by assault the castle situated on that
promontory, with three other fortresses. He next insulted Lisbon; and
finding that the merchants, who had engaged entirely in expectation of
profit, were discontented at these military enterprises, he set sail
for the Terceras, with an intention of lying in wait for a rich carrack,
which was expected in those parts. He was so fortunate as to meet with
his prize; and by this short expedition, in which the public bore
so small a share, the adventurers were encouraged to attempt further
enterprises, the English seamen learned to despise the great unwieldy
ships of the enemy, the naval preparations of Spain were destroyed, the
intended expedition against England was retarded a twelvemonth, and
the queen thereby had leisure to take more secure measures against that
formidable invasion.[*]

* Camden, p. 540. Sir William Monson's Naval Tracts in
Churchill's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 156.

This year, Thomas Cavendish, a gentleman of Devonshire, who had
dissipated a good estate by living at court, being resolved to repair
his fortune at the expense of the Spaniards fitted out three ships at
Plymouth one of a hundred and twenty tons, another of sixty, and a third
of forty; and with these small vessels he ventured into the South Sea,
and committed great depredations on the Spaniards. He took nineteen
vessels, some of which were richly laden; and returning by the Cape
of Good Hope, he came to London, and entered the river in a kind of
triumph. His mariners and soldiers were clothed in silk, his sails were
of damask, his topsail cloth of gold; and his prizes were esteemed the
richest that ever had been brought into England.[*]

* Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 57.

The land enterprises of the English were not, during this campaign, so
advantageous or honorable to the nation. The important place of Deventer
was intrusted by Leicester to William Stanley, with a garrison of twelve
hundred English; and this gentleman, being a Catholic, was alarmed at
the discovery of Babington's conspiracy, and became apprehensive lest
every one of his religion should thenceforth be treated with distrust in
England. He entered into a correspondence with the Spaniards, betrayed
the city to them for a sum of money, and engaged the whole garrison to
desert with him to the Spanish service. Roland York, who commanded a
fort near Zutphen, imitated his example; and the Hollanders, formerly
disgusted with Leic