Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
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A02826
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The observations of Sir Richard Havvkins Knight, in his voiage into the South Sea. Anno Domini 1593
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Hawkins, Richard, Sir, 1562?-1622.
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1622
(1622)
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STC 12962; ESTC S119816
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156,176
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182
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THE OBSERVATIONS OF S IR RICHARD HAVVKINS KNIGHT IN HIS VOIAGE INTO THE South Sea Anno Domini 1593. Per varios Casus Artem Experientia fecit Exemplo monstrante viam Manil. li. 1. PRINCEPS SVBDITORUM INCOLVMITATEM PROCVRANS ID LONDON Printed by I.D. for IOHN IAGGARD and are to be sold at his shop at the Hand and Starre in Fleete-streete neere the Temple Gate 1622. TO THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS AND MOST EXCELLENT Prince CHARLES Prince of Wales DVKE of CORNEWALL EARLE of CHESTER c. AMongst other Neglects preiudiciall to this State I haue observed that many the worthy and Heroyque Acts of our Nation haue beene buried and forgotten The Actors themselues being desirous to shunne emulation in publishing them and those which ouerlived them fearefull to adde or to dimnish from the Actors worth Iudgement and valour haue forborne to write them By which succeeding ages haue beene deprived of the Fruits which might haue beene gathered out of their Experience had they beene committed to Record To avoyd this Neglect and for the Good of my Country I haue thought it my duty to publish the Observations of my South-sea-Voyage and for that vnto your Highnesse you Heires and Successors it is most likely to be advantagious hauing brought on me nothing but losse and misery I am bold to vse your Name a protection vnto it and to offer it with all humblenes and duty to your Highnesse approbation which if it purchase I haue attained my desire which shall ever ayme to performe dutie Your Highnesse humble and devoted servant RICHARD HAVVKINS ⧠To the Reader HAd that worthie Knight the Authour lived to haue seene this his Treatise published he would perhaps himselfe haue giuen the account thereof For by his owne directions it was put to the Presse though it pleased God to take him to his mercy during the time of the Impression His purpose was to haue recommended both it and himselfe vnto our most Excellent Prince CHARLES and himselfe wrote the Dedication which being imparted vnto me I conceited that it stood not with my dutie to suppresse it Touching the discourse it selfe as it is out of my element to iudge so it is out of my purpose to say much of it This onely I may boldly promise that you shall heere find an expert Sea man in his owne Dialect deliver a true relation of an vnfortunat Voyage which howsoever it proved lamentable and fatall to the Actors may yet proue pleasing to the Readers it being an itch in our natures to delight in newnes and varietie be the subiect never so grievous This if there were no more were yet worthy your perusall and is as much as others haue with good acceptance afforded in relations of this nature Howbeit besides the bare series and Context of the storie you shall heere finde interweaved sundry exact descriptions of Countries Townes Capes Promontories Rivers Creekes Harbors and the like not vnprofitable for Navigators besides many notable observations the fruites of a long experience that may giue light touching Marine accidents even to the best Captaines and Commaunders who if they desire to learne by precepts shall here finde store but if examples prevaile more with them here are also aliena pericula if you believe mee not reade and iudge Farewell THE OBSERVATIONS OF S IR RICHARD HAWKINS KNIGHT in his VOYAGE into the South SEA ANNO DOMINI 1593. SECT I. WITH the COVNSELS consent and helpe of my Father Sir Iohn Hawkins Knight I resolved a Voyage to be made for the Ilands of Iapan of the Phillippinas and Molueas the Kingdomes of China and East Indies by the way of the Straites of Magelan and the South Sea The principall end of our Designements was to make a perfect Discovery of all those parts where I should arriue as well knowne as vnknowne with their Longitudes and Latitudes the lying of their Coasts their Head-lands their Pons and Bayes their Citties Townes and Peoplings their manner of Government with the Commodities which the Countries yeelded and of which they haue want and are in necessitie For this purpose in the end of Anno 1588. returning from the iourney against the Spanish Armado I caused a Ship to be builded in the river of Thames betwixt three and foure hundred tunnes which was finished in that perfection as could be required For shee was pleasing to the eye profitable for Stowage good of Sayle and well conditioned The day of her Lanching being appoynted the Lady Hawkins my Mother in Law craued the naming of the Ship which was easily granted her who knowing what Voyage was pretended to be vndertaken named her the Repentance what her thoughts were was kept secret to her selfe And although many times I expostulated with her to declare the reason for giving her that vncouth name I could never haue any other satisfaction then that repentance was the safest Ship we could sayle in to purchase the haven of Heaven Well I know shee was no Prophetesse though a religious and most vertuous Lady and of a very good vnderstanding Yet too propheticall it fell out by Gods secret Iudgementes which in his Wisedome was pleased to reveale vnto vs by so vnknowne a way and was sufficient for the present to cause me to desist from the Enterprise and to leaue the Ship to my Father who willingly tooke her and paid the entire charge of the building and furnishing of her which I had concorted or paid And this I did not for any superstition I haue in names or for that I thinke them able to further or hinder any thing for that all immediately dependeth vpon the Providence of Almightie God and is disposed by him alone Yet advise I all persons ever as neere as they can by all meanes and in all occasions to presage vnto themselues the good they can and in giving names to terrestriall Workes especially to Ships not to giue such as meerly represent the celestiall Character for few haue I knowne or seene come to a good end which haue had such attributes As was plainely seene in the Revenge which was ever the vnfortunatest Ship the late Queenes Maiestie had during her Raigne for comming out of Ireland with Sir Iohn Parrot shee was like to be cast away vpon the Kentish Coast. After in the Voyage of Sir Iohn Hawkins my Father Anno 1586. shee strucke aground comming into Plimouth before her going to Sea Vpon the coast of Spaine shee left her Fleete readie to sinke with a great Leake At her returne into the Harbour of Plimouth shee beate vpon Winter stone and after in the same Voyage going out of Portsmouth Haven shee ranne twice a-ground and in the latter of them lay twentie two houres beating vpon the shore and at length with eight foote of water in hold shee was forced off and presently ranne vpon the Oose and was cause that shee remained there with other three Ships of her Maiesties six moneths till the Spring of the yeare
