English seamen in the sixteenth century : lectures delivered at Oxford, Easter terms, 1893-4

t- *. . -

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CENTRE
for

REFORMATION

and
RENAISSANCE

STUDIES

VICTORIA
UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH SEAMEN

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

WORKS BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Fall of Wolsey
to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. 12 vols. crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. each.

THE DIVORCE OF CATHERINE OF ARAGON : the

Story as told by the Imperial Ambassadors resident at the Court of
Henry VIII. In u&um Laicorum. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.

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THE ENGLISH IN IRELAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH
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SHORT STUDIES ON GREAT SUBJECTS. Cabinet Edition,
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LIFE AND LETTERS OF ERASMUS. Crown Svo. 3s. 6rf.
THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. Crown Svo. 3s. Gd.

ENGLISH SEAMEN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. Illustrated Edition, with 5 Photogravure Plates
and 16 other Illustrations, large crown Svo., gilt top, 6s. net.

CAESAR : A SKETCH. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.

OCEANA ; or., ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. With 9 Illus
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THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES ; OR, THE Bow
OF ULYSSES. With 9 Illustrations. Crown Svo.. boards 2s., cloth
2s. 6rf.

THE TWO CHIEFS OF DUNBOY ; OR, AN IRISH ROMANCE

OF THE LAST CLXTUBY. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.

THOMAS CARLYLE : A HISTORY or HIS LIFE. With Three
Portraits. Crown Svo. Vols. I. and II. 7s. Vols. III. and IV. 7s.

MY RELATIONS WITH CARLYLE. Svo. 2s. net.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JAMES
ANTHONY FEOUDE. Edited by P. S. ALLEN, M. A. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d.

LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
London, Bombay and Calcutta.

ENGLISH SEAMEN

IN

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

LECTURES

DELIVERED AT OXFORD EASTER TERMS 1893-4 BY

JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE

NEW IMPRESSION
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,
BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA

1907

All rights reserved

DA

8EF.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
First Edition, Urn, March 189S.
Reprinted, Crown 8vo, May 1S95, January 1596,

December 1896, August 1898, August 1899.
Cheap Edition for India, June 1899.
Reissued in the Silver Library, January 1901.
New Impression, with Illustrations, July 1901.
Reprinted December 1S07.

CONTENTS

LECTURE PAUS

I. THE SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION . 1

II. JOHN HAWKINS AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE

TRADE 35

III. SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP THE SECOND 68

iv. DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD . 102

V. PARTIES IN THE STATE .... 141

VI. THE GREAT EXPEDITION TO THE WEST

INDIES . ... 176

VII. ATTACK ON CADIZ . . 207

Fill. SAILING OF THE ARMADA . . . 238

IX. DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA . 272

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

To face page

QUEEN ELIZABETH. From a picture in the possession of
the Earl of Darnley at Cobham . Frontispiece

SIR JOHN HAWKINS. From the picture in the possession

of the family at Hay ford Hall, Suckfastleigh, Devon 68

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE IN HIS 43RD YEAB. From the

engraving by Elstracke . . . .106

PHILIP II. From a picture in the possession of Miss Froudc 238

THE ENGLISH IN THE BAT OF CADIZ. From the paint
ing by E. Coxes in the Museum at Madrid. (The
figure on the extreme left, standing behind the chair, is
the Duke of Medina Sidonia.) . . . 244

OTHER FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

MAP : THE WORLD AS KNOWN AT THE END OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Compiled from Drake and
the Tudor Navy. Sy Julian S. Corbett. Zvols. 1898.
Drake s World Encompassed, 1854. Contemporary
Dutch Silver Plaque in the British Museum, and
other authorities ..... 1

KING HENRY VIII. From a picture belonging to the Earl

of Warwick . . . . . .10

viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

To face page

THE GREAT HARRY. Built at Woolwich in 1514. From

an engraving after a picture by Holbein . .18

GREENWICH PALACE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
From the original drawing by Van den Wyngaerde.
In the Sutherland Collection in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford ...... 28

ALVAEO DE BAgAN, Marquis of Santa Cruz. From a
lithograph from the portrait in the possession of the
Marquis de Hiraflores . . . .74

SIXTEENTH CENTURY SHIPS. From Vissclwr s Series,

cm. 1588 . . . . . .112

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. From an engraving in Hol
land s Heroalogia . . . . .122

FATHER PARSONS. From a print in the British Museum 146

LORD BURGHLEY. From a painting probably by M.

Gheeraedts in the National Portrait Gallery . .158

SIR WALTER RALEIGH. From a painting by Zuccaro in

the National Portrait Gallery . . . .198

MAKY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. From a picture by P. Oudry in

the National Portrait Gallery . . . 218

ROBERT DEVEREUX, Earl of Essex. From a picture in

the National Portrait Gallery . . . 226

ADAMS S CHART, No. 2. From the British Museum . 260

THE ARK ROYAL. From a contemporary print in the

British Museum ..... 268

A. LORD BUCKHURST. B. EAEL OF NOTTINGHAM (Lord
Howard of Effingham). C. LORD MOTJNTJOY. From
a picture by M. Gheeraedts in the National Portrait
Gallery ...... 286

A SIXTEENTH CENTURY SEA FIGHT. From a print in

the British Museum, ..... 290

c-~ojf~}Cajric irn=^.

THE WORLD AS KNOWN

AT THE END OF THE

SIXTEENTH CENTURY

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t8o

ENGLISH SEAMEN

IN

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

LECTURE I
THE SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION

JEAN PAUL, the German poet, said that God
had given to France the empire of the land,
to England the empire of the sea, and to his own
country the empire of the air. The world has
changed since Jean Paul s days. The wings of
France have been clipped ; the German Empire
has become a solid thing ; but England still
holds her watery dominion ; Britannia does still
rule the waves, and in this proud position she
has spread the English race over the globe ; she

2 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

has created the great American nation ; she is
peopling new Englands at the Antipodes; she
has made her Queen Empress of India; and is
in fact the very considerable phenomenon in the
social and political world which all acknowledge
her to be. And all this she has achieved in the
course of three centuries, entirely in consequence
of her predominance as an ocean power. Take
away her merchant fleets ; take away the navy
that guards them : her empire will come to an
end ; her colonies will fall off, like leaves from a
withered tree ; and Britain will become once
more an insignificant island in the North Sea,
for the future students in Australian and New
Zealand universities to discuss the fate of in their
debating societies.

How the English navy came to hold so extra
ordinary a position is worth reflecting on. Much
has been written about it, but little, as it seems
to me, which touches the heart of the matter.
We are shown the power of our country growing
and expanding. But how it grew, why, after a
sleep of so many hundred years, the genius of
our Scandinavian forefathers suddenly sprang

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 3

again into life of this we are left without
explanation.

The beginning was undoubtedly the defeat of
the Spanish Armada in 1588. Down to that time
the sea sovereignty belonged to the Spaniards,
and had been fairly won by them. The conquest
of Granada had stimulated and elevated the
Spanish character. The subjects of Ferdinand
and Isabella, of Charles V. and Philip II., were
extraordinary men, and accomplished extraordinary
things. They stretched the limits of the known
world ; they conquered Mexico and Peru ; they
planted their colonies over the South American
continent ; they took possession of the great West
Indian islands, and with so firm a grasp that
Cuba at least will never lose the mark of the
hand which seized it. They built their cities as
if for eternity. They spread to the Indian Ocean,
and gave their monarch s name to the Philippines.
All this they accomplished in half a century, and,
as it were, they did it with a single hand ; with
the other they were fighting Moors and Turks
and protecting the coast of the Mediterranean
from the corsairs of Tunis and Constantinople.

4 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

They had risen on the crest of the wave, and
with their proud Non sufflcit orlris were looking
for new worlds to conquer, at a time when the
bark of the English water-dogs had scarcely been
heard beyond their own fishing-grounds, and the
largest merchant vessel sailing from the port of
London was scarce bigger than a modern coasting
collier. And yet within the space of a single
ordinary life these insignificant islanders had
struck the sceptre from the Spaniards grasp and
placed the ocean crown on the brow of their own
sovereign. How did it come about ? What
Cadmus had sown dragons teeth in the furrows
of the sea for the race to spring from who manned
the ships of Queen Elizabeth, who carried the
flag of their own country round the globe, and
challenged and fought the Spaniards on their
own coasts and in their own harbours ?

The English sea power was the legitimate
child of the Reformation. It grew, as I shall
show you, directly out of the new despised Pro
testantism. Matthew Parker and Bishop Jewel,
the judicious Hooker himself, excellent men as
they were, would have written and preached to

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 5

small purpose without Sir Francis Drake s cannon
to play an accompaniment to their teaching.
And again, Drake s cannon would not have roared
so loudly and so widely without seamen already
trained in heart and hand to work his ships and
level his artillery. It was to the superior sea
manship, the superior quality of English ships
and crews, that the Spaniards attributed their
defeat. Where did these ships come from ?
Where and how did these mariners learn their
trade ? Historians talk enthusiastically of the
national spirit of a people rising with a united
heart to repel the invader, and so on. But national
spirit could not extemporise a fleet or produce
trained officers and sailors to match the con
querors of Lepanto. One slight observation I
must make here at starting, and certainly with
no invidious purpose. It has been said confidently,
it has been repeated, I believe, by all modern
writers, that the Spanish invasion suspended in
England the quarrels of creed, and united Pro
testants and Roman Catholics in defence of their
Queen and country. They remind us especially
that Lord Howard of Effingham, who was Eliza-

6 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

beth a admiral, was himself a Roman Catholic
But was it so ? The Earl of Arundel, the head
of the House of Howard, was a Roman Catholic,
and he was in the Tower praying for the success
of Medina Sidonia. Lord Howard of Effingham
was no more a Roman Catholic than I hope I
am not taking away their character than the
present Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop
of London. He was a Catholic, but an English
Catholic, as those reverend prelates are. Roman
Catholic he could not possibly have been, nor any
one who on that great occasion was found on the
side of Elizabeth. A Roman Catholic is one who
acknowledges the Roman Bishop s authority. The
Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth, had pro
nounced her deposed, had absolved her subjects
from their allegiance, and forbidden them to fight
for her. No Englishman who fought on that
great occasion for English liberty was, or could
have been, in communion with Rome. Loose
statements of this kind, lightly made, fall in
with the modern humour. They are caught up,
applauded, repeated, and pass unquestioned into
history. It is time to correct them a little.

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION ^

1 have in my possession a detailed account of
the temper of parties in England, drawn up in
the year 1585, three years before the Armada
came. The writer was a distinguished Jesuit.
The account itself was prepared for the use of
the Pope and Philip, with a special view to the
reception which an invading force would meet
with, and it goes into great detail. The people
of the towns London, Bristol, &c. were, he says,
generally heretics. The peers, the gentry, their
tenants, and peasantry, who formed the immense
majority of the population, were almost univer
sally Catholics. But this writer distinguishes
properly among Catholics. There were the
ardent impassioned Catholics, ready to be con
fessors and martyrs, ready to rebel at the first
opportunity, who had renounced their allegiance,
who desired to overthrow Elizabeth and put the
Queen of Scots in her place. The number of
these, he says, was daily increasing, owing to the
exertions of the seminary priests ; and plots, he
boasts, were being continually formed by them to
murder the Queen. There were Catholics of
another sort, who were papal at heart, but went

8 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

with the times to save their property ; who looked
forward to a change in the natural order of things,
but would not stir of themselves till an invading
army actually appeared. But all alike, he insists,
were eager for a revolution. Let the Prince of
Parma come, and they would all join him ; and
together these two classes of Catholics made
three-fourths of the nation.

The only party, he says (and this is really
noticeable), the only party that would fight to
death for the Queen, the only real friends she
had, were the Puritans (it is the first mention of
the name which I have found), the Puritans of
London, the Puritans of the sea towns. These
he admits were dangerous, desperate, determined
men. The numbers of them, however, were
providentially small.

The date of this document is, as I said, 1585,
and I believe it generally accurate. The only
mistake is that among the Anglican Catholics
there were a few to whom their country was as
dear as their creed a few who were beginning to
see that under the Act of Uniformity Catholic
doctrine might be taught and Catholic ritual

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 9

practised ; who adhered to the old forms of
religion, but did not believe that obedience to the
Pope was a necessary part of them. One of these
was Lord Howard of Effingham, whom the Queen
placed in his high command to secure the waver
ing fidelity of the peers and country gentlemen.
But the force, the fire, the enthusiasm came
(as the Jesuit saw) from the Puritans, from men
of the same convictions as the Calvinists of
Holland and Rochelle ; men who, driven from
the land, took to the ocean as their natural
home, and nursed the Reformation in an ocean
cradle. How the seagoing population of the
North of Europe took so strong a Protestant
impression it is the purpose of these lectures to
explain.

Henry VIII. on coming to the throne found
England without a fleet, and without a conscious
sense of the need of one. A few merchant hulks
traded with Bordeaux and Cadiz and Lisbon ;
hoys and fly-boats drifted slowly backwards and
forwards between Antwerp and the Thames. A
fishing fleet tolerably appointed went annually to
Iceland for cod. Local fishermen worked the

io ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

North Sea and the Channel from Hull to Fal-
mouth. The Chester people went to Kinsale for
herrings and mackerel : but that was all the
nation had aspired to no more.

Columbus had offered the New World to
Henry VII. while the discovery was still in the
air. He had sent his brother to England with
maps and globes, and quotations from Plato to
prove its existence. Henry, like a practical
Englishman, treated it as a wild dream.

The dream had come from the gate of horn.
America was found, and the Spaniard, and not the
English, came into first possession of it. Still,
America was a large place, and John Cabot the
Venetian with his son Sebastian tried Henry
again. England might still be able to secure a
slice. This time Henry VII. listened. Two small
ships were fitted out at Bristol, crossed the
Atlantic, discovered Newfoundland, coasted down
to Florida looking for a passage to Cathay, but
could not find one. The elder Cabot died ; the
younger came home. The expedition failed, and
no interest had been roused.

With the accession of Henry VIII. a new era

KIXG 1IEXRY YIIT.
Prom a to (!<. E",l of ""

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION n

had opened a new era in many senses. Printing
was coming into use Erasmus and his compan
ions were shaking Europe with the new learning,
Copernican astronomy was changing the level disk
of the earth into a revolving globe, and turning
dizzy the thoughts of mankind. Imagination was
on the stretch. The reality of things was assum
ing proportions vaster than fancy had dreamt,
and unfastening established belief on a thousand
sides. The yourig Henry was welcomed by Eras
mus as likely to be the glory of the age that was
opening. He was young, brilliant, cultivated, and
ambitious. To what might he not aspire under
the new conditions ! Henry VIII. was all that,
but he was cautious and looked about him.
Europe was full of wars in which he was likely
to be entangled. His father had left the treasury
well furnished. The young King, like a wise
man, turned his first attention to the broad ditch,
as he called the British Channel, which formed
the natural defence of the realm. The opening
of the Atlantic had revolutionised war and sea
manship. Long voyages required larger vessels.
Henry was the first prince to see the place which

12 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

gunpowder was going to hold in wars. In his first
years he repaired his dockyards, built new ships
on improved models, and imported Italians to cast
him new types of cannon. King Harry loved a
man, it was said, and knew a man when he saw
one. He made acquaintance with sea captains at
Portsmouth and Southampton. In some way or
other he came to know one Mr. William Hawkins,
of Plymouth, and held him in especial esteem.
This Mr. Hawkins, under Henry s patronage,
ventured down to the coast of Guinea and
brought home gold and ivory ; crossed over to
Brazil ; made friends with the Brazilian natives ;
even brought back with him the king of those
countries, who was curious to see what Eng
land was like, and presented him to Henry at
Whitehall.

Another Plymouth man, Robert Thome, again
with Henry s help, went out to look for the North
west passage which Cabot had failed to find.
Thome s ship was called the Dominus Vobiscum,
a pious aspiration which, however, secured no suc
cess. A London man, a Master Hore, tried next.
Master Hore, it is said, was given to cosmography,

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION ij

was a plausible talker at scientific meetings, and
so on. He persuaded divers young lawyers
(briefless barristers, I suppose) and other gentle
men altogether a hundred and twenty of them
to join him. They procured two vessels at
Gravesend. They took the sacrament together
before sailing. They apparently relied on Provi
dence to take care of them, for they made little
other preparation. They reached Newfoundland,
but their stores ran out, and their ships went on
shore. In the land of fish they did not know how
to use line and bait. They fed on roots and
bilberries, and picked fish-bones out of the ospreys
nests. At last they began to eat one another
careless of Master Hore, who told them they would
go to unquenchable fire. A French vessel came
in. They seized her with the food she had on
board and sailed home in her, leaving the French
crew to their fate. The poor French happily
found means of following them. They complained
of their treatment, and Henry ordered an inquiry ;
but finding, the report says, the great distress
Master Hore s party had been in, was so moved
with pity, that he did not punish them, but

14 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

out of his own purse made royal recompense to
the French.

Something better than gentlemen volunteers
was needed if naval enterprise was to come to
anything in England. The long wars between
Francis I. and Charles V. brought the problem
closer. On land the fighting was between the
regular armies. At sea privateers were let loose
out of French, Flemish, and Spanish ports. Enter
prising individuals took out letters of marque and
went cruising to take the chance of what they
could catch. The Channel was the chief hunting-
ground, as being the highway between Spain
and the Low Countries. The interval was short
between privateers and pirates. Vessels of all
sorts passed into the business. The Scilly Isles
became a pirate stronghold. The creeks and
estuaries in Cork and Kerry furnished hiding-
places where the rovers could lie with security
and share their plunder with the Irish chiefs.
The disorder grew wilder when the divorce of
Catherine of Aragon made Henry into the public
enemy of Papal Europe. English traders and
fishing-smacks were plundered and sunk. Their

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 15

crews went armed to defend themselves, and from
Thames mouth to Land s End the Channel be
came the scene of desperate fights. The type of
vessel altered to suit the new conditions. Life
depended on speed of sailing. The State Papers
describe squadrons of French or Spaniards flying
about, dashing into Dartmouth, Plymouth, or
Falmouth, cutting out English coasters, or
fighting one another.

After Henry was excommunicated, and
Ireland rebelled, and England itself threatened
disturbance, the King had to look to his security.
He made little noise about it. But the Spanish
ambassador reported him as silently building ships
in the Thames and at Portsmouth. As invasion
seemed imminent, he began with sweeping the
seas of the looser vermin. A few swift well-armed
cruisers pushed suddenly out of the Solent,
caught and destroyed a pirate fleet in Mount s
Bay, sent to the bottom some Flemish privateers
in the Downs, and captured the Flemish admiral
himself. Danger at home growing more menac
ing, and the monks spreading the fire which grew
into the Pilgrimage of Grace, Henry suppressed

1 6 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

the abbeys, sold the lands, and with the proceeds
armed the coast with fortresses. You threaten
me, he seemed to say to them, that you will use
the wealth our fathers gave you to overthrow my
Government and bring in the invader. I will
take your wealth, and I will use it to disappoint
your treachery. You may see the remnants of
Henry s work in the fortresses anywhere along the
coast from Berwick to the Land s End.

Louder thundered the Vatican. In 1539
Henry s time appeared to have come. France
and Spain made peace, and the Pope s sentence
was now expected to be executed by Charles or
Francis, or both. A crowd of vessels large and
small was collected in the Scheldt, for what pur
pose save to transport an army into England ?
Scotland had joined the Catholic League. Henry
fearlessly appealed to the English people. Catholic
peers and priests might conspire against him,
but, explain it how we will, the nation was loyal
to Henry and came to his side. The London
merchants armed their ships in the river. From
the seaports everywhere came armed brigantines
and sloops. The fishermen of the West left their

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 17

boats and nets to their wives, and the fishing was
none the worse, for the women handled oar and
sail and line and went to the whiting-grounds,
while their husbands had gone to fight for their
King. Genius kindled into discovery at the call
of the country. Mr. Fletcher of Rye (be his name
remembered) invented a boat the like of which
was never seen before, which would work to
windward, vrith sails trimmed fore and aft, the
greatest revolution yet made in shipbuilding. A
hundred and fifty sail collected at Sandwich to
match the armament in the Scheldt ; and Marillac,
the French ambassador, reported with amazement
the energy of King and people.

The Catholic Powers thought better of it.
This was not the England which Reginald Pole
had told them was longing for their appearance.
The Scheldt force dispersed. Henry read Scotland
a needed lesson. The Scots had thought to take
him at disadvantage, and sit on his back when
the Emperor attacked him. One morning when
the people at Leith woke out of their sleep, they
found an English fleet in the Roads ; and before

they had time to look about them, Leith was on

c

1 8 ENGLISH SEAMEN ELECT.

fire and Edinburgh was taken. Charles V., if he
had ever seriously thought of invading Henry,
returned to wiser counsels, and made an alliance
with him instead. The Pope turned to France.
If the Emperor forsook him, the Most Christian
King would help. He promised Francis that if he
could win England he might keep it for himself.
Francis resolved to try what he could do.

Five years had passed since the gathering
at Sandwich. It was now the summer of 1544.
The records say that the French collected at
Havre near 300 vessels, fighting ships, galleys,
and transports. Doubtless the numbers are far
exaggerated, but at any rate it was the largest
force ever yet got together to invade England,
capable, if well handled, of bringing Henry to his
knees. The plan was to seize and occupy the Isle
of Wight, destroy the English fleet, then take
Portsmouth and Southampton, and so advance
on London.

Henry s attention to his navy had not slackened.
He had built ship on ship. The Great Harry was
a thousand tons, carried 700 men, and was the
wonder of the day. There were a dozen others

BI

ca

I.] SEA CXADLE OF THE REFORMATION 19

scarcely less imposing. The King called again on
the nation, and again the nation answered. In
England altogether there were 150,000 men in
arms in field or garrison. In the King s fleet at
Portsmouth there were 1 2,000 seamen, and the
privateers of the West crowded up eagerly as
before. It is strange, with the notions which
we have allowed ourselves to form of Henry, to
observe the enthusiasm with which the whole
country, as yet undivided by doctrinal quarrels,
rallied a second time to defend him.

In this Portsmouth fleet lay undeveloped the
genius of the future naval greatness of England.
A small fact connected with it is worth recording.
The watchword on board was, God save the
King ; the answer was, Long to reign over us :
the earliest germ discoverable of the English
National Anthem.

The King had come himself to Portsmouth
to witness the expected attack. The fleet was
commanded by Lord Lisle, afterwards Duke of
Northumberland. It was the middle of July.
The French crossed from Havre unfought with,
and anchored in St. Helens Roads off Brading

20 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Harbour. The English, being greatly inferior in
numbers, lay waiting for them inside the Spit.
The morning after the French came in was still
and sultry. The English could not move for
want of wind. The galleys crossed over and
engaged them for two or three hours with some
advantage. The breeze rose at noon ; a few fast
sloops got under way and easily drove them back.
But the same breeze which enabled the English
to move brought a serious calamity with it. The
Mary Rose, one of Lisle s finest vessels, had been
under the fire of the galleys. Her ports had
been left open, and when the wind sprang up, she
heeled over, filled, and went down, carrying two
hundred men along with her. The French saw
her sink, and thought their own guns had done
it. They hoped to follow up their success. At
night they sent over boats to take soundings, and
discover the way into the harbour. The boats
reported that the sandbanks made the approach
impossible. The French had no clear plan of
action. They tried a landing in the island, but
the force was too small, and failed. They weighed
anchor and brought up again behind Selsea Bill,

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 21

where Lisle proposed to run them down in the
dark, taking advantage of the tide. But they
had an enemy to deal with worse than Lisle, on
board their own ships, which explained their dis
tracted movements. Hot weather, putrid meat,
and putrid water had prostrated whole ships
companies with dysentery. After a three weeks
ineffectual cruise they had to hasten back to
Havre, break up, and disperse. The first great
armament which was to have recovered England
to the Papacy had effected nothing. Henry had
once more shown his strength, and was left
undisputed master of the narrow seas.

So matters stood for what remained of Henry s
reign. As far as he had gone, he had quarrelled
with the Pope, and had brought the Church under
the law. So far the country generally had gone
with him, and there had been no violent changes
in the administration of religion. When Henry
died the Protector abolished the old creed, and
created a new and perilous cleavage between
Protestant and Catholic, and, while England
needed the protection of a navy more than ever,
allowed the fine fleet which Henry had left to fall

22 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

into decay. The spirit of enterprise grew with
the Reformation. Merchant companies opened
trade with Russia and the Levant; adventurous
sea captains went to Guinea for gold. Sir Hugh
Willoughby followed the phantom of the North
west Passage, turning eastward round the North
Cape to look for it, and perished in the ice.
English commerce was beginning to grow in spite
of the Protector s experiments ; but a new and
infinitely dangerous element had been introduced
by the change of religion into the relations of
English sailors with the Catholic Powers, and
especially with Spain. In their zeal to keep out
heresy, the Spanish Government placed their
harbours under the control of the Holy Office.
Any vessel in which an heretical book was found
was confiscated, and her crew carried to the
Inquisition prisons. It had begun in Henry s
time. The Inquisitors attempted to treat schism
as heresy and arrest Englishmen in their ports.
But Henry spoke up stoutly to Charles V., and
the Holy Office had been made to hold its hand.
All was altered now. It was not necessary that
a poor sailor should have been found teaching

I.] SEA CKADLE OF THE REFORMATION 23

heresy. It was enough if he had an English
Bible and Prayer Book with him in his kit ; and
stories would come into Dartmouth or Plymouth
how some lad that everybody knew Bill or Jack
or Tom, who had wife or father or mother among
them, perhaps had been seized hold of for no
other crime, been flung into a dungeon, tortured,
starved, set to work in the galleys, or burned in
a fool s coat, as they called it, at an auto da fi at
Seville.

The object of the Inquisition was partly poli
tical : it was meant to embarrass trade and make
the people impatient of changes which produced
so much inconvenience. The effect was exactly
the opposite. Such accounts when brought home
created fury. There grew up in the seagoing
population an enthusiasm of hatred for that holy
institution, and a passionate desire for revenge.

The natural remedy would have been war ;
but the division of nations was crossed by the
division of creeds ; and each nation had allies in
the heart of every other. If England went to
war with Spain, Spain could encourage insurrec
tion among the Catholics. If Spain or France

24 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

declared war against England, England could help
the Huguenots or the Holland Calvinists. All
Governments were afraid alike of a general war
of religion which might shake Europe in pieces.
Thus individuals were left to their natural im
pulses. The Holy Office burnt English or French
Protestants wherever it could catch them. The
Protestants revenged their injuries at their own
risk and in their own way, and thus from Edward
VI. s time to the end of the century privateering
came to be the special occupation of adventurous
honourable gentlemen, who could serve God, their
country, and themselves in fighting Catholics.
Fleets of these dangerous vessels swept the
Channel, lying in wait at Scilly, or even at the
Azores disowned in public by their own Govern
ments while secretly countenanced, making war
on their own account on what they called the
enemies of God. In such a business, of course,
there were many mere pirates engaged who cared
neither for God nor man. But it was the
Protestants who were specially impelled into it
by the cruelties of the Inquisition. The Holy
Office began the work with the autos da ft. The

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 25

privateers robbed, burnt, and scuttled Catholic
ships in retaliation. One fierce deed produced
another, till right and wrong were obscured in
the passion of religious hatred. Vivid pictures
of these wild doings survive in the English and
Spanish State Papers. Ireland was the rovers
favourite haunt. In the universal anarchy there,
a little more or a little less did not signify.
Notorious pirate captains were to be met in Cork
or Kinsale, collecting stores, casting cannon, or
selling their prizes men of all sorts, from
fanatical saints to undisguised ruffians. Here is
one incident out of many to show the heights to
which temper had risen.

Long peace, says someone, addressing the
Privy Council early in Elizabeth s time, becomes
by force of the Spanish Inquisition more hurtful
than open war. It is the secret, determined
policy of Spain to destroy the English fleet,
pilots, masters and sailors, by means of the
Inquisition. The Spanish King pretends he
dares not offend the Holy House, while we in
England say we may not proclaim war against
Spain in revenge of a few. Not long since the

26 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Spanish Inquisition executed sixty persons of St.
Malo, notwithstanding entreaty to the King of
Spain to spare them. Whereupon the Frenchmen
armed their pinnaces, lay for the Spaniards, took
a hundred and beheaded them, sending the
Spanish ships to the shore with their heads,
leaving in each ship but one man to render the
cause of the revenge. Since which time Spanish
Inquisitors have never meddled with those of St.
Malo.

A colony of Huguenot refugees had settled
on the coast of Florida. The Spaniards heard of
it, came from St. Domingo, burnt the town, and
hanged every man, woman, and child, leaving an
inscription explaining that the poor creatures had
been killed, not as Frenchmen, but as heretics.
Domenique de Gourges, of Rochelle, heard of
this fine exploit of fanaticism, equipped a ship,
and sailed across. He caught the Spanish garrison
which had been left in occupation and swung
them on the same trees with a second scroll
saying that they were dangling there, not as
Spaniards, but as murderers.

The genius of adventure tempted men of

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 27

highest birth into the rovers ranks. Sir Thomas
Seymour, the Protector s brother and the King s
uncle, was Lord High Admiral. In his time of
office, complaints were made by foreign merchants
of ships and property seized at the Thames
mouth. No redress could be had ; no restitution
made ; no pirate was even punished, and Sey
mour s personal followers were seen suspiciously
decorated with Spanish ornaments. It appeared
at last that Seymour had himself bought the
Scilly Isles, and if he could not have his way at
Court, it was said that he meant to set up there
as a pirate chief.

The persecution under Mary brought in more
respectable recruits than Seymour. The younger
generation of the western families had grown
with the times. If they were not theologically
Protestant, they detested tyranny. They detested
the marriage with Philip, which threatened the
independence of England. At home they were
powerless, but the sons of honourable houses
Strangways, Tremaynes, Staffords, Horseys,
Carews, Killegrews, and Cobhams dashed out
upon the water to revenge the Smithfield mas-

28 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT

sacres. They found help where it could least
have been looked for. Henry II. of France hated
heresy, but he hated Spain worse. Sooner than
see England absorbed in the Spanish monarchy,
he forgot his bigotry in his politics. He fur
nished these young mutineers with ships and
money and letters of marque. The Huguenots
were their natural friends. With Rochelle
for an arsenal, they held the mouth of the
Channel, and harassed the communications be
tween Cadiz and Antwerp. It was a wild busi
ness : enterprise and buccaneering sanctified by
religion and hatred of cruelty ; but it was a
school like no other for seamanship, and a school
.for the building of vessels which could outsail
all others on the sea ; a school, too, for the train
ing up of hardy men, in whose blood ran detest
ation of the Inquisition and the Inquisition s
master. Every other trade was swallowed up
or coloured by privateering; the merchantmen
went armed, ready for any work that offered ;
the Iceland fleet went no more in search of cod ;
the Channel boatmen forsook nets and lines and
took to livelier occupations ; Mary was too busy

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I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 29

burning heretics to look to the police of the seas ;
her father s fine ships rotted in harbour ; her
father s coast-forts were deserted or dismantled ;
she lost Calais ; she lost the hearts of her people
in forcing them into orthodoxy ; she left the seas
to the privateers ; and no trade flourished, save
what the Catholic Powers called piracy.

When Elizabeth came to the throne, the whole
merchant navy of England engaged in lawful
commerce amounted to no more than 50,000 tons.
You may see more now passing every day through
the Gull Stream. In the service of the Crown
there were but seven revenue cruisers in commis
sion, the largest 120 tons, with eight merchant
brigs altered for fighting. In harbour there were
still a score of large ships, but they were dis
mantled and rotting ; of artillery fit for sea work
there was none. The men were not to be had,
and, as Sir William Cecil said, to fit out ships
without men was to set armour on stakes on the
sea-shore. The mariners of England were other
wise engaged, and in a way which did not please
Cecil. He was the ablest minister that Elizabeth
had. He saw at once that on the navy the

30 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

prosperity and even the liberty of England must
eventually depend. If England were to remain
Protestant, it was not by articles of religion or
acts of uniformity that she could be saved without
a fleet at the back of them. But he was old-
fashioned. He believed in law and order, and he
has left a curious paper of reflections on the
situation. The ships companies in Henry VIII. s
days were recruited from the fishing-smacks, but
the Keformation itself had destroyed the fishing
trade. In old times, Cecil said, no flesh was
eaten on fish days. The King himself could
not have license. Now to eat beef or mutton on
fish days was the test of a true believer. The
English Iceland fishery used to supply Normandy
and Brittany as well as England. Now it had
passed to the French. The Chester men used to
fish the Irish seas. Now they had left them to
the Scots. The fishermen had taken to privateer
ing because the fasts of the Church were neglected.
He saw it was so. He recorded his own opinion
that piracy, as he called it, was detestable, and
could not last. He was to find that it could last,
that it was to form the special discipline of the

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 31

generation whose business would be to fight the
Spaniards. But he struggled hard against the
unwelcome conclusion. He tried to revive lawful
trade by a Navigation Act. He tried to restore
the fisheries by Act of Parliament. He introduced
a Bill recommending godly abstinence as a means
to virtue, making the eating of meat on Fridays
and Saturdays a misdemeanour, and adding
Wednesday as a half fish-day. The House of
Commons laughed at him as bringing back Popish
mummeries. To please the Protestants he inserted
a clause, that the statute was politicly meant for
the increase of fishermen and mariners, not for
any superstition in the choice of meats; but it
was no use. The Act was called in mockery
Cecil s Fast, and the recovery of the fisheries
had to wait till the natural inclination of human
stomachs for fresh whiting and salt cod should
revive of itself.

Events had to take their course. Seamen
were duly provided in other ways, and such as
the time required. Privateering suited Elizabeth s
convenience, and suited her disposition. She liked
daring and adventure. She liked men who would

32 ENGLISH SEAMEN [I.ECT.

do her work without being paid for it, men whom
she could disown when expedient ; who would
understand her, and would not resent it. She
knew her turn was to come when Philip had
leisure to deal with her, if she could not secure
herself meanwhile. Time was wanted to restore
the navy. The privateers were a resource in the
interval. They might be called pirates while
there was formal peace. The name did not
signify. They were really the armed force of the
country. After the war broke out in the Nether
lands, they had commissions from the Prince of
Orange. Such commissions would not save them
if taken by Spain, but it enabled them to sell
their prizes, and for the rest they trusted to then-
speed and their guns. When Elizabeth was at
war with France about Havre, she took the most
noted of them into the service of the Crown. Ned
Horsey became Sir Edward and Governor of the
Isle of Wight ; Strangways, a Eed Rover in his
way, who had been the terror of the Spaniards,
was killed before Rouen ; Tremayne fell at Havre,
mourned over by Elizabeth ; and Champernowne,
one of the most gallant of the whole of them

I.] SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 33

was killed afterwards at Coligny s side at Mon-
contour.

But others took their places : the wild hawks
as thick as seagulls flashing over the waves, fair
wind or foul, laughing at pursuit, brave, reckless,
devoted, the crews the strangest medley : English
from the Devonshire and Cornish creeks, Hugue
nots from Rochelle ; Irish kernes with long
skenes, desperate, unruly persons with no kind
of mercy.

The Holy Office meanwhile went on in cold,
savage resolution : the Holy Office which had
begun the business and was the cause of it.

A note in Cecil s hand says that in the one
year 1562 twenty-six English subjects had been
burnt at the stake in different parts of Spain.
Ten times as many were starving in Spanish
dungeons, from which occasionally, by happy
accident, a cry could be heard like this which
follows. In 1561 an English merchant writes
from the Canaries :

I was taken by those of the Inquisition
twenty months past, put into a little dark house
two paces long, loaded with irons, without sight

D

34 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT. i.

of sun or moon all that time. When I was
arraigned I was charged that I should say our
mass was as good as theirs ; that I said I would
rather give money to the poor than buy Bulls of
Rome with it. I was charged with being a subject
to the Queen s grace, who, they said, was enemy
to the Faith, Antichrist, with other opprobrious
names ; and I stood to the defence of the Queen s
Majesty, proving the infamies most untrue. Then
I was put into Little Ease again, protesting very
innocent blood to be demanded against the judge
before Christ.

The innocent blood of these poor victims had
not to wait to be avenged at the Judgment Day.
The account was presented shortly and promptly
at the cannon s mouth.

LECTURE II

JOHN HAWKINS AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

BEGIN this lecture with a petition addressed
to Queen Elizabeth. Thomas Seely, a mer
chant of Bristol, hearing a Spaniard in a Spanish
port utter foul and slanderous charges against the
Queen s character, knocked him down. To knock
a man down for telling lies about Elizabeth might
be a breach of the peace, but it had not yet been
declared heresy. The Holy Office, however, seized
Seely, threw him into a dungeon, and kept him
starving there for three years, at the end of which
he contrived to make his condition known in
England. The Queen wrote herself to Philip to
protest. Philip would not interfere. Seely re
mained in prison and in irons, and the result was
a petition from his wife, in which the temper
which was rising can be read as in letters of fire.

36 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

Dorothy Seely demands that the friends of her
Majesty s subjects so imprisoned and tormented
in Spain may make out ships at their proper
charges, take such Inquisitors or other Papistical
subjects of the King of Spain as they can by sea
or land, and retain them in prison with such tor
ments and diet as her Majesty s subjects be kept
with in Spain, and on complaint made by the
King to give such answer as is now made when
her Majesty sues for subjects imprisoned by the
Inquisition. Or that a Commission be granted
to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other
bishops word for word for foreign Papists as the
Inquisitors have in Spain for the Protestants. So
that all may know that her Majesty cannot and
will not longer endure the spoils and torments of
her subjects, and the Spaniards shall not think
this noble realm dares not seek revenge of such
importable wrongs.

Elizabeth issued no such Commission as
Dorothy Seely asked for, but she did leave her
subjects to seek their revenge in their own way,
and they sought it sometimes too rashly.

In the summer of 1563 eight English mer-

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 37

chantmen anchored in the roads of Gibraltar.
England and France were then at war. A French
brig came in after them, and brought up near.
At sea, if they could take her, she would have
been a lawful prize. Spaniards under similar
circumstances had not respected the neutrality
of English harbours. The Englishmen were
perhaps in doubt what to do, when the officers
of the Holy Office came off to the French ship.
The sight of the black familiars drove the English
wild. Three of them made a dash at the French
ship, intending to sink her. The Inquisitors
sprang into their boat, and rowed for their lives.
The castle guns opened, and the harbour police
put out to interfere. The French ship, however,
would have been taken, when unluckily Alvarez
de Bacjan, with a Spanish squadron, came round
into the Straits. Resistance was impossible. The
eight English ships were captured and carried off
to Cadiz. The English flag was trailed under De
Baqan s stern. The crews, two hundred and forty
men in all, were promptly condemned to the
galleya In defence they could but say that the
Frenchman was an enemy, and a moderate punish-

38 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LF.CT.

ment would have sufficed for a violation of the
harbour rules which the Spaniards themselves so
little regarded. But the Inquisition was inexor
able, and the men were treated with such peculiar
brutality that after nine months ninety only of
the two hundred and forty were alive.

Ferocity was answered by ferocity. Listen to
this ! The Cobhams of Cowling Castle were
Protestants by descent. Lord Cobham was famous
in the Lollard martyrology. Thomas Cobham,
one of the family, had taken to the sea like many
of his friends. While cruising in the Channel
he caught sight of a Spaniard on the way from
Antwerp to Cadiz with forty prisoners on board,
consigned, it might be supposed, to the Inquisition.
They were, of course, Inquisition prisoners; for
other offenders would have been dealt with on
the spot. Cobham chased her down into the Bay
of Biscay, took her, scuttled her, and rescued the
captives. But that was not enough. The captain
and crew he sewed up in their own mainsail and
flung them overboard. They were washed ashore
dead, wrapped in their extraordinary winding-
sheet. Cobham was called to account for this

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 39

exploit, but he does not seem to have been actu
ally punished. In a very short time he was out
and away again at the old work. There were
plenty with him. After the business at Gibraltar,
Philip s subjects were not safe in English harbours.
Jacques le Clerc, a noted privateer, called Pie de
Palo from his wooden leg, chased a Spaniard into
Falmouth, and was allowed to take her under the
guns of Pendennis. The Governor of the castle
said that he could not interfere, because Le Clerc
had a commission from the Prince of Conde". It
was proved that in the summer of 1563 there
were 400 English and Huguenot rovers in and
about the Channel, and that they had taken 700
prizes between them. The Queen s own ships
followed suit. Captain Cotton in the Phoenix
captured an Antwerp merchantman in Flushing.
The harbour-master protested. Cotton laughed,
and sailed away with his prize. The Regent
Margaret wrote in indignation to Elizabeth. Such
insolence, she said, was not to be endured. She
would have Captain Cotton chastised as an ex
ample to all others. Elizabeth measured the
situation more correctly than the Regent ; she

40 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

preferred to show Philip that she was not afraid
of him. She preferred to let her subjects dis
cover for themselves that the terrible Spaniard
before whom the world trembled was but a
colossus stuffed with clouts. Until Philip con
sented to tie the hands of the Holy Office she did
not mean to prevent them from taking the law
into their own hands.

Now and then, if occasion required, Elizabeth
herself would do a little privateering on her own
account. In the next story that I have to tell
she appears as a principal, and her great minister,
Cecil, as an accomplice. The Duke of Alva had
succeeded Margaret as Regent of the Netherlands,
and was drowning heresy in its own blood. The
Prince of Orange was making a noble fight ; but
all went ill with him. His troops were defeated, his
brother Louis was killed. He was still struggling,
helped by Elizabeth s money. But the odds
were terrible, and the only hope lay in the dis
content of Alva s soldiers, who had not been paid
their wages, and would not fight without them.
Philip s finances were not flourishing, but he had
borrowed half a million ducats from a house at

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 41

Genoa for Alva s use. The money was to be
delivered in bullion at Antwerp. The Channel
privateers heard that it was coming and were on
the look-out for it. The vessel in which it was
sent took refuge in Plymouth, but found she had
run into the enemy s nest. Nineteen or twenty
Huguenot and English cruisers lay round her
with commissions from Conde" to take every
Catholic ship they met with. Elizabeth s special
friends thought and said freely that so rich a
prize ought to fall to no one but her Majesty.
Elizabeth thought the same, but for a more
honourable reason. It was of the highest con
sequence that the money should not reach the
Duke of Alva at that moment. Even Cecil said
so, and sent the Prince of Orange word that it
would be stopped in some way.

But how could it decently be done ? Bishop
Jewel relieved the Queen s mind (if it was ever
disturbed) on the moral side of the question. The
bishop held that it would be meritorious in a
high degree to intercept a treasure which was to
be used in the murder of Protestant Christians.
But the how was the problem. To let the

42 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

privateers take it openly in Plymouth harbour
would, it was felt, be a scandal. Sir Arthur
Champernowne, the Vice-admiral of the West,
saw the difficulty and offered his services. He
had three vessels of his own in Condi s privateer
fleet, under his son Henry. As vice-admiral he
was first in command at Plymouth. He placed
a guard on board the treasure ship, telling the
captain it would be a discredit to the Queen s
Government if harm befell her in English waters.
He then wrote to Cecil.

If, he said, it shall seem good to your
honour that I with others shall give the attempt
for her Majesty s use which cannot be without
blood, I will not only take it in hand, but also
receive the blame thereof unto myself, to the end
so great a commodity should redound to her
Grace, hoping that, after bitter storms of her dis
pleasure, showed at the first to colour the fact, I
shall find the calm of her favour in such sort as
I am most willing to hazard myself to serve her
Majesty. Great pity it were such a rich booty
should escape her Grace. But surely I am of that
mind that anything taken from that wicked nation

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE. 43

is both necessary and profitable to our common
wealth.

Very shocking on Sir Arthur s part to write
such a letter : so many good people will think. I
hope they will consider it equally shocking that
King Philip should have burned English sailors
at the stake because they were loyal to the laws
of their own country ; that he was stirring war all
over Europe to please the Pope, and thrusting the
doctrines of the Council of Trent down the throats
of mankind at the sword s point. Spain and
England might be at peace ; Romanism and Pro
testantism were at deadly war, and war suspends
the obligations of ordinary life. Crimes the most
horrible were held to be virtues in defence of the
Catholic faith. The Catholics could not have the
advantage of such indulgences without the in
conveniences. The Protestant cause throughout
Europe was one, and assailed as the Protestants
were with such envenomed ferocity, they could
not afford to be nicely scrupulous in the means
they used to defend themselves.

Sir Arthur Champernowne was not called on
to sacrifice himself in such peculiar fashion, and a

44 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

better expedient was found to secure Alva s money.
The bullion was landed and was brought to Lon
don by road on the plea that the seas were unsafe.
It was carried to the Tower, and when it was once
inside the walls it was found to remain the property
of the Genoese until it was delivered at Antwerp.
The Genoese agent in London was as willing to
lend it to Elizabeth as to Philip, and indeed pre
ferred the security. Elizabeth calmly said that
she had herself occasion for money, and would
accept their offer. Half of it was sent to the
Prince of Orange ; half was spent on the Queen s
navy.

Alva was of course violently angry. He arrested
every English ship in the Low Countries. He
arrested every Englishman that he could catch,
and sequestered all English property. Elizabeth
retaliated in kind. The Spanish and Flemish
property taken in England proved to be worth
double what had been secured by Alva. Philip
could not declare war. The Netherlands insurrec
tion was straining his resources, and with Elizabeth
for an open enemy the whole weight of England
would have been thrown on the side of the Prince

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 45

of Orange. Elizabeth herself should have declared
war, people say, instead of condescending to
such tricks. Perhaps so ; but also perhaps not.
These insults, steadily maintained and unresented,
shook the faith of mankind, and especially of her
own sailors, in the invincibility of the Spanish
colossus.

I am now to turn to another side of the
subject. The stories which I have told you
show the temper of the time, and the atmo
sphere which men were breathing, but it will
be instructive to look more closely at individual
persons, and I will take first John Hawkins
(afterwards Sir John), a peculiarly characteristic
figure.

The Hawkinses of Plymouth were a solid
middle-class Devonshire family, who for two
generations had taken a leading part in the
business of the town. They still survive in the
county Achins we used to call them before
school pronunciation came in, and so Philip wrote
the name when the famous John began to trouble
his dreams. I have already spoken of old William
Hawkins, John s father, whom Henry VIIL was

46 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

so fond of, and who brought over the Brazilian
King. Old William had now retired and had left
his place and his work to his son. John Hawkins
may have been about thirty at Elizabeth s acces
sion. He had witnessed the wild times of Edward
VI. and Mary, but, though many of his friends
had taken to the privateering business, Hawkins
appears to have kept clear of it, and continued
steadily at trade. One of these friends, and his
contemporary, and in fact his near relation, was
Thomas Stukely, afterwards so notorious and a
word may be said of Stukely s career as a contrast
to that of Hawkins. He was a younger son of
a leading county family, went to London to seek
his fortune, and became a hanger-on of Sir
Thomas Seymour. Doubtless he was connected
with Seymour s pirating scheme at Scilly, and
took to pirating as an occupation like other
Western gentlemen. When Elizabeth became
Queen, he introduced himself at Court and
amused her with his conceit. He meant to be
a king, nothing less than a king. He would go
to Florida, found an empire there, and write to
the Queen as his dearest sister. She gave him

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 47

leave to try. He bought a vessel of 400 tons, got
100 tall soldiers to join him besides the crew, and
sailed from Plymouth in 1563. Once out of
harbour, he announced that the sea was to be his
Florida. He went back to the pirate business,
robbed freely, haunted Irish creeks, and set up
an intimacy with the Ulster hero, Shan O Neil.
Shan and Stukely became bosom friends. Shan
wrote to Elizabeth to recommend that she should
make over Ireland to Stukely and himself to
manage, and promised, if she agreed, to make it
such an Ireland as had never been seen, which
they probably would. Elizabeth not consenting,
Stukely turned Papist, transferred his services to
the Pope and Philip, and was preparing a cam
paign in Ireland under the Pope s direction,
when he was tempted to join Sebastian of
Portugal in the African expedition, and there
got himself killed.

Stukely was a specimen of the foolish sort of
the young Devonshire men ; Hawkins was exactly
his opposite. He stuck to business, avoided
politics, traded with Spanish ports without offend
ing the Holy Office, and formed intimacies and

48 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

connections with the Canary Islands especially,
where it was said he grew much in love and
favour with t he people.

At the Canaries he naturally heard much
about the West Indies. He was adventurous.
His Canaries friends told him that negroes were
great merchandise in the Spanish settlements in
Espanola, and he himself was intimately acquainted
with the Guinea coast, and knew how easily such
a cargo could be obtained.

We know to what the slave trade grew. We
have all learnt to repent of the share which Eng
land had in it, and to abhor everyone whose
hands were stained by contact with so accursed
a business. All that may be taken for granted ;
but we must look at the matter as it would have
been represented at the Canaries to Hawkins
himself.

The Carib races whom the Spaniards found in
Cuba and St. Domingo had withered before them
as if struck by a blight. Many died under the
lash of the Spanish overseers ; many, perhaps the
most, from the mysterious causes which have
made the presence of civilisation so fatal to the

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 49

Red Indian, the Australian, and the Maori It is
with men as it is with animals. The races which
consent to be domesticated prosper and multiply.
Those which cannot live without freedom pine
like caged eagles or disappear like the buffaloes
of the prairies.

Anyway, the natives perished out of the
islands of the Caribbean Sea with a rapidity
which startled the conquerors. The famous
Bishop Las Casas pitied and tried to save the
remnant that were left. The Spanish settlers
required labourers for the plantations. On the
continent of Africa were another race, savage in
their natural state, which would domesticate like
sheep and oxen, and learnt and improved in
the white man s company. The negro never
rose of himself out of barbarism ; as his fathers
were, so he remained from age to age ; when
left free, as in Liberia and in Hayti, he reverts
to his original barbarism ; while in subjection to
the white man he showed then, and he has shown
since, high capacities of intellect and character.
Such is, such was the fact. It struck Las Casas

that if negroes could be introduced into the West

E

50 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Indian islands, the Indians might be left alone ;
the negroes themselves would have a chance to
rise out of their wretchedness, could be made into
Christians, and could be saved at worst from the
horrid fate which awaited many of them in their
own country.

The black races varied like other animals :
some were gentle and timid, some were ferocious
as wolves. The strong tyrannised over the weak,
made slaves of their prisoners, occasionally ate
them, and those they did not eat they sacrificed
at what they called their customs offered them
up and cut their throats at the altars of their
idols. These customs were the most sacred tradi
tions of the negro race. They were suspended
while the slave trade gave the prisoners a value.
They revived when the slave trade was abolished.
When Lord Wolseley a few years back entered
Ashantee, the altars were coated thick with the
blood of hundreds of miserable beings who had
been freshly slaughtered there. Still later similar
horrid scenes were reported from Dahomey. Sir
Richard Burton, who was an old acquaintance
of mine, spent two months with the King of

2,] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 51

Dahomey, and dilated to me on the benevolence
and enlightenment of that excellent monarch. I
asked why, if the King was so benevolent, he did
not alter the customs. Burton looked at me with
consternation. Alter the customs ! he said.
Would you have the Archbishop of Canterbury
alter the Liturgy ? Las Casas and those who
thought as he did are not to be charged with
infamous inhumanity if they proposed to buy
these poor creatures from their captors, save
them from Mumbo Jumbo, and carry them to
countries where they would be valuable property,
and be at least as well cared for as the mules
and horses.

The experiment was tried and seemed to
succeed. The negroes who were rescued from
the customs and were carried to the Spanish
islands proved docile and useful. Portuguese and
Spanish factories were established on the coast
of Guinea. The black chiefs were glad to make
money out of their wretched victims, and readily
sold them. The transport over the Atlantic
became a regular branch of business. Strict
laws were made for the good treatment of the

52 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

slaves on the plantations. The trade was carried
on under license from the Government, and an
import duty of thirty ducats per head was charged
on every negro that was landed. I call it an
experiment. The full consequences could not be
foreseen, and I cannot see that as an experiment
it merits the censures which in its later develop
ments it eventually came to deserve. Las Casas,
who approved of it, was one of the most excellent
of men. Our own Bishop Butler could give no
decided opinion against negro slavery as it existed
in his time. It is absurd to say that ordinary
merchants and ship captains ought to have seen
the infamy of a practice which Las Casas advised
and Butler could not condemn. The Spanish and
Portuguese Governments claimed, as I said, the
control of the traffic. The Spanish settlers in
the West Indies objected to a restriction which
raised the price and shortened the supply. They
considered that having established themselves in
a new country they had a right to a voice in the
conditions of their occupancy. It was thus that
the Spaniards in the Canaries represented the
matter to John Hawkins. They told him that if

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 53

he liked to make the venture with a contraband
cargo from Guinea, their countrymen would give
him an enthusiastic welcome. It is evident from
the story that neither he nor they expected that
serious offence would be taken at Madrid. Haw
kins at this time was entirely friendly with the
Spaniards. It was enough if he could be assured
that the colonists would be glad to deal with him.
I am not crediting him with the benevolent
purposes of Las Casas. I do not suppose Hawkins
thought much of saving black men s souls. He
saw only an opportunity of extending his business
among a people with whom he was already largely
connected. The traffic was established. It had
the sanction of the Church, and no objection
had been raised to it anywhere on the score of
morality. The only question which could have
presented itself to Hawkins was of the right of
the Spanish Government to prevent foreigners
from getting a share of a lucrative trade against
the wishes of its subjects. And his friends at
the Canaries certainly did not lead him to expect
any real opposition. One regrets that a famous
Englishman should have been connected with the

54 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LRCT.

slave trade ; but we have no right to heap violent
censures upon him because he was no more
enlightened than the wisest of his contemporaries.
Thus, encouraged from Santa Cruz, Hawkins
on his return to England formed an African
company out of the leading citizens of London.
Three vessels were fitted out, Hawkins being
commander and part owner. The size of them
is remarkable: the Solomon, as the largest was
called, 1 20 tons; the Swallow, 100 tons; the
Jonas not above 40 tons. This represents them
as inconceivably small. They carried between
them a hundred men, and ample room had to be
provided besides for the blacks. There may have
been a difference in the measurement of tonnage.
We ourselves have five standards : builder s
measurement, yacht measurement, displacement,
sail area, and register measurement. Registered
tonnage is far under the others : a yacht registered
1 20 tons would be called 200 in a shipping list.
However that be, the brigantines and sloops
used by the Elizabethans on all adventurous
expeditions were mere boats compared with what
we should use now on such occasions. The reason

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 55

was obvious. Success depended on speed and
sailing power. The art of building big square-
rigged ships which would work to windward had
not been yet discovered, even by Mr. Fletcher of
Rye. The fore-and-aft rig alone would enable a
vessel to tack, as it is called, and this could only
be used with craft of moderate tonnage.

The expedition sailed in October 1562. They
called at the Canaries, where they were warmly
entertained. They went on to Sierra Leone,
where they collected 300 negroes. They avoided
the Government factories, and picked them up as
they could, some by force, some by negotiation
with local chiefs, who were as ready to sell their
subjects as Sancho Panza intended to be when
he got his island. They crossed without misad
venture to St. Domingo, where Hawkins repre
sented that he was on a voyage of discovery;
that he had been driven out of his course and
wanted food and money. He said he had certain
slaves with him, which he asked permission to
sell What he had heard at the Canaries turned
out to be exactly true. So far as the Governor of
St. Domingo knew, Spain and England were at

56 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

peace. Privateers had not troubled the peace of
the Caribbean Sea, or dangerous heretics menaced
the Catholic faith there. Inquisitors might have
been suspicious, but the Inquisition had not yet
been established beyond the Atlantic. The Queen
of England was his sovereign s sister-in-law, and
the Governor saw no reason why he should con
strue his general instructions too literally. The
planters were eager to buy, and he did not wish
to be unpopular. He allowed Hawkins to sell
two out of his three hundred negroes, leaving the
remaining hundred as a deposit should question
be raised about the duty. Evidently the only
doubt in the Governor s mind was whether the
Madrid authorities would charge foreign importers
on a higher scale. The question was new. No
stranger had as yet attempted to trade there.

Everyone was satisfied, except the negroes,
who were not asked their opinion. The profits
were enormous. A ship in the harbour was
about to sail for Cadiz. Hawkins invested most
of what he had made in a cargo of hides, for
which, as he understood, there was a demand in
Spain, and he sent them over in her in charge of

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 57

one of his partners. The Governor gave him a
testimonial for good conduct during his stay in
the port, and with this and with his three vessels
he returned leisurely to England, having, as he
imagined, been splendidly successful.

He was to be unpleasantly undeceived. A few
days after he had arrived at Plymouth, he met
the man whom he had sent to Cadiz with the
hides forlorn and empty-handed. The Inquisition,
he said, had seized the cargo and confiscated it.
An order had been sent to St. Domingo to forfeit
the reserved slaves. He himself had escaped for
his life, as the familiars had been after him.

Nothing shows more clearly how little thought
there had been in Hawkins that his voyage would
have given offence in Spain than the astonishment
with which he heard the news. He protested.
He wrote to Philip. Finding entreaties useless,
he swore vengeance ; but threats were equally
ineffectual. Not a hide, not a farthing could he
recover. The Spanish Government, terrified at
the intrusion of English adventurers into their
western paradise to endanger the gold fleets, or
worse to endanger the purity of the faith, issued

58 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT

orders more peremptory than ever to close the
ports there against all foreigners. Philip person
ally warned Sir Thomas Chaloner, the English
ambassador, that if such visits were repeated,
mischief would come of it. And Cecil, who
disliked all such semi-piratical enterprises, and
Chaloner, who was half a Spaniard and an old
companion in arms of Charles V., entreated their
mistress to forbid them.

Elizabeth, however, had her own views in such
matters. She liked money. She liked encourag
ing the adventurous disposition of her subjects,
who were fighting the State s battles at their
own risk and cost. She saw in Philip s anger a
confession that the West Indies was his vulner
able point ; and that if she wished to frighten
him into letting her alone, and to keep the
Inquisition from burning her sailors, there was
the place where Philip would be more sensitive.
Probably, too, she thought that Hawkins had
done nothing for which he could be justly
blamed. He had traded at St. Domingo with
the Governor s consent, and confiscation was
sharp practice.

a.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE, TRADE 59

This was clearly Hawkins s own view of the
matter. He had injured no one. He had offended
no pious ears by parading his Protestantism. He
was not Philip s subject, and was not to be ex
pected to know the instructions given by the
Spanish Government in the remote corners of
their dominions. If anyone was to be punished,
it was not he but the Governor. He held that
he had been robbed, and had a right to indemnify
himself at the King s expense. He would go
out again. He was certain of a cordial reception
from the planters. Between him and them there
was the friendliest understanding. His quarrel
was with Philip, and Philip only. He meant to
sell a fresh cargo of negroes, and the Madrid
Government should go without their 30 per cent,
duty.

Elizabeth approved. Hawkins had opened the
road to the West Indies. He had shown how
easy slave smuggling was, and how profitable it
was; how it was also possible for the English
to establish friendly relations with the Spanish
settlers in the West Indies, whether Philip liked
it or not. Another company was formed for a

60 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

second trial. Elizabeth took shares, Lord Pem
broke took shares, and other members of the
Council. The Queen lent the Jesus, a large ship
of her own, of 700 tons. Formal instructions
were given that no wrong was to be done to the
King of Spain, but what wrong might mean was
left to the discretion of the commander. Where
the planters were all eager to purchase, means of
traffic would be discovered without collision with
the authorities. This time the expedition was to
be on a larger scale, and a hundred soldiers were
put on board to provide for contingencies. Thus
furnished, Hawkins started on his second voyage
in October 1564. The autumn was chosen, to
avoid the extreme tropical heats. He touched
as before to see his friends at the Canaries. He
went on to the Rio Grande, met with adventures
bad and good, found a chief at war with a neigh
bouring tribe, helped to capture a town and take
prisoners, made purchases at a Portuguese factory.
In this way he now secured 400 human cattle,
perhaps for a better fate than they would have
met with at home, and with these he sailed otf in
the old direction. Near the equator he fell in

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 61

with calms ; he was short of water, and feared to
lose some of them; but, as the record of the
voyage puts it, Almighty God would not suffer
His elect to perish, and sent a breeze which
carried him safe to Dominica. In that wettest
of islands he found water in plenty, and had then
to consider what next he would do. St. Domingo,
he thought, would be no longer safe for him ; so
he struck across to the Spanish Main to a place
called Burboroata, where he might hope that
nothing would be known about him. In this he
was mistaken, Philip s orders had arrived : no
Englishman of any creed or kind was to be
allowed to trade in his West India dominions.
The settlers, however, intended to trade. They
required only a display of force that they might
pretend that they were yielding to compulsion.
Hawkins told his old story. He said that he was
out on the service of the Queen of England. He
had been driven off his course by bad weather.
He was short of supplies and had many men
on board, who might do the town some mischief
if they were not allowed to land peaceably and
buy and sell what they wanted. The Governor

62 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

affecting to hesitate, he threw 120 men on shore,
and brought his guns to bear on the castle. The
Governor gave way under protest. Hawkins Avas
to be permitted to sell half his negroes. He said
that as he had been treated so inhospitably he
would not pay the 30 per cent. The King of
Spain should have "]\, and no more. The settlers
had no objection. The price would be the less,
and with this deduction his business was easily
finished off. He bought no more hides, and was
paid in solid silver.

From Burboroata he went on to Rio de la
Hacha, where the same scene was repeated. The
whole 400 were disposed of, this time with ease
and complete success. He had been rapid, and
had the season still before him. Having finished
his business, he surveyed a large part of the
Caribbean Sea, taking soundings, noting the
currents, and making charts of the coasts and
islands. This done, he turned homewards, follow
ing the east shore of North America as far as
Newfoundland. There he gave his crew a change
of diet, with fresh cod from the Banks, and after
eleven months absence he sailed into Padstow,

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 63

having lost but twenty men in the whole adven
ture, and bringing back 60 per cent, to the Queen
and the other shareholders.

Nothing succeeds like success. Hawkins s
praises were in everyone s mouth, and in London
he was the hero of the hour. Elizabeth received
him at the palace. The Spanish ambassador, De
Silva, met him there at dinner. He talked freely
of where he had been and of what he had done,
only keeping back the gentle violence which he
had used. He regarded this as a mere farce,
since there had been no one hurt on either side.
He boasted of having given the greatest satisfac
tion to the Spaniards who had dealt with him.
De Silva could but bow, report to his master, and
ask instructions how he was to proceed.

Philip was frightfully disturbed. He saw in
prospect his western subjects allying themselves
with the English heresy creeping in among
them ; his gold fleets in danger, all the possibili
ties with which Elizabeth had wished to alarm
him. He read and re-read De Silva s letters, and
opposite the name of Achines he wrote startled
interjections on the margin : Ojo ! Ojo !

64 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

The political horizon was just then favourable
to Elizabeth. The Queen of Scots was a prisoner
in Loch Leven ; the Netherlands were in revolt ;
the Huguenots were looking up in France ; and
when Hawkins proposed a third expedition, she
thought that she could safely allow it. She gave
him the use of the Jesus again, with another
smaller ship of hers, the Minion. He had two of
his own still fit for work ; and a fifth, the Judith,
was brought in by his young cousin, Francis
Drake, who was now to make his first appearance
on the stage. I shall tell you by-and-by who and
what Drake was. Enough to say now that he
was a relation of Hawkins, the owner of a small
smart sloop or brigantine, and ambitious of a
share in a stirring business.

The Plymouth seamen were falling into dan
gerous contempt of Philip. While the expedition
was fitting out, a ship of the King s came into
Catwater with more prisoners from Flanders.
She was flying the Castilian flag, contrary to rule,
it was said, in English harbours. The treatment
of the English ensign at Gibraltar had not been
forgiven, and Hawkins ordered the Spanish

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 65

captain to .strike his colours. The captain re
fused, and Hawkins instantly fired into him. In
the confusion the prisoners escaped on board the
Jesus and were let go. The captain sent a com
plaint to London, and Cecil who disapproved
of Hawkins and all his proceedings sent down
an officer to inquire into what had happened.
Hawkins, confident in Elizabeth s protection,
quietly answered that the Spaniard had broken
the laws of the port, and that it was necessary to
assert the Queen s authority.

Your mariners, said De Silva to her, rob our
subjects on the sea, trade where they are forbidden
to go, and fire upon our ships in your harbours.
Your preachers insult my master from their
pulpits, and when we remonstrate we are answered
with menaces. We have borne so far with their
injuries, attributing them rather to temper and
bad manners than to deliberate purpose. But,
seeing that no redress can be had, and that the
same treatment of us continues, I must consult my
Sovereign s pleasure. For the last time, I require
your Majesty to punish this outrage at Plymouth

and preserve the peace between the two realms.

F

06 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

No remonstrance could seem more just till the
other side was heard. The other side was that
the Pope and the Catholic Powers were under
taking to force the Protestants of France and
Flanders back under the Papacy with fire and
sword. It was no secret that England s turn was
to follow as soon as Philip s hands were free.
Meanwhile he had been intriguing with the
Queen of Scots ; he had been encouraging Ireland
in rebellion ; he had been persecuting English
merchants and seamen, starving them to death in
the Inquisition dungeons, or burning them at the
stake. The Smithfield infamies were fresh in
Protestant memories, and who could tell how
soon the horrid work would begin again at home,
ff the Catholic Powers could have their way ?

If the King of Spain and his Holiness at
Rome would have allowed other nations to think
and make laws for themselves, pirates and priva
teers would have disappeared off the ocean. The
West Indies would have been left undisturbed,
and Spanish, English, French, and Flemings
would have lived peacefully side by side as they
do now But spiritual tyranny had not yet

2.] HAWKINS AND THE SLAVE TRADE 6j
learned its lesson, and the Beggars of the Sea
were to be Philip s schoolmasters in irregular but
effective fashion.

Elizabeth listened politely to what De Silva
said, promised to examine into his complaints,
and allowed Hawkins to sail.

What befell him you will hear in the next
lecture.

LECTUKE III

SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP THE SECOND

11TY last lecture left Hawkins preparing to
start on his third and, as it proved, most
eventful voyage. I mentioned that he was joined
by a young relation, of whom I must say a few
preliminary words. Francis Drake was a Devon
shire man, like Hawkins himself and Raleigh and
Davis and Gilbert, and many other famous men
of those days. He was born at Tavistock some
where about 1540. He told Camden that he was
of mean extraction. He meant merely that he
was proud of his parents and made no idle pre
tensions to noble birth. His father was a tenant
of the Earl of Bedford, and must have stood well
with him, for Francis Russell, the heir of the
earldom, was the boy s godfather. From him
Drake took his Christian name. The Drakes

LECT. 3.] SIX fOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 69

were early converts to Protestantism. Trouble
rising at Tavistock on the Six Articles Bill, they
removed to Kent, where the father, probably
through Lord Bedford s influence, was appointed
a lay chaplain in Henry VIII. s fleet at Chatham.
In the next reign, when the Protestants were
uppermost, he was ordained and became vicar of
Upnor on the Medway. Young Francis took
early to the water, and made acquaintance with a
ship-master trading to the Channel ports, who
took him on board his ship and bred him as a
sailor. The boy distinguished himself, and his
patron when he died left Drake his vessel in hia
will. For several years Drake stuck steadily to
his coasting work, made money, and made a solid
reputation. His ambition grew with his success.
The seagoing English were all full of Hawkins
and his West Indian exploits. The Hawkinses and
the Drakes were near relations. Hearing that
there was to be another expedition, and having
obtained his cousin s consent, Francis Drake sold
his brig, bought the Judith, a handier and faster
vessel, and with a few stout sailors from the
river went down to Plymouth and joined.

;o ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

De Silva had sent word to Philip that
Hawkins was again going out, and preparations
had been made to receive him. Suspecting
nothing, Hawkins with his four consorts sailed, as
before, in October 1567. The start was ominous.
He was caught and badly knocked about by an
equinoctial in the Bay of Biscay. He lost his
boats. The Jesus strained her timbers and
leaked, and he so little liked the look of things
that he even thought of turning back and
giving up the expedition for the season. How
ever, the weather mended. They put themselves
to rights at the Canaries, picked up their spirits,
and proceeded. The slave-catching was managed
successfully, though with some increased difficulty.
The cargo with equal success was disposed of at
the Spanish settlements. At one place the
planters came off in their boats at night to buy.
At Rio de la Hacha, where the most imperative
orders had been sent to forbid his admittance,
Hawkins landed a force as before and took
possession of the town, of course with the con
nivance of the settlers. At Carthagena he was
similarly ordered off, and as Carthagena was

3.] SIS JTOHN HAWKINS AlfD PHILIP II. 71

strongly fortified he did not venture to meddle
with it. But elsewhere he found ample markets
for his wares. He sold all his blacks. By this
and by other dealings he had collected what is
described as a vast treasure of gold, silver, and
jewels. The hurricane season was approaching,
and he made the best of his way homewards with
his spoils, in the fear of being overtaken by it.
Unluckily for him, he had lingered too long.
He had passed the west point of Cuba and was
working up the back of the island when a hurri
cane came down on him. The gale lasted four
days. The ships bottoms were foul and they
could make no way. Spars were lost and rigging
carried away. The Jesus, which had not been
seaworthy all along, leaked worse than ever and
lost her rudder. Hawkins looked for some port
in Florida, but found the coast shallow and
dangerous, and was at last obliged to run for San
Juan de Ulloa, ab the bottom of the Gulf of
Mexico.

San Juan de Ulloa is a few miles only from
Vera Cruz. It was at that time the chief port
of Mexico, through which all the traffic passed

72 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

between the colony and the mother-country, and
was thus a place of some consequence. It stands
on a small bay facing towards the north. Across
the mouth of this bay lies a narrow ridge of sand
and shingle, half a mile long, which acts as a
natural breakwater and forms the harbour. This

ridge, or island as it was called, was uninhabited,

but it had been faced on the inner front by a

wall. The water was deep alongside, and vessels
could thus lie in perfect security, secured by their
cables to rings let into the masonry.

The prevailing wind was from the north,
bringing in a heavy surf on the back of the
island. There was an opening at both ends, but
only one available for vessels of large draught.
In this the channel was narrow, and a battery
at the end of the breakwater would completely
command it. The town stood on the opposite
side of the bay.

Into a Spanish port thus constructed Hawkins
entered with his battered squadron on September
1 6, 1568. He could not have felt entirely easy.
But he probably thought that he had no ill-will
to fear from the inhabitants generally, and that

3.] Sf JOHN HA WKINS AND PHILIP II. 73

the Spanish authorities would not be strong
enough to meddle with him. His ill star had
brought him there at a time when Alvarez de
Ba^an, the same officer who had destroyed the
English ships at Gibraltar, was daily expected
from Spain sent by Philip, as it proved, specially
to look for him. Hawkins, when he appeared
outside, had been mistaken for the Spanish
admiral, and it was under this impression that
he had been allowed to enter. The error was
quickly discovered on both sides.

Though still ignorant that he was himself
De Bac,an s particular object, yet De Bacan was
the last officer whom in his crippled condition he
would have cared to encounter. Several Spanish
merchantmen were in the port richly loaded :
with these of course he did not meddle, though,
if reinforced, they might perhaps meddle with
him. As his best resource he despatched a
courier on the instant to Mexico to inform the
Viceroy of his arrival, to say that he had an
English squadron with him ; that he had been
driven in by stress of weather and need of repairs ;
that the Queen was an ally of the King of Spain ;

74 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

and that, as he understood a Spanish fleet was
likely soon to arrive, he begged the Viceroy to
make arrangements to prevent disputes.

As yet, as I said in the last lecture, there was
no Inquisition in Mexico. It was established
there three years later, for the special benefit
of the English. But so far there was no ill-
mil towards the English rather the contrary.
Hawkins had hurt no one, and the negro trading
had been eminently popular. The Viceroy might
perhaps have connived at Hawkins s escape, but
again by ill-fortune he was himself under orders
of recall, and his successor was coming out in this
particular fleet with De Bac,an.

Had he been well disposed and free to act
it would still have been too late, for the very
next morning, September 17, De BaQan was off
the harbour mouth with thirteen heavily-armed
galleons and frigates. The smallest of them
carried probably 200 men, and the odds were now
tremendous. Hawkins s vessels lay ranged along
the inner bank or wall of the island. He instantly
occupied the island itself and mounted guns at
the point covering the way in. He then sent a

ALVAKO" DE BA<_ AX,
MARQUIS OF SANT.V CRCZ.

3.] 5/ff JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 75

boat off to De BaQan to say that he was an
Englishman, that he was in possession of the
port, and must forbid the entrance of the Spanish
fleet till he was assured that there was to be no
violence. It was a strong measure to shut a
Spanish admiral out of a Spanish port in a time
of profound peace. Still, the way in was difficult,
and could not be easily forced if resolutely
defended. The northerly wind was rising; if it
blew into a gale the Spaniards would be on a lee
shore. Under desperate circumstances, desperate
things will be done. Hawkins in his subsequent
report thus explains his dilemma :

I was in two difficulties. Either I must
keep them out of the port, which with God s
grace I could easily have done, in which case
with a northerly wind rising they would have
been wrecked, and I should have been answerable ;
or I must risk their playing false, which on the
whole I preferred to do.

The northerly gale it appears did not rise, or
the English commander might have preferred the
first alternative. Three days passed in negotia
tion. De Baqan and Don Enriquez, the new

76 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Viceroy, were naturally anxious to get into shelter
out of a dangerous position, and were equally
desirous not to promise any more than was abso
lutely necessary. The final agreement was that
De Baqan and the fleet should enter without
opposition. Hawkins might stay till he had
repaired his damages, and buy and sell what he
wanted; and further, as long as they remained
the English were to keep possession of the island.
This article, Hawkins says, was long resisted,
but was consented to at last. It was absolutely
necessary, for with the island in their hands, the
Spaniards had only to cut the English cables,
and they would have driven ashore across the
harbour.

The treaty so drawn was formally signed.
Hostages were given on both sides, and De Bacan
came in. The two fleets were moored as far apart
from each other as the size of the port would
allow. Courtesies were exchanged, and for two
days all went well. It is likely that the Viceroy
and the admiral did not at first know that it was
the very man whom they had been sent out to
sink or capture who was lying so close to them.

3-] SIX JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 77

When they did know it they may have looked on
him as a pirate, with whom, as with heretics,
there was no need to keep faith. Anyway, the
rat was in the trap, and De Bagan did not mean
to let him out. The Jesus lay furthest in ; the
Minion lay beyond her towards the entrance,
moored apparently to a ring on the quay, but free
to move ; and the Judith, further out again,
moored in the same way. Nothing is said of the
two small vessels remaining.

De Baqan made his preparations silently,
covered by the town. He had men in abundance
ready to act where he should direct. On the
third day, the 2Oth of September, at noon, the
Minion s crew had gone to dinner, when they saw
a large hulk of 900 tons slowly towing up along
side of them. Not liking such a neighbour, they
had their cable ready to slip and began to set
their canvas. On a sudden shots and cries were
heard from the town. Parties of English who
were on land were set upon ; many were killed ;
the rest were seen flinging themselves into the
water and swimming off to the ships. At the
same instant the sruns of the galleons and of the

78 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

shore batteries opened fire on the Jesiis and her
consorts, and in the smoke and confusion 300
Spaniards swarmed out of the hulk and sprang on
the Minion s decks. The Minion s men instantly
cut them down or drove them overboard, hoisted
sail, and forced their way out of the harbour,
followed by the Judith. The Jesus was left alone,
unable to stir. She defended herself desperately.
In the many actions which were fought after
wards between the English and the Spaniards,
there was never any more gallant or more severe.
De Ba<jan s own ship was sunk and the vice-
admiral s was set on fire. The Spanish, having
an enormous advantage in numbers, were able
to land a force on the island, seize the English
battery there, cut down the gunners, and turn
the guns close at hand on the devoted Jesus.
Still she fought on, defeating every attempt to
board, till at length De Bac,an sent down fire-
ships on her, and then the end came. All that
Hawkins had made by his voyage, money, bullion,
the ship herself, had to be left to their fate.
Hawkins himself with the survivors of the crew
took to their boats, dashed through the enemy,

3-] SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 79

who vainly tried to take them, and struggled out
after the Minion and the Judith. It speaks ill
for De Bagan that with so large a force at his
command, and in such a position, a single English
man escaped to tell the story.

Even when outside Hawkins s situation was
still critical and might well be called desperate.
The Judith was but fifty tons; the Minion not
above a hundred. They were now crowded up
with men. They had little water on board, and
there had been no time to refill their store-chests,
or fit themselves for sea. Happily the weather
was moderate. If the wind had risen, nothing
could have saved them. They anchored two
miles off to put themselves in some sort of order.
The Spanish fleet did not venture to molest
further so desperate a foe. On Saturday the 25th
they set sail, scarcely knowing whither to turn.
To attempt an ocean voyage as they were would
be certain destruction, yet they could not trust
longer to De Baqan s cowardice or forbearance.
There was supposed to be a shelter of some kind
somewhere on the east side of the Gulf of Mexico,
where it was hoped they might obtain provisions.

8o ENGLISH. SEAMEN [LECT.

They reached the place on October 8, but found
nothing. English sailors have never been wanting
in resolution. They knew that if they all remained
on board every one of them must starve. A
hundred volunteered to land and take their
chance. The rest on short rations might hope to
make their way home. The sacrifice was accepted.
The hundred men were put on shore. They
wandered for a few days in the woods, feeding
on roots and berries, and shot at by the Indians.
At length they reached a Spanish station, where
they were taken and sent as prisoners to Mexico.
There was, as I said, no Holy Office as yet in
Mexico. The new Viceroy, though he had been
in the fight at San Juan de Ulloa, was not
implacable. They were treated at first with
humanity ; they were fed, clothed, taken care of,
and then distributed among the plantations.
Some were employed as overseers, some as
mechanics. Others, who understood any kind of
business, were allowed to settle in towns, make
money, and even marry and establish themselves.
Perhaps Philip heard of it, and was afraid that so
many heretics might introduce the plague. The

30 SIR JOHN HA WKINS AND PHILIP II. 81

quiet time lasted three years ; at the end of those
years the Inquisitors arrived, and then, as if these
poor men had been the special object of that
delightful institution, they were hunted up, thrown
into dungeons, examined on their faith, tortured,
some burnt in an auto da ft, some lashed through
the streets of Mexico naked on horseback and
returned to their prisons. Those who did not die
under this pious treatment were passed over to
the Holy Office at Seville and were condemned
to the galleys.

Here I leave them for the moment. We shall
presently hear of them again in a very singular
connection. The Minion and Judith meanwhile
pursued their melancholy way. They parted
company. The Judith, being the better sailer,
arrived first, and reached Plymouth in December,
torn and tattered. Drake rode off post immedi
ately to carry the bad news to Londoa The
Minion s fate was worse. She made her course
through the Bahama Channel, her crew dying as
if struck with a pestilence, till at last there were
hardly men enough left to handle the sails. They
fell too far south for England, and at length had

G

8z ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

to put into Vigo, where their probable fete would
be a Spanish prison. Happily they found other
English vessels in the roads there. Fresh hands
were put on board, and fresh provisions. With
these supplies Hawkins reached Mount s Bay a
month later than the Judith, in January 1569.

Drake had told the story, and all England was
ringing with it. Englishmen always think their
own countrymen are in the right. The Spaniards,
already in evil odour with the seagoing popula
tion, were accused of abominable treachery. The
splendid fight which Hawkins had made raised him
into a national idol, and though he had suffered
financially, his loss was made up in reputation
and authority. Every privateer in the West was
eager to serve under the leadership of the hero of
San Juan de Ulloa. He speedily found himself
in command of a large irregular squadron, and
even Cecil recognised his consequence. His chief
and constant anxiety was for the comrades whom
he had left behind, and he talked of a new ex
pedition to recover them, or revenge them if they
had been killed ; but all things had to wait. They
probably found means of communicating with

3.] SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 83

him, and as long as there was no Inquisition in
Mexico, he may have learnt that there was no
immediate occasion for action.

Elizabeth put a brave face on her disappoint
ment. She knew that she was surrounded with
treason, but she knew also that the boldest course
was the safest. She had taken Alva s money, and
was less than ever inclined to restore it. She
had the best of the bargain in the arrest of the
Spanish and English ships and cargoes. Alva
would not encourage Philip to declare war with
England till the Netherlands were completely
reduced, and Philip, with his leaden foot (pid de
plomo), always preferred patience and intrigue.
Time and he and the Pope were three powers
which in the end, he thought, would prove irre
sistible, and indeed it seemed, after Hawkins s
return, as if Philip would turn out to be right.
The presence of the Queen of Scots in England
had set in flame the Catholic nobles. The wages
of Alva s troops had been wrung somehow out of
the wretched Provinces, and his supreme ability
and inexorable resolution were steadily grinding
down the revolt. Every port in Holland and

S4 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

Zealand was in Alva s hands. Elizabeth s throne
was undermined by the Ridolfi conspiracy, the
most dangerous which she had ever had to en
counter. The only Protestant fighting power left
on the sea which could be entirely depended on
was in the privateer fleet, sailing, most of them,
under a commission from the Prince of Orange.

This fleet was the strangest phenomenon in
naval history. It was half Dutch, half English,
with a flavour of Huguenot, and was commanded
by a Flemish noble, Count de la Mark. Its head
quarters were in the Downs or Dover Roads,
where it could watch the narrow seas, and seize
every Spanish ship that passed which was not
too strong to be meddled with. The cargoes
taken were openly sold in Dover market. If the
Spanish ambassador is to be believed in a com
plaint which he addressed to Cecil, Spanish
gentlemen taken prisoners were set up to public
auction there for the ransom which they would
fetch, and were disposed of for one hundred pounds
each. If Alva sent cruisers from Antwerp to
burn them out, they retreated under the guns of
Dover Castle. Roving squadrons of them flew

3.] SIR JOHN HA WK1NS AND PHILIP II. 85

down to the Spanish coasts, pillaged churchee,
carried off church plate, and the captains drank
success to piracy at their banquets out of chalices.
The Spanish merchants at last estimated the
property destroyed at three million ducats, and
they said that if their flag could no longer protect
them, they must decline to make further contracts
for the supply of the Netherlands army.

It was life or death to Elizabeth. The Ridolfi
plot, an elaborate and far-reaching conspiracy to
give her crown to Mary Stuart and to make away
with heresy, was all but complete. The Pope
and Philip had approved ; Alva was to invade ;
the Duke of Norfolk was to head an insurrection
in the Eastern Counties. Never had she been
in greater danger. Elizabeth was herself to be
murdered. The intention was known, but the
particulars of the conspiracy had been kept so
secret that she had not evidence enough to take
measures to protect herself. The privateers at
Dorer were a sort of protection ; they would at
least make Alva s crossing more difficult ; but
the most pressing exigency was the discovery of
the details of the treason. Nothing was to be

86 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

gained by concession ; the only salvation was in
daring.

At Antwerp there was a certain Doctor Story,
maintained by Alva there to keep a watch on
English heretics. Story had been a persecutor
under Mary, and had defended heretic burning in
Elizabeth s first Parliament. He had refused the
oath of allegiance, had left the country, and had
taken to treason. Cecil wanted evidence, and this
man he knew could give it. A pretended informer
brought Story word that there was an English
vessel in the Scheldt which he would find worth
examining. Story was tempted on board. The
hatches were closed over him. He was delivered
two days after at the Tower, when his secrets
were squeezed out of him by the rack and he
was then hanged.

Something was learnt, but less still than Cecil
needed to take measures to protect the Queen.
And now once more, and in a new character, we
are to meet John Hawkins. Three years had
passed since the catastrophe at San Juan de
Ulloa. He had learnt to his sorrow that his
poor companions had fallen into the hands of the

3.] SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 87

Holy Office at last ; had been burnt, lashed,
starved in dungeons or worked in chains in the
Seville yards ; and his heart, not a very tender
one, bled at the thoughts of them. The finest
feature in the seamen of those days was their
devotion to one another. Hawkins determined
that, one way or other, these old comrades of his
should be rescued. Entreaties were useless ; force
was impossible. There might still be a chance
with cunning. He would risk anything, even the
loss of his soul, to save them.

De Silva had left England. The Spanish
ambassador was now Don Guerau or Gerald de
Espes, and to him had fallen the task of watching
and directing the conspiracy. Philip was to give
the signal, the Duke of Norfolk and other Catholic
peers were to rise and proclaim the Queen of
Scots. Success would depend on the extent of
the disaffection in England itself; and the am
bassador s business was to welcome and encourage
all symptoms of discontent. Hawkins knew
generally what was going on, and he saw in it
an opportunity of approaching Philip on his weak
side. Having been so much in the Canaries, he

88 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

probably spoke Spanish fluently. He called on
Don Guerau, and with audacious coolness repre
sented that he and many of his friends were dis
satisfied with the Queen s service. He said he
had found her faithless and ungrateful, and he
and they would gladly transfer their allegiance
to the King of Spain, if the King of Spain would
receive them. For himself, he would undertake
to bring over the whole privateer fleet of the
West, and in return he asked for nothing but the
release of a few poor English seamen who were
in prison at Seville.

Don Guerau was full of the belief that the
whole nation was ready to rebel He eagerly
swallowed the bait which Hawkins threw to him.
He wrote to Alva, he wrote to Philip s secretary,
Cayas, expatiating on the importance of securing
such an addition to their party. It was true, he
admitted, that Hawkins had been a pirate, but
piracy was a common fault of the English, and
no wonder when the Spaniards submitted to being
plundered so meekly ; the man who was offering
his services was bold, resolute, capable, and had
great influence with the English sailors; he

3.] SfR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II, 89

strongly advised that such a recruit should be
encouraged.

Alva would not listea Philip, who shuddered
at the very name of Hawkins, was incredulous.
Don Guerau had to tell Sir John that the King at
present declined his offer, but advised him to go
himself to Madrid, or to send some confidential
friend with assurances and explanations.

Another figure now enters on the scene, a
George Fitzwilliam. I do not know who he was,
or why Hawkins chose him for his purpose. The
Duke of Feria was one of Philip s most trusted
ministers. He had married an English lady who
had been a maid of honour to Queen Mary. It
is possible that Fitzwilliam had some acquaintance
with her or with her family. At any rate, he
went to the Spanish Court ; he addressed himself
to the Ferias; he won their confidence, and by
their means was admitted to an interview with
Philip. He represented Hawkins as a faithful
Catholic who was indignant at the progress of
heresy in England, who was eager to assist in the
overthrow of Elizabeth and the elevation of the
Queen of Scots, and was able and willing to carry

90 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

along with him the great Western privateer fleet,
which had become so dreadful to the Spanish
mind. Philip listened and was interested. It
was only natural, he thought, that heretics should
be robbers and pirates. If they could be recovered
to the Church, their bad habits would leave them.
The English navy was the most serious obstacle
to the intended invasion. Still, Hawkins ! The
Achines of his nightmares ! It could not be.
He asked Fitzwilliam if his friend was acquainted
with the Queen of Scots or the Duke of Norfolk.
Fitzwilliam was obliged to say that he was not.
The credentials of John Hawkins were his own
right hand. He was making the King a magnifi
cent offer: nothing less than a squadron of the
finest ships in the world not perhaps in the
best condition, he added, with cool British impu
dence, owing to the Queen s parsimony, but
easily to be put in order again if the King would
pay the seamen s wages and advance some money
for repairs. The release of a few poor prisoners
was a small price to ask for such a service.

The King was still wary, watching the bait
like an old pike, but hesitating to seize it ; but the

3.] SIX JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 91

duke and duchess were willing to be themselves
securities for Fitzwilliam s faith, and Philip
promised at last that if Hawkins would send him
a letter of recommendation from the Queen of
Scots herself, he would then see what could be
done. The Ferias were dangerously enthusiastic.
They talked freely to Fitzwilliam of the Queen
of Scots and her prospects. They trusted him
with letters and presents to her which would
secure his admittance to her confidence. Hawkins
had sent him over for the single purpose of
cheating Philip into releasing his comrades from
the Inquisition ; and he had been introduced to
secrets of high political moment ; like Saul, the
son of Kish, he had gone to seek his father s asses
and he had found a kingdom. Fitzwilliam
hurried home with his letters and his news.
Things were now serious. Hawkins could act
no further on his own responsibility. He con
sulted Cecil. Cecil consulted the Queen, and it
was agreed that the practice, as it was called,
should be carried further. It might lead to the
discovery of the whole secret.

Very treacherous, think some good people.

92 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Well, there are times when one admires even
treachery

nee lex eat justior ulla
Quam necis artifices ftrte perire sua.

King Philip was confessedly preparing to en
courage an English subject in treason to his
sovereign. Was it so wrong to hoist the
engineer with his own petard ? Was it wrong
of Hamlet to finger the packet of Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern and rewrite his uncle s despatch ?
Let us have done with cant in these matters.
Mary Stuart was at Sheffield Castle in charge of
Lord Shrewsbury, and Fitzwilliam could not see
her without an order from the Crown. Shrews
bury, though loyal to Elizabeth, was notoriously
well inclined to Mary, and therefore could not be
taken into confidence. In writing to him Cecil
merely said that friends of Fitzwilliam a were in
prison in Spain ; that if the Queen of Scots
would intercede for them, Philip might be induced
to let them go. He might therefore allow Fitz
william to have a private audience with that Queen.
Thus armed, Fitzwilliam went down to Sheffield.
He was introduced. He began with presenting

3.] S/X JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 93
Mary with the letters and remembrances from
the Ferias, which at once opened her heart. It
was impossible for her to suspect a friend of the
duke and duchess. She was delighted at receiv
ing a visitor from the Court of Spain. She was
prudent enough to avoid dangerous confidences,
but she said she was always pleased when she
could do a service to Englishmen, and with all
her heart would intercede for the prisoners. She
wrote to Philip, she wrote to the duke and
duchess, and gave the letters to Fitzwilliam to
deliver. He took them to London, called on
Don Gerald, and told him of his success. Don
Gerald also wrote to his master, wrote unguardedly,
and also trusted Fitzwilliam with the despatch.

The various packets were taken first to Cecil,
and were next shown to the Queen. They were
then returned to Fitzwilliam, who once more
went off with them to Madrid. If the letters
produced the expected effect, Cecil calmly ob
served that divers commodities would ensue.
English sailors would be released from the
Inquisition and the galleys. The enemy s inten
tions would be discovered. If the King of Spain

94 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

could be induced to do as Fitzwilliam had
suggested, and assist in the repairs of the ships
at Plymouth, credit would be obtained for a sum
of money which could be employed to his own
detriment. If Alva attempted the projected
invasion, Hawkins might take the ships as if to
escort him, and then do some notable exploit in
mid-Channel.

You will observe the downright directness of
Cecil, Hawkins, and the other parties in the
matter. There is no wrapping up their intentions
in fine phrases, no parade of justification. They
went straight to their point. It was very
characteristic of Englishmen in those stern,
dangerous times. They looked facts in the face,
and did what fact required. All really happened
exactly as I have described it: the story is told
in letters and documents of the authenticity of
which there is not the smallest doubb.

We will follow Fitzwilliam. He arrived at
the Spanish Court at the moment when Ridolfi
had brought from Rome the Pope s blessing on
the conspiracy. The final touches were being
added by the Spanish Council of State. All was

3-] SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 95

hope ; all was the credulity of enthusiasm ! Mary
Stuart s letter satisfied Philip. The prisoners
were dismissed, each with ten dollars in his
pocket. An agreement was formally drawn and
signed in the Escurial in which Philip gave
Hawkins a pardon for his misdemeanours in the
West Indies, a patent for a Spanish peerage, and
a letter of credit for 40,000^. to put the privateers
in a condition to do service, and the money was
actually paid by Philip s London agent. Ad
mitted as he now was to full confidence, Fitz-
william learnt all particulars of the great plot.
The story reads like a chapter from Monte Cristo,
and yet it is literally true.

It ends with a letter -which I will read to you,
from Hawkins to Cecil :

My very good Lord, It may please your
Honour to be advertised that Fitzwilliam is
returned from Spain, where his message was
acceptably received, both by the King himself,
the Duke of Feria, and others of the Privy
Council. His despatch and answer were with
great expedition and great countenance and

96 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

favour of the King. The Articles are sent to the
Ambassador with orders also for the money to
be paid to me by him, for the enterprise to
proceed with all diligence. The pretence is that
my powers should join with the Duke of Alva s
powers, which he doth secretly provide in Flanders,
as well as with powers which will come with the
Duke of Medina Celi out of Spain, and to invade
this realm and set up the Queen of Scots. They
have practised with us for the burning of Her
Majesty s ships. Therefore there should be some
good care had of them, but not as it may appear
that anything is discovered. The King has sent
a ruby of good price to the Queen of Scots, with
letters also which in my judgment were good to
be delivered. The letters be of no importance,
but his message by word is to comfort her, and
say that he hath now none other care but to
place her in her own. It were good also that
Fitzwilliam may have access to the Queen of
Scots to render thanks for the delivery of the
prisoners who are now at liberty. It will be a
very good colour for your Lordship to confer with
him more largely.

3-] SSX JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 97

I have sent your Lordship the copy of my
pardon from the King of Spain, in the order and
manner I have it, with my great titles and
honours from the King, from which God deliver
me. Their practices be very mischievous, and
they be never idle ; but God, I hope, will confound
them and turn their devices on their own necks.

Your Lordship s most faithfully to my power,

JOHN HAWKINS.

A few more words will conclude this curious
episode. With the clue obtained by Fitzwilliam,
and confessions twisted out of Story and other
unwilling witnesses, the Ridolfi conspiracy was
unravelled before it broke into act. Norfolk lost
his head. The inferior miscreants were hanged.
The Queen of Scots had a narrow escape, and the
Parliament accentuated the Protestant character
of the Church of England by embodying the
Thirty-nine Articles in a statute. Alva, who
distrusted Ridolfi from the first and disliked
encouraging rebellion, refused to interest himself
further in Anglo-Catholic plots. Elizabeth and
Cecil could now breathe more freely, and read

98 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Philip a lesson on the danger of plotting against
the lives of sovereigns.

So long as England and Spain were nominally
at peace, the presence of De la Mark and his
privateers in the Downs was at least indecent. A
committee of merchants at Bruges represented
that their losses by it amounted (as I said) to
three million ducats. Elizabeth, being now in
comparative safety, affected to listen to remon
strances, and orders were sent down to De la
Mark that he must prepare to leave. It is likely
that both the Queen and he understood each
other, and that De la Mark quite well knew where
he was to go, and what he was to do.

Alva now held every fortress in the Low
Countries, whether inland or on the coast. The
people were crushed. The duke s great statue
stood in the square at Antwerp as a symbol of the
annihilation of the ancient liberties of the Pro
vinces. By sea alone the Prince of Orange still
continued the unequal struggle ; but if he was to
maintain himself as a sea power anywhere, he
required a harbour of his own in his own country.
Dover and the Thames had served for a time as a

3-] SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 99
base of operations, but it could not last, and with
out a footing in Holland itself eventual success
was impossible. All the Protestant world was
interested in his fate, and De la Mark, with his
miscellaneous gathering of Dutch, English, and
Huguenot rovers, were ready for any desperate
exploit.

The order was to leave Dover immediately,
but it was not construed strictly. He lingered
in the Downs for six weeks. At length, one
morning at the end of March 1572, a Spanish
convoy known to be richly loaded appeared in the
Straits. De la Mark lifted anchor, darted out on
it, seized two of the largest hulks, rifled them,
flung their crews overboard, and chased the rest
up Channel. A day or two after he suddenly
showed himself off Brille, at the mouth of the
Meuse. A boat was sent on shore with a note to
the governor, demanding the instant surrender of
the town to the admiral of the Prince of Orange.
The inhabitants rose in enthusiasm ; the garrison
was small, and the governor was obliged to comply.
De la Mark took possession, A few priests and
monks attempted resistance, but were put down

ioo ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

without difficulty, and the leaders killed. The
churches were cleared of their idols, and the mass
replaced by the Calvinistic service. Cannon and
stores, furnished from London, were landed, and
Brille was made impregnable before Alva had
realised what had happened to him. He is said
to have torn his beard for anger. Flushing fol
lowed suit. In a week or two all the strongest
places on the coast had revolted, and the pirate
fleet had laid the foundation of the great Dutch
Republic, which at England s side was to strike
out of Philip s hand the sceptre of the seas, and
to save the Protestant religion.

We may think as we please of these Beggars
of the Ocean, these Norse corsairs come to life
again with the flavour of Genevan theology in
them ; but for daring, for ingenuity, for obstinate
determination to be spiritually free or to die for it,
the like of the Protestant privateers of the six
teenth century has been rarely met with in this
world.

England rang with joy when the news came
that Brille was taken. Church bells pealed, and
bonfires blazed. Money poured across in streams.

3.] SfX JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP II. 101

Exiled families went back to their homes which
were to be their homes once more and the
Zealanders and Hollanders, entrenched among
their ditches, prepared for an amphibious conflict
with the greatest power then upon the earth.

LECTURE IV
DRAKE S VOYAGE HOUND THE WORLD

SUPPOSE some persons present have heard
the name of Lope de Vega, the Spanish poet
of Philip IL s time. Very few of you probably
know more of him than his name, and yet he
ought to have some interest for us, as he was
one of the many enthusiastic young Spaniards
who sailed in the Great Armada. He had been
disappointed in some love affair. He was an
earnest Catholic. He wanted distraction, and it
is needless to say that he found distraction
enough in the English Channel to put his love
troubles out of his mind. His adventures brought
before him with some vividness the character of
the nation with which his own country was then
in the death-grapple, especially the character of
the great English seaman to whom the Spaniards

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 103

universally attributed their defeat. Lope studied
the exploits of Francis Drake from his first
appearance to his end, and he celebrated those
exploits, as England herself has never yet thought
it worth her while to do, by making him the hero
of an epic poem. There are heroes and heroea
Lope de Vega s epic is called The Dragontea.
Drake himself is the dragon, the ancient serpent
of the Apocalypse. We English have been con
tented to allow Drake a certain qualified praise.
We admit that he was a bold, dexterous sailor,
that he did his country good service at the
Invasion. We allow that he was a famous
navigator, and sailed round the world, which no
one else had done before him. But there is
always a but of course he was a robber and a
corsair, and the only excuse for him is that he
was no worse than most of his contemporaries.
To Lope de Vega he was a great deal worse. He
was Satan himself, the incarnation of the Genius
of Evil, the arch-enemy of the Church of God.

It is worth while to look more particularly
at the figure of a man who appeared to the
Spaniards in such terrible proportions. I, for my

104 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

part, believe a time will come when we shall see
better than we see now what the Reformation
was, and what we owe to it, and these sea-captains
of Elizabeth will then form the subject of a great
English national epic as grand as the Odyssey.

In my own poor way meanwhile I shall try in
these lectures to draw you a sketch of Drake and
his doings as they appear to myself. To-day I
can but give you a part of the rich and varied
story, but if all goes well I hope I may be able to
continue it at a future time.

I have not yet done with Sir John Hawkins.
We shall hear of him again. He became the
manager of Elizabeth s dockyards. He it was
who turned out the ships that fought Philip s
fleet in the Channel in such condition that not
a hull leaked, not a spar was sprung, not a rope
parted at an unseasonable moment, and this at
a minimum of cost. He served himself in the
squadron which he had equipped. He was one
of the small group of admirals who met that
Sunday afternoon in the cabin of the ark llaleigh
and sent the fire-ships down to stir Medina Sidonia
out of his anchorage at Calais. He was a child

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 105
of the sea, and at sea he died, sinking at last into
his mother s arms. But of this hereafter. I
must speak now of his still more illustrious
kinsman, Francis Drake.

I told you the other day generally who Drake
was and where he came from ; how he went to
sea as a boy, found favour with his master,
became early an owner of his own ship, sticking
steadily to trade. You hear nothing of him in
connection with the Channel pirates. It was not
till he was five-and-twenty that he was tempted
by Hawkins into the negro-catching business, and
of this one experiment was enough. He never
tried it again.

The portraits of him vary very much, as
indeed it is natural that they should, for most of
those which pass for Drake were not meant for
Drake at all. It is the fashion in this country,
and a very bad fashion, when we find a remarkable
portrait with no name authoritatively attached to
it, to christen it at random after some eminent
man, and there it remains to perplex or mislead.

The best likeness of Drake that I know is
an engraving in Sir William Stirling-Maxwell s

io6 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

collection of sixteenth-century notabilities, repre
senting him, as a scroll says at the foot of the
plate, at the age of forty-three. The face is
round, the forehead broad and full, with the short
brown hair curling crisply on either side. The
eyebrows are highly arched, the eyes firm, clear,
and open, I cannot undertake for the colour, but
I should judge they would be dark grey, like an
eagle s. The nose is short and thick, the mouth
and chin hid by a heavy moustache on the upper
lip, and a close-clipped beard well spread over
chin and cheek. The expression is good-humoured,
but absolutely inflexible, not a weak line to be
seen. He was of middle height, powerfully built,
perhaps too powerfully for grace, unless the
quilted doublet in which the artist has dressed
him exaggerates his breadth.

I have seen another portrait of him, with
pretensions to authenticity, in which he appears
with a slighter figure, eyes dark, full, thoughtful,
and stern, a sailor s cord about his neck with a
whistle attached to it, and a ring into which a
thumb is carelessly thrust, the weight of the
arms resting on it, as if in a characteristic

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4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 107

attitude. Evidently this is a carefully drawn
likeness of some remarkable seaman of the time.
I should like to believe it to be Drake, but I can
feel no certainty about it.

We left him returned home in the Judith
from San Juan de Ulloa, a ruined man. He had
never injured the Spaniards. He had gone out
with his cousin merely to trade, and he had met
with a hearty reception from the settlers wherever
he had been. A Spanish admiral had treacherously
set upon him and his kinsman, destroyed half
their vessels, and robbed them of all that they
had. They had left a hundred of their comrades
behind them, for whose fate they might fear the
worst. Drake thenceforth considered Spanish
property as fair game till he had made up his
own losses. He waited quietly for four years till
he had re-established himself, and then prepared
to try fortune again in a more daring form.

The ill-luck at San Juan de Ulloa had risen
from loose tongues. There had been too much
talk about it. Too many parties had been con
cerned. The Spanish Government had notice
and were prepared. Drake determined to act for

io8 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

himself, have no partners, and keep his own
secret. He found friends to truat him with
money without asking for explanations. The
Plymouth sailors were eager to take their chance
with him. His force was absurdly small : a sloop
or brigantine of a hundred tons, which he called
the Dragon (perhaps, like Lope de Vega, playing
on his own name), and two small pinnaces. With
these he left Plymouth in the fall of the summer
of 1572. He had ascertained that Philip s gold
and silver from the Peruvian mines was landed
at Panama, carried across the isthmus on mules
backs on the line of M. de Lesseps canal, and
re-shipped at Nombre de Dios, at the mouth of
the Chagre Kiver.

He told no one where he was going. He was
no more communicative than necessary after his
return, and the results, rather than the particulars,
of his adventure are all that can be certainly
known. Discretion told him to keep his counsel,
and he kept it.

The Drake family published an account of
this voyage in the middle of the next century,
but obviously mythical, in parts demonstrably

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 109

false, and nowhere to be depended on. It can be
made out, however, that he did go to Nombre de
Dios, that he found his way into the town, and
saw stores of bullion there which he would have
liked to carry off but could not. A romantic
story of a fight in the town I disbelieve, first
because his numbers were so small that to try
force would have been absurd, and next because
if <there had been really anything like a battle
an alarm would have been raised in the neigh
bourhood, and it is evident that no alarm was
given. In the woods were parties of runaway
slaves, who were called Cimarons. It was to
these that Drake addressed himself, and they
volunteered to guide him where he could surprise
the treasure convoy on the way from Panama.
His movements were silent and rapid. One in
teresting incident is mentioned which is authentic.
The Cimarons took him through the forest to the
watershed from which the streams flow to both
oceans. Nothing could be seen through the
jungle of undergrowth ; but Drake climbed a
tall tree, saw from the top of it the Pacific
glittering below him, and made a vow that

no ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

one day he would himself sail a ship in those
waters.

For the present he had immediate work on
hand. His guides kept their word. They led
him to the track from Panama, and he had not
long to wait before the tinkling was heard of the
mule bells as they were coming up the pass.
There was no suspicion of danger, not the faintest.
The mule train had but its ordinary guard, who
fled at the first surprise. The immense booty fell
all into Drake s hands gold, jewels, silver bars
and got with much ease, as Prince Hal said at
Gadshill. The silver they buried, as too heavy
for transport. The gold, pearls, rubies, emeralds,
and diamonds they carried down straight to their
ship. The voyage home went prosperously. The
spoils were shared among the adventurers, and
they had no reason to complain. They were wise
enough to hold their tongues, and Drake was in a
condition to look about him and prepare for bigger
enterprises.

Rumours got abroad, spite of reticence. Im
agination was high in flight just then ; rash
amateurs thought they could make their fortunes

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD in

in the same way, and tried it, to their sorrow.
A sort of inflation can be traced in English
sailors minds as their work expanded. Even
Hawkins the clear, practical Hawkins was in
fected. This was not in Drake s line. He kept
to prose and fact. He studied the globe. He
examined all the charts that he could get. He
became known to the Privy Council and the
Queen, and prepared for an enterprise which would
make his name and frighten Philip in earnest.

The ships which the Spaniards used on the
Pacific were usually built on the spot. But Ma
gellan was known to have gone by the Horn, and
where a Portuguese could go an Englishman could
go. Drake proposed to try. There was a party in
Elizabeth s Council against these adventures, and
in favour of peace with Spain; but Elizabeth
herself was always for enterprises of pith and
moment. She was willing to help, and others
of her Council were willing too, provided their
names were not to appear. The responsibility
was to be Drake s own. Again the vessels in
which he was preparing to tempt fortune seem
preposterously small. The Pelican, or Golden

H2 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Hinde, which belonged to Drake himself, was
called but 120 tons, at best no larger than a
modern racing yawl, though perhaps no racing
yawl ever left White s yard better found for the
work which she had to do. The next, the Eliza-
leth, of London, was said to be eighty tons;
a small pinnace of twelve tons, in which we
should hardly risk a summer cruise round the
Land s End, with two sloops or frigates of fifty
and thirty tons, made the rest. The Elizabeth
was commanded by Captain Winter, a Queen s
officer, and perhaps a son of the old admiral

We may credit Drake with knowing what he
was about. He and his comrades were carrying
their lives in their hands. If they were taken
they would be inevitably hanged. Their safety
depended on speed of sailing, and specially on the
power of working fast to windward, which the
heavy square-rigged ships could not do. The
crews all told were 160 men and boys. Drake
had his brother John with him. Among his
officers were the chaplain, Mr. Fletcher, another
minister of some kind who spoke Spanish, and
in one of the sloops a mysterious Mr. Doughty.

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4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 113

Who Mr. Doughty was, and why he was sent out,
is uncertain. When an expedition of consequence
was on hand, the Spanish party in the Cabinet
usually attached to it some second in command
whose business was to defeat the object. When
Drake went to Cadiz in after years to singe Bang
Philip s beard, he had a colleague sent with him
whom he had to lock into his cabin before he
could get to his work. So far as I can make out,
Mr. Doughty had a similar commission. On this
occasion secrecy was impossible. It was gener
ally known that Drake was going to the Pacific
through Magellan Straits, to act afterwards on
his own judgment. The Spanish ambassador,
now Don Bernardino de Mendoza, in informing
Philip of what was intended, advised him to send
out orders for the instant sinking of every English
ship, and the execution of every English sailor,
that appeared on either side the isthmus in West
Indian waters. The orders were despatched, but
so impossible it seemed that an English pirate
could reach the Pacific, that the attention was
confined to the Caribbean Sea, and not a hint of
alarm was sent across to the other side.

i4 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

On November 15, 1577, the Pelican and her
consort sailed out of Plymouth Sound. The
elements frowned on their start. On the second
day they were caught in a winter gale. The
Pelican sprung her mainmast, and they put back
to refit and repair. But Drake defied auguries.
Before the middle of December all was again in
order. The weather mended, and with a fair
wind and smooth water they made a fast run
across the Bay of Biscay and down the coast to
the Cape de Verde Islands. There taking up the
north-east trades, they struck across the Atlantic,
crossed the line, and made the South American
continent in latitude 33 South. They passed
the mouth of the Plate River, finding to their
astonishment fresh water at the ship s side in
fifty-four fathoms. All seemed so far going well,
when one morning Mr. Doughty s sloop was
missing, and he along with her. Drake, it
seemed, had already reason to distrust Doughty,
and guessed the direction in which he had gone.
The Marigold was sent in pursuit, and he was
overtaken and brought back. To prevent a re
petition of such a performance, Drake took the

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 115

sloop s stores out of her, burnt her, distributed
the crew through the other vessels, and took Mr.
Doughty under his own charge. On June 20
they reached Port St. Julian, on the coast of
Patagonia. They had been long on the way, and
the southern winter had come round, and they
had to delay further to make more particular
inquiry into Doughty s desertion. An ominous
and strange spectacle met their eyes as they
entered the harbour. In that utterly desolate
spot a skeleton was hanging on a gallows, the
bones picked clean by the vultures. It was one
of Magellan s crew who had been executed there
for mutiny fifty years before. The same fate was
to befall the unhappy Englishman who had been
guilty of the same fault. Without the strictest
discipline it was impossible for the enterprise to
succeed, and Doughty had been guilty of worse
than disobedience. We are told briefly that his
conduct was found tending to contention, and
threatening the success of the voyage. Part he
was said to have confessed; part was proved
against him one knows not what. A court was
formed out of the crew. He was tried, as near as

n6 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

circumstances allowed, according to English usage
He was found guilty, and was sentenced to die.
He made no complaint, or none of which a record
is preserved. He asked for the Sacrament, which
was of course allowed, and Drake himself com
municated with him. They then kissed each
other, and the unlucky wretch took leave of his
comrades, laid his head on the block, and so
ended. His offence can be only guessed ; but the
suspicious curiosity about his fate which was
shown afterwards by Mendoza makes it likely
that he was in Spanish pay. The ambassador
cross-questioned Captain Winter very particularly
about him, and we learn one remarkable fact from
Mendoza s letters not mentioned by any English
writer, that Drake was himself the executioner,
choosing to bear the entire responsibility.

This done, writes an eye-witness, the general
made divers speeches to the whole company, per
suading us to unity, obedience, and regard of our
voyage, and for the better confirmation thereof
willed every man the Sunday following to prepare
himself to receive the Communion as Christian
brothers and friends ought to do, which was done

4.] DRAKES VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 117

in very reverend sort ; and so with good content
ment every man went about his business.

You must take this last incident into your
conception of Drake s character, think of it how
you please.

It was now midwinter, the stormiest season of
the year, and they remained for six weeks in Port
St. Julian. They burnt the twelve-ton pinnace,
as too small for the work they had now before
them, and there remained only the Pelican, the
Elizabeth, and the Marigold. In cold wild weather
they weighed at last, and on August 20 made the
opening of Magellan s Straits. The passage is
seventy miles long, tortuous and dangerous.
They had no charts. The ships boats led, taking
soundings as they advanced. Icy mountains
overhung them on either side ; heavy snow fell
below. They brought up occasionally at an
island to rest the men, and let them kill a few
seals and penguins to give them fresh food.
Everything they saw was new, wild, and wonderful.

Having to feel their way, they were three
weeks in getting through. They had counted on
reaching the Pacific that the worst of their work

ii8 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

was over, and that they could run north at once
into warmer and calmer latitudes. The peaceful
ooean, when they entered it, proved the stormiest
they had ever sailed on. A fierce westerly gale
drove them 600 miles to the south-east outside
the Horn. It had been supposed, hitherto, that
Tierra del Fuego was solid land to the South
Pole, and that the Straits were the only com
munication between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
They now learnt the true shape and character of
the Western Continent. In the latitude of Cape
Horn a westerly gale blows for ever round the
globe ; the waves the highest anywhere known.
The Marigold went down in the tremendous
encounter. Captain Winter, in the Elizabeth,
made his way back into Magellan s Straits
There he lay for three weeks, lighting fires
nightly to show Drake where he was, but no
Drake appeared. They had agreed, if separated,
to meet on the coast in the latitude of Valparaiso ;
but Winter was chicken-hearted, or else traitorous
like Doughty, and sore, we are told, against the
mariners will, when the three weeks were out,
he sailed away for England, where he reported

4-] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD ng

that all the ships were lost but the Pelican, and
that the Pelican was probably lost too.

Drake had believed better of Winter, and had
not expected to be so deserted. He had himself
taken refuge among the islands which form the
Cape, waiting for the spring and milder weather.
He used the time in making surveys, and observ
ing the habits of the native Patagonians, whom
he found a tough race, going naked amidst ice
and snow. The days lengthened, and the sea
smoothed at last. He then sailed for Valparaiso,
hoping to meet Winter there, as he had arranged.
At Valparaiso there was no Winter, but there was
in the port instead a great galleon just come in
from Peru. The galleon s crew took him for a
Spaniard, hoisted their colours, and beat their
drums. The Pelican shot alongside. The English
sailors in high spirits leapt on board. A Plymouth
lad who could speak Spanish knocked down the
first man he met with an Abajo, perro ! Down,
you dog, down ! No life was taken ; Drake
never hurt man if he could help it. The crew
crossed themselves, jumped overboard, and swam
ashore. The prize was examined. Four hundred

120 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

pounds weight of gold was found in her, besides
other plunder.

The galleon being disposed of, Drake and his
men pulled ashore to look at the town. The
people had all fled. In the church they found
a chalice, two cruets, and an altar-cloth, which
were made over to the chaplain to improve his
Communion furniture. A few pipes of wine and
a Greek pilot who knew the way to Lima com
pleted the booty.

Shocking piracy, you will perhaps say. But
what Drake was doing would have been all right
and good service had war been declared, and the
essence of things does not alter with the form.
In essence there was war, deadly war, between
Philip and Elizabeth. Even later, when the
Armada sailed, there had been no formal declara
tion. The reality is the important part of the
matter. It was but stroke for stroke, and the
English arm proved the stronger.

Still hoping to find Winter in advance of him,
Drake went on next to Tarapaca, where silver
from the Andes mines was shipped for Panama.
At Tarapaca there was the same unconsciousness

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 121

of danger. The silver bars lay piled on the quay,
the muleteers who had brought them were sleep
ing peacefully in the sunshine at their side. The
muleteers were left to their slumbera The bars
were lifted into the English boats. A train of
mules or llamas came in at the moment with a
second load as rich as the first. This, too, went
into the Pelicans hold. The bullion taken at
Tarapaca was worth near half a million ducats.

Still there were no news of Winter. Drake
began to realise that he was now entirely alone,
and had only himself and his own crew to depend
on. There was nothing to do but to go through
with it, danger adding to the interest. Arica was
the next point visited. Half a hundred blocks of
silver were picked up at Arica. After Arica came
Lima, the chief depot of all, where the grandest
haul was looked for. At Lima, alas ! they were
just too late. Twelve great hulks lay anchored
there. The sails were unbent, the men were
ashore. They contained nothing but some chests
of reals and a few bales of silk and linen. But a
thirteenth, called by the gods Our Lady of the
Conception, called by men Cacafuego, a name

122 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

incapable of translation, had sailed a few days
before for the isthmus, with the whole produce of
the Lima mines for the season. Her ballast was
silver, her cargo gold and emeralds and rubies.

Drake deliberately cut the cables of the ships
in the roads, that they might drive ashore and be
unable to follow him. The Pelican spread her
wings, every feather of them, and sped away in
pursuit. He would know the Cacafuego, so he
learnt at Lima, by the peculiar cut of her sails.
The first man who caught sight of her was
promised a gold chain for his reward. A sail
was seen on the second day. It was not the
chase, but it was worth stopping for. Eighty
pounds weight of gold was found, and a great
gold crucifix, set with emeralds said to be as large
as pigeon s eggs. They took the kernel. They
left the shell Still on and on. We learn from
the Spanish accounts that the Viceroy of Lima,
as soon as he recovered from his astonishment,
despatched ships in pursuit. They came up with
the last plundered vessel, heard terrible tales of
the rovers strength, and went back for a larger
force. The Pelican meanwhile went along upon

SIR Ht MPHREf GILBERT
rom a;i f.,ujYa>: u\y in Holland s E Herctiilof/ix

4-] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 123
her course for Soo miles. At length, when in
the latitude of Quito and close under the shore,
the Cacafuego s peculiar sails were sighted, and the
gold chain was claimed. There she was, freighted
with the fruit of Aladdin s garden, going lazily
along a few miles ahead. Care was needed in
approaching her. If she guessed the Pelican s
character, she would run in upon the land and
they would lose her. It was afternoon. The sun
was still above the horizon, and Drake meant to
wait till night, when the breeze would be off the
shore, as in the tropics it always is.

The Pelican sailed two feet to the Cacafuego s
one. Drake filled his empty wine-skins with
water and trailed them astern to stop his way.
The chase supposed that she was followed by
some heavy-loaded trader, and, wishing for com
pany on a lonely voyage, she slackened sail and
waited for him to come up. At length the sun
went down into the ocean, the rosy light faded
from off the snows of the Andes ; and when both
ships had become invisible from the shore, the
skins were hauled in, the night wind rose, and
the water began to ripple under the Pelican s

124 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

bows. The Cacafuego was swiftly overtaken, and
when within a cable s length a voice hailed her
to put her head into the wind. The Spanish
commander, not understanding so strange an
order, held on his course. A broadside brought
down his mainyard, and a flight of arrows rattled
on his deck. He was himself wounded. In a few
minutes he was a prisoner, and Our Lady of the
Conception and her precious freight were in the
corsair s power. The wreck was cut away ; the
ship was cleared ; a prize crew was put on board.
Both vessels turned their heads to the sea. At
daybreak no land was to be seen, and the examin
ation of the prize began. The full value was
never acknowledged. The invoice, if there was
one, was destroyed. The accurate figures were
known only to Drake and Queen Elizabeth. A
published schedule acknowledged to twenty tons
of silver bullion, thirteen chests of silver coins,
and a hundredweight of gold, but there were gold
nuggets besides in indefinite quantity, and a
great store of pearls, emeralds, and diamonds.
The Spanish Government proved a loss of a
million and a half of ducats, excluding what

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 125

belonged to private persons. The total capture
was immeasurably greater.

Drake, we are told, was greatly satisfied. He
thought it prudent to stay in the neighbourhood
no longer than necessary. He went north with
all sail set, taking his prize along with him. The
master, San Juan de Anton, was removed on
board the Pelican to have his wound attended to.
He remained as Drake s guest for a week, and
sent in a report of what he observed to the
Spanish Government. One at least of Drake s
party spoke excellent Spanish. This person took
San Juan over the ship. She showed signs, San
Juan said, of rough service, but was still in fine
condition, with ample arms, spare rope, mattocks,
carpenters tools of all descriptions. There were
eighty-five men on board all told, fifty of them
men-of-war, the rest young fellows, ship-boys and
the like. Drake himself was treated with great
reverence ; a sentinel stood always at his cabin
door. He dined alone with music.

No mystery was made of the Pelican s ex
ploits. The chaplain showed San Juan the
crucifix set with emeralds, and asked him if he

iz6 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

could seriously believe that to be God. San Juan
asked Drake how he meant to go home. Drake
showed him a globe with three courses traced on
it. There was the way that he had come, there
was the way by China and the Cape of Good
Hope, and there was a third way which he did
not explain. San Juan asked if Spain and England
were at war. Drake said he had a commission
from the Queen. His captures were for her, not
for himself. He added afterwards that the Viceroy
of Mexico had robbed him and his kinsman, and
he was making good his losses.

Then, touching the point of the sore, he said,
I know the Viceroy will send for thee to inform
himself of my proceedings. Tell him he shall
do well to put no more Englishmen to death,
and to spare those he has in his hands, for if he
do execute them I will hang 2,000 Spaniards and
send him their heads.

After a week s detention San Juan and his
men were restored to the empty Camfucgo, and
allowed to go. On their way back they fell in
with the two cruisers sent in pursuit from Lima,
reinforced by a third from Panama, They were

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 127

now fully armed ; they went in chase, and accord
ing to their own account came up with the Pelican.
But, like Lope de Vega, they seemed to have
been terrified at Drake as a sort of devil. They
confessed that they dared not attack him, and
again went back for more assistance. The Viceroy
abused them as cowards, arrested the officers,
despatched others again with peremptory orders
to seize Drake, even if he was the devil, but by
that time their questionable visitor had flown.
They found nothing, perhaps to their relief.

A despatch went instantly across the Atlantic
to Philip. One squadron was sent off from Cadiz
to watch the Straits of Magellan, and another to
patrol the Caribbean Sea. It was thought that
Drake s third way was no seaway at all, that he
meant to leave the Pelican at Darien, carry his
plunder over the mountains, and build a ship at
Honduras to take him home. His real idea was
that he might hit off the passage to the north of
which Frobisher and Davis thought they had
found the eastern entrance. He stood on towards
California, picking up an occasional straggler in
the China trade, with silk, porcelain, gold, and

128 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

emeralds. Fresh water was a necessity. He put
in at Guatulco for it, and his proceedings were
humorously prompt. The alcaldes at Guatulco
were in session trying a batch of negroes. An
English boat s crew appeared in court, tied the
alcaldes hand and foot, and carried them off to
the Pelican, there to remain as hostages till the
water-casks were filled.

North again he fell in with a galleon carrying
out a new Governor to the Philippines. The
Governor was relieved of his boxes and his jewels,
and then, says one of the party, Our General,
thinking himself in respect of his private injuries
received from the Spaniards, as also their con
tempt and indignities offered to our country and
Prince, sufficiently satisfied and revenged, and
supposing her Majesty would rest contented with
this service, began to consider the best way home.
The first necessity was a complete overhaul of the
ship. Before the days of copper sheathing weeds
grew thick under water. Barnacles formed in
clusters, stopping the speed, and sea- worms bored
through the planking. Twenty thousand miles
lay between the Pelican and Plymouth Sound.

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 129

and Drake was not a man to run idle chances.
Still holding his north course till he had left the
furthest Spanish settlement far to the south, he
put into Canoas Bay in California, laid the Pelican
ashore, set up forge and workshop, and repaired
and re-rigged her with a month s labour from
stem to stern. With every rope new set up and
new canvas on every yard, he started again on
April 1 6, 1579, and continued up the coast to
Oregon. The air grew cold though it was
summer. The men felt it from having been so
long in the tropics, and dropped out of health.
There was still no sign of a passage. If passage
there was, Drake perceived that it must be of
enormous length. Magellan s Straits, he guessed,
would be watched for him, so he decided on the
route by the Cape of Good Hope. In the Philip
pine ship he had found a chart of the Indian
Archipelago. With the help of this and his own
skill he hoped to find his way. He went down
again to San Francisco, landed there, found the
soil teeming with gold, made acquaintance with
an Indian king who hated the Spaniards and
wished to become an English subject. But Drake

130 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

had no leisure to annex new territories. Avoiding
the course from Mexico to the Philippines, ho
made a direct course to the Moluccas, and brought
up again at the Island of Celebes. Here the
Pelican was a second time docked and scraped.
The crew had a month s rest among the fireflies
and vampires of the tropical forest. Leaving
Celebes, they entered on the most perilous part
of the whole voyage. They wound their way
among coral reefs and low islands scarcely visible
above the water-line. In their chart the only
outlet marked into the Indian Ocean was by the
Straits of Malacca. But Drake guessed rightly
that there must be some nearer opening, and felt
his way looking for it along the coast of Java.
Spite of all his care, he was once on the edge
of destruction. One evening as night was closing
in a grating sound was heard under the Pelican s
keel In another moment she was hard and
fast on a reef. The breeze was light and the
water smooth, or the world would have heard no
more of Francis Drake. She lay immovable
till daybreak. At dawn the position was seen
not to be entirely desperate. Drake himself

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 131

showed all the qualities of a great commander.
Cannon were thrown over and cargo that was not
needed. In the afternoon, the wind changing, the
lightened vessel lifted off the rocks and was saved.
The hull was uninjured, thanks to the Californian
repairs. All on board had behaved well with the
one exception of Mr. Fletcher, the chaplain. Mr.
Fletcher, instead of working like a man, had
whined about Divine retribution for the execu
tion of Doughty.

For the moment Drake passed it over. A few
days after, they passed out through the Straits of
Sunda, where they met the great ocean swell,
Homer s ptya KVfjLa Qa\a<r<Tris, and they knew then
that all was well.

There was now time to call Mr. Fletcher to
account. It was no business of the chaplain to
discourage and dispirit men in a moment of
danger, and a court was formed to sit upon him.
An English captain on his own deck represents
the sovereign, and is head of Church as well as
State. Mr. Fletcher was brought to the forecastle,
where Drake, sitting on a sea-chest with a pair
of pantoufles in his hand, excommunicated him.

132 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

pronounced him cut off from the Church of God,
given over to the devil for the chastising of his
flesh, and left him chained by the leg to a ring
bolt to repent of his cowardice.

In the general good-humour punishment could
not be of long duration. The next day the poor
chaplain had his absolution, and returned to his
berth and his duty. The Pelican met with no
more adventures. Sweeping in fine clear weather
round the Cape of Good Hope, she touched once
for water at Sierra Leone, and finally sailed in
triumph into Plymouth Harbour, where she had
been lon s given up for lost, having traced the first
furrow round the globe. Winter had come home
eighteen months before, but could report nothing.
The news of the doings on the American coast
had reached England through Madrid. The
Spanish ambassador had been furious. It was
known that Spanish squadrons had been sent in
search. Complications would arise if Drake
brought his plunder home, and timid politicians
hoped that he was at the bottom of the sea. But
here he was, actually arrived with a monarch s
ransom in his hold.

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 133

English sympathy with an extraordinary ex
ploit is always irresistible. Shouts of applause
rang through the country, and Elizabeth, every
bit of her an Englishwoman, felt with her subjects.
She sent for Drake to London, made him tell his
story over and over again, and was never weary of
listening to him. As to injury to Spain, Philip
had lighted a fresh insurrection in Ireland, which
had cost her dearly in lives and money. For
Philip to demand compensation of England on
the score of justice was a thing to make the gods
laugh.

So thought the Queen. So unfortunately did
not think some members of her Council, Lord
Burghley among them. Mendoza was determined
that Drake should be punished and the spoils dis
gorged, or else that he would force Elizabeth upon
the world as the confessed protectress of piracy.
Burghley thought that, as things stood, some
satisfaction (or the form of it) would have to be
made.

Elizabeth hated paying back as heartily as
Falsbaff, nor had she the least intention of throw
ing to the wolves a gallant Englishman, with

134 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

whose achievements the world was ringing. She
was obliged to allow the treasure to be registered
by a responsible official, and an account rendered
to Mendoza ; bat for all that she meant to keep
her own share of the spoils. She meant, too, that
Drake and his brave crew should not go unre
warded. Drake himself should have ten thousand
pounds at least.

Her action was eminently characteristic of
her. On the score of real justice there was
no doubt at all how matters stood between her
self and Philip, who had tried to dethrone and
kill her.

The Pelican lay still at Plymouth with the
bullion and jewels untouched. She directed that
it should be landed and scheduled. She trusted
the business to Edmund Tremayne, of Sydenham,
a neighbouring magistrate, on whom she could
depend. She told him not to be too inquisitive,
and she allowed Drake to go back and arrange
the cargo before the examination was made. Let
me now read you a letter from Tremayne himself
to Sir Francis Walsingham :

1 To give you some understanding how I have

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 135

proceeded with Mr. Drake : I have at no time
entered into the account to know more of the
value of the treasure than he made me acquainted
with ; and to say truth I persuaded him to impart
to me no more than need, for so I saw him com
manded in her Majesty s behalf that he should
reveal the certainty to no man living. I have
only taken notice of so much as he has revealed,
and the same I have seen to be weighed, regis
tered, and packed. And to observe her Majesty s
commands for the ten thousand pounds, we agreed
he should take it out of the portion that was
landed secretly, and to remove the same out of
the place before my son Henry and I should
come to the weighing and registering of what was
left ; and so it was done, and no creature living
by me made privy to it but himself; and myself
no privier to it than as you may perceive by this.
I see nothing to charge Mr. Drake further
than he is inclined to charge himself, and withal
I must say he is inclined to advance the value to
be delivered to her Majesty, and seeking in general
to recompense all men that have been in the
case dealers with him. As I dare take an oath,

136 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

he will rather diminish his own portion than leave
any of them unsatisfied. And for his mariners
and followers I have seen here as eye-witness,
and have heard with my ears, such certain signs
of goodwill as I cannot yet see that any of them
will leave his company. The whole course of his
voyage hath showed him to be of great valour ;
but my hap has been to see some particulars,
and namely in this discharge of his company, as
doth assure me that he is a man of great govern
ment, and that by the rules of God and his book,
so as proceeding on such foundation his doings
cannot but prosper.

The result of it all was that deductions were
made from the capture equivalent to the property
which Drake and Hawkins held themselves to
have been treacherously plundered of at San Juan
de Ulloa, with perhaps other liberal allowances for
the cost of recovery. An account on part of what
remained was then given to Mendoza. It was not
returned to him or to Philip, but was laid up in
the Tower till the final settlement of Philip s and
the Queen s claims on each other the cost, for
one thing, of the rebellion in Ireland. Commis-

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 137

sioners met and argued and sat on ineffectually
till the Armada came and the discussion ended,
and the talk of restitution was over. Meanwhile,
opinion varied about Drake s own doings as it has
varied since. Elizabeth listened spellbound to his
adventures, sent for him to London again, and
walked with him publicly about the parks and
gardens. She gave him a second ten thousand
pounds. The Pelican was sent round to Dept-
ford ; a royal banquet was held on board, Eliza
beth attended and Drake was knighted. Mendoza
clamoured for the treasure in the Tower to be
given up to him ; Walsingham wished to give it
to the Prince of Orange ; Leicester and his party
in the Council, who had helped to fit Drake out,
thought it ought to be divided among themselves,
and unless Mendoza lies they offered to share it
with him if he would agree to a private arrange
ment. Mendoza says he answered that he would
give twice as much to chastise such a bandit as
Drake. Elizabeth thought it should be kept as
a captured pawn in the game, and so in fact it
remained after the deductions which we have
seen had been made.

138 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Drake was lavish of his presents. He pre
sented the Queen with a diamond cross and a
coronet set with splendid emeralds. He gave
Bromley, the Lord Chancellor, 800 dollars worth
of silver plate, and as much more to other members
of the Council. The Queen wore her coronet on
New Year s Day ; the Chancellor was content to
decorate his sideboard at the cost of the Catholic
King. Burghley and Sussex declined the splendid
temptation ; they said they could accept no such
precious gifts from a man whose fortune had been
made by plunder.

Burghley lived to see better into Drake s
value. Meanwhile, what now are we, looking
back over our history, to say of these things the
Channel privateering ; the seizure of Alva s army
money ; the sharp practice of Hawkins with the
Queen of Scots and King Philip ; or this amazing
performance of Sir Francis Drake in a vessel no
larger than a second-rate yacht of a modern noble
lord?

Resolution, daring, professional skill, all his
torians allow to these men ; but, like Burghley,
they regard what they did as piracy, not much

4.] DRAKE S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 139

better, if at all better, than the later exploits of
Morgan and Kidd. So cried the Catholics who
wished Elizabeth s ruin ; so cried Lope de Vega
and King Philip. In milder language the modern
philosopher repeats the unfavourable verdict, re
joices that he lives in an age when such doings are
impossible, and at>ologises faintly for the excesses
of an imperfect age. May I remind the philosopher
that we live in an age when other things have
also happily become impossible, and that if he and
his friends were liable when they went abroad for
their summer tours to be snapped by the familiars
of the Inquisition, whipped, burnt alive, or sent to
the galleys, he would perhaps think more leniently
of any measures by which that respectable insti
tution and its masters might be induced to treat
philosophers with greater consideration ?

Again, remember Dr. Johnson s warning,
Beware of cant. In that intensely serious century
men were more occupied with the realities than
the forms of things. By encouraging rebellion in
England and Ireland, by burning so many scores
of poor English seamen and merchants in fools
coats at Seville, the King of Spain had given

140 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT. 4.

Elizabeth a hundred occasions for declaring war
against him. Situated as she was, with so many
disaffected Catholic subjects, she could not begin
a war on such a quarrel. She had to use such
resources as she had, and of these resources the
best was a splendid race of men who were not
afraid to do for her at their own risk what com
missioned officers would and might have justly
done had formal war been declared, men who
defeated the national enemy with materials con
quered from himself, who were devoted enough
to dispense with the personal security which the
sovereign s commission would have extended to
prisoners of war, and face the certainty of being
hanged if they were taken. Yes ; no doubt by
the letter of the law of nations Drake and Hawkins
were corsairs of the same stuff as Ulysses, as the
rovers of Norway. But the common-sense of
Europe saw through the form to the substance
which lay below it, and the instinct of their
countrymen gave them a place among the fight
ing heroes of England, from which I do not think
they will be deposed by the eventual verdict of
history.

LECTURE V

PARTIES IN THE STATE

N December 21, 1585, a remarkable scene took
place in the English House of Commons.
The Prince of Orange, after many attempts had
failed, had been successfully disposed of in the
Low Countries. A fresh conspiracy had just been
discovered for a Catholic insurrection in England,
supported by a foreign invasion ; the object of
which was to dethrone Elizabeth and to give her
crown to Mary Stuart. The Duke of Alva, at the
time of the Ridolfi plot, had pointed out as a
desirable preliminary, if the invasion was to suc
ceed, the assassination of the Queen of England.
The succession being undecided, he had calculated
that the confusion would paralyse resistance, and
the notorious favour with which Mary Stuart s
pretensions were regarded by a powerful English

142 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

party would ensure her an easy victory were
Elizabeth once removed. But this was an indis
pensable condition. It had become clear at last
that so long as Elizabeth was alive Philip would
not willingly sanction the landing of a Spanish
army on English shores. Thus, among the more
ardent Catholics, especially the refugees at the
Seminary at Rheims, a crown in heaven was held
out to any spiritual knight-errant who would
remove the obstacle. The enterprise itself was
not a difficult one. Elizabeth was aware of her
danger, but she was personally fearless. She
refused to distrust the Catholics. Her household
was full of them. She admitted anyone to her
presence who desired a private interview. Dr.
Parry, a member of Parliament, primed by en
couragements from the Cardinal of Como and the
Vatican, had undertaken to risk his life to win
the glorious prize. He introduced himself into
the palace, properly provided with arms. * He
professed to have information of importance to
give. The Queen received him repeatedly. Once
he was alone with her in the palace garden,
and was on the point of killing her, when he was

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 143

awed, as he said, by the likeness to her father.
Parry was discovered and hanged, but Elizabeth
refused to take warning. When there were so
many aspirants for the honour of removing Jezebel,
and Jezebel was so easy of approach, it was felt
that one would at last succeed ; and the loyal
part of the nation, led by Lord Burghley, formed
themselves into an association to protect a life
so vital to them and apparently so indifferent to
herself.

The subscribers bound themselves to pursue
to the death all manner of persons who should
attempt or consent to anything to the harm of
her Majesty s person ; never to allow or submit
to .any pretended successor by whom or for whom
such detestable act should be attempted or com
mitted ; but to pursue such persons to death and
act the utmost revenge upon them.

The bond in its first form was a visible creation
of despair. It implied a condition of things in
which order would have ceased to exist. The
lawyers, who, it is curious to observe, were
generally in Mary Stuart s interest, vehemently
objected ; yet so passionate was public feeling

144 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

that it was signed throughout the kingdom, and
Parliament was called to pass an Act which would
secure the same object. Mary Stuart, at any
rate, was not to benefit by the crimes either of
herself or her admirers. It was provided that if
the realm was invaded, or a rebellion instigated
by or for any one pretending a title to the crown
after the Queen s death, such pretender should be
disqualified for ever. In the event of the Queen s
assassination the government was to devolve on a
Committee of Peers and Privy Councillors, who
were to examine the particulars of the murder
and execute the perpetrators and their accomplices ;
while, with a significant allusion, all Jesuits and
seminary priests were required to leave the country
instantly, under pain of death.

The House of Commons was heaving with
emotion when the Act was sent up to the Peers.
To give expression to their burning feelings Sir
Christopher Hatton proposed that before they
separated they should join him in a prayer for the
Queen s preservation. The 400 members all rose,
and knelt on the floor of the House, repeating
Hatton a words after him, sentence by sentence.

S-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 145

Jesuits and seminary priests ! Attempts have
been made to justify the conspiracies against
Elizabeth from what is called the persecution of
the innocent enthusiasts who came from Rheims
to preach the Catholic faith to the English people.
Popular writers and speakers dwell on the exe
cutions of Campian and his friends as worse
than the Smithfield burnings, and amidst general
admiration and approval these martyred saints
have been lately canonised. Their mission, it is
said, was purely religious. Was it so ? The chief
article in the religion which they came to teach
was the duty of obedience to the Pope, who had
excommunicated the Queen, had absolved her
subjects from their allegiance, and, by a relaxation
of the Bull, had permitted them to pretend to
loyalty ad illud tempus, till a Catholic army of
deliverance should arrive. A Pope had sent a
legate to Ireland, and was at that moment stirring
up a bloody insurrection there.

But what these seminary priests were, and
what their object was, will best appear from an
account of the condition of England, drawn up
for the use of the Pope and Philip, by Father

146 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Parsons, who was himself at the head of the
mission. The date of it is 1585, almost simul
taneous with the scene in Parliament which I
have just been describing. The English refugees,
from Cardinal Pole downwards, were the most
active and passionate preachers of a Catholic
crusade against England. They failed, but they
have revenged themselves in history. Pole,
Sanders, Allen, and Parsons have coloured all
that we suppose ourselves to know of Henry VIII.
and Elizabeth. What I am about to read to you
does not differ essentially from what we have
already heard from these persons ; but it is new,
and, being intended for practical guidance, is
complete in its way. It comes from the Spanish
archives, and is not therefore open to suspicion.
Parsons, as you know, was a Fellow of Balliol
before his conversion; Allen was a Fellow of Oriel,
and Sanders of New College. An Oxford Church
of England education is an excellent thing, and
beautiful characters have been formed in the
Catholic universities abroad ; but as the elements
of dynamite are innocent in themselves, yet when
fused together produce effects no one would have

. ..UCIf f ET SUPERIOR
/iNeiKlN/l .

-.. - ..-- -Hi-rum f-J J - , / .-.J^ t i

FATHER P ARSONS.
from a print in the British Museum,

S-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 147

dreamt of, so Oxford and Rome, when they have
run together, have always generated a somewhat
furious compound.

Parsons describes his statement as a brief note
on the present condition of England, from which
may be inferred the ease and opportuneness of
the holy enterprise. England, he says, contains
fifty-two counties, of which forty are well inclined
to the Catholic faith. Heretics in these are few,
and are hated by all ranks. The remaining twelve
are infected more or less, but even in these the
Catholics are in the majority. Divide England
into three parts ; two-thirds at least are Catholic
at heart, though many conceal their convictions
in fear of the Queen. English Catholics are of
two sorts one which makes an open profession
regardless of consequences, the other believing at
the bottom, but unwilling to risk life or fortune,
and so submitting outwardly to the heretic laws,
but as eager as the Catholic confessors for
redemption from slavery.

The Queen and her party, he goes on, more
fear these secret Catholics than those who wear
their colours openly. The latter they can fine,

HS ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

disarm, and make innocuous. The others, being
outwardly compliant, cannot be touched, nor can
any precaution be taken against their rising when
the day of divine vengeance shall arrive.

The counties specially Catholic are the most
warlike, and contain harbours and other con
veniences for the landing of an invading army.
The north towards the Scotch border has been
trained in constant fighting. The Scotch nobles
on the other side are Catholic and will lend their
help. So will all Wales.

The inhabitants of the midland and southern
provinces, where the taint is deepest, are indolent
and cowardly, and do not know what war means.
The towns are more corrupt than the country
districts. But the strength of England does not
lie, as on the Continent, in towns and cities. The
town population are merchants and craftsmen,
rarely or never nobles or magnates.

The nobility, who have the real power, reside
with their retinues in castles scattered over the
land. The wealthy yeomen are strong and honest,
all attached to the ancient faith, and may be
counted on when an attempt is made for the

j.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 149

restoration of it. The knights and gentry are
generally well affected also, and will be well to
the front. Many of their sons are being now
educated in our seminaries. Some are in exile,
but all, whether at home or abroad, will be active
on our side.

Of the great peers, marquises, earls, viscounts,
and barons, part are with us, part against us.
But the latter sort are new creations, whom the
Queen has promoted either for heresy or as her
personal lovers, and therefore universally abhorred.

The premier peer of the old stock is the Earl
of Arundel, son and heir of the late Duke of
Norfolk, whom she has imprisoned because he
tried to escape out of the realm. This earl is
entirely Catholic, as well as his brothers and
kinsmen; and they have powerful vassals who
are eager to revenge the injury of their lord.
The Earl of Northumberland and his brothers
are Catholics. They too have family wrongs to
repay their father having been this year murdered
in the Tower, and they have placed themselves at
my disposal The Earl of Worcester and his heir
hate heresy, and are devoted to us with all their

i.^o ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

dependents. The Earls of Cumberland and
Southampton and Viscount Montague are faithful,
and have a large following. Besides these we
have many of the barons Dacre, Morley, Vaux,
Windsor, Wharton, Lovelace, Stourton, and others
besides. The Earl of Westmoreland, with Lord
Paget and Sir Francis Englefield, who reside
abroad, have been incredibly earnest in promoting
our enterprise. With such support, it is im
possible that we can fail These lords and
gentlemen, when they see efficient help coming
to them, will certainly rise, and for the following
reasons :

1. Because some of the principals among them
have given me their promise.

2. Because, on hearing that Pope Pius intended
to excommunicate and depose the Queen sixteen
years ago, many Catholics did rise. They only
failed because no support was sent them, and the
Pope s sentence had not at that time been actually
published. Now, when the Pope has spoken and
help is certain, there is not a doubt how they will
act.

3. Because the Catholics are flow much more

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 151

numerous, and have received daily instruction in
their religion from our priests. There is now no
orthodox Catholic in the whole realm who supposes
that he is any longer bound in conscience to obey
the Queen. Books for the occasion have been
written and published by us, in which we prove
that it is not only lawful for Catholics, but their
positive duty, to fight against the Queen and
heresy when the Pope bids them; and these
books are so greedily read among them that when
the time comes they are certain to take arms.

4. The Catholics in these late years have
shown their real feeling in the martyrdoms of
priests and laymen, and in attempts made by
several of them against the person and State of
the Queen. Various Catholics have tried to kill
her at the risk of their own lives, and are still
trying.

5. We have three hundred priests dispersed
among the houses of the nobles and honest
gentry. Every day we add to their number;
and these priests will direct the consciences and
actions of the Catholics at the great crisis.

6. They have been so harried and so worried

152 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

that they hate the heretics worse than they hate
the Turks.

Should any of them fear the introduction of
a Spanish army as dangerous to their national
liberties, there is an easy way to satisfy their
scruples. Let it be openly declared that the
enterprise is undertaken in the name of the Pope
and there will be no more hesitation. We have
ourselves prepared a book for their instruction, to
be issued at the right moment. If his Holiness
desires to see it we will have it translated into
Latin for his use.

Before the enterprise is undertaken the
sentence of excommunication and deposition ought
to be reissued, with special clauses.

It must be published in all adjoining Catholic
countries ; all Catholic kings and princes must be
admonished to forbid every description of inter
course with the pretended Queen and her heretic
subjects, and themselves especially to make or
observe no treaties with her, to send no embassies
to her and admit none ; to render no help to her
of any sort or kind.

Besides those who will be our friends for re-

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 153

ligion s sake we shall have others with us neutrals
or heretics of milder sort, or atheists, with whom
England now abounds, who will join us in the
interest of the Queen of Scots. Among them are
the Marquis of Winchester, the Earls of Shrews
bury, Derby, Oxford, Rutland, and several other
peers. The Queen of Scots herself will be of
infinite assistance to us in securing these. She
knows who are her secret friends. She has been
able so far, and we trust will always be able, to
communicate with them. She will see that they
are ready at the right time. She has often written
to me to say that she hopes that she will be able
to escape when the time comes. In her last letter
she urges me to be vehement with his Holiness
in pushing on the enterprise, and bids him have no
concern for her own safety. She believes that she
can care for herself. If not, she says she will lose
her life willingly in a cause so sacred.

The enemies that we shall have to deal with
are the more determined heretics whom we call
Puritans, and certain creatures of the Queen, the
Earls of Leicester and Huntingdon, and a few
others. They will have an advantage in the money

154 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

in the Treasury, the public arms and stores, and
the army and navy, but none of them have ever
seen a camp. The leaders have been nuzzled in
love-making and Court pleasures, and they will all
fly at the first shock of war. They have not a man
who can command in the field. In the whole
realm there are but two fortresses which could
stand a three days siege. The people are ener
vated by long peace, and, except a few who have
served with the heretics in Flanders, cannot bear
their arms. Of those few some are dead and
some have deserted to the Prince of Parma, a
clear proof of the real disposition to revolt. There
is abundance of food and cattle in the country, all
of which will be at our service and cannot be
kept from us. Everywhere there are safe and
roomy harbours, almost all undefended. An in
vading force can be landed with ease, and there
will be no lack of local pilots. Fifteen thousand
trained soldiers will be sufficient, aided by the
Catholic English, though, of course, the larger
the force, particularly if it includes cavalry, the
quicker the work will be done and the less
the expense. Practically there will be nothing

S-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 15$

to overcome save an unwarlike and undisciplined
mob.

Sixteen times England has been invaded.
Twice only the native race have repelled the
attacking force. They have been defeated on
every other occasion, and with a cause so holy and
just as ours we need not fear to fail. The ex
penses shall be repaid to his Holiness and the
Catholic Xing out of the property of the heretics
and the Protestant clergy. There will be ample
in these resources to compensate all who give us
their hand. But the work must be done promptly.
Delay will be infinitely dangerous. If we put off,
as we have done hitherto, the Catholics will be
tired out and reduced in numbers and strength.
The nobles and priests now in exile, and able to
be of such service, will break down in poverty.
The Queen of Scots may be executed or die a
natural death, or something may happen to the
Catholic King or his Holiness. The Queen of
England may herself die, a heretic Government
may be reconstructed under a heretic successor,
the young Scotch king or some other, and our case
will then be desperate ; whereas if we can prevent

156 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

this and save the Queen of Scots there will be
good hope of converting her son and reducing the
whole island to the obedience of the faith. Now
is the moment. The French Government cannot
interfere. The Duke of Guise will help us for the
sake of the faith and for his kinswoman. The
Turks are quiet. The Church was never stronger
or more united. Part of Italy is under the Catholic
King; the rest is in league with his Holiness.
The revolt in the Low Countries is all but crushed.
The sea provinces are on the point of surrender
ing. If they give up the contest their harbours
will be at our service for the invasion. If not,
the way to conquer them is to conquer England.

I need not urge how much it imports his
Holiness to undertake this glorious work. He,
supremely wise as he is, knows that from this
Jezebel and her supporters come all the perils
which disturb the Christian world. He knows
that heretical depravity and all other miseries
can only end when this woman is chastised. Re
verence for his Holiness and love for my afflicted
country force me to speak. I submit to his most
holy judgment myself and my advice.

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 157

The most ardent Catholic apologist will hardly
maintain, in the face of this document, that the
English Jesuits and seminary priests were the
innocent missionaries of religion which the modern
enemies of Elizabeth s Government describe them.
Father Parsons, the writer of it, was himself the
leader and director of the Jesuit invasion, and
cannot be supposed to have misrepresented the
purpose for which they had been sent over. The
point of special interest is the account which he
gives of the state of parties and general feeling in
the English people. Was there that wide disposi
tion to welcome an invading army in so large a
majority of the nation ? The question is supposed
to have been triumphantly answered three years
later, when it is asserted that the difference of
creed was forgotten, and Catholics and Protestants
fought side by side for the liberties of England.
But, in the first place, the circumstances were
changed. The Queen of Scots no longer lived,
and the success of the Armada implied a foreign
sovereign. But, next, the experiment was not
tried. The battle was fought at sea, by a fleet
four-fifths of which was composed of Protestant

i$8 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

adventurers, fitted out and manned by those zeal
ous Puritans whose fidelity to the Queen Parsons
himself admitted. Lord Howard may have been
an Anglo-Catholic ; Roman Catholic he never
was ; but he and his brother were the only loyalists
in the House of Howard. Arundel and the rest
of his kindred were all that Parsons claimed for
them. How the country levies would have be
haved had Parma landed is still uncertain. It is
likely that if the Spanish army had gained a first
success, there might have been some who would
have behaved as Sir William Stanley did. It is
observable that Parsons mentions Leicester and
Huntingdon as the only powerful peers on whom
the Queen could rely, and Leicester, otherwise the
unfittest man in her dominions, she chose to
command her land army.

The Duke of Alva and his master Philip, both
of them distrusted political priests. Political
priests, they said, did not understand the facts
of things. Theological enthusiasm made them
credulous of what they wished. But Father
Parsons s estimate is confirmed in all its parts by
the letters of Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador

LOBD BTTRGHLEY.

From a painting probably by 31. Gheeraedts.

5-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 159

in London. Mendoza was himself a soldier, and
his first duty was to learn the real truth. It may
be taken as certain that, with the Queen of Scots
still alive to succeed to the throne, at the time of
the scene in the House of Commons, with which
I began this lecture, the great majority of the
country party disliked the Reformers, and were
looking forward to the accession of a Catholic
sovereign, and as a consequence to a religious
revolution.

It explains the difficulty of Elizabeth s posi
tion and the inconsistency of her political action.
Burghley, Walsingham, Mildmay, Knolles, the
elder Bacon, were believing Protestants, and
would have had her put herself openly at the
head of a Protestant European league. They
believed that right and justice were on their side,
that their side was God s cause, as they called it,
and that God would care for it. Elizabeth had
no such complete conviction. She disliked dog
matism, Protestant as well as Catholic. She
ridiculed Mr. Cecil and his brothers in Christ.
She thought, like Erasmus, that the articles of
faith, for which men were so eager to kill one

160 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

another, were subjects which they knew very
little about, and that every man might think
what he would on such matters without injury to
the commonwealth. To become head of the
name would involve open war with the Catholic
powers. War meant war taxes, which more than
half her subjects would resent or resist. Religion
as she understood it was a development of law
the law of moral conduct. You could not have
two laws in one country, and you could not have
two religions ; but the outward form mattered
comparatively little. The people she ruled over
were divided about these forms. They were
mainly fools, and if she let them each have
chapels and churches of their own, molehills would
become mountains, and the congregations would
go from arguing into fighting. With Parliament
to help her, therefore, she established a Liturgy,
in which those who wished to find the Mass could
hear the Mass, while those who wanted predestin
ation and justification by faith could find it in the
Articles. Both could meet under a common roof,
and use a common service, if they would only be
reasonable. If they would not be reasonable, the

5-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 161

Catholics might have their own ritual in their
own houses, and would not be interfered with.

This system continued for the first eleven
years of Elizabeth s reign. No Catholic, she
could proudly say, had ever during that time been
molested for his belief. There was a small fine
for non-attendance at church, but even this was
rarely levied, and by the confession of the Jesuits
the Queen s policy was succeeding too well.
Sensible men began to see that the differences of
religion were not things to quarrel over. Faith
was growing languid. The elder generation, who
had lived through the Edward and Mary revolu
tions, were satisfied to be left undisturbed ; a new
generation was growing up, with new ideas ; and
so the Church of Rome bestirred itself. Elizabeth
was excommunicated. The cycle began of intrigue
and conspiracy, assassination plots, and Jesuit
invasions. Punishments had to follow, and in
spite of herself Elizabeth was driven into what
the Catholics could call religious persecution. Re
ligious it was not, for the seminary priests were
missionaries of treason. But religious it was

made to appear. The English gentleman who

M

162 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LBCT.

wished to remain loyal, without forfeiting his
faith, was taught to see that a sovereign under
the Papal curse had no longer a claim on his
allegiance. If he disobeyed the Pope, he had
ceased to be a member of the Church of Christ.
The Papal party grew in coherence, while, opposed
to them as their purpose came in view, the
Protestants, who at first had been inclined to
Lutheranism, adopted the deeper and sterner
creed of Calvin and Geneva. The memories of
the Marian cruelties revived again. They saw
themselves threatened with a return to stake and
fagot. They closed their ranks and resolved to
die rather than submit again to Antichrist. They
might be inferior in numbers. A plebiscite in
England at that moment would have sent Burgh-
ley and Walsingham to the scaffold. But the
Lord could save by few as well as by many. Judah
had but two tribes out of the twelve, but the
words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the
words of Israel

One great mistake had been made by Parsons.
He could not estimate what he could not under
stand. He admitted that the inhabitants of the

S-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 163

towns were mainly heretic London, Bristol,
Plymouth, and the rest but he despised them as
merchants, craftsmen, mean persons who had no
heart to fight in them. Nothing is more remark
able in the history of the sixteenth century than
the effect of Calvinism in levelling distinctions of
rank and in steeling and ennobling the character
of common men. In Scotland, in the Low
Countries, in France, there was the same pheno
menon. In Scotland, the Kirk was the creation
of the preachers and the people, and peasants and
workmen dared to stand in the field against belted
knights and barons, who had trampled on then-
fathers for centuries. The artisans of the Low
Countries had for twenty years defied the whole
power of Spain. The Huguenots were not a fifth
part of the French nation, yet defeat could never
dishearten them. Again and again they forced
Crown and nobles to make terms with them.
It was the same in England. The allegiance
to their feudal leaders dissolved into a higher
obligation to the King of kings, whose elect they
believed themselves to be. Election to them was
not a theological phantasm, but an enlistment in

164 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

the army of God. A little flock they might be,
but they were a dangerous people to deal with,
most of all in the towns on the sea. The sea was
the element of the Reformers. The Popes had
no jurisdiction over the winds and waves. Rochelle
was the citadel of the Huguenots. The English
merchants and mariners had wrongs of their own,
perpetually renewed, which fed the bitterness of
their indignation. Touch where they would in
Spanish ports, the inquisitor s hand was on their
ships crews, and the crews, unless they denied
their faith, were handed over to the stake or the
galleys. The Calvinists are accused of intolerance.
I fancy that even in these humane and enlightened
days we should not be very tolerant if the King
of Dahomey were to burn every European visitor
to his dominions who would not worship Mumbo
Jumbo. The Duke of Alva was not very merciful
to heretics, but he tried to bridle the zeal of the
Holy Office in burning the English seamen.
Even Philip himself remonstrated. It was to no
purpose. The Holy Office said they would think
about it, but concluded to go on. I am not
the least surprised if the English seamen were

$.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 165

intolerant. I should be very much surprised if
they had not been. The Queen could not protect
them. They had to protect themselves as they
could, and make Spanish vessels, when they could
catch them, pay for the iniquities of their rulers.

With such a temper rising on both sides,
Elizabeth s policy had but a poor chance. She
still hoped that the better sense of mankind
would keep the doctrinal enthusiasts in order.
Elizabeth wished her subjects would be content
to live together in unity of spirit, if not in unity
of theory, in the bond of peace, not hatred, in
righteousness of life, not in orthodoxy preached
by stake and gibbet. She was content to wait
and to persevere. She refused to declare war.
War would tear the world in pieces. She knew
her danger. She knew that she was in constant
peril of assassination. She knew that if the
Protestants were crushed in Scotland, in France,
and in the Low Countries, her own turn would
follow. To protect insurgents avowedly would be
to justify insurrection against herself. But what
she would not do openly she would do secretly.
What she would not do herself she let her subjects

166 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

do. Thousands of English volunteers fought in
Flanders for the States, and in France for the
Huguenots. When the English Treasury was
shut to the entreaties of Coligny or William of
Orange the London citizens untied their purse-
strings. Her friends in Scotland fared ill. They
were encouraged by promises which were not
observed, because to observe them might bring
on war. They committed themselves for her
sake. They fell one after another Murray,
Morton, Gowrie into bloody graves. Others
took their places and struggled on. The Scotch
Reformation was saved. Scotland was not allowed
to open its arms to an invading army to strike
England across the Border. But this was held
to be their sufficient recompense. They cared for
their cause as well as for the English Queen, and
they had their reward. If they saved her they
saved their own country. She too did not lie on
a bed of roses. To prevent open war she was
exposing her own life to the assassin. At any
moment a pistol-shot or a stab with a dagger
might add Elizabeth to the list of victims. She
knew it, yet she went on upon her own policy,

5-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 167

and faced in her person her own share of the risk.
One thing only she did. If she would not defend
her friends and her subjects as Queen of England,
she left them free to defend themselves. She
allowed traitors to be hanged when they were
caught at their work. She allowed the merchants
to fit out their privateer fleets, to defend at their
own cost the shores of England, and to teach the
Spaniards to fear their vengeance.

But how long was all this to last ? How long
were loyal citizens to feel that they were living
over a loaded mine ? throughout their own
country, throughout the Continent, at Rome and
at Madrid, at Brussels and at Paris, a legion of
conspirators were driving their shafts under the
English commonwealth. The Queen might be
indifferent to her own danger, but on the Queen s
life hung the peace of the whole realm. A stroke
of a poniard, a touch of a trigger, and swords
would be flying from their scabbards in every
county ; England would become, like France, one
wild scene of anarchy and civil war. No suc
cessor had been named. The Queen refused to
hear a successor declared. Mary Stuart s hand

168 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

liad been in every plot since she crossed the
Border. Twice the House of Commons had
petitioned for her execution. Elizabeth would
neither touch her life nor allow her hopes of the
crown to be taken from her. The Bond of Asso
ciation was but a remedy of despair, and the Act
of Parliament would have passed for little in the
tempest which would immediately rise. The
agony reached a height when the fatal news came
from the Netherlands that there at last assassin
ation had done its work. The Prince of Orange,
after many failures, had been finished, and a libel
was found in the Palace at Westminster exhorting
the ladies of the household to provide a Judith
among themselves to rid the world of the English
Holofernes.

One part of Elizabeth s subjects, at any rate,
were not disposed to sit down in patience under
the eternal nightmare. From Spain was to come
the army of deliverance for which the Jesuits
were so passionately longing. To the Spaniards
the Pope was looking for the execution of the
Bull of Deposition. Father Parsons had left out
of his estimate the Protestant adventurers of

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 169

London and Plymouth, who, besides their creed
and their patriotism, had their private wrongs to
revenge. Philip might talk of peace, and perhaps
in weariness might at times seriously wish for it ;
but between the Englishmen whose life was on
the ocean and the Spanish Inquisition, which
had burned so many of them, there was no peace
possible. To them, Spain was the natural enemy.
Among the daring spirits who had sailed with
Drake round the globe, who had waylaid the
Spanish gold ships, and startled the world with
their exploits, the joy of whose lives had been to
fight Spaniards wherever they could meet with
them, there was but one wish for an honest
open war. The great galleons were to them no
objects of terror. The Spanish naval power
seemed to them a Colossus stuffed with clouts.
They were Protestants all of them, but their
theology was rather practical than speculative.
If Italians and Spaniards chose to believe in
the Mass, it was not any affair of theirs. Their
quarrel was with the insolent pretence of Catho
lics to force their creed on others with sword and
cannon. The spirit which was working in them

i;o ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

was the genius of freedom. On their own element
they felt that they could be the spiritual tyrants
masters. But as things were going, rebellion was
likely to break out at home ; their homesteads
might be burning, their country overrun with the
Prince of Parma s army, the Inquisition at their
own doors, and a Catholic sovereign bringing
back the fagots of Smithfield.

The Reformation at its origin was no intro
duction of novel heresies. It was a revolt of the
laity of Europe against the profligacy and avarice
of the clergy. The popes and cardinals pretended
to be the representatives of Heaven. When
called to account for abuse of their powers, they
had behaved precisely as mere corrupt human
kings and aristocracies behave. They had in
trigued ; they had excommunicated ; they had
set nation against nation, sovereigns against their
subjects ; they had encouraged assassination ; they
had made themselves infamous by horrid mas
sacres, and had taught one half of foolish Christen
dom to hate the other. The hearts of the poor
English seamen whose comrades had been burnt
at Seville to make a Spanish holiday, thrilled

$.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 171

with a sacred determination to end such scenes.
The purpose that was in them broke into a wild
war-music, as the wind harp swells and screams
under the breath of the storm. I found in the
Record Office an unsigned letter of some inspired
old sea-dog, written in a bold round hand and ad
dressed to Elizabeth. The ships companies which
in summer served in Philip s men-of-war went in
winter in thousands to catch cod on the Banks of
Newfoundland. Give me five vessels, the writer
said, and I will go out and sink them all, and the
galleons shall rot in Cadiz Harbour for want of
hands to sail them. But decide, Madam, and decide
quickly. Time flies, and will not return. The wings
of man s life are plumed with the feathers of death.
The Queen did not decide. The five ships
were not sent, and the poor Castilian sailors
caught their cod in peace. But in spite of
herself Elizabeth was driven forward by the
tendencies of things. The death of the Prince of
Orange left the States without a Government.
The Prince of Parma was pressing them hard.
Without a leader they were lost. They offered
themselves to Elizabeth, to be incorporated in the

172 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

English Empire. They said that if she refused they
must either submit to Spain or become provinces
of France. The Netherlands, whether Spanish
or French, would be equally dangerous to Eng
land. The Netherlands once brought back under
the Pope, England s turn would come next ; while
to accept the proposal meant instant and des
perate war, both with France and Spain too for
France would never allow England again to gain
a foot on the Continent. Elizabeth knew not what
to do. She would and she would not. She did
not accept ; she did not refuse. It was neither No
nor Yes. Philip, who was as fond of indirect ways
as herself, proposed to quicken her irresolution.

The harvest had failed in Galicia, and the
population were starving. England grew more
corn than she wanted, and, under a special
promise that the crews should not be molested, a
fleet of corn-traders had gone with cargoes of
grain to Coruna, Bilbao, and Santander. The
King of Spain, on hearing that Elizabeth was
treating with the States, issued a sudden order
to seize the vessels, confiscate the cargoes, and
imprison the men. The order was executed.

5-] PARTIES IN THE STATE 173

One English ship only was lucky enough to
escape by the adroitness of her commander. The
Primrose, of London, lay in Bilbao Roads with a
captain and fifteen hands. The mayor, on re
ceiving the order, came on board to look over the
ship. He then went on shore for a sufficient
force to carry out the seizure. After he was gone
the captain heard of the fate which was intended
for him. The mayor returned with two boatloads
of soldiers, stepped up the ladder, touched the
captain on the shoulder, and told him he was
a prisoner. The Englishmen snatched pike and
cutlass, pistol and battleaxe, killed seven or eight
of the Spanish boarders, threw the rest overboard,
and flung stones on them as they scrambled into
their boats. The mayor, who had fallen into the
sea, caught a rope and was hauled up when the
fight was over. The cable was cut, the sails
hoisted, and in a few minutes the Primrose was
under way for England, with the mayor of Bilbao
below the hatches. No second vessel got away.
If Philip had meant to frighten Elizabeth he
could not have taken a worse means of doing it,
for he had exasperated that particular part of the

174 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

English population which was least afraid of him.
He had broken faith besides, and had seized some
hundreds of merchants and sailors who had gone
merely to relieve Spanish distress. Elizabeth, as
usual, would not act herself She sent no ships
from her own navy to demand reparation; but
she gave the adventurers a free hand. The
London and Plymouth citizens determined to
read Spain a lesson which should make an im
pression. They had the worst fears for the fate
of the prisoners ; but if they could not save, they
could avenge them. Sir Francis Drake, who
wished for nothing better than to be at work
again, volunteered his services, and a fleet was
collected at Plymouth of twenty-five sail, every
one of them fitted out by private enterprise. No
finer armament, certainly no better-equipped
armament, ever left the English shores. The
expenses were, of course, enormous. Of seamen
and soldiers there were between two and three
thousand. Drake s name was worth an army.
The cost was to be recovered out of the ex
pedition somehow ; the Spaniards were to be
made to pay for it ; but how or when was

5.] PARTIES IN THE STATE 175

left to Drake s judgment. This time there
was no second in command sent by the
friends of Spain to hang upon his arm. By
universal consent he had the absolute command.
His instructions were merely to inquire at
Spanish ports into the meaning of the arrest.
Beyond that he was left to go where he pleased
and do what he pleased on his own responsibility.
The Queen said frankly that if it proved con
venient she intended to disown him. Drake had
no objection to being disowned, so he could teach
the Spaniards to be more careful how they
handled Englishmen. What came of it will be
the subject of the next lecture. Father Parsons
said the Protestant traders of England had grown
effeminate and dared not fight. In the ashes of
their own smoking cities the Spaniards had to
learn that Father Parsons had misread his
countrymen. If Drake had been given to heroics
he might have left Virgil s lines inscribed above
the broken arms of Castile at St. Domingo :

En ego victa situ quam veri effeta senectns
Anna inter regnm falsa formidine ludit :
Eespice ad hasc.

LECTURE VI

THE GREAT EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES

/~\UEEN ELIZABETH and her brother-in-law
of Spain were reluctant champions of oppos
ing principles. In themselves they had no wish
to quarrel, but each was driven forward by fate
and circumstance Philip by the genius of the
Catholic religion, Elizabeth by the enthusiasts
for freedom and by the advice of statesmen who
saw no safety for her except in daring. Both
wished for peace, and refused to see that peace
was impossible; but both were compelled to
yield to their subjects eagerness. Philip had to
threaten England with invasion ; Elizabeth had
to show Philip that England had a long arm,
which Spanish wisdom would do well to fear. It
was a singular position. Philip had outraged
orthodoxy and dared the anger of Rome by

LECT.6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 177
maintaining an ambassador at Elizabeth s Court
after her excommunication. He had laboured for
a reconciliation with a sincerity which his secret
letters make it impossible to doubt. He had
condescended even to sue for it, in spite of Drake
and the voyage of the Pelican; yet he had
helped the Pope to set Ireland in a flame. He
had encouraged Elizabeth s Catholic subjects in
conspiracy after conspiracy. He had approved of
attempts to dispose of her as he had disposed of
the Prince of Orange. Elizabeth had retaliated,
though with half a heart, by letting her soldiers
volunteer into the service of the revolted Nether
lands, by permitting English privateers to plunder
the Spanish colonies, seize the gold ships, and
revenge their own wrongs. Each, perhaps, had
wished to show the other what an open war would
cost them both, and each drew back when war
appeared inevitable.

Events went their way. Holland and Zeeland,
driven to extremity, had petitioned for incorpora
tion with England ; as a counter-stroke and a
warning, Philip had arrested the English corn

ships and imprisoned the owners and the crews.

H

1 78 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

Her own fleet was nothing. The safety of the
English shores depended on the spirit of the
adventurers, and she could not afford to check
the anger with which the news was received. To
accept the offer of the States was war, and war
she would not have. Herself, she would not act
at all ; but in her usual way she might let her
subjects act for themselves, and plead, as Philip
pleaded in excuse for the Inquisition, that she
could not restrain them. And thus it was that
in September 1585, Sir Francis Drake found
himself with a fleet of twenty-five privateers and
2,500 men who had volunteered to serve with
him under his own command. He had no distinct
commission. The expedition had been fitted out
as a private undertaking. Neither officers nor
crews had been engaged for the service of the
Crown. They received no wages. In the eye of
the law they were pirates. They were going on
their own account to read the King of Spain a
necessary lesson and pay their expenses at the
King of Spain s cost. Young Protestant England
had taken fire. The name of Drake set every
Protestant heart burning, and hundreds of gallant

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES i?9

gentlemen had pressed in to join. A grandson
of Burghley had come, and Edward Winter the
Admiral s son, and Francis Knolles the Queen s
cousin, and Martin Frobisher, and Christopher
Carlile. Philip Sidney had wished to make one
also in the glory ; but Philip Sidney was needed
elsewhere. The Queen s consent had been won
from her at a bold interval in her shifting moods.
The hot fit might pass away, and Burghley sent
Drake a hint to be off before her humour changed.
No word was said. On the morning of the I4th
of September the signal flag was flying from
Drake s maintop to up anchor and away. Drake,
as he admitted after, was not the most assured
of her Majesty s perseverance to let them go
forward. Past Ushant he would be beyond reach
of recall. With light winds and calms they
drifted across the Bay. They fell in with a few
Frenchmen homeward-bound from the Banks, and
let them pass uninjured. A large Spanish ship
which they met next day, loaded with excellent
fresh salt fish, was counted lawful prize. The fish
was new and good, and was distributed through
the fleet. Standing leisurely on, they cleared

iSo ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Finisterre and came up with the Isles of Bayona,
at the mouth of Vigo Harbour. They dropped
anchor there, and it was a great matter and a
royal sight to see them. The Spanish Governor,
Don Pedro Bemadero, sent off with some as
tonishment to know who and what they were.
Drake answered with a question whether England
and Spain were at war, and if not why the
English merchants had been arrested. Don Pedro
could but say that he knew of no war, and for
the merchants an order had come for their release.
For reply Drake landed part of his force on the
islands, and Don Pedro, not knowing what to
make of such visitors, found it best to propitiate
them with cartloads of wine and fruit. The
weather, which had been hitherto fine, showed
signs of change. The wind rose, and the sea
with it. The anchorage was exposed, and Drake
sent Christopher Carlile, with one of his ships
and a few pinnaces, up the harbour to look out
for better shelter. Their appearance created a
panic in the town. The alarmed inhabitants
took to their boats, carrying off their property
and their Church plate. Carlile, who had a

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 181
Calvinistic objection to idolatry, took the liberty
of detaining part of these treasures. From one
boat he took a massive silver cross belonging to
the High Church at Vigo ; from another an image
of Our Lady, which the sailors relieved of her
clothes and were said, when she was stripped,
to have treated with some indignity. Carlile s
report being satisfactory, the whole fleet was
brought the next day up the harbour and moored
above the town. The news had by this time
spread into the country. The Governor of Galicia
came down with all the force which he could
collect in a hurry. Perhaps he was in time to
save Vigo itself. Perhaps Drake, having other
aims in view, did not care to be detained over a
smaller object. The Governor, at any rate, saw
that the English were too strong for him to
meddle with. The best that he could look for
was to persuade them to go away on the easiest
terms. Drake and he met in boats for a parley.
Drake wanted water and fresh provisions. Drake
was to be allowed to furnish himself undisturbed.
He had secured what he most wanted. He had
shown the King of Spain that he was not in-

i8z ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

vulnerable in his own home dominion, and he
sailed away unmolested. Madrid was in con
sternation. That the English could dare insult
the first prince in Europe on the sacred soil of
the Peninsula itself seemed like a dream. The
Council of State sat for three days considering
the meaning of it. Drake s name was already
familiar in Spanish ears. It was not conceivable
that he had come only to inquire after the
arrested ships and seamen. But what could the
English Queen be about ? Did she not know
that she existed only by the forbearance of
Philip ? Did she know the King of Spain s
force ? Did not she and her people quake ?
Little England, it was said by some of these
councillors, was to be swallowed at a mouthful
by the King of half the world. The old Admiral
Santa Cruz was less confident about the swallow
ing. He observed that England had many teeth,
and that instead of boasting of Spanish greatness
it would be better to provide against what she
might do with them. Till now the corsairs had
appeared only in twos and threes. With such
a fleet behind him Drake might go where he

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 183

pleased. He might be going to the South Seas
again. He might take Madeira if he liked, or
the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz himself thought
he would make for the West Indies and Panama,
and advised the sending out there instantly every
available ship that they had.

The gold fleet was Drake s real object. He
had information that it would be on its way to
Spain by the Cape de Verde Islands, and he had
learnt the time when it was to be expected. From
Vigo he sailed for the Canaries, looked in at
Palma, with intention to have taken our pleasure
there/ but found the landing dangerous and the
town itself not worth the risk. He ran on to the
Cape de Verde Islands. He had measured his
time too narrowly. The gold fleet had arrived
and had gone. He had missed it by twelve hours,
the reason, as he said with a sigh, best known
to God. The chance of prize-money was lost,
but the political purpose of the expedition could
still be completed. The Cape de Verde Islands
could not sail away, and a beginning could be
made with Sant lago. Sant lago was a thriving,
well-populated town, and down in Drake s book

iS 4 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

as specially needing notice, some Plymouth sailors
haing been recently murdered there. Christopher
Carlile, always handy and trustworthy, was put
on shore with a thousand men to attack the place
on the undefended side. The Spanish commander,
the bishop, and most of the people fled, as at
Vigo, into the mountains with their plate and
money. Carlile entered without opposition, and
flew St. George s Cross from the castle as a signal
to the fleet. Drake came in, landed the rest of
his force, and took possession. It happened to be
the I /th of November the anniversary of the
Queen s accession and ships and batteries, dressed
out with English flags, celebrated the occasion
with salvoes of cannon. Houses and magazines
were then searched and plundered. Wine was
found in large quantities, rich merchandise for
the Indian trade, and other valuables. Of gold
and silver nothing it had all been removed.
Drake waited for a fortnight, hoping that the
Spaniards would treat for the ransom of the city.
When they made no sign, he marched twelve
miles inland to a village where the Governor and
the bishop were said to have taken refuge. But

5.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 185

the village was found deserted. The Spaniards
had gone to the mountains, where it was useless
to follow them, and were too proud to bargain
with a pirate chief Sant lago was a beautifully
built city, and Drake would perhaps have spared
it ; but a ship-boy who had strayed was found
murdered and barbarously mutilated. The order
was given to burn. Houses, magazines, churches,
public buildings were turned to ashes, and the
work being finished Drake went on, as Santa
Cruz expected, for the Spanish West Indies. The
Spaniards were magnificent in all that they did
and touched. They built their cities in their new
possessions on the most splendid models of the
Old World. St. Domingo and Carthagena had
their castles and cathedrals, palaces, squares, and
streets, grand and solid as those at Cadiz and
Seville, and raised as enduring monuments of the
power and greatness of the Castilian monarchs.
To these Drake meant to pay a visit. Beyond them
was the Isthmus, where he had made his first
fame and fortune, with Panama behind, the depot
of the Indian treasure. So far all had gone well
with him. He had taken what he wanted out of

86 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Vigo; he had destroyed Sant lago and had not
lost a man. Unfortunately he had now a worse
enemy to deal with than Spanish galleons or
Spanish garrisons. He was in the heat of the
tropics. Yellow fever broke out and spread
through the fleet. Of those who caught the
infection few recovered, or recovered only to be
the wrecks of themselves. It was swift in its
work In a few days more than two hundred had
died. But the north-east trade blew merrily.
The fleet sped on before it. In eighteen days
they were in the roads at Dominica, the island of
brooks and rivers and fruit. Limes and lemons
and oranges were not as yet. But there were
leaves and roots of the natural growth, known to
the Caribs as antidotes to the fever, and the
Caribs, when they learnt that the English were
the Spaniards enemies, brought them this precious
remedy and taught them the use of it. The ships
were washed and ventilated, and the water casks
refilled. The infection seemed to have gone as
suddenly as it appeared, and again all was welL

Christmas was kept at St. Kitts, which w.-is
then uninhabited. A council of war was held to

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 187

consider what should be done next. St. Domingo
lay nearest to them. It was the finest of all the
Spanish colonial cities. It was the capital of the
West Indian Government, the great centre of
West Indian commerce. In the cathedral, before
the high altar, lay Columbus and his brother
Diego. In natural wealth no island in the world
outrivals Espinola, where the city stood. A vast
population had collected there, far away from
harm, protected, as they supposed, by the majesty
of the mother country, the native inhabitants
almost exterminated, themselves undreaming that
any enemy could approach them from the ocean,
and therefore negligent of defence and enjoying
themselves in easy security.

Drake was to give them a new experience and
a lesson for the future. On their way across from
St. Kitts the adventurers overhauled a small
vessel bound to the same port as they were. From
the crew of this vessel they learnt that the
harbour at St. Domingo was formed, like so many
others in the West Indies, by a long sandspit,
acting as a natural breakwater. The entrance
was a narrow inlet at the extremity of the spit,

1 88 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

and batteries had been mounted there to cover it.
To land on the outer side of the sandbank was
made impossible by the surf. There was one
sheltered point only where boats could go on
shore, but this was ten miles distant from the
town.

Ten miles was but a morning s march. Drake
went in himself in a pinnace, surveyed the
landing-place, and satisfied himself of its safety.
The plan of attack at Sant lago was to be exactly
repeated. On New Year s Eve Christopher Carlile
was again landed with half the force in the fleet.
Drake remained with the rest, and prepared to
force the entrance of the harbour if Carlile suc
ceeded. Their coming had been seen from the
city. The alarm had been given, and the women
and children, the money in the treasury, the con
secrated plate, movable property of all kinds, were
sent off inland as a precaution. Of regular troops
there seem to have been none, but in so populous
a city there was no difficulty in collecting a re
spectable force to defend it. The hidalgos formed a
body of cavalry. The people generally were unused
to arms, but they were Spaniards and brave men,

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 189
and did not mean to leave their homes without a
fight for it. Carlile lay still for the night. He
marched at eight in the morning on New Year s
Day, advanced leisurely, and at noon found him
self in front of the wall. So far he had met no
resistance, but a considerable body of horse
gentlemen and their servants chiefly charged
down on him out of the bush and out of the town.
He formed into a square to receive them. They
came on gallantly, but were received with pike
and shot, and after a few attempts gave up and
retired. Two gates were in front of Carlile, with
a road to each leading through a jungle. At each
gate were cannon, and the jungle was lined with
musketeers. He divided his men and attacked
both together. One party he led in person. The
cannon opened on him, and an Englishman next
to him was killed. He dashed on, leaving the
Spaniards no time to reload, carried the gate at
a rush, and cut his way through the streets to
the great square. The second division had been
equally successful, and St. Domingo was theirs
except the castle, which was still untaken. Carlile s
numbers were too small to occupy a large city.

igo ENGLISH SEAMEN [LCT.

He threw up barricades and fortified himself in
the square for the night. Drake brought the
fleet in at daybreak, and landed guns, when the
castle surrendered. A messenger a negro boy
was sent to the Governor to learn the terms which
he was prepared to offer to save the city from
pillage. The Spanish officers were smarting with
the disgrace. One of them struck the lad through
the body with a lance. He ran back bleeding to
the English lines and died at Drake s feet. Sir
Francis was a dangerous man to provoke. Such
doings had to be promptly stopped. In the part
of the town which he occupied was a monastery
with a number of friars in it. The religious orders,
he well knew, were the chief instigators of the
policy which was maddening the world. He sent
two of these friars with the provost-marshal to
the spot where the boy had been struck, promptly
hanged them, and then despatched another to
tell the Governor that he would hang two more
every day at the same place till the officer was
punished. The Spaniards had long learnt to call
Drake the Draque, the serpent, the devil. They
feared that tne devil might be a man of his word.

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 191

The offender was surrendered. It was not enough.
Drake insisted that they should do justice on him
themselves. The Governor found it prudent to
comply, and the too hasty officer was executed.

The next point was the ransom of the city.
The Spaniards still hesitating, 200 men were
told off each morning to burn, while the rest
searched the private houses, and palaces, and
magazines. Government House was the grandest
building in the New World. It was approached
by broad nights of marble stairs. Great doors
opened on a spacious gallery leading into a great
hall, and above the portico hung the arms of
Spain a globe representing the world, a horse
leaping upon it, and in the horse s mouth a scroll
with the haughty motto, Non sufficit orbis.
Palace and scutcheon were levelled into dust by
axe and gunpowder, and each day for a month
the destruction went on, Drake s demands steadily
growing and the unhappy Governor vainly pleading
impossibility.

Vandalism, atrocity unheard of among civilised
nations, dishonour to the Protestant cause, Drake
deserving to swing at his own yardarm ; so indig-

192 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

nant Liberalism shrieked, and has not ceased
shrieking. Let it be remembered that for fifteen
years the Spaniards had been burning English
seamen whenever they could catch them, plotting
to kill the Queen and reduce England itself into
vassaldom to the Pope. The English nation, the
loyal part of it, were replying to the wild pre
tension by the hands of their own admiral. If
Philip chose to countenance assassins, if the Holy
Office chose to burn English sailors as heretics,
those heretics had a right to make Spain under
stand that such a game was dangerous, that, as
Santa Cruz had said, they had teeth and could
use them.

It was found in the end that the Governor s
plea of impossibility was more real than was at
first believed. The gold and silver had been
really carried off. All else that was valuable
had been burnt or taken by the English. The
destruction of a city so solidly built was tedious
and difficult. Nearly half of it was blown up.
The cathedral was spared, perhaps as the resting-
place of Columbus. Drake had other work before
him. After staying a month in undisturbed

b.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 193

occupation he agreed to accept 25,000 ducats as
a ransom for what was left and sailed away.

It was now February. The hot season was
coming on, when the climate would be dangerous.
There was still much to do and the time was
running short. Panama had to be left for another
opportunity. Drake s object was to deal blows
which would shake the faith of Europe in the
Spanish power. Carthagena stood next to St.
Domingo among the Spanish West Indian for
tresses. The situation was strong. In 1740
Carthagena was able to beat off Vernon and a
great English fleet. But Drake s crews were in
high health and spirits, and he determined to see
what he could do with it. Surprise was no longer
to be hoped for. The alarm had spread over the
Caribbean Sea. But in their present humour
they were ready to go anywhere and dare anything,
and to Carthagena they went.

Drake s name carried terror before it. Every
non-combatant old men, women and children
had been cleared out before he arrived, but the
rest prepared for a smart defence. The harbour

at Carthagena was formed, as at St. Domingo

194 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

and Port Royal, by a sandspit. The spit was
long, narrow, in places not fifty yards wide, and
covered with prickly bush, and along this, as
before, it was necessary to advance to reach the
city. A trench had been cut across at the neck,
and a stiff barricade built and armed with heavy
guns ; behind this were several hundred mus
keteers, while the bush was fall of Indians with
poisoned arrows. Pointed stakes poisoned also
had been driven into the ground along the
approaches, on which to step was death. Two
large galleys, full of men, patrolled inside the
bank on the harbour edge, and with these pre
parations the inhabitants hoped to keep the
dreadful Drake from reaching them. Carlile, as
before, was to do the land fighting. He was set
on shore three miles down the spit. The tide is
slight in those seas, but he waited till it was out,
and advanced along the outer shore at low-water
mark. He was thus covered by the bank from
the harbour galleys, and their shots passed over
him. Two squadrons of horse came out, but could
do nothing to him on the broken ground. The
English pushed on to the wall, scarcely losing a

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 195

man. They charged, scaled the parapets, and
drove the Spanish infantry back at point of pike.
Carlile killed their commander with his own hand.
The rest fled after a short struggle, and Drake
was master of Carthagena. Here for six weeks
he remained. The Spaniards withdrew out of
the city, and there were again parleys over the
ransom money. Courtesies were exchanged among
the officers. Drake entertained the Governor and
his suite. The Governor returned the hospitality
and received Drake and the English captains.
Drake demanded 100,000 ducats. The Spaniards
offered 30,000, and protested that they could pay
no more. The dispute might have lasted longer,
but it was cut short by the re-appearance of the
yellow fever in the fleet, this time in a deadlier
form. The Spanish offer was accepted, and Car
thagena was left to its owners. It was time to
be off, for the heat was telling, and the men
began to drop with appalling rapidity. Nombre
de Dios and Panama were near and under their
lee, and Drake threw longing eyes on what, if
all else had been well, might have proved an easy
capture. But on a review of their strength, it

196 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

was found that there were but 700 fit for duty
who could be spared for the service, and a council
of war decided that a march across the Isthmus
with so small a force was too dangerous to be
ventured. Enough had been done for glory,
enough for the political impression to be made in
Europe. The King of Spain had been dared in
his own dominions. Three fine Spanish cities
had been captured by storm and held to ransom.
In other aspects the success had fallen short of
expectation. This time they had taken no
Cacafuego with a year s produce of the mines in
her hold. The plate and coin had been carried
off, and the spoils had been in a form not easily
turned to value. The expedition had been fitted
out by private persons to pay its own cost. The
result in money was but 6o,oool. Forty thousand
had to be set aside for expenses. There remained
but 20,000^. to be shared among the ships com
panies. Men and officers had entered, high and
low, without wages, on the chance of what they
might get. The officers and owners gave a
significant demonstration of the splendid spirit
in which they had gone about their work. They

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 197

decided to relinquish their own claims on the
ransom paid for Carthagena, and bestow the same
on the common seamen, wishing it were so much
again as would be a sufficient reward for their
painful endeavour.

Thus all were well satisfied, conscious all that
they had done their duty to their Queen and
country. The adventurers fleet turned home
wards at the beginning of April. What men
could do they had achieved. They could not
fight against the pestilence of the tropics. For
many days the yellow fever did its deadly work
among them, and only slowly abated. They were
delayed by calms and unfavourable winds. Their
water ran short. They had to land again at
Cape Antonio, the western point of Cuba, and
sink wells to supply themselves. Drake himself,
it was observed, worked with spade and bucket,
like the meanest person in the whole company,
always foremost where toil was to be endured or
honour won, the wisest in the devising of enter
prises, the calmest in danger, the first to set an
example of energy in difficulties, and, above all,
the firmest in maintaining order and discipline.

igS ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

The fever slackened as they reached the cooler
latitudes. They worked their way up the Bahama
Channel, going north to avoid the trades. The
French Protestants had been attempting to
colonise in Florida. The Spaniards had built a
fortress on the coast, to observe their settlements
and, as occasion offered, cut Huguenot throats.
As he passed by Drake paid this fortress a visit
and wiped it out. Farther north again he was
in time to save the remnant of an English settle
ment, rashly planted there by another brilliant
servant of Queen Elizabeth.

Of all the famous Elizabethans Sir Walter
Raleigh is the most romantically interesting. His
splendid and varied gifts, his chequered fortunes,
and his cruel end, will embalm his memory in
English history. But Raleigh s great accomplish
ments promised more than they performed. His
hand was in everything, but of work successfully
completed he had less to show than others far
hi inferiors, to whom fortune had offered fewer
opportunities. He was engaged in a hundred
schemes at once, and in every one of them there
was always some taint of self, some personal

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
From a painting by Zuccaro.

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 199

ambition or private object to be gained. His
life is a record of undertakings begun in enthu
siasm, maintained imperfectly, and failures in the
end. Among his other adventures he had sent
a colony to Virginia. He had imagined, or had
been led by others to believe, that there was an
Indian Court there brilliant as Montezuma s, an
enlightened nation crying to be admitted within
the charmed circle of Gloriana s subjects. His
princes and princesses proved things of air,
or mere Indian savages ; and of Raleigh there
remains nothing in Virginia save the name of the
city which is called after him. The starving
survivors of his settlement on the Roanoke River
were taken on board by Drake s returning
squadron and carried home to England, where
they all arrived safely, to the glory of God, as
our pious ancestors said and meant in uncon
ventional sincerity, on the 28th of July, 1586.
The expedition, as I have said, barely paid its
cost. In the shape of wages the officers received
nothing, and the crews but a few pounds a man ,
but there was, perhaps, not one of them who was
not better pleased with the honour which he had

200 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

brought back than if he had come home loaded
with doubloons.

Startled Catholic Europe meanwhile rubbed
its eyes and began to see that the enterprise of
England, as the intended invasion was called,
might not be the easy thing which the seminary
priests described it. The seminary priests had
said that so far as England was Protestant at all
it was Protestant only by the accident of its
Government, that the immense majority of the
people were Catholic at heart and were thirsting
for a return to the fold, that on the first appear
ance of a Spanish army of deliverance the whole
edifice which Elizabeth had raised would crumble
to the ground. I suppose it is true that if the
world had then been advanced to its present
point of progress, if there had been then recog
nised a Divine right to rule in the numerical
majority, even without a Spanish army the
seminary priests would have had their way.
Elizabeth s Parliaments were controlled by the
municipalities of the towns, and the towns were
Protestant. A Parliament chosen by universal
suffrage and electoral districts would have sent

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 201

Cecil and Walsingham into private life or to the
scaffold, replaced the Mass in the churches, and
reduced the Queen, if she had been left on the
throne, into the humble servant of the Pope and
Philip. It would not perhaps have lasted, but
that, so far as I can judge, would have been the
immediate result, and instead of a Reformation
we should have had the light come in the shape
of lightning. But I have often asked my Radical
friends what is to be done if out of every hundred
enlightened voters two-thirds will give then-
votes one way, but are afraid to fight, and the
remaining third will not only vote but will fight
too if the poll goes against them ? Which has
then the right to rule ? I can tell them which
will rule. The brave and resolute minority will
rule. Plato says that if one man was stronger
than all the rest of mankind he would rule all
the rest of mankind. It must be so, because
there is no appeal. The majority must be
prepared to assert their Divine right with their
right hands, or it will go the way that other
Divine rights have gone before. I will not believe
the world to have been so ill-constructed that

202 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT,

there are rights which cannot be enforced. It
appears to me that the true right to rule in any
nation lies with those who are best and bravest,
whether their numbers are large or small ; and
three centuries ago the best and bravest part of
this English nation had determined, though they
were but a third of it, that Pope and Spaniard
should be no masters of theirs. Imagination goes
for much in such excited times. To the imagin
ation of Europe in the sixteenth century the
power of Spain appeared irresistible if she chose
to exert it. Heretic Dutchmen might rebel in
a remote province, English pirates might take
liberties with Spanish traders, but the Prince
of Parma was making the Dutchmen feel their
master at last. The pirates were but so many
wasps, with venom in their stings, but powerless
to affect the general tendencies of things. Except
to the shrewder eyes of such men as Santa Cruz
the strength of the English at sea had been left
out of count in the calculations of the resources
of Elizabeth s Government. Suddenly a fleet of
these same pirates, sent out, unassisted by their
sovereign, by the private impulse of a few indi-

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 203

viduals, had insulted the sacred soil of Spain
herself, sailed into Vigo, pillaged the churches,
taken anything that they required, and had gone
away unmolested. They had attacked, stormed,
burnt, or held to ransom three of Spain s proudest
colonial cities, and had come home unfought with.
The Catholic conspirators had to recognise that
they had a worse enemy to deal with than Puritan
controversialists or spoilt Court favourites. The
Protestant English mariners stood between them
and their prey, and had to be encountered on an
element which did not bow to popes or princes,
before Mary Stuart was to wear Elizabeth s crown
or Cardinal Allen be enthroned at Canterbury.
It was a revelation to all parties. Elizabeth
herself had not expected perhaps had not wished
so signal a success. War was now looked on
as inevitable. The Spanish admirals represented
that the national honour required revenge for an
injury so open and so insolent. The Pope, who
had been long goading the lethargic Philip into
action, believed that now at last he would be
compelled to move ; and even Philip himself,
enduring as he was, had been roused to perceive

204 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

that intrigues and conspiracies would serve his
turn no longer. He must put out his strength
in earnest, or his own Spaniards might turn upon
him as unworthy of the crown of Isabella. Very
reluctantly he allowed the truth to be brought
home to him. He had never liked the thought
of invading England. If he conquered it, he
would not be allowed to keep it. Mary Stuart
would have to be made queen, and Mary Stuart
was part French, and might be wholly French.
The burden of the work would be thrown entirely
on his shoulders, and his own reward was to be
the Church s blessing and the approval of his
own conscience nothing else, so far as he could
see. The Pope would recover his annates, his
Peter s pence, and his indulgence market.

If the thing was to be done, the Pope, it was
clear, ought to pay part of the cost, and this was
what the Pope did not intend to do if he could
help it. The Pope was flattering himself that
Drake s performance would compel Spain to go
to war with England whether he assisted or did
not. In this matter Philip attempted to un
deceive his Holiness. He instructed Olivarez, his

6.] EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 205

ambassador at Rome, to tell the Pope that nothing
had been yet done to him by the English which
he could not overlook, and unless the Pope would
come down with a handsome contribution peace
he would make. The Pope stormed and raged ;
he said he doubted whether Philip was a true son
of the Church at all ; he flung plates and dishes
at the servants heads at dinner. He said that if
he gave Philip money Philip would put it in his
pocket and laugh at him. Not one maravedi
would he give till a Spanish army was actually
landed on English shores, and from this resolution
he was not to be moved.

To Philip it was painfully certain that if he
invaded and conquered England the English
Catholics would insist that he must make Mary
Stuart queen. He did not like Mary Stuart. He
disapproved of her character. He distrusted her
promises. Spite of Jesuits and seminary priests,
he believed that she was still a Frenchwoman at
heart, and a bad woman besides. Yet something
he must do for the outraged honour of Castile.
He concluded, in his slow way, that he would
collect a fleet, the largest and best-appointed that

206 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT. 6.

had ever floated on the sea. He would send or
lead it in person to the English Channel. He
would command the situation with an over
whelming force, and then would choose some
course which would be more convenient to himself
than to his Holiness at Rome. On the whole he
was inclined to let Elizabeth continue queen, and
forget and forgive if she would put away her
Walsinghams and her Drakes, and would promise
to be good for the future. If she remained
obstinate his great fleet would cover the passage
of the Prince of Parma s army, and he would then
dictate his own terms in London.

LECTURE VII

ATTACK ON CADIZ

T RECOLLECT being told when a boy, on
sending in a bad translation of Horace, that I
ought to remember that Horace was a man of
intelligence and did not write nonsense. The
same caution should be borne in mind by students
of history. They see certain things done by kings
and statesmen which they believe they can inter
pret by assuming such persons to have been
knaves or idiots. Once an explanation given from
the baser side of human nature, they assume that
it is necessarily the right one, and they make
their Horace into a fool without a misgiving that
the folly may He elsewhere. Remarkable men
and women have usually had some rational motive
for their conduct, which may be discovered, if we
look for it with our eyes open.

zo8 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Nobody has suffered more from bad translators
than Elizabeth. The circumstances of Queen
Elizabeth s birth, the traditions of her father, the
interests of England, and the sentiments of the
party who had sustained her claim to the succession,
obliged her on coming to the throne to renew the
separation from the Papacy. The Church of Eng
land was re-established on an Anglo-Catholic
basis, which the rival factions might interpret
each in their own way. To allow more than one
form of public worship would have led in the
heated temper of men s minds to quarrels and
civil wars. But conscience might be left free
under outward conformity, and those whom the
Liturgy did not suit might use their own
ritual in their private houses. Elizabeth and her
wise advisers believed that if her subjects could
be kept from fighting and killing one another,
and were not exasperated by outward displays of
difference, they would learn that righteousness of
life was more important than orthodoxy, and to
estimate at their real value the rival dogmas of
theology. Had time permitted the experiment
to have a fair trial, it would perhaps have sue-

7-] ATTACK ON CADIZ 209

ceeded, but, unhappily for the Queen and for
England, the fire of controversy was still too hot
under the ashes. Protestants and Catholics had
been taught to look on one another as enemies of
God, and were still reluctant to take each other s
hands at the bidding of an Act of Parliament. The
more moderate of the Catholic laity saw no differ
ence so great between the English service and the
Mass as to force them to desert the churches
where their fathers had worshipped for centuries.
They petitioned the Council of Trent for permis
sion to use the English Prayer Book ; and had the
Council consented, religious dissension would have
dissolved at last into an innocent difference of
opinion. But the Council and the Pope had
determined that there should be no compromise
with heresy, and the request was refused, though
it was backed by Philip s ambassador in London.
The action of the Papacy obliged the Queen to
leave the Administration in the hands of Protes
tants, on whose loyalty she could rely. As the
struggle with the Reformation spread and deep
ened she was compelled to assist indirectly the
Protestant party in France and Scotland. But

210 ENGUSH SEAMEN [LECT.

she still adhered to her own principle ; she refused
to put herself at the head of a Protestant League.
She took no step without keeping open a line of
retreat on a contrary policy. She had Catholics
in her Privy Council who were pensioners of
Spain. She filled her household with Catholics,
and many a time drove Burghley distracted by
listening to them at critical moments. Her con
stant effort was to disarm the antagonism of the
adherents of the old belief, by admitting them
to her confidence, and showing them that one part
of her subjects was as dear to her as another.

For ten years she went on struggling. For
ten years she was proudly able to say that during
all that time no Catholic had suffered for his
belief either in purse or person. The advanced
section of the Catholic clergy was in despair.
They saw the consciences of their flocks be
numbed and their faith growing lukewarm. They
stirred up the rebellion of the North. They per
suaded Pius V. to force them to a sense of their
duties by declaring Elizabeth excommunicated.
They sent their missionaries through the English
counties to recover sheep that were straying,

;.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 211

and teach the sin of submission to a sovereign
whom the Pope had deposed. Then had followed
the Ridolfi plot, deliberately encouraged by the
Pope and Spain, which had compelled the
Government to tighten the reins. One conspiracy
had followed another. Any means were held
legitimate to rid the world of an enemy of God.
The Queen s character was murdered by the foulest
slanders, and a hundred daggers were sharpened
to murder her person. The King of Spain had
not advised the excommunication, because he
knew that he would be expected to execute it, and
he had other things to do. When called on to
act, he and Alva said that if the English Catholics
wanted Spanish help they must do something for
themselves. To do the priests justice, they were
brave enough. What they did, and how far they
had succeeded in making the country disaffected,
Father Parsons has told you in the paper which
I read to you in a former lecture. Elizabeth
refused to take care of herself. She would show
no distrust. She would not dismiss the Catholic
ladies and gentlemen from the household. She
would allow no penal laws to be enforced

2i2 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

against Catholics as such. Repeated conspiracies
to assassinate her were detected and exposed,
but she would take no warning. She would
have no bodyguard. The utmost that she would
do was to allow the Jesuits and seminary priests,
who, by Parsons s own acknowledgment, were
sowing rebellion, to be banished the realm, and
if they persisted in remaining afterwards, to
be treated as traitors. When executions are
treated as martyrdoms, candidates will never be
wanting for the crown of glory, and the flame
only burnt the hotter. Tyburn and the quartering
knife was a horrid business, and Elizabeth sick
ened over it. She hated the severity which she
was compelled to exercise. Her name was defiled
with the grossest calumnies. She knew that she
might be murdered any day. For herself she was
proudly indifferent; but her death would and
must be followed by a furious civil war. She
told the Privy Council one day after some stormy
scene, that she would come back afterwards and
amuse herself with seeing the Queen of Scots
making their heads fly.

Philip was weary of it too. He had enough to

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 213

do in ruling his own dominions without quarrelling
for ever with his sister-in-law. He had seen that
she had subjects, few or many, who, if he struck,
would strike back again. English money and
English volunteers were keeping alive the war
in the Netherlands. English privateers had
plundered his gold ships, destroyed his commerce,
and burnt his West Indian cities all this in the
interests of the Pope, who gave him fine words in
plenty, but who, when called on for money to help
in the English conquest, only flung about his
dinner-plates. The Duke of Alva, while he was
alive, and the Prince of Parma, who commanded
in the Netherlands in Alva s place, advised peace
if peace could be had on reasonable terms. If
Elizabeth would consent to withdraw her help
from the Netherlands, and would allow the English
Catholics the tacit toleration with which her reign
had begun, they were of opinion, and Philip was
of opinion too, that it would be better to forgive
Drake and St. Domingo, abandon Mary Stuart
and the seminary priests, and meddle no more
with English internal politics.

Tired with a condition which was neither war

214 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

nor peace, tired with hanging traitors and the
endless problem of her sister of Scotland, Elizabeth
saw no reason for refusing offers which would leave
her in peace for the rest of her own life. Philip,
it was said, would restore the Mass in the churches
in Holland. She might stipulate for such liberty
of conscience to the Holland Protestants as she
was herself willing to allow the English Catholics.
She saw no reason why she should insist on a
liberty of public worship which she had herself
forbidden at home. She did not see why the
Hollanders should be so precise about hearing
Mass. She said she would rather hear a thousand
Masses herself than have on her conscience the
crimes committed for the Mass or against it. She
would not have her realm in perpetual torment
for Mr. Cecil s brothers in Christ.

This was Elizabeth s personal feeling. It
could not be openly avowed. The States might
then surrender to Philip in despair, and obtain
better securities for their political liberties than
she was ready to ask for them. They might then
join the Spaniards and become her mortal enemies.
But she had a high opinion of her own statecraft.

?.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 215

Her Catholic friends assured her that, once at
peace with Philip, she would be safe from all the
world. At this moment accident revealed suddenly
another chasm which was opening unsuspected
at her feet.

Both Philip and she were really wishing for
peace. A treaty of peace between the Catholic
King and an excommunicated princess would end
the dream of a Catholic revolution in England.
If the English peers and gentry saw the censures
of the Church set aside so lightly by the most
orthodox prince in Europe, Parsons and his
friends would preach in vain to them the obliga
tion of rebellion. If this deadly negotiation
was to be broken off, a blow must be struck,
and struck at once. There was not a moment
to be lost.

The enchanted prisoner at Tutbury was the
sleeping and waking dream of Catholic chivalry.
The brave knight who would slay the dragon,
deliver Mary Stuart, and place her on the
usurper s throne, would outdo Orlando or St.
George, and be sung of for ever as the noblest
hero who had ever wielded brand or spear. Many

216 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

a young British heart had thrilled with hope that
for him the enterprise was reserved. One of these
was a certain Anthony Babington, a gentleman
of some fortune in Derbyshire. A seminary priest
named Ballard, excited, like the rest, by the need
of action, and anxious to prevent the peace, fell
in with this Babington, and thought he had
found the man for his work. Elizabeth dead
and Mary Stuart free, there would be no more
talk of peace. A plot was easily formed. Half
a dozen gentlemen, five of them belonging to or
connected with Elizabeth s own household, were
to shoot or stab her and escape in the confusion ;
Babington was to make a dash on Mary Stuart s
prison-house and carry her off to some safe place ;
while Ballard undertook to raise the Catholic
peers and have her proclaimed queen. Elizabeth
once removed, it was supposed that they would
not hesitate. Parma would bring over the
Spanish army from Dunkirk. The Protestants
would be paralysed. All would be begun and
ended in a few weeks or even days. The Catholic
religion would be re-established and the hated
heresy would be trampled out for ever. Mary

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 217

Stuart had been consulted and had enthusiastic
ally agreed.

This interesting lady had been lately profuse
in her protestations of a desire for reconciliation
with her dearest sister. Elizabeth had almost
believed her sincere. Sick of the endless trouble
with Mary Stuart and her pretensions and schem-
ings, she had intended that the Scotch queen
should be included in the treaty with Philip,
with an implied recognition of her right to suc
ceed to the English throne after Elizabeth s death.
It had been necessary, however, to ascertain in
some way whether her protestations were sincere.
A secret watch had been kept over her corre
spondence, and Babington s letters and her own
answers had fallen into Walsingham s hands.
There it all was in her own cipher, the key to
which had been betrayed by the carelessness of a
confederate. The six gentlemen who were to
have rewarded Elizabeth s confidence by killing
her were easily recognised. They were seized,
with Babington and Ballard, when they imagined
themselves on the eve of their triumph. Babing
ton flinched and confessed, and they were all

218 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

hanged. Mary Stuart herself had outworn con>
passion. Twice already on the discovery of her
earlier plots the House of Commons had petitioned
for her execution. For this last piece of treachery
she was tried at Fotheringay before a commission
of Peers and Privy Councillors. She denied her
letters, but her complicity was proved beyond a
doubt. Parliament was called, and a third time
insisted that the long drama should now be ended
and loyal England be allowed to breathe in peace.
Elizabeth signed the warrant. France, Spain,
any other power in the world would have long
since made an end of a competitor so desperate
and so incurable. Torn by many feelings
natural pity, dread of the world s opinion
Elizabeth paused before ordering the warrant to
be executed. If nothing had been at stake but
her own life, she would have left the lady to weave
fresh plots and at last, perhaps, to succeed. If
the nation s safety required an end to be made
with her, she felt it hard that the duty should be
thrown on herself Where were all those eager
champions who had signed the Association Bond,
who had talked so loudly ? Could none of them

MART, QUEEN OF SC| >TS.
Si-om a piclun / P. Ovjlry in tin National Portrait G

7-] ATTACK ON CADIZ 219

be found to recollect their oaths and take the law
into their own hands ?

Her Council, Burghley, and the rest, knowing
her disposition and feeling that it was life or
death to English liberty, took the responsibility
on themselves. They sent the warrant down to
Fotheringay at their own risk, leaving their
mistress to deny, if she pleased, that she had
meant it to be executed ; and the wild career of
Mary Stuart ended on the scaffold.

They knew what they were immediately
doing. They knew that if treason had a mean
ing Mary Stuart had brought her fate upon her
self They did not, perhaps, realise the full
effects that were to follow, or that with Mary
Stuart had vanished the last serious danger of
a Catholic insurrection in England ; or perhaps
they did realise it, and this was what decided
them to act.

I cannot dwell on this here. As long as there
was a Catholic princess of English blood to suc
ceed to the throne, the allegiance of the Catholics
to Elizabeth had been easily shaken. If she was
spared now, every one of them would look on her

220 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

as their future sovereign. To overthrow Elizabeth
might mean the loss of national independence.
The Queen of Scots gone, they were paralysed
by divided counsels, and love of country proved
stronger than their creed.

What concerns us specially at present is the
effect on the King of Spain. The reluctance of
Philip to undertake the English enterprise (the
empresa, as it was generally called) had arisen
from a fear that when it was accomplished he
would lose the fruit of his labours. He could
never assure himself that if he placed Mary
Stuart on the throne she would not become
eventually French. He now learnt that she
had bequeathed to himself her claims on the
English succession. He had once been titular
King of England. He had pretensions of his
own, as in the descent from Edward III. The
Jesuits, the Catholic enthusiasts throughout
Europe, assured him that if he would now take
up the cause in earnest, he might make England
a province of Spain. There were still difficulties.
He might hope that the English Catholic laity
would accept him, but he could not be sure of it.

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 221

He could not be sure that he would have the
support of the Pope. He continued, as the
Conde de Feria said scornfully of him, meando
en vado, a phrase which I cannot translate ; it
meant hesitating when he ought to act. But he
saw, or thought he saw, that he could now take a
stronger attitude towards Elizabeth as a claimant
to her throne. If the treaty of peace was to go
forward, he could raise his terms. He could in
sist on the restoration of the Catholic religion in
England. The States of the Low Countries had
made over five of their strongest towns to Eliza
beth as the price of her assistance. He could
insist on her restoring them, not to the States,
but to himself Could she be brought to consent
to such an act of perfidy, Parma and he both
felt that the power would then be gone from
her, as effectually as Samson s when his locks
were clipped by the harlot, and they could leave
her then, if it suited them, on a throne which
would have become a pillory for the finger of
scorn to point at.

With such a view before him it was more than
ever necessary for Philip to hurry forward the

222 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

preparations which he had already com
menced. The more formidable he could make
himself, the better able he would be . to frighten
Elizabeth into submission.

Every dockyard in Spain was set to work,
building galleons and collecting storea Santa
Cruz would command. Philip was himself more
resolved than ever to accompany the expedition
in person and dictate from the English Channel
the conditions of the pacification of Europe.

Secrecy was no longer attempted indeed,
was no longer possible. All Latin Christendom
was palpitating with expectation. At Lisbon, at
Cadiz, at Barcelona, at Naples, the shipwrights
were busy night and day. The sea was covered
with vessels freighted with arms and provisions
streaming to the mouth of the Tagus. Catholic
volunteers from all nations flocked into the
Peninsula, to take a share in the mighty move
ment which was to decide the fate of the world,
and bishops, priests, and monks were set praying
through the whole Latin Communion that
Heaven would protect its own cause.

Meantime the negotiations for peace con-

70 ATTACK ON CADIZ 223

tinued, and Elizabeth, strange to say, persisted
in listening. She would not see what was plain
to all the world besides. The execution of the
Queen of Scots lay on her spirit and threw her
back into the obstinate humour which had made
Walsingham so often despair of her safety. For
two months after that scene at Fotheringay she
had refused to see Burghley, and would consult
no one but Sir James Crofts and her Spanish-
tempered ladies. She knew that Spain now
intended that she should betray the towns in the
Low Countries, yet she was blind to the infamy
which it would bring upon her. She left her
troops there without their wages to shiver into
mutiny. She named commissioners, with Sir
James Crofts at their head, to go to Ostend and
treat with Parma, and if she had not resolved on
an act of treachery she at least played with the
temptation, and persuaded herself that if she
chose to make over the towns to Philip, she would
be only restoring them to their lawful owner.

Burghley and Walsingham, you can see from
their letters, believed now that Elizabeth had
ruined herself at last. Happily her moods were

224 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

variable as the weather. She was forced to see
the condition to which she had reduced her
affairs in the Low Countries by the appearance of
a number of starving wretches who had deserted
from the garrisons there and had come across to
clamour for their pay at her own palace gates.
If she had no troops in the field but a mutinous
and starving rabble, she might get no terms at
all. It might be well to show Philip that on one
element at least she could still be dangerous.
She had lost nothing by the bold actions of
Drake and the privateers. With half a heart she
allowed Drake to fit them out again, take the
Buonamntura, a ship of her own, to carry his flag,
and go down to the coast of Spain and see what
was going on. He was not to do too much. She
sent a vice-admiral with him, in the Lion, to be
a check on over-audacity. Drake knew how to
deal with embarrassing vice-admirals. His own
adventurers would sail, if he ordered, to the
Mountains of the Moon, and be quite certain that
it was the right place to go to. Once under way
and on the blue water he would go his own
course and run his own risks. Cadiz Harbour

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 225

was thronged with transports, provision ships,
powder vessels a hundred sail of them many of
a thousand tons and over, loading with stores for
the Armada. There were thirty sail of adven
turers, the smartest ships afloat on the ocean,
and sailed by the smartest seamen that ever
handled rope or tiller. Something might be done
at Cadiz if he did not say too much about it.
The leave had been given to him to go, but he
knew by experience, and Burghley again warned
him, that it might, and probably would, be re
voked if he waited too long. The moment was
his own, and he used it. He was but just in
time. Before his sails were under the horizon a
courier galloped into Plymouth with orders that
under no condition was he to enter port or haven
of the King of Spain, or injure Spanish subjects.
What else was he going out for ? He had
guessed how it would be. Comedy or earnest he
could not tell. If earnest, some such order would
be sent after him, and he had not an instant to
lose.

He sailed on the morning of the 1 2th of April.
Off Ushant he fell in with a north-west gale, and

226 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

he flew on, spreading every stitch of canvas which
his spars would bear. In five days he was at Cape
St. Vincent. On the i8th he had the white
houses of Cadiz right in front of him, and could
see for himself the forests of masts from the
ships and transports with which the harbour was
choked. Here was a chance for a piece of
service if there was courage for the venture.
He signalled for his officers to come on board
the Buenaventura. There before their eyes was,
if not the Armada itself, the materials which
were to fit the Armada for the seas. Did they
dare to go in with him and destroy them ? There
were batteries at the harbour mouth, but Drake s
mariners had faced Spanish batteries at St.
Domingo and Carthagena and had not found them
very formidable. Go in ? Of course they would.
Where Drake would lead the corsairs of Plymouth
were never afraid to follow. The vice-admiral
pleaded danger to her Majesty s ships. It was
not the business of an English fleet to be particu
lar about danger. Straight in they went with a
fair wind and a flood tide, ran past the batteries
and under a storm of shot, to which they did not

ROBERT DEVEREUX,
EARL OF ESSEX.

From a picture in the National Portrait Gallery.

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 227

trouble themselves to wait to reply. The poor
vice-admiral followed reluctantly in the Lion. A
single shot hit the Lion, and he edged away out
of range, anchored, and drifted to sea again with
the ebb. But Drake and all the rest dashed on,
sank the guardship a large galleon and sent
flying a fleet of galleys which ventured too near
them and were never seen again.

Further resistance there was none absolutely
none. The crews of the store ships escaped in
their boats to land. The governor of Cadiz, the
same Duke of Medina Sidonia who the next year
was to gain a disastrous immortality, fled like a
tall gentleman to raise troops and prevent Drake
from landing. Drake had no intention of landing.
At his extreme leisure he took possession of the
Spanish shipping, searched every vessel, and
carried off everything that he could use. He de
tained as prisoners the few men that he found on
board, and then, after doing his work deliberately
and completely, he set the hulls on fire, cut the
cables, and left them to drive on the rising tide
under the walls of the town a confused mass of
blazing ruin. On the I2th of April he had sailed

228 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

from Plymouth ; on the ipth he entered Cadiz
Harbour; on the 1st of May he passed out again
without the loss of a boat or a man. He said in
jeat that he had singed the King of Spain s beard
for him. In sober prose he had done the King
of Spain an amount of damage which a million
ducats and a year s labour would imperfectly
replace. The daring rapidity of the enterprise
astonished Spain, and astonished Europe more
than the storm of the West Indian towns. The
English had long teeth, as Santa Cruz had told
Philip s council, and the teeth would need drawing
before Mass would be heard again at Westminster.
The Spaniards were a gallant race, and a dashing
exploit, though at their own expense, could be
admired by the countrymen of Cervantes. So
praised, we read, was Drake for his valour
among them, that they said that if he was not a
Lutheran there would not be the like of him in
the world. A Court lady was invited by the King
to join a party on a lake near Madrid. The lady
replied that she dared not trust herself on the
water with his Majesty lest Sir Francis Drake
should have her.

7.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 229

Drake might well be praised. But Drake
would have been the first to divide the honour
with the comrades who were his arm and hand.
Great admirals and generals do not win their
battles single-handed like the heroes of romance.
Orders avail only when there are men to execute
them. Not a captain, not an officer who served
under Drake, ever flinched or blundered. Never
was such a school for seamen as that twenty
years privateering war between the servants of
the Pope and the West-country Protestant
adventurers. Those too must be remembered
who built and rigged the ships in which they
sailed and fought their battles. We may depend
upon it that there was no dishonesty in con
tractors, no scamping of the work in the yards
where the Plymouth rovers were fitted out for
sea Their hearts were in it ; they were soldiers
of a common cause.

Three weeks had sufficed for Cadiz. No order
for recall had yet arrived. Drake had other plans
before him, and the men were in high spirits and
ready for anything. A fleet of Spanish men-of-
war was expected round from the Mediterranean.

230 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

He proposed to stay for a week or two in the
neighbourhood of the Straits, in the hope of
falling in with them. He wanted fresh water,
too, and had to find it somewhere.

Before leaving Cadiz Roads he had to decide
what to do with his prisoners. Many English
were known to be in the hands of the Holy Office
working in irons as galley slaves. He sent in a
pinnace to propose an exchange, and had to wait
some days for an answer. At length, after a
reference to Lisbon, the Spanish authorities
replied that they had no English prisoners. If
this was true those they had must have died
of barbarous usage ; and after a consultation with
his officers Sir Francis sent in word that for the
future such prisoners as they might take would
be sold to the Moors, and the money applied to
the redemption of English captives in other parts
of the world.

