ABSTRACT

Whereas the English were reticent1 about the episode at Grand Canary, the Spaniards produced a mountain of reports and literary works on the subject, but it is questionable whether this productivity owed as much to patriotic fervour as to factious spite.2 In 1594 the

1 The affair is dealt with briefly in most of the narratives and in the third-hand reports that reached the English government in late November and December (documents 24 and 25). Unfortunately the account written by Sir John Hawkins himself has never been found and may well no longer exist. It is mentioned in a letter from Lady Margaret Hawkins to Sir Robert Cecil dated 12 December 1595 ( Cal. Hat.field MSS, v, 495-6). She writes that she has 'last nighe received a letter from 'Master Hawkins' by one Captain Welshe, who came into their company by chance and went with them some 40 leagues beyond the Canaries. Hawkins, the captain said, had forborne to send any advertisement to her majesty, to Burghley, to the lord admiral or to any other of his friends at court only because nothing was done worth the writing. Nevertheless he thought it not amiss to set down himself what befell at the Canaries lest it should be misreported; wherewith he willed Lady Hawkins to make Burghley, the lord admiral and Cecil acquainted. She asks Cecil' s advice as to whether she should acquaint the queen therewith or whether he would make it known to her, 'for although it be not as good as I wish and daily pray for, yet I thank Cod it is not very ill, and I would be loth that her Highness should understand by any other that I should hear directly from Master Hawkins and would not make it known to Her Majesty howsoever it were, for so I think it my duty. I send you a true copy ofhis own letter by my servant the bearer.'