we might discry the hull of a Ship beaten vpon the Beach It was of the Spanish Fleete that went to inhabite there in Anno 1582. vnder the charge of Pedro Sarmiento who at his returne was taken Prisoner and brought into England In this Bay the Spaniards made their principall habitation and called it the Cittie of Saint Philip and left it peopled But the cold barrennes of the Countrie and the malice of the Indians wiâ—h whom they badly agreed made speedie end of them as also of those whom they left in the middle of the Straites three leagues from Cape Froward to the East-wards in another habitation We continued our course alongst this reach for all the Straites is as a River altering his course sometimes vpon one poynt sometimes vpon another which is some eight Leagues long and lyeth West North-west From this we entred into a goodly Bay which runneth vp into the land Northerly many Leagues and at first entrance a man may see no other thing but as it were a maine Sea From the end of this first reach you must direct your course West South-west and some foureteene or fifteene leagues lyeth one of the narrowest places of all the Straites This leadeth vnto another reach that lyeth west and by north some six leagues Here in the middle of the reach the wind tooke vs by the north-west and so we were forced to anchor some two or three dayes In which time we went a shore with our Boates and found neere the middle of this reach on the Star-boord side a reasonable good place to ground and trimme a small Ship where it higheth some nine or ten foote water Here we saw certaine Hogges but they were so farre from vs that wee could not discerne if they were of those of the Countrie or brought by the Spaniards these were all the Beasts which we saw in all the time we were in the Straites In two tydes we turned through this reach and so recovered the Ilands of Pengwins they lye from this reach foure leagues South-west and by west Till you come to this place care is to be taken of not comming too neere to any poynt of the Land for being for the most part sandie they haue sholding off them and are somewhat what dangerous These Ilands haue beene set forth by some to be three we could discover but two And they are no more except that part of the Mayne which lyeth over against them be an Iland which carrieth little likelihood and I cannot determine it A man may sayle betwixt the two Ilands or betwixt them and the Land on the laâ—boord side from which land to the bigger Iland is as it were a bridge or ledge on which is foure or fiue fathome water and to him that commeth neere it not knowing thereof may iustly cause feare for it sheweth to be shold water with his rypling like vnto a race Betwixt the former reach and these Ilands runneth vp a goodly Bay into the Country to the North-wards It causeth a great indraught and aboue these Ilands runneth a great tide from the mouth of the Straites to these Ilands the land on the larboord-side is low land and sandy for the most part and without doubt Ilands for it hath many openings into the Sea and forcible indraughts by them and that on the starboord side is all high mountaynous land from end to end but no wood on eyther side Before wee passed these Ilands vnder the lee of the bigger Iland we anchored the wind being at North-east with intent to refresh our selues with the fowles of these Ilands They are of divers sorts and in great plentie as Pengwins wilde Ducks Gulles and Gannets of the principall we purposed to make provision and those were the Pengwins which in Welsh as I haue beene enformed signifieth a white head From which derivation and many other Welsh denominations given by the Indians or their predecessors some doe inferre that America was first peopled with Welsh-men and Motezanna King or rather Emperour of Mexico did recount vnto the Spaniards at their first comming that his Auncestors came from a farre Countrie and were white people Which conferred which an auncient Cronicle that I haue read many yeares since may bee coniectured to bee a Prince of Wales who many hundreth yeares since with certaine shippes sayled to the westwards with intent to make new discoveries Hee was never after heard of The Pengwin is in all proportion like vnto a Goose and hath no feathers but a certaine doune vpon all parts of his body and therefore cannot flie but avayleth himselfe in all occasions with his feete running as fast as most men He liveth in the Sea and on the Land feedeth on fish in the Sea and as a Goose on the shore vpon grasse They harbour themselues vnder the ground in burrowes as the Connies and in them hatch their young All parts of the Iland where they haunted were vndermined saue onely one valley which it seemeth they reserved for their foode for it was as green as any Medowe in the moneth of Aprill with a most fine short grasse The flesh of these Pengwins is much of the savour of a certaine fowle taken in the Ilands of Lundey and Silley which wee call Puffins by the tast it is easily discerned that they feede on fish They are very fatt and in dressing must be flead as the Byter they are reasonable meate rosted baked or sodden but best rosted We saltâ—d some dozen or 16. hogsheads which served vs whilest they lasted in steede of powdred beefe The hunting of them as we may well terme it was a great recreation to my Company and worth the sight for in determining to catch them necessarily was required good store of people every one with a cudgell in his hand to compasse them round about to bring them as it were into a ring if they chanced to breake out then was the sport for the ground being vndermined at vnawares it fayled and as they ran after them one fell here another there another offering to strike at one lifting vp his hand sunke vpp to the arme pits in the earth another leaping to avoyd one hole fell into another And after the first slaughter in seeing vs on the shore they shunned vs and procured to recover the Sea yea many times seeing themselues persecuted they would tumble downe from such high rocks mountaines as it seemed impossible to escape with life Yet as soone as they came to the beach presently wee should see them runne into the Sea as though they had no hurt Where one goeth the other followeth like sheepe after the Bel-wether but in getting them once within the ring close together few escaped saue such as by chance hid themselues in the borrowes and ordinarily there was no droue which yeelded vs not a thousand and more the maner of killing them which the hunters vsed being in a cluster together was with their cudgels to