Under the Bloody Flag (36 page)

At least eleven English captains were sailing with commissions from Don Antonio during 1581 and 1582. Such was the apparent appeal of serving under the Portuguese pretender that in July 1582 it was reported that forty ships were expected to be sent out by English adventurers in his support. Earlier in the year, a German adventurer offered to aid him, leading an expedition against Spain to the Indies, if he was supported by the Queen. The prospect of Don Antonio becoming a figurehead for pan-Protestant adventurers, including French Huguenots sailing with commissions from the King of Navarre, who were intent on pursuing a war of plunder against the Spanish and Portuguese, receded following the failure of the expedition to the Azores in which several English captains served. In July he left Tours and went to sea, though he was forced to sail without any of his captains, who were in prison for debt. According to one report, ‘no man can tell whether he needs not be afraid to be robbed, for he has not a penny more than the poor grey friar’.
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About the same time, the cause of the Portuguese pretender among Protestants was discredited by reports that he had issued a declaration promising protection to merchants trading with Spain under his licence. Early in 1584 he was allowed to return to England, but on condition that he would not reside near the coast. He was reported to be in such difficult circumstances that he wanted to move to Guernsey. By September he was in the Netherlands, issuing letters of marque or reprisal to Dutch adventurers. Evidently he hoped to mobilize a force of twelve ships. Through agents in England he continued to issue similar commissions to his English supporters, who included the Fenners and their new associate Callice.
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Although the legality of English depredation under the auspices of Don Antonio remained uncertain, it provided the regime with an opportunity to maintain the pressure on Spain at sea, while denying any hostile intent. Under these conditions privateering served as an instrument of policy, albeit one that was inherently hazardous. At the same time it provided an outlet for the activities of pirates and the aggressive propagandists of overseas expansion. While it was recognized in February 1583 that the Queen could not assist Don Antonio with 2,000 men without risking conflict with Spain, the case for continuing to support him with men-of-war seemed to go unchallenged. For some this was an irresistible opportunity to penetrate the Portuguese and Spanish seaborne empires through a combination of trade and plunder.
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While there was a danger that such irregular privateering would degenerate into piracy, it strengthened English venturing into the Atlantic during the early 1580s. English captains were involved in expeditions to the Azores during 1581 and 1582, either with others or on their own. They included Captain Kenne of Bristol, who seized several prizes off Terceira which were brought into Southampton. In 1582 William Hawkins and his brother, John, received a commission for a voyage of discovery to Africa and America, authorizing them to assist the Portuguese pretender against his enemies. With the benefit of this authority Hawkins led an expedition, which included two ships owned by Drake, to west Africa with the intention of trading thence to Brazil. Faced with hostility at the Cape Verde Islands, and learning of an increased Spanish presence along the coast of Brazil, the fleet sailed for the Caribbean, where a profitable cargo of commodities was acquired. Further north, adventurers turned their attention to the vulnerable fishing fleets off Newfoundland. In November 1582 the Spanish complained of the spoil of more than twenty ships at the fishery by Henry Oughtred of Southampton.
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But the growth of deep-sea plunder endangered peaceful plans for commercial expansion within neglected regions of the Iberian empires. The ambitious, but unsuccessful voyage of Captain Edward Fenton during 1582 and 1583 underlined the dangers, particularly with expeditions which suffered from weak or divided leadership. Ostensibly the purpose of the voyage was to establish a trading outpost in the East Indies as a means of exploiting Drake’s contact with the Moluccas. To some extent, however, it was a legacy of the abortive expedition to the Azores of 1581. It attracted a similar range of investors, as well as arousing the interest of a group of merchants who were prominent figures in the Muscovy Company. Leicester was the leading promoter of the venture, purchasing the
