How the English navy came to hold so extraordinary a position is worth
reflecting on. Much has been written about it, but little, as it seems
to me, which touches the heart of the matter. We are shown the power of
our country growing and expanding. But how it grew, why, after a sleep
of so many hundred years, the genius of our Scandinavian forefathers
suddenly sprang again into life--of this we are left without
explanation.
The beginning was undoubtedly the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Down to that time the sea sovereignty belonged to the Spaniards, and had
been fairly won by them. The conquest of Granada had stimulated and
elevated the Spanish character. The subjects of Ferdinand and Isabella,
of Charles V. and Philip II., were extraordinary men, and accomplished
extraordinary things. They stretched the limits of the known world; they
conquered Mexico and Peru; they planted their colonies over the South
American continent; they took possession of the great West Indian
islands, and with so firm a grasp that Cuba at least will never lose the
mark of the hand which seized it. They built their cities as if for
eternity. They spread to the Indian Ocean, and gave their monarch's name
to the _Philippines_.
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