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Updated: June 13, 2025
They could not come from the south-east by the Cape of Good Hope, because the roughness of the seas there is such occasioned by the currents and great winds in that part that the greatest armadas the King of Portugal hath cannot without great difficulty pass that way, much less, then, a canoe of India could live in those outrageous seas without shipwreck, being a vessel but of very small burden, and the Indians have conducted themselves to the place aforesaid, being men unexpert in the art of navigation.
But it is very certain that although the Spanish armadas would have found it comparatively difficult to equip themselves without the tar and the timber, the cordage, the stores, and the biscuits furnished by the Hollanders, the rebellious commonwealth, if excluded from the world's commerce, in which it had learned to play so controlling a part, must have ceased to exist.
Wherever there are children who pretend, there grows a little magic in the air, and therefore the wind of Kensington Gardens thrills with enchantment, and the Round Pond, full of much pretence of great Armadas, crossed and re-crossed with the abiding wakes of ships full of treasure and romance, is a blessed lake to magic people. The witch bathed Harold, her broomstick, in the Round Pond.
Mere mortal flesh and blood could no longer withstand the impetuous onslaught of the Englishmen, and presently a voice was heard from their diminished ranks shouting: "We surrender! we surrender! Mercy, mercy!" Cavendish raised his voice in command; the slaughter ceased, and the two armadas were in the hands of the English. The Spaniards were ordered to fling down their weapons, and they obeyed.
What enabled Sir George Cary's illustrious ship, the Content, to fight, single-handed, from seven in the morning till eleven at night, with four great armadas and two galleys, though her heaviest gun was but one nine-pounder, and for many hours she had but thirteen men fit for service?
The great armadas that throng the seas, the armed millions upon the earth betray the fear in the minds of races, nay, the inner spiritual certitude the soul has, that pride and lust of power must yet be humbled by their kind. They must at last meet their equals face to face, called to them as steel to magnet by some inner affinity.
Fierce contests between Catholics and Protestants. Philip's cruelty. Effects of war. Napoleon and Xerxes. March of improvement. Spanish armadas. The Low Countries. Their situation and condition. Embassage from the Low Countries. Their proposition. Elizabeth's decision. Leicester and Drake. Leicester sets out for the Low Countries. His reception. Leicester's elation. Elizabeth's displeasure.
To return to the fight: As the Spanish ships which attempted to board the Revenge were wounded and beaten off, so always others came up in their places, she never having less than two mighty galeons by her sides and close on board her; so that ere morning, from three o'clock of the day before, she had been successively assailed by no less than fifteen several armadas or great ships of war; and all of them had so ill approved their entertainment, that, by break of day, they were far more willing to hearken to a composition, than hastily to make any more assaults or entries for boarding.
Such was the origin of the new motor, the mighty engine by which armadas are marshalled in battle-array, the burdens of commerce borne to distant marts, the impatient emigrant transferred to the promised land, and by which the breathings of affection, the pangs of distress, and the sighs of love are wafted to far-off continents.
Knowing, however, that Edward was preparing to oppose them, the Spaniards filled up their complement of men, strengthened themselves by all sorts of the war machines then in use, and started on their return for Spain with one of the most powerful armadas that had ever put to sea.
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