"But yet God again had mercy on us, and sent fair weather. We got aboard our water, and departed October 16th, after which day we had fair and prosperous weather till November 16th, which day, God be praised, we were clear from the coast of the Indians and out of the channel and gulf of Bahama, which is between the Cape of Florida and the Islands of Cuba. After this, growing near to the cold country, our men, being oppressed with famine, died continually, and they that were left grew into such weakness that we were scarcely able to manœuvre our ship; and the wind being always ill for us to recover England, determined to go to Galicia, in Spain, with intent there to relieve our company and other extreme wants. And being arrived the last day of December, in a place near unto Vigo, called Pontevedra, our men, with excess of fresh meat, grew into miserable diseases, and died a great part of them. This matter was borne out as long as it might be, but in the end, although there was none of our men suffered to go on land, yet by access of the Spaniards our feebleness was known to them. Whereupon they ceased not to seek by all means to betray us; but with all speed possible we departed to Vigo, where we had some help of certain English ships, and twelve fresh men, wherewith we repaired our wants as we might, and departing January 20th, 1568, arrived in Mounts Bay in Cornwall the 25th of the same month, praised be God therefore."
If all the misery and troublesome affairs of this sorrowful voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written, there should need a painful man with his pen, and as great time as he had that wrote the "Lives and Deaths of the Martyrs."
Sir John Hawkins rendered great service under Lord Howard in 1588, against the Spanish Armada, acting as rear admiral on board H.M.S. Victory, where we are told he had as large a share of the danger and honour of the day as any man in the fleet; for which he deservedly received the honour of knighthood, and was particularly commended by Queen Elizabeth. In 1590 he was sent, in conjunction with Sir Martin Frobisher—each having a squadron of men-of-war—to infest the coast of Spain, where they met with many adventures but not much success. Later, a proposition was made to the queen by Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, to fit out an expedition for the West Indies to harry the Spaniards, a proposition which they backed with an offer to bear the greater part of the expense themselves. The queen favoured the design, and the two ablest seamen of the time sailed from Plymouth on August 28th, 1595, with a squadron of twenty-seven ships and barques, and a force of two thousand five hundred men. Divided counsels seem to have interfered with the success of this expedition, Sir John and Sir Francis not agreeing as to the course to be pursued. A few days before their departure they received notice from the queen that the Plate fleet had safely arrived in Spain, with the exception of a single galleon, which, having lost a mast, had been obliged to return to Porto Rico; the capture of which she recommended to them as practical without interfering with the general design of the expedition. Sir John was for immediately executing the queen's commands, but Sir Francis inclined first to go to the Canaries, in which he prevailed over his friend and colleague, but not over his enemies. In the meantime the Spaniards had sent five stout frigates to bring away the damaged galleon from Porto Rico, which convoy, falling in with the Francis, the sternmost of Sir John's ships, captured her before she could receive assistance from the admiral. This is said to have so affected the veteran Sir John, that he died on November 21st, 1595, soon after his vessel had sighted the island of Porto Rico.
"Sir John Hawkins," says Dr. Campbell, "was the author of more useful inventions, and introduced into the navy better regulations than any officer who had borne command therein before his time. One instance of this was the institution of that noble fund the Chest of Chatham, which was the humane and wise contrivance of this gentleman and Sir Francis Drake, and their scheme that seamen, safe and successful, should, by a voluntary deduction from their pay, give relief to the wants, and reward to those who are maimed in the service of their country, was approved by the queen, and has been adopted by posterity."
[THE WORTHY ENTERPRISE OF JOHN FOX,]
AN ENGLISHMAN, IN DELIVERING TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX CHRISTIANS OUT OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TURKS AT ALEXANDRIA, THE 3RD OF JANUARY, 1577. BY RICHARD HAKLUYT.
Richard Hakluyt was born at Eyton in Herefordshire in 1553, and was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1574, and M.A. in 1577, and lectured publicly upon geography, showing "both the old imperfectly composed, and the new lately reformed maps, globes, spheres, and other instruments of this art."
In 1582 Hakluyt published his "Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America and the Lands adjacent unto the same, made first of all by our Englishmen, and afterwards by the Frenchmen and Bretons; and certain Notes of Advertisements for Observations, necessary for such as shall hereafter make the like attempt." In 1583, having taken orders, he went to Paris as chaplain to the English ambassador, Sir Edward Stafford, returning to England for a short time in 1584, when he laid before the queen a paper entitled "A particular Discourse concerning Western Discoveries, written in the year 1584 by Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford, at the request and direction of the right worshipful Mr. Walter Raleigh, before the coming home of his two barks."