“One of the most graphic and readable of all Tudor narratives”

HAWKINS, Richard, Sir (ca. 1562–1622).
The Observations of Sir Richard Havvkins Knight, in his Voiage into the South Sea. Anno Domini 1593 .
London: I[ohn] D[awson] for Iohn Iaggard, 1622. First edition.

Pot folio in 4s (10 5/16” x 6 ¾”, 263mm x 174mm): ?4(–?1) A-Y4 [$4 signed; –Y1, Y4]. 91 leaves, pp. [6] (title, blank, dedication, blank, to the reader, blank) 1-169, [7] (errata, 5pp. index, blank).

Bound in XXc half russet morocco over marbled boards. On the spine, author, title and date gilt to black morocco running lengthwise. All edges of the text-block gilt.

Heavily damp-stained throughout in the binding, with some charring to the upper spine-edge. Ink-stamp of Thomas Segar twice to the title-page. Ink-stamp of the Admiralty Office Library to the title-page and to the verso of the final leaf (Y4). Scattered marginal X’s and a marginal comment to p. 17.

Sir Richard Hawkins (ca. 1562–1622) was one of the great explorers in the generation following Sir Francis Drake (a cousin), in whose 1585 expedition to the Spanish territories in America he cut his teeth. He was the son of Sir John Hawkins, Admiral of the Narrow Seas; it was from him that Hawkins gained his love of harassing the Spanish and Portuguese on the high seas. In June of 1593, Hawkins received from Queen Elizabeth a letter of mark, which granted him as a privateer the right to attack and loot ships under the flag of enemy states (viz., the Spanish and Portuguese). He sailed the Dainty (renamed by the Queen, since she thought it was a pretty ship) west across the Atlantic. By early 1594, Hawkins reached the Falkland Islands — a claim doubted by modern historians — and so may well have been the first Englishman to do so.

Once in the South Pacific, however, Hawkins did not fare so well. After pillaging Valparaíso, Hawkins sailed the Dainty north, where, in June-July of 1594, it was nearly sunk and finally captured by the Spanish. Hawkins was taken prisoner by the Spanish, brought back to Spain and held for some years in Seville and Madrid before being freed and sent back to England. Although his expedition was ultimately unsuccessful, he was received warmly at home, being knighted and elected to the mayoralty of Plymouth in 1603.

After a long and fruitful career in Parliament and the Royal Navy, Hawkins committed his sensational story to paper, entered in the Stationer’s Rolls on 24 July 1622, some three months after his death. It was brought through the press by John Jaggard, whose brother William is famed for publishing the first folio edition of the plays of Shakespeare. The Observations — uncommon at auction and extremely rare on the market — is one of the most celebrated accounts of early exploration; Boies Penrose in his 1952 Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance characterized it with the words above. Hill calls it “an excellent account of life at sea in the Elizabethan age.”

It is most tempting to identify the Thomas Segar who stamped the title-page with the son (1609–1670) of Sir William Segar (1554–1633), Norroy King of Arms and court painter to Queen Elizabeth (including a portrait of Sir Francis Drake). Thomas ascended to a lesser heraldic office (Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms), and may have accompanied his father to The Hague in 1627 for the presentation of the Order of the Garter to the Prince of Orange. The present copy passed from Segar into the Office of the Admiralty, the department responsible for the Royal Navy. Its library held, in addition naval records, material related to travel and exploration.

Borba de Moraes I.395; ESTC S119816; European Americana 622.66; Hill, Pacific Voyages 784; JCB II:209; Sabin 30957.