History of the United Netherlands, 1588c | Page 9

for the opponents of the
Inquisition, and the English were proportionably encouraged.
On Monday, 1st of August, Medina Sidonia placed the
rear-guard-consisting of the galeasses, the galleons St. Matthew, St.
Luke, St. James, and the Florence and other ships, forty-three in
all--under command of Don Antonio de Leyva. He was instructed to
entertain the enemy-- so constantly hanging on the rear--to accept every
chance of battle, and to come to close quarters whenever it should be
possible. The Spaniards felt confident of sinking every ship in the
English navy, if they could but once come to grappling; but it was
growing more obvious every hour that the giving or withholding battle
was entirely in the hands of their foes. Meantime--while the rear was
thus protected by Leyva's division-- the vanguard and main body of the
Armada, led by the captain-general, would steadily pursue its way,
according to the royal instructions, until it arrived at its appointed
meeting-place with the Duke of Parma. Moreover, the Duke of

Medina--dissatisfied with the want of discipline and of good
seamanship hitherto displayed in his fleet--now took occasion to send a
serjeant-major, with written sailing directions, on board each ship in the
Armada, with express orders to hang every captain, without appeal or
consultation, who should leave the position assigned him; and the
hangmen were sent with the sergeant-majors to ensure immediate
attention to these arrangements. Juan Gil was at the name time sent off
in a sloop to the Duke of Parma, to carry the news of the movements of
the Armada, to request information as to the exact spot and moment of
the junction, and to beg for pilots acquainted with the French and
Flemish coasts. "In case of the slightest gale in the world," said Medina,
"I don't know how or where to shelter such large ships as ours."
Disposed in this manner; the Spaniards sailed leisurely along the
English coast with light westerly breezes, watched closely by the
Queen's fleet, which hovered at a moderate distance to windward,
without offering, that day, any obstruction to their course.
By five o'clock on Tuesday morning, 2nd of August, the Armada lay
between Portland Bill and St. Albans' Head, when the wind shifted to
the north- east, and gave the Spaniards the weather-gage. The English
did their beat to get to windward, but the Duke, standing close into the
land with the whole Armada, maintained his advantage. The English
then went about, making a tack seaward, and were soon afterwards
assaulted by the Spaniards. A long and spirited action ensued. Howard
in his little Ark- Royal--"the odd ship of the world for all
conditions"--was engaged at different times with Bertendona, of the
Italian squadron, with Alonzo de Leyva in the Batta, and with other
large vessels. He was hard pressed for a time, but was gallantly
supported by the Nonpareil, Captain Tanner; and after a long and
confused combat, in which the St. Mark, the St. Luke, the St. Matthew,
the St. Philip, the St. John, the St. James, the St. John Baptist, the St.
Martin, and many other great galleons, with saintly and apostolic
names, fought pellmell with the Lion, the Bear, the Bull, the Tiger, the
Dreadnought, the Revenge, the Victory, the Triumph, and other of the
more profanely-baptized English ships, the Spaniards were again
baffled in all their attempts to close with, and to board, their
ever-attacking, ever-flying adversaries. The cannonading was incessant.
"We had a sharp and a long fight," said Hawkins. Boat-loads of men

and munitions were perpetually arriving to the English, and many,
high-born volunteers--like Cumberland, Oxford, Northumberland,
Raleigh, Brooke, Dudley, Willoughby, Noel, William Hatton, Thomas
Cecil, and others--could no longer restrain their impatience, as the roar
of battle sounded along the coasts of Dorset, but flocked merrily on
board the ships of Drake,--Hawkins, Howard, and Frobisher, or came in
small vessels which they had chartered for themselves, in order to have
their share in the delights of the long-expected struggle.
The action, irregular, desultory, but lively, continued nearly all day,
and until the English had fired away most of their powder and shot. The
Spaniards, too, notwithstanding their years of preparation, were already
sort of light metal, and Medina Sidonia had been daily sending to
Parma for a Supply of four, six, and ten pound balls. So much lead and
gunpowder had never before been wasted in a single day; for there was
no great damage inflicted on either side. The artillery-practice was
certainly not much to the credit of either nation.
"If her Majesty's ships had been manned with a full supply of good
gunners," said honest William Thomas, an old artilleryman, "it would
have been the woefullest time ever the Spaniard took in hand, and the
most noble victory ever heard of would have been her Majesty's.