conception, in the
sixteenth century, of the results of Spanish colonial policy. To avenge
the blood of these innocent victims, and teach the true religion to the
survivors, was to glorify the Church militant and strike a blow at
Antichrist. Spain, moreover, in the eyes of the Puritans, was the
lieutenant of Rome, the Scarlet Woman of the Apocalypse, who harried and
burnt their Protestant brethren whenever she could lay hands upon them.
That she was eager to repeat her ill-starred attempt of 1588 and
introduce into the British Isles the accursed Inquisition was patent to
everyone. Protestant England, therefore, filled with the enthusiasm and
intolerance of a new faith, made no bones of despoiling the Spaniards,
especially as the service of God was likely to be repaid with plunder.

A pamphlet written by Dalby Thomas in 1690 expresses with tolerable
accuracy the attitude of the average Englishman toward Spain during the
previous century. He says:--"We will make a short reflection on the
unaccountable negligence, or rather stupidity, of this nation, during
the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Queen Mary, who
could contentedly sit still and see the Spanish rifle, plunder and bring
home undisturbed, all the wealth of that golden world; and to suffer
them with forts and castles to shut up the doors and entrances unto all
the rich provinces of America, having not the least title or pretence of
right beyond any other nation; except that of being by accident the
first discoverer of some parts of it; where the unprecedented cruelties,
exorbitances and barbarities, their own histories witness, they
practised on a poor, naked and innocent people, which inhabited the
islands, as well as upon those truly civilized and mighty empires of
Peru and Mexico, called to all mankind for succour and relief against
their outrageous avarice and horrid massacres.... (We) slept on until
the ambitious Spaniard, by that inexhaustible spring of treasure, had
corrupted most of the courts and senates of Europe, and had set on fire,
by civil broils and discords, all our neighbour nations, or had subdued
them to his yoke; contriving too to make us wear his chains and bear a
share in the triumph of universal monarchy, not only projected but near
accomplished, when Queen Elizabeth came to the crown ... and to the
divided interests of Philip II. and Queen Elizabeth, in personal more
than National concerns, we do owe that start of hers in le