the terror of the Spanish Indies. In Drake a Protestant
fanaticism went hand in hand with a splendid daring. He conceived the
design of penetrating into the Pacific, whose waters had till then never
seen an English flag; and backed by a little company of adventurers, he
set sail in 1577 for the southern seas in a vessel hardly as big as a
Channel schooner, with a few yet smaller companions who fell away before
the storms and perils of the voyage. But Drake with his one ship and
eighty men held boldly on; and passing the Straits of Magellan,
untraversed as yet by any Englishman, swept the unguarded coast of
Chili and Peru, loaded his bark with the gold dust and silver ingots of
Potosi, as well as with the pearls, emeralds, and diamonds which formed
the cargo of the great galleon that sailed once a year from Lima to
Cadiz. With spoils of above half-a-million in value the daring
adventurer steered undauntedly for the Moluccas, rounded the Cape of
Good Hope, and in 1580, after completing the circuit of the globe,
dropped anchor again in Plymouth harbour.

[Sidenote: Conquest of Portugal.]

The romantic daring of Drake's voyage as well as the vastness of his
spoil roused a general enthusiasm throughout England. But the welcome
which he received from Elizabeth on his return was accepted by Philip as
an outrage which could only be expiated by war. Sluggish as it was, the
blood of the Spanish king was fired at last by the defiance with which
the Queen listened to all demands for redress. She met a request for
Drake's surrender by knighting the freebooter and by wearing in her
crown the jewels he offered her as a present. When the Spanish
ambassador threatened that "matters would come to the cannon," she
replied "quietly, in her most natural voice, as if she were telling a
common story," wrote Mendoza, "that if I used threats of that kind she
would fling me into a dungeon." Outraged indeed as Philip was, she
believed that with the Netherlands still in revolt and France longing
for her alliance to enable it to seize them, the king could not afford
to quarrel with her. But the victories and diplomacy of Parma were
already reassuring Philip in the Netherlands; while the alliance of
Elizabeth with the revolted Provinces convinced him at last that their
reduction could best be brought about by an invasion of England and the
establishment of Mary Stuart on its throne. With this conviction he lent
himself to the plans of Rome, and wai