11. Each summer a ship arrived from London, bringing all that the Indian most needed or most fancied, such as guns, knives, axes, spirits, looking-glasses, blankets, beads, and trinkets of all sorts. When these had been properly arranged in the great room of the fort, the traffic began. The Indians were first admitted to the outer room with their bundles of furs. Each skin was examined and the price decided on was paid in the form of little coloured sticks. With these counters each red man passed into the inner room and exchanged them for such articles as he wished to purchase. 12. Before concluding this short sketch of the progress made in English colonization during the reigns of the Stuarts, justice compels us to say that the "Merry Monarch"--who is supposed never to have said a foolish thing, and never to have done a wise one--acted wisely on behalf of his colonies. He established a Colonial Council to take the oversight of all the colonies and see to their welfare. They were to arrange for a common system of government and trade, to assist the right sort of people to emigrate, and to bind the mother-country and the colonies together by schemes for mutual help. (5) STRUGGLE FOR THE MASTERY AT SEA. 1. Britain has long been acknowledged mistress of the seas, and our very existence as a nation, still more as an empire, depends on our being able to keep that position; for it is only by command of the sea that we can defend the scattered parts of our empire, and make sure of being fed at home, seeing that a large part of our food comes from abroad. England began to be a great Sea Power when the Spanish Armada was destroyed (1588), but more than a hundred years had yet to pass before she could lay undisputed claim to the foremost place upon the seas. Meanwhile, a great struggle took place between the Dutch and English for the leading place. 2. No braver or more skilful seamen ever sailed the seas than our Dutch rivals. Holland was at last obliged to yield the palm, because she had to defend her borders from attack by France on land whilst carrying on war with England at sea. We owe much to the fact that our land is encircled by the sea. Hence Shakespeare speaks of it as "This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands."