Back from the Spanish Inquisition

Our first interview is with Job Hortop, one of the sailors left behind in Mexico by Sir John Hawkins after his near-fatal battle with the Spanish at Veracruz in 1568. Miraculously, Hortop survived the ordeal, including a punishing trek across the wilderness to the City of Mexico, two years as a captive of the Spanish who resided there, not to mention prosecution by the Inquisition in Seville, after which served ten years in the galleys and was facing seven more years of labor to pay for his release. We catch up with Job in 1591 as he is ready to release the book based on his adventures, The Travailes of an Englishman.

Q: Tell us Job, how old were you when you first joined Hawkin's crew?
JH: Well, I was 15 years old, but I didn't join so much join as was made to serve--young guys like me wandering about the ports got shipped off like that pretty often. But I didn't mind too much back then--it was an opportunity. I had some experience as an apprentice powder-maker and being a gunner for Capt. Hawkins meant I could offer a lot of "bang" and maybe make a few "bucks." I'm sorry to say, though, that I'm as poor as the day I first left England--unless this book saves my skin.

Q: What happened to all your dreams? We know Hawkins had a lot of successes against the Spanish in the Indies... until Veracruz.
JH: Yes, we had made some good money trading Negro slaves to the Spanish (though of course the King doesn't allow his subjects to trade with us, so we were always dodging Spanish warships). But in our last voyage, Capt. Hawkins lost all his fleet, except for the Minion, which you can imagine was overcrowded with all us sailors wanting to get home and out of enemy territory. But there wasn't a chance all of us would make it in a leaky boat, so myself and about a hundred men decided it would be better to go ashore and throw ourselves on the mercy of the Spanish. Jail would be better than a watery grave.

Q: Did the Spanish come to arrest you right away? Or were you captured by the Indan savages? Please give our readers a sneak peek on what you had to endure in those wild parts.
JH: Well, we had to give up nearly all our clothes to the Indians we met--it seemed the thing they wanted most of us (we can't be certain, but that's what one of our men who spoke a bit of Spanish thought they wanted). But then they sent us in canoes to Mexico, an amazing city with streets of water and earthquakes every year. At first the Spanish treated us fine, on account of some of our men had been raised Catholic and knew their prayers in Latin, and so the priests and the noblemen told their vice-king that he should do us no harm. But they sent a bunch of us lower sort to card wool with the Indian slaves in Tlatlcoco, and some of us put up such a fuss that they sent us back to Mexico. On the journey to Mexico and back to Spain we saw many wonders and mysterious creatures, which I will omit so that readers may buy my book.


Q: So when you got back to Spain, then what?
JH: Well, we were brought to the Inquisition in Seville and had to answer many questions about our religion. At the end of it all, one year later, they brought us all out into the main square and made us all wear matching coats and carry candles in procession. The people wondered, and gazed upon us, some pitying our cases, others saying "Burn those heretics." But burnings are only for those who were stupid enough to say they'd be Protestants 'till they died. My mate John and I were no bloody Catholics, but we weren't high-born, either, so we went along with what they told us to do and were sent to the galleys to row the King of Spain's ships, like drudges.

Q: The Spanish Inquisition is horribly cruel, I hear. Tell us about the tortures and punishments you endured in prison.
JH: Well, I don't really want to talk about it--but really, life there was better than it was in the galleys. You just go along with what they say, talk about how you were raised and where you went to church and what's going on with the Queen (some English sailors heard the Spanish call her the devil's spawn) and then you go back to your cell. But you still get three meals a day, and no work, just sitting around jawing with your cellmates (if they've given you one) and try to figure out what the Spanish guy they've put you with is going to say when he gets called up to talk with the Inquisitor.

Q: Sounds like you're not very committed to your religion--and you call yourself a good Englishman!
JH: (panicked) Hey, the Queen doesn't read this magazine, does she? I'm really hoping to get some kind of reward for my 23 years out there. Really, it's not fair--this guy Tomson, another one taken up by the Inqusition, he got out of prison after 7 months, only had to wear this funny getup for two more years. But then he gets in with one of those English merchants in Seville, and what happens, he married a rich Spanish lady! Life just isn't fair. I guess my name is Job, I've got to be long-suffering like he was, but it's rough--I'm completely broke! But hopefully not for long... go buy my book, and keep your fingers crossed that the Queen reads it, too!

Sources:
- Frank Aydellote, "Elizabethan Seamen in Mexico and Ports of the Spanish Main," The American Historical Review 48,1 (1942): 1-19.
- J[ob] H[ortop], The Travailes of an Englishman. Containing his sundrie Calamities indured by the space of twentie and odd yeres in his absence from his native Country... (London, 1591). Available from the FAU library database, Early English Books Online, http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99851433