would tell them it was against his orders that money should be lent to the men, and if they did so it was at their own risk. The Civil Courts were open to them. With tradespeople it was different. If such a one had a claim against one of the men, he had to substantiate it; and if after discussion it was judged correct, the soldier would be ordered to pay off the debt in monthly instalments.

grass. Indian cavalry horses short and sharp way. He are fed on fresh cut grass gathered in daily for about half the year, whilst hay is stacked at the same time for the remaining period. This grass used to be obtained from the sides of roads, the borders of fields, railway or canal embankments, from anywhere and everywhere, the grass-cutters going many miles daily in daily in search of fresh fields. Whilst cutting the grass, their packmules or ponies, though kneehaltered, might well stray off into the villagers' crops: hence these tears.

With these villagers the Colonel would take a fatherly air. He would have a little chat and banter with them, and thus get them into a good temper. Then he would point how extraordinarily lucky they were to have so fine a regiment quartered near them, a regiment which bought all their barley and oats and chickens and eggs, and was, in fact, a perfect godsend to them. Moreover, were not many of their sons and brothers soldiers too, who would never harm villagers wilfully? And he would wind up by pointing out that these were no private horses, but the horses of the great King, and that unless they are fed the soldiers could not fight and kill the enemies of the King, so that the villagers might live in peace and safety, and gather in their crops and become rich.

With money - lenders Colonel would have a

the very

In these seemingly roughand-ready ways the affairs of an Indian regiment are managed, and with great success. The prestige of the British officer is so high, and his absolute integrity and honour so well established, that just a sprinkling of them will thus rule and keep in a state of perfect discipline a regiment of a thousand Indians. And these, be it remembered, are not like a thousand Englishmen or Scotsmen, all of one blood; but there may be amongst them half a dozen different tribes and as many castes and religions.

And these various sects and classes and tribes are often fiercely antagonistic to each other, and would be at each other's throats in five minutes at the smallest provocation, but for the calm control of their British officers. It is not mere lip-service or oriental flattery, but a deeplyrooted sentiment, which will cause an Indian to murmur ofttimes, "Indeed, these Englishmen are a nation of princes!"

THE SAGA OF A SHIP.

BY DAVID HANNAY.

co-operate with the "capital been overgunned. As she was ships" of the Queen would be found to be in need of a to play the part of jackal to thorough repair in 1600, though very little or no advantage. then but five years old, it The case of the Madre de does look as if she may have Dios carrack had left him in been unduly strained. Moreno doubt on that point. Her over, her new masters took Majesty had a leonine way of the two biggest guns of her laying her white lioness paw on armament out of her-the two the prize, and of distributing demy cannons, which together the very least she well could. weighed 6 tons. Perhaps they So that he might be the more considered her as being overindependent, and have the weighted. Perhaps they had better prospect of gain in other reasons; and thirdly future, he built the largest and lastly, perhaps such quesship which any subject had tions as these go into the caused to be launched up to general heap of the marine that date. stores of history. She was a "capital ship," and by the consent of all good judges, a fine one. What is important to us is to know the men she carried and their achievements.

We will trouble ourselves but little with the never-to-becompletely solved problem: What was the tonnage of the Malice Scourge? One said she was of 800 tons; another gave The first achievement was the her 900. When the Earl parted capture of San Juan de Porto with her she was taken at Rico in 1598. The expedition 600. All the authorities who is deserving of more memory differ cannot be right, and it than careless posterity has beis altogether believable that stowed on it. It was the last no one of them is. We do of the brilliant Elizabethan know that when she passed raids, and carried the germs from the ownership of Cumber- of other less showy but more land to that of those members lasting work to be done in a of the Company who financed very few years. The direction and organised the First Voyage, of the intentions is something she carried an armament of in human affairs, even when 38 guns, and that their total men fail of their aim. Now weight was 63 tons. Now this the intentions of the Earl and is 5 tons more than the weight his colleagues-for he was not of the 38 guns and carronades alone in organising the venture of the "18 pdr. 32 gun "frigate went far beyond mere plunMedusa in the early years of der and exacting of ransom. the nineteenth century. And They were not content to she was measured at 920 tons. disturb the Spanish King's The Malice Scourge was per- dominions and intercept his haps of the same size, or even treasure in order to cripple a little larger. But then, on him in Europe. Drake and the other hand, she may have others had been at that work

in an island worth tilling, and
capable of producing needful
supplies. Moreover, it
it was
well placed to serve a force
maintained to cut the com-
munication between Spain and
her Indies.

