Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/222

H forced with hunger, desired to be set a land; whereunto,’ says Hawkyns, ‘I concluded’ (, p. 79). A hundred of them were therefore landed in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico; and having taken on board some water, the Minion with the others and ‘the little remains of victuals’ put to sea on 16 Oct. As she ran into colder weather ‘our men, being oppressed with famine, died continually; and they that were left grew into such weakness that we were scantly able to manœuvre our ship; and the wind being always ill for us to recover England, determined to go with Galicia in Spain’ (ib. p. 80). On the last day of December they arrived at Ponte Vedra, near Vigo. There the men ‘with excess of fresh meat … died, a great part of them;’ but Hawkyns, getting the Minion round to Vigo, was assisted by some English ships lying there, entered some fresh hands, and sailed on 20 Jan. 1568–9. On the 25th he anchored in Mount's Bay; Drake, in the Judith, had arrived with the news five days earlier.

Hawkyns's first idea was to fit out another expedition to the Spanish main, to release his comrades left behind at San Juan de Lua and in the Gulf of Mexico, and to avenge his own losses. But his reputation was under a cloud; the adventurers had lost their money; the queen had lost her ship; and neither were prepared to send him out again, at any rate until his conduct had been strictly inquired into. Cecil, too, looked with no friendly eye on the trade in negroes, or the semi-piratical adventure of which Hawkyns was accused; and Elizabeth realised that Spain would not always be tolerant of her connivance at this illegal traffic. Hawkyns was forbidden to go on his proposed voyage or to attempt the release of his friends by force. He was compelled, therefore, to search for other means.

The Spaniards, enraged at the stoppage of the Genoese ducats on their way to the Duke of Alva, were at this time meditating an invasion of England; they believed that a great many English were disaffected to the queen's government, and were anxious to find out what support they might expect from the malcontents. At least as early as August 1570, and probably some months earlier, Hawkyns made overtures to Don Gueran de Espes, the Spanish ambassador, spoke bitterly of the ingratitude of the government, and asked Gueran to interest himself in obtaining the release of the prisoners. Gueran suggested to the Spanish government that it might be worth their while to win this man to their side by acceding to his request. The suggestion met with no response; but Hawkyns, still hoping to gain his end, led Don Gueran to believe that he was willing to enter the Spanish service, and to carry over with him the best of the queen's ships and of the English sailors. Finding that his negotiations did not advance, he despatched George Fitzwilliam, who had been with him in his second voyage (ib. p. 64), into Spain, to communicate directly with the king. Fitzwilliam was authorised to say that Hawkyns was a faithful son of the church, that he was looking forward to the time when the queen should be overthrown, that he was ready to pass over to the king's service, bringing with him the English fleet; the men would follow where he led; the king need only pay their usual wages, and advance the money necessary for the equipment of the ships; for himself he desired nothing beyond the release of a few prisoners at Seville who were not worth the cost of keeping (, ix. 510–11). Philip, at first incredulous, began at last to entertain Hawkyns's offers. He desired Fitzwilliam, as a proof of his sincerity, to bring him a letter from the Queen of Scots, explaining what she wanted done. With the connivance of Burghley, with whom Hawkyns was in communication all along, Fitzwilliam had an interview with Mary, and received the requisite papers, which enabled Burghley to track out the Ridolfi plot. Philip's suspicion was disarmed. He liberated the prisoners at Seville, and gave them ten dollars each that they might not arrive in England penniless; he sent Hawkyns 40,000l. for the equipment of the promised ships, together with a patent constituting him a grandee of Spain. The whole intrigue was dirty enough; and though Hawkyns entered into it primarily to recover the liberty of his imprisoned shipmates, and secondarily, to further Burghley's political ends, he was also keenly sensible of the value of the 40,000l., which he regarded as part compensation for his losses (ib. ix. 509–520). While this negotiation was going on, Hawkyns seems to have been engaged in another with an exactly opposite purpose. On 25 May 1571 Walsyngham, then ambassador at Paris, wrote to Burghley that he was desired by Count Louis of Nassau to move the queen ‘to license Hawkyns underhand to serve him with certain ships,’ and this was repeated in almost the same terms on 12 Aug. (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–71, Nos. 1729, 1920;, Compleat Ambassador, pp. 103, 126). There can be little doubt that Count Louis had a previous understanding with Hawkyns; but it does not appear that the queen gave the requisite license, or that Hawkyns engaged in this service.

It was about this time that Hawkyns received an augmentation to the arms already granted in 1565—on a canton or, an escallop