316 Professor J. K. Laughtcm [May 4, 



and captains of tlie fleet, playing bowls on the Hoe. My friend, 

 Mr. Wright, of Plymouth, the indefatigable secretary of the Tercen- 

 tenary Commemoration, has called my attenion to a pamphlet first 

 published in 1624, in which the incident is referred to as a well- 

 known fact.* But the common idea that Flemyng was a pirate ; that 

 he had been to sea pilfering ; j that in venturing into the presence of 

 the Lord Admiral, he risked his life, and only saved it by the impor- 

 tance of his news.i all this is contrary to well-ascertained fact. To 

 say of Flemyng. or indeed of any seaman of that age, that he had not 

 committed some irregularities which his enemies might stigmatise a.s 

 piracy, is of course impossible ; but he was not a man of ill repute. 

 He seems to have been a connection of Hawkyns,§ and certainly 

 commanded the Golden Hind, a merchant-ship in the Queen's pay, 

 and serving under the immediate orders of Drake. 



The following day, Saturday the 20th, the Spanish fleet was 

 collected off the Lizard and moved slowly eastwards. A council of 

 war was held. They had learned that the English fleet was at 

 Plymouth, and the great weight of opinion among the Spanish leaders 

 was that they ought to attack it there. It has always been said 

 that Medina-Sidonia was prevented from doing this by his instruc- 

 tions. The statement is inaccurate. The letter of his instructions 

 distinctly permitted him to attack the English fleet ; the spirit cf 

 them enjoined his doing it. j Fortunately he misunderstood his in- 

 structions ; he conceived that he was bound to go up Channel, turn- 

 ing neither to the right hand nor to the left until he could effect a 

 junction with the Duke of Parma. Had he, on the 19th, when he 

 first learned that the English fleet was at Plymouth, crowded sail 

 with even such ships as he had with him, he might have entered the 

 Sound that evening. The wind was from the south-west, and the 

 English ships, penned in between the Spaniards and the shore, would 

 have been forced to fight hand to hand ; the result might easily have 

 been disaster. The Spaniards neglected their chance, and it never 

 recurred ; for during the Saturday the English got out of the Sound, 

 and stretched along the coast to the westward. On Sunday morniog, 

 when the two fleets were first in presence of each other, the English 

 were to windward, and by the weatherly qualities of their ships had 

 no difficulty in keeping the advantage they had gained. 



And now, before the fighting begins, it is time to speak of the 

 comparative force of the opposing fleets. "We have all known from 

 our infancy that the Spanish ships, as compared with the English, 

 were stupendous in point of size, marvellous in their strength ; in 



* 3Iorgan'= ' Phcenix Britanmcus." p. 345. 



t Monson, in ChurcMJl, iiL p. 150. + • "Westward Ho I ' 



§ Wright's -Britain's Salamis,' p. 19. 



[i '• Si toparedes al dicho Draques con la Armada a la boca del Canal de 

 Inglaterra, podreis en este caso enveatirle, porque si estan divididas sns fuerzas 

 ser.'a mny bueno irlas venciendo asi, para que no se pndiesen juutor todas." — 

 Duro, ii. p. 9. 



