the earl's ship was attacked and captured by four large Spanish ships
full of soldiers, while most of his fleet were either taken or
destroyed.

Our national pride will make us examine narrowly to discover the cause
of this disaster. In the first place, the earl, though brave, was
inexperienced; then some of those forty French ships were larger than
the forty English ships, and the able frigates were quick rowing
galleys, full of men-at-arms, who must have done much mischief. The
French on this occasion also made use of balistas and other machines for
throwing bars of iron and great stones, to sink the English ships. They
had also in another way got ahead of the English, for they had provided
themselves with cannon, which the latter had not as yet got. This was
the first naval engagement in which such engines of destruction were
employed.

History is read by the naval and military man, and indeed by any one, to
very little purpose, unless facts like these are not only carefully
noted, but duly acted on; unless we take warning by the errors and
neglects of our predecessors. It is not only necessary to be well-armed
in appearance, but to be as well armed in reality, as those are with
whom we may possibly be called to fight. It is wise not only to adopt
new inventions likely to be of service, but if possible to have them
already in use before they are adopted by our enemies. The gun of those
days was a thick tube of wood, bound together with iron hoops, and
probably could send a shot of three or four pounds little more than two
or three hundred yards with very uncertain aim. What a contrast to the
"Woolwich Infant" of the present day, with its shot of several
hundredweight, whizzing for five miles or more through the air, with
almost a certainty of hitting its object at the termination of its
journey.

CHAPTER FOUR.

SHIPS AND COMMERCE TO THE REIGN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH--FROM A.D. 1327 TO
A.D. 1509.

In the early part of the reign of Edward the Third, the French
introduced cannon on board their ships, chiefly in consequence of which
his fleet, under the young Earl of Pembroke, as I have described, was
defeated before Rochelle. He took care, however, that this should not
again occur, and by the year 1338 he appears to have introduced them on
board most of his ships, and by the end of his reign no ships of war
were without them. Their employment, of course, effected a great change
in naval warfare, but a