For we owe it to the whole Sea-Dog breed that the fair
lands of North America are what they are and not as Spain might
otherwise have made them. The Sea-Dogs won the English right of entry
into Spain's New World. They, strange as it may seem, won French
rights, too; for Spain and France were often deadly enemies, and Spain
would gladly have kept the French out of all America if she had only
had the fleet with which to do it. Thus even the French-Canadians owe
Drake a debt of gratitude for breaking down the great sea barriers of
Spain.
"The Invincible Armada" could not, of course, have been defeated
without much English bravery. And we know that the Queen, her
Councillors, and the great mass of English people would have fought the
Spanish army bravely enough had it ever landed. For even Henry V,
calling to his army at the siege of Harfleur,
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
was no braver than Queen Elizabeth addressing her own army at Tilbury
Fort, the outwork of London, when the Armada was sailing up the
Channel: "I am only a poor weak woman.
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