IMPERFECT COLONIZATION 41 



and Sir Barnard Drake sailed with the flotilla to Newfound- 

 land. ' A good number of Spanish vessels ' were ' taken at 

 the said fishing' and six hundred Spaniards. 1 Portuguese 

 prizes and prisoners were also taken, and the stench of the 

 Portuguese prisoners killed Sir B. Drake, a judge or two, and 

 eleven jurymen, which casts a lurid light on prison horrors in 

 those days. In 1588 the invasion of England by the Spanish 

 Armada, which had been mooted twenty years previously, at 

 last took place. The Queen's ships numbered 34 and their 

 tonnage averaged 185 tons; the English merchantmen which 

 fought under the Lord High Admiral, Sir F. Drake, Sir R. 

 Grenville, Sir J. Hawkins, and Sir M. Frobisher, numbered 

 148, and their tonnage averaged 57 tons. Of the Spanish 

 ships, which were 128 in number and averaged 230 tons, one- 

 half were lost. The naval power of Spain was broken. 



A few lonely English ships strayed for the first time into so did 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence (1593-7). Charles Leigh, a founder f^ 

 of Guiana, who in 1597 commanded two of these ships, of St. 

 dreamed vaguely of colonizing the Magdalens, and of ex- jf^t' 

 eluding other nations especially the French Basques from 

 the Gulf, and from the south coast of Newfoundland ; other- 

 wise the sole object was to attack Spaniards, nor was that 

 object successful. Basques were still in evidence, but were 

 or persuaded the English that they were French subjects 

 from Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz, and Sibiburo. In 1594 

 Sir W. Ralegh wrote to the acting Secretary of State that 

 Spanish ships were in the Channel, and that it was 'likely 

 that all our Newfoundland men will be taken up by them if 

 they be not speedily driven from the coast, for in the beginning 

 of August our Newland fleet are expected which are above one 

 hundred sail. If those should be lost it would be the greatest 

 blow that ever w r as given to England '. 2 The danger passed, 

 and in 1604 there was peace with Spain. After 1604 Spain 



1 State Papers, Elizabeth, Domestic Series, vol. clxxxiii, No. 13. 



2 July 20, 1594. E Edwards, Life of Sir W. Kalegh, vol. ii, p. 95. 