Galleon
Oughtred
from Henry Oughtred at a cost of £2,800 for the voyage. Of this amount, £800 represented Oughtred’s share in the voyage. According to the terms of the sale, Leicester was to procure a commission from Don Antonio authorizing the plunder of Spanish and Portuguese shipping. Drake was among the other investors, who included Walsingham and his son-in-law, Christopher Carleill.
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Fenton, the leader of the expedition, was an experienced soldier who served with Frobisher on the ill-fated Northwest Passage ventures during the later 1570s. He harboured grandiose visions of wealth that turned the voyage into a disorderly and unsuccessful quest for Iberian prizes. He commanded a fleet of four vessels and a company of more than 230 men. Oughtred’s ship, renamed the
Galleon
Leicester
, a large vessel of about 400 or 500 tons, armed with forty-two pieces of ordnance, served as the Admiral for the voyage. The officers included William Hawkins the younger, a nephew of John Hawkins, though Carleill pulled out of the voyage after clashing with the former. John Drake, one of Drake’s cousins, was in charge of a pinnace, the
Bark
Francis
. In addition Simon Fernandes, who was accused of bragging about his piracies during the course of the voyage, served as chief pilot. The expedition sailed with two clergymen, John Walker and Richard Madox. Neither survived the voyage, but both of them kept diaries that reveal their mounting concern at the piratical inclinations of members of the company.
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Fenton’s instructions, which were approved by the council, indicate the commercial purpose of the voyage and a concern to avoid antagonizing the Spanish. Thus the expedition was to avoid the Straits of Magellan, unless in an emergency, sailing to the East Indies and returning thence by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Furthermore, Fenton and his company were instructed not to spoil the Queen’s ‘friends or allies, or any Christians, without paying justly for the same’, while dealing as ‘good and honest merchants, traffiquing and exchanging ware for ware’ with the people they encountered, ‘as well ethniks as others’.
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Yet commercial aggrandisement of this nature was marked by deep-seated ambiguities. Revealingly they were exposed partly by Madox during his sermon to the company on the eve of the departure of the fleet from Southampton. Taking his cue from the first verse of Psalm 24, the clergyman raised several issues regarding the lawfulness of travel and trade in general, including traffic with non-Christians, reaffirming that England had the best claim to the Indies. For some the sermon reinforced the essentially predatory purpose of the venture. In May 1582, as Oughtred informed Leicester that the fleet was ready to sail, he was unable to conceal his wish for its safe return with ‘all the Kinge of Spayne his gold in theyr bellyes, to temper the pryde of such a tyrawnte’.
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According to the narrative of William Hawkins, drawn up shortly after the return of the expedition, Fenton denied any intention of seeking to emulate Drake in playing ‘the pirate and theefe’, claiming instead to have ‘thre strings to his bowe’ which would make for a profitable voyage.
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Nonetheless, the shadow of Drake’s voyage hung over this expedition, arousing high expectations for its success. Consequently plunder was always a likely option. Among the company, moreover, the mariners served on their own adventure, in expectation that a share of the proceeds of the voyage would replace a wage. The expedition had barely left the coast of England before leading members of the crew were expressing their hope of meeting with a rich carvel laden with sugar and wines. Fenton resisted calls to attack a vessel, with the support of the clergymen, whose sermons reminded the company of the purpose of the voyage. However, Madox noted that some of the men declared that they ‘wer bound in duty to spoyl all papists, as enemyes to god & our sovereign, of what cuntrey so ever they were’.
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Fenton’s failure to give chase to a possible prize thus provoked an undertow of disaffection and disunity that persisted for much of the voyage.

