the first commander-in-chief; for Magellan,
whose ship executed the same adventure, died in his passage. His name
became celebrated on account of so bold and fortunate an attempt;
but many, apprehending the resentment of the Spaniards, endeavored
to persuade the queen, that it would be more prudent to disavow the
enterprise, to punish Drake, and to restore the treasure. But Elizabeth,
who admired valor, and who was allured by the prospect of sharing in the
booty, determined to countenance that gallant sailor: she conferred
on him the honor of knighthood, and accepted of a banquet from him at
Deptford, on board the ship which had achieved so memorable a voyage.

* Camden, p. 475. Cox's Hist, of Ireland, p. 368.

** Camden, p. 478. Stowe, p. 689.

** Camden, p. 478. Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 750
Purchas's Pilgrim, vol. i. p. 46.

When Philip's ambassador, Mendoza, exclaimed against Drake's piracies,
she told him, that the Spaniards, by arrogating a right to the whole new
world, and excluding thence all other European nations who should
sail thither, even with a view of exercising the most lawful commerce,
naturally tempted others to make a violent irruption into those
countries.[*] To pacify, however, the Catholic monarch, she caused part
of the booty to be restored to Pedro Sebura, a Spaniard, who pretended
to be agent for the merchants whom Drake had spoiled. Having learned
afterwards that Philip had seized the money, and had employed part of
it against herself in Ireland, part of it in the pay of the prince of
Parma's troops she determined to make no more restitutions.

{1581.} There was another cause which induced the queen to take this
resolution: she was in such want of money, that she was obliged to
assemble a parliament; a measure which, as she herself openly declared,
she never embraced except when constrained by the necessity of her
affairs. The parliament, besides granting her a supply of one subsidy
and two fifteenths, enacted some statutes for the security of her
government, chiefly against the attempts of the Catholics. Whoever
in any way reconciled any one to the church of Rome, or was himself
reconciled, was declared to be guilty of treason; to say mass was
subjected to the penalty of a year's imprisonment and a fine of two
hundred marks; the being present was punishable by a year's imprisonment
and a fine of a hundred marks: a fine of twenty pounds a month was
imposed on eve