The Spanish king was angry. He resolved to crush England. More than one hundred ships, manned by thousands of sailors, were to carry a great army to the hated island. Drake heard about it, and quickly gathered thirty fast ships manned by sailors as bold as himself. His fleet sailed right into the harbor of Cadiz, past cannon and forts, and burned so many Spanish ships that it took Spain another year to get the great fleet ready. Drake declared that he had "singed the King of Spain's beard." [Sidenote: =Spain aims to crush England, but is badly defeated=] =27. The Spanish Armada.= The King of Spain was bound to crush England at one mighty blow. In 1588 the Spanish Armada, as the great fleet was called, sailed for England. There were scores of war vessels manned by more than seven thousand sailors, carrying nearly twenty thousand soldiers. Almost every noble family in Spain sent one or more of its sons to fight against England. When this mighty fleet reached the English Channel, Drake and other sea captains as daring as himself dashed at the Spanish ships, and by the help of a great storm that came up, succeeded in destroying almost the whole fleet. No such blow had ever before fallen upon the great and powerful Spanish nation. From that time on her power grew less and less, while England's power on the sea grew greater and greater. Englishmen could now go to America without much thought of danger from Spaniards. SIR WALTER RALEIGH, THE FRIEND OF ELIZABETH, PLANTS A COLONY IN AMERICA TO CHECK THE POWER OF SPAIN [Sidenote: =Raleigh, student, soldier, seaman=] =28. Sir Walter Raleigh.= Born (1552) near the sea, Raleigh fed his young imagination with stories of the wild doings of English seamen. He went to college at Oxford at the age of fourteen, and made a good name as a student. In a few years young Raleigh went to France to take part in the religious wars of that unhappy country. At the time he returned home all England was rejoicing over Drake's first shipload of gold. When Queen Elizabeth sent an army to aid the people of Holland against the Spaniards, young Raleigh was only too glad to go. On his return from this war he went with his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on two voyages to America, at the very same time Drake was plundering the Spanish treasure ships in the Pacific Ocean. Afterward Raleigh turned soldier again and, as captain, went to Ireland, where Spain had sent soldiers to stir up rebellion. Thus, before he was thirty years old, he had been a seaman and a soldier, and had been in France, Holland, America, and Ireland. [Illustration: THE BOYHOOD OF RALEIGH _After the painting by Sir John E. Millais_] [Sidenote: =Raleigh when thirty years old=] At this time Raleigh was a fine-looking man, about six feet tall, with dark hair and a handsome face. He had plenty of wit and good sense, although he was fond, indeed, of fine clothes. He was just the very one to catch the favor of Queen Elizabeth.