And if we should reckon by this Account we are a stormy Country indeed, our Seas are no more Navigable now for such Sailors than they were then: If the _Japoneses_, the _East Indians_, and such like Navigators, were to come with their thin Cockleshell Barks and Calico Sails; if _Cleopatra's_ Fleet, or _Cæsar's_ great Ships with which he fought the Battle of _Actium_, were to come upon our Seas, there hardly comes a _March_ or a _September_ in twenty Years but would blow them to Pieces, and then the poor Remnant that got Home, would go and talk of a terrible Country where there's nothing but Storms and Tempests; when all the Matter is, the Weakness of their Shipping, and the Ignorance of their Sea-men: and I make no question but our Ships ride out many a worse Storm than that terrible Tempest which scatter'd _Julius Cæsar's_ Fleet, or the same that drove _Æneas_ on the Coast of _Carthage_. And in more modern times we have a famous Instance in the _Spanish Armada_; which, after it was rather frighted than damag'd by Sir _Francis Drake_'s Machines, not then known by the Name of Fireships, were scatter'd by a terrible Storm, and lost upon every Shore. The Case is plain, 'Twas all owing to the Accident of Navigation: They had, no doubt, a hard Gale of Wind, and perhaps a Storm; but they were also on an Enemy's Coast, their Pilots out of their Knowledge, no Harbour to run into, and an Enemy a-stern, that when once they separated, Fear drove them from one Danger to another, and away they went to the Northward, where they had nothing but God's Mercy, and the Winds and Seas to help them. In all those Storms and Distresses which ruin'd that Fleet, we do not find an Account of the Loss of one Ship, either of the _English_ or _Dutch_; the Queen's Fleet rode it out in the _Downs_, which all Men know is none of the best Roads in the World; and the _Dutch_ rode among the Flats of the _Flemish_ Coast, while the vast Galleons, not so well fitted for the Weather, were forc'd to keep the Sea, and were driven to and fro till they had got out of their Knowledge; and like Men desperate, embrac'd every Danger they came near. This long Digression I could not but think needful, in order to clear up the Case, having never met with any thing on this Head before: At the same time 'tis allow'd, and Histories are full of the Particulars, that we have often very high Winds, and sometimes violent Tempests in these Northen Parts of the World; but I am still of opinion, such a Tempest never happen'd before as that which is the Subject of these Sheets: and I refer the Reader to the Particulars. CHAPTER III _Of the Storm in General_ Before we come to examine the Damage suffer'd by this terrible Night, and give a particular Relation of its dismal Effects; 'tis necessary to give a summary Account of the thing it self, with all its affrightning Circumstances.