However, Baskerville promised he would take
the place in four days, and Hawkins consented to wait. But finding
that a strong mole had been built, and that the landing-place was
defended by guns, and as a nasty sea was rising, they just landed to
get water on the western side of the island and made for Dominica.
After making some traffic in tobacco they went on to Guadaloupe,
where they cleaned their ships and let the men land. The next day,
seeing some Spanish ships passing towards Puerto Rico, Drake
concluded that the treasure-ship was still there, and that this force
had been sent to convoy it. Captain Wignol in the _Francis_, having
straggled behind out of Hawkins' fleet, fell in with these Spanish
ships under Don Pedro Tello, and was captured. Tello put his men to
torture, and drew from them the object and proposed course of the
English ships. When Hawkins heard of this from a small vessel that
had escaped the Spaniards, he suddenly fell sick: age, the troubles
of the voyage, this last disappointment--all were too much for him;
he struggled bravely against his malady, but every day he grew
weaker. They started in three days from Guadaloupe and reached the
Virgin Islands, where they took plenty of fish. Drake and Hawkins
had some dispute here, some difference of opinion, and this was the
last straw to weigh down the balance of death. For on the morning of
the 12th of November the fleet passed through the Strait; and at
night, when it was off the eastern end of Puerto Rico, Hawkins
breathed his last.
Drake sailed in imprudently under the forts; one shot wounded his
mizzen-mast, another entered the steerage, where he was at supper,
and struck the stool from under him, killing two of his officers, but
not hurting him. The treasure had been removed from the galleon, and
the empty galleon had been sunk in the mouth of the channel. After a
fierce fight Drake had to give up the attempt to get the treasure and
sail away.
He only survived his old friend by eleven weeks. Thus England lost
two of her grandest seamen in this expedition. Hawkins was
seventy-five years old--too old to be exposed to the burning sun and
all the anxieties of warfare. Then came bitter disappointment, and
the feeling that he had done nothing to rescue his son, and little to
avenge his wrongs. For six weeks Sir John Hawkins strove to make
head against this "sea of troubles," but his work had been done, his
body was worn out, and he could endure no more. In his adventurous
life he had done many questionable things; but we ought not to judge
him by the moral standard of another age; in his day, the rights of
the slave had not yet been thought of. Hawkins had tried to do his
duty to God and man, as he conceived that duty, and to his unflagging
labours and zeal as Treasurer of the Navy, the success of England
against the Armada was largely due.