not have departed without the permission of
the city and the fort.[43]

This is the earliest record we possess of the appearance of an English
ship in the waters of Spanish America. Others, however, soon followed.
In 1530 William Hawkins, father of the famous John Hawkins, ventured in
"a tall and goodly ship ... called the 'Polo of Plymouth,'" down to the
coast of Guinea, trafficked with the natives for gold-dust and ivory,
and then crossed the ocean to Brazil, "where he behaved himself so
wisely with those savage people" that one of the kings of the country
took ship with him to England and was presented to Henry VIII. at
Whitehall.[44] The real occasion, however, for the appearance of foreign
ships in Spanish-American waters was the new occupation of carrying
negroes from the African coast to the Spanish colonies to be sold as
slaves. The rapid depopulation of the Indies, and the really serious
concern of the Spanish crown for the preservation of the indigenes, had
compelled the Spanish government to permit the introduction of negro
slaves from an early period. At first restricted to Christian slaves
carried from Spain, after 1510 licences to take over a certain number,
subject of course to governmental imposts, were given to private
individuals; and in August 1518, owing to the incessant clamour of the
colonists for more negroes, Laurent de Gouvenot, Governor of Bresa and
one of the foreign favourites of Charles V., obtained the first regular
contract to carry 4000 slaves directly from Africa to the West
Indies.[45] With slight modifications the contract system became
permanent, and with it, as a natural consequence, came contraband trade.
Cargoes of negroes were frequently "run" from Africa by Spaniards and
Portuguese, and as early as 1506 an order was issued to expel all
contraband slaves from Hispaniola.[46] The supply never equalled the
demand, however, and this explains why John Hawkins found it so
profitable to carry ship-loads of blacks across from the Guinea coast,
and why Spanish colonists could not resist the temptation to buy them,
notwithstanding the stringent laws against trading with foreigners.

The first voyage of John Hawkins was made in 1562-63. In conjunction
with Thomas Hampton he fitted out three vessels and sailed for Sierra
Leone. There he collected, "partly by the sword and partly by other
means," some 300 negroes, and with this valuable human freight crossed
the Atlantic to San Domingo in Hi