Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/244

 190 ENGLAND'S ATTEMPTS TO EEACH INDIA Drake and Cavendish stamp to break into the Indian seas. But the union of the crowns of Spain and Portu- gal under Philip II in 1580 gave a new incentive to the task. Apparently in the very year of Fenton's return, 1583, the danger to Europe of allowing Spain to enjoy both Portugal and the East Indies was publicly dis- cussed. The remedies proposed were for England to seize and fortify the Straits of Magellan; to take and keep Port St. Vincent in Brazil, and to discover the northeast passage with all speed. The time for these heroic measures had not come. Yet the next few years saw memorable attempts both to the north and the south. In 1585, 1586, and 1587 John Davis made his three great voyages, in each of which he felt convinced that he had found the north- west route. As the result of the first, he announced to Walsingham, on October 3, 1585, " that the northwest passage is a matter nothing doubtful, but at any time almost to be passed, the sea navigable, void of ice, the air tolerable and the waters very deep." On returning from the third he declared, in September, 1587, " the passage is most probable, the execution easy, as at my coming you shall fully know." Davis discovered much, but he had not found the outlet, and he became a mark for the scoffer. The ' crisis of the Spanish Armada in the following year, 1588, absorbed the whole energies of the nation, and his alleged northwestern route ended in disbelief and contempt. Yet although mistaken, he was honest, and in 1595 he still held that " it seemed most manifest