Land and Sea 



merchant vessels, under the escort of three 

 men-of-war and bound for the West Indies, 

 anchored in Funchal Bay. It is recorded that 

 they took away 3041 pipes of wine shipped 

 by British merchants, either for the supply of 

 the colonies, or for the sake of the voyage. 

 These were the palmy days of the Madeira 

 wine-trade. 



Madeira cannot claim the stirring place in 

 our naval annals which belongs to the not dis- 

 tant Canary Islands. Thrice have our greatest 

 sailors attacked the Spaniards there ; and it 

 must be owned that Spain has won the rubber. 

 In 1595 Drake, on his last voyage, was repulsed 

 off Las Palmas in Grand Canary. This failure 

 of the scourge of Spain, the destroyer of count- 

 less treasure ships, the relentless pursuer of the 

 beaten Armada, must have been very welcome 

 to the victorious defenders. In 1657, during 

 Cromwell's Protectorate, Blake attacked the 

 harbour of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe, in which 

 was lying a great treasure-laden fleet, home- 

 ward bound from the West. He thrust his 

 ships into the port under the guns of the shore 

 batteries, and succeeded in sinking sixteen 

 Spanish galleons without the loss of one of his 



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