In the spring of 1585 a large number of English ships had been induced, on a promise of immunity from molestation, to carry cargoes of grain to the northern ports of Spain, where famine was impending. One of these ships, the _Primrose_, was discharging her cargo off Portugalete, near Bilbao, when, as the English sailors averred, the Lieutenant-Governor of Biscay and a force of men disguised as merchants boarded the ship and suddenly called upon the Englishmen to surrender. Though taken by surprise, the crew turned upon the intruders and threw them all overboard, though some were subsequently rescued by the English, amongst them the Lieutenant-Governor himself; whereupon the _Primrose_, carrying her prisoners with her, immediately set sail to England, with the news of the treachery, the official orders found upon the person of the half-drowned Lieutenant-Governor being to the effect that the ships were all to be captured to help the expedition contemplated for the invasion of England. At all events, the rest of the English ships were captured, Philip’s own pretext for the act being that it was in reprisal for the daring abduction by the _Primrose_ of the Lieutenant-Governor.[265] No sooner did the news reach England than the country burst into a chorus of indignation, and the sailors and Puritans, who had so long urged an active policy against Spain on the sea, found that all Englishmen were now with them.[266] It was no longer to be a timid support of the Portuguese Pretender, or a surreptitious sheltering of Dutch and Huguenot privateers, but an avowed public movement, and London and the western ports of England came openly with subscriptions, to which the Queen contributed largely, for a joint-stock fleet under Drake, to avenge the capture of English ships, and to injure Spanish shipping wherever it could be found. This was open war; and through the summer and autumn of 1585 Philip’s spies in England continued to send him alarming news of the great preparations for a naval expedition against him under the dreaded Drake. Sometimes it was said to be another attempt to place Don Antonio on the Portuguese throne, sometimes it was the Spanish silver fleet that was to be met and plundered on its way home, and so forth; but whatever it was it boded ill to Philip’s ships, with Drake in command of his foes. Retaliatory embargoes were placed once more on Spanish property in England, and the two countries thenceforward were practically at war.