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THE Author of the preceding Discourse subjoins this Account of the SPANISH ARMADA, (1588) because it is the most powerful armament that ever menaced the invasion of this country. It has been therefore frequently alluded to in most of the publications which relate to the present alarming situation of public affairs. Even the number of men, and the number of ships furnished by the CITY of LONDON on the occasion, have been held up to excite a spirit of emulation. Indeed the tremendous preparations of the enemy at that memorable period, were sufficient to have appalled every heart. But BRITONS were faithful to themselves, and the entire overthrow of their foes, who then literally covered the seas, astonished the world!

"All disputes were silenced by the preparations made by the Spaniards for the INVASION of ENGLAND. Philip had long harboured a violent desire of revenge against Elizabeth. In all his ports artizans were employed in building vessels of uncommon size and force; naval stores were bought up, provisions amassed, armies levied, and plans were laid for fitting out such a fleet and embarkation, as had never before had its equal in Europe. The most renowned nobility and princes of Italy and Spain were ambitious of sharing in this great enterprise; and the Spaniards, ostentatious of their power, and elated with vain hopes, had already denominated their navy the Invincible Armada !

The force of Elizabeth seemed very unequal to resist so potent an enemy. All the sailors in England amounted at that time to about fourteen thousand men. The size of the English shipping was in general so small, that except a few of the queen's ships of war, there were not four vessels belonging to the merchants which exceeded four hundred tons. The royal navy consisted only of twenty-eight sail, many of which were of small size; and none of them exceeded the bulk of our largest frigates, and most of them deserved rather the name of pinnaces than of ships. The only advantage of the English fleet

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consisted in the dexterity and courage of the seamen, who, being accustomed to sail in tempestuous seas, and expose themselves to all dangers, as much exceeded in this particular the Spanish marines, as their vessels were inferior in size and force to those of that nation. ALL the commercial towns of England were required to furnish ships for reinforcing this small navy; and they discovered on the present occasion great alacrity in defending their LIBERTY and RELIGION against those imminent perils with which they were menaced! The citizens of London, in order to shew their zeal in the common cause, instead of fifteen vessels, which they were commanded to equip, voluntarily fitted out double the number! The gentry and nobility hired, and armed and manned, forty-three ships at their own charge; and all the loans of money which the queen demanded were frankly granted by the persons applied to. Lord Howard of Effingham, a man of courage and capacity, was admiral, and took on him the command of the navy : Drake, Hawkins, and Forbisher, the most renowned seamen in Europe, served under him. The principal fleet was stationed at Plymouth. A smaller squadron, consisting of forty vessels, English and Flemish, was commanded by lord Seymour, second son of protector Somerset ; and lay off Dunkirk, in order to intercept the duke of Parma.

The more to excite the martial spirit of the nation, the QUEEN appeared on horseback in the camp at Tilbury; and riding through the lines, discovered a cheerful and animated countenance, exhorted the soldiers to remember their duty to their coUNTRY and their RELIGION, and professed her intention, though a woman, to lead them herself into the field against the enemy, and rather to perish in battle than survive the ruin and slavery of her people! By this spirited behaviour, she revived the tenderness and admiration of the soldiery: an attachment to her person became a kind of enthusiasm among them and they asked one another, whether it were possible that Englishmen could abandon this glorious cause, could display less fortitude than appeared in the female sex, or could ever by any dangers, be in

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duced to relinquish the defence of their heroic princess? The ARMADA consisted of a hundred and thirty vessels, of which near a hundred were GALLEONS, and were of greater size than any ever before used in Europe! It carried on board nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety-five soldiers, eight thousand four hundred and fifty-six mariners, two thousand and eighty-eight galley slaves, and two thousand six hundred and thirty pieces of brass ordnance! It was victualled for six months; and was attended by twenty lesser ships, called caravals, and ten salves with six oars a-piece!

The duke of Medina, who commanded the Armada, informed that the English admiral had discharged many of his seamen, made sail directly for Plymouth, in hopes of destroying their ships in harbour; and Effingham had only time to get out of port, when he saw the Spanish fleet advancing towards him, in the form of a crescent, and stretching to the distance of seven miles, from the extremity of one division to that of the other!

Effingham gave orders not to come to close fight with the Spaniards; where the size of the ships, he suspected, and the numbers of the soldiers, would be a disadvantage to the English; but to cannonade them at a distance, and to wait the opportunity which winds, currents, or various accidents must afford him, of intercepting some scattered vessels of the enemy. Nor was it long before the event answered his expectation. A great ship of Biscay, on board of which was a considerable part of the Spanish money, took fire by accident; and while all hands were employed in extinguishing the flames, she fell behind the rest of the Armada: the great galleon of Andalusia was detained by the springing of her mast: and both these vessels were taken after some resistance, by sir Francis Drake! As the Armada advanced up the channel, the English hung upon its rear, and still infested it with skirmishes, Each trial abated the confidence of the Spaniards, and added courage to the English; and the latter soon found, that even in close fight the size of the Spanish ships was no advantage to them. Their bulk exposed them the more to the fire of the enemy; while their cannon, placed too high, shot over

the heads of the English. The alarm having now reached the coast of England, the nobility and gentry hastened out with their vessels from every harbour, and reinforced the admiral. They distinguished themselves by this generous and disinterested service of their country! The English fleet, after the conjunction of those ships, amounted to a hundred and forty sail.

The Armada had now reached Calais, and cast anchor before that place; in expectation that the duke of Parma, who had gotten intelligence of their approach, would put to sea, and join his forces to them. The English admiral practised here a successful stratagem upon the Spaniards. He took eight of his smaller ships, and filling them with all combustible materials, sent them one after another into the midst of the enemy! The Spaniards fancied that they were fire-ships of the same contrivance with a famous vessel which had lately done so much execution in the Schelde near Antwerp: and they immediately cut their cables, and took to flight with the greatest disorder and precipitation. The English fell upon them next morning while in confusion; and besides doing great damage to other ships, they took or destroyed about twelve of the enemy.

By this time the Spanish admiral had found how vain were the lofty hopes he had cherished; while he had lost so considerable a part of his navy, he had destroyed only one small vessel of the English: he prepared to return homewards, and to conduct his shattered ships to Spain, by Scotland and Ireland; a violent tempest overtook him near the Orkneys; the mariners yielded to the fury of the storm, and allowed their ships to drive either on the western isles of Scotland, or on the coast of Ireland, where they were miserably wrecked! Not half of the navy returned to Spain; and the seamen as well as soldiers who remained, were so overcome with hardships and fatigue, and so dispirited by their discomfiture, that they filled all Spain with accounts of the desperate valour of the ENGLISH, and of the tempestuous violence of that OCEAN which surrounds them."

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