Kitabı oku: «Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1», sayfa 19
CHAPTER XVII.
ENGLISH NAVIGATORS IN SOUTH AMERICA, HAWKINS, DRAKE, AND RALEIGH
1564-1618
We are all familiar with the names of certain English navigators with reference to Spanish South America; but it is somewhat difficult to introduce a notice of their deeds at the precise date when they occurred, without interrupting the course of the general narrative. Neither do their actions belong especially to any ocean or country. They appeared sometimes on the Atlantic and at others on the Pacific; sometimes on the Isthmus of Darien, at others on the coast of Peru. They plundered the enemy wherever they found him vulnerable, and treated the inhabitants of one side of the continent and of the other with perfect impartiality. I have therefore thought it better to gather together in one chapter some short records of the deeds of certain amongst the most famous of these free-lances of the ocean.
Foremost amongst the English navigators to Spanish American waters comes the redoubtable Hawkins. That he was an admirable seaman and a most courageous man, no one will question. He was likewise as patriotic as it was possible for man to be, and was most considerate and fair towards those under his command, by whom he seems to have been respected and beloved. But it may help to form a more correct opinion of the age in which he lived, and may serve somewhat to modify our judgment respecting the Spaniards and Portuguese of the sixteenth century in the matter of slavery, if we remember that Sir John Hawkins, of whom most Englishmen are to a certain extent proud, was, in plain terms, an atrocious slave-dealer. This article was, in fact, the staple commodity in which he trafficked, and he pursued his course to the coast of Africa, there to capture his cargo of negroes, with not a whit more concern for them or their rights than would have been displayed by Rob Roy or by Roderick Dhu for the cattle which they carried off from the Lowlands. It may be well also to bear in mind that his course of life was well known to Queen Elizabeth and Her Ministers, and that Her Majesty, in token of Her approval of his proceedings, placed at his disposal one of Her vessels, the “Jesus” of Lubeck, of 700 tons.
As this work is not intended to throw light on the African slave-trade further than in as far as it concerns South America, it is not necessary to follow Sir John throughout all his nefarious proceedings on the coast of Africa. But one of his voyages, in the course of which he proceeded with his usual cargo, in the year 1564, to Cape de la Vala, has for us unusual interest, inasmuch as in the course of its narrative we find the first mention, among English writers, of the potato. It is well known that Raleigh and certain of his companions, at a much later date, brought home with them that root from Virginia. It is the case likewise, that, some time before this voyage of Raleigh, Drake had introduced the same plant to these islands; but that our first acquaintance with the potato is due to Hawkins and his expedition of the above-mentioned year will appear from the following extract:—
“Here perceiving no trafficke to be had with them, nor yet water for the refreshing of our men, we were driven to depart the twentieth day, and the 2 and twentieth we came to a place in the maine called Cumana, whither the captaine going in his pinnisse, spake with certaine Spaniards of whom he demanded trafficke, but they made him answere, they were but souldiers newely come thither, and were not able to by on negro; whereupon hee asked for a watring place, and they pointed him a place two leagues off, called Santa Fè, where we found marvellous goodly watring, and commodious for the taking in thereof; for that the fresh water came into the sea, and so our shippes had aboord the shore twentie fathome water. Neere about this place inhabited certaine Indians, who the next day after we came thither came down to us, presenting mill and cakes of breade, which they had made of a kinde of corne called maiz, in bignesse of a pease, the eare whereof is much like to a teasell, but a spanne in length having thereon a number of granes. Also they brought down to us Hennes, Potatoes and Pines, which we bought for beades, pewter whistles, glasses, knives and other trifles. These potatoes be the most delicate rootes that may be eaten, and doe farre exceed our passeneps or carets.”19
Hawkins and his men kept on their course along the coast, and came on the 3rd of April to a place called Burboroata, where the ships came to anchor, and he himself went on shore to speak to the Spaniards, to whom he declared his nationality, and that he came thither for lawful trade, for which he required permission. They made answer that they were forbidden by their king to traffic with any foreign nation, upon pain of forfeiting their goods; they therefore desired him to depart, for they were subjects, and might not go beyond the law. Hawkins, however, who was an impersonation of the Civis Romanus sum, was above the law. He replied that his necessity was such as he might not so do; for being in one of the Queen’s armadas of England, and having many soldiers in them, he had need both of some refreshing for them, and of victuals, and of money also, without which he could not depart. With much other talk he persuaded them not to fear any dishonest part of his towards them; for neither would he commit any such thing to the dishonour of his prince, nor yet for dishonest reputation and estimation, unless he were too rigorously dealt withal, which he hoped not to find at their hands.
