Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/164

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converts to his views of restoring the supremacy of the Catholic Church. Froude in his 'History of England' relates with even more than his usual ability an extraordinary intrigue whereby Philip thought he had secured for his scheme the services of Sir John Hawkins! The greatest freebooter of that freebooting age, with whose reputation Philip had become so terribly familiar that he had never read his name on a despatch without scoring opposite to it a note of dismay, had, by some unaccountable means, worked upon his credulity to such an extent that this negro hunter, who had sacked Spanish towns and plundered Spanish churches, was supplied by Philip with large sums of money to fit out a naval expedition, with the full conviction that he would render material aid to the cause of Spain in the invasion of England, and in the restoration of the Roman Catholic supremacy! Even the Spanish ambassador resident in England, who had no suspicion of treachery, was delighted at so important an acquisition to the Catholic cause, "and told the king that he might expect service from Hawkins of infinite value," as he had "sixteen vessels, one thousand six hundred men, and four hundred guns, all at his disposition, ready to go anywhere and do anything which his Majesty might command, so long as it was in the Queen of Scots' service." With this fleet increased to twenty vessels, and equipped with Philip's money, and manned in part with English seamen, whom he had further duped Philip into releasing from the Seville dungeons, Hawkins sailed for the Azores to lie in wait for the Mexican gold fleet!