Not a hide, not a farthing could he recover. The Spanish
Government, terrified at the intrusion of English adventurers into their
western paradise to endanger the gold fleets, or worse to endanger the
purity of the faith, issued orders more peremptory than ever to close
the ports there against all foreigners. Philip personally warned Sir
Thomas Chaloner, the English ambassador, that if such visits were
repeated, mischief would come of it. And Cecil, who disliked all such
semi-piratical enterprises, and Chaloner, who was half a Spaniard and an
old companion in arms of Charles V., entreated their mistress to forbid
them.
Elizabeth, however, had her own views in such matters. She liked money.
She liked encouraging the adventurous disposition of her subjects, who
were fighting the State's battles at their own risk and cost. She saw in
Philip's anger a confession that the West Indies was his vulnerable
point; and that if she wished to frighten him into letting her alone,
and to keep the Inquisition from burning her sailors, there was the
place where Philip would be more sensitive. Probably, too, she thought
that Hawkins had done nothing for which he could be justly blamed. He
had traded at St.
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