Page 19 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE DAWN OF THE EMPIRE 19

spirited assertions oC English independence of the famous
decree of Pope Alexander VI dividing the world between
the Spanish and the Portuguese were amongst the most
potent of the causes which led to the despatch of the
Spanish Armada in 1588. And the defeat of the Armada
in its turn was another important link in the chain of cir­
cumstances which associates Drake’s adventure with the
establishment of British power in the East. For the
victory not only [freed England from a foreign religious
despotism, but it threw open the seas of the world to her
trade. The influence which for nearly a century had made
the whole of the opulent markets of the Orient a close pre­
serve for Spain and Portugal was, in fact, fatally under­
mined by the three days’ struggle in the English Channel
and the subsequent chase. The bleaching timbers of the
Spanish galleons on the Irish and Scotch coasts were the
monuments of a dead era. From that time England set
her face towards the East, never again to turn from it.
Though the defeat of the Spanish Armada was the real
turning point in the history of English expansion over­
seas the keen spirit of adventure which had been aroused
by Drake’s circumnavigation of the world found active
expression in several directions prior to the great sea
victory. One enterprise which grew out of the enthusiasm
of the period was an expedition organized by the Earl of
Leicester under the direct patronage of Elizabeth for pur­
poses of trade with the East by way of the Cape. To dis­
guise the real purpose of the voyage it was given out that
its object was the discovery of the North-West passage
to India—that will o’ the wisp which in the earlier period
of the century then closing had lured so many intrepid
English and Dutch navigators to splendid failures in the