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 faith, which compromised his honour, but many years passed away. At length a more powerful man, the Count of Miranda, took up the case. He declared that all future agreement would be impossible if faith in Spanish honour were destroyed. After eight long years of imprisonment Richard Hawkyns was released. He was knighted by James I. and made Vice-Admiral of Devon; and he died in 1622, when about to sail as vice-admiral of a fleet for the punishment of Algerine pirates.

The 'Observations of Sir Richard Hawkyns' were published in 1622, and reprinted by the Hakluyt Society in 1847 and 1878. They are a perfect storehouse of valuable naval information of all kinds, every incident of the voyage leading the writer into reminiscences of former experiences, or into dissertations on subjects having reference to navigation, seamanship, gunnery, or naval discipline. Richard Hawkyns was the ideal of an ardent explorer and of a brave and thoroughly efficient naval officer. If fortune had favoured, he would have made a great name. He has only left us a most charming book; and Englishmen read it with feelings of pride that the author was their countryman, and with warm regret and sympathy for his misfortunes.

The three Elizabethan voyages into the South Sea did not lead directly to commercial intercourse, because the Spanish monopoly was uncompromising, and the undertaking was too difficult and perilous. But in other directions the first voyages of discovery were the forerunners of an active and prosperous trade to the Mediterranean, to the coast of Guinea, to Russia, and to Newfoundland, while the fearless English seamen continued to frequent the West Indies. In 1581 a charter was granted to the Turkey Company, and consuls were appointed in the Levant; and in 1588 the first Guinea Company received its charter, with the privilege of exclusive trade to the Senegal and the Gambia.

But the oldest and most continuous traffic was that connected with the fishery on the banks of Newfoundland. According to Mr. Anthony Parkhurst, who reported on "the true state and commodities of Newfoundland" in 1578, there were from thirty to fifty sail frequenting the banks from the west of England, one hundred from Spain for cod, and thirty Basque vessels for whales, fifty Portuguese, and one hundred and fifty Breton vessels of about 40 tons.

On the 11th of June, 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert received