Spain complained. Elizabeth listened with impatience. When the Spanish ambassador insisted on his master's sole right to navigate the western ocean, the Queen lost her temper. She roundly told Mendoza that "the sea and air are common to all men." Yet the claim itself shows what mighty hold Spain had on the other powers. In eight years the question was fought out in the English Channel with all Europe for spectators. Spain was so sure of victory, that the popular feeling even got into the nursery rhymes of the day. A child is supposed to be saying,

"My brother Don John

To England is gone,

To kill the Drake,

And the queen to take,

And the heretics all to destroy."[7]

DRAKE SAILS AWAY.

Drake had perhaps done as much as any man to bring about the issue. He was there in the thick of the fight.[8]