Penguin Books Harmondsworth 1962

stan dobry

str. 302

format 11 x 18 cm

waga 185 g

On the one hand, it is a detailed, fluent and highly-readable description of a daring adventurer operating in a fascinating period. English privateers were just beginning to roam the Atlantic ocean, in search of prey, any prey, be it Spanish gold, Eastern spices or African slaves. Pitted against them was the superpower of those days - pre-Armada Spain - which had the largest ocean-going galleons and the economic and political interest to run these privateers down. This book deftly unveils the man, the era and the balance of power between the power that be (Spain) and the power to be (England).
However, although he keeps saying that some details are unknown to us due to lack of documentation, the author reports as facts many events of which he cannot have certain knowledge, such as the contents of speeches by Hawkins to his crew, the agreements reached by Hawkins and the captains of ships he seized, the clothes worn by Hawkins on certain occasions (pure conjecture) and even the inner thoughts of some of the protagonists.

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