The Spaniards made answer that it lay not in them to give any licence, for that they had a governor to whom the government of these parts was committed; but if Hawkins would stay ten days longer they would send to their governor, who was three score leagues off, and would return answer within the appointed time.
Meanwhile Hawkins was permitted to bring his ships into harbour and to receive the victuals he required. On the fourth day he went in and received according to promise all things requisite; whereupon the shrewd captain thought to himself that to remain according to his promise for the stipulated ten days, spending victuals and men’s wages, would be a mere act of folly. He therefore requested permission to sell certain lean and sick negroes which he had in his ships, like to die upon his hands if he kept them ten days. He was forced to make this request, because he had not otherwise wherewith to pay for victuals and for necessaries. This request being put in writing and presented, the officers and town-dwellers assembled together; and, finding his request so reasonable, granted him licence for thirty negroes, which afterwards they caused the officers to view, to the intent they should accede to nothing but what was reasonable, for fear of afterwards being called to answer therefor.
But the Spaniards were as much on their guard as was Hawkins, and he found but little demand for his negro wares, since the authorities had decided that none but the poor should be permitted to bid for them. It was a question of bargaining, and Hawkins made pretence of being about to depart, carrying his goods elsewhere. He answered that he not only required permission to sell, but likewise his fair profit; and he thought it due to his character to show by his papers what he had paid for his negroes, and likewise what all the charges of the trade he was engaged in had cost him. As they did not wish for his departure they encouraged him to remain, by telling him that he would get a better price there than anywhere else. He therefore consented to remain, in order that he might dispose of his lean negroes. He disposed of a few next day, but could do nothing more until the arrival of the governor a fortnight later.
Hawkins addressed to the governor a petition asking to be allowed to sell his negroes, which permission was granted him. But perceiving that the Spaniards would neither consent to pay anything like the price he demanded, nor consent to relinquish the king’s custom duty of thirty ducats on each slave, he determined to take more decisive measures. Accordingly on the 16th of April he prepared one hundred men well armed, with whom he marched against the town. On this demonstration, the governor not unnaturally sent messengers to inquire what it meant, and requiring him to halt until he should have received his answer. The captain, declaring how unreasonable a thing the king’s custom was, requested to have the same abated, offering to pay seven and a half per cent. The governor replied that his demand should be granted. Hostages being given, the invaders then departed to their ships, and carried on their traffic for twelve days without disturbance, when Hawkins again made a show of departing, in order to obtain higher prices.
On the 4th of May he actually departed, and on the 6th reached the island of Curaçao, where the ships found great refreshment in beef, mutton, and lambs, which were in such plenty that they were given gratis. The cattle in this island is reported to have increased in such prodigious ratio that of a dozen of each sort originally imported there were to be found in twenty-five years a hundred thousand at least. Fifteen hundred were yearly killed, for the sake only of their skins and tongues.
On the fifteenth of the month they left Curaçao, and on the seventeenth anchored near Cape de la Vela, and next proceeded to the Rio de la Hacha, where Hawkins had again recourse to threats before being permitted to traffic. As they would not accede to his price, however, he shot off a calverin to summon the town, and preparing one hundred men in armour, went on shore, having in his great boat two falcons of brass, the other boats being likewise armed. The townsmen turned out to resist the invasion; but although they were superior in numbers, they soon gave way and sent a flag of truce. A colloquy now occurred between Hawkins and the treasurer, with the result that the former obtained all his requests, receiving hostages for their fulfilment. After some further passages of distrust, the English departed in a friendly manner, their captain receiving at the treasurer’s hands a testimonial of his good behaviour. Hawkins then proceeded to Jamaica, and thence by Cuba and Florida for England.
