Hawkins, Richard

The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins ... in his Voyage into the South Sea. Anno Domini 1593. London: Printed by J[ohn] D[awson] for Jon Jaggard, 1622



Folio (10 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.; 264 x 172 mm). Printer's woodcut device on title-page (McKerrow 414), woodcut initials; small hole to lower margin of final leaf, variously severe dampstaining, chiefly marginal, throughout. Modern morocco-backed marbled boards, early gilt edges; rubbed and dampstained.

Thomas Segar (early name stamp on title-page) — Admiralty Office Library (stamp on title-page and final page)

Borba de Moraes I:395; European Americana 622/66; Hill 784; JCB II:209; Sabin 30957; STC 12962

First edition of  "an excellent account of life at sea in the Elizabethan age" (Hill). The author was the only son of Sir John Hawkins, and like him greatly distinguished himself at the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Hawkins set sail from England with the ambition of circumnavigating the globe and trading with Japan, the Phillippines, the Moluccas, China, and India. However, once he entered the Pacific in 1594, he and his crew plundered the Spanish settlement of Valparaiso. Shortly thereafter, Hawkins encountered a Spanish squadron of superior strength, to which, after a valiant three-day struggle, he was obliged to yield. He was taken prisoner, and did not regain his liberty until 1602, which accounts for the lapse of time between the date of his voyage and the publication of his experiences.

Boies Penrose characterized Hawkins's account as "one of the most graphic and readable of all Tudor narratives ... a dramatic story of a gallant failure, written with strong descriptive power and imagination." A century would pass before any further English trading voyages resumed in the Pacific. Additionally, the work contains some interesting details regarding the Indians of Florida and the Caribbean Islands, and parts of South America.