He was, no doubt, the more anxious in consequence of having heard, although he could hardly credit, that a squadron of nine great ships had been sighted on June 13th between Ushant and the Scilly Isles by an English trading bark, and that other vessels had been chased, and even fired at, by the enemy.[1]
But at length a month's victuals arrived. Writing to the queen[2] on Sunday, June 23rd. Howard said: "On Saturday, late at night, they came to us. They were no sooner come, although it were night, but we went all to work to get in our victuals, which I hope shall be done in 24 hours, for no man shall sleep nor eat till it be dispatched; so that, God willing, we will be under sail to-morrow morning, being Monday, and the 24th of this present." On the same day he wrote to Walsyngham,[3] at 12 P.M., "God willing, I will set sail within this three hours," and expressed his belief that the Armada was bound to the coast of France to pick up an army under the Duke of Guise.
The fact that English traders had been sighted, chased, and fired at by Spanish ships at the mouth of the Channel on June 13th, and two or three following days, was, as has been seen, scarcely credited at first by Howard. But the report undoubtedly created in time a very general impression, among himself and his subordinates, that the whole Armada was then close to England. We know now that the report was correct, but that the Spanish vessels were merely a few which, by the tempest of June 9th, had been driven from off Corunna, and that most of them returned thither before the final sailing of the Armada on July 12th. For some time after June 13th there was no further definite news of the whereabouts of the enemy; and it was therefore generally concluded that the Spaniards had, for some unknown reason, put back. Upon that assumption, Drake[4] and Thomas Fenner[5] strongly counselled that the English fleet should proceed in a body to the coast of Spain.
The advice, however, did not find favour. The dispositions which were actually made are set forth in a letter, addressed by Howard to Walsyngham,[6] on July 6th. The commander-in-chief had put to sea, probably on June 24th, for a cruise in the Channel, and had been subsequently informed by a dispatch from Walsyng-
