o 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 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 orders more peremptory than ever to close
the ports there against all foreigners. Philip personally 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 encouraging the adventurous disposition of her subjects, who
were fighting the State's battles at their own risk and cost. She saw