Despite careful preparation and clear guidance, the expedition was an embarrassing failure. From the outset it was endangered by the ambitions of Fenton to undertake some notable action which would win him honour and profit. Unfortunately, he was a weak, vainglorious commander, mockingly described by Madox in his private diary as ‘our little king’.
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On several occasions Fenton spoke openly of turning to plunder or piracy, arousing the expectations of many members of the expedition, but he lacked either the courage or boldness to succeed as a successor of Drake.

In accordance with their instructions, after leaving England the fleet sailed southwards. At the direction of Fernandes the vessels maintained a course for the Canary Islands, apparently intending to acquire goats, though Madox noted that most of the company were ‘set on purchase’.
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Although bound for the Cape Verde Islands, it was agreed by a council of officers to sail for Rio de la Plata, across the Atlantic, on the advice of the pilots concerning the navigation of the Cape of Good Hope. The Atlantic crossing was delayed by a decision to sail for Sierra Leone in search of fresh water. Unaccountably the fleet spent two months off the coast of west Africa, during which sickness broke out among the company, killing at least ten men aboard the
Galleon
Leicester
. The English had a small trade with a group of Portuguese merchants, acquiring rice and ivory in exchange for one of their smaller ships. While they were on the coast Madox viewed a party of slaves acquired by the Portuguese, one of whom, a woman, he sketched. Several male slaves were purchased by the English to replace members of the company who had died.

It was during this period that Fenton conferred with Madox about a startling proposal for the settlement of the island of St Helena, as a base from which to plunder Portuguese vessels returning from the East Indies. Since its discovery by the Portuguese in 1502, the island had been used by returning vessels from the east as a resting place to take on fresh water, but its use was irregular because of the difficulty in locating it. Fenton’s proposal was opportunistic and ill-considered, though it appears to have been shared by some of his officers. It may have been made to test the reaction of Madox who, along with Walker, was known to be against the predatory direction of the voyage. At the same time, it demonstrated the shifting priorities of the leaders of the expedition. Shortly after Fenton discussed the scheme with Madox, the clergyman discovered that he ‘had promised many among us that he would never return to our native land before he rewarded them with wealth’.
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Failing to win support from the clergymen, Fenton considered returning to the Cape Verde Islands, but he was eventually persuaded to proceed across the Atlantic.

Before leaving the coast of Africa, the plan for sailing around the Cape was given up in preference for passing through the Straits of Magellan. It was also agreed that when the expedition entered the Pacific it was ‘to deale as occasion should be given’.
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In effect the original purpose of the voyage was tacitly abandoned. Further change was suggested during the Atlantic crossing, when Fernandes advised a council of officers to sail directly for the Caribbean in search of plunder. Although the two clergymen dissuaded Fenton from pursuing this course, soon after reaching the coast of Brazil, in December 1582, the fleet seized a small prize carrying a group of passengers, which included seven friars. The capture of the vessel provoked angry disagreement among Fenton’s company concerning competing claims to pillage and plunder. Madox recorded that it was ‘sent away in peace but still slightly plucked so as to satisfy our rapacious and greedy sailers in some measure’. The spoil, including a net, axes, iron hoops, bills, small amounts of sugar, ginger root and some sweet meats, amounted to £10.
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It became evident along the coast of Brazil that Fenton was unwilling to undertake the revised plan. Following information from the passengers aboard the prize that a Spanish expedition had been sent to guard the straits, he assembled the company to request their advice on the best way of proceeding. Opinion was divided, and Fenton’s subsequent decision to change direction, and sail northwards, aroused widespread concern, reinforcing rumours that the ‘voyage was bought & sold’ before their departure from London.
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At this stage the
Bark Francis
, with John Drake in command, left the fleet in an unsuccessful attempt to make for the straits. Drake’s departure appears to have unnerved Fenton, who now tried to persuade his officers of the profit to be made from trading with the Portuguese in Brazil. Within twelve months, he claimed, they would be able to return home with an honest, if modest, profit. But the revised plan had no appeal for men such as Fernandes or Hawkins. For the former the decision to engage in trade, rather than robbery, was greeted with incredulity. After the Christmas celebrations, he spoke out against Fenton’s new scheme, claiming that it would reduce the company to beggary and worse, particularly as he was already impoverished and in debt. Though motivated by raw self-interest, undoubtedly Fernandes was speaking for many other members of the company who had little to lose and much to gain from illegitimate depredation. But his attempt to represent these piratical interests in a favourable light, by trying to convince Fenton and the clergymen that he possessed a licence from members of the council to wage war against the Spaniards, met with no success.
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