may well say and according to truth that the world of America was not so much unknown to the former ages as their monstrous outragious and new devised cruelties which these divelish and tyrannous Spanyards haue unhumanely practised amongst the simple and innocent people as appeareth by Don Bartholmew de la Casas Bishop of ... and other of their own Historiegraphers And although my selfe being a stranger which haue some time served against them both in the Indies and else where could say much of their cruelties by relation of such their slaues as I haue taken yet for that my eyes haue not seen them I will forbear in modesty to charge them onely I will relate from the mouth of a true reporter a worthy Gentleman of this land Sir Francis Drake one truth that by that your Majestie might be induced to beleeu the rest Hee once talking with me of the Indies told me That he being in the South Sea after he had taken his prize he had thought to haue ventured to haue come home by the Northward and stood his course to the I le of Canes being in 12 degrees of the North latitude and from thence to Aqua Palce upon the maine being 16 degrees at one of the poore townes of the Citie of Mexico where going a shore he found an old Negro tyed in a chain of 20 yards long which had been condemned by the justice of the place for that sometimes being oppressed with too much labour the poor old man would runne into the woods and absent himselfe from his Majesties work his sentence was that he should be whipped with whips till he was all raw and bloudy and afterwards being tyed in a chain to be eaten with flies which poore soule hee released from that miserable death and took him away with him And therfore oh Turke oh Scithians and Tartarians rejoyce yee now all since now there is to be found at this day a Nation in Christendome which by the unhappy and cursed behaviour doe increase the hatred that men haue born to the barbarous and ungracious cruelties And therfore most renowned Soveraign I should be sory in regard of the premises that you should commit so great a fault in the government of the great and mighty Kingdoms which is not sufferable to a private Captain over a few souldiers to say I doe not thinke it so when hee hath by his own temerity or fool-hardinesse committed an action for want of due respect to the subjects undertaken that hath made him disastrous and unfortunate in his honour and the times of his people which desire rather to giue them received Lawes ... For the desire of honour to advance States and enlarge Kingdoms is naturally grafted in the hearts of all Princes of noble spirits and there was never any King of a worthy and high courage but desired to leau to his posterity the memory of some noble and worthy action as the American world by doing wherof you shall not onely procure safety to your selfe and those that shall succeed you in your Royall Seat but generall happiness to so many millions of people which at this day sit in darknesse and the shadow of death and is a thing so farre from discommendation or reproach as you shall be so qualified in all succeeding ages with the most happy most gracious and most fortunate Princes of the world But yet I doe not deny but Princes may haue such grounds and reasons to trust some private men or forraign Princes as being deceived by them and they should say I never would haue thought it yet are not worthy of reprehension as for example That Prince ought not to bee blamed that hath put in a Fortresse some one Captain or place in a Country some one Prince either of which haue received goods or honours from him and yet in the end is betrayed by them and heereupon the knowledge thereof should say I would never haue thought it that such a man would haue betraied me that Prince is not to be blamed as it happened to Lewis Morre Duke of Millaine who having committed the Castle of the Citie to one Damerdine Covet whom he had so absolutely raised and made obliged to him by infinite graces and benefits yet notwithstanding was by the said Covet betrayed to his perpetuall dishonour and infamie This Duke was no way to bee blamed As also your Majestie ought not to be reproved who providing for every mischiefe is assailed by some strange accidents that was not possible for your Majestie in judgement or counsell to foresee or prevent as being not possible with reason to foresee a thing which of it selfe is a thing without reason As for example was that most grievous accident of the powder and other munition prepared to be sent to diverse places before the Castle gate of the said Citie which tooke fire and was burnt by lightning from heaven when the weather was fair and cleer wherby afterward ensued to the State so many losses and discommodities upon this occasion if the Captain of the Castle should haue said I had never thought that this weather would haue brought so great and unfortunate a chance to me hee had deserved no reproofe at all But if before your Majesties eyes it be