Libraries

Richard Hawkins, one of the most feared corsairs of the English crown, participated among other events in the Caribbean campaign of Francis Drake and was a soldier of the English troops that defeated the Invincible Armada of Felipe II. He sailed from the port of Plymouth in 1592 and took more than a year to reach the shores of South America, where he was captured.

Thus, the naval battle between Beltrán de Castro and Richard Hawkins was a highly documented event by writers of those years, which reveals its immediate significance. This maritime feat produced much literature, as Pedro de Oña recounted it in Canto XVIII and XIX of the Arauco domado (1596) and Lope de Vega in Canto II and III of La Dragontea (1598). In addition, among the most representative testimonies that narrate this episode, there is the chronicle of the postmaster Pedro Balaguer de Salcedo, a detailed report of the combat and written commissioned by Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza.

There are two versions of this text: one manuscript, which under the symbol MSS / 3827 is kept in the National Library of Spain; and a facsimile from 1916, which we share on this website, prepared by José Toribio Medina. The Chilean bibliographer presents a brief study of the edition of this incunabula and points out that the work came out of the presses in two sizes: folio in octavo, whose prices varied between 8 reales and 2 patacones.

Daphne Cornejo
Proyecto Estudios Indianos

Digital Resources

• Biography of Beltrán de Castro