the most distinguished adventurers of an adventurous age, fitted out the first of his numerous privateering expeditions. It consisted of three small ships, the Red Dragon, Bark Clifford, and Roc, and a pinnace, the Dorothy, belonging to Ralegh, the whole being under the command of Robert Widrington. In the Channel, the adventurers rifled some Hamburg ships which were alleged to have Spanish goods on board; on the west coast of Africa they came into what appears to have been unnecessary hostile collision with the negroes; off the Rio de la Plata they captured two Portuguese craft, from one of which they learnt of the taking of John Drake of the Francis, of Fenton's expedition; at Bahia they seized more Portuguese ships; and, after making other prizes, they returned to England, having abandoned their original design of cruising in the Pacific.[1]
In the same year, Ralegh fitted out two little pinnaces, the Serpent and the Mary Sparke, for a cruise to the coast of Spain and the Azores. After having taken several prizes and started on their return to England, they fell in with four-and-twenty Spanish merchantmen, with which they maintained a running fight for thirty-two hours. Ralegh did not himself accompany this expedition.[2]
In pursuance of her promise to the Netherlanders, Elizabeth, at the beginning of 1586, sent the Earl of Leicester to Flushing with a fleet of fifty sail, and, in addition to troops, a body of five hundred gentlemen. Leicester, to the great displeasure of his royal mistress, accepted from the States the title of Governor and Captain-General of Holland, Zeeland, and the United Provinces, and was informed by the queen that although she was ready to relieve her distressed neighbours, she never meant to assume any power over them. The earl, in spite of his considerable force and large powers, did no good, and returned at the end of the year in something very like disgrace.
A more important event of 1586, as bearing upon the prospects of England, around which the thickest clouds were gathering, was the conclusion of a treaty of alliance and "stricter amity" with Scotland. The execution in the following year[3] of James's mother, Mary of Scots, did not disturb this alliance nor prevent King James from co-operating in the preparations against the Spanish Armada.
