ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SLAVE TKADE. 295 



her forecastle, **** then flying and maintaining their fires so well with their 

 small shot that many which came to quench them were slain." The fire made rapid 

 headway, and P. Frey Antonio, a Franciscan, was seen with a crucifix in his hand, 

 encouraging the poor sailors to commit themselves to the waves and to God's mercy, 

 rather than perish in the flames. A large number threw themselves overboard, clinging to 

 such things as were cast into the sea. It is said that the English boats, with one 

 honourable exception, made no efforts to save any of them; it is even stated that they 

 butchered many in the water. According to the English account there were more than 

 1,100 on board the carrack, when she left Loanda, of whom only fifteen were saved ! 

 Two ladies of high rank, mother and daughter the latter of whom was going home to 

 Spain to take possession of some entailed property when they saw there was no help to 

 be expected from the privateers, fastened themselves together with a cord, and committed 

 themselves to the waves; their bodies were afterwards cast ashore on Fayal, still united, 

 though in the bonds of death. 



The earl afterwards built the Scourge of Malice, a ship of 800 tons, and the largest 

 yet constructed by an English subject, and in 1597 obtained letters patent authorising 

 him to levy sea and land forces. Without royal assistance, he gathered eighteen sail. 

 This expedition, although it worried and impoverished the Spaniards, was not particularly 

 profitable to the earl. He took Puerto Rico, and then abandoned it, and did not, as he 

 expected, intercept either the outward-bound East Indiamen, who, indeed, were too frightened 

 to venture out of the Tagus that year, or the homeward-bound Mexican fleet. This was 

 Cumberland's last expedition, and no other subject ever undertook so many at his own cost. 



The Elizabethan age was otherwise so glorious that it is painful to have to record 

 the establishment of the slave-trade a serious blot on the reign one which no Englishman 

 of to-day would defend, but which was then looked upon as perfectly legitimate. John 

 Hawkins (afterwards Sir John) was born at Plymouth, and his father had long bean 

 a well-esteemed sea-captain, the first Englishman, it is believed, who ever traded to the 

 Brazils. The young man had gained much renown by trips to Spain, Portugal, and 

 the Canaries, and having "grown in love and favour" with the Canarians, by good and 

 upright dealing, began to think of more extended enterprises. Learning that "negroes 

 were very good merchandise in Hispaniola, and that store of them might easily be had 

 upon the coast of Guinea/' he communicated with several London ship-owners, who 

 liked his schemes, and provided him in large part with the necessary outfit. Three small 

 vessels were provided the Solomon, of 120 tons, the Swallow, of 100, and the Jonas, of 

 forty. Hawkins left England in October, 1562, and proceeding to Sierra Leone, "got 

 into his possession, partly by the sword and partly by other means, to the number of 300 

 negroes at the least, besides other merchandise which that country yieldeth." At the 

 port of Isabella, Puerto de Plata, and Monte Christo, he made sale of the slaves to the 

 Spaniards, trusting them "no farther than by his own strength he was able to master 

 them." He received in exchange, pearls, ginger, sugar, and hides enough, not merely to 

 freight his own vessels, but two other hulks, and thus " with prosperous success, and 

 much gain to himself and the aforesaid adventurers, he came home, :iud arrived in 

 September, 1503." 



