At _St. Jorge da Mina_ a negro king came to ask the assistance of Hawkins against a neighbouring king, promising him all the negroes that should be taken. An offer so tempting was not to be rejected, and one hundred and fifty men were selected and sent to assist this black tyrant. They assaulted a town containing some eight thousand inhabitants, strongly paled round, and fenced after their manner, and so well defended that in the assault Hawkins’s people had six slain and forty wounded. More help was called for; “whereupon,” says Hawkins, “considering that the good success of this enterprise might highly further the commodity of our voyage, I went myself; and with the help of the king of our side, assaulted the town both by land and sea; and very hardly with fire (their houses being covered with palm leaves) obtained the town and put the inhabitants to flight; where we took two hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children; and by our friend the king on our side, there were taken six hundred prisoners, whereof we hoped to have our choice; but the negro (in which nation is never or seldom found truth) meant nothing less; for that night he removed his camp and prisoners, so that we were fain to content us with those few that we had gotten ourselves.”[U] On the coast of _Guinea_ they had succeeded in procuring about two hundred more slaves, with which cargo they departed for the West Indies, there to dispose of them to the Spaniards. On the 27th of March they came into sight of _Dominica_, and coasted _Marguerita_ and _Cape de la Vela_, carrying on meanwhile, without obstruction, “a tolerable good trade,”--that is to say, parting with their negroes for good terms. At _Rio de la Hacha_, all dealings with the inhabitants being prohibited, the worthy and law-abiding Hawkins was affronted by what he considered an infraction of the treaty between Henry VIII. and Charles V. He determined to chastise the authors of this illegal proceeding, and accordingly attacked the place. Having landed two hundred men, the town was taken by storm, with the loss of only two, the Spaniards having fled after the first volley. After this adventure, trade was connived at, if not permitted. The Spaniards bought two hundred negroes; “and at all other places where we traded the inhabitants were glad of us and traded willingly.”[V] In proceeding towards _Cartagena_ they were caught in a terrible storm, which so shattered the “Jesus,” that, her rudder being broken, she sprang a leak, and being driven into the bay of _Mexico_, entered the port of _San Juan d’Ulloa_. The disaster which befell Hawkins and his consorts at this place need not here be recorded, since they do not appertain to South American history. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1572.]