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The first acquaintance of Drake with Spanish America was made in the course of a voyage to the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea in the years 1565 and 1566. But the voyage which caused his name first to be placed on record was that in which he accompanied Hawkins in the year 1567. The expedition consisted of six ships, one of them being lent by Queen Elizabeth in token of her approbation of the objects of the voyage. The “Jesus” of Lubeck, a vessel of 700 tons, bore the flag of Hawkins. Two other vessels were commanded respectively by Hampton and by Bolton; whilst the “Judith” was commanded by Captain Francis Drake, he being then a young man of about twenty-seven. There were in addition two very small vessels, the “Angel” and the “Swallow.”
1567.
Sailing from Plymouth on the 2nd of October 1567, they reached the Cape de Verde islands, after having encountered a terrible storm. Here the admiral landed a hundred and fifty of his men, with the object of procuring a supply of negroes; but in this quest these worthies were disappointed, since they obtained but few, and these with much hurt and damage, for they had to stand a flight of poisoned arrows. Their wounds appeared in the beginning “but small hurts,20 yet there hardly escaped any that had blood drawn of them, but died in strange sort, with their mouthes shutte some tenne dayes before they died, and after their wounds were whole; when I myself,” says Hawkins, “had one of the greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped.” These men, it appears died of lockjaw; and considering the cause in which they received their wounds, few will be inclined to pity their fate.
At St. Jorge da Mina a negro king came to ask the assistance of Hawkins against a neighbouring king, promising him all the negroes that should be taken. An offer so tempting was not to be rejected, and one hundred and fifty men were selected and sent to assist this black tyrant. They assaulted a town containing some eight thousand inhabitants, strongly paled round, and fenced after their manner, and so well defended that in the assault Hawkins’s people had six slain and forty wounded. More help was called for; “whereupon,” says Hawkins, “considering that the good success of this enterprise might highly further the commodity of our voyage, I went myself; and with the help of the king of our side, assaulted the town both by land and sea; and very hardly with fire (their houses being covered with palm leaves) obtained the town and put the inhabitants to flight; where we took two hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children; and by our friend the king on our side, there were taken six hundred prisoners, whereof we hoped to have our choice; but the negro (in which nation is never or seldom found truth) meant nothing less; for that night he removed his camp and prisoners, so that we were fain to content us with those few that we had gotten ourselves.”21
On the coast of Guinea they had succeeded in procuring about two hundred more slaves, with which cargo they departed for the West Indies, there to dispose of them to the Spaniards. On the 27th of March they came into sight of Dominica, and coasted Marguerita and Cape de la Vela, carrying on meanwhile, without obstruction, “a tolerable good trade,”—that is to say, parting with their negroes for good terms. At Rio de la Hacha, all dealings with the inhabitants being prohibited, the worthy and law-abiding Hawkins was affronted by what he considered an infraction of the treaty between Henry VIII. and Charles V. He determined to chastise the authors of this illegal proceeding, and accordingly attacked the place. Having landed two hundred men, the town was taken by storm, with the loss of only two, the Spaniards having fled after the first volley. After this adventure, trade was connived at, if not permitted. The Spaniards bought two hundred negroes; “and at all other places where we traded the inhabitants were glad of us and traded willingly.”22
In proceeding towards Cartagena they were caught in a terrible storm, which so shattered the “Jesus,” that, her rudder being broken, she sprang a leak, and being driven into the bay of Mexico, entered the port of San Juan d’Ulloa. The disaster which befell Hawkins and his consorts at this place need not here be recorded, since they do not appertain to South American history.
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1572.
On the 24th of May, 1572, Captain Drake sailed from Plymouth in the “Pascha,” of seventy tons, accompanied by his brother John Drake in the “Swanne,” of twenty-five tons, having in all seventy-three men and boys, of whom the oldest man was fifty, all the rest being under thirty. All were volunteers, and the vessels were fitted out as men-of-war. Their destination was Nombre de Dios. On the 2nd of July they sighted Santa Martha, and landed at Port Pheasant, where they found a plate of lead, on which John Garret, an English seaman who had been left here, warned Drake to make haste away, as the place had been betrayed. Drake, however, thought this a convenient spot on which to build his pinnaces, which he had brought with him in frames from England, and which were now completed in seven days.
