townes," as he lost
money by his venture and could not pay the king the promised "royalty"
of twenty per cent., we need not laugh too loudly over what the king
gave him: "To Hym that founde the new Isle--10 pounds," which was worth
more than a thousand dollars would be now. Cabot went again and his
son Sebastian after him; but there was no money to be made in this
venture. True, Sebastian said the fish off Newfoundland were so thick
that he could hardly force his vessels through the water. But fish
stories and travellers' tales were as hard to believe then as now; and
the English thought America was worth very little after all. Indeed,
the general opinion in Europe was that America was more of a nuisance
than anything else, because it seemed to block the way to the Golden
East. Once people were persuaded that the world was round they wanted
to find a short cut to Cathay, the land of fabled wealth in silks and
spices, gold and jewels; and they expected to find it by sailing due
West till they reached the Far East. So, finding instead that America
had no such riches on its own shores and that these shores spoilt the
short cut to Cathay, and knowing that fish were plentiful in Europe,
most people never bothered their heads about America for another fifty
years.

[Illustrations: Eddystone Lighthouse, 1699. The first structure of
stone and timber. Built for Trinity House by Winstanley and swept away
in a storm. Eddystone Lighthouse, 1882. The fourth and present
structure, erected by Sir J. N. Douglass for Trinity House.]

We shall soon see what wonderful changes took place when the Old World
at last discovered the riches of the New, and all the European
sea-powers began fighting for the best places they could find there.

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 his first thought was for
the "Broade Ditch," as he called the English Channel. In 1546, only a
little before he died, he appointed a Navy Board, which answered its
purpose so well that it looked after the pay, food, stores, docks, and
ships of the Royal Navy for nearly three hundred years; and then became
part of the Admiralty, which now does everything for the Navy that can
be done from the land. In one word, this Board took care of everything
except the fighting part of the Navy's work. That part was under the
Lord High Admiral or a body of men appointed to act for him. This body
still exists; and the old Board of Henry VIII works with it under