THE VOYAGERS 



him. At Rio de la Hacha Drake seized a Spanish 

 despatch-boat ; Hawkins took the town by assault, and 

 held it while he disposed of his negroes to purchasers 

 who came in secretly by night. Carthagena was bom- 

 barded ; and trade was forced on many a lesser place. 

 Thus, 'making their traffic with the Spaniards as they 

 might/ Hawkins and Drake found that the season of 

 hurricanes was near at hand. Lacking other shelter, they 

 resolved to take refuge in the chief port of Mexico, San 

 Juan de Ulloa. 



Hawkins, it is true, held that by ancient treaty and Elizabethan 

 the law of nations the English had a right to trade -^'^^ ^''^^^''^• 

 in the Spanish dominions. But the purpose of his 

 expedition had been laboriously concealed from the 

 Spanish ambassador, and it had assumed a piratical com- 

 plexion even on the coast of Africa, where several 

 Portuguese slave-ships were seized and plundered. There 

 is all the more reason, therefore, to admire the cool 

 assurance of the English captains. They sailed into 

 the harbour of San Juan de Ulloa, and anchored inside 

 the island which protected the roadstead. Over against 

 them, on the landward side, was a Spanish treasure-fleet. 

 How Hawkins would have dealt with this does not appear. 

 How Drake would have dealt with it, had he been in 

 command, is fairly certain. The question did not arise. 

 On the morning after the arrival of Hawkins there 

 appeared in the offing thirteen Spanish ships, escorting 

 Don Martin Enriquez, the new Viceroy of Mexico. 

 Hawkins had guns mounted on the island, and was 

 well able to hold the harbour. But he feared the 

 wrath of the Queen, and would not take the responsi- 

 bility of unprovoked war. So, after mutual defiances, 

 XII 49 D 



