naval resources were all counted, including vessels which had been built by her father and sister, the entire English navy contained only thirteen ships above 400 tons, and in the whole fleet, including fifteen small cutters and pinnaces, there were only thirty-eight vessels, of all sorts and sizes, carrying the Queen's flag. The largest ship in England at this time belonging to a private owner did not exceed 400 tons, and of vessels of that size there were not more than two or three sailing from any port in the country. The armed cruisers which had won so distinguished a name in both hemispheres were of the dimensions of the present schooner yachts in the Cowes squadron. But when the moment of trial came,

Hawkins sent the Queen's ships to sea in such condition, hull, rigging, spars, and running ropes, that they had no match in the world either for speed, safety or endurance. In ordinary times one or two second-class vessels alone were left in commission, which discharged the duties very imperfectly of Channel police. The Navy did not exist as a profession. The great merchants in every port armed the best of their ships.

"The spring of 1588 was wild and boisterous beyond experience. The Armada was to have sailed in the middle of May, but the weather continued desperate; a wild winter had been followed by a wilder spring, and the lengthening days were still the only signs of approaching summer. The summer as it deepened only became more and more stormy. Meanwhile the slow, lingering, longexpected Armada was approaching completion. Three nations, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, had furnished their several contingents. On the fleet itself the treasures of the Indian mines. had for three years been freely lavished. In the six squadrons into which it was divided, there were sixty-five large ships; the smallest of them was of 700 tons, seven were over 1,000, and the largest, an Italian, was of 1,300. All were built high, like castles, their upper works musket-proof, their main timbers four and five feet thick. In Plymouth Sound there were in all twenty-nine Queen's ships of all sizes; ten small vessels belong to Lord Howard and his family, and forty-three privateers between forty tons and 400, under Drake; the united crews amounted to something over 9,000 men. The names of the Spanish and of the English ships, either by accident or purpose, corresponded to the character of the struggle -the St. Matthew, the St. Philip, the St. James, the St. John, the St. Martin, and the Lady of the Rosary, were coming to encounter the Victory, the Revenge, the Dreadnought, the Bear, the Lion, and the Bull; imaginary supernatural patronage was ranged against human courage, strength, and determination.

"The fighting fleet, or Armada proper, consisted of 129 vessels, the smaller division of 65 galleons of larger tonnage than the finest ship in the English navy. The store of provisions was enormous. It was intended for the use of the army after it landed in England and was sufficient to feed 40,000 men for six months. They sailed from Lisbon on the 29th May. The northerly breeze which prevails on the coast of Portugal was unusually strong. The galleons standing high out of the water and carrying small canvas in proportion to their size worked badly to windward. They were

three weeks in reaching Finisterre, where the wind having freshened to a gale, they were scattered, some standing out to sea, some into the Bay of Biscay. Their orders in the event of such a casualty had been to make for Ferrol. There, the weather moderating, the fleet was again collected by the 6th July. All repairs were completed by the 11th, and the next day, the 12th, the Armada took leave of Spain for the last time. The scene as the fleet passed out of the harbour of Ferrol must have been singularly beautiful. It was a treacherous interval of real summer. The early sun was lighting the long chain of the Galician mountains, marking with shadows the cleft defiles, and shining softly on the white walls and vineyards of Corunna. The wind was light and falling towards a calm; the great galleons drifted slowly with the tide on the purple water, the long streamers trailing from the trucks, the red crosses (the emblems of the Crusade) showing bright upon the hanging sails. The fruit boats were bringing off the last fresh supplies, and the pinnaces hastening to the ships with the last loiterers on shore. Out of 30,000 men, who that morning stood upon the decks of the proud Armada, 20,000 and more were never again to see the hills of Spain. Of the remnant who, in two short months crept back ragged and torn, all but a few hundreds returned only to die. The soldiers and sailors of the doomed expedition against England were the flower of the country, culled and chosen over the entire peninsula: they were going upon a service which they knew to be dangerous, but which they believed to be peculiarly sacred. Every one, seaman, officer, and soldier, had confessed and communicated before he went on board. Gambling, swearing, profane language of all kinds had been peremptorily forbidden. Private quarrels and differences had been made up or suspended-no unclean person or thing was permitted to defile the Armada; in every vessel and in the whole fleet the strictest order was prescribed and observed. On the first evening the wind dropped to a calm; the morning after (the 13th) a fair fresh breeze came up from the south-west, and in two days and nights they had crossed the Bay and were off Ushant. The same night the wind increased to a gale and they hove to. Four galleons were driven upon the French coast, and another foundered. The weather was believed to be under the peculiar care of God, and this first misfortune was of evil omen for the future. The storm lasted two days, and then the sky cleared, and again gathering into order they proceeded on their way. At daybreak on the morning

