d maps on Mercator's
projection all began in the reign of Elizabeth, as did many other
inventions, adaptations, handy wrinkles, and vital changes in strategy
and tactics. Taken together, these improvements may well make us of the
twentieth century wonder whether we are so very much superior to the
comrades of Henry, Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Bacon, Raleigh, and Drake.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

A complete bibliography concerned with the first century of
Anglo-American affairs (1496-1596) would more than fill the present
volume. But really informatory books about the sea-dogs proper are very
few indeed, while good books of any kind are none too common.

Taking this first century as a whole, the general reader cannot do
better than look up the third volume of Justin Winsor's _Narrative and
Critical History of America_ (1884) and the first volume of Avery's
_History of the United States and its People_ (1904). Both give
elaborate references to documents and books, but neither professes to be
at all expert in naval or nautical matters, and a good deal has been
written since.

THE CABOTS. Cabot literature is full of conjecture and controversy. G.P.
Winship's _Cabot Bibliography_ (1900) is a good guide to all but recent
works. Nicholls' _Remarkable Life of Sebastian Cabot_ (1869) shows more
zeal than discretion. Harrisse's _John Cabot and his son Sebastian_
(1896) arranges the documents in scholarly order but draws conclusions
betraying a wonderful ignorance of the coast. On the whole, Dr. S.E.
Dawson's very careful monographs in the _Transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada_ (1894, 1896, 1897) are the happiest blend of
scholarship and local knowledge. Neither the Cabots nor their crews
appear to have written a word about their adventures and discoveries.
Consequently the shifting threads of hearsay evidence soon became
inextricably tangled. Biggar's _Precursors of Cartier_ is an able and
accurate work.

ELIZABETH. Turning to the patriot queen who had to steer England through
so many storms and tortuous channels, we could find no better short
guide to her political career than Beesley's volume about her in 'Twelve
English Statesmen.' But the best all-round biography is _Queen
Elizabeth_ by Mandell Creighton, who also wrote an excellent epitome,
called _The Age of Elizabeth_, for the 'Epochs of Modern History.'
_Shakespeare's England_, published in 1916 by the Oxford University
Press, is quite encyclopaedic in its r