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VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
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ENGLISH G<iHRNEL{
ma a _
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
i 1 1
mainly during the 16th and 17th Centuries
Vol. I
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, F.R.G.S.
FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD
Author of The Dawn of Modern Geography
WESTMINSTER
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD.
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The texts contained in the present volume are re¬ printed with very slight alterations from the English Garner issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London, 8vo) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient guarantee for the accurate collation of the texts with the rare originals, the old spelling being in most cases carefully modernised. The contents of the original Garner have been rearranged and now for the first time classified, under the general editorial supervision of Mr. Thomas Seccombe. Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation of fresh matter. The Introductions are wholly new and have been written specially for this issue.
Edinburgh : Printed by T. and A. Constable.
CONTENTS TO VOLUME I
1. Captain Roger Bodenham’s Voyage to Scio in 1551. [From
Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, 1599-1600], .
2. Robert Tomson, of Andover, Merchant : his Voyage to the
West Indies and Mexico, 1556-58. [From Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, 1589], ......
3. Master Roger Bodenham : his Trip to Mexico, 1564-65.
[From the Hakluyt of 1589], .
4. Sir John Hawkins’ First Voyage to the West Indies, October
1562 — September 1563. [From the Hakluyt of 1589],
5. Sir John Hawkins’ Second Voyage to the West Indies, 18th
October 1564— 20th September 1565. [From the Hakluyt
of 1589], .
6. The Third Voyage of Sir John Hawkins, 1567-68, .
i. Earliest Tidings of the Disaster in England. [From
the State Papers ; Domestic ; Elizabeth, vol. 48, no. 50 ; vol. 49, no. 37 ; vol. 49, no. 36 ; vol. 49, no. 42], .
ii. A true declaration of the troublesome Voyage of
John Hawkins to Guinea and the West Indies in 1567-68. [Printed at London, 1 569],
iii. Depositions in the English Admiralty Court as to
the Fight at San Juan de Ulua. [From the State Papers; Domestic; Elizabeth; July 1569, vol. 53], • .
PAGE
I
7
25
29
3i
81
83
9i
104
vi
Voyages and Travels
PAGE
7. Hawkins’ pretended treachery in the summer of 1571. [From
State Papers ; Scotland ; Mary Queen of Scots, vol. 6, no. 61], .
8. Jasper Campion : The English Trade to Scio, 1539-70. [From
the Hakluyt of 1599-1600], .
9. Anthony M unday : Captivity of John Fox. [From the
Hakluyt of 1589], .
10. Thomas Stevens, an English Jesuit ; his Voyage to India by
the Cape Route. [From the Hakluyt of 1589; reprinting a letter from Goa, 1 579], .
11. The Third Hawkins’ Voyage, 1567-68 ; three narratives by
survivors, .
i. David Ingram’s relation, of 1582, August — Sep¬
tember. [From the Hakluyt of 1589 ; in Sloane MSS., 1447], .
ii. Miles Phillips’ Discourse, of 1583 [?]. [From the
Hakluyt of 1589], .
iii. Job Hortop’s Travels. [From the Hakluyt of 1 599-
1600; originally printed in 1591],
12. Thomas Sanders: The Unfortunate Voyage of the Jesus to
Tripoli, in 1584. [From the Hakluyt of 1589 and the original publication of 1587, March 31],
13. John Chilton: Travels in Mexico, 1568-85. [From the
Hakluyt of 1 589], .
14. The Voyage of Thomas Cavendish round about the Globe,
1586-88. [From the Hakluyt of 1589], .
15. The first Englishmen who reached India overland, 1583-89
[From the Hakluyt of 1599-1600, Linschoten’s Discourse of Voyages, 1598, etc.], . .
127
131
139
152
161
161
173
219
243
263
281
295
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I
The following collection of voyages and travels, mainly of Elizabethan Englishmen, is the reappearance of an old friend, or rather of many old friends. As distributed throughout the volumes of ‘Arber’s Garner ,’ these narratives have long been consulted by students of the Tudor and Stuart periods : they are now separated from the matter relating to other subjects in Prof. Arber’s great compilation, and arranged as nearly as possible in strict chronological order. The greater number, amounting to a little less than half the present body of text, are reprinted (with occasional compression) from Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations , either from the first edition of 1589 (so constantly superior in clearness of arrangement and judgment of selection to any later stage of that memorable work), or else from the bulkier edition of 1599-1600, the final Hakluyt of the compiler’s own life and labour. But besides these Hakluytian pieces, the present volumes contain the interesting and not easily accessible correspondence between William Hawkins and Sir William Cecil of December 1568 and January 1569, relative to the disaster of ‘ San J uan d’Ulloa ’ (pp. 83-90), and the still more important depositions of March 1569 in the English Admiralty Court as to the aforesaid disaster, the guilt of the Spanish assailants of Sir John Hawkins, and the losses sustained by his fleet on that occasion (see vol. i. pp. 104-26). Here is also reprinted the correspondence necessary to give a summary view of John Hawkins’ pre-
viii Voyages and Travels
tended intrigue with Spain in the summer of 1571 (vol. i. pp. 127-30).
It is in the second volume, however, that we find the gems of the present collection — an abridgment of the first part of Linschoten’s Itinerario , Sir Francis Drake revived , and The Captivity of Robert Knox\ the first (pp. 1-126 of vol. ii. and pp. 321-30 of vol. i.) being from the standard old English version of the Dutch text made in 1598; the second (pp. 220-94) from the very rare edition of 1626 ; and the third (pp. 295-429) from the original text of 1681. All three are narratives of first-class value, not too easy to procure, and as interesting as they are valuable.
Of lesser importance, but even by themselves giving reason sufficient for the present issue, are such tracts as Edward Wright’s Voyage of the Earl of Cumberland (1589), The ‘ Dolphin's 5 Sea-Fight against Five Turkish Men of War (1616-7), and The Captivity of Richard Hasleton (1582-92 ; see vol. ii. pp. 186-212 ; 213-20; 151-80).
Professor Arber’s businesslike and suggestive notes have usually been retained, and with these and the help of this Introduction it is hoped that students of the great age of discovery may find some use in a series of narratives so vivid in style, so photographic in their character-sketches, so admirably characteristic of the men and the times to which they refer.
Of the first three tracts in volume i. (pp. 1-28) — Roger Bodenham’s Voyage to Scio in 1551, Tomson’s Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico in 1555-8, and Roger Bodenham’s fourney to Mexico in 1564-5 — it is not necessary to say much. The first is from the final edition of Hakluyt {Principal Navigations') of 1599-1600, the second and third from Hakluyt’s first edition of 1589. It is noteworthy that
Introduction
ix
\
Robert Tomson, in 1555, found English traders, servants of two City Merchants, engaged in commerce in Grand Canary ; and that in the town of Mexico itself he arrived only to find himself anticipated by a Scotsman. This pioneer, one Thomas Blake, had been there over twenty years (in 1556), and must therefore have appeared in that remote Spanish possession before 1536, or less than fifteen years after Cortes’ conquest (1521). Richard Chancellor, ‘who first discovered Russia,’ was with Bodenham in the voyage to Scio : it may perhaps be noted that the real discoverer of Russia to Western Europe was the Imperial envoy Sigismund von Herberstein, who in 1517 and 1526 (more than thirty years before Chancellor) visited Moscow, and compiled the most valuable of all early descriptions of Muscovy. The voyage of Chancellor and Willoughby in 1553 was really in search of the north-east passage to Cathay ; in the course of this unsuccessful venture Chancellor and his men found their way to the White Sea, the Dvina, and the court of Ivan the Terrible; thus opening Russia to English and Western European trade by a new and direct route, and outflanking the obstructive monopoly of the Hanse traders of the Baltic.
Next comes the series of John Hawkins’ voyages (1562-8) to the West Indies ; and here it will be necessary to say rather more by way of preface (see vol. i. pp. 29-130, 161- 242). The narrative of the first Hawkins voyage hereafter printed is from the Hakluyt of 1589, First Voyage of Sir John Hawkins , . . . made to the West Indies 1562. John Hawkins, younger son of William Hawkins, the Brazil trader of 15 30, seems to have been born in or about 1532, though the traditional date is 1520. According to Hakluyt, it was by divers voyages to the Canaries that John had
X
Voyages and Travels
‘informed himself by diligent inquisition of the State of the West India (whereof he had received knowledge by the instructions of his father, but increased the same by the advertisements and reports of that people). And being amongst other particulars assured that Negroes were very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea, [he] resolved with himself to make trial thereof.’ These voyages of John’s to the Canaries were probably subsequent to 1555, the year of old William’s death, and they soon brought such profit, that shortly after the accession of Elizabeth the future sea-king married a daughter of Benjamin Gonson, Treasurer of the Royal Navy. Already, in 1553, the English had begun to struggle for a share of the Guinea trade; and in 1561 Gonson had joined in a syndicate whose aim was to establish a factory at Benin or some other point in the Guinea littoral, in defiance of Portuguese opposition.1 The enterprise failed, but in 1562 it was renewed, while Hawkins prepared for a still more daring venture — no less than the commercial invasion of the Spanish American monopoly by means of the African, or more particularly the Guinea, slave trade. As to this commerce, it had been practised by the Portuguese con¬ tinually since 1441, when Antam Gonsalves brought home certain Mouros negros from the neighbourhood of Cape Bojador.2 In 1517 Charles V. formally licensed the importation of African negroes into the West Indies. The trade was supported by philanthropic arguments, as by the generous Las Casas, who (for a time) saw in it the
1 The Queen, as Mr. Corbett well suggests (Drake, i. 78), was possibly a shareholder in this venture : the Minion was certainly lent to the venturers from the Royal Navy.
2 Cf. Azurara, Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, chs. xii.-xiv.
Introduction
xi
only means of preserving the weaker American Indians from extinction. Las Casas changed his view before his death ; but he had at least the satisfaction of stopping many abuses, and imposing a certain responsibility on the traders. No one was now permitted to take part in the commerce without a royal licence, only granted at a high price ; a duty was also imposed on every slave that entered the West Indies from Guinea.
In 1551, 17,000 licences for slave-importation from Africa to the West Indies were offered for sale by the Spanish Government. In 1553 Fernando Ochoa obtained a mono¬ poly of the slave trade for seven years, during which he bound himself to import 23,000 negroes. Two years after the expiry of Ochoa’s term Hawkins entered the field with a bold attempt to break through the monopoly altogether.
No English fleet had yet ventured into the Spanish sphere, though from the days of William Hawkins and his Brazil voyage of 1530 our countrymen had been attempting to break into the mare clausum of the weaker Portuguese. The Spanish name was too imposing, the trade with the European ports of the Spanish Empire, — in the Peninsula, in the Netherlands, and in Italy — was too precious an asset of our early trade to be lightly affronted or en¬ dangered.
John Hawkins, therefore, when he proposed a venture, which to any prudent man foreshadowed inevitable trouble with Spain, found but a few inclined to back his venture. The chief of these were Alderman Lionel Ducket, an enterprising Father of London City, and Thomas Lodge (afterwards Sir Thomas), a Governor of the Muscovy Company, which, since the Russian voyage of Chancellor
xii
Voyages and Travels
and Willoughby in 1553, had won a very prominent posi¬ tion in English trade-expansion. Three ‘private’ ships, the largest of 120 tons, were fitted out, and with this little squadron and a cargo of English goods Hawkins set out in October 1562. With this voyage opened the great commercial (and so political) struggle that ended with the downfall of Spanish oceanic power. Deeper even than religious hatred, we may find the prime cause of the long and bitter war of Elizabethan England against Spain lies in the trade rivalry for the Western world and in the aggressive mercantile policy of the English people.
At Teneriffe Hawkins had formed a trade-alliance with one Pedro de Ponte, an ambitious and not too patriotic merchant, who was shrewdly suspected of having suggested the whole project of the West Indian trade to the English, and at his hands the adventurers received their prime necessity, a pilot for Spanish America. On the Guinea coast the ‘interlopers’ kidnapped about three hundred slaves who were sold at a very large profit in various ports of Hispaniola, Hayti, or San Domingo. Hawkins chartered two extra vessels to transport the surplus of his gains to Europe, and with an almost incredible assurance, professedly relying on the old commercial treaties (of 1495, 1499, etc.) between England and Burgundy, sent these ships to be sold at Cadiz in charge of Captain Hampton, his second in command (1563). They were promptly confiscated, and a long-standing implicit prohibition was now made suffi¬ ciently explicit. The Spanish colonies of the New World were forbidden absolutely and without exception to trade with the English in any way.
Hawkins’ second voyage (1564-5) was supported by a far more powerful syndicate than the first. Among the
Introduction
Xlll
shareholders 1 of the capital appears to have been the Queen* who lent the expedition its flagship or ‘ admiral/ the Jesus of Lubeck, a vessel of 700 tons, which had been bought for the English navy by Henry VIII. from the Hanse traders of Lubeck. Elizabeth’s stake in the venture may be judged from the fact that the Jesus was valued at £4000 (perhaps ^30,000 — ^40,000 of our money). The Earl of Pembroke was another shareholder, and efforts were made, though in vain, to induce Cecil (Burleigh) to join. Nothing in the nature of illicit commerce or piracy attracted the conservative leader of English statesmen ; but he took no steps, as on certain subsequent occasions, to nip in the bud a possible buccaneering outgrowth of legitimate trade.
Again Hawkins made for Teneriffe and his friend, Pedro de Ponte; again he provided himself with the needful information in the very house of his rivals ; again he prospected successfully for slaves on the Guinea coast2 (going every day on shore to hunt his negroes, ‘ with burning and spoiling of their towns ’) ; again he crossed to the West Indies, but not this time to Hispaniola. Well aware of King Philip’s prohibition and of the certainty that in the great colonial centre of San Domingo, if anywhere, no smuggling would be allowed, he tried his luck in the
1 The usual practice, as Mr. Corbett explains {Drake, i. 82), was for a small group of capitalists (commonly about five) to ‘underwrite’ or become responsible for definite portions of the required capital, which they placed among their friends. Only the names of the original underwriters, who were directors of the company, usually appeared ; among their backers were often to be found the leading people in the State, the Queen, the Earl of Pembroke, etc. On the Jesus , cf. State Papers, Domestic, xxxvii. 61; Oct. 23, 1565.
2 Just at the same time the Garrard Company’s fleet, with the Minion as flag-ship, sailed for Guinea and was discomfited off La Mina. Hawkins was much aggrieved at the information given by the Minion's people to certain negro tribes near Cape Verde, ‘of nature very gentle and loving,’ whom he was attempting to kidnap.
XIV
Voyages and Travels
ports of the ‘Spanish Main’ or Tierra Firma, the con¬ tinental province whose coast stretched from the Orinoco to the Isthmus of Panama.
The harbour of ‘ Burboroata,’ Burburata or Borburata, where he began operations, is the ‘ Burborough water ’ of later English seamen, in the Golfo Triste on the Venezuela coast, now marked out by a deserted creek or ensenada , some five leagues east of the present Puerto Cabello.1 Here, as at Curagao and Rio de la Hacha, the cheerful insolence of the English captain ‘ forcing to friendly com¬ merce ’ proved completely successful ; the ‘ lean and sick negroes ’ were sold at good profit (60 per cent.) ; and on his way home Hawkins was able to succour the distressed Huguenot colony of Laudonniere in Florida. The reason of their misfortune was clear to the Englishmen : the French settlers had no labourers, but being soldiers, desired to live by the sweat of other men’s brows : one of their chief comforts was ‘tabacco,’ by the great virtue whereof they could satisfy their hunger for four or five days without meat or drink.
Not only was gold and silver plentiful in Florida, Hawkins reported, but unicorns and other useful com¬ modities might be found there ; to settle and colonise this country would be an attempt requisite for a prince of power ; the increase from cattle alone, without counting the precious metals, would bring profit sufficient (pp. 73- 79). So keenly were the eyes of English pioneers already fixed upon the Western world as a field for colonising energy.2
1 Corbett, Drake , i. 84 ; Blaeu, Atlas Major , 1652, vol. ii. f. 89.
2 The narrative of the second Hawkins voyage, hereafter printed, is from the Hakluyt of 1589, written by one John Sparke, a gentleman adventurer who accompanied Hawkins.
Introduction
xv
After Hawkins’ second return, a new Spanish ambassador, Don Diego Guzman De Silva, came to England, and to his watchful energy was largely due that greater alertness of the Spanish authorities which ruined the third venture of the interlopers (1567-8). In 1565-6 Francis Drake seems to have sailed to the Spanish Main with one Captain Lovell, and to have been roughly handled at Rio de la Hacha, a not wholly unnatural retaliation for A chines' behaviour there a few months before ;x but De Silva’s diplomacy prevented Hawkins from breaking loose again till 1567. Then at last, after many a check and double, the Adventurers got clear away. Backed by a syndicate, at the head of which were Alderman Lionel Ducket and Sir William Garrard, and to which the Queen appears to have lent her support (as a shareholder) even more generously than before, the English captain slipped off from Plymouth on October 2, 1567, with a fleet of six vessels, two of them from the royal navy. These were the Jesus of Lubeck (700 tons ; 180 men in crew; 22 heavy and 42 lighter guns) and the Minion (350 tons): the private barks were the William and John of 150 tons, the Swallow of 100, the Judith of 50, and the Angel of 32. Francis Drake sailed as captain and master of the Judith, being then, according to Stow, twenty-two years of age. The squadron had an ‘Admiral,’ ‘Vice-Admiral,’
‘ General,’ and ‘ Captain of Soldiers,’ the complete naval equipment, and carried a force of between 600 and 700 men, in De Silva’s opinion. Hawkins’ Syndicate had sub¬ scribed sums equal to ;£ 16,000 of modern money to the expedition : Hawkins’ own property on the Jesus of Lubeck
1 In the same year Fenner of Chichester, who had intended sailing to the West Indies with Hawkins, was obliged to content himself with a Guinea voyage, in which he exchanged some hard knocks with the Portuguese.
XVI
Voyages and Travels
was estimated at between ^"3000 and ^4000 in modern value.1 In reading the various narratives referring to this voyage, we cannot help noticing how constantly Hawkins’ own (official) account requires supplementing from the narratives of the Englishmen who landed on the Mexico coast, and after so many trials escaped to England. David Ingram, Job Hartop, and Miles Phillips2 were the survivors of a hundred of Hawkins’ seamen who volunteered to go ashore from the overcrowded Minion (rescued with such
1 As to the authorities for the third Hawkins voyage : — Hawkins’ own account of the voyage of 1567-8 (afterwards reprinted by Hakluyt; see vol. i* pp. 91-103) was originally printed in 1569 under the title A true declaration oj the troubleso7?ie voyage of Mr. John Hawkins to the parts of Guinea and the West Indies in the years . . . 1567 and 1568. Miles Phillips, who returned from captivity in 1583, compiled his narrative with the assistance of Hawkins’ report.
The affidavits as to the losses at San Juan de Ulua (printed in vol. i. pp. 104- 26) are from a manuscript volume in the Public Record Office (6*. P. Dom ., Eliz. liii.) — Sir John Hawkins' Voyage , 1569 (July 2). Of the eleven depositions, only Hawkins’ own is here printed in full. This, of course, was the English Government’s official statement of its case. The Spanish Government’s has been lately rediscovered by Captain Fernandez Duro from the Coleccion Navarrete , and a version of it is given in Corbett, Drake , i. 417-20. It was originally sent by Philip 11. to Alva with orders to forward it to the Spanish Ambassador in London (cf. Spanish Calendar , 1568-79, p. no; Feb. 18, 1569): but Alva advised and procured its suppression. Besides these, there is Herrera’s account of the action at San Juan, in his Historia General , Part 1. book xv. chap. 18 ; a letter from Hawkins to Cecil written from the Minion , on his return to Eng¬ land, the same day as his arrival at Plymouth ; and the narratives of Ingram, Phillips, and Plartop.
Drake was considered by Hawkins to have deserted after the San Juan disaster. ‘So with the . . . Judith, a small bark . . .’ (says John) ‘we escaped ; which bark the same night forsook us in our great misery. ’ (See vol. i. p. 101.) This was long remembered against him : even in 1587 Admiral Borough retorts upon the great captain with the charge, so much exaggerated by Herrera, so discreetly softened away by Miles Phillips (‘the same night the said bark lost us ’ : see vol. i. p. 183.)
? For David Ingram, see vol. i. pp. 161-72 (reprinted from the Hakluyt of 15 >9, p. 557) ; for Miles Phillips, see vol. i. pp. 173-218 (from the Hakluyt of 1589, or i599-i6oo, pp. 469-87) ; for Job Hartop, see vol. i. pp. 219-42 (from the Hakluyt of 1599-1600, vol. iii. pp. 487-495 ; first printed as a separate tract in 1591)*
Introduction
XVII
difficulty from the catastrophe at San Juan), in order to save the remaining hundred ; and the stories of these three survivors are given in vol. i. pp. 161-242. Ingram’s record,1 the most fabulous but fortunately the shortest of the three, was omitted from Hakluyt’s final edition of 1599- 1600 — although in some points ‘this Examinate’s’ testi¬ mony is certainly worth preserving — ‘ the reward of lying,’ as Purchas complains, ‘ being not to be believed in truths ’ ( Pilgrimes , vol iv. p. 1179, ed. of 1625; book vi. ch. 4).
It is from Hartop, a gunner of the Jesusy not from Hawkins himself, that we learn of the reprisals under¬ taken by the English squadron against the Portuguese, during the first stage of the voyage, off West Africa. Hartop also is the only one who tells us how, at Margarita island in the West Indies, ‘our general, in despite of the Spaniards, landed and took in fresh victuals’; how at Placentia the bishop [and people] ‘ hearing of our coming for fear forsook the town ’ ; how at Rio de la Hacha Drake cut out, ran ashore, and seized as prize a Spanish ‘caravel of advice,’ or official despatch boat, from the Vice¬ roy at San Domingo. Speaking in 1591, Hartop had no motive to conceal anything.
As to Hawkins’ tempest-tost career in the Gulf of Mexico and the harbour of San Juan de Ulua (‘Ulloa’), an interesting and valuable commentary on the Hawkins narratives may be found in Robert Tomson’s account of his journey in 1555-58, 2 and in John Chilton’s Travels
1 It must be very seriously doubted whether David Ingram ever made such an extensive journey in the interior of North America as he claims — from the Gulf of Mexico to within fifty leagues or thereabouts of Cape Breton.
2 The Voyage of Robert Tomsony merchant, into Nova Hispania (1555-8); see vol. i. pp. 7-23 ; for Chilton’s Travels , see pp. 265-80. Both these are from the Hakluyt of 1589.
1.^4
xviii Voyages and Travels
in Mexico between 1568 and 1585, also printed in this collection.
In reading the account of the naval action at San Juan it may also be noted that the English ships carried a far heavier artillery than the Spaniards. Thus the Jesus ‘could throw 250 lbs.’1 from her twenty-two heavy guns alone without counting the discharge of her forty-two lighter pieces. Had the English not lost command of the eleven guns they had mounted on the island, they would probably have won. Until the undisputed possession of this islet had been granted — in words at least — to his force, Hawkins, though professing himself so ‘orderly’ and a ‘hater of folly’ (otherwise piracy), forbade the Viceroy of Mexico entrance to his own chief port. ‘ If he be Viceroy, I represent my Queen’s person, and I am Viceroy as well as he.’ After this perhaps a struggle to the death was only to be expected, though not such an ‘affair of foxes’ as the treacherous indignation of Martin Enrinquez and Francisco de Luxan2 contrived. It was a terrible revenge for such incidents as the trading at Rio de la Hacha in 1565, when Hawkins gave his unwilling customers the choice of ‘granting him a market ’ or ‘ else to stand to their own harms,’ when the Spanish prices were raised by the ‘breakfast’ salutation of a volley of ordnance and a landing-party, and when accounts were settled under the superintendence of three English boats ‘with bells in their noses and men with weapons accordingly.’
The pretended intrigue of John Hawkins with the
1 Cf. Corbett, Drake , i. 114 n.
2 Cf. Pedro de Santillana’s poem of 1570 on De Luxan’s victory over Hawkins, the poet’s ‘Juan Acle’ (cf. Duro, Armada invencible , ii. 490-501).
Introduction
xix
Spanish Government (vol. i. pp. 127-30) is famous not only for itself, but for Lingard’s self-deception in the matter. The whole was of course undertaken by ‘ Ackins,’ partly to feather his own nest, partly to rescue from captivity some of his unfortunate men, marooned in the Gulf of Mexico and now in Spanish prisons. The English Council of State, so far from being ‘suspicious,’ were cognisant of the whole throughout.
Jasper Campion’s Discourse of the trade to Scio , written the 14th Feb. 1569 [1570] to Michael Lock and William Winter? is a summary history of English commerce in the Greek Archipelago during the middle of the sixteenth century, from 1539 to 1570, and itself forms a part of the history of our commerce in the Mediterranean. This trade was prosecuted with great energy under the Tudors — above all, under Elizabeth herself — and Hakluyt gives a surprising number of documents relative to the same. Like Francis I. of France, Elizabeth cultivated friendly, and especially commercial, relations with the chief Mohammedan states, notably the Ottoman Sultan and the ‘Emperor’ of Morocco. By its subject-matter it is connected with the narratives of Munday and Sanders, immediately following, and with that of Roger Bodenham at the beginning of this volume (see pp. 1-5, 131-8, 139- 15 1, 243-61).
Anthony Munday [A. M.J’s account2 of the Captivity of John Fox of Woodridge, gunner of the Three Half Moons , and of his escape from Alexandria, in which two hundred and sixty-six Christian prisoners of the Turk also participated (Jan. 3, 1577), is one of the most interesting
1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1599 (final edition).
a Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.
XX
Voyages and Travels
narratives in Hakluyt, and remarkable as causing a momentary softening of bitterness between Catholic and Protestant : the Prior and Fathers of the Dominican Con¬ vent of Gallipoli, the Pope, and the King of Spain, all ex¬ erted themselves on Fox’s behalf ; he was granted a licence to beg through the cities and towns of Spain ; and Philip II. made him a gunner in the Valencia fleet of galleys.
Thomas Sanders’s report of the unfortunate voyage of the Jesus to Tripoli in 1584 was first printed as a separate tract on March 31, 1587 (see p. 243 of vol. i.) ; two years later it was reprinted by Hakluyt in the first edition of his Principal Navigations (1589).
From the Mediterranean, Elizabethan traders essayed to push on by overland routes to India, just as others were even now trying to reach the same goal by the long sea route round Africa ; and the narratives of Bodenham and Campion, Munday and Sanders, find their continuation in those of Eldred, Newberie, and Fitch, which trace the progress of the English pioneers to the south-east, from the ports of Syria and Egypt to the Persian Gulf, Ormuz, Malabar, and even Bengal and Pegu (pp. 295-324 of this volume).
Thomas Stevens, the English Jesuit who afterwards did so much for the release of Newberie and Fitch, when arrested in Portuguese India, had the same objective as they, but sought it by a different, longer, slightly speedier, and infinitely less obstructible route. He was the first Englishman known to Hakluyt as having reached the Indian mainland by the Cape of Good Hope ; and his letter1 of 1579 (see vol. i. pp. 152-9) from Goa to his father and namesake is a premonition of such future developments
1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.
Introduction
xxi
as the London East Indian Company. Stevens was a native of Wiltshire, who started for the East from Lisbon on April 4, 1479, with the usual trumpets and Shooting of ordnance,5 ‘ all in the manner of war,5 as the Portuguese were wont to set out for India. His description of the maritime routes inside and outside Madagascar (St. Lawrence Island) was the most valuable part of his narrative for English traders, statesmen, and explorers ; for the rest the Letter is much more explicit on the birds and fish of the Southern Seas than on people, products, or markets. The good Jesuit in fact was a born naturalist. He has a little to say about the Moors and Caffres of Ethiopia and the inhabitants of Goa 1 tawny, but not disfigured in their lips and noses 5 like the former : yet on the whole it is for descriptions of the albatross, the shark, the pilot-fish, the sucker, and the Medusa that the modern reader will value this report John Chilton’s notable discourse1 (see vol. i. pp. 263-80) concerning the memorable things of the West Indies, seen and noted by himself during seventeen years of travel in Mexico and the Islands of the Carribean Sea, is perhaps the most valuable Elizabethan English account of these regions. It refers to the third Hawkins voyage of 1567-8, and to Drake’s voyage round the world of 1577-80, when the great freebooter touched at Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Mexico (see pp. 268-9) 1 but it has no direct con¬ nection with either of these expeditions. Its picture of Spanish government in New Spain and of the distribution of garrisons, its account of the trade regulations between the colony and the mother-country, and its emphatic statement of the discontent of the settlers and their eagerness for greater freedom of commerce, are all worthy of notice.
1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.
XXII
Voyages and Travels
Thomas Cavendish or Candish was the only Englishman of the Elizabethan time who successfully followed Drake upon the path of Magellan, the circumnavigation of the world. He started on July 21, 1586, upon his ‘ admirable and prosperous journey into the South Sea, and thence round about the whole earth,’ and returned on September 9, 1588, just after the ‘overthrowing of the Spanish fleet/ but this second English encircling of the globe was for the most part a less eventful repetition of the first (see vol. i. pp. 28 1 -94). 1 Cavendish was born in or about 1556, and belonged to the Suffolk Cavendishes of Trimley St. Martin, near Ipswich. Having squandered his property in ‘follow¬ ing the Court ’ and leading the life of a gallant, he became a pirate to mend his fortune. His first naval venture was in Sir Richard Grenville’s expedition for the planting of the abortive Virginia Colony of 1585. He then followed Grenville in a voyage of plunder and adventure in the Atlantic.
On his return to England, Cavendish promptly set about the organisation of a new expedition, this time for ‘the South Sea and round about the globe.’ The fullest narra¬ tive of the voyage of 1 586-8 is that of Francis Pretty, given in the final edition of Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (vol. iii. pp. 803-25). To the account hereafter printed we may add the following details. The Spanish settlements in Magellan’s Straits visited and described by the English on this venture were relics of the great expedition of twenty- three sail which had been sent out from Seville in September 1581, as a direct consequent of Drake’s passage into the Pacific, and as. a measure for preventing any similar aggres¬ sion by the south-west. The Armada was under Diego
1 Reprinted from the Hakluyt of 1589.
Introduction
XXlll
Flores de Valdez as Admiral ; Pedro Sarmiento,one of Spain’s truest heroes, was governor- designate of the intended colony. Storms played havoc with the fleet ; only sixteen vessels finally got off to Rio Janeiro ; and a start was not made from Brazil until November 1582. De Valdez and Sarmiento, after many bickerings, now finally quarrelled and parted, De Valdez returning to Rio, where he picked up four rein¬ forcement ships that had been sent from Spain with supplies for the colonists, and with their help made his way home again. Sarmiento, driven back once and again by stress of weather, at last made a successful start from the Brazil coast on December 2, 1583, with five ships and five hundred and thirty persons, reached Magellan’s Straits on February 1, 1584, and in spite of desertions planted four hundred men and thirty women in two settlements — Nombre de Jesus and San Felipe (miscalled King Philip’s town by the Cavendish narratives). After Sarmiento’s departure the colony went rapidly to ruin. ‘Their whole living for a great space’ (so the English thought when they lighted upon the twenty-two survivors1 on January 9, 1587) had been mussels and limpets, eked out by an occasional bit of venison from deer that came down ‘ out of the mountains to the fresh rivers to drink.’
During the two years they had been there, ‘ they could never have anything to grow or in any wise prosper.’ The Indians also often ‘preyed upon them,’ and ‘victuals grew short, so that they died like dogs in their houses and in their clothes, wherein we found them still at our coming.’ The town of San Felipe was so ‘wonderfully tainted with the smell and savour of the dead,’ that the survivors for¬ sook it and made what living they could, rambling along the shore, from roots, leaves, and any fowl they might kill.
1 The number is also given as twenty-three or twenty-four.
XXIV
Voyages and Travels
From among these outcasts Cavendish secured one prisoner, Tom6 Hernandez, who succeeded in escaping (March 30, 1587) near Valparaiso, ‘ notwithstanding all his deep and damnable oaths that he would die on their side before he would be false.’ The same man also planned an ambuscade on the next day, in which twelve of the English were cut off. At Guatulco or Aguatulco (Acapulco ; see vol. i. p. 287), Cavendish is said to have burnt a church and a great wooden cross, which some zealots believed St. Andrew had planted there when he preached the faith to the Mexican Aztees — a distant mission, unrecorded until the discovery of America started a fresh growth of Apos¬ tolic legends. Cavendish smeared the cross with pitch and heaped dry reeds around it ; for three days the fire burnt, but at the end the holy sign was still scatheless.
After the capture1 of the treasure-galleon Santa Anna, the division of the spoil offended the crew of the Content , who deserted in the night of the 20th November 1587, close to Port Agua Secura, where the booty had been sorted, appropriated, or destroyed. As the Hugh Gallant had been sunk off Puna Island in the Gulf of Guayaquil, after the ‘regrettable incident’ of the ambuscade at that place (see vol. i. p. 286), Cavendish’s fleet was now reduced to one vessel, the Desire , his own flagship. The loss of the Content (which was never seen again) was especially felt from the fact that her captain, John Brewer, had accompanied Drake round the world, and had been hitherto the chief guide and pilot of the second English circumnavigation. His place, however, was well supplied for some way by a pilot of the
1 The capture of the Santa Anna was greatly helped by the information extracted from some prisoners — a Fleming and three Spaniards whom Caven¬ dish captured off the Chilian coast, and ‘tortured for news’ of the treasure galleons and other things.
Introduction
xxv
Santa Anna , who took Cavendish as far as Capul in the Philippines (Jan. 15, 1588). Here he tried to communicate with the Spanish Governor of Manilla, and was hanged by his captors for his plot.
By the help of this pilot, Brewer’s earlier guiding, and Drake’s narratives, Cavendish finished his circuit of the world in five months less than Sir Francis. Like Magellan, he came to blows with the natives of the Ladrones, but appar¬ ently rather from a fierce weariness of their mercantile impor¬ tunity than from anger at their thievishness. During a nine days’ stay at Capul the English mariners made observations on the trade, natives, arts, and disposition of the Philippines, which materially stimulated subsequent English voyages to this Archipelago. For here, we were now told, lived men ‘of great genius and invention in handicrafts and sciences, every one so expert in his faculty as few Christians are able to go beyond them ’ ; and especially in ‘ drawing and embroidery upon satin, silk or lawn, either beast, fowl, fish, or worm, for liveliness and perfectness, both in silk, silver, gold, and pearl.’ These paragons also promised Cavendish (so Pretty reports) to aid him whenever he should come again to overcome the Spaniards, and paid him a tribute of pigs, poultry, cocoa-nuts, and potatoes. They were skilled in the black art as well as in tattooing, and their inter¬ course with the devil was of the most pleasant and familiar kind.
Near Manilla the Desire chased, but without success, a Spanish vessel which had just put out : only one prisoner was the result of the pursuit, and he was sent on shore with ‘commendations’ to the Governor and his people,
‘ willing them to provide good store of gold, for they meant to visit them again within four years.’ The rich commerce
xx vi Voyages and Travels
that met here from East and South Asia on one side, and from the western littoral of America on the other, moved the admiration of the visitors ; and to secure a share in this Philippine wealth, and, if possible, the sole control of it, soon became a prominent ambition of English commerce. The political action of Cavendish here was a complement to that of Drake in Ternate. Hurrying through the un¬ healthy Moluccas, where his men suffered severely from the ‘ untemperate ’ climate, Cavendish made a stay of eleven days in Java (March 5-16). The natives he thought the bravest race in the south-east parts of the globe. Still more opportunely for his political projects, he here fell in with some Portuguese exiles who hoped to win for Don Antonio ‘ all the Moluccas at command, besides China, Ceylon, and the Philippines/ to say nothing of all the Indians. Here was a bright prospect for the English allies of Don Antonio who might well hope to reap some profit out of a colonial rising against Philip II.
In a rapid passage of two months and three days Caven¬ dish traversed the ‘ mighty and vast sea’ between Java and the main of Africa, observing the ‘ heavens, stars, and fowls —marks unto seamen ’ ; and almost as rapid was his voyage in eighty-one days from St. Helena (where he repeated his outrages upon the faith he detested, beating down the altar and cross of the church, as Linschoten tells us) to the ‘ long- wished-for port of Plymouth/
The narratives of Eldred, Fitch, and Newberie (already referred to) are of much higher importance than seems generally understood (see vol. i. pp. 295-332). They record the first direct intercourse of the English nation, and especially of its merchants, with India (1583-91) : they repre¬ sent to us the essential forward step to which the Central
Introduction
xxvii
Asiatic ventures of Anthony Jenkinson, Drake’s treaty with the King of Ternate, and the isolated and, so to say, almost accidental journey of Thomas Stevens, were preliminaries: with them begins the British trade-empire in South Asia. And in all our later history there is no process more in evidence than the conversion of commercial into political dominion. With the three above-named went two less- known merchants, Leedes and Storey : all alike were sent out by the joint-boards of the Levant and Muscovy Com¬ panies, and acted as accredited envoys from England to the Great Mogul and the Son of Heaven, bearing letters from Elizabeth to Akbar and the Emperor of China. Primarily, however, they were sent out to prospect for English commerce, conveying samples of our goods, especi¬ ally in cloth and tin, to Aleppo, Bagdad, Ormuz, and the other markets of the Levant, and reporting home first and foremost upon the markets, prices, and trade routes of South-Western and Southern Asia.
It is noteworthy that we find in Newberie’s list of nationalities then to be found trading at Goa, not only French, Germans, and Italians, but even Hungarians and Muscovites, among Christian peoples.
Of the whole party only Fitch returned to England to report complete success in the mission for which he had been sent out. Leedes entered the service of the Great Akbar ; Storey joined the Church of Rome, and was ordained a priest at Goa ; Newberie died in the Punjab on his way home ; Eldred seems not to have gone beyond Basrah — Bassora or Bussorah — at the head of the Persian Gulf.
Who ever heard, says Hakluyt, of Englishmen at Goa before? Who ever heard of the Indian trade, in the next
xxviii Voyages and Travels
generation, without some reference to the eager competi¬ tion of England in this traffic? The information given to London merchants by the Newberie-Fitch group of pioneers was undoubtedly one of the main guides to the organised effort of the next decade, culminating in the East India Company of 1600. Among other stimulants we must not forget Linschoten’s great work (portions of which are printed in vol. i. pp. 324-30, and vol. ii. pp. 1-126), which give the most detailed account of the East Indies and their trade-routes that had yet been supplied to the Northern peoples of Europe. Nor must it be forgotten that when Drake captured the great ‘ Portugal Carrack * (the San Felipe) in 1587, off St. Michael in the Azores, there were found in the prize papers which revealed many of the most hidden secrets of the East Indian trade, papers to which, before all else, contemporaries ascribed the formation of our East India Company.
C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY.
Merton College, Oxford,
October %th, 1902.
Note. — On the influence of Fitch and his companions in the over¬ land East India journey of 1583 upon the formation and first measures of the East India Company, some light is thrown by the earliest records of the Company — e.g. (1) * 2nd Oct. 1600 : Ordered that Mr. Eldred and Mr. Fitch shall in the meeting to-morrow morning confer of the mer¬ chandise fit to be provided for the voyage; (2) 31^ Dec. 1606; King famed s letters to be obtained to the King of Cambay, the Governors of Aden , etc. ; their titles to be inquired of R. Fitch!
On Drake’s Burburata, cp. also J. Blaeu, Atlas Novus , Amsterdam, 1650 (II. ii.), map of Venezuela cum parte australi Novae Andalusiae [. Burburate , here.]
t
Captain Roger Bodenham. Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d.
[Hakluyt’s Voyages , 1599.]
N the year 1550, the 13th of November, I Roger Bodenham, Captain of the bark Aucher , entered the said ship at Gravesend, for my voyage to the islands of Candia and Scio in the Levant. The master of my ship was one William Sherwood From thence we departed to Tilbery Hope, and there remained with contrary winds until the 6th of January 1551.
The 6th of January, the master came to Tilbery, and I had provided a skilful pilot to carryover [past] Land’s End, whose name was Master Wood. With all speed I vailed [dropped] down that night ten miles, to take the tide in the morning : which happily I did, and that night came to Dover and there came to an anchor. There I remained until Friday [the gth] : meeting with the worthy knight Sir Anthony Aucher, owner of the said ship.
The nth day, we arrived at Plymouth. The 13th in the morning, we set forward on our voyage with a prosperous wind : and the 16th, we had sight of Cape Finisterre on the coast of Spain.
The 30th, we arrived at Cadiz : and there discharged certain merchandize, and took other aboard.
The 20th of February, we departed from Cadiz, and passed the straits of Gibraltar that night ; and the 25th we came to the isle of Majorca, and were stayed there five days with contrary winds.
The 1st of March, we had sight of Sardinia, and the 5th of the said month we arrived at Messina in Sicily; and there discharged much goods, remaining there until Good Friday in Lent [27th of March, 1551].
The chief merchant [in London] that laded the said bark
2
Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d. [Capt-
A ucher was a Merchant Stranger called Anselm Salvago ; and because the time was then very dangerous, and that there was no going into the Levant — especially to Scio — without a safeconduct from the Turk: the said Anselm promised the owner Sir Anthony Aucher that we should receive the same at Messina. But I was posted from thence to Candia : and there I was answered that I should send to Scio, and there I should have my safeconduct. I was forced to send one, and he had his answer “ that the Turk would give none, willing me to look what was best for me to do : ” which was no small trouble to me, considering that I was bound to deliver the goods that were in the ship at Scio or send them at my adventure [risk]. The merchants [supercargoes], without care of the loss of the ship, would have compelled me to go or send their goods at mine adventure. The which I denied, and said plainly I would not go, because the Turk’s galleys were come forth to go against Malta. But by the French king’s means, he was persuaded to leave Malta, and to go to Tripoli in Barbary : which by means of the French, he wan.
In this time there were in Candia certain Turkish vessels called skyrasas, which had brought wheat thither to sell ; and were ready to depart for Turkey. And they departed in the morning betimes ; carrying news that I would not go forth. That same night I had prepared beforehand what I thought good, without making any man privy to it until I saw time. Then I had no small business to cause my mariners to venture with the ship in such a manifest danger. Nevertheless I wan them all to go with me, except three which I set on land ; and with all diligence I was ready to set forth about eight o’clock at night, being a fair moonshine night, and went out. Then my three mariners made such requests unto the re.T of my men to come aboard, that I was constrained to take them in.
So with a good wind we put into the Archipelago, and being among the islands, the wind scanted [ fell away], and I was forced to anchor at an island called Micone ; where I tarried ten or twelve days ; having a Greek pilot to carry the ship to Scio. In this mean season, there came many small boats with mysson [mizeri] sails to go for Scio, with divers goods to sell ; and the pilot requested me that I would let them go in my company, to which I yielded.
3
Capt.R.BBodenham.j V0YAGE TO SdO IN 155 I A« D-
After the said days were expired, I weighed and set sail for the island of Scio; with which place I fell in in the afternoon: whereupon I cast [tacked] to seaward again to come with the island in the morning betimes. The foresaid small vessels which came in my company, departed from me to win the shore to get in during the night : but upon a sudden they espied three foists [light galleys] of Turks coming upon them to spoil them. My pilot, having a son in one of those small vessels, entreated me to cast about [wear] towards them ; which at his request I did : and being somewhat far from them, I caused my gunner to shoot a demi-culverin at a foist that was ready to enter one of the boats. This was so happy a shot that it made the Turk to fall astern of the boat and to leave him : by the which means he escaped.
Then they all came to me, and requested that they might hang at my stern until daylight : by which time, I came before the mole of Scio, and sent my boat on land to the merchants of that place to send for their goods out of hand [ immediately] or else I would return back with all to Candia, and they should fetch their goods from there. But in fine, by what persuasion of my merchants, Englishmen, and of those of Scio: I was entreated to come into the harbour: and had a safe assurance for twenty days against the Turk’s army, with a bond of the city in the sum of 12,000 ducats. So I made haste and sold such goods as I had to the Turks that came thither ; and put all in order with as much speed as I could: fearing the coming of the Turk’s navy; of the which, the chief of the city knew right well.
So upon the sudden, they called me of great friendship and in secret told me, I had no way to save myself but to be gone ; for said they, “ We are not able to defend you that are not able to help ourselves. For the Turk, where he cometh, taketh what he will and leaveth what he lists : but the chief of the Turks set order that none shall do any harm to the people or to their goods.” This was such news to me, that indeed I was at my wits’ end ; and was brought into many imaginations what to do : for the wind was contrary. In fine, I determined to go forth.
But the merchants, Englishmen, and others, regarding more their gains than the ship, hindered me very much in my purpose of going forth : and made the mariners to
4
Voyage to Scio in 1551 a.d. [Capt- R-BBeJ0dreen^;
come to me to demand their wages to be paid out of hand, and to have a time to employ [spend] the same there. But GOD provided so for me that I paid them their money that night : and then charged them that if they would not set the ship forth ; I would make them to answer the same in England with danger of their heads. Many were married in England and had somewhat to lose. These did stick to me. I had twelve gunners. The Master Gunner, who was a mad¬ brained fellow, and the owner’s servant had a parliament between themselves : and he, upon the same, came up to me with his sword drawn ; swearing that he had promised the owner, Sir Anthony Aucher, to live and die in the said ship against all that should offer any harm to the ship, and that he would fight with the whole army of the Turks, and never yield. With this fellow I had much ado : but at the last I made him confess his fault and follow my advice.
Thus with much labour I got out of the mole of Scio into the sea, by warping forth ; with the help of Genoese boats, and a French boat that was in the mole : and being out, GOD sent me a special gale of wind to go my way. Then I caused a piece to be shot off for some of my men that were yet in the town, and with much ado they came aboard : and then I set sail a little before one o’clock, and I made all the sail I could.
About half past two o’clock there came seven galleys into Scio to stay the ship, and the Admiral of them was in a great rage because she was gone. Whereupon they put some of the best [of the townsfolk] in prison ; and took all the men of the three ships which I left in the port, and put them into the galleys. The Turks would have followed after me ; but that the townsmen found means that they did not. The next day came thither an hundred more galleys, and there tarried for their whole company, which being together, were about 250 sail ; taking their voyage to surprise the island of Malta.
The next day after I departed, I had sight of Candia : but I was two days more ere I could get in : where I thought myself out of their danger. There I continued until the Turk’s army was past, which came within sight of the town.
There was preparation made as though the Turks would have come thither. There are in that island of Candia many banished men, that live continually in the mountains.
5
Capt. R^Bodenham.-] VOYAGE TO SdO IN I 55 I A.D.
They came down to serve, to the number of 4,000 or 5,000. They are good archers. Every one was armed with his bow and arrows, a sword and a dagger ; and had long hair, boots that reached up to the groin, and a shirt of mail hanging, the one half before, and the other half behind. These were sent away again as soon as the army was past. They would drink wine out of all measure.
Then the army being past, I ladened my ship with wines and other things : and so, after I had that which I had left at Scio, I departed for Messina. In the way, I found about Zante, certain galliots of Turks laying aboard of certain vessels of Venice laden with muscatels. I rescued them, and had but a barrel of wine for my powder and shot. Within a few days after, I came to Messina.
I had in my ship a Spanish pilot, called Nobiezia, which I took in at Cadiz at my coming forth. He went with me all this voyage into the Levant without wages, of goodwill that he bare me and the ship. He stood me in good stead until I came back again to Cadiz ; and then I needed no pilot. And so from thence I came to London with the ship and goods in safety : GOD be praised !
And all those mariners that were in my said ship — which were, besides boys, threescore and ten — for the most part, were within five or six years after, able to take charge of ships, and did.
Richard Chancellor, who first discovered Russia, was with me in that voyage ; and Matthew Baker, who afterwards became the Queen’s Majesty’s Chief Shipwright.
7
Ro bert Tomson, of Andover, Merchant
V oyage to the West Indies and Mexico ,
1 5 5^ — 1 558, A.D.
[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]
That these Englishmen were allowed to go to New Spain at all was probably one of the results of the marriage of Philip with Mary Tudor. Blake, Field, and Tomson were probably the first British islanders who reached the city of Mexico. This narrative also gives us an account of the first auto-da-fe in that city.
8 Tomson stays a year at Seville, [r<
Obert Tomson, born in the town of Andover, in Hampshire, began his travels out of England in the month of March, anno 1553 [i.e., 1554] ; who departing out of the city of Bristol in company of other merchants of the said city, in a good ship called the bark Young, within eight days after, arrived at Lisbon, at Portugal : where the said Robert Tomson remained fifteen days. At the end of which, he shipped himself for Spain in the said ship, and within four days arrived in the bay of Cadiz in Andalusia, which is under the kingdom of Spain : and from thence, travelled up to the city of Seville by land, which is twenty leagues ; and there, he repaired to the house of one John Field, an English merchant who had dwelt in the said city of Seville eighteen or twenty years married, with wife and children. In whose house, the said Tomson remained by the space of one whole year or thereabout, for two causes * the one, to learn the Castilian tongue ; the other, to see the orders of the country, and the customs of the people.
At the end of which time, having seen the fleets of ships come out of the [West] Indies to that city, with such great quantity of gold and silver, pearls, precious stones, sugar, hides, ginger, and divers other rich commodities ; he did determine with himself to seek means and opportunity to pass over to see that rich country, from whence such a great quantity of rich commodities came.
And it fell out, that within short time after, the said John Field, where the said Tomson was lodged, did determine to pass over into the West Indies himself, with his wife, chil¬ dren, and family: and, at the request of the said Tomson, he purchased a license of the King, to pass into the Indies, for himself, wife, and children; and among them, also, for the said Tomson to pass with them. So that presently they made preparation of victuals and other necessary provision for the voyage. But the ships which were prepared to perform the voyage being all ready to depart, were, upon certain con¬ siderations by the King’s commandment, stayed and arrested, till further should be known of the King’s pleasure.
R- *■£»•] and then starts for Mexico.
Whereupon, the said John Field, with his company and Robert Tomson (being departed out of Seville, and come down to San Lucar de Barrameda, fifteen leagues off) seeing the stay made upon the ships ot the said fleet, and not being assured when they would depart, determined to ship them¬ selves for the isles of the Canaries, which are 250 leagues from San Lucar, and there to stay till the said fleet should come hither ; for that is continually their port to make stay at, six or eight days, to take fresh water, bread, flesh, and other necessaries.
So that in the month of February, in anno 1555, the said Robert Tomson, with the said John Field and his com¬ pany, shipped themselves in a caravel of the city of Cadiz, out of the town of San Lucar ; and within six days, they arrived at the port of the Grand Canary : where at our coming, the ships that rode in the said port began to cry out of all measure, with loud voices ; insomuch that the Castle, which stood fast by, began to shoot at us, and shot six or eight shot at us, and struck down our mainmast before we could hoist out our boat to go on land to know what the cause of the shooting was; seeing that we were Spanish ships, and coming into our country.
So that being on land, and complaining of the wrong and damage done unto us; they answered that “they had thought we had been French rovers, that had come into the said port to do some harm to the ships that were there.” For that eight days past, there went out of the said port a caravel much like unto ours, ladened with sugars and other merchan¬ dise for Spain ; and on the other side of the Point of the said island, met with a French Man of War: which took the said caravel, and unladed out of her into the said French ship, both men and goods. And it being demanded of the said Spaniards, “ What other ships remained in the port whence they came?”; they answered, “There remained divers other ships, and one ladened with sugars as they were, and ready to depart for Spain.” Upon the which news, the Frenchmen put thirty tall men of their ship, well appointed, into the said caravel that they had taken, and sent her back again to the said port from whence she had departed the day before.
Somewhat late towards evening, she came into port, not
io English Factors at the Canaries. [^T"011;^:
showing past thfee or four men • and so came to an anchor hard by the other ships that were in the said port. Being seen by the Castle and by the said ships, they made no reckoning of her, because they knew her : and thinking that she had found contrary winds at the sea, or having forgotten something behind them, they had returned back again for the same, they made no account of her, but let her alone riding quietly among the other ships in the said port. So that about midnight, the said caravel, with the Frenchmen in her, went aboard [touched] the other ship that lay hard by, ladened with sugars ; and driving the Spaniards that were in her under the hatches, presently let slip her cables and anchors, and set sail and carried her clean away : and after this sort, deceived them. And they thinking or fearing that we were the like, did shoot at us as they did.
This being past : the next day after our arrival in the said port, we did unbark ourselves, and went on land up to the city or head town of the Grand Canaria, where we remained eighteen or twenty days ; and there found certain Englishmen, merchants, servants of Anthony Hickman and Edward Castelin, merchants in the city of London, that lay there for traffic : of whom we received great courtesy and much good cheer.
After the which twenty days being past, in which we had seen the country, the people, and the disposition thereof; we departed from thence, and passed to the next isle of the Canaries, eighteen leagues off, called Teneriffe; and being come on land, went up to the city called La Laguna : where we remained seven months, attending the coming of the whole fleet, which, in the end, came; and there having taken that which they had need of, we shipped ourselves in a ship of Cadiz, being one of the said fleet, belonging to an Englishman married in the city of Cadiz in Spain, whose name was John Sweeting. There came in the said ship as Captain, an Englishman also, whose name was Leonard Chilton, married in Cadiz, and son-in-law to the said John Sweeting : and another Englishman also, whose name was Ralph Sarre, came in the same ship, which had been a merchant of the city of Exeter; one of fifty years of age or thereabouts.
So that we departed from the said islands in the month of
R-“] Santo Domingo in 1555. 11
October, the foresaid year [1555], eight ships in our company, and so directed our course towards the Bay of New Spain [Gulf of Mexico ] ; and, by the way, towards the island ot Santo Domingo, otherwise called Hispaniola: so that within forty-two days [i.e., in December ] after we departed from the said islands of Canaries, we arrived with our ship at the port of Santo Domingo ; and went in over the bar, where our ship knocked her keel at her entry. There our ship rid [rode] before the town; where we went on land, and refreshed ourselves sixteen days.
There we found no bread made of wheat, but biscuit brought out of Spain, and out of the Bay of Mexico. For the country itself doth yield no kind of grain to make bread withal : but the bread they make there, is certain cakes made of roots called cassavia; which is something substantial, but it hath an unsavoury taste in the eating thereof. Flesh of beef and mutton, they have great store ; for there are men that have 10,000 head of cattle, of oxen, bulls, and kine, which they do keep only for the hides : for the quantity of flesh is so great, that they are not able to spend the hundredth part. Of hog’s flesh is there good store, very sweet and savoury ; and so wholesome that they give it to sick folks to eat, instead of hens and capons : although they have good store of poultry of that sort, as also of guinea cocks and guinea hens.
At the time of our being there, the city of Santo Domingo was not of above 500 households of Spaniards : but of the Indians dwelling in the suburbs, there were more. The country is, most part of the year, very hot : and very full of a kind of flies or gnats with long bills [mosquitos] , which do prick and molest the people very much in the night when they are asleep, in pricking their faces and hands and other parts of their bodies that lie uncovered, and make them to swell wonderfully. Also there is another kind of small worm, which creepeth into the soles of men’s feet, and especially of the Black Moors [Indians] and children which use to go barefoot, and maketh their feet to grow as big as a man’s head, and doth so ache that it would make one run mad. They have no remedy for the same, but to open the flesh, sometimes three or four inches, and so dig them out.
The country yieldeth great store of sugar, hides of oxen, bulls and kine, ginger, cana fistula , and salsaparilla. Mines
i2 Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. [R-T°mson.
of silver and gold there are none ; but in some rivers, there is found some small quantity of gold. The principal coin that they do traffic withal in that place is black money, made of copper and brass : and this they say they do use, not for that they lack money of gold and silver to trade withal out of the other parts of [West] India, but because, if they should have good money, the merchants that deal with them in trade would carry away their gold and silver, and let the country commodities lie still. And thus much for Santo Domingo. So we were, coming from the isles of Canaries to Santo Domingo, and staying there, until the month of December : which was three months.
About the beginning of January [1556], we departed thence towards the Bay of Mexico and New Spain; towards which we set our course, and so sailed twenty-four days, till we came within fifteen leagues of San Juan de Ulua, which was the port of Mexico of our right discharge.
And being so near our said port, there rose a storm of northerly winds which came off from Terra Florida ; which caused us to cast about into the sea again, for fear lest that night we should be cast upon the shore before day did break, and so put ourselves in danger of casting away. The wind and sea grew so foul and strong, that, within two hours after the storm began, nine ships that were together, were so dispersed, that we could not see one another.
