ARMADA.--Philip, king of Spain, after some years of preparation in all the ports of his extensive dominions, had assembled in the river Tagus a fleet of 130 large vessels, carrying nearly 30,000 men, and the Prince of Parma had collected, in the ports of the Netherlands, ships and boats for the embarkation of an equal number of his veteran troops. To resist these formidable preparations, Elizabeth had only a navy of 34 ships, but the nobility and the seaports fitted out such a number of vessels at their own expense, that there soon was at sea a fleet of 180 vessels of all kinds, large and small. The chief command was committed to Howard of Effingham, Lord High-Admiral of England, and Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher held commands under him. The fleet was stationed at Plymouth. A land army of 30,000 men was posted at Tilbury, in Essex, under the command of Lord Leicester, for the protection of the city of London, while another of equal strength was destined for the guard of the Queen’s person. On the 29th of May, 1588, the Invincible Armada (i.e. _Fleet_), as it was proudly styled, sailed from the Tagus, but owing to a storm which it encountered, it did not appear off the coast of England till the 19th of July. On that day it was descried near the Lizard point, in Cornwall, by a Scottish pirate, who made all the sail he could to convey the intelligence to Plymouth, and the Admiral got his fleet out to sea with as little delay as possible. As the Spanish Admiral had orders not to engage in hostilities till he should have seen the Prince of Parma’s army landed in England, he took no notice of the English fleet, but steadily directed his course up the Channel. The Armada sailed in the form of a crescent, of which the horns were seven miles asunder. Its motion was slow, though every sail was spread; “The winds,” says the historian, “being as it were tired with carrying the ships, and the ocean groaning beneath their weight.” The English ships, which were smaller and more active than those of the Armada, followed to harass it and cut off stragglers, and during the six days which it took to reach Calais, it suffered considerably from their persevering attacks. At Calais the Admiral learned that the Prince could not embark his troops for want of stores and sailors, and while he waited, the Armada narrowly escaped destruction from fire-ships sent into it by the English. A violent tempest succeeded, which drove it among the shoals on the coast of Zealand; and a council of war determined that, as it was now in too shattered a condition to attempt anything against the enemy, it were best to return to Spain without delay; but as the passage down the Channel was so full of hazard, it was resolved to sail round Scotland and Ireland. The Armada, therefore, set sail; the English pursued it as far as Flamborough-head, where want of ammunition forced them to give over the chase. Storms, however, assailed the