tiers, from their habits of robbery; and by the Spaniards, the chief sufferers from their depredations, Buccaneers, because they subsisted chiefly on sun-dried flesh.

550. After several expeditions of a similar character, Hawkins (afterwards one of the bravest commanders of the British fleet), with six ships, of which the 'Judith' was commanded by the still more illustrious Drake, sailed (1567) to the coast of Guinea; and having seized upon Negroes enough to cram his vessels, steered towards the slave markets in the colonies of Spain, and having landed and burnt the Spanish town of Rio de la Hacha in his way, reached St. Juan de Ulloa, where, though much tempted to seize upon twelve galleons, worth £200,000, he abstained, lest he should offend the Queen, and was surprised at a Spanish squadron destroying, of course treacherously, four of his ships. His own vessel, the 'Minion,' however, with the 'Judith,' escaped, and thereby entitled the redoubtable captains to make unlimited reprisal on the cities, and ships, and cargoes of the subjects of the King of Spain.

551. Hawkins, Drake and Frobisher, and Cavendish, who was ravaging the Indian seas, and many another bold Englishman, were of the order of gentlemen-privateers. France was in confusion. The Netherlands were insurgent against the bigot who ruled over Naples, Portugal, and Spain, and in right of those dominions exhausted the treasures of so much of Brazil, Peru, and Mexico as had been subdued, and traded with and pillaged the coasts of Africa and the East. There was peace between Philip and the Queen of England; but her troops and her captains swelled and marshalled the forces of the rebels, and English rovers (among them Drake), in the second circumnavigation of the world, and in voyage after voyage, with royal ships and with corsairs, devastated his colonies, burnt his towns, captured his vessels of commerce, destroyed his men-of-war, and appropriated all his treasures which they could find upon the seas. He meditated repri

sals, but called it peace.

552. The magnificent Armada is displayed (29th July, 1588) to the English coast. Tower after tower, galley after galley, in seven long miles of circuit, 130 huge vessels heave in sight. It is not a numerous, but it is a mighty expedition. It moves in unprecedented pomp. The Duke of Medina. Sidonia is its admiral, of the greatest of the magnates of Spain. The Vicar-General of the Holy Inquisition is its high-priest, attended by 290 monks. Its decks are resounding with martial music, and trodden by 30,000 men; its sides bristle with 3165 cannon. Each great galeas with 300 rowers sweeps the wave. Their lofty sterns and prows are glowing and glittering with vermilion and gold. Their sails are expanded, their gorgeous standards and streamers are floating in the wind. The largest will carry 1200, the smallest 300 tons. 553. The invincible Armada approaches. Darkness closes on the scene. A thousand beacons are blazing along. the English hills. Forth sail the royal ships of England. Their numbers are few. A noble is their admiral, but the Corsairs are their captains, the terrible sons of the sea. Forth speed the rovers of Plymouth; forth speed the gallants of Fowey, the cock-boats, the shallops, all the merchant craft; the nobles and the gentry are among the sailors, undisciplined volunteers. The eagles and the hawks are on the banquet; they have snuffed the carnage of Spain. They who have not already won them, this day shall win their spurs.

554. The wind freshens; on drifts before it the cumbrous cavalcade, jostling, crashing, crushing upon each other; the unwieldy vessels stumble along the sea, day after day, shattered, riddled, sunk, insulted, attacked, unable to attack. They expand their great line off Calais, waiting in vain for the ships of Farnese, in battle array. The wind is rising; in the darkness the waves are illumined, fire-ships are drifting upon them; crowding together in confusion, stranded, disabled, the unmanageable expedition is again driving before the wind, day after day pursued, battered, and persecuted along a dangerous coast. The provisions and

shot of the victors are expended; but they, still menacing, pursue. The storm rolls down on the devoted Armada. Its fragments are strewn on the billows; its brave soldiers lie rotting on the rocky realms of the Seakings and Yarls. Of 135 proud vessels, but 53 return to the seaports of Spain.

555. The United Provinces are free. They (1594-95) have sent forth their first expeditions in search of India and Cathay. Beyond the North Cape the passage is bound with impenetrable ice. But the Hollanders have resumed their ancient place upon the ocean.

