OCEAN, THE UNIVERSAL HIGHWAY 235 



if her trade was to grow in its natural ratio, merchant 

 seamen must have their hands free from the necessity 

 for fighting, the ships themselves must not be ham- 

 pered by warlike equipment, that peaceful trade must 

 be protected by vessels built and fitted out for war. 

 In short, that England must have a navy to protect 

 her already great commerce from molestation by the 

 ships of other nations, as well as by the pirates sailing 

 under the flag of universal hatred and depredation ; 

 for going to sea in those days was an extremely 

 hazardous undertaking, more so, perhaps, than at any 

 other time in the world's history. As before noted, 

 the development of all aids to safe and speedy navi- 

 gation had by no means kept pace with the courage 

 and enterprise of seafarers generally ; and, in addition 

 to the clumsiness of the vessels and the horrible priva- 

 tions in the matter of food and water and lodgment, 

 there was now the fierce and lawless competition be- 

 tween all the maritime nations, so that the sighting of 

 a sail was the signal to prepare for action, to make 

 ready to fight not merely for liberty, but for life. 



Spain, however, had been permanently crippled; 

 Portugal was fast sinking into a slothful negligence 

 from her brief and brilliant sea career ; France was not 

 yet of much account on the sea, and the only two nations 

 who were contemporaneously growing in sea-power 

 and skill were England and Holland. They seemed 

 as if they were going to share the world between 

 them, or else, in case of a national quarrel, that one 

 would be practically destroyed, leaving the other 

 paramount. England had done Holland an enormous 

 service in breaking the sea-power of Spain to pieces, 

 for Spain had been the relentless tyrant of the Dutch, 



