Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/135

 VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS VRAKE. 119 brought in a moment of resolution to consent to a pre- liminary act of indirect hostility which promised to be enormously lucrative. Intellectually vacillating, yet delighting in enter- prise and energy, she had found in Drake a man after her own heart, whom she could disown without fear that he would resent her affected displeasure. She her- self and the Earl of Leicester provided the larger part of the funds ; a company of adventurers found the rest. The first object was to show Philip that he was vul- nerable where he held himself most secure, and frighten him into consenting to a general peace ; l the second to seize some handsome store of plunder, to be useful in itself, or at any rate as a material guarantee. If excuse was wanted for sending ships into the South Seas it could be alleged that America was no patrimony of Spain, that all the world had a right to share in its treasures ; and that the mere fact of the Spaniards hav- ing compelled Indian slaves to dig the gold out of the earth gave them no exclusive right to the possession of it. There was no clause in the treaties between Spain and England which prohibited English subjects from trading or cruising in those waters. The laws of Europe had no place in the western hemisphere, and Sir Chris- topher Hatton gave his first recorded legal opinion, that, although privateers might go there at their own 1 ' Leaseguraba el Drake quepon- dria en estaclo las cosas de la carrera de las Indias que V. M d le embiase, cotno dicen aqui. le blinche signet, para que ella acordase las condici- ones qucquisiese en el capitular sobre esto y las demas cosas que a ella y su corona le pudiesen estar bien.' Don Bernardino de Mendoza al Hey, Enero 15, 1581 : MSS.