1565, Hawkins reaches the West Indies with four hundred slaves,
whom he sells to much advantage, former shaping his course for the coast beyond the Rio Grande, and filling up, as he proceeded, the hold of his ship with negroes, whom he had entrapped among the rivers and islands. Between purchases from the Portuguese, who were the first to establish factories and barracoons on these coasts, and the spoils made by his own desperate crews, Hawkins in a few weeks had collected on board of his ships no less than four hundred slaves, with whom he shaped his course for the West Indies, and came to an anchor close to the tower of Barbaratto. Finding that the interdict had arrived from the king of Spain forbidding the colonists, under pain of death, to admit any foreign vessels at any of the Spanish possessions, or have any dealings with them, Hawkins was entreated to leave. But he was not the man to be thwarted in his object whenever he felt that he had power to enforce it. Under the pretence that his ship was in distress and required refitting, he intimated that if he was refused the necessary supplies he should be obliged to send his men on shore to take them. The menace produced its effect by affording the governor a pretext for yielding and allowing the inhabitants to purchase the negroes, for whose services there was a rapidly increasing demand. In a few days half the cargo was disposed of, when Hawkins proceeded with the rest to the Rio de la Hacha, where he disposed of them to great advantage, in defiance of the king's interdict, and the remonstrances of the governor.
With the proceeds of human beings, stolen from their homes, and sold under cover of his guns to the Spanish planters, Hawkins, having washed the pens in which he had cooped his unfortunate victims,