A good plot and good friends. The Earl, as has been said, was not alone in his enterprise. A syndicate or company, or joint stock, had been formed to provide funds. We may note with interest that one of the capitalists-whom Elizabethans called "adventurers -was Mr Paul Banning, or Bannyng, as some will have it

for years with striking local quarters for a permanent squadsuccesses, but without pro- ron. It was a goodish harbour ducing much lasting result. Philip's resources were delayed on their way to him, and his subjects suffered. It was easy, and generally safe, to fall on the small Spanish townships of the islands and the main wherein there were but few Europeans thinly spread over huge distances, and scattered in mere handfuls, living far apart from one another. The English injured those on whom they dropped, but in the main King Philip's revenue reached him sooner or later. And that was bound to happen, because the raiders hurried home when they had "made their voyage" by capturing prizes. They usually came back, cruelly diminished in numbers by the country fevers, and more often than not as poor as when they went -or poorer. We remember the successes and forget the failures-the raids which were beaten off, as happened to Sir Anthony Shirley or the others who came back from a bootless errand because no prizes were met. Something more than a sweep out and a return was needed to cripple the Spanish King for good. Think ing men in London and in the marauding fleets too had no doubt what that something ought to be. We must take hold of a port in the West Indies and keep hold of it. In 1598 the object was to take possession of San Juan de Porto Rico, make

a

strength" of it, and a head

grocer, Alderman of Farringdon Ward Without, and then of Walbrook. In three years he and the Earl will both be among the Governors of the East India Company. If Cumberland handed over the Malice Scourge, after sharpish bargaining, Banning sold the Susan for the First Voyage. Then they were to succeed.

In 1598 they did not-or not in a lasting way. The Spaniards could not prevent them from taking San Juan, but the country fevers drove them out. It was a fine voyage of the orthodox Elizabethan stamp. First, the Earl cruised off Lisbon, and blockaded the outward-bound carracks, which did not dare to stir abroad while he was there. Then he went on to the Canaries, where they-i.e., the Earl in the Malice Scourge and seventeen other vessels, strays and stragglers omitted-had the usual

that he had so far let them go much as they pleased, but that now, when they were nearing the post of the foe, there must be no more nonsense. They acknowledged the hand of the master. Companies were formed (at that advanced hour!), practice was given, and order reigning, at last they sailed westward along the rocky north coast of Porto Rico.

diversified intercourse with the talking to. It came to this: islanders, some hostilities, a good deal of barter, baffled efforts to catch a prisoner, who would be good for a large ransom, and in a general way civilities as between persons. We hated the Spaniard in the abstract, and got on fairly well with him individually. Then having, to tell the plain truth, wasted more time than ought to have been spared in prowling for prize and ransom when a serious operation was on hand, they all went on to the Antilles.

To be sure, there would be some pedantry in treating the foray on Porto Rico as an operation of war to be solemnly criticised. It was a dashing adventure of knights, who were not indifferent to the sweets of ransom getting, and of men of business who would fight when they saw occasion, but were there mainly on the "plundering account.' There was a serious purpose at the heart of it, but the execution so far appears to have followed pretty closely the lines of a lively undergraduate rag. Of course, that had to end.

So when Cumberland had brought his flock to the Virgin Islands, he gave them an opportunity to refresh themselves at medicinal springs, and with fruit (need one note that they were suffering from scurvy, as crews always did then in voyages of any length ?); and he did more. He drew the reins of discipline firmly. Standing on a big stone under a beetling cliff, he gave his followers a

San Juan is at the west end of a narrow islet, which lies parallel to the coast of the island. One could wade into it at the east end, but the Spaniards had a fort there. The scientific soldier would have begun by battering down the fort with ships' guns. These men were knights, undergraduates, larky schoolboys. They waded at the fort, and were, to the number of fifty or thereabouts, shot down. The Earl had a narrow escape of making an end tinged by absurdity. As he was pressing on in the shallow water his foot slipped, and he fell on his back. It was a disastrous position, for he wore armour, and it held him down. Zealous servants pulled him out, well on the way to being drowned, and he was very sick. The attack failed, as it was bound to, and then they ended where, if not common-sense at any rate, professional soldiering would have taught them to begin. Ships were brought round, and the fort battered down. Being in number not so few as a thousand, they