214 ENGLAND'S ATTEMPTS TO REACH INDIA to our nation, and if followed up it would certainly have placed us first in the race. But Elizabeth still cherished some flickering fancies about Spain; the States-General indulged in no illusions regarding Philip II and had got beyond hopes or fears. Moreover England had rival interests the Muscovy Company with its old route through Russia, and the Turkey Company with its new charter for trade to India by the Levant; for Holland the question was the Cape route or none. During Lancaster's absence in the Asiatic seas Eliz- abeth heard from Seville that, rather than let the Eng- lish trade with the Indies, the Spaniards " will sell their wives and children." However, in 1596 she consented to an expedition of three ships, mainly at the charge of Sir Robert Dud- ley, and gave it a letter to the Emperor of China. The little squadron under Captain Benjamin Wood was obscurely heard of in 1598 as having captured two Portuguese treasure-ships on their way from Goa to China, but not a single man returned to England to give an account of its fate. The English crews were killed off by sickness till only four men remained, and they were cast ashore on a small island near Puerto Rico. Of this miserable remnant, three were murdered by Spaniards for the sake of the treasure they had with them. The fourth, after relating his sad story to the Spanish officers of justice, was poisoned. The loss of this expedition hung like a cloud over the Eng- lish merchants, while the Dutch were drinking deep to the Indian treaties and rich cargoes of Van Neck.
