178 A. D. 1585. 



The feven United provinces this year fent deputies to Queen Eliza- 

 beth, with requeft to take their provinces under her protedion , or elfe to 

 grant them fufficient aid during their war with the king of Spain. She 

 refufed to be their fovereign, but fent to their afliftance the earl of Lei- 

 cefler to command her troops, confifling of 5000 foot and 1000 horfe, 

 and to be governor of their provinces. [Fadera, V. xv, pp. 793 et feqq. 

 ColkBion of treaties, V.'ii, p. 83, ed. 1732.] 



The flates-general, as a fecurity for her expenfes, put her in pofleflion 

 of the town of Flufliing, and the fort of Rammekins, in Zealand, and 

 the town of Brill, with its forts; which were to be reflored upon pay- 

 ment of the queen's dilhurfements. This is called the treaty of Non- 

 fuch, concluded the loth of Augufi; 1585. 



It would be to little purpofe to recount all the private adventures of 

 Englifhmen againfl the Spaniards in America in Queen Elizabeth's 

 reign ; yet Drake's grand expedition (though undertaken only by pri- 

 vate adventurers) with 25 fhips, and 2300 men, may merit a brief ac- 

 count. He facked the town of St. Jago at the Cape de Verd ifles. He 

 failed thence to the Weft-Indies, and took and pillaged the city of St. 

 Domingo : then he took the city of Carthagena, and obliged them to 

 ranfom it. Thefeafon being far advanced, he found himfelf obliged to 

 return homeward, without following his original fcheme, which was to 

 march over land to Panama on the Ihore of the South fea. Wherefor 

 he iiiiled by the coaft of Florida, where he facked the fort of St. Auguf- 

 tine, and found about L2000 in money, with 14 brafs cannon. Next 

 he called at the infmt Virginia colony, and carried the people home 

 witli him, as already noted. Hakluyt makes the whole booty of this 

 expedition not to exceed L6oo,ooo, and fays they loft therein 700 men : 

 it therefor did not fully anfwer expectation. 



This year Queen Elizabeth granted a patent to the earls of Warwick 

 and Leicefter, and to forty more, for an exclufive trade to the domi- 

 nions of Morocco during twelve years ; to the emperor whereof, Muley 

 Hamet, flie fent her minifter, Roberts, who remained three years there, 

 and obtained fome privileges for the Englilh ; particularly, that none of 

 the Englilli ftiould in future be made flaves in his dominions. 



The Algerine pirates now firft venturing into the Ocean, (according 

 to Morgan's Hiftory of Algiers, V. ii, />. 588) with three fliips attacked 

 and pillaged the chief town of the Canaries, carrying home much booty, 

 and many captives. 



The violences of the duke of Alva, aiid the fubfequent fack of Ant- 

 werp, had forced fuch multitudes of people to take ihelter at Amfter- 

 dam, that in a few years after it increafed above one half; and new ram- 

 parts, ditches, &c. were made round the increafed part of the city. 

 Werdenhagen obferves, that at one time 1 9,000 people retired from Ant- 

 werp into Holland, and moftly to Amfterdam ; whereby Antwerp, not 



