Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/23

Rh England, about 1532, entered the naval service in 1551, and went on various voyages into Spain, Portugal and the Canaries; he invented the chain pump for ships, 1558-59, following in the track of his father he visited Guinea in 1562, and sailed to the West Indies with a cargo of 300 negroes, whom he sold to the Spaniards residing there. He returned to England with a rich cargo of ginger, hides and pearls. In 1564 Hawkins repeated the experiment with greater success, and on his way home stopped in Florida and relieved the struggling colony of Huguenots planted there by Admiral Coligny and barbarously destroyed by the Spaniards soon after Hawkins' departure. The Queen rewarded him with a crest, consisting of "a demi moor in his proper colors, his hands behind him bound with a cord." In 1567 Hawkins went on a third expedition from Africa to the West Indies, but was attacked by the Spanish fleet in the harbor of San Juan de Ulloa, and most of his ships and men were destroyed; two ships escaped, commanded respectively by Hawkins and Drake. Pretending to be a traitor, he was made a grandee of Spain and he received large sums of money from Philip II., and in 1572 equipped a fleet and sailed to the Azores to lie in wait for Philip's Mexican fleet; appointed treasurer of the navy in 1573: as rear-admiral he had a great part in preparing England to resist the Spaniards, and commanded the left wing of the English fleet in the great battle with the Armada in 1588. For his gallantry and efficiency at this time he was knighted by the Queen. In 1590 he had the command of a squadron, which, in conjunction with another under Sir Martin Frobisher, was sent to infest the coast of Spain. In 1595 he joined with Drake in an expedition against the Spanish West Indies, but the two commanders disagreed and he was unsuccessful in an attack on the Canaries; and at Porto Rico he fell sick and died and was buried in the sea. He sat twice in Parliament for Plymouth, and founded and endowed St. John's Hospital there for decayed mariners and shipwrights of the royal navy. He married Katherine, daughter of Benjamin Golson, and his son. Sir Richard Hawkins, an able and distinguished seaman, was member of the council for Virginia in 1607.

Frobisher, Sir Martin, son of Bernard Frobisher by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Yorke, a great seaman and discoverer, was born at Altofts, Normanton, Yorkshire, about 1535; made a voyage to Guinea and other places; served with Gilbert in Ireland; stimulated by reading Gilbert's "Discourse to Prove a Passage by the Northwest to Cathaia and the East Indies," he began his glorious voyages to the northwest coast of North America. Before Frobisher's departure on his first voyage Queen Elizabeth sent for him. commended him for his enterprise, and when he sailed July 1, 1576, she waved her hand to him from her palace window. He explored Frobisher's strait and took possession of the land called Meta Incognita in the Queen's name. The vain hope of a gold mine inspired two other voyages to the same region (1577-78). On his third voyage he discovered Hudson strait; vice-admiral in the Drake-Sidney voyage, 1585-86; served against the Armada and was knighted in 1588; commanded vessels against the Spanish commerce 1589-92; in 1594 he commanded the squadron sent to aid Henry IV. of France; wounded at the attack on Brest. November 7; died at Plymouth, and was interred in St. Giles Church, Cripple Gate. February. 1595.

Davis, John, a great navigator, born at Sandridge. England, near Dartmouth, not far