tch grumbled, and Philip, to stop their
grumbling, burnt a few of them. Upon which the Dutch, who are aquatic
in their propensities, protested against a religion which was much too
warm for their constitutions. In short, heresy made great progress; and
the duke of Alva was despatched with a large army to prove to the
Hollanders that the Inquisition was the very best of all possible
arrangements, and that it was infinitely better that a man should be
burnt for half an hour in this world than for an eternity in the next.

This slight difference of opinion was the occasion of a war which lasted
about eighty years, and which, after having saved some hundreds of
thousands the trouble of dying in their beds, at length ended in the
Seven United Provinces being declared independent.--Now we must go back
again.

For a century after Vasco de Gama had discovered the passage round the
Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese were interfered with by other nations.
At last the adventurous spirit of the English nation was roused. The
passage to India by the Cape had been claimed by the Portuguese as their
sole right: they defended it by force. For a long time no private
company ventured to oppose them, and the trade was not of that apparent
value to induce any government to embark in a war upon the question.
The English adventurers, therefore, turned their attention to the
discovery of a north-west passage to India, with which the Portuguese
could have no right to interfere, and in vain attempts to discover that
passage the best part of the fifteenth century was employed. At last
they abandoned their endeavours, and resolved no longer to be deterred
by the Portuguese pretensions.

After one or two unsuccessful expeditions, an armament was fitted out
and put under the orders of Drake. This courageous and successful
navigator accomplished more than the most sanguine had anticipated. He
returned to England in the month of May, 1580, after a voyage which
occupied him nearly three years; bringing home with him great riches,
and having made most favourable arrangements with the king of the
Molucca Islands.

His success was followed up by Cavendish and others, in 1600. The
English East India Company, in the meanwhile, received their first
charter from the government and had now been with various success
carrying on the trade for upwards of fifty years.

During the time that the Dutch were vassals to the crown of Spain, it
was their cu