One of the ships of our company, being of the burden of 500 tons, called the “ Hulk of Carion,” would not cast about to sea, as we did ; but went that night with the land : thinking in the morning to purchase the port of San Juan de Ulua; but missing the port, went with the shore, and was cast away. There were drowned of that ship, seventy-five persons, men, women, and children ; and sixty-four were saved that could swim, and had means to save themselves. Among those that perished in that ship, was a gentleman who had been Pres[id]ent the year beforein Santo Domingo, his wife and four daughters, with the rest of his servants and household.
We, with the other seven ships, cast about into the sea, the storm [en]during ten days with great might, boisterous winds, fogs, and rain. Our ship, being old and weak, was so tossed that she opened at the stern a fathom under water, and the best remedy we had was to stop it with beds and pilobiers
<“;] They abandon their sinking ship. 13
[? pillows for litters ] : and for fear of sinking we threw and lightened into the sea all the goods we had, or could come by ; but that would not serve.
Then we cut our mainmast, and threw all our ordnance into the sea, saving one piece ; which, early in a morning, when we thought we should have sunk, we shot off : and, as it pleased GOD, there was one of the ships of our company near unto us, which we saw not by means of the great fog; which hearing the sound of the piece, and understanding some of the company to be in great extremity, began to make towards us, and when they came within hearing of us, we desired them “ for the love of GOD ! to help to save us, for that we were all like to perish !” They willed us “ to hoist our foresail as much as we could, and make towards them ; for they would do their best to save us ; ” and so we did.
And we had no sooner hoisted our foresail, but there came a gale of wind ; and a piece of sea struck in the foresail, and carried away sail and mast all overboard : so that then we thought there was no hope of life. And then we began to embrace one another, every man his friend, every wife her husband, and the children their fathers and mothers ; com¬ mitting our souls to Almighty GOD, thinking never to escape alive. Yet it pleased GOD, in the time of most need, when all hope was past, to aid us with His helping hand, and caused the wind a little to cease ; so that within two hours after, the other ship was able to come aboard us, and took into her, with her boat, man, woman and child, naked without hose, or shoes upon many of our feet.
I do remember that the last person that came out of the ship into the boat was a woman Black Moore [Indian] ; who leaping out of the ship into the boat, with a young sucking child in her arms, leapt too short, and fell into the sea, and was a good while under the water before the boat could come to rescue her : and, with the spreading of her clothes rose above water again, and was caught by the coat and pulled into the boat, having still her child under her arm, both of them half drowned ; and yet her natural love towards her child would not let her let the child go. And when she came aboard the boat, she held her child so fast under her arm still, that two men were scant able to get it out.
So we departed out of our ship, and left it in the sea. It
i4 They arrive at San Juan de Ulua. [rT0“X
was worth 400,000 ducats [= about £100,000 then = about £900,000 now], ship and goods, when we left it.
Within three days after, we arrived at our port of San Juan de Ulua, in New Spain.
I do remember that in the great and boisterous storm of this foul weather, in the night there came upon the top of our mainyard and mainmast, a certain little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called the corpos sancto , and said “ It was Saint Elmo ” [ see Vol. II p* 7 1 J whom they take to be the advocate of sailors. At which sight, the Spaniards fell down upon their knees and wor¬ shipped it: praying GOD and Saint Elmo to cease the torment, and save them from the peril they were in ; with promising him that, on their coming on land, they would repair unto his chapel, and there cause masses to be said, and other ceremonies to be done. The friars [did] cast relics into the sea, to cause the sea to be still, and likewise said Gospels, with other crossings and ceremonies upon the sea to make the storm to cease : which, as they said, did much good to weaken the fury of the storm. But I could not perceive it, nor gave any credit to it ; till it pleased GOD to send us the remedy, and delivered us from the rage of the same. His name be praised therefore !
This light continued aboard our ship about three hours, flying from mast to mast, and from top to top ; and sometimes it would be in two or three places at once. I informed myself of learned men afterward, what this light should be ? and they said that “ It was but a congelation of the wind and vapours of the sea congealed with the extremity of the weather, and so flying in the wind, many times doth chance to hit the masts and shrouds of the ship that are at sea in foul weather.” And, in truth, I do take it to be so : for that I have seen the like in other ships at sea, and in sundry ships at once. By this, men may see how the Papists are given to believe and worship such vain things and toys as God ; to whom all honour doth appertain : and in their need and necessities do let [cease] to call upon the living GOD, who is the giver of all good things.
The 16th of April in anno 1556, we arrived at the port of San Juan de Ulua in New Spain, very naked and distressed of apparel and all other things, by means of the loss of our
*5
Noble generosity of a Spaniard.
foresaid ship and goods ; and from thence we went to the new town called Vera Cruz, five leagues from the said port of San Juan de Ulua, marching still by the sea shore : where we found lying upon the sands a great quantity of mighty great trees, with roots and all, some of them four, five, or six cart load, by estimation ; which, as the people told us, were, in the great stormy weather which we [en]dured at sea, rooted out of the ground in Terra Florida right against that place (which is 300 leagues over the sea), and brought thither.
So that we came to the said town of Vera Cruz ; where we remained a month. There the said John Field chanced to meet an old friend of his acquaintance in Spain, called Gonzalo Ruiz de Cordova, a very rich man of the said town of Vera Cruz; who (hearing of his coming thither, with his wife and family ; and of his misfortune by sea) came unto him, and received him and all his household into his house, and kept us there a whole month, making us very good cheer ; and giving us good entertainment, and also gave us, that were in all eight persons, of the said J. Field’s house, double apparel, new out of the shop, of very good cloth, coats, cloaks, shirts, smocks, gowns for the women, hose, shoes, and all other necessary apparel ; and for our way up to the city of Mexico, horses, moyles [mules], and men ; and money in our purses for the expenses by the way, which by our account might amount unto the sum of 400 crowns [=£120 then = about £1,000 now].
After we were entered two days’ journey into the country, I, the said Robert Tomson, fell sick of an ague : so that the next day I was not able to sit on my horse ; but was fain to be carried upon Indians’ backs from thence to Mexico.
And when we came within half a day’s journey of the city of Mexico, the said John Field also fell sick; and within three days after we arrived at the said city, he died. And presently sickened one of his children, and two more of his household people ; who within eight days died. So that within ten days after we arrived at the city of Mexico, of eight persons that were of us of the said company, there remained but four of us alive : and I, the said Tomson, at the point of death, of the sickness that I got on the way, which continued with me for the space of six months [till October 1556]. At the end of which time, it pleased GOD
1 6 The City of Mexico in 1556. [E-
to restore me my health again, though weak and greatly disabled.
Mexico was a city, in my time, of not above 1,500 house¬ holds of Spaniards inhabiting there ; but of Indian people in the suburbs of the said city, there dwelt about 300,000 as it was thought, and many more. This city of Mexico is sixty-five leagues from the North Sea [the Gulf of Mexico ] and seventy- five leagues from the South Sea [the Pacific Ocean ] ; so that it standeth in the midst of the main land, betwixt the one sea and the other.
It is situated in the midst of a lake of standing water, and surrounded round about with the same ; save, in many places, going out of the city, are many broad ways through the said lake or water. This lake and city are surrounded also with great mountains round about, which are in compass above thirty leagues ; and the said city and lake of standing water doth stand in a great plain in the midst of it. This lake of standing water doth proceed from the shedding of the rain, that falleth upon the said mountains ; and so gathers itself together in this place.
All the whole proportion of this city doth stand in a very plain ground ; and in the midst of the said city^ is a square Place, of a good bow shot over from side to side. In the midst of the said Place is a high Church, very fair and well built all through, but at that time not half finished.
Round about the said Place, are many fair houses built. On the one side are the houses where Montezuma, the great King of Mexico that was, dwelt ; and now there lie always the Viceroys that .the King of Spain sendeth thither every three years: and in my time there was for Viceroy a gentleman of Castille, called Don Luis de Velasco.
And on the other side of the said Place, over against the same, is the Bishop’s house, very fairly built ; and many ether houses of goodly building. And hard by the same are also other very fair houses, built by the Marquis de la Valle, otherwise called Hernando Cortes ; who was he that first conquered the said city and country. After the said con¬ quest (which he made with great labour and travail of his person, and danger of his life), being grown great in the country; the King of Spain sent for him, saying that he had
R?ToTs87‘] Thegreatbuildinginpro GRESS. I 7
some particular matters to impart to him : and, when he came home, he could not be suffered to return back again, as the King before had promised him. With the sorrow for which, he died : and this he had for the reward of his good service.
The said city of Mexico hath streets made very broad and right [straight] that a man being in the highway at one end of the street, may see at the least a good mile forward : and in all the one part of the streets of the north part of their city, there runneth a pretty lake of very clear water, that every man may put into his house as much as he will, with¬ out the cost of anything but of the letting in.
Also there is a great ditch of water that cometh through the city, even into the high Place ; where come, every morn¬ ing, at break of the day, twenty or thirty canoes or troughs of the Indians ; which bring in them all manner of provisions for the city that is made and groweth in the country : which is a very good commodity for the inhabitants of that place. And as for victuals in the said city, beef, mutton, hens, capons, quails, guinea cocks, and such like, are all very good cheap; as the whole quarter of an ox, as much as a slave can carry away from the butcher’s, for five tomynes, that is, five rials of plate [ i.e ., of silver. See Vol. I. p. 320; Vol. II. p. 8], which is just 2s. 6d. [ — £1 5^. o d. now]’, and fat sheep at the butcher’s, for three rials, which is is. 6d. [—12s. 6d. now], and no more. Bread is as good cheap as in Spain ; and all other kinds of fruits, as apples, pears, pomegranates, and quinces, at a reasonable rate.
The city goeth wonderfully forward in building of Friaries and Nunneries, and Chapels ; and is like, in time to come, to be the most populous city in the world, as it may be sup¬ posed.
The weather is there always very temperate. The day dif- fereth but one hour of length all the year long. The fields and woods are always green. The woods are full of popinjays, apd many other kind of birds, that make such a harmony of singing and crying, that any man will rejoice to hear it. In the fields are such odoriferous smells of flowers and herbs, that it giveth great content to the senses.
In my time, were dwelling and alive in Mexico, many ancient men that were of the Conquerors, at the first con-
i. B 4
18 Tomson serves Gonzalo Serezo. [r,,t®5J
quest with Hernando Cortes : for, then, it was about thirty-six years ago, that the said country was conquered.
Being something strong, I procured to seek means to live, and to seek a way how to profit myself in the country seeing it had pleased GOD to send us thither in safety.
Then, by the friendship of one Thomas Blake, a Scottish- man born, who had dwelt, and had been married in the said city above twenty years before I came to the said city [i.e., before 1536], I was preferred to the service of a gentleman, a Spaniard dwelling there, a man of great wealth, and of one of the first conquerors of the said city, whose namewas Gonzalo Serezo : with whom I dwelt twelve months and a half [i.e., up to November 1557] ; at the end of which, I was maliciously accused by the Holy House for matters of religion.
And because it shall be known wherefore it was, that I was so punished by the clergy’s hand ; I will in brief words, declare the same.
It is so, that, being in Mexico, at table, among many principal people at dinner, they began to inquire of me, being an Englishman, “ Whether it were true that in England, they had overthrown all their Churches and Houses of Re¬ ligion ; and that all the images of the saints of heaven that were in them, were thrown down and broken, and burned, and [that they] in some places stoned highways with them ; and [that they] denied their obedience to the Pope of Rome : as they had been certified out of Spain by their friends ? ”
To whom, I made answer, “That it was so. That, in deed, they had in England, put down all the religious houses of friars and monks that were in England ; and the images that were in their churches and other places were taken away, and used there no more. For that, as they say, the making of them, and the putting of them where they were adored, was clean contrary to the express commandment of Almighty GOD, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image &c, : and that, for that cause, they thought it not lawful that they should stand in the church, which is, the House of Adoration.”
One that was at the declaring of these words, who was my master, Gonzalo Serezo, answered and said, “ If it were against the commandment of GOD, to have images in the
R'?roTs87*] Table Talk in Mexico in Nov. 1557. 19
churches ; that then he had spent a great deal of money in vain ; for that, two years past [i.e., in 1555] he had made in the Monastery of Santo Domingo in the said city of Mexico, an image of Our Lady, of pure silver and gold, with pearls and precious stones, which cost him 7,000 and odd pesos ” (and every peso is 6s. 8d. of our money) [ = about ,£2,400, or about £24,000 now ] : which indeed was true, for I have seen it many times myself where it stands.
At the table was another gentleman, who, presuming to defend the cause more than any one that was there, said, “ That they knew well enough, that they were made but of stocks and stones, and that to them was no worship given ; but that there was a certain veneration due unto them after they were set up in church : and that they were set there with a good intent. The one, for that they were Books for the Simple People, to make them understand the glory of the saints that were in heaven, and a shape of them ; to put us in remembrance to call upon them to be our intercessors unto GOD for us : for that we are such miserable sinners that we are not worthy to appear before GOD ; and that using devo¬ tion to saints in heaven, they may obtain at GOD’s hands, the sooner, the thing that we demand of Him. As, for example,” he said, “imagine that a subject hath offended his King upon the earth in any kind of respect ; is it for the party to go boldly to the King in person, and to demand pardon for his offences? No,” said he, “the presumption were too great ; and possibly he might be repulsed, and have a great rebuke for his labour. Better it is for such a person to seek some private man near the King in his Court, and to make him acquainted with this matter, and let him be a mediator to His Majesty for him and for the matter he had to do with him ; and so might he the better come to his purpose, and obtain the thing which he doth demand. Even so,” saith he, “ it is with GOD and His saints in heaven. For we are wretched sinners ; and not worthy to appear or present ourselves before the Majesty of GOD, to demand of Him the thing that we have need of : therefore thou hast need to be devout ! and have devotion to the mother of God, and the saints in heaven, to be intercessors to GOD for thee ! and so mayest thou the better obtain of GOD, the thing that thou dost demand ! ”
20 The dangerous talk is stopped. [rT“
To this I answered, “ Sir, as touching the comparison you made of the intercessors to the King, how necessary they were, I would but ask of you this question. Set the case, that this King you speak of, if he be so merciful as when he knoweth that one or any of his subjects hath offended him ; he send for him to his own town, or to his own house or place, and say unto him, 4 Come hither ! I know that thou hast offended many laws ! if thou dost know thereof, and dost repent thee of the same, with full intent to offend no more, I will forgive thee thy trespass, and remember it no more ! ’ ” Said I, “ If this be done by the King’s own person, what then hath this man need go and seek friendship at any of the King’s private servants’ hands ; but go to the principal : seeing that he is readier to forgive thee, than thou art to demand forgiveness at his hands ! ”
“ Even so is it, with our gracious GOD, who calleth and crieth out unto us throughout all the world, by the mouth of His prophets and apostles ; and, by His own mouth, saith, * Come unto me all ye that labour and are over laden, and I will refresh you ! ’ besides a thousand other offers and proffers, which He doth make unto us in His Holy Scriptures. What then have we need of the saints’ help that are in heaven, whereas the LORD Himself doth so freely offer Himself for us ? ”
At which sayings, many of the hearers were astonied, and said that, “ By that reason, I would give to understand that the Invocation of Saints was to be disannulled, and by the laws of GOD not commanded.”
I answered, “That they were not my words, but the words of GOD Himself. Look into the Scriptures yourself, and you shall so find it ! ”
The talk was perceived to be prejudicial to the Romish doctrine ; and therefore it was commanded to be no more entreated of. And all remained unthought upon, had it not been for a villainous Portuguese that was in the company, who said, Basta ser Ingles para saber todo esto y mas, who, the next day, without imparting anything to anybody, went to the Bishop of Mexico and his Provisor, and said, that “ In a place where he had been the day before was an Englishman, who had said that there was no need of Saints in the Church , nor of any Invocation of Saints. Upon whose denomination [de-
R. Tomson.j JoMSON IN PRISON SEVEN MONTHS. 21
nouncement], I was apprehended for the same words here re¬ hearsed, and none other thing ; and thereupon was used as hereafter is written.
So, apprehended, I was carried to prison, where I lay a close prisoner seven months [till July 1558], without speaking to any creature, but to the gaoler that kept the said prison, when he brought me my meat and drink. In the meantime, was brought into the said prison, one Augustine Boacio, an Italian of Genoa, also for matters of religion ; who was taken at Zacatecas, eighty leagues to the north-westward of the city of Mexico.
At the end of the said seven months [i.e., in July 1558], we were both carried to the high Church of Mexico, to do an open penance upon a high scaffold made before the high altar, upon a Sunday, in the presence of a very great number of people ; who were, at least, 5,000 or 6,000. For there were some that came one hundred miles off to see the said auto, as they call it ; for that there was never any before, that had done the like in the said country : nor could tell what Lutherans were, nor what it meant ; for they never heard of any such thing before.
We were brought into the Church, every one with a san benito upon his back ; which is, half a yard of yellow cloth, with a hole to put in a man’s head in the midst, and cast over a man’s head : both flaps hang, one before, and another behind ; and in the midst of every flap a Saint Andrew’s cross, made of red cloth, and sewed in upon the same. And that is called San Benito.
The common people, before they saw the penitents come into the Church, were given to understand that we were heretics, infidels, and people that did despise GOD and His works, and that we had been more like devils than men ; and thought we had had the favour [appearance] of some monsters or heathen people : and when they saw us come into the Church in our players’ coats, the women and children began to cry out and made such a noise, that it was strange to hear and see ; saying, that “ They never saw goodlier men in all their lives ; and that it was not possible that there could be in us so much evil as was reported of us ; and that we were more like angels among men, than such persons of such evil religion as by the priests and friars, we
22 Tomson sentenced in Mexico, is in prison [r- ?To^;
were reported to be ; and that it was a great pity that we should be so used for so small an offence. ”
So that we were brought into the said high Church, and set upon the scaffold which was made before the high altar, in the presence of all the people, until High Mass was done; and the Sermon made by a friar concerning our matter: put¬ ting us in all the disgrace they could, to cause the people not to take so much compassion upon us, for that “ we were heretics, and people seduced of the Devil, and had forsaken the faith of the Catholic Church of Rome ” ; with divers other reproachful words, which were too long to recite in this place.
High Mass and Sermon being done ; our offences (as they called them) were recited, each man what he had said and done : and presently was the sentence pronounced against us, that was that —
The said Augustine Boacio was condemned to wear his San Benito all the days of his life, and put into per¬ petual prison, where he should fulfil the same ; and all his goods confiscated and lost.
And I, the said Tomson, to wear the San Benito for three years ; and then to be set at liberty.
And for the accomplishing of this sentence or condem¬ nation, we must be presently sent down from Mexico to Vera Cruz, and from thence to San Juan de Ulua, which was sixty-five leagues by land; and there to be shipped for Spain, with straight commandment that, upon pain of 1,000 ducats, every one of the Masters should look straightly unto us, and carry us to Spain, and deliver us unto the Inquisitors of the Holy House of Seville ; that they should put us in the places, where we should fulfil our penances that the Archbishop of Mexico had en¬ joined unto us, by his sentence there given.
