to engage himself in any port, and so the hope of incursion made frustrate.

To the fourth: I am of opinion that the enemy will not seek to possess any port in the west, by reason of the impassibility of the ways, and the length of the march. Neither do I conceive that they will attempt the Isle of Wight, or any other port or place of the south; for I hold it for a principle, that there is no enemy so ill advised to offer to hold any port or piece of ground upon the coast where her majesty, with the help of the Low Countries, may command the sea. The reasons are manifold manifest, and therefore superfluous to insert; but that if any such thing be intended, they will enter by the river of Thames, and make descent near London or at London itself. To prevent which, I think it very requisite to describe an army; that the same may be drawn together on the sudden. And that there be a magazine of victual for her majesty's fleet made ready, and I am of opinion, under correction, that the setting out of her majesty's [ships] by two and three at a time is not safe, for by that time the last shall be prepared the victual of the first shall be spent, and so there will be no able strength in order at any time; for if it prove an invasion, there will be time given to provide sufficiently for all. If the attempt be sudden, a lesser number shall be in danger of being lost or beaten.

To the fifth: I do not think it necessary to fortify any where but upon the Thames; for the rest, either the enemy will give us time to prepare our navy, and then it shall not need, or he will give us no time, and then we shall but begin a work of our own perils.

To the sixth: De hoc in campis consultabimus; and those which shall command the army, when they shall see what the enemy intendeth, themselves with their commanders of the army shall best judge of necessary counterwork.

To the seventh: the ways to hinder any enemy from progress are manifold, as by taking away all means of victual, I mean such provision as shall be of corn and the like,

by carriage; the rest alive, as sheep and cattle, by driving the countries with light horses. It hath been also the manner to make head upon the straits, to defend passages, bridges, and rivers, with the like; yet I do not find that an enemy hath been stayed in any passage, either in ours or former times upon any invasion. For the Switzers sought to impeach Francis the French king, in the journey of Italy; but they failed. The Spaniards resolved to impeach the constable of France at Susa, where they had fortified themselves; but it availed not. The duke of Guise passed the river of Behamby, notwithstanding that the Spaniards, with an army on the other bank, sought to give impediment. The duke of Lancaster forced his passage upon the river of Dyrne, in spite of the army of Castile. Dandelot passed at Orleans, in spite of the earl of Nemours. And the duke of Beaupont came over the Loire in my own time in France, and won La Charite, in spite of D'Aumall. So did Charles the Fifth on the river Elba, against the duke of Saxony, with many more too tedious and impertinent to remember.

To the eighth to hazard a battle with an enemy invading is very dangerous; yet the question hath been largely disputed among those that have written of the wars, but by the greater party held perilous. Many things may be said for both opinions; but I will leave it to better judgment; only I will remember this principle; that the invader can lose nothing but his men, the defendant may lose the kingdom; and that withal the defendant hath many helps by time, the invader many wants and impediments.

To the ninth: for our store of munition I will leave the judgment to those whom it shall concern, who are to deliver in fit proportions both for land and sea. That any great quantity of munition should be left in any place but London I do not (for my poor conceit) much allow of, because we have few places guardable, Portsmouth excepted. That there be a magazine of victuals at this time, and so long as her majesty shall stand in terms with Spain, I think the most safe and most necessary counsel of all other; for with

out it we can neither defend on the sudden, nor attempt any thing without giving the enemy sufficient time to provide. And as it is said by those that have written of the wars, Celuy qui ne donne point d'ordre à la munition de vivres, veult estre vaincu sans costeau.

To the tenth there may be used in training of all such numbers as shall compound the army, such a form as shall answer to a late kind of embattling practised by the earl of Essex in the journey of Cales, or otherwise, according to the direction of the general of the army.

To the eleventh: I think it fit, that because the army may receive sudden loss upon any encounter, that the lieutenant-general of the army may have commission to authorize any lieutenant of the several counties to send either the one half or more of the forces within his lieutenancy, because it may be dangerous to attend a second warrant from her majesty. But if the enemy happen to take land in any of the south or west parts, I do think it very dangerous to draw the strength either from the east or west countries together, and to compound the army of these; but that the strength of the country itself in which the enemy maketh descent be only a part of the general army, and the rest to be taken from the countries next adjoining northward, and into the land. My reason is, that an enemy coming into the channel, may by accident of wind and weather enter with his fleet into such a port where he hath no determination to make the war. As for example; if the enemy shall be driven into Plymouth, if we then draw thither the forces of Dorset, Hampshire, and Sussex, and, upon the change of wind or weather, the enemy proceed to the eastward, and land in any of those counties so disfurnished, there can be no resistance made by the rest remaining; and before the proper forces of the country can be recalled, the enemy shall have time either to destroy or possess the same. Lastly, I think it, under correction, very inconvenient that all such colonels and captains which now command regiments and companies in the counties, should not hold the same commandment in the army;

for besides that it will take away the employments of all our best captains that follow the wars abroad, so will it withal breed great confusion in the army, because that most of all those gentlemen have never seen the wars in any sort, and therefore I think it meet to leave the choice to the lieutenant of the army to allow or change of the one or the other at his discretion. That the lieutenant of the county into which the lieutenant-general of the army shall enter, be lieutenant to the general of the army, I think it a very wise and honourable allowance and consideration.

Orders to be observed by the Commanders of the Fleet and Land Companies, under the Charge and Conduct of Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, bound for the south parts of America or elsewhere. Given at Plymouth in Devon the third of May, 1617.

FIRST, because no action nor enterprise can prosper (be it by sea or land) without the favour and assistance of Almighty God, the Lord and strength of hosts and armies, you shall not fail to cause divine service to be read in your ship morning and evening, in the morning before dinner, and at night before supper, or at least (if there be interruption by foul weather) once in the day, praising God every night with singing of a psalm at the setting of the watch.

Secondly, you shall take especial care that God be not blasphemed in your ship, but that after admonition given, if the offenders do not refrain themselves, you shall cause them of the better sort to be fined out of their adventures, by which course, if no amendment be found, you shall acquaint me withal. For if it be threatened in the scriptures, that the curse shall not depart from the house of the swearer, much less from the ship of the swearer.

Thirdly, no man shall refuse to obey his officer in all that he is commanded, for the benefit of the journey: no man (being in health) shall refuse to wait his turn as he shall be directed; the sailors by the master and boatswain; the landmen by their captain, lieutenant, and others.

You shall make in every ship two captains of the watch, who shall make choice of two soldiers every night to search between the decks, that no fire nor candlelight be carried about the ship, after the watch set; nor that any candles be burning in any cabin without a lantern, and that neither