ty of the Earl of Leicester, to whom the deplorable spirit of
favoritism, which formed the great blemish on Elizabeth's character, had
then committed the chief command of the English armies.

The ships of the royal navy at this time amounted to no more than
thirty-six; but the most serviceable merchant vessels were collected
from all the ports of the country; and the citizens of London, Bristol,
and the other great seats of commerce showed as liberal a zeal in
equipping and manning vessels as the nobility and gentry displayed in
mustering forces by land. The seafaring population of the coast, of
every rank and station, was animated by the same ready spirit; and the
whole number of seamen who came forward to man the English fleet was
17,472; the number of the ships that were collected was 191; and the
total amount of their tonnage, 31,985. There was one ship in the
fleet--the Triumph--of 1100 tons, one of 1000, one of 900, two of 800
each, three of 600, five of 500, five of 400, six of 300, six of 250,
twenty of 200, and the residue of inferior burden.

Application was made to the Dutch for assistance; and, as Stowe
expresses it: "The Hollanders came roundly in with three-score sail,
brave ships of war, fierce and full of spleen, not so much for England's
aid as in just occasion for their own defence, these men foreseeing the
greatness of the danger that might ensue if the Spaniard should chance
to win the day and get the mastery over them; in due regard whereof,
their manly courage was inferior to none."

We have more minute information of the number and equipment of the
hostile forces than we have of our own. In the first volume of Hakluyt's
_Voyages_, dedicated to Lord Effingham, who commanded against the
armada, there is given--from the contemporary foreign writer Meteran--a
more complete and detailed catalogue than has perhaps ever appeared of a
similar armament:

"A very large and particular description of this navie was put in print
and published by the Spaniards, wherein were set downe the number,
names, and burthens of the shippes, the number of mariners and soldiers
throughout the whole fleete; likewise the quantitie of their ordinance,
of their armor, of bullets, of match, of gun-poulder, of victuals, and
of all their navall furniture was in the saide description
particularized.

"Unto all these were added the names of the governours, captaines,
noblemen, and gentlemen voluntaries, of whom there was so gr