FIRST LINES OF POEMS AND STANZAS.

Vol. IV.

Robert Tomson, of Andover, Merchant. Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico, 1556-1558, A.D.

[Hakluyt. Voyages. 1589.]

The marvel is, that at this date, these Englishmen were allowed to go to New Spain at all; it was probably one of the results of the marriage of Philip with Mary Tudor. Blake, Field, and Tomson were probably the first British islanders who reached the city of Mexico. This narrative also gives us an account of the first auto-da-fé in that city.

[Pg 12]

Robert Tomson, born in the town of Andover, in Hampshire, began his travels out of England in the month of March, anno 1553 [i.e., 1554]; who departing out of the city of Bristol in company of other merchants of the said city, in a good ship called the bark Young, within eight days after, arrived at Lisbon, at Portugal: where the said Robert Tomson remained fifteen days. At the end of which, he shipped himself for Spain in the said ship, and within four days arrived in the bay of Cadiz in Andalusia, which is under the kingdom of Spain: and from thence, travelled up to the city of Seville by land, which is twenty leagues; and there, he repaired to the house of one John Field, an English merchant who had dwelt in the said city of Seville eighteen or twenty years married, with wife and children. In whose house, the said Tomson remained by the space of one whole year or thereabout, for two causes: the one, to learn the Castilian tongue; the other, to see the orders of the country, and the customs of the people.

At the end of which time, having seen the fleets of ships come out of the [West] Indies to that city, with such great quantity of gold and silver, pearls, precious stones, sugar, hides, ginger, and divers other rich commodities; he did determine with himself to seek means and opportunity to pass over to see that rich country, from whence such a great quantity of rich commodities came.

And it fell out, that within short time after, the said John Field, where the said Tomson was lodged, did determine to pass over into the West Indies himself, with his wife, children, and family: and, at the request of the said Tomson, he purchased a license of the King, to pass into the Indies, for himself, wife, and children; and among them, also, for the said Tomson to pass with them. So that presently they made preparation of victuals and other necessary provision for the voyage. But the ships which were prepared to perform the voyage being all ready to depart, were, upon certain considerations by the King's commandment, stayed and arrested, till further should be known of the King's pleasure.

[Pg 13]

Whereupon, the said John Field, with his company and Robert Tomson (being departed out of Seville, and come down to San Lucar de Barrameda, fifteen leagues off) seeing the stay made upon the ships of the said fleet, and not being assured when they would depart, determined to ship themselves for the isles of the Canaries, which are 250 leagues from San Lucar, and there to stay till the said fleet should come hither; for that is continually their port to make stay at, six or eight days, to take fresh water, bread, flesh, and other necessaries.

So that in the month of February, in anno 1555, the said Robert Tomson, with the said John Field and his company, shipped themselves in a caravel of the city of Cadiz, out of the town of San Lucar; and within six days, they arrived at the port of the Grand Canary: where at our coming, the ships that rode in the said port began to cry out of all measure, with loud voices: insomuch that the Castle, which stood fast by, began to shoot at us, and shot six or eight shot at us, and struck down our mainmast before we could hoist out our boat to go on land to know what the cause of the shooting was; seeing that we were Spanish ships, and coming into our country.

So that being on land, and complaining of the wrong and damage done unto us; they answered that "they had thought we had been French rovers, that had come into the said port to do some harm to the ships that were there." For that eight days past, there went out of the said port a caravel much like unto ours, ladened with sugars and other merchandise for Spain; and on the other side of the Point of the said island, met with a French Man of War: which took the said caravel, and unladed out of her into the said French ship, both men and goods. And it being demanded of the said Spaniards, "What other ships remained in the port whence they came?"; they answered, "There remained divers other ships, and one ladened with sugars as they were, and ready to depart for Spain." Upon the which news, the Frenchmen put thirty tall men of their ship, well appointed, into the said caravel that they had taken, and sent her back again to the said port from whence she had departed the day before.

