Navy, the ' Jesus of Lubeck,' Captain Hawkins, and the
'Minion,' Captain Hampton; a private ship belonging to
the Hawkins Brothers, called after them the 'William
and John,' and three smaller vessels, the 'Swallow,' the
'Angel,' and the 'Judith,' the last being commanded by
Drake. With its Admiral, Vice-Admiral, and Captain of
Soldiers, it was armed, equipped, and organised in all
respects like a naval squadron, and the complement it
carried can have been little less than five hundred men,
among whom were several gentlemen of good houses.1
A love of the picaresque has tempted our maritime
literature to give the Elizabethan captains the air of law-
less and irresponsible corsairs. Enough has been said to
show that Hawkins was never such a man, and least of
all on this occasion. The representative of the London
merchant princes, he was something of a merchant prince
himself. In this venture his firm had embarked a sum
equal to sixteen thousand pounds of our money; his
personal effects and furniture on board the 'Jesus' were
valued at a fifth of that sum; and throughout the voyage
he kept the state of one of her Majesty's Admirals-at-the-
Seas. That he came home quite without stain of technical
piracy is too much to say, but whatever he did cannot be
viewed as the outcome of a lawless spirit. In the posi-

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