Protestant 

 Buccaneer. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



to hell from day to day the poor subjects of this 

 realm. The merchant in England cometh here devoutly 

 to the communion, and sendeth his son into Spain 

 to hear Mass. These things are kept secret by the 

 merchants ; and such as depend upon the trade of 

 merchandise are loth to utter the same.' 



There was no English counterpart, then, or counter- 

 blast, to the devoted work of Las Casas and the Spanish 

 missionaries. But year by year, as English trade to 

 the South increased, there was a growing hostility to 

 Spain, and a growing disinclination to accept her mastery 

 The of the New World. The merchant might feign sub- 



mission ; the buccaneers and sea-dogs avenged his 

 disgrace by challenging and harrying the power they 

 were soon to overthrow. And these men, though 

 there was little of saintHness in their character, had a 

 religion, and fought and suffered for it. It was a 

 religion not wholly unlike that of the later Orange- 

 man, a Protestant compound, made up of fervid 

 patriotism, a varied assortment of hates, a rough code 

 of morals, and an unshaken trust in the providence of 

 God. To the heathen they brought not peace but a 

 sword. To the Pope, whom they named with the 

 Turk and the Devil, they wished destruction. For 

 Queen and Country they would go anywhere and 

 attempt anything. Their mission was quite unlike his 

 'that bringeth the message from the mountain'; they 

 coveted the things of the Gentiles, and their purpose 

 and methods are set forth, in imperial language, by 

 Michael Drayton : — 



*A thousand Kingdoms will we seek from far, 

 As many Nations waste with civil war; 



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