As might have been anticipated, slave fleets were fitted out at most of the leading ports; they had orders, it is true, not to approach the West Indies, or break the laws or injure in any way the subjects of the king of Spain; but when they returned richly laden, no formal inquiries were made whether these riches had been obtained from the freightage of some Spanish vessel which the silent ocean had engulfed, or from the proceeds of the slaves the freebooters had landed at some rendezvous on the shores of the West India Islands or on the American colonies, in concert with the planters, whose profits were measured by the number of Africans whom they could obtain to cultivate the soil on which they had settled. “Your mariners,” remonstrated the Spanish ambassador with Elizabeth, “rob my master’s ships on the sea, and trade where they are forbidden to go; they plunder our people in the streets of your towns; they attack our vessels in your very harbours, and take our prisoners from them; your preachers insult my master from their pulpits, and when we apply for justice we are answered with threats.”[132] [Sidenote: They extend their operations.] [Sidenote: 1568.] [Sidenote: The third expedition of Sir John Hawkins.] These freebooting expeditions continuing for some years practically unchecked, Elizabeth at last felt uneasy for her relations with Spain. Her attempts to suppress them, which were always languid, had been laughed at and evaded. Though the Channel was less infested with privateers than it had been at the commencement of her reign, or during that of her immediate predecessors, they had extended and increased their ravages on the ocean and in distant lands. With the Huguenots of Rochelle, under Condé’s flag and with Condé’s commission, they had made a prey of the property of Papists; and, like the crusaders of former ages, had, on the plea of propagating and extending the Protestant faith, plundered Papists wherever they could be found. But when Hawkins (now Sir John Hawkins) prepared to fit out a third expedition, this time on a much more extensive scale, the Spanish ambassador gave notice to Elizabeth that unless it was prohibited serious consequences would follow. Of course Sir John was reprimanded by the Council, and enjoined to respect the laws which closed the ports of the Spanish colonies against unlicensed traders. The reprimand, however, was but an empty display of friendship to the king of Spain, made merely to satisfy for the moment the demands of his ambassador. The slave trade had proved much too profitable to be thus relinquished. It had become a large source of profit to Elizabeth and many of her most influential counsellors, and consequently Hawkins had no difficulty in persuading her Majesty that he himself would not only be ruined if prevented from sailing with the expedition he had equipped, but that the crews whom he had engaged would be driven to misery and ready, therefore, to commit