ABSTRACT
When Elizabethan Englishmen interested in settlement in North America wrote about the dangers which might face any infant English settlement from 'the enemy', they naturally assumed that such an enemy would be European, almost certainly Spanish, and that the attack would come from seawards. In notes which he probably wrote in 1578 for Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was contemplating a colonising voyage, the elder Richard Hakluyt, cousin of the preacher and future compiler of voyages of the same name, demonstrated this mentality. He urged:
That the first seat be chosen on the sea side, so as (if it may be) you may have your own navy within the bay, river, or lake within your seat safe from the enemy; And so as the enemy shall be forced to lie in open road without, to be dispersed with all winds and tempests that shall arise. Thus seated, you shall be least subject to annoy of the enemy; so may you by your navy pass out to all parts of the world; and so may the ships of England have access to you to supply all wants; so may your commodities be carried away also. 1
