l
beholders. The lofty masts, the swelling sails, and the towering prows
of the Spanish galleons, seem impossible to be justly painted, but by
assuming the colors of poetry; and an eloquent historian of Italy, in
imitation of Camden, has asserted, that the armada, though the ships
bore every sail, yet advanced with a slow motion; as if the ocean
groaned with supporting, and the winds were tired with impelling, so
enormous a weight.[**] The truth, however, is, that the largest of the
Spanish vessels would scarcely pass for third-rates in the present navy
of England; yet were they so ill framed, or so ill governed, that
they were quite unwieldy, and could not sail upon a wind, nor tack on
occasion, nor be managed in stormy weather by the seamen. Neither the
mechanics of ship-building, nor the experience of mariners, had attained
so great perfection as could serve for the security and government of
such bulky vessels; and the English, who had already had experience how
unserviceable they commonly were, beheld without dismay their tremendous
appearance.

* Monson, p. 158.

** Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. iv.

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 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