21 SEPTEMBER 1929, Page 23

Some years ago an American woman h • istorian found in

the Spanish and Mexican archives documents throwing new light on Drake. Now Miss I. A. Wright, working in the Archives of the Indies at Seville, has discovered papers relating to John Hawkins, and has published these Spanish Documents concern- ing English Voyages to the Caribbean, 1527-68, translated through the Hakluyt Society (B. Quaritch, 25s.). It is unfortunate that the editor has not made fuller use of Dr. Williamson's masterly life of Hawkins, published in 1927. For her documents usefully supplement, but add no significant detail to, Dr. Williamson's book, which was based on Hakluyt, our Admiralty records and the printed Spanish Calendars. The central incident is the Spanish treachery at San Juan de Ulua, in September 1568, and the most remarkable of the papers is the affidavit of Don Martin Enriquez, Viceroy and Captain General of New Spain, relating how he made terms with Hawkins, so that the Spanish Fleet might get safely into harbour, and then deliberately violated those terms. All this is, well known, but the documents are interesting.