ly laid. And the famous Captain Cook, who
surveyed the Traverse for Saunders and made the first charts of British
Canada, soon afterwards became one of the founders of that British
Australasia whose Australian-New Zealand-Army-Corps became so justly
famous as the fighting "Anzacs" throughout our recent war against the
Germans.

ON THE LOSS OF THE _ROYAL GEORGE_

Written when the news arrived (September, 1782).

The _Royal George_, Hawke's flagship at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, the
battle which confirmed the conquest of Canada, was a first-rate
man-of-war of 100 guns. On the 29th of August, 1782, while at anchor
off Spithead, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, her guns broke
loose with the rolling and she went down with all hands.

Toll for the brave--
The brave that are no more:
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore.
Eight hundred of the brave,
Whose courage well was tried,
Had made the vessel heel
And laid her on her side;
A land-breeze shook the shrouds,
And she was overset;
Down went the _Royal George_,
With all her crew complete.

Toll for the brave--
Brave Kempenfelt is gone,
His last sea-fight is fought,
His work of glory done.
It was not in the battle,
No tempest gave the shock,
She sprang no fatal leak,
She ran upon no rock;
His sword was in the sheath,
His fingers held the pen,
When Kempenfelt went down
With twice four hundred men.

Weigh the vessel up,
Once dreaded by our foes,
And mingle with your cup
The tears that England owes;
Her timbers yet are sound,
And she may float again,
Full charg'd with England's thunder,
And plough the distant main;
But Kempenfelt is gone,
His victories are o'er;
And he and his eight hundred
Must plough the wave no more.
--_Cowper_.

CHAPTER XVII

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

(1775-1783)

The rights and wrongs of this Revolution are not our business here.
But British sea-power is. So we should like to tell the whole story of
the Navy in that unhappy time; because most books say little about it
and do not say that little well. But, as we have no time for more than
the merest glance, all we can do is to ask those who want to learn the
truth in full to read _The Influence of Sea-Power on History_, by that
expert American, Admiral Mahan.

The Revolution was not a fight between British and Americans, as