Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/500

4 8o RETGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 6 1 creed and country ; Scotch, Spaniards, French, fell in- discriminate victims. In the Solent itself, in South- ampton water, in Poole harbour, wherever traders came on their lawful calling or forced by stress of weather, the pirate lugger was on the watch to relieve them of their cargoes. The Holy Office condemned English ships at Cadiz, if a copy of ' the Common Prayer ' was found in the captain's cabin. The gentlemen of Devon- shire and Dorsetshire ornamented their halls with the spoils of vessels from Corunna or Oporto ; and with no police upon the seas, and with the Queen occupied as we have seen her, the efforts made to suppress these doings were merely nominal. 1 Patriotism uniting with cupidity threw a halo over the trade of a corsair, and the enthusiast who proposed to destroy the Catholic fishing fleets at Newfoundland was but a large specimen of a class who were to be found of all grades and sizes where an English flag was on the ocean. The disorder of the general world, the confused ideas of morality 1 The English Government not caring to put the pirates down, and the French and Spanish not choos- ing, for political reasons, to make their depredations a casus helli, the owners paid black mail to recover a per-centage of their losses. Don Bernardino writes to Philip, August 15, 1579: ' Aqui han hecho y hacen cada dia piratas ingleses presas de mercaderes espanoles, vassallos de V. M d , y los mercaderes embian poderes a los que aqui residen, para que lo cobren ; los cuales por el pro- vecho que les viene reducen el nego- cio a concierto con los mismos pira- tas, desesperando a los proprietarios del, sino es por esta via que es oca- sion de alimentarlos, como los mismos Ingleses me lo han significado ; por- que despues de concertada la parte aunque el que esta aqui sirviendo a V. Mag d , pide a la Eeyna y su con- sejo que se castiguen los piratas, re- sponden que no hay quien se queja dellos, por haberse acordado con las partes. ' MSS. Simancas.