HAWKINS. Your excellency has before you the Admiral and the gallant Captains of a small English fleet, bound on a trading voyage, put in under stress of weather, to victual and re-fit; and for our own security, during the time we find it necessary to occupy the harbour, we intend to prevent the entry of armed vessels. AMBASSADOR (_amazed_). But we are the fleet of His Majesty the King of Spain, carrying a thousand soldiers, thirteen galleons with others their consorts and tenders. I have the honour to be his Ambassador, and this is his viceroy, with authority to govern his possessions in the New World. Allow me to present to you Don Martini Henriqnez, viceroy of all the Indies. (_Hawkins bows_.) This is His Majesty’s town and dominions, and we claim not only free entrance, but entire jurisdiction. The nations are at peace, and we concede to you the right freely to occupy it as friends, to trade and re-fit, with freedom of departure. What would you more? HAWKINS. True, your Excellency, the nations are nominally at peace, but we Englishmen have been in these times of peace treated as worse than enemies in war. We have been attacked by ships carrying the Castillian flag, thrown into prison, tortured, famished in dungeons, given over to the inquisition, to fire and faggot, contrary to the law of nations, and to actual treaty. We must take care of ourselves. Either you shall force an entrance at the cannon’s mouth, which you will not find a very easy matter, or you enter on such conditions as I shall dictate. That we have liberty to trade, victual, and re-fit, and to depart without hindrance or molestation, that the fortifications remain in our hands, and that you give hostages, as a guarantee for their fulfillment. AMBASSADOR. This, Senor, is a very serious matter. It is against law, reason, and justice that we should be under conditions imposed by a foreigner who has no claim or authority here, to enter our own possessions. I do not know how I should answer to my Royal Master, should I so far compromise his authority and right, conceding to a stranger, the privilege of dictating conditions to our ships in our own waters. HAWKINS. Nor I to answer to my Royal Mistress for the loss of her ships and men by any laxity or cowardice on my part in not defending them. We Englishmen are accustomed to consider our duty to our country paramount over all else, to fight under the national flag till Death or Victory; never to yield a point in debate or battle, but to stick to our guns, and No Surrender! ENGLISH ALL. No Surrender! No Surrender! HAWKINS. Your Excellencies, and you Senores, you see your choice. Either you fight or depart, or enter on our conditions. AMBASSADOR. I shall retire if you please, and consult with his Excellency. (_Exeunt Spaniards_. _English laughing_).