Richard Hawkins

Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns) (c. 1562 – 17 April 1622) was an English seaman, explorer and privateer. He was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins.

Biography

He was from his earlier days familiar with ships and the sea, and in 1582 he accompanied his uncle, William Hawkins, to the West Indies. In 1585 he was captain of a galliot in Drake's expedition to the Spanish main, in 1588 he commanded a queen's ship against the Armada, and in 1590 his father's expedition at the coast of Portugal.

In 1593 he purchased the galleon Dainty (built for the voyage of discovery), a vessel originally built for his father and used by him in his expeditions, and sailed for the West Indies, the Spanish Main and the South Seas. It seems clear that his project was to prey on the oversea possessions of Spanish crown. Hawkins, however, in an account of the voyage written thirty years afterwards, maintained, and by that time perhaps had really persuaded himself, that his expedition was undertaken purely for the purpose of geographical discovery.

After visiting the coast of Brazil, the Dainty encountered a storm off the mouth of the Magellan Strait and was blown eastward. On 2 February 1594, Hawkins saw land "... about nine of the clocke in the morning, wee descried land, which bare South-West of us, which we looked not for so timely and coming neerer and neerer unto it, by the lying, wee could not conjecture what land it could be... It hath great Rivers of fresh waters; for the out-shoot of them colours the Sea... The Land, for that it was discovered in the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth, my Sovereigne Lady and Mistris, and a Mayden Queene, and at my cost and adventure, in a perpetual memory of her chastitie, and remembrance of my endevours, I gave it the name of Hawkins Maiden land... the Westernmost part lyeth some threescore leagues from the neerest Land of America".