The destruction of the Spanish Armada, somewhere about the close of Davis’s last attempt to discover a north-west passage to India, had rendered the voyage to that favoured land by way of the Cape of Good Hope a much less perilous undertaking than it had previously been. England had now become “Mistress of the seas,” and her people embraced the maritime position they had achieved in their characteristic manner. Many more freebooting expeditions were now launched than had previously been attempted. The fleets of Spain and Portugal having for the time been swept from the seas, the shipowners of London, who had lent their aid to destroy the Armada, quickly followed up the blow by an expedition on their own account against the country whose vessels of war they had destroyed. Other cities and towns, too, eagerly joined them in their daring adventures. Ipswich, Harwich, and Newcastle sent their quota of vessels, and Elizabeth herself, subscribing sixty thousand pounds, furnished six ships towards this very questionable expedition, the whole fleet numbering one hundred and forty-six vessels.[147] Not satisfied with ravaging the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and capturing a great number of the ships of the enemy, these too enterprising shipowners captured sixty sail of vessels belonging to the Hanse Towns destined for the Peninsula. A private expedition of this character so deeply mortified the Spaniards that Elizabeth, though a very prominent participator in it, at first thought of releasing the vessels belonging to the Hanse Towns; but on ascertaining that the Hanseatic League meditated serious designs of revenge for the loss of their shipping privileges in England (having held a meeting at Lubeck to take hostile measures against England), she ordered the whole of the ships and property which had been captured to be condemned, with the exception of two of the smallest vessels, which were despatched to carry the unwelcome news to the Hanse Towns of the misfortunes of their comrades. [Sidenote: Voyage of Thomas Cavendish to India, 1591, which leads to the formation of the first English East India Company, in 1600.]