and a victualler in company, and a commission ‘to attempt some enterprise against the king of Spain, his subjects and adherents, upon the coast of the West Indies, Brazil, Africa, America, or the South Seas, granting him and his patrons whatever he should take, reserving to the crown one-fifth part of all treasure, jewels, and pearls’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1591–4, p. 376).
The account of the early part of the voyage, afterwards written by Hawkyns himself, is interesting from the intelligent descriptions of sea life and of the places at which the ships touched. They lost many men by scurvy; the Dainty was nearly burnt by accident; and about the end of October, having a very large number of sick, they put into Santos in Brazil. Here they were able to purchase oranges, lemons, and a few fowls; but the governor ordered them to depart within three days, nor would he permit them to trade or ‘to take any refreshing upon the shore.’ So they put to sea, though short of water, having, it appears, none except what they distilled; a process for which they had a proper apparatus (Markham, p. 164), though it afterwards went completely out of use, presumably on account of the difficulty of carrying sufficient fuel. On 5 Nov. they anchored between the Santa Anna Islands, to the north of Cape Frio. There they put the sick on shore, and refreshed them with sea-fowl and such fruits as the islands afforded (ib. p. 168 n.) Afterwards they watered at Isla Grande, to the west of Rio Janeiro; and on 18 Dec. shaped their course for the Straits of Magellan. At Santa Anna they had emptied out and burnt the victualler; off the mouth of the River Plate the pinnace deserted and made her way home again. The Dainty thus came alone to the Straits; passed through, not without danger; and on 19 April 1594 anchored at the island of Mocha, where fresh provisions were procured. ‘I have not tasted better mutton anywhere,’ Hawkyns noted. And so on to Valparaiso, where they plundered the town and ransomed the ships in the bay; thence going north, making a few prizes, they anchored on 18 June in the bay of San Mateo, where on the 19th they were found by two large Spanish ships, well armed and commanded by Don Beltran de Castro, brother-in-law of the viceroy, who had fitted them out expressly to look for and capture or destroy these English pirates.
The crew of the Dainty had been reduced by deaths to about seventy-five; the Spaniards are said to have numbered ten times as many (ib. p. 271), which is probable enough. Another estimate, making them ‘thirteen hundred men and boyes’ (ib. p. 278), may be pronounced a gross exaggeration (cf. Duro, La Armada Invencible, ii. 194). The Dainty was stoutly defended, and she might possibly have beaten off her assailants and made good her escape, but for the extreme carelessness with which she had been prepared for action. Hawkyns had left all the supervision as well as the preparation to the gunner, in whom he had perfect confidence, but who, in the hour of need, proved ignorant and incapable. There were no cartridges, much of the ammunition had been spoiled by damp, few of the guns were clear when they were wanted, and some of them had been loaded with the powder on top of the shot (Markham, p. 273). Hawkyns's own account of the action tells of such gross neglect and mismanagement, as to give rise to a suspicion that, whatever the gunner's faults, Hawkyns was not the ‘complete seaman’ and skilful commander that he would wish his readers to suppose. Of his stubborn courage, however, there is no doubt. The fight lasted through three days, till Hawkyns was carried below severely wounded. The ship was then almost knocked to pieces, with fourteen shot under water, seven or eight feet of water in the hold, and the pumps smashed; many of the men killed, many more wounded, and the rest mad drunk (ib. p. 302). Hawkyns therefore surrendered on capitulation, Don Beltran solemnly pledging himself ‘that he would give us our lives with good entreaty, and send us as speedily as he could into our own country.’ But at Lima the prisoners were claimed by the Inquisition; and, though the viceroy refused to give them up on the ground of having no instructions, they suffered much annoyance. In 1597 Hawkyns was sent to Spain in a galeon which was chased by the fleet under Essex into the roadstead of Terceira (ib. p. 304). She afterwards pursued her voyage and arrived at Seville. There, regardless of the capitulation, Hawkyns was thrown into prison. In September 1598 he escaped, but was recaptured and thrust into a dungeon. In 1599 he was removed to Madrid, and so kept, notwithstanding his own letters to the queen or the English ambassador at Paris, and the remonstrances of Don Beltran, who was indignant at the violation of his plighted faith. On 30 June 1602 Hawkyns wrote to Sir Robert Cecil, complaining that his ‘mother-in-law, Lady Hawkyns,’ would not pay the 3,000l. which had been allotted by his father's will for his ransom (Cal. State Papers, Dom.) Cecil probably interfered; at any rate, Hawkyns was released, though mainly, it was said, in consequence of the representations of the Count Miranda, the president of the council,
