Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/267

COLLAPSE OF THE CATHOLIC TRADE- MONOPOLY 209 East. Her " argosy " to Southampton in 1587 perished miserably, and what between the anti-Catholic move- ment in England and other causes, the trade came to an end. It was a great ship of 1100 tons, richly laden, with an English pilot on board. The entrance by the Isle of Wight was extremely dangerous for the unman- ageable monster in a high October sea, and the pilot refused to attempt it. But the Venetians compelled him by force. " When the poor man," wrote an eye- witness, " neither with persuasions nor tears could prevail, he did his best to enter the Channel of the Needles; but such was the greatness of the waves, and the unwieldiness of the ship, not answering her helm, that she struck upon the Shingles, where she, her goods, and company, except seven poor creatures, perished." So in the very autumn before the Spanish Armada strewed the coast of Ireland with her timbers, the last shipment from Catholic Venice was wrecked off the Isle of Wight. If the destruction of the Armada threw open the ocean to the Protestant Powers of the North, Spain still remained mistress of the Mediterranean. She com- manded the Straits of Gibraltar, and as the sovereign power of Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, and the Duchy of Milan, she controlled the commerce of the great inland sea. Her naval supremacy only ended where that of the Turks began. As the conflict between England and Spain became more bitter, Philip n consoled himself in some measure for the loss of the Atlantic by tight- ening his grasp on the Mediterranean highway. The