John Hawkins, born in Plymouth in or about 1532, was the son and grandson of notable mariners, and so well born to the sea. His grandfather, John Hawkyns, had served in Henry the eighth’s navy; his father, William Hawkyns, shipbuilder and merchant, had been one of the principal sea-captains of the west parts of England, and was the first Englishman to carry on a trade with Brazil. Hakluyt informs us that William Hawkyns was “for his wisdome, valure [valour], experience, and skill in sea causes much esteemed, and beloved of K. Henry the 8.” His Brazilian voyages comprised “three long and famous” ones, made in his own “tall and goodly shippe” of two hundred and fifty tons, the “Paul of Plymouth,” between the years 1530 and 1532. He sailed first to the coast of Guinea where he traded with the Negroes for elephants’ teeth and other commodities of the region, and thence crossed to Brazil, where he “used such discretion and behaved himself so wisely with those savage people that he grew into great familiarity and friendship with them.” His greatest exploit, or that which won him largest attention, seems to have been the bringing to England on a visit one of the kings of the country, leaving behind as a pledge of his safety and return a member of the ship’s company—Martin Cockeram, a Plymouth man. The savage monarch was brought over on the second voyage and his appearance created great astonishment in London and at court when he was presented to King Henry at Whitehall, as well it might. For, as Hakluyt describes, “in his cheekes were holes made according to their savage maner, and therein small bones were planted, standing an inch out from the said holes, which in his own Countrey were reputed for a great braverie. He had also another hole in his nether lip, wherein was set a precious stone about the bigness of a pease [pea]. All his apparel, behaviour, and jesture were very strange to the beholders.” He remained in London for nearly a year, and then, satiated with his entertainment, embarked for his home in Master Hawkins’s care, on the latter’s third voyage to Brazil. But it was his fate to sicken and die at sea. Thereat Master Hawkins was much troubled, fearing that the life of Cockeram would be forfeited. But when he arrived at port and told his story, the savages were “fully persuaded” that their prince had been honestly dealt with, and freely gave up the hostage. Cockeram returned with his captain none the worse for his sojourn here, and lived to spin, long years after, among his fellows at home in Plymouth, rare sailors’ yarns about the Simple Life among savages. John Hawkins followed early in his father’s footsteps. His earliest voyages were made when quite a young man to the Canary Islands. How he came to engage in the slave trade between the African coast and the West Indies Hakluyt thus naïvely relates: