Antonio on the throne of Portugal. He had begun to form his favourite, but visionary plan, of penetrating into the province of Guyana, where he fondly dreamed of taking possession of inexhaustible wealth, flowing from the richest mines in the new world. Amidst this multiplicity of projects, of such promising appearance, and recommended by novelty, he naturally became cold towards his ancient and hitherto unprofitable scheme of settling a colony in Virginia, and was easily induced to assign his right of property in that country, which he had never visited, together with all the privileges contained in his patent, to Sir Thomas Smith and a company of merchants in London. This company, satisfied with a paltry traffic, carried on by a few small barks, made no attempt to take possession of the country. Thus, after a period of 106 years from the time that Cabot discovered North America, in the name of Henry VII., and of twenty years from the time that Raleigh planted the first colony, there was not a single Englishman settled there at the demise of Queen Elizabeth."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

England-Expedition of Drake to the Spanish Coast-Doings at Cadiz-Great Preparations of Spain-The Invincible Armada -The Two Fleets-Duke of Medina Sidonia-Prince of Parma-Lord Henry Seymour-Howard of Effingham-Drake -Hawkins-Frobisher-Fenner-Armada in the Channel— First Appearance of the Spanish Ships-Action begun-The Fire-Ships-Defeat of the Armada-Important Effects of the Victory upon the English Character.

THE intentions of Spain towards England being now too evident to be longer concealed, and information continually reaching the ears of the queen and her counsellors of the formidable sea and land forces preparing for the invasion of the country, every effort was made to put the island in a state of defence in order to resist the enemy. It became also a matter of great importance to get a tolerably accurate notion of the state of forwardness and amount of the enemy's preparations, by sending an experienced officer to the Spanish coasts; and as there appeared no man in England better fitted at the time than Drake for an affair of such trust and danger, he was forthwith commanded to this service. His instructions went farther, however, than to constitute a mere voyage of observation; he was ordered to destroy or capture all such ships and stores

as he might fall in with, so as to defeat or at least retard the operations of Spain; and it was left to his own discretion to decide the extremities to which he should proceed in executing his commission. Four of the queen's ships were selected for this dangerous service, and the good city of London not only furnished twentythree more, but supplied the chief volunteers for the voyage; for the fame of Drake and his felicitous manner of picking up stray prizes were irresistible inducements to the adventurers of the day.

It was at the beginning of April, 1587, that the squadron left Plymouth; and about a fortnight after they had sailed, that they fell in with two Flemish vessels, which informed them that there was a large quantity of stores at Cadiz, then embarking for Lisbon. Upon hearing this, Drake at once bore down to Cadiz, and arriving there on the 19th, he, without a moment's hesitation, entered the harbour. Five galleys attempted to stay his progress; but, after a short conflict, they were compelled to take refuge under the guns of the fortress.

The roads, at that time, contained a large number of vessels the smaller ones, at his approach, got into shallow water out of the reach of his guns, but the others being of much greater draught, were forced to fight or strike their colours. A large ship, of about 1000 tons' burden, carrying some forty brass cannon, and very richly laden, was almost the first victim, for the squadron, on getting near, fired some heavy shot into and sunk her. The work of destruction went on rapidly after this; a few galleys, the favourite ships of the Spaniards, and in which they placed great reliance, offering no available resistance. On this occasion, Drake took

burnt, or destroyed about 100 sail or ships, and finally came out of the roads on the 21st with very trifling loss either in vessels or men; a circumstance which does not speak much in favour of the Spanish gunnery at that period, as, during the time the squadron was before Cadiz, galleys, fortress, and cannon on shore were continually firing.

On leaving Cadiz, Drake shaped his course towards Cape Sagres, capturing and destroying valuable warlike stores by the way; nor did he content himself with these sea exploits alone, but landing his troops, assaulted and carried the castle and three other strongholds.

It was now resolved to proceed to Lisbon, where they arrived in the middle of May, and at once commenced the same havoc among the shipping and provisions. According to Drake's own letters, he destroyed at this place forty ships, barks, caravels, and divers other vessels to the number of 100, most of them laden, and burnt a vast quantity of planking and pipe staves. He appears to have treated the Portuguese with considerable kindness, as being compelled to their work of enmity towards England by their conquerors the Spaniards, and in many cases even restored property taken from them; but it did not prevent his seizing with avidity a Portuguese carack, called the "St. Philip," when off the Azores. This vessel was on her homeward voyage from the East Indies, and was so richly laden with the costly wares of those countries that the prize was sufficient inducement for the squadron to bear up at once for England, where the ships safely arrived with their enormous plunder.

In the words of one of the old historians, when

describing this expedition, "the taking of this carack wrought two extraordinary effects in England; first, it taught others that caracks were no such nondescripts but that they might easily enough be taken; and secondly, it acquainted the English nation, and the merchants more particularly, with the detail of the exceeding great riches and wealth of the East Indies, whereby the Portuguese and their neighbours of Holland have long been encouraged; both being men as skilful in navigation, and of no less courage than the Portugals, to share with them in the traffic to the East Indies, where their power is nothing so great as heretofore hath been supposed."

There is no doubt that this incident encouraged merchants to solicit and induce Elizabeth to grant liberty to her subjects to trade with India and China; and her reign is distinguished by a charter granted to sundry of the city of London, with certain exclusive privileges, under the title of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies;" which was successively renewed with certain changes and modifications down to the reign of her present Majesty, Queen Victoria.

The immediate and most important effect of Drake's expedition to Cadiz, which he facetiously described as singeing the King of Spain's beard," was the delaying of the threatened invasion for some months at least, as the quantities of stores destroyed required nearly a year to replace. Meanwhile, preparations went on in England with increased alacrity.

On the part of Spain, the power assembled was so