Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns), the son of…

Richard Hawkins (or Hawkyns), the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins, has from his earlier days been familiar with ships and the sea, and in 1582 he had accompanied his uncle, Sir Francis Drake, to the West Indies.

He was in 1585 captain of a galliot in Drake's expedition to the Spanish main, commanded a queen's ship against the Armada in 1588, and in 1590 served with his father's expedition at the coast of Portugal.

Hawkins in 1593 purchases the Dainty, a ship originally built for his father and used by him in his expeditions, and sails for the West Indies, the Spanish Main and the South Seas.

It seems clear that his project is to prey on the overseas possessions of the king of Spain.

Hawkins, however, in an account of the voyage written thirty years afterwards, will maintain, and by that time perhaps had really persuaded himself, that his expedition was undertaken purely for the purpose of geographical discovery.

After visiting the coast of Brazil, the Dainty passes through the Straits of Magellan, and in due course reaches Valparaíso.