The Dragon, whereof Captain William Keeling was general, and the Hector, Captain Hawkins, sailed from Erith on the 8th March, 1606-7, and next touched at Plymouth, from which port they departed on the 16th of April, 1607.

On the 7th of May the ships anchored off Maio, where they lay for two days. During that time no tidings of Mr. Dirham, who in 1604 had been left behind there by Sir Henry Middleton, were obtained.

The Island of Fernando Larania [Fernando Noronha] was sighted on the 6th of June, and ten days later the ships were off the coast of Brazil. From that time the fleet drifted northwards, and recrossed the Line on the 8th of July.

As some 50 of the Dragon's crew and an equal number of the Hector's men were ill with scurvy and the flux, and as, owing to the wind, it was impossible to reach the Island of Fernando Larania, the General on the 30th of July held a Council, when it was resolved to put into Sierra Leone, of which place Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cavendish had made a favourable report.

On the 6th of August the vessels entered the harbour of Sierra Leone, at which place they remained till the 13th of September. During that time the sick were sent on shore to some empty huts, formerly built by the Portugals. A Portuguese ship, too, a regular trader between the Cape de Verde Islands and Sierra Leone, put in there. Its master avoided having any dealings with the English.