THE STORY OF SANTA CRUZ 405 THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE 409 THE BOMBARDMENT OF COPENHAGEN 423 THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR 439 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE NELSON RECEIVING THE SWORDS OF THE SPANISH OFFICERS ON BOARD THE "SAN JOSEPH" _Frontispiece_ THE BATTLE OFF DOVER 68 THE DEFEAT OF SIR ANDREW BARTON 140 THE SPANISH ARMADA 220 ADMIRAL DUNCAN ADDRESSING HIS CREW AFTER THE MUTINY AT THE NORE 294 THE "VICTORY" AT PORTSMOUTH 374 FIFTY-TWO STORIES OF THE BRITISH NAVY. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BRITISH NAVY. _A SAXON CHRONICLE._ The founders of the English nation were a maritime people. Before they settled in the British Isles they had to dare the dangers of the deep, and though for nearly four hundred years after their first arrival they were too much occupied with internal strife to think of external enterprise, no sooner had they apparently completed the subjugation of the Britons and effected a settlement of their own differences by uniting the country under one crown, than they were called upon to give vigorous attention to maritime affairs. Egbert, king of the West Saxons, who, by the conquest of Mercia and Northumbria, became the first overlord of all England, A.D. 828, was soon compelled to deal seriously with the Danes. According to old chroniclers, threatened with invasion in the south, he engaged these formidable foes at Charmouth in Dorsetshire, but sustained defeat. Two years later, however, when they returned and landed on the coast of Wales, uniting with the disaffected Britons in a powerful armament, Egbert proved equal to the occasion, met them in a general engagement at the Battle of Hengestesdun, routed their entire forces, and compelled the Britons to seek safety in their mountains and the Danes to return to their ships. Desultory warfare supervened for some time with ever-varying success until, according to the Saxon Chronicle, the Danes were defeated off Sandwich in a desperate battle in which nine of their ships were taken by the English, and the rest compelled to seek safety in flight. After this they again returned, this time with a fleet of three hundred and fifty sail, devastated the south country and took Canterbury and London by storm.