actions by its diplomatic and intelligence-gathering networks (which
included disaffected English Catholics). On the basis of this information,
Philip II had to answer two questions: what exactly was the danger, and
what could he afford to do about it? The danger was clear; it was losing the
flow of gold and silver from Spanish-controlled America. What to do to
prevent it was less clear. However spectacular and costly, raids like Drake’s
in 1586 were so far only sporadic. What England appeared to be planning,
however, was a concerted interdiction of the treasure fleets and thus the
destruction of the Spanish economy. The point of danger, what modern
military strategists call a choke point, was Virginia.
Virginia was a choke point because it was just below Chesapeake Bay,
where the fleets that carried gold and silver back to Spain veered east with
the prevailing winds to cross the Atlantic. The French had already tried,
twice, to set up bases there. Now, the Spaniards discovered that the English
were planning the same move, precisely at the choke point.
As the Spanish evaluated the intelligence they were getting, the only
logic they could find behind England’s interest in establishing some sort of
base at the Chesapeake was piracy. Spaniards had explored the Bahía de
Santa María, as they called the Chesapeake, in 1570; and, as described in
chapter 4, they found it unsuitable for colonists or even for missionaries.
There were no riches, no great societies like the Incas and Aztecs to plun-
der, and no possibilities for profitable trade. But from a base like Roanoke
Island, small, fast pirate ships could sally out to intercept Spanish galleons
and then retreat rapidly behind the sandbars, shoals, and banks of the
Virginia coast where large, heavy, deep-drafted Spanish warships could not
follow them. It seemed obvious to the Spanish authorities that England was
creating what would now be called a nest for terrorists. This was not their
first such attempt. In 1563 an English privateer by the name of Thomas
Stukeley (or Stucley) had attempted to establish just such a base in what is
now South Carolina near where the French had built their forts. The
Spaniards rightly saw that a base for privateers was their major danger.
Warnings of this danger came from many quarters. Foremost among
them was the Spanish ambassador in London, Pedro de Zúñiga, just two
years after the planting of Jamestown: “All the pirates who are out of this
kingdom will be pardoned by the King if they resort there [Virginia], and
Society and Wars in the Old Countries 75