e vessels was five thousand pounds.
According to the arrangement Queen Elizabeth received one-third of the
profits, which amounted to one thousand pounds.[10] In the year 1563
similar arrangements were made with the queen for another voyage to
the Gold Coast, during which there was considerable trouble with the
Portuguese. Notwithstanding this opposition the ships succeeded in
returning to England with a quantity of elephants' teeth and Guinea
grains.[11] In 1564, an expedition composed of three ships, one of
which belonged to Queen Elizabeth, was particularly unfortunate. One
of these ships was blown up, while the other two were attacked by the
Portuguese and probably had to return without obtaining any African
products.[12]

In these voyages to Guinea the English trade had been in exchange for
gold, elephants' teeth and pepper. Trading for slaves had scarcely
occurred to these early adventurers. Nevertheless, as early as 1562,
John Hawkins sailed for Sierra Leone with three vessels, and there
captured three hundred Negroes whom he sold to the Spaniards in
Hispaniola.[13] The success of this voyage was so great that in 1564
there was fitted out a second slave raiding expedition in which one of
the queen's ships, the Jesus, was employed. As before, Hawkins sold
his slaves in the West Indies, this time with some difficulty, because
the Spanish officials, who were forbidden to have any trade with
foreigners, regarded the Englishmen as pirates.[14]

Again, in 1567, Hawkins was on his way to Guinea. By playing off one
set of natives against another he procured about 450 slaves and once
more set out for the Spanish Indies. Although at first the voyage
promised to be successful, he was later set upon by a number of
Spanish ships and barely escaped with his life and one badly wrecked
vessel.[15]

Hawkins' voyages to Africa are worthy of note because he was the first
Englishman to engage in the slave trade. To be sure, his piratical
seizure of free Negroes broke all the rules of honorable dealing long
recognized on the African coast. As a result of his actions the
natives held all Englishmen in great distrust for a number of
years.[16] The unregulated method of carrying on the African trade,
pursued up to this time, ceased to a certain extent when Queen
Elizabeth granted the first patent of monopoly to the west coast of
Africa, May 3, 1588.

The charter of 1588 gave to certain merchants of Exeter, London and
other places