gether
before sailing. They apparently relied on Providence to take care of
them, for they made little other preparation. They reached Newfoundland,
but their stores ran out, and their ships went on shore. In the land of
fish they did not know how to use line and bait. They fed on roots and
bilberries, and picked fish-bones out of the ospreys' nests. At last
they began to eat one another--careless of Master Hore, who told them
they would go to unquenchable fire. A French vessel came in. They seized
her with the food she had on board and sailed home in her, leaving the
French crew to their fate. The poor French happily found means of
following them. They complained of their treatment, and Henry ordered an
inquiry; but finding, the report says, the great distress Master Hore's
party had been in, was so moved with pity, that he did not punish them,
but out of his own purse made royal recompense to the French.

Something better than gentlemen volunteers was needed if naval
enterprise was to come to anything in England. The long wars between
Francis I. and Charles V. brought the problem closer. On land the
fighting was between the regular armies. At sea privateers were let
loose out of French, Flemish, and Spanish ports. Enterprising
individuals took out letters of marque and went cruising to take the
chance of what they could catch. The Channel was the chief
hunting-ground, as being the highway between Spain and the Low
Countries. The interval was short between privateers and pirates.
Vessels of all sorts passed into the business. The Scilly Isles became a
pirate stronghold. The creeks and estuaries in Cork and Kerry furnished
hiding-places where the rovers could lie with security and share their
plunder with the Irish chiefs. The disorder grew wilder when the divorce
of Catherine of Aragon made Henry into the public enemy of Papal Europe.
English traders and fishing-smacks were plundered and sunk. Their crews
went armed to defend themselves, and from Thames mouth to Land's End the
Channel became the scene of desperate fights. The type of vessel altered
to suit the new conditions. Life depended on speed of sailing. The State
Papers describe squadrons of French or Spaniards flying about, dashing
into Dartmouth, Plymouth, or Falmouth, cutting out English coasters, or
fighting one another.

After Henry was excommunicated, and Ireland rebelled, and England itself
threatened disturbance, the King had to look to his security. He