The Earl of Surrey succeeded to the office of Lord Treasurer on the retirement of his father, and on the duke's death was appointed to command an army against the Scots and employed on various other commissions of importance.
Towards the close of his reign the king was led to believe that he (now Duke of Norfolk) and his son, Henry, Earl of Surrey, the most distinguished poet of his time, were in a plot to seize upon his person, and to engross the government into their own hands. For these supposed crimes, he and his son were imprisoned and attainted almost on suspicion. Henry, Earl of Surrey, lost his head in his father's presence; nor would the duke have survived him long, if the king had not died at that critical juncture and thereby opened a door of hope and liberty. After all these sufferings, he survived King Edward VI. and died in the first year of Queen Mary, at the age of sixty-six, when his attainder was repealed, and the act thereof taken from amongst the records.
[THE STORY OF SIR JOHN HAWKINS]
AND THE TROUBLESOME VOYAGE MADE WITH THE JESUS OF LUBECK, THE MINION, AND FOUR OTHER SHIPS TO THE PARTS OF GUINEA AND THE WEST INDIES, IN THE YEARS 1567 AND 1568 BY MASTER JOHN HAWKINS.
Sir John Hawkins was born at Plymouth about the year 1520. He was from his youth devoted to the study of navigation, and began very early to carry his knowledge into practice by making voyages to Spain, Portugal and the Canaries, voyages which were in those days great undertakings. In 1562 he made his first voyage to Guinea for slaves, and then to Hispaniola, St. John de Porto Rico, and other Spanish islands, for sugars, hides, silver, etc. His venture proving financially successful he made another voyage in 1564 with a like purpose, with the same success, arriving on his return at Padstow in Cornwall, on September 20th, 1565.
Towards the end of the year 1567, he started on the unfortunate voyage made with the Jesus, the Minion and four other ships to the ports of Guinea and the West Indies, his own personal account of which is thus recorded in Hakluyt's "Voyages."
"The ships departed from Plymouth October 2nd, 1567, and had reasonable weather until the seventh day, at which time, forty leagues north from Cape Finisterre, there arose an extreme storm which continued four days, in such sort that the fleet was dispersed and all our great boats lost, and the Jesus, our chief ship, in such case as not thought able to serve the voyage. Whereupon in the same storm we set our course homeward, determining to give over the voyage; but the eleventh day of the same month the wind changed, with fair weather, whereby we were animated to follow our enterprise, and so did, directing our course to the islands of Grand Canaries, where, according to an order before prescribed, all our ships, before dispersed, met in one of those islands, called Gomera, where we took water, and departed from thence on November 4th towards the coast of Guinea, and arrived at Cape Verde, November 18th, where we landed one hundred and fifty men, hoping to obtain some negroes; where we got but few, and those with great hurt and damage to our men, which chiefly proceeded from their envenomed arrows; although in the beginning they seemed to be but small hurts, yet there hardly escaped any that had blood drawn of them but died in strange sort, with their mouths shut, some ten days before they died, and after their wounds were whole; where I myself had one of the greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped. From thence we passed the time upon the coast of Guinea, searching with all diligence the rivers from Rio Grande unto Sierra Leone till January 12th, in which time we had not gotten together a hundred and fifty negroes: yet, notwithstanding, the sickness of our men and the late time of the year commanded us away: and thus having nothing wherewith to seek the coast of the West Indies, I was with the rest of our company in consultation to go to the coast of the Myne, hoping there to have obtained some gold for our wares, and thereby to have defrayed our charge. But even in that present instant there came to us a negro sent from a king oppressed by other kings, his neighbours, desiring our aid, with promise that as many negroes as by these wars might be obtained, as well of his part as of ours, should be at our pleasure. Whereupon we concluded to give aid, and sent one hundred and twenty of our men, which January 15th assaulted a town of the negroes of our allies' adversaries which had in it eight thousand inhabitants, and very strongly impaled and fenced after their manner; but it was so well defended that our men prevailed not, but lost six men, and forty hurt, so that our men sent forthwith to me for more help; whereupon, considering that the good success of this enterprise might highly further the commodity of our voyage, I went myself, and with the help of the king of our side assaulted the town, both by land and sea, and very hardly with fire (their houses being covered with dry palm leaves) obtained the town, and put the inhabitants to flight, where we took two hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children, and by our friend the king of our side there were taken six hundred prisoners, whereof we hoped to have our choice, but the negro (in which nation is seldom or never found truth) meant nothing less; for that night he removed his camp and prisoners, so that we were fain to content us with those few which we had gotten ourselves.
"Now had we obtained between four and five hundred negroes, wherewith we thought it somewhat reasonable to seek the coast of the West Indies, and there, for our negroes, and our other merchandise, we hoped to obtain whereof to countervail our charges with some gains, whereunto we proceeded with all diligence, finished our watering, took fuel, and departed the coast of Guinea, on February 3rd, continuing at the sea with a passage more hard than before hath been accustomed till March 27th, which day we had sight of an island called Dominique, upon the coast of the West Indies, in fourteen degrees; from thence we coasted from place to place, making our traffic with the Spaniards as we might, somewhat hardy, because the king had straightly commanded all his governors in those parts by no means to suffer any trade to be made with us; notwithstanding we had reasonable trade, and courteous entertainment from the Isle of Marguerite and Cartagena, without anything greatly worth the noting, saving at Capo de la Vela, in a town called Rio de la Hacha, from whence come all the pearls. The treasurer who had the charge there would by no means agree to any trade, or suffer us to take water. He had fortified his town with divers bulwarks in all places where it might be entered, and furnished himself with a hundred harquebusiers, so that he thought by famine to have enforced us to have put on land our negroes, of which purpose he had not greatly failed unless we had by force entered the town; which (after we could by no means obtain his favour) we were enforced to do, and so with two hundred men brake in upon their bulwarks, and entered the town with the loss only of eleven men of our parts, and no hurt done to the Spaniards, because after their volley of shot discharged, they all fled.