For the performance of the which, we were sent down from Mexico to the seaside, with fetters upon our feet ; and there delivered to the Masters of the ships to be carried for Spain, as is before said.
And it was so, that the Italian fearing that if he presented himself in Spain before the Inquisitors, that they would have burnt him ; to prevent that danger, when we were coming homeward, and were arrived at the island of Terceira, one of the isles of Azores, the first night that we came to an anchor
Rf07s°8?:] IN Seville; then marries well. 23
in the said port [ix., of Angra ], about midnight, he found the means to get him naked out of the ship into the sea, and swam naked ashore ; and so presently got him to the further side of the island, where he found a little caravel ready to depart for Portugal. In the which he came to Lisbon ; and passed into France, and so into England; where he ended his life in the city of London.
And I, for my part, kept still aboard the ship, and came into Spain ; and was delivered to the Inquisitors of the Holy House of Seville, where they kept me in close prison till I had fulfilled the three years of my penance, [ix., till about 1561J.
Which time being expired, I was freely put out of prison, and set at liberty.
Being in the city of Seville, a cashier of one Hugh Typton, an English merchant of great doing, by the space of one year | ~i.e., till about 1562] ; it fortuned that there came out of the city of Mexico, a Spaniard, Juan de la Barrera, that had been long time in the Indies, and had got great sums of gold and silver. He, with one only daughter, shipped himself for to come to Spain ; and, by the way, chanced to die, and gave all that he had unto his only daughter, whose name was Maria de la Barrera.
She having arrived at the city of Seville, it was my chance to marry with her. The marriage was worth to me £2,500 [=£25,000 now ] in bars of gold and silver, besides jewels of great price. This I thought good to speak of, to show the goodness of GOD to all them that trust in Him ; that I, being brought out of the Indies in such great misery and infamy to the world, should be provided at GOD’s hand, in one mo¬ ment, of more than in all my life before, I could attain unto by my own labour.
After we departed from Mexico, our San Benitos were set up in the high Church of the said city, with our names written in the same, according to their use and custom ; which is and will be a monument and a remembrance of us, as long as the Romish Church doth reign in that country. The same have been seen since, by one John Chilton ; and divers others of our nation, which were left in that country, long since [ ix ., in October 1568] by Sir John Hawkins.
Ill
Roger Bodenham’s
Trip to Mexico
L1 564-5].
2 7
Master Roger Bodenham. ! Trip to Mexico , 1564-1565, a.d.
[Probably the same man as went to Scio in 1 551.]
[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]
, Roger Bodenham, having lived a long time in the city of Seville, in Spain, being there married : and by occasion thereof, using trade and traffic to the parts of Barbary ; I grew, at length, to great loss and hinderance by that new trade, begun by me, in the city of Fez.
Whereupon, being returned into Spain, I began to call my wits about me, and to consider with myself by what means I might recover and renew my state : and, in conclusion, by the aid of my friends, I procured a ship, called the bark Fox , pertaining to London, of the burden of 160 or 180 tons ; and with the same, I made ^ voyage to West India ; having obtained good favour with the Spanish merchants, by reason of my long abode and marriage in the country.
My voyage was in the company of the General [Admiral] Don Pedro Melendez, for New Spain : who being himself appointed General for Tierra Firma and Peru, made his son our General for New Spain; although Pedro Melendez himself was the principal man and director in both fleets.
We all departed from Gales together, the 31st day of May, in the year 1564.
And I, with my ship, being under the conduct of the son of Don Pedro aforesaid, arrived with him in New Spain ; where, immediately, I took order for the discharge of my merchan¬ dise at the port of Vera Cruz, otherwise called Villa Ricca : to 6e transported thence, to the city of Mexico ; which is seventy and odd leagues from the said port of Villa Rica. In the way are many good towns, as Pueblo de los Angelos, and another called Tlaxcalan.
The city of Mexico hath three great cause[wa]ys to bring men to it: and is compassed with a lake, so that it needeth
28 Cochineal, 3s. 40. the lb. fR- Eofnham
no walls, being so defended with water. It is a city plenti¬ ful of all necessary things, having many fair houses, churches, and monasteries.
I, having continued in the country the space of nine months, returned again to Spain with the Spanish Fleet; and delivered the merchandise and silver which I had in the ship, into the Contraction House [at Seville] ; and there received my freight, which amounted, outwards and homewards, to the value of 13,000 ducats and more [ — about £3,600 =about £30,000 now].
I observed many things, in the time of my abode in New Spain, as well touching the commodities of the country as the manners of the people, both Spaniards and Indians ; but because the Spanish histories are full of those observations, I omit them, and refer the readers to the same.
Only this I say, that the commodity of cochineal groweth in greatest abundance about the town of Puebla de los Angelos ; and is not worth there, above forty pence the pound.
29
Rev. Richard Hakluyt.
Sir Jo h n Ha wkin ss First V oyage to the JVest Indies , Oct. i 562- Sept. 1563, a.d.
This and the two subsequent Voyages of Sir John Hawkins were the first initiation of the English into the African slave trade.
While the primary object of these voyages was Traffic : the secondary one was Discovery ; to find out those West Indian coasts which the Spaniards had hitherto kept so secret. Notice how each successive expedition penetrated further and further towards the Gulf of Mexico.
It should also be remembered that, at the time of these Voyages, Hawkins had not been knighted, and was simply an Esquire.]
[ Voyages . 1589.]
The first Voyage of the right worshipful and valiant Knight, Sir John Hawkins (now [i.e., in 1589] Treasurer of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy), made to the West Indies.
| Aster John Hawkins having made divers voyages to the Isles of the Canaries ; and there, by his good and upright dealing, being grown in love and favour with the people, informed himself amongst them, by diligent inquisition, of the state of the West India : whereof he had received some knowledge by the instructions of his father; but increased the same, by the advertisements and reports of that people.
And being, amongst other particulars, assured that Negroes were very good merchandise in Hispaniola ; and that store of Negroes might easily be had upon the coast of Guinea ; he re¬ solved with himself to make trial thereof : and communicated
that device with his worshipful friends in London, namely, with Sir Lionel Ducket, Sir Thomas Lodge, Master Gunston his father-in-law, Sir William Winter, Master Bromfield, and others. All which persons liked so well of his intention, that they became liberal Contributors and Adventurers in the action.
For which purpose, there were three good ships imme¬ diately provided, the one called the Solomon , of the burthen
30 The First Voyage is to Hispaniola only. [R,?HakIIs8y9l.
of 120 tons, wherein Master Hawkins himself went as General \i.e ., Admiral] ; the second, the Swallow , of ioo tons, wherein went for Captain, Master Thomas Hampton ; and the third, the Jonas , a bark of 40 tons, wherein the Master supplied the Captain’s room. In which small fleet, Master Hawkins took with him not above a hundred men, for fear of sickness and other inconveniences, whereunto men in long voyages are commonly subject.
With which company, he put off and departed from the coast of England, in the month of October, 1562 ; and in his course, touched first at Teneriffe, where he received friendly entertainment. From thence, he passed to Sierra Leone, upon the coast of Guinea ; which place, by the people of the country is called Tagarin ; where he stayed some good time, and got into his possession, partly by the sword, and partly by other means, to the number of three hundred Negroes, at the least ; besides other merchandise which that country yieldeth.
With this prey, he sailed over the ocean sea unto the island of Hispaniola, and arrived first at the port of Isabella; and there he had reasonable utterance of his English Com¬ modities, as also of some part of his Negroes : trusting the Spaniards no further than that, by his own strength, he was able still to master them.
From the port of Isabella, he went to Porte de Plata, where he made like sales : standing always upon his guard.
From thence also, he sailed to Monte Christi, another port on the north side of Hispaniola ; and the last place of his touching : where he had peaceable traffic, and made vent of the whole number of his Negroes.
For which he received, in those three places, by way of ex¬ change, such a quantity of merchandise, that he did not only lade his own three ships with hides, ginger, sugar, and some quantity of pearls ; but he freighted also two other Hulks with hides and other like commodities, which he sent into Spain.
And thus leaving the island, he returned and disimboked [disembogued, i.e., went out into the main ocean], passing by the islands of the Caicos, without further entering into the Bay of Mexico, in this his First Voyage to the West India.
And so, with prosperous success, and much gain to himself and the aforesaid Adventurers, he came home, and arrived in the month of September, 1563.
A Gentleman in the Voyage.
Sir John Ha whins' s Second Z7 oyage to the ZZ7 est Indies ; i 8/A Oct., 1564 — 20 th Sept., 1565.
[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]
[There are six stages in this Voyage :
OUTWARDS.
18 Oct. — 29 Nov. 1564. Plymouth, to Cape cle Verde ... ftp. 32-37 29 Nov. 1564 — 19 Jan. 1565. Along the Guinea coast ... ftft.yj- 46
19 Jan. — 9 March 1565. Guinea coast to the W. I . p. 46
9 Mar. — 31 May 1565. Along the North coast of South
America, to Rio de la Hacha ... ftp. 46-62
HOME WARDS.
31 May — 28 July 1565. Rio de la Hacha, to River of May,
Florida . ftp. 62-79
28 July — 20 Sept. 1565. Florida, to Padstow in Cornwall ftp. 79-80]
The Voyage made by the Worshipful Master John Hawkins, Esquire, now Knight ; Captain of the Jesus of Lubeck, one of Her Majesty’s ships: and General [Admiral] of the Solomon , and other two [vessels] barks, going in his company to the coast of Guinea, and the Indies of New Spain; being in Africa and America. Began in Anno Domini , 1564.
The names of certain Gentlemen that were in this Voyage. Master John Hawkins.
Master John Chester, Sir William Chester’s son.
Master Anthony Parkhurst.
Master Fitzwilliam.
Master Thomas Woorley.
Master Edward Lacie. With divers others.
32 Departure of the Second Expedition, [ ? ?is6s.
V The Register [i.e., the Log of the various dates] and true accounts of all herein expressed hath been approved by me , John Sparke the younger ; who went upon the same Voyage , and wrote the same [i.e., kept a journal of these transactions].
01th the Jesus of Lubeck, a ship of 700 tons ; and the Solomon , a ship of 140 ; the Tiger , a bark of 50 ; and the Swallow, of 50 tons ; being all well fur¬ nished with men to the number of 170, as also with ordnance and victuals requisite for such a Voyage; Master John Hawkins departed out of Plymouth, the 18th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1564, with a prosperous wind.
At which departing, in cutting of the foresail, a marvellous misfortune happened to one of the Officers in the ship ; who by the pulley of the sheet, was slain out of hand : being a sorrowful beginning to them all.
And after their setting out ten leagues to the sea, he met, the same day, with the Minion , a ship of the Queen’s Majesty, whereof was Captain David Carlet, and also her consort, the John Baptist of London; being bound to Guinea also : who hailed one the other, after the custom of the sea, with certain pieces of ordnance, for joy of their meeting. Which done, the Minion departed from him, to seek her other con¬ sort, the Merlin of London, which was astern, out of sight ; leaving in Master Hawkins’s company, the John Baptist , her other consort.
Thus sailing forwards on their way, with a prosperous wind, until the 21st of the same month ; at that time, a great storm arose, the wind being at north-east, about nine o’clock in the night, and so continued twenty-three hours together. In which storm, Master Hawkins lost the company of the John Baptist aforesaid, and of his pinnace called the Swallow : his other three ships being sore beaten with the storm.
The 23rd day, the Swallow, to his no small rejoicing, came to him again in the night, ten leagues to the northward of Cape Finisterre : he having put roomer [gone out to sea ] ; not being able to double the Cape, in that there rose a contrary wind at south-west.
The 25th, the wind continuing contrary, he put into a
? ?I56s<] and its Sailing Orders. 33
place in Galicia, called Ferrol ; where he remained five days, and appointed all the Masters of his ships an Order for keep¬ ing of good company, in this manner.
The small ships to be always ahead and aweather of the Jesus : and to speak, twice a day, with the Jesus at least.
If in the day, the ensign to be over the poop of the Jesus ; or in the night, two lights : then shall all the ships speak with her.
If there be three lights aboard the Jesus, then doth she cast about.
If the weather be extreme, that the small ships cannot keep company with the Jesus , then all to keep company with the Solomon : and forthwith to repair to the island of Teneriffe, to the northward of the road of Sirroes.
If any happen to any misfortune ; then to shew two lights, and to shoot off a piece of ordnance.
If any lose company, and come in sight again ; to make three yaws [? veerings of the ship ] and strike [lower] the misen [i.e., the misen sail ] three times.
Serve GOD daily! [i.e., have daily prayers], love one another ! preserve your victuals ! beware of fire 1 and keep good company [i.e., of the fleet together].
The 26th day, the Minion came in also, where he was : for the rejoicing whereof, he gave them [volleys from] certain pieces of ordnance, after the courtesy of the sea, for their wel¬ come. But the Minion' s men had no mirth, because of their consort, the Merlin : which, after their departure from Master Hawkins upon the coast of England, they went to seek ; and having met with her, kept company two days together. At last, by the misfortune of fire, through the negligence of one of their Gunners, the powder in the Gunner’s Room was set on fire : which, with the first blast, struck out her poop, and therewithal lost three men : besides many sore burned, which escaped by the brigantine [i.e., the Minion ; apparently the ship of the same name in the Third Voyage] being at her stern : and, immediately, to the great loss of the owners, and most horrible sight to the beholders, she sank before their eyes.
The 30th day of the month, Master Hawkins, with his 1. c 4
34 Arrival at Teneriffe, and [? ?ls6s
consorts, and [the] company of the Minion ; [the^sws] having now both the brigantines [the Solomon and the Minion ] at her stern, weighed anchor, and set sail on her voyage ; having a prosperous wind thereunto.
The 4th of November, they had sight of the island of Madeira ; and the 6th day, of Teneriffe, which they thought to have been the [Grand] Canary, in that they supposed themselves to have been to the eastward of Teneriffe; and were not. But the Minion , being three or four leagues ahead of us, kept on her course to Teneriffe ; having a better sight thereof, than the others had: and by that means, they parted company.
For Master Hawkins and his company went more to the West. Upon which course, having sailed a while, he espied another island, which he thought to be Teneriffe : and being not able, by means of the fog upon the hills, to discern the same, nor yet to fetch it by night ; he went roomer until the morning, being the 7th of November. Which, as yet, he could not discern, but sailed along the coast the space of two hours, to perceive some certain mark of Teneriffe; and found no likelihood thereof at all, accounting that to be (as it was indeed) the isle of Palms [Palmas],
So sailing forwards, he espied another island called Gomera; and also Teneriffe, with which he made : and, sailing all night, came in the morning, the next day, to the port of Adecia ; where he found his pinnace, which had departed [; separated ] from him the 6th of the month, being in the weather of him, and espying the Pike of Teneriffe all a high, bare thither.
At his arrival, somewhat before he came to anchor, he hoisted out his ship’s pinnace, rowing ashore ; intending to have sent one with a letter to Peter de Ponte, one of the Governors of the island, who dwelt a league from the shore : but as he pretended [intended] to have landed, sud¬ denly there appeared upon the two points of the road, men levelling of bases and harquebusses to them, with divers others with halberts, pikes, swords, and targets, to the number of four score : which happened so contrary to his expectation, that it did greatly amaze him ; and the more, because he was now in their danger, not knowing well how to avoid it without some mischief.
? ?Is6sJ HOSPITABLE ENTERTAINMENT THERE. 35
Wherefore, he determined to call to them, for the better appeasing of the matter ; declaring his name, and professing himself to be an especial friend to Peter de Ponte, and that he had sundry things for him, which he greatly desired : and in the meantime, while he was thus talking with them (whereby he made them to hold their hands) he willed the mariners to row away; so that, at last, he gat out of their danger. And then asking for Peter de Ponte ; one of his sons, being Senor Nicholas de Ponte, came forth : whom, he perceiving, desired “to put his men aside, and he himself would leap ashore, and commune with him,” which they did. So that after communication had between them, of sundry things, and of the fear they both had : Master Hawkins desired to have certain necessaries provided for him.
In the mean space, while these things were providing, he trimmed the mainmast of the Jesus , which, in the storm aforesaid, was sprung. Here he sojourned seven days, re¬ freshing himself and his men. In the which time, Peter de Ponte, dwelling at Santa Cruz, a city twenty leagues off, came to him ; and gave him as gentle entertainment, as if he had been his own brother.
To speak somewhat of these islands, being called, in old time, Insulce fortune?, by the means of the flourishing thereof. The fruitfulness of them doth surely exceed far all other that I have heard of. For they make wine better than any in Spain : and they have grapes of such bigness that they may be compared to damsons, and in taste inferior to none. For sugar, suckets [sweetmeats], raisons of the sun [our present raisins], and many other fruits, abundance: for rosin, and raw silk, there is great store. They want neither corn, pul¬ lets, cattle, nor yet wild fowl.
They have many camels also: which, being young, are eaten of the people for victuals ; and being old, they are used for carriage of necessities. Whose property is, as he is taught, to kneel at the taking of his load, and the unlading again ; of understanding very good, but of shape very de¬ formed ; with a little belly; long misshapen legs; and feet very broad of flesh, without a hoof, all whole saving the great toe ; a back bearing up like a molehill, a large and thin neck, with a little head, with a bunch of hard flesh which Nature hath given him in his breast to lean upon. This beast liveth
36 The vanishing island s! [,W
hardly, and is contented with straw and stubble ; but of strong force, being well able to carry five hundredweight.
In one of these islands called Ferro, there is, by the reports of the inhabitants, a certain tree which raineth continually ; by the dropping whereof, the inhabitants and cattle are satis¬ fied with water: for other water have they none in all the island. And it raineth in such abundance that it were incredible unto a man to believe such a virtue to be in a tree ; but it is known to be a Divine matter, and a thing ordained by GOD : at whose power therein, we ought not to marvel, seeing He did, by His Providence (as we read in the Scriptures) when the Children of Israel were going into the Land of Promise, fed them with manna from heaven, for the space of forty years. Of these trees aforesaid, we saw in Guinea many ; being of great height, dropping continually; but not so abundantly as the other, because the leaves are narrower, and are like the leaves of a pear tree.
About these islands are certain flitting islands, which have been oftentimes seen ; and when men approach near them, they vanished : as the like hath been of these now known (by thereport of the inhabitants), which were not found but of along time, one after the other; and, therefore, it should seem he isnot yet born, to whom GOD hath appointed the finding of them.
In this island of Teneriffe, there is a hill called the Pike, because it is piked ; which is, in height, by their report, twenty leagues : having, both winter and summer, abundance of snow on the top of it. This Pike may be seen, in a clear day, fifty leagues off; but it sheweth as though it were a black cloud [at] a great height in the Element [atmosphere]. I have heard of none to be compared with this in height ; but in the [West] Indies I have seen many, and, in my judgement, not inferior to the Pike : and so the Spaniards write.
The 15th of November, at night, we departed from Tene¬ riffe ; and the 20th of the same, we had sight of ten caravels that were fishing at sea : with whom we would have spoken ; but they, fearing us, fled into a place of Barbary, called Cape de las Barbas.
The 20th, the ship’s pinnace, with two men in her, sailing by the ship, was overthrown [upset] by the oversight of them that were in her. The wind was so great, that before they
? ?is6s] Narrow escape of the Pinnace. 37
were espied and the ship had cast about [tacked] for them, she was driven half a league to the leeward of the pinnace ; and had lost sight of her, so that there was small hope of recovery, had not GOD’s help and the Captain’s [Sir J. Haw¬ kins] diligence been: who, having well marked which way the pinnace was by the sun, appointed twenty-four of the lustiest rowers in the great boat to row to the windwards ; and so recovered (contrary to all men’s expectations) both the pinnace and the men sitting upon the keel of her.
The 25th, he came to Cape Blanco, which is on the coast of Africa ; and a place where the Portuguese do ride [i.e., at anchor ], that fish there, in the month of November especially ; and is a very good place of fishing for pargoes, mullet, and dog fish. In this place, the Portuguese have no Hold for their defence ; but have rescue [defence] of the barbarians, whom they entertain as their soldiers for the time of their being there : and for their fishing upon that coast of Africa, do pay a certain tribute to the King of the Moors. The people of that part of Africa are tawny, having long hair. Their weapons, in wars, are bows and arrows.
The 26th, we departed from S. Avis Bay, within Cape Blanco; where we had refreshed ourselves with fish and other necessaries : and the 29th, we came to Cape Verde, which lieth in 14 N. Lat.
These people are all black, and are called Negroes; of stature, goodly men : and well liking, by reason of their food, which [surjpasseth [that of] all other Guineans, for kine, goats, pullen, rice, fruits, and fish. Here we took fishes with heads like conies [rabbits], and teeth nothing varying; of a jolly thickness, but not past a foot long : and are not to be eaten, without flaying or cutting off the head.
To speak somewhat of the sundry sorts of these Guineans. The people of Cape Verde are called Leophares, and counted the goodliest men of all others, saving the Manicongoes, which do inhabit on this side the Cape of Good Hope. These Leo¬ phares have wars against the Jeloffes, which are borderers [neighbours] by them. Their weapons are bows and arrows, targets, and short daggers ; darts also, but varying from other Negroes : for, whereas the others use a long dart to fight with in their hands, they carry five or six small ones a piece, which they cast with.
38 The Kidnappers arrive at Cape Verde. [ ? ?is6s#
These men also are more civil than any others, because of their daily traffic with the Frenchmen ; and are of a nature very gentle and loving. For while we were there, we took in a Frenchman ; who was one of the nineteen that going to Brazil in a bark of Dieppe, of 60 tons : and being a seaboard of Cape Verde, 200 leagues, the planks of their bark, with a sea, break out upon them so suddenly, that much ado they had to save themselves in their boats. But by GOD’s providence, the wind being westerly (which is rarely seen there), they got to the shore, to the isle Braves [? Goree ] ; and in great penury got to Cape Verde : where they remained six weeks, and had meat and drink of tne same people.
The said Frenchman having forsaken his fellows, which were three leagues from the shore : and wandering with the Negroes to and fro, fortuned to come to the water’s side ; and communing with certain of his countrymen which were in our ship, by their persuasions, came away with us. But his entertainment amongst them was such [i.e., so pleasant], that he desired it not ; but, through the importunate request of his countrymen, consented at the last.
Here we stayed but one night and part of the day. For the 7th of December, we came away : in that pretending [intend¬ ing] to have taken Negroes there, perforce; the Minion's men gave them there to understand of our coming, and our pretence, wherefore they did avoid the snares we had laid for them.
The 8th of December, we anchored by a small island called Alcatrarsa [Alcantraz island] : wherein, at our going ashore, we found nothing but sea birds, as we call them, gannets ; but by the Portuguese called Alcatrarses, who, for that cause, gave the said island the same name. Herein, half of our boats were ladened with young and old fowl ; which, not being used to the sight of men, flew so about us, that we struck them down with poles.
In this place, the two ships riding; the two barks, with their boats, went into an island of the Sapies, called La Formio, to see if they could take any of them : and there landed, to the number of 80, in armour. And espying cer¬ tain, made to them ; but they fled in such order [a manner] into the woods, that it booted them not to follow.
So, going on their way forward till they came to a river, which they could not pass over ; they espied on the other side,
j ?is6s>] The Samboses, a conquering tribe. 39
two men ; who, with their bows and arrows, shot terribly at them. Whereupon we discharged certain harquebusses to them again ; but the ignorant people weighed it not, because they knew not the danger thereof : but used a marvellous crying in their fight, with leaping and turning their tails, that it was most strange to see, and gave us great pleasure to behold them. At the last, one being hurt with an harquebus upon the thigh, looked upon his wound, and wist now how it came because he could not see the pellet.
Here Master Hawkins perceiving no good to be done amongst them, because we could not find their towns ; and also not knowing how to go into Rio Grande [or Jeba ] for want of a pilot, which was the very occasion of our coming thither : and finding so many shoals, feared, with our great ships to go in ; and therefore departed on our pretended [intended] way to the Idols.
The 10th of December, we had a north-east wind with rain and storm ; which weather continuing two days to¬ gether, was the occasion that the Solomon and Tiger lost our company : for whereas the Jesus and pinnace [ Swallow ] anchored at one of the islands called Sambula, the 12th day; the Solomon and Tiger came not thither till the 14th.
In this island, we stayed certain days ; going, every day, on shore to take the inhabitants, with burning and spoiling their towns : who before were Sapies, and were conquered by the Samboses [the modern Sambos], inhabitants beyond Sierra Leone.
These Samboses had inhabited there three years before our coming thither; and, in so short space, have so planted the ground that they had great plenty of mill [millet], rice, roots, pompions [pumpkins], pullin, goats, of small dried fry: every house being full of the country’s fruit, planted by GOD’s Providence, as Palmito trees, fruits like dates, and sundry others, in no place in all that country so abundantly; where¬ by they lived more deliciously than others.
These inhabitants had divers of the Sapies which they took in the wars, as their slaves ; whom only they kept to till the ground, in that they neither have the knowledge thereof, nor yet will work themselves : of whom, we took many at that place ; but of the Samboses, none at all ; for they fled into the main [land.].
40 Two Negro cannibal tribes. [ ? !565.
All the Samboses have white teeth as we have, far unlike to the Sapies which do inhabit about Rio Grande : for their teeth are all filed, which they do for bravery, to set them¬ selves out; and do jag [? tattoo ] their flesh, both legs, arms, and bodies as workmanlike as a jerkin maker with us pinketh a jerkin. These Sapies be more civil than the Samboses. For whereas the Samboses live most by the spoil of their enemies, both in taking their victuals, and eating them also: the Sapies do not eat man’s flesh, unless, in the wars, they be driven by necessity thereunto (which they have not used [done] but by the example of the Samboses) ; but live only with fruits and cattle, whereof they have great store.
This plenty is the occasion that the Sapies desire not war, except they be thereunto provoked by the invasions of the Samboses : whereas the Samboses, for want of food, are enforced thereunto ; and, therefore, are not only wont to kill them that they take, but also keep those that they take until such time as they want meat, and then they kill them.
There is also another occasion that provoketh the Sam¬ boses to war against the Sapies ; which is for coveteousness of their riches. For whereas the Sapies have an order [a custom] to bury their dead in certain places appointed for that purpose, with their gold about them ; the Samboses dig up the ground to have the same treasure : for the Sam¬ boses have not the like store of gold that the Sapies have.
In this island of Sambula, we found about fifty boats called [in Portuguese] almadas or canoes, which are made of one piece of wood, digged out like a trough ; but yet of a good pro¬ portion, being about eight yards long, and one in breadth, having a beak head, and a stern very proportionably made ; and on the outside artificially carved, and painted red and blue. They are able to carry [at sea] twenty or thirty men ; but about the coast, threescore and upward. In these canoes, they row, standing upright, with an oar somewhat longer than a man ; the end whereof is made about the breadth and length of a man’s hand of the largest sort. They row very swift ; and, in some of them, four rowers and one to steer make as much way as a pair of oars in [a wherry on] the Thames of London.
Their towns are prettily divided, with a main street at
? ?is6s>] Description of a Negro village. 41
the entering in, that goeth through the town ; and another overthwart street, which maketh their towns crossways.
Their houses are built in a rank, very orderly, in the face of the street : and they are made round, like a dovecot, with stakes set full of Palmito leaves, instead of a wall. They are not much more than a fathom large [across], and two of height ; and thatched with Palmito leaves very close, other some with reeds : and over the roof thereof, for the better garnish¬ ing of the same, there is a round bundle of reeds prettily contrived like a lover [louvre]. In the inner part, they make a loft of sticks whereupon they lay all their provision of victuals. A place they reserve at their entrance for the kitchen ; and the place they lie in is divided with certain mats, artificially made with the rind of the Palmito trees. Their bedsteads are of small staves laid along, and raised a foot from the ground, upon which is laid a mat ; and another upon them, when they list. For other covering they have none.
In the middle of the town, there is a house larger and higher than the others, but in form alike ; adjoining unto which, there is a place made of four good stanchions of wood, and a round roof over it : the ground also raised round with clay, a foot high : upon the which floor were strewed many fine mats. This is the Consultation House ; the like where¬ of is in all towns, as the Portuguese affirm. In which place, when they sit in council, the King or Captain sitteth in the midst ; and the Elders upon the floor by him (for they give reverence to their Elders), and the common sort sit round about them. There they sit to examine matters of theft; which if a man be taken with, to steal but one Portuguese cloth from another, he is sold to the Portuguese for a slave. They consult also and take order what time they shall go to wars ; and (as it is certainly reported by the Portuguese) they take order in gathering of the fruits, in the season of the year: and also of Palmito wine (which is gathered by a hole cut in the top of a tree and a gorde [gourd] set there for the re¬ ceiving thereof, which falleth in by drops ; and yieldeth fresh wine again within a month), and this being divided, part and portion like, to every man, by the judgement of the Captain [Chief] and Elders ; ever man holdeth himself contented. And this, surely, I judge to be a very good order ; for other-
42 Death of a Carpenter of the Tiger . [ ? 556ji
wise where there is scarcity of Palmito ; every man would have [seek] the same ; which might breed great strife. But of such things as every man doth plant for himself ; the sower thereof reapeth it to his own use : so that nothing is common but that which is unset by man’s hands.
In their houses, there is more common passage of lizards like evets, and others greater (of black and blue colour, of near[ly] a foot long besides their tails) than there is, with us, of mice in great houses.
The Sapies and Samboses also use, in their wars, bows and arrows made of reeds, with heads of iron poisoned with the juice of a cucumber: whereof I have had many in my hands.
In their battles they have target men with broad wicker targets [shields], and darts with heads of iron at both ends : the one in form of a two-edged sword, a foot and a half long, and at the other end the iron of the same length, made to counterpoise it ; that, in casting, it might fly level, rather than for any other purpose as I can judge. And when they espy the enemy, the Captain, to cheer his men, crieth, Hungry ! and they answer Heygre! and with that, every man placeth himself in order. For about every target man, three bowmen will cover themselves; and shoot as they see advantage : and when they give the onset, they make such terrible cries that they may be heard two miles off.
For their belief, I can hear of none that they have, but in such as they themselves imagine to see in their dreams ; and so worship the pictures, whereof we saw some like unto devils.
In this island aforesaid, we sojourned unto the 21st of December, where, having taken certain Negroes, and as much of their fruit, rice, and mill as we could well carry away (whereof there was such store that we might have laden one of our barks therewith) we departed.
And, at our departure, divers of our men [i.e., of the Jesus] being desirous to go on shore to fetch pompions (which having proved, they had found to be very good) certain of the Tiger' s men went also: amongst the which, there was a Car¬ penter, a young man. Who, with his fellows, having fetched many, and carried them down to their boats ; as they were ready to depart, desired his fellows “ to tarry while he might
? 1565.] Unsuccessful attack on Bimba. 43
go up to fetch a few, which he had laid by for himself,” who, being more licorous [gluttonous] than circumspect, went up without his weapon. And as he went up alone, possibly being marked of the Negroes that were upon the trees, they, espying him to be alone and without weapon, dogged him ; and finding him occupied in binding his pompions together, came behind him ; and overthrowing him, straight cut his throat : as he, afterwards, was found by his fellows, who came to the place for him ; and there found him naked.
The 22nd, the Captain went into a river, called Callowsa, with the two barks, the Jesus' s pinnace, and the Solomon's boat ; leaving at anchor, in the river’s mouth, the two ships : where the Portuguese rode in the river,, being twenty leagues in. He came thither the 25th, and despatched his business ; and so returned, with two caravels laden with Negroes.
The 27th, the Captain, being advertised by the Portuguese of a town of the Negroes, called Bimba, being in the way as they returned ; where was not only great quantity of gold, but also there were not above forty men, and a hundred women and children in the town, so that if he would give the adventure upon the same, he might get a hundred slaves. With the which tidings, he being glad (because the Portu¬ guese should not think him to be of so base a courage, but that he durst give them that, and greater attempts; and being thereunto, also, the more provoked with the prosperous success he had in other adjacent islands, where he had put them all to flight, and taken in one boat twenty together), determined to stay before the town three or four hours, to see what he could do. And thereupon prepared his men in armour and weapon, together, to the number of forty men, well appointed, having for their guides certain Portuguese in a boat : who brought some of them to their death.
We landing, boat after boat, and divers of our men scat¬ tering themselves (contrary to the Captain’s will) by one or two in a company, for the hope they had to find gold in their houses, ransacking the same; in the meantime, the Negroes came upon them, and hurt many, being thus scattered ; whereas, if five or six had been together, they had been able (as their companions did) to give the overthrow to forty of them. Being driven down to take their boats, they were
44 An equal number of Men, and Sharks ! [ , ?is6s<
followed so hardly by a rout of Negroes (who, by that, took courage to pursue them to their boats) that not only some of them, but others standing on shore, not looking for any such matter (by means that the Negroes did flee at the first, and our company remained in the town) were suddenly so set upon, that some, with great hurt, recovered their boats : other some, not able to recover the same, took to the water, and perished by means of the ooze.
While this was doing ; the Captain, who, with a dozen men, went through the town, returned; finding two hundred Negroes at the water’s side, shooting at them in the boats, and cutting them in pieces that were drowned in the water : at whose coming, they all ran away.
So he entered his boats ; and before he could put off from the shore, they returned again, and shot very fiercely, and hurt divers of them.
Thus we returned back, somewhat discomforted ; although the Captain, in a singular wise manner, carried himself, with countenance very cheerful outwardly, as though he did little weigh the death of his men, nor yet the hurt of the rest (although his heart inwardly was broken in pieces for it) : done to this end, that the Portuguese being with him, should rot presume to resist against him, nor take occasion to put him to further displeasure or hindrance for the death of our men ; having gotten, by our going, ten Negroes, and lost seven of our best men (whereof Master Field, Captain of the Solomon was one) and had twenty-seven of our men hurt.
In the same hour, while this was adoing, there happened, at the same instant, a marvellous miracle to them in the ships, who rode ten leagues to the seaward, by many sharks or tiburons , which came about the ships : one was taken by the Jesus, and four by the Solomon ; and one, very sore hurt, escaped. And so it fell out with our men \i.e., at Bimba ], whereof one of the Jesus's men, and four of the Solomon's were killed, and the fifth, having twenty wounds, was rescued, and escaped with much ado.
The 28th, they came to their ships, the Jesus and the Solomon.
And the 30th, they departed from thence to Taggarin.
The 1st of January [1565], the two barks, and both the
? ?i56s.] They escape the army of Sierra Leone. 45
boats forsook the ships, and went into a river called the Casseroes : and the 6th, having despatched their business, the two barks returned, and came to Taggarin where the two ships were at anchor.
Not two days after the coming of the two ships thither \i.e., 2nd January] they put their water caske [casks] ashore, and filled it with water, to season the same : thinking to have filled it with fresh water afterwards. And while their men were some on shore, and some at their boats ; the Negroes set upon them in their boats, and hurt divers of them ; and came to the casks, and cut the hoops of twelve butts, which lost us four or five days’ time, besides great want we had of the same.
Sojourning at Taggarin, the Swallow went up the river, about her traffic; where they saw great towns of the Negroes, and canoes that had threescore men in apiece.
There, they understood by the Portuguese, of a great battle between them of Sierra Leone side, and them of Taggarin. They of Sierra Leone had prepared three hundred canoes to invade the other.
The time was appointed, not past six days after our de¬ parture from thence : which we would [wished lo] have seen, to the intent we might have taken some of them ; had it not been for the death and sickness of our men, which came by the contagiousness of the place ; which made us to haste away.
The 18th of January, at night, we departed from Taggarin ; being bound for the West Indies. Before which departure, certain of the Solomon's men went on shore to fill water, in the night ; and as they came on shore, with their boat, being ready to leap on land, one of them espied a negro in a white coat, standing on a rock, ready to have received them when they came on shore ; having in sight, also, eight or nine of his fellows, some leaping out in one place and some in another ; but they hid themselves straight [immediately] again. Whereupon our men doubting [fearing] they had been a great company, and sought to have taken them at more advantage, (as GOD would ! ) departed to their ships: not thinking there had been such mischief pretended to them, as there was indeed ; which, the next day, we understood of a Portuguese that came down to us, who had traffic with the Negroes.
46 5° days' sailing to the West Indies. [ ? 9;s6s,
By whom, we understood, that the King of Sierra Leone had made all the power he could, to take some of us. Partly for the desire he had to see what kind of people we were, that had spoiled his people at the Idols, whereof he had news before our coming; and, as I judge, also upon other occasions, provoked by the Tangomangoes. But sure we were, that the army was come down : by means that, in the evening, we saw such a monstrous fire made by the watering place, that was not seen before ; which fire is the only mark for the Tangomangoes, to know where their army always is.
If these men had come down in the evening, they had done us great displeasure ; for that we were on shore filling water. But 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 !
The igth of this same month, we departed with all our ships, from Sierra Leone towards the West Indies ; and for the space of twenty-eight days, we were becalmed, having now and then contrary winds and some tornadoes amongst the same calm, which happened to us very ill : being but reason¬ ably watered for so great a company of Negroes and ourselves, which pinched us all ; and that which was worst, put us in such fear that many never thought to have reached to the Indies, without great death of Negroes and of themselves. But the Almighty GOD (who never suffereth His elect to perish !) sent us the 16th of February, the ordinary breeze, which is the North-west wind, which never left us, till we came to an island of the cannibals, called Dominica ; where we arrived the gth [? io th] of March, upon a Saturday. And because it was the most desolate place in all the island, we could see no cannibals ; but some of their houses where they dwelled ; and as it should seem, they had forsaken the place for want of fresh water ; for we could find none there but rain water, and such as fell from the hills and remained as a puddle in the dale ; whereof we filled for our Negroes [!].
