he quickly
put together. With one other Englishman and two Frenchmen he soon
found his boats, divided the treasure with the French, put the English
share on board ship, and, after giving many presents to the friendly
Maroons, sailed for home. "And so," says one of his men, "we arrived
at Plymouth on Sunday, the 9th of August, 1573, at what time the news
of our Captain's return did so speedily pass over all the church that
very few remained with the preacher, all hastening to see the evidence
of God's love towards our Gracious Queen and Country."

The plot kept thickening fast and faster after this. New Spain, of
course, was Spanish by right of discovery, conquest, and a certain kind
of settling. But the Spaniards wanted to keep everyone else away, not
only from all they had but from all they wished to have. Their
Governor-General plainly showed this by putting up in his palace the
figure of a gigantic war-horse pawing at the sky, and by carving
underneath, "_The Earth itself is not enough for Us_." Nor was this
the worst. No whites, not even the Germans, have ever been so
fiendishly cruel to any natives as the Spaniards were to those they had
in their power. They murdered, tortured, burnt alive, and condemned to
a living death as slaves every native race they met. There were brutal
Belgians in the Congo not so very long ago. American settlers and
politicians have done many a dark deed to the Indians. And the British
record in the old days of Newfoundland is quite as black. But, for
out-and-out cruelty, "the devildoms of Spain" beat everything bad
elsewhere. Moreover, while English, French, and Spaniards all wanted
gold when they could get it, there was this marked difference between
the two chief opponents, that while Spain cared mostly for tribute
England cared mostly for trade. Now, tribute simply means squeezing as
much blood-money as possible out of an enslaved country, no matter at
what cost of life and liberty to the people there; while trade, though
often full of cheating, really means an exchange of goods and some
give-and-take all round. When we consider this great difference, and
remember how cruel the Spaniards were to all whom they had made their
enemies, we can understand why the Spanish Empire died and why the
British lives.

One day Queen Elizabeth sent for Drake and spoke her mind straight out.
"Drake, I would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for divers
injuries"; and, said Drake,