Hawkins, however, in an account of the voyage written thirty years afterwards, maintained, and by that time perhaps had really persuaded himself, that his expedition was undertaken purely for the purpose of geographical discovery.

Hawkins then sailed back to the South American mainland and passed through the Straits of Magellan, and in due course reached Valparaíso.

[1] Having plundered the town, Hawkins pushed north, and in June 1594, a year after leaving Plymouth, he arrived in the Bay of San Mateo, at the mouth of the Esmeraldas river, nowadays Ecuador, at the position 1°1′2.6″N 79°36′30.5″W / 1.017389°N 79.608472°W / 1.017389; -79.608472.

[4] During the voyage, Hawkins made a series of observations about the efficacy of citrus fruits, specifically "sower oranges and lemmons," for successfully treating scurvy—a debilitating disease for early explorers and sailors.

While James Lind is often credited with proving the benefits of citrus for curing scurvy, Hawkins, more than a century earlier, was also convinced of its benefits and wrote about it: "This is a wonderful secret of the power and wisedome of God, that hath hidden so great and unknown virtue in this fruit, to be a certaine remedie for this infirmitie"[5] In 1604 he became Member of Parliament for Plymouth and Vice-Admiral of Devon, a post which, as the coast was swarming with pirates (following the prohibition of English privateering in 1603[6]), was no sinecure.

[1] Hawkins wrote the memories of his trip under the title Voiage into the South Sea (1622),[1] which became the most famous adventure of the Elizabethan era,[citation needed] re-published by the Hakluyt Society in 1847,[8] and reworked in Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho!