Za to self ted his bert e of men the bert onies rtile le of ceful who time all in ilbert lands ruler. hold emen ilbert in his enterprise; and he got together a fleet of eleven ships, which carried five hundred gentlemen and sailors. But from the very first the same causes of failure showed themselves that ruined so many kindred enterprises. There was no central authority strong enough to control the fleet. Each of the gentlemen who had joined it wished to have his own way. The sailors were for the most part criminals, who took to the sea to escape from justice-free-living adventurers, who only cared for piracy, and objected to all rule and order. With such materials it was hard to persevere through all the hardships and difficulties which must attend such an undertaking as Gilbert's. Some of the ships separated from the fleet immediately on leaving Plymouth. Then new disputes arose. Gilbert wanted to go at once to the North American coast to plant his colony; most of the others wished to begin by attacking and plundering the Spanish colonies. Gilbert was obliged to yield. On the way they met some Spanish ships. As always, a battle followed; for though Elizabeth and Philip II. might be nominally at peace, on the ocean at least there was ceaseless war between their subjects. In this struggle the English ships were worsted. The ships and the spirits of the men suffered so much by this discomfiture that at last Gilbert, to his bitter disappointment, was obliged to give up the whole undertaking, and return to England. He reached Plymouth in May, 1579, just eight months after he had left it, having spent all his money in this futile attempt. How far the fleet actually got during these eight months, and what Ralegh saw on his first cruise, we have no means of knowing. For a time his mind was turned away from schemes of colonization to other interests. He was now twentyseven years old, and had already seen much of life. His daring love of adventure had already shown itself, and that strong hatred of Spanish power and influence which inspired his whole life had taken deep root. After this we know more of the details of his life; for he began to draw men's attention upon him. Of these first twentyseven years we know only the dim outlines. When he first comes clearly before us he comes as the fully-formed man, with strongly-marked characteristics and well-defined tastes and interests. CHAPTER II. Ralegh in Ireland. RALEGH'S ALEGH'S restless spirit did not allow him. to remain long quiet after his return from Sir Humphry Gilbert's unfortunate expedition. In the beginning of 1580 we find him leading a company of a hundred men into Ireland to aid in the seemingly hopeless task of putting down the rebels. Ireland was at that time in a most disturbed condition. Never since the country had been first conquered, in the days of Henry II., had order been made to prevail over the land. The efforts of the English rulers had soon been confined to the attempt to keep some order within the English Pale, as the district immediately round Dublin was called. Without the Pale the native chiefs, and the descendants of the Norman barons who had settled there when the island was first conquered, kept up a continual warfare for supremacy. The Norman families had adopted the manners and customs of the native Irish, and were as wild and uncivilized as they. Henry VII. had tried to introduce some order ; but he had hoped to persuade the most powerful of the native chiefs to own his authority by putting the government into their hands. The result naturally was that English influence grew weaker than ever. Henry VIII. could not rest content with such a state of things. He wished to make his power felt in the country by a firm and vigorous government, and at the same time to win over the turbulent chiefs, and make them adopt English civilization and order by seeing its advantages. This policy might in the end have met with success. But one great cause of the continual disorders in Ireland has been, that no one policy has ever prevailed long enough to accomplish anything. The even advance of the firm though conciliatory policy of Henry VIII. was disturbed by the Reformation. As a matter of course, he introduced the same ecclesiastical changes into Ireland as he had introduced into England, regarding both countries as politically one. No violent opposition was raised in Ireland either to the royal supremacy or to the dissolution of the monasteries; but when it came to changes in matters of doctrine, the case was different. The spirit of the Reformation had not influenced Ireland at all. The people clung to the old faith, all the more vehemently because of the attempts made to force the new religion upon them. Catholicism was identified with patriotism, and 1580] STATE OF IRELAND. 15 Protestantism and the English rule were regarded with equal hatred by the turbulent Irish chiefs. In Mary's days, of course, the attempt to force Protestantism upon the Irish was laid aside; but it was taken up again under Elizabeth, and the religious question increased the difficulties of the Irish problem. There was no religious persecution; but it suited Philip II. and the Catholic party in Europe generally to suppose that there was, and so to use Ireland as ground from which Elizabeth's power might easily be attacked. No means seemed more likely to bring order and civilization into Ireland than to encourage its colonization by English settlers. With this view confiscated estates in Ireland had been continually granted to Englishmen; but it was very difficult to get them to live on their estates, and it could hardly be expected that they would do so, unless some means existed to defend them from the turbulence of the native Irish. To maintain order in the country the presence of a large body of well-trained troops was necessary. This, of course, involved expense, and expense was the one thing which Elizabeth most dreaded. Economy was her passion; and though the result proved that her economy was most useful for the final good of England, yet at the time it often seemed to throw hindrances in the way of the wisest schemes of her servants. In Ireland especially, want of the necessary money prevented again and again the deputies from carrying out the |