The cannibals of that island, and also others adjacent, are the most desperate warriors that are in the Indias, by the Spaniards’ report ; who are never able to conquer them ; and they are molested by them not a little, when they are driven to water there in any of those islands.
? ?is6s>] The Fleet arrives at Margarita. 47
Of very late, not two months past, in the said island, a caravel being driven to water, was, in the night, set upon by the inhabitants ; who cut their cable in the hawser, whereby they were driven ashore, and so taken by them and eaten.
The Green Dragon of Newhaven [Havre], whereof was , Captain, one Bontemps, in March [1565], also, came to one of those islands, called Grenada ; and being driven to water, could not do the same for the cannibals, who fought with him very desperately two days.
For our part also, if we had not lighted upon the desertest place in all that island, we could not have missed; but should have been greatly troubled by them, by all the Spaniards’ reports, who make them devils in respect of men.
The 10th day, at night, we departed from thence, and the 15th, had sight of nine islands called the Testigos ; and the 16th, of an island called Margarita, where we were entertained by the Alcade, and had both beeves and sheep given us, for the refreshing of our men. But the Governor of the island would neither come to speak with our Captain, neither yet give him any license to traffic : and to displease us the more, whereas we had hired a Pilot to have gone with us, they would not only not suffer him to go with us, but also sent word by a caravel, out of hand, to Santo Domingo, to the Viceroy, who doth represent the King’s person, of our arrival in those parts. Which had like to have turned us to great dis¬ pleasure, by the means that the same Viceroy did send word to Cape de la Vela, and toother places along the coast, com¬ manding them (by the virtue of his authority and by the obedience that they owe to their Prince) that no man should traffic with us, but should resist us with all the force they could.
In this island, notwithstanding that we were not within four leagues of the town ; yet were they so afraid, that not only the Governor himself but also all the inhabitants forsook their town, assembling all the Indians to them, and fled into the mountains : as we were partly certified, and saw the ex¬ perience ourselves, by some of the Indians coming to see us ; when three Spaniards a horseback passing hard by us, went unto the Indians (having every one of them their bows and arrows), procuring them away, who before were conversant with us.
43 Potatoes, the most delicate of roots ! [ ? *s65<
Here perceiving no traffic to be had with them, not yet water for the refreshing of our men ; we were driven to depart the 20th day.
And the 22nd, we came to a place in the Main, called Cumana : whither the Captain going in his pinnace, spake with certain Spaniards, of whom he demanded traffic.
But they made him answer, “ They were but soldiers newly come thither, and were not able to buy one Negro.”
Whereupon he asked for a watering place, and they pointed him a place two leagues off, called Santa Fe : where we found marvellous goodly watering, and commodious for the taking in thereof; for that the fresh water came into the sea, and so our ships had, aboard the shore, twenty fathoms water. Near about this place inhabited certain Indians, who, the next day after we came thither, came down to us ; presenting mill, and cakes of bread, which they had made of a kind of corn called Maize, in bigness of a pea, the ear whereof is much like to a teasel, but a span in length, having thereon a number of grains. Also they brought down to us hens, potatoes, and pines, which we bought for beads, pewter whistles, glasses, knives, and other trifles.
These potatoes be the most delicate roots that may be eaten ; and do far exceed our parsnips or carrots. Their pines be of the bigness of two fists, the outside whereof is of the making of a pine apple, but it is soft like the rind of a cucumber ; and the inside eateth like an apple, but it is more delicious than any sweet apple sugared.
These Indians be of colour tawny, like an olive; having every one of them, both men and women, hair all black, and no other colour ; the women wearing the same hanging down to their shoulders, and the men rounded, and without beards : neither men or women suffering any hair to grow in any part of their body, but daily pull it off as it groweth.
These people be very small feeders : for travelling, they carry but two small bottles of gourds, wherein they put in one the juice of sorrel whereof they have great store ; and in the other flour of their maize, which being moist, they eat, taking sometimes of the other. These men carry every man his bow and arrows ; whereof some arrows are poisoned for wars, which they keep in a cane together, which cane is of
? ?Is6sJ Tempted by Caribs with gold. 49
the bigness of a man’s arm : other some with broad heads of iron, wherewith they strike fish in the water. The experience whereof, we saw not once nor twice, but daily, for the time we tarried there. For they are so good archers, that the Spaniards, for fear thereof, arm themselves and their horses with quilted canvas of two inches thick, and leave no place of their bodies open to their enemies, saving their eyes which they may not hide ; and yet oftentimes are they hit in that so small a scantling. Their poison is of such a force, that a man being stricken therewith, dieth within four and twenty hours, as the Spaniards do affirm : and, in my judge¬ ment, it is likely there can be no stronger poison, as they make it, using thereqnto apples which are very fair and red of colour, but are a strong poison ; with the which, together with venemous bats and vipers, adders and other serpents, they make a medley, and therewith anoint the same.
The beds which they have, are made of gossapine cotton, and wrought artificially of divers colours ; which they carry about with them when they travel, and making the same fast to two trees, lie therein. The people be surely gentle and tractable, and such as desire to live peaceable ; or else had it been impossible for the Spaniards to have conquered them as they did, and the more to live now peaceably : they being so many in number, and the Spaniards so few.
From thence, we departed the 28th ; and the next day, we passed between the mainland and the island called Tortuga, (a very low island) in the year of our Lord GOD 1565 afore¬ said : and sailed along the coast until the 1st of April ; at which time, the Captain sailed along in the Jesus’s pinnace to discern the coast, and saw many Caribs on shore, and some also in their canoes : which made tokens unto him of friendship, and shewed gold, meaning thereby that they would traffic for wares.
Whereupon he stayed, to see the manner of them ; and so for two or three trifles, they gave such things as they had about them, and departed.
But the Caribs were very importunate to have them come on shore ; which, if it had not been for want of wares to traffic with them, he would not have denied them : because the Indians which we saw before, were very gentle people, and i- D 4
50 The Fleet arrives at Burboroata. [ ? ?ls6Si
such as do no man hurt. But (as GOD would have it !) he wanted that thing, which, if he had had, would have been his confusion. For these were no such kind of people as we took them to be ; but more devilish a thousand parts, and are eaters and devourers of any man they can catch. As it was afterwards declared unto us at Burboroata, by a caravel coming out of Spain with certain soldiers and a Captain General, sent by the King for those eastward parts of the Indias. Who sailing along in a pinnace, as our Captain did, to descry the coast, was by the Caribs called ashore, with sundry tokens made to him of friendship, and gold shewed as though they desired to traffic : with the which the Spaniards being moved, suspecting no deceit at all^went ashore amongst them. The Captain was no sooner ashore, but with four or five more was taken ; the rest of his company being invaded by them, saved themselves by flight : but they that were taken, paid their ransom with their lives, and were presently [at once] eaten. And this is their practice to toll [decoy] with their gold, the ignorant to their snares. They are blood¬ suckers of Spaniards, Indians, and all that light in their laps : not sparing their own countrymen if they can con¬ veniently come by them.
Their policy in fight with the Spaniards is marvellous. For they choose for their refuge, the mountains and woods ; where the Spaniards, with their horses, cannot follow them : and if they fortune to be met in the plain, where one horseman may overrun a hundred of them ; they have a device, of late practised by them, to pitch stakes of wood in the ground, and also small iron pikes, to mischief their horses ; wherein they shew themselves politic warriors.
They have more abundance of gold than all the Spaniards have, and live upon the mountains where the mines are, in such number, that the Spaniards have much ado to get any of them from them. And yet, sometimes, by assembling a great number of men, which happeneth once in two years, they get a piece from them ; which afterwards they keep sure enough.
Thus having escaped the danger of them; we kept our course along the coast, and came the 3rd of April, to a town called Burboroata [ ? La Guayra, or near it] ; where his ships came to
5i
? ?is6s] The tricks of trade.
an anchor, and the Captain himself went ashore to speak with the Spaniards. To whom, he declared himself to be an Englishman, and came thither to trade with them, by the way of merchandise ; and therefore required license for the same.
Unto whom, they made answer, that “ They were forbidden by the King to traffic with any foreign nation, upon penalty to forfeit their goods.” Therefore they desired him “ not to molest them any further ; but to depart as he came ! for other comfort he might not look for at their hands : because they were subjects, and might not go beyond the law.”
But he replied, “ His necessity was such, as he might not do so. For being in one of the Queen of England’s Armados, and having many soldiers in them ; he had need of some re¬ freshing for them, and of victuals, and of money also : with¬ out the which, he could not depart.” And, with much other talk, persuaded them not to fear any dishonest part on his behalf towards them ; for neither would he commit any such thing to the dishonour of his Prince, nor yet for his honest reputation and estimation, unless he were too rigorously dealt withal, which he hoped not to find at their hands : in that it should as well redound to their profit as his own, and also he thought they might do it without danger ; because their Princes were in amity one with another, and for our parts, we had free traffic in Spain and Flanders which are in his dominions ; and therefore he knew no reason why he should not have the like in all his dominions.
To the which, the Spaniards made an answer, that “ It lay not in them, to give any license ; for that they had a Governor to whom the government of those parts was committed ; but if they would stay ten days, they would send to their Governor, who was threescore leagues off ; and would, within the space appointed, return answer of his mind.”
In the meantime, they were contented he should bring his ships into harbour ; and there they would deliver him any victuals he would require.
Whereupon, the fourth day, we went in, where, being one day, and receiving all things according to promise, the Captain advised himself that to remain there ten days idle, spending victuals and men’s wages ; and perhaps, in the end, receive no good answer from the Governor, it were mere folly, were mere folly: and therefore determined to make
52 Continued mercantile diplomacy. [ ? ;s6s
request to have license for the sale of certain lean and sick Negroes, which he had in his ship, like [ly] to die upon his hands, if he kept them ten days ; having little or no refreshing for them, whereas other men having them, they would be recovered well enough. And this request he was forced to make, because he had no otherwise wherewith to pay for victuals and for necessaries which he should take.
Which request being put in writing, and presented, the Officers and town dwellers assembled together ; and finding his request so reasonable, granted him license for thirteen Negroes : which, afterwards, they cause the Officers to view, to the intent they should grant to nothing but that which were very reasonable, for fear of answering thereunto after¬ wards.
This being past, our Captain, according to their license, thought to have made sale ; but the day passed, and none came to buy, who before made shew that they had great need of them : and therefore he wist not what to surmise of them, whether they went about to prolong the time of the Governor’s answer, because they would keep themselves blameless ; or for any other policy he knew not. And for that purpose, sent them word, marvelling what the matter was, that none came to buy them.
They answered, “ Because they had granted license only to the poor to buy those Negroes of small price; and their money was not so ready as other men’s of more wealth. More than that. As soon as ever they saw the ships ; they had conveyed away their money by their wives that went into the mountains for fear, and were not yet returned : and yet asked two days, to seek their wives, and fetch their money.”
Notwithstanding, the next day, divers of them came to cheapen ; but could not agree of price, because they thought the price too high.
Whereupon the Captain (perceiving they went about to bring down the price, and meant to buy; and would not confess, if he had license, that he might sell at any reason¬ able rate, as they were worth in other places), did send for the principals of the town, and made a shew he would depart, declaring himself “to be very sorry that he had so much troubled them, and also that he had sent for the Governor to
? -s6s>] The arrival of the Governor. 53
come down ; seeing now his pretence [intention] was to depart ” : whereat they marvelled much, and asked him, “ What cause moved him thereunto seeing, by their working, he was in possibility to have his license ? ”
To which, he replied that “ It was not only a license that he sought, but profit ; which he perceived was not to be had there; and therefore would seek farther”: and withal shewed them his writings, what he paid for his Negroes ; declaring also the great charge he was at, in his shipping and men’s wages, and, therefore, to countervail his charges, he must sell his Negroes for a greater price than they offered.
So they, doubting [ fearing ] his departure, put him in comfort to sell better there than in any other place : and if it fell out that he had no license, that he should lose his labour in tarrying, for they would buy without license.
Whereupon, the Captain being put in comfort, promised them to stay, so that he might make sale of his lean Negroes; which they granted unto : and the next day did sell some of them.
They having bought and paid for them, thinking to have had a discharge of the Customer [Fanner of the Customs ] for the custom [ import duty ] of the Negroes, being the King’s duty; they gave it away to the poor, for GOD’s sake; and did refuse to give the discharge in writing : and the poor, not trusting their words, for fear lest, hereafter, it might be demanded of them, did refrain from buying any more. So nothing else was done until the Governor’s coming down ; which was the 14th day [ i.e., of April],
Then the Captain made petition, declaring that “ He was come thither in a ship of the Queen’s Majesty of England, being bound to Guinea ; and thither driven by wind and weather : so that being come thither, he had need of sundry necessaries for the reparation of the said Navy, and also great need of money for the payment of his soldiers, unto whom he had promised payment ; and therefore although he would, yet would not they depart without it. And for that purpose, he requested license for the sale of certain of his Negroes; declaring that though they were forbidden to traffic with strangers : yet for that there was great amity between their Princes, and that the thing pertained to our Queen’s Highness ; he thought he might do their Prince great service,
54 Hostages given for a bona fide traffic. [ ? \s6^
and that it would be well taken at his hands, to do it in this cause.”
The which allegations, with divers others put in request, were presented unto the Governor ; who sitting in council for that matter, granted unto his request for license.
But yet there fell out another thing, which was the abating of the King’s custom ; being upon every slave, 30 ducats [5s. 6 d, each— £8 5s.— about £66 now]: which would not be granted unto.
Whereupon the Captain perceiving that they would neither come near his price, he looked for, by a great deal ; not yet would abate the King’s custom of that they offered ; so that either he must be a great loser by his wares, or else compel the Officers to abate the same King’s custom, which was too unreasonable (for to a higher price he could not bring the buyer): therefore the 16th of April, he prepared 100 men, well armed with bows, arrows, harquebusses, and pikes ; with the which he marched to the townwards.
Being perceived by the Governor, he straight, with all expedition, sent messengers to know his request, desiring him “ to march no further forward until he had answer again, which incontinent he should have.”
So our Captain declaring “how unreasonable a thing the King’s custom was, requested to have the same abated and to pay 7 J per centum , which is the ordinary custom for wares through his Dominions there ; and unto this, if they would not grant, he would displease them.”
And this word being carried to the Governor ; answer was returned that “all things should be to his content.”
Thereupon he determined to depart ; but the soldiers and mariners finding so little credit in their promises, demanded gages for the performance of the promises, or else they would not depart. And thus they being constrained to send their gages ; we departed, beginning our traffic, and ending the same without disturbance.
Thus having made traffic in the harbour until the 28th; our Captain with his ships intended to go out of the road and purposed to make shew of his departure ; because now the common sort having employed their money, the rich men were come to town, who made no shew that they were come to buy, so that they went about to bring down the price ; and by his
? I565.] Trading, anchored off Curacao. 55
policy the Captain knew they would be made the more eager, for tear lest we departed, and they should go without any at all.
The 29th, we being at anchor without the road, a French ship called the Green Dragon of Newhaven [Havre] ; whereof was Captain one Bontemps, came in : who saluted us after the manner of the sea, with certain pieces of ordnance ; and we saluted him with the like again.
With whom, having communication ; he declared that he had been at the Mine [El Mina] in Guinea, and was beaten off by the Portuguese galleys, and enforced to come thither [Burhoroata] to make sale of such wares Negroes] as he had : and further that the like was happened with the Minion . Besides [which], the Captain David Carlet and a Merchant [Supercargo], with a dozen mariners [had been] betrayed by the Negroes at their first arrival thither, and remained prisoners with the Portugals; besides other misadventures of the loss of their men happened, through the great lack of fresh water, with great doubts of bringing home the ships. Which was most sorrowful for us to understand.
Thus having ended our traffic here, the 4th of May ; we departed, leaving the Frenchman behind us.
The night before the which, the Caribs, whereof I made mention before, being to the number of two hundred, came in their canoes to Burboroata, intending by night to have burned the town and taken the Spaniards, who being more vigilant (because of our being there) than their custom was : perceiving them coming, raised the town ; who, in a moment, being a horseback (by means [that] their custom is, for all doubts, to keep their horses ready saddled, in the night), set upon them and took one ; but the rest making shift for themselves, escaped away. This one, because he was their guide, and was the occasion that divers times they had made invasion upon them, had for this travail a stake thrust through him, and so out at his neck.
The 6th of May aforesaid, we came to an island called Curasao, where we had thought to have anchored ; but could not find ground, and having let fall an anchor with two cables were fain to weigh it again : and the yth, sailing along the coast to seek a harbour, and finding none, we came to an anchor where we rode open in the sea. In this place, we
56 Vast increase of West Indian cattle. [ ? ?is6s
had traffic for hides, and found great refreshing both of beef, mutton, and lambs ; whereof there was such plenty that saving the skins, we had the flesh given us for nothing. The plenty whereof was so abundant, that the worst in the ship thought scorn not only of mutton, but also of sodden lamb, which they disdained to eat unroasted.
The increase of cattle in this island is marvellous; which, from a dozen of each sort brought thither by the Governor, in 25 years [i.e., about 1540], he had a hundred thousand, at the least : and of other cattle was able to kill, without spoil of the increase, 1,500 yearly, which he killethfor the skins ; and of the flesh saveth only the tongues, the rest he leaveth to the fowl [birds'] to devour. And this I am able to affirm, not only upon the Governor’s own report (who was the first that brought the increase thither) who so remaineth unto this day : but also by that I saw myself in one field ; where a hundred oxen lay one by another, all whole, saving the skin and tongue taken away.
And it is not so marvellous a thing, why they do thus cast away the flesh in all the islands of the West Indies, seeing the land is great, and more than they are able to inhabit ; the people few, having delicate fruits and meats enough besides to feed upon, which they rather desire ; and the increase of cattle which passeth man’s reason to believe, when they come to a great number.
For in Santo Domingo (an island called by the finders thereof, Hispaniola) is so great a quantity of cattle, and such increase thereof, that, notwithstanding the daily killing of them for their hides, it is not possible to assuage the number of them, but they are devoured by wild dogs, whose number is such (by suffering first to range the woods and mountains), that they eat and destroy 60,000 a year ; and yet small lack is found of them. And, no marvel ! for the said island is al¬ most as big as all England, and being the first place that was found of all the Indies, and of long time inhabited before the rest, it ought therefore, of reason, to be the most populous ; and, to this hour, the Viceroy and the Council Royal abideth there, as in the chiefest place of all the Indies, to prescribe orders to the rest, for the King’s behalf : yet they have but one city and thirteen villages in all the same island, whereby the spoil of the cattle, in respect of the increase, is nothing.