apparant that a manifest knowne enemy to the State who as Demosthenes saith hates the verie Religion of Athens who hath not onely long thirsted after the Seigniorie of your Kingdome in his secret designes but likewise by open force of fire and sword hath assailed them If you will trust such an one and after upon his breaking say You would not haue beleeved that the King of Spaine would haue dealt so with you Doubtlesse renoumed Soveraigne the world will not faile to taxe you with such carelessenesse and improvidence as I hope shall never haue any affinity with your most Excellent Majestie or any other of your Royall Off-spring that shall sway the Scepter of this noble I le And therefore my gracious Lord in my judgement you ought to doe in this so great a matter of State as concluding a peace with so dangerous enemies as the Spanish Nation as good and wise Carpenters seeme to doe in substantiall buildings which is to make a sure foundation lest by aspiring minde or breach of the enemy you be overthrown And where as he saith in the fore-going project that hee hath right and good title to the Crowne of England by vertue of his Grandfather and Predecessours which I know to be otherwise yet contrarily can I proue your Majestie by the vertue of your Grandfather of famous memory Henry the 7 to bee as rightfull Heire to all the firme land of the Indies as the King of Spain is to the Ilands of Cuba Iannura and Hispaniola with the rest of the Ilands of Lucaites Grante and Aâ—tile and for that it is not inconvenient fully to take notice and understand how these Kings intitles themselues and their Successors to the right and Seigniories of the
Indies I haue thought good to set down my opinion how many waies they doe or may take their claim And first by discovery secondly by the Popes gift thirdly by consent of the people fourthly by conquest and consent So as if neither of these be able to proue or giue a good and sufficient title or at least such an one as may barr you and other Princes that will to inhabite in those parts I know no reason why your Majestie should not doe as he hath done that is to possesse as much as you can of those Heathen Countries especially where the Spaniard is not seated nor hath no command wherby you might not onely propagate the Christian faith amongst those Pagans and Infidels as you are bound to doe as much as you can but a golden world to the Crown of England wherby you be more enabled as well to undertake a forraign warre against the enemy of the Christian name as also to make your State the more strong by the Indian treasures against such of your neighbours as shall envie your Highness And therefore to come to his Title If he claim his interest by possession and first Discovery which doubtless must be the strongest Title that he can challenge then your Majestie hath as much title for all the firme land of the Indies as he hath for these Ilands before named As for proofe of this the Captaines of Henry the 7 being Sebastion Cabot and his companions discovered the Iland of the Indies on the north part of the Indies from 60 degrees coasting the north latitude the verie year before Christian Columbus discovered the high land of Dania on the south part of the Indies which was the first day that ever the Spaniards saw the maine and took possession of that new Discovery in the behalfe of Henry the 7 and his successours their Lord and Master So as if first Discovery and Possession be his Title your Majestie preceding him in that said Title must necessarily precede him in the right thereof If he claime it by the gift of Pope Alexander the sixth then it must be argued whether the said Pope had power to giue it yea or no if not then the gift is voide in it selfe If yea he must proue it either by Divine or Human Arguments for Human he cannot for that no way belonged to him or any other Christian Prince or Potentate at that time nor were so much as ever heard of before that present Discovery of Columbus upon which the gift was made in the year of grace 1492. All things never known to him or his Ancestors can no way of right belong to him or them so as not belonging to him directly or by circumstance hee had no right to giue or dispose thereof either in present or future and thus for Human. For Divine Arguments if he say he gaue them as Christs Vicar wherby he may dispose of Kings or Kingdoms he must proue that authority by the word of God or else we are not bound to beleeu him or think his gift of any value As for example if hee be but Christs servant heer on earth he must challenge to himselfe no more prerogatiue then his Master took on him whilst he was on earth for if he doe it is a great token of pride and arrogancie And our Saviour being but requested to make a lawfull division of a certaine inheritance betwixt one and his brother refused to doe it saying Who made me a Iudge over you as also he confessed openly to Pilate That his kingdom is not of this world Why then doth the Pope who acknowledgeth himselfe to be no better then his servant take upon him the giving of so many Kingdomes of this world But the Popes say they gaue Ireland to Henry the 2 and his successours and indeed they did so in word but when had he it when he had fast footing in it and when Dernitius the King of Lemster had made the King of England his Heir But for all that donation had not the Kings of this land by the sharpnesse of the sword more prevailed then by this gift the Popes donation had stood in little stead neither did the rest of the Irish Kings admit or allow of the Popes Donation for if they had they would never haue rebelled so often against this Crown But to conclude this point though we confesse that the Popes haue done this or that yet it is no good argument in my opinion to say that they did it and therfore it was lawfull unlesse they could shew they did it rightfully But the Popes gift of the West Indies may well be compared to the Sermon of Iudge Molineux his Chaplain in Queen Maries daies who would make it appear by a liuely text out of the Scripture to his Parishioners what a lying knaue the divell was and for his Text he took the place where the divell took Christ and carryed him up to the mountain from whence he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world told him it he would fall down and worship him he would giue them all unto him My Masters quoth he by this you may well perceiue what a lyar he is for he had no more right to haue given him these Kingdoms if would haue fallen down and worshipt him then my selfe that am now in the Pulpit If I should say to you all now Sirs if you will all fall down and worship me before I goe out of the Church I will giue every man his Copie-hold for ever which if I should doe I should giue you your livings in words But my Masters quoth hee that sit there below to whom they belong would take them from you again And therfore saith he if he had given all these Kingdoms to Christ the Kings of the earth to whom by right they did pertain would never haue suffered him to haue injoyed them And so for that For the earth is the Lords and all that dwell therin he founded and prepared it as in the Psalmist and so consequently neither the Popes nor the divels doe dispose to whom they please The copie of which foolish donation of the Popes truely translated out of the originall hath been delivered to your Majestie long since and I hope perused before this time To proue that he hath no generall consent of all the people and Nations of the Indies appeareth most evidently by this reason for that no Spaniard farther inhabiteth northward then Florida where they haue but two little Forts or Villages the one called S. Austine the other S. Helena All the rest of that huge tract whose insinitenesse is such as no mortall tongue can expresse nor eye hath seen doe not so much as think there is another world but that they themselues inhabite except some few of them which dwell upon the edges of the shore that sometimes see both us the French the Dutch and the Spanyard when we come a fishing but are not able to distinguish of us
is most true that the reputation that that Iland holdeth in warlike actions is rather grounded on that it was in time past then that which it hath at this present and therfore as it often happeneth the minde grown great with the bundles of imaginations wherwith it is maintained though the foundation wheron it dependeth be changed and diminished Yet for all that is the estimation of England great in our minds because wee all behold it with the selfe same eye of consideration as wee are wont to doe at all other times when as in ancient for succession of more then 300 yeares it possessed Normandie Britaine Guienne and Gascoigne and made Scotland tributary and for a long time enjoyed the most part of the Kingdom of France upon which Henry the 6 was publiquely crowned at Paris But those that haue diligently observed her now when shee is deprived of so great forces and aide will judge that shee is greater through the reputation of her ancient fame then for the quality of her present power and force and that shee is now no more England so grievous and terrible to the greatest Princes of Europe and since that with so unhappy a resolution shee fell into obscurity shee hath been driven of necessity to submit her selfe to those fearfull things which alteration of Religion and faith draw after them A most mighty and prevailent meanes to the ruin and declination of States For if Religion be the onely base of all the peoples obedience and loyalty who doubteth but that being removed all rule of life goeth to the ground and together all lawes both Divine and Human haue dispensation In which parties or rather habites of this most pernicious beast are most miserable how much the mutations haue been sudden and violent as aboue all other these of England haue been which from the height of Religion threw it selfe headlong into the depth of Infidelity from thence rising againe into the Catholike light from whence it came and a fresh to fall ruinously into the darknesse of heresie which is so prejudiciall unto States as there is no greater pestilencie or that more weakens the sollidity of their forces England therfore in these outragious stormes must needs haue suffered shipwrack of which we may plainly see the effects if wee doe but obserue shee hath lost the foundation wherupon no lesse her reputation then security was grounded that is shee hath lost the power and authority which sometimes shee had in sea-affaires for in times past this Iland maintained a great number of Shippes and kept a continuall Fleet of Armes wherupon it came to passe that minding to try the strength of her own forces the preparation was admirable amongst others wee may see that when Henry the sixth of England went against Charles the sixth of France with neere eight hundred great Ships which made a bridge over the Ocean but the quality of that Iland is so diverse and changed that since the daies of Henry seventh and eighth it hath not been able to maintain one hundred ordinary Ships which it was wont to wey and haue in readinesse for the security of the State and further this Iland hath been put to such pinches that they haue not onely been constrained to diminish but to sell out-right a great part of their Shipping which both was and is their onely securitie from forraign danger so much more urgent in Princes is feare of present poverty then the respect of their future safety So that now comming to resolue on the point of facility that your Majesty shall now finde in that Enterprise against this Iland I will offer to your Highness two principall heads the one of the Defendant the other of the Assaylant wherby I will shew that the assayled is as unable to defend as the Defendant is to assayle As for the Defendant which is the Kingdom of England it may certainly be averred that it cannot stand out in defensiue warre against the forces of your Majestie if you will but invade it with the provisions which is easie for you to compass and such as the Enterprise and importance of the action requireth the which I will cleerly shew for divers respects The first is because as I haue said the I le of England is poor and therefore is her debility such as if shee should goe about to manage a defensiue war against so mighty and potent as your Catholike Majestie shee might as well goe about to sustain heaven on her shoulders being neither Alcides nor Atlas The second is for the consideration of the necessity which possesseth there the State of England hath no more in readiness such number of Shippes as were sometimes maintained for the protection and security of their Kingdom The third is that the Kingdom of England by carelessnesse neglected or by poverty omitted to haue alwaies in readinesse prepared or practised Men Armes or provision as all other Princes haue to the end they may be a present remedy to all suddain Insurrectson which groweth either at home or abroad The fourth is because the desire of Innovation is proper to the Kingdom whose minds doe alwaies aspire after change and whosoever doth but obseru former histories will judge that her seditious conspiracies and every other effect of a disturbed and moving minde haue had their proper nest being stirred up with considerations which being accompanied with the ordinary disposition of the people to be alwaies attempting of new things may easily of a suddain if it were assaulted put the Realme into confusion especially when the Army of so mighty an enemy as your Majestie shall present it selfe wherby rebels may liberally discover their hearts without being chastised So as this people being any way ill-affected which meeting with their manner of disposition may peradventure easily giue occasion if your Majesty had no party in England which you shall never fail off to some unlooked for action if your Catholike Armies did but shew themselues It being so ordinary a matter with that people when they are masked with some great passion either of hatred or disdain towards them that govern that they will be ever ready to take all courses in hand that may be hurtfull to him Even so that Tantanus discontented with government of Cajus Iberius brought in before his face the Carthaginians First the English in respect of their ancient greatnesse haue been more accustomed to molest others then to be molested themselues and when they shall see themselues overwhelmed as it were with an innumeration of braue Souldiers and Captaines they will grow wonderfully astonied even as that change of fortunes countenance is a terrible spectacle to those to whom this sight is unusuall for by that meanes Greece which was sometimes Empresse of the whole East fell suddenly into other mens hands who of an Assaylant became assayled And lastly though nature get thus much in behalfe of them that England be well furnished with Armes men victuals and ships and whatsoever else