THE VOYAGERS 



firm allegiance. She foresaw the dangers of internal 



religious disruption, and succeeded in staving it off. Her 



streng^th at sea depended on the loyalty of the irre- . , 

 111 .-11 1- 1 j-j r 11 ^^ttonal 



gulars; she kept in with the police, and did not tall jjnity. 



out with the thieves. A wonderful good understanding 



prevailed between the two parties. When Drake came 



back in 1580, laden with pillage, from his voyage of 



circumnavigation, he was nicknamed by the people ' The 



Master Thief of the Unknown World.' His old 



friend and chief, John Hawkins, was then the official 



head of the Navy. ' The Queen,' says Stow, ' not 



yet persuaded to accept and approve his unknown 



purchase, paused a while, and heard every opinion, which 



at that time were many.' In the end she went aboard 



his ship at Deptford, and knighted him. By this act, 



with full knowledge of what she was doing, she cast the 



die. Everywhere her over-ruling hand was felt. If 



Burghley, and others of her statesmen, had had their 



way, she would have broken with France. ' For my 



own part,' wrote Lord Howard of Effingham, in the 



very year of the Armada, ' I have made of the French 



King, the Scottish King, and the King of Spain, a Trinity 



that I mean never to be saved by, and I would others 



were of my opinion.' The Queen was not of his 



c,, TT -^ • • i. -i. T^ Attitude to 



opinion. She was a Unitarian in her enmity. It was ^^^^^^ 



a saying of hers ' Whensoever the last day of the 



Kingdom of France cometh, it will undoubtedly be the 



eve of the destruction of England.' The division of 



France would have meant an accession of strength to 



Spain. The French pirates and Huguenots had shewn 



Englishmen the way to trouble Spain upon the seas ; 



and Elizabeth approved their work. But the King of 



45 



