In 1568, fifty-two years before the celebrated landing at Plymouth Rock, three English sailors traveled through what is now South Texas after a disastrous voyage with Sir John Hawkins, an admiral of Queen Elizabeth I's fleet. Having sailed in 1567 on a trading voyage, they were with Hawkins at Vera Cruz, Mexico, when the Spanish attacked on Sept 26, 1568, destroying five of his six ships. On October 8, 1568, famine and overcrowding forced Hawkins to put 114 men ashore near Tampico from his remaining crippled vessel. Most went south and were captured by the Spanish, while twenty-six went north and suffered Indian fights and other misfortunes. Only Richard Browne, David Ingram, and Richard Twide ever made it back to England. Their passage through this region is supported by Ingram's 1582 testimony to her Majesty's secretary, in which he recounted cannibal Indians along the Gulf Coast, lush grass at the mouth of the Rio Grande, sandy country north of the river, large musquetas, and prickly pear fruit. After eleven months of steady walking, with only one rest as long as five days, the three reached Frenchmen in Nova Scotia, and a ship captain took them to Europe.