Somewhat late towards evening, she came into port, not[Pg 14] showing past three or four men, and so came to an anchor hard by the other ships that were in the said port. Being seen by the Castle and by the said ships, they made no reckoning of her, because they knew her: and thinking that she had found contrary winds at the sea, or having forgotten something behind them, they had returned back again for the same, they made no account of her, but let her alone riding quietly among the other ships in the said port. So that about midnight, the said caravel, with the Frenchmen in her, went aboard [touched] the other ship that lay hard by, ladened with sugars; and driving the Spaniards that were in her under the hatches, presently let slip her cables and anchors, and set sail and carried her clean away: and after this sort, deceived them. And they thinking or fearing that we were the like, did shoot at us as they did.

This being past: the next day after our arrival in the said port, we did unbark ourselves, and went on land up to the city or head town of the Grand Canaria, where we remained eighteen or twenty days; and there found certain Englishmen, merchants, servants of Anthony Hickman and Edward Castelin, merchants in the city of London, that lay there for traffic: of whom we received great courtesy and much good cheer.

After the which twenty days being past, in which we had seen the country, the people, and the disposition thereof, we departed from thence, and passed to the next isle of the Canaries, eighteen leagues off, called Teneriffe; and being come on land, went up to the city called La Laguna: where we remained seven months, attending the coming of the whole fleet, which, in the end, came; and there having taken that which they had need of, we shipped ourselves in a ship of Cadiz, being one of the said fleet, belonging to an Englishman married in the city of Cadiz in Spain, whose name was John Sweeting. There came in the said ship as Captain, an Englishman also, whose name was Leonard Chilton, married in Cadiz, and son-in-law to the said John Sweeting: and another Englishman also, whose name was Ralph Sarre, came in the same ship, which had been a merchant of the city of Exeter; one of fifty years of age or thereabouts.

So that we departed from the said islands in the month of[Pg 15] October, the foresaid year [1555], eight ships in our company, and so directed our course towards the Bay of New Spain [Gulf of Mexico]; and, by the way, towards the island of Santo Domingo, otherwise called Hispaniola: so that within forty-two days [i.e., in December] after we departed from the said islands of Canaries, we arrived with our ship at the port of Santo Domingo; and went in over the bar, where our ship knocked her keel at her entry. There our ship rid [rode] before the town; where we went on land, and refreshed ourselves sixteen days.

There we found no bread made of wheat, but biscuit brought out of Spain, and out of the Bay of Mexico. For the country itself doth yield no kind of grain to make bread withal: but the bread they make there, is certain cakes made of roots called cassavia; which is something substantial, but it hath an unsavoury taste in the eating thereof. Flesh of beef and mutton, they have great store; for there are men that have 10,000 head of cattle, of oxen, bulls, and kine, which they do keep only for the hides: for the quantity of flesh is so great, that they are not able to spend the hundredth part. Of hog's flesh is there good store, very sweet and savoury; and so wholesome that they give it to sick folks to eat, instead of hens and capons: although they have good store of poultry of that sort, as also of guinea cocks and guinea hens.

At the time of our being there, the city of Santo Domingo was not of above 500 households of Spaniards: but of the Indians dwelling in the suburbs, there were more. The country is, most part of the year, very hot: and very full of a kind of flies or gnats with long bills [mosquitos], which do prick and molest the people very much in the night when they are asleep, in pricking their faces and hands and other parts of their bodies that lie uncovered, and make them to swell wonderfully. Also there is another kind of small worm, which creepeth into the soles of men's feet, and especially of the Black Moors [Indians] and children which use to go barefoot, and maketh their feet to grow as big as a man's head, and doth so ache that it would make one run mad. They have no remedy for the same, but to open the flesh, sometimes three or four inches, and so dig them out.

The country yieldeth great store of sugar, hides of oxen, bulls and kine, ginger, cana fistula, and salsaparilla. Mines[Pg 16] of silver and gold there are none; but in some rivers, there is found some small quantity of gold. The principal coin that they do traffic withal in that place is black money, made of copper and brass: and this they say they do use, not for that they lack money of gold and silver to trade withal out of the other parts of [West] India, but because, if they should have good money, the merchants that deal with them in trade would carry away their gold and silver, and let the country commodities lie still. And thus much for Santo Domingo. So we were, coming from the isles of Canaries to Santo Domingo, and staying there, until the month of December: which was three months.

