Hawkins, Richard

From his earliest days, Richard disappeared all day at the port , getting to know the sea and ships.

In 1582, he accompanied his uncle, William Hawkins, to the West Indies on a voyage. In 1585, he became captain of the galliot , part of the expedition of Francis Drake , heading for the Spanish colonies.

In 1588, Richard Hawkins commanded the British Royal Navy ship during the defeat of the Invincible Armada , and in 1590 he served with his father on an expedition of Drake- Norris off the coast of Portugal .

In 1593, Hawkins acquired the research vessel Dainty , a ship that was originally owned by his father and used by him as an expedition vessel, and sailed on it to the West Indies, the Spanish colonies and the southern seas. In fact, it was clear that the true purpose of this adventure was to plunder and seize the overseas possessions of the Spanish crown . Be that as it may, Hawkins claimed thirty years later at the expense of this journey (it is possible that he had convinced himself of this during such a time) that this voyage was undertaken solely for the sake of new geographical discoveries . After visiting the coast of Brazil, Dainty passed through the Strait of Magellan and reached Valparaiso .

Having plundered the city, Hawkins rushed north , and in June 1594 , a year after leaving Plymouth , he came to St. Mateo's Bay, at the mouth of the river on which Esmeraldas (now Ecuador ) stands, with geographical coordinates Here Dainty was attacked by two Spanish ships. The superiority was on the side of the Spaniards, but Hawkins and his team bravely defended themselves. In the end, when Hawkins himself was repeatedly wounded, 27 sailors from his crew were killed, and the ship itself would be about to sink, he surrendered on July 1, 1594 under the guarantee that he and his crew would be released home ^{[ 1]} . However, the first assistant, John Oxenham, was instead sent under investigation and ultimately executed in Lima for heresy ^[2] .

For reasons beyond the command of the Spanish squadron , the promise he made was not fulfilled. In 1597, Hawkins was sent to Spain and first imprisoned in Seville , and then in Madrid . He was released in 1602 and, returning to England, was knighted in 1603 .

In 1604, he became a Member of Parliament in Plymouth and Vice Admiral of Devonshire . This post, since the coast was teeming with pirates , was not a "warm place." From 1620 to 1621, Hawkins was Navy Vice Admiral under the command of Sir Robert Mansell. This flotilla was sent to the Mediterranean to fight Algerian corsairs . He died in London on April 17, 1622 .

Hawkins wrote memoirs about his trip called Voyage to the South Sea ( 1622 ), which became the most famous adventure during the time of Elizabeth I, re-published by the Hacklut Society and revised in Charles Kingsley ’s short story “ Westward, Ho! "He describes the Spaniards in America in a positive light, calling them" restrained "and" noble. "

• Ricardo Hauqhines, Carta de Ricardo Hauqhines (Hawkins). 6 de agosto de 1594 (neopr.) . Archived December 9, 2012.