1530, the tide of Iberian colonization had not yet swollen to its full flood. Spain had succeeded in planting her foot firmly on the coast of what is now Venezuela and on the Isthmus of Panama, whence she was preparing to send her forces southwards to conquer the Pacific slope. But the great Empire of the Incas still lay intact among its gigantic mountain ranges, and Pizarro had not yet destroyed the Inca rule, nor slain the Emperor Atahualpa, nor plundered the heavy gold of the sacred cities near Lake Titicaca.

It was only on the eve of such mighty occurrences as these that William Hawkins sailed his ship out of Plymouth. At that period, too, was still lacking the Spanish colonizing stream which, headed by Pedro de Mendoza, was to set in from the southeast and embrace the countries of the river Plate and Paraguay.

The coast of Brazil had been explored by Cabral, Pinzon, and others, and the wonted stone pillars engraved with the arms of Portugal had been left at various points on the shore. Moreover, the Portuguese, following another custom of theirs, had marooned a few of their condemned criminals among various tribes of the coastal Indians-a procedure which had a double advantage in that it served to test the real sentiments of the Indians (for if the Portuguese were found alive in their midst by any subsequent expedition it might be taken for granted that the natives were friendly!), and to prepare, by this humble and somewhat maculate instrumentality, the mind of the aboriginal for the advent of the white

man.

But the actual settlements of the Portuguese on the Brazilian coast had as yet scarcely come into being. Bahia, the first real center of Portuguese colonization, was still the haunt of Indians, and Rio de Janeiro itself had not yet even been discovered.

It was only on a narrow strip of the right shoulder of the continent, therefore, that active colonizing was pro

ceeding. Elsewhere the red-skinned South American Indian was still permitted to attend to his own affairs himself and had not yet been forced into the fatally hard labor of the mines, which sent so many millions of these unfortunate folk to their death.

It is true that the pity which cannot fail to be meted out for the sufferings of these long-dead Indians is in some instances apt to be tempered by a closer acquaintance with some branches of the modern race. After reading "Richard Spruce," for instance, the inclination is to bestow an extra amount of commiseration on the aboriginal female and a lesser amount on the male. That botanist's opinion of the average Indian of the forests with whom he was brought into contact was that:

"He is naturally apathetic and dislikes exertion; but he makes his wife work like a slave. On the Rio Negro I have seen the poor women grating mandiocca by moonlight until midnight; and they must be stirring before daybreak to give their husband his morning drink; while he, extended in his hammock, is warming his nether extremities near a fire which must not be allowed to go out. When I had seen this, I felt no pity for the Indian when the white man took him by force to row his boats and do other work for him."

But this comment affords no excuse for the methods adopted by the conquistadores.

Those who endeavor to follow the workings of fate and of a poetic justice, which is only too rare on this earth, may derive an instance from the retribution which overtook the Spaniards in their inhuman policy toward the aboriginal tribes. So stupendous was the wastage of native life that the Indian's best friend, Bishop Las Casas, saw no other remedy but the homeopathic measure of the introduction of the Negro slave-in order that the sturdy African should bear part of the other's burden, and that, instead of the extinction of the one race, the two should continue to live and to labor side by side.

The remedy served well enough to tide over the crisis: but it was in this remedy that lay the seeds of incalculable loss and tribulation to the Spaniards of the succeeding generations. For it was this transport of the Negro slave from West Africa to South America that brought upon the scene such men as Sir John Hawkins and his bold sea-dogs. And when the Spaniards, resenting the growing familiarity of these sailors with their tropical coasts, turned upon them to chase them away, they frequently enough found the proof that they had caught a tartar in the torn planks of their sinking galleons and the smoke and flames of their burning coast towns.

So the early English navigators-although they had no intention of posing for the part-of which, indeed, they were profoundly unconscious-served as very efficient avenging spirits of the countless slaughtered Indians. At the same time it must be candidly supposed that this retribution would never have been brought about had not the Spaniards begun their long, incessant, and hopeless struggle to retain as their close and private property the territories of a continent and a half!

It is clear enough now that no empire, however majestic, could build a fence strong enough to shut off so large a part of the world from the rest of the earth's inhabitants. But Spain made a conscientious and costly endeavor to achieve the impossible, and it was in the course of frustrating this attempt that the admirable group of Elizabeth's English sailors learned much of their seamanship!

