About two thousand volunteers in Spain, many of them men of family, had enlisted in the service.
No doubts were entertained but such vast preparations, conducted by officers of such consummate skill, must finally be successful.

And the Spaniards, ostentatious of their power, and elated with vain hopes, had already denominated their navy the Invincible Armada.
News of these extraordinary preparations soon reached the court of London; and notwithstanding the secrecy of the Spanish council, and their pretending to employ this force in the Indies, it was easily concluded that they meant to make some effort against England.

The queen had foreseen the invasion; and finding that she must now contend for her crown with the whole force of Spain, she made preparations for resistance; nor was she dismayed with that power, by which all Europe apprehended she must of necessity be overwhelmed.

Her force, indeed, seemed very unequal to resist so potent an enemy.

All the sailors in England amounted at that time to about fourteen thousand men.[*] The size of the English shipping was in general so small, that except a few of the queen's ships of war, there were not four vessels belonging to the merchants which exceeded four hundred tons.[**] The royal navy consisted of only twenty-eight sail,[***] many of which were of small size; none of them exceeded the bulk of our largest frigates, and most of them deserved rather the name of pinnaces than of ships.
* Monson, p.