England in America, 1580-1652 | Page 4

memory was revived by Hakluyt,[6] only to support a claim for
England to priority in discovery.
Indeed, England was not yet prepared for the work of colonization. Her
commerce was still in its infancy, and did not compare with that of
either Italy, Spain, or Portugal. Neither Columbus nor the Cabots were
Englishmen, and the advantages of commerce were so little understood
in England about this period that the taking of interest for the use of
money was prohibited.[7] A voyage to some mart "within two days'
distance" was counted a matter of great moment by merchant
adventurers.[8]
During the next half-century, only two noteworthy attempts were made
by the English to accomplish the purposes of the Cabots: De Prado
visited Newfoundland in 1527 and Hore in 1535,[9] but neither of the
voyages was productive of any important result. Notwithstanding,
England's commerce made some advancement during this period. A
substantial connection between England and America was England's
fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland; though used by other
European states, over fifty English ships spent two months in every
year in those distant waters, and gained, in the pursuit, valuable
maritime experience. Probably, however, the development of trade in a
different quarter had a more direct connection with American
colonization, for about 1530 William Hawkins visited the coast of
Guinea and engaged in the slave-trade with Brazil.[10]
Suddenly, about the middle of the century, English commerce struck
out boldly; conscious rivalry with Spain had begun. The new era opens
fitly with the return of Sebastian Cabot to England from Spain, where

since the death of Henry VII. he had served Charles V. In 1549, during
the third year of Edward VI., he was made grand pilot of England with
an annual stipend of £166 13s. 4d.[11] He formed a company for the
discovery of the northeast and the northwest passages, and in 1553 an
expedition under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor
penetrated the White Sea and made known the wonders of the Russian
Empire.[12] The company obtained, in 1554, a charter of incorporation
under the title of the "Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of
Lands, Territories, Isles, Dominions, and Seignories Unknown or
Frequented by Any English." To Russia frequent voyages were
thereafter made. A few days after the departure of Willoughby's
expedition Richard Eden published his Treatyse of the Newe India; and
two years later appeared his Decades of the New World, a book which
was very popular among all classes of people in England. Cabot died
not many years later, and Eden, translator and compiler, attended at his
bedside, and "beckons us with something of awe to see him die."[13]
During Mary's reign (1553-1558) the Catholic church was restored in
England, and by the influence of the queen, who was married to King
Philip, the expanding commerce of England was directed away from
the Spanish colonial possessions eastward to Russia, Barbary, Turkey,
and Persia. After her death the barriers against free commerce were
thrown down. With the incoming of Elizabeth, the Protestant church
was re-established and the Protestant refugees returned from the
continent; and three years after her succession occurred the first of
those great voyages which exposed the weakness of Spain by showing
that her rich possessions in America were practically unguarded and
unprotected.
In 1562 Sir John Hawkins, following in the track of his father William
Hawkins, visited Guinea, and, having loaded his ship with negroes,
carried them to Hispaniola, where, despite the Spanish law restricting
the trade to the mother-country, he sold his slaves to the planters, and
returned to England with a rich freight of ginger, hides, and pearls. In
1564 Hawkins repeated the experiment with greater success; and on his
way home, in 1565, he stopped in Florida and relieved the struggling
French colony of Laudonnière, planted there by Admiral Coligny the

year before, and barbarously destroyed by the Spaniards soon after
Hawkins's departure.[14] The difference between our age and Queen
Elizabeth's is illustrated by the fact that Hawkins, instead of being put
to death as a pirate for engaging in the slave-trade, was rewarded by the
queen on his return with a patent for a coat of arms.
In 1567 Hawkins with nine ships revisited the West Indies, but this
time ill-fortune overtook him. Driven by bad weather into the harbor of
San Juan de Ulloa, he was attacked by the Spaniards, several of his
ships were sunk, and some of his men were captured and later put to
torture by the Inquisition. Hawkins escaped with two of his ships, and
after a long and stormy passage arrived safe in England (January 25,
1569).[15] Queen Elizabeth was greatly offended at this conduct of the
Spaniards, and in reprisal detained a squadron of Spanish treasure ships
which had sought safety in the port of London from