Kenneth R. Andrews - English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies, 1588-1595

Documents relating to English voyages to the West Indies, from the defeat of the Armada to the last voyage of Sir Francis Drake, including Spanish documents contributed by Irene A. Wright

Edited by
KENNETH R. ANDREWS

ENGLISH PRIVATEERING
VOYAGES
TO THE WEST INDIES
15881595

Documents relating to English voyages to the West Indies, from the defeat of the Armada to the last voyage of Sir Francis Drake, including Spanish documents contributed by Irene A. Wright

Edited by
KENNETH R. ANDREWS

CAMBRIDGE
Published for the Hakluyt Society
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1959

PUBLISHED BY
THE SYNDICS OP THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London, N.W. 1
American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York 22, N.Y.

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
1959

Printed in Great Britain by
Robert MacLehose and Company Limited
at the University Press, Glasgow

It was originally intended that the present volume should comprise a number of High Court of Admiralty documents relating to English privateering in the West Indies in the period 15851603, together with the relevant narratives from Hakluyt and Purchas. Before much progress had been made with the editing, however, the Hakluyt Society received from Miss I. A. Wright a bulky parcel of translations of documents in the Archivo de Indias, chiefly relating to English West Indies voyages in the years 15935. These were the materials for an intended sequel to her three volumes on English West Indies voyages already published by the Society, and it was with the utmost regret that we learned that Miss Wright would be unable to complete a fourth. All students of the period acknowledge the very great debt they owe to one who opened up and worked with unflagging zeal that rich quarry of information in Seville, hardly touched until then by writers on English maritime history. This debt is now to be increased, since much of Miss Wrights remaining material, which with great generosity she placed at my disposal, is incorporated in the present work. Most of all is this editor indebted, since the direct co-ordination of English and Spanish source material, though it necessitated ending this collection at the year 1595, enhances its interest and significance in no small degree. A few documents which are considered important and directly relevant have been added from other sources. For the checking, editing and annotation of all the documents herein the present editor takes full responsibility.

I wish to express my thanks to Dr Jos de la Pena, Director of the Archivo de Indias, for his co-operation in supplying microfilms of the Spanish documents, and to Mr G. P. B. Naish of the National Maritime Museum and Dr A. K. R. Kiralfy, reader in Law at Kings College, London University, for reading the introduction before publication and offering some helpful suggestions. Above all I am indebted to Professor D. B. Quinn for his tactful encouragement and advice and to Mr R. A. Skelton, the Honorary Secretary of the Hakluyt Society, whose practical help and encouragement at every stage in the preparation of the book have been invaluable.

My thanks are also due to Lord Hothfield, for permission to copy and publish the MS account of the seventh voyage of the Earl of Cumberland; to Sir John Lawes, Bart., for permission to reproduce the portrait of Sir Thomas Myddelton at Rothamsted; to Captain R. G. W- Berkeley for permission to reproduce the miniature of the second Lord Hunsdon at Berkeley Castle; to the Ashmolean Museum for permission to reproduce the portrait of Sir Julius Caesar; and to the British Museum for permission to reproduce a part of the Crace impression of Visschers Long View of London. The sketch maps were drawn by Mrs Huhtala and Miss Moore of the Royal Geographical Society.

November 1958 K. R. A.