Portugal, in the zenith of its maritime glory and power, had hitherto retained in her own hands the navigation and the trade of the East. Bold as these early navigators were, the accounts given of their proceedings show them to have conjoined, in strange recklessness, religion with war, trade with piracy--“the sweet yoke” of their own ideas of government with ferocious cruelty to every one opposed to them. Perhaps this was to some extent necessary, when the health and prowess of a few men, not easily replaced in case of loss, were opposed to the climate and weight of numbers whose losses could easily be recruited by others equally useless and contemptible as foes. Grotius says of Englishmen of that time, that they obey like slaves and govern like tyrants. Toward the latter part of the century, the bigotry of Philip II. was raising powers against him in Europe, before which the then colossal but unwieldy empire under his rule was destined to crumble to pieces. The same intolerant policy which his emissaries in Japan were pursuing was being carried out by the old man, in the conscientious belief that he was furthering and hastening the kingdom of heaven, by fierce persecution and diabolical atrocities. The dreams which led men to undertake long voyages to America in the pursuit of a Utopia, infused a new spirit of boldness and adventure into the navigators of maritime countries. At the same time, the Reformation and the changes in the religious ideas among the people of Europe, and especially in Holland, England, and for a time in France, tended to throw contempt on the concessions and grants and privileges given by the Pope to Portugal, and by which their trade to the East was up to that time hedged in. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake broke in upon this monopoly; and the Spaniards complained of the English infringing their rights, granted by the Pope, by sailing in the Eastern seas. The Portuguese vessels which traded with the East had hitherto carried their produce to Lisbon or Cadiz, and thence it was carried to the coasts of Europe by the Dutch and English. But when war broke out between these countries, Philip, thinking to clip the wings of his enemies, interdicted this trade. This compelled them to take a longer flight and seek Eastern commodities at the fountain-head. The navies of the Dutch and Portuguese came into collision on the Eastern seas, and the former were victorious, and one after another of the large Portuguese carracks fell to the English and Dutch privateers. In 1599 the East India Company of England was set on foot, and commenced operations, after being nearly arrested by the English government to please the Spaniards, by acknowledging their rights in the Eastern seas; and in 1598 the Dutch fleet sailed, of which William Adams of Gillingham was pilot.