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 took and plundered the island of Lanzarote, and then pushed across to Dominica, where he landed on May 23rd, and remained till June 1st, keeping, meanwhile, on good terms with the natives. From Dominica he sailed to the Virgin Islands, where he landed, mustered all his men, and announced his intention of attacking Puerto Rico. He arrived off San Juan in that island on June 6th, landed a thousand men, and speedily made himself master of the place, with but small loss, though he was at first repulsed. His intention was to make the town a base for his future operations, but it proved so extremely unhealthy to the troops on shore, of whom more than half died, that he decided to quit it. This he did on August 14th, leaving, however, the better part of his squadron, under Sir John Berkeley, his second-in-command, to arrange for the ransom of the island. Before his departure, the earl captured a caravel from the island of Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela, as she came unsuspectingly into harbour, and a ship from Angola. In the first was pearl worth one thousand ducats, in the second was a cargo of negroes.

Cumberland, with his division, made the best of his way to the Azores, where he hoped to intercept the Spanish Mexico Fleet, or at least some carracks; but he reached Flores only to learn that a few days earlier twenty-nine large Spanish ships had weighed thence. At Flores he was, in course of time, rejoined by Sir John Berkeley, though not until both divisions of the squadron had suffered severely in a storm. The united force sailed again on September 16th, and in the following month reached England without further adventure. The expedition, which must have been a very costly one, does not seem to have materially increased the earl's estate, but it was of undoubted benefit to England, seeing that it greatly annoyed the Spaniards, prevented that year's sailing of their regular carracks for the Indies, and caused the postponement of the return of the Plate Fleet from America. It would probably have been more successful had the earl taken greater pains to keep secret his objects and his movements.

Two non-naval events of considerable importance occurred during 1598, and, since they intimately affected naval policy, deserve mention here. One was the conclusion by England of a new and