On the following day he was joined by an English barque of the Isle of Wight, which brought in a captured Spanish caravel. The English captain, Rowse, understanding Drake’s purpose of attacking Nombre de Dios, agreed to act in concert with him. Leaving the three ships and the caravel in charge of Rowse, Drake, taking with him fifty-three men, proceeded in four pinnaces and a shallop to the Isles of Pinos, which he reached on the 22nd of July, and where he made an alliance with some runaway Indians who had fled from their Spanish masters and were called Symerons. Proceeding silently by night, he came before Nombre de Dios, where he landed without opposition. He and his men boldly attacked the place, but in the course of a desperate struggle which occurred on the town being alarmed, Drake was dangerously wounded, and had to be conveyed on board ship.
It gives a very strange idea of the state of things then existing between England and Spain when we read that immediately after this unprovoked attack by Drake on Nombre de Dios, that captain was visited by a Hidalgo, who protested that the object of his coming was to see and admire one who had shown such courage. No doubt this gentleman had other objects in view; but it is somewhat remarkable that he should have trusted his person in a pirate’s den; for it must be remembered that, as England was not then at war with Spain, Drake can only be described as a buccaneer. This Hidalgo was, however, very courteously received, and departed protesting that he had never been honoured so much in his life.
The pinnaces now returned to the Isle of Pinos, where Drake parted company with Captain Rowse. He next despatched his brother to examine the river Chagre, and on his return he departed for Cartagena, where he took two Spanish ships. His next enterprise was against a great ship of Seville, which he obtained possession of by fighting. The town being alarmed, Drake determined to burn one of his ships, in order that he might have the means of manning his pinnaces. He then proceeded to the Sound of Darien, where they cleared a space of ground to build houses. Drake then went with his brother, with two pinnaces, to the Rio Grande, passing out of sight of Cartagena, between which place and Tolon they took six frigates laden with provisions. Three days later they arrived at Pinos. On the third of November Drake fell in with a Spanish ship, which he captured.
But now Drake’s company were visited by heavy sickness, which was attributed to the cold which the men suffered from whilst in the pinnaces. On returning to the ships on the 27th of November, they learned of the death of John Drake and of Richard Allen, who were slain whilst attempting to board a frigate. On the 3rd of January six of the company fell sick and died within two or three days, whilst as many as thirty were stricken down with fever. Joseph Drake, another of the captain’s brothers, died, and likewise the surgeon.
Drake now determined to proceed by land to Panamá, having by the 3rd of February lost twenty-eight of his men. He took with him forty-eight, eighteen being English and the rest Symerons, and in a few days reached Venta Cruz. The chief of these people dwelt sixteen leagues south-east of Panamá, and Drake now thought that he might with advantage waylay a party carrying treasure across the isthmus. But, owing to the awkwardness of one of his people, he and they were discovered. He nevertheless attacked the party, and pursued them as far as Venta Cruz.
On his journey thither Drake was informed of a certain tree, from the top of which he might discern a branch of the Atlantic Ocean on the one hand and of the Pacific on the other. One of the Symerons desired him to ascend “that goodlie and great high tree,” in the trunk of which notches were cut in order to facilitate the ascent. From the top of this tree, the English mariner, viewing the distant Pacific, solemnly besought God to give him life and leave once to sail an English ship in those seas.
Returning to Venta Cruz, which he took and rifled, he intercepted a convoy of fifty mules, bearing a large quantity of silver, of which he appropriated what he could carry. With some difficulty he rejoined his pinnaces, when he resolved to return to England. He reached Plymouth on Sunday the 9th of August 1573, whilst divine service was being conducted. The church was forthwith deserted, all rushing out to welcome the gallant captain, who had been absent one year and two months.
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1575.
In the course of the five years during which Drake reposed upon his laurels, before undertaking his voyage round the world, John Oxenham, who had been one of his companions in his late expedition, set out in a vessel of one hundred and forty tons’ burden, with twenty seamen, for the Isthmus of Darien. Having learnt at Porto Bello that a convoy of muleteers was expected from Panamá, he marched to meet them, proceeding over the mountains to a small river which falls into the Southern Sea. Building a pinnace, he then dropped down into the Bay of Panamá and proceeded to the Pearl Islands, where he took possession of a small barque from the port of Quito (probably Guayaquil), in which he found sixty pounds’ weight of gold. Six days later he was still further enriched by the plunder of a barque from Lima, bearing a hundred pounds’ weight of silver in bars.