556. The European fancy is enchanted with Elysian fields, and El Dorados in the South, and the West, and the East. The waters swarm with vessels of commerce, of discovery, and of the buccaneer; the caravals of Portugal and the carraks of Spain are freighted with silks and spices, and loaded with the precious ores; the frigates of England and the galleys of Holland rob the robber, and despoil the spoiler of his prey.

557. The ancient models, and those of the Middle Ages, are abandoned; Europe is building more manageable ships. The Sovereign of the Seas is first of the British force. The ancient castles are abated; she is fit to encounter the waves. Her length is 232 feet, her breadth 48, her height to the top of her lantern 76; on her three decks, her half-deck, her quarter-deck, her forecastle, and chase, she carries 128 culverins, demiculverins, and all manner of guns. At length navies grew up, and sovereigns became able to repress buc

caneers.

558. The vessels of commerce replace the rovers, and the nations of Europe are visiting every sea. Britain, late in the career of discovery, was the fastest in the race. The greatest and best of discoverers was the British skipper Cook. The vast Atalantis is the seat of mighty nations. The teeming regions of India, and the broad islands of the Southern seas, are provinces of the British realm. The map of the world is unfolded; our tale of discovery is told.

L

146

RIGHTS AND LAWS OF NAVIGATION.

CHAPTER I.

LAWS WHICH REGULATE THE WATERS.

We have now to address ourselves to the rights and reciprocal duties of those who traverse the waters, the rights and duties of the mariner and his ship.

559. IMPERSONATION OF THE SHIP.-The commander and the crew, and those who are interested in her and her freight, and to some extent her cargo, may be impersonated in the ship.

"She walks the waters like a thing of life,

And seems to dare the elements to strife."-Corsair. For the due consideration of her rights, and the laws by which she is bound, we must have regard, first, to the area on which she is sailing; and, secondly, to the nation to which she belongs. In the open sea she is a citizen of the world, in her national waters she is a subject of her own realm; but even on the open sea she cannot throw off her allegiance.

560. The ship, as we have said, is an impersonation. Thẹ individuals on board her are, in some respects, amenable for their conduct to the laws of their own nation,-as for treason, desertion, and other crimes; but we shall have occasion hereafter to consider to what extent they can be reached by those laws while they are on board the ship of another state. With respect to navigation, the ship is an individual subject of the nation whose flag she bears, and whose warrant she carries for her conduct; she is part of the land to which she belongs, and of that land the master and crew, whatever may be their proper country, are temporary denizens; to

the laws of that land all her inhabitants are amenable, and by those laws they are all protected.

561. THE AREA of the waters, as we have already seen, is divided into open or high sea, waters of communication, and national waters. We shall have to describe these divi

sions more in detail.

562. ON THE OPEN sea all ships are governed by the law of Nature, and by the law maritime or law of the sea, a department of the supreme law of nations.

563. THE LAW OF NATURE is, in some respects, distinct from the law of nations; it, like moral obligations, affects acts, as to which the law of nations is silent, and as to which the municipal laws of different countries may be silent, or contain unaccordant provisions. So far as the subject of this work is involved, it applies chiefly to maritime slave-trade, and some passages in the law of war; we therefore postpone its consideration.

564. THE MARITIME LAW is the law of the open sea, but its general provisions are affected by the exceptional state of war, which has introduced into it a chapter, which we shall separately exhibit as the Maritime Law of War.

565. Certain principles may be enunciated as equally applicable to all its provisions, to the general maritime law and to the law of war-indeed, to the whole code of the law of nations, the universal law.

566. All nations must be regarded as one great commonwealth, governed by this general system of law.

Every nation must be regarded as possessing equal rights, equal honour, equal wisdom, and equal power to assert and maintain her rights and the rights of her subjects.

The violation of any ordinance of the law of nations, as to one nation, or the subjects of one nation, must be regarded as an offence against the law of all nations; and as entitling all, or as many of the nations as feel affronted, to chastise the offender and vindicate the law.

567. The law of nations is the supreme law; it constitutes