Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/538

 unsupportable," and complained that he had been "openly defamed and causelessly condemned;" but as Drake had sentenced him in contumaciam, and as the formal document which Borough styled "mine answer touching an objection against me for the coming away of the Lion," though enclosed with the letter to Burghley, has not been preserved, it is now impossible to sift all the merits of the case. We know, however, that, thanks to Burghley's good offices, the affair was smoothed over, and that in 1588 Borough commanded the galley Bonavolia against the Armada.

Early in April the squadron sailed from Plymouth. On the 16th, when off the mouth of the Mondego, it fell in with two Middelburg traders, and from them learnt that at Cadiz there were enormous supplies of provisions and ammunition, ready to be sent to Lisbon, where the Armada was collecting. Passing Lisbon, therefore, Drake steered for Cadiz, and arrived off the town on April 19th.

He at once drove in, under shelter of the castle, six galleys which made a show of opposing him, and then, boldly entering the bay, sank or took about a hundred vessels, chiefly laden with stores and ammunition. Most serious among the Spanish losses were a galleon of 1200 tons, belonging to the Marquis of Santa Cruz, and a richly freighted Ragusan merchantman of 1000 tons, mounting 40 brass guns. The whole brilliant operation was performed with insignificant loss in the space of a day and two nights, and the comparative ease with which it was carried to a conclusion cannot have failed to give Drake and his companions an encouraging assurance for the future.

From Cadiz, which he quitted on the 21st, Drake ravaged the coast westward as far as Cape St. Vincent, where he surprised the castle and three neighbouring works. His methods were stern and perhaps a little barbarous. He regarded not only the military forces of Spain, but also Spanish fishermen and their nets, as legitimate objects on which to wreak his vengeance; but he effectually attained the end which he had in view, and most thoroughly intimidated the enemy. So much, indeed, was this the case that when, on arriving off Cascais, at the mouth of the Tagus, he formally invited the Marquis of Santa Cruz to come out and engage him, the distinguished vanquisher of Strozzi neither accepted the challenge nor adopted any measures for stopping his opponent's further depredations. Drake therefore took and plundered or