Water was the next point. There were springs
at Faro, with a Spanish force stationed there to
guard them. Force or no force, water was to be
had. The boats were sent on shore. The boats
crews stormed the forts and filled the casks. The

7-] ATTACK ON CADIZ 231

vice-admiral again lifted up his voice. The
Queen had ordered that there was to be no
landing on Spanish soil. At Cadiz the order had
been observed. There had been no need to land.
Here at Faro there had been direct defiance of
her Majesty s command. He became so loud in
his clamours that Drake found it necessary to
lock him up in his own cabin, and at length to
send him home with his ship to complain. For
himself, as the expected fleet from the Straits did
not appear, and as he had shaken off his trouble
some second in command, he proceeded leisurely
up the coast, intending to look in at Lisbon and
see for himself how things were going on there.
All along as he went he fell in with traders
loaded with supplies for the use of the Armada.
All these he destroyed as he advanced, and at
length found himself under the purple hills of
Cintra and looking up into the Tagus. There
lay gathered together the strength of the fighting
naval force of Spain fifty great galleons, already
arrived, the largest war-ships which then floated
on the ocean. Santa Cruz, the best officer in the
Spanish navy, was himself in the town and in

232 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

command. To venture a repetition of the Cadiz
exploit in the face of such odds seemed too
desperate even for Drake, but it was one of those
occasions when the genius of a great commander
sees more than ordinary eyes. He calculated,
and, as was proved afterwards, calculated rightly,
that the galleons would be half manned, or
not manned at all, and crowded with landsmen
bringing on board the stores. Their sides as
they lay would be choked with hulks and lighters.
They would be unable to get their anchors up,
set their canvas, or stir from their moorings.
Daring as Drake was known to be, no one would
expect him to go with so small a force into the
enemy s stronghold, and there would be no pre
parations to meet him. He could count upon the
tides. The winds at that season of the year were
fresh and steady, and could be counted on also to
take him in or out ; there was sea room in the
river for such vessels as the adventurers to man-
osuvre and to retreat if overmatched. Rash as
such an enterprise might seem to an unprofessional
eye, Drake certainly thought of it, perhaps had
meant to try it in some form or other and so make

7-] ATTACK ON CADIZ 233

an end of the Spanish invasion of England. He
could not venture without asking first for his
mistress s permission. He knew her nature. He
knew that his services at Cadiz would outweigh
his disregard of her orders, and that so far he had
nothing to fear; but he knew also that she was
still hankering after peace, and that without her
leave he must do nothing to make peace im
possible. There is a letter from him to the
Queen, written when he was lying off Lisbon,
very characteristic of the time and the man.

Nelson or Lord St. Vincent did not talk much
of expecting supernatural assistance. If they
had we should suspect them of using language
conventionally which they would have done better
to leave alone. Sir Francis Drake, like his other
great contemporaries, believed that he was engaged
in a holy cause, and was not afraid or ashamed to
say so. His object was to protest against a recall
in the flow of victory. The Spaniards, he said,
were but mortal men. They were enemies of
the Truth, upholders of Dagon s image, which
had fallen in other days before the Ark, and
would fall again if boldly defied. So long as he

234 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

had ships that would float, and there was food on
board them for the men to eat, he entreated her
to let him stay and strike whenever a chance was
offered him. The continuing to the end yielded
the true glory. When men were serving religion
and their country, a merciful God, it was likely,
would give them victory, and Satan and his angels
should not prevail.

All in good time. Another year and Drake
would have the chance he wanted. For the
moment Satan had prevailed Satan in the shape
of Elizabeth s Catholic advisers. Her answer
came. It was warm and generous. She did not,
could not, blame him for what he had done so
far, but she desired him to provoke the King of
Spain no further. The negotiations for peace
had opened, and must not be interfered with.

This prohibition from the Queen prevented,
perhaps, what would have been the most remark
able exploit in English naval history. As matters
stood it would have been perfectly possible for
Drake to have gone into the Tagus, and if he
could not have burnt the galleons he could cer
tainly have come away unhurt. He had guessed

?] ATTACK ON CADIZ 235

their condition with entire correctness. The
ships were there, but the ships companies were
not on board them. Santa Cruz himself admitted
that if Drake had gone in he could have himself
done nothing por falta de gente (for want of
men). And Drake undoubtedly would have gone,
and would have done something with which all
the world would have rung, but for the positive
command of his mistress. He lingered in the
roads at Cintra, hoping that Santa Cruz would
come out and meet him. All Spain was clamour
ing at Santa Cruz s inaction. Philip wrote to
stir the old admiral to energy. He must not
allow himself to be defied by a squadron of in
solent rovers. He must chase them off the coast
or destroy them. Santa Cruz needed no stirring.
Santa Cruz, the hero of a hundred fights, was
chafing at his own impotence ; but he was obliged
to tell his master that if he wished to have
service out of his galleons he must provide
crews to handle them, and they must rot at
their anchors till he did. He told him, more
over, that it was time for him to exert himself
in earnest. If he waited much longer, England

236 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

would have grown too strong for him to deal
with.

In strict obedience Drake ought now to have
gone home, but the campaign had brought so far
more glory than prize-money. His comrades re
quired some consolation for their disappointment
at Lisbon. The theory of these armaments of
the adventurers was that the cost should be paid
somehow by the enemy, and he could be assured
that if he brought back a prize or two in which
she could claim a share the Queen would not call
him to a very strict account. Homeward-bound
galleons or merchantmen were to be met with
occasionally at the Azores. On leaving Lisbon
Drake headed away to St. Michael s, and his
lucky star was still in the ascendant.

As if sent on purpose for him, the San Philip,
a magnificent caraque from the Indies, fell
straight into his hands, so richly loaded, it was
said, that every man in the fleet counted his
fortune made. There was no need to wait for
more. It was but two months since Drake had
sailed from Plymouth. He could now go home
after a cruise of which the history of his own or

?.] ATTACK ON CADIZ 237

any other country had never presented the like.
He had struck the King of Spain in his own
stronghold. He had disabled the intended
Armada for one season at least. He had picked
up a prize by the way and as if by accident,
worth half a million, to pay his expenses, so that
he had cost nothing to his mistress, and had
brought back a handsome present for her. I
doubt if such a naval estimate was ever presented
to an English House of Commons. Above all
he had taught the self-confident Spaniard to be
afraid of him, and he carried back his poor com
rades in such a glow of triumph that they would
have fought Satan and all his angels with Drake
at their head.

Our West-country annals still tell how the
country people streamed down in their best
clothes to see the great San Philip towed into
Dartmouth Harbour. English Protestantism was
no bad cable for the nation to ride by in those
stormy times, and deserves to be honourably
remembered in a School of History at an English
University.

LECTURE VIII

SAILING OF THE ARMADA

T)EACE or war between Spain and England,
that was now the question, with a prospect
of securing the English succession for himself or
one of his daughters. With the whole Spanish
nation smarting under the indignity of the burn
ing of the ships at Cadiz, Philip s warlike ardour
had warmed into something like fire. He had
resolved at any rate, if he was to forgive his
sister-in-law at all, to insist on more than toler
ation for the Catholics in England. He did not
contemplate as even possible that the English
privateers, however bold or dexterous, could resist
such an armament as he was preparing to lead
to the Channel. The Royal Navy, he knew very
well, did not exceed twenty-five ships of all sorts
and sizes. The adventurers might be equal to

d B

If.

LECT. 8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 239

sudden daring actions, but would and must be
crushed by such a fleet as was being fitted out
at Lisbon, He therefore, for himself, meant to
demand that the Catholic religion should be
restored to its complete and exclusive superiority,
and certain towns in England were to be made
over to be garrisoned by Spanish troops as securi
ties for Elizabeth s good behaviour. As often
happens with irresolute men, when they have
once been forced to a decision they are as too
hasty as before they were too slow. After Drake
had retired from Lisbon the King of Spain sent
orders to the Prince of Parma not to wait for the
arrival of the Armada, but to cross the Channel
immediately with the Flanders army, and bring
Elizabeth to her knees. Parma had more sense
than his master. He represented that he could
not cross without a fleet to cover his passage.
His transport barges would only float in smooth
water, and whether the water was smooth or
rough they could be sent to the bottom by half
a dozen English cruisers from the Thames. Sup
posing him to have landed, either in Thanet or
other spot, he reminded Philip that he could not

240 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

have at most more than 25,000 men with him.
The English militia were in training. The Jesuits
said they were disaffected, but the Jesuits might
be making a mistake. He might have to fight
more than one battle. He would have to leave
detachments as he advanced to London, to cover
his communications, and a reverse would be fatal
He would obey if his Majesty persisted, but he
recommended Philip to continue to amuse the
English with the treaty till the Armada was
ready, and, in evident consciousness that the
enterprise would be harder than Philip imagined,
he even gave it as his own opinion still (notwith
standing Cadiz), that if Elizabeth would surrender
the cautionary towns in Flanders to Spain, and
would grant the English Catholics a fair degree
of liberty, it would be Philip s interest to make
peace at once without stipulating for further
terms. He could make a new war if he wished
at a future time, when circumstances might be
more convenient and the Netherlands revolt
subdued.

To such conditions as these it seemed that
Elizabeth was inclining to consent. The towns

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 241

had been trusted to her keeping by the Nether-
landers. To give them up to the enemy to make
better conditions for herself would be an infamy
so great as to have disgraced Elizabeth for ever ;
yet she would not see it. She said the towns
belonged to Philip and she would only be restor
ing his own to him. Burghley bade her, if she
wanted peace, send back Drake to the Azores
and frighten Philip for his gold ships. She was
in one of her ungovernable moods. Instead of
sending out Drake again she ordered her own
fleet to be dismantled and laid up at Chatham,
and she condescended to apologise to Parma for
the burning of the transports at Cadiz as done
against her orders.

This was in December 1587, only five months
before the Armada sailed from Lisbon, Never
had she brought herself and her country so near
ruin. The entire safety of England rested at
that moment on the adventurers, and on the
adventurers alone.

Meanwhile, with enormous effort the destruc
tion at Cadiz had been repaired. The great fleet

was pushed on, and in February Santa Cruz

s.

242 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

reported himself almost ready. Santa Cruz and
Philip, however, were not in agreement as to
what should be done. Santa Cruz was a fighting
admiral, Philip was not a fighting king. He
changed his mind as often as Elizabeth. Hot
fits varied with cold. His last news from England
led him to hope that fighting would not be
wanted. The Commissioners were sitting at
Ostend. On one side there were the formal
negotiations, in which the surrender of the towns
was not yet treated as an open question. Had
the States been aware that Elizabeth was even
in thought entertaining it, they would have made
terms instantly on their own account and left
her alone in the cold. Besides this, there was a
second negotiation underneath, carried on by
private agents, in which the surrender was to
be the special condition. These complicated
schemings Parma purposely protracted, to keep
Elizabeth in false security. She had not deliber
ately intended to give up the towns. At the last
moment she would have probably refused, unless
the States themselves consented to it as part of
a general settlement. But she was playing with

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 243

the idea. The States, she thought, were too
obstinate. Peace would be good for them, and
she said she might do them good if she pleased,
whether they liked it or not.

Parma was content that she should amuse
herself with words and neglect her defences by
sea and land. By the end of February Santa
Cruz was ready. A northerly wind blows strong
down the coast of Portugal in the spring months,
and he meant to be off before it set in, before the
end of March at latest. Unfortunately for Spain,
Santa Cruz fell ill at the last moment ill, it was
said, with anxiety. Santa Cruz knew well enough
what Philip would not know that the expedition
would be no holiday parade. He had reason
enough to be anxious if Philip was to accompany
him and tie his hands and embarrass him. Any
way, Santa Cruz died after a few days illness.
The sailing had to be suspended till a new com
mander could be decided on, and in the choice
which Philip made he gave a curious proof of
what he intended the expedition to do. He did
not really expect or wish for any serious fighting.
He wanted to be sovereign of England again,

Z44 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

with the assent of the English Catholics. He
did not mean, if he could help it, to irritate the
national pride by force and conquest. While
Santa Cruz lived, Spanish public opinion would
not allow him to be passed over. Santa Cruz
must command, and Philip had resolved to go
with him, to prevent too violent proceedings.
Santa Cruz dead, he could find someone who
would do what he was told, and his own presence
would no longer be necessary.

The Duke of Medina Sidonia, named El
Bueno, or the Good, was a grandee of highest
rank. He was enormously rich, fond of hunting
and shooting, a tolerable rider, for the rest a
harmless creature getting on to forty, conscious
of his defects, but not aware that so great a
prince had any need to mend them; without
vanity, without ambition, and most happy when
lounging in his orange gardens at San Lucan.
Of active service he had seen none. He was
Captain-General of Andalusia, and had run away
from Cadiz when Drake came into the harbour ;
but that was all. To his astonishment and to
his dismay he learnt that it was on him that the

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 245

choice had fallen to be the Lord High Admiral
of Spain and commander of the so much talked
of expedition to England. He protested his
unfitness. He said that he was no seaman ; that
he knew nothing of fighting by sea or land ; that
if he ventured out in a boat he was always sick ;
that he had never seen the English Channel ; and
that, as to politics, he neither knew anything nor
cared anything about them. In short, he had not
one qualification which such a post required.

Philip liked his modesty ; but in fact the
Duke s defects were his recommendations. He
would obey his instructions, would not fight unless
it was necessary, and would go into no rash
adventures. All that Philip wanted him to do
was to find the Prince of Parma, and act as Parma
should bid him. As to seamanship, he would
have the best officers in the navy under him ;
and for a second in command he should have Don
Diego de Valdez, a cautious, silent, sullen old
sailor, a man after Philip s own heart.

Doubting, hesitating, the Duke repaired to
Lisbon. There he was put in better heart by a
nun, who said Our Lady had sent her to promise

246 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

him success. Every part of the service was new
to him. He was a fussy, anxious little man ; set
himself to inquire into everything, to meddle with
things which he could not understand and had
better have left alone. He ought to have left
details to the responsible heads of departments.
He fancied that in a week or two he could look
himself into everything. There were 130 ships,
8,000 seamen, 19,000 Spanish infantry, with
gentlemen volunteers, officers, priests, surgeons,
galley slaves at least 3,000 more provisioned
for six months. Then there were the ships stores,
arms small and great, powder, spars, cordage,
canvas, and such other million necessities as ships
on service need. The whole of this the poor
Duke took on himself to examine into, and, as he
could not understand what he saw, and knew not
what to look at, nothing was examined into at all.
Everyone s mind was, in fact, so much absorbed
by the spiritual side of the thing that they could
not attend to vulgar commonplaces. Don Quixote,
when he set out on his expedition, and forgot
money and a change of linen, was not in a state
of wilder exaltation than Catholic Europe at the

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 247

sailing of the Armada. Every noble family in
Spain had sent one or other of its sons to fight
for Christ and Our Lady.

For three years the stream of prayer had been
ascending from church, cathedral, or oratory.
The King had emptied his treasury. The hidalgo
and the tradesman had offered their contributions.
The crusade against the Crescent itself had not
kindled a more intense or more sacred enthusiasm.
All pains were taken to make the expedition
spiritually worthy of its purpose. No impure
thing, specially no impure woman, was to approach
the yards or ships. Swearing, quarrelling, gamb
ling, were prohibited under terrible penalties. The
galleons were named after the apostles and saints
to whose charge they were committed, and every
seaman and soldier confessed and communicated
on going on board. The shipboys at sunrise
were to sing their Buenos Dias at the foot of the
mainmast, and their Ave Maria as the sun sank
into the ocean. On the Imperial banner were
embroidered the figures of Christ and His Mother,
and as a motto the haughty Plus Ultra of
Charles V. was replaced with the more pious

248 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

aspiration, Exsurge, Deus, et vindica causam
tuam.

Nothing could be better if the more vulgar
necessities had been looked to equally well. Un
luckily, Medina Sidonia had taken the inspection
of these on himself, and Medina Sidonia was un
able to correct the information which any rascal
chose to give him.

At length, at the end of April, he reported
himself satisfied. The banner was blessed in the
cathedral, men and stores all on board, and the
Invincible Armada prepared to go upon its way.
No wonder Philip was confident. A hundred and
thirty galleons, from 1,300 to 700 tons, 30,000
fighting men, besides slaves and servants, made
up a force which the world might well think
invincible. The guns were the weakest part.
There were twice as many as the English ; but
they were for the most part nine and six pounders,
and with but fifty rounds to each. The Spaniards
had done their sea fighting hitherto at close range,
grappling and trusting to musketry. They were
to receive a lesson about this before the summer
was over. But Philip himself meanwhile expected

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 249

evidently that he would meet with no opposition.
Of priests he had provided 1 80 ; of surgeons and
surgeons assistants eighty-five only for the whole
fleet.

In the middle of May he sent down his last
orders. The Duke was not to seek a battle. If
he fell in with Drake he was to take no notice of
him, but thank God, as Dogberry said to the
watchman, that he was rid of a knave. He was
to go straight to the North Foreland, there anchor
and communicate with Parma. The experienced
admirals who had learnt their trade under Santa
Cruz Martinez de Recalde, Pedro de Valdez,
Miguel de Oquendo strongly urged the securing
Plymouth or the Isle of Wight on their way up
Channel. This had evidently been Santa Cruz s
own design, and the only rational one to have
followed. Philip did not see it. He did not
believe it would prove necessary; but as to this
and as to fighting he left them, as he knew he
must do, a certain discretion.

The Duke then, flying the sacred banner on
the San Martin, dropped down the Tagus on the
1 4th of May, followed by the whole fleet. The

250 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

San Martin had been double-timbered with oak,

to keep the shot out. He liked his business no
better. In vain he repeated to himself that it
was God s cause. God would see they came to
no harm. He was no sooner in the open sea than
he found no cause, however holy, saved men from
the consequences of their own blunders. They
were late out, and met the north trade wind, as
Santa Cruz had foretold.

They drifted to leeward day by day till they
had dropped down to Cape St. Vincent. Infinite
pains had been taken with the spiritual state of
everyone on board. The carelessness or roguery
of contractors and purveyors had not been thought
of. The water had been taken in three months
before. It was found foul and stinking. The
salt beef, the salt pork, and fish were putrid, the
bread full of maggots and cockroaches. Cask was
opened after cask. It was the same story every
where. They had to be all thrown overboard.
In the whole fleet there was not a sound morsel
of food but biscuit and dried fruit. The men
went down in hundreds with dysentery. The
Duke bewailed his fate as innocently as Sancho

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 251

Panza. He hoped God would help. He had
wished no harm to anybody. He had left his
home and his family to please the King, and he
trusted the King would remember it. He wrote
piteously for fresh stores, if the King would not
have them all perish. The admirals said they
could go no further without fresh water. All was
dismay and confusion. The wind at last fell
round south, and they made Finisterre. It then
came on to blow, and they were scattered. The
Duke with half the fleet crawled into Corunna,
the crews scarce able to man the yards and trying
to desert in shoals.

The missing ships dropped in one by one, but
a week passed and a third of them were still
absent. Another despairing letter went off from
the Duke to his master. He said that he con
cluded from their misfortunes that God disapproved
of the expedition, and that it had better be
abandoned. Diego Florez was of the same
opinion. The stores were worthless, he said.
The men were sick and out of heart. Nothing
could be done that season.

It was not by flinching at the first sight of

252 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

difficulty that the Spaniards had become masters
of half the world. The old comrades of Santa
Cruz saw nothing in what had befallen them
beyond a common accident of sea life. To
abandon at the first check an enterprise under
taken with so much pretence, they said, would be
cowardly and dishonourable. Ships were not lost
because they were out of sight. Fresh meat and
bread could be taken on board from Corunna.
They could set up a shore hospital for the sick.
The sickness was not dangerous. There had been
no deaths. A little energy and all would be well
again. Pedro de Valdez despatched a courier to
Philip to entreat him not to listen to the Duke s
croakings. Philip returned a speedy answer
telling the Duke not to be frightened at shadows.
There was nothing, in fact, really to be alarmed
at. Fresh water took away the dysentery. Fresh
food was brought in from the country. Galician
seamen filled the gaps made by the deserters.
The ships were laid on shore and scraped and
tallowed. Tents were pitched on an island in
the harbour, with altars and priests, and every
one confessed again and received the Sacrament.

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 253

This, wrote the Duke, is great riches and a
precious jewel, and all now are well content and
cheerful. The scattered flock had reassembled.
Damages were all repaired, and the only harm
had been loss of time. Once more, on the 23rd
of July, the Armada in full numbers was under
way for England and streaming across the Bay
of Biscay with a fair wind for the mouth of the
Channel.

Leaving the Duke for the moment, we must
now glance at the preparations made in England
to receive him. It might almost be said that
there were none at all. The winter months had
been wild and changeable, but not so wild and
not so fluctuating as the mind of England s
mistress. In December her fleet had been paid
off at Chatham. The danger of leaving the
country without any regular defence was pressed
on her so vehemently that she consented to allow
part of the ships to be recommissioned. The
Revenge was given to Drake. He and Howard,
the Lord Admiral, were to have gone with a
mixed squadron from the Royal Navy and the
adventurers down to the Spanish coast. In every

254 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

loyal subject there had long been but one opinion,
that a good open war was the only road to an
honourable peace. The open war, they now
trusted, was come at last. But the hope was
raised only to be disappointed. With the news
of Santa Cruz s death came a report which
Elizabeth greedily believed, that the Armada
was dissolving and was not coming at all. Sir
James Crofts sang the usual song that Drake and
Howard wanted war, because war was their trade.
She recalled her orders. She said that she was
assured of peace in six weeks, and that beyond
that time the services of the fleet would not be
required. Half the men engaged were to be
dismissed at once to save their pay. Drake and
Lord Henry Seymour might cruise with four
or five of the Queen s ships between Plymouth
and the Solent. Lord Howard was to remain in
the Thames with the rest. I know not whether
swearing was interdicted in the English navy as
well as in the Spanish, but I will answer for it
that Howard did not spare his language when
this missive reached him. Never, he said, since
England was England was such a stratagem

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 255

made to deceive us as this treaty. We have not
hands left to carry the ships back to Chatham.
We are like bears tied to a stake ; the Spaniards
may come to worry us like dogs, and we cannot
hurt them.

It was well for England that she had other
defenders than the wildly managed navy of the
Queen. Historians tell us how the gentlemen of
the coast came out in their own vessels to meet
the invaders. Come they did, but who were they ?
Ships that could fight the Spanish galleons were
not made in a day or a week. They were built
already. They were manned by loyal subjects,
the business of whose lives had been to meet the
enemies of their land and faith on the wide ocean
not by those who had been watching with
divided hearts for a Catholic revolution.

March went by, and sure intelligence came
that the Armada was not dissolving. Again
Drake prayed the Queen to let him take the
Revenge and the Western adventurers down to
Lisbon ; but the commissioners wrote full of hope
from Ostend, and Elizabeth was afraid the King
pf Spain might take it ill. She found fault with

256 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Drake s expenses. She charged him with wasting
her ammunition in target practice. She had it
doled out to him in driblets, and allowed no more
than would serve for a day and a half s service.
She kept a sharp hand on the victualling houses.
April went, and her four finest ships the
Triumph, the Victory, the Elizabeth Jonas, and
the Bear were still with sails unbent, keeping
Chatham church. She said they would not be
wanted and it would be waste of money to refit
them. Again she was forced to yield at last, and
the four ships were got to sea in time, the
workmen in the yards making up for the delay ;
but she had few enough when her whole fleet
was out upon the Channel, and but for the
privateers there would have been an ill reckoning
when the trial came. The Armada was coming
now. There was no longer a doubt of it. Lord
Henry Seymour was left with five Queen s ships
and thirty London adventurers to watch Parma
and the Narrow Seas. Howard, carrying his own
flag in the Ark Raleigh, joined Drake at Plymouth
with seventeen others.

Still the numbing hand of his mistress pursued

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 257

him. Food supplies had been issued to the
middle of June, and no more was to be allowed.
The weather was desperate wildest summer ever
known. The south-west gales brought the
Atlantic rollers into the Sound. Drake lay
inside, perhaps behind the island which bears his
name. Howard rode out the gales under Mount
Edgecumbe, the days going by and the provisions
wasting. The rations were cut down to make
the stores last longer. Owing to the many
changes the crews had been hastily raised. They
were ill-clothed, ill-provided every way, but they
complained of nothing, caught fish to mend their
mess dinners, and prayed only for the speedy
coming of the enemy. Even Howard s heart
failed him now. English sailors would do what
could be done by man, but they could not fight
with famine. Awake, Madam, he wrote to the
Queen, awake, for the love of Christ, and see the
villainous treasons round about you. He goaded
her into ordering supplies for one more month,
but this was to be positively the last. The
victuallers inquired if they should make further
preparations. She answered peremptorily, No ;

258 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

and again the weeks ran on. The contractors, it
seemed, had caught her spirit, for the beer which
had been furnished for the fleet turned sour, and
those who drank it sickened. The officers, on
their own responsibility, ordered wine and arrow
root for the sick out of Plymouth, to be called
to a sharp account when all was over. Again the
rations were reduced. Four weeks allowance
was stretched to serve for six, and still the
Spaniards did not come. So England s forlorn
hope was treated at the crisis of her destiny.
The preparations on land were scarcely better.
The militia had been called out. A hundred
thousand men had given their names, and the
stations had been arranged where they were to
assemble if the enemy attempted a landing. But
there were no reserves, no magazines of arms, no
stores or tents, no requisites for an army save the
men themselves and what local resources could
furnish. For a general the Queen had chosen
the Earl of Leicester, who might have the merit
of fidelity to herself, but otherwise was the
worst fitted that she could have found in her
whole dominions; and the Prince of Parma was

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 259

coming, if he came at all, at the head of the
best-provided and best-disciplined troops in
Europe. The hope of England at that moment
was in her patient suffering sailors at Plymouth.
Each morning they looked out passionately for
the Spanish sails. Time was a worse enemy than
the galleons. The six weeks would be soon gone,
and the Queen s ships must then leave the seas
if the crews were not to starve. Drake had
certain news that the Armada had sailed. Where
was it ? Once he dashed out as far as Ushant,
but turned back, lest it should pass him in the
night and find Plymouth undefended ; and smaller
grew the messes and leaner and paler the seamen s
faces. Still not a man murmured or gave in.
They had no leisure to be sick.

The last week of July had now come. There
were half-rations for one week more, and powder
for two days fighting. That was all. On so light
a thread such mighty issues were now depending.
On Friday, the 23rd, the Armada had started for
the second time, the numbers undiminished ;
religious fervour burning again, and heart and
hope high as ever. Saturday, Sunday, and

260 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Monday they sailed on with a smooth sea and
soft south winds, and on Monday night the Duke
found himself at the Channel mouth with all his
flock about him. Tuesday morning the wind
shifted to the north, then backed to the west, and
blew hard. The sea got up, broke into the stern
galleries of the galleons, and sent the galleys
looking for shelter in French harbours. The fleet
hove to for a couple of days, till the weather
mended. On Friday afternoon they sighted the
Lizard and formed into fighting order ; the Duke
in the centre, Alonzo de Leyva leading in a vessel
of his own called the Bata Coronada, Don Martin
de Recalde covering the rear. The entire line
stretched to about seven miles.

The sacred banner was run up to the masthead
of the San Martin. Each ship saluted with all
her guns, and every man officer, noble, seaman,
or slave knelt on the decks at a given signal to
commend themselves to Mary and her Son. We
shall miss the meaning of this high epic story if
we do not realise that both sides had the most
profound conviction that they were fighting the
battle of the Almighty. Two principles, freedom

ADAMS S

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 261

and authority, were contending for the guidance
of mankind. In the evening the Duke sent off
two fast fly-boats to Parma to announce his
arrival in the Channel, with another reporting
progress to Philip, and saying that till he heard
from the Prince he meant to stop at the Isle of
Wight. It is commonly said that his officers
advised him to go in and take Plymouth. There
is no evidence for this. The island would have
been a far more useful position for them.

At dark that Friday night the beacons were
seen blazing all up the coast and inland on the
tops of the hills. They crept on slowly through
Saturday, with reduced canvas, feeling their way
not a sail to be seen. At midnight a pinnace
brought in a fishing-boat, from which they learnt
that on the sight of the signal fires the English
had come out that morning from Plymouth.
Presently, when the moon rose, they saw sails
passing between them and the land. With day
break the whole scene became visible, and the
curtain lifted on the first act of the drama. The
Armada was between Rarne Head and the Eddy-
stone, or a little to the west of it. Plymouth Sound

262 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

was right open to their left. The breeze, which
had dropped in the night, was freshening from the
south-west, and right ahead of them, outside the
Mew Stone, were eleven ships manoeuvring to
recover the wind. Towards the land were some
forty others, of various sizes, and this formed, as
far as they could see, the whole English force. In
numbers the Spaniards were nearly three to one.
In the size of the ships there was no comparison.
With these advantages the Duke decided to
engage, and a signal was made to hold the wind
and keep the enemy apart. The eleven ships
ahead were Howard s squadron ; those inside were
Drake and the adventurers. With some surprise
the Spanish officers saw Howard reach easily to
windward out of range and join Drake. The
whole English fleet then passed out close-hauled
in line behind them and swept along their rear,
using guns more powerful than theirs and pouring
in broadsides from safe distance with deadly effect.
Recalde, with Alonzo de Leyva and Oquendo, who
came to his help, tried desperately to close ; but
they could make nothing of it. They were out
sailed and out-cannoned. The English fired five

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 263

shots to one of theirs, and the effect was the more
destructive because, as with Rodney s action at
Dominica, the galleons were crowded with troops,
and shot and splinters told terribly among them.

The experience was new and not agreeable.
Recalde s division was badly cut up, and a Spaniard
present observes that certain officers showed cow
ardice a hit at the Duke, who had kept out of
fire. The action lasted till four in the afternoon.
The wind was then freshening fast and the sea
rising. Both fleets had by this time passed the
Sound, and the Duke, seeing that nothing could
be done, signalled to bear away up Channel, the
English following two miles astern. Recalde s
own ship had been an especial sufferer. She was
observed to be leaking badly, to drop behind, and
to be in danger of capture. Pedro de Valdez wore
round to help him in the Capitana, of the Anda-
lusian squadron, fouled the Santa Catalina in
turning, broke his bowsprit and foretopmast, and
became unmanageable. The Andalusian Capi
tana was one of the finest ships in the Spanish
fleet, and Don Pedro one of the ablest and most
popular commanders. She had 500 men on

264 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

board, a large sum of money, and, among other
treasures, a box of jewel-hilted swords, which
Philip was sending over to the English Catholic
peers. But it was growing dark Sea and sky
looked ugly. The Duke was flurried, and signalled
to go on and leave Don Pedro to his fate. Alonzo
de Leyva and Oquendo rushed on board the San
Martin to protest. It was no use. Diego Florez
said he could not risk the safety of the fleet for a
single officer. The deserted Capitana made a
brave defence, but could not save herself, and
fell, with the jewelled swords, 50,000 ducats,
and a welcome supply of powder, into Drake s
hands.

Off the Start there was a fresh disaster. Every
one was in ill-humour. A quarrel broke out be
tween the soldiers and seamen in Oquendo s
galleon. He was himself still absent. Some
wretch or other flung a torch into the powder
magazine and jumped overboard. The deck was
blown off, and 200 men along with it.

Two such accidents following an unsuccessful
engagement did not tend to reconcile the
Spaniards to the Duke s command. Pedro de

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 265

Valdez was universally loved and honoured,
and his desertion in the face of an enemy so
inferior in numbers was regarded as scandalous
poltroonery. Monday morning broke heavily.
The wind was gone, but there was still a consider
able swell. The English were hull down behind.
The day was spent in repairing damages and nail
ing lead over the shot-holes. Recalde was moved
to the front, to be out of harm s way, and De
Leyva took his post in the rear.

At sunset they were outside Portland. The
English had come up within a league ; but it was
now dead calm, and they drifted apart in the tide.
The Duke thought of nothing, but at midnight
the Spanish officers stirred him out of his sleep to
urge him to set his great galleasses to work ; now
was their chance. The dawn brought a chance
still better, for it brought an east wind, and the
Spaniards had now the weather-gage. Could they
once close and grapple with the English ships,
their superior numbers would then assure them a
victory, and Howard, being to leeward and inshore,
would have to pass through the middle of the
Spanish line to recover his advantage. However,

266 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

it was the same story. The Spaniards could not
use an opportunity when they had one. New-
modelled for superiority of sailing, the English
ships had the same advantage over the galleons as
the steam cruisers would have over the old three-
deckers. While the breeze held they went where
they pleased. The Spaniards were out-sailed, out
matched, crushed by guns of longer range than
theirs. Their own shot flew high over the low
English hulls, while every ball found its way
through their own towering sides. This time the
San Martin was in the thick of it. Her double
timbers were ripped and torn ; the holy standard
was cut in two ; the water poured through the
shot-holes. The men lost their nerve. In such
ships as had no gentlemen on board notable signs
were observed of flinching.

At the end of that day s fighting the English
powder gave out. Two days service had been the
limit of the Queen s allowance. Howard had
pressed for a more liberal supply at the last
moment, and had received the characteristic
answer that he must state precisely how much he
wanted before more could be sent. The lighting

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 267

of the beacons had quickened the official pulse a
little. A small addition had been despatched to
Weymouth or Poole, and no more could be done
till it arrived. The Duke, meanwhile, was left to
smooth his ruffled plumes and drift on upon his
way. But by this time England was awake.
Fresh privateers, with powder, meat, bread, fruit,
anything that they could bring, were pouring out
from the Dorsetshire harbours. Sir George Carey
had come from the Needles in time to share the
honours of the last battle, round shot, as he said.
flying thick as musket balls in a skirmish on
land.

The Duke had observed uneasily from the
San Martin s deck that his pursuers were growing
numerous. He had made up his mind definitely
to go for the Isle of Wight, shelter his fleet in the
Solent, land 10,000 men in the island, and stand
on his defence till he heard from Parma. He
must fight another battle ; but, cut up as he had
been, he had as yet lost but two ships, and those
by accident. He might fairly hope to force his
way in with help from above, for which he had
special reason to look in the next engagement.

268 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Wednesday was a breathless calm. The English
were taking in their supplies. The Armada lay
still, repairing damages. Thursday would be St.
Dominic s Day. St. Dominic belonged to the
Duke a own family, and was his patron saint. St.
Dominic he felt sure, would now stand by his
kinsman.

The morning broke with a light air. The
English would be less able to move, and with the
help of the galleasses he might hope to come to
close quarters at last. Howard seemed inclined
to give him his wish. With just wind enough to
move the Lord Admiral led in the Ark Raleigh
straight down on the Spanish centre. The Ark
outsailed her consorts and found herself alone
with the galleons all round her. At that moment
the wind dropped. The Spanish boarding-
parties were at their posts. The tops were
manned with musketeers, the grappling irons
all prepared to fling into the Ark s rigging. In
imagination the English admiral was their own.
But each day s experience was to teach them a
new lesson. Eleven boats dropped from the Ark s
sides and took her in tow. The breeze rose again

. x

i

a

R I

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 269

as she began to move. Her sails filled, and
she slipped away through the water, leaving
the Spaniards as if they were at anchor, staring
in helpless amazement. The wind brought up
Drake and the rest, and then began again the
terrible cannonade from which the Armada had
already suffered so frightfully. It seemed that
morning as if the English were using guns of
even heavier metal than on either of the preceding
days. The armament had not been changed.
The growth was in their own frightened imagin
ation. The Duke had other causes for uneasiness.
His own magazines were also giving out under
the unexpected demands upon them. One battle
was the utmost which he had looked for. He
had fought three, and the end was no nearer than
before. With resolution he might still have
made his way into St. Helen s roads, for the
English were evidently afraid to close with him.
But when St. Dominic, too, failed him he lost his
head. He lost his heart, and losing heart he
lost all. In the Solent he would have been com
paratively safe, and he could easily have taken
the Isle of Wight ; but his one thought now was

270 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

to find safety under Parma s gaberdine and make
for Calais or Dunkirk. He supposed Parma to
have already embarked, on hearing of his coming,
with a second armed fleet, and in condition for
immediate action. He sent on another pinnace,
pressing for help, pressing for ammunition, and
fly-boats to protect the galleons ; and Parma was
himself looking to be supplied from the Armada,
with no second fleet at all, only a flotilla of river
barges which would need a week s work to be
prepared for the crossing.

