The Third Brother, Sir James, Hanged, Drawn, And
Quartered In The Same Place.
Had he been able to vaunt of the success of
his own house, in thus serving the king of Spain, the argument might
doubtless have moved much and wrought great effect:
The which, because
he happened to forget, I have thought good to remember in his behalf.
As for the matter of religion, to which he adverted, it would require a
separate volume, were I to set down how irreligiously they cover their
greedy and ambitious pretences with that veil of pretended piety. But
sure I am, there is no kingdom or commonwealth in all Europe that they
do not invade, under pretence of religion, if it be reformed. Nay if it
even be what they term catholic, they pretend a title, as if the kings
of Castile were the natural heirs of all the world. Thus between both,
no kingdom is exempted from their ambition. Where they dare not invade
with their own forces, they basely entertain the traitors and vagabonds
of all nations; seeking by their means, and by their runagate Jesuits,
to win other parts to their dominion, by which they have ruined many
noble houses and others in this land, extinguishing their lives and
families. What good, honour, or fortune, any one hath ever yet achieved
through them, is yet unheard of. If our English papists will only look
to Portugal, against which they have no pretence of religion; how their
nobility are imprisoned and put to death, their rich men made a prey,
and all sorts of people reduced to servitude; they shall find that the
obedience even of the Turk is ease and liberty, compared to the tyranny
of Spain. What have they done in Sicily, in Naples, in Milan, in the low
countries? Who hath there been spared even for religion? It cometh to my
remembrance of a certain burgher at Antwerp, whose house was entered by
a company of Spanish soldiers when they sacked that city. He besought
them to spare him and his goods, being a good catholic, and therefore
one of their own party and faction. The Spaniards answered, they knew
him to be of a good conscience in himself; but his money, plate, jewels,
and goods, were all heretical, and therefore good prize. So they abused
and tormented the foolish Fleming, who thought that an _Agnus Dei_ had
been a sufficient safeguard against all the force of that holy and
charitable nation.
Neither have they at any time, as they protest, invaded the kingdoms of
Mexico and Peru and elsewhere, being only led thereto to reduce the
people to Christianity, not for gold or empire: Whereas, in the single
island of Hispaniola, they have wasted and destroyed thirty hundred
thousand of the natives, besides many millions else in other places of
the Indies: a poor and harmless people, created of God, and might have
been won to his service, as many of them were, even almost all whom they
endeavoured to persuade thereto. The story of these their enormities,
has been written at large by Bartholomew de las Casas[375], a bishop of
their own nation, and has been translated into English and many other
languages, under the title of _The Spanish Cruelties_. Who therefore
would repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers, and more
especially in those Spaniards, who more greedily thirst after the blood
of the English, for the many overthrows and dishonours they have
received at our hands; whose weakness we have discovered to the world,
and whose forces, at home, abroad, in Europe, in the Indies, by sea and
by land, even with mere handfuls of men and ships on our sides, we have
overthrown and dishonoured? Let not therefore any Englishman, of what
religion soever, have other opinion of these Spaniards or their
abettors, but that those whom they seek to win of our nation, they
esteem base and traiterous, unworthy persons, and inconstant fools; and
that they use this pretence of religion, for no other purpose but to
bewitch us from the obedience due to our natural prince, hoping thereby
to bring us in time under slavery and subjection, when none shall be
there so odious and despised, as those very traitors who have sold their
country to strangers, forsaking their faith and obedience, contrary to
the laws of nature and religion, and contrary to that humane and
universal honour, not only of Christians but of heathen and unbelieving
nations, who have always sustained every degree of labour, embracing
even death itself, in defence of their country, their prince, and their
commonwealth.
[Footnote 375: He was bishop of Chiapa in New Spain, and computes the
Indians destroyed by the Spaniards in about fifty years, at no fewer
than twenty millions. - Astley, I. 221. a.]
To conclude, it hath ever to this day pleased God to prosper and defend
her majesty, to break the purposes of her malicious enemies, to confound
the devices of forsworn traitors, and to overthrow all unjust practices
and invasions. She hath ever been held in honour by the worthiest kings,
served by faithful subjects, and shall ever, by the favour of God,
resist, repell, and confound all attempts against her person and
kingdom. In the mean time, let the Spaniards and traitors vaunt of their
success; while we, her true and obedient subjects, guided by the shining
light of her virtues, shall always love, serve, and obey her, to the end
of our lives.
SECTION XI
_Note of the Fleet of the Indies, expected in Spain this year 1591; with
the number that perished, according to the examination of certain
Spaniards, lately taken and brought to England[376]._
The fleet of New Spain, at their first gathering together, consisted of
52 sail. The admiral and vice-admiral ships were each of 600 tons
burden. Four or five of the ships were of 900 and 1000 tons each; some
were of 400 tons, and the smallest of 200.
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