About the beginning of January [1556], we departed thence towards the Bay of Mexico and New Spain; towards which we set our course, and so sailed twenty-four days, till we came within fifteen leagues of San Juan de Ulua, which was the port of Mexico of our right discharge.

And being so near our said port, there rose a storm of northerly winds which came off from Terra Florida; which caused us to cast about into the sea again, for fear lest that night we should be cast upon the shore before day did break, and so put ourselves in danger of casting away. The wind and sea grew so foul and strong, that, within two hours after the storm began, nine ships that were together, were so dispersed, that we could not see one another.

One of the ships of our company, being of the burden of 500 tons, called the "Hulk of Carion," would not cast about to sea, as we did; but went that night with the land: thinking in the morning to purchase the port of San Juan de Ulua; but missing the port, went with the shore, and was cast away. There were drowned of that ship, seventy-five persons, men, women, and children; and sixty-four were saved that could swim, and had means to save themselves. Among those that perished in that ship, was a gentleman who had been Pres[id]ent the year before in Santo Domingo, his wife and four daughters, with the rest of his servants and household.

We, with the other seven ships, cast about into the sea, the storm [en]during ten days with great might, boisterous winds, fogs, and rain. Our ship, being old and weak, was so tossed that she opened at the stern a fathom under water, and the best remedy we had was to stop it with beds and pilobiers[Pg 17] [? pillows for litters]: and for fear of sinking we threw and lightened into the sea all the goods we had, or could come by; but that would not serve.

Then we cut our mainmast, and threw all our ordnance into the sea, saving one piece; which, early in a morning, when we thought we should have sunk, we shot off: and, as it pleased GOD, there was one of the ships of our company near unto us, which we saw not by means of the great fog; which hearing the sound of the piece, and understanding some of the company to be in great extremity, began to make towards us, and when they came within hearing of us, we desired them "for the love of GOD! to help to save us, for that we were all like to perish!" They willed us "to hoist our foresail as much as we could, and make towards them; for they would do their best to save us;" and so we did.

And we had no sooner hoisted our foresail, but there came a gale of wind; and a piece of sea struck in the foresail, and carried away sail and mast all overboard: so that then we thought there was no hope of life. And then we began to embrace one another, every man his friend, every wife her husband, and the children their fathers and mothers; committing our souls to Almighty GOD, thinking never to escape alive. Yet it pleased GOD, in the time of most need, when all hope was past, to aid us with His helping hand, and caused the wind a little to cease; so that within two hours after, the other ship was able to come aboard us, and took into her, with her boat, man, woman and child, naked without hose, or shoes upon many of our feet.

I do remember that the last person that came out of the ship into the boat was a woman Black Moore [Indian]; who leaping out of the ship into the boat, with a young sucking child in her arms, leapt too short, and fell into the sea, and was a good while under the water before the boat could come to rescue her: and, with the spreading of her clothes rose above water again, and was caught by the coat and pulled into the boat, having still her child under her arm, both of them half drowned; and yet her natural love towards her child would not let her let the child go. And when she came aboard the boat, she held her child so fast under her arm still, that two men were scant able to get it out.

So we departed out of our ship, and left it in the sea. It[Pg 18] was worth 400,000 ducats [= about £100,000 then = about £900,000 now], ship and goods, when we left it.

Within three days after, we arrived at our port of San Juan de Ulua, in New Spain.

I do remember that in the great and boisterous storm of this foul weather, in the night there came upon the top of our mainyard and mainmast, a certain little light, much like unto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called the corpos sancto, and said "It was Saint Elmo" [see Vol. III. p. 417], whom they take to be the advocate of sailors. At which sight, the Spaniards fell down upon their knees and worshipped it: praying GOD and Saint Elmo to cease the torment, and save them from the peril they were in; with promising him that, on their coming on land, they would repair unto his chapel, and there cause masses to be said, and other ceremonies to be done. The friars [did] cast relics into the sea, to cause the sea to be still, and likewise said Gospels, with other crossings and ceremonies upon the sea to make the storm to cease: which, as they said, did much good to weaken the fury of the storm. But I could not perceive it, nor gave any credit to it; till it pleased GOD to send us the remedy, and delivered us from the rage of the same. His name be praised therefore!

This light continued aboard our ship about three hours, flying from mast to mast, and from top to top; and sometimes it would be in two or three places at once. I informed myself of learned men afterward, what this light should be? and they said that "It was but a congelation of the wind and vapours of the sea congealed with the extremity of the weather, and so flying in the wind, many times doth chance to hit the masts and shrouds of the ship that are at sea in foul weather." And, in truth, I do take it to be so: for that I have seen the like in other ships at sea, and in sundry ships at once. By this, men may see how the Papists are given to believe and worship such vain things and toys as God; to whom all honour doth appertain: and in their need and necessities do let [cease] to call upon the living GOD, who is the giver of all good things.

The 16th of April in anno 1556, we arrived at the port of San Juan de Ulua in New Spain, very naked and distressed of apparel and all other things, by means of the loss of our[Pg 19] foresaid ship and goods; and from thence we went to the new town called Vera Cruz, five leagues from the said port of San Juan de Ulua, marching still by the sea shore: where we found lying upon the sands a great quantity of mighty great trees, with roots and all, some of them four, five, or six cart load, by estimation; which, as the people told us, were, in the great stormy weather which we [en]dured at sea, rooted out of the ground in Terra Florida right against that place (which is 300 leagues over the sea), and brought thither.

So that we came to the said town of Vera Cruz; where we remained a month. There the said John Field chanced to meet an old friend of his acquaintance in Spain, called Gonzalo Ruiz de Cordova, a very rich man of the said town of Vera Cruz; who (hearing of his coming thither, with his wife and family; and of his misfortune by sea) came unto him, and received him and all his household into his house, and kept us there a whole month, making us very good cheer; and giving us good entertainment, and also gave us, that were in all eight persons, of the said J. Field's house, double apparel, new out of the shop, of very good cloth, coats, cloaks, shirts, smocks, gowns for the women, hose, shoes, and all other necessary apparel; and for our way up to the city of Mexico, horses, moyles [mules], and men; and money in our purses for the expenses by the way, which by our account might amount unto the sum of 400 crowns [= £120 then = about £1,000 now].

After we were entered two days' journey into the country, I, the said Robert Tomson, fell sick of an ague: so that the next day I was not able to sit on my horse; but was fain to be carried upon Indians' backs from thence to Mexico.

And when we came within half a day's journey of the city of Mexico, the said John Field also fell sick; and within three days after we arrived at the said city, he died. And presently sickened one of his children, and two more of his household people; who within eight days died. So that within ten days after we arrived at the city of Mexico, of eight persons that were of us of the said company, there remained but four of us alive: and I, the said Tomson, at the point of death, of the sickness that I got on the way, which continued with me for the space of six months [till October 1556]. At the end of which time, it pleased GOD[Pg 20] to restore me my health again, though weak and greatly disabled.

Mexico was a city, in my time, of not above 1,500 households of Spaniards inhabiting there; but of Indian people in the suburbs of the said city, there dwelt about 300,000 as it was thought, and many more. This city of Mexico is sixty-five leagues from the North Sea [the Gulf of Mexico] and seventy-five leagues from the South Sea [the Pacific Ocean]; so that it standeth in the midst of the main land, betwixt the one sea and the other.

It is situated in the midst of a lake of standing water, and surrounded round about with the same; save, in many places, going out of the city, are many broad ways through the said lake or water. This lake and city are surrounded also with great mountains round about, which are in compass above thirty leagues; and the said city and lake of standing water doth stand in a great plain in the midst of it. This lake of standing water doth proceed from the shedding of the rain, that falleth upon the said mountains; and so gathers itself together in this place.