Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/452

538 amongst our merchants. They found the trade with the Spanish settlements in America exceedingly profitable, but they had no right, beyond a very limited extent, to trade there. The Spaniards, though they winked at many encroachments, repressed others which exceeded these with considerable vigour. Their Guarda Costas insisted on boarding and searching our vessels which intruded into their waters, to discover whether they were bringing merchandise or prepared to carry away colonial produce.



This assertion of right led to many clashing incidents, which enabled the English merchants to raise a plausible cry of violence and ill-treatment against the Spaniards. The truth was, that the Spaniards tolerated much more intrusion into their colonial ports and trade than we had any right to expect; but our merchants, in their keen pursuit of gain, were not disposed to give way, and were ever ready to represent themselves as the innocent sufferers. The Spaniards acted on their own regulations regarding their colonies, which they had every right to make, and which were recognised by repeated treaties with us. By the treaty of 1670 Spain had recognised the British colonies in North America, and England had agreed that her ships should not enter the ports of the Spanish colonies except from stress of weather, or with an especial license from the Spanish government to trade. By the treaty of 1729, we had assented to the old regulations regarding trading to the Spanish main, namely, that we should have the Assiento, or right of supplying these colonies with slaves, and that, besides this, we should only send one ship annually to the Spanish West Indies and South America. However rigorous was this restriction, Spain had insisted upon it, and we had consented to it in repeated treaties. However much, therefore, our merchants might grumble at it, they had no right to infringe the international law. The Spaniards stationed their Guarda Costas, or guard ships, along their coasts to prevent interlopers; and they claimed a right, which the tenor of the treaty clearly gave them, to