Unfortunately for the daring Oxenham, he was not contented with silver and gold, but delayed on the island for fifteen days in search of pearls. During this time, as he might have foreseen, intelligence of his presence reached the Spaniards; and Captain Ortega was despatched with four barques in search of him. The Spaniard learned that Oxenham had gone up the river, and astutely traced his course by the quantity of fowls’ feathers floating down the stream. After four days’ pursuit, Oxenham’s pinnace was descried; but the Englishmen, all save six, had left her, taking the treasure with them. The treasure, however, was soon afterwards discovered, and with this Ortega was about to depart, when Oxenham came down upon him with about two hundred Symerons. The Spaniards, who were eighty in number, had the better of the fight, killing eleven of the English, together with some Indians, with very slight loss on their own side.
Oxenham now endeavoured to make the best of his way to his ship; but information of its presence had been sent to Nombre de Dios, and his vessel had been carried a prize to that port. Meanwhile a party of a hundred and fifty men were scouring the mountains in search of the English. On their being found, some were made prisoners and others fled; but in the end all were conveyed to Panamá, where the fearless rover, not being able to produce any power or commission from the Queen, was sentenced, as were his companions, to suffer the death of a pirate. All of the party were then executed, with the exception of Oxenham, his master, his pilot, and five boys, who were sent to Lima. There the boys were pardoned, but the three men suffered the fate to which they had been condemned.
1577.
To return to Drake: that famous captain set out from Plymouth in a squadron, manned by one hundred and sixty-three seamen, on the 13th of September 1577, and sailed to the coast of Barbary for refreshments. He commenced his depredations by seizing three Spanish fishing-boats; he likewise captured three caravels. From Cape Blanco he proceeded to the Cape de Verdes, and thence stood for the Island of St. Iago, where he captured a Portuguese ship. Near the equator his vessels were becalmed for three weeks, and for fifty-five days Drake saw no land before arriving on the coast of Brazil.
The expedition touched in the river Plate, but merely remained a short time, when it proceeded to the southward, and anchored in a bay in forty-seven degrees S. latitude. Two of his ships were now missing, but one of them was here found by a vessel sent in search of them. In these parts our countrymen first became acquainted with the race who derive the name by which they are known to us from the height of Pentagones, or five cubits, equal to seven and a half feet, with which Magellan credited them. Mr. Fletcher, who accompanied Drake, states that these people were of large stature, but he does not ascribe to them gigantic proportions. At a later period, Commodore Byron described one of these Patagonians as a frightful colossus of not less than seven feet. He was no doubt an exception. They are in fact a tall race, but not more so than well-grown Englishmen. Writing only the other day, Lady Florence Dixie states that a tall Patagonian was of precisely the same height as her husband, namely, six feet two inches, and there is no reason to suppose that the race has physically degenerated since Magellan’s time.
1578.
On the 20th of June Drake’s whole force anchored in Fort St. Julian, where two of his men were shot by the natives. One of the objects which attracted attention was a gibbet which had been set up by Magellan seventy years before. At this place Mr. John Doughty was put on his trial for conspiring to raise a mutiny in the fleet, and, being found guilty by a jury, was condemned to be beheaded. The fleet was now reduced to the “Pelican,” which name was soon changed to the “Golden Hind,” the “Elizabeth,” and the “Marigold,” with which on the 20th of August Drake arrived at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. On one side he observed an island “burning aloft in the air in a wonderful sort without intermission.”
On the 6th of September, having passed the strait, Drake entered the Pacific, which term must have seemed to him rather a misnomer, since he found it rough and turbulent above measure, a tempest carrying his ships a hundred leagues to the westward and separating them. It may be observed that this was the second occasion on which the Straits of Magellan had been passed. Near the western outlet, Drake landed on an island which he named after Queen Elizabeth.