CHAPTER II

THE FIRST ENGLISH MARINERS TO SAIL THE SPANISH MAIN

William Hawkins not the first Englishman to sail South American seas— Sir Thomas Pert-Thomas Tison-William Hawkins' voyage to the Brazilian coast-Marine superstitions of the period-William Hawkins' intercourse with the Brazilian Indians-One of these latter is taken to England to be shown to King Henry VIII-Notwithstanding the Indian's death, the English hostage is released by the Brazilians on William Hawkins' return to Brazil-Other early voyagers-Robert Reniger-Thomas Borey-Thomas Pudsey-Sir John Hawkins-Spanish attitude toward foreign seamen-Pope Alexander VI's division of the earth-Establishment of the Inquisition in Lima-John Hawkins carries slaves from West Africa to Spanish America-Respectability of the sixteenth-century slave trade-General theories concerning the Negro-John Hawkins' financial supporters-Reception of his squadron in Hispaniola and on the mainland—A profitable expedition-John Hawkins' second voyage-Episodes in West Africa-Trade complications in Spanish America-The ways of imperial officialdom -On his next voyage John Hawkins is accompanied by DrakeDrake's youth-How his early days were spent-Hawkins' squadron off West Africa-Fruitless treaty with a Negro potentate Increasing official difficulties concerning the disposal of slaves in Spanish America―John Hawkins storms Rio de la Hacha-His squadron treacherously attacked in the harbor of San Juan de Ulloa-Losses of the English after a desperate defense-Escape of John Hawkins in the Minion, and of Drake in the Judith-Privations endured on the homeward voyage-Drake's voyage in the Pacha-El Draque avenges San Juan de Ulloa-Depredations on the Spanish MainThe Pacific sighted-Captain John Oxenham penetrates to these forbidden waters-His achievements there Some of his men betrayed by floating feathers-Capture and execution of his company-Drake, Queen Elizabeth, and King Philip of Spain-Circumnavigation of the world-His squadron, men, and sentiments-Some episodes of the voyage-Paraphernalia of a progress of state-Feats of compressionDrake loses his cap to a Southern Indian-The tragedy of San Julian -Execution of Captain Doughty-The Golden Hind sails alone into the Pacific Ocean-The rich reward of his daring-The toll of the South Sea-Lady Elliott Drake and Miss Zelia Nuttall on Sir Francis Drake-A notable map-Episodes on the Pacific coast-Effect on the morale of the Spaniards-Drake's last voyage-In the course of a

less successful expedition-Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake die within a short period of each other-Andrew Barker's voyageMutinous spirit of the officers and crew-Punishment dealt out to the survivors of an unfortunate expedition-Richard Hawkins' voyage to the Spanish Main in 1593-His theories concerning the nomenclature of ships-His prolonged fight against an overwhelmingly superior Spanish fleet, commanded by Don Beltran de Castro-His impressions and observations-Chivalry displayed by the Spaniards— Some notable booty.

HAT fine old sailor, William Hawkins, has some just-if comparatively vicarious!-demands on posterity, for the reason that he was the father of Sir John Hawkins. But, beyond this, he has more varied claims to celebrity. He was the first Englishman who ever let fly the sails of his own ship to belly out before the trade winds, and to bear his staggering vessel on a successful voyage down the latitudes, leaving the Spanish Main to the north, as far as the coast of Brazil.

It must not be gathered from this that William Hawkins was the first Englishman to sail the South American seas. As early as 1516 a certain Sir Thomas Pert, in company with Sebastian Cabot, is said to have penetrated to these waters, and to have made a half-hearted attempt at a landing at the island of Hispaniola. But, according to Hakluyt, it appears that Sir Thomas Pert was one "whose faint heart was the cause that the voyage tooke none effect; if, I say, such manly courage, whereof wee have spoken, had not at that time beene wanting, it might happily have come to passe, that that rich treasurie called Perularia, (which is nowe in Spaine in the Citie of Sivill, and so named, for that in it is kept the infinite riches brought thither from the newfoundland of Peru) might long since have beene in the tower of London, to the kings great honour and wealth of this realme."

Nor was William Hawkins the first Englishman to set his foot on South American-or West Indian-soil. It is known that in 1526 there was resident somewhere in