her place the same historian writes of the English trade as
follows:--

"The Pisans, Genoese, and Venetians supply England with the Eastern
gems, as saphires, emeralds, and carbuncles; from Asia was brought
the rich silks and purples; from Africa the cinnamon and balm; from
Spain the kingdom was enriched with gold; with silver from Germany;
from Flanders came the rich materials for the garments of the people;
while plentiful streams of wine flowed from their own province of
Gascoigny; joined with everything that was rich and pretious from
every land, wide stretching from the Hyades to the Arcturian Star."

No doubt this expansion was due, in part, to the very large
participation which the English fleet took in the Crusade. Great numbers
of English mariners were thus enabled to penetrate into seas that were
new to them, and had opportunities of studying the commercial needs of
the countries which bordered on those seas. Another cause which
powerfully contributed to the development of navigation, and
consequently of shipbuilding, was the introduction of the mariner's
compass into Western Europe during the first half of the thirteenth
century.

The English war navy, also at the commencement of the reign of Henry
II., appears to have been in a very efficient condition. Matthew Paris
gives a description of a great naval fight off the South Foreland, in
the year 1217, between a Cinque Ports Fleet under the famous Hubert de
Burgh, who was at the time Governor of Dover Castle, and a large French
fleet under a monk of the name of Eustace, who was one of the most
skilful naval commanders of his day. The English fleet consisted of
forty vessels, of which only sixteen were large and manned with trained
sailors. The French fleet, which was endeavouring to carry a strong
invading army to England, was made up of eighty large vessels, besides
numerous galleys and smaller craft. The account of the battle is most
interesting, because it throws a flood of light upon the naval tactics
and the weapons of offence of the day. The English commander
manoeuvred for the wind, and having got it, he bore down on the French
fleet, and attacked their rear ships with flights of arrows carrying
phials of unslaked lime, which being scattered and carried by the wind,
blinded the Frenchmen; boarding was then attempted with perfect
success, the rigging and halyards of the French ships were cut away,
causing the sails to fall upon