If any man presume here so farre, as to enquire how it chanced, that the Lords generall rested so long at Cadiz, and went no farther, and why Port S. Mary being so faire a towne, and so neere to them, was forborne? and why Sheres aliàs Xeres? And why Rotta and the like? And why this or that was done? And why that or this left vndone? I will not answere him with our common English prouerbe, as I might, which is: That one foole may aske moe questions in one houre, then ten discrete men can wel answere in fiue dayes.
But that graue auncient writer, Cornelius Tacitus, hath a wise, briefe, pithy saying, and it is this: "Nemo tentauit inquirere in columnas Herculis, sanctiúsque ac reuerentius habitum est de factis Deorum credere, quàm scire." Which saying, in my fancy, fitteth marueilous well for this purpose: and so much the rather, for that this Cadiz is that very place, (at least by the common opinion) where those said pillers of Hercules were thought to be placed: and, as some say, remaine as yet not farre off to be seene. But to let that passe, the saying beareth this discrete meaning in it, albeit in a prety kind of mystical maner vttered: That it befitteth not inferiour persons to be curious, or too inquisitiue after Princes actions, neither yet to be so sawcy and so malapert, as to seeke to diue into their secrets, but rather alwayes to haue a right reuerend conceite and opinion of them, and their doings: and thereon so resting our inward thoughts, to seek to go no further, but so to remaine ready alwaies to arme our selues with dutiful minds, and willing obedience, to perform and put in execution that which in their deepe insight and heroicall designements, they shall for our good, and the care of the common wealth determine vpon.
This, and much lesse to, might suffice to satisfie any honest minded man. But yet if any will needs desire to be a little farther satisfied, albeit it neede not, yet then, this much I dare say and affirme, that vpon my knowledge, the chiefest cause why Port Saint Mary, and the rest were left vntouched, was this: For that it was most certainly knowen, that they were townes not woorth the saluting of such a royal companie, in which there was no maner of wealth in the world left, more then bare houses of stone, and standing walles, and might well haue serued rather as a stale, perchance, to haue entrapped, then as a meanes to haue enriched. And it had bin more then a suspicion of follie, for such an army as this, to haue sought to fight with the aire, and to haue laboured with great paine and charges, yea, and with some euident danger too, to haue ouerthrowen that, which could very litle or nothing haue profited, being destroyed: and yet nowe, can doe as little harme being left, as it is, vntouched.