| In 1535, he had been struck by an idea of such sparkling originality
that he knew it could not fail to make him wealthy. In that year, the Plymouth
adventurer William Hawkins had successfully returned from his voyage to
South America, carrying with him ‘one of the savage kings of the countrey
of Brasill’. This unfortunate captive caused a sensation in Tudor London,
especially when he was ushered into the commanding presence of King Henry
VIII, ‘at the sight of whome, the king and all the nobilitie did not a little
marveile, and not without cause: for in his cheekes were holes made accordinge
to their savage manner, and therein small bones were planted, standing an
inche out from the said holes, which in his own countrey was reputed for
a great braverie’. As the king and courtiers prodded the chieftain, they
discovered that ‘he had also another hole in his nether lippe, wherein was
set a precious stone about the bignesse of a pease: all his apparell, behaviour
and gesture were very strange to the beholders.’
The sight of this savage astonished the court and was a cause of such excitement in the capital that Hore realised it presented a fine opportunity to make money. He decided to launch an expedition to North America with the intention of capturing one of King Henry VIII’s more primitive subjects. He could then be paraded around the capital and displayed – for a fee, of course – to curious Londoners. The dangers of such a voyage were considerable. Tudor vessels, not built to withstand the powerful Atlantic swells, were fearsomely top-heavy, and there was a very real danger of their foundering in the vastness of the ocean. Only a few English ships had ever crossed the Atlantic and the land on the far side was as mysterious and barbarous as the fabled Orient. But Hore remained optimistic about the chances of success and, a brilliant self-publicist, he realised that hunting for savages was certain to excite London’s gentlemen adventurers. |
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