Of five anchors brought from England, Hawkins had now lost two, and two others were disabled, and as bitter weather came on, with sleet and snow, the men craved to return to Brazil and winter there; but Hawkins, having Fenton's fortune in mind and that of Cavendish, resolved to go on and rather lose his life than listen to their counsel.
But he amused his men ashore with sports and games, one day with the west country sport of hurling, in which the bachelors played against the married; another day with wrestling or shooting, or stalking ursine seals as they lay sleeping on the shore in the sun; for their skins were useful as clothes, their moustaches as toothpicks, and their fat as oil. But these seals, like the baboons of South Africa, had the habit of posting sentinels, who wakened the herd with cries of alarm; and when the sailors ran to get between the seals and the sea, thinking to head them off, the plucky creatures made straight for them, and not a man that withstood them escaped being overthrown. Then, after the seals had gained the water, "they did, as it were, scorn us, defy us, and dance before us."
On the 28th of March the Dainty entered the South Pacific, though the men murmured and grumbled and prophesied dire consequences.
On Easter Eve they anchored under the island of Mocha, where Drake had suffered from the treachery of the Indians; so, great precautions were taken while exchanging goods with them. The Indians, however, had to be chastised for stealing, and would not sell any hens or llamas of their own breeding.
Hawkins wished not to discover himself upon the coast till he should have passed Lima; but his men, greedy of spoil, urged him to enter the port of Valparaiso, where they took four vessels in which were only stores of no value, which the owners were allowed to ransom for a small price. Afterwards a fifth ship came in and was taken. In this they found some gold, which put the crew in a good humour. New anchors also were procured, and "a shift of cotton sails, far better in that sea where they have little rain and few storms, than any of our double sails; yet with the wet they grow so stiff that they cannot be handled."
Hawkins generously restored all apparel and goods belonging to the captain who had negotiated the ransom, and his generosity was rewarded later on.
He remained eight days in port, during which time he and the master of the Dainty, Hugh Cornish, took little rest, for they had only seventy-five men to guard five ships, and the Governor of Chili was lying in ambush near the shore with three hundred horse and foot. But, worse than the enemy, Hawkins feared the wine for his sailors, which overthrew many of his men—"a foul fault too common among seamen, and deserving rigorous punishment"; and he declares that if he had thousands of men, he would not carry with him a man known to put his felicity in that vice.
As they neared the coast of Peru his men demanded their third of the gold that had been taken. To this Hawkins replied—
"It will not be easy, men, to divide the bars fairly, and if divided they may easily be stolen. Many of you, besides, will play away your portions and return home as beggarly as ye came out."
The men consented to have the gold and silver deposited in chests with three keys to each, of which the general was to have one, the master another, and the third was to be given to a man nominated by themselves.