session of the other hemisphere on the Pope's decision, Protestant
ideas, which mocked at this supremacy of the Romish See over the
world, now contributed also to impel men to occupy lands in these
regions. This was always effected in the main by voluntary efforts of
wealthy mercantile houses, or enterprising members of the court and
state, to whom the Queen gave patents of authorisation. In this way
Walter Ralegh, in his political and religious opposition to the
Spaniards, founded an English colony on the transatlantic continent,
in Wingandacoa: the Queen was so much pleased at it that she gave the
district a name which was to preserve the remembrance of the quality
she was perhaps proudest of: she called it Virginia.[266]

But at last she formally undertook the naval war; it was at the same
time a motive for the league with the Hollanders, who could do
excellent service in it: by attacking the West Indies she hoped to
destroy the basis of the Spanish greatness.

Francis Drake was commissioned to open the war. When, in October 1585,
he reached the Islas de Bayona on the Gallician coast, he informed the
governor, Don Pedro Bermudez, that he came in his Queen's name to put
an end to the grievances which the English had had to suffer from the
Spaniards. Don Pedro answered, he knew nothing of any such grievances:
but, if Drake wished to begin war, he was ready to meet him.

Francis Drake then directed his course at once to the West Indies. He
surprised St. Domingo and Carthagena, occupied both one and the other
for a short time, and levied heavy contributions on them. Then he
brought back to England the colonists from Virginia, who were not yet
able to hold their own against the natives. The next year he inflicted
still more damage on the Spaniards. He made his way into the harbour
of Cadiz, which was full of vessels that had either come from both the
Indies or were proceeding thither: he sank or burnt them all. His
privateers covered the sea.

Often already had the Spaniards planned an invasion of England. The
most pressing motive of all lay in these maritime enterprises. The
Spaniards remarked that the stability and power of their monarchy did
not rest so much on the strong places they possessed in all parts of
the world as on the moveable instruments of dominion by which the
connexion with them was kept up; the interruption of the
communication, caused by Francis Drake and his privateers, between
just the most impor