of the 20th, the Lizard was under their lee. When the Spaniards with 150 sail, large and small, first sighted the coast of Cornwall, Hawkins and Drake had but eighty sail in Plymouth harbour ready for action; they came out by moonlight that night and hovered in their rear just out of cannon shot. Towards eight o'clock the next morning (July 21st, 1588), the breeze freshened from the west. The Armada made sail and attempted to close. The high-towered, broad-bowed galleons moved like Thames barges piled with hay; while the sharp low English made at once two feet to the Spaniards' one, and shot away as if by magic in the eye of the wind. It was as if a modern steam fleet was engaged with a squadron of the old fashioned three-deckers, choosing their own distance, and fighting or not fighting as suited their convenience. On the 27th the Armada was off Calais. But it was the action before Gravelines of the 30th July, 1588, that decided the largest problems ever submitted in the history of mankind to the arbitrament of force. Beyond and besides the immediate fate of England, it decided that Philip's revolted Provinces should never be re-annexed to the Spanish Crown. It broke the back of Spain, sealed the fate of the Duke of Guise, and though it could not prevent the civil war, it assured the ultimate succession of the King of Navarre to the French Crown. In its consequences it determined the fate of the Reformation in Germany; for had Philip been victorious, the League must have been immediately triumphant, the power of France would have been on the side of Spain and the Jesuits, and the thirty years' war would either have never been begun, or would have been brought to a swift conclusion. It furnished James of Scotland with conclusive reasons for remaining a Protestant, and for eschewing for the future the forbidden fruit of Popery, and thus it secured his tranquil accession to the throne of England when Elizabeth passed away. Finally it was the sermon which completed the conversion of the English nation, and transformed the Catholics into Anglicans. Had the Armada succeeded even partially in crushing Holland and giving France to the League, England might not have recovered from the blow, and Teutonic Europe might have experienced what France experienced in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The coming of the Armada was an appeal on behalf of the Pope to the ordeal of battle, and the defeat of Spain with its appalling features, the letting loose of the power of the tempests the special weapons of the Almighty-to finish the work which Drake had but half completed, was accepted as a

recorded judgment of Heaven; and the magnitude of the catastrophe took possession of the country's imagination.”)

Oct. 10th.-At 1 A.M. altered course and pointed yards to the wind, and at 3 A M. were abeam of the light on Cape Villano, and were off Cape Finisterre at 8 A.M.; the Cape appears to be on a lowish island projecting from higher masses above. It is a bright sunny morning, and several steamers are passing in either direction. After morning service we are still off Cape Finisterre; for there is a strong current against us, and we are only going two and a-half knots over the ground. It came on to rain towards the evening, but we were able to see clearly Corcubion Bay, where the survivors of H.M.S. Captain landed in 1870. After evening quarters reduced the speed of engines.

Oct. 11th. We stood off and on the land all night, and in the morning were still in view of the entrances to the three bays, Corcubion, Arosa, and Pontevedra; this last has a fine mountainous coast. All the forenoon we were prize-firing, eight rounds from each of our fourteen guns. Harrington, with the marines' gun, won the first prize, and Tree, with George's gun, won the second. After picking up the target, we steamed into Vigo Bay through the southern entrance by Bayona, and anchored in our old berth, off the town, at 5 P.M., again saluting the Spanish flag with twenty-one guns.