object, went to sea with the determination of wresting the wealth of the Spanish Main and the Southern Seas from the nation which had learnt to think them exclusively her own. The outcome of these efforts was the Great Armada Fight, and the naval supremacy of England over all the nations of Europe.
The authorities for the statements made in the following pages have been carefully indicated in footnotes. Among recent works, I am especially indebted to the many publications of the Hakluyt Society, and to the excellent Calendars of State Papers prepared under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. But it is hardly necessary to state that my largest debts are due to Hakluyt's Voyages, and Purchas's Pilgrims, and to the journals and other illustrative documents, not included in those voluminous collections, which are preserved in the British Museum Library, the Record Office, and elsewhere. Having a wonderful gathering of personal narratives to work from, I have purposely made free use of the quaint and eloquent words and sentences of the original writers, generally sharers and often leaders in the several enterprises which they describe. My effort has been simply and concisely to relate the story of some great achievements by which the little island of Britain was helped to become a rich and powerful nation. To that end I чave, as far as possible, abstained from interpolating