OCEAN, THE UNIVERSAL HIGHWAY 233 



one of the ability of the strongest to do what he felt 

 inclined to. 



So by the opening of the sixteenth century ocean 

 traffic had become almost a commonplace, and while 

 much discovery remained to be accomplished, the 

 main high-roads of all the oceans were now wide open, 

 mariners had grown accustomed to the idea of sailing 

 across the ocean, and thought little of the safe accom- 

 plishment of a voyage from Europe to any of the 

 other great divisions of the globe. By the expression 

 " wide-open " I mean to point out that the element of 

 mystery, breeding dread of the unknown, had departed, 

 and, given time, any seaman worth counting as such 

 had no qualms in undertaking a voyage to any part 

 of the world accessible to a ship. 



Now, with the wonderful development of all-ocean 

 traffic came a problem to be solved. Was this new, 

 immense adjunct to national prosperity to become the 

 monopoly of any one nation, or was it to be, as it ob- 

 viously should be, according to the dictates of humanity, 

 free to the enterprise of all for the common good of all 

 men ? Spain, fretted and galled beyond endurance by 

 the semi-piratical raids of the English, determined that 

 one formidable competitor, at any rate, should be 

 effectually silenced. And the Invincible Armada was 

 the result of that determination, its fate a matter of 

 history, upon which there is no need to dwell. Terrific 

 as the struggle and the subsequent exhaustion was for 

 both sides, there is no controversy as to the position 

 in which its conclusion left England. It did not ruin 

 Spain, she had ruined herself in much the same 

 manner as Kussia has done in her conflict with Japan. 

 But England had found herself, and realized that her 



