attle
or campaign, that really made those vast changes in world-history which
we enjoy today. For we owe it to the whole Sea-Dog breed that the fair
lands of North America are what they are and not as Spain might
otherwise have made them. The Sea-Dogs won the English right of entry
into Spain's New World. They, strange as it may seem, won French
rights, too; for Spain and France were often deadly enemies, and Spain
would gladly have kept the French out of all America if she had only
had the fleet with which to do it. Thus even the French-Canadians owe
Drake a debt of gratitude for breaking down the great sea barriers of
Spain.

"The Invincible Armada" could not, of course, have been defeated
without much English bravery. And we know that the Queen, her
Councillors, and the great mass of English people would have fought the
Spanish army bravely enough had it ever landed. For even Henry V,
calling to his army at the siege of Harfleur,

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!

was no braver than Queen Elizabeth addressing her own army at Tilbury
Fort, the outwork of London, when the Armada was sailing up the
Channel: "I am only a poor weak woman. But I have the heart of a king;
and of a King of England too."

There can be no doubt whatever that both leaders and followers must
have good hearts, and have them in the right place too; and that the
heart of England beat high throughout this great campaign. But good
heads, rightly used, are equally needed in war. Sea-Dog courage
counted for much against the Great Armada; but Sea-Dog skill for more.

If you want a fight in which the Sea-Dog hearts might well have quailed
against appalling odds, then turn to the glorious end of Drake's old
flagship, the _Revenge_, when her new captain, Sir Richard Grenville,
fought her single-handed against a whole encircling fleet of Spain.

[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE ON BOARD THE _REVENGE_ receiving the
surrender of Don Pedro de Valdes.]

Grenville, Drake, and Sir Philip Sidney had been among those members of
Parliament who had asked Queen Elizabeth to give Sir Walter Raleigh a
Royal Charter to found the first of the English oversea Dominions--the
colony on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. Grenville
himself went out to Roanoke. He was a born soldier of fortune and
"first-class fighting man"; an explorer, scout, and pioneer; but not a
colonist at al