? ?is6s] Arrival at Rio de la Hacha. 57
The 15th of the foresaid month, we departed from Curagao ; not a little to the rejoicing of our Captain and us, that we had there ended our traffic [i.e., in hides]. But notwith¬ standing our sweet meat, we had sour sauce ! For, by reason of our riding [in] so open a sea : what with blasts (wherewith our anchors, being aground, three at once came home), and also with contrary winds blowing (whereby, for fear of the shore, we were fain to haul off to have anchor hold) some¬ times a whole day and a night, we turned [ tacked ] up and down. And this happened not once, but half a dozen times, in the space of our being there.
The x6th, we passed by an island, called Aruba [Oruba], The 17th, at night, we anchored six hours, at the west end of Cape de la Vela: and, in the morning, being the 18th, weighed again, keeping our course. In the which time, the Captain sailing by the shore in the pinnace, came to the Rancheria, a place where the Spaniards used to fish for pearls ; and there spoke with a Spaniard, who told him how far off he was from Rio de la Hacha : which, because he would not over¬ shoot, he anchored that night again. And the 19th, came thither.
Where, having talk with the King’s Treasurer of the Indies, resident there, he declared his quiet traffic at Burboroata ; and shewed a certificate of the same, made by the Governor thereof : and therefore he desired to have the like there also.
But the Treasurer made answer that “ They were forbidden by the Viceroy and Council at Santo Domingo ; who having intelligence of our being on the coast, did send express com¬ mission to resist us with all the force they could, insomuch that they durst not traffic with us in any case,” alleging that “ If they did, they should lose all that they did traffic for ; besides their bodies at the Magistrate’s commandment.”
Our Captain replied, that “ He was in an Armado of the Queen’s Majesty’s of England, and sent about her other affairs ; but driven besides his pretended [intended] voyage, was enforced by contrary winds to come into those parts, where he hoped to find such friendship as he should do in Spain : to the contrary whereof, he knew no reason, in that there was amity betwixt their Princes. But seeing they would, contrary to all reason, go about to withstand his
58 Display of force on both sides. [ ? ’s6s>
traffic; it should not be said by [of] him, that ‘having the force he hath, to be driven from his traffic, perforce,’ but he would rather put it in adventure, to try whether he or they should have the better : and, therefore, willed them, to determine either to give him license to trade, or else to stand to their own harms ! ”
So upon this, it was determined, “ He should have license to trade ; but they would give him such a price as was the one half less than he had sold for before : ” and thus they sent word they would do, and none otherwise, and “ If it liked him not, he might do what he would ! for they were determined not to deal otherwise with him.”
Whereupon, the Captain weighing their unconscionable request, wrote to them a letter, that “ they dealt too rigorously with him ! to go about to cut his throat in the price of his com¬ modities ; which were so reasonably rated, as they could not, by a great deal, have the like at any other man’s hands. But seeing they had sent him this, for his supper ; he would, in the morning, bring them as good a breakfast ! ”
And therefore, in the morning, being the 21st of May, he shot off a whole-culverin, to summon the town : and, pre¬ paring 100 men in armour, went ashore ; having in his great boat, two falcons of brass, and in the other boats, double¬ bases in their noses [bows].
Which being perceived by the townsmen, they, incontinent, in battle array, with their drum, and ensign [colours] displayed, marched from the town to the sands, to the number of 150 footmen, making great brags by their cries, and weaving [waving] us ashore ; whereby they made a semblance to have fought with us indeed.
But our Captain perceiving them to brag so, commanded the two falcons to be discharged at them, which put them in no small fear (as they afterwards declared) to see such great pieces in a boat. At every shot, they fell flat to the ground ; and as we approached near unto them, they broke their array, and dispersed themselves so much for fear of the ordnance, that, at last, they all went away with their ensign.
The horsemen, also, being about 30, made as brave a shew as might be ; coursing up and down, with their horses, their brave white leather targets in the one hand, and their javelins in the other : as though they would have received us, at our
? ?is6s.] Matters are peaceably settled. 59
landing. But when we landed, they gave ground, and con¬ sulted what they should do : for they little thought we would have landed so boldly.
And therefore, as the Captain was putting his men in array, and marching forward to have encountered with them ; they sent a messenger on horseback, with a flag of truce, to the Captain : who declared that “ the Treasurer marvelled what he meant to do, to come ashore in that order ; in considera¬ tion that they had granted to every reasonable request that he did demand ! ”
But the Captain, not well contented with this messenger, marched forwards.
The messenger prayed him to stay his men ; and said, “ If he would come apart from his men, the Treasurer would come and speak to him ! ” whereunto he did agree to commune together.
The Captain, only with his armour, without weapon ; and the Treasurer on horseback, with his javelin : who was afraid to come near him, for fear of “his armour, which,” he said, “ was worse than his weapon ! ” And so keeping aloof, communing together, the Treasurer, granted, in fine, all his requests.
Which being declared by the Captain to the company they desired “ to have pledges for the performance of all things,” doubting [fearing] that otherwise, when they had made themselves stronger, they would have been at defiance with us : and seeing that, now, they might have what they would request, they judged it to be more wisdom to be in assur¬ ance than to be forced to make any more labours about it.
So, upon this, gages were sent, and we made our traffic quietly with them.
In the meantime, while we stayed here, we watered a good breadth off from the shore ; where, by the strength of the fresh water, running into the sea, the salt water was made fresh.
In this river, we saw many crocodiles, of sundry bignesses, but some as big as a boat, with four feet, a long broad mouth, and a long tail ; whose skin is so hard, that a sword will not pierce it. His nature is to live out of the water, as a frog doth : but he is a great devourer, and spareth neither fish (which is his common food), nor beasts, nor men, if he take them : as the proof thereof was known by a Negro, who, as
60 Spaniards are secretly reinforced. [ , ;s65i
he was filling water in the river, was by one of them, carried clean away, and never seen after.
His nature is ever, when he would have his prey, to cry and sob like a Christian body ; to provoke \entice] them to come to him : and then he snatcheth at them ! And, there¬ upon, came this proverb, that is applied unto women, when they weep, Lachrymce Crocodili : the meaning whereof is, that as the crocodile when he crieth, goeth them about most to deceive ; so doth a woman, most commonly, when she weepeth.
Of these, the Master of the Jesus watched one ; and by the bank’s side, struck him, with the pike of a bill, in the side ; which, after three or four times turning in sight, sank down, and was not afterwards seen.
In the time of our being in the rivers of Guinea, we saw many of a monstrous bigness : amongst the which, the Captain being in one of the barks coming down the same, shot a falcon at one, which he very narrowly missed, that, with a fear, plunged into the water, making a stream, like the “ way ” of a boat.
Now while we were here, whether it were of a fear that the Spaniards doubted [feared], we would have done them some harm before we departed ; or for any treason that they pre¬ tended towards us, I am not able to say : but then, came thither a Captain with a dozen soldiers, from some of the other towns, upon a time when our Captain and the Treasurer had cleared all things between them, and were in communica¬ tion of a debt of the Governor’s of Burboroata, which was to be paid by the said Treasurer; who would not answer the same by any means.
Whereupon certain words of displeasure passed betwixt the Captain and him ; and parting [separating] the one from the other ; the Treasurer possibly doubting that our Captain would, perforce, have sought the same, did immediately command his men to arms, both horsemen and footmen ; but because [and inasmuch] as the Captain was in the river, on the back side of the town, with his other boats and all his men unarmed and without weapons, it was to be judged he meant him little good ; having that advantage of him, that, coming upon the sudden, he might have mischiefed many of his men.
But the Captain having understanding thereof not (trusting
? Js6s>] Providential discovery of the same.
6i
to their gentleness, if they might have the advantage), de¬ parted aboard his ships ; and, at night, returned again : and demanded, amongst other talk, “ What they meant by assembling their men, in that order ? ”
They answered, that “ their Captain being come to town, did muster his men according to his accustomed manner.”
But this is to be judged to be a cloak, in that, coming for that purpose, he might have done it sooner. But the truth is, they were not of force until then, whereby to enterprise any matter against us by means of pikes and harquebusses ; whereof they had want and were now furnished by our Captain ; and also three falcons which (having got in other places) they had secretly conveyed thither. These made them the bolder, and also for that they saw now a con¬ venient place to do such a feat : and time also serving there¬ unto, by the means that our men were not only unarmed and unprovided (as at no time before), but also were occupied in hewing of wood, and least thinking of any harm. These were occasions to provoke them thereunto.
And I suppose they went about to bring it to effect, in that I* and another Gentleman being in the town, think- * The Author ing of no harm towards us; and seeing men of thls story- assembling in armour to the Treasurer’s house, whereof we marvelled : and (revoking [recalling to mind ] the former talk between the Captain and him, and the unreadiness of our men of whom advantage might have been taken) departed out of the town immediately, to give knowledge thereof. But before we came to our men by a flight-shot [bow-shot\, two horsemen riding at gallop, were come near us (being sent, as we did guess, to stay us, lest we should carry the news to our Captain), but seeing us so near our men, they stayed their horses ; coming together and suffering us to pass : belike because we were so near that if they had gone about the same, they had been espied by some of our men; which then would have immediately departed, whereby they would have been frustrate of their pretence.
So the two horsemen rode about the bushes, to espy what we did. And seeing us gone, to the intent that they might shadow [cover] their coming down in post [i.e., in post haste] ; whereof suspicion might be had, feigned a simple excuse, in asking, “ Whether he could sell any wine ? ”
62 Turning their faces homewards. [ ?IS6S)
But that seemed so simple to the Captain, that, standing in doubt of their courtesy, he returned in the morning, with his three boats appointed with bases, [and falcons] in their noses ; and his men with weapons accordingly : whereas, before, he carried none.
Thus dissembling all injuries conceived of both parts, the Captain went ashore, leaving pledges in the boats for him¬ self, and cleared all things between the Treasurer and him, saving for the Governor’s debt : which the one, by no means, would answer ; and the other (because it was not his due debt), would not molest him for it, but was content to remit it until another time.
He therefore departed, causing the two barks which rode near the shore, to weigh and go under sail ; which was done because that our Captain, demanding a testimony of his good behaviour there, could not have the same until he were under sail, ready to depart. And therefore, at night, he went for the same again, and received it at the Treasurer’s hand; of whom, very courteously, he took his leave, and departed, shooting off the base of his boat, for his farewell : and the townsmen also shot off four falcons and thirty harquebusses, and this was the first time that he knew of the conveyance of their falcons.
The 31st of May, we departed, keeping our course to His¬ paniola : and the 4th June, we had sight of an island, which we made to be Jamaica ; marvelling that, by the vehement course [current] of the seas, we should be driven so far to leeward. For setting our course to the west end of His¬ paniola, we fell with the middle of Jamaica; notwithstand¬ ing that to all men’s sight, it shewed a headland : but they were all deceived by the clouds that lay upon the land two days together, in such sort, that we thought it to be the headland of the said island.
And a Spaniard being in the ship, who was a merchant, and an inhabitant in Jamaica (having occasion to go to Guinea, and being, by treason, taken of the Negroes, and afterwards bought by the Tangomangoes, was by our Captain, brought from thence ; and had his passage to go into his country), perceiving the land, made as though he knew every
? ?is6s.] English ignorance of W. I. navigation. 63
place thereof, and pointed to certain places, which he named to be such a place ! and such a man’s ground ! and that behind such a point, was the harbour ! but, in the end, 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 to the Spaniard’s knowledge, our Captain sought not [had no opportunity ] to speak with any of the inhabitants ; which if he had not [thus] made himself so sure of, he would have done, as his custom was, in other places. But this man was a plague, not only to our Captain, whom he made to lose, by overshooting the place, £ 2,000 [—about £16,000 now ] by hides, which he might have gotten; but also to himself. For having been three years out of his country, and in great misery in Guinea, both among the Negroes and Tangomangoes ; and in hope to come to his wife and friends, as he made sure account : in that, at his going into the pinnace, when he went to shore, he put on his new clothes, and, for joy, flung away his old; he could not, afterwards, find any habitation, neither there, nor in all Cuba, which we sailed along ; but it fell out ever, by one occasion or other, that we were put besides the same. So that, he was fain to be brought into England. And it happened to him, as it did to a duke of Samaria, when the Israelites were besieged, and were in great misery with hunger ; and being told by the prophet Elisha, that “ a bushel of flour should be sold for a shekel,” would not be¬ lieve him, but thought it impossible : and for that cause, Elisha prophesied u He should see the same done, but he should not eat thereof! ” So this man, being absent three years, and not ever thinking to have seen his own country ; did see the same ! went upon it ! and yet was it not his fortune, to come to it ! or to any habitation whereby to re¬ main with his friends, according to his desire !
Thus, having sailed along the coast, two days, we departed the 7th June ; being made to believe by the Spaniard, that it was not Jamaica, but rather Hispaniola ; of which opinion, the Captain also was, because that which he made Jamaica seemed to be but a piece of the land, and thereby took it rather to be Hispaniola, by the lying of the coast ; and also
64 They water at the Isle of Pines. [ ? -s6s<
for that being ignorant of the force of the current, he could not believe he was so far driven to leeward.
And therefore setting his course to Jamaica, and after cer¬ tain days not finding the same ; he perceived then certainly that the island which he was at before, was Jamaica; and that the clouds did deceive him: whereof he marvelled not a little.
And this mistaking of the place came to as ill a pause as the overshooting of Jamaica. For by this, did he also over¬ pass a place in Cuba, called Santa Cruz ; where, as he was informed, was a great store of hides to be had.
Thus being disappointed of his two ports; where he thought to have raised great profit by his traffic, and also to have found great refreshing of victuals and water for his men : he was now greatly disappointed.
And such want had he of fresh water, that he was forced to seek the shore, to obtain the same. Which, after certain days overpassed with storms and contrary winds, he had sight of; but yet not of the mainland] of Cuba, but of certain islands, two hundred in number, whereof the most part were desolate of inhabitants.
By the which islands, the Captain passing in his pinnace, could find no fresh water, until he came to an island bigger than all the rest, called the Isle of Pines [I. de Pinos], where we anchored with our ships, the 16th of June, and found water. Which although it were neither so toothsome as running water, by means it was standing and but the water of rain, and also, being near the sea, was brackish : yet did ve not refuse it ; but were more glad thereof, as the time then required, than we should have been, another time, with fine conduit water.
Thus, being reasonably watered, we were desirous to de¬ part : because the place was not very convenient for such ships of charge [big vessels] as they were, as there were many shoals to leeward ; and it also lay open to the sea, for any wind that should blow. Therefore, the Captain made the more haste away; which was not unneedful. For little sooner [scarce] were their anchors weighed, and foresail set ; but there arose such a storm that they had not much to spare in doubling of the shoals : and one of the barks, not being fully ready as the rest, was fain, for haste, to cut the cable in hawse, and lose both anchor and cable, to save herself.
? ?is6s>] Early English notice of turtle. 65
Thus, the 17th of June, we departed.
On the 20th, we fell in with the west end of Cuba, called Cape St. Antonio; where, for the space of three days, we doubled along [tacked], till we came beyond the shoals which are twenty leagues beyond St. Antonio.
And the ordinary brise [breeze] taking us, which is the north-east wind, put us, the 24th, from the shore ; and there¬ fore we went to the north-west, to fetch wind ; and also to the coast of Florida, to have the help of the current [the Gulf Stream], which was judged to have set to the eastward.
So the 29th, we found ourselves in 270 [i.e., N. Lat., but still inside the Gulf of Mexico] : and in the soundings of Florida, wherein we kept ourselves, the space of four days, sailing along the coast [which was, however , Westward of the Fleet, not Eastward] as near as we could, in ten or twelve fathom water : having, all the while, no sight of land.
The 5th of July, we had sight of certain islands of sand, called the Tortugas, which is low land, where the Captain went in, with his pinnace ; and found such a number of birds that, in half an hour, he laded her with them ; and, if there had been ten boats more, they might have done the like. These islands bear the name of Tortles [turtle] , because of the number of them which there do breed : whose nature is, to live both in the water and also upon land, but breed only upon the shore, by making a great pit, wherein they lay eggs, to the number of three or four hundred, and covering them with sand, they are hatched by the heat of the sun ; and by this means, cometh the great increase. Of these, we took very great ones, which have both back and belly all of bone of the thickness of an inch; the fish [flesh] whereof we proved, [it] eating much like veal: and finding a number of eggs in them, tasted also of them, but they did eat very sweetly.
Here we anchored six hours ; and then a fair gale of wind springing : we weighed anchor, and made sail toward Cuba, whither we came the 6th day ; and weathered as far as the Table, being a hill so called, because of the form thereof.
Here, we lay off and on all night, to keep that which we had gotten to windward ; intending to have watered in the morning, if we could have done it ; or else, if the wind had 1. E 4
66 The ships miss Havana twice. [_ ? ?x56S
come larger [fuller], to have plied to windward, to Havana ; which is a harbour, whereunto all the Fleets of the Spaniards come, and do there tarry to have the company one of another.
This hill, we thinking to have been the Table, as it was indeed, made account that Havana was but eight leagues to windward. But, by the persuasions of a Frenchman, who made the Captain believe he knew the Table very well, and had been at Havana, and said that “ It was not the Table! and that the Table was much higher, and nearer to the seaside! and that there was no plain ground to the Eastward, nor hills to the Westward ; but all was contrary ! and that behind the hills to the Westward was Havana ! ”
To which persuasion, credit being given by some, and they not of the worst; the Captain was persuaded to go to leeward : and so sailed along the 7th and 8th days, finding no habi¬ tation, nor no other Table. And then perceiving his folly to give ear to such praters, was not a little sorry : both because he did consider what time he should spend ere he could get so far to windward again (which would have been, with the weathering which we had, ten or twelve days’ work ; and what it would have been longer, he knew not) ; and, that which was worst, he had not above a day’s water, and therefore, knew not what shift to make.
But in fine, because the want was such, that his men could not live without it ; he determined to seek water ; and to go further to leeward, to a place, as it is set in the Card [chart], called Rio de los Puercos. Which he was in doubt of, as to whether it were inhabited ; and whether there were water or not, and whether (for the shoals) he might have such access with his ships, that he might conveniently take in the same.
And while we were in these troubles, and kept our way to the place aforesaid, Almighty GOD, our guide ! (who would not suffer us to run into any further danger which we had been like to have incurred, if we had ranged the coast of Florida [■ i.e ., the West coast of the present State of Florida], as we did before ; which is so dangerous, by reports, that no ship escapeth, which cometh thither; as the Spaniards have very well proved the same) sent us, the 8th day, at night, a fair westerly wind. Whereupon the Captain and company consulting, determined not to refuse GOD’s gift ; but every
? ?Ij6s] Narrow escape of the two boats. 67
man was contented to pinch his own belly, whatsoever had happened [might happen ].
And taking the said wind, we got the 9th day to the Table ; and sailing the same night, unawares overshot Havana; at which place we thought to have watered. But the next day, not knowing that we had overshot the same, sailed along the coast, seeking it : and the 1 ith day, in the morning, by certain known marks, we understood that we had overshot it twenty leagues; in which coast ranging, we found no convenient watering place. Whereby there was no remedy, but to dis¬ embogue, and