Naval officer; born in
Plymouth, England, in 1520; carried a cargo of 300 slaves from
Guinea in 1562, and sold them in
Cuba.
In 1564 he attempted to capture and enslave a whole town near
Sierra Leone, and narrowly escaped being captured himself and sold into slavery.
Hawkins was filled with the most pious reflections at his escape, and in his narrative (which is the first English narrative of American adventure printed) he says: “God, who worketh all things for the best, would not have it so, and by Him we escaped without danger.
His name be praised for it.”
His second cargo of slaves he sold in
Venezuela and elsewhere.
In this second voyage he coasted the peninsula of
Florida, and gives a fairly detailed account of it in his narrative.
He made a third
[
328]
voyage in 1568, and in spite of the
King of
Spain's prohibition, sold his cargoes of slaves to advantage.
In the
port of San Juan de Ulloa he met a Spanish fleet much stronger than his own. He made a solemn compact of mutual forbearance
 |
|
Defeat of Hawkins at San Juan De Ulloa. |
with the
Spanish commander, which he treacherously broke, and in the ensuing conflict
Hawkins was utterly defeated.
Sir Francis Drake was with him on this third voyage.
Returning to
England,
Hawkins was made a vice-admiral in the fleet which fought the
Armada in 1595.
Sir John Hawkins and
Sir Francis Drake were sent on an expedition against the
Spanish settlements in
America in 1589.
Porto Rico successfully defied him, and, much depressed at his reverses, he died at sea, Nov. 21, 1595.
