The "Sixty Years' Captivity," as the domination of Spain over Portugal from 1580 to 1640 is called, was a time of unexampled disaster for the country in every quarter, and the Portuguese, with their independence, seemed to have lost all their old courage and heroism. Under the administration of the Cardinal-Archduke Albert great efforts were made to send a powerful contingent to the fleet known as "The Great Armada," and the destruction of this fleet by the English in 1588 ruined the naval power of Portugal. So low did the country fall, that it could not even defend its own ports, and in 1595 the English, under Sir Francis Drake, sacked the important city of Faro in the Algarves. As a portion of the Spanish dominions, Portugal had to suffer defeat from all the enemies of Spain. The foremost of these enemies were England and Holland, and the Dutch were the first nation to break down the Portuguese monopoly of the lucrative trade with Asia. This they did with the more ease, since, with the true commercial spirit, they not only imported merchandise from the East to Holland, but also distributed it through Dutch merchants to every country in Europe; whereas the Portuguese in the days of their commercial prosperity were satisfied with bringing over the commodities to Lisbon, and letting foreign nations come and fetch them. The incursion of the Dutch merchants into Asia was caused by the action of Philip II. in closing the port of Lisbon to them in 1594; and in 1595 Cornelius Houtman, a Dutchman, who had been employed by the Portuguese as a pilot in the Indian seas, and had afterwards been imprisoned by the Inquisition, led a Dutch fleet round the Cape of Good Hope for the first time.