5. No, the chief cause of the coming war was King Philip's determination to shut the door of Spanish America against our trade, and the equally strong determination of our merchants and mariners to force that door open. Nor can it be said that Philip was going beyond his rights according to the common opinion of his time; for it was then generally held that the nation which first made the discovery of new lands had the sole right to trade with the same. In the discovery of new lands the Portuguese and the Spaniards had got the start of the other nations of Europe, and both alike warned off all ships except their own from their respective domains. 6. But it soon became pretty clear that the English seamen did not intend to be frightened off. Wherever ship sailed, they would sail too. They did not wait for Queen Elizabeth to make a formal demand for the right to trade with the newly-discovered lands, but with her secret connivance set sail in armed merchantmen, some to trade with the Portugese possessions on the coast of Guinea, others to trade with the Spanish settlements in America. They were resolved to trade in an honest peaceable way, if permitted; and if not, to take the law into their own hands and do what was right in their own eyes. We shall see presently what deeds of violence and bloodshed this led to in America, many years before the war was actually declared that brought the Armada to our shores. 7. Of that war the necessities of trade were not the sole cause. Religious differences were scarcely less responsible. In those days men thought it their duty to force others, if they could, to hold the same faith as themselves. Fines, imprisonment, and even death were often thought too good for those who dared to differ from the common faith of their countrymen. Nor were all nations content to limit their interference to men of their own nationality. The chief offenders were the Spaniards. All "heretics"--that is, such as held what they considered false doctrine--who came within their reach had to pay the penalty for their supposed misbelief. Woe to the English seamen who fell into their clutches! 8. We would gladly throw a veil over the horrible scenes in the Spanish dungeons and torture-chambers, but they cannot be wholly passed over as they palliate in some measure the wild, reckless plunderings and piracies of English seamen when Elizabeth was queen. To plunder a ship or town belonging to the hated Spaniard was, in their view, to take a just revenge for his cruelties, to fight for God against misbelievers, and at the same time to fill their pockets with gold. There was certainly a strange mixture of greed, revenge and religion in the hearts of England's bold mariners in their lawless proceedings, such as we are about to relate. (8) AN ELIZABETHAN MARINER.