It was now the mariner’s intention to proceed northwards into a warm climate; but a terrific tempest carried the ships southward of Cape Horn, thus giving to Drake the distinction of being the first European to view the union of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Cape Horn had, it is said, been sighted by the Spanish Commodore Lope de Loyaya in 1525, and was doubled by Le Maire and Schouten in 1646, the latter bestowing upon it the name of Hoorn, his native place in Holland.23 On endeavouring to regain their way northwards, the “Marigold” was lost with all hands, whilst the “Golden Hind” and the “Elizabeth” were separated, the latter vessel, on re-entering the strait, giving up the voyage “by Captain Winter’s compulsion, full sore against the mariners’ minds.”
Drake’s ship being now left alone with the little pinnace, was again driven back into the latitude of 55° south, in which the captain anchored among some islands. After two days, however, they were driven from their anchorage, when the pinnace lost sight of the ship. By good fortune the former re-entered the Straits of Magellan, and her crew of eight men proceeded to Port St. Julian, and thence to the Plata. Of the eight men, four were captured by Indians, two wounded men died, and the remaining two stayed on a small island for two months, subsisting on crabs, eels, and fruit, but without water. They at length succeeded in reaching the mainland, when one of the two survivors died from the effects of drinking too much of the stream.24
Meanwhile Drake, in the “Golden Hind,” proceeded towards the north-west. He fell in with two islands, where he laid in a supply of fowls, and then continued his course to the island of Macho, inhabited by Indians, by whom some of his men were attacked and slain. Drake himself was hit in the face by an arrow, and he likewise received another wound in the head. On the 13th of November he captured an Indian in a bay called St. Philip, whom he treated with kindness, and dismissed to rejoin his countrymen, who brought fowls, eggs, and a hog to the boat. An Indian chief now joined Drake’s vessel, and conducted it to Valparaiso, where he met with such stores as he needed, and parted with his Indian pilot.
On the 19th of December the “Golden Hind” entered a bay near a town called Cyppo, where three hundred Spaniards and Indians came down to the shore, one of Drake’s men being slain. The navigator now proceeded to the north, where a pinnace was set up in a convenient spot, in order that search might be made in the creeks for intelligence of the missing ships.
The next place landed at was Tarapaca, in about 20° S. latitude, where a Spaniard was found asleep, with a bundle of thirteen silver bars at his side, valued at four thousand ducats. The sleeper himself remained uninjured otherwise than by his loss. In another place eight llamas were taken, laden with one hundred pounds’ weight of silver. Still further on Drake reached a town where the Spaniards agreed to traffic with him. On the 7th of February he arrived before Arica, where he took some barques carrying much silver. On the 15th he reached Callao, the port of Lima, which harbour he entered without resistance, although thirty vessels were gathered within it. Of these he plundered seventeen, which were laden. The vessels had no one on board, as the visit of an enemy was the last event which was expected. In one of these ships alone were found fifteen hundred bars of silver, whilst another contained a large chest of coined money.
Drake took the precaution of cutting the cables of these vessels before he set out in pursuit of a ship laden with gold and silver, which had on the eve of his arrival departed for Panamá. As he was on his way he fell in with a brigantine, from which he helped himself to eighty pounds’ weight of gold, together with other treasures. At length he came in sight of the “Cacafuego,” about one hundred and fifty leagues from Panamá, when she was boarded and easily captured. From her Drake obtained pearls and precious stones, together with eighty pounds’ weight of gold and thirteen chests of silver. It was estimated that the “Golden Hind” now carried a treasure of ninety thousand pounds. The “Cacafuego” was permitted to go on her way, Drake’s object being plunder and not wanton destruction.
He had good reason to avoid Panamá, so he stood to the westward, where he fell in with another ship, the pilot of which he retained for his own service. It is not within the plan of this work to follow the adventurous navigator to North America or on his further course over the globe, on completing which he reached Plymouth on the 26th of September 1580, having been absent two years, ten months, and some odd days, during which time he had, in the expressive language of an old writer, “ploughed up a furrow round the world.” It may be permitted, however, to mention one or two points, as throwing light upon the very singular history of the relations between Spain and England at that period, and as therefore illustrating the position in which the Spanish possessions in South America were placed.