Philip had provided a splendid fleet, a splendid
army, and the finest sailors in the world except
the English. He had failed to realise that the
grandest preparations are useless with a fool to
command. The poor Duke was less to blame
than his master. An office had been thrust upon
him for which he knew that he had not a single
qualification. His one anxiety was to find Parma,
lay the weight on Parma s shoulders, and so have
done with it.

On Friday he was left alone to make his way
up Channel towards the French shore. The
English still followed, but he counted that in

8.] SAILING OF THE ARMADA 271

Calais roads he would be in French waters, where
they would not dare to meddle with him. They
would then, he thought, go home and annoy him
no further. As he dropped anchor in the dusk
outside Calais on Saturday evening he saw, to his
disgust, that the endemoniada gente the infernal
devils as he called them, had brought up at the
same moment with himself, half a league astern of
him. His one trust was in the Prince of Parma,
and Parma at any rate was now within touch.

LECTURE IX

DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA

TN the gallery at Madrid there is a picture,
painted by Titian, representing the Genius
of Spain coming to the delivery of the afflicted
Bride of Christ. Titian was dead, but the temper
of the age survived, and in the study of that great
picture you will see the spirit in which the
Spanish nation had set out for the conquest of
England. The scene is the seashore. The Church
a naked Andromeda, with dishevelled hair,
fastened to the trunk of an ancient disbranched
tree. The cross lies at her feet, the cup over
turned, the serpents of heresy biting at her from
behind with uplifted crests. Coming on before a
leading breeze is the sea monster, the Moslem
fleet, eager for their prey ; while in front is
Perseus, the Genius of Spain, banner in hand,

LECT. 9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 273

with the legions of the faithful laying not raiment
before him, but shield and helmet, the apparel of
war for the Lady of Nations to clothe herself
with strength and smite her foes.

In the Armada the crusading enthusiasm had
reached its point and focus. England was the
stake to which the Virgin, the daughter of Sion,
was bound in captivity. Perseus had come at
last in the person of the Duke of Medina Sidonia,
and with him all that was best and brightest in
the countrymen of Cervantes, to break her bonds
and replace her on her throne. They had sailed
into the Channel in pious hope, with the blessed
banner waving over their heads.

To be the executor of the decrees of Providence
is a lofty ambition, but men in a state of high
emotion overlook the precautions which are not to
be dispensed with even on the sublimest of errands.
Don Quixote, when he set out to redress the
wrongs of humanity, forgot that a change of linen
might be necessary, and that he must take money
with him to pay his hotel bills. Philip II., in
sending the Armada to England, and confident in

supernatural protection, imagined an unresisted

T

274 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

triumphal procession. He forgot that contractors
might be rascals, that water four months in the
casks in a hot climate turned putrid, and that
putrid water would poison his ships companies,
though his crews were companies of angels. He
forgot that the servants of the evil one might fight
for their mistress after all, and that he must send
adequate supplies of powder, and, worst forgetful-
ness of all, that a great naval expedition required a
leader who understood his business. Perseus, in the
shape of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, after a week
of disastrous battles, found himself at the end of
it in an exposed roadstead, where he ought never
to have been, nine-tenths of his provisions thrown
overboard as unfit for food, his ammunition ex
hausted by the unforeseen demands upon it, the
seamen and soldiers harassed and dispirited,
officers the whole week without sleep, and the
enemy, who had hunted him from Plymouth to
Calais, anchored within half a league of him.

Still, after all his misadventures, he had brought
the fleet, if not to the North Foreland, yet within
a few miles of it, and to outward appearance not
materially injured. Two of the galleons had been

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 275

taken ; a third, the Santa Ana, had strayed ; and
his galleys had left him, being found too weak for
the Channel sea ; but the great armament had
reached its destination substantially uninjured so
far as English eyes could see. Hundreds of men
had been killed and hundreds more wounded, and
the spirit of the rest had been shaken. But the
loss of life could only be conjectured on board the
English fleet. The English admiral could only
see that the Duke was now in touch with Parma.
Parma, they knew, had an army at Dunkirk with
him, which was to cross to England. He had
been collecting men, barges, and transports all the
winter and spring, and the backward state of
Parma s preparations could not be anticipated,
still less relied upon. The Calais anchorage was
unsafe ; but at that season of the year, especially
after a wet summer, the weather usually settled ;
and to attack the Spaniards in a French port might
be dangerous for many reasons. It was uncertain
after the day of the Barricades whether the Duke
of Guise or Henry of Valois was master of France,
and a violation of the neutrality laws might easily
at that moment bring Guise and France into the

276 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

field on the Spaniards side. It was, no doubt,
with some such expectation that the Duke and
his advisers had chosen Calais as the point at
which to bring up. It was now Saturday, the 7th
of August. The Governor of the town came off in
the evening to the San Martin. He expressed
surprise to see the Spanish fleet in so exposed a
position, but he was profuse in his offers of service.
Anything which the Duke required should be pro
vided, especially every facility for communicating
with Dunkirk and Parma. The Duke thanked
him, said that he supposed Parma to be already
embarked with his troops, ready for the passage,
and that his own stay in the roads would be but
brief On Monday morning at latest he expected
that the attempt to cross would be made. The
Governor took his leave, and the Duke, relieved
from his anxieties, was left to a peaceful night.
He was disturbed on the Sunday morning by an
express from Parma informing him that, so far
from being embarked, the army could not be
ready for a fortnight. The barges were not in
condition for sea. The troops were in camp. The
arms and stores were on the quays at Dunkirk.

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 277

As for the fly -boats and ammunition which the
Duke had asked for, he had none to spare. He
had himself looked to be supplied from the
Armada. He promised to use his best expedition,
but the Duke, meanwhile, must see to the safety
of the fleet.

Unwelcome news to a harassed landsman thrust
into the position of an admiral and eager to be
rid of his responsibilities. If by evil fortune the
north-wester should come down upon him, with
the shoals and sandbanks close under his lee, he
would be in a bad way. Nor was the view behind
him calculated for comfort. There lay the enemy
almost within gunshot, who, though scarcely more
than half his numbers, had hunted him like a pack
of bloodhounds, and, worse than all, in double
strength ; for the Thames squadron three
Queen s ships and thirty London adventurers
under Lord H. Seymour and Sir John Hawkins,
had crossed in the night. There they were be
tween him and Cape Grisnez, and the reinforce
ment meant plainly enough that mischief was in
the wind.

After a week so trying the Spanish crews

278 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

would have been glad of a Sunday s rest if they
could have had it ; but the rough handling which
they had gone through had thrown everything
into disorder. The sick and wounded had to
be cared for, torn rigging looked to, splintered
timbers mended, decks scoured, and guns and
arms cleaned up and put to rights. And so it was
that no rest could be allowed ; so much had to be
done, and so busy was everyone, that the usual
rations were not served out and the Sunday was
kept as a fast. In the afternoon the stewards
went ashore for fresh meat and vegetables. They
came back with their boats loaded, and the prospect
seemed a little less gloomy. Suddenly, as the
Duke and a group of officers were watching the
English fleet from the San Martin s poop deck, a
small smart pinnace, carrying a gun in her bow,
shot out from Howard s lines, bore down on the
San Martin, sailed round her, sending in a shot
or two as she passed, and went off unhurt.
The Spanish officers could not help admiring
such airy impertinence. Hugo de Moncada sent
a ball after the pinnace, which went through
her mainsail, but did no damage, and the

9.] DEFEAT OP THE ARMADA 279

pinnace again disappeared behind the English
ships.

So a Spanish officer describes the scene. The
English story says nothing of the pinnace ; but
she doubtless came and went as the Spaniard
says, and for sufficient purpose. The English,
too, were in straits, though the Duke did not
dream of it. You will remember that the last
supplies which the Queen had allowed to the fleet
had been issued in the middle of June. They
were to serve for a month, and the contractors
were forbidden to prepare more. The Queen had
clung to her hope that her differences with Philip
were to be settled by the Commission at Ostend ;
and she feared that if Drake and Howard were
too well furnished they would venture some fresh
rash stroke on the coast of Spain, which might
mar the negotiations. Their month s provisions
had been stretched to serve for six weeks, and
when the Armada appeared but two full days
rations remained. On these they had fought
their way up Channel. Something had been
brought out by private exertion on the Dorset
shire coast, and Seymour had, perhaps, brought a

280 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

little more. But they were still in extremity.
The contractors had warned the Government that
they could provide nothing without notice, and
notice had not been given. The adventurers
were in better state, having been equipped by
private owners. But the Queen s ships in a day
or two more must either go home or their crews
would be starving. They had been on reduced
rations for near two months. Worse than that,
they were still poisoned by the sour beer. The
Queen had changed her mind so often, now
ordering the fleet to prepare for sea, then re
calling her instructions and paying off the men,
that those whom Howard had with him had been
enlisted in haste, had come on board as they were,
and their clothes were hanging in rags on them.
The fighting and the sight of the flying Spaniards
were meat and drink, and clothing too, and had
made them careless of all else. There was no
fear of mutiny; but there was a limit, to the
toughest endurance. If the Armada was left
undisturbed a long struggle might be still before
them. The enemy would recover from its flurry,
and Parma would come out from Dunkirk. To

g.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 281

attack them directly in French waters might lead
to perilous complications, while delay meant
famine. The Spanish fleet had to be started
from the roads in some way. Done it must be,
and done immediately.

Then, on that same Sunday afternoon a
memorable council of war was held in the Ark s
main cabin. Howard, Drake, Seymour, Hawkins,
Martin Frobisher, and two or three others met to
consult, knowing that on them at that moment
the liberties of England were depending. Their
resolution was taken promptly. There was no
time for talk. After nightfall a strong flood tide
would be setting up along shore to the Spanish
anchorage. They would try what could be done
with fire-ships, and the excursion of the pinnace,
which was taken for bravado, was probably for a
survey of the Armada s exact position. Mean
time eight useless vessels were coated with pitch
hulls, spars, and rigging. Pitch was poured on
the decks and over the sides, and parties were
told off to steer them to their destination and
then fire and leave them.

The hours stole on, and twilight passed into

282 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

dark. The night was without a moon. The
Duke paced his deck late with uneasy sense of
danger. He observed lights moving up and
down the English lines, and imagining that the
endemoniada gente the infernal devils might be
up to mischief, ordered a sharp look-out. A faint
westerly air was curling the water, and towards
midnight the watchers on board the galleons
made out dimly several ships which seemed to
be drifting down upon them. Their experience
since the action off Plymouth had been so strange
and unlocked for that anything unintelligible
which the English did was alarming.

The phantom forms drew nearer, and were
almost among them when they broke into a blaze
from water-line to truck, and the two fleets were
seen by the lurid light of the conflagration ; the
anchorage, the walls and windows of Calais, and
the sea shining red far as eye could reach, as
if the ocean itself was burning. Among the
dangers which they might have to encounter,
English fireworks had been especially dreaded
by the Spaniards. Fire-ships a fit device of
heretics had worked havoc among the Spanish

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 283

troops, when the bridge was blown up, at)
Antwerp. They imagined that similar infernal
machines were approaching the Armada. A
capable commander would have sent a few
launches to grapple the burning hulks, which
of course were now deserted, and tow them
out of harm s way. Spanish sailors were not
cowards, and would not have flinched from duty
because it might be dangerous; but the Duke
and Diego Florez lost their heads again. A
signal gun from the San Martin ordered the
whole fleet to slip their cables and stand out
to sea.

Orders given in panic are doubly unwise, for
they spread the terror in which they originate.
The danger from the fire-ships was chiefly from
the effect on the imagination, for they appear to
have drifted by and done no real injury. And it
speaks well for the seamanship and courage of
the Spaniards that they were able, crowded
together as they were, at midnight and in sudden
alarm to set their canvas and clear out without
running into one another. They buoyed their
cables, expecting to return for them at daylight,

284 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

and with only a single accident, to be mentioned
directly, they executed successfully a really
difficult manosuvre.

The Duke was delighted with himself. The
fire-ships burnt harmlessly out. He had baffled
the inventions of the endemoniada gente. He
brought up a league outside the harbour, and
supposed that the whole Armada had done the
same. Unluckily for himself, he found it at day
light divided into two bodies. The San Martin
with forty of the best appointed of the galleons
were riding together at their anchors. The rest,
two-thirds of the whole, having no second anchors
ready, and inexperienced in Channel tides and
currents, had been lying to. The west wind was
blowing up. Without seeing where they were
going they had drifted to leeward, and were two
leagues off, towards Gravelines, dangerously near
the shore. The Duke was too ignorant to realise
the full peril of his situation. He signalled to
them to return and rejoin him. As the wind and
tide stood it was impossible. He proposed to
follow them. The pilots told him that if he did
the whole fleet might be lost on the banks.

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 285

Towards the land the look of things was not
more encouraging.

One accident only had happened the night
before. The Capitana galleass, with Don Hugo
de Mongada and eight hundred men on board,
had fouled her helm in a cable in getting under
way and had become unmanageable. The galley
slaves disobeyed orders, or else Don Hugo was as
incompetent as his commander-in-chief. The
galleass had gone on the sands, and as the tide
ebbed had fallen over on her side. Howard,
seeing her condition, had followed her in the
Ark with four or five other of the Queen s ships,
and was furiously attacking her with his boats,
careless of neutrality laws. Howard s theory was,
as he said, to pluck the feathers one by one from
the Spaniard s wing, and here was a feather worth
picking up. The galleass was the most splendid
vessel of her kind afloat, Don Hugo one of the
greatest of Spanish grandees.

Howard was making a double mistake. He
took the galleass at last, after three hours
fighting. Don Hugo was killed by a musket
ball The vessel was plundered, and Howard s

286 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

men took possession, meaning to carry her away
when the tide rose. The French authorities
ordered him off, threatening to fire upon him ;
and after wasting the forenoon, he was obliged
at last to leave her where she lay. Worse than
this, he had lost three precious hours, and had
lost along with them, in the opinion of the
Prince of Parma, the honours of the great day.
Drake and Hawkins knew better than to
waste time plucking single feathers. The fire-
ships had been more effective than they could
have dared to hope. The enemy was broken up.
The Duke was shorn of half his strength, and
the Lord had delivered him into their hand. He
had got under way, still signalling wildly, and
uncertain in which direction to turn. His un
certainties were ended for him by seeing Drake
bearing down upon him with the whole English
fleet, save those which were loitering about the
galleass. The English had now the advantage of
numbers. The superiority of their guns he knew
already, and their greater speed allowed him no
hope to escape a battle. Forty ships alone were
left to him to defend the banner of the crusade

A. LORD BUCKHURST

B. HAUL (>F NOTTINGHAM (LORD HOWARD OF EFFIXUHAM)-

C. LORD 3IOUXTJOY.

from a picture by Jf. Ghecraedts in the National Portrait Gallery.

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 287

and the honour of Castile ; but those forty were
the largest and the most powerfully armed and
manned that he had, and on board them were
Oquendo, De Leyva, Recalde, and Bretandona,
the best officers in the Spanish navy next to the
lost Don Pedro.

It was now or never for England. The scene
of the action which was to decide the future of
Europe was between Calais and Dunkirk, a few
miles off shore, and within sight of Parma s
camp. There was no more manoeuvring for the
weather-gage, no more fighting at long range.
Drake dashed straight upon his prey as the falcon
stoops upon its quarry. A chance had fallen to
him which might never return ; not for the vain
distinction of carrying prizes into English ports,
not for the ray of honour which would fall on him
if he could carry off the sacred banner itself and
hang it in the Abbey at Westminster, but a
chance so to handle the Armada that it should
never be seen again in English waters, and deal
such a blow on Philip that the Spanish Empire
should reel with it. The English ships had the
same superiority over the galleons which steamers

288 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

have now over sailing vessels. They had twice
the speed ; they could lie two points nearer to
the wind. Sweeping round them at cable s
length, crowding them in one upon the other, yet
never once giving them a chance to grapple, they
hurled in their cataracts of round shot. Short as
was the powder supply, there was no sparing it
that morning. The hours went on, and still the
battle raged, if battle it could be called where
the blows were all dealt on one side and the
suffering was all on the other. Never on sea or
land did the Spaniards show themselves worthier
of their great name than on that day. But from
the first they could do nothing. It was said
afterwards in Spain that the Duke showed the
white feather, that he charged his pilot to keep
him out of harm s way, that he shut himself up
in his cabin, buried in woolpacks, and so on.
The Duke had faults enough, but poltroonery was
not one of them. He, who till he entered the
English Channel had never been in action on sea
or land, found himself, as he said, in the midst
of the most furious engagement recorded in the
history of the world. As to being out of harm s

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 289

way, the standard at his masthead drew the
hottest of the fire upon him. The San Martin s
timbers were of oak and a foot thick, but the
shot, he said, went through them enough to
shatter a rock. Her deck was a slaughterhouse ;
half his company were killed or wounded, and
no more would have been heard or seen of the
San Martin or her commander had not Oquendo
and De Leyva pushed in to the rescue and
enabled him to creep away under their cover.
He himself saw nothing more of the action after
this. The smoke, he said, was so thick that he
could make out nothing, even from his masthead.
But all round it was but a repetition of the same
scene. The Spanish shot flew high, as before,
above the low English hulls, and they were
themselves helpless butts to the English guns.
And it is noticeable and supremely creditable to
them that not a single galleon struck her colours.
One of them, after a long duel with an English
man, was on the point of sinking. An English
officer, admiring the courage which the Spaniards
had shown, ran out upon his bowsprit, told them

that they had done all which became men, and

u

ago ENGLISH SEAMEN [LKCT.

urged them to surrender and save their lives.
For answer they cursed the English as cowards
and chickens because they refused to close. The
officer was shot. His fall brought a last broadside
on them, which finished the work. They went
down, and the water closed over them. Rather
death to the soldiers of the Cross than surrender
to a heretic.

The deadly hail rained on. In some ships
blood was seen streaming out of the scupper-
holes. Yet there was no yielding; all ranks
showed equal heroism. The priests went up and
down in the midst of the carnage, holding the
crucifix before the eyes of the dying. At midday
Howard came up to claim a second share in a
victory which was no longer doubtful. Towards
the afternoon the Spanish fire slackened. Their
powder was gone, and they could make no return
to the cannonade which was still overwhelming
them. They admitted freely afterwards that if
the attack had been continued but two hours
more they must all have struck or gone ashore.
But the English magazines were empty also ; the
cartridge was shot away, a nd the battle

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 291

ended from mere inability to keep it up. It
had been fought on both sides with peculiar
determination. In the English there was the
accumulated resentment of thirty years of menace
to their country and their creed, with the enemy
in tangible shape at last to be caught and
grappled with ; in the Spanish, the sense that if
their cause had not brought them the help they
looked for from above, the honour and faith of
Castile should not suffer in their hands.

It was over. The English drew off, regretting
that their thrifty mistress had limited their means
of fighting for her, and so obliged them to leave
their work half done. When the cannon ceased
the wind rose, the smoke rolled away, and in the
level light of the sunset they could see the results
of the action.

A galleon in Recalde s squadron was sinking
with all hands. The San Philip and the San
Matteo were drifting dismasted towards the Dutch
coast, where they were afterwards wrecked. Those
which were left with canvas still showing were
crawling slowly after their comrades who had not
been engaged, the spars and rigging so cut up

292 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

that they could scarce bear their sails. The loss
of life could only be conjectured, but it had been
obviously terrible. The nor -wester was blowing
up and was pressing the wounded ships upon the
shoals, from which, if it held, it seemed impossible
in their crippled state they would be able to
work off.

In this condition Drake left them for the
night, not to rest, but from any quarter to collect,
if he could, more food and powder. The snake
had been scotched, but not killed. More than
half the great fleet were far away, untouched by
shot, perhaps able to fight a second battle if they
recovered heart. To follow, to drive them on the
banks if the wind held, or into the North Sea,
anywhere so that he left them no chance of join
ing hands with Parma again, and to use the time
before they had rallied from his blows, that was
the present necessity. His own poor fellows were
famished and in rags; but neither he nor they
had leisure to think of themselves. There was
but one thought in the whole of them, to be again
in chase of the flying foe. Howard was resolute
as Drake. All that was possible was swiftly done.

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 293

Seymour and the Thames squadron were to stay
in the Straits and watch Parma. From every
attainable source food and powder were collected
for the rest far short in both ways of what ought
to have been, but, as Drake said, we were resolved
to put on a brag and go on as if we needed
nothing. Before dawn the admiral and he were
again off on the chase.

The brag was unneeded. What man could
do had been done, and the rest was left to the
elements. Never again could Spanish seamen be
brought to face the English guns with Medina
Sidonia to lead them. They had a fool at their
head. The Invisible Powers in whom they had
been taught to trust had deserted them. Their
confidence was gone and their spirit broken.
Drearily the morning broke on the Duke and his
consorts the day after the battle. The Armada
had collected in the night. The nor -wester had
freshened to a gale, and they were labouring
heavily along, making fatal leeway towards the
shoals.

It was St. Lawrence s Day, Philip s patron
saint, whose shoulder-bone he had lately added to

294 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

the treasures of the Escurial ; but St. Lawrence
was as heedless as St. Dominic. The San Martin
had but six fathoms under her. Those nearer to
the land signalled five, and right before them
they could see the brown foam of the breakers
curling over the sands, while on their weather-
beam, a mile distant and clinging to them like
the shadow of death, were the English ships
which had pursued them from Plymouth like
the dogs of the Furies. The Spanish sailors and
soldiers had been without food since the evening
when they anchored at Calais. All Sunday they
had been at work, no rest allowed them to eat.
On the Sunday night they had been stirred out
of their sleep by the fire-ships. Monday they
had been fighting, and Monday night committing
their dead to the sea. Now they seemed advanc
ing directly upon inevitable destruction. As the
wind stood there was still room for them to wear
and thus escape the banks, but they would then
have to face the enemy, who seemed only refrain
ing from attacking them because while they
continued on their present course the winds and
waves would finish the work without help from

9-1 DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 295

man. Recalde, De Leyva, Oquendo, and other
officers were sent for to the San Martin to consult.
Oquendo came last. Ah, Senor Oquendo, said
the Duke as the heroic Biscayan stepped on board,
que haremos ? (what shall we do ?) Let your
Excellency bid load the guns again, was Oquen-
do s gallant answer. It could not be. De Leyva
himself said that the men would not fight the
English again. Florez advised surrender. The
Duke wavered. It was said that a boat was
actually lowered to go off to Howard and make
terms, and that Oquendo swore that if the boat
left the San Martin on such an errand he would
fling Florez into the sea. Oquendo s advice would
have, perhaps, been the safest if the Duke could
have taken it. There were still seventy ships
in the Armada little hurt. The English were
bragging, as Drake said, and in no condition
themselves for another serious engagement. But
the temper of the entire fleet made a courageous
course impossible. There was but one Oquendo.
Discipline was gone. The soldiers in their des
peration had taken the command out of the hands
of the seamen. Officers and men alike abandoned

296 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

hope, and, with no human prospect of salvation
left to them, they flung themselves on their knees
upon the decks and prayed the Almighty to have
pity on them. But two weeks were gone since
they had knelt on those same decks on the first
sight of the English shore to thank Him for having
brought them so far on an enterprise so glorious.
Two weeks ; and what weeks ! Wrecked, torn
by cannon shot, ten thousand of them dead or
dying for this was the estimated loss by battle
the survivors could now but pray to be delivered
from a miserable death by the elements. In
cyclones the wind often changes suddenly back
from north-west to west, from west to south. At
that moment, as if in answer to their petition, one
of these sudden shifts of wind saved them from
the immediate peril. The gale backed round to
S.S.W., and ceased to press them on the shoals.
They could ease their sheets, draw off into open
water, and steer a course up the middle of the
North Sea.

So only that they went north, Drake was con
tent to leave them unmolested. Once away into
the high latitudes they might go where they

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 297

would. Neither Howard nor he, in the low state
of their own magazines, desired any unnecessary
fighting. If the Armada turned back they must
close with it. If it held its present course they
must follow it till they could be assured it would
communicate no more for that summer with the
Prince of Parma. Drake thought they would
perhaps make for the Baltic or some port in
Norway. They would meet no hospitable recep
tion from either Swedes or Danes, but they would
probably try. One only imminent danger re
mained to be provided against. If they turned
into the Forth, it was still possible for the
Spaniards to redeem their defeat, and even yet
shake Elizabeth s throne. Among the many
plans which had been formed for the invasion
of England, a landing in Scotland had long
been the favourite. Guise had always preferred
Scotland when it was intended that Guise should
be the leader. Santa Cruz had been in close
correspondence with Guise on this very subject,
and many officers in the Armada must have
been acquainted with Santa Cruz s views. The
Scotch Catholic nobles were still savage at Mary

298 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

Stuart s execution, and had the Armada anchored
in Leith Roads with twenty thousand men, half
a million ducats, and a Santa Cruz at its head,
it might have kindled a blaze at that moment
from John o Groat s Land to the Border.

But no such purpose occurred to the Duke
of Medina Sidonia. He probably knew nothing
at all of Scotland or its parties. Among the
many deficiencies which he had pleaded to Philip
as unfitting him for the command, he had said
that Santa Cruz had acquaintances among the
English and Scotch peers. He had himself none.
The small information which he had of anything
did not go beyond his orange gardens and his
tunny fishing. His chief merit was that he was
conscious of his incapacity; and, detesting a
service into which he had been fooled by a
hysterical nun, his only anxiety was to carry
home the still considerable fleet which had been
trusted to him without further loss. Beyond
Scotland and the Scotch Isles there was the open
ocean, and in the open ocean there were no sand
banks and no English guns. Thus, with all sail
set he went on before the wind. Drake and

g.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 299

Howard attended him till they had seen him
past the Forth, and knew then that there was
no more to fear. It was time to see to the wants
of their own poor fellows, who had endured so
patiently and fought so magnificently. On the
1 3th of August they saw the last of the Armada,
turned back, and made their way to the Thames.

But the story has yet to be told of the final
fate of the great enterprise of England (the
empresa de Inglaterra ), the object of so many
prayers, on which the hopes of the Catholic world
had been so long and passionately fixed. It had
been ostentatiously a religious crusade. The pre
parations had been attended with peculiar solem
nities. In the eyes of the faithful it was to be
the execution of Divine justice on a wicked
princess and a wicked people. In the eyes of
millions whose convictions were less decided it
was an appeal to God s judgment to decide
between the Reformation and the Pope. There
was an appropriateness, therefore, if due to
accident, that other causes besides the action of
man should have combined in its overthrow.

The Spaniards were experienced sailors; t

300 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

voyage round the Orkneys and round Ireland to
Spain might be tedious, but at that season of the
year need not have seemed either dangerous or
difficult. On inquiry, however, it was found that
the condition of the fleet was seriously alarming.
The provisions placed on board at Lisbon had
been found unfit for food, and almost all had
been thrown into the sea. The fresh stores
taken in at Corunna had been consumed, and it
was found that at the present rate there would
be nothing left in a fortnight. Worse than all,
the water-casks refilled there had been carelessly
stowed. They had been shot through in the fight
ing and were empty; while of clothing or other
comforts for the cold regions which they were
entering no thought had been taken. The mules
and horses were flung overboard, and Scotch
smacks, which had followed the retreating fleet,
reported that they had sailed for miles through
floating carcases.

The rations were reduced for each man to a
daily half-pound of biscuit, a pint of water, and
a pint of wine. Thus, sick and hungry, the
wounded left to the care of a medical officer, who

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 301

went from ship to ship, the subjects of so many
prayers were left to encounter the climate of the
North Atlantic. The Duke blamed all but him
self; he hanged one poor captain for neglect of
orders, and would have hanged another had he
dared ; but his authority was gone. They passed
the Orkneys in a single body. They then parted,
it was said in a fog ; but each commander had to
look out for himself and his men. In many ships
water must be had somewhere, or they would die.
The San Martin, with sixty consorts, went north
to the sixtieth parallel. From that height the
pilots promised to take them down clear of the
coast. The wind still clung to the west, each
day blowing harder than the last. When they
braced round to it their wounded spars gave
way. Their rigging parted. With the greatest
difficulty they made at last sufficient offing, and
rolled down somehow out of sight of land, dipping
their yards in the enormous seas. Of the rest,
one or two went down among the Western Isles
and became wrecks there, their crews, or part of
them, making their way through Scotland to
Flanders. Others went north to Shetland or the

302 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LHCT.

Faroe Islands. Between thirty and forty were
tempted in upon the Irish coasts. There were
Irishmen in the fleet, who must have told them
that they would find the water there for which
they were perishing, safe harbours, and a friendly
Catholic people ; and they found either harbours
which they could not reach or sea-washed sands
and reefs. They were all wrecked at various
places between Donegal and the Blaskets. Some
thing like eight thousand half-drowned wretches
struggled on shore alive. Many were gentlemen,
richly dressed, with velvet coats, gold chains and
rings. The common sailors and soldiers had been
paid their wages before they started, and each
had a bag of ducats lashed to his waist when he
landed through the surf. The wild Irish of
the coast, tempted by the booty, knocked un
known numbers of them on the head with their
battle-axes, or stripped them naked and left them
to die of the cold. On one long sand strip in Sligo
an English officer counted eleven hundred bodies,
and he heard that there were as many more a
few miles distant.

The better-educated of the Ulster chiefs, the

9.] DEFEAT OF THE. ARMADA 303

O Rourke and O Donnell, hurried down to stop
the butchery and spare Ireland the shame of
murdering helpless Catholic friends. Many how
many cannot be said found protection in
their castles. But even so it seemed as if some
inexorable fate pursued all who had sailed
in that doomed expedition. Alonzo de Leyva,
with half a hundred young Spanish nobles of high
rank who were under his special charge, made his
way in a galleass into Killibeg. He was himself
disabled in landing. O Donnell received and
took care of him and his companions. After
remaining in O Donnell s castle for a month he
recovered. The weather appeared to mend. The
galleass was patched up, and De Leyva ventured
an attempt to make his way in her to Scotland.
He had passed the worst danger, and Scotland
was almost in sight ; but fate would have its
victims. The galleass struck a rock off Dunluce
and went to pieces, and Don Alonzo and the
princely youths who had sailed with him were
washed ashore all dead, to find an unmarked
grave in Antrim.

Most pitiful of all was the fate of those who

304 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

fell into the hands of the English garrisons in
Galway and Mayo. Galleons had found their
way into Galway Bay one of them had reached
Galway itself the crews half dead with famine
and offering a cask of wine for a cask of water.
The Galway townsmen were human, and tried to
feed and care for them. Most were too far gone
to be revived, and died of exhaustion. Some might
have recovered, but recovered they would be a
danger to the State. The English in the West
of Ireland were but a handful in the midst of a
sullen, half-conquered population. The ashes of
the Desmond rebellion were still smoking, and Dr.
Sanders and his Legatine Commission were fresh
in immediate memory. The defeat of the Armada
in the Channel could only have been vaguely
heard of. All that English officers could have
accurately known must have been that an enor
mous expedition had been sent to England by
Philip to restore the Pope ; and Spaniards, they
found, were landing in thousands in the midst of
them with arms and money ; distressed for the
moment, but sure, if allowed time to get their
strength again, to set Connaught in a blaze.

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 305

They had no fortresses to hold so many
prisoners, no means of feeding them, no men to
spare to escort them to Dublin. They were
responsible to the Queen s Government for the
safety of the country. The Spaniards had not
come on any errand of mercy to her or hers.
The stern order went out to kill them all
wherever they might be found, and two thousand
or more were shot, hanged, or put to the sword.
Dreadful ! Yes, but war itself is dreadful and
has its own necessities.

The sixty ships which had followed the San
Martin succeeded at last in getting round Cape
Clear, but in a condition scarcely less miserable
than that of their companions who had perished
in Ireland. Half their companies died died of
untended wounds, hunger, thirst, and famine fever.
The survivors were moving skeletons, more
shadows and ghosts than living men, with scarce
strength left them to draw a rope or handle a
tiller. In some ships there was no water for
fourteen days. The weather in the lower lati
tudes lost part of its violence, or not one of them
would have seen Spain again. As it was they

306 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

drifted on outside Scilly and into the Bay of
Biscay, and in the second week in September
they dropped in one by one. Recalde, with
better success than the rest, made Corunna.
The Duke, not knowing where he was, found
himself in sight of Corunna also. The crew of the
San Martin were prostrate, and could not work
her in. They signalled for help, but none came,
and they dropped away to leeward to Bilbao.
Oquendo had fallen off still farther to Santander,
and the rest of the sixty arrived in the following
days at one or other of the Biscay ports. On
board them, of the thirty thousand who had left
those shores but two months before in high hope
and passionate enthusiasm, nine thousand only
came back alive if alive they could be called.
It is touching to read in a letter from Bilbao of
their joy at warm Spanish sun, the sight of the
grapes on the white walls, and the taste of fresh
home bread and water again. But it came too
late to save them, and those whose bodies might
have rallied died of broken hearts and disap
pointed dreams. Santa Cruz s old companions
could riot survive the ruin of the Spanish navy.

9-] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 307

Recalde died two days after he landed at Bilbao.
Santander was Oquendo s home. He had a wife
and children there, but he refused to see them,
turned his face to the wall, and died too. The
common seamen and soldiers were too weak to
help themselves. They had to be left on board
the poisoned ships till hospitals could be prepared
to take them in. The authorities of Church and
State did all that men could do ; but the case
was past help, and before September was out all
but a few hundred needed no further care.

Philip, it must be said for him, spared nothing
to relieve the misery. The widows and orphans
were pensioned by the State. The stroke which
had fallen was received with a dignified sub
mission to the inscrutable purposes of Heaven.
Diego Florez escaped with a brief punishment at
Burgos. None else were punished for faults
which lay chiefly in the King s own presumption
in imagining himself the instrument of Providence.

The Duke thought himself more sinned
against than sinning. He did not die, like
Recalde or Oquendo, seeing no occasion for it.
He flung down his command and retired to his

308 ENGLISH SEAMEN [LECT.

palace at San Lucan ; and so far was Philip from
resenting the loss of the Armada on its com
mander, that he continued him in his governorship
of Cadiz, where Essex found him seven years later,
and where he ran from Essex as he had run from
Drake.

The Spaniards made no attempt to conceal
the greatness of their defeat. Unwilling to allow
that the Upper Powers had been against them,
they set it frankly down to the superior fighting
powers of the English.

The English themselves, the Prince of Parma
said, were modest in their victory. They thought
little of their own gallantry. To them the defeat
and destruction of the Spanish fleet was a declara
tion of the Almighty in the cause of their country
and the Protestant faith. Both sides had ap
pealed to Heaven, and Heaven had spoken.

It was the turn of the tide. The wave of the
reconquest of the Netherlands ebbed from that
moment. Parma took no more towns from the
Hollanders. The Catholic peers and gentlemen
of England, who had held aloof from the Estab
lished Church, waiting ad illud tempus for a

9.] DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 309

religious revolution, accepted the verdict of Provi
dence. They discovered that in Anglicanism they
could keep the faith of their fathers, yet remain
in communion with their Protestant fellow-
countrymen, use the same liturgy, and pray in
the same temples. For the first time since
Elizabeth s father broke the bonds of Rome the
English became a united nation, joined in loyal
enthusiasm for the Queen, and were satisfied that
thenceforward no Italian priest should tithe or
toll in her dominions.

But all that, and all that went with it, the
passing from Spain to England of the sceptre of
the seas, must be left to other lectures, or other
lecturers who have more years before them than
I. My own theme has been the poor Protestant
adventurers who fought through that perilous
week in the English Channel and saved their
country and their country s liberty.

THE END

Richurd Ciay <k Sons, Limited, London and tiungay.