Some months afterwards the Frenchmen who had been relieved of their victuals arrived in England and complained to King Henry; but he, after inquiring into the matter, ‘was so moved with pity that he punished not his subjects, but of his own purse made full and royal recompense unto the French’.
This expedition can hardly claim to rank as a serious voyage of discovery; it was rather of the nature of a tourist’s cruise under very incompetent guidance. It was not promoted by sailors but by landsmen, who, whatever their book-knowledge, had very little practical experience of voyaging. The necessity for cannibalism in a country swarming with game and a sea teeming with fish could hardly have arisen in an expedition organized by other than amateurs. There is no mention of any purpose of trading or searching for a passage to the North-West. Hore’s associates, as Hakluyt says, were mainly ‘gentlemen of the Inns of Court and of the Chancery, and divers others of good worship, desirous to see the strange things of the world’. It was not from such a party that any useful results could be expected, lacking, as it did, the essentials of success: clearly defined purpose, strong leadership, and knowledge tempered by experience.
As far as is now known, no other English ship set out to solve the problem of the north until 1553, the date of Willoughby’s departure in search of Cathay by the north-east. That the matter was not entirely forgotten we are reminded by a passage in Chapuys’s correspondence with the Queen of Hungary. Writing on May 26, 1541, he says:
‘About two months ago there was a deliberation in the Privy Council as to the expediency of sending two ships to the northern seas for the purpose of discovering a passage between Iceland and Engronland (Greenland) for the northern regions, where it was thought that, owing to the extreme cold, English woollen cloths would be very acceptable and sell for a good price. To this end the King has retained here for some time a pilot from Seville well versed in the affairs of the sea, though in the end the undertaking has been abandoned, all owing to the King not choosing to agree to the pilot’s terms, so that for the present at least, the city of Antwerp is sure of not losing the commerce of woollen cloth of English manufacture.’[[256]]
There is no reason to suppose that the pilot of Seville was Sebastian Cabot, as has been suggested. The professional training which the Spanish pilots received before being granted their certificates produced numerous competent navigators, many of whom would have been superior in theoretical knowledge to the master mariners of England, and therefore able to render good service in Arctic exploration.
The majority of the North Atlantic voyages already considered were for discovery with an ultimate view to trade; but towards the end of Henry VIII’s reign certain adventurers undertook purely trading expeditions to regions already explored and partially occupied by the Portuguese. Hakluyt relates that William Hawkins, of Plymouth, father of Admiral Sir John Hawkins, and one of the principal sea captains of the west of England, made three voyages to the coast of Brazil in 1530 and the years following.[[257]] Details are given of only two of the voyages, which were made in a vessel of 250 tons called the Paul, of Plymouth. Of the first, no information is forthcoming, unless it was on this occasion that Hawkins touched at the coast of Guinea on his way out, buying ivory and the other produce of the country. This circumstance is so vaguely described as to be applicable to any or all of the expeditions. On the second occasion such good relations were established with the natives of Brazil that they consented to allow Hawkins to take one of their chiefs to England, leaving as a hostage one of the crew, Martin Cockeram by name. This is the man whom Kingsley introduces in Westward Ho! as conversing, in extreme old age, with the captains assembled on Plymouth Hoe when news was brought of the approach of the Armada. There was nothing impossible in such a situation, since Hakluyt, writing in 1599, says: ‘Martin Cockeram, by the witness of Sir John Hawkins, being an officer of the town of Plymouth, was living within these few years.’
The Brazilian chief was brought to England and presented to Henry VIII at Whitehall. The whole court was astonished at his appearance, ‘for in his cheeks were small holes made according to their savage manner, and therein small bones were planted, standing an inch out from the said holes, which in his own country was reputed for a great bravery. He had also another hole in his nether lip, wherein was set a precious stone about the bigness of a pease. All his apparel, behaviour and gesture were very strange to the beholders.’ After nearly a year in England, Hawkins, according to his promise, set sail to Brazil once more to take him back. But he was destined never to see his native shores again, for, ‘by change of air and alteration of diet’, he died at sea. Nevertheless the natives were so impressed with the honourable dealings of the English that they accepted their explanations without demur and restored the hostage unharmed.
From his third voyage Hawkins returned with his ship freighted with the commodities of the country, which are not further specified. The exact locality, also, to which his journeys were made, is unknown. Hakluyt tells no more of William Hawkins, but he has brief notices of other adventurers to Brazil at about the same period. He was informed that ‘this commodious and gainful voyage’ was frequently made by numerous Southampton merchants, and, in particular, by Robert Reneger and Thomas Borey in 1540; also that one Pudsey, of Southampton, made a voyage to Baya de Todos Santos in 1542, and built a fort not far from it.
The details of another Brazil voyage have recently come to light among the Admiralty papers at the Record Office.[[258]] On March 7, 1540, the Barbara of London set sail from Portsmouth under the command of John Phillips. She captured a Spanish bark off Cape St. Vincent, and later on a caravel also. Arriving at the coast of Brazil on May 3, Phillips first traded and afterwards fought with the natives, losing many of his crew. After this unsatisfactory experience he sailed homewards by way of the West Indies. At San Domingo he fought with two Spanish vessels, one of which he captured. On his return to Dartmouth, in August of the same year, he and the surviving members of his company were arrested for piracy at the instance of Chapuys. The result of their trial is unknown. Fuller evidence on these transactions is believed to exist in Spain, and it is to be hoped that it will soon be made public.
With regard to Hawkins’s further operations, a letter exists from him to Thomas Cromwell in 1536, to the following effect: