THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



dering the Spaniard ? ' It became not the former 

 fortune/ says Raleigh, ' in which I once lived, to go 

 journeys of picory; it had sorted ill with the offices of 

 honour, which by her Majesty's grace I hold this day 

 in England, to run from cape to cape, and from place to 

 place, for the pillage of ordinary prizes/ Has Drake 

 earned praise and reward for his assaults on the Indies ? 

 * The King of Spain,* says Raleigh, ' is not so impover- 

 ished by taking three or four port towns in America as 

 we suppose, neither are the riches of Peru, or Nueva 

 Espana, so left by the sea side, as it can be easily washed 

 away with a great flood or springtide, or left dry upon 

 the sands on a low ebb.* So he introduces his promise 

 of El Dorado, the finding in Guiana of a better and richer 

 Indies for her Majesty than the Indies of the King of 

 Spain. 

 Bacon on The whole problem of English policy is admirably 

 ea-powet, s^niniarised by Bacon in his Considerations touching a War 

 with Spain. ' For money/ he says, * no doubt it is 

 the principal part of the greatness of Spain ; for by that 

 they maintain their veteran army ; and Spain is the only 

 State of Europe that is a money grower. But in this 

 part, of all others, is most to be considered the ticklish 

 and brittle state of the greatness of Spain. Their great- 

 ness consisteth in their treasure, their treasure in the 

 Indies, and their Indies (if it be well weighed) are indeed 

 but an accession to such as are masters by sea. So as 

 this axle-tree, whereupon their greatness turneth, is soon 

 cut in two by any that shall be stronger than they by 

 sea.* Drake and the seamen had put this argument 

 into action; Raleigh, though no one better knew the 

 importance of sea-power, must needs give it an original 



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